Ben Wolfson Podcast

Lessons from Silicon Valley: Inside the Mind of a YC Founder | Evis Drenova - Ben Wolfson Podcast #5

Evis Drenova is the CEO and Cofounder of Neosync, a YC-backed open source data anonymization and synthetic data platform. In this episode we talk about stories from his career, what it's like to be a founder, getting into Y Combinator, and more. Please like and subscribe if you like the video, more content coming soon! Evis' Socials: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@evisdrenova LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evisdrenova X: https://X.com/evisdrenova Ben's Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benwolfson TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson X: https://X.com/benjwolfson 00:00 Teaser 0:38 Intro 1:02 How to get rich in Silicon Valley? 2:47 Evis' Path 4:43 MBAs and Intuition 8:40 Founder Mode vs. Manager Mode 13:30 Hardest part about being a Founder 19:02 Trust and Responsibility 25:21 Y Combinator 34:26 Lessons from Silicon Valley 37:51 Having a Wife and Running a Startup 43:42 Cryptocurrency 46:11 Finding alpha 49:00 Social media and dopamine detoxing 54:19 Podcasting 1:00:11 Time management 1:03:18 Startup Decisions and Intuition 1:08 Coding and AI 1:13:35 Exploration and finding meaning 1:17:20 Evis' Albanian Origins 1:20:23 Tech Bros

Social Media, Startups, and Finding Life's Global Maxima | Baxate - Ben Wolfson Podcast #4

Had the chance to sit down with my good friend Carter Abdallah (Baxate) and catch up after a long hiatus. Baxate has grown his social media platform to over 750,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok while juggling a full time job as a software engineer. One year ago his life changed forever when he quit his job in big tech to join Brev.dev as a founding engineer. The company was acquired by NVIDIA earlier this year. In this episode we talk about how building a following on social media has changed our lives, the acquisition, and many more topics around tech, success, and life. We filmed this episode the day before his 25th birthday. Carter's IG: https://www.instagram.com/baxate_carter Carter's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@baxate_carter Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson Ben TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson 00:00 Teaser 00:38 Overview 1:20 What is it like being internet famous? 9:15 How Carter met his girlfriend 14:25 Should you build a personal brand? Product vs. Distribution 19:55 Social responsibility in making content 22:17 Carter's path to virality 27:45 How to go viral on social media 30:15 Why does Georgia Tech produce so many tech influencers? 33:49 Blind discussion (teamblind.com) 38:33 Carter's time in Big Tech and moving to SF 44:40 Software Engineering or Influencer? 48:18 Finding Life's Global Maxima 53:38 Carter's North Stars 58:07 Ambition and Dating 1:02:37 Dating apps 1:08:26 Life in Silicon Valley 1:14:46 Wealth drivers in the US and Internationally 1:17:57 Creativity, originality, and isolationism in content creation 1:23:49 How to provide value in making content 1:27:09 Carter's Acquisition and Joining NVIDIA 1:32:39 How Ben uses being an influencer at work at IG 1:34:25 Squashing the beef

How Me and My Best Friend Cracked Big Tech in College | Rohan Banerjee - Ben Wolfson Podcast #3

Recently took a trip out to Seattle visit one of my best friends from college. In today's podcast we reflect on our journeys getting into BIg Tech, the formative moments in our friendship, and ultimately what drove us to succeed together at Georgia Tech. Rohan Banerjee works as a Mechanical Engineer at Microsoft and previously interned at Tesla, Microsoft, and Panasonic. He graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Georgia Tech, where we met during our freshman year. I sincerely hope you enjoy the episode. Please leave any and all feedback in the comments! Much appreciated. Rohan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-banerjee1/ Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson Ben's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjwolfson/ 00:00 Intro 1:30 Rohan's untraditional path to Tesla 8:55 How we became friends 18:08 Ben's indecision around computer science 23:00 How to find your path in college 30:49 Hardware vs. Software in Big Tech 40:04 Performing under pressure 41:58 Going to war for multivariable calculus 46:08 Don't back down mentality 51:17 Elon Musk stories from Rohan's time at Tesla 56:09 Ben's influencer lore 1:15:10 Achieving balance 1:17:44 The trap of trying to maximize income 1:25:05 Building quality friendships 1:37:44 Impact of skipping a grade during childhood 1:44:04 The importance of self-reflecting 1:50:10 What makes a great friendship 2:00:44 General advice on breaking into Big Tech 2:08:10 Closing remarks

Jensen Huang's Nephew Created an AI Startup... PearAI | Nathan Ang - Ben Wolfson Podcast #2

Had the chance to interview the infamous Nathan Ang (Nang) during his last week in NYC, before he and his co-founder Duke Pan moved to San Francisco to join Y Combinator's Fall 2024 batch. After launching PearAI on X, they faced immediate backlash from the open source community for a number of mishaps. Here's the original tweet that stirred up controversy: https://x.com/CodeFryingPan/status/1840203597478539477 You can check out PearAI here: https://trypear.ai/ This episode was filmed two weeks before any of the controversy happened, and I had no context of the specifics of the situation at that time. Their legal team asked for me to hold off on posting until things smoothed over. I appreciate your patience and hope you enjoy this episode. More to come soon. Nang's IG: https://www.instagram.com/not_nang Nang's YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nang88 Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson Ben's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson 00:00 Intro 0:10 Nang’s YouTube journey 2:12 Why Nang quit his job 6:19 Expectations Reset 11:18 What does PearAI do? 14:07 How Nang met Pan 16:42 Decision making process 18:11 Finding an idea 20:25 Why they pivoted 22:27 CMU 24:40 Work life balance 29:57 Importance of self care 31:40 Sacrifice 34:48 Social Meter 37:35 Innovation 40:30 Cursor? 45:48 When Nang learned to code 46:48 Big Tech or Startup? 48:30 Financial security 50:17 Game Plan 52:30 Jensen Huang 54:45 Personal advice 1:04:46 Nang Family Lore

He Graduated Berkeley at 19 to Work at a Hedge Fund | Michael Khaykin - Ben Wolfson Podcast #1

Recently moved to NYC so figured it would be good to sit down with my friend Michael Khaykin and ask him some hard hitting questions. Check out his story of graduating Berkeley EECS at age 19 to go work for a hedge fund in NYC, his advice on how to break into tech, whether computer science is cooked, and more. Michael's IG: https://www.instagram.com/michael.khaykin Michael's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@michaelkhaykin Ben's IG: https://www.instagram.com/benswolfson Ben TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benswolfson 00:00 Graduating Berkeley at age 19 2:14 How Michael landed an internship as a freshman 4:50 Leetcode discussion 9:45 Do coding languages matter? 13:30 Interviewing prep tips 20:00 What to do if you don't have a job 26:36 Is Computer Science cooked? 27:30 Doing research might get you an internship 30:40 The importance of making a connection with your professors 34:54 Life in San Francisco vs. NYC 41:10 Closing remarks