Engineering Founders copertina

Engineering Founders

Engineering Founders

Di: The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC)
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A proposito di questo titolo

 The show for engineering leaders making the leap to start their own company! We dive into the stories, pivotal moments and critical insights from former eng leaders turned founders, that helped them take those early leaps to launch their own company! Economia Gestione e leadership Leadership Management
Episodi
  • Finding your customers’ burning needs, validating ideas, expanding products & navigating new markets w/ Ryo Chikazawa @ Autify

    Finding your customers’ burning needs, validating ideas, expanding products & navigating new markets w/ Ryo Chikazawa @ Autify
    Jan 15 2026

    After two years and eight pivots, Ryo Chikazawa (CEO & Co-founder @ Autify) realized his original product would never reach venture scale. In this episode, Ryo reveals how he scrapped everything to find his customers' "burning need," eventually securing contracts before writing a single line of code for his new idea. Ryo shares his playbook for radical pivots, navigating different market segments by hacking enterprise budgets, how to delegate and scale operations, and why a founder’s job is to constantly pursue the next zero-to-one moment.

    ABOUT RYO CHIKAZAWA

    Ryo Chikazawa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Autify. Ryo has worked in software development for over ten years. Having worked as a software engineer in Japan, Singapore, and San Francisco, he helped developed a #1 social game at DeNA, led product development as a product engineer at Viki in Singapore, and moved to San Francisco to participate in a local startup as an initial member. He founded Autify, Inc. in 2016.

    ABOUT AUTIFY

    Autify is a no-code, AI-powered software testing automation platform designed to help businesses accelerate their software release cycles and improve software quality. It allows users, including those without programming knowledge, to create, execute, and automate tests for web and mobile applications. Autify uses features like Generative AI and a natural language recorder to simplify the process of generating and maintaining test scenarios, reducing the cost and technical difficulty traditionally associated with software testing

    SHOW NOTES:
    • The origin story behind Autify & Ryo’s initial vision to solve language barriers (3:00)
    • Navigating 8+ pivots over two and a half years to find traction (5:56)
    • Knowing when to make the decision to shut down an idea & pivot (10:35)
    • Entering Alchemist Accelerator with a blank slate and the advice to find a "burning need" (12:55)
    • From "nice to have" to "how much?": The dramatic shift in customer sentiment that confirmed they found the burning need (17:44)
    • The ultimate validation signal: When customers ask for pricing before the product exists (20:56)
    • Applying the "burning need" framework to product expansion and new features (23:08)
    • US vs. Japan: Navigating the differences between product-led and sales-led markets (25:32)
    • Platform vs. Services: How to position your tool to fit the customer's available budget bucket (28:05)
    • The future of testing: Why AI agents will replace traditional automation (30:25)
    • Scaling operations: When to hire a COO to manage the "1-to-10" journey (34:01)
    • The art of delegation: How to hand off the core business to focus on the next "0-to-1" (36:23)
    • Rapid fire questions (38:01)

    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    43 min
  • CEO as Experiment Officer, Design Partner Personas & Rebranding w/ Sha Ma @ Topogy

    CEO as Experiment Officer, Design Partner Personas & Rebranding w/ Sha Ma @ Topogy
    Dec 11 2025

    Sha Ma (CEO & Founder @ Topogy) deconstructs the concept of CEO as the “chief experiment officer” / “chief everything officer,” detailing how she personally tests, onboards and scales out AI tools to accelerate her team. Plus we cover how they identified the right customer personas, found design partners, and navigated a full startup rebrand.

    ABOUT SHA MA & TOPOGY

    Topogy is an AI-native cost optimization platform designed to turn infrastructure complexity into clear, actionable insights for finance and engineering teams. Topology turns the unseen connections within your infrastructure into clear, data-driven actions — helping engineering teams optimize cloud cost, performance, and focus.

    Before founding Topogy, Sha was CTO @ Catalyst.io, an industry leading Customer Success Platform, VP of Engineering @ GitHub where she was responsible for Core Platform and Ecosystem. And was part of the leadership team that took SendGrid public.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • CEO as Chief Experiment Officer: Sha’s approach to launch and scale experiments at Topogy (1:55)
    • How to initiate and onboard successful experiments with the team (6:25)
    • Using AI as a creative partner to amplify a designer's human touch (10:27)
    • The origin story of Topogy & Sha’s transition from VPE to founder (13:51)
    • The 2023 shift: from "growth at all costs" to "efficient growth" (15:56)
    • Building an AI-first product to manage infrastructure spend (21:49)
    • The persona journey: Starting with growth-stage companies (28:19)
    • How Topogy intentionally selected three diverse design partners (34:27)
    • The story behind Topogy's rebrand (39:15)
    • Frameworks for coming up with the right brand name & when to do so (42:08)
    • The "renovating a house" analogy: Why you must "live in" your startup before branding it (48:45)
    • Rapid fire questions (49:43)

    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    54 min
  • Why founders should invest in coaching, communication & leadership mechanisms before you scale w/ James Birchler

    Why founders should invest in coaching, communication & leadership mechanisms before you scale w/ James Birchler
    Aug 14 2025
    Founders often delay leadership coaching until a major crisis hits, leading to significant costs in productivity, team churn, and poor decisions. In this episode, James Birchler (Technical Advisor & Executive Leadership Coach) argues that early coaching is a game-changer for a startup's success. We explore the hidden costs of waiting and the benefits of intentionally installing leadership and communication systems before you scale. James shares specific self-awareness mechanisms, like advisory groups and feedback loops, to help founders design their day and create accountability. You'll also learn practical strategies like the "5-Minute Alignment Loop" for spotting communication breakdowns & for reinforcing clarity. Plus insights on how to "install your leadership OS" so it can scale with your company.ABOUT JAMES BIRCHLERJames Birchler is an executive leadership coach and technical advisor who specializes in helping engineering leaders and founders develop greater self-awareness and build high-performing teams. He combines deep technical expertise with practical leadership development, making him particularly valuable for technical leaders scaling their organizations.As both a founder and engineering leader, James has more than 20 years of experience leading teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to Amazon, where his current role is Technical Advisor to the VP of Amazon Delivery Routing and Planning. Most recently, he founded NICER, a premium natural personal care company, and Actuate Partners, his executive coaching and technical advisory practice. He also held VP of Engineering roles at companies including Caffeine (backed by Greylock and Andreessen Horowitz), SmugMug (where his team acquired Flickr), and IMVU.At IMVU, James implemented the Lean Startup methodologies alongside Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and creator of the methodology, literally the first company to apply these principles. His team helped pioneer the DevOps movement by building infrastructure to ship code to production 50 times per day and coining the term "continuous deployment." This experience in systematic experimentation and continuous improvement now informs his coaching approach through frameworks like CAMS (Coaching, Advising, Mentoring, Supporting) and the Think-Do-Learn Loop.James completed his executive coaching certification at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Executive Coaching Institute. His coaching practice focuses on self-awareness, integrity, accountability, and fostering growth mindsets that support continuous learning and high performance. He writes the Continuous Growth newsletter and offers both individual executive coaching and peer learning circles for technical leaders.Through his advisory work with growth-stage startups in the US and Europe, James helps leaders navigate common scaling challenges including hiring and interviewing, implementing development methodologies, establishing operational cadences, and developing other leaders. His approach treats leadership development like product development—with systematic feedback loops, measurable outcomes, and continuous improvement.You can find James at jamesbirchler.com, LinkedIn, and Substack. ToolHive Unlocks the Full Value of MCP & Your AI AgentsSo you’ve invested in AI agents for code generation, but they’re limited to experiments or even stuck on the shelf. To do real, valuable work, those AI agents need access to your data and systems.ToolHive helps you confidently connect the pieces by making it simple and secure for you to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP).ToolHive includes a pre-vetted registry of MCP servers, containerizes every MCP server for consistency and leans on built-in security to keep your secrets safe.Leaders trust ToolHive to put MCP into production and put their AI agents to work.ToolHive is open source, so get started for free at toolhive.dev Join us at ELC Annual 2025ELC Annual is the premier event for engineering leaders. This is our biggest event of the year: 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections!🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025 SHOW NOTES:Why founders should seek coaching earlier rather than waiting for a crisis to occur (2:47)The high stakes of ignoring this critical advice & how this leads to communication & Scaling problems (4:50)The importance of effective communication channels & leadership mechanisms before pressure increases (6:31)How investing a small amount in coaching early on can prevent hundreds of thousands of dollars in future costs (8:07)Frameworks for cultivating self-awareness / leadership blind spots (11:06)James's practice of "designing your day" around a desired identity, not just a list of tasks (12:30)Why designing your day is about intentionality (15:13)How this practice leads to better relationships & opportunities to reflect (17:44)...
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    51 min
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