Behind the Scenes: Working At Top AI Startups

What is it like to work at a cutting-edge AI startup? AI Researcher BORIS MEINARDUS and Google-engineer-turned-startup-Head-of-AI MAX BUCKLEY go behind the scenes of the AI industry — from startup towers in the Valley to packed poster sessions in Rio, and what it actually takes to stand out when there are 400+ applicants for two open roles. Max Buckley, a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Google with over 12 years of experience, has now transitioned to leading the Zurich office of Exa, a multi-million-dollar, YC-backed AI startup. He shares behind-the-scenes insights into what it is like to lead such a startup, which involves traveling around the globe and interviewing hundreds of applicants. Boris has also been traveling around the globe, from Tokyo to San Francisco to Rio and back. We discuss: ◼️ What it's really like to move from Google's AI culture to a cutting-edge AI startup ◼️ The hiring reality: 400+ applicants, two open roles, and the detail that costs you the offer ◼️ Why poster sessions at top conferences are half-empty — and how Boris drew crowds at ICLR ◼️ Boris's paper: how an ensemble of 8 small models can match GPT-4o across diverse tasks ◼️ Max's 5 open-source PRs to Microsoft — and why fixing one app fixes them all Follow us: Max - LinkedIn:   / maxbuckley   Max - Twitter/X: https://x.com/MaxWBuckley Boris - LinkedIn:   / boris-meinardus-ba2302177   Boris - Twitter/X: https://x.com/BorisMeinardus