Startup Grind

We were born to win in life, and winning starts with belief. Brian Santiago on his competitive drive and the lesson his dad taught him: “We were all born to win, not just in sport, in life.” “I just felt like I could find a way to win.” “…he didn't want me to ever lose my competitive edge, but that I needed to channel it…”

My @Divotdotorg with Patrick Drake, the entrepreneur that helped launch Hello Fresh. A former lawyer who volunteered to work at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck and launched a food movement. We talk about career, ambition, and living up to expectations. Timestamps: 02:21 — Leaving Corporate Law to Become a TV Chef 05:43 — When Talking About Your Plans Replaces Taking Action 10:53 — The Cooking Show Pilot That Went Nowhere 15:05 — Building a New Career Before Quitting the Old One 19:32 — The Pitch That Opened Heston Blumenthal’s Kitchen 22:50 — How a YouTube Video Led to a Television Series 25:51 — What The Fat Duck Taught Him About Excellence 29:40 — The House Fire That Changed His Definition of Success 35:03 — Why Asking for Help Was His Hardest Lesson 39:29 — When to Keep Pushing—and When to Walk Away 42:12 — How Morning Pages Help Him Untangle His Thoughts 44:55 — Fatherhood, Friendship, and a New Measure of Success Hashtags: #PatrickDrake #HelloFresh #CareerChange #HelloFreshUK #Entrepreneurship #FounderMindset #HestonBlumenthal #TheFatDuck #Reinvention #MorningPages #Fatherhood #Community #DerekAndersen #DivotPodcast

Inference may be the biggest AI trend of 2027. @blackboxai is an emerging Inference leader, having grown revenue from $0 to $300M in the past year. Their platform is winning because it’s end-to -end encrypted, totally US-based (no data sent to China), and in many cases twice as fast. My interview with the founders below. Timestamps: 01:05 — AI Inference: Why More Tokens per GPU Matter 04:08 — Why Businesses Want Both Open and Closed AI 09:54 — DeepSeek, China, and Where Your Data Goes 18:43 — Encryption vs. Zero Data Retention 25:40 — Lowering AI Costs With the Same NVIDIA GPUs 31:06 — Why Smarter Models Still Need Better Infrastructure 38:01 — Three Brothers, One Company: The Blackbox Story 43:14 — How Trust and Disagreement Help Founders Move Faster 47:00 — The Navy SEAL Principles Behind Blackbox’s Culture 01:01:28 — Overcoming Hard Problems, One at a Time #AI #AIInference #BlackboxAI #DivotPodcast

AI agents can create parallel worlds to solve one problem. @daytonaio co-founder @ivanburazin on how agents can explore multiple paths in parallel: “Agents can, theoretically, for anyone that's watching the Marvel movies, go through the multiverse.” “So every decision it can make, you can essentially replicate the computer and try both of the outcomes. And then you can replicate it again.” “So for every fork in the road, you can basically split that up.”

The next software boom won’t be built for humans. Daytona co-founder @ivanburazin on why founders should build for AI agents: “Whatever you're building, the customer should not be the human.” “The market for software, infrastructure, anything for agents will be so much bigger than any market for anything for humans…” “And so that's why I say all software is now being rebuilt for agents.”

Winning the battle means little if you lose the war (Pyrrhic victory) The 5 Types of Wealth author @SahilBloom explains it with King Pyrrhus: “It is the idea of a victory that comes at such a steep cost to the victor that it might as well have been a defeat.” “You’ve made hundreds of millions, billions of dollars. Everyone celebrates you and admires you. But ignores the fact that you have four divorces and five kids that don’t talk to you. That you’re deeply unhealthy. That you’re lonely.” “...make sure that you are deciding what your success or your wealthy life actually looks like.”

Life's hardest moments shape who you become. My brother Brandt Andersen (Hollywood producer: Lone Survivor & Everest) on why he no longer runs from hard things: "No great sculpture's been made out of clay. They're all made out of stone." "I don't run from the things that are hard anymore. When I get stuck in something hard now, I'm like, 'Let's do it.'" "And I had to climb my own way out. But having done that, I'm now good at getting out of it."