Andrew Brogdon, Google — Developer Relations in the Agentic Era
On today’s episode, we’re joined by Andrew Brogdon, whose background spans creative writing, software engineering, and developer advocacy. Before joining Google, he held roles in advertising technology and has built a reputation as one of the early champions of Flutter. He is currently Staff Developer Relations Engineer at Google, leading efforts that connect the Flutter SDK with its global developer community. Andrew discusses how creative storytelling shapes developer relations, the evolving definition of DevRel in an AI-powered world, and the role of agents in shaping future user experiences.Key Takeaways:00:00 Introduction 00:54 Andrew began his career as a poet with two degrees in creative writing.06:38 Andrew aimed to work at Google to teach developers on YouTube.10:01 Leadership can provide insight, but reduce technical depth.15:33 DevRel work is similar, but Google’s tools and studio quality have improved.20:14 AI raises quality demands, so Flutter supports adaptability.26:28 Flutter is rethinking resources to improve service for both humans and AI.29:13 As AI writes more code, Dart may prioritize readability over terseness.36:42 An agent combines an LLM, tools, and a goal to power agentic apps.41:24 AI should measurably improve user experience, not be added for hype.44:38 Empathy and knowing your team increases smarter, stronger leadership.Resources Mentioned:Andrew Brogdonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/redbrogdon/Google | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/google/Google | Websitehttps://www.google.com/Flutterhttps://flutter.dev/Darthttps://dart.dev/Geminihttps://gemini.google.com/appFirebase Studiohttps://firebase.studio/Flutter Cookbookhttps://docs.flutter.dev/cookbookVery Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment
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Pratap Ranade, Arena — The Future of Applied Science and Humanity With AI
On today’s episode, we’re joined by Pratap Ranade, whose past roles include Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, CEO and Co-Founder at Kimono Labs (acquired by Palantir), Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Technologies, and VP of Engineering at Enigma Technologies. Pratap is a physicist, who sold his last company to Palantir and is now CEO and co-founder of Arena. Arena is building Atlas — a platform of AI agents that make it easier to build and test modern hardware — from GPUs and AI datacenters, to rockets and drones.Key Takeaways:(01:20) Pratap’s shift from physics to AI after NASA setbacks.(05:33) Arena shifted to hardware after a high-impact pilot revealed strong potential.(16:44) Pratap sees AI not replacing humans but as intelligence on tap.(20:02) Solving core problems beats launching products first.(26:29) Arena has come full circle on its original AI vision.(30:04) Tech drives more value in hardware than in CPG.(35:47) Arena automates testing and validation in electrical engineering.(40:35) Hardware is hard because physics leaves no room for opinion.(45:52) Startup leadership means being honest and choosing your kind of hard.(51:57) Going all in creates a cycle of growth and transformation.Resources Mentioned:Pratap Ranadehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/pratap-ranade-7272829/Arena | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/arena-ai/Arena | Websitehttps://arena-ai.com/Palantirhttps://www.palantir.com/OpenAIhttps://openai.com/ChatGPThttps://chat.openai.com/McKinsey & Companyhttps://www.mckinsey.com/J.A.R.V.I.S. (as a conceptual reference, not a product)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.A.R.V.I.S.Van Allen radiation beltshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_beltMaslow’s Hierarchy of Needshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needsVery Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment
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Andrew Tunall, Embrace — From QA-Heavy to AI-Ready: Modernizing Product Delivery
On this episode, we’re joined by Andrew Tunall, whose past roles include VP at New Relic and Technical Product Manager at Amazon Web Services. He is currently President of Embrace, where he leads the company’s product strategy and team operations. Andrew shares his perspective on observability’s growing role in modern app development, how AI is transforming product workflows, and why reliability is a core business value, not just a technical metric. We explore Andrew’s journey from a political science and economics background to leading products at high-growth tech companies. Key Takeaways:(02:21) Andrew took a non-traditional path into early product roles.(09:50) Teams often miss how small performance issues hurt user engagement.(14:59) Users blame bad internet for app issues and disengage.(20:37) Shipping fast requires the right culture and tools, or you'll fall behind.(25:49) Embrace stood out by adopting OpenTelemetry and redefining observability.(30:13) Without domain expertise at the top, product culture and authenticity suffer.(35:51) Hiring fewer, high-ownership top performers beats growing too fast. (39:57) AI is costly and often less efficient than human pattern recognition.Resources Mentioned:Andrew Tunallhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewtunall/Embrace | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/embrace.io/Embrace | Websitehttps://embrace.io/Amazon Web Services (AWS)https://aws.amazon.com/New Relichttps://newrelic.com/Honeycombhttps://www.honeycomb.io/OpenTelemetryhttps://opentelemetry.io/Lenny’s Podcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@LennysPodcast"Purple Cow" by Seth Godinhttps://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170Very Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment
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Kevin Smith and Mikel Corcuera, Snipd — Small Team, Big Vision: Shipping Fast With Autonomy and AI
On today’s episode, we’re joined by Kevin Smith and Mikel Corcuera, Co-Founders at Snipd, the AI-powered podcast app built to help capture and rediscover insights from spoken audio. Kevin and Mikel discuss the origin of Snipd, the challenges of building an AI-native product from scratch, and the role of Flutter in enabling rapid, cross-platform development. Key Takeaways:(01:54) Snipd lets users triple-tap to save podcast clips with AI summaries.(05:53) Snipd utilizes AI to improve capturing podcast insights.(14:58) Flutter enables fast, cross-platform development and a polished UI experience.(21:43) Before ChatGPT, the team used self-hosted, fine-tuned AI models.(26:29) The team sees AI as the new electricity, soon to be standard in everything.(30:52) Early AI summaries were rough, but clear enough to prove the concept worked.(36:18) AI supports unfamiliar tasks and new tools. (41:28) Everyone codes differently — AI should fit each workflow.(48:02) We all underestimate AI’s impact — even knowing that is a useful reminder. (51:58) As AI boosts productivity, demand for developers grows, not shrinks.Snipd promo link: https://link.snipd.com/Cx7S/vgvWith this link you get to try out Snipd’s Premium version for free for 1 month. Their Premium version unlocks additional AI features and more AI usage.Resources Mentioned:Kevin Smithhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-smith-673714b4/Mikel Corcuerahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mcorcuera/Snipd | Websitehttps://www.snipd.com/Flutterhttps://flutter.devHow to Start a Startup by Sam Altmanhttps://playbook.samaltman.com/Hugging Facehttps://huggingface.co/ChatGPThttps://chatlyai.app/Google Cloudhttps://cloud.google.com/Perplexityhttps://www.perplexity.ai/Legacy Podcasthttps://open.spotify.com/show/26I6gYMMbXcgHGiZzithBn?si=06fdc37d6fc6409bLenny’s Podcasthttps://open.spotify.com/show/2dR1MUZEHCOnz1LVfNac0j?si=60164a8453cd4cd3Very Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/ #Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment
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Landon Robinson, Etsy — From Platform Silos to Product Unity: A New Era of App Development
On this episode, we’re joined by Landon Robinson, previously Senior Software Engineer at Superformula, and Mobile Lead at SteadyIQ. He is currently Staff Engineer at Etsy, where he leads platform work on the Etsy Seller app. With over 20 years in the industry, Landon brings deep experience in web, Android, iOS, and Flutter development. He shares how Etsy’s mobile team adopted Flutter to build a more efficient and scalable seller experience.Landon walks us through the team’s unique “away team” model, how strong architecture supports cross-functional collaboration, and why focusing on business impact is essential for engineering leaders.Key Takeaways:(00:46) Landon’s transition from native mobile to Flutter development.(05:10) Etsy Seller app evolved from shared native code to standalone Flutter.(10:27) Strong engineers and solid docs keep the Flutter team effective and stable.(14:58) Etsy’s “away team” model lets product teams build features directly.(21:37) Etsy organizes teams by feature, enabling web and mobile builds.(25:36) Flutter enabled faster, easier delivery of a feature-rich seller app.(34:15) Don’t chase shiny tech, focus on solving real business problems. (36:31) Understand the business early — it’s key to long-term growth as an engineer.Resources Mentioned:Landon Robinsonhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/landon-robinson-3b2a402/Superformulahttps://www.linkedin.com/company/superformula/SteadyIQhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/steadyiq-total-income-verification/Etsy | Websitehttps://www.etsy.com/Flutterhttps://flutter.devVery Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment
Om Build To Succeed: Digital Experience Design & Product Development; Flutter, AI & Tech Leadership
"Build To Succeed" explores the world of building successful tech products by dissecting the experiences of leaders who have brought ideas to life and nurtured them into long-term successes. The show delves into the delicate balance of speed and resourcefulness required in today's business landscape, emphasizing the importance of building "the right thing, the right way" – crafting products for longevity while optimizing for business goals. Through interviews with these experienced individuals, listeners will gain insights into navigating the space between launch and long-term growth, making good decisions, and uncovering the patterns that lead to repeated success. Build to Succeed is brought to you by Very Good Ventures.
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