Amjad Hanif

Tinkering fuels innovation and curiosity. It allows us to truly understand the tools and systems we work with at a granular level. Recently, I've been tinkering with Rust, a language gaining popularity for building reliable, safe, and sustainable systems at scale. The best way to learn is by doing. So, I turned our simple summarization proof of concept, Distill, into a CLI leveraging Rust's performance and memory safety advantages. As builders, it's our responsibility to continuously look for optimizations in everything we do. To ask questions and challenge the status quo. To learn and be curious. I encourage you to give Distill CLI a try, tinker with it, and share your feedback. And as always – now, go build! #AWS #tinkering https://lnkd.in/e7HUQwEt

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"Since 2018, we have increasingly leveraged Rust for critical workloads across various [AWS] services like S3, EC2, DynamoDB, Lambda, Fargate, and Nitro, especially in scenarios where hardware costs are expected to dominate over time." We've seen a lot of success with Rust at AWS, including our work on Firecracker, on Lambda's container dataplane, and on many other systems we've built. I love the fact that we can get memory safety without compromising performance or efficiency. I also enjoy seeing how much less time my teams spend tuning runtimes or debugging memory issues. I also really appreciate this sentiment from Werner's post: "... this is not a call to rewrite everything in Rust. ... It’s about using the right tool for the right job. This means questioning the status quo, and continuously looking for ways to incrementally optimize your systems – to tinker with things and measure what happens." Make decisions about programming languages the same way you make all critical engineering decisions: with data!

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AI is transforming everyday aspects of our lives in practical but meaningful ways. It’s not about lofty visions of the future, says Adam Evans, SVP of Product at Salesforce. "It’s about making your life easier – right now." Much like the early days of apps 15 years ago, the potential of AI agents is only just beginning to unfold. From big purchasing decisions to everyday tasks, companies will now find, there’s an agent for that. Read more, and learn how customers are tapping into these powerful agents:

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One of the things I ❤️ about my job is being able to walk to work on our days in the office. Trivial? If you've ever commuted a long distance, you may agree walking as your commute is appealing, and can play a role in overall job satisfaction and mental health. The choice of #Oakland HQ was the decision of Everlaw CEO & Founder AJ Shankar who years ago identified a tech talent pool that prefers the East Bay over Silicon Valley. An unorthodox approach like that can bring great rewards. AJ has thought through many decisions with a strategy that often bucks a trend to deliver long-term and deeper value both to our employees and customers. One of those decisions -- perhaps the biggest for the company -- is how we develop software. In his new byline in The New Stack, AJ reveals for the first time his unorthodox approach. He argues that sprinting slows you down in software development. He shares Everlaw's way in hopes that other companies might adopt this methodology. The company manifesto says, “Our long-term philosophy impacts many aspects of how we do business: how we market, how we sell, how we close deals, how we support our clients, and more. Perhaps the largest impact is in how we develop the Everlaw platform...” A core reason I enjoy my work at Everlaw is its focus on long-term excellence and its deeply held values that play out in myriad of ways. The nice part is I get to think about this and more on my walk to work 😎 #Grateful #Buildforthelongterm #Leadership

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The Stoke Space team in Seattle has built a rocket company faster than many people can build software. Morgan Beller breaks down how this is helping them capture a huge opportunity: https://lnkd.in/gc5jv2-c 

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Today, Upshift is reinventing car ownership. This is the day I’ve been looking forward to for years. Today, Upshift is reinventing car ownership with a PERSONALIZED fractional car subscription. Now you can create your own plan uniquely tailored to your needs. Choose 4, 8 or 12 days/month. Pick 250, 500, or 750 miles per month. Opt-in for delivery - or pick it up yourself from a central San Francisco lot. It's all up to you now! And we have a new signup flow that helps you choose what’s best for you. Best part? Plans now start at just $149/month for 4 days/month of car access! That's HALF the price of our former plans! Perfect for a hybrid work commuter driving into the office 1-3 days/week or a weekend warrior getting out of the city regularly. With Upshift car subscriptions, everything is included in one monthly plan - even insurance. We do everything for you- we refuel, clean and handle service and repairs. And we guarantee availability. Your car can be conveniently delivered and parked near your home- clean, gassed, and ready when you are. Unlock and drive via our app. When done, park legally anywhere in our San Francisco service zone. We eliminate the worries of car ownership and leave you truly free to enjoy the ride. Imagine having a hybrid Toyota Corolla or AWD Honda CRV hybrid SUV that appears when you need one and disappears whenever you're done. Now stop imagining. Click here to build your personalized fractional car subscription and have your new car at your doorstep today! #carsubscription #carleasing #carrental #carshare #mobility #transportation #EV #AV #autonomousvehicles #autotech #startups #vc #venturecapital #climatetech #insurtech

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Terence Tao on LLM There is too much hype, hucksters and dumb money poured into GenAI and LLM now. It’s refreshing to hear from expert voice for once. Terence Tao is a UCLA math professor, Fields Medal winner and is considered the world’s greatest living mathematician. I overlapped a year with him at UCLA in 1996 and I met him when he was TA for a Linear Algebra course I took my senior year. Terence recently gave his honest feedback on GPT-o1 here https://lnkd.in/gq_6bcwM, and was subsequently interviewed by The Atlantic https://lnkd.in/gv6fgqrB I will summarize this interview: 1. OpenAI o1 is a mediocre or incompetent research assistant. 2. It does not “reason”, is not a source of knowledge or ideas, but is a really useful glue. 3. We will always need humans and AI. They have complementary strengths. AI is very good at converting billions of pieces of data into one good answer. Humans are good at taking 10 observations and making really inspired guesses. I cannot agree more with the “Mozart of Math”. Especially on point number #2. LLM is very good at doing relational joins of non-relational unstructured data. Once you realize its true strength and what it isn't, LLM can be a very powerful tool. To read more of my ponderings on "AI" and other tech stuff, subscribe to my substack: https://lnkd.in/gtknApfw

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Being a founder means being 100% in it, all the time, especially through the lows. It was fun to run down memory lane with Sequoia and discuss how DoorDash navigated moments of uncertainty to empower local commerce on a global scale. Check out the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gxmx2nhy

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Looking forward to discussing how changing demographics and culture norms are affecting investment opportunities in longevity, health and well-being at The Care Summit today Alongside Cake Ventures' Monique Woodard, Ziegler's Dan Hermann, Oak HC/FT's Billy Deitch and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jennifer Edwards, we’ll dive into the trends shaping how we are investing in the space: - Last year marked one of the most significant social and economic moments in modern times: The number of older adults—those aged 50 and over- surpassed the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time. - In 2020 the 50 plus population contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34% of the total. That equates to about 3x the revenue of the world’s 100 highest- earning companies in 2020. - The U.S. population grew by 24.5 million from 2010 to 2022, and Hispanics accounted for 53% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group. - Women around the world and across all ages drive 64% of consumer spending

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This partnership opportunity with #meta reality labs is so deeply rooted in Cornerstone OnDemand's purpose to power people and organizational potential to thrive in a changing world. Couple that purpose with the exhilarating innovation happening around us in a thriving ecosystem, democratization of xR and AI, we have a real opportunity to reimagine Skilling: personalized, adaptive, multi-modal, immersive, collaborative.  Alicia M. phrases it best: experiences aren’t just tools but catalysts for deep, transformative learning. That's why Kyle and I are thrilled to speak at @Meta's Innovation Day: Quest 3s & Meta for Work, focusing on how enterprises and higher education leverage VR and MR to enhance productivity and engagement. Cornerstone OnDemand and Talespin by Cornerstone will showcase efforts to reshape learning and collaboration, including the launch of Immerse Companion, Cornerstone's new generative AI solution that provides real-time experiences with virtual human companions. Attendees will also enjoy hands-on experience with Meta’s new Quest 3s Mixed Reality headset, exploring various work applications through live demos. https://lnkd.in/gMN84SXX Learn more and register today: https://lnkd.in/gMh4kV6S

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Had a blast chatting with Manasi on the Wharton Tech Club's Podcast. We talked about how Zillow's cutting-edge AI powers tools that continue to improve and evolve our product suite, how we’re approaching GenAI in this “teenage phase,” and my top tips for Product Managers with this latest AI wave. Last, but not least, what books I rely on daily and my two favorite classes as a Wharton Undergrad. Manasi asked for just one, but I had to include MGMT 101 where I met my wife as a favorite class, too. Check out the link below or listen wherever you usually enjoy podcasts! #ProjectManagement #TechTalks #Tech #Zillow #AI

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Wow! ServiceTitan just had a successful IPO, and I’m still pinching myself! 🎉 Being part of this journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. I’m particularly proud of my role in developing our AI-powered dispatching tool — Dispatch Pro, which is at the forefront of innovation in the trades industry. Dispatching is one of the most challenging jobs, and it’s my privilege to equip dispatchers with cutting-edge tools that: • Increase productivity
• Reduce mental load
• Boost profitability This IPO isn’t just a financial milestone – it’s a testament to the power of innovation in an industry that’s the backbone of our society. We’re shining a spotlight on the trades and the incredible people who keep our world running smoothly. To all my colleagues and our dedicated customers: thank you for being part of this journey. The future is bright, and I can’t wait to see where this AI-powered journey takes us next! ⚡️🔧🚀 #TradesIndustry #TechInnovation #IPO #ServiceTitan

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The goal we’re trying to get to as an industry is autonomous advertising. That means media planning, bidding, measurement, and optimization are automated. The first jump in automation was direct IOs to electronic buying (DSPs). We’re about to experience another quantum leap from today’s DSPs to autonomous advertising driven by AI. People will say, “You can’t just give me start date, end date, budget, and goal and hand it off to the machines.” Except… you can. This is already what Google and Meta do for SMBs via PMax and Advantage+. Of course, the largest brands will want more control. But as they see how effective this technology is, they will adopt it — and humans will stop doing the grunt work of programmatic doom scrolling. Very soon, creating a media plan, bidding, and optimizing manually will seem ridiculous. A trader will enter instructions into an LLM to create a media plan in minutes. An AI bidding agent will work on your behalf to get the cheapest possible price from the publisher. The religion of attribution will give way to a more simplified approach of measurement that flips the scales toward incrementality. And optimization algorithms will break out of the current rules based system to give way to autonomous decisioning. Yes there will be humans who orchestrate all of this. It’s the humans that provide the context. AI can generate machine driven insights but it’s the human that turns it into a strategic insight. Advertising is about to experience its greatest leap since the dawn of programmatic.

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Folks - am headed to the https://aiconference.com/ in San Francisco this week. If you are headed there or know folks that might be open to trading notes about GenAI, id love to connect. Things I am interested in - folks building verticalized SaaS applications in GenAI, folks building infrastructure for GenAI, and people focused on open source research #AI #AIConference #GenerativeAI

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What 3 books/resources does every hyper-scale CEO need? I'll go first 👇 🔹 Andy Grove's "High Output Management" for running 1-1's and team meetings 🔹 Emilie Choi's video on RAPIDs for team decision-making 🔹 Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi's podcast on Executive Hiring and Firing I am compiling the best books and resources that offer frameworks and in-depth tactics on org design, meeting structure, and leading at scale. I am thinking about it through the lens of hyper-scale CEOs going through growing pains. Let me know what I need to put on the list.

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Had a great conversation with MarketWatch discussing how Zillow uses AI to assist buyers and sellers. We discussed AI and ML-powered features like Natural Language Search that allows users to express preferences naturally for customized listings,  AI for personalization for content delivery, and the use of AI to enhance home valuation through Neural Zestimates by analyzing unstructured data from listing images and descriptions. It's a joy to work with the Zillow AI team, and this is just the beginning of what we have in store! #Zillow #AI https://lnkd.in/g2TBKjqe

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Very impressed with the Wevo Energy story and I share those feelings. It is never easy facing all challenges and complexities. #Podcast #StartupJourney #SolarEnergy #Entrepreneurship #WEVO #SolarEdge #Acquisition

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I just had the opportunity to present my topic proposal for my Doctor of Business Administration at Golden Gate University. Exploring Nature’s Impact on Leadership and Team Cohesion in Early-Stage Technology Startup Co-founder Teams Primary Research Question: How do nature-based team-building experiences influence the resilience and cohesion of early-stage co-founder leadership teams? More to come as I continue on my journey through the dissertation phase of my DBA. If, however, nature has had a personal impact on your life or profession, or if you just want to chat (because I think my husband is getting sick of hearing me talk about it) please pm me. #DBA #DoctorofBusinessAdministration #NaturesImpact #SharedLeadership #Startups #CoFounders #LeadershipTeams

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Last night's Technology Association of Oregon panel discussion on raising capital for AI ventures was full of interesting takeaways. The event brought together leading PNW VCs, CEOs, and funders to share their perspectives and best practices. Here's what you need to know: ➡ The AI/ML space is rapidly evolving, presenting huge opportunities for startups tackling real business problems. VCs are actively seeking out the most ambitious and disruptive companies in this domain. ➡ Having an "unfair advantage" is key - whether that's proprietary data sets, unique domain expertise, or unparalleled access to customers. AI ventures need strong differentiation to stand out. ➡ Build relationships early with VCs, even before you're ready to raise. Their insights and connections can accelerate your journey. The PNW venture ecosystem is highly collaborative and accessible. ➡ Don't be deterred by the perceived lack of local funding. Great companies with compelling visions will get funded, period. Leverage the PNW's strengths in developer/engineering talent. ➡ Recognize and proactively address the potential downsides of AI - from data privacy to model bias. Building responsibly is both an obligation and an opportunity. ➡ Move fast, be bold. Raising capital is always hard, but fortune favors the brave in this space. With the right team, tech and traction, you can build a world-changing business here in the PNW. Thanks to the fantastic panelists Diane Fraiman (Voyager Capital), Geoff Harris (Flying Fish), Jon Maroney (OVF), Chris Sestito (Hidden Layer), Jon Turow (Madrona) for sharing their insights, and to Kristy Edwards for moderating!

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