Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:37:35 · Max Shaw
[00:37:35] S3: Yeah. I I take it back to the to the context graph. It is all... Like, there isn't a place right now. So I I think a skills assessment is kind of like one of the use cases for for what we're building. There isn't a place right now where you can go into some system and say, I wanna know what Brian's good at. Right? That does not exist in any system, let alone... Or being able to, like, ask questions about, hey. I'm thinking about putting Brian in this role. Do you think this would be a good fit? What will go well? What will not go well? None of that exists because that context layer does not exist. And so I I think the skills framework makes a ton of sense and being able to understand... I I think one one thing I don't love about the skills framework is it's usually too cookie cutter. It's usually too, like Yep. We we have, like... Instead of job titles, I have, like, 27 skills, and it's like, are you yes or no or some scale or something like that. And I think people are a lot more dynamic than that. And before LLMs, there was really no other choice but to kinda bucket stuff up and try to put numbers on it so then you can see, like, a match quality and stuff. With LLMs, it's exciting because if you give it the right context, you can talk to it like a person would. Right? Someone who knows Brian extremely well, who's worked with them for their entire career, knows every single project he's ever worked on, what's going well, and how he's changed, and how he's evolved, and what he's interested in, and what his skills are, which is part of it. And you could essentially just have that conversation of like, hey. What... And and and you said back to the IKEA example, taking those call center agents and understanding who they are and what they're really good at and why they're actually talented and you... And and and aligned to the IKEA values and and kind of role play some of this stuff, I think, an interesting way to think about this. Another common term here is, like, running simulations on being like, hey. On the IKEA example, what if you took all the agents and have them do interior design? I think there's actually the opportunity to potentially predict some of these outcomes and to actually run a simulation before doing it.
00:39:23 · Alexa von Tobel, Max Shaw
[00:39:23] S2: Wow. [00:39:23] S3: Which is pretty, pretty interesting concepts. It's only it's only ever gonna work if you feed it the right context, though. [00:39:30] S2: Actually, Max, you know, your largest cost of almost every company is your human talent. It's, like, quite literally for... I mean, I'm... I I don't wanna overstate it, but maybe 98% of companies, that's their largest cost. Yep. What you're basically saying is let's have a software that not only optimizes that that system, and then let's also start to think about workforce redeployment in really powerful and sophisticated ways that doesn't exist.
00:39:59 · Max Shaw
[00:39:59] S3: Yeah. There's there's no... We have so many ideas about how you can leverage it once you get the right pieces together. But getting the pieces together is not easy. And a lot of the most important information right now doesn't live in any system. It lives in managers and employees' heads. And so it's not just like we need to connect Slack and DHRIS and linear. Right? Yes. We can do that. But the harder part, and actually, the reason people love Windmill is we have a system that can collect a lot of the information that lives in managers' heads and employees' heads and systematically collect and organize it and permission it so that the right people can see it and the right people can understand it. But without that piece, you're just not gonna have the right information, and it's gonna lead to... It could... There's a, like, a pretty big risk here where you can start asking AI questions about your people. I can ask chat... GPT a question. And if it doesn't have a context graph, it usually doesn't say, I don't know. Usually, it'll just say something. And so without the right system in place, there's actually, on the flip side, a really high level of risk for individuals and organizations where you're gonna get a lot of really bad advice, especially in areas like this where the context isn't there.
00:41:11 · Alexa von Tobel, Brian Distelburger, Max Shaw
[00:41:11] S2: Amen. Basically saying you can't just use blunt objects as your input. You actually have to use very, very thoughtful systems. I wanna shift gears a little bit here in the interest of time, which is you guys are ride or die building this in New York, and you guys are some OG New York City entrepreneurs. Why? Brian, why? Why New York? [00:41:34] S0: Why New York? [00:41:35] S2: Why do you love New York in building in New York so much? Just for the sake of everybody listening. [00:41:39] S3: You can't say the next, so. [00:41:42] S2: You could say the next. Let's... We're going to the Knicks together, and you can say the Knicks. [00:41:45] S0: Knicks in '26. [00:41:47] S3: I'm a Sixers fan, so this is not... It's it's bad. [00:41:51] S0: Breaking news, by the way. Embiid is out tonight, in case you [00:41:53] S3: didn't know. I saw. I It's not But we'll see what happens.
00:41:53 · Max Shaw, Brian Distelburger
[00:41:53] S3: didn't know. I saw. I It's not But we'll see what happens. [00:41:58] S0: Yeah. I I mean, New York is... It's incredible in so many different ways, but I I think it's actually, like, a phenomenal place to be optimistic about the future. And, you know, like all cities, we have all kinds of challenges, but there's just so much going on, not just in tech, but across so many different industries that you're able to get a lens on really what's going on across the world by being in New York. And so it's great to be in the tech community and and with all of us who are top half percent users of this stuff, but you very quickly will be having a conversation with someone. Like, I was having one actually this morning at the gym who's not tried quad, and is like, What is this thing? How does it work? And so you just have this incredibly diverse community. You have access to all these amazing people at the top of their fields across all these different industries. And just the pace and energy of the city, access to talent is phenomenal. You talk to any of the top kids that are graduating college. No one wants to go live in the sleepy Bay Area. Maybe they'll get bribed into it by some places, sure, But everyone wants to come and live in in New York. And so I am incredibly biased, but would argue it's the best city in the world to be building a company right now.
00:43:20 · Alexa von Tobel, Max Shaw, Brian Distelburger
[00:43:20] S2: Let's go Windmill. Let's let's... You know, love the, like, underdog nature of New York City, and I just think it, like, gives you a ride or die kind of effort of of how we think about swinging. Okay, guys. I wanna shift just to a quick fire round where you guys just quickly give us, like, a mantra you love, a book that's changed your life because you both have accomplished a lot. Max, a book that changed your life doesn't have to be a business book, any kind of book, but a book that you really recommend people read. [00:43:49] S3: Yeah. I recently read book Range, which is about parenting and how to raise kids. And the... Yeah. I mean, it was it was probably one of the best parenting books I've read. And the whole thesis is that exposing kids to all sorts of different things as they grow up leads to best outcomes rather than trying to really focus them in on one specific thing they talk about, sports and chess and all these different areas. But range, I would definitely check out, and I think is now more applicable than ever with AI, and people don't know what's gonna be valuable in the future. The more you can expose your children to all sorts of different things in life and get them interested into all sorts of different things just really resonated with me. So I would recommend Range. [00:44:34] S2: I love it. Brian, a book. [00:44:37] S0: Alright. I'm gonna go out there a little bit. A book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. [00:44:43] S2: I've heard of it, but say more. Why do you love it?