Divot

Aditya Agarwal helped build early Facebook and scaled Dropbox’s engineering team from 25 to 1,000. The former Dropbox CTO is now a General Partner at South Park Commons, a venture firm with $2 billion in assets under management whose portfolio includes Baseten, valued at $13 billion in June 2026. His career spans the rise of social media, cloud software, and now artificial intelligence.
In this episode with Derek Andersen, Aditya makes a bold case: the superintelligence era is already here. He explains why AI is reshaping software engineering, recalls a 15-second AI diagnosis he estimates would have taken him hours, and reveals why coding alone is no longer enough. As Big Tech builds the infrastructure, he sees an extraordinary opening for small teams with ambitious ideas.
The conversation goes deeper than technology. Aditya challenges founders to stop following predictable paths and give their biggest ideas room to grow. From early Facebook to the lessons of building startups, he explores curiosity, patience, and the courage to begin without every answer. His message is a challenge to every builder: don’t let what you’ve already achieved limit what you dare to attempt next.
Follow Aditya - X (Twitter): https://x.com/adityaag
Follow Derek - X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/derekjandersen
Episode Partners:
Google for Startups
If you’re building applications with generative media or considering it, Google just released a brand-new technical guide. You can download it at https://goo.gle/genmediaguide
Timestamps:
06:27 — From Oracle to Facebook: Betting on the Unknown
17:23 — Why Contrarian Startup Ideas Face Rejection
18:58 — South Park Commons: Finding What’s Worth Building
29:41 — AI Is Changing the Value of Coding
33:15 — The 15-Second AI Diagnosis That Surprised a CTO
37:15 — Why the AI Revolution Is Still Early
39:43 — Why He Believes Superintelligence Is Already Here
40:39 — Can Small AI Startups Compete With Big Tech?
42:08 — AI Safety: Can We Really Slow Down?
45:26 — Imposter Syndrome: Learning Beats Knowing
46:37 — Beyond Success: What Actually Matters
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Hashtags:
#AI #Superintelligence #AdityaAgarwal #Facebook #Dropbox #ArtificialIntelligence #SoftwareEngineering #AIStartups #SouthParkCommons #SiliconValley #Entrepreneurship #StartupFounders #FutureOfWork #DerekAndersen #DivotPodcast

Steve Young is a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback, two-time NFL MVP, and Super Bowl MVP who threw six touchdown passes to lead the San Francisco 49ers to victory in Super Bowl XXIX. From eighth on BYU’s quarterback depth chart to the NFL’s biggest stage, he built a career under extraordinary pressure. His book, The Law of Love, explores what success means beyond the scoreboard.
In this episode with Derek Andersen, Steve reveals what Bill Walsh understood about building winning teams: talent and strategy need trust, love, and accountability. He explains why great players struggle in broken cultures, how chasing credit damages relationships, and why facing hard things helped him grow. He also shares his father’s blunt response when he wanted to quit BYU.
The conversation goes deeper than football. Steve admits he spent much of his life believing worry was the price of success, and explains why he is now questioning that belief. Through his reflections on faith, selfless love, and the fear of failure, a different measure of greatness emerges: the healing you bring to others, and the person you become when there is no credit to claim.
Follow Steve - X (Twitter): https://x.com/SteveYoungQB
Follow Derek - X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/derekjandersen
Episode Partners:
Google for Startups
If you’re building applications with generative media or considering it, Google just released a brand-new technical guide. You can download it at https://goo.gle/genmediaguide
Timestamps:
06:59 — Why Great Players Lose in Broken Cultures
10:29 — Bill Walsh’s Formula for Building Winning Teams
19:31 — Staying Grounded Through Fame, Money, and Power
24:03 — Why Steve Young Almost Quit BYU
31:07 — The Law of Love: Caring Without Keeping Score
38:41 — Practicing Selfless Love When Patience Runs Out
47:45 — The Childhood Failure That Taught Him Resilience
50:17 — Why Fear of Failure Isn’t the Price of Success
54:37 — The Legacy Steve Young Values More Than Trophies
1:00:06 — Facing Hard Things: Why Steve Young Chooses to Lean In
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Hashtags:
#SteveYoung #SanFrancisco49ers #NFL #BillWalsh #TheLawOfLove #Leadership #TeamCulture #FearOfFailure #Resilience #SelflessLove #PersonalGrowth #Legacy #DerekAndersen #DivotPodcast

Astro Teller is the entrepreneur, AI scientist, and Captain of Moonshots who has led X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, for more than 15 years. Under his leadership, X helped incubate Google Brain, Waymo, Wing, and Verily, breakthroughs spanning artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, drone delivery, and precision health. In 2026, Waymo alone raised $16 billion at a $126 billion valuation.
In this episode with Derek Andersen, Astro explains how X makes radical innovation repeatable. Teams brainstorm deliberately terrible ideas to unlock creativity, pursue opportunities with only a 1% chance of success, and attack the hardest assumptions before wasting years on comfortable progress. The goal is not to win every bet. It is to build an intellectually honest process that consistently turns uncertainty into learning.
The conversation goes deeper into why innovators must detach identity from outcomes. Astro reveals when to kill a promising project, how Loon’s shutdown created the “moonshot compost” that became Taara, and why the ideas nobody cares about today may become technologies everyone chases in 15 years. His challenge to leaders is radical: reward intelligent failure, stop confusing progress with learning, and become a card counter of innovation.
Follow Astro Teller - X (Twitter): https://x.com/astroteller
Follow Derek - X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/derekjandersen
Episode Partners:
Google for Startups
If you’re building applications with generative media or considering it, Google just released a brand-new technical guide. You can download it at https://goo.gle/genmediaguide
Timestamps:
02:03 — Why Bad Ideas Unlock Breakthrough Creativity
08:55 — Why Great Innovators Ignore What Everyone Is Chasing
12:30 — The Card Counter Strategy for Intelligent Failure
16:21 — When to Kill a Project, and When to Keep Going
23:23 — Your Technology Works. But Does It Matter?
26:14 — How Waymo’s First 1,000-Mile Moonshot Began
29:55 — “Be Yourself on Purpose”: Astro’s Leadership Rule
35:10 — How Project Loon’s Failure Created Taara
41:05 — The $1 Million vs. $1 Billion Innovation Test
43:59 — Why Google X Intentionally Underfunds Moonshots
52:58 — Why Winning Is Not Necessarily Good
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Hashtags:
#AstroTeller #GoogleX #XTheMoonshotFactory #RadicalInnovation #MoonshotThinking #IntelligentFailure #InnovationStrategy #BreakthroughInnovation #Leadership #Creativity #Waymo #GoogleBrain #Entrepreneurship #FounderMindset #DivotPodcast

Zachery Dereniowski, better known as MDMotivator, left medical school after the pandemic, a devastating breakup, a torn ACL, and crushing isolation pushed him to the lowest point of his life. Today, his videos about kindness, mental health, and human connection reach more than 50 million followers, have generated over 40 billion impressions, and helped raise more than $5 million for strangers.
In this episode with Derek Andersen, Zachery reveals how two strangers saved his life by sitting with him in the rain for 30 minutes, why he walked away from medicine to hug strangers on the street, and how those encounters became a global movement. He explains why people with the least often give the most and why being seen can matter more than money.
The conversation goes deeper than viral generosity. Zachery explains why it can feel “selfish to be selfless,” why millions of apparently strong men are suffering silently, and why unprecedented digital connection has left us profoundly alone. His message is both urgent and practical: call your family, listen closely, show more love, and never underestimate the life-changing power of one small act of kindness.
Follow MD - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mdmotivator
Follow Derek - X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/derekjandersen
Kindness / Nonprofit:
Zach is currently raising funds to support his ongoing givebacks through his nonprofit, and we’d love to include this link in the episode description/resources: https://slingshot.giving/kindness
Contact:
For anyone who wants to reach Zach or his team regarding stories, opportunities, partnerships, etc., please include: Zachery@onefluent.com & Sarah@onefluent.com
Episode Partners:
Google for Startups
If you’re building applications with generative media or considering it, Google just released a brand-new technical guide. You can download it at https://goo.gle/genmediaguide
Timestamps:
003:22 — Medical School, Isolation, and His Darkest Night
06:50 — The 30 Minutes in the Rain That Saved His Life
07:22 — From Blindfolded Hugs to a Global Movement
10:51 — Why Men Hide Their Mental Health Struggles
12:59 — The Selfish Reason Kindness Feels So Good
19:01 — “I’m Not the Kind Person”: MDMotivator’s Real Mission
25:15 — Victor and Queen: The Kindness That Raised $1 Million
37:48 — What the Happiest People Understand About Life
41:32 — Why Zachery Tells Every Stranger “I Love You”
46:29 — The Micro-Goal Method Zachery Uses for Depression
49:39 — The Loneliness Paradox: More Connected, More Alone
52:00 — How $100 Became a Multimillion-Dollar Kindness Machine
59:14 — The Hardest Lesson: You Are Already Enough
1:03:04 — The Legacy He Wants: Alive, Valued, and Loved
1:07:18 — How One Viewer Turned Inspiration Into Real-World Kindness
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Hashtags:
#MDMotivator #ZacheryDereniowski #Kindness #KindnessChangesEverything #MentalHealth #HumanConnection #KindnessIsCool #Selflessness #Generosity #Inspiration #Purpose #YouMatter #Divot #DivotPodcast

Eric Ries created the Lean Startup methodology and wrote "The Lean Startup," a New York Times bestseller that has sold more than a million copies in over 30 languages, teaching a generation of founders the MVP and build, measure, learn. He later founded the Long Term Stock Exchange, an SEC-approved exchange that has raised over $170 million, and just published his newest bestseller, "Incorruptible."
In this episode with Derek Andersen, Eric explains why "Lean Startup" has held up in the AI era, why AI has made building software nearly free while learning what customers truly need remains the real bottleneck, and why founders chasing AI-generated demos are skipping the customer validation that actually determines survival. "The learn step," he says, "has always been the rate-limiting step."
The conversation goes deeper into "Incorruptible," Eric's new book on why good companies get taken over, gutted, and hollowed out once their founders lose control. He reveals the sentence hidden in nearly every corporate charter that legally forces companies to maximize shareholder value over mission, and lays out the purpose, coherence, and integrity every founder needs to build something that lasts.
Follow Blaine - X (Twitter): https://x.com/ericries
Follow Derek - X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/derekjandersen
Episode Partners:
Google for Startups
If you’re building applications with generative media or considering it, Google just released a brand-new technical guide. You can download it at https://goo.gle/genmediaguide
Timestamps:
02:05 — Why "Build, Measure, Learn" Still Wins in the AI Era
04:18 — The One Thing AI Still Can't Speed Up: Learning
05:57 — Why Software Is Getting More Expensive, Not Less
10:01 — Why Talking to Customers Is Still the Rate-Limiting Skill
13:20 — What "Incorruptible" Actually Means
19:21 — The Sentence Hidden in Every Corporate Charter
20:52 — Would You Sell to the Company You Hate Most?
25:33 — How the Credo Collapsed Into a Cover-Up
28:13 — The Tylenol Recall That Built a Century of Trust
30:36 — The Blueprint: Purpose, Coherence, Integrity
31:41 — What a Public Benefit Corporation Actually Does
34:10 — Anthropic's Mission Guardian and the Companies That Copied It
42:57 — How Eric Ries Measures His Own Life
Follow Divot:
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/divotdotorg
Hashtags:
#EricRies #LeanStartup #Incorruptible #BuildMeasureLearn #LongTermStockExchange #PublicBenefitCorp #JohnsonAndJohnson #StartupFounders #FounderMindset #AIandStartups #CorporateGovernance #MissionDriven #Entrepreneurship #DivotPodcast