Hiring resource: "How to Hire Your First Engineer" (Y Combinator) If you're about to make your first engineering hire, Harj Taggar's YC post is a short, opinionated guide that ranks where to find candidates, from most to least effective. Free to read, no login. It's from 2018, so a few of the job boards it names have changed, but the playbook still applies. He also discloses that he ran a hiring marketplace (Triplebyte), which he ranks second. Who it helps: founders hiring engineers #1 to #3, and early engineers curious how founders recruit. Problem it solves: spending months on low-yield channels (agencies, generic job boards) instead of the ones that tend to produce early hires. Two practical takeaways
Work your network systematically. He calls hiring someone you've already worked with "your best option" and lays out a loop: list the best engineers you know, take them to lunch, make the ask, ask who else they'd hire, get intros, repeat. He says to expect it to take at least a third of your time.
Write the job post as the founder. He suggests writing in the first person, avoiding blandness, and leading with your most interesting product challenges, since candidates care about those more than market size. And before hiring a recruiter, ask them to pitch your company back to you.
Read it: ycombinator.com/blog/how-to-hire-your-first-engineer If you've made that first hire, which channel actually landed them? Reply with the channel and one thing you'd do differently.
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Miami founders: what's the biggest gap in the local startup ecosystem? Quick poll: A) Early-stage investors writing checks locally B) Experienced technical talent C) Local customers and enterprise buyers D) Founder density and regular meetups Reply with your letter and one thing that would help close that gap.
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Thursday resource: Anthropic's "Building effective agents" If you're adding agents or multi-step AI to your product, this is one of the clearest free write-ups on when to reach for them and when not to. It was written by Erik S. and Barry Zhang at Anthropic (Dec 2024). No login or payment needed. The page itself notes that much of the tooling has changed since then, but the design patterns still hold up. Who it helps: founders, PMs and engineers deciding how much autonomy to give an LLM feature. Problem it solves: teams jumping straight to complex agent frameworks when a simpler setup would be cheaper and easier to debug. Two practical takeaways
Start with the simplest thing that works. The authors separate "workflows" (LLMs and tools run through predefined code paths) from "agents" (the model directs its own steps). They recommend adding complexity only when it demonstrably improves outcomes, and note that for many apps, a well-optimized single LLM call with retrieval and examples is enough.
Treat tool design like UX. They suggest putting as much effort into the agent-computer interface as into a human one: clear tool docs, testing, and making mistakes hard. One example: changing a tool to always require absolute file paths.
It also walks through five reusable patterns: prompt chaining, routing, parallelization, orchestrator-workers, and evaluator-optimizer. Read it: anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents Which of those patterns is running in your product today? Reply with one and what it does for you.
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Practical guide: a cold outbound deliverability checklist from Google's own sender guidelines If you send outbound or lifecycle email to Gmail addresses, Google's Email sender guidelines are the primary source worth bookmarking. Here's a short checklist pulled from it:
Authenticate every sending domain. All senders need SPF or DKIM. If you send more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts, you need SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and your DMARC policy can start at none.
Align your From: domain with either the SPF or the DKIM domain.
Use a strong DKIM key. 1024 bits is the minimum, and Google recommends 2048-bit if your provider supports it.
Watch your spam rate in Postmaster Tools. Keep it below 0.10% and avoid ever reaching 0.30%.
Add one-click unsubscribe to marketing messages (List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers), plus a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the body.
Send steadily. Start with low volume to engaged recipients and ramp slowly, avoid bursts, keep one From: address per message category, and don't buy lists.
Worth knowing: Google says it doesn't track open rates, and low opens aren't necessarily a sign of a deliverability problem. Source: Google: Email sender guidelines (free, no login) Which item on this list is your team still missing: DMARC alignment, one-click unsubscribe, or something else?
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Seattle startup and AI events this week (Oct 25–28) Seattle AI Week is coming up, so there's a lot on. Here are five in-person picks for founders and builders, all with open spots on Luma as of this morning. Times are PT.
Seattle | AI Week Claude Impact Lab Hackathon: Sun Oct 25, 9:00 AM PT, thinkspace SEATTLE (Westlake). One-day build sprint where teams make AI tools for small businesses; the listing says each participant gets $100 in Claude API credits. Free, application with host approval. RSVP
AI Week Seattle: A Luāu for Startups: Mon Oct 26, 6:00 PM PT, SURF Incubator (downtown). SURF's 17th-anniversary founder party. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
#SeattleAIWeek AI Summit (WTIA): Tue Oct 27, 9:00 AM PT, Bell Harbor International Conference Center (waterfront). All-day AI conference. $225 WTIA members / $325 non-members, no approval needed. RSVP
Cloud, Code & Cocktail Hour: Tue Oct 27, 6:00 PM PT, Pike/Pine (exact address shared after registration). Evening networking on AI and cloud infrastructure hosted by MongoDB. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Pitch Please #12: Halloween Edition: Wed Oct 28, 1:00 PM PT, AI House (waterfront). Early-stage AI founders give 3-minute pitches and get live feedback, followed by a mixer. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Is anyone pitching at Pitch Please or entering the hackathon? Reply with what you're building.
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Miami startup and AI events this week (Oct 21–27) A few in-person picks around Miami for founders and builders, all on Luma with open spots as of this morning. Times are ET.
Founder Speed Dating: AI, Fintech & Software: Wed Oct 21 (tonight), 6:00 PM ET, Mana Tech (Downtown). Quick 1:1s if you're looking for a cofounder or early teammates. $12, or a pay-what-you-want donation ticket; requires host approval. RSVP
The Product Collective: Stakeholder Management: Wed Oct 21 (tonight), 6:30 PM ET, Wynwood (location shared with registered guests). Panel and networking on building cross-functional trust and saying no without burning bridges. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Base44 Day at Mana Tech: Thu Oct 22, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM ET, Downtown. Drop-in build time, demos and workshops with the Base44 AI app builder, in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Free, no approval needed. RSVP
AI Demo Night: OpenAI's Newest Tools, AI Red Teaming, and Surprise Guests: Thu Oct 22, 6:00 PM ET, The LAB Miami (Wynwood). Live demos, useful if you're shipping AI features. Free, no approval needed. RSVP
Notion x Mana Tech | The 305 Social: Tue Oct 27, 6:00 PM ET, Mana Tech (Downtown). Networking evening launching the Notion and Mana Tech partnership. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Heading to any of these? Reply with which one, and what you'd want to learn there.
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Boston startup and tech events this week (Oct 22–28) Tough Tech Week kicks off next Monday, so the calendar is busy. All of these had open spots on Luma as of this morning. Times are ET.
Building Agents with Vercel & Jellyfish: Thu Oct 22, 5:30 PM ET, Pillar VC (Back Bay). Hands-on evening building AI agents, with a live demo and build time. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Boston Hard Tech Summit: Mon Oct 26, 8:30 AM ET, Somerville (Union Square area). Full day with hard tech, nanotech and climate tech startups, investors and researchers. Paid: $400 Standard ticket; a $5 Student ticket is also listed and requires host approval. RSVP
Reshoring Rare Earths: Fireside Chat with Phoenix Tailings (+Startup Showcase): Mon Oct 26, 1:30 PM ET, Downtown Boston (location shared with registered guests). Deep tech fireside chat plus a startup showcase and investor networking. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Tough Tech Week Kickoff: Mon Oct 26, 4:00 PM ET, Foley Hoag, Downtown Boston. Opening networking reception for founders, investors and the wider community. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
AI x Tough Tech Founders & Builders Walk: Wed Oct 28, 9:00 AM ET, starting at Area Four (Technology Square, Cambridge). A two-mile walk to the Charles and back, ending with coffee. Free, requires host approval. RSVP
Most of these need host approval, so request early. Which of these are you planning to hit during Tough Tech Week?
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Good point—the goal should define the metric. Have you seen a case where an AI feature got plenty of use but didn’t actually help people get the job done better?
Tuesday tech news: two updates worth a look 1. Notion rebuilds its AI agents and pricing (Oct 19) What changed: Notion says its agents can now work on a single task for more than 24 hours, up from about five minutes. The release adds computer and browser use, a "Review for me" approval mode, and an updated Notion MCP. Business and Enterprise seats now get 1,500 Standard credits (Notion picks the model) and 500 Select credits (you pick the model or run Custom Agents) per month. The new credit system is live for new customers; existing customers move over on Nov 2. BYOK is in alpha for Enterprise only, and an AI Command Center is listed as coming soon. Why it matters: If your team runs workflows on Notion AI, check how the two credit pools map to your usage before Nov 2. Notion's claim that its "Auto" router matches frontier models at about 90% lower cost comes from its own testing, so it's worth comparing on your own tasks. Source: notion.com/blog/notion-ai-more-for-less 2. PostgreSQL 19 release pushed to around Nov 19 (reported Oct 16) What changed: The Register reports that 8 to 10 significant features were pulled from PostgreSQL 19 and moved to version 20, including SQL Property Graph Queries (SQL/PGQ). Committer Peter Eisentraut attributed the reverts partly to LLM-assisted code review surfacing many edge-case issues late in the cycle. Why it matters: If you were planning a Postgres 19 upgrade or counting on SQL/PGQ, adjust your timeline. It's also an early real-world example of AI code review raising the quality bar on a major open-source project. Source: theregister.com/databases/…/5303471 Are you using AI code review on your team yet? Reply with whether it's catching real bugs or mostly noise.
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Austin startup events this week (Oct 20–27) A mix of builder meetups, a founder community night and a GTM bootcamp. Everything below is free. 1. Agent Builders Breakfast Austin Wed Oct 21, 8:00 AM CT · East Cesar Chavez (location shared after registration) Informal breakfast with demos for people building AI agents at startups. Free · host approval required luma.com/… 2. Sovereign AI Club Austin: Local AI & Open Models Wed Oct 21, 5:30 PM CT · Bitcoin Park Austin, Downtown Discussion meetup on running local AI, open models and owning your AI stack. Free · open registration luma.com/… 3. Austin International Founders Meetup (Vol. 10) Thu Oct 22, 6:00 PM CT · Capital Factory (Station Austin), Financial District Monthly meetup for international founders building in Austin. Free · open registration luma.com/4429vmwc 4. Tech Talks: AI Leaders (Austin Tech Week) Mon Oct 26, 6:00 PM CT · Holly (location shared after registration) Evening of talks from AI leaders, presented by Entre and Silverton. Free · host approval required luma.com/laxyn7dm 5. Founder & Startup CEO Bootcamp with Mucker, Day 1 Tue Oct 27, 2:00 PM CT · Windsor Park (location shared after registration) Afternoon sessions for early-stage B2B founders on founder-led go-to-market and pitch decks. Free · host approval required luma.com/… Heading to one of these during Tech Week? Reply with which, and let us know if there's a good Austin event we missed.
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