In this episode, Sergiy Nesterenko (CEO @ Quilter) joins the pod to share how he turned a personal technical challenge into his own company, even before the market caught up. He shares his unique journey from SpaceX to Quilter and addresses common eng leader / founder challenges, including taking critical feedback to solve tough technical problems, knowing when your most important role is educating the market / customers, and choosing the right customers. Sergiy and Jerry also dissect insights into principles around building circuit boards, and common misconceptions around hiring top-tier talent, finding investors, and procuring customers as an early-stage company. 

ABOUT SERGIY NESTERENKO

Sergiy Nesterenko is the Founder and CEO of Quilter, the first physics-driven AI platform that fully automates PCB layout design. Under his leadership, Quilter has pioneered autonomous board design – creating the missing automation layer for hardware and compressing weeks-long layout cycles into hours. Backed by Index, Benchmark, Coatue, and Tony Fadell, Quilter is redefining what's possible in hardware development. Previously, Sergiy spent five years at SpaceX as a Senior Radiation Effects Engineer, building electronics for the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.

SHOW NOTES:

• Introducing Sergiy Nesterenko & the inspiration behind Quilter (1:43)
• Why now is the right time to tackle this technical challenge (3:37)
• The technology landscape during Quilter’s early days (6:05)
• Sergiy’s fundraising journey & key takeaways (8:26)
• The importance of adopting an evolutionary mindset (10:52)
• Early problems that Quilter aimed to solve (13:08)
• Navigating the balance between technical problems & consumer readiness (15:59)
• How negative feedback can lead to solving a key problem (18:34)
• Knowing which feedback to incorporate into product iterations (20:08)
• Lessons learned from choosing the wrong customers (27:33)
• First principles approach to circuit board building (29:31)
• Signals that it’s the right time to tackle a hard technical challenge (34:04)
• Advantages to solving really hard problems & tackling entrepreneurship (36:32)
• Common misconceptions surrounding early phase companies (38:17)
• Sergiy’s experience working with Eric @ Benchmark (39:46)
• Why investors like founders who spend time in the “idea maze” (42:19)
• Strategies for convincing high-profile talent to join your org early on (43:22)
• Rapid fire questions (45:10)

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

Jerry Li - Co-Host

Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/