Ex-DeepMind coding agent lead solo-founds Wajo, uses her own AI agent to hire and book meetings
julianweisser · x · 2026-10-15
Shivani Poddar's solo-founder experiment
- She previously led engineering on Google DeepMind's coding agent (Jules) and built Facebook's first AI assistant.
- She is now solo founding Wajo, betting that AI agents can't always finish the job: her agent hires humans for the last mile, without relying on a gig-economy marketplace.
- She runs her own personal agent, "Fo," to schedule recruiting and investor meetings, saying "if the product fails me, then the company doesn't have a right to be successful."
- Episode 32 of the Solo Founders Podcast covers ten years of personal agents before the term existed, what building Jules revealed, designing phone calls people don't hang up on, seeding her AI in Ohio instead of the Valley, her three-word recruiting message, and the case for and against going solo.
Related event: Ex-DeepMind Agent Lead Goes Solo, Uses AI to Hire Humans(3 posts)→
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