Sebastian Esquivel

a few things i'm noticing while at the Silicon Valley event today with the @TalvyHQ team: - people are opening their imaginations to bigger and bigger problems with AI. - there really isn't a societal problem in this room that somebody doesn't think AI could tackle. - there are plenty of people with positive outlooks on AI’s future. the doomers are not everywhere!

just moved into a new co-working space for startups with @TalvyHQ we're one of the first teams to join, and so far the boys have already taken charge as leads of the snack committee for @build617 gotta make sure the office has good eats. what should we get next run?

i still find it crazy that my founding team is made up of friends I met in college lol. back then we were just kids who lived near each other and stayed up too late, and now we're doing the hardest thing any of us has tried. don't think any of us saw this coming back then, but blessed to see where it's gone since. grateful to be building @TalvyHQ

I grew a YouTube Channel to 115k subs because I was bored at MIT. Here's how i did it. Freshman year at MIT, I landed a software engineering internship at Northrop Grumman. They gave me a Python project to finish in 10 weeks. I finished it in 2. But I still had to show up everyday, so I spent most of my free time watching tech reviews. I was obsessed with learning about the latest developments at the time, huge MKBHD fan. This ended up benefiting me when the older engineers would ask: "You're a youngin', what laptop should I get?" I'd give them my honest opinion… and the next week they'd show up with exact product I recommended. One day I thought to myself: "If my reviews are having this much influence in real life, I should just start posting my thoughts online." So I used my internship money to buy a camera and a mic and I started making my own tech review videos under the handle "MiTechGuy." Before I knew it, the channel grew to 30k subscribers. Brands started sending me bundles of products to review and soon enough, I had more devices than I could possibly use. Objectively, things were going great. But it was somewhere between having 8 phones that I didn't need, and the heaviness I began to feel as I pressed "record" that I knew I had lost my spark for this. So I made the the tough decision to pivot my content. I changed the channel to my real name and started making vlogs. Starting with one titled "Day in the Life of an MIT Aerospace Engineering Student" The video blew up. 1M+ views. Thousands of comments telling me the video was a window into a world they'd never seen, I received so many messages where I was told that I was the reason they chose to go apply to MIT. Seeing that impact is what pushed me to keep building the channel i have today. If you're an aspiring creator, here's what I'd tell you: 1. You won't know your voice until you start posting 2. If a post flops, no one saw it anyway. No risk. 3. Authenticity wins. If something feels off, pivot. Becoming a creator has changed my life in ways I couldn't have even imagined. The same could be true for you. So… what's stopping you from starting?

Option one: keep the safe job you've totally outgrown. Option two: quit, burn your savings, and bet everything on being a founder. but what if there was a 3rd option? There are so many talented people in tech who are working below someone right now. People who could totally be a founder, but have only been sold the image that a founder is someone who has to jump off a cliff, and jumping off a cliff is a bad idea when you have rent. But we're trying to create a middle-way at @TalvyHQ. One where you can get real founder experience, leading and shipping and owning outcomes, all while keeping the ground under your feet. We're not asking people to quit their job, we're just asking for less than 20 hours of work a week to implement AI workflows at 9-figures companies, all while getting paid $100+ an hour. We give people the reps, they keep the security, all while finding out if founder life is actually what they want before going all in. If the reason you were delaying your founder dreams is because of job security, this is your chance to see if you are really interested in the lifestyle. Curious to hear what people think about this idea. Would appreciate if you could share it with anyone who might be interested.

When I was in 7th grade, a grown man almost hustled me for $300. I was a young entrepreneur just flipping electronics back then, and one deal with a classmate had gotten large enough that his dad came to campus to handle the transaction. After the exchange, my mom slowly counted the money before shooting me a stern look: "You're $300 short. Go back there and get what you're owed." My heart dropped when she said this. And sure, my mom could've done this for me, but she also knew that this was an opportunity for me to learn the art of confrontation. So I walked back over to that grown man, looked up, and with all the confidence a 12-year-old boy could muster said: "Sir... you still owe me $300." Then I broke his kneecaps. Kidding. I pridefully walked back to my mom afterwards with the money in hand in an experience that would become a core memory. And sometimes that scene replays in my head when I have to go on similar walks now as an older entrepreneur. In business, people will take advantage of you if you're not paying close enough attention. And if you avoid confronting them on it, they'll get comfortable with shortchanging you. So you have to get used to tough conversations as a CEO, because it's one of those things you can't just hire someone else for. These days the numbers have more zeros, but the walks also feel more comfortable. And if there's ever a day I need a push, I just think of my mom telling me: "go get what you're owed."

there's a ceo out there who still has someone print out their emails every morning. the whole company runs on software from the 90s. this is a serious 7-8 figure company by the way, it's printed money for decades, and it's the kind of place you'd assume has everything figured out. it's always a little shocking/funny to see the contrast between them and everyone I follow online who is spiraling about AGI timelines and debating whether agents are about to take every white-collar job in the next X months. in that world, a new claude drops and people immediately feel behind, like they blinked and missed the thing that changes everything. but that panic truly only exists inside a bubble. step outside it and you'll find an economy that's decades behind, most of it with no clue these models even exist. so many people i know are terrified of falling behind and yet they're standing at the very front of a race most of the world hasn't started.

one guy I sat with about AI wasn't excited at all. he was pissed. he knows someone could do his job 40x faster than him, and it drives him up the wall. and that reaction is way more common than you'd think. the people who most need to learn AI tend to feel the gap as frustration, not curiosity towards the "wonders of technology". it's hard to feel positive towards something that seems like it's hunting you down. but honestly, this angry archetype is one of my favorites to work with. they already feel that motivation in their gut, so they don't need a pitch to know that AI will make them better, just one win to show them how easy it is to learn. you take a single thing off their plate, and the anger becomes "okay... what else can this do?" deescalating people from a state of frustration, and helping them find that state of curiosity is one of the most fulfilling parts of the role as an AI Personal Trainer.

questions i've been A/B testing with potential clients: A: "Are you hiring an engineer?" "No, that's alright. We're not really looking to hire there." B: "Do you need someone to help with AI implementation?" "Actually, yes! Funny you ask, we've been needing help with that for months!" it's wild how much the answer changes based on which word i lead with. and the funniest part is when i hear both of these responses from the exact same person. really goes to show how important it is to talk to your potential clients about THEIR problems, not YOUR solutions.

you get a car. but YOU have never driven before. so the car doesn't go anywhere. or worse, you get it started and total it. does that mean the car is bad? no, it means you have to LEARN how to drive. it's the same with AI. AI is not a tool, it's a machine. a tool works the moment you pick it up. a machine has to be operated, and operators need training. so if you're a CEO, you can't demand employees to use it well if you never taught them how to. invest in your team. teach them to drive before you send them onto the road.

got to speak at the @ClawCompLLC event yesterday about my journey so far as a founder, and the inevitability of AI's expansion across every industry. the people who are going to be ushering in the age of AI were sitting in that room, but i think the coolest part about this tech is how accessible it is. anyone can pick it up right now. you don't need a degree or anyone's permission to start building. big shoutout to the ClawComp team for having me, and for creating rooms filled with young builders who'll shape what comes next.

does anyone know where i can find Ex-facebook, amazon, or other former big tech devs who might be looking for work right now? I have work for anyone who fits that archetype TODAY.

A few months ago, the day after we launched @TalvyHQ, I asked my team the question I'd been avoiding. "Do you regret leaving your six-figure jobs for this?" Our CTO left Palantir to build with me. Our founding ML engineer left Instagram. Some of them even moved cities for this. Wondering if this will all be worth it one day for them has been something I've carried since day one, especially because the team is made up of all my best friends. Literally the people who are coming to my wedding this year. So the day after launch was the first time I asked them straight up how they felt so far. I was so nervous about what their answer would be, and it didn't help that I decided to ask the question just 24 hours after our site crashed on launch day and we had to spend all day putting out fires. So if there was ever a day to regret joining, that was the moment. Anyways — I filmed the whole day including the outage, the question, and their full answers in the video below. ... I also dropped their answers in the comments in case you don't have the time to watch :)

I had bated breath when i asked the questions, so when they finally told me how they felt I felt a weight lift. Because every single one of them was a resounding yes. When i asked about the site going down @yoealefrem just said that "Fire is a part of the game. You just got to chalk that up to the game." and @yaatehr reminded me how special it is to work with your friends, because most people don't get the chance to do something like this. gotta mention @Sebasquivel here as well: "I've been on other teams where we've had to grind for months and months for projects to be scrapped. This really cemented having meaningful work behind my day-to-day." Like I said, these are friends I've had since college , people I expect to be in my life for a very long time. So when they say things like that, it warms my heart in more ways than one. Grateful for what we're doing @TalvyHQ, and I can't wait to share more with you as the weeks go on!

the originals, all worth a full read: @benln teapaw.org/benln/status/206292727… @dravishakatoch teapaw.org/dravishakatoch/status/… @olseneng teapaw.org/olseneng/status/206305…

if you're job hunting right now, here are 3 takes from my feed this week that i found to be helpful: @benln: "Skip LinkedIn." by the time a role hits the big job boards, you're already one of a few hundred people who applied to it. his list helps you find these teams before the job is even posted. start following a few of them, pay attention to what they're building, and post your own work somewhere they can find it. @dravishakatoch: "You don't need to disclose your previous salary to anyone. It's not legally required, and you can refuse it." your old number just becomes the highest they're willing to go, and then they spend the whole time trying to talk you down from there. you don't owe anyone that history anyway. figure out what the role itself is worth to you, and let them put the first number on the table. @olseneng: "I'd much rather hear someone say 'I don't know' over an elaborate word dump." a good interviewer can usually tell when you're bs'ing within a few seconds. so just say "i don't know, but here's how i'd figure it out." it tells them way more than a confident wrong answer does, and it's the kind of thing that actually makes them want to work with you. overalll takeaway: the hiring funnel kind of wants you to be so anxious that you're grateful for anyone who replies to you. don't fall for that trap. get paid what your worth by acting like you've got options, because most of the time you actually do. good luck out there this week to everyone still in the search. genuinely rooting for you. (PS: if you want your name in front of high-growth startups that are actually hiring, shoot me a DM or drop a comment on this post._

we pivoted our business model at @TalvyHQ few weeks ago, and have received the highest amount of inbound interest so far. lesson learned: never be so married to your initial business vision that you can't adjust to where the market is guiding you.

78% of resumes now have AI in them. 68% of enterprise HR teams now screen for AI. nobody's reading anything anymore. can we all like really take a breath here and realize how stupid this is? such a horrendous use of AI by both sides of the hiring process.

At 22, I felt bulletproof. Then I got diagnosed with a kidney disease. Before that, it looked like everything was working from an outsiders perspective. I was at Stanford, co-founding two startups, making more money than I'd ever made. Best shape of my life. I had older engineers hyping me up, saying things like "are we talking to the next Elon Musk?" at some point, I started to internalize what they were saying. The way other people looked at me started to become a part of my identity, and I had no idea what it was costing me to maintain it. I was working like a dog before the diagnosis. My body had been screaming at me for months that something was wrong. I was getting migraines, not sleeping well, more irritated at the tiniest things. But instead of slowing down I decided to push harder. Because I knew that everybody else was seeing a version of me that was successful, sharp, and "on the come up." So I masked my suffering in my own head. I told myself this pain was temporary. It wasn't. It hit a breaking point when I had moved into my apartment and saw that my wrist had ballooned in size. Time wrinkled and I realized I had been hospitalized for weeks, and a year later I looked around to find that both startups had died. I had to rebuild my life from the ground up after this, and that's part of the reason why I'm grateful to be where I'm at today with Talvy. Because I write to you as someone who has been humbled. When I reflect on that time, I find it crazy how I was able to so confidently ignore my body's decline because I was worried about how I looked on the outside. and I think the lesson here is that: Nothing on the outside is worth what it can cost you on the inside. The only ground worth standing on is where you actually are, not where everyone else is putting you. Stay present, and believe in yourself.