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David Stepania
CEO @ ThirstySprout - Hire AI Talent - Made Inc. Top 250 Co's I Homebase Newsletter & Community for AI Founders & Leaders | 2x Bootstrapper - $100M+ in rev | Sharing my journey & learnings
David Stepania is the Founder of ThirstySprout, an AI-enabled hiring platform renowned for helping companies like Mailchimp, Intuit, Rover.com, Momentus, and various startups quickly build proficient engineering teams. The platform's focus from 2024 onward is on GenAI Talent.
Having faced challenges in hiring skilled engineers rapidly and dealing with offshore development setbacks, David established ThirstySprout to assist other founders in circumventing similar obstacles while recruiting top talent and growing their teams efficiently.
Apart from founding ThirstySprout, David has initiated significant startup founder communities with tens of thousands of members across different niches. Additionally, he has bootstrapped multiple startups that collectively have generated over $100 million in revenue.
A dedicated founder, David is enthusiastic about imparting insights on early-stage growth and hiring strategies to fellow entrepreneurs through advisory and mentoring services.
David's educational background includes a Bachelor's Degree in International Economics & GIS from the University of Washington and a Postgraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Business Applications from the Texas McCombs School of Business.
Throughout his career, David has held various roles in different organizations, including Co-Founder at a Stealth Startup, Growth Advisor at InterviewHelp.io, Founder of a Newsletter + Community For AI Founders & Leaders at Homebase, Advisor at GLG, Advisor at WeHealth, Advisor at Remote Talent at 10x Management, Partner at Stepania & Associates LLC, Founding Member at Hampton, Managing Partner at DataMicro, Business Development at Thales Digital Identity and Security (former Gemalto), and Associate at Marcus & Millichap.
Highlights
Founder Mode: Why hiring ex-VPs of any kind hardly ever works for startups
Hire people who want to get their hands dirty.
https://lnkd.in/gFrPMMpB
The AI sector feels like Web 1.0 in 1995. Its potential is undeniable, yet monetization and ROI remain unclear for many.
Two major trends in the current era of efficiency:
- Offshoring to lowest-cost countries
- Implementing AI to reduce headcount & costs
My predictions:
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AI will likely decimate low-cost offshoring first, most of this work is easily doable AI
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Companies will then focus on maximizing revenue per employee through AI, affecting every department
For context: Amazon was achieving $376k revenue per employee
With Recent AI success stories like the ones below I think AI has bright future:
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Klarna: • Chatbots now perform tasks of 700 employees • AI accounts for 37% of cost savings • ~$10 million saved annually
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Amazon Q (Coding Assistant): • Reduces 50-day tasks to hours • Estimated $260M in annual efficiency gains
While AI will undoubtedly eliminate some jobs, tech continues to eat the world, creating opportunities in new sectors and areas.
Looking ahead:
- AI products solving real problems are emerging
- These startups and products are poised to explode, similar to web, cloud, and mobile app booms
- Abundant opportunities for those entering the AI field now
I wouldn't feel too down about the current job market; this is temporary in a new era.
Look at this as a new beginning with massive growth potential if you invest your time in developing the right skillsets.
