Shivani led engineering on Google DeepMind's coding agent. Now she's solo founding, betting that AI agents can't always finish the job. Hers hires humans for the last mile. Solo Founders Podcast ep 32 is live with Shivani Poddar of Wajo. 04:56 Ten years of personal agents, before the name... existed 08:59 What building Jules at Google revealed 10:05 Designing phone calls people don't hang up on 22:08 She seeded her AI in Ohio, not the Valley 27:54 The product had to build the company first 31:05 Her three-word recruiting message 36:18 Humans in the loop, without a gig economy 44:58 The solo founder's speed-dial bench 51:05 The case for and against going soloshow more

@wajo_ai such a good chat! @julianweisser is the best interviewer!

@wajo_ai YouTube:

@shivanipod @wajo_ai I've been using Fo for the past few days and I'm kind of blown away by how good the product is. It's been able to handle everything I've thrown at it so far

@shivanipod @wajo_ai Nice! I like the idea of hiring humans for the last mile!

@shivanipod @wajo_ai The last mile is where trust gets earned. A person checking the final step is often what makes a customer willing to pay for the rest.

@shivanipod @wajo_ai That phone call design sounds like a fascinating challenge

@shivanipod @wajo_ai agents plus a human for the last mile sounds like a staffing firm with better demos

@shivanipod @wajo_ai Agents that know when to hand off is the product. Same bar we're holding for Mully on tee-time edge cases.

@shivanipod @wajo_ai Designing for the points where agents still need a human is more useful than chasing full autonomy. The last-mile handoff is where most real workflows still break.

@shivanipod @wajo_ai Building the human last mile after leading a coding agent team is a bet from someone who knows exactly where agents stall. What does that last mile usually turn out to be: judgment, access, or accountability?

@shivanipod @wajo_ai Hiring humans for the last mile is the part most agent startups skip Curious how that works at scale