Inside the AI Engineer World’s Fair: How Tiny Teams Built $10M Startups in Months
The Programming Podcast - A podcast by The Programming Podcast - Thursdays

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In this episode, Danny and Leon dive into their firsthand takeaways from the AI Engineer World’s Fair in San Francisco. They share what it felt like to be among the brightest minds shaping the future of AI, why “tiny teams” are the hottest trend right now, and how rapid prototyping tools are changing the game. You’ll hear real-world use cases for AI agents (from meal ordering to personal finance audits), a deep discussion of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and the push for industry standards, plus a glimpse at conversational AI’s next frontier—attaching your bots to phone lines and AR glasses. They also preview the upcoming Commit Your Code conference and cap it off with a listener Q&A on resume and ATS strategies.🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss an episode!🔥 Real advice. Real experience. Real value. Hit that like & subscribe button to support more episodes like this!💡 Sponsor: Level Up Financial PlanningChanging careers or increasing your income? Get financial clarity with Level Up Financial Planning—helping early and mid-career tech professionals secure their financial future. Visit LevelUpFinancialPlanning.com for a free consultation!NEW SITE https://www.programmingpodcast.com/Stay in Touch:📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business?Email us at [email protected]!Danny Thompsonhttps://x.com/DThompsonDevhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/DThompsonDevwww.DThompsonDev.comLeon Noelhttps://x.com/leonnoelhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/leonnoel/https://100devs.org/📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business?Email us at [email protected]!Chapters0:00 Welcome & AI Engineer World’s Fair Overview4:50 Insights from Tracy Lee & Conference Atmosphere7:00 “Tiny Teams” & Building Million-Dollar Startups11:50 AI Agents in Action: Personalized Meal Planning & Finance Tracking15:54 AI as a Productivity Multiplier, Not a Headcount Cutter20:02 Model Context Protocol (MCP) & the Need for Standards22:55 Advancements in Retrieval, Augmentation & Agentic Flows26:43 This Dot Labs’ New AI Service Offering30:42 Conversational AI Meets Telephony: Easy Phone Integration34:50 AR Glasses, Voice AI & the Future of Human–Machine Interaction35:58 Evaluating Prompts & Information Quality: Why It Matters37:45 Preview: Commit Your Code Conference Growth & What’s Next38:08 Listener Q&A: Ask Danny & Leon Segment42:00 Resume Rescue: ATS Tips & Bullet-Point Best Practices45:03 Closing Thoughts & Next Episode Teaser