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Get the Check

Anika, Maya, Priya

Tune in on Tuesday at 6 AM ET to hear the latest tech news and listen to guests from emerging tech companies.

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  • 23 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 50 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • June 2 · 52 min

    Robotics data labeling, AI layoffs, Cognition is so back

    In this episode of Get the Check, the pod covers three stories: why everyone has a robotics data collection startup, whether AI is actually killing jobs or just making everyone work more (maybe both??), and Cognition's comeback after everyone thought the model players would cook them. They start with robotics data labeling. As humanoid robots become a real thing, the race is on to get the training data to make them work. The problem is you can't just scrape Reddit like you could for GPT. Priya breaks down the data quality hierarchy: real sensor data from robots at the top, teleoperated data second, simulated data third, and egocentric POV footage (the kind you get by strapping a camera to someone's head) at the bottom. The pod covers the startups going after this: Shift just went viral on X for offering free NYC house cleanings in exchange for head-cam footage, Human Archive (YC W26) is collecting in developing countries, and Pronto, which started as the "Uber for maids in India" recently realized they were sitting on a data goldmine. Next, the AI and layoffs conversation for probably the millionth time, but maybe not the last. The pod actually has a valid excuse to revisit it: Dario Amodei and Sam Altman have both walked back their apocalyptic predictions about AI job displacement, and Maya thinks it's because they're IPO-ing and need Joe Schmoe in North Carolina to buy their stock. Priya and Anika push back a little. Tune in to hear the whole debate. They dig into the Goldman Sachs CEO's NYT op-ed (AI won't eliminate 25% of jobs, it'll automate 25% of work hours), and breakdown Jevons paradox (short explainer video here: https://www.instagram.com/getthecheckpod/reel/DZBLK0lyVtq/). They also debrief the Corgi founder vs. Linear CEO beef. Finally, Cognition raises $1B at a $26B valuation. Revenue went from $37M to $492M in 12 months, 90% of internal code at Cognition is now written by Devin (up from 13% in December), and they managed to turn around the Google / Windsurf drama and make it a happy ending. With Cursor in talks to get acquired by xAI for $60B, Cognition is set to be the last major independent coding harness. Maya says she thinks the market is big enough for even a third player to make it big. This episode is brought to you by: Kalshi — Cursor's acquisition by xAI is not a done deal yet. Kalshi might have odds on that. Sign up at kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck and get $10 when you trade using our code. Known — Use code GETTHECHECK at known.com to skip the waitlist and get a free date. Follow the pod on Instagram and X @getthecheckpod. 03:05 Why does everyone have a robotics data labeling startup 15:34 How China is doing data labeling differently 20:15 Shift goes viral on X 21:51 Does egocentric data even work 25:31 Sam Altman and Dario Amodei no longer believe in the job apocalypse 40:57 Cognition is so back 43:59 What is a coding harness

  • May 26 · 36 min

    Inside Kaizen: Co-founders Kenneth Acquah and Michael Silver on AI agents in ops work

    One day on the Muni to work, Anika saw someone that looked familiar. She realized she knew him from his Slack profile picture, classic SF. Ken’s company, Kaizen, had been automating healthcare workflows at the health tech startup she worked at, saving hundreds of ops hours a week. She knew she had to get Kaizen on the pod, and this is that pod! Kaizen is an AI agent automating the most repetitive, time consuming work in healthcare like credentialing therapists across 50 states and every insurance company. They entered YC pitching a dev tool, pivoted mid-batch, and then were doubling MRR week over week by Demo Day. Partners still use them as an example for new batches. The pod gets into: Why dropping out to do YC or a startup is overrated. The four jobs that will survive AGI according to Michael. One of them is hot person, tune in to hear the other three. Why healthcare admin is a trillion-dollar market. Why they only hire platform engineers. They have zero ops and zero FDE. How referrals now drive most of their pipeline because healthcare is all about “whisper networks”. 00:00 Their first podcast was TBPN 00:15 John Coogan's stage presence 02:03 Meeting at MIT 08:35 Starting Kaizen 13:01 Why you shouldn't drop out 14:02 Why pivoting in YC led to 2x MRR growth MoM 15:32 How Kaizen changes healthcare ops 19:46 Customers choosing Kaizen over Claude 23:46 What "whisper networks" really mean for GTM 24:24 Hot take you don't need FDE 27:40 Pain tolerance is the most important founder trait 32:43 Do founders get to have hobbies?

  • May 19 · 59 min

    AOC v Garry Tan on data centers, Trump's China trip, Arish co-founder of Amano Labs the viral hearing aid

    While Maya's been working till 1AM, Priya is going on a date. Tune in to hear where and how she met him. In this episode of Get the Check, the trio dives into three stories: the AI data center debate heating up on X, Trump and Xi's historic summit in Beijing, and a $20 hearing aid that got 11 million views on X for being affordable and innovative. Bernie Sanders and AOC proposed the AI Data Center Moratorium Act back in March, calling for a halt on any new facility over 20 MW until Congress passes national AI safeguards. When Gary Tan clapped back on X, it blew up the entire tech timeline. Of course it all ended with everyone talking about data centers in space again, which isn't a bad idea if it actually works. The girls break down both sides, from the real utility rate spikes hitting low-income communities to the race to the pressure the US is facing to build fast. Then the pod covers the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, the first US presidential visit to China since 2017. The two sides released very different readouts of the same meetings, and the hosts get into what that actually signals about the state of the relationship. Maya says this was a win for Trump, but Anika is wondering if anyone in America was even paying attention. For the Get the Check segment, Anika and Maya sit down with Arish Shahab, co-founder of Amano Labs. Amano is building a custom-fit hearing aid for $19.99 that costs $1 to make, targeting the 1.5 billion people globally who need hearing support but can't a $4,700 device. In just 3 weeks of being in SF, their video went viral with 11 million views. Tune in to hear what's next for them. This episode is sponsored by Known, which matches you with someone in SF that you're compatible with. Download the app and use code getthecheck (must be lowercase) to get your first date for free. Priya's match was apparently a great guy who correctly identified her as a red flag within the first hour, so the algorithm is working?! If you want to hear what makes Known different we recorded an episode with Celeste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlQ2zxluGwM). Follow the pod on Instagram @getthecheckpod! 00:00 Priya goes on a date from Known05:35 AOC and Bernie vs. Garry Tan on the data center build out30:14 Trump goes to visit Xi Jinping in China40:16 Arish co-founder of Amano Labs the viral hearing aid

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes