Gil Syswerda, Founder and Super Angel - Founding Startups

<p>Sponsored by:</p> <ul> <li>Purdue University Entrepreneurship</li> <li>Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson</li> </ul> <p>AI wiz, founder and angel investor Gil Syswerda on building algorithms and companies. This episode focuses on Gil’s biography and his startups. It’s the first in-studio interview since spring 2020. We had a blast!</p> <p>Highlights:</p> <ul> <li>Sal Daher Introduces Gil Syswerda, Founder and Super Angel</li> <li>Gil Syswerda Lucked into a Great High School – Built His Own Calculator</li> <li>"Computer programming. What is that?"</li> <li>“Because programming a computer for the first time you have this machine that just does whatever you tell it to do. The power is just indescribable. It just seems like the possibilities are unlimited.”</li> <li>Selling Cutco Knives to Pay the Rent – Learned to Sell</li> <li>“...I taught myself programming on that computer at Calvin College...”</li> <li>“When I wasn't at a place working, I would just fly to a city where I had friends and hang out with them. I just literally lived nowhere for a year.”</li> <li>Gil Meets His Wife Carol - They’ve Been Married 38 Years Now</li> <li>“One day I was at my job as a programmer, the next day I'm in class.”</li> <li><em>Animation Toolkit</em> Was a Flop Because It Was Too Much of a Niche Product</li> <li>“The target audience is miniscule. We just didn't realize it. It was the classic mistake. If we build it, they will come.”</li> <li>Genetic Algorithms: A Lesson from Evolutionary Biology</li> <li>Gil Syswerda Gets into Hot Water with His Advisor by Being a Know It All</li> <li>BBN Labs – Gil Syswerda Wrote Seminal Papers in AI that Are Still Frequently Cited</li> <li>“What I really wanted was a job where I could use genetic algorithms and the only place on the planet that I could find that did anything of the kind was BBN Labs...”</li> <li>“I tried every way I could think of to get a ride in an F-14 but I never succeeded.”</li> <li>“Just because you're the CEO doesn't mean you have complete decision author