428 episodes
Founders, Friction, and Focus: Building Engineering Teams at Early-Stage Startups
14/08/2026 | 26 mins.This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to David Gudeman about the unique culture of early-stage startup engineering, how founder personality quirks and premature process impositions can derail teams, and how engineers can build influence and make deliberate career choices without formal power.
Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/3TQ4qhz
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InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
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Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
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QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
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The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/
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Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq- This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
This is the Engineering Culture Trends Report for 2026. Featuring a panel of QCon speakers and InfoQ contributors, they discussed AI adoption maturity and risk, the transformation of engineering team structures and roles, and the human dimensions of software development that must not be lost in 2026.
Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4bmDGv1
Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter
InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/
Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/
QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/
The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/
Follow InfoQ:
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
X: https://x.com/InfoQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
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Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com
Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq - This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods spoke to Gabriela Moreira about making formal methods accessible through the Quint specification language, how AI is dramatically lowering the barrier to entry for formal specification and model-based testing, and why defining correct system behaviour remains essential human work in an AI-driven world.
Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/3QoST7L
Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter
InfoQ Online Certification Programs:
5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more:
https://certification.qconferences.com/
Upcoming Events:
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/
QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027)
https://qconlondon.com/
The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/
Follow InfoQ:
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
X: https://x.com/InfoQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com
Write for InfoQ:
Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq - This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Craig McLuckie, co-creator of Kubernetes and CEO of Stacklok, about the impact of AI coding tools on open source communities and engineering teams, designing deliberate organisational culture, and navigating evolving career paths for engineers in the age of AI.
Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/3RGzPCa
Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter
InfoQ online certification cohorts:
Online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Join a 5-week confidential peer group to validate your approach and apply practitioner frameworks to the technical challenges you face at work. Learn more: https://certification.qconferences.com/
Upcoming Events:
QCon AI Boston 2026 (June 1-2, 2026)
Learn how real teams are accelerating the entire software lifecycle with AI.
https://boston.qcon.ai
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/
The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
- The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
- Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
- Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/
Follow InfoQ:
- Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
- X: https://x.com/InfoQ?from=@
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
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Write for InfoQ:
Learn and share the changes and innovations in professional software development.
- Join a community of practitioners.
- Increase your visibility.
- Grow your career.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq - This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences. In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Michael Parker, VP of Engineering at TurinTech AI, about bringing joy back to software development in the AI era, the emerging role of "factory architects" who orchestrate AI agents rather than write code directly, and the cultural divide between AI hype and the reality developers face on legacy codebases.
Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4vOJrKs
Newsletter:
Subscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter
InfoQ online certification cohorts:
Online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Join a 5-week confidential peer group to validate your approach and apply practitioner frameworks to the technical challenges you face at work. Learn more: https://certification.qconferences.com/
Upcoming Events:
QCon AI Boston 2026 (June 1-2, 2026)
Learn how real teams are accelerating the entire software lifecycle with AI.
https://boston.qcon.ai
QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026)
https://qconsf.com/
The InfoQ Podcasts:
Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:
- The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/
- Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture
- Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/
Follow InfoQ:
- Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq
- X: https://x.com/InfoQ?from=@
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom#
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com
Write for InfoQ:
Learn and share the changes and innovations in professional software development.
- Join a community of practitioners.
- Increase your visibility.
- Grow your career.
https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq
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About Engineering Culture by InfoQ
Software engineers, architects and team leads have found inspiration to build better, high performing teams by listening to the weekly InfoQ Podcast. We have achieved that by interviewing some of the top CTOs, engineers and technology directors from companies like Uber, Netflix and more. Over 500,000 downloads in the last 3 years.
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