Live Vibe Coaching with the LLM Pioneer Who Scaled Before ChatGPT | Will Manidis

About this episode

Will Manidis discusses building resilient AI startups and lessons learned from developing LLMs for healthcare.

Is your AI startup built to survive the next wave?In this episode of Agentic, Will Manidis, the co-founder of ScienceIO, shares how he built for resilience from day one developing LLMs for healthcare and the frameworks that helped him scale before the world caught up.He shares how local model training on office gaming PCs laid the unlikely foundation for ScienceIO’s reach across millions in digital health.We also discuss:• why OpenAI’s API continues to dominate Gemini• the hidden fragility behind $500M fast scaling AI companies• Will’s belief that founders must prove value before overbuilding for scaleNot often do you get to learn from someone who built an LLM before ChatGPT. Tune in now.If you’re in the early innings of building something in AI, especially if you’re figuring things out from first principles—click here, we'd love to hear from you.Connect with us here:1. Will Manidis- https://www.linkedin.com/in/willmanidis/ 2. George Bandarian- https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebandarian/ 3. Untapped Ventures- https://www.linkedin.com/company/untappedventures/00:00 Trailer01:41 Introduction02:45 Thiel Fellow07:40 Pre-ChatGPT LLMs10:27 Biggest lessons12:37 Contrarian takes13:56…

People in this episode

Host: George Bandarian

Guest: Will Manidis

Topics covered

• AI startups
• LLMs
• healthcare technology
• scaling businesses
• founder strategies

Keywords

• AI
• LLM
• healthcare
• scaling
• founders
• OpenAI
• resilience

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ScienceIO, OpenAI, Gemini, Untapped Ventures

More episodes of Agentic

• 10 Top AI Founders building the Autonomous Economy share their secrets · May 14, 2026 · 1h 17m
• The Next Platform Shift - Why We Stopped Being an AI Fund · April 23, 2026 · 24 min
• Andrew Chen (a16z speedrun) on the Future of AI Startups, Speedrun & Why Coding Will Be as Easy as Making Videos · March 5, 2026 · 57 min
• Request for Startups: 10 AI Ideas We’re Ready to Fund · July 16, 2025 · 24 min
• The AI Platform That Could Launch 10,000 Startups | Woz · May 9, 2025 · 59 min
• Inside You.com’s Plan to Outthink Google and OpenAI · May 2, 2025 · 58 min