Max Shaw and Brian Distelburger on Reinventing People Management with Windmill

About this episode

Max Shaw and Brian Distelburger discuss how Windmill is transforming people management with AI.

Windmill co-founders Max Shaw and Brian Distelburger are building the AI-powered people platform for how companies develop and manage their talent. Founded alongside Mark Tanner, Windmill replaces the broken, once-a-year performance review with something faster, smarter, and that employees actually love. Since launching in November 2025, they've reached more than 100 customers including Kalshi, The Farmer's Dog, and Rho, and Inspired is so proud to have led their recent seed round. As AI makes every employee more powerful, the companies that win will be the ones that put the best talent in exactly the right role. What You'll Learn: Why the current state of performance management is broken How AI will change the relationship between managers and their teams What the future of work looks like as companies grow more complex Why skills assessment is about to become one of the most important things a company can do Why Max and Brian are optimistic that AI will benefit people at work Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:33 Meet Max and Brian 03:44 What Is Windmill 05:38 The State of Performance Reviews 09:20 Where Windmill Is Headed 13:20 AI Coaching for Every Employee 16:15 Why They Chose…

People in this episode

Host: Alexa von Tobel

Guests: Max Shaw, Brian Distelburger

Topics covered

• AI in people management
• performance reviews
• future of work
• skills assessment
• employee empowerment

Keywords

• AI
• people management
• performance review
• skills assessment
• employee engagement

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Windmill, Kalshi, The Farmer's Dog, Rho, Inspired

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