On today’s episode, we’re joined by Kevin Smith and Mikel Corcuera, Co-Founders at Snipd, the AI-powered podcast app built to help capture and rediscover insights from spoken audio. Kevin and Mikel discuss the origin of Snipd, the challenges of building an AI-native product from scratch, and the role of Flutter in enabling rapid, cross-platform development.

Key Takeaways:

(01:54) Snipd lets users triple-tap to save podcast clips with AI summaries.

(05:53) Snipd utilizes AI to improve capturing podcast insights.

(14:58) Flutter enables fast, cross-platform development and a polished UI experience.

(21:43) Before ChatGPT, the team used self-hosted, fine-tuned AI models.

(26:29) The team sees AI as the new electricity, soon to be standard in everything.

(30:52) Early AI summaries were rough, but clear enough to prove the concept worked.

(36:18) AI supports unfamiliar tasks and new tools.

(41:28) Everyone codes differently — AI should fit each workflow.

(48:02) We all underestimate AI’s impact — even knowing that is a useful reminder.

(51:58) As AI boosts productivity, demand for developers grows, not shrinks.

Snipd promo link: https://link.snipd.com/Cx7S/vgv

With this link you get to try out Snipd’s Premium version for free for 1 month. Their Premium version unlocks additional AI features and more AI usage.

Resources Mentioned:

Kevin Smith

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-smith-673714b4/

Mikel Corcuera

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcorcuera/

Snipd | Website

https://www.snipd.com/

Flutter

https://flutter.dev

How to Start a Startup by Sam Altman

https://playbook.samaltman.com/

Hugging Face

https://huggingface.co/

ChatGPT

https://chatlyai.app/

Google Cloud

https://cloud.google.com/

Perplexity

https://www.perplexity.ai/

Legacy Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/26I6gYMMbXcgHGiZzithBn?si=06fdc37d6fc6409b

Lenny’s Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/2dR1MUZEHCOnz1LVfNac0j?si=60164a8453cd4cd3

Very Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/

#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment

On this episode, we’re joined by Landon Robinson, previously Senior Software Engineer at Superformula, and Mobile Lead at SteadyIQ. He is currently Staff Engineer at Etsy, where he leads platform work on the Etsy Seller app. With over 20 years in the industry, Landon brings deep experience in web, Android, iOS, and Flutter development. He shares how Etsy’s mobile team adopted Flutter to build a more efficient and scalable seller experience.



Landon walks us through the team’s unique “away team” model, how strong architecture supports cross-functional collaboration, and why focusing on business impact is essential for engineering leaders.

Key Takeaways:

(00:46) Landon’s transition from native mobile to Flutter development.

(05:10) Etsy Seller app evolved from shared native code to standalone Flutter.

(10:27) Strong engineers and solid docs keep the Flutter team effective and stable.

(14:58) Etsy’s “away team” model lets product teams build features directly.

(21:37) Etsy organizes teams by feature, enabling web and mobile builds.

(25:36) Flutter enabled faster, easier delivery of a feature-rich seller app.

(34:15) Don’t chase shiny tech, focus on solving real business problems.

(36:31) Understand the business early — it’s key to long-term growth as an engineer.

Resources Mentioned:

Landon Robinson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/landon-robinson-3b2a402/

Superformula

https://www.linkedin.com/company/superformula/

SteadyIQ

https://www.linkedin.com/company/steadyiq-total-income-verification/

Etsy | Website

https://www.etsy.com/

Flutter

https://flutter.dev

Very Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/

#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment

Pierre Benz, Engineering Manager at Headspace, brings a unique blend of experience in mobile development, agency work, and mental health tech. Before joining Headspace, he held roles at design agency AKQA and in multiple startups spanning IoT and consumer apps. He began his career focused on game development and human-computer interaction at the University of Cape Town, blending technical depth with a keen interest in user psychology.

In this episode, Pierre shares how his team at Headspace transitioned from fragmented native codebases to a unified Flutter architecture. He details the cultural, technical, and organizational hurdles of managing a high-stakes migration, balancing performance, feature parity, and developer sentiment. Pierre also reflects on parenting, leadership, and what it means to ship value fast when people’s mental well-being is on the line.

Key Takeaways:

(03:33) Early agency and startup work shaped Pierre’s engineering values.

(04:10) Headspace’s merger sparked major architectural challenges.

(16:00) Two legacy apps were integrated under intense deadlines.

(21:00) Flutter helped achieve cross-platform feature parity.

(26:27) Engineers were given time to upskill, but not all stayed.

(33:57) Flutter UI quality exceeded expectations, even for designers.

(40:23) A centralized migration team sped up execution.

(48:00) Trust, failure, and growth as leadership pillars.

Pierre Benz

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierrebenz/

Headspace | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/headspace-meditation-limited/

Headspace | Website

https://www.headspace.com

Flutter

https://flutter.dev

Very Good Ventures designs and builds world-class digital experiences for any screen, with the best tools and engineering approaches for consistent, scalable results. Find out how VGV helps you hit the mark at: https://verygood.ventures/

#Apps #Flutter #AppDevelopment