Hallway Chat
by Fraser Kelton & Nabeel Hyatt
Latest episode
The two types of Agentic Engineering, and their teams
The two types of Agentic Engineering, and their teams
About this podcast
Fraser & Nabeel explore what it means to build great products in this new world of AI.
Two former founders, now VCs, have an off-the-cuff conversation with friends about the new AI products that are worth trying, emerging patterns, and how founders are navigating a world that’s changing every week.
Fraser is the former Head of Product at OpenAI, where he managed the teams that shipped ChatGPT and DALL-E, and is now an investor at Spark Capital. Nabeel is a former founder and CEO, now an investor at Spark, and has served on the boards of Discord, Postmates, Cruise, Descript, and Adept.
It's like your weekly dinner party on what's happening in artificial intelligence.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 41 episodes
- The two types of Agentic Engineering, and their teams · 46 min · Episode 40We return from a break to discuss the effects of an avalanche of app making due to Claude and Codex, including “Camp,” an experiment by Nabeel in native multiplayer AI-assisted…
- Personality, humanism, poke, and raising the ceiling · 53 min · Episode 39Why are dentists so into vibe coding? Where's the Steve Jobs of this era? In this episode of Hallway Chat, Fraser and Nabeel discuss the viral AI assistant Poke, within the…
- Be Water, Ubiquity over Ownership · 25 min · Episode 38In this episode of Hallway Chat, Nabeel and Fraser unpack the emerging power of tool use, reasoning traces, and code execution in modern models. They reflect on how startups can…
- Building Open World AI w/Andrew Mason · 52 min · Episode 37Nabeel and Fraser sit down with Andrew Mason, founder of Descript, for a deep dive into evolution "open world agents" in AI products. The trio uses the recent Airtable…
- Making the perfect backpack. Craft in the age of AI. · 41 min · Episode 36Craft in the age of AI. Nabeel and Fraser start with a dive into what makes the Boundary backpack so great. They explore how AI is changing the way we do customer research, the…
- AI Severance: One Memory or Many? · 1 h 1 min · Episode 35In this episode of Hallway Chat, Nabeel and Fraser explore the future of AI through the lenses of memory, context, and product design. They debate whether users will maintain…
- State of AI and Games · 40 min · Episode 34Nabeel and Fraser debrief on GDC and the opportunities for innovation beyond the conservative approaches in an industry going through a funk. They touch on the experiences at the…
- Building an Interestingness Leaderboard · 20 min · Episode 33We have evals for AI models, what about AI products? Today, Nabeel and Fraser talk about building computer games through vibe coding, and just when we might see a breakout…
- Questions we’re asking of AI startups in 2025. · 52 min · Episode 32Today, Nabeel and Fraser tackle the questions they've been asking internally. What level of improvement would it take to disrupt an incumbent product? They also explore what…
- Granola & The Art of Invisible AI - Christopher Pedregal · 1 h 6 min · Episode 31Nabeel and Fraser sit down for a round-table discussion with Chris Pedregal, founder and CEO of Granola, an AI note taking app, to discuss Granola’s evolution and product…
- Distilling Lessons from AI in 2024 · 56 min · Episode 30What lessons will we take from 2024's AI products into next year? How better to reflect on advancements in the field of AI over this past year than to ask AI itself? Today…
- Coaching Up: Should your AI be teaching you how to use it? · 42 min · Episode 29Everywhere you turn, companies have shoved AI features into their products that no one is using. Today, Fraser and Nabeel ask each other—are there any AI features that you’re…
- Q&A: Is NotebookLM an exception to a rule? When to copy? When are small improvements better than big bets? Will data privacy matter? · 42 min · Episode 28Open format Q&A this week. Fraser and Nabeel explore AI data privacy, the ethics of copying features, and maintaining innovation. They discuss enterprise data challenges, the…
- "Software should be soft" - Meter Command with Anil Varanasi · 58 min · Episode 27Join Fraser, Nabeel, and special guest Anil from Meter as they dive into the innovation behind Meter Command. Meter's new interface has been called the "future of software" and a…
- The New Muse: Hobbyists and AI · 29 min · Episode 26How would you design an AI product differently for a hobbyist vs prosumer vs professional? Using MidJourney as a case study in the passion economy, they delve into how AI tools…
- Making product on the S curve of AI. Plus, Anthropic Artifacts · 42 min · Episode 25Fraser and Nabeel start by retcon'ing their earlier "maybe we should stop talking about models" and reflecting on the importance of adapting product strategy based how much…
- Granola, Designing AI for User Agency, and how to compete with $$$ · 45 min · Episode 24Fraser and Nabeel dive into the evolving landscape of AI note-taking apps, focusing on a new product, Granola. They discuss Granola's unique approach of "enhancing your thought"…
- Should we stop talking about models? · 33 min · Episode 23Is it still worth it to discuss models when discussing startups? Nabeel and Fraser discuss how that may be the wrong question to ask in the current landscape, and why…
- Devin & the Autonomous Engineer Wave. Plus, .Com lessons as a model for today · 40 min · Episode 22What is the extent of autonomous coding engineer Devin’s ability to generate real, functional applications with little to no help? Nabeel and Fraser dive into the buzz about…
- AI Models. Weighing the chances of commodity vs differentiation. · 38 min · Episode 21This week is a discussion of the points of differentiation vs commodification in various AI models. Including how these points might change over time, and might change between…
