From Maths to Machine Learning - A Data Scientist's Journey to Building a Language Learning Startup

Introduction (2 min) - The host introduces Luka Smyth from Papo and welcomes him to the podcast. Personal Journey (5 min) - Luka talks about his background in math and machine learning, working at a startup called Nate, and how that inspired him to start his own startup Papo. Building Papo (4 min) - Luka explains how the idea for Papo, an AI language tutor, came from his experience learning Portuguese and seeing the power of chatGPT. He started it as a side project with his brother. Early Days of Papo (3 min) - Luka describes the challenging early days working on Papo in the evenings while keeping day jobs, before having to quit their jobs to commit fully. First Coding Project (4 min) - Luka talks about building an on-screen eye tracker keyboard to help people with disabilities communicate, inspired by his dad's work. Joining Antler (3 min) - Luka shares about joining the Antler startup incubator for 10 weeks to build out Papo. Pitching Investors (2 min) - Luka mentions they just pitched but unfortunately did not get investment from Antler. Work-Life Balance (3 min) - Luka discusses his approach to work-life balance, including intense periods of work followed by relaxation. He enjoys powerlifting as a physical hobby. Learning and Motivation (3 min) - Luka talks about how he learns best through doing side projects, not formal education. Building things motivates him to learn what he needs. Q&A (3 min) - The host asks Luka some shorter questions about influences, books, handling failure, and more.