S12 E28: The AI Throughput Illusion: Why Splurging on Expensive Models Fails to Ship Code and How to Measure Real Engineering Output with Emilie Schario, Co-Founder & Head of Product & Engineering at Kilo Code

Emilie Schario grew up in New Jersey, outside of Newark, and attended college in the state. Currently, she lives in Columbus, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. She mentions she got into technology so she could easily follow her husband's career geographically, and has much success in the industry. Outside of tech, she is married with 3 boys (all 5 and under)... so there is a lot of wrestling in her household. She admits she is often quoted staying she does three things in her life - work, parenting, and if she is lucky, attends CrossFit 3 times a week. In fact, she finds a great sense of community in that world, and brings her kids with her to cheer her on.A year and a half ago, Emilie's current venture was started, to build the open source orchestrator (or "harness") for AI coding agents. Through some shuffle in the early team, Emilie joined and started in building the fastest AI coding app on the market.This is the creation story of Kilo.SponsorsUnblockedTECH DomainsMezmoBraingrid.aiLinkshttps://kilo.ai/https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilieschario/Timestamps1:49 Guest introduction: Emilie Schario's background and career journey2:51 Overview of Kilo Code as an open source agentic engineering harness3:14 Differentiating through model freedom and supporting 500 plus AI models3:58 Kilo Code founding story with Sid Sijbrandij and team history4:42 Defining the evolving MVP for AI coding tools in a fast-moving market5:25 The rapid shift from manual prompt engineering to autonomous loops6:19 Trade-offs and resource allocation: Deprecating the Kilo App Builder9:09 Modern AI product management: Why multi-year roadmaps no longer work10:19 Shifting PM responsibilities from tracking engineers to setting context13:00 The AI throughput illusion: Why expensive models don't equal shipped code17:00 Measuring true engineering output and productivity in the AI era21:00 Building resilient engineering cultures around AI coding platforms23:30 Closing thoughts and where to learn more about Kilo CodeCheckout our episode stacks on Stacklist! https://stacks.codestory.co/ Hosted by Noah Labhart | Technical Founder & Startup Mentor.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy