Friday Hacks #298: In Search of Taste & How to Build a Startup
Friday Hacks, by NUS Hackers, is a weekly event where invited speakers share their technical experiences and interests! In this week's session, we have:
Talk 1: In Search of Taste
Everyone can spot AI slop instantly, but almost nobody can define taste. This talk digs into what taste actually is: why training models on "good design" produces sameness, what neuroscience and art history tell us about how creativity really works, and how designers and engineers can build things worth emulating in the age of AI.
Speaker Profile:
Phil Hedayatnia is the co-founder of Airfoil, a design studio that has shipped work for Solana, Uniswap, Vapi, Exa, Reducto, and 350+ teams since 2019. He also runs Airfoil Research, an in-house lab prototyping new agents and tools for designers.
Talk 2: How to Build a Startup
How do you come up with business ideas that are actually good? Rob Liu shares the practical methods he used to identify, validate and grow ContactOut into a bootstrapped business generating US$21m in annual revenue and US$15m in profit. He’ll break down how to spot promising opportunities, understand what customers really want, test ideas quickly, and turn early traction into a profitable, scalable business.
Speaker Profile:
Rob Liu is the founder and CEO of ContactOut, a bootstrapped company generating US$21m in revenue. He is also the founder of Athena VC, where he invests in and supports early-stage founders. He is also an angel investor, a 500 Startups alumnus, and a limited partner in Hustle Fund, Iterative and Blackbird VC.
📍 COM3 SR12
🍕🧋will be served!