Transformation of the Week
Garrett Gecewicz

Transcript

Lusk: Hey Garrett, thanks for joining me today. Congratulations on winning Transformation of the Week. Tell the people out there a little bit more about your background and what you’re doing today.

Garrett: My background is 25 years as a developer covering many different parts of the stack. First, in years I was an application developer. Having that background really kind of gave me the core foundation of application programming. So after ten years as an application developer, I went back to school. I got a master’s degree in computer science, and I decided that I wanted to learn data.

Did cloud integration APIs for a long time, 25 year career. So, you know, I had a lot of phases, but, but I consider myself so lucky because I got to work in so many different parts of the stack. And I would say that the systems thinking is what apply so much today, even more so than the data in the application development vs the modern day AI applications are really systems in themselves.

Lusk: So what got you interested in Gen AI in the first place?

Garrett: Well, it’s interesting, about five years ago, I was very much interested in the idea of a starting a generative AI media company. The problem was that the technology wasn’t quite there. However, what’s important to know is that while I was very into it, I was very obsessed with it.

And I loved the concept. I didn’t really know how to to get it started. You know, building and shipping and sharing something. That wasn’t until I took the AI Makerspace course, actually, that I that I said, oh, now I get it. Now I have the tools. And then I’ve had a pretty much the jetpack on my back since then.

Lusk: You graduated from our LLM Ops Course almost a year ago. What have you been doing since then, and have you been able to put anything that you learned, into practice?

Garrett: Oh, absolutely. I would say that the the course was so apt because it was actually my final project that started my current company. I would say that it was it was the exact building tools at the time that I needed to get started, but extremely rigorous, extremely packed with information and value. It was very much an moment.

Lusk: Garret, you are the epitome of build ship share and I really appreciate your time. Before we go. What are some words of wisdom that you have for the people that are watching this right now?

Garrett: Try to find something that obviously you want to build, but try to find something that you want to build; that seems impossible.

Lusk: Garrett, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations again on transformation of the week.

Garrett: Thank you so much, Chris. It’s been so much fun talking. And it is an honor because I know that AI Makerspace does things at a very high level, and it really has been a lot of fun.