luba yudasina
@LubaYudasina • 5,091 subscribers
Conversations with the humans behind the ambition ← a16z backed founder turned creator ← SWE/PM @airbnb, @yelp ← @uwaterloo ← Belarus
Videos
Today I walk with Jean-Denis Greze 💡, co-founder and CEO of Town, an AI on-ramp platform for individuals and businesses. Jean-Denis is the former CTO of Plaid, led engineering through a blocked $5.3B Visa acquisition, and walked away from the C-suite at 45 to start over from zero, and now he's turned a scrapped AI tax-prep startup into a $55M Series A company backed by Andreessen Horowitz(a16z). He gets into the week he decided to kill a business that was actually working, and why he refuses to call Town an "AI assistant." We get into: - Why he waited until 45, after seven years as Plaid's CTO, to become a founder for the first time - The week he and his co-founder killed a working, revenue-generating tax-prep startup because it wasn't going to be a rocket ship - Town's real bet: not a smarter AI assistant, but an onboarding layer that gets normal people leverage from AI without writing a single prompt - His "accelerators, table stakes, foundations" framework for staying ahead of OpenAI, Gemini, and Google - Why turning "uncool" work into cult culture, from Dropbox's Team Cash to Plaid's colourful tights, built teams that stuck around so much more! Link in comments!
luba yudasina153,624 views • 25 days ago
"You just can't build a slow, expensive blockchain anymore." Solana founder toly 🇺🇸 built a $47 billion network from an idea he couldn't sleep on. Two coffees and a beer at Cafe du Soleil in 2017, and he was up until 4 a.m., figuring out how to use proof of work to measure time. His parents escaped the USSR in the 90s with $50 to their name and landed in Chicago in their 40s. His mom was a pianist. His dad was a civil engineer who took blue-collar roofing jobs while getting his electrician certificates. His son did the circuit analysis homework for him. That 4 a.m. idea became proof of history, the core mechanism behind Solana. In this episode: 00:00:00 Trailer 00:01:06 Intro 00:01:17 Growing up in the Soviet Union 00:04:02 Immigrating to the United States 00:07:34 Career dreams and studying computer science 00:09:47 First startup and early lessons 00:11:19 13 years at Qualcomm 00:22:32 Meeting Raj and founding Solana 00:26:44 Fundraising and early investors 00:28:41 Surviving the FTX collapse 00:40:19 Solana's mission and impact 00:43:54 Using AI to run side projects 00:49:39 Hardest decisions as a leader 00:52:51 Outlook on crypto and Solana's future 00:59:22 Twitter, being public, and politics 01:05:52 Beliefs on human nature and life philosophy 01:09:34 Outro Full episode:
luba yudasina261,783 views • 1 month ago
"Running a 500-person team never prepared him for this kind of stress." Jean-Denis Greze 💡 (ex-CTO of Plaid, now co-founder and CEO of on the real difference between exec stress and founder stress. "I wake up, you know, at 4:00 in the morning next to my wife, and I just look, she's sleeping." "If it's like a company ending decision, it's actually never on you. It is on the CEO." "There's really nothing about the company we can't change if we want to. And so it's not even about unlearning." Full episode:
luba yudasina96,883 views • 23 days ago
Grant Sanderson, (Grant Sanderson) created one of the most beloved math channels on the internet. Grant is a Stanford math grad, Khan Academy alum, and self-taught animator who built his own open-source visualization engine from scratch. From students learning linear algebra for the first time, to researchers, to millions of curious people on the internet, Grant Sanderson makes math feel beautiful. Topics we cover - How Grant wrote the "best wedding speech anyone's ever heard" with 24 hours notice - Why he's never felt the burnout other creators describe after 10+ years His take on the algorithm - The real problem with modern education - Being a source vs. being a relay and original thinking - Why he's now building a team and rethinking sponsorships - and much more! Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:05 How to Write a Wedding Speech 07:04 Use Pauses Like a Pro 11:39 Going Full Time on YouTube 17:27 Why I Left Academia 20:51 Explain It vs. Discover It 27:53 Be a Source, Not a Relay 39:00 The Analytics Dopamine Trap 43:23 Your Algorithm = Your Audience 47:36 Fun Work vs. Strategic Work 52:12 Mental Hygiene for Creators 54:15 Write to Think, Not to Publish 56:49 How My Team Changed Everything 01:01:36 New Ways I'm Making Money 01:06:05 The Loneliness of Solo Creating 01:09:37 How Ego Shapes Your Topics 01:11:31 The Beauty of High Dimensions 01:17:36 Pretty Videos vs. Clear Videos 01:23:14 Will LLMs Kill Motivation to Learn? 01:29:32 Don't Niche Down Too Early 01:34:37 Happiness vs. Fulfillment 01:38:01 Growth vs. Serving Your Audience 01:48:37 Teaching Empathy to Kids 01:51:48 Lightning Round I hope you enjoy this one!! Grant Sanderson (Grant Sanderson): The High Cost of Being a Second-Hand Thinker is below and on all the major platforms.
luba yudasina151,856 views • 4 months ago
Right before launch, toly 🇺🇸 fired his best engineers to keep Solana ($47B network today) alive. The founder on the hardest decision he ever made: "I fired really good people just to extend the runway. That was gut-wrenching. They were really good engineers." "I felt like if we're going to do cuts, we need to cut to the bone." "It gave me just enough runway and confidence to launch and give Solana a chance." "Really good people that I'm still friends with. They're not mad at me." Full episode:
luba yudasina44,431 views • 1 month ago
"AI is about to make one horizontal product feel built for every single vertical." Jean-Denis Greze 💡 (co-founder and CEO of Town, ex-CTO of Plaid) on why isn't chasing a single vertical use case the way most SaaS companies have for the past fifteen years. "We're going to build broadly horizontal products where AI is making it feel vertical, specific for every vertical." "You share more with your wife than you would with a coworker." "The core functionality of the products is not that different." Full episode:
luba yudasina13,521 views • 19 days ago
Today I sit down with Avichal Garg - Electric ϟ Capital , co-founder and General Partner at Electric Capital ⚡️ . Avichal has built and sold companies, worked inside early Google and Facebook, served as a visiting partner at Y Combinator, and now backs founders across crypto and frontier tech. We get into: • Why founders are more like artists than operators • What actually compounds a person's trajectory • His "software eating money" thesis behind Electric Capital • Why honesty ends up being the real edge in venture • so much more! Timestamps 00:00:00 Trailer 00:00:44 Intro 00:01:00 Watches, luxury markets, and the AI parallel 00:12:48 Opportunity is a luxury 00:14:43 Founders as artists, not just operators 00:18:26 Authenticity and cutting through market noise 00:24:38 Betting on outliers as a life philosophy 00:37:58 Storytelling as a founder superpower 00:55:41 How Elad Gil helped launch Electric 01:07:55 Why crypto was the wedge for Electric 01:19:28 Why he prefers market corrections 01:31:00 The firms Electric was modelled after 01:36:21 Honesty as the core operating principle 01:42:15 Over-committing resources to founders 01:51:03 Dodging SBF and reading fake authenticity 02:01:40 Outro Link in comments!
luba yudasina21,473 views • 1 month ago
Some dose of motivation from Haseeb ＞|＜ Ps also crypto is going up
luba yudasina89,921 views • 7 months ago
I'm a big fan of Sam Parr. He's fun, sharp, and in this chapter of his life, surprisingly balanced. He nerds out on history, spends a ton of time with his wife and two adorable daughters, and somehow still runs one of the most exclusive founder communities in the world. But what I love about him is that none of that is what he leads with. He's a Midwestern kid turned serial entrepreneur: from running a hot dog stand to building a media empire. Sam is one of the most refreshingly honest people I've ever talked to about money, marriage, and what it actually takes to build a life you're proud of. We go deep on relationships, ambition, and what it means to commit - to a partner, to a company, to a version of yourself you haven't become yet. I was so excited for this one!! Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:55 When Money Doesn't Feel Real 05:55 Why My Wife Bet on Me 08:37 Run Your Marriage Like a Startup 13:46 Luck Is Real 17:00 Commit Then Figure It Out 21:46 Imagine the Worst, Feel Grateful 24:54 40 Hours Can Make You Rich 27:11 Am I a One-Hit Wonder? 30:46 How to Make Anyone Open Up “Sam Parr: Sam Parr: How to Build a $20M Empire Without Destroying Your Marriage” available across all major platforms!
luba yudasina38,018 views • 3 months ago
Ankur Nagpal (Ankur Nagpal) recently sold Carry and became a GP at USVC, a public markets fund led by Naval. What I always loved about Ankur is his honesty: from first-time founders figuring out whether to raise, to seasoned operators thinking about what comes after the exit, Ankur makes the messy, emotional side of building companies. We cover - Why most people should never raise venture capital - The three things he looks for in founders (and why the third one is controversial) - From reading Losing My Virginity at 13 to wanting to buy a sports team and put himself on the roster - SO much more! Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:55 Twice Lucky, Still Humble 05:53 Confidence Is Just Age 08:18 Stress Beats Every Biohack 12:28 Venture Investing for Everyone 19:17 What Makes a Great Founder 23:05 Emotional Runway Kills First 27:53 Don't Raise Venture Capital 30:02 Your Happy Number 34:17 The $20K That Becomes Millions 37:42 Finding Your Zone of Genius 41:59 Read for Joy, Not Optimization 48:23 Maximize Your Surface Area I hope you enjoy this one!! Ankur Nagpal (Ankur Nagpal ) joins Naval Ravikant to Disrupt Venture Capital: available on all major platforms
luba yudasina38,927 views • 3 months ago
Today I walk with Laura 🌲 ⛰️, co-founder of Until, a cryopreservation company in San Francisco. Laura got interested in longevity at eight, started working in Cynthia Kenyon's lab at UCSF at 12, and spent years backing the field as an investor through the Longevity Fund. She now builds technology to pause biological time, starting with donor organs and building toward whole-body medical hibernation. We get into: - The conference talk she was not supposed to give, and how it ended her VC chapter - What "transcend death" actually means once you press on it, tested with a teleporter to Mars - Why San Francisco kills intuition, and the breakdown in her mid-20s that made her protect hers - The big magnet, and rewarming an organ in about a minute - Why transplant patients live inside a two-hour radius with a pager on them at all times so much more! Timestamps 00:00 Trailer 00:48 Intro 01:35 "I love science" and the things that have stayed constant 05:13 A childhood without rules and reconstructing what normal means 07:03 What is actually worth preserving when a person dies 13:00 The Dreaming Machine and the film that never got made 19:02 When you could not say the word aging out loud in the lab 22:55 Emailing Cynthia Kenyon at 12 and the day her life started 28:49 The talk that made her leave VC for cryo 32:39 San Francisco as an intuition killer 35:04 Molecules in clockwork synchrony and feeling loved by the universe 44:39 The big magnet and rewarming an organ in about a minute 46:19 The two-hour radius and the pager that runs a transplant patient's life 53:50 Her best arguments against her own work 58:44 The teleporter to Mars and what dies in the process 1:01:42 Outro Link in comments!
luba yudasina11,357 views • 1 month ago
Robbie Bent (Robbie Bent) has an insane founding story and obsession with what he does. Now Othership is iconic but it started in his backyard with a couple of friends wanting to have a fun time with friends without alcohol. Seven years later, he’s got sold-out locations, multiple co-founders (two couples!), and is building what he calls a “social spa” that’s never been done before. He’s also terrified of competition, has mortgaged his house twice to keep the dream alive, and thinks that 90% of entrepreneurship is managing your own fear. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:52 The 20-year vision 05:50 Horse trough to $2M 10:00 Building with 4 co-founders 15:39 The New York crisis 22:10 Why didn't he quit 24:25 What still scares him 27:19 The social spa experiment 31:16 Does fear ever disappear? 34:00 His anxiety toolkit 39:25 Health and clarity 40:21 Competition and abundance 43:08 Product creates community 49:48 From addiction to healing 53:58 How his wife changed him 58:35 Fatherhood evolution 01:02:18 The balance act (work, family, health, friends) 01:07:53 Other cultures and values 01:12:46 Learning from founder stories 01:16:31 Bathhouse inspiration worldwide 01:21:05 Creative retreats and psilocybin 01:23:14 Acceptance Robbie Bent: From Near Death to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Wellness Cult is available across all major platforms!
luba yudasina22,835 views • 2 months ago
In 2008, Leah Solivan 🇵🇷/🇺🇸 pitched every VC in Boston with an idea called TaskRabbit. Every one of them passed. So she bootstrapped it herself for 18 months, running the whole thing out of her apartment. She was the first engineer and the first task runner all the way through. The company grew, and IKEA eventually bought it for over $100 million+. Now she runs her own fund, Precedent VC, and she's built it as the exact opposite of the system that rejected her back in 2008. Cold decks get scored on the same rubric as warm intros. If a deal scores high, the founder is on the phone within six hours. The full arc from bootstrapping alone in Boston to running her own fund and writing a book about it is in the new episode of The Luba Show. Timestamps 00:00 Trailer 01:12 Intro 01:21 Ballet background and SF Ballet board 06:12 TaskRabbit's origin story 10:52 Move to the Bay Area 23:00 Selling TaskRabbit to IKEA 33:03 Letting go of founder identity 35:37 Launching Precedent VC 38:26 AI-powered deal scoring system 41:26 Investing philosophy and founder fit 54:30 Founder green and red flags 58:26 Why she wrote Breaking Precedent 01:07:12 Parenting and work-life balance 01:10:46 Defining success 01:12:20 Outro Loved talking to Leah! Episode available on all platforms.
luba yudasina12,879 views • 1 month ago
Hiten Shah (Hiten Shah) on making decisions with 10% of the information: "You can give me 10% of the information and I'm willing to make a decision. I've noticed a lot of people need 90%." "That's all a founder does. They're never going to have enough information. So you have to make a decision with way less information and feel confident in it enough to make moves."
luba yudasina14,149 views • 3 months ago
Fundraised doesn't mean successful. Bootstrapping is not always a "lifestyle business," and keeping your equity doesn't mean growing slowly. Like rajya (and as someone who did raise a lot of money), I've also personally been allergic to the fundraising question. We use it as a signal, but the most important metrics are: - Is your product working? - Are you making money?
luba yudasina16,000 views • 8 months ago
"Imposter syndrome is fake. You either worked for it or you didn’t" Raw and honest conversation with: Kathryn Cross🤰🫄 (Anja Health, YC-backed and 776 Backed), over 4M raised, 1M+ ARR rajya (Coral AI, bootstrapped), Built to $1M+ ARR without raising a single dollar Highlights from the conversation: - Bootstrapped to $1M ARR vs. raising millions—which path is actually better? - The "have you raised?" question became a way to instantly dismiss bootstrapped founders, even when they had more revenue than VC-backed companies - Building outside SF kept them connected to real consumers ...and much more Full conversation in comments!
luba yudasina14,805 views • 8 months ago
We have #TechWeek, Restaurant Week, Climate Week, and now there is …. #DateWeek!! 🕊️ Super excited to collaborate with local businesses in LA and SF to put on a variety of events for singles!! Fitness classes (Barry’s, Soulcycle, DMN8), sunset hangouts (The Penmar, Waterfront, Hotel Erwin), cooking classes…. and a lot more #DateWeek LA: Oct 4th - 11th, calendar is live! #DateWeek SF: Nov 1st - 8th, coming soon - subscribe for updates on the site! events are at date-week dot com if you’re single - hope to see you there or send it to someone who should attend🙏
luba yudasina29,582 views • 1 year ago
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