Video wird geladen...

Video konnte nicht geladen werden

Zur Startseite

BREAKING: Google Completes $32B Acquisition of Wiz $6M Seed → $32 Billion Exit First seed investor Gili Raanan (Gili Raanan // Cyberstarts) of Cyberstarts explains how a $6M seed check became the largest cybersecurity exit ever — & what it’s like working with CEO Assaf Rappaport. Cyberstarts stats: -...

MollySOShea's profile picture

Molly O’Shea

73,512 subscribers

161,060 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten •via X (Twitter)

Wissenschaft & TechnologieFinanzen
LIVE

Anya Rossi• Live Now

Private livecam show

17 Kommentare

Profilbild von Molly O’Shea
Molly O’Sheavor 6 Monaten

Sourcery : Spotify : Apple Podcasts : YouTube :

Profilbild von Gili Raanan // Cyberstarts
Gili Raanan // Cyberstartsvor 6 Monaten

@MollySOShea - I had a lot of fun - thanks for the opportunity!

Profilbild von Molly O’Shea
Molly O’Sheavor 6 Monaten

You're the best Gili!! Thank you so much!

Profilbild von @alexdolbun
@alexdolbunvor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan 🖤◼️🏴‍☠️

Profilbild von Hans Hansen
Hans Hansenvor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan that is very impressive

Profilbild von Molly O’Shea
Molly O’Sheavor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Very

Profilbild von Nadav Shomer
Nadav Shomervor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan I have been waiting for this episode :)

Profilbild von Molly O’Shea
Molly O’Sheavor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan 🙌🙌

Profilbild von Alon Michael
Alon Michaelvor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Wow! Gili is a legend. Love how perfect is your timing with these episodes Molly. I started thinking @Kalshi needs to track when you record them to predict market shifts.

Profilbild von Molly O’Shea
Molly O’Sheavor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan @Kalshi Kaleeshi

Profilbild von zion vaknin
zion vakninvor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Jewish mind !!

Profilbild von Gabi Weinberg ⚓
Gabi Weinberg ⚓vor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Tel Aviv recording when?

Profilbild von Nice
Nicevor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Excited ☺️😆☺️😆☺️😆😆. How she doing 😀😀🥱. Love 😘❤️😘❤️😘❤️😘❤️ your attractive 💗😍💞😍💞😍😍 content. Enjoying it. Wait a small comments or retweet from you. @grok

Profilbild von Sagnik
Sagnikvor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan gurl is always ahead of the curve, love when @MollySOShea drops an episode on every topic seconds after it becomes news for others...

Profilbild von Nice
Nicevor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Looks pretty 🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩🤩🤩🤩

Profilbild von Mick
Mickvor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan @humansand @Apptronik you in 2028?

Profilbild von Dean Meyer
Dean Meyervor 6 Monaten

@giliraanan Gili is a legend, great podcast.

Ähnliche Videos

“Founders aren’t made when they start companies. They’re made when they interpret their market correctly.” Episode 2 of Knuckle Up with Nakul is live. Qasar Younis (Qasar Younis): Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition. One of the sharpest and most intentional operators you’ll ever meet on the craft of building a company. Full episode ↓ -- 00:00 Intro 01:19 What really makes someone a founder 05:26 The company that almost became Kickstarter 08:12 The most common misread on feedback 13:40 Why most founders don't end up with the best team 19:45 How to pick a co-founder 23:38 Your first 10 hires are really your first 100 28:21 The case for hiring slow and firing slow 33:22 Red, yellow, green: how Applied gives monthly feedback 35:00 The role that knows what’s actually going on in a company 40:01 How to operate with speed and intentionality 42:41 The three things Qasar spends time on 45:57 How Applied is driving AI adoption 52:06 The type of engineer Applied is now looking for 1:01:19 Why this could be the golden age of small companies 1:09:13 Quickfire: red flags, overrated advice, and superpowers 1:12:32 Qasar's advice to his 25-year-old self
1:13:20

“Founders aren’t made when they start companies. They’re made when they interpret their market correctly.” Episode 2 of Knuckle Up with Nakul is live. Qasar Younis (Qasar Younis): Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition. One of the sharpest and most intentional operators you’ll ever meet on the craft of building a company. Full episode ↓ -- 00:00 Intro 01:19 What really makes someone a founder 05:26 The company that almost became Kickstarter 08:12 The most common misread on feedback 13:40 Why most founders don't end up with the best team 19:45 How to pick a co-founder 23:38 Your first 10 hires are really your first 100 28:21 The case for hiring slow and firing slow 33:22 Red, yellow, green: how Applied gives monthly feedback 35:00 The role that knows what’s actually going on in a company 40:01 How to operate with speed and intentionality 42:41 The three things Qasar spends time on 45:57 How Applied is driving AI adoption 52:06 The type of engineer Applied is now looking for 1:01:19 Why this could be the golden age of small companies 1:09:13 Quickfire: red flags, overrated advice, and superpowers 1:12:32 Qasar's advice to his 25-year-old self

Nakul Mandan

521,704 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten

In this special live event, Founders In Arms Podcast brings together a room full of founders at Mercury's San Francisco headquarters for an intimate conversation about building, investing, and the future of AI. Max Mullen is co-founder at Instacart, where he led product and grew it from a contrarian idea into the leader in online grocery delivery and eventually a publicly traded company. Now Max Mullen is an active investor and runs a founder community in San Francisco called Workshop. Max shares lessons from over a decade of building and his perspective on AI's transformative potential. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Welcome to the first live Founders in Arms event at Mercury HQ (00:43) Introduction to Max Mullen and his early investment in Mercury (03:58) Max's origin story and first startup at Startup Weekend (04:36) Building a social network and getting acquihired (05:39) The path from acquihire to founding Instacart (06:19) Why Max wanted to solve real-world operational problems (07:17) Starting Instacart when there was no gig economy (09:15) Overcoming the "grocery delivery is dead" narrative (11:48) Market timing and why Webvan was too early (14:37) Being a non-technical co-founder in a technical role (17:45) The PARE framework for building company culture (22:09) Max's approach to M&A at Instacart (24:00) The Caper smart shopping cart acquisition story (25:31) How founders can position for acquisition (28:26) Why product-market fit attracts acquirers (29:46) Evaluating investments: market size vs. founder quality (32:54) Max and Immad's differing investment philosophies (35:39) The current state of VC funding and AI companies (36:51) The three best times to raise money as a founder (39:15) Instacart's seasonal business patterns and fundraising timing (39:59) The most interesting opportunities in AI right now (40:24) Why every profession will have AI agent co-pilots (41:44) What AI-native companies will look like for the next generation
42:26

In this special live event, Founders In Arms Podcast brings together a room full of founders at Mercury's San Francisco headquarters for an intimate conversation about building, investing, and the future of AI. Max Mullen is co-founder at Instacart, where he led product and grew it from a contrarian idea into the leader in online grocery delivery and eventually a publicly traded company. Now Max Mullen is an active investor and runs a founder community in San Francisco called Workshop. Max shares lessons from over a decade of building and his perspective on AI's transformative potential. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Welcome to the first live Founders in Arms event at Mercury HQ (00:43) Introduction to Max Mullen and his early investment in Mercury (03:58) Max's origin story and first startup at Startup Weekend (04:36) Building a social network and getting acquihired (05:39) The path from acquihire to founding Instacart (06:19) Why Max wanted to solve real-world operational problems (07:17) Starting Instacart when there was no gig economy (09:15) Overcoming the "grocery delivery is dead" narrative (11:48) Market timing and why Webvan was too early (14:37) Being a non-technical co-founder in a technical role (17:45) The PARE framework for building company culture (22:09) Max's approach to M&A at Instacart (24:00) The Caper smart shopping cart acquisition story (25:31) How founders can position for acquisition (28:26) Why product-market fit attracts acquirers (29:46) Evaluating investments: market size vs. founder quality (32:54) Max and Immad's differing investment philosophies (35:39) The current state of VC funding and AI companies (36:51) The three best times to raise money as a founder (39:15) Instacart's seasonal business patterns and fundraising timing (39:59) The most interesting opportunities in AI right now (40:24) Why every profession will have AI agent co-pilots (41:44) What AI-native companies will look like for the next generation

Rajat Suri

144,197 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

Our founder Chris Dixon on why the next big thing looks like a toy. 00:00 Intro 01:07 From programming to Wall Street and venture capital 16:59 Hunch and the challenge of being early to AI 20:22 Building AI products that can compete with ChatGPT 26:35 Backing founders and learning from Ron Conway 30:02 Joining Andreessen Horowitz 32:37 Why the next big thing starts as a toy 37:27 What Chris saw in Oculus 39:48 Why Coinbase stood out 42:05 Launching a16z’s first crypto fund 46:47 Blockchain networks, stablecoins, and regulation 51:36 Lessons from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz
57:55

Our founder Chris Dixon on why the next big thing looks like a toy. 00:00 Intro 01:07 From programming to Wall Street and venture capital 16:59 Hunch and the challenge of being early to AI 20:22 Building AI products that can compete with ChatGPT 26:35 Backing founders and learning from Ron Conway 30:02 Joining Andreessen Horowitz 32:37 Why the next big thing starts as a toy 37:27 What Chris saw in Oculus 39:48 Why Coinbase stood out 42:05 Launching a16z’s first crypto fund 46:47 Blockchain networks, stablecoins, and regulation 51:36 Lessons from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz

a16z crypto

52,362 Aufrufe • vor 7 Tagen

Aidan Gomez (Aidan Gomez) is a computer scientist, co-author of the seminal paper ‘Attention Is All You Need,’ and the CEO of Cohere. In this episode, we discussed his upbringing in the cabin his grandfather built in Codrington, a small town North of Brighton, and the values that were instilled in him through his family. We explored his path from Codrington to his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, emailing Geoffrey Hinton, and joining Google Brain where he co-wrote the paper on transformers. We discussed how he met his co-founders Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst, and his insights on what it means to build a meaningful, successful company in Canada. Aidan shares his conviction about what is at stake — for Canada and for the world at large. This is a conversation about family, values, and what it means to live with conviction. The Other Stuff is hosted by internetVin — filmmaker, entrepreneur, and possibly the most curious man on Earth. Produced by New. The Other Stuff #29 — Aidan Gomez: Empathy and Conviction — Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:10 The Malleability of Toronto 00:11:06 Growing Up in Codrington 00:13:50 The Story of Aidan Gomez’s Family 00:27:23 Introduction to the Internet 00:30:39 Values and Work Ethic 00:35:46 University of Toronto’s AI Scene 00:40:48 Emailing Geoffrey Hinton 00:42:16 Google Brain 00:45:15 Dropout: A Simple Way to Prevent Neural Networks from Overfitting 00:49:48 The Beauty of Research 00:54:24 One Model to Rule Them All 00:59:54 Meeting Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst 01:04:00 The Birth of Cohere 01:06:56 Twitter Influencers and Alex Friedland 01:11:48 Being the CEO 01:12:51 Building for Canada 01:15:01 Three Fundamental Ingredients of Building a Company 01:21:39 Working with the Canadian Government 01:24:39 Reflexivity in Canada 01:36:22 What Is Evil? 01:42:40 The Role of AI in the World
1:46:27

Aidan Gomez (Aidan Gomez) is a computer scientist, co-author of the seminal paper ‘Attention Is All You Need,’ and the CEO of Cohere. In this episode, we discussed his upbringing in the cabin his grandfather built in Codrington, a small town North of Brighton, and the values that were instilled in him through his family. We explored his path from Codrington to his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, emailing Geoffrey Hinton, and joining Google Brain where he co-wrote the paper on transformers. We discussed how he met his co-founders Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst, and his insights on what it means to build a meaningful, successful company in Canada. Aidan shares his conviction about what is at stake — for Canada and for the world at large. This is a conversation about family, values, and what it means to live with conviction. The Other Stuff is hosted by internetVin — filmmaker, entrepreneur, and possibly the most curious man on Earth. Produced by New. The Other Stuff #29 — Aidan Gomez: Empathy and Conviction — Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:10 The Malleability of Toronto 00:11:06 Growing Up in Codrington 00:13:50 The Story of Aidan Gomez’s Family 00:27:23 Introduction to the Internet 00:30:39 Values and Work Ethic 00:35:46 University of Toronto’s AI Scene 00:40:48 Emailing Geoffrey Hinton 00:42:16 Google Brain 00:45:15 Dropout: A Simple Way to Prevent Neural Networks from Overfitting 00:49:48 The Beauty of Research 00:54:24 One Model to Rule Them All 00:59:54 Meeting Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst 01:04:00 The Birth of Cohere 01:06:56 Twitter Influencers and Alex Friedland 01:11:48 Being the CEO 01:12:51 Building for Canada 01:15:01 Three Fundamental Ingredients of Building a Company 01:21:39 Working with the Canadian Government 01:24:39 Reflexivity in Canada 01:36:22 What Is Evil? 01:42:40 The Role of AI in the World

The Other Stuff Podcast

45,297 Aufrufe • vor 9 Monaten

At a $32 Billion Exit.. Wiz "probably sold low" "Wiz just finished its biggest ever quarter in terms of revenues. So you look at how amazing the business is & suddenly $32B does not look like an irrational number. … we probably sold low." In 2018, Gili Raanan (Cyberstarts), Doug Leone (Sequoia), & Shardul Shah (Index) backed Wiz with a $20M seed at a ~$66M post-money valuation. That’s ~485× from seed to exit in ~6 years. Gili Raanan // Cyberstarts doug leone Sequoia Capital Shardul Shah Index Ventures "But whenever I get into a journey with brilliant entrepreneurs you never know where the journey will take you because there are so many elements that dictate how big it becomes. A lot of that is execution internally, but also market timing, luck, competition, and the global economy that may or may not limit the availability of capital to your venture. There are so many things beyond your control when you start the journey. Wiz is definitely an example of a company that almost had perfect execution from day one. I was the seed investor together with Doug Leone from Sequoia & Shardul Shah from Index Ventures, and together we created a syndicate of $20 million that valued the company at around $66 million post. That's how we got into the journey sometime in 2018. I knew the Wiz team from their previous ventures so it was very organic for me to back them. Although many people say today, “Of course it was obvious they would be super successful.” It wasn't obvious at all. Beforehand they were founders of a company called Adallom which was sold for about $300 million, which is nice but definitely not spectacular. So they were similar to many other founders. We made a deal and then I asked them, “Okay so what do you do?” And they had a very different direction than what Wiz does today. The company wasn't even named Wiz. It was called Beyond Security and it was dealing with securing satellite offices. Then we started the sunrise process & figured out that the original idea was an okay idea but it would not get them to real greatness. They shifted to cloud security, a market they knew very well from Microsoft, and I believe that was one of the major advantages they had back in 2019. Back then they were one of the very few teams worldwide that actually knew how to do cloud security right. And then they really perfected product market fit. In the Wiz case all those personas mapped into a single person in real life — the CISO, the Chief Information Security Officer. He had the pain, he had the authority, he could use the product, and he had the budget. And that created the perfect storm for Wiz because it made their sales cycle super fast."
4:04

At a $32 Billion Exit.. Wiz "probably sold low" "Wiz just finished its biggest ever quarter in terms of revenues. So you look at how amazing the business is & suddenly $32B does not look like an irrational number. … we probably sold low." In 2018, Gili Raanan (Cyberstarts), Doug Leone (Sequoia), & Shardul Shah (Index) backed Wiz with a $20M seed at a ~$66M post-money valuation. That’s ~485× from seed to exit in ~6 years. Gili Raanan // Cyberstarts doug leone Sequoia Capital Shardul Shah Index Ventures "But whenever I get into a journey with brilliant entrepreneurs you never know where the journey will take you because there are so many elements that dictate how big it becomes. A lot of that is execution internally, but also market timing, luck, competition, and the global economy that may or may not limit the availability of capital to your venture. There are so many things beyond your control when you start the journey. Wiz is definitely an example of a company that almost had perfect execution from day one. I was the seed investor together with Doug Leone from Sequoia & Shardul Shah from Index Ventures, and together we created a syndicate of $20 million that valued the company at around $66 million post. That's how we got into the journey sometime in 2018. I knew the Wiz team from their previous ventures so it was very organic for me to back them. Although many people say today, “Of course it was obvious they would be super successful.” It wasn't obvious at all. Beforehand they were founders of a company called Adallom which was sold for about $300 million, which is nice but definitely not spectacular. So they were similar to many other founders. We made a deal and then I asked them, “Okay so what do you do?” And they had a very different direction than what Wiz does today. The company wasn't even named Wiz. It was called Beyond Security and it was dealing with securing satellite offices. Then we started the sunrise process & figured out that the original idea was an okay idea but it would not get them to real greatness. They shifted to cloud security, a market they knew very well from Microsoft, and I believe that was one of the major advantages they had back in 2019. Back then they were one of the very few teams worldwide that actually knew how to do cloud security right. And then they really perfected product market fit. In the Wiz case all those personas mapped into a single person in real life — the CISO, the Chief Information Security Officer. He had the pain, he had the authority, he could use the product, and he had the budget. And that created the perfect storm for Wiz because it made their sales cycle super fast."

Molly O’Shea

19,871 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

NEW: Brian Singerman, fmr Founders Fund, now GPx, on why he only invests in *people* SpaceX is the reason he joined Founders Fund in 2008 "If SpaceX didn't work, Founders Fund would not exist." From Elon & SpaceX to Karp & Palantir, to Anduril, Airbnb, Stripe, & Stemcentrx, Brian Singerman's whole framework is one question: Is this the best founder in the world at their particular thing? We get into: - What makes Founders Fund unique: a team of strong-willed, genuinely authentic individuals - Why a 3x fund loses to the S&P - How a lifetime of strategy gaming shapes how he reads founders & now GPs - Why he bets against the end of the world every time - Why he's bullish on N-of-1 human cultural artifacts in an AI world - Why Cyan Banister & Palmer Luckey are genuinely N-of-1 people Thank you to Max Levchin, Trae Stephens & Scott Nolan for great questions 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Brian Singerman, Co-Founder of GPx, Former Partner at Founders Fund (00:42) Founders Fund (02:09) Max Levchin's unfiltered questions (05:25) How gaming shaped his investing (06:11) Joining Founders Fund in 2008 (07:34) Silicon Valley's most fascinating characters (09:29) Lessons from Peter Thiel (11:26) Building a culture of conviction (11:59) The art of spotting A+ founders (13:55) Trae's biggest lesson from Peter Thiel (14:41) Is socialism a threat to America? (15:58) Why capital is leaving California (17:03) The obsession with Hawaii (20:59) The Founders Fund playbook (24:51) "If SpaceX didn't work, Founders Fund would not exist" (26:03) Why Elon is one of one (27:30) Why everyone knew Starlink would win (28:42) Inside Founders Fund's biggest bets (31:06) The Founders Fund founder archetype (33:25) Backing fund managers instead of startups (35:22) The new generation of GPs (36:34) The most authentic people in tech (41:38) Why other VCs aren't the audience (44:05) Music, Memorabilia & N-of-1 Artifacts (46:25) The story behind Brian's music studio (49:22) What's next for Brian?
51:06

NEW: Brian Singerman, fmr Founders Fund, now GPx, on why he only invests in *people* SpaceX is the reason he joined Founders Fund in 2008 "If SpaceX didn't work, Founders Fund would not exist." From Elon & SpaceX to Karp & Palantir, to Anduril, Airbnb, Stripe, & Stemcentrx, Brian Singerman's whole framework is one question: Is this the best founder in the world at their particular thing? We get into: - What makes Founders Fund unique: a team of strong-willed, genuinely authentic individuals - Why a 3x fund loses to the S&P - How a lifetime of strategy gaming shapes how he reads founders & now GPs - Why he bets against the end of the world every time - Why he's bullish on N-of-1 human cultural artifacts in an AI world - Why Cyan Banister & Palmer Luckey are genuinely N-of-1 people Thank you to Max Levchin, Trae Stephens & Scott Nolan for great questions 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Brian Singerman, Co-Founder of GPx, Former Partner at Founders Fund (00:42) Founders Fund (02:09) Max Levchin's unfiltered questions (05:25) How gaming shaped his investing (06:11) Joining Founders Fund in 2008 (07:34) Silicon Valley's most fascinating characters (09:29) Lessons from Peter Thiel (11:26) Building a culture of conviction (11:59) The art of spotting A+ founders (13:55) Trae's biggest lesson from Peter Thiel (14:41) Is socialism a threat to America? (15:58) Why capital is leaving California (17:03) The obsession with Hawaii (20:59) The Founders Fund playbook (24:51) "If SpaceX didn't work, Founders Fund would not exist" (26:03) Why Elon is one of one (27:30) Why everyone knew Starlink would win (28:42) Inside Founders Fund's biggest bets (31:06) The Founders Fund founder archetype (33:25) Backing fund managers instead of startups (35:22) The new generation of GPs (36:34) The most authentic people in tech (41:38) Why other VCs aren't the audience (44:05) Music, Memorabilia & N-of-1 Artifacts (46:25) The story behind Brian's music studio (49:22) What's next for Brian?

Molly O’Shea

256,189 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

My dear friend, Vlad Tenev, changed the landscape of investing forever! The rise of the retail investor is largely due to Robinhood's success... and in this new Journey Man, we discuss it all... Enjoy! 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - Introducing Vlad Tenev of Robinhood 01:27 - Why Take on Wall Street? 01:54 - Robinhood’s Zero-Fee Origin Story 02:53 - Inspiration from Instagram and Uber 04:24 - Reimagining Trading for Mobile 05:05 - The Challenge of Disrupting Finance 05:42 - Why Everything Is Hard 06:34 - Early Wrong Assumptions 07:42 - Raising Capital with a Small Vision 08:48 - Funding Robinhood on AngelList 09:50 - Early Investors Changed Their Lives 10:38 - The Crypto Explosion Begins 11:07 - Considering a Bitcoin Exchange First 12:17 - Bitcoin’s Early Skepticism and Growth 13:08 - Robinhood Launches Crypto in 2018 14:03 - 2020: Crypto Revenue Surges Overnight 15:04 - The Challenge of Crypto Cyclicality 16:11 - Staffing a Volatile Business 17:10 - Building Robinhood’s Lean Crypto Team 18:46 - Robinhood’s First Crypto Event Coming 19:38 - Where TradFi Meets DeFi 20:34 - Tokenizing Everything 21:09 - Robinhood’s Vision for Crypto + Finance 21:47 - Thoughts on Crypto Options Demand 23:04 - Why Crypto Options Haven’t Taken Off 24:09 - Millennials and the Speculative Economy 25:22 - Democratizing Trading for Everyone 26:08 - Why Buy-and-Hold Doesn’t Work for All 27:15 - Trading vs Investing: A Matter of Wealth 28:01 - Trading as a Skill Anyone Can Build 29:13 - Robinhood’s Role in Onboarding Millions 30:06 - The Fed's Role and Retail Insight 31:03 - The Rise of the Retail Macro Trader 32:17 - Helping Users Succeed with Robinhood Strategies 33:35 - Power of Community and the Hive Mind 34:55 - Will AI Disrupt Community Too? 36:14 - Technological Waves and Investor Opportunity 37:10 - Human Purpose in an AI World 37:52 - Tokenizing Human Connection 38:28 - Creators, Platforms, and Future-Proofing 39:26 - Vlad’s Long-Term View of the Future 40:05 - Financial Services at the Heart of Disruption 41:14 - If AI Replaces Jobs, What Happens to Investing? 42:25 - Entering the Economic Singularity 43:31 - What Happens When AIs Win the Markets? 44:16 - AI's Role in Capital and Markets 45:07 - Will AI Eliminate Human Emotion from Markets? 46:06 - HFT: The Original AI Traders 47:20 - AI and Long-Term Probabilistic Forecasting 48:48 - GPUs, Gaming, and the Origins of AI 50:01 - Nvidia, CUDA, and Wall Street Arms Races 51:04 - Flash Boys and Microwave Trading 51:54 - Will AI Costs Go to Zero? 52:52 - Lower Cost, Higher Usage 53:41 - Robinhood’s UX Won’t Be Just a Chatbox 55:16 - Cortex: AI-Powered Features at Robinhood 56:54 - Tokenization and the Future of Asset Management 57:44 - Crowdsourced, Tokenized Hedge Funds 58:48 - Portability of Tokenized Assets 59:39 - Blockchain as the New Rails of Finance 01:00:09 - The Trump Token and Capital Formation 01:01:00 - Capital Access Unlocks Innovation 01:01:49 - Why Crypto Needs Regulatory Clarity 01:03:17 - From Meme Coins to Real Assets 01:04:17 - Crypto's Path to $100 Trillion? 01:05:15 - The Financial System Will Run on Blockchains 01:06:00 - Platform Layer vs Application Layer Wealth 01:06:29 - AI Raises Money and Launches Tokens 01:07:39 - AIs Creating Software and Capital Formation 01:08:00 - Final Thoughts: A Wild Future Ahead 01:08:20 - When Will Vlad Buy a CryptoPunk? 01:08:51 - Wrapping Up: AI, Crypto, and the Road Ahead
1:09:53

My dear friend, Vlad Tenev, changed the landscape of investing forever! The rise of the retail investor is largely due to Robinhood's success... and in this new Journey Man, we discuss it all... Enjoy! 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - Introducing Vlad Tenev of Robinhood 01:27 - Why Take on Wall Street? 01:54 - Robinhood’s Zero-Fee Origin Story 02:53 - Inspiration from Instagram and Uber 04:24 - Reimagining Trading for Mobile 05:05 - The Challenge of Disrupting Finance 05:42 - Why Everything Is Hard 06:34 - Early Wrong Assumptions 07:42 - Raising Capital with a Small Vision 08:48 - Funding Robinhood on AngelList 09:50 - Early Investors Changed Their Lives 10:38 - The Crypto Explosion Begins 11:07 - Considering a Bitcoin Exchange First 12:17 - Bitcoin’s Early Skepticism and Growth 13:08 - Robinhood Launches Crypto in 2018 14:03 - 2020: Crypto Revenue Surges Overnight 15:04 - The Challenge of Crypto Cyclicality 16:11 - Staffing a Volatile Business 17:10 - Building Robinhood’s Lean Crypto Team 18:46 - Robinhood’s First Crypto Event Coming 19:38 - Where TradFi Meets DeFi 20:34 - Tokenizing Everything 21:09 - Robinhood’s Vision for Crypto + Finance 21:47 - Thoughts on Crypto Options Demand 23:04 - Why Crypto Options Haven’t Taken Off 24:09 - Millennials and the Speculative Economy 25:22 - Democratizing Trading for Everyone 26:08 - Why Buy-and-Hold Doesn’t Work for All 27:15 - Trading vs Investing: A Matter of Wealth 28:01 - Trading as a Skill Anyone Can Build 29:13 - Robinhood’s Role in Onboarding Millions 30:06 - The Fed's Role and Retail Insight 31:03 - The Rise of the Retail Macro Trader 32:17 - Helping Users Succeed with Robinhood Strategies 33:35 - Power of Community and the Hive Mind 34:55 - Will AI Disrupt Community Too? 36:14 - Technological Waves and Investor Opportunity 37:10 - Human Purpose in an AI World 37:52 - Tokenizing Human Connection 38:28 - Creators, Platforms, and Future-Proofing 39:26 - Vlad’s Long-Term View of the Future 40:05 - Financial Services at the Heart of Disruption 41:14 - If AI Replaces Jobs, What Happens to Investing? 42:25 - Entering the Economic Singularity 43:31 - What Happens When AIs Win the Markets? 44:16 - AI's Role in Capital and Markets 45:07 - Will AI Eliminate Human Emotion from Markets? 46:06 - HFT: The Original AI Traders 47:20 - AI and Long-Term Probabilistic Forecasting 48:48 - GPUs, Gaming, and the Origins of AI 50:01 - Nvidia, CUDA, and Wall Street Arms Races 51:04 - Flash Boys and Microwave Trading 51:54 - Will AI Costs Go to Zero? 52:52 - Lower Cost, Higher Usage 53:41 - Robinhood’s UX Won’t Be Just a Chatbox 55:16 - Cortex: AI-Powered Features at Robinhood 56:54 - Tokenization and the Future of Asset Management 57:44 - Crowdsourced, Tokenized Hedge Funds 58:48 - Portability of Tokenized Assets 59:39 - Blockchain as the New Rails of Finance 01:00:09 - The Trump Token and Capital Formation 01:01:00 - Capital Access Unlocks Innovation 01:01:49 - Why Crypto Needs Regulatory Clarity 01:03:17 - From Meme Coins to Real Assets 01:04:17 - Crypto's Path to $100 Trillion? 01:05:15 - The Financial System Will Run on Blockchains 01:06:00 - Platform Layer vs Application Layer Wealth 01:06:29 - AI Raises Money and Launches Tokens 01:07:39 - AIs Creating Software and Capital Formation 01:08:00 - Final Thoughts: A Wild Future Ahead 01:08:20 - When Will Vlad Buy a CryptoPunk? 01:08:51 - Wrapping Up: AI, Crypto, and the Road Ahead

Raoul Pal

172,640 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Some personal news - I am launching a podcast HD in HD Podcast to share what would normally be offline conversations with exceptional people online. Have had the great fortune of co-founding BRex which has led to several great relationships with other builders over the years. I find that the best way to learn anything is through conversations with brilliant people. To kick things off, listen in on a thoughtful conversation with Vlad Tenev. Hope you enjoy these off the script conversations. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:00 Decision to stop drinking 00:07:26 Day of the IPO feeling 00:12:37 How Vlad was as a kid 00:19:51 Raising kids 00:24:01 Source of motivation 00:24:48 Getting into Stanford 00:30:05 Time at Stanford 00:33:32 Grad school 00:42:25 First company 00:48:35 Second company 00:53:10 Beginning of Robinhood 00:59:54 Positioning of Robinhood 01:04:04 Being depicted in movies 01:12:06 Trader influencers 01:15:27 Serving active traders 01:20:26 Meeting wife 01:27:13 Downsides & upsides of being a CEO 01:31:30 Minimizing phone addiction 01:35:06 GameStop 01:49:02 Final learnings
1:56:22

Some personal news - I am launching a podcast HD in HD Podcast to share what would normally be offline conversations with exceptional people online. Have had the great fortune of co-founding BRex which has led to several great relationships with other builders over the years. I find that the best way to learn anything is through conversations with brilliant people. To kick things off, listen in on a thoughtful conversation with Vlad Tenev. Hope you enjoy these off the script conversations. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:00 Decision to stop drinking 00:07:26 Day of the IPO feeling 00:12:37 How Vlad was as a kid 00:19:51 Raising kids 00:24:01 Source of motivation 00:24:48 Getting into Stanford 00:30:05 Time at Stanford 00:33:32 Grad school 00:42:25 First company 00:48:35 Second company 00:53:10 Beginning of Robinhood 00:59:54 Positioning of Robinhood 01:04:04 Being depicted in movies 01:12:06 Trader influencers 01:15:27 Serving active traders 01:20:26 Meeting wife 01:27:13 Downsides & upsides of being a CEO 01:31:30 Minimizing phone addiction 01:35:06 GameStop 01:49:02 Final learnings

Henrique Dubugras

27,801 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

BREAKING: deel Hits $1.4B+ ARR Co-founded by CEO Alex Bouaziz (Alex Bouaziz) & CRO Shuo Wang (Shuo Wang), Alex shares their hypergrowth playbook.. Founded in 2019, at only 7 years old: - Deel has scaled to $1.4B+ ARR - Reached a $17.3B valuation - 40K+ customers across 150+ countries - 3+ years of being profitable Deel has rapidly become the #1 platform for hiring & paying employees worldwide. We discuss: • Scaling Deel to $1.4B+ ARR • Serving 40K+ companies across 150+ countries • Deel’s 10+ acquisition M&A strategy • Building a profitable hypergrowth SaaS company • The future of global hiring & distributed teams • How AI agents will transform the workforce Recent Financing: Oct 2025, Deel announced a $300 million Series E funding round, valuing the company at $17.3 billion co-led by Ribbit Capital (Ribbit Capital) as a new investor, alongside long-time partners Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) & Coatue Management (COATUE). This was filmed in London February 12, 2026 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Alex Bouaziz, Co-Founder & CEO at Deel (02:05) Working with co-founder & CRO Shuo Wang (03:54) What Deel actually does (05:05) Biggest customers (05:54) $17B valuation and latest funding round (06:35) How Deel approaches fundraising (07:50) Hitting $100M ARR and early growth (09:25) Why raise money if you are already profitable? (10:35) Inside the latest funding round (12:03) Why payroll is a huge global opportunity (14:21) How Deel expanded its product stack (15:21) The challenges of hiring globally (16:18) Running a 7,000 person fully remote company (18:29) Tips for building remote teams (19:50) Why Deel went global from day one (22:47) How AI is changing hiring (25:00) Deel’s moat in an AI world (26:19) A question from Micky Malka (26:57) From airlines to oil and gas: who uses Deel (27:58) M&A strategy and integration playbook (34:33) Biggest mistakes companies make with acquisitions (35:56) How to retain founders after acquisitions (36:34) Deel's new CFO (39:09) What it takes to be IPO ready (40:29) How AI could affect Deel’s future (42:55) The "Dubai founder controversy" (46:00) Leading in a competitive market (50:47) The biggest misconception about Deel (53:27) The right people around you (56:51) The "default optimism" (58:33) What’s next for Deel (01:01:05) The future of autonomous agents (01:03:35) Biggest lessons from Shuo (01:06:34) What makes a great salesperson (01:08:32) Partnering with Arsenal
1:11:39

BREAKING: deel Hits $1.4B+ ARR Co-founded by CEO Alex Bouaziz (Alex Bouaziz) & CRO Shuo Wang (Shuo Wang), Alex shares their hypergrowth playbook.. Founded in 2019, at only 7 years old: - Deel has scaled to $1.4B+ ARR - Reached a $17.3B valuation - 40K+ customers across 150+ countries - 3+ years of being profitable Deel has rapidly become the #1 platform for hiring & paying employees worldwide. We discuss: • Scaling Deel to $1.4B+ ARR • Serving 40K+ companies across 150+ countries • Deel’s 10+ acquisition M&A strategy • Building a profitable hypergrowth SaaS company • The future of global hiring & distributed teams • How AI agents will transform the workforce Recent Financing: Oct 2025, Deel announced a $300 million Series E funding round, valuing the company at $17.3 billion co-led by Ribbit Capital (Ribbit Capital) as a new investor, alongside long-time partners Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) & Coatue Management (COATUE). This was filmed in London February 12, 2026 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Alex Bouaziz, Co-Founder & CEO at Deel (02:05) Working with co-founder & CRO Shuo Wang (03:54) What Deel actually does (05:05) Biggest customers (05:54) $17B valuation and latest funding round (06:35) How Deel approaches fundraising (07:50) Hitting $100M ARR and early growth (09:25) Why raise money if you are already profitable? (10:35) Inside the latest funding round (12:03) Why payroll is a huge global opportunity (14:21) How Deel expanded its product stack (15:21) The challenges of hiring globally (16:18) Running a 7,000 person fully remote company (18:29) Tips for building remote teams (19:50) Why Deel went global from day one (22:47) How AI is changing hiring (25:00) Deel’s moat in an AI world (26:19) A question from Micky Malka (26:57) From airlines to oil and gas: who uses Deel (27:58) M&A strategy and integration playbook (34:33) Biggest mistakes companies make with acquisitions (35:56) How to retain founders after acquisitions (36:34) Deel's new CFO (39:09) What it takes to be IPO ready (40:29) How AI could affect Deel’s future (42:55) The "Dubai founder controversy" (46:00) Leading in a competitive market (50:47) The biggest misconception about Deel (53:27) The right people around you (56:51) The "default optimism" (58:33) What’s next for Deel (01:01:05) The future of autonomous agents (01:03:35) Biggest lessons from Shuo (01:06:34) What makes a great salesperson (01:08:32) Partnering with Arsenal

Molly O’Shea

284,721 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

Matt Miller left Sequoia Capital last year to start his own fund. Since then he's raised $400m and invested in some of the most exciting companies in the world including Synthesia 🎥, , Lovable, n8n.io, Harvey and many more. He's built an entirely new model around his group of "Legends" - 150 of the top founders, operators and investors from around the world. In Europe @matiii, Victor Riparbelli and Laura Modiano are all members. I sat down with him at the Evantic Capital offices for his FIRST INTERVIEW since leaving Sequoia Capital where we discussed: (00:00) - Introduction (01:02) - The Evantic Model and The Legends (05:02) - Getting access to the hottest deals (10:02) - The Gala, Europe's biggest tech event (15:26) - What investments and why (18:01) - Building a global firm from Europe (20:01) - We need more than one Index (21:31) - Why he's betting on Europe (22:45) - LP rejections and why (24:30) - Transition to Founding Partner (27:18) - Why he left Sequoia (29:48) - Lessons learnt from Sequoia (31:41) - Building Sequoia's presence in Europe (33:15) - Evolution of European Tech (35:00) - What's not going well in European Tech (36:00) - The role of EU–INC (37:14) - Sovereignty in Europe (38:50) - What makes a great founder (40:50) - Quickfire Tonight Matt Miller is hosting some of best of global tech at his new flagship event. If you're going to be there let me know.
46:06

Matt Miller left Sequoia Capital last year to start his own fund. Since then he's raised $400m and invested in some of the most exciting companies in the world including Synthesia 🎥, , Lovable, n8n.io, Harvey and many more. He's built an entirely new model around his group of "Legends" - 150 of the top founders, operators and investors from around the world. In Europe @matiii, Victor Riparbelli and Laura Modiano are all members. I sat down with him at the Evantic Capital offices for his FIRST INTERVIEW since leaving Sequoia Capital where we discussed: (00:00) - Introduction (01:02) - The Evantic Model and The Legends (05:02) - Getting access to the hottest deals (10:02) - The Gala, Europe's biggest tech event (15:26) - What investments and why (18:01) - Building a global firm from Europe (20:01) - We need more than one Index (21:31) - Why he's betting on Europe (22:45) - LP rejections and why (24:30) - Transition to Founding Partner (27:18) - Why he left Sequoia (29:48) - Lessons learnt from Sequoia (31:41) - Building Sequoia's presence in Europe (33:15) - Evolution of European Tech (35:00) - What's not going well in European Tech (36:00) - The role of EU–INC (37:14) - Sovereignty in Europe (38:50) - What makes a great founder (40:50) - Quickfire Tonight Matt Miller is hosting some of best of global tech at his new flagship event. If you're going to be there let me know.

Seb Johnson

25,332 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

BREAKING: Inside Thrive Capital w/ Partner Philip Clark Investing in OpenAI, Wiz, Cursor, Nudge, Physical Intelligence “Josh always had a line to me when I joined Thrive, which is that the people who win deals are the ones who want to win them most.” In this conversation, Philip breaks down how one of the most concentrated & influential firms (Thrive Capital) in tech evaluates founders, builds conviction, & partners with companies that reshape the world. We dive into: - Seeing an early demo of OpenAI’s GPT-4 before launch - Why Thrive flew into an active war zone to close the Wiz deal - Cursor’s explosive growth from a small pivot to a multi-hundred-million ARR product - How Nudge is engineering the human brain using ultrasound - Why hardware’s barriers are falling & why the biggest companies of the next decade may be physical Highlights (00:00) Who is Philip Clark? How he joined Thrive Capital (02:45) From physics to investing: becoming a technologist–optimist (04:00) How semiconductors led him to Thrive (06:00) Deep dive: Mesh Optical & the data center interconnect opportunity (07:45) Inside Cursor’s explosive growth and why AI is “speed chess” (09:15) How Philip first met Cursor’s founders during a pivot (11:30) Path to partner & Thrive’s “full-stack investor” model (13:45) The Wiz story: flying into an active war zone (17:15) Why Wiz closed six-figure deals in weeks — the rare “fast + big” enterprise combo (19:30) The rise of hardware: sensors, software, & SpaceX-trained talent (21:45) The rise of Nudge and engineering the human brain (26:30) Neuralink & Nudge: read to stimulate (31:15) Why Thrive concentrates instead of “spray and pray” (36:00) Inside OpenAI: seeing GPT-4 before launch (40:45) What comes after SaaS.. & the companies unlocked by AI
57:43

BREAKING: Inside Thrive Capital w/ Partner Philip Clark Investing in OpenAI, Wiz, Cursor, Nudge, Physical Intelligence “Josh always had a line to me when I joined Thrive, which is that the people who win deals are the ones who want to win them most.” In this conversation, Philip breaks down how one of the most concentrated & influential firms (Thrive Capital) in tech evaluates founders, builds conviction, & partners with companies that reshape the world. We dive into: - Seeing an early demo of OpenAI’s GPT-4 before launch - Why Thrive flew into an active war zone to close the Wiz deal - Cursor’s explosive growth from a small pivot to a multi-hundred-million ARR product - How Nudge is engineering the human brain using ultrasound - Why hardware’s barriers are falling & why the biggest companies of the next decade may be physical Highlights (00:00) Who is Philip Clark? How he joined Thrive Capital (02:45) From physics to investing: becoming a technologist–optimist (04:00) How semiconductors led him to Thrive (06:00) Deep dive: Mesh Optical & the data center interconnect opportunity (07:45) Inside Cursor’s explosive growth and why AI is “speed chess” (09:15) How Philip first met Cursor’s founders during a pivot (11:30) Path to partner & Thrive’s “full-stack investor” model (13:45) The Wiz story: flying into an active war zone (17:15) Why Wiz closed six-figure deals in weeks — the rare “fast + big” enterprise combo (19:30) The rise of hardware: sensors, software, & SpaceX-trained talent (21:45) The rise of Nudge and engineering the human brain (26:30) Neuralink & Nudge: read to stimulate (31:15) Why Thrive concentrates instead of “spray and pray” (36:00) Inside OpenAI: seeing GPT-4 before launch (40:45) What comes after SaaS.. & the companies unlocked by AI

Molly O’Shea

362,011 Aufrufe • vor 9 Monaten

Some of the biggest companies of the next decade won't be software businesses. They'll be services companies like insurance carriers, law firms, and tax practices rebuilt from scratch with AI doing most of the work. In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Charlie Warren walks through the playbook for building AI native services companies, covering how to pick a market with the right traits, why variance kills these businesses faster than anything else, and the P&L math that’ll transform your business model. 00:00 — Intro to AI Services Companies 01:01 — Picking the Right Market 02:55 — Markets YC Likes Right Now 03:43 — The Sam Altman Test 04:35 — The Right Founding Team 05:28 — Building the Product 06:19 — Variance Is the Existential Problem 07:08 — The Early Demand Trap 07:53 — How to Price AI Services 08:41 — The P&L Walkthrough 09:33 — AI Operating Leverage 10:27 — Don't Buy Your Way In
11:21

Some of the biggest companies of the next decade won't be software businesses. They'll be services companies like insurance carriers, law firms, and tax practices rebuilt from scratch with AI doing most of the work. In this episode of Startup School, YC Visiting Partner Charlie Warren walks through the playbook for building AI native services companies, covering how to pick a market with the right traits, why variance kills these businesses faster than anything else, and the P&L math that’ll transform your business model. 00:00 — Intro to AI Services Companies 01:01 — Picking the Right Market 02:55 — Markets YC Likes Right Now 03:43 — The Sam Altman Test 04:35 — The Right Founding Team 05:28 — Building the Product 06:19 — Variance Is the Existential Problem 07:08 — The Early Demand Trap 07:53 — How to Price AI Services 08:41 — The P&L Walkthrough 09:33 — AI Operating Leverage 10:27 — Don't Buy Your Way In

Y Combinator

486,311 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

BREAKING: DreamWorks, Storytelling, & Building Companies in the AI Era Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang, WndrCo With $2.8B in AUM across Build, Seed, & Venture, wndrco has amassed a portfolio of hot names like: Cursor, Harvey, Figma, Abridge, Granola, Deel, 1Password, Robinhood, Airtable, Writer, Polymarket, Aura, & more.. We cover: - WTF happened in 2025 (?!) - $700 billion of capital investment in 24 months from hyperscalers - Storytelling in the world of AI - WndrCo origins & holding co strategy (expecting to generate ~$400M in free cash flow next year) - Check sizes & structure across strategies - How to BS-check products & startups Highlights: (00:00) Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang (ChenLi W) (01:43) What Actually Changed in AI in 2025 (03:26) When AI Hype Meets Real Productivity (05:01) Is an AI Bubble About to Burst? (05:59) Companies WndrCo Is Most Excited About (09:02) The Origin Story of WndrCo (09:45) Technology as a Storytelling Advantage (12:55) Why Katzenberg Chose Venture as a Third Act (17:12) From Holding Company to Venture Platform (18:56) How WndrCo Decides to Build vs Invest (22:29) Why Longevity Became a New Build Theme (26:33) "Good Storytelling, Bad Outcomes" (29:57) What Actually Differentiates WndrCo as an Investor (35:57) Why Benchmarks Fail in the AI Era (40:16) How WndrCo Invests: Build, Venture, Seed
50:29

BREAKING: DreamWorks, Storytelling, & Building Companies in the AI Era Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang, WndrCo With $2.8B in AUM across Build, Seed, & Venture, wndrco has amassed a portfolio of hot names like: Cursor, Harvey, Figma, Abridge, Granola, Deel, 1Password, Robinhood, Airtable, Writer, Polymarket, Aura, & more.. We cover: - WTF happened in 2025 (?!) - $700 billion of capital investment in 24 months from hyperscalers - Storytelling in the world of AI - WndrCo origins & holding co strategy (expecting to generate ~$400M in free cash flow next year) - Check sizes & structure across strategies - How to BS-check products & startups Highlights: (00:00) Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang (ChenLi W) (01:43) What Actually Changed in AI in 2025 (03:26) When AI Hype Meets Real Productivity (05:01) Is an AI Bubble About to Burst? (05:59) Companies WndrCo Is Most Excited About (09:02) The Origin Story of WndrCo (09:45) Technology as a Storytelling Advantage (12:55) Why Katzenberg Chose Venture as a Third Act (17:12) From Holding Company to Venture Platform (18:56) How WndrCo Decides to Build vs Invest (22:29) Why Longevity Became a New Build Theme (26:33) "Good Storytelling, Bad Outcomes" (29:57) What Actually Differentiates WndrCo as an Investor (35:57) Why Benchmarks Fail in the AI Era (40:16) How WndrCo Invests: Build, Venture, Seed

Molly O’Shea

119,079 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten

Brex co-founder and CEO Pedro Franceschi believes most people still underestimate how much AI will change the way companies are built. AI isn't just another tool, it's a new foundation for building products, teams, and companies. In this episode of Lightcone Podcast, Pedro Franceschi explains why we're only months into a platform shift as significant as the invention of electricity, why the CEO needs to be the chief AI officer, and why founders should rethink what's possible when intelligence is available on demand. 01:13 – How Pedro Became AI-Pilled 04:08 – The Electricity Analogy 05:21 – Free the Claw 06:56 – Making AI Safe for Enterprise 10:57 – Why Most Companies Are Behind 13:09 – AI Teammates, Not Chatbots 14:22 – The Case for Tokenmaxxing 18:24 – The Company of One 20:54 – The One Thing AI Can't Replace 28:06 – Building Customer World Models 32:58 – Rebuilding Brex Around AI 39:02 – The CEO Must Be the Chief AI Officer 43:50 – Building Company AGI 51:43 – Why We're Still So Early
54:06

Brex co-founder and CEO Pedro Franceschi believes most people still underestimate how much AI will change the way companies are built. AI isn't just another tool, it's a new foundation for building products, teams, and companies. In this episode of Lightcone Podcast, Pedro Franceschi explains why we're only months into a platform shift as significant as the invention of electricity, why the CEO needs to be the chief AI officer, and why founders should rethink what's possible when intelligence is available on demand. 01:13 – How Pedro Became AI-Pilled 04:08 – The Electricity Analogy 05:21 – Free the Claw 06:56 – Making AI Safe for Enterprise 10:57 – Why Most Companies Are Behind 13:09 – AI Teammates, Not Chatbots 14:22 – The Case for Tokenmaxxing 18:24 – The Company of One 20:54 – The One Thing AI Can't Replace 28:06 – Building Customer World Models 32:58 – Rebuilding Brex Around AI 39:02 – The CEO Must Be the Chief AI Officer 43:50 – Building Company AGI 51:43 – Why We're Still So Early

Y Combinator

198,967 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

My conversation with Kate McAndrew (katepmcandrew). Kate McAndrew is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Baukunst, a $100 million pre-seed venture fund that backs founders at the earliest stages of company building. Over the past decade, she has invested in more than 100 pre-seed companies, giving her a front-row seat to what separates exceptional founders from everyone else. In this episode we discuss: - What makes a startup worth investing in - How investors actually evaluate founders - How to spot an exceptional entrepreneur - The secret to building institutions that outlive you - Kate's unconventional path into venture capital - The investing philosophy behind a $100M fund Enjoy! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:37 Kate’s Biggest Struggle 3:55 How Going To An All-Girls School Impacted Kate's Life 8:38 What Going To An All-Girls School Is Actually Like 11:21 How Kate Thinks About Investing 12:41 What Makes A Great Founder 14:23 How Companies Survive 100+ Years 17:14 Kate’s Unconventional Path To VC 23:15 The Philosophy Of Building A Great Company 27:54 How Kate Got Her First Job In VC 30:04 Kate’s Best Advice For Entrepreneurs 33:29 What Makes A Brand’s Identity 36:49 Why Kate Makes Content 43:30 The Purpose Behind Baukunst 48:04 How Baukunst Operates Internally 52:34 What Kate’s Most Excited To Invest In 54:57 Every VC Hates A Creator Business 58:04 The Value Of Creator Businesses 59:37 Rapid Fire Questions
1:12:17

My conversation with Kate McAndrew (katepmcandrew). Kate McAndrew is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Baukunst, a $100 million pre-seed venture fund that backs founders at the earliest stages of company building. Over the past decade, she has invested in more than 100 pre-seed companies, giving her a front-row seat to what separates exceptional founders from everyone else. In this episode we discuss: - What makes a startup worth investing in - How investors actually evaluate founders - How to spot an exceptional entrepreneur - The secret to building institutions that outlive you - Kate's unconventional path into venture capital - The investing philosophy behind a $100M fund Enjoy! Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:37 Kate’s Biggest Struggle 3:55 How Going To An All-Girls School Impacted Kate's Life 8:38 What Going To An All-Girls School Is Actually Like 11:21 How Kate Thinks About Investing 12:41 What Makes A Great Founder 14:23 How Companies Survive 100+ Years 17:14 Kate’s Unconventional Path To VC 23:15 The Philosophy Of Building A Great Company 27:54 How Kate Got Her First Job In VC 30:04 Kate’s Best Advice For Entrepreneurs 33:29 What Makes A Brand’s Identity 36:49 Why Kate Makes Content 43:30 The Purpose Behind Baukunst 48:04 How Baukunst Operates Internally 52:34 What Kate’s Most Excited To Invest In 54:57 Every VC Hates A Creator Business 58:04 The Value Of Creator Businesses 59:37 Rapid Fire Questions

Erica Wenger

12,689 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Avoca (W23) is building what it calls the AI workforce for the physical economy, starting with home services. In just a few years, the company has grown to eight figures in revenue and recently raised over $125 million at a $1 billion valuation. In this fireside, co-founders Apurva Shrivastava and Tyson Chen sit down with Garry Tan to share how they found product-market fit by helping businesses turn missed calls into revenue. They explain why AI is expanding what software can do, pushing past the 1% of wallet that traditional software captures, and why they see it as one of the biggest opportunities for founders. 01:28 - Finding the Right Market 03:25 - Why AI Is Bigger Than SaaS 06:59 - The AI Job Story Nobody Talks About 11:53 - How the Founders Met 16:59 - The Pivot 21:47 - Customer Love Beats Market Size 25:31 - Building an AI Workforce 29:35 - Why Customer Obsession Wins 34:12 - Growing to Eight Figures 37:22 - The Vision Beyond Home Services 38:54 - Building a Generational Company
39:05

Avoca (W23) is building what it calls the AI workforce for the physical economy, starting with home services. In just a few years, the company has grown to eight figures in revenue and recently raised over $125 million at a $1 billion valuation. In this fireside, co-founders Apurva Shrivastava and Tyson Chen sit down with Garry Tan to share how they found product-market fit by helping businesses turn missed calls into revenue. They explain why AI is expanding what software can do, pushing past the 1% of wallet that traditional software captures, and why they see it as one of the biggest opportunities for founders. 01:28 - Finding the Right Market 03:25 - Why AI Is Bigger Than SaaS 06:59 - The AI Job Story Nobody Talks About 11:53 - How the Founders Met 16:59 - The Pivot 21:47 - Customer Love Beats Market Size 25:31 - Building an AI Workforce 29:35 - Why Customer Obsession Wins 34:12 - Growing to Eight Figures 37:22 - The Vision Beyond Home Services 38:54 - Building a Generational Company

Y Combinator

84,506 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

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!
2:01:53

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 yudasina

21,569 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat