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For decades, America’s electrical system has rewarded utilities for building more infrastructure, not for lowering costs. The result is a grid that expanded but rarely improved. Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO of Base Power, is building a different kind of power company. In our conversation, we explore: • How... a failed college solar project and early energy experiments in India pulled Zach into the power industry • How the U.S. grid’s regulatory structure discourages innovation and why Texas’s deregulated market creates space for new power companies • Base’s “make, move, store, sell” framework for thinking about the full power stack • How aggressive AI adoption is compressing cycle times and why slow adopters risk falling behind Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: (00:00) Introduction to Zach Dell and Base (09:31) Lessons from Phil Jackson on aligning talented teams (21:49) Justin’s strengths as a co-founder and how their partnership formed (30:55) Why Base became the obvious focus (41:44) How Base works in two market types (50:43) The Gen 2 hardware mistake and the lesson in risk management (58:45) How hiring at Base has evolved (1:06:29) Final meditationsshow more

Mario Gabriele

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24,913 views • 5 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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Here’s my conversation with Zach Dell and Justin Lopas, co-founders of Base Power Company. Zach comes from Blackstone, Thrive Capital, and a lifetime of mentorship from his father, Michael Dell 🇺🇸. Justin comes from leading efforts at SpaceX, Anduril, and world-class execution alongside Elon Musk. I learned so much. And for everyone watching, this will give you a tiny glimpse into their exponential growth and recent $4B valuation. It's clear Base Power will be a household name. Enjoy!! Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 1:43 The Base Talent Filter 4:00 Lessons from Michael Dell 6:15 Zach’s First Startup 8:45 The Slow Midwest Automotive Industry 15:45 The Base Recruiting Strategy 20:40 Origins of Base: How Zach and Justin Met 23:55 Cut Your Costs, Not Your Power 26:02 The First Battery Install 33:55 Energy Trading and Arbitrage 36:02 The Path to a $100B 40:50 Base Pace 45:15 Don’t Tell Your Grandkids All You Did Was B2B SaaS

Here’s my conversation with Zach Dell and Justin Lopas, co-founders of Base Power Company. Zach comes from Blackstone, Thrive Capital, and a lifetime of mentorship from his father, Michael Dell 🇺🇸. Justin comes from leading efforts at SpaceX, Anduril, and world-class execution alongside Elon Musk. I learned so much. And for everyone watching, this will give you a tiny glimpse into their exponential growth and recent $4B valuation. It's clear Base Power will be a household name. Enjoy!! Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 1:43 The Base Talent Filter 4:00 Lessons from Michael Dell 6:15 Zach’s First Startup 8:45 The Slow Midwest Automotive Industry 15:45 The Base Recruiting Strategy 20:40 Origins of Base: How Zach and Justin Met 23:55 Cut Your Costs, Not Your Power 26:02 The First Battery Install 33:55 Energy Trading and Arbitrage 36:02 The Path to a $100B 40:50 Base Pace 45:15 Don’t Tell Your Grandkids All You Did Was B2B SaaS

Sonith

107,074 views • 8 months ago

News: Base Power raises $1B and issues a call to JOIN THE CHARGE in building America’s Power Company™. Terrain partner Willem sat down with CEO Zach Dell in front of Base Factory 1 to discuss hiring, hardware, culture, and what it takes to build a new energy future. 0:00 - Building America's Power Company 0:19 - Intro 1:00 - Base Factory 1 reveal 1:10 - Building in Austin 2:38 - A technology company competing in energy 3:53 - The importance of vertical integration 5:23 - Where Base's joyful culture comes from 7:14 - Why work at Base? 9:51 - Base Pace & the turtle 11:42 - Building a beloved energy brand 12:59 - Infrastructure level ambition 13:42 - Longevity & compounding opportunity 15:03 - The appeal of hard problems 17:14 - Endless energy in subject matter 21:10 - Closing

Terrain

38,894 views • 11 months ago

Anil Varanasi (Anil Varanasi), co-founder and CEO of Meter, is building a new kind of networking company for the AI era. Alongside his brother Sunil, he has helped raise more than $350 million to challenge incumbents like Cisco with a vertically integrated approach spanning hardware, software, deployment, and ongoing operations, all delivered through a utility-style model. Together we explore: • The “burden of knowledge” and why progress is getting harder across fields • Why most companies over-index on technology and ignore business model innovation • The three ways companies create advantage: technology, delivery, and business model • How Meter’s trade-in model borrows from the automotive industry • Why Anil believes “common knowledge” is often wrong Thank you to the partners who make this possible - .TECH domains: An identity for builders at their core: - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: Timestamps (0:00) Introduction to Anil Varanasi and Meter (10:25) What Meter actually does (22:55) Why Anil didn’t pursue filmmaking (29:59) The dynamic of working with his brother as a co-founder (35:15) Lessons from successful companies (41:10) Scrapping 18 months of work (59:39) Networking as infrastructure and utility (01:07:28) Rethinking education

Anil Varanasi (Anil Varanasi), co-founder and CEO of Meter, is building a new kind of networking company for the AI era. Alongside his brother Sunil, he has helped raise more than $350 million to challenge incumbents like Cisco with a vertically integrated approach spanning hardware, software, deployment, and ongoing operations, all delivered through a utility-style model. Together we explore: • The “burden of knowledge” and why progress is getting harder across fields • Why most companies over-index on technology and ignore business model innovation • The three ways companies create advantage: technology, delivery, and business model • How Meter’s trade-in model borrows from the automotive industry • Why Anil believes “common knowledge” is often wrong Thank you to the partners who make this possible - .TECH domains: An identity for builders at their core: - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: Timestamps (0:00) Introduction to Anil Varanasi and Meter (10:25) What Meter actually does (22:55) Why Anil didn’t pursue filmmaking (29:59) The dynamic of working with his brother as a co-founder (35:15) Lessons from successful companies (41:10) Scrapping 18 months of work (59:39) Networking as infrastructure and utility (01:07:28) Rethinking education

Mario Gabriele

62,002 views • 5 months ago

Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt is back with a new company — but it's not finance, it's space lasers. At @AetherfluxUSA, Baiju is building both: ‣ an expeditionary power source for America's warfighters ‣ the beginnings of humanity's first Dyson Sphere It's a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that beam solar power down to Earth using lasers. I invited him to my factory to ask about how he's building it, and why. Chapters: 00:00 — Why is the Robinhood co-founder starting a space company? 05:11 — Introducing Aetherflux: the American energy grid in orbit 10:30 — The energy cost & energy opportunity 18:24 — “You’re not a space company until you have something in space.” 20:12 — What are the hardest parts of engineering this product? 25:27 — Figuring out how to build a hyper-ambitious company from zero 28:06 — How do you get from a demo to the ultimate vision? 32:25 — “What’s an industry that could exist, that doesn’t exist right now?” 35:28 — American innovation is a juggernaut 39:23 — Expeditionary power for the Department of Defense & disaster response 44:50 — The analogy between Robinhood and Aetherflux 47:41 — Assigned watching, playing, and reading from Baiju

Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt is back with a new company — but it's not finance, it's space lasers. At @AetherfluxUSA, Baiju is building both: ‣ an expeditionary power source for America's warfighters ‣ the beginnings of humanity's first Dyson Sphere It's a constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit that beam solar power down to Earth using lasers. I invited him to my factory to ask about how he's building it, and why. Chapters: 00:00 — Why is the Robinhood co-founder starting a space company? 05:11 — Introducing Aetherflux: the American energy grid in orbit 10:30 — The energy cost & energy opportunity 18:24 — “You’re not a space company until you have something in space.” 20:12 — What are the hardest parts of engineering this product? 25:27 — Figuring out how to build a hyper-ambitious company from zero 28:06 — How do you get from a demo to the ultimate vision? 32:25 — “What’s an industry that could exist, that doesn’t exist right now?” 35:28 — American innovation is a juggernaut 39:23 — Expeditionary power for the Department of Defense & disaster response 44:50 — The analogy between Robinhood and Aetherflux 47:41 — Assigned watching, playing, and reading from Baiju

Christian Keil

86,267 views • 1 year ago

BREAKING: Base Power Raises $1 Billion Series C Led by Addition Zach Dell, Co-Founder & CEO, joins Sourcery to discuss Base's strategic funding, rapid growth, & the world-class talent needed to seize the gigawatt-scale opportunity We Break Down: - $200M Series B to $1B Series C in < 6 months - Building Base Factory One in Austin and plans for more domestic manufacturing - How Base Power is reinventing America’s energy grid with distributed batteries - Why AI & data centers make energy the new bottleneck for innovation. - The culture & team powering one of America’s most ambitious startups Investors: All other major investors are re-investing, including Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive, Lightspeed, a16z, Altimeter, Stepstone, Elad Gil, 137 Ventures, Terrain, & Waybury. New major investors include Ribbit, CapitalG, Spark, BOND, Lowercarbon, Avenir, Glade Brook, Positive Sum, and 1789. Highlights (00:00) Factory Tour in Austin (01:21) $1 Billion Series C Led by Addition (02:15) Fast-Following $200M Series B (02:52) Growth Metrics: 30% MoM, Thousand+ Waitlist (03:36) Cap Table Breakdown: Addition, Thrive, Valor, a16z, Lightspeed, Ribbit, CapitalG & more (05:00) Strategic Investors: Lennar, Starwood, Endowments (06:30) Investor Involvement: Valor & Addition (08:18) Base Power’s “Blue Collar” Culture: Chop Wood, Carry Water (11:31) Founding Story: From Blackstone & Thrive to Anduril → Base Power (14:00) Recruiting Tesla, SpaceX, Anduril Veterans to Build the Team (16:45) Operational North Stars: Fastest Battery Deployment at Lowest Cost (17:30) Building the First Beloved Brand in Energy (19:00) Attracting Talent to Austin & Base’s Unique Culture (22:30) Energy as the Bottleneck for AI & Data Centers (25:00) Speed to Power: Deploying 100MW+ per Month (27:15) Texas ADER Qualification & National Expansion (30:30) Leadership Lessons: Hiring, Focus & Ruthless Prioritization (34:30) What’s Next: Factory One, New Products, Gigawatt Race Zach Dell Justin Lopas Base Power

Molly O’Shea

136,350 views • 11 months ago

We profiled the most hyped energy startup in America. Exclusive look inside the $4B startup, Base Power, with co-founders Justin Lopas & Zach Dell A former SpaceX engineer & a Thrive capital investor, rebuilding American energy dominance. Trying to do what SpaceX did to NASA and Anduril to Lockheed. But for energy. Yep, a lot of ambition. So, what do they have to show for it? 0:00 Meet Zach & Justin: Raising $1.3B To Fix America's Grid 1:16 How The Grid Came 4 Minutes From Collapse 1:56 Zach: Why The U.S Desperately Needs A SpaceX for Energy 3:25 Justin Explain's Their Home Battery Installation 4:14 Why Thrive Capital Bet on Zach & Justin (feat. Avery Klemmer) 5:16 How Justin & Zach Met? (Anduril Factory Tour) 6:32 Zach’s Secret Co-founder Test on Justin 7:20 How Base Build Their Competitive MOAT... 10:34 Justin: “Everything you do more than once is a factory” 11:17 Zach: This Is How To Raise $1.3B from Tier-1 Funds... 13:38 How to Build An Elite Team & Culture 14:26 Zach: "I'm Never Stoked To Fire People, But..." 15:33 The Personal Cost of Being An Entrepreneur 16:35 Energy, China and America’s future 18:22 Unpacking The Chip on Zach's Shoulder 19:13 Zach: “I Am Not the CEO This Company Needs in 5 Years” 19:49 Sachin & Adam: Our 3 Biggest Takeaways

We profiled the most hyped energy startup in America. Exclusive look inside the $4B startup, Base Power, with co-founders Justin Lopas & Zach Dell A former SpaceX engineer & a Thrive capital investor, rebuilding American energy dominance. Trying to do what SpaceX did to NASA and Anduril to Lockheed. But for energy. Yep, a lot of ambition. So, what do they have to show for it? 0:00 Meet Zach & Justin: Raising $1.3B To Fix America's Grid 1:16 How The Grid Came 4 Minutes From Collapse 1:56 Zach: Why The U.S Desperately Needs A SpaceX for Energy 3:25 Justin Explain's Their Home Battery Installation 4:14 Why Thrive Capital Bet on Zach & Justin (feat. Avery Klemmer) 5:16 How Justin & Zach Met? (Anduril Factory Tour) 6:32 Zach’s Secret Co-founder Test on Justin 7:20 How Base Build Their Competitive MOAT... 10:34 Justin: “Everything you do more than once is a factory” 11:17 Zach: This Is How To Raise $1.3B from Tier-1 Funds... 13:38 How to Build An Elite Team & Culture 14:26 Zach: "I'm Never Stoked To Fire People, But..." 15:33 The Personal Cost of Being An Entrepreneur 16:35 Energy, China and America’s future 18:22 Unpacking The Chip on Zach's Shoulder 19:13 Zach: “I Am Not the CEO This Company Needs in 5 Years” 19:49 Sachin & Adam: Our 3 Biggest Takeaways

Sachin and Adam

67,364 views • 3 months ago

I sat down with Nicolas Sharp, founder of Attio, to talk in depth about how his company is disrupting the $80 billion CRM market. Attio has raised $116m, is 4x'ing ARR and is one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. We talk about: - Why Attio went against all conventional wisdom and spent years 3 years building the product before launching - Why Attio doesn’t hire ‘Software Engineers’ and who they hire instead. - How Attio chose investors who would back a long-term bet against multi-billion $ incumbents - How Attio is building CRM from first principles for the AI era - Who should you avoid hiring at all costs, and who should you hire for your startup And so much more. If you’re interested in learning about the story of how Nick built Attio into the incredible company it is today and is disrupting one of the most important software categories, you’re going to want to see this. Enjoy // Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:39 Why Attio spent 3 years building their product before launch 5:05 The Power of Building Systems, Not a Box of Features 9:05 How to know when it’s time to launch 13:30 Nick’s Playbook For a Killer Product Launch 18:09 How To Go From an Investor to a Founder 23:05 How Failure Led to Attio's Big Break 28:07 Why startups need to hire "Hidden Gems," 34:05 Fundraising 49:36 Why Attio Invests In Inexperienced Talent 55:07 The Case For Not Hiring Software Engineers (& Who You Should Hire Instead) 1:02:46 The 8 Persona Hiring Framework 1:09:05 How Attio doesn’t use OKR's 1:27:11 Where does Nick's Ambition and Grit come from? 1:36:59 How Attio is Building CRM from First Principles for the AI era 1:45:29 How to Successfully Market In A Crowded Industry 1:51:10 Breaking Down Attio’s Viral Marketing Strategies 2:02:15 The Change That Had The Biggest Impact on Customer Conversion 2:05:04 Why Attio created A “Reverse Trial” 2:10:16 Why Nick is building from London, not Silicon Valley 2:22:48 The 10-Year Vision for Attio

I sat down with Nicolas Sharp, founder of Attio, to talk in depth about how his company is disrupting the $80 billion CRM market. Attio has raised $116m, is 4x'ing ARR and is one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. We talk about: - Why Attio went against all conventional wisdom and spent years 3 years building the product before launching - Why Attio doesn’t hire ‘Software Engineers’ and who they hire instead. - How Attio chose investors who would back a long-term bet against multi-billion $ incumbents - How Attio is building CRM from first principles for the AI era - Who should you avoid hiring at all costs, and who should you hire for your startup And so much more. If you’re interested in learning about the story of how Nick built Attio into the incredible company it is today and is disrupting one of the most important software categories, you’re going to want to see this. Enjoy // Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:39 Why Attio spent 3 years building their product before launch 5:05 The Power of Building Systems, Not a Box of Features 9:05 How to know when it’s time to launch 13:30 Nick’s Playbook For a Killer Product Launch 18:09 How To Go From an Investor to a Founder 23:05 How Failure Led to Attio's Big Break 28:07 Why startups need to hire "Hidden Gems," 34:05 Fundraising 49:36 Why Attio Invests In Inexperienced Talent 55:07 The Case For Not Hiring Software Engineers (& Who You Should Hire Instead) 1:02:46 The 8 Persona Hiring Framework 1:09:05 How Attio doesn’t use OKR's 1:27:11 Where does Nick's Ambition and Grit come from? 1:36:59 How Attio is Building CRM from First Principles for the AI era 1:45:29 How to Successfully Market In A Crowded Industry 1:51:10 Breaking Down Attio’s Viral Marketing Strategies 2:02:15 The Change That Had The Biggest Impact on Customer Conversion 2:05:04 Why Attio created A “Reverse Trial” 2:10:16 Why Nick is building from London, not Silicon Valley 2:22:48 The 10-Year Vision for Attio

Wouter Teunissen

26,369 views • 11 months ago

Today I sit down with Justin Lopas (Justin Lopas), Co-founder & COO of Base Power. On Monday Base announced a $1B Series D at a $13B post money valuation. Justin spent his early career at SpaceX, where he helped lead the Brownsville site that became Starbase, then ran manufacturing at Anduril. Base puts large batteries on homes, owns and operates them, and uses the fleet to support the grid. This is a conversation about speed, and about how much of it turns out to be a decision rather than an effort level. We discuss: • Why he wanted their first battery installed fast instead of right • Why he thinks good manufacturing is decided during design, not on the factory floor • Why he does not push his suppliers as hard on price as he could • Why SpaceX put him in charge of building the Starship factory two and a half years into his career • The question he asks to find out why a job is really taking so long • How a battery company ended up training its own electricians • Why he calls Base an infrastructure company and not a product company Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:48) From Late-Night Research to an Office in Austin (07:55) The First Battery Install Was an Epic Failure (09:15) Finding a Battery Supplier Who Would Let Them In (15:47) Killing Gen Two and Skipping Straight to Gen Three (22:52) From a Hundred Requirements to Cardboard Cutouts (26:02) Good Manufacturing Is Won or Lost at the Design Stage (32:48) How to Build a Supply Chain From Nothing (40:51) Negotiating With Suppliers and Deciding What to Build Yourself (44:58) The Turtle That Marks the Slowest Team (47:39) The SpaceX Lessons on Talent and Speed (54:09) Building a Regulatory Team and Choosing the Next State (58:19) Managing Complexity Is the Whole Job (1:03:20) Tesla Sells Products, Base Owns Infrastructure (1:05:24) Training Electricians and Staying Out of Commercial

Today I sit down with Justin Lopas (Justin Lopas), Co-founder & COO of Base Power. On Monday Base announced a $1B Series D at a $13B post money valuation. Justin spent his early career at SpaceX, where he helped lead the Brownsville site that became Starbase, then ran manufacturing at Anduril. Base puts large batteries on homes, owns and operates them, and uses the fleet to support the grid. This is a conversation about speed, and about how much of it turns out to be a decision rather than an effort level. We discuss: • Why he wanted their first battery installed fast instead of right • Why he thinks good manufacturing is decided during design, not on the factory floor • Why he does not push his suppliers as hard on price as he could • Why SpaceX put him in charge of building the Starship factory two and a half years into his career • The question he asks to find out why a job is really taking so long • How a battery company ended up training its own electricians • Why he calls Base an infrastructure company and not a product company Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:48) From Late-Night Research to an Office in Austin (07:55) The First Battery Install Was an Epic Failure (09:15) Finding a Battery Supplier Who Would Let Them In (15:47) Killing Gen Two and Skipping Straight to Gen Three (22:52) From a Hundred Requirements to Cardboard Cutouts (26:02) Good Manufacturing Is Won or Lost at the Design Stage (32:48) How to Build a Supply Chain From Nothing (40:51) Negotiating With Suppliers and Deciding What to Build Yourself (44:58) The Turtle That Marks the Slowest Team (47:39) The SpaceX Lessons on Talent and Speed (54:09) Building a Regulatory Team and Choosing the Next State (58:19) Managing Complexity Is the Whole Job (1:03:20) Tesla Sells Products, Base Owns Infrastructure (1:05:24) Training Electricians and Staying Out of Commercial

Chris Powers

43,855 views • 1 month ago

"We have a supply-demand problem in energy today and we need more supply." Base Power CEO Zach Dell and Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller on why distributed power is the answer — and what's standing in the way: "We can deploy that capacity much faster and much cheaper than you can in a centralized way. You can do it on-site, and so you can circumvent the transmission constraints of the existing grid." "The way that you interconnect and get residential batteries permitted is completely different. Sometimes different not only at the state level, at the city level, at the AHJ level. That makes our job a lot harder." Chase on what it will take to get there: "A lot of people get scared about the amount of power that data centers are going to consume. They have a fixed pie mindset. We have the technology, the know-how, the capital. It's really about having clarity on the permitting process and the will to do so. It can create a really abundant future for everyone." The Hill & Valley Forum 2026 The Hill & Valley Forum Base Power Crusoe James Burnham

"We have a supply-demand problem in energy today and we need more supply." Base Power CEO Zach Dell and Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller on why distributed power is the answer — and what's standing in the way: "We can deploy that capacity much faster and much cheaper than you can in a centralized way. You can do it on-site, and so you can circumvent the transmission constraints of the existing grid." "The way that you interconnect and get residential batteries permitted is completely different. Sometimes different not only at the state level, at the city level, at the AHJ level. That makes our job a lot harder." Chase on what it will take to get there: "A lot of people get scared about the amount of power that data centers are going to consume. They have a fixed pie mindset. We have the technology, the know-how, the capital. It's really about having clarity on the permitting process and the will to do so. It can create a really abundant future for everyone." The Hill & Valley Forum 2026 The Hill & Valley Forum Base Power Crusoe James Burnham

The Hill & Valley Forum

13,799 views • 5 months ago

Eve Bodnia is the co-founder and CEO of Logical Intelligence, which is developing energy-based reasoning models (EBMs) as an alternative to large language models. She argues that LLMs, which operate by recognizing and recombining patterns within language space, are structurally incapable of genuine reasoning. In our conversation, we explore: • The $4 vs. $15,000 benchmark, and what it tells us about the cost of guessing vs. knowing • How Logical Intelligence showed spontaneous knowledge transfer at just 16M parameters • Why systems like chip design, surgical robotics, and power grids need more than probabilistic AI • How meeting Grigori Perelman as a teenager shaped Eve’s views on ego and ownership in science Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: - : Trusted identity verification for any use case: Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (03:03) Eve’s encounter with Grigori Perelman (09:02) The manifold hypothesis and language (22:58) Spirituality and creativity (27:00) Theory vs. experiment (42:08) Energy-based models explained (48:01) AGI defined (58:09) Early investors in Logical Intelligence (1:03:42) Final meditations

Eve Bodnia is the co-founder and CEO of Logical Intelligence, which is developing energy-based reasoning models (EBMs) as an alternative to large language models. She argues that LLMs, which operate by recognizing and recombining patterns within language space, are structurally incapable of genuine reasoning. In our conversation, we explore: • The $4 vs. $15,000 benchmark, and what it tells us about the cost of guessing vs. knowing • How Logical Intelligence showed spontaneous knowledge transfer at just 16M parameters • Why systems like chip design, surgical robotics, and power grids need more than probabilistic AI • How meeting Grigori Perelman as a teenager shaped Eve’s views on ego and ownership in science Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: - : Trusted identity verification for any use case: Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (03:03) Eve’s encounter with Grigori Perelman (09:02) The manifold hypothesis and language (22:58) Spirituality and creativity (27:00) Theory vs. experiment (42:08) Energy-based models explained (48:01) AGI defined (58:09) Early investors in Logical Intelligence (1:03:42) Final meditations

Mario Gabriele

20,207 views • 6 months ago

Karol Hausman is the co-founder and CEO of Physical Intelligence, a robotics company building a general-purpose “AI brain for the physical world.” The company has raised more than $1 billion in funding to develop foundation models that allow robots to operate across many machines, environments, and tasks rather than being programmed for a single purpose. In our conversation, we explore: • The moment a lecture from Sergey Levine convinced him to abandon his PhD research direction and pivot fully to deep learning • The case for building a general “AI brain” for the physical world rather than a single specialized robot • The role of real-world data in training robots, the limits of simulation, and how deployment could create a powerful data flywheel • The unique challenges of physical intelligence and why robots must operate with far higher reliability than language models Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: Timestamps (00:00) Intro (04:05) Karol’s early fascination with robots (18:21) Karol’s entry point to robotics and PhD program (25:49) Combining robotics with LLMs: The Taylor Swift demo (30:48) The 1970s SHRDLU AI experiment (39:40) How research shapes what Physical Intelligence builds (49:07) The return of reinforcement learning in robotics (1:00:00) NVIDIA’s simulation engines (1:07:31) Compensating for missing senses

Karol Hausman is the co-founder and CEO of Physical Intelligence, a robotics company building a general-purpose “AI brain for the physical world.” The company has raised more than $1 billion in funding to develop foundation models that allow robots to operate across many machines, environments, and tasks rather than being programmed for a single purpose. In our conversation, we explore: • The moment a lecture from Sergey Levine convinced him to abandon his PhD research direction and pivot fully to deep learning • The case for building a general “AI brain” for the physical world rather than a single specialized robot • The role of real-world data in training robots, the limits of simulation, and how deployment could create a powerful data flywheel • The unique challenges of physical intelligence and why robots must operate with far higher reliability than language models Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: - Granola: The app that might actually make you love meetings: Timestamps (00:00) Intro (04:05) Karol’s early fascination with robots (18:21) Karol’s entry point to robotics and PhD program (25:49) Combining robotics with LLMs: The Taylor Swift demo (30:48) The 1970s SHRDLU AI experiment (39:40) How research shapes what Physical Intelligence builds (49:07) The return of reinforcement learning in robotics (1:00:00) NVIDIA’s simulation engines (1:07:31) Compensating for missing senses

Mario Gabriele 🦊

27,871 views • 5 months ago

I sat down with Jordi Visser to discuss why bitcoin is the purest AI trade available in the market, breakdown of energy infrastructure, how to invest amid the government shutdown, the Fed/interest rates, and why prediction markets and tokenization are two big themes moving forward. Enjoy! YouTube: Spotify: Apple: TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 1:04 - Why bitcoin is the purest AI trade 11:43 - The impact of new energy infrastructure 16:53 - How Base Power is building a decentralized grid and other opportunities for investors 23:49 - Why retail spots themes before institutions 32:33 - Retail orange-pilling each other in public 37:25 - What is the impact of government shutdown on financial markets? 40:25 - The rise of prediction markets and tokenization 49:28 - Where to follow Jordi on the internet

I sat down with Jordi Visser to discuss why bitcoin is the purest AI trade available in the market, breakdown of energy infrastructure, how to invest amid the government shutdown, the Fed/interest rates, and why prediction markets and tokenization are two big themes moving forward. Enjoy! YouTube: Spotify: Apple: TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 1:04 - Why bitcoin is the purest AI trade 11:43 - The impact of new energy infrastructure 16:53 - How Base Power is building a decentralized grid and other opportunities for investors 23:49 - Why retail spots themes before institutions 32:33 - Retail orange-pilling each other in public 37:25 - What is the impact of government shutdown on financial markets? 40:25 - The rise of prediction markets and tokenization 49:28 - Where to follow Jordi on the internet

Anthony Pompliano 🌪

110,012 views • 11 months ago

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

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

198,835 views • 2 months ago

BREAKING: Base Power Raises $1 Billion Series D, Hitting $13 Billion Valuation & Launching "Base Core" First-of-its-Kind Home Battery Built in the USA $2.5B+ in total funding to date Co-Founder Justin Lopas (Justin Lopas) gives us a Factory 1 tour in Austin, Texas Founded in 2023, by Justin & Zach Dell (Zach Dell). Base Power designs, manufactures, & installs home batteries that back up the house & support the grid Just 10 months after their Series C, this round was led by Micky Malka's Ribbit, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, & JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group, with participation from Altimeter, D1 Capital Partners, Sands Capital, Coatue, Layer Global, & Energy Impact Partners Base’s major existing investors are re-investing, including Thrive Capital, a16z, Lightspeed, Trust Ventures, CapitalG, & more "It is so critical to bring manufacturing back to the US, especially for critical infrastructure." "It's a vertical integration thesis. We can cut down cost. We can reduce lead time. We can change the hardware much more quickly." We Cover: › Base Core, 40 kWh with a 20 kW inverter, roughly 3X a conventional home battery › Whole home backup, installed in under an hour › Fleet past 500 MWh, over 100 installs a day › 200+ MW of utility partnerships with El Paso Electric, Austin Energy, & CoServ › Factory 1 built in 6 months, targeting 4,000 units a week by year end › 100% US and Mexico supply chain › Batteries installed around data centers to offset interconnection load 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Justin Lopas, Co-Founder & COO, Base Power (01:06) Base Power raises $1B Series D (02:26) Meet Base Core (05:42) Demo: Whole-home backup in action (07:06) How Base Power's business model works (08:55) Inside Base Power's Factory (11:28) Why Base Core is 3x larger than other home batteries (12:05) Inside the manufacturing line (13:23) Can humanoid robots build batteries? (14:13) Why Base Power manufactures its own batteries (15:47) Inside the robotic assembly line (18:09) How lithium-ion batteries work (21:40) Scaling production to 4,000 units a week (22:33) Installing 100+ systems a day (23:03) COO or Electrician? (23:53) From oil rigs to Base Power

BREAKING: Base Power Raises $1 Billion Series D, Hitting $13 Billion Valuation & Launching "Base Core" First-of-its-Kind Home Battery Built in the USA $2.5B+ in total funding to date Co-Founder Justin Lopas (Justin Lopas) gives us a Factory 1 tour in Austin, Texas Founded in 2023, by Justin & Zach Dell (Zach Dell). Base Power designs, manufactures, & installs home batteries that back up the house & support the grid Just 10 months after their Series C, this round was led by Micky Malka's Ribbit, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, & JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group, with participation from Altimeter, D1 Capital Partners, Sands Capital, Coatue, Layer Global, & Energy Impact Partners Base’s major existing investors are re-investing, including Thrive Capital, a16z, Lightspeed, Trust Ventures, CapitalG, & more "It is so critical to bring manufacturing back to the US, especially for critical infrastructure." "It's a vertical integration thesis. We can cut down cost. We can reduce lead time. We can change the hardware much more quickly." We Cover: › Base Core, 40 kWh with a 20 kW inverter, roughly 3X a conventional home battery › Whole home backup, installed in under an hour › Fleet past 500 MWh, over 100 installs a day › 200+ MW of utility partnerships with El Paso Electric, Austin Energy, & CoServ › Factory 1 built in 6 months, targeting 4,000 units a week by year end › 100% US and Mexico supply chain › Batteries installed around data centers to offset interconnection load 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Justin Lopas, Co-Founder & COO, Base Power (01:06) Base Power raises $1B Series D (02:26) Meet Base Core (05:42) Demo: Whole-home backup in action (07:06) How Base Power's business model works (08:55) Inside Base Power's Factory (11:28) Why Base Core is 3x larger than other home batteries (12:05) Inside the manufacturing line (13:23) Can humanoid robots build batteries? (14:13) Why Base Power manufactures its own batteries (15:47) Inside the robotic assembly line (18:09) How lithium-ion batteries work (21:40) Scaling production to 4,000 units a week (22:33) Installing 100+ systems a day (23:03) COO or Electrician? (23:53) From oil rigs to Base Power

Molly O’Shea

961,737 views • 1 month ago

Christina Cacioppo (Christina Cacioppo) is the co-founder and CEO of Vanta, the trust management platform helping 12,000+ companies prove security and compliance. She’s scaled the company from a spreadsheet prototype to a global team of 1,000, most recently raising at a $4.15B valuation. On the Social Radars, Christina shares how she trusted her gut to make unconventional decisions, the lessons she’s learned on delegation and focus, and what it means to stay in founder mode while building one of the fastest-growing companies in SaaS. 00:25 – From Spreadsheet Prototype to Platform 02:00 – Why Security and Compliance Were Broken 04:00 – Convincing the First Customers 06:00 – Scaling to 12,000+ Companies 08:30 – Lessons on Gut Instincts & Leadership 10:30 – Raising at a $4.15B Valuation 12:00 – Staying in Founder Mode

Christina Cacioppo (Christina Cacioppo) is the co-founder and CEO of Vanta, the trust management platform helping 12,000+ companies prove security and compliance. She’s scaled the company from a spreadsheet prototype to a global team of 1,000, most recently raising at a $4.15B valuation. On the Social Radars, Christina shares how she trusted her gut to make unconventional decisions, the lessons she’s learned on delegation and focus, and what it means to stay in founder mode while building one of the fastest-growing companies in SaaS. 00:25 – From Spreadsheet Prototype to Platform 02:00 – Why Security and Compliance Were Broken 04:00 – Convincing the First Customers 06:00 – Scaling to 12,000+ Companies 08:30 – Lessons on Gut Instincts & Leadership 10:30 – Raising at a $4.15B Valuation 12:00 – Staying in Founder Mode

Y Combinator

55,711 views • 11 months ago

Very important point from Tony Dokoupil on Monday’s CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil about *why* President Trump’s decision to carry U.S. military operations in Venezuela and move Nicolas Maduro is America First... “We should not expect this to affect gas prices all that much, which does raise the question of how exactly it helps the United States, if it helps the United States at all? What is it actually about? Well, if you zoom out a bit, you can maybe see the outlines of an answer. For decades, Russia, China, and Iran have been building a presence in Venezuela, a base of power and influence in the hemisphere. With Maduro now out, that base of power and influence could be out too.”

Very important point from Tony Dokoupil on Monday’s CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil about why President Trump’s decision to carry U.S. military operations in Venezuela and move Nicolas Maduro is America First... “We should not expect this to affect gas prices all that much, which does raise the question of how exactly it helps the United States, if it helps the United States at all? What is it actually about? Well, if you zoom out a bit, you can maybe see the outlines of an answer. For decades, Russia, China, and Iran have been building a presence in Venezuela, a base of power and influence in the hemisphere. With Maduro now out, that base of power and influence could be out too.”

Curtis Houck

87,378 views • 8 months ago

"Money quantifiably is larger than AI. It's larger than food. It's larger than oil and gas. It's larger than municipal water supplies, government spending, defense. It's all of these combined." farooq 🌧 is the co-founder of Rain, a $1.95 billion company building financial infrastructure that lets businesses issue cards, extend credit, and settle payments using stablecoins instead of traditional banking rails. He believes the market for moving money is too large for any single company, including Stripe, to capture alone. (2:46) An overview of Rain and global-first financial infrastructure (18:46) The economic opportunity of a more efficient monetary system (22:06) How Farooq’s childhood as an immigrant shaped him (29:11) Lessons from Farooq’s career before founding Rain (42:18) Why Rain bet on stablecoins (54:30) Rain’s approach to hiring and management (1:05:54) Rain’s most critical mantras (1:12:30) Final meditations Thank you to the partners who make this possible Brex: The intelligent finance platform:

"Money quantifiably is larger than AI. It's larger than food. It's larger than oil and gas. It's larger than municipal water supplies, government spending, defense. It's all of these combined." farooq 🌧 is the co-founder of Rain, a $1.95 billion company building financial infrastructure that lets businesses issue cards, extend credit, and settle payments using stablecoins instead of traditional banking rails. He believes the market for moving money is too large for any single company, including Stripe, to capture alone. (2:46) An overview of Rain and global-first financial infrastructure (18:46) The economic opportunity of a more efficient monetary system (22:06) How Farooq’s childhood as an immigrant shaped him (29:11) Lessons from Farooq’s career before founding Rain (42:18) Why Rain bet on stablecoins (54:30) Rain’s approach to hiring and management (1:05:54) Rain’s most critical mantras (1:12:30) Final meditations Thank you to the partners who make this possible Brex: The intelligent finance platform:

Mario Gabriele

33,118 views • 18 days ago

Today I sit down with Steven Campisi, co-founder of Hillpointe, one of the largest developers of attainable housing in the country. Most apartment developers design a brand new building for every project. Hillpointe has built the exact same building 800 times - which creates advantages overtime that compound. That repetition plus their material and labor strategy is how Hillpointe builds across the Sun Belt for 30-40% less than everyone else. We get into their direct overseas sourcing business, how they've built their own in-house subcontractor base, how they underwrite new opportunities, the state of the market, and why they run the whole operation as a series of discretionary funds. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:58) Steven’s Three-Pronged Competitive Advantage (10:29) Prototype Building Strategy (12:39) Direct-to-Crew Labor and Why Crews Choose Hillpointe (20:02) China Sourcing Operations, Scale & Factory Relationships (25:22) Labor Market Shortages & Specialized vs. Generalist Trades (35:01) Land Acquisition Strategy & Regional Development Teams (41:12) Underwriting Deals (44:09) Achieving Investor Alignment (54:45) Fund Model vs. Traditional JV Equity (1:01:25) Raising Institutional Capital (1:09:48) Debt Structure, Supply Glut, and the Road to a 2027 Rent Rebound (1:16:09) AI and Centralizing Operations With an In-House Contact Center

Chris Powers

14,188 views • 1 month ago

Tudor Achim (Tudor Achim) is the co-founder and CEO of Harmonic, a startup working to solve one of AI’s hardest problems: mathematical reasoning. In our conversation, we explore: • Why Tudor believes math is the fundamental toolkit to understand the world • How Aristotle works and the applications beyond pure mathematics • The reinforcement learning process that lets Harmonic generate synthetic training data and solve problems humans have never attempted • Why Tudor believes AI could surpass human mathematicians on specific tasks within 2–3 years • Why the future of mathematics looks more like GitHub than academic journals Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: - Guru_HQ: The AI source of truth for work: - Rippling: Stop wasting time on admin tasks, build your startup faster: Timestamps (00:00) Intro (06:28) The mathematical foundations of music (and why Tudor keeps them separate) (12:52) Defining intelligence (22:55) The two breakthroughs that made mathematical AI possible in 2023 (35:25) An overview of Aristotle: the world’s first always-correct mathematical agent (45:34) Math in AI now and what’s next (56:02) History’s alternating rhythm of thinking and measuring (1:00:18) Final meditations

Tudor Achim (Tudor Achim) is the co-founder and CEO of Harmonic, a startup working to solve one of AI’s hardest problems: mathematical reasoning. In our conversation, we explore: • Why Tudor believes math is the fundamental toolkit to understand the world • How Aristotle works and the applications beyond pure mathematics • The reinforcement learning process that lets Harmonic generate synthetic training data and solve problems humans have never attempted • Why Tudor believes AI could surpass human mathematicians on specific tasks within 2–3 years • Why the future of mathematics looks more like GitHub than academic journals Thank you to the partners who make this possible - Brex: The intelligent finance platform: - Guru_HQ: The AI source of truth for work: - Rippling: Stop wasting time on admin tasks, build your startup faster: Timestamps (00:00) Intro (06:28) The mathematical foundations of music (and why Tudor keeps them separate) (12:52) Defining intelligence (22:55) The two breakthroughs that made mathematical AI possible in 2023 (35:25) An overview of Aristotle: the world’s first always-correct mathematical agent (45:34) Math in AI now and what’s next (56:02) History’s alternating rhythm of thinking and measuring (1:00:18) Final meditations

Mario Gabriele 🦊

17,899 views • 4 months ago

$What actually goes into a data center? Guru Chahal🇺🇸 whiteboards the entire stack - across land, power, cooling, storage, networking, compute - and shares where we're seeing the most interesting innovation + startup opportunities → Base Power: virtual power plants from residential batteries → Periodic Labs: using AI to discover new materials - ones that run cooler, conduct better, and waste less power → Nexthop AI: network switches that are 10–15% more power efficient than what's on the market → Unconventional AI: AI chips modeled after how the human brain works, targeting 100–1,000x better power efficiency → Ricursive Intelligence: AI to design chips. Today a first chip costs $100M and takes 2–3 years. They want to build in months, at a fraction of the cost → better materials → cheaper experiments → more chip designs → more efficient chips → less power → and what happens when you package all of this into a satellite and put it in orbit 🚀 As trillions of dollars of infrastructure flow into building the "AI factory", every layer of the intelligence economy is being rebuilt at once. Who are we missing? We'd love to meet if you are building somewhere on this stack.$

What actually goes into a data center? Guru Chahal🇺🇸 whiteboards the entire stack - across land, power, cooling, storage, networking, compute - and shares where we're seeing the most interesting innovation + startup opportunities → Base Power: virtual power plants from residential batteries → Periodic Labs: using AI to discover new materials - ones that run cooler, conduct better, and waste less power → Nexthop AI: network switches that are 10–15% more power efficient than what's on the market → Unconventional AI: AI chips modeled after how the human brain works, targeting 100–1,000x better power efficiency → Ricursive Intelligence: AI to design chips. Today a first chip costs $100M and takes 2–3 years. They want to build in months, at a fraction of the cost → better materials → cheaper experiments → more chip designs → more efficient chips → less power → and what happens when you package all of this into a satellite and put it in orbit 🚀 As trillions of dollars of infrastructure flow into building the "AI factory", every layer of the intelligence economy is being rebuilt at once. Who are we missing? We'd love to meet if you are building somewhere on this stack.

Claire Zau

44,724 views • 1 month ago