Best Of Tech & Startups

Most of you know Chamath Palihapitiya as one of the most prominent and progressive venture capitalists working today. But before forming Social Capital, Chamath was an early employee at a startup we've already covered, WinAmp; was the head of AOL's Instant Messenger product; and of course, was an early employee at Facebook.

Yuval Noah Harari's first book, “Sapiens,” was an international sensation. The Israeli historian's mind-bending tour through the trump of Homo sapiens is a favorite of, among others, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barack Obama. His new book, Homo Deus, is about what comes next for humanity — and the threat our own intelligence and creative capacity poses to our future. And it, too, is fantastically interesting. I've wanted to talk to Harari since reading Sapiens. I've had one big question about him: what kind of mind creates a book like that? And now I know. A clear one.

Before he turned 40, Nolan Bushnell founded two brands that permanently shaped the way Americans amuse themselves: the iconic video game system Atari, and the frenetic family restaurant Chuck E. Cheese's.

Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff, professors at Harvard Business School, spell out an overlooked career path: buying a business and running it as CEO. Purchasing a small company lets you become your own boss and reap financial rewards without the risks of founding a start-up. Still, there are things you need to know. Ruback and Yudkoff are the authors of the “HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business.”

This must be my year because I've said this a few times but this definitely one of my strongest keynotes to-date. Not only is it a massive talk but it's followed by a super strong Q&A. In this episode, I discuss the beauty of entrepreneurship, the dangers of down-playing social media, my biggest failures to-date, and why a real practitioner isn't afraid to get their hands dirty. Thanks to everyone who showed me love in Dublin !

I did this interview because I wanted to know happens when one of the most successful venture capitalists becomes a startup founder. Andy Rachleff is the founder of Benchmark Capital, whose investments include Uber, Snap, eBay, and Juniper Networks. More recently, he founded Wealthfront, the automated investment firm. It invests your money with minimal amount of work from you. Then it monitors your portfolio daily to look for opportunities to rebalance or harvest tax losses. Mixergy listeners can get their first $15K managed for free when they sign up at wealthfront.com/mixergy.

Kevin Rose talks with Elon Musk about his comics, favorite books, starting a company, and more. This is a "best of" broadcast from Kevin's Foundation series.

Imagine, for a moment, an alternative universe: One where Netflix got disrupted by some other streaming-content company that made its DVD rental business irrelevant. But that's just a counterfactual. What happened instead is that Netflix cannibalized (or rather, "hybridized") its own core business to make room for a more strategic one given where the tech was going. Given how rare it is for companies to successfully disrupt themselves like this, Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, shares how they did it in this episode of the a16z Podcast (based on a conversation with Marc Andreessen that took place at our inaugural summit event). But please don't say "only the paranoid survive" -- Hastings believes business leaders need more sophisticated metaphors "to anticipate the paths, and all the judgment it takes, of deciding which competitive path to most explore". It also turns out that sourcing, managing, and supporting creative ideas and creators is not unlike the questions VCs ask themselves -- like figuring out just how much experience first-time entrepreneurs (or directors) need when creating something (like, say, "Stranger Things"). Finally, is there a "Netflix brand" or genre of content -- and if so, just how far can you stretch it so the same brand can produce something like "Orange Is the New Black" one day and then "Fuller House" the next day? Or are we entering an "era of mass customization" where we only see content suited to our interests -- dark and dystopian if that's your thing, sunny and funny if not? How is the industry ecosystem evolving; where do telcos, Silicon Valley, Hollywood fit in? All this and more in this episode.

Technology companies have become a powerful way to build the future. Our goal with this series is to share advice about how you can do it, too.

As an angel investor, as a founder, and as host of 700+ episodes of TWiST, Jason constantly receives questions from founders and superfans. Today, he answers 15 -- from how to passively support viable startups if you have a day job to best fundraising advice, from how much confidentiality founders should expect, to tips for female entrepreneurs to successfully navigate the tricky waters of owning and running a company in a male-dominated landscape. Plus, find out some of Jason's investment strategies to choosing winners to invest in. This is only the first of two parts, so stay tuned for much more.

Ben and James discuss Mark Zuckerberg's manifesto, the problem with regulation, and why Facebook needs exactly that.

Peter Diamandis is the founder of the XPRIZE Foundation and co-author of Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World and Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think The Cheat Sheet: What does the future hold for human longevity, space colonization, artificial intelligence, and beyond? How can we adapt -- individually and as a society -- to deal with increased automation in the workforce? What is linear thinking and why does it cause us to miss the mark when coping with technology, innovation, and the advancement of the human race? If you don't know your calling in life, your calling in life is to discover what that is. What experiments can kids curious about science do that won't get them put on a no-fly list for the foreseeable future?

The hardest thing about pivots (major shifts in company/product direction) isn't just the actual pivot. It's the courage to make the decision... and being honest with yourself as a CEO. Especially since, no matter how great the team or board or even customers may be, it's lonely: You're the only one in the position to synthesize the knowledge; nobody else has the data and the insight put together in the same way. And sigh, "pivot" has also become such an overused word, it's certainly lost nuance, and perhaps even meaning. So what does "pivoting" a startup really mean? For decision making? Timing (or time left until you run out of cash)? Culture? Are things different for so-called “hard tech” or deep research-based startups? Finally, how do you know when things are working, that you really do have product-market fit? a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz and Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal discuss (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) all this and more in this episode of the a16z podcast, sharing war stories and lessons learned. Both witnessed first-hand -- and drove -- pivots: Jason watching Ben at Loudcloud/Opsware post-IPO, and conversely, Ben watching Jason at Lytro. Maybe, all startups -- and ultimately, successful companies -- are really just a series of pivots...

Bloomberg Tech journalist Brad Stone talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his latest book, "The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World." Stone argues that the stories of Uber and Airbnb are intertwined tales of competition, disruption and regulatory drama, and that both companies have driven CEOs who have found tremendous success despite several early missteps. Stone calls self-driving cars an "existential crisis" for Uber, and also talks about the future of Amazon, which he wrote about in his previous book, "The Everything Store." Stone says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos might have a business problem under President Trump, as Bezos is also the owner of The Washington Post.

Adam Robinson has made a lifelong study of outflanking and outsmarting the competition. He is a rated chess master who was awarded a Life Title by the United States Chess Federation. As a teenager, he was personally mentored by Bobby Fischer in the 18 months leading up to his winning the world championship. Then, in his first career, he developed a revolutionary approach to taking standardized tests as one of the two original co-founders of The Princeton Review. His paradigm-breaking -- or "category killing," as they say in publishing -- test-prep book, The SAT: Cracking the System, is the only test-prep book ever to have become a New York Times bestseller. After selling his interest in The Princeton Review, Adam turned his attention in the early '90s to the then-emerging field of artificial intelligence, developing a program that could analyze text and provide human-like commentary. He was later invited to join a well-known quant fund to develop statistical trading models, and since, he has established himself as an independent global macro advisor to the chief investment officers of a select group of the world's most successful hedge funds and family offices. In his spare time, he's also become pen pals with Warren Buffett.

Filmed at the Upfront Summit 2017, Jason sits down with legendary entrepreneur-turned-investor, Vinod Khosla. In 1980, Vinod co-founded Daisy Systems, the first significant computer-aided design system for electrical engineers. In 1982, he made his early fortune as one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, and in 1987, he switched gears to join the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he gained huge recognition and appreciation as a venture capitalist. He is also widely known for launching Juniper Networks, a company which is believed to be the next Cisco. Currently, he is the founder of Khosla Ventures, a firm focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build impactful new energy and technology companies. Join us as Vinod Khosla shares his inspiring story of mistakes, lessons learned, and advice for entrepreneurs building technology-based businesses.

Thanks to freeways, cities became something to get through instead of something to get to. Now, as the next transportation revolution -- from rivers to trains to cars to autonomous cars -- promises to change the face of our cities, what happens to car culture, infrastructure, and more? Who owns what, who pays? And what about the design -- and product management -- challenges, whether it's designing for user trust, city adoption, or an ever-moving target thanks to constantly evolving tech? This episode of the podcast (in conversation with Sonal) covers all this and more, featuring: a16z's Frank Chen, who recently shared 16 questions about autonomous cars; Taggart Matthiesen, director of product at Lyft who covers the core platform as well as development/strategy for autonomous vehicles; and Carl Pope, former executive director and chairman of the Sierra Club -- and author (with former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg) of the upcoming book Climate of Hope: How Cities Businesses and Citizens Can Save the Planet. Will curb space be the new shelf space? When we value the "iPhone-ness" over the "carness" of cars, what changes? And... will we all drive less, walk more?

This Week In Startups: Sam Harris, “Waking Up” host, on dawn of A.I. & Trump's lies – PART 1 by Best Of Tech & Startups

Would it surprise you to learn that 1800Flowers was not only one of the first ecommerce pioneers but quite possibly, the first to be profitable in a meaningful way? You wouldn't be surprised if you knew the story of 1800Flowers and its founder, Jim McCann. Today we speak with Jim to hear that story, to learn about a company that was fearless in trying any new thing that came along... so long as it brought them closer to their customers. And, since Jim has been at this for quite a while, toward the end, he also tells us where he thinks commerce—in general—is going.

"Punch above your weight" -- If there's one thing public relations (PR) should help startups and founders do, it's that. Unfortunately, some companies are actually punching below their weight when there's a strong company, founder, product ... yet nobody knows about let alone talks about you. Or worse, someone else defines you first. Or you just become a hype machine.

In this episode of Noah Kagan Presents I break down my formula for creating new business ideas. By simply recognizing the things you want, you're guaranteed to always have at least one customer and that's you. I also break down and debunk 3 common myths of “The Wantrepreneur” and give you a better way to start.

In 2008, it was nearly impossible to buy a fashionable, affordable pair of glasses online. That simple frustration inspired the idea behind Warby Parker – and disrupted the eyewear industry.

This was a blast of an interview I did when I was out in London for my book tour. In these 20 minutes we cover a lot, including media agencies, my thoughts on rebates, and even English "football" :) But in all seriousness, we discuss VaynerMedia's expansion plans, our move into London, media rebate investigations, and a bunch more.

Recode Decode - Social media makes us miserable (Tim Ferriss, author, "Tools of Titans") by Best Of Tech & Startups

As a kid, Cathy Hughes practiced her DJ routine while her siblings banged on the bathroom door. As an adult, she founded Radio One, the country's largest African-American owned broadcasting company.

For this episode of Secrets for Scaling, we spoke with Larry Kim, Founder & CEO of Wordstream, the leading industry provider of search marketing management software and services. Wordstream sees a compound yearly revenue growth rate and has more than doubled revenue every year on average since 2011. They earned $30 million in revenue in 2016 alone!

How quickly will robots disrupt global industries and what will the implications be? We explore with economist Andrew McAfee at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Also, neuroscientists often compare the human brain to a computer chip, so what happened when the idea was put into practice?

The Tim Ferris Show - Arnold Schwarzenegger Part 2! Bodybuilding, Investing, And Online Battles by Best Of Tech & Startups

The Startup Chat - Founders Dilemma: How to Make Decisions When All Options Suck by Best Of Tech & Startups

The Ezra Klein Show: You Ask, Ezra Answers by Best Of Tech & Startups

Debrief by Bloomberg: Obama wants to start a business after office? by Best Of Tech & Startups

Recode Decode: Doctors should think like mechanics (Othman Laraki, CEO, Color) by Best Of Tech & Startups

A16z Podcast: How To Be Original And Make Big Ideas Happen by Best Of Tech & Startups

Exponent: Fate Has a Sense of Irony by Best Of Tech & Startups

Freakonomics Radio: How to Be More Productive (Rebroadcast) by Best Of Tech & Startups

How I Built This: David Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal, Warby Parker by Best Of Tech & Startups

Growth Everywhere - How Canva Grew From 1K To 10M Users Without Paid Advertising by Best Of Tech & Startups

The Top Entrepreneurs: B2B SaaS DiscoverOrg Passes $70M ARR with CEO Henry Schuck by Best Of Tech & Startups

The Twenty Minute VC: Parker Thompson, Partner @ AngelList by Best Of Tech & Startups

Recode Replay: Jim VandeHei, founder, Axios (Code Media 2016) by Best Of Tech & Startups

Startup Podcast: Dov Charney - Anger (Season 4, Episode 9) by Best Of Tech & Startups

App Guy Podcast : Dmitry Dragilev - How To Get Free Press for Your App Startup by Best Of Tech & Startups

Tim Ferriss: Testing The "Impossible"- 17 Questions That Changed My Life by Best Of Tech & Startups

VB Engage: Alexis Ohanian, Reddit's influence, and predicting the future by Best Of Tech & Startups

The Ezra Klein Show: Stripe CEO Patrick Collison on management, rationalism, and the enlightenment by Best Of Tech & Startups

Recode Decode: Vic Gundotra - Wearables can save your life by Best Of Tech & Startups

How I Built This: Mark Cuban by Best Of Tech & Startups

A16z: Old Food, New Tech -- 'Clean Meat' by Best Of Tech & Startups

Recode Replay: Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn (Code Enterprise 2016) by Best Of Tech & Startups

Recode Replay: Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce (Code Enterprise 2016) by Best Of Tech & Startups

Startup: Dov Charney by Best Of Tech & Startups