Index Audio

After dominating mobile app charts for the past 10 years, Ilkka Paananen (Co-Founder & CEO, Supercell) and Sebastian Knutsson (Co-founder & former CCO, King) reflect on their learnings and share perspectives on operating in today's environment of remote work, Web3, and new form factors.

Games are the new shopping mall. It's where friends interact with one another, discussing all sorts of topics regardless of whether or not they relate to the game itself. Elizabeth Hamren (COO, Discord) and Nick Fajt (Co-Founder & CEO, Rec Room) discuss how games have evolved to fit this need, the differences between social gaming platforms and incumbent social media platforms, and what problems need to be addressed as gaming emerges as the future forum for socialization.

At their best, games become a home for players to experience and express themselves for years on end. But what makes a great game great? Soner Aydemir (Co-Founder & CEO, Dream Games) and Jenova Chen (CEO, ThatGameCompany) discuss how to approach game design, find your target audience, and create memorable and enduring game experiences.

'Ready Player One' set the stage for the Metaverse in 2011 and we're now on the cusp of realizing that future… or has it already arrived? Daniel Sturman (CTO, Roblox) joins Caroline Hyde (Co-Host, Bloomberg TV) to discuss all things Metaverse; whether it already exists through Roblox today, what challenges lie ahead as it becomes more prevalent, and how it will augment future interactions.

Fortnite isn't available on the App Store… but you can still play it on your phone today? With new services from Xbox, PlayStation, Amazon, and NVIDIA, as well as an M&A race to own the best gaming content, it's clear that cloud gaming has finally arrived. Maneet Khaira (Co-Founder & CEO, Backbone) shares his perspective on how gameplay is evolving and why the next decade of gaming will be defined by the cloud.

The past couple of years have shown both tremendous growth and highlighted tailwinds for blockchain gaming. Ryan Wyatt (CEO, Polygon Studios) and Jeff "Jiho" Zirlin (Co-Founder, Sky Mavis) join Dean Takahashi (Lead Writer, GamesBeat) to discuss the merits of blockchain gaming, how to operate in today's dynamic market, and their predictions for the future of this segment.

Perry Klebahn & Jeremy Utley from the Stanford d.school join us on this episode of Hands On to talk shop and unpack big ideas on all things creative.  This fall, they'll be launching a new book called ‘Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters,' which encourages the proactive practice of exercising creative muscles so that the very best ideas can rise to the surface.  In this thought-provoking episode, we go deep into the concept of cross-pollination and cover several other strategies to employ the ‘dumb things' that geniuses just so happen to do.  Perry and Jeremy aren't just thought leaders – they're idea experts.  Tune in and get a head-start untapping the creative juices while we excitedly await the book's forthcoming release.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode resources:Get in touch with Perry Klebahn on LinkedinGet in touch with Jeremy Utley on Twitter and LinkedinIdeaflow:  The Only Business Metric That MattersStanford d.schoolLaunchpad AcceleratorRadical Candor: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You MeanFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Dylan Munro is a Canadian Harvard graduate, charades enthusiast and the COO of Spot & Tango, an innovative dog food company promoting healthy, happy canines.  Before striving to solve the pet health crisis, Dylan worked on diverse projects at McKinsey in a quest to find his true passion until he met Russell Breuer, CEO of Spot & Tango.  In this episode, Dylan shares his secrets for not taking himself too seriously, building a scrappy leading company and finding small but meaningful ways of sticking out in a crowded market. Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode resources:Get in touch with Dylan on LinkedInSpot & TangoFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Aaron Katz is the CEO of ClickHouse, Inc.  Before building his own company, he walked a remarkable path working at Salesforce for more than ten years, helping the brand become what it is today.  In this episode of Hands On, we talk about the main virtues of the open-source model and its challenges for the future.  Aaron shares what it was like for him to build trust with his co-founders and how each founder's profile and experience contributes to the secret sauce behind ClickHouse's success.  Tune into this conversation where we delve into how crafting a sales narrative for an enterprise software company is very different today than it was five years ago. Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships. Episode resources:Get in touch with Aaron Katz on LinkedinClickHouseFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Inès Cheaib is the Chief Operating Officer at Gaia, a groundbreaking insurance company that combines reproductive health data with financial technology to make fertility treatments more accessible, affordable and individualized.  In this episode of Hands On, we talk about the issues that Gaia is trying to solve, how being a COO is a uniquely broad role and the challenge of innovating and structuring insurance products that have never been measured before.  Tune in and learn why fertility insurance should matter to everyone.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode Resources:Get in touch with Inès Cheaib on Twitter and LinkedinGaia FamilyFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Sophie Adelman is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Garden, a community for the curious that enables anyone, anywhere to access the world's experts and leading academics that are shaping tomorrow.  In this episode, Sophie shares the experiences and lessons that led to the creation of this innovative online learning platform, as well as the process for selecting the experts who participate in it.  She also talks about what it was like to be part of Multiverse (formerly known as WhiteHat) and shares valuable advice for people looking to expand their own professional network.  If you're a part of the ‘incurably curious' camp, join us for this episode of Hands On.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode resources:Get in touch with Sophie Adelman on Twitter and LinkedinThe GardenFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Hanna McPhee was the first employee at Fellow Products, a design-driven coffee brand.  She built the entire brand from the ground up, with a special focus on developing beautiful products that are also extremely functional.  In this episode of Hands On, Hanna shares some insights to understand and master the middle ground between brand and product design, as well as the incubation process of creativity, the three levels of emotional design and the value of the things learned almost through osmosis in certain work environments.  Join us and learn from this mastermind marketer behind the Fellow Products brand.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode resources:Get in touch with Hanna McPhee on LinkedinHanna McPhee - Early Stage MarketerEmotional Design by Don NormanFellow ProductsFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab

James Ruben is the Founder and CEO of Hellosaurus, an award-winning interactive kids media platform where children learn by doing, not just watching.  In this episode of Hands On, James explains why he decided to create this platform (which some refer to as the next-gen Sesame Street) as well as the unique challenges of building a content business for children.  He also describes how Hellosaurus thrives in a special place that provides both valuable education and meaningful entertainment.  Join us and discover how James and his team at Hellosaurus are revamping the world of kids media.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode resources:Get in touch with James Ruben on Twitter and LinkedinHellosaurus - WebsiteFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Emilie Schario is the Data Strategist in Residence at Amplify Partners – and also happens to be one of those people somehow able to fit 26 hours into a 24-hour day.  In this episode of Hands On, Emilie talks with Bryan about leadership, data, community, forging your own path and finding comfort within the chaos.  She also explains why the most useful data isn't really data at all, but rather the context in which it exists.  On top of all that, Emily shares great insight on growing a proactive mindset inside a team.  Join us on this episode of Hands On to uncover some truly expert perspectives on data analytics and community building.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  Episode resources:Get in touch with Emilie Schario on Twitter and LinkedinAmplify Partners - WebsiteFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Clare McClintock is the Director of Operations Strategy at Brex, an innovative FinTech company offering a full suite of financial services for a wide range of growing businesses.  In this episode of Hands On, Clare talks about her professional journey from Goldman Sachs to Brex as well as the challenges she encountered as the company rapidly scaled over the past few years.  Tune in and discover everything about Brex brand culture and the growth mindset that's enabled them to become a highly successful startup at such an accelerated pace.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.  

John Gleeson is the VP of Customer Success at Motive.  He also runs the Customer Success meetup in San Francisco, so it's no surprise that he's extremely passionate about building meaningful relationships.  In this episode of Hands On, John shares some of the lessons that have presented themselves throughout his varied life experience and how he's applied those learnings to building teams, communities and larger group organizations.  Join us and get to know John's open attitude towards growth and how he paid for his MBA by creating a hockey school for adults.Hands On gives listeners an authentic look at how startup leaders drive success, growth and strategy.  The conversations are relaxed and sincere, offering an invaluable glimpse of what's 'under the hood' – and what it takes to excel in spaces that tend to be uncharted.  In each episode, our esteemed guests speak freely about the challenges, breakthroughs and lessons learned that have shaped their growth both personally and professionally.  Like picking something up and examining it from all angles, with Hands On we look closely at what it takes to build companies, careers and relationships.   Episode resources:Get in touch with John Gleeson on Twitter and LinkedinSF Customer Success MeetupMotiveFollow Index Ventures on Linkedin, Twitter and TikTokThank you for listening to Hands On, brought to you by Index Ventures.  Don't hesitate to follow our hosts Molly and Bryan on social media to know more about them.  If you enjoyed this show, please like, share and leave a review to help us reach new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco.  Our Producer is Justin Berardi and Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.  Editing and music provided by nodalab.

Index Partner Mike Volpi and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman talk robots and the apocalypse.

Index Partner Nina Achadijan interviews Ameet Bendov, the Co-Founder & CEO of Gong about his journey building the company and his advice for future entrepreneurs.

What are the practical aspects of AI? Index's Erin Price-Wright speaks with Alexandr Wang, Founder of Scale AI, Anima Anandkumar, Director of ML Research, NVIDIA and Martin Chavez, Sixth Street Partners.

Today, we are privileged to have Cade Metz join us. Cade is a reporter at the New York Times, and covers artificial intelligence and machine learning, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality, and other emerging areas. Before the New York Times, he was a reporter at Wired. Cade has written what we think is one of the seminal books in AI called The Genius Makers, which is the story of the emergence of AI, from the 1950s to today. In the process of writing this book, he had conversations with some of the brightest and most capable people in the world of AI. He's joining us to share some of the narrative and what he's learned through the process of writing.

Mehran Sahami is a professor in the computer science department at Stanford University, and the Associate chair for education. Prior to this, he was a senior research scientist at Google.Adam Wenchel is the CEO at Arthur. He started his career at Darpa and worked at a number of tech companies. His last startup was acquired by Capital One where he built and led the AI team. This put him on a path to founding Arthur, which is a company that is a platform for monitoring AI performance. Forbes Technology writer Jonathan Vanian leads Mehran & Adam through a fascinating discussion about AI & Ethics.

“We're building robots that swim like fish and move like turtles. Robots that brush your hair, robots that pack your groceries, and can reason that you shouldn't put milk on top of lettuce. Robots that can recycle, robotic pills that enable incision free surgeries. In each of these examples, we have to think about the body of the robot, we have to think about the brain of the robot, and what is the interaction between the robot and the users.” - Daniela RusHear about the latest advances in robotics from those working in the forefront of the field.Daniela Rus is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Her research spans across all of robotics, everything from soft surface robotics, to human robot interactions, to autonomous driving. Pieter Abeel is the Director of the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab and Co-director of the Berkeley AI Research Lab at the University of California. Pieter is also the co-founder of Covariant.ai, which looks to bring some of the research that he's been doing with his group at Berkeley to real world applications in fulfillment centers and beyond. He's also the host of the Robot Brains podcast.Daniela & Pieter are interviewed by Index's Bryan Offutt.“In academia, robotics is about emphasizing novelty. It's about going places we've never been before….. But for companies that bring robotics into the real world, the real challenge is about achieving really high reliability.” - Pieter Abeel 

“This is a really powerful conceptual shift from how we have been using computing technology for the past many decades.” - Kevin Scott, CTO, Microsoft“I'm excited to see 2022 become the year where NLP goes from being this incredibly promising glimpse of the future to a technology which we depend on for lots of things.” - Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAILearn about current advances and limitations of natural language processing from those working at the edge of the field today. Bryan Walsh, The editor of Future Perfect at Vox.com interviews Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which brought the world the GPT-3 Model and Kevin Scott, the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft.  1:30 - What are Sam & Kevin expecting in NLP from 2022?4:00 - In which areas will AI tooling become an integral part of workflows? How are people using it today for search, copy generation, automated A/B testing, classification and more.7:00 - Why coding was a great place to start with NLP and which areas it will go to next including graphic design & historical research.9:30 - How do we go beyond text towards multi-modal models?12:00 - How much specialisation is needed?16:00 - Democratising AI technology and why OpenAI partnered with Microsoft.18:50 - Preventing technology from being misused.23:00 - What will change as we move closer to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?26:00 - How do we get stakeholders across the board to participate in the conversation?29:00 - What will it be like to interact with these models in a decade's time? “In 2032 It will feel not that you are talking to your smartest friend- but rather that you are talking to thousands of smart friends that are domain experts, working at superhuman speed.” - Sam  Altman“People want some version of the Star Trek computer.” - Sam Altman

Guests: *Jason Citron*, Co-Founder & CEO, Discord *Danny Rimer*, Partner, Index Ventures With over 4 billion people on the internet, you can take just about any niche – weird black-and-white artwork, crochet cat dolls, candy commercials from the noughties – and it will be huge. In this conversation between Danny Rimer, senior partner at Index Ventures, and Jason Citron, co-founder and CEO of Discord, the pair discuss how the company became the ‘town square' for creators and their fans to come together, and what Discord has done to avoid the division and polarisation that plagues much of the internet. Jason starts by talking about the unexpected path Discord took from a platform primarily about friends meeting before and after games, to a place where people could join communication channels known as ‘servers' to explore their shared interest in everything from TV shows to music. Over 150 million people use Discord every month, with millions of servers made by creators and their audiences. Jason goes on to talk about the surprising importance of voice chat as something that strikes a balance between rich emotional texture and high attentional demands. Danny moves the conversation onto Discord's unusually exacting – and refreshing – approach to community moderation, and Jason admits his lack of premonition in the early days about the success of the business. He goes on to note the convergence between fans' desire to support and be closer to creators on the one hand, and on the other, the move away from advertising and towards direct payments for creators. Jason concludes with how Kanye West has used Discord to give fans a greater say over his creative process, and offers some remarks about the truly global spread of Discord's users.

Guests: *Sima Gandhi*, Co-Founder & CEO, Creative Juice *James Berdigans*, Co-Founder & CEO, Printify *Andrew Lipp*, Co-Founder & CEO, EQL *Harry Stebbings*, Founder, 20VC *Mark Goldberg*, Index Ventures (Moderator) While the tools for making and distributing media across the internet have been around for a while, the financial and digital infrastructure required to make money from online creativity is only just emerging. As the ‘creator-as-business' model gains momentum, hear from some of the most thoughtful and engaged voices now pushing for the maturation of the creator economy.

Guests: *Alex Zaccaria*, Co-Founder and CEO, Linktree *Jim Shepherd*, Head of Talent Partnerships, Snap *Alex Masmej*, Co-Founder & CEO, Showtime *Kudzi Chikumbu*, Director of Creator Community, TikTok *Georgia Stevenson*, Index Ventures (Moderator) The world is more connected than ever, enabling us to express ourselves in new and different ways. On the internet, we find belonging and we build communities. Here, we discuss how online identity has evolved over time, how different platforms work to shape digital identity, and what we can observe from salient Gen Z behaviors across platforms.

Guests: *Phillip Wang*, Co-Founder & CEO of Gather,*Devin Finzer* Co-Founder & CEO of OpenSea, *Nick Fajt* Co-Founder & CEO of Rec Room and Sarah Cannon, Index Ventures. We're spending more time than ever interacting and transacting online. And in the future, we'll spend much of our lives—for work and for play—in immersive virtual environments and robust digital economies. This is the future of work and the future of entertainment, combining key gaming, crypto, and media. Sarah Cannon, partner at Index Ventures, raises the question of what the metaverse should look like from a first-principles perspective. Phillip Wang, co-founder and CEO of Gather, which allows communities to come together online, observes the prospects for a metaverse that doesn't merely mimic ‘real life' experiences, but in some cases can go beyond them, with new kinds of social encounters and forms of belonging. Nick Fajt, the co-founder and CEO of RecRoom, where players can build and play games together, talks about his company's desire to cater to people's creative need to ‘affect' the world around them – something that's been lacking in many virtual environments up to now. Devin Finzer, the co-founder and CEO of NFT marketplace OpenSea, notes that the frontier technologies driving the metaverse – AI, VR and crypto – all have early adopter traction but are only just on the cusp of an exponential growth curve. The group turns to the question of what will ‘mainstream' the metaverse in order to move it from novelty to necessity; what new jobs it will create; how it could hypercharge digital network effects; and what we can do to ensure the ‘dystopian' representations of the metaverse in literature aren't born out in reality.

In the realm of modern technology, it doesn't get more exciting than self-driving vehicles. Aurora is the only successful independent company in this business. The team has remained focused on building the Aurora Driver, partnering with existing leaders (Toyota, Uber, Volvo, Paccar, and more) for the other pieces of the puzzle. Chris shares the advantages of relying on partners to bring that technology to market, noting “we'll actually be able to build a better product and we'll end up actually having a better business and have a bigger impact on the world because of that.” What Aurora has been able to achieve in the self-driving space is remarkable. Index partner Mike Volpi sits down with Chris to discuss Aurora's unique approach to self-driving, the outlook on the industry, and how the company keeps people focused when solving such a complex, long-term problem. In Chris's words, “it's been an incredible adventure and we're only just at the beginning.”

Guests: The Chainsmokers' *Alex Pall*, TikTok Creator, *Josh Richards*, YouTuber, *Shelby Church*, Twitch Streamer, *Youna aka Codemiko* and Index's *Rex Woodbury*. How can you ‘make it' as a creator? In this conversation, hear from some of the pioneering artists in today's digital economy about how they built up their audience from scratch, the roadblocks they encountered along the way, and the strategies they used to overcome them. Principal at Index Ventures Rex Woodbury begins by asking about Gen Z's shifting expectations about work and why life as a creator appeals to them. Josh Richards, a creator and entrepreneur who's amassed 24 million followers on TikTok, talks about the role of the pandemic and the rejection of the ‘9-to-5' desk job. Youna (otherwise known by her ‘virtual avatar' name, CodeMiko) moves on to ‘Vtubing', self-expression and the relationship between monetisation and community engagement, before Shelby Church discusses why it's easier than ever before to make money on YouTube. The conversation progresses to how creators can build a massive audience on one platform and then re-direct it to another – something that both Josh and Alex Pall, the entrepreneur and member of the DJ duo The Chainsmokers, have considerable experience in. Finally the group considers the tailwinds that are reorienting artists towards maintaining greater control and ownership over their creativity, and they discuss the new tools and businesses yet to be built that will help reduce the pain-points for the next generation of creators.

The Renaissance was humanity's zenith of creativity, art, and expression. Today, we're entering a second Renaissance—a digital Renaissance. Paula Findlen is the world's preeminent expert on the Renaissance. She speaks with Index partner Sarah Cannon on parallels between the Renaissance and our modern, technology-driven creator economy.

This week, Index partner Danny Rimer speaks to Farfetch founder José Neves.Farfetch is the world's biggest online marketplace for independent fashion boutiques. Jose founded Farfetch in Porto and London in 2007 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018.Danny & Jose discuss Farfetch and its global journey, what Formula 1 has in common with entrepreneurship, entering the US via a partnership and much more.Thank you for listening to DestinationUSA from Index Ventures. This is the last episode in our series that explored how Europe's leading entrepreneurs and operators expanded their businesses to the US. If you missed any of the episodes you can go back and listen to the stories of Spotify, Adyen, Nexthink, Collibra, Codat, ComplyAdvantage, Peanut, Wise & more.For more about how to expand your tech startup to the US, you can check out our handbook here.

In this episode, Index's VP Insights, Dominic Jacquesson speaks with Trustpilot founder, Peter Holten Mühlmann.Peter founded Trustpilot in Denmark in 2007 with a vision to create an independent currency of trust. Trustpilot hosts over 120 million consumer reviews and has 700 employees (23% of whom are in the US). Over the last thirteen years, Peter has led Trustpilot from a small Danish startup to an international, multi million-dollar company which just listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2021. Peter shares how Trustpilot got started in Denmark and his approach of expanding across Europe before taking on the US. The conversation covers the dynamics of raising money, distributed leadership, cultural differences between the US and Denmark and much more.

Pedro and Peter share their experiences of relocating to the US. They discuss the East vs West Coast, the impact on hiring senior leadership, relocating during COVID, family life and building US networks.Pedro founded Nexthink in 2004 in Lausanne (Switzerland) which is still the main engineering and product hub. He relocated to Boston in March 2020. Here's a case study of Nexthink's US expansion. Pete founded Codat in  2017 in London to connect the internal systems of small businesses to banks, fintechs and other financial institutions. He relocated to New York in 2020 to lead the company's US expansion. 

In this episode, Michelle, Christian and Joe talk marketing in the US. They cover branding as a universal human truth, the role of PR, changing tactics for the US market, breakthrough moments and more.Michelle is the founder of Peanut, which is the first social network for women to build strong ties from the moment they consider motherhood - enabling women at similar life stages to connect.Christian is the founder of Pitch, a software technology company started in January 2018 in Berlin, which is building a new platform for presentations and content collaboration for individuals and teams.Joe is the former GM US of Wise and was also the Global Head of Marketing and Comms. Wise was launched in 2011 with the vision of making international money transfers cheap, fair, and simple.

How can European tech companies attract and hire the best US talent?Today we have two guests with two different perspectives; one a founder of a European startup who relocated to Silicon Valley, the other, a corporate executive who joined a European startup post Series B.Nicolas Dessaigne is co-founder and former CEO of Algolia, a Y-Combinator backed, AI search and discovery platform founded in Paris.Elizabeth Bramlage is an American executive who led US marketing for Swedish startup Klarna and is now Chief Marketing Officer of ComplyAdvantage, a British born anti financial crime AI platform.Journalist Soheb Panja leads us through the conversation where Nicolas and Elizabeth discuss hiring wrong, builders vs scalers, why a US A-player would join a European startup, Y Combinator, evaluating candidates, cultural differences, giving feedback and much more.To learn more about how European companies approach US expansion, you can read our guide here. 

How did Adyen achieve spectacular global success while anchored in Amsterdam? Index's Jan Hammer speaks to Adyen's founder Pieter van der Does to discuss what it takes for a European fintech to take on the US market.Adyen is a payments company that allows merchants to accept e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale payments. Pieter founded Adyen in 2006 and it listed on Euronext in 2018.Jan and Pieter talk about how being a second time founder nuanced Pieter's approach, the journey from Boston to San Francisco to New York, Adyen's approach to culture and how Pieter thinks about building a company for the long term.

When and how should European enterprise software startups target the US? Today, Index's VP Insights, Dominic Jacquesson speaks with Collibra founder, Felix Van de Maele about what it takes to succeed in the US.Collibra builds data intelligence cloud products and was founded in Brussels in 2008 by Felix and his co-founders. It has now become one of Europe's most successful software companies with over 700 employees globally.  Half the workforce, and almost all the leadership is now in the US. Engineering, however, remains almost entirely in EuropeDominic & Felix cover the end-to-end story of how Collibra succeeded in the US, talking about risk taking, finding and following your first customers and the importance of leading with a mixture of humility and high conviction.To read more, check out Collibra's case study in our Expanding to the US handbook.

How did Spotify expand to the US and what did Daniel Ek learn along the way?Today, Index's Danny Rimer speaks with Daniel Ek, the CEO and founder of Spotify. Spotify is the world's most popular audio streaming subscription service with more than 350 million users and 155 million subscribers.Danny and Daniel talk about their 16-year history, the contrasting cultures of the US and Sweden, Spotify's delayed entry to the US, and Daniel's mindset and personal growth journey, alongside Spotify's US expansion. They also talk about Daniel's investments with Prima Materia and his vision for Europe.If you want to read more about Spotify's US expansion, check out the case study in our Expanding to the US handbook. 

Stay tuned for the launch of our first episode!In the meanwhile, to learn more about US expansion, check out our guide. It's the most extensive research conducted on this topic and includes analysis of 353 VC-backed startups that have expanded into the US over the last 10 years.