Podcasts about craft ventures

In this episode, Andrew is joined by Jesse Buckingham, CEO and cofounder of Vooma. Jesse studied law and economics at the University of Sydney and got his MBA from Stanford. Before Vooma, he was CEO at ASG LogisTech, whose businesses included Trucker Tools, Record360, e-Courier, and PackageRoute. He was also a consultant at Bain & Company.Now, Jesse's leading the Vooma team in building AI tools that will automate the shipment lifecycle and help brokerage teams enhance productivity and reduce opex. Vooma recently raised $13M in Series A funding led by Craft Ventures, on top of a $3.6M seed round led by Index Ventures, with support from founders and execs at companies like Motive, Project44, Ryder, and Uber Freight. Andrew and Jesse cover:How to motivate teams, lead with passion, and build trust when you're not the founder.The greatest challenges around addressing and automating manual processes in logistics. How AI tools like Vooma will reinvent the way brokerages run their internal operations. The future of hiring for the skills required to thrive in an AI-driven environment.The artful balance of building an innovative, new business with having a newborn at home.Follow The Freight Pod and host Andrew Silver on LinkedIn.***Episode brought to you by Rapido Solutions Group. I had the pleasure of working with Danny Frisco and Roberto Icaza at Coyote, as well as being a client of theirs more recently at MoLo. Their team does a great job supplying nearshore talent to brokers, carriers, and technology providers to handle any role necessary, be it customer or carrier support, back office, or tech services.***

This Day in Legal History: 13th Amendment RatifiedOn December 6, 1865, the United States formally abolished slavery with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. This historic amendment declared that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Its passage marked the culmination of decades of abolitionist struggle and the bloody Civil War, which had torn the nation apart over the issue of human bondage. The amendment was first passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, but required ratification by three-fourths of the states to become law. This final step was achieved when Georgia, the 27th state needed for approval, ratified it. Although President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing slaves in Confederate-held territories, the 13th Amendment went further by permanently outlawing slavery throughout the entire country, including states loyal to the Union.The amendment also laid the groundwork for subsequent constitutional changes aimed at achieving racial equality, including the 14th and 15th Amendments. However, it was not the end of systemic racial oppression. In the years that followed, practices like sharecropping and the rise of "Black Codes" sought to perpetuate the subjugation of African Americans. The amendment's exception clause—allowing involuntary servitude as punishment for crimes—also became a basis for exploitative practices in the penal system, with effects still debated today.Nevertheless, the ratification of the 13th Amendment remains a cornerstone of American history, symbolizing the nation's legal commitment to freedom and human dignity. It was a monumental step in the ongoing journey toward civil rights and justice in the United States.The U.S. Supreme Court is examining United States v. Miller, a case involving the IRS and a bankruptcy trustee, which centers on whether sovereign immunity allows the IRS to keep payments made by a company before bankruptcy. The dispute arose from All Resort Group Inc.'s payment of $145,000 to cover its directors' personal tax debts three years prior to its bankruptcy filing. The trustee argues these payments were fraudulent transfers since the company was insolvent at the time, and the IRS should return the funds like any other creditor.Justices across ideological lines expressed skepticism of the IRS's claim that state fraudulent transfer laws and extended lookback periods, typically used by bankruptcy trustees, are inapplicable due to sovereign immunity. Justice Kavanaugh warned that reversing lower court rulings in favor of the trustee could enable fraud by allowing debtors to misuse company funds while shielding the IRS from clawback actions.The IRS maintains that the trustee's actions exceed the two-year lookback period allowed under bankruptcy law and that sovereign immunity blocks state law-based extensions. Critics argue that siding with the IRS could undermine bankruptcy trustees' avoidance powers, giving the government an unfair advantage over other creditors.Justices, including Barrett, Kagan, and Jackson, questioned the IRS's reasoning, suggesting it contradicts bankruptcy law's intent to treat the government like other creditors in such cases. Legal experts noted that Utah's fraudulent transfer laws, used to extend the recovery period, align with federal principles, challenging the IRS's "peculiar" stance.IRS Climbing a Steep Hill in Bankruptcy Trustee Clawback DisputeOpenAI plans to request the centralization of eight copyright and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) lawsuits into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in New York and California, according to statements made to a federal judge. These lawsuits allege that OpenAI infringed on copyrights during the training of its large language models. Plaintiffs include prominent names like The New York Times, comedian Sarah Silverman, and author Ta-Nehisi Coates. OpenAI assured the court it will continue participating in discovery while the request is reviewed by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Notably, one DMCA claim by Intercept Media Inc., alleging OpenAI removed copyright management information from its content, recently survived a motion to dismiss. However, OpenAI successfully defended against a similar suit from Raw Story Media Inc. and Alternet Media Inc.The company has also sought to merge suits filed by The New York Times and Daily News LP. OpenAI is represented by Morrison & Foerster LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, and Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP, while the authors are represented by the Joseph Saveri Law Firm LLP and Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP. The case underlines ongoing legal challenges for AI companies related to copyright and content use.OpenAI to Seek to Centralize Eight Copyright Lawsuits Against ItHouse Democrats are divided on a Senate-passed bill to add 66 judgeships to federal district courts, with some wary of granting Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint new judges during his presidency. The JUDGES Act, which aims to address judicial shortages in heavily burdened districts, represents the first major expansion of the federal judiciary since 1990. While some Democrats, such as Reps. Doris Matsui and Eric Swalwell, emphasize the urgent need for additional judges in their states, others, like Rep. Jerrold Nadler, oppose the timing, accusing Republicans of strategically advancing the bill after Trump's election win.The legislation proposes phasing in new judgeships over the next three presidential terms, beginning with 11 appointments in 2025 and another 11 in 2027. Courts in states with Democratic senators would receive 37 permanent seats, while those in Republican states would gain 26 permanent and three temporary positions. Supporters argue that the measure addresses pressing judicial workloads, such as in California's Eastern District, where judges face one of the nation's highest case-to-population ratios. However, critics suspect political maneuvering, with Rep. Zoe Lofgren questioning why Republicans waited until after Trump's victory to advance the bill. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan hopes to pass the measure quickly, and experts note Republicans may secure enough Democratic support despite objections. The judiciary's policymaking body and federal judges back the bill, though its timing and implications for Trump's influence over the judiciary remain contentious.House Democrats Split on Bill to Add Judges After Trump Win (1)Donald Trump announced David Sacks, venture capitalist and co-founder of Craft Ventures, as his pick for the newly created position of AI and Crypto Czar. This role will oversee federal policy on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, with a focus on boosting U.S. leadership in these sectors. Sacks, a prominent Trump supporter and Silicon Valley figure, has ties to Elon Musk and was a key fundraiser for Trump's campaign. He is also set to lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology.Sacks' responsibilities will include crafting a legal framework to provide clarity for the crypto industry, a sector Trump has pledged to support after previously criticizing it. He will also influence the regulation and adoption of AI, countering Biden-era executive orders on AI oversight, which Trump has criticized as stifling innovation. Despite holding investments in crypto and enterprise software, Sacks will not be required to divest his assets, though conflict-of-interest rules will limit his involvement in specific decisions. Known for advocating free speech and opposing "Big Tech bias," Sacks aligns with Trump's broader deregulatory agenda. His appointment, alongside crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the SEC, signals a strong focus on deregulation for digital assets and tech industries.Trump Names David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar (2)This week's closing theme is by Ludwig van Beethoven – a composer of some note.Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the towering figures of classical music, revolutionized the art form with his innovative compositions and bold vision. Born in Bonn in 1770, Beethoven's life spanned the Classical and Romantic eras, and his works embodied the bridge between these two periods. Despite his struggles with hearing loss, he composed some of the most enduring and transformative music ever written. Among his celebrated symphonies, the Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, stands out for its infectious energy, rhythmic innovation, and emotional depth. Premiered in 1813, the symphony's exuberance earned it a special place in audiences' hearts, with the second movement, Allegretto, becoming an instant favorite.This week, we spotlight Franz Liszt's masterful piano transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Liszt, a virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic era, was renowned for his transcriptions, which brought orchestral works to the solo piano repertoire, allowing a wider audience to experience their brilliance. His transcription of the Seventh Symphony captures not only the rhythmic vitality and dramatic contrasts of Beethoven's original but also its delicate nuances and grandeur.The second movement, in particular, shines in Liszt's version, with its solemn, almost hymn-like theme resonating deeply on the piano. Its hypnotic pulse and poignant melody reveal the emotional core of Beethoven's vision, even in a solo performance. This piece embodies the interplay of intensity and elegance that defines Beethoven's work and showcases Liszt's genius as both interpreter and innovator.Without further ado, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

This week in Rec Tech is sponsored by Dalia.co and FastTalent.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Workforce intelligence platform REEJIG ,unveiled its advanced Workforce Intelligence Suite capabilities powered by its proprietary Work Ontology™ and independently audited Ethical AI. https://hrtechfeed.com/reejig-symphony-talent-launch-new-features/ isolved®, the SMB focused  (HCM) platform, announced several talent-focused product releases and roadmap innovations during its Virtual  Connect conference this week. https://hrtechfeed.com/isolved-announces-enhancements-that-improve-candidate-experience-increase-talent-pipeline/ TalentNeuron, a Leeds Equity portfolio company, today announced the acquisition of HRForecast, a Munich-based provider of strategic workforce planning and skills management software. The acquisition extends TalentNeuron's strategic workforce planning capabilities beyond any solution in the market today. https://hrtechfeed.com/talentneuron-acquires-hrforecast/ PHOENIX, AZ — Toothio, the leading digital staffing marketplace for the dental industry, today announced $5 million in additional financing led by nvp capital and Craft Ventures. https://hrtechfeed.com/dental-staffing-marketplace-raises-5-million/ A new integration between PCRecruiter and Zoom offers recruiting professionals a more efficient way to manage their voice communications. https://hrtechfeed.com/pcrecruiter-announces-integration-with-zoom/  

Hai tuần trước bầu cử tổng thống Hoa Kỳ 2024, ứng cử viên của đảng Cộng Hòa hay Dân Chủ được các doanh nhân Mỹ tín nhiệm hơn ? Bàn thắng có phần nghiêng về phía Donald Trump. Quỹ vận động tranh cử mà giới tài chính ở Wall Street huy động cho ứng viên Cộng Hòa cao gấp đôi so với của bên đảng Dân Chủ. Trên dưới hơn 50 nhà tỷ phú Mỹ đã tuyên bố ủng hộ Donald Trump, mà ồn ào hơn cả là người giàu nhất thế giới Elon Musk cho dù trong quá khứ Musk và Trump từng mạnh mẽ đả kích nhau trước công chúng.Trong danh sách những nhà tài phiệt ủng hộ Donald Trump có từ những tên tuổi lớn trong giới ngân hàng, những ông trùm tại thung lũng công nghệ Silicon và giới trong ngành công nghiệp khai thác dầu đá phiến tại Hoa Kỳ.Trong danh sách đó có cả những nhà tỷ phú từng rất hào phóng tài trợ cho chương trình tranh cử của nhiều đời tổng thống bên đảng Dân Chủ, từ Bill Clinton, Barack Obama đến Joe Biden và cho phụ nữ đầu tiên trong lịch sử Hoa Kỳ chạy đua vào Nhà Trắng là cựu ngoại trưởng kiêm đệ nhất phu nhân, Hillary Clinton hồi 2016, khi bà phải đương đầu với tỷ phú địa ốc New York Donald Trump.Nhật báo kinh tế Pháp Les Echos (ngày 06/10/2024) ghi nhận đến nay Wall Street huy động 220 triệu đô la cho ông Trump và con số này cao hơn gấp đôi so với quỹ dành cho ứng viên bên đảng Dân Chủ, bà Kamala Harris. Trong lần thứ ba ra tranh cử Donald Trump, 78 tuổi, không bị các doanh nhân ủng hộ ông chỉ trích là « già nua » hay là « một mối đe dọa đối với nền dân chủ Hoa Kỳ » (như tài phiệt Bill Ackman về trách nhiệm của Trump khi những người ủng hộ ứng viên đảng Cộng Hòa tràn vào tòa nhà Quốc Hội ở điện Capitol hôm 06/01/2021.Không thấy nhà tỷ phú mang hai quốc tịch Canada và Mỹ, gốc Sri Lanka, Chamath Palihapitiya đánh đồng Donald Trump với Bernie Sanders, đại diện cho hai cánh cực hữu và cực tả « điên rồ ». Chamath giờ đây khẳng định Trump là một vị « tổng thống có tài, hoàn thành nhiệm vụ rất tốt » trong nhiệm kỳ 4 năm (2016-2020). Một số khác cũng dễ dàng « đổi ý » về ông Trump, mời cựu tổng thống Hoa Kỳ về nhà riêng và tổ chức những bữa tiệc để gây quỹ giúp ông chóng trở lại Nhà Trắng.    John Catsimatidis, 76 tuổi, một người Mỹ gốc Hy Lạp giàu có nhờ hệ thống siêu thị Gristedes đang có tham vọng ra tranh cử tranh chức thị trưởng New York tỏ ra hết sức thực tiễn : « Cộng tác với Donald Trump có nghĩa là có thể mở ra tất cả mọi cánh cửa trong giới doanh nhân ở New York ».Nhìn chung, có ít nhất ba yếu tố khiến nhiều nhà tỷ phú Mỹ thiên về Donald Trump.Hứa hẹn giảm thuế doanh nghiệp Lý do đầu tiên, ứng viên của đảng Cộng Hòa hứa giảm thuế doanh nghiệp có lợi cho giới chủ. Donald Trump đề nghị hạ thuế doanh nghiệp đang từ 20 % xuống còn 15 % vào lúc đối thủ bên đảng Dân Chủ, bà Kamala Harris đòi đẩy mức thuế này lên 28 % và « đánh thuế nhà giàu ».Trong nhiệm kỳ Trump, tháng 9/2019, tỉ lệ thất nghiệp ở Mỹ « rơi xuống còn 3,5 % và đấy là mức thấp nhất chưa từng thấy từ 50 năm qua ». Sau đó dưới tác động của đại dịch Covid, thất nghiệp ở Hoa Kỳ tăng cao lên trở lại và dao động ở ngưỡng trên dưới 8 %.Trên sàn chứng khoán Wall Street, trong 4 năm nhiệm kỳ Donald Trump, các chỉ số Dow Jones và S&P500 tăng 50 % riêng chỉ số Nasdaq trong lĩnh vực công nghệ đã tăng lên hơn gấp đôi.Hứa hẹn về một môi trường tự do « không giới hạn »  Theo tiết lộ của hãng tin Bloomberg ứng cử viên Donald Trump đã gặp gỡ không dưới 80 lãnh đạo các chủ doanh nghiệp có ảnh hưởng rất lớn với một thông điệp duy nhất : trong trường hợp trở lại cầm quyền, ông « cởi trói » cho các doanh nghiệp. Xóa bỏ những biện pháp quản lý tài chính, chứng khoán mà chính quyền Joe Biden áp đặt với tập đoàn tham gia sàn chứng khoán Wall Street. Trump sẽ mở đường cho giới ngân hàng, cho các quỹ đầu tư « tự do hoạt động trở lại như thời kỳ trước khủng hoảng tài chính 2008 », theo tiết lộ của hãng tin Anh Reuters.Với các tập đoàn dầu khí, ứng cử viên Donald Trump hứa sẽ « dẹp bỏ » các chuẩn mực về môi trường cũng do « chính quyền Biden đặt ra ».Điều ngạc nhiên hơn cả là « các ông chủ » ở thung lũng công nghệ Silicon có khuynh hướng ủng hộ ông Trump. Từ trước đến nay, thế giới công nghệ và hành tinh « digital » ở Mỹ có truyền thống ủng hộ đảng Dân Chủ nhưng nay đang chuyển hướng.Đối với David Sacks một nhà đầu tư lớn trong lĩnh vực công nghệ internet sáng lập viên quỹ đầu tư có mức độ rủi ro cao Craft Ventures ông ủng hộ Trump do thất vọng về chính sách kinh tế của chính quyền Biden mà ứng viên tổng thống Kamala Harris là một sự tiếp nối.« Hiện tại mọi việc đang tiến triển rất tốt, rất thuận lợi cho Donald Trump và chúng tôi sẽ còn tích cực vận động cho ông hơn nữa (...) Công nghệ mới muốn có khả năng sáng tạo để đem lại những kỹ thuật mới, nhưng chính quyền Biden lại rất chống đối xu hướng này. Họ phản đối kịch liệt những tiến bộ trong lĩnh vực tiền crypto. Chính phủ này đã tìm cách giám sát quá mức nghiêm ngặt các hoạt động trong lĩnh vực trí tuệ nhân tạo. Về cơ bản họ chủ trương loại bỏ các thương vụ cho phép một doanh nghiệp mua lại hay sáp nhập với một công ty khác ».Trừng phạt chính sách kinh tế tệ hại của Biden Một nhà quan sát Mỹ ghi nhận : Bốn năm qua chính quyền Biden đã phạm phải nhiều sai lầm trong mắt các nhà tài phiệt ở quốc gia tự do nhất trên thế giới. Đảng Dân Chủ muốn bảo vệ quyền lợi của người tiêu dùng và giới làm công ăn lương, nên đã mở rộng vai trò cho các cơ quan giám sát tài chính, chứng khoán  của ủy ban bảo vệ người tiêu dùng ... và thậm chí là cả bộ Tư Pháp. Tổng thống Biden chủ trương thu hẹp tầm hoạt động của các sàn giao dịch tiền ảo, thanh tra các doanh nghiệp lạm dụng quyền lực sa thải nhân viên, đòi giới chủ tăng lương cho người lao động và muốn chấm dứt thế độc quyền của một vài tập đoàn digital.Omeed Malik sáng lập viên kiêm chủ tịch tổng giám đốc quỹ tài chính Farvahar Partner giải thích thêm :« Một trong những lý do khác nữa, rất rõ ràng là môi trường với những biện pháp quản lý chặt chẽ nào là SEC - Ủy Ban Chứng Khoán và Hối Đoái, hay FTC tức là Ủy Ban Thương Mại Liên Bang Hoa Kỳ chống cạnh tranh… Tất cả các cơ quan giám sát đó chẳng những càng lúc càng khắt khe mà hoàn toàn không chủ dừng lại ở chỗ điều tiết các thương vụ M&A –   mua bán hay sắp nhập các doanh nghiệp hay các hoạt động trong lĩnh vực tiền điện tử crypto ».   Tập đoàn Live Nation độc quyền thao túng thị trường mua bán vé xem hát và các chương trình giải trí tại Mỹ chẳng hạn đã trong tầm ngắm của bộ trưởng Tư Pháp Merrick Garland : « Chúng tôi cáo buộc tập đoàn Live Nation độc quyền thống lĩnh thị trường phân phối vé hát trên toàn nước Mỹ. Hiện tượng này đã kéo dài quá lâu và đã đến lúc cần chấm dứt ».  Băng đảng Mafia PayPalNhưng trong số các nhà tài phiệt Mỹ ủng hộ ứng viên đảng Cộng Hòa, Elon Musk chủ nhân của Space X, của hãng xe điện Tesla và của mạng xã hội X, năng động nhất.Hai tháng trước bầu cử tổng thống Mỹ, Donald Trump tuyên bố đếu đắc cử ông sẽ mời Elon Musk làm cố vấn để vực dậy kinh tế Mỹ, một nền kinh tế đang « đắm chìm trong khủng hoảng, suy đồi »Cũng Donald Trump xem rằng, Elon Musk sau khi thâu tóm mạng xã hội Twitter cuối 2022 đã sa thải 75 % nhân sự chỉ giữ lại những người chấp nhận « luật chơi mới » và đấy là một tấm gương để đem lại hào quang cho Make America Great Again.« Dân chủ và tư bản », hai khái niệm « đối chọi » với nhau  Thêm một lý do sau cũng được nhà xã hội học Pháp Olivier Alexandre thuộc Trung Tâm Nghiên Cứu Khoa Học Quốc Gia CNRS ghi nhận : « một số tỷ phú Mỹ đang có khuynh hướng muốn thiết lập một trận tự kinh tế mới ».Peter Thiel cha đẻ của tập đoàn Palantir trong lĩnh vực thông tin và tin học viết sách chung với David Sacks quảng bá ý tưởng rằng « tư bản và dân chủ » là những khái niệm không thể song hành.Elon Musk, Peter Thiel và David Sacks là ba cột trụ đã cho ra đời hệ thống thanh toán trên mạng PayPal và từ đó họ đã đặt nền móng cho khối tài sản bạc tỷ khổng lồ trước khi mỗi người tìm cho mình một hướng đi riêng. Nhưng Thiel, Musk và Sacks vẫn rất gắn bó với nhau. Họ mở rộng câu lạc bộ đến nhiều thành viên mới, một cộng đồng mà giới phân tích gọi là « băng đảng Mafia PayPal » bởi trong vỏn vẹn 2 thập niên nhóm này đã bành trướng và làm bá chủ trong thung lũng công nghệ California. Chính băng đảng Mafia PayPal đã áp đặt J.D Vance đứng liên danh với ông Trump trong cuộc đua vào Nhà Trắng năm nay. Mark Chapkin, người viết tiểu sử về Peter Thiel thậm chí mệnh danh J.D Vance là « cánh tay nối dài » của Thiel.Thiel đã « đầu tư 35 triệu đô la để xây bệ phóng chính trị cho hai nhân vật thân tín là J.D Vance và Blake Master » nhưng đến nay chỉ có ông Vance là đã thành công, đắc cử thượng nghị sĩ bang Ohio năm 2022.Năm 2022 Steve Banon, chiến lược gia và cũng là người đã có công đưa Donald Trump và Nhà Trắng từng quả quyết Peter Thiel là người thực sự muốn « thay đổi hẳn hướng đi » của Hoa Kỳ.   Jimmy Soni, tác giả cuốn sách mang tựa đề The Founders, nói về ba ông trùm của băng đảng Mafia PayPal viết : Elon Musk, Peter Thiel và David Sacks, « ba gã khổng lồ ở thung lũng công nghệ Sillicon » đã « lập ra một mạng lưới quyền lực nhất, và thịnh vượng chưa từng có », họ không chỉ thống lĩnh vùng Silicon Valley mà còn muốn áp đặt cả luật chơi với Hoa Kỳ.Đối với mạng lưới này, Donald Trump đắc cử hay không sau cuộc bầu cử tổng thống Mỹ ngày 05/11/2024 tuy quan trọng nhưng không là tất cả. Điều quan trọng hơn nữa là « một sự sắp xếp về nhân sự sau Donald Trump » mà phần nào họ đang đánh cược vào thượng nghị sĩ bang Ohio, J.D Vance.Crystal McKellar, một nhà đầu tư nặng ký ở Silicon Valley trông thấy ở ứng cử viên phó tổng thống này « một nhà tư bản chân chính và trung thành với thị trường tự do, ông tin tưởng vào tăng trưởng, vào sức mạnh của mọi khám phá về kỹ thuật, vào việc xóa bỏ mọi trở ngại đè nén tăng trưởng và thịnh vượng ».

In this episode, Cassie Chao Leemans, Vice President of Talent at Craft Ventures, discusses key strategies for effective recruiting with host Amir. Topics include the importance of a solid recruiting framework, the concept of interview debt, and preparing for scalable growth. Cassie shares insights on aligning team competencies, interviewer training, and dealing with biases in the recruiting process. She also highlights the significance of founders' involvement in early-stage hiring and how to avoid common pitfalls. Listeners will gain valuable advice on structuring their recruiting processes for future success. Highlights: 01:25 Understanding Foundational Recruiting 06:41 Defining Competencies and Roles 09:41 The Importance of Interviewer Training 11:59 Avoiding Interview Debt 17:35 Balancing High Standards and Biases 21:55 Scaling Your Hiring Process Guest: Cassie Leemans is the VP Talent at Craft Ventures, where she plays a pivotal role in building high-performing teams and shaping talent acquisition strategies. With a rich background in recruitment and talent management, Cassie excels at integrating agile methodologies and fostering team flexibility. Her experience spans various sectors, where she has successfully aligned talent initiatives with business growth goals, enabling companies to scale effectively. Cassie is passionate about enhancing recruitment processes through innovation and collaboration, making her a dynamic leader in the talent space. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassieleemans/ ---- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek. We would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)  

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap). Joining us is Bil Harmer, operating partner and CISO, Craft Ventures. In this episode: A time and a place for Field CISOs This isn't a new role Consulting the Field CISO Words mean things Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Cyera Cyera's AI-powered data security platform gives companies visibility over their sensitive data, context over the risk it represents, and actionable, prioritized remediation guidance.
 As a cloud-native, agentless platform, Cyera provides holistic data security coverage across SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and On-premise environments. Visit www.cyera.io to learn more.

Link to blog post This week's Cyber Security Headlines - Week in Review is hosted by Rich Stroffolino with guest Bil Harmer, operating partner and CISO, Craft Ventures, also at wilharm3.com. Thanks to our show sponsor, Vanta Whether you're starting or scaling your security program, Vanta helps you automate compliance across frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more. With Vanta, you can streamline security reviews by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing Trust Center. Over 7,000 global companies like Atlassian, Flo Health, and Quora use Vanta to manage risk and prove security Our listeners get $1,000 off at vanta.com/headlines. All links and the video of this episode can be found on CISO Series.com    

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are thrilled to bring you a conversation with David Sacks, Founder and Partner of Craft Ventures. Based in San Francisco, Craft was founded in 2017 and currently has over 3 billion in assets under management.Across the last three decades, David has been incredibly influential as an investor, entrepreneur, and public thought leader. When starting Craft, he was able to draw from his deep operating background, having worked as an early leader at PayPal, and then later founding Yammer, which he sold to Microsoft for $1.2 Billion. He is also one of the hosts of the All In Podcast, one of the most listened podcasts in the world.We had a wide-ranging dialogue that took us through the evolution of Craft Ventures from its initial days to today, the strategic decision-making behind scaling fund sizes and team growth, and his overall views on the current outlook of venture capital.If you're a VC investor, then I'm sure you already know about Sydecar, the go-to platform for emerging VCs to manage their SPVs and funds. Sydecar is on a mission to make private markets more accessible, transparent, and liquid by standardizing how investment vehicles are created and executed. Their powerful software allows VCs to launch SPVs and funds instantaneously, track funding in real time, and offer hassle-free opportunities for early liquidity.Whether you're syndicating your first or fiftieth deal, Sydecar acts as your silent operating partner, handling all back-office functions in a single place. Sydecar always has your back, so that you never have to worry about chasing subscription docs, lost wires, or late K-1s.With all the recent ups and downs in the private markets, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your back office is operating smoothly. Sydecar's responsive and proactive customer support team is there to assist, helping you build trust with your investors and tackle the challenges of building your firm.Visit sydecar.io/ventureunlocked to learn more.About David Sacks:David Sacks is Co-Founder and Partner at Craft. He has been a successful founder and investor for over two decades, building and investing in some of the most iconic companies in tech. David has invested in over 20 unicorns, including Affirm, AirBnB, Bird, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish.David first got involved in the technology industry in 1999 when he joined early-stage startup Confinity, later renamed PayPal. Serving as the company's first product leader and then as COO, David built and ran many of the company's key teams, including product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, fraud operations, and HR. He pivoted the product from beaming money on Palm Pilots to emailing money on the web, and introduced the business model. When the company IPO'd on the Nasdaq in 2002, David was 29 — the median age of the “PayPal Mafia” executives listed on the S-1. PayPal was later acquired by eBay and eventually spun back out into a publicly traded company (under ticker symbol PYPL).David is well-known in Silicon Valley for his product acumen. AngelList's Naval Ravikant has called David “the world's best product strategist.” And has received acclaim as one of the Besties on the All In Podcast.In this episode, we discuss:(02:56) David Sacks discusses transitioning from being an entrepreneur with experiences at PayPal and Yammer to founding Craft Ventures, emphasizing the focus on SaaS and leveraging operational expertise to support startups.(04:56) The growth of Craft Ventures from its initial fund to managing $3.5 billion, focusing on SaaS and marketplaces, and how fund size affects strategy(08:15) Portfolio construction and the strategic shift towards reserving more for follow-ons to maintain company ownership and align fund size with venture focus(10:10) The VC market's evolution shifting towards sustainable investment strategies following the 2020-2021 bubble and its correction.(13:39) Advice for entrepreneurs to focus on capital efficiency and realistic growth expectations due to the changing investment landscape(17:33) Predicting a continued reset in valuations and funding availability in 2024, and how startups can adjust their strategies accordingly(34:05) Parallels and distinctions between running a venture firm and a startup, emphasizing the importance of creating a stable, transparent environment at Craft Ventures(36:10) The significance of firm culture and talent acquisition, focusing on collective success and providing transparent, valuable support to portfolio companiesI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with David. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

In #28, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) discuss two startups built by young guns: Simplify and Default. Simplify is best described as the "Honey for Job Search" - and was founded by Berkeley and Stanford dropouts Michael Yan, Rushil Srivastava, and Ethan Horoschak. Using Simplify's chrome extension, applicants can breeze through vast numbers of job apps by instantly populating form fields and tailoring their experience to each role of interest. So far the platform has raised $3M from investors like David Sachs, amassed 400K users, and facilitated 25M job applications. Next up is Nico Ferreya and Victor Papyshev, co-founders of Default: the ultimate inbound GTM platform helping modern revenue teams increase pipeline conversions with automated qualification, scheduling, & routing workflows. So far the duo has raised millions from top investors including, coincidentally, David Sachs's Craft Ventures. Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand. Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_ Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest speaker is the zenith of corporate baddie on TOP turned fashion tech startup founder. A former Blackstone employee, our esteemed guest speaker today left the trillion-dollar asset manager to start Pickle, a peer-to-peer clothing rental app, that allows users to rent out their closet to people who live nearby and favorite of enterprising fashion girlies nationwide. Though born in New York City in 2021, Pickle has more than half of its new users come from other parts of the country. In the sea of startups vying for the all elusive venture capital funding — she and her cofounder Brian McMahon has raised $8 million in funding from FirstMark, Craft Ventures and others in 2023, giving it a $30 million valuation. An all the more incredible feat given that only 2% of venture dollars goes to women founders. Fashion nerds I hope you enjoy this episode with the inspiring, Forbes 30 under 30, Julia O'Mara. We get INTO it from her most worn pieces, Pickle's incredibly cost-effective marketing strategy, and the creative features which this startup has developed to help fashion lovers across the US try beautiful clothes in an environmentally and fiscally sustainable way. Have you given Pickle a try? If not, would you? As a renter or as an owner? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Threads of Tech IG Download Pickle and get $20 off your first rental --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/karina-chan4/support

Daniel Erickson is the Founder and CEO of Viable, an AI analytics tool that enables businesses to instantly access and act on valuable insights from customer feedback, saving them hundreds of hours spent analyzing feedback. They launched in 2020, and have already raised $8.9M from high-profile investors such as Craft Ventures, whose notable exits include Tesla, Bird, and Airbnb, and Javelin Venture Partners, whose portfolio includes Mythical Games and SmartAsset—both of which have recently joined the unicorn club. As you know, many businesses collect data from a variety of sources, including help desk tickets, surveys, product reviews, internal customer notes, call transcripts, etc., and store it in various databases and formats. As a result, much of it goes unused. Viable changes this by allowing businesses to automatically aggregate, structure, and analyze all of their data, so they can understand what their customers are telling them and use this to better serve them. Daniel, an engineer by trade, co-founded Viable with his identical twin brother Jeff, who is a designer. They took a different path than most, skipping college entirely and starting a consulting firm in Portland straight out of high school to help early-stage companies build their very first products, create MVPs, get their first users, and/or get their first investment. Prior to founding Viable, Daniel was VP Engineering at Eaze. Before that he spent time as CTO at Getable and also had a front-row seat to Yammer's rapid growth during a 3-year stint as a Senior Engineer at the company.” Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with Daniel Erickson: Website: https://www.askviable.com/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/techwraith LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielerickson/

Are you curious to learn what the future of SaaS will look like in 2024? Well, look no further. In this informative interview, two of the biggest pioneers of SaaS, David Sacks, Founder and General Partner of Craft Ventures and Jason Lemkin, SaaStr Founder and CEO, team up to discuss the potential landscape for AI-focused SaaS over the next five years. From understanding what it takes to raise a Series A these days to discovering how AI will shape the industry, get a unique insight into the world of SaaS as two leading experts share their predictions and experience. Don't miss your chance to keep ahead of the competition – listen now!

The U.S. saw 21.74 million new job postings during the first half of 2023, down just 8% from the previous six-month period, according to a new report from staffing giant PeopleReady. https://hrtechfeed.com/job-postings-steady-in-first-half-of-2023/ Phenom is hosting AI Day — setting the HR industry's direction for AI's role in empowering organizations to hire faster, develop better and retain longer, while reaching new levels of efficiency. Domain experts will dive deep into the types of AI, including generative AI, the data models that power AI for HR, and its impact on candidates, employees, recruiters, managers, HR and HRIS teams. Go to ai.phenom.com to register https://hrtechfeed.com/phenom-is-hosting-an-ai-day/ Job site CareerBuilder has announced the launch of Pay Per Resume, a new offering to provide an affordable and flexible alternative to traditional recruitment fees. https://hrtechfeed.com/careerbuilder-launches-pay-per-resume/ PHOENIX — Toothio has revealed securing a $4 million seed funding round, with Craft Ventures at the helm and contributions from Burst Capital, Moving Capital, Revere Partners, and Rho Capital Partners. The funds are earmarked to expedite Toothio's expansion, improving its technology, venturing into vital US markets, augmenting its pool of dental professionals, and fortifying its sales team. https://hrtechfeed.com/dental-staffing-platform-lands-4-million/ AUSTIN, Texas – Howdy.com, a talent sourcing and management provider that connects U.S. companies with Latin American (LATAM) tech workers, today announced the acquisition of GeekHunter, one of the largest and most reputable talent marketplaces for companies to hire developers from Brazil. https://hrtechfeed.com/howdy-com-acquires-brazilian-talent-marketplace-geekhunter/  

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, June 9th, 2023. Olive Tree Biblical Software: Discover why more than a million people use the free Olive Tree Bible App as their go-to for reading, studying, and listening to the God’s Word. Download one of many free Bibles and start taking notes, highlighting verses, and bookmarking your favorite passages. Read at your own pace, or choose from a large selection of Reading Plans, including the Bible Reading Challenge. When you are ready to go deeper into your studies, Olive Tree is right there with a large selection of study Bibles, commentaries, and other helpful study resources available for purchase. An extensive bookstore allows you to build your digital library one book at a time. Olive Tree’s sync technology lets you pick up where you left off on your tablet, pc or phone and get right to studying on another supported device. Now here's the best part – You can start with the Olive Tree Essentials Bundle for FREE. Visit www.olivetree.com/FLF and download it today!  We start today’s news, with world news… https://justthenews.com/government/security/china-place-secret-base-cuba-spy-us-report China to place secret base in Cuba to spy on US: China reportedly reached an agreement with Cuba to allow them to create an electronic eavesdropping facility on the Caribbean island, which is located about 100 miles south of Florida, as tensions between Beijing and Washington have been rising dramatically over the past several months. The Cuban facility would allow Chinese intelligence officials to monitor U.S. ship traffic and to listen to electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of highly classified intelligence, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. China reached an agreement in principle to pay several billion dollars to the impoverished Marxist-Leninist nation of Cuba, officials familiar with the matter also said. The Biden administration is especially concerned about the report due to Cuba's close proximity to the United States, and the fact that the eavesdropping facility could try to listen to communications from the many military bases in the southeast. U.S. intelligence indicates that the base would allow China to monitor communications ranging from satellite transmissions to emails to phone calls. This brings to mind the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union attempted to extend its influence in the Western Hemisphere, as the Journal points out. "The U.S. and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war after the Soviets deployed nuclear-capable missiles to Cuba, prompting a U.S. Navy quarantine of the island." This new report comes after China sent a spy balloon across most of the continental United States in February reportedly to gather intelligence from several sensitive military sites. More U.S. states are banning or considering banning foreign farmland ownership after China bought 370 acres of land in North Dakota about 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base. According to a 2021 Agriculture Department report, China owns approximately 384,000 acres of agricultural land in the U.S. Additionally, China is placing its own police officers in New York City to target Chinese dissidents, according to the U.S. Justice Department. https://www.foxnews.com/us/canadian-wildfires-pour-smoke-us-heavy-haze-creates-martian-like-scene-new-york-city Canadian wildfires pour smoke into US, heavy haze creates Martian-like scene in NYC Canadian wildfires are continuing to pour smoke along the East Coast of the United States, including the New York City area, which Wednesday afternoon, appeared red like it was on the planet Mars. Canadian officials have reached out to other countries to help fight the more than 400 fires across the country that have displaced 20,000 people. The Canadian officials also said this is shaping up to be the nation’s worst wildfire season ever, after being sparked on drier-than-usual ground and accelerating quickly. In Quebec, more than 100 fires were burning uncontrollably Tuesday. One of the biggest concerns from the fires is the air quality. New York City is experiencing its worst air quality in recorded history, per FOX Weather’s analysis of EPA historical data, affecting millions of people. NYC officials like Mayor Eric Adams and health and emergency management officials warned residents to remain indoors as much as possible and limit their time outside. If residents must go outside, officials suggested masking up. The governor also posted an update from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and issued another Air Quality Health Advisory tomorrow for all of New York. Because of the smoke, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all planes at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday. Delays are also expected at other area airports. Many other officials turned to Twitter regarding the fires. The mayor of Ottawa. Mark Sutcliffe, said he was very concerned about the conditions and sympathetic to those who have reduced lung capacity and asthma, and might be having difficulty today. Ottawa Public Health advised citizens to keep an eye on their health symptoms as the Air Quality Health Index continues to degrade. "If you experience symptoms such as tightness in your chest, wheezing or shortness of breath, seek medical attention," the agency said. We now turn our attention to Matt Walsh… https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-undercover-investigation-catches-trans-health-care-providers-falsifying-patient-info-to-fast-track-sex-change-surgeries Matt Walsh Undercover Investigation Catches Trans Health Care Providers ‘Rubber-Stamping’ Sex-Change Surgeries Some of the nation’s largest transgender “health care” providers are rubber-stamping approvals for life-altering sex-change procedures — and even falsely representing health diagnoses of patients — so insurance companies will cover the medical expenses, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh revealed in a tweet thread Wednesday. In an undercover investigation, Walsh and his team discovered how easy it is to get approved for sex-change surgery when one of the host’s producers got a thumbs up for an orchiectomy — a procedure to remove testicles — after just a 22-minute virtual appointment with Plume, the largest transgender health care provider in the U.S. Walsh’s producer Gregg Re got scheduled for a video call with Plume after providing a fake name on an intake form. Re made it clear that he had not been experiencing gender dysphoria for six months or more, he mispronounced the name of the surgery he wanted, and he said he didn’t know what effect the surgery would have on him. Yet, Plume’s nurse practitioner told Re “she wanted to write the most ‘solid’ letter possible to justify surgery,” Walsh explained. Three days later, Plume sent a letter to Re, who said his name was “Chelsea Bussey,” saying Re was experiencing “significant, ongoing gender dysphoria” — despite “Bussey” stating unequivocally that this was not the case — and recommending “Chelsea” for testicle removal. Walsh said that in a text message to Re, Plume explained that the letters of recommendation are sent using a template based on standards provided by the radical World Professional Association for Transgender Health, also known as WPATH. Plume sells letters of recommendation for $150 to those seeking transgender surgeries. Now I’m about to play a brief audio clip for you guys… Gregg also tells Plume’s nurse practitioner that his father has been prescribing him hormones for years. The nurse doesn’t question this in any way. Instead, she says that arrangement is “perfect.” https://twitter.com/i/status/1666496338035367937 - Play Video Folx, another popular transgender telehealth service, also approves patients for sex-change procedures even if they are not diagnosed with “gender dysphoria,” according to Walsh. “Folx, which provides letters authorizing surgeries for a nominal fee, goes on to admit that ‘it’s quite possible’ patients will receive a letter indicating a gender dysphoria diagnosis, even though they ‘really do not have dysphoria,’” Walsh noted. “We reached out to Folx about this. A staff member confirmed that a ‘diagnosis’ of gender dysphoria — with the word ‘diagnosis’ in scare quotes — is a ‘requirement’ for insurance purposes, even if it ‘doesn’t apply.’” Ari Groner, a licensed clinical social worker who educates doctors on “trans healthcare,” openly admitted in a video that those seeking transgender surgeries can easily get letters of recommendation. https://twitter.com/i/status/1666496309535072257 - Play Video Groner tells her audience to treat the letters as a “persuasive essay," and to green-light even suicidal patients. https://twitter.com/i/status/1666496312433336324 - Play Video Walsh and his team dug deeper into how Plume and Folx have expanded across the U.S. with Plume reaching people in 41 states and Folx present in 47 states. “The answer is that there’s big money behind this,” Walsh said. “Plume and Folx raised more than $45 million last year. [Craft Ventures] just led Plume’s $14 million fundraising round. Is [Craft general partner David Sacks] aware this is going on?” With Plume and Folx operating in most of the U.S., The Daily Wire host asked if medical insurance companies were aware that the transgender medical providers were sending letters of recommendation “based on obviously false information.” Walsh concluded his thread by arguing that his investigation revealed yet another dark secret in the “corrupt and fraudulent” transgender medical industry. Moving on… The White House may have a back up plan if SCOTUS strikes down Student Loan giveaways. https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/08/white-house-plots-backup-plan-scotus-student-debt-cancellation-overturn-biden/ White House Quietly Prepares Backup Plan If SCOTUS Strikes Down Student Loan Giveaway The Biden administration is quietly preparing for the possibility that the Supreme Court will strike down its controversial student loan forgiveness plan later in June, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The White House’s public position is that it expects the court to uphold the debt cancellation package, but several administration officials have conveyed private doubts about its prospects of survival upon review, according to the report. Behind the scenes, administration officials are exploring various legal and communications strategies to pursue in the event that the Supreme Court eventually overturns the signature Biden policy, according to the report. As you might recall, the federal student debt cancellation plan allows for millions of individual borrowers to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt as currently constructed. The court’s majority signaled its critical attitude of the sweeping policy action in oral arguments in February 2023, according to the report. Observers anticipate that the Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the debt cancellation plan later in June 2023. Biden administration officials privately have discussed more precisely targeted policy alternatives to the current plan, according to the report. However, it is unlikely the president and his staff will be keen to engage in another similar protracted legal battle should the administration opt to try a different legal approach to widespread student debt cancellation, according to the report. These preparations come on the heels of the bipartisan debt-ceiling negotiations, a condition of which included the resumption of student loan payments by Aug. 29 of this year. After that date, the administration is planning to establish a three-month grace period for borrowers who miss payments so that they will not immediately be considered delinquent to the detriment of their personal credit, according to the WSJ report. Administration officials have informed companies that process the affected loan payments of the plan for the grace period, but have not yet received other guidelines from the Department of Education (DOE) which were supposed to have been delivered in April, according to the WSJ report. The DOE is also considering options to work around a prospective Supreme Court slap down, seeking to expand targeted debt cancellation already available to disabled borrowers and public servants, according to the WSJ report. Additionally, the White House is making plans to highlight its proposed alterations to income-based payment options which the administration is to finalize by year’s end. And before we go today….. It’s time for my favorite topic, sports!!! https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2023/06/06/damar-hamlin-practices-with-bills-for-first-time-since-suffering-cardiac-arrest-on-monday-night-football/ Damar Hamlin Practices with Bills for First Time Since Suffering Cardiac Arrest on Monday Night Football Bills safety Damar Hamlin is on the field and practicing with his teammates for the first time since suffering cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game less than six months ago. The practice was not without difficulty for Hamlin, however. At one point, he was slow getting up after a play and had to be evaluated by team trainers who seemed to focus on his right arm and shoulder, Alaina Getzenberg reports. Hamlin’s presence is not a complete surprise. He was cleared to resume football activities in April. Though, his full participation with a helmet may have come as a bit of a surprise to his head coach Sean McDermott. Before practice on Tuesday, McDermott said the team was “going to continue to take it one day at a time and just support Damar in every way possible.” He further said that Hamlin wasn’t practicing but was “in the building working.” Well, as seen in the video, he did much more than stay in the building. Hamlin was cleared to return by multiple specialists in and out of the NFL. Hamlin is entering his third season with Buffalo.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, June 9th, 2023. Olive Tree Biblical Software: Discover why more than a million people use the free Olive Tree Bible App as their go-to for reading, studying, and listening to the God’s Word. Download one of many free Bibles and start taking notes, highlighting verses, and bookmarking your favorite passages. Read at your own pace, or choose from a large selection of Reading Plans, including the Bible Reading Challenge. When you are ready to go deeper into your studies, Olive Tree is right there with a large selection of study Bibles, commentaries, and other helpful study resources available for purchase. An extensive bookstore allows you to build your digital library one book at a time. Olive Tree’s sync technology lets you pick up where you left off on your tablet, pc or phone and get right to studying on another supported device. Now here's the best part – You can start with the Olive Tree Essentials Bundle for FREE. Visit www.olivetree.com/FLF and download it today!  We start today’s news, with world news… https://justthenews.com/government/security/china-place-secret-base-cuba-spy-us-report China to place secret base in Cuba to spy on US: China reportedly reached an agreement with Cuba to allow them to create an electronic eavesdropping facility on the Caribbean island, which is located about 100 miles south of Florida, as tensions between Beijing and Washington have been rising dramatically over the past several months. The Cuban facility would allow Chinese intelligence officials to monitor U.S. ship traffic and to listen to electronic communications throughout the southeastern United States, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of highly classified intelligence, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. China reached an agreement in principle to pay several billion dollars to the impoverished Marxist-Leninist nation of Cuba, officials familiar with the matter also said. The Biden administration is especially concerned about the report due to Cuba's close proximity to the United States, and the fact that the eavesdropping facility could try to listen to communications from the many military bases in the southeast. U.S. intelligence indicates that the base would allow China to monitor communications ranging from satellite transmissions to emails to phone calls. This brings to mind the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union attempted to extend its influence in the Western Hemisphere, as the Journal points out. "The U.S. and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war after the Soviets deployed nuclear-capable missiles to Cuba, prompting a U.S. Navy quarantine of the island." This new report comes after China sent a spy balloon across most of the continental United States in February reportedly to gather intelligence from several sensitive military sites. More U.S. states are banning or considering banning foreign farmland ownership after China bought 370 acres of land in North Dakota about 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base. According to a 2021 Agriculture Department report, China owns approximately 384,000 acres of agricultural land in the U.S. Additionally, China is placing its own police officers in New York City to target Chinese dissidents, according to the U.S. Justice Department. https://www.foxnews.com/us/canadian-wildfires-pour-smoke-us-heavy-haze-creates-martian-like-scene-new-york-city Canadian wildfires pour smoke into US, heavy haze creates Martian-like scene in NYC Canadian wildfires are continuing to pour smoke along the East Coast of the United States, including the New York City area, which Wednesday afternoon, appeared red like it was on the planet Mars. Canadian officials have reached out to other countries to help fight the more than 400 fires across the country that have displaced 20,000 people. The Canadian officials also said this is shaping up to be the nation’s worst wildfire season ever, after being sparked on drier-than-usual ground and accelerating quickly. In Quebec, more than 100 fires were burning uncontrollably Tuesday. One of the biggest concerns from the fires is the air quality. New York City is experiencing its worst air quality in recorded history, per FOX Weather’s analysis of EPA historical data, affecting millions of people. NYC officials like Mayor Eric Adams and health and emergency management officials warned residents to remain indoors as much as possible and limit their time outside. If residents must go outside, officials suggested masking up. The governor also posted an update from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and issued another Air Quality Health Advisory tomorrow for all of New York. Because of the smoke, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all planes at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday. Delays are also expected at other area airports. Many other officials turned to Twitter regarding the fires. The mayor of Ottawa. Mark Sutcliffe, said he was very concerned about the conditions and sympathetic to those who have reduced lung capacity and asthma, and might be having difficulty today. Ottawa Public Health advised citizens to keep an eye on their health symptoms as the Air Quality Health Index continues to degrade. "If you experience symptoms such as tightness in your chest, wheezing or shortness of breath, seek medical attention," the agency said. We now turn our attention to Matt Walsh… https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-undercover-investigation-catches-trans-health-care-providers-falsifying-patient-info-to-fast-track-sex-change-surgeries Matt Walsh Undercover Investigation Catches Trans Health Care Providers ‘Rubber-Stamping’ Sex-Change Surgeries Some of the nation’s largest transgender “health care” providers are rubber-stamping approvals for life-altering sex-change procedures — and even falsely representing health diagnoses of patients — so insurance companies will cover the medical expenses, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh revealed in a tweet thread Wednesday. In an undercover investigation, Walsh and his team discovered how easy it is to get approved for sex-change surgery when one of the host’s producers got a thumbs up for an orchiectomy — a procedure to remove testicles — after just a 22-minute virtual appointment with Plume, the largest transgender health care provider in the U.S. Walsh’s producer Gregg Re got scheduled for a video call with Plume after providing a fake name on an intake form. Re made it clear that he had not been experiencing gender dysphoria for six months or more, he mispronounced the name of the surgery he wanted, and he said he didn’t know what effect the surgery would have on him. Yet, Plume’s nurse practitioner told Re “she wanted to write the most ‘solid’ letter possible to justify surgery,” Walsh explained. Three days later, Plume sent a letter to Re, who said his name was “Chelsea Bussey,” saying Re was experiencing “significant, ongoing gender dysphoria” — despite “Bussey” stating unequivocally that this was not the case — and recommending “Chelsea” for testicle removal. Walsh said that in a text message to Re, Plume explained that the letters of recommendation are sent using a template based on standards provided by the radical World Professional Association for Transgender Health, also known as WPATH. Plume sells letters of recommendation for $150 to those seeking transgender surgeries. Now I’m about to play a brief audio clip for you guys… Gregg also tells Plume’s nurse practitioner that his father has been prescribing him hormones for years. The nurse doesn’t question this in any way. Instead, she says that arrangement is “perfect.” https://twitter.com/i/status/1666496338035367937 - Play Video Folx, another popular transgender telehealth service, also approves patients for sex-change procedures even if they are not diagnosed with “gender dysphoria,” according to Walsh. “Folx, which provides letters authorizing surgeries for a nominal fee, goes on to admit that ‘it’s quite possible’ patients will receive a letter indicating a gender dysphoria diagnosis, even though they ‘really do not have dysphoria,’” Walsh noted. “We reached out to Folx about this. A staff member confirmed that a ‘diagnosis’ of gender dysphoria — with the word ‘diagnosis’ in scare quotes — is a ‘requirement’ for insurance purposes, even if it ‘doesn’t apply.’” Ari Groner, a licensed clinical social worker who educates doctors on “trans healthcare,” openly admitted in a video that those seeking transgender surgeries can easily get letters of recommendation. https://twitter.com/i/status/1666496309535072257 - Play Video Groner tells her audience to treat the letters as a “persuasive essay," and to green-light even suicidal patients. https://twitter.com/i/status/1666496312433336324 - Play Video Walsh and his team dug deeper into how Plume and Folx have expanded across the U.S. with Plume reaching people in 41 states and Folx present in 47 states. “The answer is that there’s big money behind this,” Walsh said. “Plume and Folx raised more than $45 million last year. [Craft Ventures] just led Plume’s $14 million fundraising round. Is [Craft general partner David Sacks] aware this is going on?” With Plume and Folx operating in most of the U.S., The Daily Wire host asked if medical insurance companies were aware that the transgender medical providers were sending letters of recommendation “based on obviously false information.” Walsh concluded his thread by arguing that his investigation revealed yet another dark secret in the “corrupt and fraudulent” transgender medical industry. Moving on… The White House may have a back up plan if SCOTUS strikes down Student Loan giveaways. https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/08/white-house-plots-backup-plan-scotus-student-debt-cancellation-overturn-biden/ White House Quietly Prepares Backup Plan If SCOTUS Strikes Down Student Loan Giveaway The Biden administration is quietly preparing for the possibility that the Supreme Court will strike down its controversial student loan forgiveness plan later in June, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The White House’s public position is that it expects the court to uphold the debt cancellation package, but several administration officials have conveyed private doubts about its prospects of survival upon review, according to the report. Behind the scenes, administration officials are exploring various legal and communications strategies to pursue in the event that the Supreme Court eventually overturns the signature Biden policy, according to the report. As you might recall, the federal student debt cancellation plan allows for millions of individual borrowers to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt as currently constructed. The court’s majority signaled its critical attitude of the sweeping policy action in oral arguments in February 2023, according to the report. Observers anticipate that the Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the debt cancellation plan later in June 2023. Biden administration officials privately have discussed more precisely targeted policy alternatives to the current plan, according to the report. However, it is unlikely the president and his staff will be keen to engage in another similar protracted legal battle should the administration opt to try a different legal approach to widespread student debt cancellation, according to the report. These preparations come on the heels of the bipartisan debt-ceiling negotiations, a condition of which included the resumption of student loan payments by Aug. 29 of this year. After that date, the administration is planning to establish a three-month grace period for borrowers who miss payments so that they will not immediately be considered delinquent to the detriment of their personal credit, according to the WSJ report. Administration officials have informed companies that process the affected loan payments of the plan for the grace period, but have not yet received other guidelines from the Department of Education (DOE) which were supposed to have been delivered in April, according to the WSJ report. The DOE is also considering options to work around a prospective Supreme Court slap down, seeking to expand targeted debt cancellation already available to disabled borrowers and public servants, according to the WSJ report. Additionally, the White House is making plans to highlight its proposed alterations to income-based payment options which the administration is to finalize by year’s end. And before we go today….. It’s time for my favorite topic, sports!!! https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2023/06/06/damar-hamlin-practices-with-bills-for-first-time-since-suffering-cardiac-arrest-on-monday-night-football/ Damar Hamlin Practices with Bills for First Time Since Suffering Cardiac Arrest on Monday Night Football Bills safety Damar Hamlin is on the field and practicing with his teammates for the first time since suffering cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game less than six months ago. The practice was not without difficulty for Hamlin, however. At one point, he was slow getting up after a play and had to be evaluated by team trainers who seemed to focus on his right arm and shoulder, Alaina Getzenberg reports. Hamlin’s presence is not a complete surprise. He was cleared to resume football activities in April. Though, his full participation with a helmet may have come as a bit of a surprise to his head coach Sean McDermott. Before practice on Tuesday, McDermott said the team was “going to continue to take it one day at a time and just support Damar in every way possible.” He further said that Hamlin wasn’t practicing but was “in the building working.” Well, as seen in the video, he did much more than stay in the building. Hamlin was cleared to return by multiple specialists in and out of the NFL. Hamlin is entering his third season with Buffalo.

Crosschq, the Hiring Intelligence platform announced the expansion of Crosschq Insights™ and Crosschq Voice™ along with a new brand identity. Combining these expanded solutions provides talent leaders with a single operating platform from which to manage all aspects of Hiring Intelligence. https://hrtechfeed.com/new-hr-tech-from-crosschq-wolfe-inc/   Ceridian, a prominent player in human capital management (HCM) technology, has unveiled an innovative solution called Dayforce Career Explorer. This AI-powered tool aims to enhance engagement and retention rates by empowering employees to take control of their career journeys. https://hrtechfeed.com/ceridian-launches-ai-driven-dayforce-career-explorer/   Indeed, a leading hiring platform, launched Skill Connect, a new product to help job seekers without college degrees better promote their skills and completed training programs to potential employers. https://hrtechfeed.com/indeed-launches-new-resume-tool-for-those-without-college-degree/ San Francisco based Instawork, the leading platform for connecting businesses with skilled hourly workers, has announced that it has raised $60 million in a Series D funding round led by TCV. The round also included participation from new investors 9Yards Capital and Larry Fitzgerald Jr., as well as existing investors Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, and Greylock. https://hrtechfeed.com/instawork-raises-60m-to-invest-in-artificial-intelligence-for-skilled-hourly-workers/  

Indices closed lower, snapping a two-day win streak. G Squared Private Wealth's Victoria Greene and BNP Paribas' Carl Riccadonna break down the market action. After testifying in front of the Senate oversight committee on financial regulation, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu joins to talk steps to restore confidence in the banking system. David Sacks, Craft Ventures co-founder, on Montana's TikTok ban and if there is any chance it actually sticks, plus investing in China during high geopolitical tensions. Cadre CEO Ryan Williams discusses opportunities in the distressed commercial real estate sector and where he sees the most upside. Plus, how Blue Origin landed a NASA contract and Khan Academy Founder Sal Khan on bringing AI to education. 

Megyn Kelly begins the show by discussing the Tucker Carlson vs. Fox News legal battle ahead, Tucker's announcement about his return, the still awful Fox News ratings, and more. Then David Sacks of Craft Ventures and the All-In Podcast joins to talk about Elon Musk and Tucker, Twitter and free speech, the left-wing freakout about Elon and Tucker, the Murdochs involvement in the Tucker story, the potential for a massive financial crisis in 2024, how that could affect the presidential race, VP Kamala Harris as "AI czar" and the danger of government regulation, NYT's Elizabeth Holmes piece, and more. Then criminal defense attorneys Jonna Spilbor and David Wohl join to talk about the defamation verdict against former President Trump, E. Jean Carroll's allegations and whether she'll get any of the millions awarded after Trump will appeal, Carroll's bizarre past comments, Rep. George Santos arrested on federal charges, the hypocrisy of Merrick Garland's prosecutions, the latest on the Jordan Neely case, and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Today, we welcome Nevin Raj, Co-Founder and COO of Grata. Grata is revolutionizing VC & PE deal sourcing by providing a platform for users to find, research, and engage with middle market companies. Grata raised a $25 Million Series A round led by Craft Ventures in February 2022. Nevin shares his journey of founding Grata, insights on the future of sourcing, establishing product/market fit, handling customer feedback, and building strong leadership.Episode Chapters:1. Grata's Founding Story - 1:002. Achieving Product Market Fit - 4:253. Sourcing Strategies - 7:104. Partnering with Craft Ventures - 14:455. Reviewing and Implementing Customer Feedback - 16:356. Grata's Competitive Advantage - 19:11 7. Learning Across Different Divisions - 24:258. What Would You Change? - 26:409. Leadership Qualities - 27:4510. What Motivates Nevin? - 30:35 As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

Megyn Kelly is joined by David Sacks, founder of Craft Ventures and co-host of the All-In Podcast, and Vivek Ramaswamy, GOP candidate for president and founder of Strive Capital, to discuss and debate the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, what it means for America, whether this is a bailout of the bank or a bailout of tech startups and entrepreneurs, who should be responsible for helping the tech startups, whether there will be a run on more banks in America and a cascading effect, evaluating risk management and due diligence in the wake of the collapse, how to fix the problem short-term and long-term, how the Biden administration may have played a role in this, and more. Then Tim Rosenberger, president of The Federalist Society at Stanford University, joins to discuss the mayhem at Stanford Law School after students protested a federal judge in extreme ways, faculty joining in on the protesting, the corruption and boneheaded training of our young people, the partial apology coming now, and more. Finally, Megyn Kelly breaks down what happened at the Oscars last night, including a pro-America speech and a winner slamming Don Lemon.David - http://www.craftventures.com Vivek - https://www.vivek2024.comTim - https://twitter.com/TimJRJR Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Megyn Kelly is joined by David Sacks, of the All-In Podcast and Craft Ventures, to talk about Nikki Haley declaring her candidacy for president, whether she has a shot at the GOP nomination, "The View" trashing her and other Republicans, the possibility that Vivek Ramaswamy will run, the coming Trump-DeSantis war, how DeSantis can attack Trump from the right, Dianne Feinstein announcing her retirement (but seemingly not being aware of it), and more. Then Megyn is joined by two of her best friends, Joelle Cosentino and Yael Denbo, to talk about parenting, bullying, the teen girl who was bullied in New Jersey and then committed suicide, the need to spy on your kids on social media, Harry and Meghan going to the coronation, Jane Fonda's female friendship tips, Megyn's NBC interview with Fonda, Real Housewives storylines, fun stories from their past experiences and friendship, and more.Sacks: http://www.craftventures.com/Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Christina Cacioppo has gone from academia to a VC firm to becoming an operator. Leveraging that breadth of experience, she has not only raised $200M for her own venture, but is also helping other software startups launch and accelerate themselves. The startup, Vanta, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like CrowdStrike, Y Combinator, Craft Ventures, and Diogo Monica.

David is a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, one of the foremost SaaS VCs. He was the former COO at Paypal and he's invested in over 20 unicorns, including AirBnB, Facebook, Palantir, Uber, and SpaceX. David and Auren discuss the state of SaaS in 2023 and consider how layoffs, seat contraction, and the broader macro environment could affect the ecosystem this year. David shares some advice on how companies should be positioning themselves to weather the downturn. They also talk about bubbles and cycles in tech, how to spot stand-out founders early, and which analysts have the best record on foreign policy.  World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and David Sacks on Twitter at @DavidSacks

Julien Smith is currently the Co-founder and CEO of Practice, a world class tool to help coaches build their businesses entirely on their own. He has started many companies, including Breather, for which he raised $150M and got to Series D before handing it to a hired CEO. As a coach, he takes on a few select first time CEOs who he coaches on finding customers, building a team, running a business, and raising venture financing. He has coached founders who have been funded by the world's best venture firms, including A16Z, General Catalyst, Craft Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and more. Julien is also a New York Times bestselling author of business and marketing books. He and his co-author were among the first to write books about social media and how to use it for business purposes, and many of the best practices you see in the field were put on paper by them first. The first book, Trust Agents, was written with Chris Brogan, and became instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, winning awards including Amazon and 800 CEO-READ's best books of the year. They also collaborated on another book, The Impact Equation, published in 2012. His second book, The Flinch, edited by Seth Godin, has remained one of the top downloaded and highlighted books on Kindle since the day it was published. Website: Practice LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliensmith/ Twitter: @julien Second Time Founders podcast Topics Covered by Julien Smith in this Episode The background behind Julien's company Practice Why Julien decided to start Practice after his success starting Breather How Julien runs and structures his practice coaching founders How founders can build better businesses Julien's tips for fundraising Driving emotion in fundraising pitches Identifying true value when building your cap table Julien's big vision for growing Practice and what he's doing differently from his first company How the Second Time Founders podcast was born Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

My guest today is David Sacks. David is an entrepreneur, tech investor, film producer, and the co-host of the All-In podcast, which I highly recommend. He's General Partner at Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm he co-founded. David was the founding CEO of PayPal, which makes him a part of the so-called PayPal Mafia, which includes folks like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. He was an angel investor in Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, and many other successful companies. He also produced the film "Thank You for Smoking", which was nominated for several Golden Globes.  David and I talk about his background as an entrepreneur and investor. We discuss his critique of what he calls the "expert class" as well as the "professional class". We talk about the problems with elite colleges and universities. We discussed the attributes that made the PayPal Mafia so successful. We talk about Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and his controversial leadership style. Finally, we also go on to talk about our mutual hobby - Chess. #Ad Cancel your unnecessary subscriptions right now at ROCKETMONEY.COM/COLEMAN. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/COLEMAN and use code COLEMAN to get 10% off your first box and ground beef for the life of your membership. Go to ro.co/coleman to get 20% off your first order.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is David Sacks. David is an entrepreneur, tech investor, film producer, and the co-host of the All-In podcast, which I highly recommend. He's General Partner at Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm he co-founded. David was the founding CEO of PayPal, which makes him a part of the so-called PayPal Mafia, which includes folks like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. He was an angel investor in Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, and many other successful companies. He also produced the film "Thank You for Smoking", which was nominated for several Golden Globes. David and I talk about his background as an entrepreneur and investor. We discuss his critique of what he calls the "expert class" as well as the "professional class". We talk about the problems with elite colleges and universities. We discussed the attributes that made the PayPal Mafia so successful. We talk about Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and his controversial leadership style. Finally, we also go on to talk about our mutual hobby - Chess.#AdCancel your unnecessary subscriptions right now at ROCKETMONEY.COM/COLEMAN.Sign up today at butcherbox.com/COLEMAN and use code COLEMAN to get 10% off your first box and ground beef for the life of your membership.Go to ro.co/coleman to get 20% off your first order. 

My guest today is David Sacks. David is an entrepreneur, tech investor, film producer, and the co-host of the All-In podcast, which I highly recommend. He's General Partner at Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm he co-founded. David was the founding CEO of PayPal, which makes him a part of the so-called PayPal Mafia, which includes folks like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. He was an angel investor in Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, and many other successful companies. He also produced the film "Thank You for Smoking", which was nominated for several Golden Globes. David and I talk about his background as an entrepreneur and investor. We discuss his critique of what he calls the "expert class" as well as the "professional class". We talk about the problems with elite colleges and universities. We discussed the attributes that made the PayPal Mafia so successful. We talk about Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and his controversial leadership style. Finally, we also go on to talk about our mutual hobby - Chess.#AdCancel your unnecessary subscriptions right now at ROCKETMONEY.COM/COLEMAN.Sign up today at butcherbox.com/COLEMAN and use code COLEMAN to get 10% off your first box and ground beef for the life of your membership.Go to ro.co/coleman to get 20% off your first order. 

Join us for a conversation with historic PayPal founder David Sacks on his journey and the transition to venture capital with Craft Ventures

Security is another issue we all deal with, but the hassle and complexity of maintaining and proving you are secure can be burdensome, especially to growing startups. Our guest today, Pukar Hamal, Founder and CEO of SecurityPal a platform that aims to be an all-in-one solution that combines bleeding-edge, yet simple, customer-facing technology with in-house squadrons of trained, equipped, and efficient “security analysts in-the-loop” to effectively solve the security review process once and for all. We talk with Pukar about his journey through tech starting as an undergrad at Stanford, and how he navigated being a part of two separate acquisitions in his career, and what the opportunity was in starting SecurityPal.About Pukar Hamal:Pukar Hamal is the Founder and CEO of SecurityPal. He started his career as the first campus ambassador for Square at Stanford. He went on to for the government, PwC, and the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation, before landing at TalentBin prior to its acquisition by Monster. He was the first business hire at Teamable Software, which was acquired in 2020. He has a strong track record of angel investing and as a scout for Craft Ventures. He did his undergrad at Stanford.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren't asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:49 Pukar's journey into tech06:42 What the environment at Stanford was like and how it inspired him to break into tech10:09 Lessons from the two acquisitions he experienced16:15 How he became a scout with Craft Ventures18:53 The problem SecurityPal works to solve29:25 What is a security questionnaire35:45 Types of questions asked in security questionnaires40:25 What a typical security questionnaire process is like for most startups44:19 Why it is important to be honest on security questionnaires48:45 How SecurityPal instills trust in its clients50:53 How Pukar raised a $21M Series A after bootstrapping to $1M in revenue53:42 The importance of the long game and relationships in successFast Favorites*

In this episode, I chat with Bobby Pinero, the founder of Equals, a data tool that enables startups to analyze data from any source in a fast way, with little coding knowledge. Equals have raised $22.6M from Andreessen Horowitz, David Sacks at Craft Ventures, with participation from BoxGroup, Worklife Ventures, and founders from Intercom, Front, Lattice, and Vanta. If you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

Chatting with Dr. Ingrid Murra brings up a lot of good vibes and commitment of oneself and others. She shares her story of being a successful orthodontist and explains what's it like being a woman in a male-dominated industry. Analyzing how can beauty and teeth affect self-confidence and how can orthodontics empower women!Dr. Ingrid Murra is a mission-driven, entrepreneurial leader passionate about democratizing access to confidence and entrepreneurial success for healthcare providers. After graduating from Harvard with her orthodontics degree, she founded Two Front, a free, modern platform for orthodontists to build hybrid practices from unused space at local dental offices, which allows dentists to generate passive income worth up to 25% of their bottom lineShe's backed by Craft Ventures, a top venture capital firm that has backed companies including Airbnb, Uber, Tesla, and Instacart, along with leaders in the healthcare industry such as Tom Lee, founder of One Medical.Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and of course SHARE!And above all, reflect and enjoy!

US President Joe Biden recently warned about the possibility of Armageddon. He said “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we discuss the current situation in the US and around the world with All In Podcast Rain Man, David Sacks. David Sacks is a legendary entrepreneur, category and company builder, and now venture capitalist. He's the founder of a VC firm called Craft Ventures. He was the founding Chief Operating Officer of PayPal founder and CEO of Yammer, which sold to Microsoft for well over a billion dollars. He has been an early investor in companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Slack, and more. And today, he's also incredibly well known as one of the CO hosts of the All In podcast. So listen in to keep up with current affairs, and you might learn a thing or two on how to prepare for the future. David Sacks on Biden's comment about Armageddon We begin on the recent comments that Biden made about Armageddon. When asked why he thinks Biden's thoughts went that way, David's reply was: “My reaction to this was the man who can't see two steps ahead, suddenly realizes where his policy is leading. We're the ones who have refused to engage in any sort of diplomacy or any sort of negotiated settlement. Our strategy is not to provide them with an off ramp.” – David Sacks But David also thinks that Biden acknowledging this is a step in the right direction. “That being said, I still thought it was incredibly useful for Biden to say what he said, because the first step of getting out of a problem is acknowledging that you're in one.” – David Sacks David Sacks on Tactical Nukes & Risking Nuclear War There has also been talks of using tactical nukes to quickly resolve the situation. David does not agree with this, saying that using nukes at this point just opens up the risk of a nuclear war. “If a tactical nuclear weapon gets used in Ukraine, then the whole world will be different. This thing could escalate very quickly into a larger scale nuclear war. You had Petraeus on the Sunday shows last weekend saying that if Putin uses attack nukes, the US should respond by hitting every Russian military target in Ukraine? Well, again, think two steps ahead. How do you think the Russians would react to that, given that they clearly don't have the military might to stand up to the US in terms of conventional arms?” – David Sacks If countries start using nukes, then it signals that the former agreements against it can be violated with impunity. And that is a dangerous ground to tread. Prediction or Deterrent Returning to Biden's statement about Armageddon, David suggests that, rather than being a prediction, this statement, along with Petreaus', could be interpreted as a warning or deterrent against Russia going nuclear. The problem is that the reasons why the Russians might escalate to the use of nuclear weapons is because they're losing the war by conventional means. Add to the fact that Putin doesn't have an off ramp that lets him keep his reign. Because if he loses this war, or doesn't gain anything significant from it, it is very likely that he will be forced out of office by the public. Putin is pretty much acting like a cornered beast at this point. The scary part is that you don't know what that cornered beast might do as a last-ditch effort to escape. To hear more from David Sacks and the current situation of the world, download and listen to this episode. Bio David Sacks is co-founder and general partner at Craft. He has been a successful founder and investor for over two decades, building and investing in some of the most iconic companies in tech. He has invested in over 20 unicorns, including Affirm, AirBnB, Bird, ClickUp, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Lyft, OpenDoor, Palantir, Postmates, Reddit, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, and Wish. David is also co-host of the popular “All-In Podcast” w...

Introduction: Welcome to Five & Thrive: a weekly podcast highlighting the Southeast's most interesting news, entrepreneurs, and information of the week, all under 5 minutes.  My name is Jon Birdsong and I'm with Atlanta Ventures. Y'all we did shorten the intro as time is just too precious.  Product of the Week: There are two products of the week worth highlighting. First is a company call Nauvus which is one simple platform to book load, manage expenses and get paid when it comes to freight and trucking. Still early, but the grand vision is to be a universal freight network & payment solution for trucking companies and the independent dispatchers that support them all in an effort to maximize revenue and reduce cost. Check out Nauvus and if you're into logistics and payments.  The second product of the week is called Givsly. This company has created software that makes it really simple to infuse social good into your marketing. Let's say Arby's wants to promote a new sandwich and wants to put a social good twist on the campaign. Enter Givsly that provides the tools, services, and reporting capabilities companies can connect with causes and produces seamless campaigns to increase revenue and giving. Check out Givsly if you want to add a charitable spin to your go to market efforts. Quiet Giant: This week's QuietGiant raised a growth equity round in June and the company is called Inductive Health. According to LinkedIn there are approximately 60 employees and Inductive Health brings disruptive technologies to the public health informatics arena to lower the costs of integration and large-scale analysis of health data – probably a pretty timely tool over the last two and half years. From the looks of it, they have been bootstrapped and the PE firm that infused growth capital is called Diversis and they are out of Los Angeles. Another fantastic example of a Quiet Giant, right off Clairmont road, that is nearly another 10 year over night success story. All you folks out there building Quiet Giants, keep at it!  Question of the Week: Can billion dollar businesses be built on nice to have products? This is the question that was posed last week in a conversation with an entrepreneur we talked to in Miami. The call that was supposed to last 30 minutes and wove towards an hour as we shared our thoughts on the differences between nice to have products versus need to have products — which is such a fascinating discussion. The short answer is: at some point the product must become a need to have in the person or company's business, if not significant churn will result and it will not become an extraordinarily valuable business. I'll never forget the moment years ago, when I was speaking to a CEO who had about 30 sales reps at the time, share how Salesloft had transformed his sales team and that it was a must have for them to operate. Yet, for the 18 months beforehand, they piece-mealed the workflow on spreadsheets and free email accounts. So I asked: “when did you finally realize Salesloft was a must have for your business?” Two things had occurred in the business: one the pain point of having so many sales reps on his team that the manual process was costing the business too much not to have it. 2) It took a sales rep to uncover that realization and educate the company that there is a better way. Fortunately, Salesloft is tied directly to ROI which makes the case that much more compelling. There is a continuum of nice to have vs. need to have products but at some point in the customer's life span, the product must turn into a need to have.       Raise a Glass: Nashville based SoundStripe just raised their Series B led by TopMark Partners out of Tampa and includes existing investors most notably David Sacks of Craft Ventures. SoundStripe “keeps creators creating” with a plethora of royalty-free music, videos, and sound effects. Now, creators to corporations can pay a simple subscription fee and not have to worry about licensing rights, copyright infringements, and more. To date, the startup has issued more than 10 million licenses for tens of thousands of customers in more than 140 countries – cha ching! Started in 2016, SoundStripe out of Nashville, fills the seemingly ideal narrative for fast growing software company out Music City.  Annnnd, that's 5 minutes. Thank you for listening to Five and Thrive. We provide 5 minutes of quality information, so you can thrive in the upcoming week. Please subscribe to the show and spread the good word!  Resources discussed in this episode: Product of the Week: Nauvus and Givsly Quiet Giant:  Inductive Health Raises Money from Diversis Raise a Glass:  SoundStripe

In 2022, Zoom fatigue is a thing. Collaborating, co-working, and networking over a screen presents a new set of issues that we are only now starting to address. Our guest today is Tom Medema, Founder and CEO of usebubbles.com, a platform designed to improve asynchronous collaboration and reduce zoom fatigue.About Tom Medema:Tom Medema is the founder and CEO of bubbles, a workplace productivity platform leading the async revolution. Before bubbles, Tom co-founded Bloomon, a successful DTC flower delivery service, and experienced the thrill and pain of building a global engineering workforce. His experience as Bloomon's CTO drove him to move to Bay Area and build a platform that will allow teams to collaborate better in a remote environment. As bubbles' CEO, Tom raised $8.5M in Seed funding from partners including Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, 468 Capital, and Bain Capital, and strategic angels including Naval Ravikant, Jeff Morris Jr, Brianne Kimmel, Rahul Vohra & Todd Goldberg, and Ryan Hoover. Today bubbles has over 20,000 monthly active users, supporting teams from around the world in overcoming 2 of the biggest challenges: getting their point across, and making smarter decisions. A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:22 Tom’s journey into startups03:18 Early experiments with coding and tech04:09 Selling a company when he was 1605:17 Lessons from being the CTO of Bloomon07:58 How Tom managed a remote workforce prior to bubbles and why he decided their had to be a better way10:33 Common issues around remote collaboration11:44 The thing that finally pushed him to start bubbles13:02 The exact problem Tom was trying to solve with bubbles15:44 Why software is the answer to this screentime dilemma18:37 How bubbles actually works21:41 Ways to deepen communication over video23:33 How the short video chat feature of bubbles is additive to asynchronous communication24:23 Use cases that makes bubbles different from Notion and Loom28:53 ROI customers are seeing from bubbles31:24 How bubbles compares to Slack’s video huddles33:44 Why Tom describes bubbles as a movement not a product36:11 How the recent fundraising round for bubbles came together37:30 The importance of Twitter and Social Media40:12 Plans for the fundraisingFast Favorites:🎙- Favorite Podcast: The Ezra Klein Show📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Open View Blog📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone📈-  Favorite New Trend: Asynchronous Work📚- Favorite Book: Name of the Wind🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Most challenges can be overcome with simple hard workFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

In this episode Chris, April, and Jim welcome back friend of the show Katie Kincaid to hear about her experiences traveling the world in the midst of a pandemic after leaving her position at Lyft for a journey of self-discovery which took her from Thailand to Myanmar to Croatia and ultimately to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Katie is a government relations and public affairs professional with extensive experience across all levels of government. Having worked in government, as a consultant, and in the private sector, Katie offers a unique perspective on how to mold and execute public policy and accompanying advocacy efforts for a variety of needs and objectives. Through these experiences, Katie has developed a strong network and keen understanding of political process. April is the SVP of Public Policy at hims & hers, where her goal is to secure federal, state, and local healthcare policy that increases access and empowers patients. And Chris is an Operating Partner on the Craft Ventures platform team focused on helping founders with issues related to government relations, public affairs, social impact, and diversity & inclusion. Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show. Don't forget to subscribe! Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at Jim@ThePoliticalLife.net  Follow The Political Life on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter for weekly updates.

This week we welcome back friends of the show Chris Massey and April Mims for part two of their recent discussion with Jim. April is the SVP of Public Policy at hims & hers, where her goal is to secure federal, state, and local healthcare policy that increases access and empowers patients. And Chris is an Operating Partner on the Craft Ventures platform team focused on helping founders with issues related to government relations, public affairs, social impact, and diversity & inclusion. In this episode Chris, April, and Jim discuss the unique rewards and challenges of in-house government relations. Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show. Don't forget to subscribe! Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at Jim@ThePoliticalLife.net  Follow The Political Life on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter for weekly updates.

Megyn Kelly is joined by David Sacks of Craft Ventures and co-host of All-In, to talk about President Biden's inflation crisis, the odd job market situation, whether we're in a recession currently, hiring ramifications, why the working class is moving from the Democratic party to the Republican party, the issues that matter most to Americans, Biden's efforts to cozy up to the Saudis, the significance of the Dutch farmers protest, and more. Later, Renee DiResta, technical research manager at Stanford and disinformation expert, joins to discuss the reality of bots on Twitter, Elon Musk's bot bottle, the truth about the Russian troll farm operation, how the social media feedback loop is keeping us divided, push notifications and the battle for attention, the challenge of balancing social media suppression and reliable information, and more. And Todd Henderson, law professor at the University of Chicago, breaks down the legal battle between Twitter and Elon Musk, whether Twitter can really force Musk to buy it, what to expect next, and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Cash Management is not one of the top subjects B2B SaaS founders want to discuss, but critical to start-up survival and success.Brandon Metcalf learned the in's and out's of Cash Management as a multiple-time founder and CEO. As a result, he recently founded Place Technology to help early-stage CEOs and CFOs use automation and technology to better manage cash across every stage of growth and every function in a company."Cautious Capital" is a reality of any capital market that has experienced the momentum and euphoria of the B2B SaaS and Cloud industry over the last five years. Brandon learned the importance of Cash Management and Cash forecasting at Talent Rover, where they had independent P&Ls in eight countries. Cash is always a consideration for strategic decisions in any company. In 2022, growth at any cost is a relic of the past, and today the question is how to optimize every dollar investment to build a sustainable, growth company.An investor's relationship with a founder is built upon confidence and trust, as such, Brandon errors in telling his investors everything and even oversharing what is going on in the company - especially around cash usage, cash burn, and cash forecasts. Brandon prefers to raise capital in smaller tranches to ensure he and the investors feel comfortable with the previous capital invested and used to grow the business.Brandon uses an investment analysis firm to gain independent, externally validated company valuation outside the current investors. Then Brandon prefers to raise money at "lower valuations," which provides more comfort to investors and reduces the risks associated with down-round valuations.Cash Burn is a metric that every CEO, CFO, and investor understands. Cash Burn equals the money brought into a company versus the money spent to run the company. In venture-backed companies, the Cash Burn is almost always negative as a company invests in acquiring and growing customers at a rate much higher than possible in a self-funded, bootstrapped model.One of Brandon's favorite metrics is the "Burn Multiple" The Burn Multiple measures net cash burned divided by net new ARR. David Sacks, Craft Ventures first popularized this metric. A burn multiple less than 1x is amazing, greater than 3x is bad, and targeting 1x - 2x is good to great.I asked Brandon, what are the best metrics to track to manage cash management and cash efficiency. Beyond Burn Multiple, # months to cash flow break-even, operating cash burn to forecast/plan, cash to qualified lead - by source, variance analysis on customer payments (contract to actual), cash impact via discounting, cash impact via hiring.If you are a B2B SaaS founder, CEO, or CFO or considering launching a start-up in the future, understanding the importance and techniques to optimize cash management is a concept that Brandon provides excellent ideas and insights throughout our conversation.

This week we welcome back friends of the show Chris Massey and April Mims (as co-hosts with Jim) as they have part one of a two-part discussion about where they first overlapped in the work world: Lyft.  April is the SVP of Public Policy at hims & hers, where her goal is to secure federal, state, and local healthcare policy that increases access and empowers patients. And Chris is an Operating Partner on the Craft Ventures platform team focused on helping founders with issues related to government relations, public affairs, social impact, and diversity & inclusion. As this episode can attest, all roads seem to lead back to Lyft, which is the place where April's and Chris' professional paths first crossed back in 2014. Together, April and Chris lead the listeners through their joint experience working in the public policy department and shaping the message at Lyft in the early years of the app's development. As a reminder, you'll be hearing more from Chris in the near future as we gear up to bring you coverage of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which will be hosted in Denver, Colorado, in early August. Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show. Don't forget to subscribe! Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at Jim@ThePoliticalLife.net  Follow The Political Life on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter for weekly updates.

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Jerrica Kirkley, co-founder & Chief Medical Officer of Plume. Plume delivers gender-affirming care via telehealth for trans and non-binary individuals, currently operating in 41 states. Plume provides hormone-replacement therapy, such as estrogen and testosterone, as well as letters of support for gender-affirming surgery or changing name or gender markers for its patients. Jerrica and her cofounder, Plume CEO Dr. Matthew Wetschler, raised a $14M series A round of funding last year Craft Ventures. In this episode, Jerrica and I discussed: Her journey to starting Plume Her experience as a patient and provider of gender-affirming care The current anti-trans political climate and Plume's role as an advocate for the trans and nonbinary community To celebrate Pride Month 2022, please consider a donation to The Trevor Project.

As the American Economy continues its downward death spiral, Charlie brings on two of the sharpest minds in the movement when it comes to inflation, stocks, and the overall state of the economy—Maria Bartiromo, host of Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News and venture capitalist David Sacks, Co-Founder of Craft Ventures and Founding COO of PayPal—to discuss. First, Maria and Charlie talk through Inflation and the Bonds Market and what the next few months look like for the American Consumer. Next, David walks through the state of the Stock Market, investing, and even a personal insight into the future of Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter.  Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/support See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we welcome back friend of the show Chris Massey to discuss the results of the recent recall election in San Francisco and the wider implications of that outcome upon the looming midterm elections. Chris is an Operating Partner on the Craft Ventures platform team focused on helping founders with issues related to government relations, public affairs, social impact, and diversity & inclusion. We'll be hearing more from Chris in the near future as we gear up to bring you coverage of the National Conference of State Legislatures, which will be hosted in Denver, Colorado, in early August. Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show. Don't forget to subscribe! Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at Jim@ThePoliticalLife.net  Follow The Political Life on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter for weekly updates.

Welcome everyone to the MBIT Podcast, I am your host, Shamus Madan, and today Landon Sanford joins the pod to discuss his journey as a founder of 3+ companies with many of them being in the AI space. On the podcast, we will be discussing how Landon became interested in entrepreneurship, his journey raising millions from VC firms and investors like David Sacks at Craft Ventures, the cofounders of Hubspot, Honey, Kayak, Vercel, and more. Twitter of Host: @mbitpodcastTwitter of Guest: @landon__sanford

This week on Wins & Losses, Clay Travis is joined by entrepreneur and partner at Craft Ventures, David Sacks. The two discuss his move from South Africa to Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 5. Clay and David talk about his life in business, and they also discuss the county's current inflation issue, how we got here, and much more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Alexis gets non-technical with Brian Murray, Partner & COO at Craft Ventures and Co-Founder of Cabal. They talk about Soccer Dads, austerity measures for coffee, having four daughters, BWGs (you know it when you see it), occasioning upon some fellows, and the Steve Martin/Macklemore remix we've all been waiting for.You can find Brian on Twitter at twitter.com/murr and Alexis at twitter.com/yayalexisgay or instagram.com/yayalexisgay and twitter.com/NonTechnicalPod.This episode is sponsored by Betts Recruiting! If you're a high-performing professional looking for your next opportunity, it's time to become a Betts Connect Community member. Apply to join Betts' exclusive network, and if you're accepted, those tech startups will reach out to YOU. Apply now for your exclusive lifetime membership at bettsrecruiting.com/nontechnical

David Sacks is a world-renowned entrepreneur & investor and host of the All-In Podcast. He is a member of the Paypal Mafia, sold Yammer to Microsoft for a billion dollars, and currently operates one of the most successful VC firms at Craft Ventures. In this conversation, we discuss everything from the success of the All-In Podcast & the All-In Summit in Miami, the lost of trust in traditional media outlets, why people being red-pilled over the past few years, The Fed's mishandling of the market, the current bear market, and if Bitcoin can become a global reserve currency. David then closes the episode by giving world-class advice to Founders during these turbulent times. ======================= Since 2018 Copper has been at the forefront of institutional digital asset development.   From award winning custody solutions, to creating the first truly off-exchange settlement function, Copper pioneers technology, products, and services, in lock-step with a rapidly changing world.    No other infrastructure provider covers as many assets, across as many exchanges, with the speed and security that Copper can offer. To learn how Copper helps the world's largest institutional investors secure their digital assets, head over to copper.co   Copper - the unfair advantage. ======================= Compass Mining is the world's first online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware and hosting. Compass was founded with the goal of making it easy for everyone to mine bitcoin.  Visit http://compassmining.io to start mining bitcoin today!  ======================= Bullish is a powerful new digital asset exchange built for institutions that delivers the innovations of DeFi in a regulated environment. The Bullish Hybrid Order Book pairs the high-performance of a traditional Central Limit Order Book with automated market making. Powered by deep Bullish Liquidity Pools, backed by the multi-billion dollar Bullish Treasury. So, you can trade with certainty and at scale across variable market conditions.   Learn more at Bullish.com or follow @Bullish on Twitter. Because the future belongs to the bullish.   *Not investment advice. Digital assets and cryptocurrencies are high risk products. Consult your professional advisor before dealing in them. Bullish's services are available in select locations only and not to U.S persons.    Visit https://bullish.com/legal for important information and risk warnings =======================

Today on the show we welcome back Chris Massey, the Operating Partner, Government Relations & Public Affairs at Craft Ventures. Craft Ventures is an early-stage and growth fund dedicated to the craft of building great companies. Comprised of entrepreneurs and operators, they're a team of founders helping founders. Chris provides us with a recap of the All-in Summit, which recently took place in Miami. Featured speakers included Elon Musk, Nate Silver, Tim Urban, and more.  He also covers what an impending recession could mean for the government relations industry. Specifically, he touches on the potential for a decrease in spending on GR by startups.  Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show. Don't forget to subscribe! Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at Jim@ThePoliticalLife.net  Follow The Political Life on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter for weekly updates.

On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we continue our focus on the current situation in the world and in the United States. Because in times of great change and great uncertainty, we turn to great, though in some cases, counterintuitive minds. Today, we talk to one of the great minds of today, David Sacks. David Sacks is a legendary entrepreneur, category, and company builder – and now, venture capitalist. He is the founder of Craft Ventures. In Silicon Valley, David is a living legend. You see, he was the co-founding CEO of Paypal, founder and CEO of Yammer, which sold to Microsoft for over a billion dollars. He has been an early investor and advisor to companies like Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Slack, and so much more. He's also co-hosting an amazing podcast called All In, which has become one of the most popular dialogue podcasts in the world. So if you want to listen to the thoughts of this legendary individual, stay tuned to this episode. If you want to check out our past dialogues with David Sacks, you can check them out here. This episode was recorded on March 29th, 2022 David Sacks Goes All In The conversation starts off with what's new with David, particularly, his relatively-new podcast. David explains that it started out as a conversation pod with his “besties”. It was something they did to pass the time during COVID. Little did they know, it would grow into what it is today. “It's been kind of a surprise. We started doing it at the beginning of COVID when we were all trapped in our houses and had nothing else to do. So it's me and three friends, the four besties as we ironically say, and yeah, we've been doing this weekly pod. Amazingly, it's climbed the charts. I think the new episodes tend to be in the top 30 or 40 podcasts. And it's done really well.” – David Sacks David shares that at first, they tried to focus on talking business and markets, as well as private investing in VC. But there was only so much you could talk about that without circling back on itself. So they eventually started talking about current events, politics and world affairs, and how it can affect the world of business. Having a Healthy Conversation David muses that what makes them different from other business and marketing podcasts, except for their discussion on current affairs, is that they get to have a healthy conversation. Unlike your typical podcast that has the host and maybe one or two guests to discuss a certain topic, the four of them talk it out amongst themselves, and sometimes even lead to heated discussions. Because it's not simply an echo chamber, it's a place where ideas are presented, and confirmed or challenged by the other hosts. “One of the things people say they like about it is the fact that we can get into debates, vigorous debates about politics, and yet we're all still friends. There's that vibe to it. But there's also people on the show breaking each other's balls, that kind of stuff. And they like that vibe, too.” – David Sacks Since it's the same four people having the conversation each week, each episode feels like a continuation of the last. Which makes you want to listen to it and look forward to the next. David Sacks on the War in Ukraine When asked about his thoughts on the current situation in Ukraine, David responds that it can be difficult to say what exactly is happening at a particular time. Despite technology giving us easier access to information, there is just too much conflicting information being touted around. That said, he felt that some US media is escalating the current situation to the point that as if we are already at the brink of World War III. As a man who preaches for peace rather than an escalation of conflict, David hopes that our politicians and leaders steer clear of the war and help pursue for peace in the region. To hear more on David Sacks and his thoughts on the current affairs of the world,

David Sacks is a paradox. The entrepreneur and venture capitalist helped lay the foundations of the digital world we now live in: He was one of the members of what's known as the PayPal Mafia, alongside people like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Max Levchin. He's also been an early investor in some companies you may have heard of: Airbnb, Facebook, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber.  At the same time, he is something of a whistleblower from inside the world of tech. He believes that Big Tech has far too much power. He argues that the fact that a handful of billionaires get to decide what we are (and aren't) allowed to say in the new, digital public square is something that the Framers would have been repelled by—and that all Americans should oppose. Today I spoke to David, now a general partner at Craft Ventures, about the rise of America's social credit system and how we can defend our civil liberties in the age of the Internet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices