Podcasts about general partners

Episode #1437: Today, Steve Greenfield, General Partner at Automotive Ventures joins us: Carvana's nationwide new-car sales raise questions about who handles the customer after the sale, Nissan and Honda reunite to share software development without sh...

The crew sizes up Bitcoin's rebound, the fight to bring Hyperliquid onshore, the SEC's new token fundraising framework, and why Stripe's OpenRouter deal could make AI inference markets look a lot like DeFi. Welcome to The Chopping Block, where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. Tom and Tarun check in from Bhutan after lunch with the king, then the crew tackles Bitcoin's rebound, the path to a compliant U.S. Hyperliquid, the SEC's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, and the growing overlap between AI inference markets and DeFi market structure. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights

In this episode of the [Un]Churned Podcast, Josh Schachter sits down with Jake Saper, General Partner at Emergence Capital, to unpack the firm's 25 year thesis of being “early experts in emerging business models,” from the on-prem-to-cloud shift that birthed their first investment in Salesforce, to vertical SaaS with Veeva, to what Jake calls AI-Native Services, or AINS.They also dive into:What “AI-Native Services” actually means, in Jake's own wordsThe real story behind Gainsight's shift from selling software to selling outcomesWhy the biggest headwind to this transformation is cultural, not technical“Mirage product market fit,” the #1 mistake Jake sees in AI pitches right nowWhat Jake actually looks for in founders before he investsWhy tech vendors of the future might look more like insurance carriers than software companiesIf you're building anything in the AI services space, thinking about how AI changes SaaS margins, or just want to understand where venture capital thinks the next generational businesses will come from, this episode is a masterclass in spotting a category before it has a name.Want the playbook, not just the conversation? Subscribe for deep-dive, actionable breakdowns from every episode at ⁠unchurned.substack.com.⁠--Timestamps00:00 – Intro & Backstory01:37 – What Emergence Capital Focuses On, and How It Started08:14 – Naming the Category: Why “AI-Native Services” (AINS)12:42 – The Walk on the Embarcadero: How Gainsight's Pivot Was Born17:28 – The Biggest Headwind: It's Cultural, Not Technical20:24 – What Jake Looks For as an Investor: Domain Credibility31:21 – The Hanover Park Story: 150 Fund CFOs36:38 – Mirage Product Market Fit: The Overplayed Pattern in AINS Pitches38:48 – The AINS Idea Jake Wants Someone to Build42:07 – The Mafia, Dump Trucks, and Unexpected AI Competitors--Where to Find Jake Saper:Jake's LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakesaper/Emergence Capital: https://www.emcap.com/Where to Find Josh Schachter:Josh's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Erin Price-Wright, General Partner in American Dynamism at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Erin joined a16z from Index Ventures in 2024, where she was a Partner focused on software infrastructure and applied AI. She previously served as Head of Product for Palantir's data analytics and machine learning program. The American Dynamism practice invests in founders and companies that support the national interest spanning aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chain, industrials, and manufacturing. We were thrilled to hear Erin's perspective on the rapidly evolving intersection of AI, energy, and industrial technology. In our conversation, Erin shares the story behind a16z's American Dynamism practice and its early investments in companies including SpaceX, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Shield AI, and Skydio. She discusses how the firm's conviction in the space developed well before the recent surge of interest in industrial technology. We explore the convergence of AI, supply chain vulnerabilities, geopolitical pressures, reindustrialization, and skilled labor shortages, which Erin believes are creating the conditions for the “next great American industrial build-out.” We discuss physical AI and robotics, the potential to automate dangerous, expensive, and labor-intensive activities across energy and industrial operations, the challenges of deploying physical AI, and the importance of taking a practical approach to automation by starting with specific activities where the economics make sense and expanding from there. We touch on why venture capital is returning to energy and industrial technology, China's advantage in deployment versus the U.S.'s strength in experimentation and entrepreneurship, and the importance of permitting and regulatory certainty. We also examine data centers and the broader question of whether America wants to build, Erin's thoughts for energy and industrial leaders looking to accelerate innovation within their organizations, and much more. Special thanks to Erin for joining! We look forward to partnering with a16z on our upcoming Energy & Industrial Technology Showcase in Houston on September 10. Mike Bradley kicked off the discussion by noting that the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was trading at ~4.65%, down ~10bps on the week but still near its highest level of the year. Bond investors are focused on the ongoing Canada tariff dispute, Wednesday's Core PCE inflation report, and Chairman Warsh's Jackson Hole speech on Friday. Major equity indices finished lower last week but are modestly higher this week, with attention now centered on NVIDIA's second-quarter earnings report Wednesday and its 6- to 12-month capital spending outlook. Turning to energy markets, Mike highlighted that WTI crude oil had declined ~$5/bbl this week to ~$82/bbl following the Treasury Secretary's announcement of “Operation Economic Outcast,” aimed at increasing economic pressure on Iran. EU natural gas prices rose another ~$1/MMBtu to ~$23/MMBtu, with storage levels remaining a concern ahead of winter. The energy sector was modestly lower this week but remains up ~5% month-to-date, led by refiners (+~12%). In power, electric utilities are down ~5% month-to-date, while IPPs, large-scale generators, and distributed generation providers are down ~10%–15% on average, largely reflecting higher interest rates and growing state-level opposition to data center development.

Episode 310 opens with Steve Dennis reporting back from an invitation-only Amazon analyst day in Seattle, two days focused on Prime and grocery. Steve unpacks the breadth of the Prime flywheel, Amazon's push into sub-one-day delivery, the drone facility he toured just before the company announced an expansion to roughly 500 markets, and why Amazon's rise to the number two grocer in North America should have rivals looking over their shoulders. Then, the numbers. US retail sales grew about 5% excluding fuel. Walmart delivered a lackluster 2.6% US comp, its weakest in six years, offset by a 46% jump in global advertising and nearly $3 billion in tariff refunds the company says it will reinvest in price. Target posted a nearly 4% comp with traffic up 3.6%; real progress, though Steve cautions the invitation can be better than the party. In off-price, TJX comped 4% while Ross Stores turned in a second straight double-digit quarter. And Simon Property Group made the case that great physical retail is alive and well. The interview, recorded live at the CommerceNext Growth Show in New York, features Scott Friend, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, and Indy Guha, General Partner at VMG Partners. Scott co-founded price optimization pioneer ProfitLogic before joining BCV twenty years ago; Indy co-leads VMG's commerce infrastructure fund after scaling Signifyd. Together they tackle a hard question: when AI makes everything easier to build, how do you tell a real company from a pitch formula? Their answer centers on founder clarity and earned domain expertise, because a couple of quarters' head start has never mattered more. The conversation ranges across whether personalization and merchandising optimization are now table stakes, the surveillance pricing debate, AI-driven homogeneity versus the promise of the "N of one" customer journey, and Indy's memorable "Claude-proof" test for anyone building in commerce. Both push back on agentic commerce hype, arguing agents will own low-interest replenishment missions while people keep the treasure hunt. Scott points to the revenue ramp of AI-native companies as evidence this cycle is real, not overhyped. Both land in the same place: brand, community, and authenticity are the last durable moats, and retail teams must become architects rather than assembly-line workers. Back in studio, on the radar: Steve tracks the bond market, with 30-year Treasuries at a 19-year high and the 10-year at 4.75%, squeezing discretionary income and retailer expansion plans alike. Michael watches Canadian icon Roots, newly sold to New York's Marquee Brands with Joe Mimran advising on merchandising, and asks whether the brand can reclaim its former glory. Registration is open for a special webinar featuring Steve in conversation with Placer AI's Head of Analytical Research RJ Hottovy. From changing shopping patterns to emerging market opportunities, shifting consumer demand continues to reshape the industry. So don't miss this data-driven session unpacking the most important trends defining today's marketplace and the strategies leading brands are using to win retail's future. It's all brought to you by Placer.AI and It all happens on Tuesday September 29 at 1pm ET..Register here today:https://www.placer.ai/discover-events/discover-shifting-consumer-demand About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

Episode #1431: Today we're joined by Steve Greenfield, General Partner at Automotive Ventures and we're talking about lenders opening the credit taps even as delinquencies stay near record highs. Plus Amazon's Zoox clears a major robotaxi hurdle and th...

Matt Mainini is a commercial real estate investor and General Partner focused on multifamily acquisitions, adaptive reuse, and hotel-to-apartment conversions. After beginning his career at NASA and spending nearly two decades in Silicon Valley, Matt transitioned into real estate full-time, applying his analytical, systems-based approach to commercial investing. He became part of Rod's Warrior Group in May 2025 and today partners on projects that transform underutilized properties into quality housing while creating long-term value for investors, with a focus on helping technology professionals and busy investors build wealth through private real estate beyond public markets. Here's some of the topics we covered:   Matt's journey from tech and NASA to real estate Why busy professionals need to build wealth beyond their 401K Finding his superpower in investor relations and communication Joining the Warrior program to expand his network His first major deal converting a 104-unit hotel into multifamily How the $13M hotel conversion could reach a $26M valuation Why passion, value, and scalability are the keys to taking action   If you'd like to apply to the warrior program and do deals with other rockstars in this business: Text crush to 72345 and we'll be speaking soon.   For more about Rod and his real estate investing journey go to www.rodkhleif.com  

Creative financing can make the difference between losing a deal and creating a successful investment. In this episode, Dave Dubeau sits down with Culby Culbertson, founder of Culbertson Holdings, to discuss how today's investors can navigate an evolving lending market. Culby explains how his firm helps clients structure debt, organize capital, and solve challenging situations that traditional financing alone cannot address. The conversation also explores how helping clients solve financing problems naturally led Culby into becoming a GP on select projects. Rather than actively searching for acquisitions, many of these opportunities came through relationships built while advising investors on difficult transactions. Key Topics Organizing debt and equity for commercial real estate Loan assumptions and loan modifications Using preferred equity to bridge financing gaps Solving distressed investment situations Growing a capital advisory business from startup to over $100 million in annual loan volume Why networking and consistent outreach still drive business growth Guest Information Culby Culbertson Founder of Culbertson Holdings Connect with Culby on LinkedIn. Company LinkedIn: Culbertson Holdings LLC Call To Action If you're investing in commercial real estate and want to better understand your financing options, connect with Culby and his team through LinkedIn to learn more about available debt and capital solutions.

Camilla Dolan, General Partner at Eka Ventures, joins a conversation following Eka being named Impact Leader of the Year 2025 at the EUVC Summit & Awards Show 2026.The award recognises exceptional positive impact alongside strong financial performance, with impact intention, measurement and reporting integrated throughout the investment process.The recognition follows the close of Eka' $107 million second fund, focused on health, wellbeing and sustainability as long-term drivers of value.In the conversation, Camilla explains Eka's shared value thesis and why the firm believes impact investing can drive outlier returns while bringing more commercial capital into the market.In Fund I, she says every pound invested by Eka has been followed by roughly £10 of additional capital, much of it from commercial investors.She also explains how Eka assesses founders, looking for people who learn at an exceptional rate, show high intentionality and have evidence of outlier achievement.Camilla connects that approach to investments including Runna, which Eka backed in 2022 before its acquisition by Strava.The discussion explores what it looks like to treat impact as part of the investment discipline itself, rather than something separate from commercial performance.The EUVC Summit & Awards Show returns in 2027. Find out more and secure your spot here.

My guest today is Eric Vishria, a General Partner at Benchmark.  Eric has spent his career in software and cloud, and few people know the history of these markets as well as he does. What makes him special is his ability to use that history to make sense of today.  We discuss what the rise of AWS teaches us about AI, what he has learned from investing in Fireworks, Sierra, and Cerebras, and how the criteria for winning have changed for founders and investors.  Please enjoy my conversation with Eric Vishria. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp's⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgeline.ai⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant. Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:20) Learning the World Through Fireworks (00:05:42) AWS Was Going to Eat Everything (00:07:40) The Zero-Sum Thinking Trap (00:09:01) Comparing Cloud and AI Adoption (00:11:03) Becoming Enterprise's AI Sherpa (00:13:05) Building Sandcastles (00:14:55) The Return to Being Technical (00:17:13) The Shifting Competitive Frontier (00:22:10) Why the Old Playbook Fails (00:27:53) Energy as the Binding Constraint (00:29:38) The Cerebras Story (00:37:57) The Virtue of Productive Naivete (00:39:19) What Robotics Still Needs (00:45:58) What Makes a Great Board Partner (00:51:13) Raising A Growth Fund (00:55:39) What the Big Winners Taught Him (00:57:37) Hard Work Versus the Hole-in-One (00:58:38) The Best Reasons to Go Public (01:01:09) Debates Inside Benchmark (01:02:16) What If It All Works (01:03:35) What Geoff Hinton Got Wrong

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In this episode, I sit down with Aditya Agarwal of South Park Commons (SPC) to trace his journey from being one of the earliest employees at Facebook, becoming CTO at Dropbox, and then the inspiration of creating South Park Commons from his living room. The firm just announced a $575MM IV, it's largest fund to date. We discuss his decision-making at key career forks including his learnings working with Mark Zuckerberg, the power of surrounding yourself with exceptional people, and the five founder traits SPC relentlessly optimizes for. We also covered what it means to invest at the -1 to zero stage, and his view on the current state of venture capital.Thanks for listening to another episode of Venture Unlocked. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Aditya. If you'd like to get Venture Unlocked content straight to your inbox, go to ventureunlocked.substack.com and sign up, or head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribe. Thanks again for listening.Aditya Agarwal is a General Partner at South Park Commons and a longtime technology leader and entrepreneur. He previously served as CTO and VP of Engineering at Dropbox, where he scaled the engineering organization from 25 to more than 1,000 people. Before Dropbox, Aditya was one of Facebook's earliest engineers, helping build foundational products including News Feed, Search, and Messenger before becoming the company's first Director of Product Engineering. Today, he invests in and advises early-stage startups, drawing on decades of experience building some of Silicon Valley's most influential technology companies.Topics in this conversation include:* Choosing Oracle Over Bridgewater (2:31)* First Impressions of Mark Zuckerberg and Early Facebook (6:02)* Lessons From Oracle on Talent Density and Bureaucracy (9:38)* Five Founder Traits SPC Looks For (13:14)* Growing the SPC Community and Early Angel Checks (22:33)* AI, ChatGPT, and Rethinking Fund Size (35:15)* Investing Ahead of the Curve in AI and Robotics (39:11)* Aiming for 5x Net Per Fund (41:04)* AI Compared to Railroads and Heavy Capex (46:07)* AI's High Usefulness Floor and Mass Adoption (49:10)* Concerns Around Hyperscaler Capex and Hiccups (52:01)* Closing Reflections and Takeaways (54:38)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 X. 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

Send us Fan MailMiguel Armaza flew to Almaty, Kazakhstan to sit down with Mikhail Lomtadze, CEO and Co-Founder of Kaspi, for their second conversation in two years. It is hard to explain how dominant and loved Kaspi is in this market: in a country of 20 million people, more than 15 million use the app daily, and it handles two thirds of Kazakhstan's e-commerce. What started as a traditional bank is now one of the world's most defining super apps, and it just entered a new chapter, expanding into Türkiye through Hepsiburada and launching Kasper, its consumer-facing AI assistant.They discussed why Kaspi's final destination is the everyday AI assistant rather than the everyday super app, why almost nobody in the company carries a financial target, how a 10,000-person organization stays a collection of startups, what the first year inside Türkiye has actually taught them, and why he thinks investors are underestimating their ability to execute.Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~100,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqpThe views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated organization or employer. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial, legal, or tax advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making any financial decisions.

Enterprise AI has moved past experimentation and now has to prove its return. Ed Sim, Founder and General Partner of boldstart ventures, ranked the No. 1 seed investor in the Business Insider Seed 100 two years running, sees hundreds of AI startup pitches a year, and writes the first check into companies enterprises buy from years later. He wrote the first check into Snyk and backed Protect AI, which Palo Alto Networks acquired for more than $700 million. In this conversation, he lays out the three waves of enterprise AI adoption, why rising token costs are pushing companies toward open-weight models and their own hardware, how agent identity and access create a new attack surface, and what separates AI vendors that survive a shakeout from the ones that do not.YOU'LL DISCOVER✅ The three waves of enterprise AI: get AI running, get agents running, and the wave happening now, where ROI and tokenomics decide what survives✅ Why Ed expects dozens of models inside a single enterprise, and the choice he frames as renting intelligence versus owning it✅ How one portfolio company packaged eight GPUs, CPUs, and a model router into an appliance, routing roughly 10% of queries to the frontier labs and claiming 70% savings per year✅ Why agents should be granted access at runtime that expires when the task ends, so a breach's blast radius stays contained to one narrow authorization✅ Cost per outcome as the yardstick: the human doing the task, the AI doing the task, and the human assisted by AI, applied first to discrete work like coding and customer support✅ A 57-step insurance claims process where the AI was correct 98% of the time and the humans 85%, a gap only visible because every step was recorded✅ The real difference between open source and open weight models, and why most of Ed's startups now build on open weight models under the hood✅ Why he argues offense is the new defense, and what the Black Hat sandbox escape means for CISOs planning autonomous defense⏱️ TIMESTAMPS0:00 Introduction0:36 Three waves and the ROI test3:06 Many models and where startups win10:32 Who owns access, context, and evaluations17:21 It's the people, not the architecture20:04 Measure the outcome, then cut the cost28:14 Buying talent and changing culture33:05 Systems of record versus headless agents36:31 Venture money pivots to robotics and chips40:11 Open weights and owning your intelligence44:44 Autonomous attacks need autonomous defense51:32 Judging vendors and earning enterprise trust

Multicoin Capital's Shayon Sengupta on why crypto is the most underpriced opportunity in tech, the firm's $319 HYPE base case, Solana vs Hyperliquid, and whether DePIN is dead.In one of his first interviews since being promoted to General Partner & Co-Head of Venture, Shayon joins Connor in New York to explain why Multicoin recommitted to crypto while peer funds expand into AI and robotics. They cover the two forces he believes the market is mispricing (infrastructure maturity and regulatory clarity), the everything exchange thesis behind Hyperliquid, why dual token-equity structures fail, the coming financialization of compute, and a candid Helium post-mortem. On DePIN: "You can call me delusional if you want. We are even stronger believers right now."Timestamps:00:00 - Cold Open00:42 - The Pod Returns with a Bang01:38 - What Changed Since the March Promotion03:25 - Inside Multicoin: Tushar, Spencer, Hedge Fund vs Venture06:08 - Favorite Memory: Breakpoint 2021, SOL at $25009:17 - Lessons from Three Cycles13:38 - AI in 2026 Is Crypto in 202114:19 - Why Multicoin Recommitted to Crypto18:35 - The Regulatory Unlock the Market Is Mispricing21:47 - Is Decentralization Still a Core Tenet?24:49 - Token Holder Rights and the Revenue Meta28:16 - The HYPE Thesis: $319 Base Case, the Everything Exchange30:53 - Are 99% Buybacks the New Standard?33:10 - Why Dual Token-Equity Structures Go to Zero37:33 - Solana vs Hyperliquid: Spot vs Perps42:10 - Request for Startups: Financializing Compute46:30 - Shayon Flips the Mic: Is AI Topping?48:53 - The Four-Year Cycle and Where the Bottom Is51:46 - Where the Next Bull Market Flows Go53:08 - Is DePIN Dead?56:40 - The Helium Post-Mortem59:14 - GEODNET, Grass, and DePIN's Next Five Years01:01:45 - Bear Market Wisdom: "Founders Remember"Follow Shayon: https://x.com/shayonsenguptaFollow Multicoin Capital: https://x.com/multicoinFollow Connor: https://x.com/richhomieconFollow Proof of Coverage: https://x.com/Proof_CoverageProof of Coverage is tech's creative agency. We make launch videos, brand films, founder stories, and event recaps for teams like Kalshi, MoonPay, and Solana.Work with us: https://proofofcoverage.xyzAlthough our guest is a General Partner of a registered investment adviser, nothing in this podcast should be considered an offer of Multicoin's investment advisory services or should otherwise be confused for investment, tax, legal or other financial advice. The hosts and guest, and the firms they represent, may hold positions in the companies and tokens mentioned in this episode and stand to gain in the event that the price of the tokens increase.  Multicoin's HYPE valuation report discussed in this podcast can be found as a link in the show notes.  The report includes important disclosures concerning the data and assumptions by Multicoin discussed today.Multicoin's Hype Analysis and Valuation report can be found HERE. The report includes important disclosures concerning the data and assumptions by Multicoin discussed today.Multicoin and the host may have interests in companies and tokens mentioned during the episode.

Today we dive into Self-Storage investments.My guest is Clint Harris. Clint is a former medical sales professional turned real estate investor and co-host of the podcast, Truly Passive Income. After spending 16 years working alongside physicians and clinical teams, Clint gained firsthand insight into the demanding schedules, pressures, and financial challenges healthcare professionals face. While still working full time in medical sales, Clint began building passive income through real estate investing, ultimately transitioning into large-scale commercial projects. Today, he is a General Partner at Nomad Capital, where he helps develop and operate cash-flowing commercial assets and has helped raise capital for over $150 million in stabilized properties. Clint now focuses on educating busy medical professionals on how to invest passively - allowing them to continue practicing medicine while their money works for them. His approach emphasizes simplicity, diversification, and long-term financial stability without sacrificing time or patient care  Discussion points:- Clint's introduction and exposure to storage investing (2:30)- meeting his partners (10:01)- Nomad Capital (13:00)- Mid-long term storage thesis (15:49)- Optimizing margins in storage (24:43)- Cost control measures (29:24)- Occupancy trends in storage (32:56)- Headwinds & tailwinds (35:21)- Syndications & the tough questions to ask (38:22)- Timelines (44:32)- Closing thoughts (46:11)Clint Harris:Website:  https://nomadcapital.usLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/clint-harris-543265139 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0F1abrRXQX2KpSl5qEnoA Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truly-passive-income/id1693667029 Yatin Chadha:Newsletter: https://www.beyondmd.ca/newsletterWebsite: https://www.beyondmd.ca/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yatin-chadha/Email: yatin@beyondmd.ca

Kevin Mandia is CEO of Armadin, where he leads the company's mission to secure some of the world's largest and most complex environments. A globally recognized cybersecurity leader, he is also a General Partner at Ballistic Ventures, mentoring and investing in the next generation of cybersecurity entrepreneurs. Best known as the founder of Mandiant and former CEO of FireEye, Mandia helped redefine the cybersecurity industry through pioneering digital forensics, the groundbreaking APT1 report exposing state-sponsored cyber espionage, and his leadership during the SolarWinds attack. Today, he continues to shape cybersecurity strategy, national security policy, and the future of AI-driven defense. Privacy isn't Paranoia. It's Protection. Download Glacier - https://srs.site/glacierapp Website - https://theglacierapp.com Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Get 10% Off your entire order & take advantage of Ridge's Annual Sweepstakes by going to https://www.Ridge.com/SRS #Ridgepod NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the promotion territory, who have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence. Void elsewhere & where prohibited by law. Enter by 9:00 a.m. USPT on 8 September 2026. 2 winners, prizes total ARV: up to approx. $539,165 CAD / £284,170. Skill-testing question required in CA. See Official Rules at ridge.com/pages/rules for complete eligibility, entry instructions, how to enter without a purchase, entry limits, prize details, odds, and restrictions. Sponsor: The Ridge Wallet LLC. Get started with Claude at https://claude.ai/srs and use promo code srs for access to all features mentioned in today's episode. Visit https://betterhelp.com/srs. #ad Go to https://calderalab.com/SRS and use code SRS for 20% off your first order. Kevin Mandia Links: Armadin - https://www.armadin.com Ballistic Ventures - https://ballisticventures.com LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-mandia-0a07173 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we dissect ColdCard's ~$100M RNG exploit that Claude Code cracked in 8 minutes, debate whether AI just killed open-source security and Bitcoin maximalism, tear apart Ethereum's EIP-8361 staking-yield taper, and unpack Leopold Aschenbrenner's 67% Situational Awareness blowup and CLARITY Act's ethics fight. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. No guest this week, just the four of them working through a week where AI quietly rewrote the economics of both security and human psychology, and crypto happened to be standing in the blast radius. This episode: ColdCard, NVK's Bitcoin-only hardware wallet, got drained of nearly $100M thanks to a random-number-generation bug that a one-word commit buried five years ago, and Claude Code sniffed it out in 8 minutes (an open model with no internet found it in 20, for about two bucks). The crew debates whether AI just killed open-source security, whether Nic Carter is right that this is 'the death of Bitcoin maximalism,' and why Tarun thinks maxi devs are 'the RFK of security practices.' Then they take a blowtorch to Ethereum's EIP-8361 staking-yield taper (Tarun: 'the proposal reads like shit'), unpack Leopold Aschenbrenner's 67% Situational Awareness blowup while 4x levered, and wade into the CLARITY Act's ethics fight where a single amendment is the whole ballgame. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights

In this episode of the Crypto 101 Podcast, Spencer Applebaum, General Partner & Co-Head of Venture at Multicoin Capital, joins from the Out East Summit to explain how Multicoin approaches crypto investing across liquid tokens, venture, and crypto-related equities. He breaks down why the firm remains fully focused on crypto while many peers chase AI and robotics.Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.comCheck out Quince: https://quince.com/CRYPTO101Check out Shopify: https://shopify.com/crypto101Check out ShipStation and use my code crypto for a great deal: https://www.shipstation.comCheck out NPR: https://npr.orgGet my #1 altcoin pick for this month.Get immediate access to my entire crypto portfolio for just $1.00 today! Get your FREE copy of "Crypto Revolution" and start making big profits from buying, selling,Get immediate access to my entire crypto portfolio.. just $1.00 today! Go here to get access: https://www.crypto101insider.com/cryptnation-directm6pypcy1?utm_source=Internal&utm_medium=YouTube&utm_content=Podcast&utm_term=20250916Get your FREE copy of "Crypto Revolution: Your Guide To The Future of Money". In this book, I reveal how to make (and keep) a fortune during this crypto bull run! http://www.cryptorevolution.com/free?utm_source=Internal&utm_medium=YouTube&utm_content=Podcast&utm_term=20250916Chapters00:00 - Intro01:25 - Multicoin Capital's crypto-only investment thesis03:00 - Why public research helped Multicoin grow05:30 - Liquid hedge fund vs venture investing strategy07:10 - Tokens vs equity in crypto projects09:40 - Clarity Act, CFTC, SEC, and regulatory momentum12:40 - How Multicoin thinks about long-term crypto investing14:00 - Hyperliquid, Solana, Robinhood, and Zcash positions17:10 - Why Apollo buying Morpho matters20:45 - Digital asset treasury companies and MicroStrategy22:40 - What could restart the crypto bull marketSubscribe to YouTube for Exclusive Content:https://www.youtube.com/@crypto101podcast?sub_confirmation=1Follow us on social media for leading-edge crypto updates and trade alerts:https://twitter.com/Crypto101Podhttps://instagram.com/crypto_101*This is NOT financial, tax, or legal advice*Boardwalk Flock LLC. All Rights Reserved  ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Fog by DIZARO https://soundcloud.com/dizarofrCreative Commons — Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported — CC BY-ND 3.0 Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/Fog-DIZAROMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/lAfbjt_rmE8▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬Our Sponsors:* Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com* Check out Quince and use my code quince.com/CRYPTO101 for a great deal: https://www.quince.com* Check out Scribe and use my code scribe.how/CRYPTO101 for a great deal: https://scribe.com* Check out ShipStation and use my code crypto for a great deal: https://www.shipstation.com* Check out Shopify and use my code shopify.com/crypto101 for a great deal: https://www.shopify.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode, ⁠Adam Torres⁠ interviews ⁠Tobias Kaulfuss⁠, CEO & General Partner of Castella Nova GmbH, to discuss microcap buy-and-build investing, the growing business succession challenge in Germany, and how entrepreneurs can preserve the legacy of their companies through thoughtful acquisitions. Follow Adam on Instagram at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/⁠ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: ⁠https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/⁠ Visit our website: ⁠https://missionmatters.com/⁠ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: ⁠https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Tobias Kaulfuss, CEO & General Partner of Castella Nova GmbH, to discuss microcap buy-and-build investing, the growing business succession challenge in Germany, and how entrepreneurs can preserve the legacy of their companies through thoughtful acquisitions. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we sit down with Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Union Square Ventures, where she invests in the next generation of AI, software, and technology companies shaping the future.We discuss why AI is still dramatically underhyped, how venture capitalists identify world-changing technologies before everyone else, the future of open versus closed AI ecosystems, why the best investors think in decades instead of years, and the frameworks Rebecca uses to evaluate the next wave of billion-dollar companies.If you're interested in AI, venture capital, startups, investing, or understanding how the world's best investors think, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-1&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)*beehiiv has a major announcement coming July 16 - can't say more, but you won't want to miss it. RSVP here: https://www.beehiiv.com/summer-release-2026Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers. Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/8dccb81c-ac02-48e1-afb3-b6a7d8ff9160-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

David Epstein is General Partner at USF Ventures, the venture fund backing companies connected to the University of San Francisco. He was previously a General Partner at Crosslink Capital and has held management and CEO roles at more than half a dozen startups. He also teaches entrepreneurship and finance, and began his career at Data General as a computer designer, on the project chronicled in Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer Prize winning The Soul of a New Machine.In this episode, Dave argues that the real AI bottleneck isn't chips, power, or capital. It's data. We get into why frontier labs backing open weight models is a defensive move rather than a principled one, where early stage startups can still win, and why he thinks jobs will disappear faster than they get created.⭐This episode is brought to you by Podcast10x. We help founders and investors turn one podcast episode into a full month of content. Strategy, production, and distribution handled end to end. Learn more at https://podcast10x.comWhat we cover:→ Why "AI company" is no longer a category, and the pitch deck claim that has become his pet peeve→ Why AI isn't a tool anymore, and what makes this cycle different from the dot com era→ The real bottleneck: why we've exhausted the internet's data and what comes next→ Money as the constraint nobody prices in, and the circularity in the current data center build out→ How Chinese open weight models pull revenue out of token charges and subscriptions→ Why big lab support for open models is defensive positioning→ Who survives if open weights take share, and why consolidation is coming→ Where early stage startups can still win: drug discovery, financial services, legal→ Why the likely exit is a sale, not an IPO→ Ethical investing as a return rather than a tax, and why it's tough to work with jerks→ Why self-regulation rarely works, and what 2008 tells us about the current AI alliance→ Why layoffs are just the beginning, and the Industrial Revolution parallel everyone forgets→ Where the jobs actually are: management, human facing care, and the trades→ What top tier VCs get right, and why VCs are also lemmings→ Quantum computing as a data center accelerator, and the password problem it creates→ Physics AI vs physical AI, and the validation problem sitting on top of both→ Five year predictions: AGI, commonplace robots, and why consciousness doesn't matterConnect with Dave Epstein:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedavee/USF Ventures: https://usfventures.comConnect with Prashant Choubey:LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/choubeysahabSubscribe to VC10X newsletter - https://vc10x.beehiiv.comVC10X website - https://vc10x.comTimestamps:(00:00) - Preview(00:56) - Introduction to David Epstein and the Episode's Topics(02:48) - How the AI Startup Landscape Has Fundamentally Changed(05:08) - Comparing the Current AI Boom to the Internet Boom(06:25) - Identifying the Next AI Bottleneck: Chips, Power, or Data?(09:30) - Why Money is an Overlooked Bottleneck for AI Development(11:14) - The Cyclical Nature of AI Investments and Financing(12:46) - Analyzing Big Tech's Support for Open Source Models(15:12) - Winners and Losers: Open Source vs. Frontier Models(18:01) - How Early-Stage Startups Can Compete and Win in the AI Space(20:53) - The Role of Ethics in AI Investment Decisions(23:31) - The Challenge of Upholding Ethics in a Competitive Market(26:21) - Implications of the OpenAI Model Escaping(29:46) - The Future of AI-Driven Job Disruption(32:46) - Where to Find Employment Opportunities in the AI World(37:43) - How Top-Tier VCs Evaluate Founders and Make Decisions(40:21) - The Most Exciting Emerging Areas of Innovation(43:18) - Explaining Quantum Computing's Potential and Impact(48:39) - An Ambitious AI Prediction for the Next 5 Years(51:35) - Rapid Fire Round: USF Ventures' Investment Strategy(53:06) - Conclusion

Episode 438 of The VentureFizz Podcast feautres Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, General Partner & Co-Founder of Visible Hands. When it comes to early-stage venture capital, less than 5% of funding goes to women and founders of color. Visible Hands is stepping up to fundamentally change that narrative, not just as a mission-driven play, but to unlock non-obvious, exceptional venture returns. Co-founded alongside Justin Kang and Daniel Acheampong, Visible Hands is a pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm backing overlooked, formidable founders who are transforming the future. Beyond writing checks, they provide a full continuum of support, including regional fellowship programs like VHBOS, VHNYC, and Blueprint: Tulsa. Chapters: 00:01 Introducing Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, General Partner at Visible Hands 03:02 What Drives Yasmin 06:21 Yasmin's Background 08:15 How Yasmin Got Her Career Started 10:38 Advice for someone considering their MBA 13:44 All About Visible Hands, Including their Investment Philosophy & Support of Underserved Founders 21:01 Details on the Fellowship Program 28:11 Getting in Touch & Common Pitch Mistakes 32:53 Building 0-1 Products 36:27 Visible Hands Portfolio Examples 39:02 The Boston Tech Ecosystem 45:18 The Check Writers Room Podcast 49:15 More About Yasmi - Recommendations - Apps & Books Recommendations and What She Does Outside of Work

Matt Patterson has spent his career proving that the biggest risk is often the safest bet you can make. In this episode, Matt shares why he refused to stay in any job for more than a year, how moving to a city where he knew no one helped him and his partners build Bellhops from the ground up, and why Brickyard gives other founders that same all-in experience. Matt Patterson is Co-Founder and General Partner of Brickyard. You can connect with him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-patterson-23032356/).  If you like this episode, we think you'll also like: Cam Doody's Morning Cup (E63) Ted and Kelly Alling's Morning Cups (E69) Barry Large's Morning Cup (E73) Subscribe to the weekly newsletter and be the first to know who upcoming guests are: http://eepurl.com/iGJzII  My Morning Cup is hosted by Mike Costa of Costa Media Advisors and produced by SpeakEasy Productions.

What does it take to power the AI boom? Steve Vassallo, a roboticist turned General Partner at Foundation Capital, helped semiconductor company Cerebras figure it out. Steve and Oz discuss why AI workloads demanded an entirely new kind of chip, what "wafer scale" actually means, and how a decade of near-failures — including a system that literally caught fire — led to the largest semiconductor IPO to date and deals with OpenAI and AWS.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

YC's Nemil Dalal joins to explain why he's never been more bullish as BitMEX winds down after 11 years, whether every failed crypto idea (TCRs, DAOs, creator coins) eventually works, why crypto is really about money, Base's consumer mea culpa, on-chain reputation and credit, and who pays in the x402 AI-agent era. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week they're joined by Nemil Dalal, Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and ex-Coinbase, where he led USDC and the Coinbase Developer Platform. He's here to explain why, with exchanges winding down left and right, he's somehow never been more bullish. The crew digs into the great contrast of the moment: BitMEX shutting down after 11 years (plus BitMart, Movement Labs, Balancer Labs) while the plumbing quietly prints, and whether Imran's viral 'everything that failed will eventually work' thesis is genius or toxic positivity. From there it's the question of whether crypto is really only about money (Jesse's Base mea culpa included), a war-memories tour through TCRs, on-chain reputation and why pure on-chain credit keeps faceplanting, and finally who actually pays in the x402 AI-agent era, and whether decentralization even survives contact with Google-shaped gravity. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights

Josh Resnick, the Co-Founder & General Partner of OpenSky Ventures, adds his page to the Marketing Playbook. Hear how to build a company culture that attracts & keeps great people, how to determine if you're after fast growth or healthy growth, how to evolve with technology, what Josh learned from the video game & candy industries, and his various entrepreneurial food ventures as a kid. Connect with Josh at OpenSky.VC and on LinkedIn

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you inside the business of venture capital. I'm your host, Samir Kaji.My guest today is Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner at Founder Collective, one of the longest standing and respected seed firms in the industry, with early investments in companies like Uber, The Trade Desk, and Coupang. What makes Founder Collective atypical to most successful firms is their decision to keep fund sizes small. In fact, despite their success, they've never raised a fund over 100 million dollars, in a market where nearly every one of their peers has scaled up.In this conversation, Micah and I dig into why they've stayed small, and the data behind it, including a study his team ran on 25 years of venture exits that found the median outcome of the top 500 exits is about 2.7 billion dollars. We also spent time on his post that described why the industry may have lost the plot by obsessing over fund and firm strategy instead of simply focusing on the core of finding unique opportunities that early, priced appropriately, and led by great operators.Micah is a two time founder himself, a clear thinker, and someone who's willing to say what a lot of investors only think. I think you'll get a lot out of this one. Thanks for listening to another episode of Venture Unlocked. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Micah. If you'd like to get Venture Unlocked content straight to your inbox, go to ventureunlocked.substack.com and sign up, or head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribe. Thanks again for listening.Micah Rosenbloom is a General Partner at Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital firm built by founders for founders. Before becoming an investor, Micah co-founded multiple technology companies, including Brontes Technologies, which was acquired by 3M, giving him firsthand experience building and scaling startups. Today, he invests in early-stage companies across enterprise software, healthcare, and frontier technologies, and has backed successful startups including Verkada, Lovevery, Talos, Plated, and Trusted. Known for his founder-first philosophy, Micah is a respected voice on capital efficiency, venture strategy, and building enduring companies.Timestamps:Topics in this conversation include:* Seed Capital Scarcity in Boston and Birth of Founder Collective (5:18)* Why Small Funds Create Optionality and Better Multiples (9:02)* Capital Efficiency vs Growth Treadmill and Founder Psychology (13:08)* Data on Billion Dollar Exits and 2.7B Median Outcome (18:20)* Can AI Change the Exit Math or Just Inflate Valuations? (23:59)* Profitability, Durable Growth, and Non AI Winners (30:28)* What Founder Collective Refuses to Chase in This Market (34:47)* Saying No to Great Founders at Misaligned Terms (38:10)* Has Venture Lost the Plot? Multiple VC Business Models (41:45)* Biggest Lesson Learned: Betting on Who, Not Just What (46:24)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 X. 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 this conversation, Anne Neuberger, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, currently General Partner and Head of Global Affairs at venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, joins What's Your Number hosts Yael Wissner Levy and Yonatan Adiri to discuss how AI, cyber warfare, drones, and defense tech are reshaping geopolitics. As technology, commercial investment, and national security become increasingly intertwined, what will determine which countries, and which companies, thrive in this new era and how core values determine their use. ___ Subscribe here to: What's Your Number? ___ Call Me Back is made possible by our subscribers. If these conversations are where you turn to understand Israel and the Jewish world, consider joining them. It's what keeps this show going. Become a Subscriber - Inside Call me Back ____ In this episode: - The new ingredients of national power - Why supply chains became a national security issue - The AI debate between Washington and Silicon Valley - What Israel and Ukraine teach the world about defense tech - Is the U.S.-Israel alliance changing? - Can Israel withstand growing divestment pressure? - The next breakthroughs in AI and cyber - Personal lessons learned from history from the Holocaust to Entebbe  More Ark Media: Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings. Explore Israel Votes Listen to Ark News Daily Listen to For Heaven's Sake Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal Instagram | Ark Media | Dan X | Dan Dan Senor & Saul Singer's book, The Genius of Israel Get in touch Credits: Ilan Benatar, Ryan Lohr, Beth Pearlman, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Yuval Semo

In this conversation, Anne Neuberger, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, currently General Partner and Head of Global Affairs at venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, joins What's Your Number hosts Yael Wissner Levy and Yonatan Adiri to discuss how AI, cyber warfare, drones, and defense tech are reshaping geopolitics. As […]

David R. Priest walked away from a $13 million, 90-unit deal — and roughly $200,000 out of his own pocket — after discovering the partner set to sign his loan was flagged on Fannie Mae's ineligible list. Three years later, he's General Partner on over 2,000 apartment units and has personally raised $10 million in private capital for multifamily syndications across Texas. In this episode, Logan sits down with David to unpack how that early collapse became the turning point that redirected him into capital raising, the "DEAL" method he uses to screen a deal in under ten minutes — looking at location, operator, and debt long before he ever looks at the numbers — and why he'd rather give investors a "smooth ride" than chase the highest possible return. David also breaks down the counterintuitive reason he treats a $50,000 investor with the same respect as a $500,000 one, and what he's watching for in the Texas multifamily market over the next year. Whether you're trying to raise your first dollar of capital or place your next investment, this is a masterclass in credibility, discipline, and playing the long game.Five key takeaways:Turn failure into fuel. David's first deal — a $13M, 90-unit acquisition he tried to run himself — fell apart when his loan-signing partner turned out to be flagged on Fannie Mae's checklist, costing him close to $200,000. That failure pushed him to pivot into capital raising, where he's since raised over $10 million.Borrow credibility from proven operators. New to the business with no track record, David built credibility by affiliating with experienced, top-tier operators — using the analogy that everyone remembers Steve Jobs, not Apple's number two or three — and by putting his own money into every deal he raises for.Screen deals with the "DEAL" method, numbers last. David evaluates location, the operator's track record, and the debt structure before ever touching the underwriting — letting him say "no" to most deals in under ten minutes and save deep analysis for the one or two that actually deserve it.Communication beats the biggest return. A 2.5x return on a poorly-run oil and gas deal still cost David his willingness to reinvest, because the communication was bad throughout. He argues investors want a "smooth ride" more than they want a rollercoaster with a great payout at the end.Every investor deserves equal respect. A consistent $50,000 check-writer can be more valuable than a one-time $500,000 investor — and in David's own experience, treating a $50K investor well led directly to a referral for his first $500,000 check.About Tim MaiTim Mai is a real estate investor, fund manager, mentor, and founder of HERO Mastermind for REI coaches.He has helped many real estate investors and coaches become millionaires. Tim continues to help busy professionals earn income and build wealth through passive investing.He is also a creative marketer and promoter with incredible knowledge and experience, which he freely shares. He has lifted himself from the aftermath of war, achieving technical expertise in computers, followed by investment success in real estate, management skills, and a lofty position among real estate educators and internet marketers.Tim is an industry leader who has acquired and exited well over $50 million worth of real estate and is currently an investor in over 2700 units of multifamily apartments.Connect with TimWebsite: Capital Raising PartyFacebook: Tim Mai | Capital Raising Nation Instagram: @timmaicomTwitter: @timmaiLinkedIn: Tim MaiYouTube: Tim Mai

Patrick Witt, the White House's executive director for digital assets policy, calls in mid-episode to give the Chopping Block crew a live read on the CLARITY market structure bill! Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week they're joined mid-episode by Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, who dialed in late because he was literally chasing down bill language. First, Tarun explains how Gauntlet closed its biggest raise ever, $125M from SBI Holdings, the crypto OGs of Japan and early Ripple Labs backers, and what it cost him in suits and seven straight days of staying shaved (chairman Kitao-san reportedly listens). Then the crew dissects Balaji's Network School saga, from a Forest City ghost town in Malaysia to an immigration raid, a revoked license, and a sudden MOU-fueled pivot to Kazakhstan, with Tom's dreaded 'turkey chart' making an appearance. Finally, the main event: Patrick lays out the state of play on the CLARITY market structure bill, the August 7th recess deadline, the ~46% Polymarket coin flip, and the first-of-its-kind ethics provision, including the DOJ-versus-state-AG enforcement fight and whether crypto gets a second crack after midterms. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights

Sudarshan Sridharan, General Partner of SF1, shares his journey from building founder communities and operating startups to launching an early-stage venture capital firm focused on AI-native companies. He explains how he evaluates founders, why competence, integrity, and ambition matter more than polished pitches, and how artificial intelligence is reshaping the markets attracting venture capital. Throughout the conversation, Sudarshan offers practical advice on earning investor trust, building meaningful relationships, and creating long-term value as both a founder and an investor. In this episode, you'll learn: [03:10] How Sudarshan built founder communities, started companies, and launched SF1 while still in his early twenties. [11:40] Why competence, integrity, and market size are the three questions he asks when evaluating founders. [18:20] Why clarity of thought matters more than having every answer during a fundraising conversation. [27:45] How AI is creating new venture opportunities across infrastructure, robotics, defense, energy, and life sciences. [35:30] Why founders should build investor relationships long before they need capital. [43:15] How Sudarshan supports founders beyond writing the first check. About Sudarshan Sridharan Sudarshan Sridharan is a General Partner of SF1, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in AI-native founders building category-defining companies. Before founding SF1, he built startups, invested as an angel, and created founder communities that connected entrepreneurs with investors and experienced operators. His investment philosophy centers on backing founders with exceptional ambition, integrity, and clarity of thought while helping them build enduring companies through long-term partnership. About SF1 SF1 is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with AI-native founders building generational companies from inception to IPO. The firm invests at the earliest stages, backing entrepreneurs developing transformative technologies across artificial intelligence and enterprise software. SF1 is built around long-term partnerships with founders, supporting them beyond capital through recruiting, fundraising, strategic introductions, and company building. The firm's investment philosophy emphasizes founder quality, clarity of thought, integrity, and the ability to execute in large, evolving markets. Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

John Lilly has had a front row seat to almost every major shift in technology over the last thirty years, and he has sat in almost every chair while it happened.He was a Senior Scientist at Apple in 1997, when the market cap was two billion dollars and most people assumed the company was finished. He co-founded Reactivity, later acquired by Cisco. He became CEO of Mozilla and led Firefox past 450 million users, running an open source nonprofit at a time when nobody else in Silicon Valley was doing anything like it. Then he spent over a decade as a General Partner at Greylock, where he led investments in Instagram, Dropbox, Figma, Tumblr and Quip. He sits on the boards of Figma, Duolingo and Nuro, and recently joined Gigascale Capital as an Advising Partner, backing companies rebuilding the physical economy.In this conversation with Jessica Neal and co-host Jeff Markowitz, John walks through what he actually saw in the founders everyone else missed.He tells the story of chasing Kevin Systrom for six months, wiring the money on a Thursday, and getting the call three days later that Instagram was selling to Facebook. He explains the moment a friend showed him Instagram and what clicked was not the filters, it was the distribution. And he describes meeting a 19 year old Dylan Field at a Starbucks in Palo Alto, telling him his product did not matter, and then spending the next decade watching him prove it wrong.He is also honest about the parts that are harder to hear. Why some partners at Greylock wanted Dylan replaced. Why he thinks micromanaging the right things is a feature of good leadership, not a flaw. Why he does not tell CEOs anything, and what he does instead. And why, at a moment when OpenAI and Anthropic are pulling talent out of every company on earth, the answer is not matching the money.He closes with something a colleague at Mozilla told him years ago that he still carries: we had a chance to make the world we wanted, and we did it.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━WHAT WE COVER━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━THE FOUNDER QUESTION→ How John spotted Dylan Field at 19→ Why recruiting senior people is the strongest early signal→ The trait every great founder shares: relentless about getting help→ Why non-defensiveness beats raw intelligence→ The lunch where they told Dylan he had to build a go to marketTHE INVESTMENTS→ Chasing Kevin Systrom for six months→ The underwater photographer who explained Instagram to him→ Why the network mattered and the filters did not→ The four day flip to Facebook and what he told his LPs→ The Adobe Killers that came before Figma and why this one was differentLEADERSHIP AND SCALE→ Going from 12 people to a quarter of the internet at Mozilla→ Why he never learned the delegation lesson everyone teaches→ Larry and Sergey reviewing every resume and what that signals→ Learning to be simpler in your message as you grow→ Deciding you would rather be successful than comfortableTHE TALENT WAR→ Why every great person is now a free agent→ The spreadsheet exercise he gives every CEO→ Tour of duty and the bilateral deal between company and employee→ Never making an offer until you know it will be accepted→ Why money is rarely the only reason people leaveTHE CURRENT MOMENT→ Why leadership now means stability without pretending anything is stable→ The collision of faster scaling and total vulnerability→ Why org size no longer scales with impact→ Alpha nerds, Tim O'Reilly, and following the most technical people around→ Investing in transformers, copper recycling and rare earth supply chains→ Why none of the AI future is settled and it is all still to play for━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CONNECT WITH JOHN LILLYLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnlilly━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Truth Works is hosted by Jessica Neal, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, with co-host Jeff Markowitz.

Nick Grossman is a General Partner at Union Square Ventures. In this conversation, we break down his "Rebel Alliance" thesis for AI — why he believes the industry is too big for one or two companies to dominate. We also discuss USV's internal multi-agent platform, model routing economics, AI's growing role in venture capital and financial markets, data privacy risks, and what happens to jobs and society as agents get smarter.=====================BitcoinIRA: Buy, sell, and swap 80+ cryptocurrencies in your retirement account. Take 3 minutes to open your account & get connected to a team of IRA specialists that will guide you through every step of the process. Go to https://bitcoinira.com/pomp/ to earn up to $2,000 in rewards.=====================Looking for a better place to trade? BloFin gives traders access to deep liquidity, advanced futures products for crypto AND TradFi assets, fast execution, and a clean, intuitive interface—all in one platform. To celebrate their partnership with us, they're giving away $100,000 in Deposit & Trade Rewards. Deposit, trade, and earn rewards based on your activity during the campaign. Check them out at ( https://partner.blofin.com/d/Pomp ).=====================Simple Mining makes Bitcoin mining simple and accessible for everyone. We offer a premium white glove hosting service, helping you maximize the profitability of Bitcoin mining. For more information on Simple Mining or to get started mining Bitcoin, visit https://www.simplemining.io/pomp=====================Arch Public is an agentic trading platform that automates investment strategies across Stocks, Commodities, ETFs and Crypto. Whether you're rotating into AI & Gold, allocating to the S&P 500, or accumulating Bitcoin, Arch Public executes your plan 24/7 without ever taking custody of your assets or funds. Sign up today at https://www.archpublic.com, and start your FREE automated trading strategy! =====================0:00 - Intro0:42 - The "Rebel Alliance" thesis: why one company won't dominate AI7:15 - General-purpose vs. specialized models in USV's portfolio8:40 - Compute costs & the rise of model routing11:14 - Inside USV's internal multi-agent system16:25 - AI's role in venture capital & autonomous investing22:50 - How AI reshapes market signals & information edges27:06 - Apps building models & the fight over your data35:31 - Five-year outlook for the AI stack37:57 - US vs. China: the "philosophy" of AI models40:30 - Personalized AI & where the Rebel Alliance thesis plays43:53 - The dark side: jobs, data centers & society47:44 - AI as a personal superpower & neural implants

Send us Fan MailLEARN THE CAPITAL RAISING STRATEGIES AND FRAMEWORKS used by alternative asset professionals: https://go.fundraisecapital.co/applyThis episode is brought to you by Reef Pass | Serial Acquisition Investors: Reef Pass Investors has spent the last 10 years focused on partnering with founders to launch and build long-term holding companies, and has a proven track record doing exactly that.To reach out to Reef Pass Investors, email holdcofounders@reefpassinvestors.comHow do I build a data edge with no team or budget?Matt Ober's first move: go all in on Claude and ensure every tool has an MCP connection. Fund admin, LP communications, compliance, capital calls, unified through MCP. Operations automate and you return to what you are paid to do.In this episode of Making Billions, Ryan Miller sits down with Matt Ober, General Partner at Social Leverage. Their riveting conversation covers building fund data infrastructure from nothing using MCP-connected tools! Separating alpha data from beta data before spending a dollar & why most AI fundraising tools are gimmicks. They discuss how prediction markets are becoming the most important new institutional signal, and the single discipline separating managers who turn data into returns from those who burn through budgets with nothing to show.What is the difference between alpha data and beta data?Alpha is a fleeting trading advantage. Beta is sticky and pays the bills. The data that was once edge is now infrastructure. The new edge is using AI to synthesize more data faster.[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy. He is the founder of Fund Raise Capital and Aequor Capital Partners, and has mentored over 1,000 fund managers across private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, and alternative assets globally.[THE GUEST]: Matt Ober, General Partner at Social Leverage, the seed-stage firm with over 500 million dollars AUM and more than 150 portfolio companies. He holds the CAIA charter, one of the most rigorous credentials in alternative asset management.Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTOe79EXLDsROQ0z3YLnu1QQConnect with Ryan Miller:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rcmiller1/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanmilleroffical/X: https://x.com/_MakingBillionsWebsite: https://making-billions.com/Support the showDISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and general informational purposes only — not legal, financial, tax, or investment advice. Nothing herein constitutes a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security or investment product. Past performance does not indicate future results. Always consult qualified legal, financial, and tax professionals before making any investment decision. NAME NOTICE: "Making Billions with Ryan Miller" reflects the profile and aspirations of guests featured — it is not a promise, projection, guarantee, or representation of any financial result, income, or outcome for any listener, viewer, or reader. Most individuals who consume this content do not raise any particular amount of capital, and many achieve no financial result whatsoever. "Fund Raise Capital" is a brand identifier only — it is not a promise, guarantee, or representation that any member, subscriber, or listener will raise capital, attract investors, or achieve any financial or professional outcome. This show does not constitute a business opportunity, franchise, investment program, or offer of any product or service of any kind. No part of this show should be construed as a solicitation for investment in any way. Guest views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the show or host. Host and/or guests may hold positions in assets discussed. This episode may contain paid sponsorships, advertisements, or endorsements. Sponsored content is identified where...

Episode summary: Five Pacific Northwest climate tech investors — recorded live at Pacific Northwest Climate Week 2026 — break down where climate tech venture capital is actually flowing this year, why Seattle still trails Silicon Valley on VC dollars, and what they're really evaluating when a founder walks into the room. The conversation applies directly to anyone raising capital, building a company, or job searching in a market where AI has made it easy to look good on paper and harder to stand out. Guest bios: ​Gabriel Scheer is Senior Director, Investments and Innovation, at Elemental Impact. Gabriel leads the transportation, energy, built environment and water portfolios - supporting 76 companies across those verticals. In addition to pipeline development and due diligence, he has directly overseen over 40 new and follow-on investments, deploying more than $30M in catalytic capital. He serves as a board observer for Artyc PBC, Mythos AI, Dimensional Energy, and Found Energy and has helped to co-design and manage more than 30 first-of-a-kind and early commercial projects in communities in Africa, Europe, and North America. Previously, Gabriel was on the founding team of Lime, where he led global data policy and transit partnerships and developed go-to-market strategies in North America. As the founder of two companies, he also contributed to the book "Smart Cities, Smart Mobility." ​Ben Shwab Eidelson is a co-founder and partner at Stepchange Ventures, an early-stage venture fund backing companies building software to accelerate energy abundance and upgrade critical infrastructure. Ben also co-hosts the Stepchange Show, a long-form podcast that tells the stories of human progress through the lens of transformative technologies, systems, and infrastructure. The Stepchange Show recently covered the history of data centers and the power grid, and has had over 250,000 downloads. Prior to Stepchange, Ben was a product leader and repeat founder, building two software companies—one acquired by Google and the second by Stripe. When not nerding out on infrastructure, Ben can be found with his wife chasing their 3 kids around local Seattle playgrounds. ​Susan Su is a climate tech investor and capital formation advisor to companies and funds across the energy transition. She built Toba Capital's climate investment practice from the ground up, spanning direct deals, fund-of-funds commitments, and co-investments, and currently serves as an advisor to the fund. She is a founding board member of the Carbon Business Council and serves on the Mission Alignment Committee at Prime Coalition, where she reviews catalytic capital investments for mission integrity. Susan is also the founder of Climate Money, a newsletter and podcast covering the business of decarbonization. ​Jonathan Azoff spent 20 years in silicon valley building rapid growth startups, including multiple exits to the likes of Zillow and Disney. He served as a fractional CTO to public companies (TNY.AX), and formerly led engineering teams at growth stage fintechs like Carta, Cardless and Pomelo. In his second act, he transitioned to the investor side of the table, joining the board of climate tech incubator Sweet Farm, and starting the deep tech venture firm SNØCAP with his two founding partners. He is one of the main individual investors behind The 9Zero Climate Innovation Hub, and is responsible for bringing the club to Seattle, where he lives now. He's an uncompromising advocate of great storytelling, having fun while doing good, and not taking himself seriously. ​Dr. Christine E. Boyle is General Partner at Burnt Island Ventures, a water-specialist venture capital fund, where she works with innovators to bring the next generation of water technologies to market. She was the CEO and founder of Valor Water, which sold to Xylem in 2018. At Xylem she served as VP of Digital Product Development following the acquisition. She serves on the boards of Aclarity Water, Subeca, Previsico, EPOCH Blue, and Waterly.  Dr. Boyle is also a member of the Cal-Nevada American Water Works Association Board and a trustee of the American Water Works Association Management and Leadership Division. In Dr. Boyle's free time she plays league tennis, boats, and travels to post-socialist nations. What you'll learn: How the 2026 climate tech VC numbers break down nationally — and why concentration in a handful of mega-deals is squeezing the middle of the funding stack Why Seattle ranks #6 nationally in VC dollars despite sitting on some of the country's deepest personal wealth What investors are actually screening for beyond the pitch deck, from response time to how a founder treats their own team How the hyperscaler-driven data center and energy boom is reshaping where capital flows, and what history (the 1970s WPPSS nuclear default) suggests about the risk Why human referral has become the deciding factor in both fundraising and hiring now that AI has made outreach nearly free What's missing from the Pacific Northwest climate tech ecosystem, according to the people funding it Key moments: The panel debates whether nuclear, batteries, and data centers are "sucking up" regional capital or building a foundation the rest of the ecosystem can draw from Susan Su asks the other panelists to describe how their investment committees actually make decisions, not what they tell founders in a rejection email Christine Boyle and Ben Eidelson describe the informal signals — professionalism, stress response, pace of learning — that shape a funding decision The group discusses AI-generated pitch decks and why differentiation now matters more than polish Resources mentioned: CTVC/Currence H1 2026 funding report Silicon Valley Bank, 2025 climate tech report PNW Battery Collaborative E8 Angels 9Zero (Seattle climate tech community hub) and its "Give, Get, Get" investor-list program Elemental Impact's Data Center Innovation Initiative (with Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft) Climate Surge, an initiative from Climate Solutions "Climate Money" podcast (Susan Su) The Stepchange Show podcast (Ben Eidelson)

What does a top venture investor think about AI's impact on accounting, and what should finance professionals actually do about it?In this episode of Blood, Sweat & Balance Sheets, FloQast CEO Mike Whitmire sits down with Roy Luo, General Partner at ICONIQ Capital — an investor in Anthropic, Snowflake, Databricks, and Stripe — to break down what the AI wave really means for the accounting profession.They cover:Why accounting is facing a talent shortage that AI is uniquely positioned to solveHow the shift to AI mirrors the Excel revolution — and what that means for your careerThe concept of "token rationing" and why accounting departments may be last in line for AI resourcesWhy founders with product intuition are better positioned to navigate paradigm shiftsWhat it means to be a trusted partner vs. a vendor in the age of AIWhether you're a controller, CFO, or just trying to future-proof your career, this conversation offers a rare outside-in perspective on where the profession is heading.

Send us Fan MailToday's guest is Marcus Ryu, Co-Founder/Former CEO of Guidewire Software and General Partner at Battery Ventures, one of the longest-standing technology-focused venture and growth equity firms in the world with over $13 billion in AUM across its fund history.Guidewire, which Marcus co-founded in 2001 and led as CEO for over two decades, became the defining platform for property and casualty insurance software — going public on the NYSE in 2012 and scaling to a multi-billion dollar enterprise serving hundreds of insurers globally. Today, Guidewire trades at a market cap north of $10 billion and remains the gold standard for core systems modernization in the insurance industry.Since transitioning to Battery Ventures, Marcus has brought his operator lens to bear as an investor, focusing on enterprise software and the intersection of technology and complex, regulated industries.Support the show

What does it take to build something well, on purpose, in a world that keeps pushing you to move faster?This week Chris sits down with Tyler Mincey, Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst, a San Francisco and Boston based collective of creative technologists that also runs an early-stage venture fund. Tyler opens up about where the name Baukunst comes from and what building with intention means to him, drawing on a path that started with the touchscreen on the original iPhone at Apple.Tyler breaks down research Baukunst has been running on AI adoption on the factory floor, talking through the different stages companies move through as they bring it into their operations. He gets into where the hype lines up with what he's seeing and where it doesn't, and challenges the idea that manufacturing is behind on technology.The chat also turns to what AI could mean for the people doing the work day to day, not just the businesses putting it in place.In this episode, find out:How Tyler's work on the original iPhone influenced his approach to building physical products.The meaning behind the name Baukunst and what "artful building" means to Tyler.What it took to build deep, trusted manufacturing partnerships during his time at Apple.Tyler's non-linear career path from engineering into digital design and venture capital.Why Baukunst formed research organizations/study groups to research AI and manufacturing.The stages companies move through as they bring AI into their operations.Where AI is already delivering results on the factory floor, and where the hype outpaces reality.Why the human side of AI adoption matters, and what the shift from bank tellers to ATMs can teach us.Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It's feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!Tweetable Quotes:“Part of the reason I'm hungry for artful building is that there's a whole lot of coulda but not a lot of shoulda in how we develop technology these days, where we feel like we're just rushing and accelerating towards an inevitable future that feels dystopian.” - Tyler Mincey, Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst“I love people talking about how much of a will gap versus a skill gap we have in manufacturing these days. It's really an attractive place to work for the future and its inspiring for the next generation of engineers, of industrial labor and of operations professionals.” - Tyler Mincey, Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst“Getting back to the human face, I think it's within our power to build different things too. And I think really holding our feet to the fire, asking ‘do we want to live in a world where things work this way' is another gut check that I'm very passionate about.” - Tyler Mincey, Co-Founder and General Partner at BaukunstLinks & mentions:Baukunst is a collective of creative technologists advancing the art of building. Our inaugural $100M venture fund is dedicated to leading pre-seed investments in companies at the frontiers of technology and design.Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

This is a free preview of a paid episode (43 min), exclusively available on our subscriber-only premium feed. Become a premium subscriber to tune into the full episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cubicletoceo.co/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Questions about our premium podcast subscription? Send us a DM ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cubicletoceo Industrial real estate investing without the tenants or toilets? That's the wealth vehicle private money lending offers, and it's how Yasha Wells, co-founder and General Partner at Blueprint Industrial Capital, puts her business profits to work without running a second business. Wrapping up our series on Revenue → Returns (How My Money Makes Me Money), Yasha breaks down this money multiplier and how she lends directly to real estate operators for double digit returns while someone else does the work. She walks us through how to vet an operator's track record, the one non-negotiable that protects her money if a deal goes south, and the red flags that make her walk away from an opportunity. Connect with Yasha: Get Your Free Copy of 'If I Had $50K to Invest… Here's Exactly Where I'd Put It': https://blueprintindustrialcapital.myflodesk.com/cubical-to-ceo https://blueprintindustrialcapital.com/yashalinks/ https://blueprintindustrialcapital.com/ IG: @yashawells YT: https://www.youtube.com/@YashaWells LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yashawells/ If you enjoyed today's episode, please: Post a screenshot & key takeaway on your IG story and tag us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cubicletoceo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ so we can repost you. ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠our premium feed⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for case-study style interviews every Monday.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What separates the founders who build category-defining companies from the thousands of startups that never make it through the venture capital funnel? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Keval Desai, founder and General Partner of Shakti, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in AI and space technology companies from inception. Drawing on his experience backing companies including Canva, The RealReal, and Gatik, Keval shares how he evaluates founders before the rest of the market recognizes their potential and why the venture capital industry needs to confront some uncomfortable truths about startup funding and successful exits. Keval introduces Shakti's "toothbrush" investment philosophy, an idea he first encountered through Larry Page at Google. The principle is simple: can a product or service become something used frequently by millions or even billions of people? He explains why this question helps investors distinguish impressive technology from businesses capable of creating lasting value, particularly at a time when thousands of AI startups are competing for capital and attention. But identifying a large market is only part of the equation. Keval shares three characteristics he has observed in exceptional founders. They can describe a future that others cannot yet see, attract talented people before they have money or resources, and execute at a speed that continually surprises those around them. His stories from meeting Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins and The RealReal founder Julie Wainwright offer a rare look at what investors can learn from founders at the earliest stages of company building. We also discuss Keval's thesis that AI is taking the economy into a new Imagination Era. As AI becomes increasingly capable of handling specialized tasks such as coding, analysis, and production, he believes human value will move toward imagination, judgment, taste, and the ability to combine technologies into products and services people actually want. For founders, employees, and business leaders, this raises important questions about education, careers, and what it means to build a company as access to technical capabilities becomes dramatically cheaper. Keval also compares the arrival of open-source AI models such as DeepSeek to the role Linux played in the development of the commercial internet. He explains why falling inference costs could lower barriers to building AI companies and create opportunities for a new generation of startups, while also examining what this could mean for today's dominant AI companies and the industry's economics. The conversation then turns to one of the biggest problems facing venture capital. The number of startups receiving funding has grown dramatically, yet the number of technology companies reaching public markets has remained relatively static. Keval explains why venture capital can scale dollars but cannot simply manufacture more category leaders, and why founders need to decide early whether venture capital is actually the right source of funding for the business they want to build. We also examine the commercial opportunities emerging from space technology. Keval believes the SpaceX IPO could play a similar role for space commerce to Amazon's IPO for e-commerce, by demonstrating viable business models and encouraging entrepreneurs to build new companies in communications, energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, robotics, and services beyond Earth. Finally, Keval offers an optimistic counterargument to fears that AI will leave younger workers without meaningful careers. He explains why he believes Gen Z's status as the first AI-native generation could become an advantage, why technical careers are changing rather than disappearing, and why the ability to apply AI to problems across healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, finance, and other industries could create opportunities far beyond Silicon Valley. This conversation offers founders a practical framework for evaluating ideas, choosing investors, understanding venture economics, and building companies in the age of AI. It also provides investors and technology leaders with a broader perspective on open-source AI, space commerce, the future of work, and where the next generation of category-defining companies could come from.

Vladimir Novakovski of Lighter joins the Chopping Block crew to untangle one of crypto's oldest debates: what happens when tokens and equity coexist. The gang digs into the Venice/VVV controversy, breaks down Lighter's new Perps integration with Robinhood Chain and the fragmentation questions it raises, dissects the wild BonkDAO governance exploit, and reacts to the eye-popping $2.4 billion in crypto income disclosed in Trump's financial filings. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto, joined this week by special guest Vladimir Novakovski of Lighter. The crew dives deep into the resurfaced tokens-versus-equity debate sparked by Dragonfly's investment in Venice and its VVV token, with Haseeb making the case that Venice is fundamentally different from Uniswap Labs style structures. Vlad explains how Lighter has approached the same dilemma through programmatic buybacks and a single C corp structure, and the group debates fiduciary duties, Delaware law, and what a merged DeFi/TradFi future for equity and tokens might look like. From there, they unpack Lighter's big Robinhood Chain announcement, including Lighter's new role as the native Perps engine inside Robinhood Wallet, and whether running a separate instance fragments liquidity. The episode wraps with a breakdown of the BonkDAO governance exploit that let an attacker vote themselves $20 million in tokens, and a reaction to Trump's staggering $2.4 billion in pre-tax crypto income revealed in his latest financial disclosure. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights

What happens when technology evolves faster than the venture capital model built to fund it?In this episode, I sit down with my longtime friend Jenny Fielding, Cofounder and General Partner of Everywhere Ventures, to explore how venture capital is adapting to a world where competitive advantages can disappear faster than ever.We discuss what it takes to raise a pre-seed round in today's market, why traditional assumptions around defensibility are being challenged, and how AI is reshaping the economics of software companies.Jenny also shares lessons from her time as a Managing Director at Techstars and explains why Everywhere Ventures built a community-driven approach to investing — leveraging founder networks and real-time market insight to identify breakout companies at the earliest stages.Whether you're a founder raising capital, an investor navigating a changing market, or simply curious about where technology is headed, this conversation offers a practical look at how venture is evolving for the next generation of companies.Special thanks to Jenny for joining the show and sharing her perspective on the future of venture.⏱️ Chapter Markers:00:00 - Introduction and studio acoustics01:05 - Generalist investing shift02:09 - Redefining modern pre-seed criteria04:26 - Global Slack diligence network06:31 - Check sizing and syndicate structures07:20 - Conviction-led turnaround speeds09:21 - Venture capital's existential model crisis11:48 - Defensibility against quantum technology13:17 - Sourcing wisdom from international founders16:01 - Evaluating the accelerator landscape17:26 - Clear milestones for founder success19:39 - Moving targets in the Series A gap21:05 - Evolution of emerging tech hubs23:32 - Retaining global talent via immigration reformLinks:Jenny Fielding: LinkedIn, XEverywhere Ventures: Website, LinkedIn, XInterplay: Website, LinkedIn, XMPD: LinkedIn, X

In this episode, we sit down with Kate McAndrew, Co-Founder and General Partner of Baukunst, a $100 million pre-seed venture fund investing in the next generation of founders. After spending more than a decade investing in over 100 early-stage companies, Kate shares how she evaluates entrepreneurs long before the rest of the market catches on. We discuss what makes a startup worth investing in, how great investors think from first principles, the traits that separate exceptional founders, how to build company cultures and institutions that last, and the unconventional path that led her into venture capital. If you're interested in startups, investing, entrepreneurship, or understanding how the best venture capitalists think, this episode is for you.This episode is supported by Sydecar, HEX, Wispr Flow, Granola, Beehiiv, KalshiSydecar: https://sydecar.io/partners/trailblazersbeehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/splash?utm_campaign=trailblazers-2026-Partnership&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=trailblazers&utm_term=podcast-4&stripe_campaign_code=TRAILBLAZERS30 (or use code “trailblazers30” for 30% OFF)*beehiiv has a major announcement coming July 16 - can't say more, but you won't want to miss it. RSVP here: https://www.beehiiv.com/summer-release-2026Granola: http://granola.ai/trailblazers*Granola is the official notetaker of Trailblazers. Check out the episode show notes here: https://notes.granola.ai/t/860f1c91-f717-41cd-a6c1-567458bfb806-00b881l8Kalshi: http://Kalshi.com/r/trailblazersWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/trailblazersHEX: http://hex.ai/trailblazers

The AI boom isn't over but the first wave is.In this episode of Liftoff with Keith, Keith sits down with Clint Chao, Co-Founder & General Partner at Moment Ventures, to discuss where AI is really headed, why enterprise software is entering a new phase, and what founders should focus on as the hype settles.They explore venture capital, AI adoption, enterprise transformation, startup execution, and what separates companies that create lasting value from those simply following the latest trend.Whether you're a founder, investor, operator, or simply curious about the future of AI, this conversation is packed with practical insights.Key TopicsWhy the first wave of AI is endingWhat comes next for Enterprise AIBuilding companies during technology shiftsVenture capital perspectives on AI startupsEnterprise software trendsWhat investors are looking for todayLong-term opportunities in AIIf you enjoy conversations with world-class founders, investors and operators, subscribe to Liftoff with Keith.Sponsor Info: We are strategic business advisors with decades of leadership experience and a proven track record of driving businesses' growth. We specialize in creating custom-tailored strategies to introduce your company, drive growth, build leadership teams, and ensure companies implement appropriate compensation programs. Our mission is to utilize our expansive network to benefit your company https://www.compass-strategic-advisors.com/Connect with Clint Chao: Website: http://www.momentventures.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintchao Subscribe for more founder insights and hit the bell for notifications! Follow us on our channels for exclusive startup content and behind-the-scenes insights from interviews like this one. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cFpLXfYvcUsxvsT9MwyAD?si=f5a14e779777487d Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/liftoff-with-keith-newman/id1560219589 Substack: https://keithnewman.substack.com/ Newman Media Studios: https://newmanmediastudios.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liftoffwithkeith If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share.

Mike Mignano is a General Partner at Union Square Ventures, one of the most iconic venture firms in the world, whose investments include Coinbase, Stripe, Etsy, Twilio, Cloudflare. Before joining USV, Mike was a Partner at Lightspeed, where he backed breakout AI companies including Granola and Suno. Prior to investing, he co-founded Anchor, acquired by Spotify.  AGENDA: 00:00 Is Fear of Failure the Secret Weapon Behind Great Founders? 07:20 Why Leave Lightspeed for USV — and Is Thesis-Driven Venture Still Alive? 09:50 Is the Real AI Money Still in Infrastructure, or Are Apps Finally About to Explode? 13:00 Who Wins the AI Model War: OpenAI, Anthropic, Open Source, or the "Rebel Alliance"? 19:00 Are We About to Hand Our Entire Lives Over to AI Agents? 21:00 Can Anthropic Keep Growing Like This — or Will Token Spend Break the Model? 26:00 Can AI Routing Become a $50BN Company, or Is It Just a Commodity Pipe? 30:00 Will the AI Energy Crisis Create the Next Monster Venture Outcomes? 36:00 Can Startups Survive Microsoft, OpenAI, and the Brutal Power of Bundling? 45:00 Should VCs Ignore Price When Backing Generational Companies? 55:30 Is Traditional Media Dead — and Who Becomes the New Tech Kingmaker?    

The crew is joined by Selini Capital's Jordi Alexander to break down Open USD, the no-fee stablecoin from a 140-firm consortium spanning Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Google and Coinbase, all aimed at the Circle and Tether duopoly. Plus Saylor's new Digital Credit framework for MicroStrategy, the Ansem-fueled memecoin comeback, and ENS reigniting the “DAOs are fake” debate. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. Joining the panel “at the moment of max pain” is Jordi Alexander, CIO of Selini Capital. First up: MicroStrategy in crisis, with MSTR down about 30% in five days and STRC hitting $71, and Saylor's answer, a new Digital Credit framework with an 18-month cash cushion and a jumbo dividend hike to 12%. Then the headline story, Open USD: a no-fee stablecoin from a 140-member consortium including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Google and Coinbase, built to break the Circle and Tether duopoly. The back half covers the memecoin comeback around the Ansem coin, and ENS reigniting the “DAOs are fake” debate after Nick Johnson single-handedly blocked a governance vote, before the crew debates whether consortia are just DAOs in a suit. Let's get into it. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights

"Unprecedented" is a word often used to described this second Trump presidency. A new book, "Regime Change," gives the inside scoop of the first 14 months of Trump's second term, and has sold more than 300,000 copies since its release last week. Co-authors Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan are both journalists at The New York Times, and they join Christiane to discuss.   Also on today's show: Rina Amiri, Former U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights; Anne Neuberger, General Partner and Head of Global Affairs, a16z / Former US Deputy National Security Adviser    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The crew debates whether Saylor's STRC preferred shares are "Luna for suits," unpacks the ETH Labs spin-out and Ethereum Foundation layoffs, breaks down the CME's lawsuit against the CFTC to kill domestic perps, and weighs whether Meta's leaked prediction market Arena is a real threat to Polymarket. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Saylor's STRC preferred shares, which have broken below their $100 target. Laura argues it's a confidence crisis, Tarun calls it "Luna for suits," and Haseeb pushes back — there's no death spiral, Saylor can just defer dividends and "burn the boat." Then the Ethereum Foundation shakeup: ETH Labs spinning out with seven senior EF members while the EF lays off 20% of its headcount. The back half covers the CME suing the CFTC to block domestic perps — which Haseeb frames as "suing for the right to not compete" — and Meta's leaked prediction market Arena, where Tom reveals this is Meta's third or fourth attempt at prediction markets. Let's get into it. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights