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Last 4 days before regular tickets sell out at AI Engineer World's Fair - this is the single biggest gathering of AI Engineers, Founders, Leaders, and Researchers in the world. Attendees get >$5000 worth of sponsor credits and talk tracks are looking FANTASTIC. Join us!The AI scaling debate always focuses on the question of “how do we get more GPUs?” but the better question may be: how do we make the most of ones we already have.The fact that a frontier lab like xAI could be running at sub-10% MFU (Model FLOPs Utilization) is just a hint at what the real problem may be.For context, older frontier-scale training runs were already much higher than 10%. GPT-3 was around 21% MFU. Gopher was around 32%. Megatron-Turing NLG was around 30%. PaLM reached around 46%. And our guest Anjney says best-in-class MFU today is closer to 60–70%.It's not necessarily that xAI is uniquely incompetent (it's clear they have talented folks) but rather the priorities may be flipped in the GPU arms race.While GPU access is a bottleneck, simply increasing CapEx won't automatically translate to better models as frontier AI is increasingly a systems problem: scheduling, utilization, networking, kernels, frameworks, data pipelines, parallelism, cluster reliability, and the thousand small decisions that determine whether your theoretical FLOPs become real training progress.From building Discord's developer platform and backing frontier AI companies like Anthropic, Mistral, Black Forest Labs, and Periodic Labs to now building AMP's independent compute grid, Anjney Midha has spent years close to the real bottlenecks of AI scaling. In this episode, Anjney joins swyx at Periodic Labs to unpack why the AI race is not just about buying more GPUs, why 95% utilization would have been considered an outage at Google, and why the next era of AI infrastructure has to be more aligned, more efficient, and more responsible.We go deep on AMP's vision for a compute grid that makes FLOPs flow like megawatts, the difference between full-stack AI labs and horizontal pooling, why AI data centers need community buy-in, and how compute markets could evolve into something closer to an independent system operator. Anjney also explains why DeepMind's unpublished research points to a market failure, why end-of-life prediction remains one of the most important AI applications he has thought about for fourteen years, and why “output maxing” may become a new discipline for frontier systems.We also discuss Anthropic's culture, why “luck favors the prepared mind” in coding models, how Claude cracked coding, why too much capital too early can make AI labs fragile, what Periodic Labs is trying to do with science and superconductors, why great researchers can become great CEOs, and why Silicon Valley is both deeply missionary and deeply mercenary.We discuss:* Why 95% utilization was considered an outage at Google* Why AI infrastructure waste compounds at frontier-lab scale* Why “move fast and break things” does not work for AI data centers* How data center backlash, power grids, and community incentives shape AI scaling* AMP's vision for making FLOPs flow like megawatts* Why compute needs an independent system operator* How interruptible demand and dynamic prioritization worked inside Google* Why DeepMind research hoarding creates negative externalities* AMP's 1.2GW base-load ambition and the need for 6GW of spike capacity* Why end-of-life prediction could become one of AI's most important healthcare applications* Frontier Systems, output maxing, and full-stack alignment* Why APIs and abstraction layers become lossy as organizations scale* Superconductors, standards, and the dream of lossless systems* SF Compute, open protocols, and the future of compute marketplaces* Why non-NVIDIA chips can still benefit from NVIDIA's reference architecture* Trust boundaries and why chip startups need visibility into future model architectures* Why VCs often underestimate researchers as CEOs* Scientists as star athletes of the mind* Why great CEOs need to be confrontational up and down the stack* Why leading the frontier matters more than “winning”* How Anthropic cracked coding* Why culture is fragile, not a permanent moat* Why hardship was a feature, not a bug, for Anthropic* Why Anthropic's P0 was coding from day one* Periodic Labs, physics as the constraint, and technical reality* Silicon Valley mercenaries, missionary teams, and what happens after a breakthroughAnjney Midha* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjney* X: https://x.com/AnjneyMidhaAMP PBC* Website: https://amppublic.com/* X: https://x.com/amppublicTimestamps00:00:00 Introduction00:00:09 Why AI Compute Is Being Wasted00:03:17 Responsible Infrastructure and Data Center Backlash00:06:07 AMP Grid: Making FLOPs Flow Like Megawatts00:12:41 Foundry, Frontier Labs, and Research Hoarding00:14:42 Gigawatt-Scale Compute and End-of-Life Prediction00:24:08 Frontier Systems, Output Maxing, and Alignment00:27:38 Compute Markets, SF Compute, and Non-NVIDIA Chips00:32:57 Trust Boundaries, Co-Design, and Researcher CEOs00:38:17 AI Coachella and First-Principles Thinking00:42:43 Leading vs Winning in Frontier AI00:45:54 How Anthropic Cracked Coding00:48:25 Culture, Hardship, and Anthropic's P000:54:03 Periodic Labs, Physics, and Silicon Valley Mercenaries00:56:26 Rishi Valley, Singapore, and Money as a Measure00:58:47 Closing ThoughtsTranscriptIntroduction: Anjney Midha, AMP, and Compute WasteSwyx [00:00:00]: We're in Periodic Labs with Anjney Midha, CEO, founder of AMP. Welcome.Compute Utilization: Node Allocation, MFU, and AlignmentAnjney [00:00:09]: Thanks for having me. At Google, there are two types of utilization usually, right? That you're measuring in these clusters. One is node allocation, and then the other's MFU. Node utilization is usually like what percentage of cards in the data center are just, used, and that, if it's not at, 95%-Swyx [00:00:29]: There is no excuseAnjney [00:00:29]: There's no excuse, right? I think 95% at Google, which is where my co-founder, Seb, came from, he built the Borg, PBorg/GQM scheduler at Google, and there I think 95% was considered an outage, so 96% node utilization is, should be standard. And most single-tenant clusters are not running at that. So that's one. And then MFU should be, I would say the best in class today is somewhere between 60 and 70%. I think this is a leadership question, right? Fundamentally it's an alignment question, which is are the people who are funding the cluster and then deploying the cluster actually aligned? And sometimes theoretically they are, but in practice the number of people in the chain, the supply chain between, the capital and all the way to whoever's managing the cluster and then whoever's measuring what the output is, are just so many, degrees of separation away that, the, The Have you ever heard the radian metaphor, which is at the beginning of an arc, if you have two arcs that are two lines that are just off by a few degrees, that-Swyx [00:01:33]: It spreads outAnjney [00:01:34]: It spreads out, right? Or at scale. And I think what's happening is a lot of cluster implementations and infrastructure, a lot of frontier labs and other teams, that's what's happening, is they're, they initialize the plan, which is kind of like North Star with a team that wants to do good, but then they're, required to scale so fast instead of iteratively that the wastage just compounds really fast at scale. And so I think we know the answer, which is just do iterative bring ups. If you spend time with people who've been in the semiconductor industry or the DSN industry for a long time, this is not new, and I don't think AI should be an excuse. Sure. Something What is new? Okay. We have a lot of new capabilities, but that doesn't mean just abandon common sense. Common sense should always be in fashion. ? AI scaling doesn't change the in fact, if anything, AI scaling should be putting a premium on the value of common sense and infrastructure because the margin of error now is so much lower and the costs of wastage are so much higher. And the cost of wastage, by the way, is not just economic. I'm, obviously I'm, I'm an investor, or I'm an investor by background. Over the last few years now we're running an AI infrastructure business called, AMP. And I think that it's okay to say this time is different on the capabilities front. We are genuinely getting capabilities at, of the, of a kind we haven't had before. That doesn't give you an excuse to say this time is different for everything, especially infrastructure. So look, I love the hacker mindset and the hustler mindset. Now, that's great for the startup mindset, but you remember this moment where Zuck went from saying, “Move fast, break things” to, move-Responsible Infrastructure and Data Center BacklashSwyx [00:03:10]: Fast and stable infrastructureAnjney [00:03:11]: Move fast with stable infrastructure. I think now we need to move fast with, responsible infrastructure. People are going to ask where the impact is. There was a really In our class yesterday, Scott Nolan, who's the founder of General Matter, came by at Stanford to speak about energy bottlenecks. And he had a phenomenal idea. He said, “if you look at the marginal unit economics of compute per hour,” he goes, “let's call it, $4 an hour. If you're having to bring up a new data center in a new community, why not just say we're going to charge 4.50 an hour, and that marginal impact or that marginal increase, we just literally take that and give it to the local community as cash?” I can tell you as a customer of that compute, I would love that. I'd be happy to pay an additional 50 cents per hour at scale.Swyx [00:03:57]: Wow. Yeah.Anjney [00:03:58]: Because if that means the public benefit is so clear to the communities that the data centers are coming up in, I'm going to feel like that compute is much more reliable. Up to 20% of all data centers this year in the US, my understanding is are at risk.Swyx [00:04:13]: Of community backlash?Anjney [00:04:14]: Correct. Of not getting the community support they need to get brought up.Swyx [00:04:19]: Wow. That's a huge number.Anjney [00:04:20]: Yeah. Now, we, I think we should dig into what that number is. I think it's a little bit of overstated. These things can get over-reported, but it-Swyx [00:04:27]: They don't just care about jobs. They care about all the other stuff around it, right? They care about power grid, they care about environments-Anjney [00:04:33]: Power grid, permitting, and so on. And imagine I think if you said there's a new AI deal. If we're bringing up a data center in your community, we're actually going to reduce the cost of your electricity bill. Okay, now we're talking. Right? The community's going, “Okay. Now this is a deal. I feel like a partner in this.” Right now that's not happening. There will be audits, there will be investigations, and when the, when the regulators come, I don't know when it's going to be, the folks who are moving fast and breaking things in the name of AI progress better be prepared. That's certainly not how we're procuring compute. Or we're, we're trying as much as we can to work with partners who have long-term track records. Many of whom, by the way, are not, AI providers. I think this whole idea of neoclouds being somehow this new category is a lot of marketing speak. There are really good, reliable, trusted data center providers in America who've been around 20 plus years. I love those folks. They know how to Sure. Are they sponsoring happy hours at NeurIPS? No. Are they legibly listed in Build? No. Are they hanging out in my, in, situational awareness parties? No. But they're adults. I trust them.Swyx [00:05:44]: They can run LAN. They can run power.Anjney [00:05:45]: They can run LAN, power, and shell. They have credit histories. We sit down, we have a conversations. Many of them live in Silicon Valley. They've, they've had to deal with the boom and bust cycles of the internet, and I love those folks. They are stable infrastructure partners and thinkers. And I think there's a lot of short-term thinking going on in the compute layer, and it's going to catch up to us. It's not going to be good.AMP Grid: Making FLOPs Flow Like MegawattsSwyx [00:06:07]: You talk about aligning incentives, and, I would think that aligning incentives means you have the full stack in one company, which is xAI and OpenAI, right? So you as a standalone infrastructure layer, why are you somehow more aligned to your portfolio companies than people who just own the whole thing?Anjney [00:06:28]: In systems design, right, there's, there's two regimes of, architecture, right? You have integration, and then you have pooling and utilization, right? So the Or rather, the way to increase utilization often is you can do systems integration where you collapse a lot of process into one node, or you can pull out a process from a node and share that amongst various That resource amongst several different nodes. And so we see the AMP grid, which is, the, what, the system we're building here, which is basically a compute grid. We're trying to do for compute what the electric grid-Swyx [00:07:02]: PowerAnjney [00:07:02]: Yeah, what the power grid did for electricity. It-- this is a pooling and utilization layer across clouds, And so we're actually the opposite of a full stack integration like approach.Swyx [00:07:12]: Super horizontal.Anjney [00:07:13]: Where it's much more horizontal and it's, it's multi-cloud, it's multi-silicon. The goal is to try to make FLOPs flow like megawatts, and that is very hard to do today for many reasons. There's stranded pools of compute all over the place and there's no fungibility. And so right now we do it at the level of scheduling, and we often do it at the economic layer. But as we start to announce what we're working on, it's extraordinary like how many folks are coming out of the woodworks and saying, “Hey, I'm actually working on a way to make compute fungible at this part of the stack and that part of the stack.” And as a grid, we'd like all of these folks to participate on the grid. There's, people often ask me, “Andra, are you a new cloud?” And I go, “No, actually neoclouds are suppliers.” sometimes they'll ask, “Are you a venture capital firm?” I go, “No, actually they are, they are demand like sort of off-takers of the grid.” We see ourselves as what's called an independent system operator. So if you study the history of the electric grid, once it became legible to a lot of factories and industrial sort of participants that, hey, actually it turns out pooling is a good idea. We should pool our generators instead of all having a generator running at half capacity in our backyard. There was a need for an independent entity who could coordinate all these parties. Transmission line, power generation, facilities, transmission lines, factories, and that neutral coordination mechanism is very critical. In order-- If you study like the history of grids, the most enduring ones were those that never owned their own assets. They were ones that had, or often started with long-term anchors who are uncorrelated sources of demand, a steel factory, a shoe mill or whatever in a particular town who weren't competitive, where the steel factory want to spike up at night, the shoe mill wanted to spike up during the day. So then you pool and you share, right? So each of you is guaranteed some base load, but then you kind of schedule your spikes to drive a peak utilization across the town. The gold standard, so to speak, historically, has been these utility companies like PJM Interconnect in the northeast of America, where they, over many years became this what's called an ISO, an independent system operator of the grid. So that's how we see ourselves. Economically, that's what we are. From a technical perspective, we started at the scheduling layer because Seb and Mihai, who, run engineering here, built that at-Swyx [00:09:28]: Did your schedulingAnjney [00:09:28]: They did that at Google. And, -Swyx [00:09:32]: And you have infra shops from Discord as well.Anjney [00:09:35]: I have some.Swyx [00:09:35]: I don't know, I don't know if Discord is like the primary identity, but what-whatever, I'm just kind of-Anjney [00:09:39]: No, D-Discord was-Swyx [00:09:40]: Choosing a well-known name.Anjney [00:09:42]: Well, I So I was running the developer platform there. The internal infrastructure I was not responsible for. That was actually a guy by the name of Mark Smith, who was extraordinary. And yes, Discord did pool So Discord is actually a counter example. I had the chance to learn a lot about fully, full stack infra there because-Swyx [00:09:56]: It's the same thing, yeahAnjney [00:09:57]: It's the, it's the other architecture which is, Discord built its own WebRTC vo-voice and video infra. So like Discord did not use-Swyx [00:10:08]: For the calls, yeah.Anjney [00:10:09]: Yeah, did not For communication, Discord did not use third party infra. It was all built in-house. And then the way you maximize utilization was you pool demand from the world's 200 million plus monthly active gamers, right? And so that's, that's how those stacks were constructed. Again, in systems design, the two concepts that keep coming up over and over again are abstraction and composition, right? And-Swyx [00:10:31]: Bundling and unbundlingAnjney [00:10:33]: Bundling and unbundling, abstraction, composition, like verticalization and-Swyx [00:10:36]: HorizontalAnjney [00:10:36]: Horizontalization. So in that sense, AMP is an independent system operator of the grid. We pool demand, we pool supply from a number of partners we trust At about 1.3 gigawatt scale over four years. And then we pool demand from some of the world's best, research labs and so on. We're sitting at one, periodic labs who need extraordinary long-term demand. And the idea is that, each of them is guaranteed base load on the grid, but they can spike up and down flexibly on, for compute, with much shorter timelines as needed. That was roughly the design of the program I came up with at a16z called Oxygen. The same-- That was the same design of the GQM, BorgX, Borg GQM implementation at Google that Mihai and Seb had built. Which was that how do you allow, teams inside of Google, on the internal infrastructure to be guaranteed capacity, for their base workloads? But when they need to spike up on research, how could they ensure that was sufficiently there? And of course, the big innovation that was not discovered, but kind of implemented in the space, this infra space maybe three, four years ago at Google was the idea of interruptible demand, right? Where you just queue up a bunch of jobs and through this like sort of credit system, there can be a bidding mechanism.Swyx [00:11:53]: Like priorities.Anjney [00:11:54]: It's a dynamic prioritization Basically. And jobs can get interrupted based on somebody else who's saying, “what? I have 10 tokens, 10 credits I want to spend on this job.” Another like team lead, research lead is “Genie 3 or whatever is only worth five, credits, and NanoBanana2 is worth 10 credits,” and so the NanoBanana job gets priority. That's a, that's a made up example.Swyx [00:12:15]: It's very real. Brain Marketplace was real. And, we've, we've covered this on the pod with David Luan, who was-Anjney [00:12:20]: Oh, great. OkaySwyx [00:12:20]: Was there. And the criticism is that, well, actually sometimes you need central command to go all in on a thing. And actually sometimes capitalism via credits doesn't work. Not, this is not a criticism of AMP. I'm just saying, this is a thing that has been tried, internally within Google, and it led to Google missing GPT.Foundry, Frontier Labs, and Research HoardingAnjney [00:12:41]: Like, we structured ourself essentially very similarly to Google. We are structured as a holdings company. So, Alphabet holdings is Alphabet holdings, and then they've got these subsidiaries called Google and-Swyx [00:12:51]: Other betsAnjney [00:12:52]: Other bets and so on. We've got, AMP holdings, and we've got our infrastructure business, and then we've got a capital business called Foundry that incubates new frontier AI labs or invests in them as venture capital, like Periodic. We put a few hundred million dollars into Anthropic from our fund earlier this year. So wherever we feel like teams are making progress, especially researchers and so on who've pushed the frontier inside of existing labs like DeepMind, I find, there comes a point where they feel misaligned with the dictatorship of Alphabet holdings. And at that point, sometimes the dictatorship doesn't want them anymore. And they're “Thank you. You've done your job here. You've kind of helped us through the zero to one phase, and for whatever reason, we're going to deprioritize your amazing, omni model or whatever it is, and instead we're going to prioritize coding.” And, I think that's a tragedy, but I get it. They're Sergey and team are running their own business there. But that doesn't mean we the rest of us should sit around waiting for that progress to get unlocked for the rest of the world and humanity. If you think about how much extraordinary research has happened inside of DeepMind over the last 10 years, I, Demis and Sergey and those guys did such a great job. But at the end of the day, so much of that has never seen the light of day?Swyx [00:14:00]: Or they're like papers only, but they never actually shipped it to production or-Anjney [00:14:03]: What's worse is the paper is actually not even being published anymore ‘cause there's a six-month embargo inside of DeepMind, right? We've heard about this where a paper comes out, and then I think there's a six-month embargo window where if anybody on the business team says, “This could be interesting” It's embargoed for life.Swyx [00:14:18]: Exactly. So the stuff that gets published is the stuff that's not good enough.Anjney [00:14:21]: There's an adverse selection problem, basically. Yeah. At this point-Swyx [00:14:25]: It's, it's a common complaint at NeurIPS, by the way, that's “Well, why would I look at the papers that are the trash of GDM?”Anjney [00:14:31]: Again, I think it's a tragedy. I get it. They're running their business, but the rest of the I think there's negative externalities of research being hoarded, and so that'there's a market failure. And somebody needs to unlock that research, and we can't do it on our own. We only have 1.2 gigawatts of compute. That's nothing. That's about $40 billion of cloud spend. We're going to need a lot-Gigawatt-Scale Compute and End-of-Life PredictionSwyx [00:14:51]: By the way, is that's a new number. I haven't, haven't come across that gigawatt number. That's huge.Anjney [00:14:56]: Yeah. And to be clear, we haven't secured all of it. That's how much demand we have started to secure. I think publicly we haven't actually confirmed how much we have for this year. In order-Swyx [00:15:04]: Where do you want to get to?Anjney [00:15:06]: I think the steady state would be that we have a base load pool Of 1.2 gigawatts at all times Of base load capacity. For spike capacity, right now my estimate is we need roughly six gigawatts over the next four years for all our teams to feel like they were able to keep moving the frontier, whatever they're working on, whether it's, like superconductor discovery over here. There's a new investment we're working on right now, which is in the end of life prediction space in healthcare. It's extraordinary how much you can, you can give this was actually my graduate school work. I went to grad school for bioinformatics at Stanford Med. And I know we-Swyx [00:15:40]: Econ, MCS, bio.Anjney [00:15:41]: So my-- I was this really weird cat where, I was never satisfied with my major options. So at one point I was an econ major, then I was a CS major, then I was a MCS major called mathematical computational science, and they decided they were going to end that major. So I took all that coursework, and I applied it to grad school, my graduate degree in bioinformatics, which was the master's program, and then I thought I was going to do a PhD. I never ended up doing it. I dropped out and went to work at Kleiner. But I was lucky enough to apprentice with this professor at, Stanford Med. His name is Nigam Shah, and he was working on end of life prediction. Stanford is one of the only research facilities in America that has a longitudinal patient data set that's larger at scale. I think it's at least 12 million patient lives. The only larger data set is at the VA, the Veterans Affairs, of America. And to do research, like do any deep learning and so on that data set, it was called the STRIDE data set at that time, you had to be a Stanford Med School affiliate, which is why I went and enrolled in the bioinformatics department. End of deep learning was early. Nigam Shah had the visibility-- the vision to see that, you could do end of life prediction to help palliative care. In America, the, over 30% of all Medicare, Medicaid spend, at least at that time, was spent on end of life care. And what's we grew up in Asia, so we all-- Yeah, at least I won't speak for you, but I have A very different relationship with death than I find folks who grew up in America do. In America, spiritually and culturally, especially in Western societies where Christianity, the Christian tradition sort of frames death as this terminal point, there's often a judgment day and so on. The way we view death is with a finality. In Indian culture, in Hindu culture, death is one-Swyx [00:17:35]: Also, he's Buddhist as well.Anjney [00:17:36]: You're Buddhist, yeah. So it's one, it's one step in a journey of many lives, right? And so, I grew up in this city called Chennai in the south of India, and when people die, you dance on the street. There's like a procession where your body is carried to be cremated and your family, like celebrates and there's drums and so on. It's this huge thing. And, It's because the idea is that you're going to be reincarnated. You've been liberated from the responsibilities of this life, and now you're onto your next. It's a new It's like going off to a new college or whatever, right? And so it was so alien to me when I got here as an undergrad- That the medical system works backwards from that assumption that we have to view death as this terminal thing and delay it, postpone it's a bad thing. And so at the time, clinical decision support in the United States was this very primitive field. Even to this day, physicians in the United States often will tell you when you have a terminal disease, this is your, we've diagnosed you, which is great. Our ability to diagnose you is extraordinary. You have somewhere between six months to six years to live. What do you do with that information? The error bars are so high that then you In times of uncertainty, we default to culture, and when the culture is let's-- this is a bad thing, I've got to prolong my life, then you start doing things like And just to, just sort of from a systems perspective, what's going on there is Physicians often feel like they need to provide such high error bars because there's always some uncertainty in end of life diagnosis, and if you provide the wrong Diagnosis or recommendation to your patient, you can be sued for medical malpractice. And then your license can be taken away. It can be catastrophic for your career. In contrast, if in countries where that's not the case, what you often observe is that patients, physicians are quite prescriptive with their recommendation. They say, “Hey, this is your condition. The literature says that you probably have this much time on Earth left. My expert opinion is that you are an outlier or whatever.” And they try to be more prescriptive, and that empowers a patient, right? ‘Cause then a patient can say, “I trust my doctor. They said on average, I have six months to live, but if I do these things, I may have a shot because of my particular predispositions or my genetic history or whatever.” And that empowers you to go about your life in a actually more scientific way than leaning on religion, culture, spirituality, and so on. In contrast, here, because of that medical malpractice sort of thing looming over your head, a physician never gives you a clear recommendation. So instead you say, “Okay, Doc, well, let's try it all.” And then you start a whole regime of drugs and therapies, and then you often spend weeks and weeks in the hospital, and that deteriorates your quality of life. And when that deteriorates your quality of life, you instead of spending your last few days doing the things you love with your family, you're spending it on a hospital bed. And that ends up being thirty percent of Medicare and Medicaid. So it's worse for the patients. The doctors feel terrible. The American taxpayer is paying a huge amount of money. And so this is why Nigam Shah, who was this professor at Stanford, said, “Anjney, if there's “ I kind of sat down with him. I was this young, I'd, I was twenty-one, and I was “I want to work on a big problem.” He's “The big problem is end of life care.” And so we tried to do deep learning to say, to-- So we started trying to run deep learning on these tried patient data sets to say, “Could you have an AI system make a recommendation that is orders of magnitude more precise about how much time you have left once you've been diagnosed with a terminal condition than a human?” And then if we can get that precision to be high enough, then you can empower the patient. And it turns out the tech works. Like it's-- Once you get the data set, like RL works. Honestly, even regression models work. You don't need to get that fancy. At the time, we were just trying, doing like very simple neural nets.Swyx [00:21:54]: Simple solutions, yeah.Anjney [00:21:54]: Today, what we can do with RL is extraordinary. The problem remains then and now is regulatory, because you actually can't shift the burden of the wrong clinical diagnoses from the physician to the AI system. And so at that time, I got quite disillusioned ten years ago for, twelve years ago where, ‘cause I felt I just didn't have the resources to influence regulation. Today, I'm very lucky. I'm in a different place. I've, I'm a lot older, and so I've been spending a lot of time on my next incubation, which is how can we unlock the, patient empowerment by training AI models to do end of life prediction much, with much more precision and ac-Swyx [00:22:37]: Oh, wow. You're still focused on this the whole time.Anjney [00:22:40]: The-- I haven't been able to get, this out of my mind a single day for the last fourteen years. This is the hill I want, I would like to die on. There's two, I would say. What? I actually, I'd prefer not to die.Swyx [00:22:51]: Yeah, exactly.Anjney [00:22:52]: But I think two bipartisan issues, I think two issues that should be bipartisan in America are how do we empower patients to make the right clinical decisions at the end of their life, such that we're reducing the taxpayer burden with science? It's just good old science, and AI can help here. And the second is, net positive data centers, ‘cause I think that's the biggest critical bottleneck on training and good enough AI models to help people at the end of their life. So there's sort of two sides of the, of the same scaling bottleneck curve, but those two, we formed AMP as a public benefit corporation. My wife and I, who you've met, you've met Viv. Her passion is education. Her family is a long line of educators and so on, and, of physicists. And so this class is my attempt to stop being the black sheep of the family and be a, an educator. But if I'm not educating, the thing I would be doing is working, on these two problems, whether on the political spectrum or as a researcher back at, in some lab. And my hope is if anyone's listening to this podcast, if they're passionate about either of those two topics, I'd love to hear from them. We'll, we'll we can share the contact in the show notes, but, we're looking for people to join both of those missions on the, on the political side as well as on the medical side, on the research side.Frontier Systems, Output Maxing, and AlignmentSwyx [00:24:08]: You said, this is a discipline that you want to form. You call it's called variously called Frontier System. It's variously called One Person Frontier Lab. What is the ideal name or shape of this? Like the, what is the mission?Anjney [00:24:24]: Of the class?Swyx [00:24:26]: Of the discipline that you're, exploring, right? I The class is called Frontier Systems. But like for me, maybe one phrase is you're, you're just anti-waste, right? Which is wasting GPUs, wasting in human and Medicare. But is there, is there a broader theme that I'm, that maybe you can encapsulate more succinctly?Anjney [00:24:45]: Yeah. The, from an engineering perspective, it's very simple. It's output maxing. It's the, it's the department of output maxing.Swyx [00:24:51]: Making the most of what we have.Anjney [00:24:52]: Exactly. I'm a huge believer in optimal outcomes. I think both in America and other countries, we are losing our appreciation for nuance, and this is the thing of And AI is the same case, right? Oh, the bitter lesson holds. Okay, fine. But that doesn't mean you just like throw 500 GB300, 500,000 GB300s at your suboptimal model scaling and you waste a bunch of compute. It also doesn't mean that, the most optimal is to have like 50 different architectures where there isn't enough standardization. One of the reasons Anthropic has had extraordinary sort of velocity is ‘cause they picked the transform architecture and said, “This is simple. Let's double down on it,” right? And now luckily there's enough investment going to the space that we can afford other architectures, but at the time, investment was just too fragmented into other architectures, so that arguably unlocked scaling. So I think there's a philosophy. I think we all owe it to ourselves to do output maxing with a new capability called AI on a global level. I think if I was starting a new department at Stanford, depending on how fuzzy or technical I wanted to be, I'd probably call it the Department of Alignment. Like-Swyx [00:25:59]: It's an overloaded termAnjney [00:26:01]: But it is, But alignment really Is a hard problem. And I think when you unlock it, full stack alignment is super hard in any organization and in any system. Like in a, in a venture capital firm, if you can have full stack alignment between your limited partners and your, the founders who are creating the value and ultimately the public that owns the IPO stock, that is a gift that keeps giving. And when you study the history of these systems, when they start off, they usually start out small scale where the feedback loop is actually so tight that there's alignment. And then the more you try to scale, the more division of labor happens, the more specialization happens, and at each step you add abstractions. And wherever there's an API interface, there's like loss. There's communication loss. And so I think a really cool thing would be for us to figure out is there a way for us to have our cake and eat it too as an engineering discipline? Is there a way to actually scale up and scale out Without losing any alignment, without lossy transmission?Swyx [00:27:01]: You mean standards?Anjney [00:27:02]: So standards is one way. The other way is you just have net new capabilities. So like what we're trying to do here is discover new superconductors. A room temperature superconductor would be a lossless transmission mechanism for energy. We would have flying cars. We are right within a few years of having a new room temperature superconductor. So I think those are the two. You either have to standardize On protocols or API specs that allow lossless communication, or you can come up with a whole new capability that unlocks so much abundance, the standardization doesn't matter ‘cause you just unlock net new capacity. This, the, so this is what I spend my days thinking about these days.Compute Markets, SF Compute, and Non-NVIDIA ChipsSwyx [00:27:38]: No, I think every infra person at, who wants scale and wants to output max does eventually end up thinking about this. We don't have time to go into it, but we have done an episode with SF Compute-Anjney [00:27:50]: Oh, coolSwyx [00:27:50]: That is trying to standardize The futures contract for compute. I don't, I don't know how that's going by the way, but like at some point this will be public.Anjney [00:27:57]: Oh, I think Evan is awesome and SF Compute is the kind of effort that I hope we can accelerate because what often happens is these exchanges are very hard to get, they, it's hard to bootstrap them, right? Because they often require-- There's many inefficiencies between parties. There's trust boundary inefficiencies in infrastructure because you don't trust, one part of the stack doesn't trust another part of the stack to give them visibility. There's capital markets inefficiencies, there's operational efficiencies. So if you can inject like a single shock to the system of a ton of compute demand or supply, then you can accelerate, these new flywheels. And so my hope is one day, or soon, if SF Compute needs extra like has excess capacity, they just hook it up to the grid and they get flooded with demand from us. And on the other side, if they have a ton of demand but they don't have supply, they just again hook up to the grid and it's a two-way protocol where they can just hook up to our capacity. And I don't think we're too far from that. Today our working implementation of it is mostly through a group of labs, universities, and a few sort of trusted parties who are, who all feel like they're in alignment to borrow an over sort of used word. But our hope is to just have it be an open protocol that anyone can hook up to on-Swyx [00:29:20]: Hook up for demand or hook up for supply? In primarily demand, it sounds like. Like you-Anjney [00:29:25]: No, bothSwyx [00:29:26]: You would want to offer demand.Anjney [00:29:27]: Both. Yeah. Unfortunately, what's happened in the last six weeks is, we thought we'd have a bunch of excess capacity by the end of this year. It's all gone.Swyx [00:29:37]: It's exploding.Anjney [00:29:38]: It, yeah. It's all gone. And so I have, my text messages are full of friends, we know many of these people, these are founders who've raised billions of dollars in San Francisco going, “Oh, any chance you have like 50 nodes in the next few weeks?”Swyx [00:29:51]: What is the scope for, non-Nvidia, right? You have Lisa Su coming and, Rainer Pope as well. And so There is a lot of demand for, more performance Alternative architectures and all that. At the same time, this hurts your standardization.Anjney [00:30:11]: I don't think so. So actually Rainer's a great example, right? Rainer is a CEO and founder of, MatX. I actually had him by for office hours in the class earlier today, and there was an insight he brought up that I hadn't considered before, which is when they decided to pick the standard For their data center, they picked the NVIDIA reference architecture. So the MatX chips Just plug in to any site that has an NVIDIA bring up planned. And, the-Swyx [00:30:42]: It's just software then. It's, it's not the-Anjney [00:30:44]: A-Swyx [00:30:44]: Hardware.Anjney [00:30:46]: Well, from an input and IO perspective It's the same footprint as an NVIDIA rack.Swyx [00:30:52]: That makes sense.Anjney [00:30:53]: Where they have done, innovated a bunch from what I can tell is on systems co-design. Which is where a lot of the gains are to be had. And so he picked He was “Anjney, we, there's just so much work to do when you're building a new chip company.”Swyx [00:31:08]: Can't fight every front.Anjney [00:31:08]: You just can't fight on every front. So my question to him was, “Well, you're working on this new chip. Their tape-out is next year. What, who are you going to partner with to host the chips?” And he said, “Whoever will host them. That's just not, that's not my focus.” And I said, “But how did you “ you decided back to our earlier systems design question, he decided that, he didn't want to be a full, fully integrated chip provider. The bottleneck they're focused on is the logic die, and they, he feels they can crank out a ton of performance gains through co-design there. But then that means you delegate, to our question earlier, it, you he's the data center provider is a different part of the stack, and so then he's dependent on that part of the ecosystem to host his chips to get the performance gains to the customer. So now you have another abstraction, and you might have loss. So I asked him, “How do you prevent loss?” And back to your point, he said, “I just picked the NVIDIA standard ‘cause I didn't want to Like I wanted to piggyback off of an existing protocol.” And that, what's great about NVIDIA is that reference architecture is known.Swyx [00:32:15]: Open.Anjney [00:32:15]: It's open. They've published it. So Jensen's actually enabled someone like Rainer to build a chip company like MatX, and I don't see them as competitive. The compute demand is so high. Like, I don't I think NVIDIA's not able to meet the demands of production, so we just need more chips. And I think it's very smart what MatX has done, which is say, “We're just going to we're not going to innovate on the data center design ‘cause actually, thank you, Jensen, you've done all the hard work. Where we can innovate is somewhere else.” And I think that's, that's very healthy. I think that's how we unblock new bottlenecks. And my view is these, the, chip teams like MatX, who have arrived at the insight that co-design is the way, The primary bottleneck for them is trust boundary. To do co-design well, you need visibility into the next model generation as soon as possible ‘cause it takes two years to tape out. So if by the time I bring my chip to market, your model architecture's changed, I'm host. Now, when he was inside Google, he was sitting next to the Gemini team. He was on Palm or whatever.Trust Boundaries, Co-Design, and Researcher CEOsSwyx [00:33:19]: His co-founder was the, was one, was one of the Palm guys, I think.Anjney [00:33:23]: Yes. Yes, exactly. So when you're inside the trust boundary of Google, then your systems co-design loop is super tight. When you leave as a founder, one of the biggest risks you take is now you're outside the trust boundary. And so what I love doing is helping chip teams who can help us unlock more capacity for the independent ecosystem access to trust. Because when I If I've been, involved with a lab from day one, and I was lucky enough to work with Anthropic, and then I'm on the board of Mistral and helped Black Forest Labs get started. I think at this point I'm on six or seven different teams.Swyx [00:33:57]: Only six? I feel like my mental number was going to be 13, but yeah, it's-Anjney [00:34:02]: No, I go deep with one at a time.Swyx [00:34:04]: You're founding CEO of Arena.Anjney [00:34:07]: Nah, that was an, that was an-Swyx [00:34:08]: Administrative CEOAnjney [00:34:09]: It was an administrative five-month gig where Whalen and Anastasios were graduating from their PhDs, and they didn't need a product team. So I helped recruit the head of engineering product and design. But Anastasios has always been the CEO of that company. I played a pinch-hitting I'm an intern. I was CEO intern For five months. -Swyx [00:34:33]: I interviewed him, and he's he's very well-spoken. I think he's a debate, former debate, champion. But also very quantitative and mathematical, which is-Anjney [00:34:41]: He-Swyx [00:34:41]: Such a unicorn.Anjney [00:34:43]: See, what's amazing about him? If you look at his output, he's an output maxer. By the time he was graduating from his PhD, which he only graduated last year, he had published more work with a citation count than, people twice his age. But at the same time, he'd already started a project called LLM Arena that was being used by millions of people As a side project. And time and time again, what I've realized is venture capitalists suck at seeing human beings as, dynamic agents where-Swyx [00:35:14]: They want to put you in a boxAnjney [00:35:15]: They want to put you in a box.Swyx [00:35:15]: This is your thing.Anjney [00:35:16]: So the first time I got introduced to Anastasios, somebody had told me “Oh, he's amazing, but he's a researcher.” I was “what? What do you mean he's a researcher?” That's what-Swyx [00:35:28]: Like he's not a CEO, not a founder.Anjney [00:35:29]: Not a CEO, exactly. I was “Are you crazy? Do you Have you met Dario?” Dario's a scientist. He's gone from zero to, what will soon be a trillion-dollar company in four years. Being a CEO, nominally speaking, is not that hard. Being a good CEO is hard. Being a great CEO actually requires a level of performance that scientists who have already published at the top of their field have accomplished. It is super hard to be a competitive scientist. To publish in academia over the last 20, 30 years, to make it to the top of your discipline at a place like Berkeley, you are a star athlete. Like, you are an athlete of the mind, and you perform at the highest levels. And to get there, whether you're, Anastasios or Whalen at Berkeley, or you are Robin, who-Swyx [00:36:23]: BFL, yeahAnjney [00:36:24]: With Black Forest, who created Stable Diffusion, or if you're, like Guillaume at Meta, who created Llama before he started Mistral. The amount of human leadership you have to demonstrate to get the resources, like get the trust of the organization, publish it, put it up. I would just fund researchers all day Right? If who have contributed already to the field. If they've, if they've put SOTA out there, they're, they're star athletes already. If they haven't done SOTA Look, they can still be good CEOs, but then I find the failure mode is that they just don't want to be CEOs, they primarily want to publish, and that's okay, too. One of the things we do with the AMP Grid is we donate excess compute. We have two nonprofits, like university labs. We carved out like a couple thousand H100s. But I do think there's extraordinary research being done on university campuses. My father-in-law's a physicist. He's a professor. Extraordinary work in physics, and we need that. But if you want to be a CEO, what you need to be willing To do is be super confrontational, outside of science. Like within the scientific community, some of the best researchers are very confrontational about their convictions, right? This architecture is right. To be a great CEO, you basically have to be willing to be confrontational up and down the stack.Swyx [00:37:41]: To your own team.Anjney [00:37:42]: To your own team-Swyx [00:37:43]: To customersAnjney [00:37:43]: Hiring, recruiting customers. Well, I would say, Yeah, pretty much to everyone Everybody. Of course-Swyx [00:37:50]: I see, I feel a little bit of that in my own work, but yeah, I can't imagine the stakes that Dario has had to go through. It's, it's pretty insane.Anjney [00:37:56]: No, I don't think the stakes are that different From how you're feeling it, right? Stakes are personal scaling vectors, right? The stakes that seem so low to you, like having this podcast where you can talk to somebody and just have a you're an extraordinary communicator, right? Like already in this conversation, you've pulled more out of me than most people, and I've been on 12 podcasts in the last two weeks.AI Coachella and First-Principles ThinkingSwyx [00:38:17]: I think I, we've just seen each other enough that there's some base trust.Anjney [00:38:20]: There's base trust.Swyx [00:38:20]: And I think, and I know that you, that I've done my homework and like I know that trust is a big deal for you, so.Anjney [00:38:27]: I think trust is about consistency, and you and I have seen each other In the community for years, right? Like, I remember the first time we met was at NeurIPS in New Orleans. I don't know if you remember that, luncheon.Swyx [00:38:38]: Oh my God.Anjney [00:38:39]: Reiko had set up this Reiko's amazing, and he set up this luncheon and-Swyx [00:38:43]: Yeah, I was “Who's this Discord guy?” I'm “Okay.” But-Anjney [00:38:45]: No, you weren't-Swyx [00:38:46]: You were just “You made some investments.”Anjney [00:38:47]: You were much less polite. You were “Who's this VC?” You're like-Swyx [00:38:51]: No, I Was I? Oh my God.Anjney [00:38:53]: It was-Swyx [00:38:53]: I'm so sorryAnjney [00:38:53]: It was visible on your face.Swyx [00:38:54]: I'm so sorry. But you weren't, you weren't The introduction was bad. I was I didn't know who you were.Anjney [00:39:00]: The, see, this is the thing about context, right? Like, but then I think I heard your accent. And I was “Are you-”Swyx [00:39:06]: Singapore, yeahAnjney [00:39:06]: “Are you Singaporean?” And you're “Yeah.” And I said, “I went to high school, JC, in Singapore.” And then the ice broke. But This is the there are in the scientific community, sometimes the stakes are very high for people who haven't had the emotional, what is called EQ Coaching and mentorship, right? Which is like to have scientific impact, you often need to be a extraordinary emotional, like emotionally in tune person with the folks you're trying to influence. And so what comes so naturally to you is actually a super high stakes thing to other people. And so I wouldn't assume that Dario's more stressed out than you. These things are you'd be surprised how similar and small sometimes the problems are to you That some of the world's biggest, leaders are facing. And that's what I've learned from this class. The guest speakers are Sam, Satya, Jensen.Swyx [00:40:01]: AI Coachella.Anjney [00:40:02]: Yeah. It's AI Coachella, right? So we got to get all the headliners, and they're I'm very lucky that some of these people have either mentored me over the years or I've done business with them. And when you, take the performative stuff out and any assumptions you may have about these people that you read in the press or on Twitter, We're all just humans. We're all trying to get along. And what's so special about this moment is AI is forcing, like scaling, the bitter lesson is forcing a lot of people to revise their assumptions for how the world works and go back to first principles or go and educate themselves. So the kind of people I was, I won't name who this person is, but I was at an event last week in Texas and, ran to somebody who said, “Anjney, I came across the class. What do you think about real time action prediction models?” And I was, don't know how happy it made me feel when they asked me that question. I know they've done the work. They've challenged themselves. I'm, they didn't ask me, “What do you think of world models?” They said, “What do you think of n-”Swyx [00:41:04]: Real time action predictionAnjney [00:41:05]: “action, real time action prediction models?” World models, don't get me wrong, are cool and everything, but you and I both know that is a layer of abstraction that is sometimes not usefully precise enough. Right? Ours-Swyx [00:41:16]: There's like four different kinds of world models.Anjney [00:41:17]: Yes, exactly.Swyx [00:41:18]: We've done the part with general intuition, by the way, which is very focused on, -Anjney [00:41:22]: Oh, cool. Yes. I love Pim. Pim is great. And this is what I love about people who've done that level of work. They realize they're not in competition with people who the rest of the world thinks they're in competition with.Swyx [00:41:34]: Because they're not in the category, they're in the specific thing they're trying to do.Anjney [00:41:37]: They're focused on their mission, and they have a systems understanding of the bottleneck they're trying to solve. And when somebody else says, “I'm working on real time, action prediction models too,” Pim goes, “Oh, I love that person. I want, I can learn from them.” But the minute they're “Oh, that person's a world model person,” it's “like which type of world model person?” But mostly they're just trying to figure out if it's a waste of their time, because we don't have enough time. So, Pim, for example, is super, loves this other company I work with we've talked about called Black Forest Labs. And he's mentioned to me multiple times that he's so, He thinks what Flux is doing is really cool. Andy Blattman came by and spoke in the class. And what I find over and over again is for people who do the work, who can be usefully precise enough about like what is actually going on in the world of frontier research, The sense of camaraderie is still well and alive, but it gets lost sometimes when you have to like abstract The technical complexities in, business terms And then the VCs are “How are you different from that world model?” I'm going to say Where do I even start to explain this stuff? And then the misalignment creeps in.Leading vs. Winning in Frontier AISwyx [00:42:43]: This is good. Yeah, I think, people listening get a sense of, what it is like to operate at a real level, like yourself, rather than at, the journalist level, where you have to sort of put everyone in, a rough category and create a narrative of competition, and who's winning today, who's behind.Anjney [00:42:58]: It-- this idea of winning is so Weird to me.Swyx [00:43:03]: You do want to win. You want you want competitiveness.Anjney [00:43:06]: No, I think you want to lead.Swyx [00:43:07]: You want SOTA.Anjney [00:43:07]: No, I think you want to lead. Yes, so you want to push the frontier. You want to push the SOTA. You want to do something that hasn't been done before. You want to capture value, but you don't want to capture so much value that, people think you're unaligned with your mission or trying to do what's best for the world. You want to capture enough value that you can keep innovating, right? And I think that people want to lead, they don't really This idea of winning and losing, again, I love Jensen. He's a, he's a leader. The mindset that he talked about on Dwarkesh's podcast, right? He's “I didn't wake up with a loser mindset.” I think that was awesome, right? Because he's, he's an engineer. Dwarkesh has done the work. So there's at least-- even though the, to me, it was very obvious they're talking about the same thing, they just passed each other. They just had to basically, Jensen has this, five-layer cake abstraction of how the industry works. And Dwarkesh had, I think from that podcast, had more of, a pre-training, mid-training, post-training systems loop concept.Swyx [00:44:04]: It's just a factor of who he talks to, right? Again, it's very clear.Anjney [00:44:06]: It's the systems It's the abstraction, the mental models, the It's the whole-- Dude, so much of the problem in the world is reasoning by analogy. And then the assumptions that are held invisibly.Swyx [00:44:19]: Yeah, I've, I've said, this is actually the best time in human history for first principles thinkers. Because everything you think will happen is actually now coming true.Anjney [00:44:28]: Correct. And the venture capital community is, notorious for this, where people look-- In times of uncertainty, they, cling to axioms that ended up being true from the previous era, and they kind of like proclaim them with confidence as if they're truths, but they're not. And it's very important to see the distinction between a heuristic and an axiom. An axiom can be proven-Swyx [00:44:55]: Like from internal consistency point of viewAnjney [00:44:56]: With internal consistency. A heuristic is a way you kind of a shortcut. And my God, the number of people I have had to put up with over the last few years who proclaim-- use heuristics As axioms to judge people, to judge which companies are going to succeed or the number of people who are “Oh, yeah, Anthropic, they're just training models right now,” but this one continue.Swyx [00:45:22]: Because that's a B2B SaaS?Anjney [00:45:23]: Yeah, the, like Which over the fullness of time, if you squint at it, maybe. But the way you arrive there is so important that you can-- you just, you can dismiss people. Here's what happened, right? What happened is Anthropic basically achieved takeoff in October of last year. That training run-Swyx [00:45:41]: Whatever, three seven?Anjney [00:45:42]: I forget the numbers now, but whatever that checkpoint was-Swyx [00:45:45]: We saw the cognition.Anjney [00:45:46]: Yeah. Right? You probably-- The, to those of us in the community, especially once post-training was done and it was released in December-Swyx [00:45:52]: Yeah. Can I sneak a sneaky question in there? I don't know if you have a perspective, maybe you don't, I just The number one question is how did Anthropic crack coding, right? Because Claude One, Claude Two, okay, like it was part of it, but it wasn't a big deal. And the leading hypothesis, it's a lucky dice roll that was then compounded, right? Like it was like Mildly better, but then they saw it and they were “Okay, let's really invest.”How Anthropic Cracked CodingAnjney [00:46:17]: I had this very annoying teacher. I went to this boarding school called Rishi Valley in India, which is like this, bird preserve. It's like three hundred and fifty acres of bird preserve in rural India, and there was no technology for seven years. There was this teacher, I won't name them, but they would have this-- I hated it every time he said this to me. He was “Luck fa-favors the prepared mind,” which is like a common saying, but the way he delivered it, always grated me, ‘cause he was always I was always one of those kids who got, a good grade without trying very hard. ‘Cause like high middle school is not that hard if you, if you're generally, paying attention and so on. And there was this one time where I-- But then I would get an eighty percent grade, and he would keep pushing me to say “The reason you didn't get the ninety-five plus percent is because you're not that lucky.” And I would say, “What do you mean?” ‘Cause I would think that I deserved that grade, and I would sometimes argue with him. And he'd say, “You didn't have a prepared mind. If you want to get lucky again “ There was basically one time where I got like ninety-five or ninety-six on this, on this subject, and I, now that I felt entitled. I was “Okay, I'm going to keep doing this,” and I didn't. And then he was “Luck favors a prepared mind. You got lucky last time, but you got to stay prepared.” And I didn't understand what he meant. Now, as I'm older, I'm okay, these adults actually knew a thing or two. Anthropic has been the most prepared company for four years. And so then when the right, context data comes in, the right developers start sending in, the right context diffs, Sure, you could say you got lucky, but if you ask me, they're pr-pretty damn prepared with paranoia for like four years. And you have to remember, it was so hard for them to get going early on that they had to do so much more with so much less that you just have to be prepared to be so efficient.Swyx [00:48:06]: Yes. There's numbers on their burn compared to OpenAI. I've, I've written about it, but they are so much more efficient in their, in their tech stack.Anjney [00:48:14]: It's not even It's not funny.Swyx [00:48:14]: Not even close.Anjney [00:48:15]: Yeah. But it's so clear, right? Like how to output max for the world. They have been prepared, and you could call that luck, but Luck favors the prepared mind.Culture, Hardship, and Anthropic's P0Swyx [00:48:25]: This is one of those things that I was going over some of your old lectures and, you were data, people think it's a moat and actually it's culture and actually it's team Actually. And I, it's-- there's different levels of moats, and this is the ultimate one that determines everything else. Which you can then compoundAnjney [00:48:43]: You're saying culture is the ultimate moat? Yeah. But the thing about culture is it's very fragile. So moats, I don't think they're-- there's very few moats I found that are actually moats. They're-- It's, it's a nice concept, but in reality, you have to replenish your culture. Ben Horowitz was, the speaker in CS153 on Tuesday, and I asked him this question about the culture bottleneck in teams because, there are several AI teams-Swyx [00:49:09]: His book, Hard Things About Hard ThingsAnjney [00:49:11]: Hard Thing About Hard Things. But more concretely, there are so many AI labs today that have all the cash they need, they have all the compute they need, and they're still not able to ship anything SOTA. And then you start seeing people leave and so on, and my diagnosis, it's, is it's the culture. And so I asked him, Ben, they're-- He's been one of the most aggressive investors in AI labs. He goes back to this thing which resonates in my mind a lot. It-- When I used to work at a16z, I would, book a conference room, and right outside the conference room, which is closest to the toilet ‘cause it was the fastest way for me to go use the bathroom between Zoom meetings-Swyx [00:49:45]: Oh my God, I'll put maxing my toilet optimization. Okay, never mind.Anjney [00:49:48]: It was not healthy in hindsight, but maybe this is TMI. But anyway, outside that conference on the wall was this quote that was printed that said, “Culture is not a set of beliefs, it's a set of actions.” And it's by Bushido, is this, Japanese philosopher. And if you stop taking the actions that demonstrate the mission alignment to what you've said to your team and to your-- the world matters to you, then your culture starts to fray. So it's not actually a moat, I would say. It's a very brittle, fragile thing that requires daily tending to like a garden. But if you figure out the system to keep that garden tended, which I think ultimately comes down to knowing yourself ‘cause you most naturally, if you're authentic and so on, you'll naturally make trade-offs that seem effortless to you, but that reinforce your culture. And then That becomes this very hard thing for other people to catch up to. And at Anthropic, from day one, there was this mission like-- missionary like zeal and belief that, hey, these capabilities will scale. These systems are stochastic, not deterministic. There will be error bars, and until we crack interpretability, there's risk. And at some point, people will go-- stop using Claude just for coding. They'll use it in some mission-critical context where there's-- it'll throw off a bug, and then people are going to come blame them, and they want to be on the right side of history where they said, “Yes, this is a powerful technology. We think it's going to change the world, And we want to be very measured and scientific about the fact that, ‘Hey, guys, these are stats models, statistical models.' That's how statistics works.” ultimately, when you're training neural nets, it is just a statistical system. And I think that Belief that safety is important and that it might seem toy-like in the early days, and sometimes, you could say, “Anjney, they totally over-exaggerated the risk,” like two years ago when they said, “Let's not launch Claude One,” or whatever. Well, okay, maybe in hindsight, but hindsight is twenty/twenty. And at the time, they didn't know how that model would be used, and to them it felt existential if somebody came and said, “You weren't responsible. It-- This wrote a bug.” The liability associated with that is massive. So how do you prevent against that? Well, day in, day out, you say safety. And when you start deviating from that, you have the team hold you accountable, you have the world hold you accountable, and I think that becomes a moat over time. At some point, that moat will get challenged and so on, and then it become fragile. I hope it endures because that's the beauty of having founders run the show, ‘cause they can make really hard trade-offs to do mission alignment. The hardest part is in the earliest days when you don't have a group of people who are going through difficulty, stress, crisis together, then your culture doesn't get defined sharply enough, and that's what I'm worried about right now, is there's so much money going to these labs. There's no hardship. There's no-Swyx [00:52:50]: To anyone who knowsAnjney [00:52:51]: There's no to anyone who knows. And that, in hindsight, was a feature, not a bug for Anthropic. The number of people who said no, the number of people who said, “Sorry, we're all doing investors in OpenAI,” that is competitive difference. It forces you to really understand, what is the hill you want to die on at the expense of everything else. What's the P zero? And there, P zero from day one was coding. The reason, the mechanism system there was if we crack coding, Then we will crack AGI. Our mission is AGI. We want to get there safely. If we focus on codin

Sasha Orloff sits down with Solon Angel, CEO of Remitian, to explore why tax payments remain one of fintech's most overlooked infrastructure problems. They discuss the outdated systems still powering tax compliance, how AI agents are enabling a new payments layer for accountants and taxpayers, and why the convergence of regulatory change, fraud prevention, and agentic AI could transform the $7 trillion tax payment ecosystem into a seamless, deadline-free experience. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundraising, Notion keeps your team organized and efficient. For a limited time, get 6 months of Notion AI FREE to supercharge your workflow. Claim your offer now at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://notion.com/startups/puzzle⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Puzzle

Giving away 10% of your company before you have a product might seem like a reasonable price for mentorship and introductions. But do the math at exit, and you get a very different story. In this episode, Sophia Matveeva talks to Melanie Nabar, growth equity investor at Volition Capital, about what the fundraising journey actually looks like from the investor side — and what founders need to understand before they enter it. You'll learn: Why the equity you give away at the very beginning is the most expensive equity you'll ever part with The difference between seed, venture capital, growth equity and private equity — and which is right for you Why a founder owning only 5% of their own business is a red flag for serious investors How to stress-test an investor relationship before you're locked in Why companies are staying private longer — and what that means for your exit strategy The due diligence questions founders rarely think to ask Sophia also shares her own experience joining a corporate accelerator — and why she wishes she'd had this conversation first.  Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction: The equity trap of accelerators 03:22 - Are all accelerators created equal? 08:23 - Why VCs care about founder dilution 15:10 - Fundraising stages: Friends and family to IPO 24:55 - Why companies stay private longer 28:21 - Building investor relationships over time 32:03 - Stress testing investor relationships during diligence 37:41 - Why growth equity is the sweet spot 41:44 - Closing Free AI Mini-Workshop for Non-Technical Founders Learn how to go from idea to a tested product using AI — in under 30 minutes. Get free access here: techfornontechies.co/aiclass Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select "Ratings and Reviews" and "Write a Review" then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Listen to Tech for Non-Techies on: Apple Spotify YouTube Audible Pandora Transcript: https://www.techfornontechies.co/blog/the-fundraising-mistakes-that-haunt-founders-for-years

In this episode, Sasha Orloff speaks with Greg Capitolo, Co-founder and Partner at Attivo Partner, to discuss how fractional finance teams are transitioning from manual bookkeeping to AI-driven advisory roles, emphasizing the shift toward "real-time data-driven decision making" over traditional month-end closes. -- SPONSORS: Notion Boost your startup with Notion—the ultimate connected workspace trusted by thousands worldwide! From engineering specs to onboarding and fundraising, Notion keeps your team organized and efficient. For a limited time, get 6 months of Notion AI FREE to supercharge your workflow. Claim your offer now at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://notion.com/startups/puzzle⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Puzzle

My guest today is Denada Ramnishta, the Chief Revenue Officer at Efficient Capital Labs. I've known Denada for over a decade, having first met her during her time at American Express where she was part of the early team building out merchant financing. She's been a consistent champion for democratizing capital access for small and medium-sized businesses, and now she's doing that at ECL, which provides non-dilutive funding and cross-border payment infrastructure for AI and SaaS companies.In this episode, we dig into how ECL approaches revenue-based financing differently from others in the space, their AI-driven underwriting system called Aura, the fascinating origin story behind their cross-border payments product ECL Flow, why VCs are actually their top referral source, and how they're adapting their underwriting as SaaS pricing models shift from recurring revenue to usage-based models. We also discuss the so-called SaaS apocalypse and what Denada is actually seeing on the ground from the founders she works with every day.In this podcast you will learn:Her journey from American Express to Efficient Capital Labs.What her time at Amex taught her about building responsible lending products.What ECL does exactly.What has been learned from the high profile stumbles in revenue based financing.How debt funding has been misunderstood by founders.Why VCs are the number one deal source for ECL.Their underwriting system called Aura and why it is unique.How Aura has allowed them to evolve their underwriting process.Why they decided to expand to underwriting companies that operate cross border.Why they created ECL Flow and expand into cross border money movement.Where they will be expanding this new infrastructure.Denada's thoughts on the SaaS apocalypse.As pricing models change for SaaS, how they are adapting their underwriting models.How they are able to grow fast with very low charge off rates.What is next for ECL.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

A CMO Confidential Interview with Rob Ward, co-founder and General Partner of Meritech Capital, a top Silicon Valley venture firm. Rob shares his take on what he calls a "super terrifying and exciting time" and provides perspective on AI receiving the most capital of any technology in history, the "durability of revenue" and how quickly start-ups are now reaching $100 million in revenue. Key topics include: why VC's focus on growth vs. profitability; the risks associated with massive long-term capital investment; why marketers should pick a "trusted advisor" as their AI partner; and why your data strategy needs "context. Tune in to hear how Astronomer handled the "Coldplay Concert Incident" which immediately became a PR classic and the "VC Foie Gras Effect."What happens when a top venture capitalist pulls back the curtain on AI, valuations, hype cycles, and what's actually working?In this episode of CMO Confidential, host Mike Linton sits down with Rob Ward, Co-Founder and General Partner at Metech Capital, to unpack the realities behind the AI boom. Rob has spent more than 26 years investing in category-defining companies like Facebook (Meta), Snowflake, NetSuite, Zipcar, and Cloudera — and he brings a rare, grounded perspective to today's AI frenzy.Together, they explore: • Why AI adoption is still early — despite explosive growth • The real risks behind inflated valuations and “AI-washing” • How VC decision-making changes during platform shifts • What marketers and executives should actually look for when choosing AI partners • Why data strategy, change management, and trust matter more than tools • What layoffs, productivity, and the future of work really look like beneath the headlines • A masterclass in crisis communications, featuring Ryan Reynolds, Gwyneth Paltrow, and ColdplayIf you're a CMO, CEO, board member, founder, or agency leader trying to make sense of AI without getting swept up in the hype — this is a must-listen conversation.New episodes of CMO Confidential drop every Tuesday.Subscribe for insider perspectives on the most misunderstood role in the C-suite.⸻Chapter Markers00:00 – Welcome to CMO Confidential00:19 – Introducing Rob Ward and today's AI conversation01:13 – Where we really are in AI adoption02:26 – Explosive AI growth: what's real vs hype03:35 – Why enterprise AI adoption is still a slog04:37 – Vendor spend, hyperscalers, and the trillion-dollar buildout06:12 – Is this an AI bubble? Public vs private market realities07:20 – Accelerating investment rounds and lack of diligence08:12 – AI-washing and durability of AI businesses09:46 – Proof-of-concepts, switching costs, and fragile loyalty10:55 – Big Tech vs startups: why this cycle is different11:40 – Why VCs chase platform shifts despite the risks13:05 – How AI is changing profitability and headcount math16:11 – “FOGRA” investing and capital distortion17:00 – Circular investing and data-center risk18:23 – Data centers, GPUs, and betting on the wrong future19:38 – Credit default swaps and financial warning signs21:45 – How executives should choose AI vendors22:58 – Change management and why culture matters most24:09 – Why data strategy is the real AI strategy26:36 – “Frequently wrong, never in doubt” and AI hallucinations27:01 – Practical AI use cases for marketers30:00 – Layoffs, productivity, and what's really happening to jobs33:05 – The best questions to spot real AI fluency35:00 – AI safety, geopolitics, and long-term risks36:38 – Crisis management masterclass: Astronomer, Coldplay & Ryan Reynolds39:58 – Final advice and closing thoughts⸻Comma-Separated TagsCMO Confidential, AI strategy, artificial intelligence, venture capital, Rob Ward, Metech Capital, AI adoption, AI hype, AI bubble, enterprise AI, generative AI, AI in marketing, CMO leadership, marketing leadership, venture investing, AI vendors, data strategy, change management, AI readiness, tech valuations, AI infrastructure, data centers, future of work, AI layoffs, crisis communications, brand crisis management, Ryan Reynolds marketing, Gwyneth Paltrow Astronomer, Coldplay controversy, Silicon Valley, marketing podcast, C-suite leadershipSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is the "co-founder mandate" dead? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Julian Weisser, co-founder of ODF and solofounders.com, to unpack the data behind a massive shift in the startup ecosystem: solo founders now make up over a third of all new companies.Julian breaks down the "Denominator Delusion"—the survivorship bias that tricks founders into forcing partnerships that often fail. They discuss why co-founder breakups are the silent killer of early-stage startups, the structural advantages of going it alone (including a 30-40% equity buffer), and why "authorship" matters just as much as ownership in the early days.Plus: Why founding a company has become too "high status," how AI is unlocking the solo path, and why the best investors are finally changing their tune on single-founder startups.Read the full "State of the Solo Founder" report: https://carta.com/data/solo-founders-report/Subscribe to Carta's weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta's Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/Chapters:00:00 – Intro: The rise of the solo founder01:15 – Welcome Julian Weisser02:00 – Challenging the co-founder default04:31 – The "Denominator Delusion"06:20 – Why VCs talk themselves out of solo founders08:32 – Is AI the ultimate unlock for solo builders?10:30 – The hidden frequency of co-founder breakups13:15 – When interpersonal misalignment destroys a company15:04 – Can you add a co-founder two years in?17:52 – Is being a founder too "high status" now?21:28 – The difference between serious founders and "tourists"24:13 – Deep Dive: The State of the Solo Founder Report26:46 – Chart 1: Over 1/3 of startups are now solo28:30 – Changing investor minds: A story from the Midas List30:56 – How solo founders hire and build teams differently34:22 – The equity advantage: Why solos exit with more ownership36:33 – "Authorship" vs. Ownership 38:12 – OutroThis presentation contains general information only and eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. (“Carta”) is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services, and is for informational purposes only.  This presentation is not a substitute for such professional advice or services nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business or interests. © 2025 eShares, Inc., dba Carta, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lexi Novitske, General Partner at Norrsken22, a $205m growth-stage fund backing transformative tech companies across Africa.Lexi has spent over a decade living and investing in Nigeria, backing breakout African startups like Paystack, Flutterwave, and Smile Identity. As one of the continent's most respected VCs, she shares how her team is building a truly Pan-African platform — with partners on the ground in Lagos, Johannesburg, and Nairobi — and why local presence and context are essential for investing in emerging markets.Norrsken22 is on a mission to scale the outliers — high-growth companies tackling infrastructure, financial inclusion, identity, healthcare and more — and Lexi pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to win in this market.

SaaStr 817: What Happens When AI Kills Your SaaS Growth? Live Q&A with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin In this Q&A session from SaaStr Annual, Jason Lemkin delivers hard truths about how AI is reshaping the entire SaaS landscape. No sugarcoating, no feel-good platitudes - just the brutal reality of what's happening to B2B companies right now. What You'll Learn: Why 80% of B2B investors now only do AI deals (and what that means for traditional SaaS) The real reason $100M revenue companies are suddenly hitting growth walls Why VCs have shifted from seeking billion-dollar to trillion-dollar outcomes How the "triple-triple-double-double" growth model died in 18 months Why you need to go multi-product by $10M revenue (not $100M) The downward death spiral killing SaaS companies that aren't adapting Specific tactics for surviving when your go-to-market playbook stops working Key Moments: A founder admits he's "terrified" of AI - Jason's response will surprise you Why vertical SaaS is becoming the only "safe haven" The harsh math on fundraising when you're not AI-first How brand marketing is changing as search moves from Google to ChatGPT Why working "twice as hard and four times smarter" isn't optional anymore Raw Founder Questions Answered: "How do I fundraise when I'm not AI-first?" "Is triple-double-double still attractive to investors?" "Should my sales team experiment with AI?" "How many resources should we devote to becoming AI-first?" This isn't your typical conference recap. It's 90 minutes of unvarnished insights from founders in the trenches, dealing with the AI disruption in real-time. Jason doesn't hold back on what's working, what's broken, and what you need to do differently starting tomorrow. Perfect for: SaaS founders, revenue leaders, and anyone trying to navigate the AI transformation of B2B software. ------------------   Hey everybody, SaaStr AI's next stop takes us to London on December 2nd and 3rd!   It's Christmas with SaaStr and 2,000 of the best SaaS and AI leaders.    The biggest names will be there. The best networking.    Early adopter tickets are selling faster than we expected. So don't wait. With only 5 months until the event, we expect this year's SaaStr London event to sell out to capacity.    Use my code jason20pod for exclusive savings. Get your tickets now at podcast.saastrlondon.com or use code jason20pod at checkout.   SaaStr AI London – where SaaS Meets AI in London. See you there. --------------------------------------------------- Hey everybody, SaaStr Annual will be back in May of 2026.  The world's largest SaaS + AI gathering for executives. Just this May we hosted: 10,000 attendees with 68% VP-level and above, 36% CEOs and founders and a growing 25% were AI-first professionals. This is the very best of the best S-tier attendees and decision makers that come to SaaStr each year.  But here's the reality, folks: the longer you wait, the higher ticket prices can get. Early bird tickets are available now, but once they're gone, you'll pay hundreds more so don't wait. Lock in your spot today. Use my code JASON100 for exclusive savings. Get your tickets at podcast.saastrannual.com or use code JASON100 at checkout.  SaaStr Annual 2026. We'll see you there.     

AI investments hit $110 billion in 2024, and the funding landscape in 2025 is more competitive than ever. For early-stage startups, that means more money in the market but also more pressure to stand out. At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, Rebecca Bellan sat down with three experienced investors: Jill Chase, Partner at CapitalG; Kanu Gulati, Partner at Khosla Ventures; and Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel. They broke down what they are really looking for when evaluating AI startups from seed through Series C. Their message to founders? Forget the perfect pitch. Focus on building trust, surviving the hype cycle, and being ready for copycats the moment you find product-market fit. Listen to the full episode of Equity to hear about: Why VCs say founders are over-indexing on pitch decks instead of relationships What it takes to go up against big incumbents without getting crushed Why consumer focus (and speed) still win, even in B2B AI How agents and automation are already reshaping the startup playbook Equity will be back Friday with our weekly news roundup, so stay tuned. Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.  Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We'd also like to thank TechCrunch's audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sean Byrnes is a co-founder & General Partner at Near Horizon. Sean has spent the past 20 years founding and scaling companies that have defined new categories, including Flurry—the world's largest mobile analytics platform, acquired by Yahoo—and Outlier.ai, an automated data analysis leader. At Near Horizon, Sean partners hands-on with founders, combining deep operational expertise and capital to help launch the next generation of AI-powered startups. ⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.comNear Horizon website - https://www.nearhorizon.vc/Breaking Point Newsletter - https://www.breakingpoint.tech/Sean Byrnes on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbyrnes/

Recko's acquisition by Stripe is one of India's biggest B2B exits. It's a great headline. But headlines don't tell the full story. They capture one final outcome not the numerous obstacles faced.In this episode, Saurya Prakash Sinha, co-founder of Recko, tells us what really happened behind the scenes. From the early days when no one was buying, no VC was funding, and they had just $500 left in the bank to building a product Stripe couldn't ignore. Saurya also shares hard-won lessons about product-market fit, customer validation, and why usage matters more than ARR in early-stage B2B.Tune in if you want to learn about the full story behind the headlines.0:00 - Trailer1:01 - Why Stripe emailed 2 founders in Bengaluru4:34 - How Recko discovered its core problem9:34 - What IF customers and investors reject?12:33 - How to Build with zero validation?14:18 - Solving what the Big Four couldn't at Myntra17:37 - What to expect when building Products in Finance?19:46 - Bought for the Product, Team or Scale?21:53 - “Customer voice is the loudest in the room”25:28 - Why VCs didn't “get” Recko28:27 - How to raise when investors follow success playbooks?30:36 - Why build products to compete with the Best?33:18 - The First cheque and first customer at Pingsafe36:45 - How to manage Acquisitions before making them public?41:02 - How Pricing is led during Buyouts?42:36 - The culture of Writing at Stripe44:08 - Why do companies Acquire?49:16 - Why ARR at early stage is not the right metric?52:26 - How to find what value your product really adds?56:38 - Why $100M+ acquisitions are rare?-------------​​India's talent has built the world's tech—now it's time to lead it.This mission goes beyond startups. It's about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.What is Neon Fund?We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that's done it before.Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we're doing it all at Neon.-------------Check us out on:Website: https://neon.fund/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShowwConnect with Siddhartha on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7-------------This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.Send us a text

Gopal Krishnamurthy is the founder and CEO of Lumel, which has a suite of products focused on enterprise performance management (EPM). Their apps allow users to plan, report, and analyze data using the modern native app framework vs. traditional SaaS on top of modern cloud data platforms such as Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake, Databricks, and others. Lumel's products provide a full stack of integrated Planning, BI & data apps on the customers' data platforms. He grew his enterprise services company, Visual BI, to over 200 employees and sold that company to Atos in 2021, as he described in his first Practical Founders podcast interview in 2023. Gopal self-funded Lumel with a VC-sized investment and has grown it to over 300 employees in four years. Lumel is already at a revenue run rate of over $12M ARR and is growing fast. Lumel is building its apps using modern cloud data platforms, not siloed SaaS databases, allowing it to manage real-time data across applications. This bold new vision and architecture for enterprise software apps align with modern data approaches supporting AI, creating a billion-dollar opportunity for Lumel in the future. In this episode, Gopal also discusses: The challenge of transitioning from custom services to a no-touch product-led approach selling to enterprises Why VCs wouldn't understand their technology bet and why their patience is paying off What it's like to grow a fast-growth and innovative technology company as a bootstrapper Quote from Gopal Krishnamurthy, founder and CEO of Lumel “The main thing is it's a big market. It's not like we are just trying to get our first $10 million revenue. We have done that with Lumel already. We are looking at how we can get to a billion-dollar ARR business. That's the big, bold vision. We have invested tens of millions already, and we are almost profitable. “We think we can absolutely create a billion-dollar business based on our customer feedback and traction from 3,000 customers. So, it's not a question of product market fit. We worked with hundreds of our enterprise customers and perfected our data app products. “The other thing is that our products can work for smaller and medium-sized businesses because of our architecture and approach. It's completely horizontal: it works for all industries and all customers of all sizes.” Links Gopal Krishnamurthy on LinkedIn Lumel on LinkedIn Lumel website Power BI website The Practical Founders Podcast Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app or view on our YouTube channel. Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com.

The Movement Labs scandal exposed more than just one bad deal –  it pulled back the curtain on a widespread problem in crypto: how some market makers, founders, and VCs play games to make money — whether the project succeeds or not. In this episode, Laura speaks with José Macedo of Delphi Labs, Omar Shakeeb of SecondLane, and Taran Sabharwal of STIX to explain: How market makers are supposed to work, and how they operate in crypto Why insider selling is more common than you think How projects like Movement, Mantra, and others exploit launch day hype Whether VCs often enable this behavior with side deals that retail never hears about And what the industry needs to do to fix this broken system Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Bitwise José Macedo, founder at Delphi Labs Omar Shakeeb, cofounder of SecondLane Taran Sabharwal, founder and CEO of STIX. Movement Labs: Unchained: How MOVE's Contracts Put a Pump and Dump Into a Legal Agreement CoinDesk: Inside Movement's Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen Market making: The Chopping Block: Can Crypto Clean Itself Up? Market Structure, Trust, and Regulation  Mantra Founder Is Burning 150 Million Tokens. Would He Try to Get Them Returned? ZachXBT Ties REEF Founders to OM Token Crash Timestamps:

The Movement Labs scandal exposed more than just one bad deal –  it pulled back the curtain on a widespread problem in crypto: how some market makers, founders, and VCs play games to make money — whether the project succeeds or not. In this episode, Laura speaks with José Macedo of Delphi Labs, Omar Shakeeb of SecondLane, and Taran Sabharwal of STIX to explain: How market makers are supposed to work, and how they operate in crypto Why insider selling is more common than you think How projects like Movement, Mantra, and others exploit launch day hype Whether VCs often enable this behavior with side deals that retail never hears about And what the industry needs to do to fix this broken system Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Bitwise José Macedo, founder at Delphi Labs Omar Shakeeb, cofounder of SecondLane Taran Sabharwal, founder and CEO of STIX. Movement Labs: Unchained: How MOVE's Contracts Put a Pump and Dump Into a Legal Agreement CoinDesk: Inside Movement's Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen Market making: The Chopping Block: Can Crypto Clean Itself Up? Market Structure, Trust, and Regulation  Mantra Founder Is Burning 150 Million Tokens. Would He Try to Get Them Returned? ZachXBT Ties REEF Founders to OM Token Crash Timestamps:

Matt Cohen sits down with Robert Morier, a former global investment executive turned venture capital professor at Drexel University. Robert shares his non-traditional journey—from studying history to managing multi-billion dollar investment portfolios, and ultimately returning to education to mentor the next generation of startup founders and VCs. They discuss his experience teaching venture capital, how risk management in lifeguarding relates to investing, how podcasting helps drive awareness, and why universities need more real-world startup training.About Robert Morier:Robert Morier is a professor at Drexel University, specializing in venture capital, early-stage finance, and private market due diligence. He mentors entrepreneurs and conducts research on entrepreneurial mindset and risk management, drawing insights from his experience as an ocean lifeguard in Wildwood Crest, NJ.With 25 years in institutional investments, he has led business development and fundraising efforts at firms like Paradice Investment Management, Xponance, and Indus Capital, raising billions in assets across global markets. He also runs Twelve Pound Advisors, advising asset managers on growth strategies.Morier is the co-founder of Twelve Pound Productions, producing the Dakota Live! Podcast, where he interviews investors on finance, leadership, and market trends. He has served on the University of Vermont's Grossman School of Business advisory board and supports nonprofit fundraising initiatives.Topics* (00:01:39) - How a love for travel led Robert into global investment roles* (00:03:04) - Spending years on the road and what ultimately led Robert to leave for academia* (00:04:06) - How working as a lifeguard shaped Robert's perspective on leadership and risk management* (00:07:09) - Why VCs should start with risk assessment rather than leaving it for the end of due diligence* (00:09:53) - Teaching Venture Capital: Why VC education is still lacking in most universities and how Drexel is changing that* (00:12:47) - Why schools focus too much on investment banking exits rather than startup formation* (00:15:32) - How the Drexel Innovation Fund supports student-led startups with real investments* (00:19:35) - The importance of teaching students about mistakes, failures, and resilience in investing.* (00:24:58) - The story of AER Cosmetics, a sustainable mascara startup that grew out of Drexel's entrepreneurial program* (00:30:21) - How schools can build better VC education and student-run investment funds* (00:36:25) - How the Dakota Live! Podcast came to be* (00:41:47) -  The biggest mistake fund managers make when pitching investorsRobert Morier's Fast Favorites:* Favorite Podcast: The Overthink Podcast* Favorite Podcast for Venture Capital: Capital Allocators by Ted Seides, along with Dakota Live! and Tank Talks.* Favorite Newsletter or Blog: Alternatively Speaking by Christopher Schelling* Favorite Book: East of Eden by John Steinbeck* Favorite Tech Gadget: A landline phone* Favorite Life Lesson: “Who's better than you? Nobody.”Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.ai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

In today's episode, Andreas talks with Oliver Holle, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Speedinvest, and Ekaterina Almasque, General Partner at OpenOcean, to unpack the current landscape of AI investing.Speedinvest, a €500M generalist fund, and OpenOcean, a €150M fund specializing in AI and deep tech, offer contrasting yet complementary perspectives on how VCs are navigating the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.Together, we explore:How SpeedInvest and OpenOcean approach AI investments and the strategic decisions behind focusing on specific layers of the AI stack.The rise of AI agents and how this next wave of AI innovation shapes investment strategies.Risk and opportunity in AI investing, particularly in foundational models versus applications and infrastructure.Key AI disruption sectors include healthcare, enterprise solutions, and content creation.Why VCs need to rethink traditional investment models when approaching AI startups.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview

Today, on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and Margaux MacColl are unpacking the week's news, including GM's decision to give up on self-driving startup Cruise. The choice initially came as a shock considering the $10 billion GM pumped into the company over the years, but it became clearer when examining Cruise's tumultuous 2023 and 2024.  Listen to the full episode to hear about: Freysa.ai's public challenge and what's motivating users to make the AI chat bot fall in love with them. Why VCs are lining up to back Lumen Orbit's moonshot of data centers in space. Which startups are stepping up amid a looming TikTok ban and if we'll see another company capture Bluesky's success. According to Anthony, it all depends on, "luck, timing, and something to do with critical mass." Who's stepping up to fill Y Combinator's place in Africa and where else we could see a pivot to local accelerators. Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday.  Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer at System1 and Host of The Uncensored CMO podcast, shares how failure has led to his biggest successes and how being tasked with doing something that was never done before was one of the most frightening things in his life. We Cover: 05:05 – The lonely and risky leap into entrepreneurship06:55 – How Adam Morgan's book "Eat Big Fish" helped Jon embrace challenges11:13 – Turning failures into the biggest career breakthroughs12:56 – Battling corporate focus on Image vs. Reality16:14 – Thriving under pressure: How confidence grows from failure20:53 – Making hard decisions 22:36 – The challenge of saying no and asking for help28:36 – Why VCs value failure as part of feeling confident to invest in you29:48 – The importance of bouncing back from failure34:32 – Navigating uncertainty and constant pressure in freelance work35:36 – How building a CMO network led to a full-time role40:51 – How success exposes you to criticism and negativity44:47 – Supporting senior marketing executives through isolation48:11 – Jon's biggest regret: Why you should pursue your goals earlier52:11 – How trust alone can lead to six-figure investments54:22 – Building relationships that pay off, like compound interest56:23 – The support system that ensures consistent successDon't miss out on this thought-provoking episode.

Building an enterprise-ready SaaS app? WorkOS has got you covered with easy-to-integrate APIs for SAML, SCIM, and more. Start now at https://bit.ly/WorkOS-Turpentine-Network. He's had six near death experiences, and we talk about how those influenced him throughout life. We also talk about some of his early businesses, including one that had the FBI at his house when he was a kid, and lessons driving the monorail at Disney. We also get into the founding story of ClickUp, bootstrapping to $10m in ARR, hiring mistakes from scaling too fast, why Zeb likes hiring users, how ClickUp shipped generative AI features so fast, its new chat product launched earlier this week, and the trend of software convergence. Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(02:11) Zeb's first near death experience(08:19) Childhood businesses that had the FBI at his house(18:23) Lessons from driving the monorail at Disney(25:19) Mistakes scaling from 100 to 800 employees in one year(31:04) Dropping out of college after being robbed at gunpoint(33:19) How building a CraigsList competitor led to ClickUp(35:32) Three waves of ClickUp's product evolution(39:25) How the product slowly got worse over time(44:45) Hiring the guy who built Microsoft Teams to rebuild ClickUp(48:11) Zeb's favorite interview question(49:59) Daily 5am standups in the first year(54:28) How ClickUp got its first customers(57:16) Bootstrapping to $10m in ARR with strong retention(58:13) Zeb's best kept secret, user surveys (and how to run them)(1:02:42) The trend of software convergence(1:08:26) Reasons Zeb likes hiring users(1:12:19) Why VCs didn't invest, and why it led to a better business(1:19:02) Raising from Craft, Georgian, and a16z(1:21:08) Peter Thiel: “I think you're right”(1:24:35) How ClickUp was early to AI(1:28:03) Launching chat and video calls to hit ClickUp's original vision(1:32:02) What Zeb's excited and cautious about in AI(1:37:24) Why Zeb journals every day Referenced:ClickUp: https://www.clickup.com ClickUp's new chat feature: https://clickup.com/features/chat Follow ZebTwitter: https://x.com/dj_curfew LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zebevansclickup Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/ 

Krista Morgan started her first tech company by raising funding and trying to grow very fast. When the company faced a big issue and failed, she learned that big funding was more of a problem than a help in the growth and wind-down processes. Krista is now CEO and General Partner of Stage Fund, an early-stage private equity fund that makes control acquisitions of venture-funded SaaS companies that are stuck and need an alternative option to continue in a practical and profitable way. In this expert episode, Krista explains: Why “growth at all costs” rarely works for software companies Why VCs and funded founders don't plan for the likely scenario that the company won't have a successful exit What's happening in M&A for practical SaaS companies Why acquiring software companies to grow is often less risky than growing organically How to approach potential future acquirers to have a conversation about someday joining forces Quote from Krista Morgan, General Partner of Stage Fund “The game for practical startup founders is to find a way to make good decisions in the reality of today while still holding this big vision of the future. We can't just grow at all costs, and we can't just make all these big investments. “There's this misconception that practical founders don't have a big vision of the future. Of course, they do. They're just thinking about it and getting there in a different way. And that's where we want to be. “When I was founder of my first tech company, I thought money was always the answer. But money is usually NOT the answer. There is usually an answer, and maybe it takes money to get there, but it's not the magical thinking of, If I just had five more people, I'd be here. Maybe, or maybe you wouldn't. There's no guarantee on that.” Links Krista Morgan on LinkedIn Stage Fund on LinkedIn Stage Fund website The Practical Founders Podcast Tune into the Practical Founders Podcast for weekly in-depth interviews with founders who have built valuable software companies without big funding. Subscribe to the Practical Founders Podcast using your favorite podcast app. Get the weekly Practical Founders newsletter and podcast updates at practicalfounders.com. 

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.His career started when someone said to him, “well, have you thought about venture capital? We don't think that you'd be any good at it.”The rest is history.Today's episode features one of the legends of the venture capital industry.Peter Barris joined New Enterprise Associates in 1992 after a storied operating career as President and COO at Legent Corporation and an executive at GE Information Services. He served as Managing General Partner and Chairman of NEA from 1999 to March 2024. Under Peter's leadership, NEA saw tremendous success, growing into one of the world's largest venture capital firms and raising the largest-ever venture capital fund a number of times. Today, NEA's AUM stands over $25B.Peter was responsible for investing in a number of foundational and industry-transforming technology companies, including Salesforce.com, UUNET, Groupon, WebMD, Workday, CareerBuilder, Tempus, and more.It was an honor to talk with Peter, who has such rich perspectives as both an operator and investor.We had a fascinating discussion about the early days of venture capital and how the industry has evolved. We covered:The inside story of how almost every other Partner said no but Peter's investment turned out to be a 75x return.What's the “best characteristic and the death characteristic” of an entrepreneur?In today's hypercompetitive market, do VCs have enough time to make good decisions?Why the world of venture capital is about influence.What does it mean to earn an entrepreneur's trust as a VC?Why VCs with operating backgrounds can bring unique value to startups.How NEA came up with the term "Venture Growth Equity."How can a VC tell that a founder is good at experimentation and that they have the good judgment?Why specialization and domain expertise are prerequisites in today's venture industry.The importance of relying on instinct to make great investments.Why the business plan that is bet on is not always the business plan that ultimately succeeds.Thanks Peter for coming on the show. It was an honor and a pleasure to hear your views on the evolution of an industry and for you to share your wisdom and experiences.Show Notes00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message from Ultimus01:55 Guest Introduction: Peter Barris01:59 Peter Barris' Career Beginnings as an Operator03:43 How Peter decided to join NEA04:31 Early Days at NEA12:30 First Investment Experience – The world of venture capital is about influence15:07 How to Influence a Company when You Don't Control the Company21:48 Scaling Businesses: When Scale Can be a Moat - The Groupon Example26:41 The Art of Experimentation29:16 The Most Important Characteristic of Successful Entrepreneurs and the Death Characteristic30:40 The Groupon Investment: A Case Study33:08 The Evolution of Venture Capital Decision Making33:58 Specialization and Competition in Modern Venture Capital38:10 How NEA Came Up with the Term: Venture Growth Equity46:04 The Impact of Scale in Venture Capital50:49 The Future of Venture Capital and Industry Evolution59:16 Lessons Learned in Venture Capital01:02:08 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsA word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund SolutionsThis episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus Fund Solutions, a leading full-service fund administrator for asset managers in private and public markets. As private markets continue to move into the mainstream, the industry requires infrastructure solutions that help funds and investors keep pace. In an increasingly sophisticated financial marketplace, investment managers must navigate a growing array of challenges: elaborate fund structures, specialized strategies, evolving compliance requirements, a growing need for sophisticated reporting, and intensifying demands for transparency. To assist with these challenging opportunities, more and more fund sponsors and asset managers are turning to Ultimus, a leading service provider that blends high tech and high touch in unique and customized fund administration and middle office solutions for a diverse and growing universe of over 450 clients and 1,800 funds, representing $500 billion assets under administration, all handled by a team of over 1,000 professionals. Ultimus offers a wide range of capabilities across registered funds, private funds and public plans, as well as outsourced middle office services. Delivering operational excellence, Ultimus helps firms manage the ever-changing regulatory environment while meeting the needs of their institutional and retail investors. Ultimus provides comprehensive operational support and fund governance services to help managers successfully launch retail alternative products. Visit www.ultimusfundsolutions.com to learn more about Ultimus' technology enhanced services and solutions or contact Ultimus Executive Vice President of Business Development Gary Harris on email at gharris@ultimusfundsolutions.com.We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeelAlan Feld is the Founder and Managing Partner of Vintage Investment Partners. Vintage is one of the largest fund of funds in the world, managing over $4 billion across what is mostly investments into other venture funds, plus some secondary and direct startup investments at the growth stage. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 03:53 What is Vintage 05:40 Why VCs adding value can waste a founder's time 09:01 VC, where the asset chooses the investor 10:14 Fund size is the enemy of returns in VC 14:57 What people get wrong about FoFs 16:01 The value FoFs bring to LPs 17:11 Why entrepreneurs drive VC returns 17:55 Vintage's unique FoF model 19:05 Does replacing the founders with an outside CEO work? 21:39 Starting Vintage after the Dot Com Crash in 2002 23:41 Buying secondaries at 70-80% discounts 25:13 Biggest mistakes when buying secondaries 26:18 Research around what makes the best entrepreneurs 31:09 Lessons from six downturns 34:41 Comparisons between 2002 and 2022 37:07 Advice for raising your first VC fund 41:16 The importance of differentiation 45:57 Sustainable ways to differentiate 49:05 What Vintage looks for in new fund investments 49:57 Advice for scaling a VC firm 53:47 Succession planning 57:50 What Alan's doing post-Vintage Vintage Investment Partners: https://www.vintage-ip.com/ Where to find Alan: Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanf_feld LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-feld-1744389/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Techish host Michael interviews VC and founder Andy Ayim! About Andy Ayim: Former product leader, entrepreneur, angel investor. Ex Managing Director of Backstage Capital London [founded by Arlan Hamilton]Achievements: Recipient of the Queen's Honours (MBE) for contributions to diversity and inclusion in the UK technology sector.Clients: Notable collaborations with Tesco, Nandos, giffgaff, Diageo, Novartis, Uber, Google, and more.------Key Discussions:Managing a VC fund for underrepresented founders (1:00)Why VCs are not that into you (7:15)You're working on the wrong startup idea (13:00)Accepting an MBE as a Black man (19:10)Entrepreneurship in the UK vs US (23:45)————————————————————  Extra Reading & ResourcesCheck out Andy's website, where you can subscribe to his newsletter: https://andyayim.com/ Connect with Andy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Connect with Andy on Twitter/X https://twitter.com/Andy_ayimInterested in angel investing? https://angelinvestingschool.com/ The Man in the Arena by Theodore Roosevelt [Theodore Roosevelt Center]Open Angel launches on May 15, 2024 https://www.openangel.co.uk/Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast episode and description represents the personal opinions and experiences of the presenters and is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered professional financial advice. Neither host nor guests can be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information. Always do your own research or seek independent financial advice before making any investment decisions.-------Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@techishpod/Support Techish at https://www.patreon.com/techish Advertise on Techish: https://goo.gl/forms/MY0F79gkRG6Jp8dJ2How to Start a Podcast Guide: The Complete GuideLearn how to plan, record, and launch your podcast with this illustrated guide.

Dane Atkinson is the Founder and CEO of Odeko, the all-in-one operations partner for local businesses. Dane has spent his entire career helping small businesses. This episode is a masterclass on selling to SMBs. He shares all his lessons learned as a founder, and how Odeko survived zero revenue during COVID and hit $150 million in revenue two years later. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (03:33) The magic formula to sell to SMBs (04:06) Why every small business starts as a dream (21:57) The reasons you shouldn't listen to customers (25:16) Lessons running Squarespace for four years (27:12) Why simplicity is better for SMBs (28:58) How Squarespace ran the very first podcast ads (35:35) Lessons messing up his second company (37:46) How to demote an employee (50:29) Coming up with the idea for Odecco (52:05) Why VCs screw their portfolio companies (55:16) How to navigate pivots with your board (01:04:27) Growing revenue from zero to $100m+ in two years (01:12:10) Advice for first-time founders (01:14:18) How Dane would re-design the food system (01:15:39) Why our food is so bad for our health (01:16:17) How Odeko empowers local makers Check out Odeko: https://odeko.com/ Where to find Dane: Twitter: https://twitter.com/daneatkinson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daneatkinson Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Eilon Reshef is the co-founder and CPO at Gong, an AI-powered platform that tracks, records, and analyzes sales calls to drive revenue growth. In 2021, Gong raised $250M at a $7.25B valuation. Gong was one of the fastest SaaS companies to hit $100m ARR, and now has over 4000 customers. Before Gong, Eilon sold his previous e-commerce startup, Webcollage. — In today's episode, we discuss: Why Eilon was so bullish on recording sales calls How Gong knew they had product market fit The importance of design partners Expanding into multi-product offerings Lessons from riding the AI wave since 2015 The future of AI in B2B sales efficiency — Referenced: Act-On Software: https://act-on.com/ Amit Bendov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitbendov/ BlueJeans: https://www.bluejeans.com/ Crossing the Chasm: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Geoffrey-Moore/dp/0062292986 Gong: https://www.gong.io/ Mistral: https://mistral.ai/ OpenAI: https://openai.com/ Salesforce: https://salesforce.com/ Webcollage: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/webcollage Webex: https://www.webex.com/ Zoom: https://zoom.us/ — Where to find Eilon Reshef: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eilonreshef/ — Where to find Todd Jackson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/tjack — Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast — Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:32) Eilon's unwavering conviction in Gong (09:34) Initial reactions to Gong's demo (13:48) Keeping the beta lean (15:33) Gong's monetization strategy (16:38) Early signs of product market fit (18:14) The importance of design partners to Gong's growth (21:52) Why VCs were afraid to invest (23:43) Reaching 100 customers (26:10) Eilon's unique product roadmap framework (28:22) Going from $2M to $9M ARR in one year (29:02) The journey to multi-product (30:52) How Gong measures success (34:07) Lessons from building AI products for sales (37:45) Predicting the future of B2B sales (38:48) The concept of “raving fans” (39:31) Why it's “easier” for second-time founders (42:00) Eilon's favorite books (42:45) Gong in 2024

SummaryToday's guests is Francesco Petricarari of Silicon Roundabout Ventures who primarily invests in Deep Tech and Hard Tech. Francesco is an early stage deep tech VC who shares the importance of founding team, VC founder fit, having the right board member, and a lot more. Takeaways1.Founder-led funds provide advantages in terms of understanding the challenges faced by founders and offering relevant support.2. Deep tech encompasses companies that focus on technology development rather than just business growth.3. Evaluation of deep tech startups requires a focus on the team, their expertise, and their ability to build a sustainable business.4. The team slide in a pitch deck is crucial as it showcases the founders' strengths and their potential to execute their vision. The team and their unique qualifications are crucial in a startup pitch.5. Key slides in a pitch deck include the team, market opportunity, and technology.6. Deep tech and hardware startups are on the rise due to increased demand for security and climate solutions.7. Moving from prototype to mass production in hardware startups requires building the right supply chains and finding the right advisors.8. AI in deep tech should go beyond current systems and offer unique applications.Chapters00:00 Trailer‍01:50 Introduction‍05:00 What is Deep Tech and why is it exciting?‍09:00 How experienced founders help early stage founders in Deep Tech with investing‍12:50 Achieving the right VC-Founder Fit (Crucial insights for new founders)‍16:36 Why the era of Unicorns has ended‍20:50 The 40 Rule's importance and how VCs judge businesses‍24:20 Why VCs really like SAAS startups‍29:25  Why many companies fail after getting lots of VC money‍33:15 Strategies for building a sustainable business in Deep Tech‍38:22 What VCs look for in a Pitch Deck for Deep Tech Startups and How He Evaluate‍53:21 In-depth analysis of Deep Tech trends and insights‍58:50 Challenges that founders of hardware companies need to know about‍1:04:40 Strategies for generating innovative Deep Tech ideas‍1:08:40 Deep Tech and AI‍1:13:00 Ritual TimeConnect with Mudassir

Solana Legend returns to Unlayered to share his views on why Solana is winning and will continue to win. We start off by picking up where we last left off with Legend, focusing on the shortcomings of Ethereum and the EVM ecosystem. We then dive into the current state of the markets and a litany of other topics including which narratives Legend is most excited about. -        - Time Stamps (0:00) - Eth Denver takeaways (2:13) - Problems of scaling via L2s (4:49) - Predicting the L2 winners (8:04) - Eth alignment (10:33) - Modular's social coordination cost (13:30) - Eth value accrual (16:49) - Decentralized order flow on Solana (20:58) - Outperforming memecoins as a venture fund (23:40) - Memecoin supercycle? (26:57) - Crypto investment playbook  (31:23) - Crypto x AI (37:09) - Airbnb for GPUs (41:19) - Best moats in crypto (44:26) - How to decentralize curation (48:00) - Bring back ICOs? (53:20) - Why infra keeps getting funded over apps (58:19) - Why VCs keep getting timing wrong (1:00:04) - The rise of Bitcoin (1:05:15) - ERC / SPL 404 standard to kickstart NFT bull run? (1:07:53) - Will bull market be dominated by ETF flows? (1:11:33) - What will make up the $10tn asset class? -        - Podcast Resources Follow Sal: https://twitter.com/salxyz Follow Dave: https://twitter.com/SolBeachBum Follow Unlayered: https://twitter.com/UnlayeredPod Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or Google: https://unlayered.io/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UnlayeredPod -        - Episode Resources Follow Solana Legend : https://Twitter.com/SolanaLegend

Here's what Mary Ann and Alex got into:Stripe's valuation recovers: As part of a tender offer, Stripe is now worth $65 billion. The company's valuation has been on an up-and-down path in recent years as the company works to make its massive bulk fit into the private markets. Alex has thoughts on when it should go public, as you might imagine.Fervo Energy's $200M+ round: What if the solution to our energy problems was not in the stars, but beneath our feet? And no, I am not talking about carbon-based fuels. No, instead, what if geothermal energy is what we've been waiting for? Fervo wants to make that question into a reality.Why VCs are investing in companies that shut down companies: With more startups than usual heading for closure, there's a mountain of work ahead for founders and backers to shutter companies. Now some angels and other investors are putting their own capital into several companies that specialize in helping other firms close. Grim, but necessary.AI and the law: Microsoft's move to invest in French AI company Mistral is not a bad way to spread its bets. Or to potentially fend of regulatory scrutiny that is building. AI in general is having a bit of a time sorting out rights — or lack thereof — that some training data may retain.Coming up this weekend we have an interview with Nubank's CEO, and we have another great interview planned for the weekend after! Chat soon!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more! Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

The key to making a multi-million dollar business out of a creator? Strategic hiring.  In this conversation, Alex Dwek, COO of Nas Company, dives into diversifying a creator's business to ensure growth without relying entirely on the personal brand of the creator.  He discusses the transition from relying solely on a creator's personality towards building a self-sustaining brand that resonates with the audience's values. He shares how he navigated this challenge at Nas Daily by moving from a focus on ad revenue to creating educational courses that embody the essence of the brand.  Alex also shares insights into the financial side of creator businesses. He discusses his experience raising $23 million, shares funding options for creator businesses, and explores compensation plans that attract top talent in a competitive market. Show Notes: Here are the key takeaways from our conversation with Alex: Realities of VC Funding in the Creator Economy:While venture capital can fuel explosive growth, creators and COOs need to understand the implications of taking VC money. Alex demystifies the process of raising $23 million, emphasizing the importance of good business fundamentals and profitability. He explains various funding avenues, such as bootstrapping, crowdfunding, and VC investment. He also advises careful consideration of the consequences each path may present on creative control and decision-making. The Secret to Finding the Right Creator COO:Alex shares strategic hiring practices and the importance of matching business needs with a candidate's skills. He explains how avoiding immediate COO titles can benefit your company and the significance of finding individuals who are not just skilled but are a cultural fit. Creators and COOs will learn the subtle art of interviewing, the weight of social proof in attracting top talent, and how transparency in financials can influence hiring. Cultivate Transparency and Long-Term Strategic Vision:Transparency and strategic long-term planning are recurrent themes in Alex's experience. He shares how to build a sustainable creator business that's focused on long-term growth rather than immediate returns. He encourages creators and Creator COOs to transparently share financials, embrace equity plans or profit-sharing, and understand the operational work needed to build a brand that stands the test of time.  Jump into the Conversation: [01:08] How content creation is shifting control from institutions to individuals [08:30] Building a business that reaches beyond the creator's personality [12:25] How Creator COOs can effectively enter a creator's business [25:17] The biggest mistake creators make in hiring Creator COOs [33:51] Attracting Creator COOs in a competitive market [41:00] Compensation plans for creator businesses [51:06] Building a durable business with software products and services [01:01:33] Why VCs evaluate founder-market fit [01:11:58] Alternatives to VC funding for creator businesses Continue the conversation with these resources: Follow Alex Dwek on LinkedIn and X Read The Go Giver, a book about unexpected returns on generosity Check out Nathan Barry's blog post about ConvertKit's profit-sharing plan Read about Basecamp's approach to compensation in this post

As power shifts from institutions to individuals, creators have a unique opportunity to build enterprise empires in their niches. To make this happen, creators often need the help of outside investors, including venture capital firms (VCs).  In this episode, Megan Lightcap, Principal at Slow Ventures, walks us through the thought process of VC investors, explaining the unique dynamics of funding creator businesses. She shares why VC investment firms are strategically investing in creator businesses. She also delves into the strategies, insights, and considerations that VCs have when evaluating and investing in the ever-evolving creator economy. Megan highlights the untapped possibilities for creators to identify and capitalize on white space opportunities. She shares how creators can leverage their loyal followings and insider knowledge to make substantial industry impacts with the help of VC investors. Show Notes: Here are the key takeaways from our conversation with Megan: Maximize Your Unique Industry Position:Megan spotlights the inherent advantages creators have in areas such as consumer product goods (CPGs). By having early retail distribution and avoiding the initial hurdles of brand awareness, creators can uniquely position themselves in the market. Megan emphasizes the significance of authentic audience engagement over merely securing endorsement deals. Creators have the unique ability to identify white space opportunities and pivot toward industries where they can leverage their embedded distribution and industry knowledge. Capitalize on Your Community: Megan discusses the power of creators to transform their loyal followings into thriving enterprises. By leveraging personal brands, creators have the unique opportunity to bypass traditional hurdles in pathways such as retail distribution. Megan shares how VC funding frees creators to strategically invest time and resources into their personal brand, enabling them to step back from day-to-day content creation without sacrificing their business's growth. Structure for Flexibility and Growth with the Top Co Model: Megan advocates for investing in top cos as a strategic way for creators to access funding while retaining flexibility. This approach, which involves creating a top holding company with various underlying projects, provides the benefit of separating the creative aspects from the business opportunities. Megan shares how creators and COOs interested in VC funding can position themselves for investment in a way that still allows for experimentation and growth. Jump into the Conversation: [05:12] Why equity can be a better fit for creator businesses than debt [12:07] When and why creators should raise capital [14:43] The role of Creator COOs in raising capital [16:44] Mitigating the risk of the creator lifecycle [28:44] Evaluating creators to invest in [30:17] The impact of cult-like followings [41:42] Helping creators navigate long-term planning [44:30] Underwriting creator businesses [49:14] Why VCs invest in creator top cos [55:24] Maintaining lifestyle business versus building a bigger enterprise Continue the conversation with these resources: Follow Megan Lightcap on LinkedIn and X

We're breaking our regular format with a new kind of episode, with a founder who is serving some spicy opinions on how an entrepreneur can succeed. Join us in today's conversation with Taylor Margot, Founder and CEO of Keys, and investor Tanner Potter of Kickstart (a VC firm for startups in Utah, Colorado, and the Mountain West) as we bring you both sides of a Perfect Pitch. In this episode, we'll talk about the following “hot takes”: Why Taylor believes founders should stop listening to advice from investors (yes, this is on a podcast from investors to entrepreneurs!) Tanner's suggestion for founders to list the top three reasons why their businesses will die on their pitch decks Whether or not founders actually research the VCs they're talking to (and if it matters!) Why VCs want to invest in entrepreneurs deeply embedded in a space rather than “trend-preneurs”

Lily Lyman of Underscore joins Nick to discuss Workflow automation, LLMs impact on the Future of Work, Why Proprietary Data-Sets Will Win, How Business Models Will Change with AI, Why VCs should Focus on Revenue Growth and Not Markups. In this episode we cover: AI's Impact on Work, Automation, and Collaboration Investing in InsurTech, Supply Chain Logistics, Commerce, and Digital Health Healthcare Tech Evolution, Business Models, and AI Venture Capital, Valuations, and Investing in the Current Market Entrepreneurship, Fundraising, and Company Building Insights Guest Links: Twitter LinkedIn Underscore The hosts of The Full Ratchet are Nick Moran and Nate Pierotti of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social. You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and we'll send a list of potential investors right to your inbox!

Semil Shah is the Founder of Haystack, an institutional venture capital firm that backs outlier founders at the earliest stages. Semil started Haystack in 2013, and has since invested in X unicorns like DoorDash, Instacart, Figma, HashiCorp, Ironclad, Carta, Applied Intuition, and Opendoor. This episode takes us behind the scenes of Semil's two decade journey building Haystack from scratch. We'll dive into how he raised and deployed each of the first six Haystack funds, including all the mistakes made along the way, plus the details around Haystack's new $75 million and $25 million funds announced the date this episode was published. Read Haystack's announcement here: https://semilshah.com/2023/09/10/announcing-haystack-vii-same-model-fresh-funds-and-new-era/ — Brought to you by Mercury, the bank built for startups. Join more than 100,000 startups and venture capital firms on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank. Sign-up now: https://bit.ly/3sQRzOw Listen to my conversation with Immad, the Co-founder and CEO of Mercury: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/24ujuXZ2uws48bvwOh9NcR Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lessons-from-building-mercury-with-immad-akhund-co/id1694440669?i=1000619360042 Disclaimer: Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC. — Topics discussed include: Juggling multiple jobs while living paycheck to paycheck his first eight years in Silicon Valley Failing to get his first job in venture three times Investing in the Seed rounds of unicorns DoorDash, Instacart, Hashicorp, and Envoy within the first six months of starting Haystack Why he initially thought Haystack would be a short-term thing Turning down multiple lucrative job offers two years in How the best LPs evaluate VC funds on the “Entry Ownership to Fund Size” ratio Semil's strategy of “crawl, walk, run” to increase Haystack's check sizes over time The pain he felt failing to hit his target fund size on the first four fundraises and how he handled it Why everyone should “pre-market” a fundraise, and how to do it The things most founders don't appreciate about raising a venture fund Fighting to invest in Ironclad's Seed round before he had his next fund raised How LPs reference VCs, and how a VC can become referenceable Why Haystack Fund IV was the scariest fund to raise How Semil builds relationships with LPs The hardest questions he faced raising each fund and what other VCs should anticipate while raising their own fund How LP investment committees make decisions What's going on behind the scenes at most large venture LPs today Why the traditional advice of “finding an anchor LP” makes no sense Spilling his secret on the best quarter to fundraise Why VCs should fundraise with a hard cap on fund size Why every VC should appreciate and remember how LPs supported them through the pandemic All the details on Haystack's new $75 million and $25 million funds Semil's plan for the next 10 years Three pieces of advice for emerging fund managers Where to find Semil: Twitter: https://twitter.com/semil LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/semilshah/ Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io/ For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

Nick Huber is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and content creator focused on real estate and small business. In the last 9 months, Nick has co-founded 6 companies including RE Cost Set, RecruitJet, Titan Risk, Blue Key Capital, Tax Credit Hunter, and WebRun Labs. His primary business, Bolt Storage, owns 1.8M sqft of self-storage facilities across 62 locations in 11 states.  In Todays Episode with Nick Huber We Discuss: Wealth: What the richest families in the world all understand and what the majority of people forget? What are the two best ways to make money as an employee? What do most forget/not do? Why money does make you happy and why society drastically undervalues wealth today? Why we should not be concerned by the levels of income inequality? Marriage and Parenting: 5. Why it is BS to not pass your wealth down to your children? 6. Why you have to let your kids suffer in order for them to grow? 7. How do you stop kids from becoming assholes if they are brought up with money? 8. Why the majority of the time, people choose the wrong partner? What should we look for? 9. What is the number one thing you can do to set your child up for success? Silicon Valley and Entrepreneurship: 10. Why entrepreneurship is not for everyone? Who is it for? 11. Why VCs are out of touch and naive? 12. What is the single biggest lie of Silicon Valley? 13. Why will so many would-be great entrepreneurs burn themselves out when they should not have to? Management and Brand Building: 14. How to build a brand today? Why you have to be controversial to be interesting? 15. How to deal with hate and criticism? Why you cannot please everybody? 16. Why woke culture can give you an advantage if you do not have it? 17. How to build a strategic network the right way? How to become a card in someone's rolodex? 18. What is the single worst thing you can do when hiring? 19. What do you do when you lose trust in an employee?  

Why VCs shouldn't try to tick boxes & focus too much on pattern recognition | How to choose your Fund-Strategy | Importance of the German Market | Seedcamp's Investment Process after receiving a Pitchdeck - Reshma Sohoni & Kate McGinn, Seedcamp Seedcamp has been investing in startups for more than 15 years. A few of the investments include companies like Wise, UiPath, Revolut, Ramp and many more. Recently, Seedcamp announced their 6th fund and will increase their presence in Germany with this fund. Together with Founding Partner Reshma Sohoni and Associate Kate McGinn, Fabian talks about Seedcamp's Investment strategy, opening a new market and their investment process from a founder perspective. ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY: https://zez.am/unicornbakery  What you'll learn: How did Seedcamp become one of the most renowned European (Pre-)Seed Funds? Why did Seedcamp never change strategy and raise significantly larger funds? Why shouldn't VCs rely too much on pattern recognition? Reshma Sohoni LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshmasohoni/  Seedcamp: https://seedcamp.com/  Kate McGinn LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katemcginn/  Seedcamp: https://seedcamp.com/  WHATSAPP NEWSLETTER: 1-2x a week get a personal voice note or content from me that will make you a better founder, sign up now with one click: https://bit.ly/ub-whatsapp-newsletter   (00:00:00) Why did Seedcamp switch their fund vehicle from accelerator to solely venture capital? (00:07:53) Seedcamp's new 160 million fund. (00:12:14) What does the collaboration between Seedcamp and Angel investors look like? (00:17:43) How do you think about fund strategy and why did you choose your strategy? (00:24:50) What dynamics does it take for the fund to perform well despite the many small tickets? (00:28:54) Who is Seedcamp talking to in order to arrive and establish itself in the German market? (00:31:17 As an investor, is it dangerous to only look at pattern recognition? (00:42:32) What is your typical process after getting a deck?

Ann Miura-Ko, Founding Partner at Floodgate joins the show to talk aboutFounding a Venture Capital firm in the midst of a financial crisis.How founders should be thinking about their business and communicating to VCs at the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages of company building.Why VCs say no and why Floodgate said no to Disco.What VCs actually mean when they say they're "investing in the founder, not the idea".The company that Ann wishes someone would start.

Rahul Chowdhury is the Managing Partner at N+1 Capital, India's first revenue based debt fund. He brings 18+ years of intensive entrepreneurial and operating experience. He is a two-time founder, having founded and sold DenuoSource, a Chicago-based data analytics firm, in 2011. He later founded Reboot, India's first refurbished IT asset lifecycle management firm. How does revenue-based-financing (RBF) work? N+1 will provide startups access to capital, at a premium, without taking any equity share or collateral from the company. Further, it collects a percentage of the borrowing entity's monthly revenues to pay the capital back, and gives steady returns to its limited partners on a quarterly basis. Unlike venture debt firms, N+1 isn't dependent on future fund-raise of the startup, but will invest on the basis of its revenue outlook. Episode Notes: 1. What motivated Rahul to pursue a career as a venture capitalist? (3:38) 2. The impact of Rahul's operator journey on his venture capital journey (6:02) 3. With whom does Rahul do business? (12:50) 4. Key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (15:41) 5. Rahul's decision making process (23:10) 6. How important are metrics and numbers in investment decision making? (35:40) 7. How does Rahul view black swan events and their impact on predicting the trajectory of startups seeking revenue-based financing? (38:18) 8. Evaluating businesses of varying sizes with respect to revenue based financing (45:31) 9. How significant is TAM to a revenue-based-financing investor? (55:20) 10. Challenges of revenue based financing in India (58:38) 11. Why VCs like to collaborate with a revenue-based-financing firm? (1:04:20) 12. What were the LPs' concerns about a revenue-based-financing firm? (1:09:51) 13. Personality-Fund-Fit for a fund manager (1:15:35) 14. Things about India that continue to surprise Rahul (1:21:28) . . . Social Links: N+1 Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/np1capital Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

“The only way that the world will see women and diversity differently, is when we create something that is so big and transformational that people will never underestimate women again.” In today's 40 Minute Mentor episode, and to mark this year's International Women's Day, we're joined by Sue Fennessy, the Founder & CEO of WeAre8. WeAre8 is a hate-free community that is built upon the idea that collective change and daily actions can make the world a better place. The team have been on an incredible journey and you may have seen their ads on TV or across London's billboards. In today's episode, we don't just get a front row seat to WeAre8's evolution, but also get an insight into Sue's incredible career. Plus, she, of course, shares tons of great mentorship with us. You can expect to hear more about: ➡️ A podcast recommendation from us [00:19]➡️ The dark side of social media [03:32] ➡️ Why VCs have become predictable and how that's holding diverse Founders back [06:29] ➡️ What drives her mission to make the world a better place [08:49] ➡️ The benefits of starting to see your work as a hobby [12:14] ➡️ How entrepreneurship chose her and more about her early career [15:22] ➡️ More about our sponsors, Alchemist [21:40]➡️ The importance of storytelling [22:44] ➡️ More about WeAre8 and why it's so different compared to other social media platforms [28:46] ➡️ Rio Ferdinand's involvement in WeAre8 [37:44]  ⛳ Helpful links:➡️ More about Sue: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-fennessy/➡️ Check out WeAre8: https://www.weare8.com/ 

In today's episode of The Metaverse Podcast, we talk to Rene Reinsberg, co-founder of Celo, who have the mission to build a financial system that creates the conditions of prosperity for everyone. The co-founder of Celo is joined by our host and CEO, Jamie Burke, diving into: The creation of Celo Foundation What is Regenerative Finance (ReFi)? Why VCs are interested in ReFi Building a better financial system Advice for Web3 founders #web3 #refi #regenerative #web3founder #financialsystem #nfts #venturecapital   ------------   Whether you're a founder, investor, developer, or just have an interest in the future of the Open Metaverse, we invite you to hear from the people supporting its growth. Outlier Ventures is the Open Metaverse accelerator, helping over 100 Web3 startups a year. You can apply for startup funding here - https://ov.click/pddsbcq122 Questions? Join our community: Discord - https://ov.click/pddssodcq122 Telegram - https://ov.click/pddssotgq122 Twitter - https://ov.click/pddssotwq122 LinkedIn - https://ov.click/pddssoliq122 More - https://ov.click/pddslkq122 For further Open Metaverse content: Listen to The Metaverse Podcast - https://ov.click/pddsmcq122 Sign up for our quarterly live events at - https://ov.click/pddsdfq122 Check out our portfolio - https://ov.click/pddspfq122 Thanks for listening!

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Ravi Viswanathan, Founder and Managing Partner of NewView Capital, a growth and secondaries focused fund founded in 2018 with over $2.2 billion under management. NVC invests in technology companies through both direct investments and curated portfolio acquisitions, pairing funding with significant operational support. Focusing primarily on growth-stage companies, the NVC portfolio includes Plaid, Duolingo, Forter, Hims & Hers, MessageBird, and Scopely.Ravi brings a wealth of experience around growth and secondary markets to the conversation, and it was really fun to discuss both of those areas in detail, particularly in light of the change in the markets over the last year. First, a word from our sponsor:Allocate is the digital operating system for investors looking to build and manage world class private portfolios within venture capital and other technology focused private assets. Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.Go to allocate.co to apply to be a member and join 400+ active Allocate users. About Ravi Viswanathan:Ravi is an experienced company builder and dedicated partner to entrepreneurs and investors. In 2018, Ravi raised $1.35B to architect an innovative portfolio acquisition of 31 companies from NEA to found NewView Capital (NVC).Prior to founding NVC, Ravi was a General Partner at NEA, where he oversaw investment in enterprise software and fintech companies and co-led the firm’s Technology Venture Growth Equity effort. His investments of note include Braintree (acquired by PayPal), MuleSoft (acquired by Salesforce), GlobalLogic (acquired by Apax Partners), TeleAtlas (Euronext: TA, acquired by TomTom), Cyence (acquired by Guidewire), Acquia (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), Scout (acquired by Workday), Plaid, and Forter. Ravi spent several years at Goldman Sachs in the Private Equity Technology Practice before joining NEA. He began his career in consulting at McKinsey & Co and as a scientist at Raychem Corporation.Ravi holds an MBA from Wharton, a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of California Santa Barbara, and a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Chair of the Wharton Entrepreneurship Advisory Board.In this episode we discuss:01:29 How the 2022 downturn compares to 2000 and 200803:20 The effect of market conditions on growth investing06:51 Why VCs keep making the same mistakes in bull markets and factors that lead to the most recent one09:22 What led to the launch of NVC in 201813:24 How Ravi sold the unique structure of NVC to founders and LPs15:55 Team building through the transition into NVC18:51 How Ravi managed communication around his conviction to close20:45 Navigating different LP considerations when putting together NVC23:38 What the next 6-12 months will look like in the venture markets28:06 State of the secondary markets in 202232:15 The stigma of selling positions early as managers and LPs35:50 The types of firms that are well-positioned for success in the current marketI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Ravi. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency 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

Attend DAS, crypto and macro's favorite institutional conference: http://digitalassetsummit.co/ Use code EMPIRE250 to get $250 off tickets (Only available this week!) -- In this episode of Empire, Jason and Mike are joined by Dan Matuszewski (CMS Holdings) & Avi Felman (GoldenTree). If you don't know these two names, don't forget them - two of the best traders and sources of alpha in crypto. This episode is one of my favorites yet; check out the highlights below: - Is macro crypto's master - This will lead to crypto's divergence with Macro - How will ETH perform with the merge - What are the new, hidden narratives - The tradeoff between CeFi and DeFi - Is DeFi ready to take off - Retail open-term lending is dead - Regulators have two options - Why VCs are in trouble - - Follow Dan: https://twitter.com/cmsholdings Follow Avi: https://twitter.com/AviFelman Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_ Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw -- (00:00) Introduction (01:08) The intersection of macro & crypto (12:47) How Will ETH's Price React to the Merge? (17:50) New Narratives & Market Leverage (25:28) A Catalyst for DeFi (29:10) What's About to Happen in CeFi? (31:37) Your DeFi Project Isn't Sexy (35:45) Can DeFi Tokens Accure Value? (41:23) Why You Should Avoid Low Float Tokens (44:27) VCs Are In Trouble (49:20) Avi and Dan Run Wild (51:06) Wrapping Things Up -- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Crytocurrencies were all the rage in past few years on account of rising asset prices and volatility. Now, they are going through a bear market that has witnessed some popular currencies going totally bust. This pehnomemnon of an "asset class" going from hot to untouchable is not new. We've seen this again and again in different forms and proportions.  The current bear market in cryptos certainly impacts the investors, start-ups, promoters, and VCs who are directly involved in the crypto business. But, this bear market has second-order effects that may impact you as well. Listen in, as Deepak and Shray discuss the nuances of how the crpto bear market inpacts you.  Show notes & references: 01:40 -How does the crypto bear market have an impact on stock markets & economy? 08:30 - The indirect knockdown effects of crypto bear markets 10:00 - Digging deeper which other segments of the economy will face a slowdown due to crypto? 15:30 - The trickling effect of hot money going away from crypto startups 16:30 - Misunderstanding of risk by crypto investors 20:30 - The debacle of fancy virtual assets - Luna & Terra Refer: Terra's stablecoin UST collapses, LUNA falls 99% 24:50 - Learnings from Zee TV & Dish TV saga of taking loans from Mutual Funds via bonds Refer - Capitalmind post on Zee FMP Saga 34:00 - New investors moving to crypto with leverage and family savings basis TV marketing 39:00 - Why VCs don't let failed crypto companies die? - No, it's not for the right reasons. 48:00 - By Now Pay Later - bad small loans of small ticket size are a similar problem. 50:00 - Promotor fraud is now called Rug Pull. Refer - What is a rug pull?  51:30 - The case for printing more money 54:30 - The commingling problem that stock exchanges have already solved. Crypto exchanges still fight that problem. Refer: Deepak Shenoy tweets about these issues in Dec 2021 56:40 - Will Deepak one day invest in crypto someday in the future? 58:30 - One great thing that has come out of crypto markets If you loved listening to Deepak talk about money and finance. You'll also find his book quite interesting - You can buy the book here – Money Wise.

The venture capital sector had two bumper years in a row in 2020 and 2021, with record levels of fundraising, investment and exits. However, like the rest of the investing world, the market has cooled in the 2022 economy. Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association, talks with us about how the current economic climate is affecting the VC-startup ecosystem, and how startup leaders and investors are looking at their prospects. Bobby also talks with us about how VCs are approaching their ESG goals, which cities and regions are seeing more VC investment activity, the JOBS Act 4.0 and the push to establish a US startup visa.Key talking points:How the market conditions of 2022 have affected venture capital investment activity (0:26)Where the rising hubs for VC activity are (2:35)What sectors are likely to show strong growth going forward (4:26)How startups and VCs are looking at their prospects for going public as the IPO and SPAC markets slow to a crawl (5:58)Why VCs strongly support the establishment of a US startup visa (8:11)How the Jobs Act 4.0 would affect the VC sector (11:24)How VCs are approaching their ESG goals (13:40)The potential upside of tough times (21:11)Further listening:If you'd like to learn more about what policy initiatives are of high importance to the venture capital industry, check out NVCA's Venture Capitol podcast, hosted by Bobby. 

Here with me today, is Michael Rangel, Co-Founder and CEO of Novo, a challenger bank focused on small businesses. It's currently valued at $700 million, and serves over 150,000 small businesses. Novo had kicked off their Series A fundraise in late February 2020, just as the COVID pandemic was hitting everywhere. The situation was very dynamic and Novo's cash position was getting tighter and tighter as the process went on. You will hear more from Michael in this episode on: 1) Raising in both good markets and bad What did it feel like to kick off a Series A right as COVID hit the US? As a founder, how should you think about raising in good or bad markets? What does it feel like to look at failure as an option square in the face and feel like you might let everyone down? What did Novo do to maintain cash position and minimize burn in order to survive? 2) The Mentality to Keep Going as a Founder How do you maintain confidence through all the tough moments? How Michael's personal experiences built resilience and perspective Why Adaptability is such an important trait for founders 3) How to survive the startup journey How reducing burn in the pandemic actually opened up new acquisition channels vital to the future of Novo Why the pandemic actually spurred more small businesses Optimize for survival and nothing else The benefits of bootstrapping in the early days 4) Building a business in the small business segment Can you really build a profitable segment serving the S of SMB (small-to-medium sized businesses) Why are you so passionate about serving this audience? Why VCs, banks and others discount this segment 5) Why Be a Founder? The challenges of fundraising and scaling pains Why do you choose to be a founder? What do you give up on the journey? Who do you have to have around you to stay sane? What motivates you to keep going on this challenging journey If you are looking for a new job and want to join a great culture of underdogs, or are a small business looking for a new bank, check out novo.co Find out more at KindredCapital.VC/FoundersUncut This podcast was produced by Fascinate Productions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're happy to welcome you to a slightly provocative episode on VC Memes and well-intentioned founder-advise from VCs. It all started with David and I wanting to bring Julius Bachmann on to shed some light on the world of a founder coach who had formerly been a VC. But he declined! However, a couple of months later, Julius came back with something to say to the VC ecosystem

John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins joins to discuss his lessons from a career of investing and his new book "Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now," alongside his co-author Ryan Panchadsaram. But first, Jason gives a 10-minute crash course on how to navigate messy cap tables in our latest VC Sunday School segment (1:54). Then John and Ryan join Molly and Jason for a conversation (15:11). In this episode, you will learn: 1. The six objectives and four accelerants to reach zero emissions by 2050 2. Why Nuclear power is an important part of the plan, but cannot be the only solution 3. The biggest blockers to rapid climate progress and why "the climate crisis is under-hyped" 4. Hard-won lessons from funding solar companies 5. How John assesses founders and develops conviction to invest 6. Indications John saw that Jeff Bezos was an exceptional entrepreneur 7. Where investors should focus to drive the biggest output (0:00) Jason and Molly intro the show, John Doerr, saving the climate and cap tables (01:54) VC Sunday School - When is a Cap table too messy? (07:29) Why VCs want founders to maintain more than 50% equity in the seed round (10:02) Odoo - Get your first app free and a $1000 credit at https://odoo.com/twist (11:08) What are the metrics for a red flag? (15:11) Interview - John Doerr and Ryan Panchadsaram, on the path to zero emissions (20:44) Bubble. Get one month free of a no-code plan at https://bubble.io/twist (22:17) Six objectives to reach zero emissions (30:22) The four accelerants needed to cut emissions in half by 2030 and hit the target by 2050 (31:28) Revelo - Get 20% off the first 3 months by mentioning TWIST at https://revelo.io/twist (32:56) Where investors can focus to drive the biggest change, why the time for "individual action has passed" and we need collective action (35:22) Why Nuclear power is an important part of the plan, but will not be deployed in time (42:06) Identifying the biggest blockers to rapid progress (47:37) Lessons from funding solar companies, why they require more capital and more intellectual rigor (51:32) How Kleiner's early climate investment portfolio performed (54:40) How Jason came to own the Roadster that KP Partner Ray Lane had ordered (56:29) How Kleiner invests in Beyond Meat (58:16) How John assesses founders and develops conviction to invest (1:03:52) John spending time with Jeff Bezos, how Jeff actually knew how to pull his own revenue numbers with a UNIX grep command (1:07:49) Why John thinks the Climate Crisis is under-hyped (1:16:13) Where should investors focus? Read Speed & Scale: https://speedandscale.com FOLLOW John: https://twitter.com/johndoerr FOLLOW Ryan: https://twitter.com/rypan FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Welcome to our new Sunday show. Each episode will have two segments, Sunday VC School and Climate startups. First, Jason and Molly discuss early-stage investing including, Jason's valuation vs. traction matrix (1:44) and developing a BS detector (23:03). Then Jason introduces Molly's new climate segment (27:15) and then Molly interviews New Energy Nexus CEO Danny Kennedy (33:38). They discuss what Danny looks for in clean energy investments(37:03) and more! Valuation vs. Traction Matrix: https://calacanis.com/2019/03/30/the-valuation-vs-traction-matrix (00:00) Jason intros the show (01:44) Sunday VC School - Assessing a minimum viable product (04:24) Valuation vs. Traction Matrix - https://calacanis.com/2019/03/30/the-valuation-vs-traction-matrix (12:04) Odoo - Get your first app free and a $1000 credit at https://odoo.com/twist (13:17) Getting a good price for a reasonable traction (21:39) Superside - Go to https://superside.com/twist to get $3000 or more in credits when you sign up for an annual subscription (23:03) Why VCs need to trust their BS detector (27:15) Jason and Molly introduce Molly's new climate segment (31:40) Notion - Go to https://Notion.so and use promo code TWIST to get $250 off its annual team plan (33:38) Molly interviews Danny Kennedy, New Energy Nexus CEO (37:03) What Danny looks for in clean energy investments (44:13) What holds people back from investing in climate tech startups (55:46) Hardware vs. software for climate investing Check out New Energy Nexus: https://www.newenergynexus.com FOLLOW Danny: https://twitter.com/dannyksfun FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Denny Chared is the founder and CEO of The DC Finance Family Office and High Net Worth Community which has more than 2 thousand high net worth individuals, family offices, and investors who collaborate with each other worldwide. In this episode, we're diving deep on how he has built this network and learnings for VCs fundraising and engaging with family offices and High Net Worth Individuals. In this episode you'll learn:- Denny's journey into the wonderful world of Family Offices- Understanding Family Offices from a VC perspective and do's & don'ts in working with them- The importance of respecting privacy in the Family Office world- Why VCs need to understand that talks with Family Offices can't be all about money

Heather Hartnett, General Partner and CEO of Human Ventures, shares how she identifies ‘futurists' to back them until the market sees their value. Heather talks about supporting early-stage entrepreneurs through ‘Humans in the Wild' (the firm's business incubator) and explains how valuation affects a startup's future.In this episode, you'll learn:[3:40] Why VCs like to invest in ‘futurists'[9:29] How ‘Humans in the Wild' helps early-stage founders to transform raw ideas into the next big idea[13:48] Why should founders be mindful of which firms they choose to come into their earliest rounds?[17:33] The dangers of startup over-valuationNon-profit organization that Heather is passionate about: David Lynch FoundationAbout Guest SpeakerHeather Hartnett is the General Partner and CEO of Human Ventures. Under Heather's leadership, Human Ventures has invested in and co-built more than 30 companies, with key investments including Reserve (acquired), TheSkimm, Current, Tiny Organics and Clark (acquired).Prior to founding Human, Heather's venture capital career spanned across various roles at firms including Lightspeed Venture Partners, CityLight Capital, and Claremont Creek Ventures. She also led the development at David Lynch Foundation, crystalizing her professional expertise and operations with the largest family offices and sophisticated investment firms. Heather is a member of the Kauffman Fellows program and a frequent Forbes contributor on the topic of venture capital.About Human VenturesHuman Ventures is a New York City-based venture capital firm that invests in Model Businesses with ambitious founders who are creating and building innovative technology companies that aim to make life easier and more fulfilling. The firm comprises an early-stage fund and venture studio. Its portfolio includes: Paloma Health, The Muse, Tiny Organics, Current, AmbassCo, Bikky, Day One, Hello.me, Kindred, Lupii, Spora Health, Quantime and Tia.Next Week's EpisodeComing up next week in Episode 75, we welcome a special guest, Dan Rosen, Founder and General Partner at Commerce Ventures, to talk about fintech investing, and how fintech has evolved over the last two decades.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday. Follow Us:  Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook

Alejandro Guerrero is a partner at Act One Ventures.  We discuss:     * Entering venture capital without a "traditional" background   * Why VCs need to start measuring success differently   * The Diversity Rider  

In this episode, Sasha Mirchandani, Founder & Managing Partner @Kae Capital & Co-founder @Mumbai Angels, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his learnings from investing in startups over the last 2 decades – from being an angel investor in early 2000s to starting his own VC fund in 2012, how Kae Capital leverages it's LPs to add value to their portfolio startups, building a legacy VC fund, Sasha's list of anti-portfolio startups (Oyo, Ola, Meesho, Unacademy) & key learnings from these missed opportunities. Sasha founded Kae Capital in 2012 which is a Mumbai based sector agnostic VC fund that usually invests in seed stage startups. Some of its investments include 1mg, Nua, Porter, Zetwerk among others. Previously, Sasha was a Managing Director at Blue Run Ventures India, CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies and Head of Corporate Affairs/New Businesses at Mirc Electronics (Onida). Sasha founded Mumbai Angels in 2006 which is among the top angel investment networks in India that connects startups with investors & professionals willing to invest in them. Sasha is among the first batch of angel investors in the country, is known for making early investments in companies like Fractal, InMobi & Myntra and was recently inducted in TiE Mumbai's Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Angel Investor. You can connect with him here on Linkedin / Twitter ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any of the major podcasting platforms like Spotify, Apple iTunes and Google Podcasts. Please leave us a review on Apple iTunes to help others discover this podcast. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay on Linkedin & Twitter ---- Show notes – 1. (01:34) Sasha's background; Starting Mumbai Angels in 2006 2. (03:54) Initial learnings as an angel investor 3. (07:09) Difference in investment approach between a VC and an angel investor 4. (09:04) About Kae Capital – Thesis, Fund size and portfolio composition 5. (10:36) What should VCs consider when choosing their LPs? Leveraging LPs to support portfolio startups 6. (14:39) Exit criteria for VCs; Why VCs need to put more thought on mitigating risks post investment and timing their exits? 7. (17:23) Learnings from his anti-portfolio and avoiding biases when evaluating startups 8. (19:49) Improvement in founder quality over the past 2 decades 9. (22:54) Rapid fire and closing remarks

It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Nell Hardie, head of talent at Australian corporate VC Reinventure.We talk about venture capital and startup-related talent issues, including:Why VCs should have a talent functionCommon hiring mistakes made by startupsWhat can be done about skill shortages in areas that are vital to early stage companiesNell is a pioneer of the VC people space in Australia and is Reinventure’s first Head of Talent. She has a passion for working with the brightest entrepreneurs, early stage technology companies and helping them scale from a talent perspective. Nell has an Executive Search background in technology, she works as a strategic partner to appoint c-suite and high impact technology leadership into our high growth ventures. Nell also acts in an advisory capacity assisting them with ‘all things talent’, from organisation design, to recruitment best practices, interview process, employer branding, candidate experience, compensation and culture/values to help them in a highly competitive market for talent.She is hugely passionate about talent, technology, innovation and elevating the profile of Australia’s startup ecosystem. She also runs global talent initiatives to attract skilled expats and Australian’s returning home.Nell holds a Bachelor degree in Applied Sports Science from the University of Edinburgh. When not obsessing over people, culture and human led growth, she spends her time on the water, sailing.

Benjamin Qiu, partner at Loeb & Loeb, and I talk about what kind of legal issues arise when startups run into difficult economic times and funding is harder to get. 1:45 – What kind of funding environment are we in now?4:08 – Will and how would VC funds try to back out of deals?7:05 – Why VCs may be reluctant to put in more capital to existing portfolio companies.12:15 – Alternatives to VC funding14:48 – Investor veto rights – fundraising, change in business models, redemption threats22:45 – Legal issues for startups trying to reduce costs25:50 – Predictions on what will change post-virus

1:45 – What kind of funding environment are we in now?4:08 – Will and how would VC funds try to back out of deals?7:05 – Why VCs may be reluctant to put in more capital to existing portfolio companies.12:15 – Alternatives to VC funding14:48 – Investor veto rights – fundraising, change in business models, redemption threats22:45 – Legal issues for startups trying to reduce costs25:50 – Predictions on what will change post-virus 

Benjamin Qiu, partner at Loeb & Loeb, and I talk about what kind of legal issues arise when startups run into difficult economic times and funding is harder to get. 1:45 – What kind of funding environment are we in now? 4:08 – Will and how would VC funds try to back out of deals? 7:05 – Why VCs may be reluctant to put in more capital to existing portfolio companies. 12:15 – Alternatives to VC funding 14:48 – Investor veto rights – fundraising, change in business models, redemption threats 22:45 – Legal issues for startups trying to reduce costs 25:50 – Predictions on what will change post-virus

Show notes:1:40 Enterprise Legal Studio (Bart Dillashaw)3:20 Ben's Role at Invest Nebraska7:10 Dan Hoffman & Matt Foley10:35 Shark Tank pitching11:35 The pitching process for Invest NE14:35 ‘What is this problem you're trying to solve in the world?'19:05 Minimally viable product, the MVP21:10 Categories of investments24:25 Ocuvera & Steve Kiene27:20 Covid19's impact on finance29:50 Metrics of growth33:20 The Power Curve41:05 Funding styles44:20 Why VCs are okay with companies failing fast47:45 Being an investor vs being a good investor51:20 VC in pop culture has been bastardized 53:40 The data on successful funds59:20 Competition between funds in small vs larger market1:02:35 Malort Moment1:07:35 ‘No one is really good at picking companies'1:09:00 Kauffman Foundation1:13:20 Equity in a company defined1:16:50 The Exit stage1:32:05 Define Entrepreneur 1:32:40 Ben's Gym business1:34:30 Parks & Rec reference from Skip (drink)Music: DFA1979 'If We Don't Make It We'll Fake It'@skip_cronin

Newer isn't always better. Take your flashy new car which is like 90% computer at this point. It's great...  Until it breaks down and you need to hire Bill Gates to fix it. Anyone with a little skill could maintain an old car and fix it when there was a problem.  Yet, in our pursuit of flashy new prospects, too many of us neglect to maintain our existing buyers, leaving them unhappy with their service and chasing them away. Joey Coleman says this is unnecessary and easy to avoid — and he should know, he literally wrote the book on the subject, Never Lose a Customer Again. He's also the Chief Experience Composer at Design Symphony, a customer experience branding firm. And he came on the #FlipMyFunnel Podcast to let us know how we can stop hemorrhaging customers.  Here's what we're unpacking today: Why VCs care about retention (and you should too) Why retention is just as important as acquisition The difference between customer experience and customer service Why retention is about performing for an audience 46 examples you can learn from This post is based on a podcast with Joey Coleman. If you'd like to listen to the full episode, you can check it out here and below. ----------- Join Sangram's "Becoming Intentional" newsletter for a 1 min read on how to lead professionally, grow personally, and live fully. Only available on LinkedIn.

Dev Bajaj is a Venture Partner at Kalaari Capital, an early-stage, technology-oriented VC firm headquartered in Bangalore, India. Prior to joining Kalaari, Dev founded MITRA, one of India's largest AgTech startups. Dev built and led a team of 150 people to sell 4 different patented technologies. In 2018, Mahindra & Mahindra, the largest tractor company in the world, entered into an agreement to acquire MITRA to grow M&M's horticulture business.Dev spent the early years of his career in investment banking and private equity in the US, and then went on to receive his MBA from INSEAD.Startups in his portfolio include: Instamojo, RKSV, Active Intelligence, Agnext.You can follow Dev on Twitter – @devneetbajaj and read more about him here. While you're at it you can also follow our host, Akash Bhat - @bhatvakash and visit us at thedesivc.com…Glossary of terms you will encounter in this episode:1. APRU – APRU or Average revenue per unit is the measure of the revenue generated per unit or user.2. DAU – DAU or Daily Active User is the measure of how many users visit or interact with the product or service over a given interval (i.e. per day)3. MAU – MAU or Monthly Active User is the measure of how many users visit or interact with the product or service over a given interval (i.e. per month)4. GMV – GMV or Gross merchandise value is the total value of merchandise sold over a given period of time through a customer-to-customer exchange platforms.5. GTV – GTV or Gross Transaction Value is the measure of number of items sold multiplied by the price collected6. Unit Economics – direct revenues and costs associated with a particular business model, and are specifically expressed on a per unit basis7. EBITDA – EBITDA or earnings, before interest expenses, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is a proxy for a company's current operating profitability i.e. how much profit it makes with its present assets and its operations on the products it produces and sells, as well as providing a proxy for cash flow.8. NPS – NPS or Net Promoter Score is an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company's products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging the customer's overall satisfaction with a company's product or service and the customer's loyalty to the brand.9. Me-too business: Businesses that are designed to be similar to a very popular product made by another company (sometimes in an another country).10. Momentum Investing: Momentum investing involves a strategy to capitalize on the continuance of an existing market trend.…In this episode, you'll learn about:1. Dev's story and how he ended up as an investor2. Responsible and sustainable investing and why it is more important than ever before3. Growth metrics important for startups4. His doubts about FinTech and why the funding numbers in FinTech are misleading5. Successful traits of entrepreneurs from within Kalaari's portfolio6. Things he'd like to change about Indian VC7. Portfolio companies that he's most excited about8. Dev's insights on investing and growing businesses9. Why VCs ask for business plans

Eyal Malinger, Investment Director at Beringea - a transatlantic early stage tech VC - invests in B2B Saas, VR/AR & blockchain. He sits on the boards of Poq, Zoovu, Festicket, Aistemos, Papier & MPB.com. We discussed: Why VCs should consider investing in rhinos - the unicorn's ugly, but real, cousin

Scott Kupor is the managing partner of famed venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm with more than $7 billion of assets under management that sits at the beating heart of Sand Hill Road. Sand Hill road is, of course, the physical center of the venture capital industry – the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world. So...Scott is at the center, of the center of the global venture capital industry. In his new book -- Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It -- Scott covers a range of topics critical to any founder: Why VCs invest in particular stages, the key skill for raising venture capital, and what happens when things don’t go so well. http://secretsofsandhillroad.com www.a16z.com www.penguinrandomhouse.com In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online and beyond.  

Inspired by numerous requests of our listeners, we have created some special episodes based on different key themes. We put together the best pieces of timeless advice that we found most insightful from all the conversations with founders and VCs that we have published so far. In this first episode, the particular focus is on one of tech’s most important topics: Raising money from venture capital investors. We hope you enjoy!   01 - Pawel Chudzinski (Point Nine Capital) [01:38 - 03:15] Why tech startups usually need to raise money [03:16 - 05:02] Criteria that Point Nine Capital assesses when making investment decisions [05:03 - 06:47] On the importance and best practices of a good pitch deck   02 - Philipp Pausder (Thermondo) [06:52 - 07:45] Why VCs invest more into complex business models nowadays [07:46 - 08:19] Large markets that have lots of potential and VCs like to invest in   03 -  Julian Riedlbauer (GP Bullhound) [08:24 - 10:03] How founders can leave a lasting impression with their pitch   04 - Claude Ritter (Cavalry Ventures) [10:07 - 11:55] Soft factors that influence an investment decision   05 - Jasper Masemann (HV Holtzbrinck Ventures) [11:59 - 12:59] How founders can differentiate themselves and positively ‚wow‘ VCs[13:00 - 14:03] What not to do when pitching to VCs   06 - Luis Hanemann (e.ventures) [14:07 - 16:41] Personal learnings of a founder who turned VC

Jeff Carter is a co-founder of Hyde Park Angels, one of the most active angel groups in the United States, and he is currently raising a VC fund, named West Loop Ventures. Before becoming an angel he was a trader for over 25 years and he continues to trade independently.  listen on itunes listen on stitcher In This Episode You Will Learn: How Hyde Park Angels started? Why traders make for good angel investors? Why having pornographers and money launderers latching on to your product early is a great sign?  Why it has been easier to find LPs for West Loop Ventures outside of Chicago?  Why you have to be a great analyzer of people and not just ideas for seed investing? Why it's important to have a vision for the future as a seed investor? Why VCs can bet on ideas, but angels have to be on people? Why being coachable is so important for entrepreneurs? How an entrepreneur/investor relationship is like dating?  Why he makes a point of blogging everyday? What we have to do to keep growing the Chicago tech scene?  Favorite Blogs: Streetwise Professor by Craig Pirrong AVC by Fred Wilson Feld's Thoughts by Brad Feld The Musings of The Big Red Car by Jeffrey Minch Favorite Books: City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America by Donald Miller The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer  Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer  The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan by Carroll V. Glines   High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove Personnel Economics in Practice by Edward P. Lazear, Michael Gibbs Selected Links From The Episode: Kenny Estes, VC at West Loop Ventures Vishal Verma, Co-Founder of Hyde Park Angels Steve Kaplan, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business Kathleen Swan, startup attorney Raman Chadha, Co-Founder of Junto Institute  Irish Angels, Notre Dame inspired angel group Jason Kunesh, CEO of Public Good Dan Ratner, COO at Public Good Marc Halpin, CEO of Kapow Events Daniel McCormick, COO of Kapow Events Sam Rosen, Founder of Deskpass Jay Swoboda, CEO of Dabble Robert Rosenberg, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business Mark Tebbe, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business PJ Media, conservative news site Rick Santelli, Editor at CNBC Sean Chou, Founder of Catalytic Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision Dick Costello, former CEO of Twitter "The Nature of the Firm" (1937), an influential article by Ronald Coase Merton Miller, deceased Professor from University of Chicago Booth School of Business Bryan Johnson, Founder of Braintree and OS Fund Matt Maloney, Founder of Grub Hub