Episodes
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Cem Sertoglu is one of the great venture investors of the last decade. Cem is famed for writing the first check into UiPath and over several rounds turning $16.5M into $2.1BN. Cem recently started Bek Ventures, a $250M fund that was 3x oversubscribed.
In Todayâs Show with Cem Sertoglu We Discuss:
1. Has Venture Capital Been Commoditised:
Why does Cem believe that VC has not been commoditised?
Why does Cem believe many VCs today are not even VCs anymore?
How does Cem advise founders who have offers from large multi-stage firms? What questions should they ask them pre-working with them?
How do the best founders select the VC they choose to work with?
2. Price, Reserves, Loss Ratios:
Why does Cem believe that price does not matter?
How does Cem approach reserves and reserves management?
What does Cem know now about reserves that he wishes he had known when he started investing?
Does Cem care about loss ratio? Does he do scenario planning when making investments?
3. Making $2.1BN on UiPath:
How did Cem meet Daniel for the first time? Was it obvious he was incredible?
Why did they only write a $1M check and not take the whole round with $1.5M?
Why did 40 of the best investors in Europe all turn down UiPath for the Series A?
What did doing the bridge round for UiPath teach Cem about reserves?
When was it obvious UiPath was going to be a mega hit?
How did they continue to concentrate capital with each round?
When did they first start to sell shares in UiPath?
What was their approach to the selldown of their position?
When the company IPOâd, how much of it did they have?
4. AMA with One of Europeâs Best:
Does signalling exist? How does Cem advise founders on this?
What has been his biggest loss? How did that change his mindset?
What has been Cemâs biggest miss? What did he not see?
Why does Cem always believe you should manufacture arguments with founders before investing?
Why does Cem believe a high GP commit can actually misalign the GP and the LP?
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Alain De Botton is one of the greatest philosophers of our time. His work has had a profound impact on me more than any other. I have wanted to do this episode for the last 8 years.
In Todayâs Episode with Alain De Botton We Discuss:
1. Why Status is Making You Miserable:
Why are we richer yet more anxious than ever?
What is the right way to define status? Why do we want it so much?
Is it bad to want status? What are some non-obvious signs that you are seeking status when you do not realise it?
Does social media enhance the desire for status? How so?
Do the happiest people want status the least? What are Alainâs biggest observations in how truly happy people think about status?
2. Why Parents Want You To Fail:
Why is the sign of good parenting when your child does not want to be famous?
Why do your parents sometimes want you to fail?
What should parents do if their child wants to chase an unachievable goal?
Why should parents encourage their children to start very early?
3. Why Meritocracy is a Fallacy & Meaningful Work:
Why does Alain believe a true meritocracy is an impossible dream?
Why is meritocracy a bad thing when taken to the extreme?
Why does Alain believe that companies are not families?
Why does Alain tell people that they should not bring their full selves to work?
4. WTF is âMeaningful Workâ:
What does it mean to do âmeaningful workâ?
Why do humans need to do âmeaningful workâ today in a way that we did not many years ago?
What are Alainâs biggest pieces of advice to young people today, unsure of what they should do with their lives and careers?
Why does Alain believe the idea of a âcallingâ is BS?
5. Ambition, Achievement and Sacrifice:
What does Alain mean when he says âyou have to tolerate your own averagenessâ?
What does Alain say to the young generation who want work/life balance?
What does Alain mean when he said you âcannot be at war with yourselfâ?
Does Alain agree that to achieve you must sacrifice?
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Episodes manquant?
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Raman Malik is the Head of Growth at Perplexity where he is responsible for growth marketing, onboarding, activation, retention, and monetisation. Prior to Perplexity, Raman, was an early member of the growth team at Lyft and joined Perplexity earlier this year after his own startup journey.
In Todayâs Episode with Perplexityâs Head of Growth:
1. Inside the Perplexity Growth Machine:
What have been the single biggest needle movers in the growth of Perplexity?
What has not worked? What have they learned from that?
How have partnerships driven growth? Lessons on what makes a good vs bad partnership?
Why does Raman think paid acquisition is a drug and Perplexity do not do it? How does Raman advise other founders when it comes to paid acquisition?
2. Acquisition, Retention, Churn: Mastering the Basics:
Why does Raman think that brand marketing is BS? When does it become more important?
What are the simplest things startups and product teams can do to drive retention up?
How do Perplexity count an âengaged userâ? What metric suggests they have a retained user?
What is the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to A/B tests?
3. How Perplexity Built a Growth Machine:
Why does Raman advise all founders to hire more former founders?
How does the way you manage founders turned employees differ from employees who have never been founders?
What is the must under appreciated growth channel today that has worked for Perplexity?
What growth channel has been the biggest flop for Perplexity? What did Raman learn from losing money on the channel?
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Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over âŹ1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe.
In Todayâs Episode with Markus Villig:
1. Starting an $8BN Company:
How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed?
How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? What are Markusâ biggest tips on finding a co-founder?
How did Markus use a $5K loan from his parents as the pre-seed round?
How did Markus get the first riders for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?
How did Markus get the first driver for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?
2. Expanding to be a Global Champion:
How did Markus expand Bolt to $10M in ARR on just $1M of funding?
What did the international expansion playbook look like? What worked? What did not work? How has it changed over time?
What one simple change led to their becoming the leader in Africa?
What was the best country to launch? What was the worst?
What is the most profitable country today? What is the least?
3. The $8BN Company that no VC Wanted to Fund:
Why did every large VC in Europe turn down Bolt early on?
How did a real estate company in the Baltics save Bolt with lifeline funding?
When did Sequoia come into the mix? Does Sequoia move the needle for your company when they invest?
How do New York financially driven investors differ to the traditional VC ecosystem?
What would Markus most like to change about the world of VC?
4. The Future: Micromobility, Self-Driving Cars, Uber:
Will the rise of self-driving cars harm or help companies like Bolt and Uber?
What is the future for micromobility? Does it cannibalise the core business for Bolt and Uber?
What is Uber better at Bolt doing? What are Uber worse at than Bolt? How will that change moving forward?
Waymo, buy or short? Why?
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Matt Grimm is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Anduril Industries, an American defense technology company that specializes in advanced autonomous systems. To date, Anduril has raised over $3.7BN with the latest round pricing the company at a whopping $14BN. Before Anduril, Matt was a Principal at Mithril Capital Management alongside Peter Thiel. Before Mithril, Matt was an early hire at Palantir, where he was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan to ensure U.S. forces had the best technology for the mission.
In Todayâs Episode with Matt Grimm We Discuss:
1. China/Taiwan, Ukraine/Russia & Israel/Gaza:
How will a Trump administration change US foreign policy and approach to conflict?
Will China invade Taiwan? What does Matt expect to see happen there?
Will Trump put an end to the war in Ukraine? What will be the outcome?
Is Israel wrong to defend itself in the way it has? How will the situation in Gaza be resolved?
2. The Future of War:
What will war look like in the future?
How is software and autonomy changing the world of war?
Why does the incentive structure of governments buying military equipment need to change around the world?
Will we see a world of robodogs fighting on battlefields? What does weaponry of the future look like?
3. Are We In a Defence Bubble:
With the massive increase in funding to defence companies, does Matt think we are in a defence bubble?
What does Matt believe all investors should know about the defence industry before they make investments in the space?
What should defence founders at the early stage know about building a defence company at scale? What changes?
Who will be the buyer for the many defence companies that have raised early rounds of funding and go out of business?
4. Matt Grimm: AMA:
Does money make you happy?
What is the biggest luxury purchase you have made?
Should TikTok be banned in the US?
What would Matt do today if he knew he would not fail?
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Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, one of the most important companies in history. OpenAI is on a mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Prior to OpenAI, Sam was the President of Y Combinator and an angel investor in Stripe, Airbnb, Reddit and Instacart.
15 Questions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman:
1. Will the trajectory of model capability improvement keep going at the same rate as it has been?
2. When did Sam doubt the continuance of scaling laws most? What has been the hardest technical research challenge OpenAI have overcome?
3. How worried is Sam about semiconductor supply chains and international tensions around them?
4. What is Samâs biggest worry today? How has it changed over the last 12 months and 5 years?
5. In what ways does Sam feel he was and is unprepared for the role of CEO of OpenAI?
6. Was Masa Son right to suggest that $9TRN of value will be created every year by AI?
7. Why does Sam disagree with Larry Ellisonâs statement that it will cost $100BN to enter the foundation model race?
8. Was Keith Rabois right that the best way to build companies is to hire under 30s?
9. What unmade decision weighs on Samâs mind most often?
10. What is Sam most grateful to Y Combinator for?
11. What would Sam build if he were a 23 year old starting today with the foundational AI technology that is already in place?
12. What should startups not try and build as OpenAI will steamroll them? What should they try and build where OpenAI will not go?
13. What does Sam believe is the most exciting use of agents that he has not seen created yet?
14. How does Sam believe that human potential is most wasted today?
15. Who does Sam most respect in the world of AI today? Why them?
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Vlad Tenev is a Co-Founder and CEO of Robinhood, the commission free stock trading and investing app with a market cap today of $20.7BN. Over the incredible 11 year journey Vlad has raised over $5BN from some of the worldâs best investors including Sequoia, a16z, DST, Ribbit and Index. Before Robinhood, Vlad started two finance companies in New York City.
In Todayâs Episode with Vlad Tenev We Discuss:
1. Surviving a Scandal: The Gamestop Saga:
What was the single hardest element of the sage for Vlad?
What did the sage teach Vlad about how to tell stories effectively?
What did Vlad not do in the period that he wishes he had of done?
What did he do that he wishes he had not done?
What advice does Vlad have for any founder going into a crisis?
2. Founder Mode and The Biggest BS Myths of Leadership:
How does Vlad analyse and assess Paul Grahamâs âFounder Modeâ?
Where is Founder mode right? Where is it dangerous?
What canonical leadership statements and lessons does Vlad most disagree with?
How has Vlad changed most significantly as a leader?
3. 8x $100M Revenue Lines: Scaling a Juggernaut:
What have been the single biggest challenges of scaling 8 lines of revenue each with over $100M in them?
What have been Vladâs biggest lessons on when and how to release new products?
Why did Vlad decide to abandon the Europe launch? Was it right with the benefit of hindsight?
What did Vlad not invest in with Robinhood that he wishes he had of done?
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Karri Saarinen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Linear. The company has raised from some of the best in the business including Sequoia and Accel. Before founding Linear, Karri was the principal designer at Airbnb and the founding designer at Coinbase.
10 Lessons with One of Silicon Valleyâs Most In-Demand Founders:
How to Become a Master Fundraiser:
Why does Karri believe it is BS advice that founders should âalways be raisingâ?
What is Karriâs biggest advice to founders on minimising dilution?
What do most founders think they know about fundraising but do not?
What is the best way to put your VCs to work? How can you give them homework to do?
What has been the single best VC meeting Karri has had?
What has been the worst VC meeting?
Product and Growth:
What does Karri mean when he says âfounder must focus on quality growth over hypergrowth?â
How does Karri advise founders on how soon to release and monetise their first product? Wait for platform ready or ship more feature products and monetise?
What have been the single biggest product lessons for Karri from Airbnb and Coinbase?
What are the most commons ways that growth plateaus? What breaks first?
Karri AMA:
Brian Armstrong or Brian Chesky; who would you invest in first?
Would you sell Linear today for $3BN in cash?
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started?
What did you believe that you now no longer believe?
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Daniel Khachab is the co-founder and CEO of Choco. Today, Chocoâs AI platform facilitates half of all food traded in major cities like New York, Paris, London, and Berlin, cutting food waste and streamlining distribution. Since its founding in 2018, Choco has raised $330 million from Bessemer, Coatue (its first European investment), and Insight, reaching unicorn status within 2.5 years. Previously, Daniel was the youngest Managing Director at Rocket Internet, where he oversaw growth across Latin America, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.
From Seed to $1BN in 30 Months:
1. We Killed a $BN SaaS Business to be AI First:
Why does Daniel believe that SaaS is dead?
What does an AI-first company mean?
Why does Daniel believe AI-first companies will win the next 10 years?
What foundation models does Daniel and Choco use today?
How has the cost of using different models changed?
What categories are vulnerable to being attacked with vertical products from the foundation model providers?
2. Europe is F*******: Why and What To Do:
Why does Daniel believe Europe is at a massive disadvantage in the next 10 years of AI?
Chips: What can Europe do to encourage chip production and manufacturing to take place on European soil?
Energy: What can European governments do to encourage energy providers and new forms of renewable energy to innovate to provide the energy AI needs?
Talent: Why does Daniel believe AI talent is the hardest problem that Europe faces? What can governments in EU do to resolve this problem?
3. Lessons Scaling to $1BN in 30 Months:
Does Daniel regret raising at a $1.1BN valuation?
Why did he throw a unicorn party with the round? Why does he regret it so much?
What did Daniel spend money on that he wish he had not spent money on?
What did Daniel not spend money on that with the benefit of hindsight, they should have spent money on?
When your competition raises a lot of funding, does that mean you should also?
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Mark Goldberg is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Chemistry, a $350M fund announced just yesterday with the mission to lead the best seed and Series A rounds. Before Chemistry, Mark was a Partner at Index Ventures, where he led early stage investments in Plaid, Bridge, Pilot, Anrok and Persona. Prior to Index Ventures, Mark was one of the first business hires at Dropbox.
In Todayâs Episode with Mark Goldberg We Discuss:
1. The Truth About Multi-Stage Firms:
Why are portfolio services there to help the investing partners and not the founders?
What are the most broken elements within a multi-stage firm?
How does decision-making break down in large partnerships?
When is the right time to work with multi-stage firms? When is not?
2. From Boutique High Margins to Commoditised Low Margins:
With the immense amount of cash that has entered VC, will returns simply get worse?
Who will be the winners in the next 10 years of venture?
Who will be the losers? What can they do today to change this?
What element of the future of venture are not enough people spending time on?
3. Lessons from Leading Unicorn Company Rounds:
What happens to all the unicorns with insanely high prices they cannot grow into?
What has been Markâs biggest hit? What did he learn?
What has been his biggest miss? How did that change his go-forward approach?
Does Mark agree that 90% of VC do not add value?
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AJ Tennant is the Vice President of Sales & Success at Glean, Glean has more than 20x'd its revenue and 100x'd its user base in the just two and a half years he's been there. Before Glean, AJ had incredible runs at Slack and Facebook. At Slack, AJ helped grow revenue from $6 million to more than $1 billion.
In Todayâs Episode with AJ Tennant We Discuss:
1. How to Sell AI Tools in 2024:
Are we still in the experimental budget phase for AI?
How does selling AI tools differ to selling traditional SaaS?
What are enterprises biggest concerns when it comes to adopting AI tools?
What buzzwords get enterprises most excited in the sales process?
Will we see a massive churn problem when the first renewal cycle for many of these AI products comes?
2. Outbound, Discounting, Closing:
Is outbound dead in 2024? What does no one do that everyone should do?
How does AJ approach discounting? Biggest lessons and advice?
What can sales teams do to create a sense of urgency in a sales cycle?
How does AJ do deal reviews and post-mortems? What is the difference between good and bad post-mortems?
3. How to Master Customer Success:
What are the biggest mistakes founders make today in managing their CS teams?
Should CS be compensated for upsell? How should the comp structure of CS teams change?
What can be done to create a good handoff experience for the customer when handing from AE to CS?
What are the most common ways CS teams break over time?
4. Hiring the Best Sales Teams:
How does AJ structure the hiring process for all new sales hires?
What questions does AJ always need to ask when hiring sales reps?
What are clear signs of outperformers when hiring new reps?
Does AJ give candidates a take-home assignment? What does he want to see from them?
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Mamoon Hamid is a General Partner @ Kleiner Perkins and one of the greatest venture investors of our time. In the past, Mamoon has led rounds in Figma, Slack, Rippling, Intercom, Glean and Box. Prior to joining Kleiner Perkins, Mamoon was a Co-Founder of Social Capital, and prior to that a Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP).
In Todayâs Episode with Mamoon Hamid We Discuss:
1. The Greatest Venture Deal of All Time: Figma or Slack:
What is Mamoonâs highest returning deal?
What did Mamoon see in Dylan and Figma when they had no revenue and very little user data?
What compelled Mamoon to write Stewart the check with Slack? What did he not see with Slack that he should have seen?
2. Taking Control of the Great Brand in Venture: Kleiner Perkins:
Is it true that Kleiner approached Mamoon and gave him the keys to the Kleiner kingdom? How did it go down?
Will Kleiner go back to having multiple products, large growth funds, international funds? What does Mamoon want Kleiner to be in 5 years?
What was the hardest element of the transition into Kleiner? What did Mamoon not know that he wishes he had known?
3. Becoming a Generational Defining Investor:
Market, founder, product, how does Mamoon rank them 1-3?
How has Mamoon changed most significantly as an investor?
What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he became a VC 19 years ago?
What is his biggest loss? How did it shape his mindset and go forward investing approach?
4. AI Supercycle: The Greatest Time to Invest
Where does Mamoon believe the value will accrue in this wave of AI?
Where are many investors spending a lot of time but Mamoon believes is not worthy of that time?
Will scaling laws continue?
Have we ever seen an incumbent set spend like this incumbent class? How does that change the game for VCs?
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Antoine Le Nel is the Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Revolut, one of the fastest growing fintechs on the planet. Prior to Revolut, Antoine spent an incredible 7 years at King (Makers of Candy Crush) overseeing continuous expansion of the world's most famous mobile game as VP of Growth.
10 Questions with Revolutâs Chief Growth Officer:
Why does Antoine believe that the best product and growth teams do not need to do A/B tests?
Why does Antoine believe the best growth teams do not believe in anything?
What growth tactics have worked best for Revolut? What did they learn?
What have been the biggest growth flops? How did that change their approach?
Why does Antoine believe localisation in product is BS and overrated?
Why does CAC never come up at Revolut? Why do they not believe it is a metric to focus on? What metrics do they focus on instead?
What does Antoine mean when he says âgrowth is a bidding warâ? How does one win the âbidding warâ today?
Why does Antoine believe the best growth teams focus on optimisations and 1% gains not moving the needle for a company?
What are the single biggest mistakes growth teams make today? What used to work that no longer works?
What growth tactic is most effective but also most under-utilised? How can startups take advantage of this?
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Zach Perret is the CEO and Co-Founder of Plaid, a technology platform reshaping financial services. To date, Zach has raised over $734M for Plaid from the likes of NEA, Spark, GV, Coatue and a16z, to name a few. Today, thousands of companies including the largest fintechs, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks use Plaid. In addition, Zach is also a Co-Founder of Mischief, an early-stage venture fund in San Francisco.
In Todayâs Episode with Zach Perret We Discuss:
1. Founder Mode:
Why âFounder Modeâ will be the most dangerous blog post written in the last decade for founders? What is most misleading about it?
What are âgrinder problemsâ? Why does Zach believe that grinder problems are the best problems for startups to try and solve?
Why does Zach believe that OKRs are BS and should be removed? What should be used instead?
2. Lessons from Raising $734M for Plaid:
What is the worst advice that VCs give that most founders take?
Why does Zach believe that angel investing is more distracting than helpful for founders to do? What are the pros of investing alongside running a company?
Why does Zach encourage founders to raise money as infrequently as possible? What does this mean for the size and price of rounds Zach thinks we should see occur?
3. The $5BN Exit and the $13.4BN Round:
Why did Zach turn down the $5BN exit to Visa? Was it the right choice?
Does Zach regret raising at such a high price of $13.4BN when the exit did not happen?
Would Zach sell the company today for $13.4BN if offered it?
What did Zach not do that he wish he had done? What did he do that he wishes he had not done?
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David Frankel is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, one of the best seed firms of the last decade. David has led rounds in companies such as Suno, Coupang, SeatGeek and PillPack (sold to Amazon for ~$1B). Previously, David was Co-Founder and CEO of Internet Solutions (IS), the largest ISP in Africa, ultimately acquired by NTT Japan. David has been named to the Midas List six times. In 2023, he was #11 and in 2024, he appeared at #15 on the Midas List of the world's best venture capital investors and at #2 on the Midas list of seed investors.
10 Questions With One of the Worldâs Best Seed Investors:
1. Reserves: Why are reserves the hardest part of venture? What have been Davidâs biggest lessons in how to do them well?
2. Why does David believe that pro-rata is the original sin of VC?
3. Has DPI died in 2024? Is PE the salvation for the VC exit market and liquidity?
4. Why does David believe LPs are so pissed of with VCs right now? What will change that?
5. When will IPO markets open? Are M&A markets shut? What would cause them to open?
6. How does David reflect on price today? When will he pay up and break his rules?
7. Biggest lessons for David on knowing when is the right time to sell? Why does David believe you should never sell your winners? What has David sold that he regrets most?
8. What companies returned the most to Founder Collective Funds? Uber? Coupang? Airtable? The Trade Desk? What did he learn from those mega hits?
9. What have been Davidâs biggest losses? How did losing the company change his mindset and approach to investing?
10. What does David believe is the future of venture capital? How can seed funds play in a world of mega multi-stage funds? Who wins? Who loses?
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Eoghan McCabe is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Intercom, one of the largest private software companies in the valley with hundreds of millions in revenue and thousands of customers. To date, Eoghan has raised over $238M from Index, Kleiner Perkins, ICONIQ, GV, Bessemer and more incredible firms. Intercomâs goal is to reinvent customer service with AI agents replacing human agents over the next 10 years.
10 Questions with One of the Largest Private Company CEOâs:
AI Investing: Why will most AI investments not do better than the S&P 500?
Building SaaS Tools with AI: Why is it crazy for companies to follow Klarna and use AI to build their own tools?
Going Public: Why is Bill Gurley wrong that more later stage companies should go public? Why did Intercom shelve plans to go public in 2022?
Early-Stage is F*******: Why is the early-stage venture ecosystem as an asset class f******?
Founder Mode: Why does Eoghan believe all of the best founders are unbalanced? What is the difference between Founder vs Manager mode?
Political Voice: Why did Eoghan decide he had to voice his political opinions now?
The Danger of Harris: Why does Eoghan believe a Harris administration would rob the US of immense freedom, democracy and civil liberty?
Why Vote Trump: Why does Eoghan believe that Trump will regain immense freedom for the sovereign individual?
Freedom of Speech: How does Eoghan determine right vs wrong when freedom of speech leads to harm and injustice?
Middle East and Nuclear War: Why does Eoghan believe that nuclear war is much closer than we think? Will we see the Middle East descend into war?
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Jeff Wang is the Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital Global Equities (SCGE), a public/private crossover investment firm with investments spanning from late-stage private companies to public companies. As Managing Partner, Jeff has primarily focused on public growth technology companies but has also invested $3 billion in private companies including Bytedance, SpaceX, and Stripe. Prior SCGE private investments that have since gone public include Airbnb, Doordash, MongoDB, Nubank, and Snowflake. Before joining SCGE in 2010, Jeff also worked at TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners where he focused on investments in technology buyouts.
10 Questions with the Leader of Sequoiaâs $9BN Global Equities Fund:
1. Crossover Fund Opportunity: Why are crossover funds more attractive today than ever? Have the tourists gone?
2. Public Market Opportunity: Why is the opportunity in the public markets, not the private markets today?
3. IPO Markets: When will IPO markets open? What will cause them to open?
4. Breaking Hedge Fund Rules: What are the biggest ways that Sequoia break the traditional rules of hedge funds?
5. Google: Why does Jeff believe that Googleâs cash cow of search is under threat?
6. Meta: Why does Jeff believe Meta will be the biggest competitor to Google?
7. NVIDIA: Why is NVIDIAâs price today reasonable? What is the bull and bear case?
8. China: Is there a recovery for China? How do Sequoia play China in this market?
9. AI in Public Markets: How are Sequoia playing the AI game in the public markets?
10. Investing Lessons: What have been Jeffâs biggest investing lessons from Mike Moritz, Doug Leone and Roelof Botha?
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Eiso Kant is the Co-Founder and CTO of Poolside.ai, building next-generation AI for software engineering. Just last week, Poolside announced their $500M Series B valuing the company at $3BN. Prior to Poolside, Eiso founded Athenian, a data-enabled engineering platform. Before that, he built source{d} - the worldâs first company dedicated to applying AI to code and software.
1. Raising $600M to Compete in the AGI Race:
What is Poolside? How does Poolside differentiate from other general-purpose LLMs?
How much of Poolsideâs latest raise will be spent on compute?
How does Eiso feel about large corporates being a large part of startup LLM providerâs funding rounds?
Why did Poolside choose to only accept investment from Nvidia?
Is $600M really enough to compete with the mega war chests of other LLMs?
2. The Big Questions in AI:
Will scaling laws continue? Have we reached a stage of diminishing returns in model performance for LLMs?
What is the biggest barrier to the continued improvement in model performance; data, algorithms or compute?
To what extent will Nvidiaâs Blackwell chip create a step function improvement in performance?
What will OpenAIâs GPT5 need to have to be a gamechanger once again?
3. Compute, Chips and Cash:
Does Eiso agree with Larry Ellison; âyou need $100BN to play the foundation model gameâ? What does Eiso believe is the minimum entry price?
Will we see the continuing monopoly of Nvidia? How does Eiso expect the compute landscape to evolve?
Why are Amazon and Google best placed when it comes to reducing cost through their own chip manufacturing?
Does Eiso agree with David Cahn @ Sequoia, âyou will never train a frontier model on the same data centre twiceâ?
Can the speed of data centre establishment and development keep up with the speed of foundation model development?
4. WTF Happens to The Model Layer: OpenAI and AnthropicâŠ
Does Eiso agree we are seeing foundation models become commoditised?
What would Eiso do if he were Sam Altman today?
Is $6.6BN really enough for OpenAI to compete against Google, Meta etc�
OpenAI at $150BN, Anthropic at $40BN and X.ai at $24BN. Which would Eiso choose to buy and why?
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Maria Angelidou is a seasoned product leader, having spent close to a decade at Meta where she was VP of Product and General Manager for some of the largest products such as Facebook Groups (2B+ users), Events, Profile, and Search. Before that, Maria led the Facebook App Monetization team, driving billions of dollars in revenue. Today, Maria is the Chief Product & Technology Officer at Personio, an HR tech company with an ambitious mission to unlock the power of people for SMEs.
In Today's Episode with Maria Angelidou1. How to Hire the Best Product Teams:
What are the three different archetypes for PMs today? What non-obvious traits does Maria look for in new product hires? How does Maria structure the hiring process? What works? What does not? Does Maria do take home assignments? How has her approach changed here? What is Maria's biggest advice to candidates on both compensation and title?2. How the Best Product Teams Do Product Reviews:
What does every team get wrong in how they do product reviews? What are the four different type of product reviews? How often does Maria do a product review? Who is invited? Who sets the agenda? How is it structured? What makes good vs great product reviews?3. Europe vs US: How Product Teams Differ:
What is the single biggest difference when comparing product teams in the US vs EU? Does Maria agree that the work ethic is less in the EU? Which class of employee would Maria say is more entitled? What could Europe do to be more competitive with the US? What was the biggest surprise to Maria on returning to Europe from the US? -
Bret Taylor is CEO and Co-Founder of Sierra, a conversational AI platform for businesses. Previously, he served as Co-CEO of Salesforce. Prior to Salesforce, Bret founded Quip and was CTO of Facebook. He started his career at Google, where he co-created Google Maps. Bret serves on the board of OpenAI.
In Today's Discussion with Bret Taylor:1. The Biggest Misconceptions About AI Today:
Does Bret believe we are in an AI bubble or not? Why does Bret believe it is BS that companies will all use AI to build their own software? What does no one realise about the cost of compute today in a world of AI?2. Foundation Models: The Fastest Depreciating Asset in History?
As a board member of OpenAI, does Bret agree that foundation models are the fastest depreciating asset in history? Will every application be subsumed by foundation models? What will be standalone? How does Bret think about the price dumping we are seeing in the foundation model landscape? Does Bret believe we will continue to see small foundation model companies (Character, Adept, Inflection) be acquired by larger incumbents?3. The Biggest Opportunity in AI Today: The Death of the Phone + Website:
What does Bret believe are the biggest opportunities in the application layer of AI today? Why does Bret put forward the case that we will continue to see the role of the phone reduce in consumer lives? How does AI make that happen? What does Bret mean when he says we are moving from a world of software rules to guardrails? What does AI mean for the future of websites? How does Bret expect consumers to interact with their favourite brands in 10 years?4. Bret Taylor: Ask Me Anything: Zuck, Leadership, Fundraising:
Bret has worked with Zuck, Tobi @ Shopify, Marc Benioff and more, what are his biggest lessons from each of them on great leadership? How did Bret come to choose Peter @ Benchmark to lead his first round? What advice does Bret have to other VCs on how to be a great VC? Bret is on the board of OpenAI, what have been his biggest lessons from OpenAI on what it takes to be a great board member? - Montre plus
