Latest Interviews
Showing 1801–1815 of 1,930 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- a16z25 min
Winning Founders & Influencing Everyone: Margit Wennmachers at Startup Grind Europe
Margit Lamm, after co-founding the agency Outkast and advising on the 2008 $300 million Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) pitch during the financial crisis, now guides the firm through its "founding entrepreneur first" philosophy supported by 100 specialized operational staff. She advises startups to prioritize product readiness over early publicity while utilizing independent content channels to control narratives, warning against over-promising to maintain essential trust with media and customers. Lamm further argues that while Silicon Valley retains a historical advantage, European entrepreneurs must culturally normalize failure to achieve breakout success and views the industry's current scrutiny as a temporary obstacle rather than a fundamental flaw.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
Lessons from Lloyd: Interns Meet our Chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein
A distinguished financial leader analyzes the cyclical nature of global markets and the growing ambivalence toward globalization while advising interns to leverage their tenure for lifestyle assessment and to master the granular details of finance. The speaker further outlines a framework for corporate leadership that distinguishes between firm-aligned communication on economic expertise and employee welfare, cautioning against conflating personal agendas with institutional voice. Finally, the presentation highlights a current economic anomaly where robust growth in major economies like Japan, China, and India diverges sharply from prevailing political anxiety and anti-globalization sentiments.
- Goldman Sachs25 min
Michael Scott Moore: Kidnapped - A Story of Survival
Journalist Michael Scott Moore details his 18-month captivity by Somali pirates in *The Desert and the Sea*, recounting his 2011 abduction from a land camp to a hijacked tuna vessel near Hobyo. After his mother negotiated with FBI assistance, the ransom demand was reduced from an initial $20 million to approximately $1.6 million, a sum facilitated by the eventual realization that private payments were distinct from official government policy. Moore's account also critiques the archaic nature of modern piracy laws and argues that consistent rescue operations, rather than a rigid non-payment stance, offer a more effective deterrent against the transnational ransom industry.
- Goldman Sachs28 min
Ibtihaj Muhammad: Making History in a Hijab
Dhurah Ibtisam is a trailblazing fencer who became the first American to compete in a hijab at the Olympics, securing a team bronze medal in Rio while authoring a memoir on her journey of resilience. Beyond her athletic achievements, she founded the modest fashion brand Luella and collaborated with Mattel to launch a "Sheroes" Barbie doll that challenges stereotypes through authentic representation. Ibtisam's career highlights her advocacy for dismantling systemic barriers in sports, transforming her experiences with discrimination and financial hardship into a platform for empowering marginalized communities.
- Y Combinator26 min
Geoff Ralston and Adora Cheung Discuss Startup School
Geoff Ralston, Adora Cheung, Craig, Jeff
Startup School is a 10-week Stanford-taught online program led by YC partners and executives Paul Graham, Sam Altman, and Michael Seibel, designed to lower barriers for early-stage founders globally. The course offers two participation tracks featuring live lectures, expert advice from volunteer founders, and access to exclusive partner deals, while incentivizing serious commitment through $10,000 equity-free grants awarded to 100 completing companies. Building on last year's success where 38 graduates entered the YC accelerator, the initiative aims to maximize global innovation by fostering accountability and providing capital to prevent promising startups from failing due to early funding gaps.
- The Economist21 min
ABBA star, Bjorn Ulvaeus, on Mamma Mia and Brexit sadness
Universal Pictures advanced the *Mamma Mia!* sequel after convincing Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus to approve a dual-narrative script featuring digital avatars of the group performing two newly recorded tracks. The project required mutual consent from all four band members and utilized modern technology to simulate the musicians' 1979 appearances while integrating current vocal performances from Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Ulvaeus further discusses the band's evolving artistic themes, their diverse musical influences, and his personal views on politics and legacy during the release strategy discussions.
- Y Combinator43 min
Elad Gil Shares Advice from the High Growth Handbook, a Guide to Scaling Startups
Elad Gil, Craig Cannon, Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, Naval Ravikant, Claire Hughes Johnson, Masud Hossain, Narayan Mallapur, Brianne Kimmel, Marius Chawa, Taylor Caforio, Tanmay Khandelwal, TD Bryant II, Andrew Pikul
In *High Growth Handbook*, Stripe co-founder John Collison distills decades of operational experience into a practical framework for executives and founders navigating scaling challenges, from hiring strategies to market entry pitfalls. The book synthesizes specific case studies and data-driven insights on funding hierarchies, product distribution, and cultural management while explicitly rejecting generic advice in favor of context-dependent execution models. By highlighting real-world examples like Stripe and Airtable, the text provides a comprehensive guide for identifying breakout opportunities and avoiding common strategic errors in high-velocity markets.
- a16z37 min
Cryptonetworks and Cities: Analogies
Ali Yahya, Devon Zuegel, Denis Nazarov, Jesse Walden, Dennis
This analysis reframes decentralized crypto networks as analogues to cities, arguing that their resilience stems from bottom-up consensus mechanisms that eliminate single points of failure. By contrasting modular "Unix-like" development with monolithic "Apple-like" approaches, the discussion highlights how visionary top-down narratives must eventually yield to rough consensus to guide organic growth while navigating trade-offs between centralized control and anarchy. Furthermore, the framework proposes aligning economic incentives with public goods through tokenization and establishes forking as a critical governance tool that enables competing networks to function as distinct socio-technical experiments.
- Goldman Sachs45 min
Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger: Making Footwear Sustainable, Comfortable and Cool
Tim Brown, Joey Zwillinger, Kathy Elsesser
Founded in 2016 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger, Allbirds operates as a certified B Corp that disrupts the footwear industry by prioritizing sustainable material science through its direct-to-consumer model. The company leverages a co-CEO leadership structure and a rigorous "one product at a time" philosophy to rapidly iterate designs based on direct customer feedback, successfully launching innovations like the Wool Runner and eucalyptus fiber while maintaining a flat price point. With plans to expand internationally and open physical retail locations for tactile testing, Allbirds aims to normalize sustainable manufacturing standards across the fashion sector.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
Amy Chozick: "Chasing Hillary"- Lessons from the Campaign Trail
Amy Chozick, Hillary, Jake Stewart
Journalist Amy Chosick details her decade-long coverage of Hillary Clinton's 2008 and 2016 campaigns in her book *Chasing Hillary*, contrasting the gendered media scrutiny faced by Clinton with Donald Trump's mastery of cable news and social media. The narrative analyzes the 2016 election collapse as a failure of major newspapers to prioritize ground-level field reporting and data models that ignored the "ground truth" of voter sentiment. Chosick further argues that the election exposed structural "no-win" dynamics for female candidates while warning against the political polarization and balkanization of the modern news ecosystem.
- Goldman Sachs34 min
Interns Meet Our Next Chairman and CEO, David Solomon, During an 'Explore GS' Session
Following a direct succession from Lloyd Blankfein, David Solomon assumes the CEO role at Goldman Sachs at age 56, becoming the firm's first non-partner leader since its 1999 public offering. Solomon is steering the 150-year legacy from a private partnership into a public corporation by targeting a 50% gap in corporate product offerings and integrating advanced data analytics to expand commercial banking services. Simultaneously, he prioritizes cultural evolution by framing diversity as a business imperative and advising talent to pursue long-term networking and patient career development over short-term acceleration.
- The Economist36 min
Tony Blair on Brexit's second referendum
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair advocates for a final Brexit referendum to resolve parliamentary gridlock, arguing that the public must judge a choice between a "soft Brexit" and a "clean break" based on two years of economic deterioration. Beyond the domestic impasse, Blair warns that Brexit has caused the UK to shift from the fastest-growing to the slowest G7 economy and framed the split as a geopolitical disaster that weakens Western unity against the rising influence of China. While proposing these immediate political solutions, Blair also outlines his global work through the newly consolidated Institute for Global Change, which employs 250 staff to advance center-left liberalism and address issues ranging from counter-extremism to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee: Genetically Mapping the Future of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee, Richard Manley
Dr. Siddharth Mukherjee outlines a paradigm shift in oncology where cancer is treated as a portfolio of distinct conditions managed through prevention, targeted early detection, and immunotherapy rather than a single curable entity. Advances in genetic engineering have moved the field from simply sequencing DNA to actively editing sequences, enabling cures for single-gene disorders and transforming historically lethal cancers like metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer into manageable chronic conditions. This revolution, driven by the ability to replace nucleotides and alter cellular environments, marks a historical transition comparable to the dawn of the computer age in its capacity to redefine human health.
- Goldman Sachs28 min
David Solomon Formally Announced as Lloyd Blankfein’s Successor
David Solomon, Lloyd Blankfein
Goldman Sachs announced that CEO and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein will retire at year-end, with David Solomon assuming immediate leadership of both roles as the firm enters a new strategic chapter. The transition coincides with a period of strong performance across investment banking and investment management, while Solomon pledged to uphold the firm's partnership culture and drive digital innovation through its Marcus and Clarity Money initiatives. With the firm aiming for its best fiscal year ever under the outgoing leadership, the move is presented as an evolution of the 149-year-old legacy designed to maintain competitive advantage in a changing regulatory and market landscape.
- Y Combinator20 min
Fireside Chat with Kat Mañalac, Kathryn Minshew, and Alex Cavoulacos
Kathryn Minshew, Alex Cavoulacos, Kat Minialek, Catherine Minshew, Alex Kamalakis
The Muse, a Y Combinator-backed career platform serving over 50 million users, leverages strict ethical standards and value-based hiring to cultivate an inclusive culture that rejects superficial "culture fit" in favor of diversity and mutual respect. Founders successfully navigated critical challenges including early missteps in sales recruitment, the dismissal of a co-founder candidate, and the termination of a corrupt investor term sheet to secure new funding. By maintaining a "no assholes" policy and enforcing shared values with partners, the company has established a reputation for integrity that attracts aligned talent and major clients like Facebook and Goldman Sachs.