Latest Interviews
Showing 16–30 of 64 interview transcripts.
Clear all filtersTom Mueller: SpaceX's #1 Employee Built the Merlin Engine. Now He's Building Impulse Space
Former SpaceX founding employee Tom Mueller founded Impulse Space to revolutionize intra-orbital transport with its fleet of advanced spacecraft, including the orbital transfer vehicle Mira and the heavy-lift Helios. The company leverages proprietary Nova Light alloy and additive manufacturing to produce the Deneb hydrocarbon engine and lightweight composite tanks, achieving performance metrics that could significantly boost payload delivery to the Moon and Mars. Currently advancing lunar infrastructure efforts through successful rendezvous tests and an active lander contract bid, Impulse Space combines in-house manufacturing with AI-driven design to support a future lunar economy.
Dara Khosrowshahi’s Full Circle Launch: Expedia x Uber
Dara Khosrowshahi, Molly O'Shea, Barry Diller
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi detailed a strategic pivot from deep losses to $10 billion in annual free cash flow, driven by a multi-service ecosystem that integrates Rides, Eats, and an expanded Travel suite. The platform recently launched new features including an Expedia hotel booking partnership, a "Shop For Me" procurement service, and AI-driven development tools designed to accelerate innovation while preparing for a future fleet of autonomous and air taxis. By aggregating third-party mobility providers and emphasizing cross-platform membership loyalty, Uber aims to outperform single-line competitors through increased user retention and global service accessibility.
The $10 Trillion Bet on Humanoid Robots | Figure Founder Brett Adcock
Founded by Archer eVTOL creator Brett Adcock, Figure AI pursues the commercialization of general-purpose humanoid robots capable of operating autonomously for extended shifts across diverse industries. Having raised nearly $2 billion with a $39 billion valuation, the company recently terminated an OpenAI partnership to maintain control over its vertically integrated hardware and AI stack, aiming to triple production by May and deploy thousands of units within the year. Despite facing technical hurdles in scaling reliability, Figure projects a market opportunity worth trillions as it transitions from prototype testing to mass commercial deployment in homes and factories.
Skydio HQ Tour: The $3.5B Bet on American Drone Manufacturing with CEO Adam Bry
An autonomous drone network delivers 24/7 public safety operations by deploying units from charging docks to locate missing persons, track suspects, and inspect infrastructure without human pilots. The system utilizes Beyond Visual Line of Sight waivers and Pathfinder AI to execute complex missions across diverse hardware, ranging from the indoor R10 tactical unit to the high-speed F10 fixed-wing prototype. Through a transparency portal and continuous real-world stress testing, the company has integrated these force-multiplier tools into law enforcement culture while scaling production for imminent general availability.
Skydio Raises $110M Series F at $4.4B Valuation | CEO Adam Bry
Skydio recently closed an $110 million Series F round at a $4.4 billion valuation to scale its U.S.-manufactured autonomous drone fleet, which now secures a $50 million contract with the Army and serves 4,000 government and enterprise clients. The company differentiates itself from Chinese competitors through 100% domestic supply chain security and AI-driven agentic robotics that enable off-grid operations and reduce public safety response times by 70-80%. With plans to triple manufacturing capacity this year, Skydio aims to integrate its systems into 911 responses across the U.S. while expanding into energy utilities and battlefield intelligence.
How Applied Intuition Reached $15B (Without Spending $1B)
Qasar Younis, Peter Ludwig, Molly O'Shea
Over a decade after raising more than $1 billion in capital from investors like Marc Andreessen and Hemant Taneja while maintaining profitability through organic revenue, this company has pivoted from a low-profile "cult classic" to an active public strategy to recruit top-tier engineering talent. The firm transitioned in 2017 from software tooling to foundational physical AI, recently demonstrating its operational velocity by retrofitting autonomous systems onto military Humvees in just ten days and expanding into global sectors including defense and trucking. By leveraging a dense network of over 40 founder-type engineers and prioritizing long-term strategic partnerships over short-term financial metrics, the organization aims to dominate the slower-diffusion markets of physical robotics where stability and real-world judgment are critical.
Sequoia’s Alfred Lin: $10T Companies Are Coming
Sequoia Capital partners discuss a critical shift from legacy strategies to an AI-driven future, emphasizing that companies failing to recognize this paradigm shift face existential risk while their own portfolio valuations have surged to billion-dollar benchmarks. The firm reports distributing $43 billion to limited partners since 2020 and highlights how AI tools have enabled top engineers to triple output, fundamentally altering development cycles from years to days. Ultimately, Sequoia remains optimistic about automating mundane tasks to free human capital for strategic work, while refining its investment thesis to target founders with unique "spikes" capable of leveraging these new technological efficiencies.
Thomas Laffont, Coatue - Anthropic, Citrini Paper, AI Volatility & Next Mag 7
Thomas Lafont and the Kotu firm, managing over $100 billion in assets, predict that private AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic will dominate the next major market indices as SaaS valuations face re-rating pressures from decelerating growth. While anticipating significant IPOs within 24 months and a shift toward "Big Fucking Ideas" that expand total addressable markets, Lafont argues that AI will enhance engineering productivity rather than reduce headcount, following a historical model of market expansion similar to the introduction of ATMs. The firm actively applies these insights by integrating coding-first AI tools into their due diligence while advocating for democratized access to private equity to capture the exponential growth of early adopters like Clock Code.
Revel: The $1B Startup Rewriting Hardware Control
Scott Morton, Dylan Field, Molly O'Shea
Founded by former SpaceX engineer Scott Morton, Revel is a platform that replaces obsolete legacy control software with modern tools to accelerate hardware testing frequency by up to tenfold. The 15-month-old company recently closed a $150 million Series A led by Index Ventures and Redpoint, achieving a billion-dollar valuation after securing high-conversion pilots with clients like Impulse and Astromechanica. Revel aims to democratize hardware engineering by enabling generalists to manage critical systems in aerospace and energy sectors while expanding into wastewater infrastructure and major industrial partnerships.
Inside Opendoor HQ on Earnings Day (Office Tour + Live Stream)
Kaz Nejatian, Michael Judd, Molly O'Shea
Opendoor is reshaping its corporate identity under CEO Kaz Nejatian and former CEO Keith Raziani by adopting a militant "Open Army" culture and pioneering live, digital-first investor relations on platforms like Robinhood. This strategic pivot accompanies a technical overhaul where leadership prioritizes core stability over cosmetic improvements, resulting in a ten-week mortgage product launch and a hybrid design system strategy. By expanding from simple transactions into a comprehensive home-moving ecosystem, the company aims to empower average Americans through high transparency and merchant services that mimic Shopify's model.
Why Sequoia Is Betting on AI That Beats Humans
Shaun Maguire, Molly O'Shea, Andrew Reed, Vlad Tenev, Palmer Luckey
Investor Andrew, acting alongside podcast host and math expert, backed Harmonic CEO Vlad Tenev based on his proven track record with Robinhood and the company's unique reinforcement learning strategy that leverages mathematical rigor and the Lean programming language. This approach allows Harmonic to achieve elite performance in math competitions at a fraction of the capital cost incurred by major AI competitors, while the broader discussion highlights a shift in the host's assessment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena odds and a prediction for a second industrial revolution in specialized AI applications. The event details how deep intellectual rigor and unconventional physics interpretations underpin both this specific investment thesis and the founders' broader vision for the future of computing.
Elon Musk & The SpaceX IPO: Largest Wealth Event in History? | Shaun Maguire, Sequoia
Elon Musk, Shaun Maguire, Molly O'Shea
Sean McGuire describes SpaceX as the "greatest company of all time," having invested $1.2 billion since 2019 to acquire a stake now valued at approximately $12 billion amid an implied $800 billion market cap. The organization is pivoting toward building space-based data centers by leveraging the excess launch capacity of the Starship rocket, a strategic move paralleled by Starlink's evolution into a global infrastructure network serving over 15 million subscribers. Upcoming milestones include the 2026 deployment of reliable Starship flights and a 2028 rollout of Direct to Cell services, which collectively aim to unlock massive liquidity through an anticipated IPO while reshaping the physical infrastructure constraints facing the AI sector.
Data Centers in Space? Armada’s CEO on SpaceX and the Edge
Armada, funded by over $200 million, deploys modular AI factories to bring hyperscale computing to remote and hostile environments, effectively bridging the digital divide in regions lacking traditional infrastructure. Strategic alliances with key entities like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Microsoft enable the company to integrate edge connectivity and proprietary models into diverse sectors ranging from military operations on aircraft carriers to disaster response in the Arctic and Saudi desert. By prioritizing rapid deployment of American-led AI stacks, Armada aims to secure global data sovereignty and expand its footprint into critical industries such as energy and defense through 2026.
Inside Zipline’s Factory: The World’s Largest Drone Delivery Network
Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, Molly O'Shea
ZipLine is nearing two million total deliveries of autonomous aircraft across 140 million safe commercial miles, with its California headquarters employing over 1,300 staff to oversee a fleet managed by human supervisors rather than direct pilots. The company is rapidly scaling operations from 17 to 24 hours daily while transitioning to single-operator control of up to 30 units, supported by extensive in-house manufacturing of custom electric components and rigorous testing protocols. Strategic partnerships with major retailers and healthcare providers are driving adoption where over 50% of some households order via the service, despite current supply constraints necessitating limits on non-essential orders to ensure reliability.
Palmer Luckey on UFOs, Anduril, Invisibility Tech, & Moon Wars
Anduril Systems, led by Palmer Luckey, is redefining defense acquisition by self-funding rapid prototype development to secure the Air Force's first autonomous fighter, the Fury, while bypassing traditional contractors through capital-intensive manufacturing strategies. Despite media scrutiny over minor test failures, the company maintains its rigorous "test to failure" approach to ensure operational readiness and rejects adjustments to its certification processes. Concurrently, Luckey advances distinct theories regarding extraterrestrial origins for UAPs and outlines a vision for future space combat where fragility dictates swift, catastrophic outcomes, all supported by a portfolio extending from autonomous drones to advanced acoustic submarine tracking.