Latest Interviews

A Conversation with David Miliband

David Miliband, Adam Bolton

International Rescue Committee CEO David Miller and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband address the escalating global displacement of 65 million people, emphasizing long-term economic integration and education funding over temporary aid. Miller outlines a strategy to counter the erosion of Western refugee rights by shifting toward cash transfers and expanding resettlement quotas, while Miliband attributes the rise of populism and Brexit to specific policy failures and critiques the Trump administration's withdrawal from key international agreements. Together, they warn that weak states, climate change, and geopolitical vacuums will sustain this crisis for decades, urging a pivot from isolationist "wall-building" to robust economic and diplomatic solutions.

Sarah Chou on Finding Product-Market Fit in the Education Industry - at YC Edtech Night

Sarah Chou, Karen Lien, Chen, Preston, Jeff, Tim, Chad

Informed K-12, a B2B SaaS platform founded by CEO Sarah and CTO Chen, facilitates the digitization of administrative workflows for school districts by managing over 600 distinct forms ranging from mileage reimbursements to travel authorizations. After pivoting from an unsuccessful teacher-focused Q&A model, the company established a repeatable sales process targeting Chief Business Officials and Assistant Superintendents to validate demand for a system-level paperwork solution. With 22 employees now operating in 22 distinct markets, the firm leverages direct relationship-building strategies and rigorous data privacy standards to modernize back-office operations for districts navigating budget constraints and staffing challenges.

A Conversation with Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer, Michael Milken

Steve Ballmer, a Harvard graduate who left Stanford to join Bill Gates at Microsoft, has applied his strategic leadership and data-driven philosophy to diverse sectors including technology, philanthropy, and sports. He founded USAFacts.org to provide nonpartisan government data that holds officials accountable and aims to improve economic mobility, while simultaneously revitalizing the LA Clippers with a focus on championship performance and operational transparency. Ballmer's approach consistently emphasizes the necessity of high performance, clear vision, and measurable outcomes across all his current ventures.

California Leading the Future of Energy

Harry Atwater, Caroline Choi, Mark Herrema, Jane Wells

A panel featuring leaders from Caltech, SoCal Edison, and New Light Technologies explores contrasting strategies for climate mitigation, ranging from JCAP's artificial photosynthesis research and California's push for 80% zero-carbon energy by 2030 to New Light Technologies' commercial production of methane-derived biodegradable plastics. While SoCal Edison outlines the necessity of infrastructure investment to electrify transport and buildings, New Light CEO Mark Harriman details a successful licensing model that has secured billions of pounds in plastic orders with partners like IKEA. The discussion concludes by emphasizing the critical role of chemical fuels for hard-to-electrify sectors like aviation and the urgency of converting carbon emissions into valuable market products to achieve net-negative outcomes.

California's Future Economy

Kevin Klowden, Kevin Demoff, Charles Harrington, Paul Markovich, Betty Yee

Hosted by the California Center for Regional Economics, a panel of leaders from Blue Shield, Parsons, the LA Rams, and the Controller's Office examined the intersection of infrastructure, healthcare, and human capital in shaping the state's future economy. Panelists identified critical challenges including healthcare costs suppressing wage growth, automation threatening tax revenue sustainability, and the urgent need to secure aging infrastructure against cyber threats. To address these issues, the group advocated for public-private partnerships like the Inglewood micro-city project, expanded workforce training initiatives, and blended funding models to maintain California's global economic leadership over the coming decades.

The Most Important Decision is Getting Started – Laura Behrens Wu

Laura Behrens Wu, Carolyn Levy

Shippo, co-founded by Laura Behrens-Wu and Simon, built an API platform that processes millions of monthly shipments for 16,000 e-commerce merchants after pivoting to solve critical shipping transparency issues. The company successfully raised $9 million in two rounds despite facing significant hurdles, including 115 investor rejections, team turnover, and a lawsuit, by maintaining transparent communication and executing a compressed four-week Series A process. Behrens-Wu now leverages this experience to advocate for inclusive hiring practices and warns founders to vet investors on their crisis management behaviors while navigating systemic gender biases in the B2B technology sector.

A Conversation with FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb

Scott Gottlieb

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb outlines a multifaceted regulatory strategy addressing the opioid epidemic, tobacco addiction, and the aftermath of Hurricane María on Puerto Rico's critical medical manufacturing sector. He emphasizes adapting regulatory frameworks for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and digital health tools while prioritizing the prevention of medical misinformation and product shortages. The discussion highlights a shift toward reducing review cycles, de-risking early-stage development, and utilizing post-market surveillance to balance safety with innovation.

A Conversation with PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi, Michael Milken, Andrew, Mike

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi transformed the beverage and snack giant through "Performance with Purpose," a strategy that integrated social and environmental sustainability into core operations while shifting the revenue portfolio toward healthier product lines. This cultural overhaul was driven by scientific leadership under Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Mahmood Khan and reinforced by tying executive compensation to specific nutritional and environmental goals. Nooyi further extended the company's impact by forging partnerships with healthcare institutions to improve access for underserved veterans and advocating for systemic policy changes to address chronic disease and nutritional equity.

Building a Startup is About Solving a Problem - Avni Patel Thompson of Poppy

Avni Patel Thompson

Founded by Avni, Poppy is a Seattle-based childcare network designed to recreate a modern village by connecting vetted caregivers with families seeking reliability. After a failed subscription box startup and multiple rejections from Y Combinator, Avni pivoted by leveraging manual "concierge" operations to validate demand, eventually securing over $2 million in seed funding and acceptance into the Winter 2016 cohort. The company now operates on a weekly growth rhythm that prioritizes solving core customer frustrations over product perfection, demonstrating how curiosity and user feedback drove the transition from a personal struggle to a scalable business model.

Founders of Science Exchange, Goldbely, and The Flex Company Discuss Fundraising

Kat Manalac, Elizabeth Iorns, Vanessa Torrivilla, Erica Jensen, Elizabeth Lyons

Hosted by Kat, a panel featuring YC alumni founders Elizabeth Lyons, Vanessa Torribilla, and Erica examined fundraising hurdles across diverse sectors, revealing that initial seed rounds consistently register as the most difficult stage. The founders detailed a strategic shift from vision-based narratives to rigorous data preparation for Series A, while offering specific tactics for overcoming gender bias and managing team resources to prevent metric stagnation. Ultimately, the discussion emphasized the necessity of aligning investor outreach with relevant demographics and maintaining founder well-being to sustain long-term growth.

Morgan DeBaun on Reaching 20M Millennials - With Kat Manalac at the Female Founders Conference

Morgan DeBaun, Kat Manalac

Founded by Morgan de Bon in 2014, Blavity has evolved from a bootstrapped text-based blog into the largest media company for Black millennials, now serving over seven million readers through a community-first model that leverages user-generated content. After securing a $1 million Series A by demonstrating robust organic growth, the company successfully expanded its portfolio by acquiring Shadow and Act and launching verticals like 2190 and Afrotech conferences. De Bon's journey highlights a strategic pivot from traditional editorial control to empowering creators, overcoming early fundraising rejections by validating the unique ecosystem of Black audiences against standard industry benchmarks.

Small Business Financing Tips for 2017: Banks, Family and Additional Resources

Carol Roth, David Burch, Steve Strauss, Gerri Detweiler

Addressing the financing needs of over 50% of U.S. small business owners planning growth, experts including David Burch of Bank of America and Steve Strauss outline strategies to navigate traditional lending and family funding. The presentation details the critical preparation required for the "Three Cs" of credit, emphasizing accurate financial reporting and formal contracts to mitigate relationship risks with family investors. Panelists further advocate for leveraging free advisory networks like SCORE and SBDCs to build robust capital reserves before crises occur, ensuring businesses can transition from informal financing to institutional support.

Emily Weiss on the Insights That Grew Glossier - With Amy Buechler at the Female Founders Conference

Emily Weiss, Amy Buechler

Glossier, led by CEO Emily Weiss, leverages its sister publication *Into the Gloss* and a 600% annual growth trajectory to scale its Direct-to-Consumer beauty model while maintaining accidental profitability with $40 million in raised capital. The company prioritizes product quality and community transparency over traditional retail tactics, driving expansion through peer-to-peer recommendations and a strategic shift to physical locations that function as cultural hubs rather than sales counters. As Weiss directs focus toward a new European headquarters, the firm exemplifies a market shift where data-driven community engagement replaces conventional advertising to cultivate brand loyalty among a predominantly female workforce.

The Bitcoin Network Effect

The speaker advocates for viewing blockchain entities as autonomous software mechanisms rather than legal corporations, highlighting their distinct lack of liability and governance attributes. While Bitcoin dominates through strong network effects, successful altcoins must offer unique functional advantages to coexist, and regulatory pressure currently targets intermediaries rather than the decentralized protocol itself. Future adoption hinges on resolving transaction latency through layer-2 solutions and mitigating volatility, with international remittances identified as the primary catalyst for non-speculative utility alongside a reevaluation of monetary policy as a fixed-supply asset.

Scaling Growth | Gustaf Alstromer, YC Partner (formerly Airbnb) & Ed Baker (formerly Uber)

Gustaf Alstromer, Ed Baker

Ed Arons and Gustav Sorensen discuss their experience scaling growth teams at Uber, Airbnb, and Facebook, contrasting early viral tactics that exploited platform loopholes with sustainable strategies focused on retention and marketplace liquidity. The speakers detail how successful scaling requires aligning product and engineering functions, adapting paid acquisition to local constraints, and replacing short-term viral hacks with long-term investments in SEO, data science, and user experience optimization. Furthermore, they emphasize the necessity of institutionalizing experimentation to challenge assumptions, citing specific examples like copy adjustments in Japan and WeChat integration in China, while advocating for unified operational models that track acquisition, churn, and re-engagement separately.