Latest Interviews

Fannie Mae’s Priscilla Almodovar on strengthening the US housing system

Priscilla Almodovar, Megan Hogan

Fannie Mae leverages its $4.3 trillion balance sheet to advance equity and sustainability while navigating a market forecasted to shift from recession fears to slow growth as mortgage rates decline toward the sixes. The organization is addressing a critical inventory shortage driven by the "lock-in effect" and demographic shifts, simultaneously deploying credit innovations like rent-reporting pilots to close the 30% homeownership gap for Black and Latino households. Under the strategic leadership of board member Priscilla Ortiz, Fannie Mae also introduces a "Mission Index" to quantify social impact for investors and promotes green bond incentives for sustainable rental housing.

The best AI founders in the world are moving here

San Francisco has re-established its status as a global hub for artificial intelligence following the ChatGPT catalyst, which reversed the remote work exodus and concentrated major entities like OpenAI and Anthropic within a specific "Cerebral Valley" cluster. Y Combinator's strategic relocation to the Dog Patch further intensifies this agglomeration by physically co-locating hundreds of founders to maximize high-frequency networking and accelerate the current "boom loop." This renewed density is projected to drive a decade-long economic recovery, filling previously vacant downtown offices while fostering a techno-optimist society that reinvests tech wealth into housing, safety, and inclusive growth.

America Needs More Techno-Optimism, with Marc Andreessen and Tyler Cowen

Marc Andreessen, Tyler Cowen

The event analyzes the divergent generational adoption of AI, noting that while Large Language Models compress skill gaps by elevating lower-skilled workers, regulatory fragmentation and the shift to managerial capitalism currently stifle US economic dynamism. Key figures highlight the necessity of centralized nuclear energy infrastructure to power AI deployment and advocate for a "bourgeois" entrepreneurial approach where specific use-case regulations replace broad technology bans to foster innovation. Ultimately, the discussion frames the future as a bipolar global competition between American R&D and Chinese deployment, requiring agile defense strategies and open-source scrutiny to maintain national security.

High mortgage rates, limited inventory continue to challenge the US housing market

Roger Ashworth, Allison Nathan

Despite existing home sales collapsing to thirty-year lows due to severe affordability shocks and a borrower lock-in effect, institutional investors and persistent demographic demand are preventing a market correction. Goldman Sachs Research forecasts a 5% price appreciation in 2024 and declining mortgage rates by 2025, driven by tight inventory and a projected population boom among primary buying-age cohorts. While supply chain hurdles and macroeconomic risks like inflation threaten to delay recovery, historically low foreclosure rates and substantial homeowner equity provide a stable price floor.

David Weisburd, 10X Capital: Finding Alpha and LP Bias

David Weisburd, Molly O'Shea

David Weisberg, the strategy architect behind Tenex Capital's venture franchise, leverages his *Liquidity* podcast to dissect the structural tensions between General Partners and Limited Partners in today's AI-driven market. He argues that the sector operates as an access class defined by a critical misalignment between founder risk mitigation and the LP demand for concentrated power-law outcomes, a dynamic that creates volatility during conflicting economic cycles. Weisberg advises navigating this environment through time diversification, limiting portfolios to fifteen to twenty-five positions to optimize alpha, and utilizing early-stage secondary sales to return capital without relying solely on lagging DPI metrics.

Epidemic Sound’s Oscar Höglund on the future of the music industry

Oscar Höglund, Clif Marriott, Oskar Haugland

Founded 15 years ago by Oskar Haugland, Epidemic Sound operates a B2B SaaS platform serving hundreds of thousands of customers by providing royalty-free music with 100% owned IP rights to cover approximately 20% of YouTube content. The company differentiates its economic model through a 50/50 revenue split with artists and utilizes a massive library of unencumbered data to train AI systems for track recommendation and adaptation, effectively democratizing production for creators ranging from individual influencers to Fortune 500 corporations. By leveraging daily feedback from 2.5 billion user interactions, the platform maintains a 92% gross margin while navigating industry shifts toward AI-driven content creation and converging media formats.

Why America Must Lead in AI Investment

Senator Todd Young, Martin Casado

Senators led by Chuck Schumer convened a series of closed-door AI Insight Forums with industry experts to gather candid input on national security, innovation, and the economic implications of artificial intelligence. The resulting bipartisan consensus advocates for a technology-agnostic regulatory framework and significant federal investment in basic research, drawing direct strategic parallels to the CHIPS and Science Act. Policymakers aim to balance immediate security concerns with a "light touch" approach that avoids stifling U.S. leadership while embedding AI expertise within the White House to guide future legislation.

The Next Generation of Leadership: A Conversation with Governor Wes Moore

Wes Moore, Ben Horowitz

Governor Wes Moore applies a data-driven philosophy rooted in his background as a former military recruit to address Maryland's critical challenges in military recruitment, criminal justice reform, and economic development. His administration has implemented historic initiatives including a national service program to counter enlistment drops, revised laws to assist those with criminal records, and targeted education reforms designed to improve literacy and vocational readiness. These policies have contributed to significant early successes, including an eight-year reversal in rising homicide rates and strategic investments positioning the state as a national cyber capital.

Sharks Never Stop Swimming: A Conversation with Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban, David Ulevitch

Mark Cuban and Dr. Alex Oshmayansky have leveraged Cost Plus Drugs to expose pharmaceutical opacity by publishing exact medication costs with a fixed 15% markup, ultimately attracting Harvard and Vanderbilt researchers to project $3.6 billion in potential government savings. The company expanded its model to B2B wholesale and advocates for healthcare CFOs to negotiate rates at 80–100% of Medicare prices, challenging the three major Pharmacy Benefit Managers that currently dominate the market through rebate retention and regulatory capture. Beyond healthcare, Cuban utilizes these insights to critique rising tuition costs and *Shark Tank* dynamics, calling for structural reforms that prioritize middle-American entrepreneurs and eliminate non-transparent corporate contracts.

Building Confidence In Yourself and Your Ideas

Dalton, Michael

This analysis warns founders against relying on superficial validation, such as cold outreach, which often leads to "pivotitis" and wasted resources driven by fear or false industry data. It emphasizes that success requires high internal conviction to withstand fundraising cycles and negative feedback, distinguishing between healthy strategic adjustments and random walks that deplete energy without generating experience. Ultimately, the event defines a true Minimum Viable Product as one that satisfies at least one user, urging teams to prioritize deep, iterative learning over rushed metrics.

Beyond roads, bridges, and tunnels: the megatrends shaping infrastructure investments

Teresa Mattamouros, Alyssa Nathan

The global infrastructure sector has expanded from traditional physical assets to include critical data centers and renewable energy projects, driven by a fourfold demand for decarbonization, digitization, deglobalization, and demographic shifts that currently outpace the trillion-dollar gap between public spending and estimated needs. Legislative frameworks like the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act have accelerated this transition by unlocking over $400 billion in private capital for clean power and manufacturing, contrasting with Europe's more rigid, top-down regulatory approach while offering investors inflation-protected returns and portfolio diversification. Despite these opportunities, the long-duration nature of these assets exposes them to risks from geopolitical instability and interest rate fluctuations, which may complicate refinancing and delay large-scale capital commitments.

Nubank’s David Vélez: Entrepreneurs can help solve Brazil’s biggest challenges

David Vélez, John Waldron

David Velez and Nubank's co-founders built the region's largest bank by value by targeting structural inefficiencies in Latin America's unbanked markets, transforming a decade of macroeconomic volatility into a growth advantage. The company scaled across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia by embedding a culture of user fanaticism and deploying product-led financial literacy tools that achieved industry-leading NPS scores surpassing global tech giants. Following a $30 billion pre-IPO valuation and backing from Berkshire Hathaway, Velez has now committed the majority of personal wealth to the Giving Pledge to further expand educational leadership and private-sector impact in the region.

Fielding Exceptional Fan Experiences: Holly O’Neill & Dallas Cowboys EVP Charlotte Jones

Holly O’Neill, Charlotte Jones

Entering the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 during a financial crisis, Charlotte Jones leveraged her fashion background and a family mandate to transform the franchise into a $9 billion enterprise over three decades. As the first female chairman of the NFL Foundation, she prioritized a 355-day engagement strategy and gender-inclusive leadership to compete with home streaming and cultivate deep fan affinity through initiatives like the "The Star" headquarters. Jones continues to drive the organization's digital evolution by integrating AI and player-centric data, ensuring the team remains relevant as the industry pivots toward immersive streaming experiences.

David Booth on being an index pioneer, working with Nobel laureates, & investing through uncertainty

David Booth, Raj Mahajan

Founded by David Booth in 1981, Dimensional Fund Advisors has grown to manage $680 billion by applying science-based strategies rooted in theories from Nobel laureates like Eugene Fama and Robert Merton. The firm distinguishes itself as the industry's largest active ETF issuer by prioritizing the management of uncertainty over market forecasting and lowering transaction costs through disciplined trading execution. Beyond its financial operations, Booth's governance integrates rigorous academic oversight, and his historic philanthropy has significantly elevated the University of Chicago Booth School of Business while preserving key historical artifacts like the original rules of basketball.

Apple Vision Pro: Startup Platform Of The Future?

Diana, Jared

At the event, YC's Diana analyzed the Apple Vision Pro's transition to high-resolution video see-through technology and spatial computation, positioning it as a productivity-first platform with a hardware architecture comparable to self-driving cars. She contrasted this with Meta's game-focused approach, emphasizing that successful adoption requires founders to build deep, irrational commitment to overcome early "iPhone moment" limitations regarding app ecosystems and user experience. Drawing parallels to the five-year trajectory of mobile computing, the discussion advised investors to fund developers addressing high-density workflows now, predicting a similar evolution from niche tools to mass-market transformative startups.