Latest Interviews
Showing 826–840 of 1,549 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs25 min
Central bank tightening: what could break?
Allison Nathan, Jeremy Stein, Vítor Constâncio
Former Federal Reserve officials Jeremy Stein and Lyle Brainard, alongside ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio, assert that the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank must prioritize fighting inflation over preemptive financial stability measures while navigating Quantitative Tightening risks. These experts warn that structural fragilities, including sovereign bond liquidity shortages in the US and complex energy-driven inflation in Europe, could trigger market instability if central banks fail to adapt tools like standing repo facilities or manage open-end fund vulnerabilities. Despite acknowledging that tightening cycles are expected to peak at 5% for the Fed and 3% for the ECB, the panelists caution that the absence of 2020-era fiscal backstops may amplify the impact of future credit events.
Oana Olteanu: Why Founders Should Expect More From Their VCs | 20VC #950
Partner at Signal Fire and former engineer discusses her background as a Romanian immigrant who secured a NASA prize before launching a venture capital career focused on founder-centric strategies. She introduces the "Schrödinger's VC" framework to distinguish supportive investors from those offering empty post-deal promises, urging founders to actively manage board dynamics through specific homework assignments and strategic hiring practices. Her philosophy emphasizes extracting tangible value from capital, prioritizing diversity in technical roles, and reshaping the industry by holding investors accountable for their actual contributions rather than their reputations.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
George Kurtz CEO/Co-founder, CrowdStrike
George Kurtz guided CrowdStrike from its 2011 cloud-only founding to a successful IPO by rejecting on-premises demands and deploying patent-protected, non-rebooting technology that halted 77,000 active intrusion attempts annually. Following the public offering, Kurtz prioritized sustained momentum through a "100 days, 100 customers" initiative that secured over $100 million in new ARR and converted skeptical financial giants into major clients. This mission-centric strategy, driven by a "hatred to lose" philosophy and a hand-picked workforce, established a new benchmark for post-IPO customer engagement while scaling the organization to over 6,500 employees focused on preventing breaches.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
Amid rising inflation and slowing growth, how is the U.S. consumer faring?
David Mericle, Kate McShane, Eric Sheridan, Allison Nathan
Goldman Sachs economists project U.S. consumption growth will stabilize near 1% in late 2022 and 2023 as falling household wealth and the expiration of pandemic stimulus offset modest gains in real disposable income. While retail growth remains price-driven with consumers prioritizing essential goods over big-ticket items, the technology sector faces a shift toward lower single-digit growth rates focused on free cash flow visibility. Looking ahead, industry participants anticipate normalized supply chains and a balanced mix of unit and price growth in 2023, though retailers must manage elevated inventory levels through targeted promotions to offset slowing demand.
- Y Combinator27 min
The Truth About Y Combinator
Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel
The YC batch reveals that founders often misunderstand the program's dynamic, product-like structure and the critical importance of executing work without investor intervention, as 40% of participants joined with nothing but an idea. While external markets fear depressed valuations, YC companies maintained stable pricing and rapid fundraising cycles, leveraging an internal ecosystem that protects founders from predatory terms like excessive legal fees or unfair equity demands. Ultimately, the program functions as a unique, efficient market where clean cap tables and fresh momentum allow founders to raise capital on favorable terms through inbound interest rather than traditional outbound strategies.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
Julia Boorstin CNBC Media & Tech Correspondent & Author, "When Women Lead"
Julia Boorstin, Sallie Krawcheck, Stephanie Cohen
Former banking executives Sally Krawcheck and collaborators launched Ellevest to address systemic gender biases in venture capital and financial planning by deploying a data-driven strategy that challenges the myth of female risk aversion. The initiative aggregates $1 billion in assets while promoting co-ed founding teams and specialized investment vehicles to overcome severe funding gaps, particularly in the fintech sector where women receive disproportionately little Series B capital. Supported by evidence that diverse leadership yields superior profitability, the organization aims to unlock $11 trillion in women-held assets by shifting the financial narrative from scarcity to abundance.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Turning the UK Into a Talent Magnet | Full Interview
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discusses how his early hospitality work and Stanford MBA shaped a "startup treasury" mentality that informed his implementation of the Help to Grow scheme and continuous policy iteration model. He details recent budget reforms targeting high-skill migration, tax incentives, and the Long-Term Asset Fund to stimulate investment, while acknowledging the cultural challenges in shifting pension behavior. Looking toward the next five years, Sunak prioritizes securing full employment, controlling national debt, and maintaining the UK's position as a global hub for innovation and business growth.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
Navigating Macro Headwinds: A Conversation With the Founders of Brex and Chief
Kim Posnett, Henrique Dubugras, Carolyn Childers, Allison Nathan
At Goldman Sachs' 11th Annual Builders and Innovators Summit, Allison Nathan moderated a dialogue between Carolyn Childers, CEO of the women's executive network CHIEF, and Enrique Dubagras, Co-CEO of fintech firm Brex, to discuss their strategic pivots during a macroeconomic downturn. Childers detailed CHIEF's billion-dollar valuation and UK expansion as a response to the "Great Resignation," while Dubagras outlined Brex's shift from long-term bets to immediate profitability and opportunistic M&A to navigate reduced corporate spend. The conversation concluded with actionable guidance for founders to balance high-trust cultures and scalable processes against the bureaucratic risks of extreme outlier management.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
Scott Kapnick, Founder & CEO of HPS Investment Partners, LLC
Goldman Sachs veteran Scott Kaepernick discusses the convergence of geopolitical realignment and private credit expansion, identifying Europe's energy transition as a primary driver for capital deployment into supply chain resiliency. At HPS, the firm leverages this environment to execute billion-dollar transactions in the non-sponsor market, positioning itself to fill the vacuum left by post-2008 banking regulations while maintaining strict downside protection against recessionary risks. Beyond market strategy, Kaepernick outlines HPS's institutional culture, which prioritizes the Stockdale Paradox in leadership, substantial diversity initiatives like the Howard University partnership, and long-term mentorship to guide the next generation of financial leaders.
dLocal CEO Sebastian Kanovich: The $8BN Company You Might Not Know | 20VC #926
Sebastian Kanovich, Seba Kanovich
Seba Sacerdotte guides D-Local, a Latin American payment processor with a lean workforce of 650 across 35 countries, toward a long-term transformation into a comprehensive financial services provider for emerging markets. Having navigated a transition from a bootstrapped entity to a publicly traded company with General Atlantic's backing, the firm prioritizes rapid execution and customer-led product development while avoiding reliance on established corporate affiliations. Sacerdotte's leadership philosophy centers on aggressive market entry in high-friction regions and a culture of extreme frugality that evolved into a 100-year strategic mindset following the company's 2021 IPO.
- Y Combinator22 min
Advantages Of A First-Time Founder
Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora
First-time founders often outperform repeat founders by leveraging their lack of established networks to take higher risks, rely on direct customer validation, and endure a more rigorous investor feedback loop. While repeat entrepreneurs benefit from financial independence and domain expertise in capital-intensive sectors, they frequently face analysis paralysis, market selection bias, and the trap of optimizing for peer approval rather than product-market fit. Ultimately, successful execution depends on embracing constraints as a creative force rather than relying on reputation or capital to mask a lack of genuine user traction.
- Y Combinator25 min
The Two Mindsets That Can KILL Your Startup
Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel
Successful founders must navigate a precarious balance between pessimism and optimism, as excessive negativity causes teams to quit while unchecked optimism erodes trust through "magical thinking." The event defines this equilibrium as cognitive dissonance, where leaders simultaneously acknowledge immediate crises and maintain a long-term vision rooted in tangible data rather than hope. By avoiding these extremes, entrepreneurs can thrive in high-risk environments and prevent the loss of credibility that leads to startup failure.
- Goldman Sachs33 min
Fernando Garcia, Co-Creative Director of Oscar de la Renta & Founder/Creative Director of Monse
Former Oscar de la Renta principal designer Fernando Garcia and partner Laura Fernández founded the gender-neutral label Monse in 2016, leveraging a deconstructed aesthetic and social media strategy to fill a market void before García returned to Oscar de la Renta as co-creative director while retaining ownership of his separate brand. Since the 2014 announcement of his departure, the duo has cultivated a global clientele through a hybrid business model that balances 50% commercial safety with experimental risk, notably driving high-profile celebrity moments like Billie Eilish's viral Met Gala appearance. Their current approach prioritizes cultural adaptability and organic creative evolution, using a melting pot of diverse influences to disrupt traditional luxury norms and guide the brand's shift toward braver, individualistic dressing in the post-pandemic era.
- Goldman Sachs28 min
How Inflation, Rates and Recession Are Reshaping the Real Estate Market
Jeff Fine, Nora Creedon, Allison Nathan
Goldman Sachs identifies a structural shift in real estate where post-pandemic inflation and tighter credit markets have dismantled the asset class's historical role as a universal hedge, necessitating a move toward selective investment in sectors like residential and logistics. While public market REITs face significant dislocations from rising rates and recession fears, the firm highlights opportunities in private distressed assets and evergreen capital structures that leverage specific regional inefficiencies. The outlook for the coming decade demands a departure from broad market exposure, favoring assets with strong pricing power and limited supply constraints over traditional growth cycles.
- Goldman Sachs43 min
Cliff Asness, Founder, Managing Principal, and Chief Investment Officer of AQR Capital Management
Cliff Asness, Sharmeen Mosavar Ramani
AQR Capital Management applies an "applied academia" framework to quantify investment returns, leveraging factors like value and momentum to explain historical outperformance and structuring portfolios to align with client risk tolerance rather than traditional hedge fund fee models. Managing significant volatility through co-designed products, the firm recently capitalized on a resurgence in value trends while warning that these premium returns may normalize over the next two to three years. Founder Cliff Asness anticipates a long-term consolidation in active management but maintains that human error is essential for market efficiency, advising professionals to prioritize intrinsic interest over cyclical industry trends.