Latest Interviews
Showing 886–900 of 1,549 transcripts.
Clear all filtersSid Sijbrandij: How I Founded GitLab; Remote Work vs In-Person; CEO Coaches | 20VC
GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij outlines the evolution of his fully remote DevOps platform, detailing how a 2,000-page handbook and mandatory informal "coffee chats" enable asynchronous collaboration across 60 countries while mitigating the fragmentation risks inherent in hybrid work models. Beyond internal operations, Sijbrandij advocates for a unified DevOps market and shares governance strategies involving situational leadership and specialized board feedback to support the company's growth from 300 to over 1,500 employees. The discussion concludes with insights into OpenCore Ventures, a new initiative aiming to build open-source companies around core projects, as the organization navigates the scaling challenges of cross-functional initiatives.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
The Next Tech Battleground: Online Gaming & the Metaverse
Jung Min, Alison Nathan, Zhang Min
The global gaming industry has matured into a $200 billion sector driven by live operations and recurring revenue, prompting a wave of strategic mergers and acquisitions to diversify portfolios and secure market dominance. Major technology leaders like Microsoft and Tencent are now allocating significant capital to gaming as a foundational pathway for the metaverse and Web 3.0, viewing the sector as a critical incubator for future digital infrastructure. This ongoing platform shift, which mirrors the transition from desktop to mobile, is projected to create new monetization models and drive substantial global economic growth over the next decade.
- Y Combinator24 min
Why Investors Can’t Fix Your Company – Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel
Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel, Michael Saiba
Investment partners and industry experts warn that founders cannot rely on external guidance to guarantee success, as each investor type carries unique systemic biases that often lead to detrimental strategic decisions. From finance professionals pushing aggressive financial engineering to influencers prioritizing promotion over product-market fit, founders frequently face advice that misaligns with their specific early-stage needs. Ultimately, sustainable growth depends on the founder's ability to synthesize diverse perspectives, maintain accountability for execution, and discern which insights truly apply to their unique context rather than treating investors as a source of definitive solutions.
- Goldman Sachs25 min
What the Fed’s Hawkish Pivot Means for Economic Growth and Markets
David Mericle, Brian Friedman, Alison Nathan
Goldman Sachs has revised its 2022 Federal Reserve interest rate hike forecast to seven increases driven by wage growth incompatible with inflation targets, projecting balance sheet reductions to begin in June. While financial conditions remain tighter with record credit outflows and equity exposure hitting yearly lows, the firm attributes greater recessionary risk to the fading of pandemic-era fiscal stimulus than to monetary policy. Consequently, the research recommends a long-equity, short-credit strategy and identifies emerging market currencies as attractive assets amid a global divergence where developing central banks have largely finished tightening.
- Milken Institute26 min
Inclusive Capitalism Fireside Chats: A Conversation With John Rogers and Blair Smith
Jared Rogers, chairman of Ariel Investments and a descendant of Tulsa's historic Black business legacy, addresses the two-decade collapse of Chicago's Black corporate sector by leveraging his thirty-year tenure on major corporate boards to enforce accountability and diversity. To reverse this erasure, he spearheads strategic initiatives like Project Black, a private equity fund for scalable Black enterprises, alongside educational programs in the stock market and university endowments designed to cultivate the next generation of financial leaders. These efforts, supported by a sustained post-2020 shift in institutional commitment, aim to reconstruct the high-value economic ecosystem that once defined the city's Black business community.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
The Case for Commodities: ‘Super-Backwardation,’ Structural Demand and Inventory Shortages
Jeffrey Currie, Allison Nathan, Jeff Curry
Markets in early 2022 face a critical commodity supercycle driven by decade-long underinvestment in traditional energy and metals sectors alongside surging demand from decarbonization and restored low-income consumption. While central banks signal tighter monetary policy, physical supply deficits in oil, agriculture, and base metals have already pushed Brent crude above $90 with Goldman Sachs forecasting prices reaching $105 by the second half of the year. This divergence between paper market skepticism and tightening real-world inventory levels creates significant investment opportunities in physical commodities as a primary inflation hedge against potential supply-driven economic slowdowns.
Cost Plus Drugs: EXPLAINED | Mark Cuban Full Interview
Mark Cuban's self-funded venture, Cost Plus Drugs, bypasses traditional Pharmacy Benefit Managers to sell generic medications at a transparent wholesale cost plus a fixed markup, leveraging a direct-to-consumer model with over 50,000 users and daily growth exceeding 10,000 accounts. By utilizing TruePill for fulfillment and prioritizing operational efficiency over profit maximization, the platform aims to force pharmaceutical manufacturers to lower prices once a critical mass of ten million customers is reached. Cuban supports this disruption with a "hiring slow" internal philosophy and a vision for future blockchain-based claims processing, all while facing regulatory hurdles and supply chain scaling challenges inherent to the complex healthcare market.
Mac the VC on the Journey from Homeless To Becoming A VC | Full Interview with Harry Stebbings
Mac the VC, Harry Stebbings, McKeever "Mac the VC" Conwell II
Mac, a former software engineer and two-time founder, launched Rare Breed in 2020 after raising $10 million through a public solicitation model that bypasses traditional general partner commitments and leverages rolling closes. The Baltimore-based firm targets pre-seed companies outside major tech hubs, prioritizing returns among underrepresented founders in the Americas and the UK rather than adhering to industry gatekeeping norms. By utilizing a flexible capital call structure and public marketing under Regulation 506(c), Rare Breed has established a non-traditional investment vehicle designed to democratize access for emerging managers and overlooked talent.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
Verena Pausder, Founder of Fox & Sheep
Verena Pauster advocates for redefining children's digital engagement by mandating a "time budget" that restricts passive consumption in favor of creative output, while her non-profit addresses Germany's educational inequality through subsidized coding access and individualized learning tools. Concurrently, Pauster led the "Stay on Board" initiative to successfully lobby for 2023 legislation protecting board members' employment status during parental leave, proving that strategic advocacy can overcome century-old regulatory barriers. These efforts form part of her broader strategic vision in *The New Country*, which proposes using digitalization to modernize national infrastructure across education, decarbonization, and equal rights.
- Goldman Sachs28 min
Jeff Lawson, Co-founder and CEO of Twilio
Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson argues that reducing the cost and complexity of software experimentation accelerates innovation, citing the Wright Brothers' iterative success and the unique global reach of modern developers as evidence. Drawing from his experiences at Amazon Web Services, Lawson advocates for a strategic shift where executives treat developers as partners rather than coders to build "Minimum Lovable Products" within small, mission-aligned teams. This approach underpins Twilio's evolution from a communications API into a comprehensive Customer Engagement Platform, aiming to democratize the personalization capabilities of digital giants like Amazon and Apple for all businesses.
- Milken Institute30 min
Building Community Wealth: How Can We Meet the Moment
Margot Brandenburg, Natalie Foster, Shawn Wooden
Ford Foundation host Margo Brandenburg facilitated a dialogue with Natalie Foster and Connecticut Treasurer Sean Wooden on utilizing community wealth strategies to address the widening racial and economic divide. Foster highlighted the Child Tax Credit's success in reducing child poverty while Wooden detailed Connecticut's pioneering Baby Bonds program as a model for closing the generational wealth gap through state-level innovation. The conversation further examined how public sector expansions of guaranteed income, social bonds, and anti-monopoly policies are reshaping labor markets and providing essential financial buffers during economic volatility.
- Milken Institute30 min
Managing Through Change: Mayors Weigh In
Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, Michael Hancock, Quinton Lucas
Accelerator for America President Mary Ellen Reeder-Wohl facilitated a public finance forum with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Kansas City Mayor Quentin Lucas to discuss leveraging federal funds for systemic urban transformation. The mayors detailed strategies for redesigning major infrastructure corridors, such as Denver's Colfax Avenue and Kansas City's I-70, to prioritize equitable housing, transit, and business opportunities while preventing community displacement. By framing local projects as regional assets, both leaders emphasized a shared commitment to moving beyond reactive budget maintenance toward proactive solutions for inequality and economic resilience.
- Milken Institute36 min
Equity and ESG for Munis: Risks, Disclosure, and Adoption
Caitlin MacLean, Olivia Albrecht, Lourdes Germán, Gary Hall, Mark Kim, Zoila Jennings
The municipal ESG bond market currently lacks a consistent pricing premium despite $43 billion in outstanding labels, driven by challenges in quantifying social metrics and a reliance on self-verification by 61% of issuers. To address these data gaps and standardization issues, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is launching the Emma Labs analytics platform while seeking enhanced disclosures, and a new $4 million consortium is developing unified racial equity frameworks for municipal financing. Consequently, market participants are being urged to align with international standards and demand greater transparency from asset managers to harmonize taxonomies and improve access for smaller communities.
- Milken Institute20 min
A Conversation With Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York
Kathy Hochul, Michael Piwowar, Richard Ravitch
Governor Hochul is fortifying New York State's fiscal reserves against potential crises while rejecting tax hikes to stem the out-migration of high-net-worth individuals. Simultaneously, she is collaborating with New York City Mayor Adams on subway safety initiatives and advancing the delayed congestion pricing plan to secure MTA funding. Her administration also prioritized keeping schools open during the Omicron surge through widespread testing and is incentivizing the construction of 100,000 affordable housing units to address long-term economic stability.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
Carlos Acosta, Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet
Born into a working-class Cuban family, former principal dancer Carlos Acosta leveraged the state-sponsored arts program to become the first black principal dancer in *Swan Lake* at the Metropolitan Opera and the first black director of a major ballet company, the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Appointed in January 2020 amidst the onset of the pandemic, Acosta is currently executing strategic initiatives to elevate technical standards and diversify audiences through innovative productions like *Radio and Juliet*. His leadership focuses on dismantling industry exclusion by actively recruiting global talent and redefining classical dance's cultural relevance for younger generations.