Latest Interviews

Airbnb ft Brian Chesky - Battling a Copycat Clone and Rebuilding User Trust to Revolutionize Travel

Brian Chesky, Ellie Mertz, Alfred Lin, Rolof Puerta

Founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb overcame early skepticism and a 2011 "ransack gate" crisis by establishing a robust trust infrastructure and a $50,000 damage guarantee. The company successfully defeated clone competitor Wimdu in a global expansion war while pivoting its business model to survive the 2020 pandemic, ultimately executing a high-valuation IPO in December 2020. Under Chesky's leadership, Airbnb transformed from a pre-revenue startup into a cash-flow positive unicorn by prioritizing community resilience and cultural connection over short-term liability avoidance.

NBA star Chris Paul says leadership is about building trust on and off the court

Chris Paul

Following the Juneteenth observance, 18-year NBA veteran Chris Paul discussed his memoir "61: Life Lessons from Papa" and his eight-year tenure as NBAPA president during an interview hosted by Goldman Sachs' Firmwide Black Network. The conversation detailed Paul's response to his grandfather's murder, his strategic evolution from a vertical scorer to a point guard, and his advocacy for HBCUs and underrepresented storytelling through his production company, ODIP. Paul emphasized that his leadership philosophy prioritizes direct communication and collective action over personal likability, reflecting his ongoing commitment to competitive play and social equity.

Critiquing Startup Mobile Apps with Glide CEO

Aaron Epstein, David Siegel

In a Design Review episode, host and David Siegel of Glide evaluated the mobile usability of five diverse applications to emphasize that software differentiation relies on rigorous design execution rather than code alone. The analysis critiqued Pearls for its effective thumb-zone optimization while exposing critical flaws in Blue Dot's color-coded status indicators and EdenCare's lack of native functionality. Ultimately, the discussion highlighted how context-aware interactions, visual hierarchy, and platform-specific standards determine whether apps like Duffle and Bold Voice succeed in engaging users or create friction that drives abandonment.

Noam Shazeer: How We Spent $2M to Train a Single AI Model and Grew Character.ai to 20M Users | E1055

Noam Shazeer, Harry Stebbings

Noam Shazeer, CEO of the full-stack AI platform Character.ai, leads a direct-to-consumer initiative processing 450 million daily messages by leveraging neural language modeling to deliver flexible superintelligence to 20 million users. The company distinguishes itself through a B2C strategy that encourages user-driven innovation, successfully adapting to unexpected adoption trends where users employ AI characters for emotional support and companionship rather than pre-defined enterprise tasks. While prioritizing data privacy and treating hallucinations as creative features for engagement, Shazeer positions the platform at the forefront of an emerging technological wave comparable to the invention of electricity, where massive computational scale drives human-level conversation.

BlackRock’s Rick Rieder on his career, the markets, and investing in the current environment

Rick Rieder, Tony Pasquarello

BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, Rick Reeder, outlined a market strategy prioritizing carry and equity convexity while predicting Federal Reserve rate cuts in the latter half of 2024. Reeder attributes the resilience of the U.S. economy to a service-heavy structure and deleveraged private sectors, positioning the nation to absorb a $30 trillion debt load through nominal GDP growth. On the technological front, he directs BlackRock's capital toward businesses with proprietary data to capitalize on AI advantages, cautioning that only early-stage private investments currently avoid portfolio skew.

Chasing Silicon: The Race for GPUs

Guido Appenzeller

A severe global shortage of AI compute capacity, where demand exceeds supply by tenfold, is forcing startups to navigate complex procurement hurdles and strategic investment partnerships to secure production-level hardware. Guido Appenzeller advises founders to carefully evaluate whether to rent specialized cloud infrastructure or own assets, while leveraging open-source models and local edge computing to mitigate the performance gaps of current closed systems. This shifting landscape is driving a fundamental transformation in software construction, creating a "Cambrian explosion" of opportunity for entities that can effectively manage the new technical stack required for neural network-based problem solving.

Tim Urban explains his writing process

Tim Urban, Harry Stebbings

A content creator outlines a disciplined methodology for producing high-impact long-form articles by targeting an educated, curious audience with a focus on transforming intellectual curiosity into structured narratives. The process involves a rigorous research phase aimed at achieving intuitive understanding rather than total expertise, utilizing a multi-format approach to validate concepts before drafting 2,000 to 3,000 words daily. Motivated by internal excitement and a shift away from chasing viral metrics, the writer employs strict deadlines and specific digital tools to maintain a high-density output that balances depth with accessibility.

Startup Experts Share Their Investor Horror Stories

Founders recount numerous instances of investor misconduct, including deliberate power plays and unprofessional behavior that test patience, while experts categorize investors by their capacity to provide speed, value, or detrimental distraction. Strategic guidance emphasizes prioritizing "A-grade" partners who move quickly over those who demand ego validation, urging teams to rely on community feedback rather than singular investor opinions to navigate the fundraising landscape. As the venture capital market shifts from status-driven games toward meritocracy, founders are increasingly empowered to reject bad capital and focus on building products that truly serve users.

Corporate Credit Concerns

Boaz Weinstein, Lotfi Karoui, Alyssa Nathan, Latvi Karwi

Goldman Sachs Chief Credit Strategist Latvi Karwi projects a benign credit outlook with default rates stabilizing near historical averages, while Saba Capital's Boaz Weinstein warns that tight spreads fail to price in significant macroeconomic uncertainty and rising bankruptcy risks. The discussion highlights a structural divergence where leveraged loan issuers face immediate floating-rate pressure despite investment-grade fundamentals, alongside a growing schism in default rates between public and private credit markets. Consequently, investment strategies are split between capitalizing on carry in fixed income versus rotating into U.S. Treasuries to hedge against the technical risks of rapid spread widening and potential valuation compression.

MIT's Zeynep Ton explains how caring deeply for workers pays off for companies

Zeynep Ton, Greg Schell, Zainab Khan

Zainab Khan argues that the high turnover and low wages plaguing frontline industries are strategic failures rather than inevitable costs, driven by a misguided belief that labor efficiency requires squeezing workers to maximum capacity. By implementing the "Good Job" playbook—which involves simplifying work, standardizing processes, and maintaining operational slack—companies like Costco and Quick Trip have achieved lower turnover and higher profitability while paying significantly better wages. The Good Jobs Institute is currently working to convert 10 million low-quality jobs into stable, well-compensated roles by 2027, aiming to prove that treating workers with deep care creates a virtuous cycle of productivity and revenue.

Deep Dive on Threads with the Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri

Adam Mosseri, Harry Stebbings

Threads achieved immediate high-volume adoption by importing Instagram's social graph to prevent a zero-follower start, though Adam Mosseri stresses that long-term retention remains the primary strategic focus over initial sign-up numbers. The platform successfully activated creators in key verticals without direct payments, yet it faces technical hurdles such as a delayed European rollout due to data separation laws and the absence of core editing features. Mosseri argues that sustainable monetization must prioritize predictable revenue tools like subscriptions over volatile direct payments, while acknowledging that critical mass requirements for user retention vary significantly across different cultural markets.

Why the U.K.’s high inflation has global implications

Jari Stehn, George Cole, Alison Nathan, Yari Shteyn

Amidst a unique confluence of labor shortages and energy shocks, UK headline inflation remains at 8% as the Bank of England prepares for a series of rate hikes to a terminal level of 5.75%. Goldman Sachs forecasts a slower disinflation path that will likely trigger a fiscal drag on GDP and heighten the risk of recession to 40%, while mortgage costs surge and household consumption stagnates. Despite these headwinds, improving terms of trade and a more aggressive monetary stance relative to global peers are projected to drive the pound higher against the dollar and euro over the coming year.

Classroom 2050: Unleashing AI, XR, Gaming

Sal Khan, Romy Drucker, Allison Matthews, Steph, Anarupa

Facing a critical decline in U.S. math and literacy levels exacerbated by the pandemic, educational leaders are deploying generative AI, virtual reality, and gaming platforms to restore student proficiency without replacing educators. Tools like Khanmigo's Socratic AI and Prisms VR have achieved rapid teacher adoption by addressing cognitive gaps and fostering spatial reasoning, while shifting professional development focus from hardware mechanics to instructional design. With immediate execution and mastery-based grading models now prioritized, these innovations aim to scale personalized learning experiences that bridge equity gaps and prepare students for future STEM and problem-solving challenges.

Man Group CEO Luke Ellis on hedge funds, quantitative strategies and leadership

Luke Ellis, John Storey

Man Group CEO Luke Ellis will retire in September 2023, handing leadership to President Robin Grew as the $150 billion quantitative asset manager completes a seven-year strategic pivot toward customized solutions for pension and sovereign clients. Ellis credits this growth and operational efficiency to a model count expansion from six to 700, enabling the firm to navigate the shift from the 2010s' low-interest environment to the 2020s' inflationary volatility while leveraging AI with rigorous human oversight. Looking ahead, Ellis identifies Japan and specific inflation-resistant strategies as prime opportunities, though he warns that a tight global supply of talent and potential regulatory changes to leverage pose significant hurdles for the broader hedge fund industry.

Generative AI: hype, or truly transformative?

Sarah Guo, Gary Marcus, Kash Rangan, Eric Sheridan, Alyssa Nathan

Goldman Sachs analysts and external experts debate whether generative AI represents a transformative shift from "Software 2.0" to "Software 3.0" or remains an overhyped phase of sophisticated autocomplete. While investor Sarah Guo and analyst Eric Sheridan highlight that current valuations differ from past bubbles due to adoption by established leaders, NYU Professor Gary Marcus warns that the technology lacks true reasoning capabilities and faces significant hurdles in high-stakes fields. The discussion concludes by assessing strategic risks including potential regulatory backlash, consumer behavior shifts, and the challenge for companies to prove tangible ROI beyond marketing narratives as the industry navigates a decade-long transition.