Latest Interviews
Showing 1–3 of 3 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute1h 1m
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: Venture Capitalists Bring to Bear | Global Conference 2024
Leon Kalvaria, Christopher Darby, Raj Ganguly, Elad Gil, Courtney McCrea, Mohsin Tanveer Pirzada, Mohsin Farzad, Chris Darby
Industry leaders convened to analyze the global venture capital contraction, highlighting a sharp divergence between the capital-scarce US market and the 30% annual growth driving Middle Eastern funds like the Qatar Investment Authority. The panel advised that surviving the current interest rate environment requires a strategic pivot toward profitability, national security-aligned technologies, and disciplined unit economics over unchecked growth metrics. With consensus predicting a market reset in 2025, experts emphasized that future success will depend on emerging managers demonstrating minimum viable size, embracing regulatory backstops, and leveraging the AI spending wave while avoiding overvaluation traps.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Blockchain Technology: What Is It Good for, Really?
Staci Warden, Elad Gil, Sandra Ro, Stefan Schulz, Bill Tai, Tomicah Tillemann
Milken Institute moderator Stacey Worden led a panel including Elad Gil, Sandra Rowe, and Bill Tai to define blockchain's superior utility in scenarios requiring trustlessness, open ledgers, privacy, or programmability, while arguing that centralized databases remain optimal for all other applications. The discussion highlighted transformative real-world adoptions ranging from Power Ledger's peer-to-peer energy trading and Bill Tai's $35 million real estate tokenization to Estonia's governance models and New York City's digital benefit wallets. Panelists concluded that overcoming regulatory fragmentation and data integrity risks is essential as the industry shifts from financial speculation toward building a global infrastructure for financial inclusion and automated asset management.
- Y Combinator53 min
A Conversation with Elad Gil
Elad Gil outlines his career evolution from a biology PhD to scaling Google's mobile initiatives and founding Color Genomics, establishing himself as an operator who prioritizes market dynamics and Product-Market Fit over traditional founder-versus-executive divides. He argues that a great team in a terrible market will fail while a great market ensures success, urging founders to hire aggressively, price based on value, and validate investors by checking their track records with failed portfolio companies. These insights form the tactical core of his book *High Growth Handbook*, which provides step-by-step operational frameworks for navigating hiring, fundraising, and scaling without relying on platitudes.