Latest Interviews

Investing with KKR’s Tara Davies

Tara Davies, Alison Mass, Alison Nathan

On March 17, 2022, KKR Partner Tara Davies outlined a strategic pivot toward inflation-resistant real assets, emphasizing infrastructure's ability to hedge rising costs through revenue pass-through mechanisms while navigating a competitive market landscape. Davies detailed KKR's sector-agnostic approach to classifying assets by complexity rather than industry, prioritizing pricing power to protect margins amid supply chain disruptions and operational risks. The discussion further highlighted the firm's commitment to decarbonizing existing "brown" assets through granular operational improvements rather than divestment, alongside a leadership philosophy that values constructive debate and people skills over pure analytical modeling.

How China crushed Hong Kong

Su Lin Wong, Dr Chung Kim Wah, Ching Chong, Carrie Lam, Anna Kwok

This presentation analyzes the systematic erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy following the 2019 extradition protests and the subsequent imposition of Beijing's National Security Law. Through detailed accounts of decades-long infiltration strategies involving civil servants, security forces, and academics, the discussion highlights how the Communist Party dismantled local resistance to transform the region into a police state. Former residents and exiled figures, including Dr. Chung Kim Wah and Anna Kwok, now warn that these tactics pose an immediate threat to liberal democracies worldwide, urging global vigilance against the export of authoritarian control.

Lessons From The Founders Scaling Their Startup In A War Zone

Stacy Pavlyshyna, Roman Sevast

On February 28, just four days after the full-scale Russian invasion began, Isomic co-founders Stacy and Roman narrowly survived a missile strike near their Kyiv residence while executing emergency evacuation protocols for their distributed design workforce. Despite the immediate danger and subsequent psychological trauma from reports of atrocities in Bucha, the company maintained uninterrupted 24-hour operations, deliberately choosing to remain in Ukraine to generate foreign currency and support the national economy. The founders implemented specialized safety measures, including hiring expert drivers to navigate active combat zones, while fostering a united outlook on long-term societal resilience and economic rebuilding.

How gene editing could reduce the cost of cosmetics

Sunil Chandran, Jason Kelly, Alok Jha

Biotech firms like Amaris and Ginkgo are rapidly scaling the production of cosmetic ingredients through synthetic biology, currently supplying the majority of the global squalane market while securing contracts to engineer novel scents and fragrances. This shift replaces unsustainable extraction methods that endanger shark populations and deplete natural resources, offering companies the potential for 50% cost savings alongside regulatory advantages in the US and EU. Beyond ingredient sourcing, the sector is increasingly leveraging engineered microbes to address industry-wide waste challenges, such as breaking down the 120 billion units of single-use packaging generated annually.

Alien life: are we about to find it?

Alok Jha

Driven by a decade of technological advancement, the scientific community is shifting from sci-fi speculation to rigorous analysis with the James Webb Space Telescope and upcoming 40-meter ground-based observatories poised to detect biosignatures like oxygen on Earth-like exoplanets. Despite the light-lag constraint making intelligent technosignatures unlikely to be verified soon, researchers are prioritizing the identification of liquid water and biological markers on targets such as Teegarden B. Experts project that these initiatives will either confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life within ten years or fundamentally alter our understanding of life's rarity in the universe.

How does raising interest rates control inflation?

Central banks globally utilize interest rate hikes to curb inflation by increasing borrowing costs, yet this strategy faces a historic challenge where reducing inflation above 5% without triggering a recession has not occurred in over 70 years. While the mechanism effectively dampens spending through variable mortgages and business investment, fixed-rate markets and implementation lags of up to two years create complex economic disparities and risks of over-correction. Ultimately, policymakers aim to anchor expectations at a 2% target, balancing the immediate pain of higher costs against the severe historical precedent of the 1981 recession that required rates to reach 19%.

Y Combinator Is Back In Person

Dalton Caldwell, Michael Seibel

The Summer 2022 YC batch transitions to hybrid operations with a Sonoma kick-off retreat and San Francisco meetups while maintaining core remote components for its global cohort. This cycle features a revised standard deal delivering $500,000 in immediate capital, which has attracted a more technical, motivated applicant pool and enabled founders to raise seed rounds with reduced dilution. Additionally, a distinct geographic trend sees founders returning to major tech hubs like the Bay Area to leverage dense ecosystems, supported by YC's direct economic guidance that encourages data-driven decision-making over fear-based reactions.

Turning Your Users Into Paying Customers

Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora

Founders are urged to immediately validate product-market fit by charging users, as genuine facial reactions to price reveal true demand more effectively than free usage data. Experts cite Dropbox as a case study where dynamic pricing and grandfathering legacy customers proved that fear of alienating users often prevents necessary revenue validation. While exceptions exist for structured freemium, open core, and advertising models, the consensus emphasizes that revenue in the bank remains the primary signal for a viable business trajectory.

Facing Rising Rates, Insurers Turn to Private Assets, Real Estate — Even Crypto

Mike Siegel, Allison Nathan

Representing over $26 trillion in global assets, the insurance sector leverages its stable, long-duration capital structure to navigate rising inflation and recession fears while shifting allocations toward private markets and inflation hedges. The 11th edition of the 2022 industry survey, reflecting responses from entities managing half of the global market, highlights emerging crypto adoption, divergent regional ESG strategies, and a focus on solvency amid geopolitical instability. These strategic adjustments aim to capitalize on higher reinvestment yields and lower entry points, ultimately seeking to enhance savings product returns and stabilize future premium rates.

War in Ukraine: how has the world changed?

The ongoing conflict represents the most significant geopolitical shift since the Cold War, fundamentally altering global security dynamics, European defense postures, and transatlantic unity while exposing Russia's military weaknesses and economic fragility. Global markets face amplified inflation and supply chain disruptions, prompting a long-term restructuring of trade networks and driving China to develop defensive strategies against Western financial sanctions. Meanwhile, Ukraine has demonstrated unexpected resilience with credible victory prospects, potentially accelerating the collapse of the Russian regime and forcing a reconfiguration of the international order where two-thirds of the world remains neutral or supportive of Moscow.

China in Africa: should the West be worried?

Bright Akwe, Papa Star Times, Gadi Epstein, John McDermott

Since the 1960s, China has deployed billions in infrastructure financing and military expansion to forge deep strategic bonds across Africa, securing control over critical assets ranging from railways in Zambia to a permanent naval base in Djibouti. This approach, facilitated primarily by state-owned banks and opaque lending terms, has generated approximately $160 billion in African debt while enabling Beijing to leverage financial dependencies for diplomatic support and media influence. Although Western nations criticize these tactics as debt-trap diplomacy, the strategy simultaneously entrenches Chinese geopolitical power through leading roles in telecommunications and defense equipment sales.

Don't Make These Hiring Mistakes

Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora

YC partners warn that early-stage startups frequently misapply post-product market fit hiring advice, leading to premature team expansion that depletes runway and accelerates failure. This counterproductive pattern is fueled by founder misconceptions that headcount drives revenue or mimics the org charts of giants like Airbnb and Stripe, despite evidence that successful companies often remained lean for over a year while solving critical product challenges. Instead of scaling before achieving product-market fit, founders are advised to focus on solo execution and only begin aggressive hiring once specific scaling problems arise after validation.

Could Ethiopia’s war in Tigray spark conflict with Sudan?

Sudan and Ethiopia are engaged in a volatile border confrontation over the fertile Al-Fashaga region, where Sudanese forces seized territory from Ethiopian farmers following the collapse of a 2008 treaty during Ethiopia's 2020 Tigray civil war. This territorial dispute has intensified amid wider regional tensions involving the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, prompting Sudan to align with Egypt in the "Guardians of the Nile" military operation. Despite the involvement of multiple armed factions and failed international mediation, experts continue to advocate for an African Union-led process to resolve the crisis and prevent a broader regional escalation.

Crypto Volatility: What’s the Outlook for Digital Assets?

Mathew McDermott, Allison Nathan

Hosted by Goldman Sachs between May 3 and May 16, 2022, this discussion analyzes the 30% year-to-date decline in Bitcoin and the TerraUSD collapse as catalysts that distinguished algorithmic risks from asset-backed stability within the evolving digital asset ecosystem. The speakers detail how institutional adoption is accelerating through volatility-focused strategies and regulatory frameworks like the US executive order, while blockchain innovations such as the European Investment Bank's tokenized debt issuance demonstrate T+1 settlement efficiency. Furthermore, the dialogue explores the future trajectory of synthetic CBDCs and retail versus wholesale Central Bank Digital Currencies across 87 countries, projecting a market normalization that balances high venture valuations against the structural benefits of on-chain transparency.

War in Ukraine: the emerging global food crisis

Arkady, Ed, Shashank, Sasha Nauta

The ongoing war in Ukraine is precipitating a global food crisis by blocking critical export routes through Odessa, destroying domestic harvests, and disrupting fertilizer supplies, which threatens hundreds of millions in nations like Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Simultaneously, the prospective NATO accession of Sweden and Finland is expected to significantly strengthen Baltic security through Finland's substantial artillery capabilities, despite President Vladimir Putin leveraging the expansion to fuel narratives of Russian encirclement. This geopolitical shift occurs against the backdrop of US legislative uncertainty regarding escalating aid packages and potential changes in Washington's strategic posture ahead of the 2024 presidential election, raising concerns among European allies about future burden-sharing.