Latest Interviews
Showing 1951–1965 of 4,884 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute58 min
Traversing Real Estate Realities | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024
Ted Seides, Jase Auby, Maggie Coleman, Joshua Morris, Tim Sloan, Joshua Weintraub
Leading institutional investors and asset managers converged to analyze a commercial real estate market defined by a dislocation between elevated interest rates and slower fundamental growth, creating distinct opportunities in data centers, single-family rentals, and distressed senior credit while navigating significant risks in oversupplied office sectors. Speakers highlighted how a generational housing shortage and a looming "wall of maturities" for $2.6 trillion in commercial loans are driving a structural shift where private non-bank lenders replace exiting regional banks to fund high-yield strategies. The panel concluded that prioritizing use-based assets with defensive demographics over traditional property classifications offers a more resilient path through the current higher-for-longer rate environment, provided investors maintain strict valuation discipline against cyclical volatility.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
The Next Wave of Immunotherapy and Cancer Treatments | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024
Marc Hurlbert, Gina Carithers, Friedrich Graf Finckenstein, Anusha Kalbasi, Connie Pfeiffer, Sunil Verma, Frederick Finckenstein, Neil Verma, Anusha Singhal
Major research organizations like the Melanoma Research Alliance and the Prostate Cancer Foundation have funded over $1 billion in studies that pioneered immune checkpoint inhibitors and novel T-cell therapies for melanoma and prostate cancer. Recent advancements include the approval of Iovance's tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte treatment for solid tumors and the development of bispecific agents that reduce manufacturing delays, though challenges regarding high costs, autoimmune side effects, and the need for broader genetic screening persist. Clinical strategies are shifting toward neoadjuvant trials and combination therapies with antibody-drug conjugates to improve patient outcomes before standard care options are exhausted.
- All-In Podcast1h 16m
Trump assassination attempt, Secret Service failure, Inside the RNC, VC liquidity problem
Trump, Chamath, Jason, Friedberg, Nick, Freeburg
Following a failed assassination attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks that killed one attendee and injured others, the Republican National Convention solidified a coalition between MAGA populists and tech interests by selecting J.D. Vance as Donald Trump's vice-presidential running mate. The hosts analyzed the event's security failures, debated the impact of political rhetoric on the violence, and examined the administration's potential shift toward isolationist trade policies and regulatory changes regarding Big Tech. Simultaneously, the discussion highlighted significant venture capital developments, including Stripe's liquidity deal and Google's potential acquisition of Wiz, while predicting President Biden's imminent withdrawal from the race due to declining donor confidence.
- Y Combinator14 min
Tarpit Ideas: The Sequel
YC partners Dalton and Michael define "tar pit" ideas as market spaces that appear highly attractive but historically fail due to a lack of genuine technological shifts or fundamental behavioral changes. While Large Language Models have rendered some previously impossible ventures viable, founders must demonstrate concrete problem-solving capabilities rather than relying on social validation or assuming the first successful iteration is imminent. This dynamic framework warns against behavioral coordination failures and fast wealth arbitrage, urging entrepreneurs to rigorously validate ideas against historical precedents and actual user needs.
Cameron Adams: How Canva Builds Products: Lessons Learned, What Works? What Flopped? | E1179
Cameron Adams, Lars Rasmussen, Jens Rasmussen, Mel, Cliff, Harry Stebbings
Co-founder Cliff Obenshain guided Canva from a failed startup pivot to a browser-based platform that democratizes design for non-experts by prioritizing user delight over speed. The company leverages a neutral AI infrastructure to serve over 100 million users while rejecting aggressive competition strategies in favor of creating a new category of visual tools for the global majority. With more than half its 2,000-strong workforce dedicated to R&D, Canva continues to navigate complex technological shifts and environmental challenges through careful feature rollouts and a focus on deep product instincts.
Pedro Franceschi: What Brex Needs to do to be a Public Company | E1178
Pedro Franceschi, Harry Stebbings
Pedro Franca outlines a dual-pillar framework for startup success that prioritizes the 50/50 balance between initial team and idea validation and a decade-long execution phase, while emphasizing mental health resilience as a critical component of founder endurance. As Brex CEO, Franca details the company's strategic evolution from capital-intensive scaling to a centralized, single-roadmap execution model designed to solve enterprise bottlenecks and establish the revenue predictability required for an IPO. He argues that sustainable growth relies on shifting the competitive narrative from commodity savings to complex global financial infrastructure, ensuring founders maintain authentic leadership and psychological well-being to navigate the exponential complexity of scaling a major fintech firm.
- Milken Institute32 min
A Conversation with Snoop Dogg and Larry Jackson | Milken Institute Global Conference 2023
Snoop Dogg, Larry Jackson, Shirley Halperin
Co-chaired by Larry Jackson and Snoop Dogg, Gamma Distribution distinguishes itself by bridging artistic vision with enterprise execution through a proprietary financial dashboard that facilitates monthly artist payouts and rapid vinyl manufacturing. The company recently appointed Saipu Delamini and Naomi Campbell to lead its expansion in Africa and the Middle East while reporting a 5 billion monthly stream volume that generated 80% growth in its first seven weeks. Despite celebrating the sell-out of limited edition Snoop Dogg vinyls and upcoming film projects, the leadership strongly criticized YouTube Shorts for generating negligible revenue relative to stream counts, underscoring their strategic pivot toward a curated, high-value roster of 15,000 artists.
- Goldman Sachs29 min
Canva CEO Melanie Perkins on growing an idea into a multibillion-dollar design company
Canva, led by co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, has scaled to serve 165 million users and 90% of Fortune 500 companies by leveraging a bottom-up adoption strategy and its proprietary Magic Studio for AI-driven design automation. The company recently pivoted toward "wall-to-wall" enterprise deployment while maintaining profitability, a trajectory supported by its strategic acquisition of visual AI firm Collido and a dedicated trust and safety framework. Guided by a dual mission of commercial growth and social impact, Canva plans to expand its ecosystem to one billion monthly active users by donating equity and profits to eradicate extreme poverty.
- a16z1h 31m
Trump Vs. Biden: Tech Policy
Trump, Biden, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz publicly endorse Donald Trump over Joe Biden, arguing that the current administration's hostile regulatory stance toward cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and venture capital threatens the future of American innovation and national security. The speakers contrast the Biden administration's restrictive executive orders and proposed unrealized capital gains taxes with Trump's platform promising to repeal these measures, defend self-custody rights, and accelerate technological competition against China. Citing the recent assassination attempt on Trump as a demonstration of the unique leadership required for this era, the venture capitalists conclude that the "little tech" ecosystem faces an existential crisis under current policies that necessitates a 180-degree strategic shift.
- Goldman Sachs28 min
A skeptical look at AI investment
Daron Acemoglu, Jim Covello, Alison Nathan
While Goldman Sachs projects generative AI could boost U.S. GDP by 6.1% over a decade, MIT's Darren Acemoglu and Goldman's Jim Covello warn that high infrastructure costs and technical limitations may restrict automation to less than 5% of tasks. Driven by fear of missing out in a competitive "arms race," major technology firms are currently pouring capital into GPU-heavy infrastructure despite the absence of a cost-effective "killer application," sparking concerns that the sector mirrors the overbuild of the 2000 internet bubble. Analysts emphasize that the next 12 to 18 months serve as a critical inflection point where the emergence of tangible business use cases will determine whether this trillion-dollar investment cycle results in sustained productivity gains or a sharp correction in valuations.
- Milken Institute30 min
A Conversation with Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan | Global Conference 2024
Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Kevin Herglotz, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Ali Velshi
Queen Rania addresses the global humanitarian crisis by warning that "us vs. them" polarization and unsustainable military operations in Rafah are driving toward large-scale civilian deaths and eroding prospects for peace. She rejects the narrative that the two-state solution is dead, instead attributing stagnation to a deficit of political will and explicitly condemning any forced transfer of Palestinians as a "second Nakba." Urging the United States to enforce international law rather than offering unconditional support, she argues that long-term Israeli security remains impossible without ending the illegal occupation and addressing the systematic injustices facing both populations.
- Sequoia Capital1h 7m
Reflection AI’s Misha Laskin on the AlphaGo Moment for LLMs | Training Data
Misha Laskin, Ioannis Antonoglou, Stephanie Zhan, Sonya Huang, Peter Abbeel, Rich Sutton, Joe Bardeen, Einstein, Michael Jordan
Founders Misha Laskin and Giannis, leveraging their DeepMind and Google experience, established Reflection AI to solve the reliability bottleneck in autonomous agents by replacing heuristic prompting with scalable search and reinforcement learning. The company addresses the "depth problem" in current LLMs by treating post-training as an AlphaGo-style pipeline that minimizes error accumulation to transition task completion rates from approximately 13% to near-perfect reliability. With a strategic vision targeting digital AGI within three years, Reflection aims to deploy universal agents capable of complex multi-step reasoning while prioritizing pragmatic safety through operational consistency.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Transformative Philanthropy and Innovation | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024
Melissa Stevens, Pablo Legorreta, Strive Masiyiwa, Louise Richardson, Mark Walter
CEO Mark Walter, Strive Masiwa, Dame Louise Richardson, and Pablo Legareta convened to define transformative philanthropy as high-risk capital that drives systemic change in healthcare, education, and conservation. The panel detailed specific strategies such as Legareta's medical therapies for transplant patients, Walter's vocational schools in Chicago, and community-integrated conservation models in Zimbabwe that successfully reduced rhino poaching. Ultimately, the leaders agreed that effective philanthropy must prioritize sustainable governance and local resource mobilization to mitigate polarization and create a self-sustaining future.
Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177
Saam Motamedi, Harry Stebbings
Greylock partner Sam Altman describes the current AI investment landscape as a valuation dislocation where seed and Series B rounds reach hundreds of millions of dollars, driven by corporate strategic investors prioritizing cloud partnerships over financial returns. Despite these frothier conditions, the firm maintains a thesis focused on backing iconic founders in large markets, arguing that AI will disrupt SaaS fundamentals to create a new wave of giants rather than signaling the end of the industry. This strategy involves accepting premium entry prices for top-tier teams while shifting focus from general-purpose model layers to specific application integrations that offer immediate defensibility.
- The Economist20 min
An assassination attempt: what next for America?
Rosie Bloor, Idris Kahloun, Daniel Franklin
Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally in which the gunman was killed by Secret Service agents, resulting in one attendee's death and critical injuries to two others. While President Joe Biden temporarily halted attack ads and called for national unity, the event triggered immediate partisan maneuvering that forced both campaigns to recalibrate their messaging strategies ahead of the 2024 election. Historical analysis suggests this crisis will momentarily consolidate support for Trump and stall Democratic succession rumors, though polling indicates the fundamental election trajectory remains largely unchanged despite the intense polarization.