Latest Interviews

Enterprise Sales | Startup School

Pete Koomen, Pete Kuhman

Optimizely co-founder Pete Kuhman outlines a rigorous enterprise sales framework for technical founders, emphasizing that selling before product-market fit requires experimentation with targeted prospecting and personalized outreach. The strategy prioritizes deep discovery during initial calls, uses product-specific narratives to demonstrate value during demos, and treats pricing as a signal of problem severity rather than a fixed metric. By actively managing implementation roadmaps to ensure customer adoption and navigating procurement hurdles with internal champions, founders can transform sales skills into a transferable superpower for fundraising and hiring.

Credit Outlook | Milken Institute Global Conference 2024

Michael Milken, James Keenan, Victor Khosla, Marc Lipschultz, Purnima Puri

Leading institutional investors from BlackRock, Blue Owl Capital, Strategic Value Partners, and J.P. Morgan Partners outlined a rigorous selection framework that targets only 2% to 5% of reviewed deals to navigate a "higher for longer" interest rate environment. Panelists emphasized that private credit offers superior covenant protection and recovery rates compared to public markets, positioning it as a permanent portfolio diversifier rather than a temporary boom as bank deleveraging drives capital toward asset managers. Looking ahead, industry leaders anticipate a multi-year opportunity in distressed debt and non-sponsor financing, where operational involvement and strict governance will define success amid projected $600 billion in annual maturities.

Lurch in the left: France’s election shock

Jason Palmer, Sophie Pedder, Tom Gardner, Anne Rowe

French President Emmanuel Macron's dissolution gamble resulted in a hung parliament where the New Popular Front secured the most seats while the hard-right National Rally finished third, preventing an RN-led government but complicating coalition formation due to tactical resentments and a lack of political tradition. Simultaneously, the Basketball Africa League concluded its fourth season as a continent-wide professional endeavor aiming to retain local talent and drive economic growth, though it faces hurdles regarding infrastructure investment and consistent attendance. In a separate historical note, Ángeles Flores Peón, a 105-year-old Spanish Republican who survived fifteen years of Francoist imprisonment and decades of exile, passed away having spent her later years campaigning for historical memory and women's rights.

Addressing Antisemitism and Religious Bias Based on Facts | Global Conference 2024

Richard Sandler, Van Jones, Daniel Lubetzky, Arielle Mokhtarzadeh, David Wolpe

Rabbi David Wolpe, Van Jones, Daniel Lesetsky, and Ariel Macarza Day convened to analyze the post-October 7 surge in antisemitism, framing it as an ideological war driven by foreign influence and Marxist binaries that threatens the historic Black-Jewish alliance. The panel detailed specific campus realities, including the physical barring of Jewish students and the strategic use of anonymity by masked protesters, while contrasting Jewish fears of genocide with Black anxieties about police brutality to explain the current fragmentation. To counter these threats, the experts proposed a strategic "Five H's" alliance between Black and Jewish communities, advocating for institutional partnerships between HBCUs and Hillels and a shift from defensive posturing to active legal enforcement against hate crimes.

A Conversation with OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap | Global Conference 2024

Brad Lightcap, Julia Boorstin

OpenAI is accelerating enterprise adoption through strategic partnerships with entities like Stack Overflow and major publishers while demonstrating tangible operational efficiencies, such as Klarna's reduction of support ticket resolution times by 82%. Despite rapid integration into 92% of Fortune 500 companies, leadership warns that energy supply chain constraints and regulatory caution pose significant hurdles to scaling the infrastructure required for future multimodal models. The organization is shifting toward an iterative deployment strategy to smooth the transition from text-based tools to collaborative AI teammates, aiming to foster workforce familiarity while mitigating the risks of insufficient economic growth.

Starming victory: Labour sweeps to power

Sir Keir Starmer, Rosie Bloor, Ed Carr, Duncan Robinson, Catherine Nixie, Matthew Holhouse

Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party secured a historic landslide victory, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule by winning approximately 410 seats while Rishi Sunak conceded defeat and former Prime Minister Liz Truss lost her seat. The new administration immediately faces the challenge of governing within a restrictive fiscal framework while pursuing economic growth through planning reform, a green transition, and stabilized EU relations. As Starmer prepares for a ceremonial transition with the King and an urgent cabinet formation, the government aims to restore international reliability despite a governing style characterized as cautious and technocratic rather than populist.

Hot Swap growing, donors revolt, President Kamala? SCOTUS breakdown: Immunity, Chevron, Censorship

Kamala, Jason, Friedberg, Chamath Palihapitiya

Following a contentious debate that triggered a surge in support for Kamala Harris, President Biden faces intense pressure regarding his cognitive fitness while the Supreme Court delivers landmark rulings on presidential immunity and the end of the *Chevron* doctrine. Legal experts and commentators warn that replacing Biden with an untested successor during heightened global conflicts with Russia could prove dangerous, even as the court's decisions in *Loper Bright* and *Trump v. United States* reshape the balance of power between the administrative state and the judiciary. Amidst these political and legal shifts, the upcoming All-In Summit aims to convene industry leaders to discuss the future of media, artificial intelligence, and the evolving landscape of American enterprise.

The Promise and Pitfalls of Private Equity | Global Conference 2024

Mark Thierfelder, Joe Baratta, Anne-Marie Fink, Patrick Healy, Jonathan D. Sokoloff, Pete Stavros

In a session highlighting the private equity sector's adaptation to post-2022 market volatility, leaders from Blackstone, KKR, and Hellman & Friedman detailed their strategic pivots toward longer holding periods and operational value creation amid elevated credit costs. To address liquidity constraints and shifting investor expectations, these firms are increasingly utilizing continuation vehicles, expanding into retail capital channels, and reforming stakeholder models to unlock value from the 90% of companies that remain private. The panelists concluded that while public market exits remain constrained, structural advantages in governance and targeted infrastructure investments will drive future growth as the industry transitions from a traditional buy-sell model to a sustained ownership framework.

1. 1968 - Born to be wild

John Priddow, Chuck Hagel, Thomas Vallely, Margot Alexander, Kit Back, Fry Gillyard, Bill Baxley, James Baker, Richard Smith, Roger Ebert

The podcast "Boom!" investigates how the 1940s birth cohort, possessing unique historical advantages from World War II and the Cold War, has maintained a disproportionate grip on US political power while navigating a trajectory from 1960s idealism to current polarization. Host John Piddington and featured figures like Chuck Hagel, Kit Back, and Frye Gillyard trace the 1968 fracture of political consensus caused by the Vietnam War, civil rights upheaval, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. to explain the enduring partisan divides that now characterize the American presidency. Ultimately, the series argues that this generational legacy, defined by competing narratives of healing versus exploitation, has resulted in a modern political stalemate dominated by aging leaders.

Leader of the package: Amazon turns 30

Rosie Bloor, Guy Scriven, Lena Shipper, Josh Spencer

At its 30th anniversary, Amazon surpassed a $2 trillion market cap while facing intensified antitrust litigation from the US Federal Trade Commission over its dominant retail and cloud positions. Simultaneously, India's National Testing Agency suspended its head and ordered retests for millions after a medical entrance exam scandal revealed massive cheating that exposed deep social mobility gaps. In a separate economic shift, China's durian imports from Southeast Asia tripled to $7 billion, transforming the fruit into a luxury commodity while raising geopolitical concerns regarding trade dependency.

A Conversation with Issa Rae & Sherrese Clarke Soares | Global Conference 2023

Issa Rae, Sherrese Clarke Soares, Ari Melber

Harborview Capital, in partnership with Apollo Global Management, leverages a "content is queen" thesis to direct up to $1 billion toward media assets led by people of color, specifically targeting Black women and diasporic communities in Newark, New Jersey. Issa Rae and Charisse Clark-Soros discuss a seismic industry shift where creators are reclaiming ownership and demanding data transparency to replace the opaque metrics of streaming platforms. The dialogue underscores a strategic pivot toward hyper-local authenticity, arguing that specific, culturally rooted storytelling drives global engagement and justifies redirecting capital to diverse entrepreneurs.

Proposals for Protecting the Free-Enterprise System while Closing the Wealth Gap | Global Conference

Michael Milken, John Hope Bryant, Brad Gerstner, Teresa Ghilarducci, Steven T. Mnuchin

On May 8, 2024, the Milken Institute convened a panel featuring Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, investor Brad Jacobs, and advocate John Hope Bryant to propose structural reforms that reconcile free enterprise with closing the wealth gap. The group outlined specific legislative and private-sector solutions, including the "Invest America Birth Account" to seed universal child savings and the Retirement Savings for Americans Act to automatically enroll workers in retirement plans. These initiatives aim to mitigate retirement insecurity and promote financial literacy by 2026, leveraging contributions from high-net-worth donors and private equity firms while avoiding wealth taxes that could stifle innovation.

Degree programme: stopping heat deaths

Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Rachel Dobbs, Mark Johnson, Annie Crable

Record global heatwaves have exposed severe climate inequalities, prompting urgent adaptation measures such as worker protections and cooling infrastructure to address disproportionate risks for low-income populations and the elderly. Concurrently, a major demographic shift in international higher education sees Indian students overtaking their Chinese counterparts as the primary growth engine, fundamentally altering tuition revenue models and immigration policies in the US and UK. In the consumer goods sector, a rapidly expanding $6.6 billion market for full-body deodorants is challenging traditional hygiene norms, driving sales through anxiety-inducing marketing while raising medical concerns regarding the safety of applying fragrances to sensitive skin areas.

The artistry is actually in that interface between the human and the technology itself.

The speaker argues that while artificial intelligence will significantly assist with backend development and API writing, it cannot fully automate the creative interface between humans and technology where true software artistry resides. By leveraging strongly typed systems and natural language to translate requirements into specifications, AI serves as a powerful tool that augments human productivity rather than replacing it. Ultimately, the event emphasizes that defining the fundamental scope of products remains a critical human responsibility that transcends mere code generation.

Taking stock: Can the US rally continue?

David Kostin, Alison Nathan

Goldman Sachs U.S. Equity Strategist David Kostin raised the firm's year-end S&P 500 target to 5,600, citing resilient earnings expectations despite the index's heavy reliance on just five AI-driven stocks that accounted for 60% of year-to-date gains. While forward valuations remain near historic highs at 21 times earnings, Kostin projects a slight multiple compression to 20.5 times as market participants pivot from AI euphoria to scrutiny over the timing of revenue realization in upcoming earnings reports. The outlook further incorporates potential election-related volatility and tariff uncertainties, with the primary downside risk identified as a rapid valuation correction if AI investment returns fail to materialize alongside robust corporate share repurchase demand.