Latest Interviews

Frank Luntz: Words That Work, 2018

Frank Luntz

Frank Luntz presented his "Words That Work 2018" framework at the Milken Institute, using real-time polling to demonstrate how James Comey's credibility collapsed due to factual errors while Stormy Daniels gained trust through specific narrative agency and personal autonomy. Luntz highlighted that extreme political polarization has eroded shared reality and eliminated ticket-splitters, creating a crisis where reputation is now strictly partisan and truth-telling cannot restore cross-aisle trust. The analysis concluded with strategic linguistic recommendations for leaders, such as adopting the "why-therefore-so" formula, replacing "diversity" with "inclusion," and prioritizing active listening to bridge the widening divide between Democrats and Republicans.

Can eco-tourism help save the ocean?

Marit Miner, Ahmad

In Indonesia's Coral Triangle, the Mizzul Marine Protected Area transitioned from a poached wasteland to a thriving ecosystem through a private-enterprise model founded by Andrew and Marit Miners. This initiative employs over 200 locals in conservation and tourism roles, utilizing ocean rangers to enforce a no-take ban that has boosted shark populations by 25 times and increased marine biomass by 600%. By generating revenue that exceeds former fishing income, the project demonstrates a scalable financial argument for biodiversity protection that local communities now control.

Announcing Work at a Startup

Jared Friedman, Matt Long, Craig Cannon

Scheduled for July, the Work at a Startup conference reunites Y Combinator partners Justin Kahn and Sam Altman with over 80% of the accelerator's hiring companies for a scaled event featuring 35 pitches across software, robotics, and deep tech. Attendees will engage directly with startups ranging from unicorns like Instacart to early-stage hardware firms offering roles in AI, DevOps, and co-founder positions, while also viewing live hardware demonstrations from entities such as Starsky Robotics. The gathering addresses critical market trends including remote work expansion, equity transparency, and the shifting definition of startup engineering to counter traditional compensation gaps.

A Conversation With Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, Brian Sheth, Melissa Stevens

Jane Goodall and Brian Sheth discuss the convergence of private equity capital and global conservation through Goodall's Jane Goodall Institute and Sheth's leadership of Global Wildlife Conservation. They detail the expansion of Goodall's Roots & Shoots program to 150,000 youth groups and the institute's use of satellite technology to protect chimpanzee populations in Gombe and the Republic of Congo. The dialogue concludes with a strategic emphasis on integrating scientific rigor into policy-making and leveraging financial markets to sustain long-term environmental resilience.

When thoughts control machines

Brain-computer interface projects led by entities such as the U.S. Brain Initiative, Kernel, Neuralink, and DARPA are rapidly advancing from controlling prosthetics to decoding entire neural circuits with the goal of restoring motor function for paralyzed patients. As these technologies evolve to read and write neural codes, experts highlight critical ethical imperatives regarding neuroprivacy and the prevention of a societal capability gap between enhanced humans and artificial intelligence. The immediate focus remains on medical recovery, while long-term aspirations address the profound necessity of co-evolving with machines to ensure equitable access and safeguard human autonomy against the rapid pace of technological development.

Online to Offline 2.0: Experiments and Examples from China

Connie Chan, Peter van de Ven

Peter van de Ven outlines the emergence of Online-to-Offline 2.0, a bidirectional retail ecosystem where physical spaces feed consumer data back online to create a continuous cycle of personalized experiences. Major players like Alibaba, Walmart, and Amazon drive this transformation through technologies ranging from frictionless checkout systems and facial recognition to emotion-detecting shelves, establishing a mobile-only model that treats smartphones as primary identity bridges. This convergence of sensors, machine learning, and "super apps" aims to deliver a seamless digital society where every physical interaction becomes a data input for hyper-targeted marketing and automated inventory management.

OCaml All The Way Down

Andy Ray

This presentation outlines a hardware design framework utilizing the OCaml-based HardCAML domain-specific language to generate FPGA logic for custom peripherals like LED drivers, SPI sensors, and CORDIC math cores. The implementation targets the MicroBlaze soft CPU architecture, executing OCaml bytecode via a ZINC interpreter while leveraging standard Xilinx place-and-route tools to manage complex FPGA resources such as LUTs and DSP blocks. Future roadmaps prioritize full native CPU development within HardCAML, expanded formal verification using the Z3 solver, and the open-sourcing of testing infrastructure to reduce reliance on vendor-provided software components.

Cadran Cowansage Announces Leap at the Seattle Female Founders Conference

Cadran Cowansage, Kaedryn Cowan-Sage

Y Combinator engineer Kaedryn Cowan-Sage founded Leap, a private online network of approximately 2,000 women in tech that uses real-name verification to foster civil discourse and prevent the toxic environments often driving women out of digital spaces. Initially validated within Y Combinator, the platform now connects software engineers, founders, and investors through authentic conversations ranging from career development to technical problem-solving. Members report tangible professional outcomes, including securing co-founders and landing new jobs, proving the hybrid community's efficacy in advancing careers through genuine connection.

Avni Patel Thompson at the Seattle Female Founders Conference

Avni Patel Thompson

Seattle-based startup Poppy, founded by Avni Patel-Thompson, connects families with vetted caregivers to recreate a modern village safety net for childcare following the failure of her previous subscription box venture. After validating the concept through a low-cost pilot and recruiting a technical co-founder, the company secured Y Combinator acceptance and over $2 million in seed funding by pivoting from a membership model to a transaction fee structure. Now in a rapid growth phase with a team of ten, Poppy prioritizes mission-driven hiring and founder sustainability while aiming to help hundreds of other entrepreneurs reach validated market traction.

A Conversation with Lloyd Blankfein

Lloyd Blankfein, Dr. Gail Mellow, John F.W. Rogers, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Tyler Perry, Danny Meyer, Sarah Kauss, The Honorable Wilbur L. Ross, Sara Blakely, Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Gina Raimondo, Gov. Rick Snyder, Senator Marco Rubio, Sir Richard Branson, Warren Buffett

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein discussed the "10,000 Small Businesses" initiative, a partnership with LaGuardia Community College that has assisted 6,700 entrepreneurs by combining community accessibility with institutional resources. Drawing on his own journey from public housing to the firm's top leadership, Blankfein outlined key strategies for business resilience, emphasizing the need for talent acquisition, capital access, and active political engagement to overcome regulatory hurdles. He concluded by advising business owners to separate personal crises from professional duties while noting that current economic conditions require a careful balancing act by the Federal Reserve to avoid aggressive rate hikes.

Danny Meyer: Shaking it Up: Stories of Success from a Disruptor

Danny Meyer, Tim O'Neill, John F.W. Rogers, Kevin McCarthy, Tyler Perry, Sarah Kauss, Wilbur L. Ross, Sara Blakely, Michael Bloomberg, Gina Raimondo, Rick Snyder, Marco Rubio, Lloyd Blankfein, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett

Danny Meyer launched Union Square Cafe in 1985 by applying an "enlightened hospitality" philosophy that prioritizes employee well-being over profit, a strategy that transformed a struggling neighborhood eatery into a cultural icon following a pivotal New York Times review. This approach evolved into the Union Square Hospitality Group, which expanded to include Shake Shack and over 100 locations globally by institutionalizing a culture where leaders act as "culture carriers" and growth is driven by a specific stakeholder hierarchy. Meyer's career demonstrates how maintaining core values while aggressively pruning non-performing assets allows an organization to scale without losing its soul or financial stability.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy: Standing Up for Small Businesses

Kevin McCarthy, John F.W. Rogers, Tyler Perry, Danny Meyer, Sarah Kauss, Wilbur L. Ross, Sara Blakely, Michael Bloomberg, Gina Raimondo, Rick Snyder, Marco Rubio, Lloyd Blankfein, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican with deep roots in the state's energy and agricultural sectors, outlines his journey from early entrepreneurial ventures to crafting bipartisan legislation like the Jobs Act. He argues that small businesses are the nation's primary job creators and urges owners to build direct, sustained relationships with lawmakers to overcome capital and training hurdles. Drawing on historical symbolism from the Gettysburg Address and Washington Crossing the Delaware, McCarthy concludes by calling for cross-party collaboration to address long-term challenges and forge a more perfect union.

MIT-AVT: Data Collection Device (for Large-Scale Semi-Autonomous Driving)

An MIT-led study utilizes Ryder System's fleet of over 30 vehicles to gather extensive naturalistic driving data, analyzing how humans supervise semi-autonomous systems across more than 320,000 miles. The project employs a specialized hardware architecture to record synchronized video, GPS, and vehicle telemetry with high thermal resilience and precise clock accuracy, generating nearly 300 terabytes of compressed footage for deep learning analysis. Future iterations will transition to NVIDIA Jetson TX2 hardware to enable selective recording of critical edge cases, shifting the research focus toward understanding driver cognitive load and internal behavior.

The World Through an API

Martin Casado

Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Martin Casado argues that the computing industry is undergoing a final stage of market disaggregation, shifting from bundled software to an economy driven entirely by Application Program Interfaces. This transition lowers barriers to entry for domain experts by codifying complex logic into machine-readable APIs, a shift Ovum data suggests will expand the total addressable market by a factor of ten. Consequently, the investment landscape is pivoting toward three distinct themes: API-first startups that bypass traditional user interfaces, new infrastructure required to secure and manage this distributed layer, and aggregation marketplaces that help developers navigate the proliferation of specialized services.

Startup Investor School Day 3 Live Stream

Elad Gil, Pejman, Jeff Clavier, Andrea, Ali Partovi

Day 3 of the Startup Investor School convened five prominent investors, including Elad Gil, Pejman Nozad, Jeff Clavier, Andrea Zurlo, and Ali Partovi, to dissect critical strategies for market selection, team evaluation, and portfolio construction. The speakers emphasized that successful angel investing requires a 10-year horizon, strict risk discipline regarding net worth allocation, and a service-oriented mindset that prioritizes founder support over immediate financial gains. Key consensus points highlighted the necessity of investing in brilliant founders with big ideas regardless of initial market perceptions, maintaining long-term patience through early-stage losses, and building a personal brand rooted in integrity and operational availability.