Latest Interviews

How To Earn Customers For Life

Michael Seibel, Dalton Caldwell

Startups that treat VC funding as a primary goal often fail by employing aggressive or impersonal sales tactics, whereas successful founders prioritize genuine care for their users to gain a competitive edge. Leaders like Stripe's Patrick Collison and AWS engineer Jeff Barr demonstrate that personally resolving customer issues fosters loyalty, deeper feedback, and a sustainable narrative that impersonal corporate structures cannot replicate. By viewing customers as partners and learning their personal stories, founders who genuinely value their users' success outperform competitors through increased sales volume and faster product-market fit.

Changing the Game: Holly O’Neill & CVS Health Chief Customer Officer Michelle Peluso

Holly O’Neill, Michelle Peluso, Telebah Woods, Taliba Woods

In the inaugural "Game Changers" episode, Bank of America's Holly O'Neill interviews CVS Health's Michelle Peluso to explore a customer-centric leadership philosophy built on a "learn-it-all" mindset and the integration of high-tech and high-touch strategies. Peluso details how CVS Health addresses the U.S. mental health crisis by combining virtual and physical care while citing Nike and Chewy as benchmarks for innovation and emotional connection in retail. Complementing this business discussion, a separate segment features Taliba Woods, who highlights the critical role of homeownership in generational wealth creation and shares her journey advancing financial literacy within multicultural communities.

The Robot Lawyer Resistance with Joshua Browder of DoNotPay

Joshua Browder, Josh

Founded by Joshua Browder in 2016, Do Not Pay has evolved from a document automation tool into an AI-driven legal advocate that has successfully resolved over two million consumer cases ranging from parking fines to medical bill negotiations. The company recently expanded its capabilities to include a Terms & Conditions Analyzer and a spam caller litigation system, while facing significant regulatory pushback from bar associations and courts regarding the unauthorized practice of law. Browder continues to push for the integration of AI in legal proceedings to address the 80% of the population that cannot afford traditional counsel, arguing that automated representation is essential to prevent the justice system from collapsing.

The REAL potential of generative AI

Ali Rowghani, Raza Habib

HumanLoop empowers the "next million developers" to customize raw Large Language Models for specific business needs by mitigating hallucinations through factual context injection and refining brand voice via fine-tuning. The platform supports the entire development lifecycle, from prototyping prompt iterations to evaluating subjective outputs using dynamic production feedback, enabling differentiation without relying on expensive proprietary hardware. By addressing the technical hurdles of instruction tuning and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, the service aims to accelerate the transition of software roles from boilerplate coding to high-level specification writing ahead of anticipated AGI timelines.

A Jane Street Software Engineering Mock Interview with Grace and Nolen

Grace, Nolen, Nolan, Emily Fortuna, Colton Ogden, Todd Kerpelman, Jen Person, Colt McAnlisley, Dan Galpin, Mark Mirchandani

Nolan and Grace, experienced Jane Street employees, co-created a mock interview simulation featuring a unit conversion challenge that evaluates a candidate's graph-based algorithm design and problem-solving collaboration. During the session, the candidate developed a breadth-first search solution to minimize floating-point errors while iteratively correcting structural flaws regarding bidirectional graph construction and edge cases. The exercise underscores Jane Street's emphasis on code clarity, effective communication, and the ability to refine logic through dialogue rather than demanding immediate optimization or perfect syntax.

The Man Who Can Predict How Long You Have Left To Live (To The Nearest Month): Gary Brecka | E225

Gary Brecka

Drawing on two decades as a life insurance mortality expert, the speaker argues that most physiological decline stems from methylation deficiencies and chronic hypoxia rather than genetic fate or aging. This perspective reframes common conditions like hypertension, depression, and ADHD as treatable errors in nutrient conversion that impede oxygen delivery to cells. The presentation culminates in a specific "Superhuman Protocol" utilizing breathwork, cold exposure, and targeted supplementation to reset metabolic functions, a method demonstrated by the recovery of UFC President Dana White.

E117: Did Stripe miss its window? Plus: VC market update, AI comes for SaaS, Trump's savvy move

Trump, Jason, Steve Jobs, Biden

The event analyzes the diverging fates of payment giants Stripe and Adyen, where Stripe's aggressive SMB expansion and rapid workforce growth have triggered significant tax liabilities and a 42% valuation decline compared to Adyen's profitable enterprise model. It further examines how current venture capital market conditions are forcing a shift from high-growth strategies to strict unit economics and profitability, while AI adoption is poised to transform SaaS through efficiency gains despite monetization challenges. The discussion concludes with a geopolitical critique of U.S. foreign policy regarding Ukraine and China, alongside observations on new fundraising structures and the potential of legacy data platforms for future AI development.

The Hard Conversations Founders Don't Want to Have

Michael Seibel, Dalton Caldwell

This session outlines the critical shift from superficial validation to high-stakes, uncomfortable dialogue between YC partners and founders, emphasizing that true advisory value lies in delivering honest feedback that prevents catastrophic errors. The discussion details how to navigate common "questions behind the questions" in founder interactions, manage co-founder conflicts through adapted communication styles, and maintain transparency with employees to prevent relationship fractures. Ultimately, the event establishes that effective leadership requires partners to leverage their own past mistakes to guide startups through difficult decisions without relying on infallible authority.

Putin's hidden war: the Russians fighting back

Putin

Following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin intensified its transition to complete tyranny by systematically purging dissent, blocking 250 media channels, and neutralizing opposition figures like Alexei Navalny. In response to this repression and a subsequent partial military mobilization that prompted 750,000 citizens to flee, activists shifted from mass protests to individual acts of defiance and digital resistance while abroad. As the regime maintains internal control despite conflicting casualty estimates, analysts and activists such as Marina Litvinovich argue that political change will likely depend on a future shift in public perception driven by battlefield losses rather than domestic unrest.

Lucy Hale Opens Up For The First Time About Eating Disorders, Relationships & Addiction | E224

Lucy Hale

Actress Lucy Hale publicly disclosed her sobriety since January 2022, detailing a two-decade battle with alcoholism, anorexia, and severe body dysmorphia driven by childhood trauma and the intense pressures of starring in *Pretty Little Liars*. After recognizing that career success and external validation failed to address her deep-seated feelings of unworthiness and self-sabotage, she credits the loss of a mentor and the guidance of her grandmother as catalysts for her decision to prioritize healing over fame. Currently single and focused on self-compassion, Hale aims to build a grounded life centered on sustainability and authenticity while using her past struggles to foster empathy and connect with others.

The Challenge of Replicating Reality with Steve Zhao from SandboxVR

Steve Zhao, Steph

Founded by Steve Zhao in 2016, Sandbox VR transformed from a mobile gaming venture into a leading location-based entertainment provider by pivoting to high-fidelity social experiences and securing rapid profitability through viral highlight videos. Despite facing a severe revenue collapse during the pandemic that forced a Chapter 11 filing and an 80% workforce reduction, the company survived by hibernating operations and renegotiating leases with landlords who funded new expansions. Now positioning itself as a premium "out-of-home" alternative to movie theaters, Sandbox leverages wireless streaming technology and major intellectual property partnerships like *Star Trek* and *Squid Game* to scale its physical footprint and deliver content that generates ten times the value of standard mobile or console gaming.

The Health Expert: The One Food (WE ALL EAT) That's Killing Us Slowly: Max Lugavere | E223

Max Lugavere, Steven

Health and science journalist Max Lugavere leverages a decade of medical research and personal tragedy to argue that ultra-processed foods and ideological dietary dogmas are primary drivers of the modern obesity and cognitive decline epidemics. By synthesizing data on metabolic health, he advocates for whole-food, meat-inclusive diets and novel lifestyle habits like sauna use to improve health span rather than merely extend lifespan. Lugavere further emphasizes that balancing beneficial stress with psychological healing is essential for reversing neurodegenerative trends and fostering resilience against the "comfort crisis."

Why Nigeria is crucial to democracy in Africa

Peter Obi, Buhari, Mustafa, Jonathan Rosenthal, Temadayo Onushun, Aisha Nyako

Nigeria, Africa's most populous democracy, faces a severe democratic deterioration driven by a multifaceted security crisis and systemic vote-selling that erodes public trust in state institutions. A stark generational divide between an aging political elite and a youthful majority, characterized by median age of 18 and rampant unemployment, has catalyzed a shift from street protests to active electoral engagement as seen in the 2023 general election. While youth-led movements like the Young Progressives and the 2023 Peter Obi campaign signal a potential political awakening, the long-term sustainability of this momentum hinges on the state's ability to resolve entrenched economic hardship and insecurity before disillusionment sets in.

E116: Toxic out-of-control trains, regulators, and AI

Lina Khan, Chamath, Calacanis, Friedberg, Jason

David Sacks and MrBeast raised $450,000 through live poker streams for charitable causes, sparking debate over media narratives regarding MrBeast's cataract surgery. The panelists also dissected the East Palestine train derailment, critiqued FTC Chair Lina Khan's regulatory approach, and analyzed the potential impact of the *Gonzalez v. Google* ruling on Section 230 and platform censorship. Finally, the discussion highlighted perceived political bias within OpenAI's safety filters, arguing that market competition and user-selected algorithms offer better solutions than government regulation for managing AI ethics.

Hiring a FAANG engineer won’t miraculously save your startup

Early-stage startups often misallocate limited capital by recruiting talent from high-growth tech giants like Google, assuming their prior environments guarantee similar results. This hiring pattern, termed "Sebastianism" after the Portuguese myth of a messianic king, reflects founders' irrational expectations that a single "star" hire will solve all organizational issues despite candidates demanding compensation packages near $1 million annually. Such strategies fundamentally deplete startup resources, as the salary and equity gaps between the founder's budget and the candidate's former employer's standards make this approach unsustainable.