Latest Interviews
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Clear all filters- a16z50 min
Seven Trends in Blockchain Computing (Spring 2019)
Olaf, the first employee of Coinbase, details the third wave of blockchain evolution driven by WebAssembly integration and Proof-of-Stake consensus to resolve current developer bottlenecks and security flaws inherent in older protocols. This upcoming phase emphasizes superior technical infrastructure, including built-in on-chain governance and sub-second finality, while shifting industry metrics from user counts to composability and open-source development speeds. As the sector transitions from a nascent launch phase to mature application development, these upgrades aim to facilitate complex use cases like decentralized finance and AI data markets without relying on ad-revenue models or arbitrary platform control.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Town Hall | Will Technology Save or Subvert Civility and Society?
Frank Luntz, Fadi Chehadé, Tristan Harris, Gabriel Stricker
Tristan Harris and fellow panelists argue that algorithmic incentives and corporate business models have eroded digital civility, creating a landscape where polarization is monetized and public trust is critically low. To counter these systemic failures, the discussion proposes a "troika" governance structure involving governments, corporations, and citizens, alongside specific reforms like engineer oaths and fiduciary data laws to prioritize human well-being over engagement metrics. While challenges such as the slow pace of legislation and geopolitical digital divides persist, the speakers emphasize that immediate action through media literacy education and international cooperation is essential to restoring healthy democratic discourse.
- a16z39 min
Founding Stories: Sandbox VR
Steve Zhao, Siqi Chen, Andrew Chen, Frank Chen
Sandbox VR co-founders Steve Zhao and Siki Chen launched a location-based entertainment model by vertically integrating proprietary hardware, custom content, and physical retail spaces after failing to secure early funding due to the novelty of the concept. By pivoting to a venue in a Hong Kong high-rise in 2017, the team achieved viral traction with their immersive "Deadwood Mansion" title, attracting an Alibaba seed round and a rapid Series A commitment from Andreessen Horowitz within months of opening. Leveraging deep learning and computer vision to enable social agency and body tracking, the company is now expanding its technology to support larger concurrent groups and diverse genres beyond traditional shooting games.
- a16z48 min
The a16z Pitch Room: Sandbox VR
Steve Zhao, Siqi Chen, Andrew Chen, Frank Chen
Andreessen Horowitz led an investment in Sandbox VR to fund its scalable network of untethered, wireless virtual reality locations that address high churn rates in the traditional consumer VR market. General Partner Andrew Chen backed the strategy of positioning the company as a future content publisher and platform for third-party developers, rather than a simple hardware retailer, citing strong unit economics and near-unanimous customer satisfaction data from existing Asian markets. With a founding team combining AAA game development experience and hyperlocal growth expertise, the venture aims to expand from 14 to over 50 rooms while mitigating novelty risks through rapid content rotation and exclusive IP partnerships.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
Michael Oppenheimer: Nobel Prize-winning Climate Scientist
Michael Oppenheimer, Kyung-ho Park
Atmospheric scientist Dr. Oppenheimer outlines how attribution science has transformed climate risk assessment, revealing that global society is already operating outside the ±1°C stability range that defined the last 10,000 years. While the 2015 Paris Agreement secured universal participation, current pledges fall short of the 25–50% emissions cuts required to avoid the 1.5°C to 2°C danger zone, prompting a strategic shift toward mixed policy frameworks and a business sector that must prioritize long-term planetary viability over quarterly earnings. Dr. Oppenheimer contrasts this complex challenge with the successful Montreal Protocol, noting that climate mitigation is further complicated by its impact on one-third of the global economy, necessitating the integration of carbon pricing, regulatory standards, and substantial financial reallocation toward sustainable infrastructure.
- Goldman Sachs24 min
Rob Manfred: Commissioner, Major League Baseball
Rob Manfred, Robert Manfred, Dave Dassey
Commissioner Rob Manfred transformed Major League Baseball by ending decades of labor instability, enforcing a perpetual vigilance against performance-enhancing drugs, and pioneering the data analytics revolution that reshaped player valuation and front office operations. Under his leadership, the league successfully pivoted its media strategy to capture younger demographics through digital partnerships and BAMTech while strategically embracing sports betting to deepen fan engagement through official data licensing. These initiatives, grounded in a negotiation philosophy emphasizing deep preparation and strategic momentum, have redefined the league's financial infrastructure and operational integrity.
- Y Combinator1h 4m
Software Engineer Turned Youtuber - Jarvis Johnson
Jarvis Johnson, Craig Cannon, Nathan Allebach, Taylor
Engineering manager and content creator Jarvis Johnson transitioned from a full-time career at Patreon to independent YouTube production after a viral subscriber surge validated his strategy of balancing technical deep-dives with broader industry critique. Leveraging lessons from Silicon Valley and his time managing teams, Johnson now advocates for "clickbait with positivity" while warning against the rise of soulless content farms that threaten platform authenticity. His journey highlights a shift from grade-driven multitasking to focused, interest-driven learning, aiming to provide accessible role models for aspiring technologists navigating the software industry's evolving landscape.
- Milken Institute1h 6m
Part 1: A Conversation With John Hickenlooper | Part 2: A Conversation with Seth Moulton
John Hickenlooper, Seth Moulton, Jerry Baker, Christina Bellantoni
The Milken Institute Global Conference featured two presidential conversations with Democratic candidates Governor John Hickenlooper and Representative Seth Moulton, who focused on unifying the party to defeat President Trump. Hickenlooper emphasized restoring middle-class economic stability through antitrust enforcement, tax reforms on wealth, and state-led social policies, while Moulton advocated for a generational shift in leadership driven by veteran healthcare reform, green infrastructure investment, and constitutional impeachment debates. Both candidates addressed critical national challenges including climate change, gun control, and economic restructuring, aiming to present a cohesive platform that addresses deep national divisions.
- Milken Institute1h 2m
Town Hall - Will Technology Save or Subvert Civility and Society?
A panel of tech leaders and academics argues that social media platforms have fundamentally degraded American politics by algorithmically prioritizing engagement over civility, with data showing zero perceived positive impact among attendees. Speakers detail how predictive modeling and recommendation engines exploit human vulnerabilities to amplify polarization and misinformation across major sites like YouTube and Twitter, creating a toxic feedback loop that erodes social fabric. To address this crisis, the group proposes a multi-stakeholder "troika" governance model, legislative reforms to the Section 230 framework, and the integration of digital ethics into educational curricula to establish new norms for the industry.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
LIVE: Corner Office: Leading Organizations in an Era of Change
David Faber, Todd Boehly, Charles Scharf, Igor Tulchinsky, Devin Wenig, Meg Whitman
Executives from WorldQuant, BNY Mellon, and the Los Angeles Dodgers convened to discuss the logarithmic pace of technological disruption and the strategic imperative for organizations to embrace extreme flexibility, high failure tolerance, and radical diversification. The panel highlighted how industry leaders are leveraging data-driven decision-making, global talent sourcing, and demographic shifts to navigate an asymmetric environment, with specific examples including algorithmic sports management, exponential alpha generation, and the evolution of legacy financial institutions. Furthermore, the discussion underscored the critical need for diverse workforces to anticipate market trends, the impending arrival of unified national privacy legislation, and the expansion of predictive analytics into new verticals ranging from healthcare to space exploration.
- Milken Institute1h 16m
A Conversation With Mick Mulvaney | Part 2: Perspectives on the US Economy
Mick Mulvaney, Maria Bartiromo, Alan Schwartz, Andrew Ullman, Aaron Klein
The White House prioritizes advancing the USMCA trade deal and finalizing a China agreement under strict conditions while warning against foreign intervention in Venezuela. Domestic policy focuses on overhauling regulatory approval pipelines to accelerate infrastructure spending, despite facing legislative gridlock driven by partisan disagreements on funding versus deregulation. Concurrently, the administration prepares for the 2020 election by leveraging recent economic indicators, such as declining drug prices and wage growth in Opportunity Zones, while experts in the accompanying panel debate solutions for widening income inequality and labor force participation.
- Milken Institute1h 24m
LIVE: Part 1: A Conversation With Christine Lagarde | Part 2: The Investors' View
Christine Lagarde, Michael Klowden, Gerard Baker, Stephanie Flanders, Tom Finke, David Hunt, Scott Minerd, Ronald O'Hanley, Lara Warner
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and a panel of investors convened to address global economic fragility characterized by synchronized growth slowdowns, persistent low inflation, and rising sovereign and corporate debt risks. Discussions highlighted divergent regional trajectories with the US showing resilience while Europe faces structural vulnerabilities, alongside critical concerns regarding China's Belt and Road sustainability and the potential for a US-China trade agreement. The event concluded with urgent calls for structural reforms in infrastructure, labor participation, and digital investment to combat inequality, warning that future crisis response capacity is limited by high debt levels and political polarization.
- Goldman Sachs10 min
10,000 Small Businesses UK Female Founders on Running a Business
Harriet, Anna, Michal Silver, Rachel
Founders Harriet, Anna, Michal Silver, and Rachel Jackson discuss strategies for navigating entrepreneurial challenges, emphasizing the importance of emotional transparency with investors and reframing difficulties as opportunities for growth. The panelists outline specific tactics for maintaining work-life balance, such as strict digital boundaries and context separation, while offering tailored advice on funding, personnel strategy, and sustaining passion. Their dialogue highlights a shared belief that viewing challenges as solvable problems is a distinct trait among solo female founders who leverage investor relationships for both strategic guidance and emotional reassurance.
- a16z53 min
Towards a Decentralized Storage Network for the Blockchain Computer
Ali Yahya, Ben Fisch, Bruce Schneier
Decentralized storage networks solve the critical challenge of verifying file integrity across permissionless nodes by replacing institutional trust with cryptographic protocols like Proof of Retrieval and Proof of Replication. These mechanisms transform underutilized personal device capacity into a censorship-resistant infrastructure where economic incentives compel nodes to dedicate actual disk space rather than simulating storage. By enforcing high tightness constraints that disproportionately burden large centralized providers, the system ensures a scalable, fault-tolerant foundation for future decentralized applications.
- a16z54 min
Five Open Problems for the Blockchain Computer
Ali Yahya, Frank Chen, Ben Fisch
The event analyzes the emerging crypto paradigm where value shifts from raw performance to emergent trust, utilizing metrics like instructions per second and decentralized storage proofs to overcome physical network latency. It highlights critical infrastructure innovations, including Blockchain Distribution Networks and Proof-of-Stake security, that enable censorship-resistant finance and gaming applications. Positioned in the early stages of development, the sector aims to solve unsolved computer science problems by complementing centralized web models with systems optimized for trust rather than speed.