Latest Interviews

Dot Plots: How to Actually See What Your Users Are Doing

David Lieb, Dave

Founders and enterprise product teams can uncover hidden usage patterns and early churn signals by utilizing dot plots, a visualization method originally derived from PayPal's fraud detection systems. This technique replaces opaque aggregate metrics with granular grids that map individual user activity against time, allowing stakeholders to distinguish between active cohorts and vanity behaviors that traditional dashboards mask. By combining these visual insights with cohort retention curves, organizations ranging from early-stage startups to massive platforms like Google Photos can identify specific feature correlations and usage gaps that drive product iteration and contract renewals.

Kalshi's Tarek Mansour: Chaos by Design

Tarek Mansour, Luana Lopes Lara, Dharmesh

Kalshi co-founders Tarkan and Luana structured their organization to maintain a flat hierarchy and deliberate strategic disagreement, which fueled a legal battle against the CFTC that resulted in a 2024 victory and a 95% dominance of the U.S. prediction market. The company distinguishes itself through a regulated exchange model that charges fees on volume rather than customer losses, while enforcing strict risk management protocols for younger traders to ensure responsible usage. This victory allowed Kalshi to launch political markets just before the 2024 election, leveraging a founder-led culture of aggressive detail and real-time cultural synchronization to solidify its position against offshore competitors.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: The Whistleblowers Were Right About Aliens

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Steven

Neil deGrasse Tyson synthesizes extensive scientific data to argue that extraterrestrial life is statistically probable while warning that unregulated satellite proliferation and geopolitical tensions threaten the future of space exploration. He details critical cosmic phenomena ranging from the composition of dark matter to the physical consequences of black holes, emphasizing that human existence is chemically intertwined with the universe despite our small size. Tyson concludes that scientific inquiry, rather than subjective experience, remains the most reliable path to understanding reality, and he urges a shift in education to foster enduring curiosity and the self-created pursuit of knowledge.

The Next President May Control Superintelligence

Sneha Revanur, Zershaaneh Qureshi

Founded by Sneha Ravenor at age 15, the nonprofit ENCODE has evolved from capability skepticism to spearheading a strategic campaign to regulate existential AI risks through state-level legislation and coalition building. The organization successfully influenced California's SB 53 and SB 1047 by prioritizing whistleblower protections and internal deployment reporting, while simultaneously dismantling corporate intimidation tactics like the OpenAI subpoena through diplomatic engagement. Facing the 2028 election as a potential turning point for AI governance, ENCODE advocates for a phased regulatory approach that codifies voluntary safety standards to build political capital before pursuing aggressive liability measures.

Solving the Blank Canvas Problem: Gusto's AI Co-Founder

Eddie Kim, Harj Taggar

Launched in just ten weeks by a five-person team including co-founder Eddie Kim, Gusto Co-founder is a new AI product that transforms Gusto's payroll and HR data into proactive, agent-based automations for small businesses. The platform has already onboarded 500 paying customers by replacing traditional dashboards with text-based interfaces that execute complex workflows, such as full payroll processing, weather-based customer notifications, and tax credit application. This initiative validates a strategic pivot toward becoming a proactive business partner capable of lowering entry barriers for new entrepreneurs while automating compliance and growth opportunities through a "vibe coding" development methodology.

Asia-Pacific Overtures: Investment Returns Through Diversification | Global Conference 2026

Laura Deal Lacey, Michael DeSombre, David Elia, Jacqueline Poh, Pandu Sjahrir, Lu Yin

The event convened U.S. policymakers, Singaporean ecosystem builders, and major sovereign wealth managers from Australia and Indonesia to align trade, infrastructure, and artificial intelligence strategies across the Indo-Pacific. Participants detailed a coordinated shift toward removing non-tariff barriers, deploying over $2 billion in targeted foreign assistance, and establishing regional AI stacks to counter Chinese technological dominance. Discussions highlighted a broader trend where pension funds and state actors are bifurcating portfolios between traditional commodities and frontier technologies while accelerating cross-border energy and digital infrastructure projects to sustain long-term regional growth.

Has the AI boom entered a manic new phase? | The Economist

Henry Curr, Mike Bird, Josh Roberts

US equity markets have reached near-record capitalization levels driven primarily by massive AI-focused "giga IPOs" like SpaceX and anticipated offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI. This concentration, now comprising nearly 40% of the S&P 500, coincides with unusual retail participation and inverted options pricing that signal a shift toward speculative mania. Simultaneously, major technology firms have redirected capital expenditure toward infrastructure, causing a collapse in free cash flow and transforming the sector into a dominant force in global corporate debt markets.

The New Rules of Enterprise Software with Steven Sinofsky

Steven Sinofsky, Seema Amble, Elena Burger

As enterprise software evolves to support AI agents accessing core logic via APIs rather than traditional interfaces, incumbents like Salesforce are pivoting toward "headless" architectures to facilitate direct data retrieval. However, the immense stickiness of legacy systems such as SAP persists due to deeply codified business logic and regulatory compliance that cannot be easily replaced by simple automation or "vibe coding." Consequently, high-value startup opportunities emerge not by competing directly with these giants but by building invisible layers that capture unstructured human context, bridge functional gaps between departments, and manage the complex "long tail" of exceptions that legacy platforms ignore.

Inside Zipline's Autonomous System: 140M Miles, Zero Incidents

Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, Eric Watson, Alfred Lin, Pat Grady

Since its 2016 launch in Rwanda, Zipline has evolved from a struggling medical logistics provider into a global autonomous infrastructure operator serving 5,000 hospitals across eight countries. The company now achieves a safety record of zero incidents over 140 million commercial miles while leveraging a vertical integration strategy to reduce delivery costs below those of human-driven vehicles. This operational success recently facilitated a $550 million partnership with the US State Department aimed at deploying similar life-saving services under a new commercial diplomacy framework.

A Look Inside Jane Street’s Internship Program 2026

A candidate from an aerospace and computer science background secured an internship at Jane Street by solving a puzzle and demonstrating a collaborative problem-solving approach during interviews. During the role, the intern built a tool for bond desks and optimized GPU memory management using autoencoders, with the resulting code now deployed in active training systems. The experience highlighted a firm culture that values learning from mistakes and adaptability, featuring mentorship in a commodities trading project and social connections through shared hobbies like the Irish fiddle.

AI: What Investors Should Know

Jim Covello, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani

Goldman Sachs analysts project that global AI capital expenditures will surpass $3 trillion by 2026, though they warn of distinct "earnings bubbles" in public markets and "valuation bubbles" in private sectors driven by unsustainable demand. While consumer adoption remains strong, enterprise integration faces hurdles due to data fragmentation, leading experts to predict a strategic shift toward specialized Small Language Models that prioritize efficiency over mass labor replacement. The investment landscape is further complicated by geopolitical divisions favoring the U.S. in chip infrastructure and China in model production, alongside concerns over circular financing practices that delay profitability for large-cap companies.

Geopolitics, AI, and Private Credit: Navigating Three Key Investor Concerns

Matt, Matthias

Following Middle East strikes that disrupted global oil production and slightly altered Federal Reserve rate cut expectations, U.S. equities have recovered to record highs as historical data indicates a 95% probability of recovery within eight weeks. The firm attributes this resilience to America's energy insulation and revised 2026 earnings growth forecasts, while advising a strategic overweight in U.S. assets alongside a selective tilt toward the software sector. Although private credit risks remain contained and systemic stress is deemed unlikely, investors are urged to maintain long-term market participation through customized asset allocations rather than attempting to time the current volatility.

Accel: The Quiet Firm Behind Facebook, Cursor, Nebius, Lovable, Vercel

Arun Mathew, Miles Clements, Matt Weigand, Molly O'Shea

Accel leverages its multi-stage platform and three-decade partner cohesion to deploy hundreds of millions in capital across the full technology stack, recently leading significant investments in AI infrastructure giants like Nebius and cybersecurity leader Cyera. The firm strategically balances early-stage discovery with massive late-stage checks targeting potential trillion-dollar outliers, driven by a thesis that artificial intelligence will transition from hype to tangible real-world efficiency in sectors ranging from healthcare to developer tools. By prioritizing operational depth and a silent partnership model over marketing, Accel aims to capture exponential returns as the market converges on trusted platforms capable of scaling proven AI workloads.

Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV

Mike Mignano, Harry Stebbings

Former founder Mike Mignano joined USV as a General Partner to lead thesis-driven investments in the energy infrastructure layer and application-era AI, leveraging his experience selling Anchor to Spotify. Mignano forecasts a market shift toward autonomous AI agents and cost-optimized routing layers while criticizing current labor displacement narratives and the viability of mid-tier venture funds. Drawing on lessons from Fred Wilson, he emphasizes relationship-building and the "obliterate, don't automate" philosophy to guide USV's focus on reinventing industries rather than merely automating them.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Dustin Poirier: "I Deleted Social Media After The Incident

Dustin Poirier, Jolie, Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Steven

UFC fighter Dustin Poirier was arrested in Atlanta for public intoxication, an incident he attributes to a severe depressive episode triggered by his homeless, alcoholic father and his own history with head trauma. In response, Poirier has canceled all professional commitments, committed to permanent sobriety, and returned to therapy while acknowledging a 5% probability of returning to the octagon after proving six months of sobriety. Despite facing lost sponsors and social media deletion, the fighter expressed deep regret toward his family and reaffirmed his focus on philanthropy and finding a new life purpose following the "death" of his identity as a professional athlete.