Latest Interviews

Macroeconomic Outlook: The Search for Value

Joseph L. Hooley, Afsaneh Beschloss, Bjarne Graven Larsen, Joshua Harris, Hamilton "Tony" James

Leading institutional investors and asset managers convened to analyze a global recovery driven by divergent regional performances, from the US Federal Reserve's tightening cycle to stabilizing Emerging Markets despite persistent geopolitical tensions. The discussion highlighted a structural shift away from traditional public equities and bank lending toward illiquid private credit, infrastructure, and hard assets as investors seek to capture valuations undistorted by central bank liquidity. Strategic recommendations emphasized adopting active, risk-based approaches for pension funds while addressing regulatory barriers to unlock significant capital in under-capitalized physical assets and high-yield emerging market sectors.

Founders of Science Exchange, Goldbely, and The Flex Company Discuss Fundraising

Kat Manalac, Elizabeth Iorns, Vanessa Torrivilla, Erica Jensen, Elizabeth Lyons

Hosted by Kat, a panel featuring YC alumni founders Elizabeth Lyons, Vanessa Torribilla, and Erica examined fundraising hurdles across diverse sectors, revealing that initial seed rounds consistently register as the most difficult stage. The founders detailed a strategic shift from vision-based narratives to rigorous data preparation for Series A, while offering specific tactics for overcoming gender bias and managing team resources to prevent metric stagnation. Ultimately, the discussion emphasized the necessity of aligning investor outreach with relevant demographics and maintaining founder well-being to sustain long-term growth.

Small Business Financing Tips for 2017: Banks, Family and Additional Resources

Carol Roth, David Burch, Steve Strauss, Gerri Detweiler

Addressing the financing needs of over 50% of U.S. small business owners planning growth, experts including David Burch of Bank of America and Steve Strauss outline strategies to navigate traditional lending and family funding. The presentation details the critical preparation required for the "Three Cs" of credit, emphasizing accurate financial reporting and formal contracts to mitigate relationship risks with family investors. Panelists further advocate for leveraging free advisory networks like SCORE and SBDCs to build robust capital reserves before crises occur, ensuring businesses can transition from informal financing to institutional support.

Yudkowsky vs Hanson — Singularity Debate

Yudkowsky, Hanson

Eliezer Yudkowsky and Robin Hanson debated whether artificial superintelligence will emerge from a rapid, localized intelligence explosion or a gradual, decentralized accumulation across the global economy. While Yudkowsky argued that a small team could leverage hardware speed differentials to achieve a self-improving monopoly, Hanson countered that historical innovation patterns and the need for vast content would force AI development to remain integrated and shared. The post-debate audience vote shifted by seven voters to the "against" position, reflecting a narrow move toward Hanson's view that physical infrastructure and economic leakage prevent a single entity from instantly dominating the future.

The Bitcoin Network Effect

The speaker advocates for viewing blockchain entities as autonomous software mechanisms rather than legal corporations, highlighting their distinct lack of liability and governance attributes. While Bitcoin dominates through strong network effects, successful altcoins must offer unique functional advantages to coexist, and regulatory pressure currently targets intermediaries rather than the decentralized protocol itself. Future adoption hinges on resolving transaction latency through layer-2 solutions and mitigating volatility, with international remittances identified as the primary catalyst for non-speculative utility alongside a reevaluation of monetary policy as a fixed-supply asset.

Female Founders Conference 2017

Avni Patel-Thompson, Emily Weiss, Laura Behrens Wu, Padmashree Warrior, Aileen Lee, Elizabeth Lyons, Vanessa Torridilla, Erica, Morgan de Bon, Diane Greene, Kirsty Nathoo, Carolyn Lebe, Anu Hariharan, Adora Chung, Jessica Livingston, Kat

The Female Founders Conference brought together prominent industry leaders like Avital Lee, Kate Winslet, and Aileen Lee to analyze the nine distinct factors that differentiate successful startups from unicorns. Prominent founders from companies such as Poppy, Glossier, and NIO shared case studies on overcoming funding rejections, pivoting from failure, and building inclusive cultures within male-dominated sectors. The event concluded with YC partners debunking common myths about early-stage investment while emphasizing that persistent storytelling and rigorous data preparation are essential for women founders navigating systemic bias.

Ex Machina's Scientific Advisor - Murray Shanahan

Murray Shanahan, Craig Cannon

Academician Roger Penrose details the historical persistence of the frame problem in artificial intelligence, tracing his own career shift from symbolic logic to computational neuroscience and back to a proposed synthesis of symbolic concepts within modern deep learning. Drawing parallels with the evolution of chess and Go under AlphaGo, Penrose critiques current AI's data inefficiency and lack of semantic understanding while offering insights from his consultation on the film *Ex Machina* regarding the relationship between physical embodiment and consciousness. He concludes that while hardware capable of matching the human brain is imminent, achieving true Artificial General Intelligence still requires fundamental conceptual breakthroughs that transcend specialized algorithms or Asimov-style ethical constraints.

Creating Meaningful Lives for the 21st Century Workforce: A Conversation with Top Executives

Andy Serwer, John Chambers, Denise Morrison, Tim Sloan, Mark Weinberger, Devin Wenig

Leaders from Cisco, eBay, Wells Fargo, Campbell's, and EY convened to establish that aligning workforce strategy with core social values is essential for navigating rapid technological shifts and a changing demographic landscape. These executives detailed specific outcomes, such as Wells Fargo's lowest turnover in thirty years following its listening campaign and compensation adjustments, and EY's record female retention rates driven by inclusive policies and a "better working world" mission. The panel further emphasized that addressing the critical skills gap through education reform, flexible work cultures, and continuous reskilling is necessary to sustain engagement and profitability in an era where traditional company lifecycles are shrinking.

Getting Our Health Priorities in Order: Prevention, Research, and Treatment

Ed Greissing, Katie Couric, Mark Alles, Tom Beauregard, Linda Fried, Eric Lefkofsky, Jim Robinson

Addressing a critical misalignment where preventive social factors drive 70% of health outcomes despite comprising only 5% of spending, industry leaders from UnitedHealth, Celgene, and Tempus are pivoting toward virtual prevention and genomic data integration. Innovations such as Project Not Me, early-stage biological interception, and million-fold reductions in sequencing costs aim to overcome regulatory friction and treat diseases before they manifest, as demonstrated by UnitedHealth's prenatal care model that reduced preterm births by 30%. The panel concludes that immediate progress requires interoperable data platforms to replace siloed systems, enabling the digital infrastructure necessary to close the nine-year life expectancy gap driven by socioeconomic disparities.

The Coming U.S. Infrastructure Boom

Michael Burke, André Bourbonnais, Reed Cordish, Susan Gray, Terry McAuliffe, Elaine Chao, Mike Milken

The Trump administration proposes a $200 billion federal catalyst intended to unlock $1 trillion in total infrastructure investment over a decade, leveraging regulatory reforms to reduce approval timelines from ten years to two. Key figures including Secretary Elaine Chao and Governor Terry McAuliffe highlighted public-private partnerships as essential to closing state funding gaps, citing Virginia's success in lowering construction costs and accelerating projects like the Atlantic Gateway. To ensure viability, the plan mandates independent state funding, expands eligibility beyond transportation to include energy and broadband, and seeks to shift the U.S. infrastructure spending ratio toward global benchmarks by utilizing an infrastructure bank model and privatized operational structures.

Russia Revealed: Where Moscow and Washington Go from Here

Michael Crowley, Jane Harman, Daniel Russell, Andrew Weiss, Nikolai Zelenski, Laura Satrakian, Ben Weg-Prosser, Michael Bright, Kevin Ciccino, John

A 2017 expert panel analyzed the deterioration of U.S.-Russia relations, highlighting how election interference investigations and a dysfunctional Trump administration have eroded the trust necessary for diplomatic engagement. Experts including Jane Harmon, Andrew Weiss, and Daniel Russell cautioned that military miscalculations in Syria and Ukraine, combined with a stagnant Russian economy adapted to sanctions, create a volatile environment prone to accidental escalation. The consensus warned that without a cohesive national security strategy to replace incoherent policies, the risk of a strategic "collision" increases alongside fears of a "world war by accident."

Pacific Alliance: Leading Integration in Latin America

Julie T. Katzman, Gerónimo Gutiérrez, Carlos Pareja, Juan Carlos Pinzón, Juan Gabriel Valdés

Established by Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile, the Pacific Alliance functions as a minimalist, market-oriented bloc that has eliminated tariffs on 92% of intra-regional goods to form the world's eighth-largest economy. By leveraging 41% of Latin American foreign direct investment and hosting strategic forums with major economies like the US, EU, and China, the alliance is actively pursuing deeper supply chain integration and potential convergence with Mercosur. Despite challenges in labor mobility and low current intra-regional trade, the bloc is implementing structural reforms to formalize SMEs, expand student mobility, and solidify its geopolitical stance within the Asia-Pacific region.

Feeding the Future: The Changing Landscapes of Food and Agriculture

Paul Fribourg, Patrick Brown, John Hamer, Mehmood Khan, John Vikupitz, Selected, Ambassador Compson

Industry leaders from Impossible Foods, Monsanto, PepsiCo, and Netafim convened to address the divergent challenges of Western obesity and global food insecurity through a strategic pivot toward plant-based proteins, gene editing, and precision agriculture. The panel highlighted critical shifts in consumer trust and regulatory landscapes, emphasizing that solving future food needs requires deploying existing technologies like drip irrigation and data analytics alongside new inventions to reduce waste and optimize supply chains. With Silicon Valley investing billions into ag-tech and global demand for grain projected to rise by 50%, the consensus among these key figures is that a collective approach involving governments and NGOs is essential to scale sustainable solutions across emerging markets.

My Organization Has Been Hacked

Ray Rothrock, Heather Adkins, Dmitri Alperovitch, Daniel Ennis, Siobhan MacDermott, Dan Ennis

Following a paradigm shift from prevention-focused IT tasks to boardroom-level risk management triggered by major breaches like Target and Sony, this panel of cybersecurity leaders outlines a critical strategy prioritizing immediate legal privilege and crisis readiness. Key figures including Dmitri Alperovitch, Heather Adkins, and Dan Ennis emphasize that organizations must cultivate a culture of transparency and conduct regular non-technical tabletop exercises to effectively manage insider threats and navigate complex geopolitical adversaries. Ultimately, the discussion underscores that robust collaboration between public and private sectors, combined with strategic investments in AI and cyber insurance, is essential to mitigating the severe financial and operational impacts of future attacks.

IPOs for SMEs: Can Capital Markets Close the Financing Gap?

Staci Warden, Ana Carvajal, Ashish Chauhan, Siobhan Cleary, Nick Thadaney, Arumna Abdul, Daniel, Scott Birdwell

A high-level panel of global financial experts identified credit access as the primary barrier for Small and Medium Enterprises, proposing tiered exchange models from Canada's TMX Group and India's Bombay Stock Exchange as effective mechanisms to mobilize local capital while protecting investors through graded liquidity rules. The discussion detailed how proportional regulatory frameworks, market maker programs, and innovative instruments like securitized receivables can balance enforcement with the need for lower compliance costs, successfully transitioning hundreds of companies from junior markets to senior boards. Ultimately, stakeholders argued that sustainable SME ecosystems require shifting from isolated IPO promotion to holistic financing environments that integrate private equity exit routes and foster job creation without distorting market integrity.