Latest Interviews

Black holes: why they matter

Alok Jha

Black holes, defined by their event horizons and singularities, span from stellar remnants weighing three to twenty solar masses to supermassive giants millions of times heavier that anchor galaxies. Detection milestones since 1971, culminating in the Event Horizon Telescope's images of Cygnus X-1 and Sagittarius A*, have confirmed their existence through gravitational lensing and X-ray emissions. These cosmic phenomena remain central to resolving the conflict between General Relativity and Quantum Theory, particularly regarding the black hole information paradox and the nature of singularities.

Top Ways Startups Waste Money

Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Brad Flora

Early-stage founders frequently squander capital on premature hiring, marketing, and professional services before achieving product-market fit, a behavior driven by the "Sebastianism" fallacy of seeking external saviors rather than building internal foundations. The discussion outlines specific inefficiencies in seeking FAANG talent, over-relying on advertising and PR retainers, and granting unnecessary equity to advisors, all of which can be avoided by founders executing core tasks themselves. By prioritizing self-reliance and scrappy alternatives to validate hypotheses, companies can prevent costly mistakes and ensure that significant spending only occurs after proving the business model generates active customer demand.

A ‘Seismic’ Shift in Private Markets

Mike Koester, Alison Nathan

Goldman Sachs co-president Mike Kester outlines a private market sector growing to $10 trillion that is undergoing a seismic shift toward individual investor participation while navigating a fundraising slowdown driven by the denominator effect. Despite regulatory pressures and a transition away from financial engineering toward active operational management, the industry continues to deliver consistent excess returns and is prioritizing sectors like infrastructure and life sciences. Kester projects that while capital raising will decelerate and valuation reporting standards will tighten, systemic risk remains low due to the pre-syndication of risk to long-term limited partners.

War in Ukraine: the emerging global food crisis

Arkady, Ed, Shashank, Sasha Nauta

The ongoing war in Ukraine is precipitating a global food crisis by blocking critical export routes through Odessa, destroying domestic harvests, and disrupting fertilizer supplies, which threatens hundreds of millions in nations like Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Simultaneously, the prospective NATO accession of Sweden and Finland is expected to significantly strengthen Baltic security through Finland's substantial artillery capabilities, despite President Vladimir Putin leveraging the expansion to fuel narratives of Russian encirclement. This geopolitical shift occurs against the backdrop of US legislative uncertainty regarding escalating aid packages and potential changes in Washington's strategic posture ahead of the 2024 presidential election, raising concerns among European allies about future burden-sharing.

How China’s ‘Perfect Storm’ and Economic Headwinds Are Affecting Markets and Investors

Kinger Lau, Hui Shan, Alison Nathan

Goldman Sachs analysts analyze China's current economic stagnation driven by Omicron lockdowns and a severe property downturn, noting that structural constraints and geopolitical tensions limit the government's ability to stimulate growth through traditional methods. Despite these headwinds forcing a downward revision of long-term growth forecasts to 4-5%, the firm argues that significant risks are already priced into equities trading below 10x forward earnings, suggesting a constructive six-to-twelve-month outlook. Investors are advised to align portfolios with policy-supported sectors like semiconductors and green energy, anticipating potential valuation recovery contingent on a soft landing and avoided global recession.

Risk-based Contracting for Value-based Care, a Founder's Playbook

Julie, Justin, Jack Stoddard, Rajay Bhatniji, Corbin Petro, Faye Rottenberg, Satish Jain, Mike Copco, Sunny Goyal, Sonny

This event analyzes the strategic transition from fee-for-service to value-based care models as a solution to unsustainable healthcare costs and the need for system resiliency. Industry leaders from organizations including Patina, Waymark, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC discuss the risk spectrum ranging from pay-for-performance to global capitation, emphasizing that success requires tailored glide paths, early partner alignment, and robust upstream metrics. The presentation outlines critical investment criteria for scaling risk-based contracts, including the necessity for specialized actuarial talent, sufficient capital reserves for statutory requirements, and clear roadmaps for managing total cost of care alongside clinical outcomes.

Election polling: why is it so difficult?

The presentation traces the evolution of election polling from unrepresentative 19th-century straw polls to modern scientific standards established after the 1936 Literary Digest failure and the 2016 U.S. state-level errors. It details how contemporary forecasting models combine polling data with economic fundamentals and run millions of simulations to generate probabilistic outcomes, a methodology successfully tested during the 2022 French presidential election. Ultimately, the analysis emphasizes that while these models cannot achieve perfect accuracy due to inherent sampling limitations and unforeseen external events, they provide increasingly reliable predictions as historical data accumulates.

War in Ukraine: is a peace deal possible?

Ed, Sally, Zany, Arkady

Ongoing negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow remain stalled over the core triad of territorial status, sanctions sequencing, and Crimea's strategic corridor, as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov lacks final authority to offer concessions without President Vladimir Putin's direct approval. While Ukraine has hardened its stance by rejecting pre-1991 borders and exploring security guarantees akin to Finnish neutrality, Putin's strategy is increasingly driven by domestic consolidation rather than genuine security needs, reflecting a calculated worldview that prioritizes legacy over realistic military outcomes. This strategic deadlock, compounded by Putin's internal miscalculation and the reluctance of his kleptocratic inner circle to risk nuclear escalation, leaves both sides facing a stalemate with no substantive progress toward a comprehensive peace deal.

Mac the VC on the Journey from Homeless To Becoming A VC | Full Interview with Harry Stebbings

Mac the VC, Harry Stebbings, McKeever "Mac the VC" Conwell II

Mac, a former software engineer and two-time founder, launched Rare Breed in 2020 after raising $10 million through a public solicitation model that bypasses traditional general partner commitments and leverages rolling closes. The Baltimore-based firm targets pre-seed companies outside major tech hubs, prioritizing returns among underrepresented founders in the Americas and the UK rather than adhering to industry gatekeeping norms. By utilizing a flexible capital call structure and public marketing under Regulation 506(c), Rare Breed has established a non-traditional investment vehicle designed to democratize access for emerging managers and overlooked talent.

Understanding the Metaverse and Web 3.0

Eric Sheridan, Allison Nathan

Goldman Sachs analysts define the metaverse as an immersive evolution from the smartphone-centric Web 2.0 to a decentralized Web 3.0 environment, projecting a potential market valuation between $2 trillion and $12 trillion as hardware costs decline. This investment cycle, accelerated by pandemic-driven gaming adoption and high-profile corporate shifts like Meta's rebranding, anticipates major economic expansion in sectors ranging from retail to education over the next decade. Success hinges on platform interoperability and strategic partnerships, though the transition faces immediate regulatory scrutiny regarding privacy and market concentration distinct from previous web eras.

What’s Next for M&A?

Stephan Feldgoise, Mark Sorrell, Allison Nathan

Goldman Sachs reported that global M&A activity shattered 2021 records with approximately 400 transactions exceeding $500 million, driven by boards prioritizing long-term strategic positioning over short-term metrics despite geopolitical and inflationary concerns. Private equity's market share expanded to 35% as sovereign funds and family offices engaged in controlling investments, facilitating a resurgence of mega leveraged buyouts and encouraging stock-based deal structuring amid high valuations. With activist campaigns surging and digital transformation compressing execution timelines, the firm maintains a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2022, anticipating deal volumes to match or exceed the previous year's high benchmark.

Antibiotic Resistance and Chronic Disease: Understanding the Challenges and Some Possible Solutions

Amanda Jezek, Jonathan Daniels, David Greenberg, Thomas Heyman, Kathy Talkington, Mark Williams, Tom Heyman

Hosted by Faster Cures in partnership with the Infectious Disease Society of America and other key organizations, this webinar examined the critical market failure hindering new antibiotic development and highlighted its severe impact on cancer, cystic fibrosis, and transplant patients. Panelists presented data showing thousands of annual deaths from antimicrobial resistance while advocating for the "Pasteur Act," a policy designed to de-link financial rewards from sales volume to incentivize the creation of novel drugs for critical pathogens. The event concluded by urging stakeholders to share personal stories and sign a letter to Congress to drive legislative action and secure funding for both antibiotic stewardship and research.

E58: November's CPI, preparing for a downturn, macro outlook, Better.com's botched layoffs & more

Chamath, Calacanis, Friedberg, Jussie Smollett, David Sacks

Prominent investors and analysts debated the accelerating 6.8% inflation and structural labor shortages at an event featuring Bill Ackman, Chamath Pillay, and Jay Calacanis, who criticized the federal government's fiscal mismanagement and the inefficiency of current capital allocation models. The discussion highlighted the sharp correction in tech valuations and the fallout from corporate missteps like the Better.com layoffs as evidence of a shifting market environment driven by rising interest rates. Looking ahead, the panelists offered diverging forecasts on whether the economy faces a soft landing or a prolonged slide while identifying the creator economy as a potential source of new employment opportunities.

B2C2B in Digital Health, a founder's playbook

Julie, Jack, Jay, Chris Hogue, Kate, Saji, Jonathan, Amanda, Andrew Lay

Digital health startups are increasingly adopting a B2C2B motion to bypass traditional enterprise sales bottlenecks by securing direct consumer adoption before targeting senior executives. This dual go-to-market strategy accelerates product-market fit through rapid consumer iteration while generating the usage data required to de-risk large-scale enterprise contracts for investors. Although this approach demands careful resource allocation to balance competing consumer and corporate requirements, it ultimately creates a more defensible business model with faster capital deployment and validated ROI.

The Post-COVID Recovery: California's Lagging Employment Rate

Grace Gedye, Julian Cañete, Reign Free, Manuel Pastor, Somjita Mitra, David Lesher, Matt Horton

California's Department of Finance, labor experts, and business leaders analyze the state's persistent 7.3% unemployment rate and structural labor shortages driven by childcare gaps, early retirements, and workforce migration to inland regions. Panelists project a 3.9% to 4% employment growth rate for the coming year, contingent on federal investments in the care economy and housing affordability while addressing risks from inflation and potential political shifts. The discussion highlights a fundamental recalibration of work where demand is shifting toward non-automatable sectors like elder care and cooperative business models rather than returning to pre-pandemic norms.