Latest Interviews
Showing 151–165 of 195 interview transcripts.
Clear all filtersNucleus Launches First Genetically Optimized Embryo
Nucleus Embryo, led by founder Keon, has launched a genetic optimization platform in partnership with Genomic Prediction that enables parents to analyze IVF embryos for traits ranging from disease risks to cognitive potential. The technology addresses the rising adoption of IVF by offering a full-stack solution for generational health, differentiating itself from standard clinical screenings through direct-to-consumer access to comprehensive genomic data. While acknowledging that the system provides relative optimization rather than the creation of specific individuals, the company aims to democratize access to this preventative care technology to reduce the prevalence of genetic disorders.
How Wander Raised Over $100M+ to Reinvent Luxury Travel
Wander, a verticalized vacation rental marketplace led by founder John Andrew, recently secured a Series B term sheet with QED to scale its curated inventory of top-tier properties beyond 1,000 locations. The company differentiates itself through a proprietary AI-driven operating system that automates 60% of management tasks and maintains strict brand safety standards while transitioning from an asset-heavy balance sheet to a REIT-based model. With a $40 million GMV run rate and a $100 million annual revenue target, Wander is restructuring into business units to support efficient growth toward Series C while prioritizing operational frugality and ethical cultural fit.
How Whop Is Making $1.2+ Billion For Creators
A lean engineering team of 15 to 20 staff has scaled WAP to a $1.2 billion GMV run rate and $108 million in monthly creator transactions by leveraging AI agents and a "rebuild over refactor" philosophy. Backed by high-profile investors including Peter Thiel and a16z, the platform is transitioning from a sneaker bot marketplace into a full-stack creator economy with a "Content Rewards" program driving over 5 billion views across emerging markets. The company now targets a $10 billion GMV valuation by expanding its developer ecosystem and global payment infrastructure while rejecting traditional junior engineering roles in favor of autonomous, senior-level technical leadership.
How Altimeter's $10B AUM Fund Is Investing In Aerospace, Defense, & Hardtech
Erik Kriessmann, Molly O'Shea, Eric Chrisman
Altimeter Partner Eric Chrisman, formerly of Index Ventures, leverages his background in venture human capital to execute a concentrated investment strategy that targets "fewer, better" ideas in defense, aerospace, and automation. The firm recently backed high-conviction portfolio companies like Anduril, K2 Space, and Base by capitalizing on large early-stage checks to build significant ownership stakes in sectors driven by talent density and mission-oriented leadership. By rejecting traditional diversification in favor of massive toehold investments, Altimeter aims to secure outlier returns while navigating a capital market environment that increasingly favors private longevity over immediate IPOs.
Why Bucky Moore Joined $30 Billion AUM Megafund Lightspeed
Bucky Moore has joined Lightspeed as a Partner to lead early-stage enterprise investments, leveraging the firm's $30 billion asset base to support capital-intensive "new class" companies like OpenAI and SpaceX without raising a new fund. Moore emphasizes a people-first investment philosophy where deep relationship building and founder assessment supersede traditional valuation tactics, aiming to capture multi-trillion dollar outcomes in AI and robotics. By expanding Lightspeed's multi-asset capabilities and diversifying capital sources beyond traditional endowments, the firm aims to navigate the structural shifts required to sustain massive growth in the modern venture landscape.
Windsurf: The Making of a Billion-Dollar AI Company | Leigh Marie Braswell, Kleiner Perkins
Leigh Marie Braswell, Molly O'Shea
Kleiner Perkins deployed its $2 billion combined KP21 fund through a nine-partner team led by Lee Marie Braswell, utilizing a "major and minor" specialization model to target early and growth stages in AI-driven sectors like Windsurf and Glean. The firm is actively validating high-velocity startups such as Windsurf, which recently hit $100 million ARR by pivoting from GPU infrastructure to a unified IDE, while rejecting the notion that current market conditions prevent the creation of historically significant companies. By enforcing rigorous diligence on recurring revenue and leveraging a "talent vortex" hiring strategy, the partnership aims to capture outliers in coding agents and enterprise automation despite macroeconomic turbulence and skepticism regarding AI profit margins.
Superpower Raises $30M Series A Led by Forerunner
Superpower, led by founder Jacob Peters, secured a $30 million Series A round led by Forerunner Ventures to advance its vision of replacing fragmented healthcare with an AI-driven concierge model. The company leverages a three-part architecture of data centralization, diagnostic intelligence, and action-oriented marketplace tools to provide comprehensive health monitoring at a fraction of traditional costs. By capitalizing on widespread metabolic dysfunction and Peters' personal health crisis, Superpower aims to disintermediate the current system and build a vertically integrated preventative care network.
Inside the $350M Pelosi Stock Tracker
Autopilot, formerly known as the Nancy Pelosi stock tracker, is a venture-backed fintech platform that has grown to manage $500 million in assets for 2.5 million users before pivoting to a creator economy model allowing influencers to offer tradable portfolios. The company leverages its history of tracking high-performing politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Richard Burr to highlight market timing disparities while advocating for the bipartisan "Pelosi Act" to ban congressional stock trading. Having generated eight-figure revenue without a down month, Autopilot is transitioning from a single-figure focus to a sustainable social investing ecosystem funded by roughly $7 million in venture capital.
Base Power's $200M Series B | Co-Led by Lee Fixel, A16Z, Lightspeed, & Valor Equity Partners
Lee Fixel, Zach Dell, Justin Lopas, Antonio Gracias, Molly
Base Power, founded in 2023 by Zach and Justin, closed a $200 million Series B round led by Addition with new participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures to accelerate its "violent execution" culture and vertical integration strategy. Leveraging an isolated grid launch in Texas and a proprietary utility model that reduces deployment timelines to 2–4 weeks, the company has installed over 1,000 batteries while securing partnerships with builders like Lennar and utilities such as Bandera. Backed by a talent pool drawn from SpaceX and Tesla, Base Power now aims to scale operations to 50–100 daily installations and expand across all 50 states to address surging electricity demand from AI data centers and electrification.
Inside Varda’s Space Factory | Delian Asparouhov, Founders Fund & Varda
Varda Aerospace has transitioned from an MVP demo to a high-cadence manufacturing operation, securing its first major revenue recognition with a commercial-pharmaceutical mission and launching a dedicated Department of Defense contract. Founders Fund co-founder Delian Liu projects an aggressive schedule of monthly launches and landings while leveraging Rocket Lab's platform to focus engineering resources on re-entry vehicles and drug reactors. The company currently operates a 60,000-square-foot facility in El Segundo with 115 employees and is navigating complex regulatory hurdles by targeting landing zones in Australia to bypass US military range scarcity.
SpaceX, Stripe, Ramp, Anduril: Navigating Liquidity in Private Markets
Molly O'Shea, Christian Garrett, Trae Stephens
137 Ventures partners, including Christian Garrett, analyze the structural shift where companies like SpaceX remain private longer to compound value and avoid public market scrutiny. The firm leverages secondary markets and tender offers to manage employee liquidity while advocating for concentrated investment in generational defense and aerospace firms. Furthermore, the discussion highlights how accelerating government-tech collaboration and specific policy changes are reshaping capital allocation strategies in the modern tech ecosystem.
Arielle Zuckerberg, "The Rizz & Tiz" Winning Founder Recipe
Arielle Zuckerberg, Molly O'Shea, John Doerr
Long Journey Ventures, led by Arielle Zuckerberg, distinguishes itself by targeting "magically weird" founders characterized by the "Ris and Tis" balance of magnetic charisma and neurodivergent intensity. The firm deploys up to $25 million in follow-on capital into top performers, prioritizing "adult frat" culture and founder-centric mentorship over standard thesis-driven views. While navigating a volatile AI market, Long Journey focuses on high-velocity deal sourcing through private networks to support non-traditional companies like Autopallet and Superpower.
How Kalshi Built a $2 Billion Prediction Market
Tarek Mansour, Luana Lopes Lara, Molly
Kalshi recently accelerated its growth by integrating with major brokers like Robinhood and Webull while securing strategic advisory support from Donald Trump Jr. to expand beyond its existing user base. The company leveraged its CFTC approval to scale its product offerings from 100 to 1,000 markets, incorporating sports betting and crypto indices with a goal of eventually rivaling the stock market through granular, event-specific risk pricing. Under CEO Tarek Mansour's leadership, the exchange distinguishes its model by treating natural events like elections as hedging instruments rather than gambling, aiming to cover 100% of relevant daily news through continuous regulatory innovation.
Taking on an $80 Billion Dollar Market with Gen Z | Dylan Diamond
Saturn, a calendar infrastructure platform for high schoolers founded by Dylan Field, has secured over $68 million in backing from investors like Jeff Bezos and General Catalyst by leveraging AI to automate schedule management and achieve top App Store rankings. The company differentiates itself from passive social media through a unique viral model that maintains high retention even when friends disengage, while simultaneously launching a precise, event-based ad network that successfully drove rapid inventory depletion for major brands like Nike. With a strategic roadmap to evolve from school-centric scheduling to a lifelong personal relationship graph, Saturn positions itself as a proactive productivity partner for Gen Z rather than a digital consumption tool.
How Writing Led To Investing In Ramp, Scale AI, Replit, Varda | Packy McCormick, Not Boring
Not Bored Capital has successfully grown its Assets Under Management to $50M by pivoting from pure software bets to a "vertically integrated" strategy that combines hardware and software infrastructure. The firm employs a "barbell" portfolio approach heavily weighting toward companies like Base and Earth AI while utilizing deep-dive journalism as its primary due diligence method to evaluate founder expertise. This media-meets-venture model, anchored by the 239,000-strong "Not Boring" newsletter, allows the firm to identify efficiency gains in AI and nuclear sectors while bypassing traditional confirmation bias found in standard accelerator programs.