Latest Interviews

Space Travel: From Mars to the Stars

Buzz Aldrin, Yuri, Dan, May

Prominent figures including Buzz Aldrin, Yuri Milner, and Dan Goldin convened to advocate for a shift toward private-sector-driven space exploration to overcome current stagnation and accelerate a permanent human presence on Mars by 2039. The discussion highlighted Milner's $100 million commitment to the Breakthrough Starshot initiative, which aims to launch gram-scale probes to Alpha Centauri, alongside Aldrin's proposal for a global coalition to reduce costs and establish infrastructure. Panelists concluded that securing humanity's long-term survival requires expanding beyond Earth's carrying capacity through unified international efforts and technological innovation in both near-term lunar capabilities and century-scale interstellar travel.

Part 2: Global Capital Markets

Mohamed El-Aryan, Thomas Fink, Scott Miner, Arunma Otec, David Solomon

Prominent financial leaders including David Solomon, Mohamed El-Erian, and Arunma Otec discuss post-election market volatility and the critical need for tax reform and deregulation to sustain reflationary growth. The panel emphasizes that while current optimism is high, success depends on reconciling strong equity performance with weak GDP data and executing complex legislative compromises on corporate tax rates and regulatory frameworks like the Volcker Rule. Furthermore, experts warn that long-term prosperity requires addressing structural challenges such as the digital divide, workforce readiness for automation, and coordinated global monetary policies to manage currency dynamics amidst geopolitical instability.

Institute Chairman Michael Milken on Building Meaningful Lives

Michael Milken

At the 2017 Milken Institute Global Conference, the speaker delivered the first address of the decade under the theme "Building Meaningful Lives," arguing that access to capital serves as the primary engine for economic mobility and global prosperity. The presentation detailed a shift in the global economic landscape where private equity, technological innovation, and medical breakthroughs have driven job creation and health improvements despite stagnating median incomes and rising social isolation in the United States. By advocating for targeted investment in human capital across emerging markets and the development of new financial technologies, the Institute aims to expand economic opportunity to 90% of the world's population while transforming historical challenges like cancer into manageable conditions.

A Conversation with Steven Mnuchin, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Steven Mnuchin, Mike, Marie, Maria

The administration is pursuing a comprehensive tax reform agenda that seeks to accelerate economic growth to 3% annually by consolidating the tax code into a flat 15% corporate rate, eliminating most deductions, and removing the SALT deduction to broaden the tax base. While maintaining a stated goal of not cutting taxes for the wealthy through the Mnuchin Rule, the Treasury Department is negotiating with legislative leaders on the remaining details and preparing to use Senate reconciliation if bipartisan support cannot be secured. This fiscal strategy is complemented by parallel efforts to deregulate financial and energy sectors, reform GSEs to remove taxpayer risk, and advance reciprocal trade policies to support long-term revenue generation.

Scaling Growth | Gustaf Alstromer, YC Partner (formerly Airbnb) & Ed Baker (formerly Uber)

Gustaf Alstromer, Ed Baker

Ed Arons and Gustav Sorensen discuss their experience scaling growth teams at Uber, Airbnb, and Facebook, contrasting early viral tactics that exploited platform loopholes with sustainable strategies focused on retention and marketplace liquidity. The speakers detail how successful scaling requires aligning product and engineering functions, adapting paid acquisition to local constraints, and replacing short-term viral hacks with long-term investments in SEO, data science, and user experience optimization. Furthermore, they emphasize the necessity of institutionalizing experimentation to challenge assumptions, citing specific examples like copy adjustments in Japan and WeChat integration in China, while advocating for unified operational models that track acquisition, churn, and re-engagement separately.

Caveat Configurator: How to replace configs with code, and why you might not want to

Jane Street engineers evolved from a naive dynamic plugin system plagued by versioning failures and tooling friction into a structured framework utilizing Config Generation and the centralized PlugD infrastructure to balance flexibility with safety. This transition replaced unmanageable runtime code execution with statically generated pure data files for standard cases, while reserving runtime plugins for scenarios requiring true dynamism under strict code review and library version management. By decoupling plugin distribution from application builds and enforcing mandatory testing, the firm successfully mitigates existential risks while allowing traders to safely deploy custom OCaml logic within production systems.

Building Your Board | Glenn Kelman

Glenn Kelman, Selina Tobaccowala, James Slavitt, Jeff Markowitz, Mark Singer, Emily Melton, Austin Ligon, Reed, Julie Bornstein, Bob Milad, Jason, Janie, Scott, Chris Roski

Redfin CEO Peter van de Ven transformed his company's governance by shifting board relations from adversarial to collaborative, implementing strict communication protocols and off-site retreats to foster honest dialogue and strategic alignment. To ensure operational efficiency, the firm recruited board members based on peer-scale experience and mission alignment rather than corporate prestige, resulting in employed agents who are three times more productive than industry standards. This deliberate restructuring of founder-board dynamics and executive accountability has enabled Redfin to maintain higher Net Promoter Scores while generating hundreds of millions in annual revenue.

The Impact Investing Summit

Matthew Bishop, Lisa Ashford, Mark Campanale, Mark Goldring, Lutfey Siddiqi, Matthew Spencer, Tristram Stewart, Rod Schwartz, Arthur Wood, Mel Tam

In an Oxford-style debate regarding the primary agent for climate action, Lisa Ashford and Mark Campanali argued that investors and bankers can bypass political inertia to drive rapid decarbonization, while Matthew Spencer and colleagues contended that social movements and government policy are essential to establish the regulatory frameworks that make green investment viable. Despite pro-market arguments citing market failures and capital efficiency, the opposition team successfully countered by highlighting historical precedents where moral pressure and state intervention preceded financial shifts. Ultimately, the side opposing the motion won by persuading the audience to view political and social activism as the necessary "generals" that guide the "cavalry" of private capital.

Talks at GS – Julia Steyn: Car Sharing and the Future of Auto

Julia Steyn, Michael

GM is pivoting from a traditional manufacturing model to a service-oriented strategy through its Maven brand, which targets younger urban demographics with integrated car-sharing and rideshare solutions. CEO Mary Barra oversees this multi-billion dollar investment in artificial intelligence, autonomous technology, and electric vehicles to address the mismatch between slow automotive engineering cycles and rapid consumer tech adoption. The initiative aims to secure lifetime customer value by adapting to shifting urban habits while acknowledging that personal vehicle ownership will persist in rural markets.

Scaling Culture | Jason Kilar, former Hulu CEO

Jason Kilar

Jason, a corporate culture expert with twenty years of scaling experience at Disney, Amazon, and Hulu, argues that organizational values must be codified into repeatable mechanisms to survive growth beyond fifty employees. He details how Disney relied on explicit behavioral modeling and dedicated training institutions, while Amazon utilized written leadership principles and tangible awards to dismantle bureaucracy and enforce "Disagree and Commit" protocols. Additionally, Jason explains how Hulu leveraged provocative cultural documents to repel misaligned candidates and rigorously terminated high performers who violated core tenets, demonstrating that good intentions alone cannot sustain culture at scale.

From Startup to Scaleup | Sam Altman and Reid Hoffman

Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman

Originating from a Stanford class led by Reid Hoffman and Sam Altman, this event synthesizes the core principles of "blitzscaling" to address how technology startups can rapidly expand while maintaining network effects and organizational coherence. Through discussions on YC's continuity fund and hiring hierarchies that prioritize values over specific skills, the gathering outlines strategies for managing the chaos inherent in growing from twenty to over 500 employees. The session concludes by defining the critical shift from early-stage intuition to structured communication and capital efficiency, emphasizing that sustainable scaling requires leaders to explicitly balance inefficient growth with eventual profitability.

Fake News: Negotiating Politics and Society in a Post-Truth World

Willow Bay, Rebecca Blumenstein, Campbell Brown, Stephen Hayes, Scott McClellan, Jon Steinberg

A panel of industry leaders and academics convened to analyze the drivers of the fake news crisis, attributing its proliferation to Facebook's engagement-focused algorithms, the decline of local journalism jobs, and a polarized political culture that normalizes dishonesty. In response, the tech giant has pivoted its mission to support authentic reporting by launching the Facebook Journalism Project, removing over 30,000 malicious accounts, and committing to a workforce of 3,000 content managers to surpass the staff sizes of major news organizations. While rejecting government regulation in favor of market-based solutions and advertiser pressure, the group emphasized a multi-pronged strategy involving new revenue models, mandatory media literacy education, and collaborative product development to restore public trust and combat misinformation.

A Conversation with the 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush

George W. Bush, Michael Milken

Former President George W. Bush discusses the Bush Institute's multifaceted mission, highlighting the enduring legacy of PEPFAR in reducing global HIV transmission and the organization's contemporary focus on leadership development through the Presidential Leadership Scholars program. The dialogue further addresses critical domestic policy priorities, including education reform grounded in accountability, the economic necessity of immigration reform, and veteran support initiatives designed to mitigate post-traumatic stress. Throughout the exchange, these initiatives are framed as strategic imperatives for national security, extending from the treatment of HIV in Namibia to the diplomatic assessment of Russian leadership.

Know Why You're Starting a Company - Danae Ringelmann of Indiegogo

Danae Ringelmann

The company leverages a deeply rooted mission to democratize access to capital, which guided a strategic pivot from an offline model to a global online "perk space" that empowers creators worldwide. This authentic "why" attracted high-caliber talent and co-founders, enabling the team to endure a three-and-a-half-year fundraising drought caused by the 2008 financial crisis while developing a platform with diverse funding structures and regulatory flexibility. Successful outcomes include validating the model through major projects like uBiome and helping passion-driven engineers raise millions, proving that a belief-based core drives both talent acquisition and long-term operational resilience.

Jessica Livingston's Advice For Founders

Jessica Livingston

The speaker emphasizes determination, empathy, and extreme focus as foundational qualities for achieving product-market fit while advising financial prudence to extend startup runway. Addressing the unique challenges women face, the discussion highlights the significant trade-offs between the demanding hours required for building a company and the responsibilities of raising children, noting that starting before parenthood is substantially easier. Despite these hurdles, the event confirms that accelerators remain committed to funding founders of all family statuses, offering practical strategies like outsourcing non-core tasks to help those with children manage the competing forces of entrepreneurship and parenting.