Latest Interviews
Showing 2716–2730 of 4,783 transcripts.
Clear all filtersVaibhav Sahgal: How We Scaled Reddit to 55M Users; Lessons from Zynga | 20VC #942
Vaibhav Sahgal, Harry Stebbings
V, a former software engineer turned Head of Growth at Reddit, argues that the growth function should be redefined as "value connection" rather than mere value creation, emphasizing data-driven experimentation over intuition to align product utility with specific user personas. His approach integrates strict guardrails to prevent channel burnout while advocating for hiring senior product leaders who can drive immediate experimentation and equity stakes post-product-market fit. Drawing on lessons from Zynga and Reddit, V highlights the critical shift from friend-based graphs to interest-driven communities and warns against mimicking competitors instead of doubling down on a platform's unique core strengths.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Turning the UK Into a Talent Magnet | Full Interview
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discusses how his early hospitality work and Stanford MBA shaped a "startup treasury" mentality that informed his implementation of the Help to Grow scheme and continuous policy iteration model. He details recent budget reforms targeting high-skill migration, tax incentives, and the Long-Term Asset Fund to stimulate investment, while acknowledging the cultural challenges in shifting pension behavior. Looking toward the next five years, Sunak prioritizes securing full employment, controlling national debt, and maintaining the UK's position as a global hub for innovation and business growth.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
Navigating Macro Headwinds: A Conversation With the Founders of Brex and Chief
Kim Posnett, Henrique Dubugras, Carolyn Childers, Allison Nathan
At Goldman Sachs' 11th Annual Builders and Innovators Summit, Allison Nathan moderated a dialogue between Carolyn Childers, CEO of the women's executive network CHIEF, and Enrique Dubagras, Co-CEO of fintech firm Brex, to discuss their strategic pivots during a macroeconomic downturn. Childers detailed CHIEF's billion-dollar valuation and UK expansion as a response to the "Great Resignation," while Dubagras outlined Brex's shift from long-term bets to immediate profitability and opportunistic M&A to navigate reduced corporate spend. The conversation concluded with actionable guidance for founders to balance high-trust cultures and scalable processes against the bureaucratic risks of extreme outlier management.
Emil Michael: How I Negotiated the $4B Uber-China Deal, Why DoorDash Caught Up to Uber | 20VC #941
The event details the career arc of an Harvard and Stanford Law alumnus who transitioned from advising early internet ventures to executing landmark negotiations, including the $760 million acquisition of Tell Me Networks and the $7 billion Didi-Uber merger. Drawing heavily on mentorship from Bill Campbell, the speaker outlines a deal-making framework that prioritizes founder psychology and information asymmetry while critiquing recent industry failures like the Uber-Postmates integration. Looking forward, the narrative shifts to a venture landscape defined by reduced M&A activity and structural down rounds, with the speaker announcing a pivot to mentoring twenty high-impact entrepreneurs by 2027 rather than returning to a traditional venture capital role.
Brad Gerstner: Why high interest rates mean low company valuations
Brad Gerstner, Harry Stebbings
The firm advocates for strict valuation discipline by applying a 20% discount to pre-pandemic multiples to ensure margins of safety against rising interest rates. It adjusts capital deployment inversely to market sentiment, expanding during panic but rejecting current growth stock corrections as fully priced rather than genuine opportunities. Looking forward, the strategy targets long-term value creation in cloud and AI sectors, contingent on a stabilized cost of capital and a return to predictable market conditions.
- The Diary Of A CEO1h 48m
Whoop Founder: How I Built A $3.6 BILLION Company & BEAT Apple! Will Ahmed | E189
Will Ahmed founded the $3.6 billion wearable health company Whoop to track physiological metrics like strain and recovery, pioneering a subscription model that avoids the screen-based smartwatch category favored by competitors like Apple and Amazon. Born from Ahmed's personal struggle with overtraining as a Harvard student, the startup endured existential cash crises while developing proprietary sensors and a unique culture that rewards employee sleep performance. By leveraging data from elite athletes such as LeBron James and Michael Phelps, Whoop distinguishes itself through a disciplined focus on continuous monitoring and a business philosophy that prioritizes long-term retention over hardware sales.
Kyle Harrison: Why 75% of Active Investors Will Disappear in the Next Few Years | 20VC #940
Kyle Harrison, Harry Stebbings
Kyle Healy, a former creator marketplace executive and General Partner at Contrary, synthesizes lessons from previous firms like TCV and Index to advocate for a venture model driven by active founder support and rigorous market analysis. He predicts a consolidation of the private equity landscape where only firms with distinct identities and partner-led approaches will survive, warning that oversized capital without operational discipline risks obscuring fundamental business flaws. His strategy focuses on de-risking early-stage entrepreneurship by shifting capital allocation toward family offices and redefining success through sustainable compound growth rather than explosive, speculative outliers.
- Dwarkesh Patel2h 6m
Bryan Caplan - Feminists, Billionaires, and Demagogues
Brian Kaplan challenges conventional definitions of feminism by arguing that Western society has overcorrected on fairness, creating a dynamic that has paradoxically lowered women's happiness while ignoring severe gender disparities in developing nations. He further defends economic meritocracy and open borders as vital for global prosperity, criticizing current credential inflation in education and advocating for tournament-based incentives to drive entrepreneurship. Drawing on his analysis of historical transitions and political stability, Kaplan concludes that effective governance requires prioritizing logical outcomes over conventional morality while suppressing atavistic desires for violence.
Fivetran's Lauren Schwartz: Must-Ask Questions to Identify Potential Sales Talent | 20VC #939
Lauren Schwartz, Harry Stebbings
Lauren shares her evolution from selling cookies to leading sales strategies at Google, Stanford, and Fivetran, emphasizing a philosophy of "insatiable curiosity" and co-selling through ecosystem partnerships over traditional cold calling. She outlines a rigorous qualification process that utilizes backward timelines to establish urgency and advises early-stage startups to hire versatile "Renaissance" sellers who can generate market feedback while leadership maintains transparency on losses and wins. Furthermore, she advocates for sales compensation tied to customer adoption and for Account Executives to act as franchise CEOs throughout the entire customer lifecycle to ensure long-term value realization.
- Lex Fridman2h 49m
Hikaru Nakamura: Chess, Magnus, Kasparov, and the Psychology of Greatness | Lex Fridman Podcast #330
Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus, Kasparov, Lex Fridman
In a 2010 private Blitz match, Magnus Carlsen defeated Hikaru Nakamura 24.5–15.5, exploiting specific opening and endgame weaknesses that Nakamura initially misjudged as a major competitive error. This encounter catalyzed a psychological barrier for Nakamura regarding Carlsen's perceived superhuman capabilities, a hurdle he eventually overcame by increasing the frequency of their direct confrontations and adopting a resilient mindset focused on continuous iteration. Nakamura also contextualized these experiences within broader chess history, including the impact of the Berlin Defense and modern security concerns regarding the Hans Niemann cheating controversy, while emphasizing his transition from a risk-averse player to a strategic entrepreneur in the streaming domain.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
Scott Kapnick, Founder & CEO of HPS Investment Partners, LLC
Goldman Sachs veteran Scott Kaepernick discusses the convergence of geopolitical realignment and private credit expansion, identifying Europe's energy transition as a primary driver for capital deployment into supply chain resiliency. At HPS, the firm leverages this environment to execute billion-dollar transactions in the non-sponsor market, positioning itself to fill the vacuum left by post-2008 banking regulations while maintaining strict downside protection against recessionary risks. Beyond market strategy, Kaepernick outlines HPS's institutional culture, which prioritizes the Stockdale Paradox in leadership, substantial diversity initiatives like the Howard University partnership, and long-term mentorship to guide the next generation of financial leaders.
Tristan Handy: Why The CEO Should Make As Few Decisions As Possible | 20VC #937
Tristan Handy, Harry Stebbings, Anthony Casalena, Frank Slootman
dbt founder Tristan describes the bootstrapped journey of scaling a data infrastructure platform to a $4.2 billion valuation while delaying monetization until enterprise legal requirements forced a commercial pivot. The company operates a "many satellites" distributed model that prioritizes community connection over traditional remote work, utilizing radical transparency in fundraising and a performance management system centered on shared understanding rather than individual star power. By combining a "slow to monetize, fast to execute" strategy with a culture that values team alignment over A-player hunting, dbt has achieved high retention among its 350 employees and established a standard in the modern data stack.
Spotify CTO Gustav Söderström: TikTok's Music; How Olivia Rodrigo Gamed the Algo | 20VC #936
Gustav Söderström, Olivia Rodrigo, Harry Stebbings
Spotify Chief Product Officer Gustav Söderström outlines the company's strategic pivot from desktop to mobile, detailing how overcoming music label resistance to a free mobile tier unlocked exponential growth despite temporary churn risks. He describes a leadership philosophy grounded in rigorous Socratic debate and counter-positioning, where Spotify capitalized on YouTube's inability to support background audio to secure a dominant market share. Looking forward, Söderström predicts the convergence of audio and social networking will create a massive new addressable market driven by algorithmic recommendation media rather than user curation.
- Goldman Sachs17 min
Taking Stock: What’s Ahead for US Markets
Goldman Sachs projects the S&P 500 to remain in bear market territory through early 2023, with a baseline forecast of closing at 3,600 before potentially dropping to 3,150 if aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes trigger a recession. Investors are currently adopting a risk-off stance by reducing leverage and holding higher cash levels, reflecting a market shift where positive real yields favor safe assets over equities as inflation remains stubborn. While the energy sector is expected to drive Q3 earnings growth, the broader market faces margin compression and earnings declines outside of energy, delaying a market recovery until inflation clarity emerges in mid-2023.
- The Diary Of A CEO1h 34m
David Harewood: The Chilling Story Of How A Hollywood Star Lost His Mind | E185
David Harewood, Stephen Butler
Actor David Harewood details his involuntary hospitalization at age 23, an event precipitated by systemic racism, severe exhaustion, and the psychological toll of navigating a "white space" in Britain. His recovery process was complicated by medical bias, including the administration of triple-dose tranquilizers, yet he eventually leveraged his trauma to destigmatize psychosis through a 2019 documentary and public advocacy. Harewood now channels these experiences into producing original content and mentoring emerging talent, aiming to dismantle industry typecasting while inspiring resilience among Black youth.