Latest Interviews
Showing 2956–2970 of 3,131 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs10 min
Talks at GS – Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin: Changing the Face – and Format – of News
Danielle Weisberg, Carly Zakin
Co-founders Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin launched The Skimm in 2012 to bridge the news consumption gap for female millennials by delivering concise, nonpartisan global updates via email. The company now generates revenue through strategic brand partnerships and a forward-looking "Skim Ahead" subscription service, with the editors personally curating all content to maintain a trusted, conversational voice. As the business has grown, the founders have expanded their mission to address misinformation while advising new entrepreneurs to prioritize value articulation over academic credentials in a challenging startup landscape.
- Y Combinator2h 14m
IPFS, CoinList, and the Filecoin ICO with Juan Benet and Dalton Caldwell
Juan Benet, Dalton Caldwell, Craig Cannon, Dan Galpin, Francesc Campoy, Mark Mandelmann, Mark Blythouse, Mark Mandelbaum, Chris Broadfootnich
Protocol Labs, founded by Juan Bonet, is developing the InterPlanetary File System and its incentivized Layer-2, Filecoin, to transition internet infrastructure from centralized, location-based models to a decentralized, content-addressed network that ensures data sovereignty and censorship resistance. By replacing traditional venture capital with token-based funding models like CoinList, the organization enables long-term open-source research while utilizing Proof of Replication to create a liquid global market for unused storage capacity. This initiative aims to solve systemic inefficiencies in credit assignment and data redundancy, positioning Filecoin as a competitor to major cloud providers while fostering a new economy where protocol contributors are compensated directly through native network value.
- Y Combinator5h 9m
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.
- Y Combinator53 min
Ex Machina's Scientific Advisor - Murray Shanahan
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.
- Milken Institute1h 21m
Lunch Program: A Conversation with Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Jim Yong Kim and Jamie Dimon
Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Jim Yong Kim, Jamie Dimon, Michael Klowden, Willow Bay, David Rubenstein
The 20th Milken Institute Global Conference convened approximately 4,000 attendees from 60 nations to address the theme of "Building Meaningful Lives" through strategic pillars of capital access, job creation, and health. Key figures including U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon presented diverging perspectives on trade policy, global development, and domestic infrastructure reform. Their discussions emphasized shifting from GDP-centric metrics to human capital investment, while outlining specific strategies to overcome regulatory hurdles and automate job transitions to drive future economic growth.
- Milken Institute1h 2m
Chess and the Art of War: Strategies That Win, from Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen, Erik Schatzker, Danny Rensch, DAN GALPIN, Rockwell Shaw, Frank Motek, Yascha Monk, Igor Tuchinsky, Steven Knapp, Toby Post, James Kuffner, Brett Bryan, Noaf Altari, Danny Kane, David Wall, Ari Milken, Bailey Milken, Eric Olives, Mike Tyson
World champion Magnus Carlsen demonstrated his elite cognitive endurance by winning most games in a rapid "sudden death" simul against ten opponents, including WorldQuant CEO Igor Tuchinsky and representatives from major tech and academic institutions. While adhering to a philosophy that prioritizes winning over artistic expression and relies on flexible physical optimization, Carlsen managed the extreme time pressure of ten-minute games by rapidly controlling the center and converting technical endgames. The event highlighted the intense mental strain of simultaneous high-level play, featuring a notable draw against David Wall that resulted from a clerical error where Carlsen mistakenly believed the game had concluded.
- Milken Institute59 min
Leading a Healthy Life
Paula Zahn, Rip Esselstyn, Michael O. Johnson, Erik Oberholtzer, Dean Ornish, Shazi Visram
Dr. Dean Ornish leads a panel demonstrating that integrated lifestyle interventions involving plant-based nutrition, stress management, and social connection can reverse chronic conditions ranging from heart disease to prostate cancer while simultaneously reducing long-term healthcare costs. The discussion identifies structural barriers such as food deserts and industrial subsidies as primary obstacles, proposing community-based solutions like affordable plant foods and distributed health platforms to ensure equitable access. Ultimately, the group concludes that individual behavioral choices, driven by the joy of living rather than fear, serve as the definitive determinant of health and can override genetic predispositions to prevent premature mortality.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
A Conversation with Sherry Lansing
Sherry Lansing, Stephen Galloway
Former 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures chairman Sherry Lansing spent 25 years leading Hollywood's most prominent studios, producing blockbusters like *Titanic* and *Forrest Gump* while overcoming gender bias and high-pressure production crises. In 2003, she transitioned from film to philanthropy, founding the Sherry Lansing Foundation to advance cancer research and education after a pivotal meeting with Jimmy Carter. Now 72, Lansing reports greater authenticity and joy in her charitable work than in her decades of studio management, with plans to remain active until age 100.
- Goldman Sachs12 min
Talks at GS – Eddie Huang: Food, Culture, Identity
Executive Producer and author Nahnatchka Khan reflects on her memoir *Fresh Off the Boat* and the television adaptation as pivotal moments in transitioning from defensive survival mechanisms to intentional identity formation. She critiques the show for diluting authentic Asian experiences into universal white narratives while rejecting the "model minority" stereotype through her personal journey of culinary preservation and leadership at her restaurant, Bauhaus. Ultimately, she advocates for a cultural shift that prioritizes shared humanity over differences, utilizing a management philosophy that blends high performance with deep personal care to foster genuine employee loyalty.
- Y Combinator34 min
How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups? – Jeff Bussgang and Michael Seibel
Jeff Bussgang, Michael Seibel, Craig Cannon
YC CEO Michael Seibel and HBS lecturer Jeff Busgang debate the persistent gaps between MBA education and startup execution, identifying technical deficits, lack of commitment, and excessive research as primary reasons for high rejection rates. While Business Schools like Harvard are adapting through physical integration with engineering departments and new joint degrees, the traditional curriculum often fails to instill the immediate traction and hands-on coding skills required by venture capitalists. Ultimately, Seibel advises non-technical founders outside top hubs to prioritize working at early-stage startups over pursuing an MBA, citing real-world experience as superior preparation for building transformational ventures.
- Y Combinator40 min
At the Intersection of AI, Governments, and Google - Tim Hwang
Tim Wong, Google's Global Public Policy Lead for AI and Machine Learning, navigates the intersection of technical security challenges, privacy constraints, and societal impacts like job displacement. He highlights critical tensions between de-biasing data and protecting minority privacy while emphasizing that current adversarial vulnerabilities limit high-stakes automation adoption. To address these issues, Google promotes global policy experimentation and educational reforms that shift computer science toward example-based learning and domain-specific expertise.
- Y Combinator52 min
Rick and Morty Writer: Ryan Ridley
Creator Ryan Ridley, drawing on early exposure to comedy legends at his father's club and formal training within Chicago's digital video scene, helped pioneer the unique voice of *Rick and Morty* by blending dark sci-fi tropes with a collaborative, writer-driven approach that prioritized personal creative satisfaction over market trends. The show's development involved rigorous internal debates on lore and character design, such as the scale of Meeseeks or the logic of the Citadel of Ricks, while relying on universal human fears and specific genre subversions to distinguish its humor from predecessors like *Futurama*. Ultimately, Ridley's strategy of making content for a self-curated audience of one, combined with Justin Roiland's distinct vocal performance and Dan Harmon's vision, facilitated the series' global success and continues to influence Ridley's current work on high-status animated projects.
- Y Combinator31 min
Scaling Product | Fireside with Joe Gebbia and Reid Hoffman
Airbnb achieved product-market fit by abandoning scalable code solutions in favor of manual, non-scalable actions, such as founders personally photographing listings to overcome trust barriers and reduce user friction. To sustain hyper-growth while maintaining culture and empathy, the company institutionalized practices like hiring for future needs, training core values interviewers, and mandating that employees regularly experience the platform as travelers and hosts. This strategic focus on deep user connection and operational realism eventually enabled the expansion from a simple room-rental service to a comprehensive travel ecosystem featuring Experiences and a global network of professional photographers.
- Goldman Sachs11 min
Talks at GS – Julia Steyn: Car Sharing and the Future of Auto
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.
- Y Combinator7 min
Erin Frey on Therapy
Erin, co-founder and CEO of KIPP, details a personal case study demonstrating how structured therapy effectively restored her cognitive clarity and leadership confidence after chronic stress impaired her decision-making. By reframing catastrophic thinking through scientific frameworks, she overcame performance barriers that were previously hindering her ability to navigate high-stakes investor interviews. Her experience underscores a broader recommendation for founders to treat mental health maintenance as a critical operational asset, advocating for early intervention to prevent performance degradation and normalize therapeutic care as a standard business practice.