Latest Interviews

Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jet

Blake Scholl

Founded by Blake Scholl in 2014, Boom Supersonic successfully developed the XB-1, the first privately built jet to break the sound barrier, using a lean team and software-driven engineering to overcome decades of aviation stagnation. This historic flight directly catalyzed a shift in US federal policy, prompting an Executive Order that legalized supersonic flight over land and clearing the path for the upcoming Overture airliner. By vertically integrating manufacturing and creating revenue through ground-based engines, the company aims to double global travel speeds while eliminating the traditional sonic boom barrier.

Sam Altman: "Never a Better Time to Do a Startup"

Sam Altman, Paul Graham, Garry Tan

Sam Altman and Y Combinator highlight an exponential shift in startup capabilities where coding agents reduce development time to mere seconds while hard tech representation in the portfolio surges to 25%. The organization positions itself as a decentralizing force to prevent single-entity control of AI power, explicitly rejecting the "live action role play" mindset in favor of heretical, high-conviction building. Altman warns of safety risks regarding surveillance and model concentration but maintains that widespread founder agency and distributed innovation will ultimately prevent economic collapse or catastrophic safety incidents.

Must Read Research: Semiconductor Signals, AI Scale, and the Power Behind It

Candace Browning

Recent analysis indicates that semiconductor markets are poised for significant recovery following a 14% index decline, driven by robust earnings ratios and the absence of recessionary signals. Concurrently, the technology sector is transitioning AI investment strategies toward scalable applications in robotics and quantum computing, while data center growth has created a critical power deficit that traditional energy firms like Chevron and Williams are poised to fill through on-site generation. Finally, emerging market debt continues to deliver substantial outperformance over major benchmarks, although the rising influence of China as a sovereign creditor is extending default resolution timelines.

Tradewinds: Navigating Economic Uncertainty | Global Conference 2026

Gerard Baker, Whitney Baird, Xavier Bettel, John Denton, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, Michael Roberts, Jerry Baker

A global economic panel consensus identifies a critical inflection point where geopolitical volatility and policy unpredictability are driving nearly $250 billion in annual lost activity while compelling nations to prioritize supply chain resilience over pure free trade. Amidst rising food security threats from conflicts in the Middle East and evolving US-China de-risking strategies, leaders are exploring plurilateral arrangements and technological solutions to manage these disruptions. Ultimately, the event highlights a shift toward strategic autonomy and green energy innovation as essential mechanisms to mitigate inflationary pressures and narrow the widening gap between the Global North and South.

Signals & Noise: Bubble Building in the Age of AI

Ben Bowler, Arjun Goyal, Benjamin Bowler

Bank of America Global Research identifies a prevailing "bubble era" driven by reflexive feedback loops where rising prices and volatility reinforce one another across asset classes like AI, tech, and cryptocurrencies. The firm's proprietary Bubble Risk Indicator (BRI) quantifies this instability using historical price data, successfully flagging recent pullbacks in Korean equities and vulnerable sectors such as cybersecurity and semiconductors. Strategic guidance suggests investors prioritize monitoring this metric over traditional valuations to navigate an environment characterized by higher volatility, larger drawdowns, and rapid snapbacks without an immediate terminal crash.

Boris Cherny: We Cut 80% of Claude Code’s Prompt

Boris Cherny, Diana Hu

The Opus 5 model release demonstrates a 30% score on the ARC AGI benchmark and unprecedented autonomous endurance by eliminating over 80% of legacy system prompts through an empirical ablation methodology. This shift enabled dynamic workflows where thousands of agents autonomously rewrote complex software stacks like the Bunn runtime and Cloud Code desktop app in mere days. Strategic advice for developers emphasizes replacing rigid prompt engineering with context design and verification protocols to leverage these emergent agentic capabilities effectively.

Jon Winkelried on Lessons from Goldman Sachs and TPG’s Next Chapter

Jon Winkelried, Matt McClure, John Winkle-Reed

John Winkle-Reed, who rose from a 1981 Goldman Sachs intern to co-president before retiring in 2009, applied his leadership philosophy of active listening and decision transparency to transform TPG from a $64 billion founder-led buyout firm into a $310 billion diversified public alternative asset manager. His strategic shift from a siloed structure to a unified "one firm" orientation overcame significant internal resistance, enabling the 2022 public listing and major acquisitions like Angela Gordon in 2023. Currently serving as sole CEO since 2021, Winkle-Reed has integrated artificial intelligence as a central growth driver while steering the organization's geographic and operational evolution from a San Francisco-centric model to a global enterprise with its largest workforce in New York.

Will Open-Source Threaten Anthropic's Business & Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy, Harry Stebbings

Menlo Partners led Anthropic's initial $10 million seed round and subsequently deployed a $500 million Special Purpose Vehicle to secure a leading position in the AI sector, prioritizing access to high-conviction outliers over traditional ownership mandates. This strategy supports a broader barbell approach where the firm targets hyper-growth seed companies like Lovable and OpenRouter while maintaining large growth positions, effectively bypassing the crowded Series A stage. By focusing on technical depth, operational efficiency, and global talent hubs, Menlo aims to maximize upside in a market shifting toward "winner-take-all" dynamics despite high valuations.

Inside the Fastest-Growing Category in AI: Scott Wu, CEO of $26B Cognition

Scott Wu, Molly O'Shea

Cognition has secured a $26 billion valuation and $500 million in revenue by deploying its autonomous AI engineer, Devon, to solve complex engineering tasks for major clients like Goldman Sachs and NASA. The company recently consolidated its operations by acquiring the 200-person Windsurf IDE team, creating a unified hybrid environment where local coding and remote cloud agents collaborate seamlessly. Founder Scott Wu emphasizes an immediate "abundance era" of software mass-creation over human obsolescence, while maintaining model neutrality and refusing integration into larger tech conglomerates as the firm prepares to demonstrate its self-driving software capabilities at the upcoming RAISE AI summit in Paris.

The Dirty Secrets of Trading Revealed

Anton, Raj, Jason, Rush

The Institute addresses retail traders' information overload and predatory educational practices by implementing rigorous mentorship programs led by verified professionals from major financial institutions. By enforcing zero percent IB agreements and promoting strict risk management frameworks, the organization has shifted industry incentives, grown a community managing $150 million in daily risk, and achieved Sharpe ratios between 1.4 and 2.6. Through collaborative efforts with regulators like the FCA, the Institute successfully transitions students from unverified losses to institutional-grade performance by emphasizing quantitative back-testing and downside protection over speculative volume.

The AI Gold Rush: Models Are Shovels, Data Is the Gold | RAISE Summit 2026

Gareth Davies, Will Bryk, Dmitry Panenkov, Mark Surman, Alex Bouzari, Akhil Ahuja

This panel features industry leaders from Okta, DDN, Mozilla, Emma, and Exa discussing the strategic pivot from model-centric AI to a data-driven economy where proprietary data quality and security determine competitive advantage. Experts highlighted critical infrastructure challenges, noting that 48% of enterprises fail to secure AI agents while emphasizing the urgent need for sovereign data solutions and fair data markets to unlock the exponential costs of agentic inference. The discussion concluded that future enterprise success relies on "data network effects" and robust governance frameworks, as organizations transition from experimental sandboxes to production environments driven by headless, agent-based architectures.

Vitamin D Expert: The Supplement World Is Giving The WRONG Advice!

Dr. Stasha Gominak

Dr. Stasha Gomenak challenges conventional medical approaches by asserting that widespread sleep disorders and chronic conditions stem from biochemical deficiencies, specifically Vitamin D and B vitamin deficits resulting from indoor lifestyles that limit sunlight exposure. Her clinical protocol prioritizes maintaining serum Vitamin D levels above 60 ng/mL and administering high-dose B-complex supplementation to restore acetylcholine production and gut microbiome health, effectively treating patients with severe insomnia, depression, and neurological symptoms often misdiagnosed as anatomical or purely behavioral issues. Supported by case studies of individuals recovering from conditions ranging from narcolepsy to postpartum depression, this framework proposes a shift from symptom suppression to fundamental biological repair through personalized nutrient dosing and sunlight interaction.

Advancing a Modern Regulatory Framework: SEC Chairman Paul Atkins Conversation | Global Conference

Paul Atkins, Michael Piwowar, Mike

The SEC is executing a strategic pivot from enforcement-heavy regulation to a framework prioritizing economic materiality, aiming to reverse the decline in public companies and revitalize the IPO market through simplified disclosure rules and reduced litigation barriers. Parallel efforts are establishing clear jurisdictional boundaries with the CFTC for digital assets while modernizing fund structures to enhance tax efficiency and expanding 401(k) access to private credit markets. Guided by Enforcement Director David Woodcock's focus on substantive fraud over procedural technicalities, the agency seeks to restore investor confidence and preserve the United States' competitive standing in global capital formation.

Mercor Head of Product on Revenue Concentration from Frontier Labs

Osvald Nitski, Harry Stebbings

McCore, led by CPO Oswald Nitzke, is navigating a hyper-growth phase driven by insatiable demand for frontier model training data while strategically pivoting from enterprise labs to self-serve tools for smaller enterprises. To manage operational complexity amidst AI coding agent proliferation, the company is streamlining its product surface area and shifting hiring priorities toward senior candidates capable of rapid business impact assessment. Looking ahead, McCore anticipates expanding into robotics and cybersecurity data markets while maintaining a high-agency startup culture to address the persistent skills gap in enterprise AI deployment.

What Actually Makes A Startup Durable

Paul Graham and YC partners outline a strategic framework for navigating the AI era, emphasizing that while AI increases individual productivity by 1,000x, founders must target "hard" problems with durable moats to survive market saturation. The session advises building companies through co-founders who provide essential emotional support rather than just complementary skills, noting that human judgment remains critical for community building and navigating high-stakes pivots. Finally, students are offered over $25,000 in AI credits to neutralize geographical disadvantages, reinforcing the program's focus on rapid execution and deep market engagement over theoretical development.