Podcast•Oct 15, 2025•1h 4m
Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi: How to Run a Billion-Dollar Business
In this "Boss Talk" episode, Ben Horowitz and Databricks co‑founder Ali Ghodsi recount their founder war stories, from building Loudcloud during the dot‑com bust to steering Databricks through a crisis and scaling it to a $100 billion valuation. They discuss practical tactics for hiring, deal‑making, and maintaining an intense culture without burning out teams, while urging founders to aim even higher. Their perspectives blend Horowitz’s experience scaling a venture‑capital firm to $46 billion and Ghodsi’s hands‑on crisis leadership, offering actionable insights for scaling billion‑dollar businesses.
By a16z Podcast
Podcast•Oct 15, 2025•50 min
#170 Original Sunshine: The Best Bagel You've Never Heard Of
Original Sunshine’s founders Brad and David used a covert blind‑taste test of their gluten‑free‑but‑tasting‑like‑wheat bagels to win over the investors on The Pitch, highlighting a novel flour technology that replicates gluten’s texture. They traced rapid traction from early adopters like...
By The Pitch
Podcast•Oct 14, 2025•41 min
VC10X - Top Decile Fund in Emerging-Tech - Jatin Desai, Managing Partner, Inflexor Ventures
In this episode, Jatin Desai, Managing Partner at Inflexor Ventures, explains why profitable giants like Meta and Amazon are executing "quiet layoffs" despite record earnings, attributing the trend to the Great AI Re‑allocation, a permanent Year of Efficiency, and lingering...
By VC10X
Podcast•Oct 14, 2025•1h 31m
Is AI Slowing Down? Nathan Labenz Says We're Asking the Wrong Question
In this episode, Nathan Labenz and a16z host Erik Torenberg examine whether AI progress is truly slowing or simply becoming less sensational, questioning the hype around a potential GPT‑5. They explore the current state of AI reasoning, automation, and the...
By a16z Podcast
Podcast•Oct 13, 2025•50 min
Columbia CS Professor: Why LLMs Can’t Discover New Science
In this episode, Columbia computer‑science professor Vishal Misra explains why large language models, despite their rapid progress, are unlikely to generate truly novel scientific breakthroughs because they lack causal understanding and grounding in real‑world experimentation. He delves into why chain‑of‑thought...
By a16z Podcast
Podcast•Oct 13, 2025•1h 10m
From Idea To Impact: How Gamma Is Redefining Presentations | Grant Lee
In this episode, Grant Lee, co‑founder and CEO of Gamma, explains how his AI‑driven design platform replaces traditional PowerPoint with an "anti‑PowerPoint" approach that makes product presentations irresistible and drives user adoption. He discusses the importance of building enduring businesses...
By Grit (Kleiner Perkins)
Podcast•Oct 13, 2025•1h 3m
20VC: Atlassian CEO on Why Everything Is Overvalued & Are We in an AI Bubble | Do Margins Matter &...
In this episode, Atlassian co‑CEO Mike Cannon‑Brookes argues that tech valuations are broadly inflated and questions whether we are in an AI bubble, while also examining how AI impacts margins, defensibility, and pricing models such as per‑seat licensing. He highlights...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Podcast•Oct 12, 2025•52 min
Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land?
In this episode, a16z partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price‑Wright interview Zach Dell, founder and CEO of Base Power, about the challenges and opportunities in home power generation, misconceptions around data‑center energy use, and strategies to modernize the...
By a16z Podcast
Podcast•Oct 10, 2025•1h 2m
20Sales: Scaling Snowflake From $0-$3BN in ARR | Snowflake vs Databricks: My Biggest Lessons | Why Customer Success Is BS...
In this episode, former Snowflake CRO Chris Degnan walks through how he built the company’s sales organization from the ground up, detailing hiring strategies for sales leaders and the rapid scaling of a global team to over 6,000 reps. He...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Podcast•Oct 9, 2025•34 min
Replay: How Daymond John Built FUBU
In this archival Masters of Scale episode, Reid Hoffman and Shark Tank star Daymond John dissect how John grew FUBU from a modest start into a global streetwear brand by forging authentic, community‑driven partnerships and leveraging cultural relevance. John highlights...
By Masters of Scale
Podcast•Oct 9, 2025•1h 24m
20VC: OpenAI's Multi $BN Deal with AMD | Polymarket, Vercel and Supabase Raise Mega Rounds | Does King Making Really...
The episode opens with a deep dive into OpenAI’s multi‑billion‑dollar partnership with AMD, a critique of Microsoft’s handling of the OpenAI relationship, and the headline announcements from OpenAI’s Developer Day. Harry then broadens the conversation, arguing that venture capital remains...
By The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)