0:51 Jason intros Bain Capital's Ajay Agarwal
3:17 Are we experiencing late-stage capitalism? Is capitalism broken?
8:22 Why is upward mobility stalling?
15:29 What is it about founders & startups that made him dedicate his life's work to?
18:46 What piece of knowledge got him in startups? Ajay describes gross margin & incremental costs
23:03 Two insights on why enterprise software is the best business
30:11 Mitt Romney at Bain Capital & issues with cultural appropriation
36:44 Ajay's early days at Trilogy Software, how software sales were different in the 1990s
42:23 Companies going from sales-driven culture to product-driven
46:52 Ajay describes one of his best investments: FourKites
49:13 Ajay describes the biggest miss of his anti-portfolio: Pinterest, and why some firms care about stage and some are stage-agnostic
54:57 Has Bain ever participated in every round of a companies life-cycle?
58:15 Effects of the SoftBank Vision Fund on venture capital as a whole

E36: “Angel” Podcast: Ajay Agarwal, Partner at Bain Capital shares insights on culture evolving from sales-driven to product-driven, why enterprise software is the ideal business, best investments & a

Every day, Jason Calacanis and Molly Wood cover startups, technology, markets, media, crypto, and the all the hottest topics in business and tech. They also interview the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors and innovators.

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On today's show, Molly and Jason catch up after the long weekend (0:00) before breaking down how the new "Minions" movie broke a box office record by using TikTok, catchy hooks, and viral marketing (5:19). They also cover TikTok dropping plans to expand its ecommerce platform into the US and Europe (29:52), before covering the "Chips Act" stalemate and discussing how we should reframe semiconductor manufacturing and energy independence as national defense issues (35:50).

Links referenced in the show:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2021.578644/full
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-07-04/chipmakers-and-us-congress-are-playing-a-stupid-game-of-chicken

“Minions” record-breaking viral strategy, TikTok algo, reframing semiconductors & energy | E1500

For today's VC Sunday School, Molly asks Jason about what makes a venture scale business (2:20). Then, for This Week in Climate Startups, Molly sits down with Matt Duesterberg, co-founder of OhmConnect (19:38).

VC School: What’s a venture scale business + Matt Duesterberg of OhmConnect | E1499

First, we cover an update from the BlockFi CEO denying that FTX is buying them for $25N (2:33), and we have a couple more crypto quick hits (5:51) before we touch on Sequoia's largest investments being down 70% (34:01). Klarna is raising way down at a $6B valuation (45:23), Zoom is looking to expand beyond video conferencing, (54:50), and the FCC approved Starlink to supply internet to moving vehicles (57:40). Finally, Rachel speaks with co-founder and CEO of Stages, Jared Downing, for this week's OK Boomer (1:08:23).

Crypto crash updates, Sequoia’s structure, $ZM product expansion, Starlink & more | E1498

First, we talk about Meta’s new Facebook Groups overhaul that looks like Discord (2:35). Then we touch on Sequoia raising over 2 billion for its US venture and growth funds (20:31) and FTX acquiring BlockFi for $25M, 99% below their last private valuation (32:08). For our We Live in the Future, the MLB is looking to automate home plate umpires by 2024 (52:17). Finally, it appears Subtstack is making some cuts after saying it wouldn’t (1:04:48).

FTX buys BlockFi for $25M, Sequoia raising $2.25B, AI Umpires for MLB, Substack layoffs | E1497

Today, Jason is joined by the hosts of “What are your thoughts?” Downtown Josh Brown (CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management) and Michael Batnick (Managing Partner at Ritholtz Wealth Management). They discuss the Knicks (1:22), Podcasting (14:25), markets (26:20), Disney (37:52), and more. Finally, Jason takes some audience questions (44:50).

E36: “Angel” Podcast: Ajay Agarwal, Partner at Bain Capital shares insights on culture evolving from sales-driven to product-driven, why enterprise software is the ideal business, best investments & a

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