First Commit

This week, we sat down with Nicholas Marwell, a member of the technical staff at Anthropic. Anthropic is one of the most fascinating companies of the decade, building foundation models focused on safe AI.

We explore joining the post-training team at Anthropic, why folks started to be concerned about safety, understanding a model's neurons, using Claude at work, two areas Nick is most excited for AI to disrupt, and where value will accrue.

Episode Chapters:

1. Joining Anthropic- 1:55
2. Secure AI - 5:03
3. The Founding Story - 8:41
4. Interpretability - 11:33
5. Anthropic's Business Model - 15:01
6. Claude for Enterprise - 19:00
7. AI for Coding - 22:50
8. Scaling Laws - 24:30
9. Making models smarter - 28:00
10. Quick fire - 32:18

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Kofi Ampadu, a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz who leads the Talent x Opportunity Initiative (TxO). TxO focuses on discovering and supporting high-potential entrepreneurs who have the vision and determination to build transformative businesses but lack traditional access to resources and networks.  

We explore his experiences working as an engineer at Kraft, the importance of having hard conversations early on, and what drives innovation in CPG companies. Kofi also shares how to optimize a brand for staying power, investing at the intersection of culture and lifestyle, and how TxO defines PMF.

Episode Chapters:

1. What makes Kofi, Kofi - 2:08
2. Transition from enterprise to startups - 5:38
3. SKU'd Ventures - 12:35
4. Innovation in CPG - 17:25
5. AI's impact on CPG - 21:00
6. TxO - 26:00
7. Thesis at TxO - 30:00
8. Donor advised fund - 33:30
9. Quick fire round - 41:53

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Teddy Himler, General Partner at Optimist Ventures. Optimist is an early-stage fund backing founders focused on critical technologies at the inflection stage. We explore his experiences investing in SE Asia, taking less PMF risk in emerging markets, and signals that led him to start his own fund.  Teddy also shares his perspectives on technology's secular and cyclical trends,  the importance of owning your domain, and AI breakthroughs in healthcare, insurance, and robotics.

During the episode, we reference Thomas Laffont's All-In Summit presentation

Episode Chapters:

1. Investing in internet 1.0 - 1:55
2. Historian investing style - 5:35
3. Valuations in emerging markets - 7:50 
4. Launching a fund - 12:00
5. Betting on the next 30 years - 16:14
6. Differentiation as an emerging manager - 19:10
7. Market adoption of AI - 22:39
8. LP learnings - 25:35
9. Quick fire round - 31:20

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Leeor Mushin, General Partner at Formation. Formation is an early-stage fund that partners with founders from day one. We dive into his experience starting a fund at Stanford by investing in his classmates, the journey of building a managed marketplace, and key signals that indicate it's the right time to start a fund.  Leeor also shares insights on why 'ugly ducklings' are ripe for disruption, along with his unique approach to sourcing talent and creating a competitive edge for Formation. 

Episode Chapters:

1. Growing up in Texas - 1:52
2. Moving to Stanford - 4:25
3. Founding Digital Stairway - 8:55
4. Joining Floodgate - 13:32
5. Community sourcing - 19:05
6. Starting a fund - 23:00
7. The "Ugly Duckling" - 29:51
8. Founder attributes - 35:45
9. Business school or not? - 38:40
10. Quick-fire round - 40:30

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Alex Reibman, CEO and Co-Founder of Agency. Agency is an agentic platform to help build reliable agents at scale. We discuss learning through competing (in hackathons), agents as self-driving programs, multi-agent tenancy, and why LLMs are not best suited for agents. We also explored which failure scenarios we can accept when building agentic systems and why community is crucial for scale. 

Episode Chapters:

1. Alex's background - 1:50
2. Enterprise to startup - 6:42
3. Hackathons to Agency - 9:50
4. What is an AI agent? - 11:40
5. How to use an agent - 15:43
6. LLMs impact on agents - 19:53
7. Agency as a product - 21:30
8. Trusting the system - 26:27
9. Who will benefit first? - 34:04
10. Do not bet against the models - 37:31
11. Quick fire round - 39:40

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Julia and Brian, co-founders of Pickle. Julia and Brian met at Blackstone before leaving to start Pickle, a P2P clothing rental marketplace. We discuss their founder dynamic, lessons learned through execution, leveraging micro-influencers, and scaling through network effects. We also explored their experience raising capital, how to identify the right investors, and managing round dynamics. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. Blackstone to Pickle - 1:58
2. What is Pickle? - 4:13
3. Reaching consumers - 6:24
4. Secondhand marketplaces - 10:03
5. Acquiring first closets - 13:22
6. Supply side demand - 18:29
7. Measuring success - 22:11
8. Kickstarting organic channels - 24:02 
9. Raising VC capital - 26:45
10. Two areas of validation - 31:35
11. Quick-fire round - 33:25

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

This week, we sat down with Div Garg, Founder of MultiOn. During the conversation, we discussed Div's journey from big tech to startups, the promise of agents, and how the LLMs are tackling agents. We also discussed how the agent ecosystem will evolve over time, whether we should pay our agents, and building a team as a first-time founder.

Episode Chapters:

1. Working in Big Tech - 2:28
2. Intro to AI agents - 3:22
3. MultiOn's Mission - 4:50
4. What will agents disrupt? - 8:37
5. Agent headwinds - 11:20
6. Product launch that didn't work - 13:40
7. The role of LLMs - 17:05
8. Upper limits of agents - 19:27
9. The value of agents - 21:43
10. Building an organization - 25:45
11. Raising VC funding - 29:15
12. Quick fire questions - 32:16

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today

This week, we sat down with  Brett Perlmutter, Founder and CEO of Bulletpitch. During the conversation, we cover Brett's journey starting Bulletpitch as an undergraduate student to hosting events and writing for thousands of readers. We also cover wanting to break into VC, why top VCs are fantastic media companies, and why media yields deal flow.

Episode Chapters: 

1. Starting Bulletpitch - 1:04
2. Building the pipeline - 5:50
3. The content evolution - 8:03
4. Company selection - 12:30
5. Why scarcity is critical - 16:44
6. Growth hacking in the early days - 22:50
7. Building a syndicate - 30:00
8. Brett's value add - 34:55 
9. Quick-fire round - 37:03 

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

This week, we sat down with Bobby Pinero, CEO and Co-Founder of Equals. During the conversation, we cover Bobby's journey from being inspired by "engineering entrepreneurship" at Stanford to leading the finance team at Intercom and then starting Equals. We also covered the moat behind Equals, having a clear end-user, competing with Excel and Google Sheets, and the importance of brand building.

Episode Chapters:

1. Bobby's upbringing - 1:46
2. Scaling with Intercom - 7:14
3. Seed to start Equals - 10:00
4. What is Equals? - 13:44
5. Why switch to Equals - 18:43
6. Gaining market share - 23:37
7. Two ways to grow - 27:50
8. Brand building - 32:18
9. Expand the TAM with AI - 34:285
10. Ending Questions - 36:43

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This week, we sat down with  Eli Wachs, Co-founder and CEO of Footprint. During the conversation, we covered Eli’s journey from being an undergraduate student at Stanford to an obsession with KYC and starting Footprint. We also cover KYC, starting with the Patriot Act, how to find early customers, execution at scale, and Eli’s second career as a comedian. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. What makes Eli, Eli - 1:12
2. Innovation at Stanford - 3:33
3. Know Your Customer (KYC) - 5:42
4. Why should customers trust Footprint? - 9:45
5. The value Footprint provides - 12:46
6. Working with larger banks - 16:50
7. Keeping consumer data secure - 18:30
8. What is keeping Eli up? - 20:48 
9. Moral guidance around data - 23:37
10. Stand up comedy - 27:35 
11. Ending questions - 31:45

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.