From influencers chasing a deeper tan to AI founders in SF biohacking through their all-nighter before a tier-1 pitch, it feels like everyone is suddenly taking black-market Chinese peptides. And in July, RFK and the FDA may officially reclassify a list of peptides, so that compounding pharmacies can legally sell them again. Startups like Mochi and Superpower are already investing in the supply chain so they can get in on the craze the moment it's legal.

This week the pod sits down with two of the most knowledgable people in the space. First, Mansi Hukmani, also known as the Chief Longevity Officer, the #1 Substacker writing on peptides and the wellness industrial complex. She gets invited to the bougie loft parties where nurses are injecting hedge fund bros with NAD+ shots between cold plunges, which is exactly the boots on the ground journalism the hosts want.

Next the trio sits down with Myra Ahmad, founder and CEO of Mochi Health, a marketplace for GLP-1s and primary care providers that has served over 500K patients. Myra has bootstrapped the company to its current size, which is pretty much unheard of in SF. They’ve grown so quickly at a 500% YoY rate that everyone’s taking notice including Eli Lilly who recently sued them over marketing claims. We dive into why Eli Lilly is threatened by a player like Mochi.

With Mansi the pod gets into:

• Why New York biohackers are different from SF biohackers (and why London is behind)
• How China controls 90% of the global protected amino acid supply, and why HIMS just bought a peptide manufacturer
• Why pharma hates peptides, hint: you can't patent something your body already makes
• The Las Vegas conference where two women fainted on the spot from peptides
• Why Mansi thinks menopause shouldn't exist

With Myra the hosts unpack:

• How Mochi grew to 500K+ patients
• The 503A vs. 503B compounding pharmacy distinction that the GLP-1 market hinges on
• How HIMS will send you a weight loss medication within 60 seconds of filling out a form, with zero doctor in the loop
• The actual premise of the Eli Lilly lawsuit and why pharma wants compounding to disappear despite centuries of precedence
• Why Mochi invested in a testing lab in San Carlos instead of producing peptides themselves

If you've ever wondered whether you should try peptides, what's actually in the syringe, or why your group chat suddenly knows what BPC-157 is, the hosts have too, which is why they decided to do this deep dive.

Thank you to Kalshi for sponsoring: https://kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck. Use our referral code to get $10 when you trade! Maybe there will be a market on if Priya takes a peptide in 2026 soon.

Follow us on Instagram @getthecheckpod and DM us any thoughts on the episode we love hearing from you :)

00:00 Intro to peptides01:06 Meet Mansi known as Chief Longevity Officer on Substack05:58 Who's actually doing peptides11:43 The peptide players: telehealth companies, pharmacies, pharma, and China13:47 Why peptides are so hard to manufacture16:42 China's chokehold on the supply chain19:49 The big players moving in: HIMS, Superpower, Mochi21:02 Why pharma hates peptides29:44 How the FDA categorizes peptides32:09 Superpower's peptide launch33:44 Should Priya start taking peptides38:40 Psychedelics and why menopause shouldn't exist43:41 Meet Myra, founder and CEO of Mochi Health49:35 The Mochi vs. Eli Lilly lawsuit50:19 What's the point of compounded drugs52:48 The GLP-1 and peptide landscape54:33 Why HIMS doesn't have doctors in the loop56:29 Is pharma evil?57:55 BTS of the FDA classification of peptides1:02:12 Is Mochi selling peptides1:04:19 Why aren’t there clinical trials of major peptides1:07:15 The next billion-dollar peptide will be…1:07:42 Bootstrapping Mochi to 500K patients

Today the hosts sat down with one of the pioneers of the early 2010s social media era, Naveen Gavini, ex-CPO of Pinterest and one of the company’s first 10 employees. They talk about the rise of social media and what he’s up to now (hint: he’s going back into the consumer tech space).

If you've ever wondered why people say Pinterest maintained taste vs. Facebook and Instagram, Naveen explains the product decisions that intentionally led to that:

• Ordering the algorithm by saves instead of likes
• Not importing your contacts from Facebook
• Inspiration as a guiding principal over pure engagement

Naveen was sitting at the dinners in the early 2010s when early Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter employees in Silicon Valley debated the ethics of the algorithm and foresaw the world we now live in, where social media and algorithms are shaping the next generation.

The hosts ask Naveen what those employees saw coming, what they didn't, and why companies diverged in morals during this time. They also dive into what it was like to help take a company public. Fun fact, Pinterest’s IPO was exactly 7 years before today. Historically IPO access was limited to employees and investors, but now anyone can make money on a private company going public because of Kalshi’s IPO markets. This link gives you $10 when you trade $10: https://kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck.

They also dig into his new company, BuildForever, which is launching Extra, a consumer email product. Email is kind of dead. The hosts can't remember the last time they checked theirs (besides Maya, who's insane and goes through her promos inbox). Extra is rethinking email to be about your personal life and is focused on creating a delightful experience around it.

They also get into the email application competitive landscape and why Extra is going to fill a gap not addressed by hyper productivity apps like Superhuman or Notion Mail. This is a true consumer product, one that long term can actually be proactive in your inbox, like "we saw you're going to NY, here's a hotel we knew you would like."

Naveen is offering Get the Check listeners a free code to download the app today, even though it isn't publicly out yet. The first 50 people who download it from the App Store and use code GETTHECHECK become Extra’s first users. Here's the link! If you try it, let us know what you think :)

00:00 Meet the ex-CPO and 10th employee at Pinterest

00:27 Being the first person to think Pinterest should be an app

04:00 What Pinterest did differently than IG and FB

11:52 Why Pinterest prioritized values over engagement

14:14 Why you don't notice Pinterest ads

16:19 From engineer to CPO

23:55 Saves versus likes on social media

27:32 Taking a company through IPO

34:58 Deciding to start a company after every says not to…

36:27 Email needs a consumer angle

38:59 Introducing Extra

47:01 Monetizing in consumer social

Dmitri is a product designer who spent time at Cash App and Ramp, and is now on a deliberate career break — reading, thinking, and figuring out what design means in a world where AI can build the thing but can't decide if it's worth building.

We discuss:

- how he taught himself Photoshop at 11 through gaming forums and designed his first bank interface for a video game mod before working in FinTech

- what taste actually is and why AI can't have it- how the designer role has quietly absorbed six other jobs over the last decade

- the iconic design choices that shaped how we interact with technology — from Apple and the iPhone to the Nintendo Wii — and why most people never noticed them

- why great customer service is a design problem that most companies treat as a cost center

- why the most important design challenges left might have nothing to do with software at all

00:00 Meet Dmitri

00:28 Photoshop Origins

01:48 Design vs Coding

04:10 Roleplay Mods to UI

09:30 Dropping Out Reset

12:53 Apple and Product Design

16:17 Generalist Designer Era

17:40 AI Slop and Taste

21:02 Tasteful vs Distasteful Brands

23:04 Aesthetics Versus Substance

24:54 Taste Icons Compared

26:30 Customer Service Trust

27:52 AI Commoditizes Software

29:18 Designing For Meaning

31:13 Quality Of Life Debate

34:02 Information And Revolutions

35:56 Voting And Local Community

39:31 Design Beyond Software

40:49 Career Break And Future Plans

46:03 Gendered Founder Paths

48:22 Impact Beyond Valuation

Mercor got hacked, NASA went back to the moon, and Anthropic just dropped $400 million on a nine-person biotech startup. There's a lot to talk about.

Maya, Anika, and Priya kick things off with the supply chain attacks that have been all over the news. A North Korean state actor called Team PCP compromised Trivy, an open source security scanner, which then cascaded into LiteLLM and Checkmarx, ultimately leading to 4TB of Mercor's data getting leaked, including biometric data and confidential training projects tied to OpenAI and Meta. They break down how the attack chain actually worked and how Mercor got their data back. They also debrief the future of cyber and why pinning your dependencies matters more than ever. They also look at who's building defenses in this space: Chainguard ($3.5B valuation), Socket (who detected the Axios attack in 6 minutes), and Cogent Security.

Then they get into Artemis II, NASA's first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit in 53 years. The real question is why now, and the answer is mostly China, who landed on the far side of the moon in 2019 and says they'll reach the south pole by 2028. They break down the $100 billion the US has spent so far, the heat shield failure that NASA quietly buried for three years, and how SpaceX and Blue Origin ended up fighting over lunar contracts. They also get into the Artemis Accords, why $1.5 trillion in lunar resources has turned the moon into a geopolitical chess match.

Finally, the Get the Check segment covers Coefficient Bio, a nine-person team out of Genentech that got acquired by Anthropic for $400 million after just eight months. They get into how transformers apply to protein structure prediction, what AlphaFold unlocked, how the founders' "lab in the loop" paper cut drug discovery timelines by 70%, and what this signals about Anthropic building out a life sciences group. They also look at Chai Discovery (whose model gets 86% of designs to preclinical candidate selection) and Lila Sciences ($235M Series A), plus the Nvidia and Eli Lilly billion-dollar partnership.

Now…a word from our sponsors :)

• Kalshi (https://kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck) was one of the first believers in the pod, and they let you trade on anything. The link gives you $10 on when you trade $10. DM us on IG to hear what March Madness trades we are in! Important disclaimer: This is not financial advice. The information shared is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered investment, financial, or trading advice. Always do your own research and consult with a qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.
• Lotus Health (https://lotus.ai/) is an AI doctor you can chat with for free anytime. They just raised $41M, and you can download the app today. The pod tried it, and with just our basic info it pulled up every medication we’ve been on in the last 25 years, sent us relevant studies based on our demographic, and the app can even refer you to real clinicians.

00:00 TBPN's rumored $125M acquisition by OpenAI

04:16 Supply chain attacks 101

10:42 How Mercor got hacked

20:33 Who's building cyber defense

23:03 Artemis II: back to the moon after 53 years

26:26 Why we are going to the moon (hint: China)

28:28 NASA's heat shield cover-up

31:34 $1.5T in lunar resources

33:40 Would we go to space

35:49 Coefficient Bio's $400M exit to Anthropic

36:50 How AI is changing drug discovery

41:46 Lab in the loop

44:34 Predicting a bio talent gold rush

Maya, Anika, and Priya open this week's episode after spending two full hours trying to fix their new audio recorder, which made Priya miss her Solidcore class for the eighth time this month. Anything for the pod though!

First they break down reinforcement learning as a service. Starting with what RL is and how DeepSeek popularized it’s efficacy. Companies like Applied Compute are trying to do for RL what AWS did for compute, except most enterprises can barely collect their own data properly, so the ROI of RL is an open question. The girls dig into why some companies like Sierra and Decagon have a clear use case for RL, while for others they may prefer relying on natural model improvements from the lab.

Next, the Iran War and what the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is actually doing to the world. Crude oil has hit $113 a barrel. Fertilizer shortages are tanking corn yields in Zambia and Sri Lanka. There's a mid-April deadline that has analysts worried. In all the chaos none other than Putin has ended up on top. The hosts debate what may happen next along with everyone on Kalshi that’s been trading on related markets. You can trade too: https://kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck.

Finally, if Reflection AI would get the pod’s check. Reflection AI is the American open source lab rumored to be raising at a $25 billion valuation from JP Morgan and positioning itself as the western answer to DeepSeek. Maya and Anika debate how important it is for there to be an American open source model. Reflection has the model internally, but they haven't released it to the public yet. The pod is excited to see what they release and predict it’s coming soon.

Now…a word from our sponsors :)

• Kalshi (https://kalshi.com/sign-up?referral=getthecheck) was one of the first believers in the pod, and they let you trade on anything. The link gives you $10 on when you trade $10. DM us on IG to hear what March Madness trades we are in! Important disclaimer: This is not financial advice. The information shared is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered investment, financial, or trading advice. Always do your own research and consult with a qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.
• Lotus Health (https://lotus.ai/) is an AI doctor you can chat with for free anytime. They just raised $41M, and you can download the app today. The pod tried it, and with just our basic info it pulled up every medication we’ve been on in the last 25 years, sent us relevant studies based on our demographic, and the app can even refer you to real clinicians.

00:00 Intro02:52 RL explained03:40 Why RL became popular (shoutout DeepSeek)05:01 RLaaS06:36 Why DoorDash bought an RL company07:23 The ROI on RL14:17 RL players17:48 Cursor using RL on Composer in real time20:18 Metis acquisition22:05 Iran War23:39 Historical context on Iran25:39 Closure of the Straight of Hormuz27:28 When oil reserves will start to run out29:43 Impacts beyond oil33:54 Reflection AI funding34:45 Open vs closed AI models41:00 Why Nvidia wants to be on an open source model

We sat down with Christina Melas-Kyriazi, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Before VC, she was a product leader at Affirm. She joined when it was a few hundred people and stayed through IPO. Now she backs founders building AI-enabled companies.We talk about:- How her first "scouting" experience wasn't in venture, it was in high school. She recruited a soccer player onto her cross country team who went on to become an Olympian and one of her closest friends for life- What she learned from Max Levchin at Affirm: the best founders hold the highest level of vision and the lowest level of detail at the same time, and that's what allows them to bend reality to their will- Her hot take on why mission-driven companies will out perform; she put $15M into MagicSchool AI and counts Carrot Fertility as one of her most memorable angel checks- Her answer to the question everyone's asking: where will the labs play vs. AI application companies- Why she gives her friends money with zero questions asked if they're starting a company- The positive imposter syndrome loopIf you're a founder exploring the future of AI and services, Christina is only one cold DM away

In this episode of Get the Check, Maya, Anika, and Priya are back with a packed rundown: Travis Kalanick’s new company Atoms, the escalating Anthropic vs DoW fight, and why wearables are suddenly everywhere.

They start with Kalanick’s post Uber arc starting City Storage Systems (including CloudKitchens) in complete stealth. They unpack what the company is trying to do next after rebranding to Atoms. Atoms will use specialized robots to automate core industries like food preparation plus delivery, mining, and transport. They also revisit the Uber drama that led to Kalanick being pushed out, including a DOJ investigation, $245M lawsuit with Waymo, and accusations of a toxic culture that promoted sexual harassment.

Then they shift to the escalating tension between Anthropic and the U.S. government, a story that is quickly turning into one of the defining AI policy battles. What begins as a major defense contract relationship unravels after Anthropic draws clear lines around how its models can be used, rejecting mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. That stance sparks backlash from the Pentagon and the Trump administration, including efforts to label the company a supply chain risk and cut off government use. You can trade on if the Pentagon will designate Anthropic a supply chain risk here, using our Kalshi referral code, which will give you $10 once you trade.

The episode ends with a debrief on wearables: Pebble’s $75 AI ring, Sandbar’s $23M raise and note-taking stack, Taya’s pendant made by ex-Apple employees. The hosts break down why many of these products still feel like they don’t have clear demand, which is why they’re bullish on Fort. Instead of another generic note taking wearable, Fort is targeting a clear use case by building a wearable specifically for strength training and sleep tracking. Speaking of health and wellness, Lotus Health is an AI doctor you can chat with for free anytime. They just raised $41M, and you can download the app today. The pod tried it, and with just our basic info it pulled up every medication we’ve been on in the last 25 years, sent us relevant studies to our demo, and the app can even refer you to real clinicians when needed.

00:00 Maya might be a pro skier01:04 Intro04:50 Why Travis was fired from Uber13:42 The thesis behind Atoms17:11 Hardware as the next frontier19:58 The unexpected reason Maya thinks Atoms won’t work22:57 Anthropic vs Department of War timeline29:45 Anthropic's red lines34:02 Should Anthropic have red lines44:26 Why LLMs change what’s possible in surveillance45:16 Supply chain risk designation50:10 Kalshi odds of Anthropic as a supply chain risk54:27 An update on wearables

This week Maya and Priya sit down with Ishan Gupta, CTO and co-founder of Juicebox, who comes on the pod to announce that Juicebox just closed their Series B!!

Juicebox is the AI recruiting platform letting you find your next hire by just describing them in plain English. PeopleGPT searches 800M+ profiles and surfaces the best fits. No boolean filters required.

Ishan grew up in India watching his dad run a business and always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, but had no idea he would drop out of college just three months in to build Juicebox.

Before Juicebox, there were two failed pivots. Tune in to hear why they built a music company and marketplace first, and most importantly why they ultimately decided to build Juicebox.

Ishan breaks down why the hiring manager always knows exactly who they want but never has time to find them, and the recruiter has time but less context.

LLMs change the game because they are the first technology that can actually read a resume the way a human would, picking up on someone’s trajectory, company stage, promotion pace, even GitHub contributions.

Ishan talks about

• Finding message market fit and then product market fit
• Why recruiting is a zero sum game
• If the recruiter / sourcer role disappears
• If a human or AI is more biased

Juicebox is hiring across engineering, product, design, sales, and more. The company is high ownership and still operates like a seed stage startup. juicebox.ai/careers.

Now…a word from our sponsors :)

• Lotus Health is an AI doctor you can chat with for free anytime. They just raised $41M, and you can download the app today. The pod tried it, and with just our basic info it pulled up every medication we’ve been on in the last 25 years, sent us relevant studies to our demo, and the app can even refer you to real clinicians when needed.
• Here’s $10 on Kalshi when you trade $10. Kalshi was one of the first believers in the pod, and they let you trade on anything. No seriously anything, you can trade on sports, elections, and even what Taylor Swift will play first at her next concert. DM us on IG if you want to know what markets we are in. Important disclaimer: This is not financial advice. The information shared is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered investment, financial, or trading advice. Always do your own research and consult with a qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.

00:00 Series B Fundraising

03:36 Unexpected reason SF is the best city to live in

07:02 Co-founder meet cute <3

09:38 The two ideas that didn’t work

14:32 LinkedIn’s recruiter tool will die

17:43 LLMs change the talent search game

18:37 Juicebox product

26:47 Why recruiting is a zero sum game

28:23 Will recruiters disappear

31:52 Why AI is less biased than humans in recruiting

34:27 How AI impacts recruiting as a founder

38:30 Who Juicebox is hiring

This weekend was the pod’s Season 4 launch party. To celebrate you can give them 5 stars and increase the chance Maya agrees to a Season 5. 

This week the pod starts with with Bitcoin, which is down about 50% from its peak (~120K to ~65K). They walk through why this crash doesn’t have just one culprit. Trump’s tariff uncertainty, Iranian geopolitical tension, and Bitcoin in key ETFs all contributed. On Feb 5, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) sold a lot of Bitcoin, seemingly because it had to rebalance alongside a broader US software/tech selloff, which tied Bitcoin even more directly to tech stocks. They also talk about how Bitcoin is failing the “digital gold” test right now (gold is up while BTC is down), even if it’s working as a decentralized currency, it’s not working as a store of value.

Next they unpack the viral “2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” essay by Citrini, which imagines a bearish AI scenario: white-collar automation triggers layoffs, SaaS gets copied and commoditized, and consumer spending weakens because workers don’t have money to spend post layoffs. The pod has hot takes on where Citrini’s assumptions are underbaked.

They close with World Labs, a startup that just raised $1B to build “world models” for spatial intelligence aka AI that actually understands 3D environments. Co-founder Fei-Fei Li is considered the God Mother of AI, since she was one of the first to advocate for data as a way to improve ML models instead of algorithmic improvement. Early use cases include robotics training and game development. Tune in to hear if World Labs would “Get the Check”.

00:00 Season 4 launch party recap

03:54 Why Bitcoin crashes by almost 50%

14:57 Citrini essay hot takes

23:31 The permanent underclass

35:47 Godmother of AI Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raises $1B

It’s another 6AM morning recording and Anika nods off during the recording - just kidding.

The hosts run first discuss Matt Schumer’s viral essay “Something Big Is Happening” (82M+ views on X), which argues AI labs intentionally made coding the focus, that most people don’t realize how advanced models are, and that we’re 1–2 years from AI autonomously building the next generation. They contrast it with Will Mandis’ response essay “Tool Shaped Objects,” arguing LLMs look like powerful tools but headlines focus on spend (GPU clusters, CapEx) more than real output, likening today’s prompting to Farmville-style busywork.

Next, they cover Anthropic’s new funding and model progress: Anthropic raises $30B (from NVIDIA, Microsoft, GIC, among others), bringing total capital raised to $57B and valuing the company at $380B after starting in 2021. They break down Opus 4.6 launching three months after 4.5, with a 4x context window increase and a big “needle-in-a-haystack” retrieval benchmark jump (18% to 76%), which they frame as improving the ability to find issues in large codebases even if core problem-solving hasn’t changed as much.

Finally, they move to AI in finance and AI insurance. Rogo raises a $75M Series C led by Sequoia, and Meridian raises a $17M seed led by a16z; both target finance workflows like deal flow automation, diligence, market research, modeling, and deck/spreadsheet automation. The hosts argue adoption is still early and research-heavy, and debate whether Meridian’s “Cursor for finance” IDE approach makes sense versus keeping Excel as the output layer, citing Microsoft adding Claude models to Copilot in Excel and a view that entrenched formats (Excel, GitHub PRs) won’t change quickly.

They close with AIUC (Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company), which raised a $15M seed from Nat Friedman (ex-GitHub CEO) and is cofounded by Ro Kitz (ex-Anthropic product, Center for AI Safety board member) and Rajiv Dani (ex-McKinsey partner). AIUC aims to underwrite and standardize risk for AI agents via insurance standards and audits (including red teaming), addressing liabilities like slurs, hacked agents, and data leaks/violations.

00:00 Intro01:46 ‘Something Big Is Happening’: Essay by Matt Schumer14:45 Anthropic’s $380B Valuation + Opus 4.6 Deep Dive28:02 Will AI replace Excel? Meridian’s ‘finance IDE’ debate38:33 AIUC: underwriting AI risk with standards, audits & insurance