Great Chat

Girl the tariffs, what’s the deal with Deel, Rippling effects, and other mom jokes. Plus, Mac shares a positive vision for bringing manufacturing back home. All this and more on this week’s Great Chat.

On this week’s great chat, we revisit a favorite twitter debate: where’s the best place to build a startup (and why is it still SF)? But first, we hit the headlines: the AI wave has minted 29 new billionaires, and Elon has so many companies they’re buying each other.

From Bryan Johnson’s bizarre antics to the NDAs that keep scandals under wraps, Silicon Valley has a long history of looking the other way. In this episode, we dig into the latest controversies, revisit Uber’s reckoning, and discuss Careless People, the new book exposing Facebook’s inner chaos. Is tech failing to police itself? Or do we just love the drama until the next headline drops? Tune in as we break down why bad behavior in tech keeps making a comeback—and whether anyone actually cares. From your hosts this week: Ashley Mayer, Sally Shin, Helen Min and Angela Du.

This week on Great Chat, we discuss honeypots, pour one out for Forever 21, and share our perspectives and experiences with the equity portion of startup compensation.

This week, Sally's at HumanX, we're reminded of market events 25 and 5 years ago, make a case to bring back product review sites, and share our favorite (embarrassing) AI productivity hacks.

This week, Angela and Sally wonder if Amazon will ruin the Bond franchise, Helen confesses she could fall in love with Claude, and we all weigh in on Roelof Botha’s provocative SPV take. Our big topic: How to get started investing in startups alongside an operating career. 

The very first episode of Great Chat: A podcast mostly about tech. Ashley's live from Upfront Summit, Angela's back in San Francisco with all of the eggs, and thoughts on latest news from LLM companies. Group discussion: Is building a personal brand required to be a great VC? And Mac takes us through this week's questions.