Patrick McGee, author of Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, joins Molly O’Shea to unpack his latest bestseller. McGee explains how Apple, once days away from bankruptcy, was saved by Tim Cook’s decision to move manufacturing to China. Tim Cook’s nearly trillion-dollar bet created the most advanced supply chain in history — and left Apple geopolitically captured. From Foxconn’s factory floors to Beijing’s political leverage, McGee shares how Apple’s growth empowered China’s rise as a global tech superpower.

Putting numbers behind it, Tim Cook, had pledged $275 billion in new investment to China — more than the U.S. CHIPS Act and equal to two Marshall Plans. Since the launch of the iPhone, Apple’s cumulative investment in China is estimated at over $800 billion. To sustain this scale, Apple engineers trained millions of Chinese workers and thousands of suppliers, building the very ecosystem that now powers Huawei, Xiaomi, and other rivals. Despite Apple’s iconic status, the iPhone has never commanded more than 20% of global market share, while Chinese competitors, leveraging the supply chains Apple helped create, now control more than 55%.

McGee argues that Apple isn’t exploiting China — it’s China exploiting Apple. With a labor pool of 350 million floating workers, harsh conditions inside Foxconn factories, and unyielding pressure, Apple has been locked into an environment it cannot escape. Tim Cook’s operational brilliance may have rescued Apple from bankruptcy, but it also created a supply chain that China now firmly controls.

Connect with us:

1. Patrick McGee: https://x.com/PatrickMcGee_

2. Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠

3. Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: https://turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

Chapters:

(00:00) Tim Cook’s Supply Chain Blind Spot

(02:15) Apple’s Wake-Up Call

(04:30) The $275B Pledge to China

(08:00) Why Apple Moved

(10:15) Training Millions: Apple Builds China’s Workforce

(13:00) Inside Foxconn: Harsh Realities of Production

(17:00) How Apple Helped Create Its Rivals

(18:30) Chess vs. Go: Apple’s Capture Explained

(21:00) Can Ive & Altman Compete Outside China?

(23:30) Apple’s Future: Over $800B Invested, No Exit

In just over a decade, The Thiel Fellowship has produced more than $750B* in value creation, with a ​13.79% unicorn hit rate. Fellows launched some of the most important companies of the 21st century — Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum, Dylan Field’s Figma, Lucy Guo’s Scale AI, Ritesh Agarwal’s OYO, Laura Deming’s Longevity Fund, and more.

In this episode, Danielle Strachman, a Founding architect of the Thiel Fellowship, shares the inside story behind the radical program born out of Peter Thiel’s Thiel Foundation that gave $100K to teenagers willing to drop out of school and build. She reveals the contrarian traits they looked for in founders, and the lessons she learned from working closely with Thiel, whose first-principles thinking shaped the program.

Now as co-founder of 1517 Fund, Danielle is scaling that same ethos — backing dropouts and sci-fi scientists at the earliest stages.

This is the story of how a contrarian $100K bet on young people rewired Silicon Valley and continues to shape the future of education & entrepreneurship.

"What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"

P.S. Competition is for losers.

Connect with us:

1. ​ Danielle Strachman: https://x.com/DStrachman
2. ​ Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠
3. ​ Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠

Brought to you by:

• ​Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• ​Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: https://turing.com/sourcery

• ​Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• ​Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates! https://www.sourcery.vc/

(00:00) Thiel Fellowship

(01:10) $750B+ Outcomes: Ethereum, Figma, Scale AI, OYO

(08:32) The Contrarian Question

(15:00) The Fellowship: $100K, No School, Radical Freedom

(19:00) Media Backlash, Cultural Criticism, & Dropping Out

(26:45) Cultural Impact and Future Vision

(33:02) Is Peter Thiel Evil?

(37:41) How The Fellowship Reshaped Venture’s View of Young Founders

(39:10) Key Traits That Predict Success

(45:10) Founding 1517 Fund: Scaling The Fellowship Model

(52:52) The Next Wave: Dropouts, Sci-Fi Scientists, & Direct Patronage

(55:30) The Rise of Alpha School: AI-Based Education

With $10B+ in AUM, Altimeter has made their largest bet in its history on OpenAI. Known for disciplined bets in generational companies like Snowflake, SpaceX, Anduril — and now OpenAI, the firm is now fully committed to the AI supercycle.

In this episode, Apoorv Agrawal, Partner at Altimeter focused on AI and software, joins Molly O’Shea to break down how the firm evaluates opportunities in the AI supercycle. Apoorv explains why power laws govern venture returns, how Altimeter evaluated the $500B+ OpenAI opportunity, and why speed is the only defensible moat in AI.

We also explore the AI talent wars reshaping Silicon Valley, the rise of XBOW (where AI agents are already outperforming humans), and lessons from Apoorv’s formative years as a forward deployed engineer at Palantir — a culture that has produced billions in founder-led value creation.

For institutional investors, allocators, and operators, this conversation offers a rare inside look at how one of the sharpest minds in venture is positioning around AI — from infrastructure and chips to applications and talent.

Connect with us:

1. Apoorv Agrawal: https://x.com/apoorv03

2. Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠

3. Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: https://turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

Chapters:

(00:00) Welcome & Altimeter’s $10B+ AUM strategy

(01:57) Why Altimeter concentrated its largest investment ever in OpenAI

(04:45) The power law in venture capital: why 0.3% of companies drive 99% of returns

(09:25) Consumer adoption of ChatGPT & enterprise spillover

(12:08) Velocity: Why speed is the ultimate moat in AI

(14:18) Parasocial relationships with ChatGPT

(19:29) Adoption curves: raising the ceiling vs. raising the floor

(23:30) Defining AGI & DOOM

(25:40) GPT-5 release: volatility, iteration, & anti-fragility

(32:00) XBOW AI: When AI becomes the world’s top hacker

(38:22) Where AI value accrues — chips, infrastructure, or applications

(42:50) The billion-dollar talent wars & Meta’s AI strategy

(44:12) Palantir’s billion-dollar FDE culture

(50:10) Lessons from Shyam Sankar & Alex Karp

(53:52) Evaluating founder performance & IPO readiness in today’s market

(55:36) IPO Predictions: Klarna, Discord, Databricks, Cerebras, Anduril

With $6B+ in AUM, 8VC has taken a different approach to venture capital: instead of just funding startups, they also build them.

Founding Partner Drew Oetting joins Sourcery to unpack 8VC’s infamous “Build” Program, where nearly 30% of the fund’s capital goes into companies they co-found. With a track record of creating 28 companies—including Affinity, Saronic, Epirus, and Resilience—alongside massive outcomes like Palantir ($370B), Addepar (Managing $7T+), and OpenGov ($1.8B acquisition), 8VC’s DNA is centered around building (*ehem Joe Lonsdale*).

In this episode, we dive into:

• How 8VC identifies opportunities worth building in-house

• Why structuring incentives and culture is key to balancing venture + company creation

• Case studies from OpenGov, Saronic, and Resilience

• 8VC’s perspective on biotech, AI, defense, and reindustrialization

• The role of public & private collaboration, startups, and capital in rebuilding America

Connect with us:

1. Drew Oetting: https://x.com/andrewoetting

2. Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠

3. Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel. 

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: https://turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

(00:00) Intro: Drew Oetting, Founding Partner 8VC
(03:33) Origins Of 8VC & Lessons From Joe Lonsdale’s Founder DNA
(05:48) Early Experiments In Building Companies Inside 8VC
(07:03) Formalizing The Build Program (30% Of Capital)
(08:33) How 8VC Works With EIRs To Co-Found Startups
(10:33) Why Most VC Firms Fail At In-House Company Building
(13:03) Portfolio Highlights: OpenGov, Saronic, Epirus, Affinity
(17:03) Case Study: Resilience & Biotech Manufacturing
(27:03) American Reindustrialization, Policy, & Capital Allocation
(39:03) The Future Of AGI & Its Real-World Impacts
(45:33) Rapid-Fire Round: Recession Odds, National Debt, Aliens
(54:03) Closing Thoughts On Building America’s Future

Sophia Amoruso is more than a founder, she’s a cultural icon. She built Nasty Gal from an eBay store into a $350M fashion powerhouse, bootstrapping to $28M in revenue, owning 80% at peak valuation, & crossing $100M in sales before VC funding led to bankruptcy.

At the same time, she created GirlBoss—one of the first major movements for women in business & culture. It became a bestselling book, a Netflix series, & a global brand, cementing Sophia as a media and branding legend, with nearly 1M+ followers across platforms.

But Sophia didn’t stop there. She started investing, getting into companies like Kindbody, Superhuman, Pipe, Liquid Death, Public.com, and Eight Sleep, and eventually launched her own VC firm, Trust Fund. Her backers include some of Silicon Valley’s most famous names: Marc Andreessen, Paris Hilton, Ev Williams (Twitter), Chris Dixon (a16z), Andrew Chen (a16z), Rob Hayes (First Round), Josh Elman (Greylock, Twitter, Facebook), Anthony Nodo (CEO of SoFi), and yes, even Jason Calacanis.

Sophia opens up about:

• How to build a $100M+ cult brand.

• Building Nasty Gal & GirlBoss from scratch into cultural movements

• The brutal reality of inflated VC valuations, fundraising, & collapse

• Why consumer businesses face unique challenges with venture capital

• Building Trust Fund with Marc Andreessen, Paris Hilton, & more

This is a conversation about ambition, failure, resilience, and the power of branding, told by one of the most iconic entrepreneurs of her generation.

Connect with us:

1. Sophia Amoruso: https://x.com/sophiaamoruso

2. Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠

3. Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel. 

As a Sourcery subscriber you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s). Plus, white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, and access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: https://turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates! 

https://www.sourcery.vc/

Chapters: 

(00:00) Branding Icon: Sophia Amoruso

(02:30) The Art of Naming: From Nasty Gal to Trust Fund

(07:13) Rethinking Venture Culture

(10:28) Angel Investing Early & Building Relationships That Matter

(13:20) Investing in Liquid Death, Superhuman, Kindbody

(14:30) Why She Invests in Software & B2B Brands

(18:48) What Anduril Gets Right About Branding

(22:18) Raising Trust Fund: Marc Andreessen, Paris Hilton, Jason Calacanis

(24:45) The Power of the Right Audience & Right Eyeballs

(27:29) AI in E-Commerce & the Future of Consumer-Brand Engagement

(32:04) Angel to VC

(37:23) Fundraising Myths: Why Raising Money Isn’t “Winning”

(42:17) Building Business Class: Her Own “Internal Podcast” for Founders

(44:18) Girlboss: The Book, the Netflix Show & Becoming Part of the Zeitgeist

(47:07) Lessons in Leadership, Scaling & Why She Prefers Early-Stage

(50:00) Life Today & Living in London

In this episode of Sourcery, Augustus Doricko (Rainmaker) & Alex Levy (Atmo) break down how they’re reengineering the weather to solve one of humanity’s biggest challenges: freshwater scarcity.

Rainmaker delivers water to farms, ecosystems, and watersheds through a modern precipitation enhancement system—combining radar validation, AI modeling, weather-resistant drones, and sustainable cloud seeding. It’s the only immediate, scalable solution for creating abundant freshwater.

Atmo powers the system with next-gen AI meteorology, offering forecasts 100x more precise and 45,000x faster than legacy models—used by the U.S. Air Force, sovereign governments, and renewable energy operators.

Together, they’re tackling drought, powering reindustrialization, and restoring water as a strategic resource in an era of climate stress and geopolitical competition.

Highlights

• How cloud seeding actually works (and what myths to ignore)

• The U.S.–China race for weather control and engineered rainfall

• Why Atmo’s AI systems outperform NOAA’s current forecasting tools

• Rainmaker’s role in America’s reindustrialization—from cooling chip fabs to powering hydro dams

• Public perception challenges after the Texas floods—and how the narrative is changing

Connect with us:

1. Augustus Doricko: https://x.com/ADoricko

2. Alex Levy: https://x.com/alevy

3. Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠

4. Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

Chapters:

(00:00) Why water is as critical as energy in AI and industrial growth

(02:00) What Rainmaker actually does — cloud seeding 2.0

(03:00) Atmo’s AI meteorology: 100x more precise, 45,000x faster

(04:40) How cloud seeding works — science behind artificial rain

(06:00) Why Rainmaker + Atmo is a game-changing partnership

(07:45) Attribution: Proving man-made precipitation with radar & models

(09:15) Why the U.S. is falling behind in weather innovation

(11:00) China’s lead in drones, materials, and the weather tech race

(13:00) Rainmaker’s drone: the only NATO UAV that flies in icing

(14:45) Facing public backlash: Texas floods, chemtrails, and trust

(16:30) Making cloud seeding safe — how Rainmaker differs from China

(19:00) Cloud seeding for reindustrialization: water as industrial input

(21:00) Use cases: hydro, chips, data centers, and agriculture

(27:00) Atmo as a U.S. export: modern meteorology for the world

(34:00) How AI models simulate physics and save lives

Vulcan Elements CEO John Maslin joins Sourcery to announce their $65M Series A led by Altimeter (Brad Gerstner, Erik Kriessmann) with participation from One Investment Management (Rajeev Misra) to build the most advanced rare earth magnet factory in America—fully decoupled from China. Bringing their total funding to $75M.

We cover why rare earth magnets are the “essential invisible building blocks of the economy,” powering everything from everyday consumer electronics, AI data centers, EVs, and robotics to satellites, drones, and every major U.S. defense platform. Maslin explains why China’s 90%+ dominance in magnet manufacturing is a national security risk, how Vulcan has decoupled from Chinese supply chains, and the company’s plans to scale from hundreds to thousands of tonnes of production this decade.

From building a factory from scratch in North Carolina to deploying AI inside the magnet-making process, this is a behind-the-scenes look at the startup quietly powering the future of U.S. national security and AI.

Highlights

• ​ $65M Series A led by Altimeter, bringing total funding to $75M.
• ​ China makes 94% of magnets; the U.S. makes less than 1%.
• ​ Magnets power everything: phones, drones, data centers, robotics, EVs – demand could 10x from robotics alone.
• ​ Reindustrializing America: North Carolina “Research Triangle” facility with U.S.-made equipment, local talent, SpaceX alums, and PhDs.
• ​ Next-gen factory: AI-driven production using Vulcan’s own sensor and material data for a “2025-era” industry 4.0 plant.

Connect with us:

1. ​ John Maslin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmaslin/
2. ​ Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea
3. ​ Sourcery: https://x.com/sourceryvc

Brought to you by:

• ​ Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• ​ Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: turing.com/sourcery

• ​ Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• ​ Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

Chapters: (00:00) Introduction to Domestic Production and Resilient Supply Chains

(01:59) $65M Series A Led by Altimeter

(04:01) Vulcan Elements

(05:27) Why Rare Earth Magnets Are Critical

(08:58) Decoupling from China: Challenges & Strategies

(12:24) American Talent & Reindustrialization

(14:23) Assembling a SpaceX-Level Team in the Research Triangle

(17:58) Scaling Up: New Facilities and Hiring Plans

(19:14) The Manufacturing Process of Rare Earth Magnets

(29:25) Challenges and Innovations in Manufacturing

(32:02) The Role of AI and Advanced Technologies

(36:18) Future Milestones and Policy Impacts

Isaiah Taylor (Valar Atomics), JC Btaiche (Fuse), & Packy McCormick (Not Boring) join Molly O’Shea to explore how nuclear energy—fission and fusion—is at the heart of America's industrial resurgence and the race for AI dominance.

Isaiah unpacks Valar Atomic’s plan to scale modular fission reactors across the U.S., breaking decades of regulatory stagnation and reimagining how America powers its factories and data centers. JC shares Fuse’s rapid-fire progress in fusion technology, from breakthroughs in pulse neutron generation to vertical integration strategies that echo SpaceX. Packy ties it all together with insights from his investing & writing in Nuclear through Not Boring, explaining why energy-rich, hardware-driven businesses will define the AI age... Bonus we talk about his popular essay The Great Differentiation.

Together, we dive into:

• Fission to fusion, atoms to AI, and Detroit to D.C.

• The role of next-gen nuclear in energy sovereignty

• The strategic urgency to outpace China

• Regulatory tailwinds post-EOs and DOE testing

• Why AI’s energy demands are the catalyst

• How differentiated brand, design, & execution will define the winners in an AI slop world

This conversation is part of Sourcery’s “Made in America” Mini-Series recorded at the Reindustrialize 2025 Summit.

Connect with us:

1. Isaiah Taylor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaiahptaylor/

2. JC Btaiche: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcbtaiche/

3. Packy McCormick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/packym/

4. Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea

5. Sourcery: https://x.com/sourceryvc

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

(00:00) The American Atomic Age

(01:15) Isaiah Taylor on U.S. nuclear industry

(03:34) Why modular reactors are the key to scale

(06:47) China’s nuclear lead

(08:32) Valar’s path to criticality & DOE testing

(11:06) Foreign funding & misinformation campaigns

(13:01) Nuclear myths: “It wouldn’t fill an Olympic pool”

(15:29) Why Gen IV reactors are meltdown-proof

(17:29) AI as a tailwind for nuclear infrastructure

(19:21) Misconceptions in nuclear & energy performance

(21:13) Pressure to deliver in this presidency term

(22:59) The future of global energy

(24:26) JC Btaiche: Building the world’s highest-power pulse system

(26:41) Fuse’s strategy: revenue today, power tomorrow

(28:34) Fusion’s role in reindustrialization

(33:12) The AI-power constraint: “Energy = Intelligence”

(35:31) Can we catch up to China in energy?

(38:13) Packy McCormick on vertical integration

(41:11) The Great Differentiation: Why brand matters in the age of AI

Henry Ward, CEO of Carta, joins Sourcery to share how the company scaled to nearly $500M in ARR, raised $1B across seven rounds, and evolved from a startup serving cap tables to a platform targeting massive markets like private equity and private credit. Ward discusses the Peter Thiel-inspired strategy of dominating small markets before expanding, the importance of focusing on inputs over outputs, the challenges of selling to both hoodie-wearing founders and Midtown CFOs, and Carta’s AI-driven future. This wide-ranging conversation dives into scaling lessons, product innovation, network effects, and why private equity is the future.

Carta was a classic 3x, 3x, 2x, 2x, to $100M in Revenue & are now growing 20%+ at scale.

Highlights

• Carta has raised $1B to date & is approaching $500M in ARR, growing 20%+ annually.

• Strategic shift from venture into larger asset classes like private equity & private credit.

• Peter Thiel’s “competition is for losers” philosophy shapes Carta’s market-entry strategy.

• AI as both a customer-facing differentiator & an internal productivity engine.

• Scaling up to delivering million-dollar enterprise solutions for institutional private equity & private credit

Connect with us:

1. Henry Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heward/

2. Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea

3. Sourcery: https://x.com/sourceryvc

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

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Chapters:

(00:00) Competition is for Losers

(01:07) Carta’s Growth: Approaching Half a Billion ARR

(02:51) $1B Funding Journey & Board Evolution

(05:30) Measuring Success: Inputs vs Outputs

(07:55) Product Portfolio & Power Law in Software

(10:58) Peter Thiel’s Influence: “Competition is for Losers” & Growth Strategy

(12:02) Expanding from Small Markets to Big Impact

(14:00) Entering Private Equity & Credit

(15:59) Network Effects: Global vs Local

(18:02) Product Market Fit & Building a 10X Product

(20:30) Relationship with Mark Andreessen & Board Insights

(23:10) Company Building vs Product Building

(25:58) AI at Carta: Internal & Customer-Facing Innovations

(31:29) The Impact of AI on Jobs & Workflow

(34:33) Personal Motivation & Performance

(35:44) Looking Forward: New AI Products & Excitement for the Year

Scott Nolan, Founder & CEO of General Matter and Partner at Founders Fund, joins Sourcery to break down America’s urgent need to rebuild its nuclear fuel supply chain. With $50 million in funding led by Founders Fund, General Matter is developing U.S.-based production of HALEU (high-assay low-enriched uranium), the nuclear fuel critical for powering next-generation reactors.

As part of the recent investment, Peter Thiel, Founders Fund Partner & billionaire investor, is joining the board–a notable move for Thiel, who stepped down from Facebook’s board in 2022 and rarely takes on new board roles beyond his long-standing position at Palantir.

Nolan shares how General Matter is applying a “SpaceX x Palantir” playbook to reindustrialize the U.S., from assembling a cross-functional engineering team to securing government contracts and navigating executive orders. We dive into the HALEU bottleneck, AGI power demand, reactor deployment timelines, and the energy arms race with China—and why enrichment is the unlock for nuclear to become the cheapest, safest, & most scalable baseload energy source.

This conversation is part of Sourcery’s “Made in America” Mini-Series recorded at the Reindustrialize 2025 Summit.

Highlights

• America’s Enrichment Deficit: The U.S. currently supplies less than 0.1% of global nuclear fuel enrichment, with 25% of its supply still coming from Russia.

• General Matter’s Mission: Founded in 2023 to make enrichment affordable and scalable, enabling nuclear to become the lowest-cost baseload power.

• SpaceX/Anduril-style Playbook: Blending industry veterans with startup talent to accelerate execution: “1/3 incumbents, 2/3 Silicon Valley engineers”

• AI Energy Demands: By 2030, AI is projected to consume the equivalent of today’s entire U.S. power grid, making energy production the bottleneck.

• Executive Orders & Industrial Strategy: Recent U.S. government actions aim to re-regulate nuclear, fast-track licensing, and quadruple nuclear output by 2050—backed by DOE, DOD, and NRC.

Connect with us:

1. Scott Nolan: https://x.com/ScottNolan

2. Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea

3. Sourcery: https://x.com/sourceryvc

Brought to you by:

• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, and travel.

As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery

• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: turing.com/sourcery

• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourcery

• Fourthwall—The #1 way to sell merch online — Fourthwall is the easiest way to launch a fully branded merch store—used by big brands like MKBHD, Acquired, & even the Smithsonian. 100+ products. No upfront cost. Visit Fourthwall to start today: https://fourthwall.com/

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!

https://www.sourcery.vc/

(00:00) U.S. Nuclear Resurgence

(00:56) Why General Matter Was Founded

(02:49) Making Nuclear The Cheapest Baseload Energy

(04:00) Enrichment And Fuel Process Breakdown

(05:16) Decline Of U.S. Enrichment Capacity

(07:26) Building General Matter & SpaceX/Palantir Playbook

(09:55) Skunkworks Team: Nuclear Experts + Generalist Engineers

(11:11) Breakdown Of The Four Executive Orders

(16:35) Geopolitics, GDP, & The China Energy Gap

(21:14) End Of Stranded Assets & AI’s Power Bottleneck

(24:40) AGI & Software’s Role In Nuclear Deployment

(31:13) General Matter’s 12–18 Month Milestones