This week on StrictlyVC Download, Techcrunch EIC Connie Loizos talks with Uncork Capital honchos Jeff Clavier and Andy McLoughlin. They discuss how their seed-stage firm is positioning itself in this environment, from a recent investment in AI chip maker Groq to bets on AI-native companies attacking unsexy industries like material sciences and robotics. Plus, the three dig into Uncork's philosophy of finding companies with unique datasets before they become obvious to the market, how Uncork is advising its established portfolio companies to reinvent themselves in an AI-first world, and whether San Francisco's comeback -- driven by AI moolah -- is sustainable.

Chapters:

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos speaks with Katelin Holloway, co-founder of Seven Seven Six, the generalist firm that's raised over $1 billion across three funds. They discuss Seven Seven Six's unconventional investment thesis spanning AI-powered stone carving robots to commercial lunar mining, including her bet on Interlune—the first company to sell an off-planet resource back to Earth. Holloway explains why she believes helium-3 harvested from moon dust will generate returns within a decade, how climate tech and space tech are converging in unexpected ways, and why maintaining human connection remains critical as AI transforms the workforce.

Chapters:

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos and Alex Gove of StrictlyVC speak with Lara Banks, who leads venture investing at Makena Capital Management. They discuss her firm's $3 billion venture allocation across 30 manager relationships, how she evaluates everything from solo GPs to the AI rollup trend sweeping traditional service businesses, and why she thinks AI companies' "astronomical" revenue growth justifies their sky-high valuations despite massive infrastructure costs. Banks also shares what LPs really learned from 2021's boom-bust cycle and how the secondary market is creating new liquidity opportunities as companies stay private longer.

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This week we're sharing an interview from the Equity podcast. Rebecca Bellan chatted with Deedy Das, principal at Menlo Ventures. Das has seen this shift from multiple angles, first as an engineer and product leader at Google, Facebook, and AI startup Glean, and now as an investor helping technical founders figure out how to build enduring companies in this new AI landscape. They discuss how compensation packages and acquisitions are warping startup hiring and retention and how VCs are thinking about key-person risk.

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos and Alex Gove of StrictlyVC speak with Dimitrious Kottas, the founder and CEO of Delian Alliance Industries. They discuss his journey from Apple's Special Projects Group to building autonomous defense systems in Greece, how his company is reimagining surveillance and strike capabilities using AI and commercial tech, and why he believes we're at the start of a decade-long technological race in autonomous warfare.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction

02:04 - Dimitrios's background and journey from Apple to defense tech

05:00 - The founding moment: Why he left Silicon Valley for Athens

08:55 - Starting with surveillance towers: The perception-first strategy

13:21 - Current deployments in Greece and Ukraine aspirations

16:32 - Dual-use applications and critical infrastructure protection

18:39 - The Intercept-Egon series: Concealed autonomous weapons

21:52 - Cost advantages through vertical integration

24:46 - European defense tech landscape and procurement challenges

28:16 - Greece's defense industry and cross-border competition

31:04 - Modular vs. full-stack approach

32:54 - Thoughts on Anduril and the defense tech race

35:00 - Greek roots and the personal nature of European defense

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In this episode we're revisiting Connie Loizos' conversation with Aileen Lee, the founder of Cowboy Ventures. They discuss what’s on the horizon for Cowboy Ventures and how she’s thinking about AI’s impact on job creation, automation, and new business models—while also giving listeners a glimpse into Cowboy’s own recent team changes.

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, Mayfield managing partner Navin Chaddha joins Connie Loizos at our event in Menlo Park to break down why the $5 trillion services sector is ready for AI disruption. Navin, an early investor in Lyft, Poshmark, and HashiCorp, explains why the next wave of winners in this space will combine human and AI teammates to deliver outcome-based services with software-like margins. They dive into why legacy firms like Accenture and McKinsey are vulnerable, what makes a true “AI teammate,” and how startups can serve the 100 million businesses priced out of traditional professional services.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos is joined by Drive Capital co-founder Chris Olsen. Chris explains how Drive's contrarian approach to fund size, ownership stakes, and geographic focus is generating returns where others firms are right now struggling. Plus: why Silicon Valley billionaires are choosing Columbus, and what the "venture reckoning" means for the industry.

Chapters:

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, Circle co-founder Sean Neville joins Alex Gove of StrictlyVC to discuss building banking infrastructure for AI agents. Fresh off Circle’s 450% IPO surge, Sean has raised $18 million from A16z to create Catena Labs, the first fully regulated AI-native financial institution. They explore what “agent-native finance” actually means, how AI agents will soon handle our payments and treasury management, and why the financial world needs new standards and protocols to make this safe and reliable.

Chapters:

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you to our recent event in Menlo Park. Connie Loizos was joined by Katie Haun, founder and CEO of Haun Ventures, who shared an inside look at her contrarian "harpoon strategy" that targeted distressed crypto assets during the depths of crypto winter. They explored everything from stablecoin infrastructure to tokenization of real-world assets, to the regulatory landscape shaping crypto's future. They also get into what made Katie step away from A16z to start her own venture and why she believes we're still i the early days of crypto.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction

02:58 - The harpoon strategy: investing during crypto winter

04:42 - Stablecoins and cross-border payment infrastructure

08:03 - User experience evolution and enterprise adoption

10:09 - Global investment strategy and A16z relationship

12:13 - Political influence and regulatory landscape

14:59 - The Genius Act: what Katie likes and dislikes

16:24 - Criminal use cases: a former prosecutor's perspective

18:50 - Trump family stablecoin and conflict of interest

20:53 - Tokenization of real-world assets

23:25 - Market adoption and fund updates

24:36 - How Haun Ventures differentiates itself

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