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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This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex Gove and Connie Loizos are joined by Charles Hudson, Founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, a pre seed and seed stage venture firm that invests at the very beginning of company formation. They discuss his data-driven approach to portfolio management, how he's navigated many changes in the VC landscape, and his thoughts on the evolving LP expectations for liquidity given the recent market volatility.

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex and Connie are joined by Justin Fanelli, the Acting Chief Technology Officer for the US Navy and Technical Director of Program Executive Office Digital, where he oversees billions of dollars in IT infrastructure and cybersecurity initiatives. He's also a venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners and serves as a senior fellow for the Open Forum for AI. In this episode, they discuss the Navy's innovation adoption kit designed to bridge the "valley of death" between commercial technology and military implementation, the partnership with Defense Innovation Unit to streamline startup onboarding, and how the Navy is measuring success through new outcome-driven metrics that prioritize sailor time saved and operational resilience over traditional activity-based measurements.

Chapters:

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex and Connie are joined by return guest Elad Gil, one of the world’s most renowned solo capitalists, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in the AI investing space. He has backed companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Figma, and perplexity He’s also the co-host of No Priors. In this episode, they discuss the current landscape for AI investors and Elad offers a peek into what he believes is around the corner.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction and Elad Gil's background

01:04 - AI's impact on company scaling and team efficiency

03:36 - AI relationships and the future of human-AI interaction

05:00 - AI hallucinations and setting safety standards

07:30 - Character AI investment and concerns about AI bias in education

10:00 - Open source vs. closed AI models debate

12:15 - AI tutoring for children and societal implications

15:00 - AI-driven business rollups and mature company transformations

20:00 - Market crystallization and winners in AI verticals

25:00 - Founder mode vs. delegation in leadership

30:00 - Identifying technology waves and current AI investments

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you to our recent event in Athens. Connie was joined by Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who shared an inside look at how the country is positioning itself as a refreshed hub for innovation, investment, and participation from the world's technology industry. They explored everything from policy changes to new global partnerships, to Greece's startup momentum — plus they offer a peek into why founders are starting to return to the country from shores near and far.

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This week's episode was recorded live at StrictlyVC London, host Connie Loizos sat down with Accel partner Sonali De Rycker. They discussed Europe's regulatory challenges, compares US and EU tech ecosystems, and explores venture capital's evolving exit strategies in the absence of IPOs.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction to Strictly VC Download and Sonali de Rycker

01:48 - The "Queen of European VC" title and its origin

02:11 - Accel's 25th anniversary in Europe and early challenges

05:38 - Evaluating AI startup valuations in the current cycle

09:03 - European tech potential vs regulatory headwinds

11:37 - Impact of US-EU trade tensions on tech companies

14:22 - Defense tech investment opportunities in Europe

19:31 - Capital restructuring for founder alignment: The Kry example

21:27 - Founder liquidity and lessons from the Hopin experience

23:57 - AI talent retention and closing thoughts

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