Nirav Tolia is the co-founder and CEO of Nextdoor (NYSE: NXDR), the neighborhood social network with over 105 million users across 350,000 communities worldwide. After stepping down as CEO in 2018, he returned to lead the company in 2024.

In this episode of Summation, Nirav and Auren discuss:

• Why success kills innovation
• The death of physical community
• Why Nextdoor had to change their stock ticker
• Insider vs Outsider entrepreneurs

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Nirav Tolia on X at @niravtolia.

Lieutenant General Mike Fenzel recently retired as a three-star Army General. He most recently served as the United States Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, navigating one of the world’s most complex geopolitical landscapes. His career is defined by high-stakes leadership, ranging from the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, where he was stationed in the bunker alongside Vice President Dick Cheney, to multiple deployments to Afghanistan, to commanding an airborne brigade of 5,500 paratroopers. Beyond the battlefield, Fenzel is a scholar of strategic decision-making. His book, No Miracles, analyzes the internal Soviet failures during their occupation of Afghanistan.

In this episode of Summation, Mike and Auren discuss:

• Why the Soviets took four years to exit Afghanistan
• Lessons from leading security cooperation in Jerusalem
• Israel's dominance in security tech
• Why US foreign policy experts keep failing

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Mike Fenzel on LinkedIn.

Martin Shkreli is the co-founder of DL Software, the parent company of Godel Terminal, a Bloomberg competitor for financial data. He previously founded the biotech companies Retrophin and Turing Pharmaceuticals and the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management. 

In this episode of Summation, Martin and Auren discuss:

• The structural reasons fintech is less competitive than other industries
• How drug discovery actually works (and doing it from prison)
• Why AI labs are now out-recruiting hedge funds
• What Martin learned from being "the most hated man in America"

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Martin Shkreli on X at @MartinShkreli

World of DaaS is now Summation with Auren Hoffman. While we’re proud of our roots in the data world, our conversations have evolved. Summation better reflects our obsession with finding the non-obvious ideas that shape our world.

What’s changing? Just the name. You’ll still get the same insights from the world’s most influential founders, investors, and thinkers. 

If you’re already a subscriber, you’re all set. If you’re new here, welcome. Hit subscribe and join us! Our first episode as Summation drops this Wednesday.

Thanks for the support, and welcome to the next chapter. 

Auren is CEO of NQB8, GP at Flex Capital, Chairman of Dialog; former CEO of SafeGraph and LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP).

Jonathan Siddharth is the founder and CEO of Turing, a $2.2 billion AI company that provides coding and reasoning data to train frontier models for OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic and more. Turing’s mission is to accelerate superintelligence to drive economic growth.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Jonathan and Auren discuss:

• How Turing creates expert data for frontier models
• Why SaaS is dying in the age of AI agents
• Disrupting the $30 trillion market for digital knowledge work
• Building a stage five company culture

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Jonathan Siddharth on X at @jonsidd.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz is the co-founder and CEO of Chapter, an AI-powered Medicare navigation platform valued at $1.5 billion that helps seniors navigate coverage and enrollment.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Cobi and Auren discuss:

• Why medicare fraud costs over $100 billion annually
• How 24,000 medicare plans create impossible choices for seniors
• Why government tech keeps failing with Accenture contracts
• Provider network data accuracy and AI solutions

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz on X at @CobiBGantz.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

Hans Swildens is a partner and Head of Industry Ventures at Goldman Sachs. Industry Ventures is one of the pioneers in the secondary market for venture capital, managing several billion in assets across LP stakes, direct secondaries, and primary fund investments. In October of 2025, Goldman Sachs announced they were acquiring Industry Ventures in a deal worth over $900 million dollars. 

In this episode of World of DaaS, Hans and Auren discuss:

• The evolution of secondaries from distressed deals to 70% of VC exits 
• Why Goldman Sachs paid almost $1 billion to acquire Industry Ventures 
• How Industry Ventures uses data from 700+ fund LP positions as a competitive edge 
• The future of venture fund structures and permanent capital vehicles

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Hans Swildens on X at @hansswildens.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

Glenn Hubbard is Dean Emeritus and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. He served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003 and was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury. He has served on the boards of BlackRock, ADP, MetLife, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Glenn and Auren discuss:

• Why consumer sentiment contradicts economic indicators
• The Fed's impossible dilemma on rate cuts
• Smarter tariff policy and growth
• Why most MBA programs are ROI negative

Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Glenn Hubbard on LinkedIn.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

Omar Tawakol is the CEO and founder of Rembrand, an AI-powered virtual product placement company. He founded BlueKai, a data management platform acquired by Oracle for $400M+ in 2014, and Voicera, an AI meeting assistant acquired by Cisco in 2019. He currently serves on the board of The Trade Desk and as a General Partner at super{set}.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Omar and Auren discuss:

• Why virtual billboards work better than 3D product placement
• How AI eliminates two-year product placement negotiations
• Why virtual placement grew 10x faster internationally than in the US
• The mistakes repeat founders make at scale

Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Omar Tawakol on X at @otawakol.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren's appearance on the We the Builders podcast.

We The Builders: https://twitter.com/WeThe_Builders
Host Suffiyan Malik: https://twitter.com/suffiyanmalikk

Substack: https://wethebuilders.us

---------------------------------------------------

This week I sat down with Auren Hoffman founder, builder, prolific investor, and one of the most connected people in Silicon Valley.

Today’s episode features Auren Hoffman founder of LiveRamp ($RAMP), Flex Capital, Dialog, Safegraph and NQB8. This is one of the most interesting conversations I have had on the show so far and probably the best.

He grew LiveRamp to a $300m exit, has invested in 180+ companies through Flex Capital, a seed stage fund, is chair of Safegraph ($370m data company backed by Sapphire Ventures, Peter Thiel, Ridge Ventures) and is host of World of DaaS, a podcast and community for data nerds.

Auren is thinking of and validating new ideas on almost a weekly cadence. He continues to start new companies through NQB8 which includes a few successful spin outs. He also has a great blog post on it if you are interested in exploring different type of spinouts and how you should think about them as a startup.

-------------------------------

Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and We The Builders on X at WeThe_Builders. 

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)