"Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing

By Erik TorenbergBusiness Investing

"Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing episodes

February 04, 2025E76: Thrive Capital's Bold Bets on Category-Defining Companies with Kareem Zaki
Kareem Zaki shares the founding and development of Thrive Capital, emphasizing their strategy of opportunism combined with a focus on category-defining companies, their unique approach to talent cultivation and company-building in various sectors, especially healthcare, and their intentional media minimalism.

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📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
🎙️This Won't Last
Eavesdrop on Keith Rabois, Kevin Ryan, Logan Bartlett, and Zach Weinberg's monthly backchannel. They unpack their hottest takes on the future of tech, business, venture, investing, and politics.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/id1765665937
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HwSNeVLL1MXy0RjFPyOSz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWontLastpodcast

—
SPONSORS:
☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
LINKS:
Thrive Capital: https://thrivecap.com/

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X / TWITTER:
@kareemszaki
@ThriveCapital
@eriktorenberg
@turpentinemedia

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Thrive started in 2010-2011 with the insight that venture capital would evolve from a niche asset class into a major economic force.
Thrive blends East Coast quantitative thinking with West Coast product vision.
The firm concentrates investments in fewer companies but with higher conviction rather than spreading capital across many investments.
They take a long-term view on investments, often continuing to invest in companies even post-IPO.
In healthcare investing, Thrive focuses on building within existing systems rather than trying to work around them.
The firm has co-founded about a dozen companies, focusing only on potential $10B+ market opportunities.
Thrive deliberately hires young talent (0-4 years experience) and develops them internally rather than poaching established investors.
The firm maintains a low profile with no website and minimal social media presence.
They aim to keep their builder mentality and avoid becoming too institutionalized as they grow.
Thrive views macro conditions as important for execution but not for changing their long-term investment thesis.
The firm approaches talent development by seeking independent thinkers with "maverick" mindsets who can challenge conventional thinking.
Rather than having a rigid selling strategy, they evaluate each company individually based on the specific situation.
They credit their success partly to maintaining the same culture and values from their early days through their growth.
Thrive sees their role as supporting founders while letting them be "the stars of the movie."
1 hr 6 min
January 28, 2025E75: Greg Castle (Anorak VC) on the Biggest AR/VR and Spatial Computing Opportunities
Greg Castle, founder of Anorak Ventures, discusses the evolution and future of spatial computing, particularly in AR, VR, and technology's impact on human interaction and learning. This conversation took place in February 2023.

—

📰Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
🙏Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
🎙️Check out Modern Relationships, where Erik Torenberg interviews tech power couples and leading thinkers to explore how ambitious people actually make partnerships work. Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov and researcher Nadia Asparouhov kick off the series with an unfiltered conversation about their relationship evolution.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1786227593
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5hJzs0gDg6lRT6r10mdpVg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRelationshipsPod

—
SPONSORS:
☁️Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
LINKS:
Investing in AR/VR with Greg Castle (first episode with Greg): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjjWeaKA2Jg
Anorak Ventures: https://www.anorak.vc/

—
X / TWITTER:
@gpcastle12
@eriktorenberg
@turpentinemedia

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Spatial computing represents computing in the third dimension, evolving from manual inputs to capturing and recreating real-world environments.
AR is technically more challenging than VR because it must understand and integrate with the environment rather than simply replace it.
Meta (Facebook) is currently the main player investing heavily in VR/AR, while other tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google are taking more measured approaches.
Training and education are viewed as the most promising VR applications due to improved retention through 3D learning experiences.
The concept of a single unified metaverse faces significant challenges due to existing business models and the siloed nature of current platforms.
Digital replicas of physical objects represent one of the few remaining "white spaces" for startup opportunities in the spatial computing market.
Qualcomm is emerging as a significant player through their development of XR-specific chips and industry consortium building.
Gaming has replaced music as the primary cultural touchstone for younger generations, indicating a broader shift toward digital experiences.
The ultimate vision for spatial computing is to transform education and enable more natural human-technology interactions.
46 min
January 21, 2025E74: General Catalyst CEO on Running VC Like an Enduring Company
Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst discusses the firm's evolution from an artisanal business to an enduring venture platform, focusing on operational rigor, fund size, talent strategy, and investments in companies like Stripe and Snap, while emphasizing the importance of responsible innovation and long-term industry transformations.

—

📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
SPONSORS:
☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
LINKS:
General Catalyst: https://www.generalcatalyst.com/

—
X / TWITTER:
@htaneja
@eriktorenberg
@generalcatalyst
@TurpentineVC

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Hemant Taneja became CEO of General Catalyst through a deliberate five-year succession plan that began when Ken Chenault joined as chairman to mentor him and help transform GC into an enduring business rather than just a traditional venture partnership.
General Catalyst aims to differentiate itself by operating with the same operational rigor as successful tech companies, moving away from the traditional "artisanal" venture capital model where partners make decisions like oracles around a table.
The firm developed its mission and values in 2018, focusing on "investing in positive, powerful change that endures" and positioning itself as a platform for inclusive capitalism.
GC focuses on four main areas: global resilience (including climate and defense), AI transformation, health assurance, and financial inclusion through fintech and crypto technologies.
Unlike some competitors, GC intentionally keeps fund sizes smaller because Taneja believes you can't scale venture capital funds to be very large while maintaining performance.
The firm maintains a unique culture that preserves the magic of partnership for investment decisions while running with corporate rigor in operations, with Taneja serving as both CEO for business operations and managing director for investments.
GC's healthcare strategy focuses on radical collaboration with health systems to make them better businesses, aiming to create a trillion-dollar ecosystem rather than a single trillion-dollar company.
The firm's "creation" (incubation) strategy has evolved from being serendipitous to becoming more structured, aiming to launch 6-8 companies per year that require interdisciplinary teams and significant capital.
GC introduced a customer value fund to provide non-dilutive financing for subscription-oriented businesses' customer acquisition costs, offering an alternative to equity funding.
Taneja believes that for new venture firms starting today, having a specific point of view is crucial for rising above the noise in an overcapitalized industry, as the traditional generalist approach is no longer sufficient.
The firm emphasizes "radical collaboration" over disruption, believing that working with existing institutions and understanding their legacy is key to creating lasting change in complex industries.
GC's talent strategy focuses on bringing in diverse thinkers who share the firm's values and can build their own investment platforms within the larger organization.
44 min
January 14, 2025E73: Aydin Senkut on Building Felicis Ventures
Today on Turpentine VC, we’re releasing one of our most popular episodes: Erik’s interview with Aydin Senkut, founder and managing partner of Felicis Ventures. Aydin discusses the evolution and distinct strategies of Felicis Ventures, their focus on mental health, and insights on successful generalist investing in venture capital.

—

📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
🎙️This Won't Last
Eavesdrop on Keith Rabois, Kevin Ryan, Logan Bartlett, and Zach Weinberg's monthly backchannel. They unpack their hottest takes on the future of tech, business, venture, investing, and politics.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/id1765665937
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HwSNeVLL1MXy0RjFPyOSz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWontLastpodcast

—
SPONSORS:
☁️Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

—
LINKS:
Felicis Ventures: https://www.felicis.com/

—
X / TWITTER:
@asenkut
@eriktorenberg

—
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Aydin Senkut started Felicis Ventures as a solo practitioner during the super angel era, proving an outsider could succeed in venture capital.
The firm evolved through its middle stage by raising institutional capital and building its reputation.
In its current stage, Felicis has established a successful track record and optimizes for ownership.
Felicis pioneered investing internationally without opening offices abroad.
The firm operates as generalists across multiple stages and sectors rather than specializing.
They aim to have multiple successful investments rather than relying on one or two big hits.
Each Felicis fund maintains 40-50 companies across uncorrelated sectors and geographies.
The firm uses a "prepared mind" approach, thoroughly researching markets before meeting companies.
Investment decisions are made unanimously as a team while maintaining quick decision-making capabilities.
When hiring, Felicis looks for smart generalists with strong motivation and intuition.
They particularly value people who have been underestimated and have a "chip on their shoulder."
The firm provides attractive carry to all team members to encourage an ownership mentality.
Felicis was the first VC firm to prioritize founders' mental health support.
Through founder surveys, they discovered that mental health support was a crucial need.
Trust emerged as the number one factor founders consider when choosing investors.
The firm maintains a single fund structure rather than creating multiple specialized funds.
Felicis focuses primarily on writing first checks as their core strength.
In AI, they invest across six different sub-areas with a systematic approach.
They largely avoided crypto investments due to uncertainty about value creation.
Looking forward, Felicis believes early-stage investing won't be automated or replaced by AI.
The firm emphasizes continuous learning and rapid adaptation as their key to future success.
Instead of growing significantly larger, they plan to maintain their current fund size.
57 min
January 07, 2025E72: Keith Rabois: On Identifying Talent [Classic Interview]
This episode of Turpentine VC was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco in October 2018.Keith Rabois discusses his frameworks for identifying talent, sharing anecdotes about notable operators and companies like PayPal, LinkedIn, and Square. He emphasizes the importance of talent assessment, strategic thinking, and offers career advice while reflecting on his own experiences and observations.

—

📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
🎙️This Won't Last
Eavesdrop on Keith Rabois, Kevin Ryan, Logan Bartlett, and Zach Weinberg's monthly backchannel. They unpack their hottest takes on the future of tech, business, venture, investing, and politics.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1765665937
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HwSNeVLL1MXy0RjFPyOSz
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWontLastpodcast

—
SPONSOR:
☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

—
X / TWITTER:

@rabois
@eriktorenberg

—
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
"You don't want to be the best at what you do. You want to be the only one who does what you do." This was a key lesson Keith learned from a Pat Riley book.
Great talent can be found in unexpected places, as demonstrated by Keith's hiring of successful executives like David Han, Jared Fleisler, and Brian Gastronomy who came from non-elite schools without technical backgrounds.
You should only start a company if you have a specific idea you're deeply passionate about - Keith doesn't believe in starting companies just for the sake of being a founder.
Working at a high-growth company for two years is valuable because the constant flow of problems creates unique learning opportunities, but you hit diminishing returns after about two years.
The identification of talent often comes from seeing unique "sparks" - like when Taylor Francis solved the complex smoothie delivery problem at Square in an innovative way.
When evaluating people, Keith tests them by continuously expanding their scope of responsibilities until they show signs of struggling.
Strategic thinking means understanding how different parts of the business connect to each other - like understanding how turning different "knobs" affects the entire system.
The best market opportunities exist in industries with low NPS scores that are highly fragmented and can be improved through vertical integration and simplification.
Good judgment means understanding your limitations and knowing when to ask for help before getting in too deep.
Getting adequate sleep (8 hours) is crucial for maintaining high performance and making good decisions - Keith believes most human problems stem from lack of sleep.
A venture capitalist can effectively handle about 8-10 meetings per day before their energy and creativity begin to decline.
Reading should combine both professional necessity and serendipitous discovery, with Keith still valuing physical bookstores for finding unexpected insights.
1 hr
December 31, 2024E71: How to Scale Talent | Andy Price, Artisanal Ventures [Cross Post]
This week on Turpentine VC, Andy Price, a veteran executive recruiter and venture capitalist, joins Nolan Church and Kelli Dragovich from HR Heretics, a Turpentine podcast, for a deep dive into the crucial aspects of hiring, retaining, and developing top talent. Andy has built leadership teams for renowned companies like Snowflake and DocuSign. Check out HR Heretics for more conversations like this one (links below)
—
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse
—
SPONSORS:

📑 Discover Carta, the innovative end-to-end accounting platform revolutionizing private fund management with streamlined operations and on-demand insights. Experience the new standard at carta.com/investors.

☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

🤲🏼 GiveWell spends 50,000 hours every year doing deep-dives into different charitable programs to try to find the ways to do the most good for your dollar. GiveWell has now spent over 17 years researching charitable organizations and only directs funding to a few of the HIGHEST-IMPACT opportunities they’ve found. Visit https://www.givewell.org to find out more or make a donation. (Select PODCAST and enter Econ 102 at checkout to support our show.)

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Listen and subscribe to HR Heretics:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hr-heretics-how-cpos-chros-founders-and-boards-build/id1712407491
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1WML9AfadzaH9WCR4HHqbZ
Substack: https://hrheretics.substack.com/
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LINKS:
Artisanal Ventures: https://artisanalv.com/

—
FOLLOW:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyprice1/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/

—
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Even at top companies like DoorDash, executive hiring only succeeds two-thirds of the time, while most firms see one-third success rates.
To mitigate hiring failures, recruiters must deeply understand a company's problems and weaknesses, not just focus on their strengths.
Back-channel references are crucial but must be handled carefully, with recruiters making vague inquiries without revealing specific roles or companies.
The ideal number of references is 5-7 meaningful ones, focusing on depth of conversation rather than quantity of references.
Founders often get attached to "shiny new" executive candidates and forget about the people who helped build the company.
When layering an existing executive, the person needs to be involved in the interview process but with clear expectations about their role.
The best companies like Snowflake and ServiceNow succeed through seamless executive transitions and continuity.
To help up-and-coming executives scale, companies need to invest in advisory networks and strong board members who can provide mentorship.
The best executives rarely actively job hunt - instead, they study industry trends in their spare time and maintain relationships with select recruiters.
Multiple one-year executive tenures are a red flag; ideal careers show 3-6 year commitments at successful companies.
55 min
December 24, 2024E70: Martin Casado of a16z on AI Innovation and AGI
Today we're sharing a conversation between Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Nathan Labenz, AI scout, which originally aired on The Cognitive Revolution podcast from Turpentine. Their discussion explores AI systems complexity and debates whether AI development will lead to AGI. The conversation covers model scaling, biological AI, driverless cars, and AI safety concerns.
—
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse
—
SPONSORS:

📑 Discover Carta, the innovative end-to-end accounting platform revolutionizing private fund management with streamlined operations and on-demand insights. Experience the new standard at carta.com/investors.

☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

🤲🏼 GiveWell spends 50,000 hours every year doing deep-dives into different charitable programs to try to find the ways to do the most good for your dollar. GiveWell has now spent over 17 years researching charitable organizations and only directs funding to a few of the HIGHEST-IMPACT opportunities they’ve found. Visit https://www.givewell.org to find out more or make a donation. (Select PODCAST and enter Econ 102 at checkout to support our show.)

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Check out Modern Relationships, where Erik Torenberg interviews tech power couples and leading thinkers to explore how ambitious people actually make partnerships work. Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov and researcher Nadia Asparouhova kick off the series with an unfiltered conversation about their relationship evolution.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1786227593
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5hJzs0gDg6lRT6r10mdpVg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRelationshipsPod
--
🎙️ The Cognitive Revolution
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1669813431
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yHyok3M3BjqzR0VB5MSyk

—
FOLLOW:
@martin_casado
@labenz
@eriktorenberg
@TurpentineVC

—
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Martin Casado argues AI has shown consistent incremental progress over 80 years rather than dramatic leaps, with apparent breakthroughs often being advances in specific domains rather than general intelligence.
The self-driving car industry demonstrates how early promising results don't necessarily translate to general solutions, with unit economics still being 3x worse than human drivers after 20 years and ~$100B investment.
The universe operates on heavy-tailed distributions where most new instances are exceptions, making truly general systems extremely difficult to create.
Language Models primarily perform kernel smoothing over positional embeddings to predict average human responses, excelling at routine tasks but struggling with unique cases.
Advances in biological applications of AI represent extensions of simulation capabilities in specific domains rather than steps toward general intelligence.
On regulation, Martin advocates treating AI like other software - regulating applications rather than the underlying technology to avoid hampering innovation.
The AI industry exhibits a "perverse economy of scale" where market leaders must spend increasingly more to maintain their advantage while followers can use their outputs to catch up.
Looking forward, Martin expects continued incremental progress in specific domains rather than sudden AGI emergence, emphasizing practical applications over theoretical risks.
1 hr 44 min
December 18, 2024E69: Lost Tapes: Elad Gil on the Eve of the AI Boom
This ‘lost episode’ of Turpentine VC with investor Elad Gil was recorded at a unique moment in time (September 2022) — before ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity launched. Drawing from his experiences at Google, Elad discusses early ML systems, the open source debate, NVIDIA, labor markets, and AI alignment and shares some behind the scenes anecdotes.

—
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse
—
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Check out Modern Relationships, where Erik Torenberg interviews tech power couples and leading thinkers to explore how ambitious people actually make partnerships work. Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov and researcher Nadia Asparouhova kick off the series with an unfiltered conversation about their relationship evolution.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1786227593
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5hJzs0gDg6lRT6r10mdpVg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRelationshipsPod
--
SPONSORS:

📑Discover Carta, the innovative end-to-end accounting platform revolutionizing private fund management with streamlined operations and on-demand insights. Experience the new standard at carta.com/investors.

🤲🏼GiveWell spends 50,000 hours every year doing deep-dives into different charitable programs to try to find the ways to do the most good for your dollar. GiveWell has now spent over 17 years researching charitable organizations and only directs funding to a few of the HIGHEST-IMPACT opportunities they’ve found. Visit https://www.givewell.org to find out more or make a donation. (Select PODCAST and enter Econ 102 at checkout to support our show.)

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
LINKS:
Attention Is All You Need: https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2017/file/3f5ee243547dee91fbd053c1c4a845aa-Paper.pdf
AI Revolution - Transformers and Large Language Models (LLMs): https://blog.eladgil.com/p/ai-revolution-transformers-and-large
Elad’s website: https://eladgil.com/
High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil: https://growth.eladgil.com/ | https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100
—
FOLLOW:
@eladgil
@eriktorenberg
@TurpentineVC
—
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
This episode was recorded in 2022, before the launch of ChatGPT, Claude, and other major AI applications that are now common. This interview captured a moment in time when industry leaders were anticipating major breakthroughs in AI.
Elad explained how AI's definition has evolved from basic automation in the 1980s to sophisticated applications, with Google emerging as the first true "AI-first" company at scale through its search and ad targeting systems.
The 2017 "Attention is All You Need" paper proved pivotal, with six of its eight authors going on to start companies, creating what Gil compared to a "Xerox PARC moment" where Google developed breakthrough technology but others, particularly OpenAI, commercialized it.
Elad outlined three main categories of emerging AI companies: platforms and infrastructure providers like OpenAI, AI-first standalone companies, and tech-enabled incumbents adding AI capabilities.
Initial predictions about AI's impact on labor markets proved incorrect, with AI currently affecting white-collar, repetitive tasks more than blue-collar jobs, and creative and caring fields experiencing more disruption than anticipated.
The semiconductor industry lacks a massive AI-specific chip company, with NVIDIA's continued success attributed to strong founder leadership, superior software tooling, and advanced interconnect capabilities.
Elad emphasized the importance of open-source models and predicted the AI platform market would likely consolidate into an oligopoly similar to cloud infrastructure, with a few dominant players rather than a single winner.
46 min
December 11, 2024E68: How Theory Ventures Differentiates in a Crowded VC Market
This week on Turpentine VC, we feature a compilation episode of our popular interviews with Tom Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures who just announced a $450M second fund less than two years after launching. Over the course of the episode Tomasz explains their concentrated portfolio approach, and expands on their key theses in AI, decentralized infrastructure, and the future for data businesses (like Databricks and Snowflake).
—

🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
SPONSORS:

📑 Discover Carta, the innovative end-to-end accounting platform revolutionizing private fund management with streamlined operations and on-demand insights. Experience the new standard at carta.com/investors.

🤲🏼 GiveWell spends 50,000 hours every year doing deep-dives into different charitable programs to try to find the ways to do the most good for your dollar. GiveWell has now spent over 17 years researching charitable organizations and only directs funding to a few of the HIGHEST-IMPACT opportunities they’ve found. Visit https://www.givewell.org to find out more or make a donation. (Select PODCAST and enter Econ 102 at checkout to support our show.)

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
LINKS:

Tom’s Website: https://tomtunguz.com/
Theory Ventures: https://theory.ventures/

—
FOLLOW:

@ttunguz
@Theoryvc
@eriktorenberg
@TurpentineVC

—
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
Theory Ventures has launched a $450 million second fund and focuses on making concentrated investments after extensive research in specific sectors.
The venture capital industry has grown from $8 billion to $300 billion over the last 12 years but is expected to settle back to around $150-180 billion.
Blockchain technology is viewed as a contrarian investment in 2024, but there's potential for practical enterprise applications beyond cryptocurrency.
Databricks has seen massive growth, with its data warehousing revenue increasing from $100 million to $400 million in just one year.
The modern data infrastructure stack includes companies like Fivetran for moving data and DBT for transforming data once it's in a database.
The most valuable part of the data infrastructure business is compute workload processing, not data storage.
Tom’s take on NVIDIA's future value
54 min
December 03, 2024 E67: Defense Tech’s Rise with 8VC’s Alex Kolicich
This week on Turpentine VC, we’re releasing Sourcery’s Molly O'Shea’s interview with Alex Kolicich, founding partner at 8VC to discuss Alex's H1 2024 report on the venture landscape, covering AI investment challenges, the resurgence of defense technology, and broader economic trends impacting markets. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/3f9d98f9-c3d6-42c9-b2cc-e6ba32c668e4

—

📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse

—
RECOMMENDED PODCASTS:
🎙️ Sourcery
Interviews with the top VCs & Founders leading the next tech innovation cycle.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ni3Tese9CtZa3oxpCjgTg?si=9b01b3dbcca242f0
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sourcery/id1738124704
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SourceryVC

—
SPONSORS:

📑 Discover Carta, the innovative end-to-end accounting platform revolutionizing private fund management with streamlined operations and on-demand insights. Experience the new standard at carta.com/investors.

☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth of other clouds and offers one consistent price. Oracle is offering to cut your cloud bill in half. See if your company qualifies at oracle.com/turpentine

💥 Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist.

—
LINKS:

8vc: https://www.8vc.com/
Alex’s Substack: https://www.alexkolicich.com/
Alex’s first appearance on Sourcery: https://www.sourcery.vc/p/exclusive-alex-kolicich-8vc-exodus
Alex’s latest H1 2024 report: https://www.sourcery.vc/p/alex-kolicich-8vc-ai-and-defense

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FOLLOW:

@AlexKolicich
@MollySOShea
@eriktorenberg
@TurpentineVC

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro
(00:59) Meet Alex Kolicich
(01:50) Diving into the H1 2024 venture landscape report
(02:03) The AI investment paradox
(03:31) Challenges and opportunities in AI
(07:25) Public vs. private market dynamics
(08:24) The role of AI in software and market valuations
(12:32) Fundraising strategies in the AI era
(13:01) Sponsors: Carta | Oracle
(19:12) AI capabilities and the future of technology
(25:58) The Gartner hype cycle and AI's future
(28:08) AI market trends and valuations
(29:00) The exit environment and acquihires
(29:28) Challenges in IPOs and M&A
(32:03) Opportunities in secondaries
(32:52) Sponsor: Squad
(33:58) Defense wave: A new frontier
(43:52) Changes in defense procurement
(49:31) Advice for defense startups
(52:09) Reflections on AI and market surprises
(55:32) Wrap
55 min

About "Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing

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On Turpentine VC, host and venture capitalist Erik Torenberg delves deep into the art and science of building successful venture firms through conversations with the world’s best investors and…