First Commit

E67: Monitoring the Probabilistic Stack with Alexis Gauba (Raindrop)

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:00:00 -0800

This week, we’re joined by Alexis Gauba, Co-Founder of Raindrop, an AI native observability platform built for agents in production.

Alexis breaks down why operating agents is fundamentally different from monitoring traditional software. As systems shift from deterministic code to probabilistic behavior, dashboards alone are not enough. Teams need to detect unknown issues, track signals like forgetting, and understand long agent trajectories across millions of AI events.

We discuss why agent observability has become essential over the past year, what makes agent infrastructure distinct from prior platform shifts, and when internal tooling stops scaling. Alexis also explains Raindrop’s approach to production monitoring, combining explicit signals with automated detection to help teams not just find issues, but fix them.

Episode chapters:

2:05 - Founding Raindrop
3:54 - Building with Close Friends
5:44 - What Raindrop Actually Does
7:45 - The Reliability Challenge of Agents
9:55 - Monitoring Agents at Scale
14:45 - Experiencing the Pain Firsthand
18:00 - The Rise of Agent Infrastructure
22:17 - Internal AI Use Cases
24:07 - Hiring for Initiative and Ownership
28:30 - The Power of Multitasking
32:06 - Quick Fire Round

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the leading deal sourcing platform for private equity. Grata’s AI powered search, investment grade data, and intuitive workflows help you find and win the right deals faster. Visit grata.com to book a demo.

This episode is also sponsored by Overlap, the AI powered app that uses LLMs to surface the best moments from any podcast. Overlap reads full transcripts, finds the most relevant clips, and stitches them into a personalized stream of insights. Tap into podcasts as a real information source with Overlap 2.0, now available on the App Store.

E66: From Alerts to Action with Anish Agarwal (Traversal)

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 08:00:00 -0800

This week, we’re joined by Anish Agarwal, CEO of Traversal, an AI-native site reliability platform helping teams detect, diagnose, and remediate incidents before they spiral into prolonged downtime.

Anish shares how Traversal is tackling the full lifecycle of reliability work: identifying what caused an incident, determining which signals actually mattered during alert triage, and helping teams plan how their infrastructure should evolve over time. As modern systems grow more complex, spanning microservices, serverless, and multi-cloud environments, the surface area for failure continues to expand, especially as AI-generated code accelerates change faster than humans can reasonably keep up.

We talk about why observability has produced some of the largest outcomes in software, why the traditional dashboard-first model is breaking down, and why the next generation of tooling needs agents that can search, reason over, and act on observability data, not just display it. Anish also breaks down where “self-healing systems” are real today, where expectations need to be reset, and why many AI-SRE products risk building faster horses instead of rethinking the experience entirely.

Episode chapters:

1:50 — Anish’s background and early building
2:30 — The origins of SRE and why it emerged
8:40 — Research-driven thinking in product and engineering
10:07 — Building for large enterprise environments
13:00 — AI-driven code and the growing infrastructure surface area
16:11 — Preparing infrastructure for an AI-native future
20:10 — Fear, trust, and operating critical systems
23:05 — From detection to automated action
24:20 — How the SRE role is changing
26:05 — Hiring and building the right team
29:08 — Raising capital from Sequoia and KP
32:38 — Reflections and lessons learned
35:50 — Quick-fire round

E65: Infrastructure for AI-First Teams with Ivan Burazin (Daytona)

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0800

This week, we’re joined by Ivan Burazin, co-founder of Daytona - a company rethinking developer environments for an AI-native world.

We talk about how Daytona creates real value for developers, why the most advanced agent companies are emerging bottom up, and the idea that agents should be treated as first class users with reliable access to compute. Ivan also shares some of Daytona’s most demanding use cases including AI scientists in chemistry and pharma running agents inside massive sandboxes with hundreds of CPUs.

We also cover what reliability looks like when customers define success as whether the system works at all, how Daytona maintains sub 90 millisecond latency while spinning up millions of environments per day, and how they support always on usage with no fixed schedule. Finally, we dig into go to market lessons from putting engineers on the front lines early to why Daytona prioritizes in person engagement and intentional events as the most authentic way to build trust with developers.

Episode chapters:

1:43 – Market timing and why now
3:18 – Building for developers and dev tools
4:55 – Global developer communities
7:55 – Computers as infrastructure for agents
10:32 – Product-led growth
12:17 – Enterprise use cases and adoption
16:25 – Managing cost, performance, and latency
19:20 – Hiring for resiliency at scale
20:40 – Internal AI use cases at Daytona
24:25 – Creating a bottom-up go-to-market motion
27:42 – Hiring and scaling developer relations
29:55 – Partnerships and ecosystem strategy
31:00 – Quick-fire round

E64: Reinventing How Teams Find Talent with Ishan Gupta (Juicebox)

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0800

This week, we’re joined by Ishan Gupta, co-founder of Juicebox — a company redefining how recruiting works in an AI-native world.

Ishan shares how they pivoted from earlier ideas to focus on the highest value part of hiring: identifying the right people and getting them into process. With Juicebox, you describe what you want in natural language and the platform searches more than 800 million professional profiles, surfaces the best matches, and engages candidates through recruiting agents.

Their breakout feature, Autopilot, uses LLMs to semantically evaluate and stack rank candidates based on nuanced criteria, which quickly drove organic growth and strong PMF. We talk about why their data makes the product so sticky, how they see recruiting evolving over the next five years, what led them to raise their Series A, and the culture they are building around moving fast and being intellectually honest.

Ishan also shares what they are building next with their memory layer, which will make it clear what the AI is learning over time and how it improves future searches.

Episode chapters:

1:44 - Competitive programming
4:35 - Choosing the company name
5:55 - YC and the pivot
8:00 - How Juicebox differs from traditional recruiting
9:51 - The killer feature
14:30 - What makes the product sticky
17:15 - Is recruiting a zero sum game
19:10 - The macro view of hiring
22:05 - Raising a later Series A
24:10 - Product expansion
26:45 - Quick fire round

E63: Building the Agent Marketplace Layer with Henry and Ani (Smithery)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0800

This week’s guests are Henry and Ani, co-founders of Smithery. Smithery is building the marketplace and runtime for MCP, making it easier for developers to distribute, discover, and monetize tools in the emerging agent ecosystem.

Smithery provides a platform to connect your repo, integrate with CI/CD, and handle hosting for servers seamlessly. MCP shines when agents become more general, but it only scales if demand grows for more connections between tools and systems. Drawing from their experiences at Browserbase, Whatnot, and prior AI startups, Ani and Henry saw the need for standardization across the agent stack and set out to build the distribution and trust layer for MCP.

We cover what early traction they’re seeing from developers, how they’re approaching payments and identity to reduce configuration friction, and what the broader shift toward open, composable AI infrastructure means for the future of agents.

Episode chapters:

1:51 — Getting into AI
5:30 — The Origin of Smithery
7:40 — Building the Supply Side
9:10 — Why Smithery Is the Easiest Way to Discover MCPs
13:30 — Agent Authentication and Identity
17:08 — The Most Popular MCPs
19:50 — MCP and the Principle of Separation of Concerns
22:50 — How AI Is Being Used Today
25:57 — Defining Success as Founders
31:45 — Quire Fire Round

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

E62: Reinventing Consumer AI Through Generative Video with Dean Leitersdorf (Decart)

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 16:00:00 -0700

This week’s guest is Dean Leitersdorf, CEO of Decart. Decart is a vertically integrated AI research lab building some of the world’s most advanced audio and video models, including Mirage, a real-time generative video system where users can transform themselves or their environments instantly.

We dive into Dean’s path from finishing his PhD in computer science at 21 to founding Decart with the ambition of creating a true “before-and-after” company in AI. We cover how Decart evolved from GPU optimization to leading-edge video models, why Mirage has attracted massive adoption in advertising and ecommerce, and what it means to build entirely new consumer experiences on the internet. We also discuss the broader enterprise interest in real-time video, how Decart balances continuous consumer iteration with lab-first research, and why Dean believes this is one of the few moments in history where founders can truly build trillion-dollar businesses.

Episode Chapters:

2:10 — From Israel to Palo Alto
4:22 — What Dean is running toward
6:15 — Building for the future of AI
9:40 — How people use Decart
14:05 — Building a model from scratch
19:08 — Who adopts these models first
24:05 — Decart’s focus areas
27:06 — Attracting world-class talent
30:00 — Choosing to integrate or partner
34:04 — Thinking about consumer impact
39:38 — Quick fire round

E61: AI for Financial Services with Samir and Kunal (Farsight)

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 07:00:00 -0700

This week’s guests are Samir and Kunal from Farsight. Farsight is transforming how financial firms operate by automating the most time-consuming parts of dealmaking, from drafting pitch decks to generating investment insights, in seconds instead of weeks.

We dive into Samir’s journey from Wall Street to building Farsight, and why AI is reshaping the workflows at the heart of finance. We cover how power users are creating entire pitchbooks in minutes, how firms leveraging Farsight are winning more deals and sharpening pricing strategies, and why owning the full workflow is the key to lasting advantage. We also discuss their approach to high-sensitivity use cases, where models are deployed directly into customer environments and tuned for bespoke needs.

Episode Chapters:

2:02 - CS at MIT
5:30 - The catalyzing factor
10:36 - Agents to automate financial services
13:20 - Your new PE analyst
16:30 - Owning the workflow
19:25 - Selling to banks
21:45 - Build vs buy
25:20 - Foundation models & frameworks
31:27 - Becoming a manager
34:10 - Fundraising advice
36:40 - Augmenting junior analysts
41:00 - How AI teaches us to work
42:25 - Quick fire round

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.

Fresh out of Y Combinator’s Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

E60: Why Voice is the Next Platform Shift with Jordan Dearsley (Vapi)

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0700

This week’s guest is Jordan Dearsley, CEO of Vapi. Vapi enables enterprises to deploy humanlike voice agents in minutes. Whether you are building a new voice product or managing millions of calls, Vapi’s infrastructure and flexible APIs make it simple and reliable.

We explore why Waterloo continues to produce world-class engineers and founders, Jordan’s journey from building calendar apps and AI therapy tools to leading Vapi, and why enterprises are turning to voice AI to save engineering time and resources. We also cover the toughest technical challenges including latency, tool calls, determinism, and multi state environments, and why generative voice systems require constant tuning and forward deployed models rather than one size fits all solutions.

Episode Chapters:

2:10 - The MIT of Canada
4:03 - Pivoting 10+ times
6:00 - Why voice AI
11:07 - A faster path to production
12:05 - Voice challenges from enterprises
15:05 - Why stay horizontal
17:20 - Actively moving away from being an AI BPO
19:45 - Forward deployed engineers
21:40 - From scoping to production
22:40 - Recruiting as an early stage startup
26:05 - ElevenLabs leading the model pack
29:00 - Distribution & enterprise integrations
32:35 - Quick fire round

E59: Simulation as Strategy with Brooke Hopkins (Coval)

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0700

This week’s guest is Brooke Hopkins, Founder of Coval, a company building automated testing infrastructure for AI agents starting with voice and chat assistants.

We unpack her journey from studying in Abu Dhabi to leading simulation infrastructure at Waymo, where she helped ensure autonomous vehicles could operate safely at scale. Brooke shares how that experience shaped Coval’s approach to agent evaluation, why voice is the hardest modality to test, and what it means to simulate human-to-agent interactions in a way that actually reflects user intent.

Episode Chapters:

1:54 - Abu Dhabi for college
4:06 - Searching for engineering challenges
5:08 - Joining Waymo
9:00 - Scaling simulations
10:17 - Balancing cost, latency, and signal
14:40 - Starting with voice
18:16 - Building evals
23:44 - Persona surprises
26:50 - MCP
27:15 - AI operating system for conversational workflows
32:28 - Voice to voice
35:55 - Quick fire round

E58: Architecting Developer Experiences with Christopher Chedeau (aka Vjeux)

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 07:00:00 -0700

This week’s guest is Christopher Chedeau, better known as Vjeux, Front-End Engineer at Meta and the mind behind React Native, Prettier, Excalidraw, and more.

We unpack his journey from modding Warcraft at 13 to shaping some of the most widely used developer tools in the world. Christopher shares his thoughts on why React took off, how side projects become developer staples, and what AI means for the future of software creation.

Episode Chapters:

1:55 - Christopher aka Vjeux
2:55 - Learning to code
6:30 - Programming in France
8:53 - Open sourcing React
13:01 - Moving to Facebook
15:25 - The framework wars
18:25 - The React community
22:40 - AI <> React
26:30 - What's next for Vjeux?
29:46 - Active procrastination leading to virality
32:42 - Future of whiteboarding
37:26 - Quick fire round

E57: Integrating your AI with Karan Vaidya (Composio)

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 07:00:00 -0700

This week’s guest is Karan Vaidya, Co-Founder and CTO of Composio, a platform enabling AI agents to connect with hundreds of tools and take autonomous actions to streamline workflows.

We dive into his journey building “Devin” for integrations, why the rise of AI is creating demand for thousands of application connectors, how 90% of Composio’s use cases today are agent-driven, and the role early product virality played in their traction.

Episode Chapters:

2:00 – Founding with a friend (of 13 years)
3:35 – Evolution of integrations
6:50 – Lightbulb moment
9:20 – Pivoting Composio
12:40 – Agentic workflows
14:30 – Why Composio?
16:47 – Winning developers
25:20 – Build vs. buy
26:20 – AI toolset
28:25 – Agentic internet
30:52 – Quick fire round

E56: Why AI Agents Need Memory with Taranjeet Singh (Mem0)

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0700

This week’s guest is Taranjeet Singh, Founder and CEO of Mem0, a company building the self-improving memory layer for AI agents and LLMs.

The conversation covers his path to founding Mem0, from applying to YC 7x and learning to "think bigger," to identifying a core pain point after launching a viral app in India. Taranjeet breaks down why memory is essential for agents, how Mem0 works across any LLM, and why solving one core problem deeply is a competitive advantage.

He also discusses how to stay lean and ship fast by hiring high-agency contributors.

Episode Chapters:

Building startups since 2012 - 1:56
Finding PMF in India - 3:59
X growth hacks - 7:25
Applying to YC - 12:25
Why memory? - 15:05
Primary use case - 17:21
Relevant verticals for memory - 21:57
Partnerships - 25:41
Lean team & shipping fast - 27:44
Future of agent infra - 32:28
Quick fire round - 34:07

E55: From Viral Clips to Enterprise SaaS with Jonathan Baer (Overlap)

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:00:00 -0700

This week, we’re chatting with Jonathan Baer, Co-Founder and CEO of Overlap. Overlap is building an AI-native video editing platform that helps podcasters and media teams turn long-form content into clips for social media. The product is designed to scale distribution with minimal manual input, making agents feel more like collaborators than tools.

Jonathan shares how Overlap is harnessing video understanding models and advanced reasoning to drive autonomy in editing. We explore what makes video such a challenging medium for AI, why the best outbound strategies still rely on human nuance, and how Overlap is positioning itself as the creative assistant for the next generation of content teams.

Episode Chapters:

Post YC updates - 2:18
What podcasters want - 6:14
Where to post clips - 8:50
GTM strategy - 11:03
Switching between LLMs - 13:19
Customer requests - 16:37
Pricing - 19:40
How does Overlap land customers - 23:15
YC impact - 26:25
Future of Overlap - 29:10
Quick fire round - 31:57

E54: The Infrastructure of Trust for Agents with Daniel Mason (Anon)

Thu, 22 May 2025 14:00:00 -0700

This week, we are chatting with Daniel Mason, Co-Founder and CEO of Anon. Anon is an integration platform that aims to become the go-to infrastructure layer for the AI-powered internet.

Daniel shares his journey from joining a startup straight out of college to building Anon, highlighting why distribution is often the biggest unlock when building a company. We dive into the evolving and often contradictory landscape of digital identity, how authentication is now split between defensive and offensive strategies, and why the user experience layer is critical for agent-native workflows.

We also explore the tradeoffs between building internal tooling versus using existing systems, and why today’s most successful AI use cases might be limited in number but are incredibly deep. Daniel reflects on how relevant past infrastructure is in a world increasingly shaped by agents

Episode Chapters:

Journey to entrepreneurship - 2:00
Starting Spring Labs - 5:03
Building in a post AI world - 7:27
Auth for agents - 10:50
Adding integrations - 14:51
Controlling how agents work - 18:28
Learning from the market - 21:35
Deterministic workflows - 25:01
How to price - 27:32
Perplexity v. Google - 31:42
Quick fire round - 32:20

E53: Helping the Daring Build with James Flynn (Sequoia)

Fri, 09 May 2025 07:00:00 -0700

This week we sat down with James Flynn, an investor at Sequoia. James focuses on growth-stage investments for Sequoia and was previously an investor at General Atlantic.

During the episode, we cover James's journey to Sequoia, highlighting intellectual curiosity and his competitive spirit as key attributes in his path to the firm. The conversation features a number of fascinating perspectives across investing in "daring" companies, including James's take on the relative importance of business model / founder / market in making an investment decision. We also cover how James thinks about absolute valuation as opposed to a multiple, and how he believes junior investors can add value.

James's energy is infectious and his eloquence and clarity of thought stand out, making the conversation one of our most fascinating yet.

Episode Chapters:

Key personal characteristics - 2:19
James's journey post-college - 9:30
Breaking in to Sequoia - 12:55
Taking the shot - 13:55
Underwriting thoughts - numbers support the story - 21:33
Sequoia's singular KPI - 27:45
How junior investors can add value - 30:10
Absolute valuation matters - 35:31
James's areas of focus - 38:32
Implications on education - 41:12
Quick fire round - 43:26

E52: Hacking to Silicon Valley with Rahul Sonwalkar (Julius)

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:00:00 -0700

This week, we have Rahul Sonwalkar, Founder and CEO of Julius, on the show. Julius is your AI Data Scientist, where users can quickly analyze, visualize, and transform data.

Rahul covers his journey from traveling across the country to hackathons in college, the importance of not being afraid of failing as a founder, how Rahul seeks out mentors, the four key ways Julius delivers value, and how Julius continues to add AI to data analysis.

We also cover the decision to start selling bottoms up, how that enabled revenue in the early days, and how smarter models directly benefit Julius.

Episode Chapters:

Undergrad at UT Dallas - 1:47
Being okay with being wrong - 4:18
Overcoming ego - 7:15
The Julius DNA - 9:20
Your AI data analyst - 12:15
Building trust with Julius - 15:30
Maintaining infrastructure - 19:20
Building out new features - 22:32
Two kinds of AI startups - 27:13
The next wave of SEO - 29:07
Assessing talent - 32:12
Quick fire round - 33:26

E51: Automating Healthcare Operations with Trey Holterman (Tennr)

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0700

This week, we have Trey Holterman, Co-Founder and CEO of Tennr, on the show. Tennr automates manual tasks in healthcare operations using a proprietary LLM and has raised over $61 million in VC funding from Lightspeed, a16z, Y Combinator, and others.

Trey covers his journey from captaining the Stanford rowing team to navigating improv comedy and building Tennr. We dive into how Tennr defines success through improved patient experience and why hard problems attract great engineers.

Trey also unpacks why his team avoids buzzwords like “AI”, despite having a clear real-world application of a LLM.

Episode Chapters:

How rowing influenced Trey - 2:33
Building leadership skills - 4:15
Dabbling in standup comedy - 8:04
Tennr's founding story - 10:10
How Tennr delivers ROI to customers - 13:25
Hard problems attract great engineers - 17:03
RaeLM (proprietary vision model) - 22:06
Positioning as Healthcare Cowboys - 26:43
Summoning God through a machine - 31:14
The future patient journey - 34:01
Quick fire round - 41:47

E50: Israel’s Cyber Boom with Matan Lamdan (CRV)

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0700

This week, we are chatting with Matan Lamdan, a cloud infra investor at CRV. Matan started his career as an officer in Unit 8200, the security unit of the IDF, before transitioning to investigative journalism. Now, Matan is a Principal on the infra team at CRV, where he primarily focuses on early-stage security investments.

During the episode, we discuss the screening process for the IDF and how Matan ended up in the cyber intelligence unit (which is very well known in the valley). We also cover how chance encounters landed Matan in VC, the importance of being in the right networks, and how CRV acts as a thought partner to their founders. Matan also dives into where AI agents will impact security and why CISOs are excited about this opportunity.

Episode Chapters:

Growing up in the US and Israel - 1:52
Serving in the IDF - 2:32
Transitioning to CRV - 7:41
Evaluating a team - 8:40
Sourcing in Israel from SF - 11:40
Passing but staying in touch - 13:22
Winning deals - 15:47
Where Matan spends his time - 18:26
AI for pen testing - 24:15
If not VC? - 26:50
Quick fire - 28:28

*Episode was recorded pre Wiz acquisition

E49: Where AI Meets Customer Experience with Bihan Jiang (Decagon)

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 15:00:00 -0700

This week, we are chatting with Bihan Jiang, a product lead at Decagon. Decagon is reimagining customer service with AI agents. The company recently raised a $65M Series B and is trusted by companies such as Eventbrite, Substack, ClassPass, Rippling, Notion, and more.

We dive into her journey starting at Scale AI after Stanford, moving to the application side of AI, LLM capabilities powering Decagon, and how customers are using Decagon to elevate their customer experience. We also dive into how Decagon is powering email, SMS, and voice and how they adhere to customers' requests for accuracy and reliability.

Episode Chapters:

Growing up in Texas - 1:53
AI powered PM - 3:22
Career progression - 6:12
Customer support market - 8:58
Users of Decagon - 13:13
Can we automate 100%? - 16:28
Moving into voice AI - 17:25
Customer research - 22:22
Product roadmap decisions - 26:44
Joining an AI startup - 29:15
Ending questions - 32:37

E48: Why AI Agents Need Better Infrastructure with Vasek Mlejnsky (E2B)

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 07:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Vasek Mlejnsky, CEO and Co-Founder of E2B. E2B is a platform for developers to run AI agents in the cloud securely.

We dive into the journey of starting a company with your best friend in the Czech Republic, building for AI agents before the hype, and why secure code execution is critical for scaling. Vasek also shares how E2B is becoming the go-to runtime for AI applications, the role of evals in agent development, and the challenges of pricing infrastructure while balancing user growth without hyperscaler-style pricing.

Episode Chapters:

Growing up in Czech - 1:55
Building with your friend - 5:25
Starting a company in the US vs Europe - 7:05
State of AI agents - 11:15
Code execution before E2B - 14:00
E2B use cases - 16:10
Becoming AWS for AI agents - 19:00
Raising switching costs - 21:20
Computer use for agents - 26:48
Multi modal opportunities for agents - 30:26
Quick fire round - 34:45

E47: Reinventing Business Banking with Everett Cook (Rho)

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Everett Cook, CEO and Co-Founder of Rho. Rho is a financial operating platform for fast-growing businesses.

We dive into ideating as a first time founder, discovering the cracks of business banking, building a product first organization, the trajectory of brick and mortar banks, how to structure customer service, and expanding past a BaaS solution.

Episode Chapters:

Global Macro Investing - 1:56
Working with Mike Bloomberg - 5:15
Finding the "why" - 7:38
Working through systematic constraint - 11:10
Partnering with banks - 13:23
Competitive landscape - 19:45
AI enabling customer service - 23:00
Nailing the ICP - 25:35
Banking in a box - 29:10
Future of Rho - 32:46
Ending questions - 33:35

E46: Investing Outside the Bubble with Finn Murphy (Nebular)

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Finn Murphy, General Partner at Nebular. Nebular is an early-stage VC fund based in NYC that invests in the US and Europe.

We dive into building and selling his first company, how angel investing can sharpen your investing skills, whether Seed investing is a 15-year career, winning investments in Europe, and aligning LPs with your fund strategy.

Episode Chapters:

Growing up in Ireland - 1:50
Joining VC - 8:20
Founding Nebular - 11:25
Pitching LPs - 15:52
Demystifying early stage venture - 20:54
A global mindset - 25:32
The future of Seed investing - 30:50
How would you invest in a Seed fund? - 36:28
Ending questions - 40:02

E45: Breaking Down the Agent Economy with Robert Chandler (Wordware)

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 12:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Robert Chandler, CTO and Co-Founder at Wordware. Wordware is a collaborative platform to build, iterate, and deploy AI agents.

We explore his initial interest in self-driving cars, finding PMF (knowing when to pivot), turning weak AGI into a narrow AI expert, and why prompting is the new programming with first principles in mind.

Episode Chapters:

Entrepreneurship curiosity- 1:54
Building HeyDaily - 4:38
Pivot to agents - 9:42
End to end agent orchestration - 13:55
Long tail of use cases - 18:55
Future of Wordware - 20:56
Feature prioritization - 24:24
Building with high switching costs - 27:48
Ending questions - 33:55

E44: Perplexity for Video and Audio with Jonathan Baer (Overlap)

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 13:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Jonathan Baer, CEO and Co-Founder at Overlap. Overlap is an AI assistant that creates daily, personalized playlists of clips about anything you’re interested in

We explore navigating public opinion at Meta, why business school is good for founders, and the team of AI agents focused on making curated Overlap content. Jonathan also offers helpful advice for applying to YC (hint: new wave of consumer AI) and the value add from the accelerator.

Episode Chapters:

Public Policy x tech - 2:13
Starting at GSB -7:05
Genesis for Overlap - 11:58
Podcast market - 14:00
LLM based clipping algorithm - 16:55
Overlap use cases - 21:55
Applying for YC - 26:05
Financial element of YC - 30:31
Quick fire round - 35:00

E43: Safety, Scaling Laws, and the Future of Claude with Nicholas Marwell (Anthropic)

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 06:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Nicholas Marwell, a member of the technical staff at Anthropic. Anthropic is one of the most fascinating companies of the decade, building foundation models focused on safe AI.

We explore joining the post-training team at Anthropic, why folks started to be concerned about safety, understanding a model's neurons, using Claude at work, two areas Nick is most excited for AI to disrupt, and where value will accrue.

Episode Chapters:

Joining Anthropic- 1:55
Secure AI - 5:03
The Founding Story - 8:41
Interpretability - 11:33
Anthropic's Business Model - 15:01
Claude for Enterprise - 19:00
AI for Coding - 22:50
Scaling Laws - 24:30
Making models smarter - 28:00
Quick fire - 32:18

E42: Empowering the Next Generation of Founders with Kofi Ampadu (a16z)

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -0800

This week, we sat down with Kofi Ampadu, a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz who leads the Talent x Opportunity Initiative (TxO). TxO focuses on discovering and supporting high-potential entrepreneurs who have the vision and determination to build transformative businesses but lack traditional access to resources and networks.

We explore his experiences working as an engineer at Kraft, the importance of having hard conversations early on, and what drives innovation in CPG companies. Kofi also shares how to optimize a brand for staying power, investing at the intersection of culture and lifestyle, and how TxO defines PMF.

Episode Chapters:

What makes Kofi, Kofi - 2:08
Transition from enterprise to startups - 5:38
SKU'd Ventures - 12:35
Innovation in CPG - 17:25
AI's impact on CPG - 21:00
TxO - 26:00
Thesis at TxO - 30:00
Donor advised fund - 33:30
Quick fire round - 41:53

E41: Setting Sail at Optimist Ventures with Teddy Himler

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Teddy Himler, General Partner at Optimist Ventures. Optimist is an early-stage fund backing founders focused on critical technologies at the inflection stage. We explore his experiences investing in SE Asia, taking less PMF risk in emerging markets, and signals that led him to start his own fund. Teddy also shares his perspectives on technology's secular and cyclical trends, the importance of owning your domain, and AI breakthroughs in healthcare, insurance, and robotics.

During the episode, we reference Thomas Laffont's All-In Summit presentation

Episode Chapters:

Investing in internet 1.0 - 1:55
Historian investing style - 5:35
Valuations in emerging markets - 7:50
Launching a fund - 12:00
Betting on the next 30 years - 16:14
Differentiation as an emerging manager - 19:10
Market adoption of AI - 22:39
LP learnings - 25:35
Quick fire round - 31:20

E40: Building Fund I with Leeor Mushin (Formation)

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 07:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Leeor Mushin, General Partner at Formation. Formation is an early-stage fund that partners with founders from day one. We dive into his experience starting a fund at Stanford by investing in his classmates, the journey of building a managed marketplace, and key signals that indicate it's the right time to start a fund. Leeor also shares insights on why 'ugly ducklings' are ripe for disruption, along with his unique approach to sourcing talent and creating a competitive edge for Formation.

Episode Chapters:

Growing up in Texas - 1:52
Moving to Stanford - 4:25
Founding Digital Stairway - 8:55
Joining Floodgate - 13:32
Community sourcing - 19:05
Starting a fund - 23:00
The "Ugly Duckling" - 29:51
Founder attributes - 35:45
Business school or not? - 38:40
Quick-fire round - 40:30

E39: Managing AI Agents with Alex Reibman (Agency)

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Alex Reibman, CEO and Co-Founder of Agency. Agency is an agentic platform to help build reliable agents at scale. We discuss learning through competing (in hackathons), agents as self-driving programs, multi-agent tenancy, and why LLMs are not best suited for agents. We also explored which failure scenarios we can accept when building agentic systems and why community is crucial for scale.

Episode Chapters:

Alex's background - 1:50
Enterprise to startup - 6:42
Hackathons to Agency - 9:50
What is an AI agent? - 11:40
How to use an agent - 15:43
LLMs impact on agents - 19:53
Agency as a product - 21:30
Trusting the system - 26:27
Who will benefit first? - 34:04
Do not bet against the models - 37:31
Quick fire round - 39:40

E38: Scaling a P2P Marketplace with Julia and Brian (Pickle)

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 11:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Julia and Brian, co-founders of Pickle. Julia and Brian met at Blackstone before leaving to start Pickle, a P2P clothing rental marketplace. We discuss their founder dynamic, lessons learned through execution, leveraging micro-influencers, and scaling through network effects. We also explored their experience raising capital, how to identify the right investors, and managing round dynamics.

Episode Chapters:

Blackstone to Pickle - 1:58
What is Pickle? - 4:13
Reaching consumers - 6:24
Secondhand marketplaces - 10:03
Acquiring first closets - 13:22
Supply side demand - 18:29
Measuring success - 22:11
Kickstarting organic channels - 24:02
Raising VC capital - 26:45
Two areas of validation - 31:35
Quick-fire round - 33:25

E37: Your next AI personal assistant with Div Garg (MultiOn)

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 07:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Div Garg, Founder of MultiOn. During the conversation, we discussed Div's journey from big tech to startups, the promise of agents, and how the LLMs are tackling agents. We also discussed how the agent ecosystem will evolve over time, whether we should pay our agents, and building a team as a first-time founder.

Episode Chapters:

Working in Big Tech - 2:28
Intro to AI agents - 3:22
MultiOn's Mission - 4:50
What will agents disrupt? - 8:37
Agent headwinds - 11:20
Product launch that didn't work - 13:40
The role of LLMs - 17:05
Upper limits of agents - 19:27
The value of agents - 21:43
Building an organization - 25:45
Raising VC funding - 29:15
Quick fire questions - 32:16

E36: Media meets VC with Brett Perlmutter (Bulletpitch)

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 12:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Brett Perlmutter, Founder and CEO of Bulletpitch. During the conversation, we cover Brett's journey starting Bulletpitch as an undergraduate student to hosting events and writing for thousands of readers. We also cover wanting to break into VC, why top VCs are fantastic media companies, and why media yields deal flow.

Episode Chapters:

Starting Bulletpitch - 1:04
Building the pipeline - 5:50
The content evolution - 8:03
Company selection - 12:30
Why scarcity is critical - 16:44
Growth hacking in the early days - 22:50
Building a syndicate - 30:00
Brett's value add - 34:55
Quick-fire round - 37:03

E35: Redefining Spreadsheets with Bobby Pinero (Equals)

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 11:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Bobby Pinero, CEO and Co-Founder of Equals. During the conversation, we cover Bobby's journey from being inspired by "engineering entrepreneurship" at Stanford to leading the finance team at Intercom and then starting Equals. We also covered the moat behind Equals, having a clear end-user, competing with Excel and Google Sheets, and the importance of brand building.

Episode Chapters:

Bobby's upbringing - 1:46
Scaling with Intercom - 7:14
Seed to start Equals - 10:00
What is Equals? - 13:44
Why switch to Equals - 18:43
Gaining market share - 23:37
Two ways to grow - 27:50
Brand building - 32:18
Expand the TAM with AI - 34:285
Ending Questions - 36:43

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E34: Identity, Security, and Innovation with Eli Wachs (Footprint)

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 12:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Eli Wachs, Co-founder and CEO of Footprint. During the conversation, we covered Eli’s journey from being an undergraduate student at Stanford to an obsession with KYC and starting Footprint. We also cover KYC, starting with the Patriot Act, how to find early customers, execution at scale, and Eli’s second career as a comedian.

Episode Chapters:

What makes Eli, Eli - 1:12
Innovation at Stanford - 3:33
Know Your Customer (KYC) - 5:42
Why should customers trust Footprint? - 9:45
The value Footprint provides - 12:46
Working with larger banks - 16:50
Keeping consumer data secure - 18:30
What is keeping Eli up? - 20:48
Moral guidance around data - 23:37
Stand up comedy - 27:35
Ending questions - 31:45

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E33: Building the Next Generation of Events with Avante Price (POSH)

Wed, 29 May 2024 09:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Avante Price, CEO and Co-Founder of POSH. During the conversation, we cover Avante's journey from being an undergraduate student at NYU to dropping out and starting POSH. We also cover starting an event community, finding success in a consumer-facing space, optimizing for profitability, and hiring at the early stages.

Episode Chapters:

DJ to Startups - 1:12
Three Missing Themes in Event Platforms - 5:56
Deciding to Drop Out - 8:24
Creating a New Market - 11:20
Gaining Market Share - 15:25
2024 Roadmap - 17:51
Managing as a Younger Founder - 23:15
The Shopify Journey - 26:30
Events on the POSH Platform - 30:22
Quick Fire - 32:13

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

E32: Scaling with a Growth Fund with Avery Rosin (Lead Edge)

Wed, 15 May 2024 11:00:00 -0700

This week, we sat down with Avery Rosin, a Partner at Lead Edge Capital. During the conversation, we cover Avery's long journey at Lead Edge, where he has impressively navigated the path from Analyst to Partner. We also cover Lead Edge's strategy, Avery's areas of focus, his thoughts on the current macro environment, and his advice to aspiring growth equity investors.

Episode Chapters:

Selling Cutco Knives - 1:20
Staying Power at a Fund - 5:25
Lead Edge's Strategy - 8:10
Retention is King - 12:50
Determining the Best Benchmarks - 16:06
Investing as a Generalist - 19:50
Healthcare IT - 21:21
Raising Fund II and Beyond - 26:22
IPO Market Opens Up - 28:22
Quick Fire Round - 31:55

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

E31: Bridging Biotech and Big Data with Sara Choi (Wing VC)

Wed, 01 May 2024 09:00:00 -0700

We are excited to sit down with Sara Choi, Partner at Wing VC! Prior to Wing, Sara co-founded the mobile data company Airfox. Since 2019, Sara has dedicated her efforts to investing in early-stage companies operating at the intersection of bio and data. During this episode, we discuss raising VC capital (versus not), the impact of a thematic focus, and the future trajectories of drug discovery.

Episode Chapters:

The American Dream - 1:15
Founder Journey X 2 - 5:33
Day 1 at Wing VC - 8:10
Entry Stage Valuations - 12:55
Sector Specialization - 14:30
Data's Impact on Biology - 19:04
Sourcing Superpower - 23:43
VC Office Hours - 26:50
Drug Development - 28:37
Healthcare with Employers - 36:21
Ending Questions - 39:10

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E30: Drumsticks to Deal-Making with Pete Mathias (Alumni Ventures)

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 12:00:00 -0700

We are excited to sit down with Pete Mathias, Partner at Alumni Ventures. Prior to VC, Pete was the lead drummer in a rock band, Filliger, where he traveled the world for 14 years. Later in his career, Pete found his way into the venture world and focused on strategic technologies critical to the United States. During the episode, we discuss breaking into VC from a non-traditional background, a network-powered approach, and why software has eaten the world.

Episode Chapters:

From Graduation to Rockband - 1:30
Discovering Venture Capital - 4:15
VC with a Non-Traditional Background - 6:54
Two Types of Investment Opportunities - 10:27
"I am wet clay" - 13:36
Investing in Nuclear Energy - 18:05
Tips for the "Partner Path" - 25:20
Is VC the Right Fit? - 27:45
Ending Questions - 28:58

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

E29: Beyond the Code with Alessio Fanelli (Decibel Partners)

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 14:00:00 -0700

We are excited to sit down with Alessio Fanelli, Partner and CTO at Decibel. Alessio grew up in Rome and made his way to the US as an engineer at 645 before landing at Decibel Partners, an early-stage fund focused on data, dev tools, and cyber security. During the episode, we discuss dropping out of school to start a company, the importance of open-source software, how to diligence pre-product market fit, and the next wave of large language models.

Episode Chapters:

Growing up in Rome - 1:20
Learning to Code - 3:27
Joining 645 - 7:10
Partner & CTO @ Decibel - 10:42
Open Source Software - 15:56
Diligence as a Pre-PMF Investor - 26:10
Challenging Open AI - 29:54
Now's the Time for Dev Tools? - 34:50
Ending Questions - 36:17

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

Check out Alessio's podcast!

E28: Empowering the Employee with Jeff Schumann (Aware)

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0700

We are excited to sit down with Jeff Schumann, Co-Founder and CEO at Aware. Jeff started building technology at a young age (selling software to CBS and tracking Al-Qaeda) before founding Aware, a contextual intelligence platform for organizations. During the episode, we discuss intercepting terrorist communications, the employee voice as the most important asset, and why context is king.

Episode Chapters:

Early Entrepreneur Days - 1:25
Working with the CIA - 6:10
Modernizing the Tech Stack at Nationwide - 11:10
Aware: Contextual Intelligence - 13:33
Ask IQ (Chat GPT for the Enterprise) - 15:28
Columbus: The Collaborative City - 24:17
Living by your Values - 27:00
Employee Privacy - 31:17
Enterprise AI Adoption Trends - 35:50
Ending Questions - 39:00

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

E27: The Digital Currency Climb with Maxime (Draper)

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0800

This week, join us with Maxime Bucaille from Draper Associates. Maxime began his career as a foreign exchange trader before becoming an operator at Airswap. His passion for blockchain continued when he joined Atari, a multi-platform gaming company. During the episode, we discuss raising $37M in two hours, mitigating centralized risk, and consumer adoption of virtual reality.

Episode Chapters:

Moving from Paris to NYC - 1:20
FX Trader at BNP - 2:25
Joining Airswap (3rd ever Decentralized Exchange) - 4:51
Breaking down Draper Associates - 9:40
Investing with Tim Draper - 14:57
Crypto POV - 17:00
Bullish on Bitcoin - 20:30
Changing Consumer Behavior - 23:51
The Future of the Metaverse - 26:55
Coinbase: Leading the Way - 30:45
Ending Questions - 31:14

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

E26: Water: Your Newest Skincare Weapon with Arjan (Jolie)

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -0800

This week, we're sitting down with Arjan Singh, the Co-Founder of Jolie. Arjan's journey into the world of beauty and wellness began early on and grew as he collaborated with entrepreneurs in high school and honed his expertise in luxury, consumer, and fashion at BCG. In today's episode, we'll delve into the essentials of building a successful consumer brand, the underlying factors of skin and hair health, the significant impact of social influence, and the number one tool every founder should utilize.

Episode Chapters:

Passion for Beauty Wellness - 1:20
The Power of Relationships - 3:32
Starting Jolie - 7:40
Developing a Shower Head - 11:46
Changing Consumer Behavior - 14:26
The Jolie Marketing Approach - 17:12
Valuing Connections & Experiences - 21:10
Product Messaging with Macro Economic Shifts - 24:15
Will Jolie Raise Capital? - 28:48
Ending Questions - 30:07

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E25: Mastering Marketplaces with Luke Skertich (FJ Labs)

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -0800

We're excited to chat with Luke Skertich, a Principal at FJ Labs. Prior to his role at FJ, Luke transitioned from a pre-med background to a career in product management. FJ Labs, known for its focus on early-stage marketplace businesses, has invested in industry giants such as Alibaba, Uber, and Airbnb. In this episode, Luke delves into his journey from pre-med to venture capital, shares insights on investing in marketplace platforms, and explores the dynamics of balancing supply and demand.

Episode Chapters:

Initial Career Path - 1:26
Portfolio Value Add - 5:19
FJ Founding Story - 6:41
What is a Marketplace? - 8:55
Attractive Marketplace Attributes - 12:38
Evaluating a Marketplace/Competitive Landscape - 15:32
API Enabled Marketplaces - 22:06
AI Enhancing the User Experience - 26:15
SaaS Enabled Marketplaces - 28:15
Ending Questions - 31:23

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E24: Healthcare's New Era: AI Insights with Jacob Effron (Redpoint)

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:00:00 -0800

We're excited to chat with Jacob Effron, a Partner at Redpoint Ventures. Before joining Redpoint in San Francisco, Jacob served as a product manager at Flatiron Health. In addition to being an investor, Jacob hosts two podcasts, Unsupervised Learning and Vital Signs. Jacob sheds light on the impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare, the influence of large language models (LLMs) on drug discovery, the current importance of value-based care, and the future prospects of AGI!

Episode Chapters:

Economic Development in East Africa - 1:26
Breaking down the Product Manager Role - 2:54
Redpoint's Strategy - 4:42
Healthcare AI Themes - 7:32
AI Meets Drug Discovery - 10:20
The Impact of AI on Clinical Trials - 14:35
Value-Based-Care versus Fee-For-Service - 17:40
Technology Paired with VBC - 21:00
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - 24:24
Evaluating a Founder - 27:30
Ending Questions - 28:54

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E23: The Interplay of Research and Intuition with Jason Bornstein (Forerunner)

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 12:00:00 -0800

We're excited to talk with Jason Bornstein, Partner and Head of Research at Forerunner. Jason started his career by leading growth marketing at Bonobos, scaling it into one of the first venture-backed DTC brands to achieve $100M in revenue. Post business school, he joined Forerunner, a VC firm specializing in early-stage consumer-driven ventures. Jason shares his experiences of shifting from conventional marketing tactics and his exploration of VC during his business studies and discusses Forerunner's people-centric strategy, including the innovative brand power score.

Episode Chapters:

Starting in Growth Marketing at Bobobos - 1:55
Diversification across Marketing Channels - 5:53
Business School to Investing - 9:58
Forerunner's Investment Strategy - 12:48
Joining as a Principal and Promotion to Partner - 14:05
Carving out a Head of Research Position - 16:10
Thematic Focus in Practice - 18:25
Forerunner's Brand Power Score - 22:03
Improving Your Score - 26:02
Ending Questions - 28:45

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E22: Data is the New Oil with Sean Thorne (People Data Labs)

Wed, 27 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -0800

We are excited to sit down with Sean Thorne, founder and CEO at People Data Labs. Sean dropped out of the University of Oregon to start his first company, Hallspot. Taking his learnings from Hallspot, he started People Data Labs (PDL). PDL is an innovative API product for developers & data scientists, with over 3 billion data records. Sean discusses why every company is a data company, how perseverance wins out, powering AI companies, and the importance of a clear story while fundraising.

Episode Chapters:

Entrepreneur Pursuit - 1:30
Starting a Company at 19 - 3:50
Building People Data Labs - 6:20
Founder, Market Fit - 7:45
The Evolving Ideal Customer Profile - 11:05
How to Win as a Data Company - 13:55
Fundraising from VCs - 17:42
Data is the New Oil - 21:20
Privacy Impact - 23:20
Who will benefit from AI? - 26:15
Ending Questions - 29:50

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E21: The Midwest Momentum with Victor Gutwein (M25)

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 12:00:00 -0800

We are excited to sit down with Victor Guwein, founder and managing partner at M25. Victor started his career as a founder of a scooter company, Scooter Versity. At 23, Victor founded M25 to invest solely in the Midwest. Fast forward 8 years, and M25 has invested in over 130 companies and is now investing out of its third fund. Victor discusses why the Midwest is ripe for disruption, the M25 DNA, valuations shifting with market dynamics, and how to win at the pre-seed / seed stage.

Episode Chapters:

Starting a Scooter Company - 1:20
Starting a Venture Fund (@ 23) - 3:06
Building a Track Record - 7:48
How VCs make Money - 10:32
The M25 Sourcing DNA - 14:10
Objectivity with Decision Making - 16:50
The Importance of Entry Valuations - 20:00
Interest Rates Impact on Valuations - 24:08
Coastal Investors moving Central - 27:32
Advice to Emerging Managers - 30:11
Ending Questions - 31:45

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E20: Investing in Highly Regulated Markets with Manu Sharma (Tusk)

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -0800

We are excited to sit down with Manu Sharma, an investor at Tusk Venture Partners. Manu started his career at Dallas VC, helping launch the fund before heading to business school in Chicago. This year, Manu joined Tusk Venture Partners, an early-stage fund based in NYC. Tusk has a unique model in that it helps companies navigate highly regulated markets. Manu dives into the benefits of business school, doubling down in regulated markets, pros and cons of AI and what areas of vertical SaaS are ripe for technological disruption.

Episode Chapters:

Moving from India to the United States - 1:30
Building Dallas Venture Capital - 2:15
Why Business School? - 4:00
Tusk Venture Partners - 7:10
Helping Companies with Regulatory Risks - 9:45
The History of Vertical SaaS - 11:16
AI Execution on Vertical SaaS - 18:12
The Contract Network (Legal Tech) - 23:10
The End State of LLMs - 25:45
Platform Team in VC - 27:12
Ending Questions - 28:45

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E19: A New Era for Laundromats with Alex Jekowsky (Cents)

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:00:00 -0800

We are excited to sit down with 2x founder Alex Jekowsky. During college, he launched Ulyngo, a multi-channel marketplace that enabled universities to facilitate student life commerce. Alex grew the business until its acquisition by Modo Labs in 2019. He then founded Cents, a leading laundry business management system. Cents helps laundromats with everything from onboarding, payments, employee management, customer records, in-store operations, and more!

Episode Chapters:

Founding Ulyngo - 1:15
Interest in Laundromats - 4:48
Modernizing the Laundry Tech Stack - 7:30
The Consumer Experience - 10:50
Cents' Addressable Market - 12:40
Optimizing the Value Chain - 15:32
GTM Strategy - 18:27
Vertical SaaS Takeover - 23:30
Payments in Vertical SaaS Businesses - 26:35
Horizontal versus Vertical SaaS - 28:00
Ending Questions - 30:15

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E18: Pioneering PropTech with Daniel Fetner (Alpaca)

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0800

In today's episode, we're joined by Daniel Fetner, a General Partner at Alpaca. Before joining Alpaca, Daniel founded Soil Connect, a SaaS-enabled marketplace to manage and acquire soil. Daniel joined Alpaca in 2018 as Chief of Staff and later moved into an investor role. At Alpaca, he primarily focuses on real estate and construction tech. Daniel dives into how he recruited for VC, why specialization matters, PropTech as a standalone category, and the current state of the market.

Episode Chapters:

Founding Soil Connect - 1:45
Founder -> Funder - 4:36
Alpaca's 4 Founder Strategy - 10:47
Category Specialization as an Investor - 13:40
PropTech Evolution - 16:12
Hardware meets Software - 21:40
PropCo/OpCo Structure - 23:15
Real Estate Tech Enablement - 26:35
Multiples Leveling Off - 28:00
Ending Questions - 29:43

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E17: Acing the Interview with Mike Hinckley (Growth Equity Guide)

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -0700

We are excited to sit down with Mike Hinckley, the founder of Growth Equity Guide. Mike started his career in investment banking before working in growth equity at General Atlantic. Mike noticed firsthand the need for interview prep resources and sought to create a dedicated growth equity platform. With recruiting in full swing, Mike dives into growth equity as an asset class over time, tips and timelines for breaking in, and the importance (or not) of networking,

Episode Chapters:

Investment Banking -> Growth Equity -> Tech - 1:33
Growth Equity Interview Prep - 5:21
GE Evolving Overtime - 7:00
Recruiting Landscape - 9:45
How to Stand Out in a Crowded Market - 14:53
Networking - 21:37
Interview Structure - 23:04
Ending Questions - 30:00

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E16: Defense Tech, The New Frontier with Jacqueline Blackburn (Decisive Point)

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0700

Today, we sat down with Jacqueline Blackburn, a Principal at Decisive Point. Jacqueline was an athlete at the Naval Academy before serving as a platoon commander for six years after college. Now, Jacqueline is focused on investing in defense, energy, and infrastructure. During this episode, Jacqueline discusses the importance of purpose and team, early-stage investing in deep tech, becoming a strategic partner, innovation during times of need, and the current state of globalization.

Episode Chapters:

Starting at the Naval Academy - 1:28
Deployment and Platoon Responsibilities - 4:01
Introduction to Venture Capital - 6:54
Investment Strategy at Decisive Point - 9:55
Hardware, Robotics, Drone, and Quantum Investing - 12:35
How to Win Deals - 16:03
Hardware meets Software - 18:20
Success Stories in Defense (Anduril) - 20:20
Building in Advanced Manufacturing - 24:02
Geopolitical Collaboration - 26:18
Ending Questions - 28:10

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E15: Understanding VC Platform Roles with Charlotte Japp (ffVC)

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0700

We are excited to sit down with Charlotte Japp, the Head of Platform at ffVC. Charlotte began her career in creative marketing and later founded Cirkel, a platform that facilitates connections between experienced and younger professionals for mutual career support. Fundraising for Cirkel served as her introduction to the VC ecosystem. During this episode, Charlotte provides insights into platform's evolving role, the value VCs bring to the table, the assessment of platform performance, brand development, and her vision for the future of platform strategies.

Episode Chapters:

Media Background - 1:30
Founding Cirkel - 4:33
The Role of Platform - 6:26
Value Add as a VC - 9:55
Individual KPIs and Metrics - 12:31
Prioritizing Portfolio Tasks - 15:25
Early Stage versus Growth Equity - 17:45
Brand Building as a VC - 19:15
Winning Deals - 25:36
Sequoia Cuts Talent Team - 27:38
Ending Questions - 31:33

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E14: Breaking down Bitcoin and DeFi with Tycho Onnasch (Zest Protocol)

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:00:00 -0700

We are excited to chat with Tycho Onnasch, General Manager of Trust Machines and Co-Founder of Zest Protocol. Originally from Amsterdam, Tycho attended Oxford University before founding Deedmob, a volunteer management platform. Now, Tycho is building Zest Protocol, the first on-chain Bitcoin lending protocol. Tycho discusses deciding where to build in Bitcoin, introduction to smart contracts, adoption points in Bitcoin, regulatory jurisdiction, and transitioning to a mainstay currency.

Episode Chapters:

Dutch Culture - 1:30
Building Deepmob - 2:57
Exposure to Bitcoin - 5:12
What is Finance? - 8:55
The Role of Bitcoin in DeFi - 11:20
Building at Trust Machines - 14:57
How Zest Protocol Profits - 18:42
The Importance of Bitcoin Lending - 21:55
Regulatory Oversight in Crypto - 23:45
Investing in Crypto - 26:45
Traditional Banking Systems & Bitcoin's Impact - 30:22
Ending Questions - 31:44

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E13: An Unchartered Route into Venture Capital with Sean Simons (Newark Venture Partners)

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 11:00:00 -0700

Today, we sat down with Sean Simons, a Senior Associate at Newark Venture Partners. Sean had an untraditional path into Venture Capital. He started his career at PhotoShelter and 212 brewing before beginning a fellowship at NVP. While at NVP, he worked as a scrap collector and airplane washer. Five years later, Sean has built a strong brand by leading impressive investments within supply chain & logistics. Join us as Sean dives into getting his foot in the door, how to win deals, theme-focused sourcing, why the supply chain is essential, and the future of maritime technology.

Episode Chapters:

Working in Sales and Washing Airplanes - 1:42
The Journey into Venture Capital - 6:45
Why You? - 9:07
NVP’s Investment Strategy - 11:10
Seed Stage Investment Process - 15:15
The Supply Chain Innovation - 17:08
Globalization and Nearshoring Supply Chain - 20:55
Blue Economy Technology - 23:19
EV Waste and Innovation - 29:08
Final Questions - 29:56

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E12: Demystifying AI with Rickard Brüel Gabrielsson (Unbox AI)

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 11:00:00 -0700

Today we are joined by Rickard Brüel Gabrielsson, an artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder of Unbox AI. Rickard moved from Sweden to the US to attend Stanford and immediately dove into learning systems and artificial intelligence. Rickard breaks down unsupervised learning, text-based language models, revolutionizing retail, pricing your product, encoding semantics, and where companies will incorporate foundation models.

Episode Chapters:

Transitioning from Sweden to the US - 1:35
Interest in Learning Systems & AI - 2:40
Unsupervised Learning - 5:24
Foundation Models - 7:14
Unbox AI - 9:29
Building Application Models - 11:41
VC in the eyes of an AI founder - 14:26
Fine-tuning and Vector Databases - 17:08
Embedding Semantics - 19:50
Protecting Domain Expertise - 24:40
Are Smaller Players Ripe for AI Innovation? - 26:43
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) applicability - 28:52
Ending Questions - 31:33

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E11: From CIA Officer to Data Innovator with Kartik Chopra (Devron)

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -0700

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Kartik Chopra, CIA officer turned Founder, leading Devron - a federated machine learning platform. With a Series A backing from Tiger Global, Devron revolutionizes data access and empowers teams to analyze and build models on-site. Join us as Kartik shares his journey, AI's impact on investing, finding a VC partner, machine learning capabilities, and the state of data privacy.

Episode Chapters:

1. Childhood and Rutgers University - 1:45
2. Roles & Responsibilities in the CIA - 3:45
3. Roots of Devron - 5:35
4. Devron as a Solution - 7:20
5. Raising VC Capital - 10:54
6. Scaling Post Fundraise - 13:30
7. Enterprise versus Government Customers - 15:34
8. Trends in Machine Learning - 19:14
9. Investing in Machine Learning Companies - 23:26
10. Data Sharing in Regulatory Environments - 25:10
11. Consumer Data Privacy - 27:43
12. Ending Questions - 29:00

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E10: MarTalk with Dawit Heck (Bain Capital Ventures)

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 13:00:00 -0700

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Dawit Heck, a Principal at Bain Capital Ventures based in New York. In February, BCV announced $1.9 billion in new funds to back founders from Seed to Growth stages. Over the last 20 years, BCV has backed companies such as Attentive, DocuSign, LinkedIn, Mirakl, and more. Dawit discusses transitioning into venture capital, Bain's structure and value add, thesis building, and the current state of marketing tech and venture capital.

Episode Chapters:

Takeaways from Banking & Growth Equity - 1:25
Bain Capital’s Structure - 5:55
Former Operator Impact as an Investor - 9:47
Learnings from Scott Friend - 11:17
Thesis Building - 12:53
Sourcing Tips & Tricks - 15:50
The Power of Marketing Tech - 19:40
Trends within the Application Layer - 24:36
Vertical SaaS Solutions - 27:58
Content Creation and Displacing Legacy Solutions - 30:10
The State of Venture - 33:22
Ending Questions - 36:44

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E9: Digitizing Portfolio Reporting with John Melas-Kyriazi (Standard Metrics)

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 11:00:00 -0700

We are excited to introduce John Melas-Kyriazi, Co-Founder and CEO of Standard Metrics. John began his journey as a physics Ph.D. student at Stanford before embarking on a career as an Investor in 2014 at Spark Capital in Boston. After five years of sourcing and leading 10+ investments, John left to start his own company. Standard Metrics is a portfolio collaboration tool for venture capital firms and startups. During our discussion, John dives into sourcing tactics, contributing as a younger board member, the inception of Standard Metrics, the evolution of the ideal customer profile, and the future of data automation and reporting.

Episode Chapters:

Path To Studying Physics - 1:22
Introduction to StartX - 4:35
Starting at Spark Capital in Boston - 7:20
Sourcing Tactics - 9:30
Transition To Leading Deals - 13:00
Adding Value as a Junior Board Member - 14:40
Catalyst for Starting Standard Metrics - 16:45
Evolution of The Ideal Customer Profile - 23:15
Future of LP Reporting - 25:25
Competition/Platform Displacement - 28:15
Automation of Financial Data - 30:20
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence - 32:44
Ending Questions - 34:50

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E8: The Rise of Matcha with Teddie Levenfiche (PerfectTed)

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 12:00:00 -0700

In today's episode, we sit down with Teddie Levenfiche, co-founder of PerfectTed. Formerly an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in LA, Teddie moved back to the UK in April 2021, where he started to create the perfect blend of natural and sustained energy. PerfectTed is revolutionizing the energy drink space in the UK with their matcha-powered energy drinks. Join us as Teddie breaks down the problems around energy drinks, sourcing high-quality matcha, big beverage companies' approach to Matcha, metrics for CPG brands, social media & content strategy, and experience on the BBC's Dragons' Den.

Episode Chapters:

Starting at Penn and Entrepreneurial Pursuit - 1:12
Interest in Matcha - 2:15
Sourcing Matcha - 4:30
Misconceptions around Matcha - 7:00
US versus UK Adoption - 8:58
Scaling Distribution to 400 Stores - 12:55
Unit Economics Over Time - 15:50
Daily Metrics - 17:20
Drink Brands Folding into Conglomerates - 20:05
Dragons' Den (UK Shark Tank) - 22:40
Beverage Brand Teddie Respects & Why - 25:57
Activation Services - 27:06
Expanding Across Borders - 31:00
Ending Questions - 31:20

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E7: A New Age of Restaurant Reviews with Judy and Eliot Frost (Beli)

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 11:00:00 -0700

In today's episode, we interview Judy and Eliot Fost, co-founders of Beli. Former investment analysts at McKinsey, their shared passion for food and exploration led them to create Beli, an innovative app. Beli allows users to organize restaurant lists, maps, and reviews, while also offering personalized recommendations based on their dining history. Join us as Judy and Eliot share insights on Beli as a social media platform, user acquisition, the product roadmap, competition, and their unique experience of working together as a married couple.

Episode Chapters:

Mckinsey to Harvard Business School - 0:55
Explaining Beli (App) - 4:12
Beli as a Social Media Platform - 6:41
Metrics and User Retention - 8:50
User Acquisition - 11:00
Monetization Strategy - 12:38
Expansion Plan - 14:30
Recommendations Based on Data- 16:22
Competition - 19:05
Content Creation - 20:40
The Future of Beli - 21:57
Experiences Around Food - 24:32
Ending Questions - 27:50

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E6: FinTech in Latin America with Carlos Alonso-Torras (FinTech Collective)

Wed, 31 May 2023 10:00:00 -0700

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Carlos Alonso-Torras, a newly promoted Partner at FinTech Collective in New York City. Carlos is a former operator turned investor with a strong passion for investing in Latin America. His current fund focuses on Seed and Series A investing in FinTech globally. Since its inception in 2012, FTC has invested in over 50 companies, including MoneyLion, Vestwell, Willa, Flutterwave, and TradeBlock. Join us as Carlos discusses shifting from an operating to investing role, starting as an Associate and working his way up to Partner, vertical specializations within FinTech, and the investing ecosystem in Latin America.

Episode Chapters:

Motivation to get an MBA at Penn - 1:05
Operations to Investing - 2:05
Interest in FinTech - 3:17
FinTech Collective - 4:10
Promotions in VC - 4:50
Portfolio Support - 5:50
Vertical Specialization in FinTech - 7:10
Venture & Growth Investing in Latin America - 9:40
Tech Adoption in LatAm - 14:10
Current State of Venture Capital Funding - 16:57
Mattilda Investment - 19:45
Decentralized Finance Solutions - 20:50
Ending Questions - 22:45

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

Show Notes

LatAm Digital Payments

E5: Teamwork, Culture, and Thesis-Driven Investing with Romie Boyd (Sequoia)

Wed, 17 May 2023 07:00:00 -0700

We are excited to introduce Romie Boyd, a partner at Sequoia, which has an exceptional reputation for its investments from seed to IPO and beyond. Sequoia has an impressive portfolio, having partnered with prominent companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, HubSpot, 23andMe, and more. Having previously worked with Bain Capital's Private Equity Group in Boston, Romie shares insights on transitioning from Private Equity to Growth Equity, team dynamics at Sequoia, the impact of AI on personal and investor levels, thematic sourcing, and the art of building strong founder relationships.

Episode Chapters:

College Soccer to Venture Capital - 0:55
Joining Sequoia - 3:10
Private Equity to Growth Equity - 6:20
Founder Traits and Deal Teams - 8:00
Culture - 10:40
Advancements in AI - 13:30
Generative AI Impacting VC Tech Stack - 16:55
Data Analytics & Business Intelligence - 20:25
Sourcing and Thesis Building - 21:45
Ending Questions - 25:05

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

Show Notes

Generative AI Article

E4: The Future of CRMs with Shubham Goel (Affinity)

Wed, 03 May 2023 05:00:00 -0700

Today, we welcome Shubham Goel, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Affinity. Affinity is a relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers. Affinity uses machine learning to score and increase the chance of closing deals, transforming traditional CRM. In this episode, Shubham shares his experience of meeting co-founder Ray at Stanford as undergrads, and talks about the future of CRMs, risks in relationship management, expanding the business, and fostering remote team culture.

Episode Chapters:

Childhood in India - 1:00
Founding Affinity - 3:40
Attending School in the Valley - 6:30
Affinity for PE/VC - 9:30
The Future of CRMs and AI - 12:30
Risks Impacting the Relationship Management Industry - 15:00
The Vision of Affinity - 17:00
Target Customer & Expansion - 19:20
VC Tech Stack - 21:10
Working with a Friend- 24:16
Team Culture and Engagement - 27:10
Ending Questions - 29:25

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E3: Gaming Investing with Jack Soslow (a16z)

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 13:00:00 -0700

Today, we welcome Jack Soslow, an Investor in Andreessen Horowitz’s Gaming group. A16z, a major global venture capital fund, has invested in companies like Airbnb, Groupon, Facebook, GitHub, and Roblox. In 2022, the Games Fund I closed at $600 million, targeting Games Studios, Games x Consumer, and Infrastructure. During the discussion, Jack delves into his path to VC, product testing, the distinction between AR and VR, education gaming, generative AI, and women in gaming.

Episode Chapters:

Joining Oculus and Interest in Data Science - 00:48
Breaking into a16z - 5:00
Starting the Games Fund - 7:41
Gaming Defined - 10:24
Qualities in a Gaming Studio Investment - 13:06
Success in a Single Title - 17:13
Augmented and Virtual Reality - 19:35
Product Testing and Stickiness - 23:20
Generative AI on the Creative Workspace - 25:15
Use Cases Beyond Traditional Games - 30:06
Women in Gaming - 32:00
Ending Questions - 33:35

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E2: The Evolution of Sourcing with Nevin Raj (Grata)

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 13:00:00 -0700

Today, we welcome Nevin Raj, Co-Founder and COO of Grata. Grata is revolutionizing VC & PE deal sourcing by providing a platform for users to find, research, and engage with middle market companies. Grata raised a $25 Million Series A round led by Craft Ventures in February 2022. Nevin shares his journey of founding Grata, insights on the future of sourcing, establishing product/market fit, handling customer feedback, and building strong leadership.

Episode Chapters:

1. Grata's Founding Story - 1:00
2. Achieving Product Market Fit - 4:25
3. Sourcing Strategies - 7:10
4. Partnering with Craft Ventures - 14:45
5. Reviewing and Implementing Customer Feedback - 16:35
6. Grata's Competitive Advantage - 19:11
7. Learning Across Different Divisions - 24:25
8. What Would You Change? - 26:40
9. Leadership Qualities - 27:45
10. What Motivates Nevin? - 30:35

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

E1: West Coast to East Coast Investing with Matt Lu (Cowboy Ventures)

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 07:00:00 -0700

Today, we welcome Matt Lu from Cowboy Ventures, based in NYC. Cowboy Ventures is a Pre Seed and Seed stage-focused fund. Cowboy has made over 100 early-stage investments, with 70% being pre-product. Before joining Cowboy in late 2022, Matt was an investor at Bullpen Capital in San Francisco.

Episode Chapters:

Breaking into Venture and Cowboy Ventures - 1:00
East Coast Versus West Coast Investing - 10:30
Sourcing Best Practices - 18:20
Generative AI and Focus Areas - 25:20
Overall Market Thoughts - 32:20
What Motives Matt? - 36:00

As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.