The Pomp Podcast

Graham Weaver, Founder & Managing Partner of Alpine Investors, discusses his philosophies and strategies, including hiring and firing, building company culture, childhood experiences, and the importance of reading. The podcast also covers topics such as evaluating businesses for investment, barriers to entry, programmatic hiring, and hiring for attributes over experience. They also discuss the concept of the game of life being internal, 'demon mode', book recommendations, and online presence.

Bradley Tusk, venture capitalist and political strategist, discusses his fictional novel 'Obvious in Hindsight' which delves into the challenges of innovative technology, including flying cars, battling politicians and mafia. The podcast explores conflicts between data, safety, and politics in autonomous driving, as well as challenges faced by weed shops and perpetual scaffolding in cities like New York. Tusk also shares personal experiences with political corruption and the FBI, and explores tactics used by politicians to generate media attention.

Oliver Rust,Head of Product at Truflation, talks about outdated methods used to calculate CPI, Truflation's new data collection, and how good data could improve the Fed's decision-making process. Truflation believes inflation will be sticky in 2024 and shares its vision of success.

Cliff Weitzman, founder & CEO at Speechify, discusses the rise of audio content, the impact of text-to-speech technology, and the convergence of reading, listening, and AI-generated audio. They also explore partnerships with Snoop Dogg, AI voices, and the implications for voice actors.

Aaron Ginn, CEO & co-founder of Hydra Host and founder of the Lincoln Network, discusses venture capital, advanced computing, geopolitical conflict, politics, contrarian ideas, and more. The conversation touches on China's strategic behavior, fears of losing leadership in advanced computing, embracing Western civilization's values, ideological self-destructive behavior in America, and the future of innovation driven by rebellious entrepreneurs.

Bailey Pumfleet, co-founder & co-CEO of Cal.com, discusses how to manage your calendar efficiently and talks about the limitations of traditional calendars. They emphasize the need for privacy and the value of open source software. They also explore the potential impact of building a dominant scheduling platform.

Dan Reese, President of Milkshake Factory, discusses his time at Heinz & Kraft, the scaling of Milkshake Factory, and why they may become a great premium brand. They talk about the economics of the business, franchising, and centralized operations in the milkshake industry.

Guillermo Rauch, founder & CEO of Vercel, discusses the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs, the debate between open source and closed source in AI, the potential of generative AI in front end UI, and the vision and goals of Vercel in bridging the gap and expanding their user base.

Ron Shaich, Founder of Panera Bread, talks about innovation in the restaurant industry, evaluating people, dealing with activist investors, and investing through the lifecycle of a company. He emphasizes the importance of finding uniqueness, creating a total food experience, and hiring employees who want to make a difference.

Greg Lukianoff, President of The FIRE Organization and a free speech lawyer, discusses the importance of free speech, the impact of cancel culture, and the detrimental effects of coddling young people on freedom of speech. Strategies for business leaders to avoid cancel culture and challenges of political neutrality are also explored.