Newcomer Pod

Immad Akhund, co-founder and CEO of fintech company Mercury, discusses scaling to $1 billion in annualized revenue and taking on major banks. He explores AI agents that can spend money, manage financial workflows, and potentially run businesses, along with the controls and human oversight they require. Akhund also weighs the AI startup funding frenzy, bubble risks, and Mercury’s growing use of AI internally.

Alex Kantrowitz, technology journalist and founder of Big Technology, examines the forces powering and threatening the AI boom. He explores OpenAI and Anthropic’s business battles, Nvidia’s circular investment ecosystem, and Big Tech’s uneven AI strategies. The conversation also covers AI safety, personal assistants, Google’s impact on publishers, Silicon Valley’s hostility toward the press, and the future of independent media.

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner, explores ChatGPT’s role in medicine, law, tutoring, and the future of work. He discusses why America must lead the AI revolution, how data centers are reshaping the economy, and whether AI-native companies will disrupt incumbents. The conversation also spans safety, privacy, political corruption, longevity, and AI’s potential to transform cancer research.

Josh Elman, a technology investor and former Apple product executive, discusses Siri’s struggles, AI agents, and why startups can still challenge major model companies. He explores shopping and travel assistants, TikTok’s lasting influence, microdramas, AI-generated entertainment, and emerging AI devices. He also reflects on trust, privacy, and his return to venture capital after OpenClaw reignited his enthusiasm for consumer startups.

Renee Jones, a Boston College Law professor and former SEC official, explores how billion-dollar startups escaped scrutiny and founders eclipsed boards. She discusses what FTX, Theranos, WeWork, and Uber reveal about private-market secrecy, misleading unicorn valuations, employee equity, and weak financial controls. The conversation also examines Silicon Valley’s AI fixation, crypto’s political influence, and the difficult path to stronger regulation.

Zavain Dar, investor and Dimension co-founder, discusses Hugging Face’s developer momentum, NVIDIA’s open-source strategy, and the rivalry among AI labs. He shares what his trips to China revealed about its AI and biotech ecosystems, export controls, and Chinese models reaching Silicon Valley. They also explore AI-designed medicines, biotech breakthroughs, clinical-trial bottlenecks, and immigration’s role in America’s technology future.

Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle and Hampton and co-host of My First Million, is a serial entrepreneur who builds media and founder-focused communities. He tells how newsletters and viral posts launched his career. Conversation covers the messy $1M-to-$10M growth zone, building paid founder communities and in-person chapters, AI’s effect on agency margins, and why OpenAI’s TBPN purchase was a strategic misstep.

Pim de Witte, CEO/co‑founder of General Intuition and founder of Medal, turned gaming clip datasets into AI for robots. He discusses using billions of gameplay clips to pre-train agents, how game-trained models transfer to real-world robotics, debates humanoid versus purpose-built robots, and explores gamers’ concerns and new job pathways tied to AI.

John Coogan, co-founder of TBPN and media entrepreneur, discusses selling TBPN to OpenAI and why the deal made sense. He recounts building a high-volume live tech show from reaction streams and a comic persona. Topics include aggressive ad-driven monetization, editorial independence in acquisitions, making Sam Altman and OpenAI more relatable, and strategies for protecting a show’s core dynamic while scaling.

Taylor Lorenz, a journalist and author who covers internet culture and tech, argues against age‑verification and moral panic about phones. She debates surveillance, anonymity’s importance for marginalized people, creator-economy pitfalls, influencer payments, and practical fixes like user controls and better moderation. Short, sharp takes on privacy, policing tech, and building independent media.