The Aarthi and Sriram Show

In this episode, we talked to Emil Michael, who is Silicon Valley's best dealmaker. This was a masterclass in negotiation, art of making deals, when to walk away from them, his story, working with Travis Kalanick at Uber, and so much more. Emil Michael is an investor and strategic advisor to many high growth tech startups. He was the Chief Business Officer at Uber, during it’s period of expoential growth where it was the most valuable startup in the world. He’s also held leadership roles at Tellme Networks which was acquired by Microsoft, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense under the Obama administration. Today he advices founders on fundraising, M&A, corporate strategy and culture, global expansion and building exec teams. Born in Egypt, with degress from Harvard and Stanford, to us, Emil is the embodiment of the American Dream, and how an outside can truly make it and become an insider.Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, our special guest is Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games, the game developer and publisher behind League of Legends. This was an awesome episode and Marc is a fantastic guest. We talk about the origin of League of Legends, building a gaming startup, player focused culture, fundraising, building 'Arcane' the popular Netflix show and so much more. Enjoy! Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, we talk to Anders Hejlsberg, the creator of programming languages such. as C#, Typescript, Turbo Pascal and Delphi, on a life spent on building programming languages, the history of Java, his systems and setup, and what the future of programing languages looks like. Anders is someone we have looked up to for a big part of our lives, and this episode was a treat for us! Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, we talked to Elad Gil - a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, operating executive, and investor or advisor to companies including AirBnB, Pinterest, Square, and Stripe. He is also the author of High Growth Handbook, the playbook for turning a startup into a unicorn, and for navigating the most complex challenges that confront leaders and operators in high-growth tech startups. We covered a wide variety of topics during this chat - the current economic conditions and what it means for tech startups, his investing philosophy, how he finds founders, on AI and the AI market map, on energy and the politics of nuclear energy and so much more. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:42 Who is Elad Gil 2:42 What motivates Elad 4:56 Elad’s first investment(s) 6:24 Who to invest in? How has it changed over time 8:48 What Elad looks for in a founding team 13:47 Startups during COVID 21:33 Bloated companies and layoffs 30:16 M&A and the state of seed market 33:30 Why Elad does it all by himself 35:35 What to do if you got laid off 38:27 The state of Artificial Intelligence startups 44:26 The AI market map and used cases 55:12 Will AI replace human jobs? 58:30 Elad’s history in energy 1:00:00 Carbon footprint & nuclear energy 1:01:49 The history and politics of Nuclear energy 1:11:30 Talent and human capital flow 1:16:26 How Elad finds the smartest builders 1:18:07 Looking back and predictions 1:20:20 Passing the baton in Silicon ValleyFollow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

This week, we're doing a quick 'solo episode' where we talk about layoffs in tech, what to do if you are impacted, the power of networking, shifting careers, consulting, and hitting the reset button. If you've been impacted by the recent tech layoffs, or have wondered how to think about layoffs and their impact, this episode is for you. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

This week we dive deep with Noam Shazeer, founder of Character.AI, Google veteran, and inventor of much of the current revolution in large language models including transformers, Mesh-Tensorflow, T5, and Google’s LaMDA dialog system. We cover: the evolution of Google and AI, transformers, LLMs, neural networks, commercialization of Google’s research, future of ChatGPT and AI, engineering philosophy, his work at Character.AI, and much more!Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

Andy Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian, Artemis, Project Hail Mary, and Cheshire Crossing. His 2011 novel The Martian was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. In this episode, we talked about his story from being a software developer to a sci-fi author, getting a movie deal for The Martian starring Matt Damon, how humanity can go to another planet, his favorite sci-fi authors and what's next for him. As sci-fi nerds, this was a really fun episode for us - we hope you enjoy it too! Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

Brian Grazer is an Academy and Emmy award winning producer and writer. Grazer was personally nominated for four Academy Awards for Splash (1984), Apollo 13 (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Frost/Nixon (2008). His films and TV series have been nominated for 47 Academy Awards and 217 Emmy Awards. In 2002, Grazer won an Oscar for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (shared with Ron Howard). In this episode, we talked to Brian about his unique career path going from an outsider to a Hollywood insider, his curiosity, working with Ron Howard, making epic movies and so much more.Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits (that sold over 9m copies!) and the popular 3-2-1 newsletter. We talked to him about writing and marketing a NYTimes bestseller, how to pick up good habits, the collective impact of small actions, and so much more. Check it out!Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod