Sourcery

Fundrise CEO Ben Miller joins Sourcery to break down the launch of the Fundrise Growth Tech Fund (NYSE: $VCX) — one of the first publicly traded venture capital funds.VCX debuted at roughly $700M valuation and surged to ~$6.5B within days, giving over 100,000 investors access to a portfolio of top private companies including Anthropic (~20%), Databricks (~17%), OpenAI (~10%), Anduril, Ramp, and SpaceX.The timing reflects a broader shift: private markets are now where most value is created. VCX portfolio companies grew ~193% vs ~25% for public tech benchmarks, highlighting the gap between private and public market growth. Meanwhile, IPO timelines have stretched from ~3–5 years to 10–15+ years, meaning public investors are increasingly missing the highest-growth phase.We discuss how VCX works as a closed-end fund, why it has traded at a premium (despite most closed-end funds trading at discounts), and how Fundrise accessed top-tier companies during the 2022–2023 venture downturn — including buying from distressed sellers and stepping into competitive rounds.Finally, we explore what comes next: whether public venture capital becomes a standard allocation, how cycles and volatility impact the model, and what happens if public markets begin directly funding private tech at scale.Topics CoveredVCX launch & NYSE debut dynamicsPortfolio composition (Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, SpaceX)Private vs public market growth gap (193% vs 25%)Macro shift: value creation moving to private marketsIPO window + why companies stay private longerHow Fundrise sources and wins allocationClosed-end fund structure, NAV, premiums/discountsRisks: volatility, cycles, and downside scenariosFuture of venture: rise of public VC fundsSubscribe to Sourcery for more conversations with the founders, investors, and operators shaping the future of tech, markets, and capital.Benjamin Miller: https://x.com/BenMillerise Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊YouTube : https://youtu.be/3-4AZ-p3tv8𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at https://GetVCX.com • Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/DisclosurePaid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

Steve Huffman, Co-Founder and CEO of Reddit, joins Sourcery at Reddit's San Francisco HQ for a deep dive into how Reddit became one of the strongest businesses in social media — and why it may be even more important in the AI era.On its 2-year anniversary as a public company (NYSE: $RDDT), we cover Reddit’s 2024 debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), including how the company brought its community along for the ride through one of the largest directed share programs in tech IPO history—allowing Reddit users to buy shares at the IPO price.From $12M in revenue in 2015 to $2.2B in 2025, Reddit has quietly built one of the most durable social platforms on the internet. A core idea from this conversation: Reddit is built on real humans — and as Steve puts it, there needs to be an “ass in seat.”As AI agents, bots, and synthetic content flood the internet, Reddit is doubling down on authenticity, human conversation, and community-driven moderation — while also becoming one of the most valuable data sources powering top AI models.We cover:Reddit’s NYSE IPO and why Steve recommends going publicWhy Reddit’s ad business is working while others struggleHow Reddit became critical training data for companies like OpenAI and GoogleThe “ass in seat” philosophy and why human presence mattersHow Reddit handles bots, agents, and AI-generated contentWhy Reddit may have cracked the social media business modelSteve’s contrarian take on IPOs and building long-term companiesReddit by the numbers:121M Daily Active Uniques471M+ Weekly Active Uniques100K+ Active Communities24B+ Posts & Comments$2.2B Annual Revenue (2025)If you want to understand where the internet is heading — and why human communities may matter more than ever — subscribe to Sourcery.Steve Huffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shuffman56/ Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊YouTube: https://youtu.be/iV-nhcDTvdw𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/DisclosurePaid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

Alex Immerman, General Partner on Growth at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), joins Sourcery to break down how one of Silicon Valley’s most influential firms is investing across AI, fintech, autonomous vehicles, and growth-stage software.With a fresh $6.75B Growth fund, a16z Growth now manages over $22B across five Growth funds. Alex discusses how a16z evaluates category leaders, what separates private markets from public markets today, and why firms are rethinking old metrics in the AI era. He also goes deep on some of a16z’s highest-profile portfolio companies and investments including Waymo, Kalshi, Coinbase, Robinhood, Stripe, Revolut, ElevenLabs, Flock Safety, and more.We cover:• Why private markets now hold much of the highest-growth opportunity• Waymo’s growth, valuation, market share, and the future of autonomous driving• Why a16z backed Kalshi and what makes prediction markets so compelling• ElevenLabs, voice AI, and how breakout AI companies build defensibility• The new AI underwriting framework: growth, engagement, retention, and margins• How a16z scaled from startup VC to capturing 18% of all U.S. venture dollars• Why market leaders capture outsized value and how a16z thinks about winningIf you enjoy interviews at the intersection of venture capital, AI, fintech, public markets, and frontier technology, subscribe to Sourcery for more.Alex Immerman: https://x.com/aleximm Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊YouTube: https://youtu.be/MLXYJZAikBc𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com • Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/DisclosurePaid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Alex Immerman, GP a16z(00:53) Flock Safety: The most underrated company in America(03:43) Private vs public market growth gap(04:43) Do gross margins matter in AI companies?(06:33) Waymo’s growth and $16B funding round(08:13) The future of ride sharing and autonomous vehicles(10:01) Where the value in self driving tech will accrue(12:27) Tesla FSD vs Waymo’s full stack approach(13:50) The growing brand power of Waymo(15:43) What comes after autonomous cars? Humanoid robots(17:41) Are people really worried about AI taking over?(18:55) Inside ElevenLabs’ $500M funding round(22:12) The real world use cases of voice AI agents

Alfred Lin, Partner & new Co-Steward of Sequoia Capital and #1 investor on the Midas List, joins Molly O’Shea on Sourcery for a conversation on AI, founder-market fit, enduring companies, and what Sequoia is seeing in this moment of accelerating technological change.For more than five decades, Sequoia has backed many of the most consequential companies in technology, from Apple and Nvidia to Airbnb, DoorDash, Stripe, and more. But as Alfred explains in this conversation, Sequoia does not think about the 54-year-old firm the way many others do. Rather than optimizing around AUM, Sequoia focuses on DPI and being a net liquidity provider to LPs. Since 2020, the firm has distributed more than $43 billion back to investors (as of Oct 27, 2025).In this conversation, Alfred breaks down why AI is the biggest paradigm shift of his career, why the narrative that “AI will kill SaaS” is too simplistic, why startups are reaching meaningful scale faster than ever, and why the most vulnerable companies are the ones that fail to embrace change.They also discuss what’s happening in boardrooms right now, how moats evolve during platform shifts, why the next generation of great companies may be dramatically larger than the last, and how Sequoia identifies outlier founders across companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, Kalshi, Zipline, Clay, Commure, Nominal, OpenAI, and Citadel Securities.Recorded live February 26th at the Upfront Summit 2026.Topics include:Why AI is accelerating startup growth and product velocityWhy “AI kills SaaS” is the wrong frameworkHow moats change during paradigm shiftsWhat Alfred is hearing in boardrooms right nowWhich companies are most vulnerable in the AI eraFounder-market fit and the importance of a founder’s “spike”Why the next generation of companies could be much bigger than today’s giantsSubscribe to Sourcery for more conversations with the people building the future of technology, finance, and markets.Alfred Lin: https://x.com/Alfred_Lin Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒YouTube : https://youtu.be/2aySakMh1mQ𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/DisclosurePaid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

Nominal is now valued at $1B after closing an $80M B-2 Acceleration Round led by Founders Fund, with participation from Sequoia, Lux Capital, and General Catalyst — just 10 months after Nominal’s $75M Series B led by Sequoia.In this episode of Sourcery, Cameron McCord (Co-Founder & CEO, Nominal) and Trae Stephens (Partner, Founders Fund; Co-Founder & Chairman, Anduril) break down why the round was preemptive, what Founders Fund was tracking from inside its portfolio (including Anduril), and why Nominal is becoming core infrastructure for teams building mission-critical hardware — from aerospace and defense to autonomy, energy, and advanced manufacturing.We get into the “GitHub for software-defined hardware” analogy, what’s broken in the current federal testing stack (yes: Excel + MATLAB + PDFs), how Nominal can cut major test campaigns by 50–60%, and why the real competition is bureaucracy + legacy incumbents. Cameron also shares how Nominal thinks about TAM expansion, dual-use strategy (and why Trae hates the term), strategic M&A, hiring 120–140+ people in 2026, and how AI changes the hardware engineering workflow (from post-test analysis to agentic parallelization).All Systems Nominal.Trae Stephens: https://x.com/traestephens Cameron McCord: https://x.com/CameronLMcCord Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊YouTube : https://youtu.be/iPl4oYhhPjY𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/DisclosurePaid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Trae Stephens & Cameron McCord(01:11) Nominal raises $80M from Founders Fund(03:32) Why Founders Fund made the investment(05:22) From Palantir to Anduril: Trae’s investor-operator journey(07:14) Nominal: the GitHub for hardware testing(12:33) Why Sequoia believed Nominal’s TAM was much bigger(15:36) Inside Nominal’s growing defense customer base(17:32) Why government hardware testing still relies on Excel and MATLAB(22:22) Cutting hardware testing time by up to 60%(26:55) How AI changes hardware development(37:22) Why the government is backing new defense tech companies(33:35) Nominal's sales strategy(45:44) Competing with legacy software giants(46:24) Recruiting top engineers(50:56) Early Anduril stories from the desert

Revel just raised $150M at a $1.005B valuation — only 15 months after founding. In this episode of Sourcery, I sit down with Scott Morton, Founder & CEO of Revel, to unpack how he went from designing high-consequence launch control systems at SpaceX to building the unified software platform modernizing hardware test and command systems across aerospace, defense, robotics, and advanced energy.The $150 million in Series B funding is aimed to accelerate its expansion across aerospace, defense, robotics, and industrial markets. The round was led by Index Ventures, with major participation from Redpoint Ventures and returning investors Thrive Capital, Felicis, and Abstract Ventures, as well as prominent angels such as Dylan Field, Figma's co-founder and CEO.Revel replaces decades-old infrastructure — much of it built in the 1980s and 1990s — with a modern platform that enables engineers to visually configure hardware systems, monitor live telemetry, and issue commands safely in real time.We cover:Why Index Ventures led a preemptive $150M Series BThe SpaceX “T-minus 1 minute” moment that shaped Revel’s philosophyHow Revel helped Impulse increase rocket engine testing frequency by 5–10xThe difference between Revel Test and Revel C2 (Command & Control)Lessons from Elon Musk on pushing engineers beyond perceived limitsWhy Dylan Field (Figma) is a key investor and strategic sounding boardRevel is now working with companies like Impulse, Radiant Nuclear, Astro Mechanica, and others building mission-critical infrastructure for the autonomous age.This is the story of modernizing the software layer behind physical systems — where one character of code can mean total success… or no launch site.Subscribe to Sourcery for more deep dives into the founders building the next industrial era.Scott Morton: https://x.com/scottgmorton Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊YouTube: https://youtu.be/1MkfF1KrD7M𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/DisclosurePaid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Scott Morton, Founder & CEO at Revel(00:40) Raising $150M at a $1.005B valuation in just 15 months(02:58) What Revel actually builds(05:23) 10x faster engine testing by replacing legacy systems(07:26) Designing Falcon 9’s propellant load sequence(09:12) T-1: When every line of code has to be perfect