The Peel with Turner Novak

Karthik Duraisamy is a professor at the University of Michigan.He is co-leading U of M's newly created Institute of Agentic Computing, the first of its kind. The institute will serve researchers and developers building agentic AI infrastructure to advance scientific discovery, engineering, and the knowledge economy. It will also be a central node for managing developers and maintainers of the OpenClaw platform.Karthik's research spans a broad spectrum of computational science and engineering, including new modeling approaches for complex physical systems, numerical methods, algorithms and uncertainty quantification.This is the first conversation Karthik’s had going deep on the institute. We talk about using AI to advance scientific research, two new discoveries announced yesterday, how universities work, how AI is impacting students and education, and his advice for young people.Thank you to Numeral, Flex, and Amplitude for supporting this episodeNumeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance https://www.numeral.com](https://www.numeral.com/Flex: Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000 https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzAmplitude: AI analytics, all you have to do is ask https://www.amplitude.comTimestamps:(0:25) The Institute for Agentic Computing(4:27) OpenClaw Foundation and Lobster Compute Company(8:19) How Universities actually work(12:33) ClawCon in Ann Arbor(15:24) Two scientific discoveries made with ScienceClaw(20:06) How AI is speeding up scientific discovery(25:42) Supporting AI and OpenClaw development(29:55) Why universities function like VC funds(34:29) How Universities get money from the government(40:55) Why some academics believe AI is a fad(46:17) Biggest bottlenecks in AI today(49:26) How AI will change the world(53:10) Karthik's Code Red advice for students(59:19) Separating learning and doing(1:03:10) Ways COVID and AI impacted college students(1:14:53) How the role of universities is changing(1:23:21) Why college classes suffered from grade inflation(1:26:05) How AI is actually impacting the job market(1:32:49) Karthik’s advice for students(1:39:16) Winning two NCAA basketball national championships(1:43:04) Almost dying in the Grand Teton National ParkReferencedMore on Karthik: https://aero.engin.umich.edu/people/duraisamy-karthik/Institute for Agentic Computing: https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-launches-institute-for-agentic-computing/ClawCon Announcement: OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai/ScienceClaw: http://scienceclaw.science/MIT OpenCourseWare: https://ocw.mit.edu/ASU iPhone video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqfk7-3iN-UFollow KarthikLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthik-duraisamy-66705025Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Sophia Amoruso is the Founder of Nasty Gal and Trust Fund, an early stage venture capital firm.We talk through her journey of starting Nasty Gal as an Ebay store in 2006 to sell vintage clothing, bootstrapping it to $28 million in revenue, raising $50 million, scaling it to $120 million and a massive team, turning down a $400 million acquisition offer, and ultimately declaring bankruptcy.She takes us inside what it was like to fail so publicly, what she’d do differently next time around, lessons from building the brand, and why she started her VC firm Trust Fund to back the next generation of founders building consequential companies.Thank you to Numeral, Flex, Amplitude, and Merge for supporting this episodeNumeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance https://www.numeral.comFlex: Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000 https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzAmplitude: AI analytics, all you have to do is ask https://www.amplitude.comMerge: Every modal. One API. Total control. Check out Merge Gateway https://www.merge.dev/gatewayTimestamps:(0:59) Selling vintage on Ebay while working at an art school(04:31) Lessons in marketing and perceived value(12:38) Knowing when to make your first hire(18:31) Borrowing from others to build a unique brand(25:17) Growing to $120m revenue in seven years(27:24) Sharing the pitch deck that raised $50m(30:17) Mistakes scaling to 100’s of employees too fast(34:48) Downsides of raising at too high of a valuation(39:56) Why being a CEO is fun(42:57) Declaring bankruptcy(50:38) How it feels to fail publicly(54:41) Writing a book, Netflix series, starting the Girlboss movement(59:13) How to create a new brand in 2026(1:05:34) Starting Trust Fund to invest and help founders(1:13:45) Raising $5m from a poker game(1:18:47) Sophia asks for Turner’s LP pitch(1:26:53) Traits of the best foundersTrust Fund: https://www.trustfund.vc/Pitch Trust Fund: https://www.trustfund.vc/pitchesNasty Gal: https://www.nastygal.com/Follow SophiaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiaamorusoTwitter: https://x.com/sophiaamorusoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiaamorusoWebsite: https://www.sophiaamoruso.com/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Chris Hladczuk is the Co-founder and CEO of Hanover Park, the AI-native fund administrator, vertically integrating fund administration, portfolio management, and LP experience for finance and investment teams.Chris is the 2nd ever returning guest of the show, and is fresh off announcing Hanover’s $27m Series A. We go inside the round, their explosive growth, why they built their own general ledger from scratch, and how that enabled them to build incredible AI products for investment firms that touch over $100 trillion in assets.Thanks to Sahil Bloom, and Chad + Pratyush at Susa for help brainstorming topics for this conversation.Thank you to Numeral and Flex for supporting this episode.Try Numeral, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance: https://www.numeral.comSign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzTimestamps:(0:37) Financial infrastructure for investment firms(1:35) Hanover Park’s $27m Series A(5:30) AI-enabled services businesses(9:07) Productizing the service layer(11:30) Helping CFO’s and investors use AI(13:46) Building a general ledger from scratch(18:03) Compete against companies with IT departments(19:55) Hiring in an unsexy industry(21:30) Live in constant paranoia of your customers(25:19) Gongs, music in the office, blizzard commutes(28:54) Friday night hackathons(30:54) Automating onboarding and manual admin work(35:05) Real-time visibility on all data(38:07) Always get on the plane(40:36) Turning customers into raving fans(43:45) Using polite persistence in sales(47:36) How to master founder-led content(51:29) 99% of advice is wrong in AI era(54:21) Importance of one-way vs two-way doors(56:11) Growing from VC into PE and Private Credit(1:00:36) When to turn down new customers(1:02:22) Becoming a customers most important vendor(1:04:00) Chris’ personal AI stack(1:07:41) Hanover Park’s MCPReferencedTry Hanover Park: https://www.hanoverpark.com/Careers at Hanover Park: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hanover-parkFirst episode with Chris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lomqcrFNv8Artie: https://www.artie.com/Episode with Jacqueline @ Artie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fd1YKsBaq0Granola: https://www.granola.ai/Claude Cowork: https://claude.com/product/coworkHubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/Attio: https://attio.com/Monaco: https://www.monaco.com/Follow ChrisTwitter: https://x.com/chrishladLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-hladczuk-b09204153Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Chetan Puttagunta is a General Partner at Benchmark.We talk about investing in Manus, the AI company that went from zero to $100M ARR in eight months and was recently acquired by Meta.We also talk through the full history of application software, from mainframes to client-server, to the internet to cloud, why each wave reduced the barrier to entry and created an explosion in the number of new software, why legacy SaaS companies are making the same mistake on-prem vendors made at the dawn of the cloud, why software companies should be making big AI acquisitions, and how public market investors are begging private AI companies to go public.We also talk about what Benchmark actually looks for in founders, how they make decisions, and why his last two investments were consumer AI and crypto.Thanks to Sam Ross and Everett Randle for helping brainstorm topics for this conversation.Thanks you to Numeral and Flex for supporting this episode.Try Numeral, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance: https://www.numeral.comSign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzTimestamps:(0:08) Inside the $2.5B Manus acquisition(6:24) Manus' three main use cases(11:08) Taking heat on Twitter(15:10) Starting to tweet about software in 2018(22:50) The history of application software(29:15) Benchmark’s 25x Fund 7(31:33) SaaS incumbents got too dominant by 2020(31:48) Going all-in on AI software in 2022(39:31) Benchmark didn’t invest in the big AI labs(40:48) How cloud companies beat on-prem competitors(44:33) Why AI companies will beat legacy cloud competitors(50:04) Software incumbents should make big AI acquisitions(57:35) Why incumbents have not bought more AI companies(1:04:43) Public markets are starving for AI companies(1:10:14) Inside Benchmark’s fund strategy(1:14:14) Benchmark’s history of non-traditional VC rounds(1:17:56) Is the 20% ownership model outdated?(1:19:20) Chetan’s rebirth as a consumer investor(1:22:39) What Benchmark looks for in founders(1:25:01) AI coding and gross marginsReferencedBenchmark: https://benchmark.com/Eric Vishria’s podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-5IsqFgrZMWorkday S-1: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000119312512375787/d385110ds1.htmInnovator's Dilemma: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business-Essentials/dp/0060521996Try FOMO: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fomo-never-miss-out/id6741115427Follow ChetanTwitter: https://x.com/chetanpLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetanputtaguntaFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Gary Tan is the President and CEO of Y Combinator.YC is the startup accelerator behind companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Reddit, Twitch, and thousands more. According to Garry, they’ve invested in 20% of all startups worth $5B or more started since 2012.Gary has lived every side of the YC ecosystem. He went through YC as a founder, later became a partner, started Initialized Capital where he backed companies like Coinbase and Instacart, and then returned to lead YC.We walk through the different “eras” of YC, from the early Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston days in Cambridge, to scaling in San Francisco, to today’s push back toward in person community and what Gary calls “founder mode” for the organization itself.We also talk about why the Bay Area still matters so much for startups, what’s happening with California taxes and policy, and why Gary has gotten more involved in local politics to keep it the best place for founders to build companies.Then we go deep on the parts of startups people don’t talk about enough. Co-founder conflict, rage quitting, therapy and coaching, and why companies inevitably take on the personality and emotional patterns of their founders.We also cover what YC looks for in applications, how the 13 week batch is structured, how Demo Day really works, how to choose the right investors, and what Gary thinks the next phase of YC looks like, including helping founders even after Series A.At the end, Gary shares his personal AI workflow, including meta prompting, comparing outputs across models, and the tools he uses every day to think and build faster.Try Numeral, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance: https://www.numeral.com⁠Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzTimestamps:(0:05) Moving from Winnipeg to California as a kid(1:35) How YC interviews work(2:55) The first batch in 2005(6:46) Why YC moved from Boston to SF(8:17) California’s Billionaire Tax(11:00) Tech should care about public policies(17:01) Going direct to your audience(20:28) The 2nd Era of YC(24:01) Rage quitting Palantir, learning to understand himself(32:41) Co-founder conflict kills most startups(35:15) Joining YC as a group partner(37:22) Initialized Fund 1 (55x DPI)(39:44) Why Garry went back to lead YC(42:44) YC funds 20% of all $5B+ companies(44:30) Lessons from Brian Chesky(48:01) Garry’s thoughts on YC rejection(51:41) How to get into YC(58:03) What it’s like inside a 13-week YC batch(1:02:23) 20% of YC is hard tech(1:05:55) YC's 3rd era: founder mode, re-batching(1:07:56) Escaping the matrix(1:11:26) Garry's personal AI stack(1:20:25) Tech optimismReferencedY Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/Initialized Capital: https://initialized.com/Torch: https://torch.io/Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/OpenAI: https://openai.com/Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/Kyle Vogt on his new startup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQoFbvyWEy8Follow Aaron Levie on X: https://x.com/levieFollow GaryTwitter: https://x.com/garytanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garytan/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Dug Song and Jon Oberheide are the co-founders of Duo Security.If you’ve never heard of Duo, it might be one of the most underrated software stories of all-time.Starting in 2010, they burned only $14 million to hit $100m in ARR, were acquired by Cisco for $2.35 billion in 2018, and now rumored to be doing over $1 billion in ARR inside Cisco 16 years later.We talk about how they built one of the most capital efficient SaaS companies ever from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and how their focus on the customer and company culture helped them win in a crowded cybersecurity market.We talk growing up in the early hacking culture of the 90s, why most security tools are painful to use, sizing their market, solving for non-consumption of a product, and how Duo flipped the model by designing for end users instead of security teams.We talk about staying in Michigan instead of moving to Silicon Valley, and why staying out of the tech bubble helped them execute.We break down the mechanics of scaling from zero to $100 million in ARR, everything they learned integrating with Cisco, and why more founders should build outside of San Francisco. A quick thank you ex-Duo employees Zack Urlocker, Ash Devata, and Katie Kilroy for their help brainstorming topics for the conversation.Try Numeral, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance: [https://www.numeral.com](https://www.numeral.com/)Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzTimestamps:(4:49) Meeting from Dug’s Wi-Fi honeypot(7:33) 90’s hacking culture and cybersecurity’s wild west(14:49) How the internet was born in Ann Arbor(18:58) Staying in Michigan instead of moving to Silicon Valley(31:20) Philosophy on leadership and team building(39:48) What makes a good engineering leader(44:01) Starting Duo to make security easier(45:22) Why most security products suck(48:36) How fixing account takeover became a $1B ARR company(59:10) TAM, competition, fixing the non-consumption of security(1:04:04) Being a radical advocate for the customer(1:08:35) Duo’s pizza sales play(1:12:45) Branding lessons from Anthropic, Tesla, Cliff Bar(1:17:47) When to say no to customers(1:21:27) Importance of culture when scaling(1:27:56) Duo’s role in uncovering the SolarWinds breach(1:31:29) Scaling to $100M ARR on $14M burned(1:39:30) Inside the $2.35B Cisco acquisition(1:44:02) What big companies get wrong about customers(1:51:53) Building Michigan’s startup ecosystemReferencedDuo Security: [https://duo.com](https://duo.com/)Cisco: [https://www.cisco.com](https://www.cisco.com/)University of Michigan: [https://umich.edu](https://umich.edu/)Follow DugTwitter: https://x.com/dugsongLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dugsongFollow JonTwitter: https://x.com/jonoberheideLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonoFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Nathan Benaich is the founder of Air Street Capital and author of the State of AI report. On its eighth year, the report is a year-long effort on the biggest things happening in AI, across research, industry, politics, and safety.This episode covers the biggest takeaways from the latest report, like the rise in reasoning, the surge in China’s open source models, where AI is working in practice, the rise of sovereign AI, where he thinks value will actually accrue over the long-term, if we’re in an AI bubble, and how he’s investing in AI today at Air Street.Thanks to Nico at Adjacent and Dan at Michigan for helping brainstorm topics for Nathan.Try Numeral, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance: ⁠https://www.numeral.com⁠Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzTimestamps:(3:39) State of AI 2025(6:22) Takeaway #1: Reasoning & tool calling(13:01) Takeaway #2: Rise of Chinese open source(15:25) Open vs closed source models(26:46) Takeaway #3: AI revenue is real(27:51) Takeaway #4: Sovereign AI(36:44) Are we in an AI bubble?(59:23) Starting Air Street Capital(1:05:18) Raising Fund 1(1:16:20) Air Street portfolio strategy(1:25:15) When and who Nathan decides to invest(1:35:04) How important are AI benchmarks?(1:39:31) When to train your own models(1:45:56) Rise of European defense tech(2:01:43) Nathan’s personal AI stack(2:07:32) Is niching down too risky?(2:16:12) Nadal vs FedererReferencedState of AI Report: https://www.stateof.aiThe Thinking Game Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95J8yzvjbQV7: https://www.v7labs.comFollow NathanTwitter: https://x.com/nathanbenaichLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbenaichFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Kevin Hartz, Co-founder of A*, Eventbrite, Xoom, and Sauron.Kevin has been building and investing in technology companies for 30 years, and we talk about how the industry’s evolved, why he calls AI the Mother of All Bubbles, why we’re still early, and lessons today’s breakout AI companies can learn from those that survived the Dot Com Crash.Kevin is a big proponent of backing young founders. A significant percentage of his latest fund at A* is invested in teenagers, and he shares how he identifies outlier talent so early, from Seed investments in Airbnb, PayPal, and Pinterest, to many of today’s hottest AI companies.He also shares the insane story of investing 100% of the proceeds from his first startup into PayPal’s Seed round, how PayPal’s early fraud systems inspired Palantir, what he learned from the PayPal Mafia, from Peter Thiel, and what makes Founders Fund special.We also talk about how he and his wife recently had two babies, five months apart, using genome screening and surrogates.Thanks to Ramtin Naimi, Navya Gudimetla, and Bennett Siegel for helping brainstorm topics for the conversation.Try Numeral, the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance: ⁠https://www.numeral.com⁠Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFzTimestamps:(4:25) Power shift from VC’s to founders since the 90’s(9:08) AI is the mother of all bubbles(12:40) Why AI is still underhyped(14:10) What Kevin and A* are investing in today(16:02) Investing 100% of his first startups proceeds in PayPal’s Seed round(21:21) What made the PayPal Mafia special(23:37) Parallels between the 90’s and today(26:40) What makes Founders Fund special(35:07) How Palantir evolved from PayPal’s fraud models(39:06) Building Xoom on the PayPal API(43:38) Lessons between Kevin’s 1st and 2nd startups(46:52) Starting Eventbrite off early PayPal API app(51:51) Eventbrite’s hidden TAM challenge(53:49) Selling Eventbrite to Bending Spoons(54:59) Investing 20% of A* in teenage founders(1:02:33) Incubating Sauron, the home security company(1:08:44) Making breakfast for our kids(1:13:33) Having kids with genome screening and surrogates(1:20:31) Collecting art, how to get startedReferencedhttps://www.a-star.co/https://www.eventbrite.com/https://www.xoom.com/https://www.sauron.systems/https://www.orchidhealth.com/Setting the Table by Danny Meyer: https://www.amazon.com/Setting-Table-Transforming-Hospitality-Business/dp/006074276320% of fund in teenage founders: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/18/this-top-vc-bet-close-to-20-of-his-fund-on-teenagers-heres-why/https://nypost.com/2025/12/14/us-news/xu-bo-chinese-billionaire-reportedly-sires-more-than-100-kids/Follow KevinTwitter: https://x.com/kevinhartzLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartzFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Steven Fabre is the Co-founder and CEO of Liveblocks.Liveblocks builds ready-made AI copilots and collaboration for your product, and Steven is one of my smartest friends on how people are actually using AI on a day-to-day basis.We talk about what most people get wrong when trying to build AI-native software, how to treat it as more than just a copilot that sits on top of your product, and what he’s learned about how large enterprises are actually buying and using AI right now.We also talk through Liveblocks journey of evolving from real-time human collaboration components into one that also incorporates AI, what he’s learned going from a designer to a CEO, and how he rebuilt the company after his co-founder stepped away.Thank you to Numeral for supporting this episode. It’s the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: ⁠https://www.numeral.com⁠Timestamps:(2:17) Liveblocks: Infrastructure for people + AI(6:08) Wrong ways to add AI to software(8:05) Why humans and AI must collaborate(12:35) How AI will change software UI(18:58) AI search optimization(26:20) How to get #1 on Product Hunt(32:33) Liveblocks 1.0 to 3.0 evolution(36:40) Why collaboration software is so hard(38:38) How customers use Liveblocks(42:36) Hiring a coach to get better at sales(47:07) Steven’s biggest enterprise sales mistakes(50:28) How AI changes GTM and funding milestones(57:57) Going from a designer to a CEO(1:01:06) How Liveblocks first started(1:04:56) Importance of design in company building(1:06:51) Learning to become a CEO(1:12:29) When his co-founder left 5 years in(1:15:49) Becoming stronger hiring a new Head of Engineering(1:22:10) Remote culture: what doesn’t work(1:24:08) Remote culture: what does work(1:26:47) Importance of autonomy on remote teams(1:28:05) Most underrated basketball players(1:33:38) ACL injury that kickstarted his first businessReferencedLiveblocks: https://liveblocks.io/Careers at Liveblocks: https://join.team/liveblocksFollow StevenTwitter: https://x.com/stevenfabreLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-fabre-5510bb38Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Matteo Franceschetti is the Co-founder and CEO of Eight Sleep.Eight Sleep created one of the original breakout consumer health products in 2014, quietly building a business that’s raised over $300 million dollars and was reportedly free cash flow positive in the first half of 2025.But things weren’t always easy, and Matteo shares the challenges of starting a hardware company, why hardware has stronger moats, and the fundraising mindset he adopted that eventually got Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund to invest.We also get into the importance of sleep, how the company’s Sleep Butler uses AI to help you sleep better, and the big opportunity building more consumer health products.Thanks to Numeral for supporting this episode. It’s the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: ⁠https://www.numeral.com⁠Timestamps:(2:18) Three pillars of health: sleep, nutrition, fitness(4:02) Creating a sleep routine(6:59) Importance of body temperature in sleep(8:43) How Eight Sleep works(12:14) Using AI to help you sleep(18:35) The AWS outage(24:12) It’s too hard to build in Europe(28:09) Why hardware has stronger moats(32:23) How to fundraise for a hardware company(35:30) The opportunity in Sleep tech(38:43) Hiring is easy when you have a mission(40:37) How to fight jet lag(43:03) Opportunities in women’s health(45:54) Evolving from single purchase to subscription model(47:12) Matteo’s personal health stack(49:41) Racing sports carsReferencedEight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/Compliant VC Meme Account: https://x.com/compliantvcFollow MatteoTwitter: https://x.com/m_franceschettiLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteofranceschetti/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Will Gaybrick is the President of Technology and Business at Stripe.Stripe builds financial infrastructure for the internet, and if you’ve ever purchased a product online, you’ve probably used Stripe.We talk about what Stripe’s doing in crypto and stablecoins, how AI is changing commerce and payments, how they’re thinking about going public, how they build products internally, and interesting data they’re seeing around AI-native companies, like how they’re growing 3.5x faster than SaaS companies.Thank you to Claire Hughes Johnson, Josh Kushner, and Cosmin Nicolaescu for help brainstorming topics for the conversation.Thank you to Numeral and Amplitude for sponsoring this episode.Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://www.numeral.comAmplitude: Listen to users at scale with AI https://www.amplitude.com/AI-FeedbackTimestamps:2:42 Will’s promotion5:29 Build vs Buy in AI6:39 Inside the Bridge acquisition8:54 Stripe’s stablecoin strategy11:20 Why building Stripe is so complicated13:22 How Stripe builds new products18:29 AI companies growing 3.5x faster than SaaS22:58 New fraud vectors in AI businesses25:19 Agentic commerce in ChatGPT29:34 Building modular products34:05 How Stripe uses AI internally42:12 Building the first payments foundation model48:23 Link, Stripe’s 200M user consumer product56:52 Will Stripe ever IPO?59:14 Blurring of private and public companies1:03:39 Starting Hack Yale1:08:23 Joining Thrive’s $5 million Fund 11:12:30 Low margin businesses are underrated1:16:30 Joining Stripe as CFO1:21:59 How Stripe’s go-to-market has evolved1:25:56 Stripe’s margins1:29:52 Why financial services are so hard to use1:33:04 Lessons from Alan MulallyReferencedStripe: https://stripe.com/Careers at Stripe: https://stripe.com/jobs/searchFollow WillTwitter: https://x.com/gaybrickLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-gaybrick-5730347Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Daksh Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Greptile, the AI code reviewer that understands your entire code base.Greptile just closed a $25M Series A led by Eric Vishria at Benchmark, and we get into their long and winding journey to build one of the fastest growing AI companies.Thanks to Suds at SF1 for helping brainstorm topics for the conversation.Thank you to Numeral and Hanover Park for sponsoring this episode.Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://bit.ly/NumeralThePeelHanover Park: Modern, AI-native fund admin at https://www.hanoverpark.com/TurnerTimestamps:(3:15) Evolution of AI coding + code review(11:23) Coding will never be fully automated(18:07) Why you need a separate code reviewer(24:34) How eng teams adopting AI is changing(27:37) Why LLM costs will come down(31:54) Pricing AI products(35:27) Getting your team to adopt AI(38:17) How Daksh started the 996 discourse(42:10) Recruiting is a funnel, open roles are a product(49:19) Making an energy drink for programmers(51:19) Brainstorming marketing stunts(57:22) Don’t do hype marketing too early(59:41) Starting a band, hitting #14 on Spotify(1:06:35) Evolution of the startup meta(1:12:39) Starting Greptile in class at Georgia Tech(1:19:18) Moving to SF, getting into YC(1:23:44) Pivoting from codebase chat to code review(1:27:09) Crazy growth and mimetic desire(1:29:47) Pricing AI software(1:34:44) How to market developer tools(1:39:46) Greptile's fundraising journey(1:42:57) Why YC is worth the 7% dilution(1:46:39) Treat fundraising like datingReferencedGreptile: https://www.greptile.com/Careers at Greptile: https://www.greptile.com/careersMonetizing Innovation: https://www.amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867Greptile Work Culture: https://www.greptile.com/blog/work-cultureEpisode with Adit @ Reducto: https://youtu.be/h98dLRJFHMMFollow DakshTwitter: https://x.com/dakshgupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakshg/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/