Uncapped #52 | Mike Volpi from Hanabi Capital
From Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital
June 10, 2026 · 56 min
About this episode
Mike Volpi discusses the evolution of venture capital in the AI era and the changing landscape of investing and company building.
Mike Volpi is a General Partner at Hanabi Capital, with a background that spans senior operating roles and nearly two decades of investing. Mike currently sits on the boards of several innovative companies, including Scale AI, ClickHouse, Ferrari, and Confluent, where he is known as a thoughtful sounding board and a steady presence through the highs and lows of startup life. Mike is a retired partner at Index Ventures, where he led investments in category-defining companies across AI, software, and infrastructure. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Cisco, including as Chief Strategy Officer and SVP/GM of Cisco’s routing business, giving him firsthand experience in building products and teams at scale. We discussed what it takes to build a great venture firm in the AI era, why many of venture’s traditional rules are breaking down, and how AI is reshaping software, investing, and company building. We also explored the future of frontier AI labs, robotics, defense tech, and the mindset founders and investors need to adapt to a rapidly changing world. --- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:39) Building a venture firm for AI (4:02) Designing Hanabi (5:52) Why stage matters…
People in this episode
Host: Jack Altman
Guest: Mike Volpi
Topics covered
- venture capital
- artificial intelligence
- software development
- company building
- investing strategies
- defense technology
Keywords
- venture firm
- AI era
- investing
- software
- defense tech
- founders mindset
- robotics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Hanabi Capital, Scale AI, ClickHouse, Ferrari, Confluent, Index Ventures, Cisco
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