A show on optimistic conversations with people building and creating new products and technologies, hosted by veteran technologists Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan.
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January 30, 20251 hr 5 min
Ep 95 - AI Tools, Trends & Future – a16z’s Justine & Olivia Moore Break It Down
0:00 Intro3:15 - State of AI at the beginning of 202412:30 - Valuations and fundraising landscape today16:20 - Founder backgrounds for AI startups19:15 - Are AI companies defensible? What moats do they have?26:40 - Impact for large enterprise businesses30 35 - Exit options and M&A35:45 - What problems do they wish founders focused on? And not so much on?42:35 - AI therapy - is it cringe?48:55 - Stanford dropouts and starting AI companies58:35 - Olivia and Justine's favorite AI Tools1:04:00 - Outro
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
January 29, 202550 min
Ep 94 - 2024 Rewind: AI, Entrepreneurship & Life Lessons
Chapters:0:00 Intro1:50 Gokul Rajaram on Google and what makes a great CEO14:30 Ishan Mukherjee on the State of LLMs22:23 Mark Pincus on how to come up with good ideas and build great products33:12 Anil Varanasi on how to spot great talent36:18 Rio Ferdinand on Leadership and Young Prodigies41:33 Hudzah on using Claude LLM to build products quickly47:29 Mike Maples on patterns for successful startups56:00 Career and life advice by Aarthi and Sriram1:06:55 Aravind Srinivas on Google’s Larry Page being his favourite entrepreneur1:10:50 Bryan Johnson's 7 simple hacks to live longer
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
January 28, 202555 min
Ep 93 - From Reading Papers in the Gym to a Billion-Dollar AI Company | Cohere's Untold Story
Chapters:0:00 Introduction to Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere2:12 Childhood and growing up in Canada5:50 Getting into computers and internet10:30 Sending cold emails14:20 How to work with Aidan16:40 The AI paper - "Attention is all you need"18:45 Starting Cohere21:10 Why choose enterprise (vs consumer) as a market24:45 AI strategy28:20 Hallucinations in LLM models30:10 Enterprise software and security implications32:05 Deloitte, Accenture and the impact of generative AI36:40 Will LLM scaling laws hit a plateau?38:50 AGI, reasoning and inference for LLM models41:30 Synthetic data - what is it? Why is it interesting?43:25 Looking ahead - what is the Cohere's strategy?46:00 Cohere's capital structure49:15 Enterprise Use Cases52:10 Advice for founders - adaptability54:15 Thank you
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
December 17, 20241 hr 23 min
Ep 92 - Mark Pincus on Zynga, Media, Tech, and Democracy
Chapters:0:00 Intro1:30 The big political divide in the US7:50 The new media election19:55 Pre-Zynga: Mark's entrepreneurial origins26:10 Being in the room where it happens30:50 How to choose the right idea to work on34:35 Meeting Mark Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook40:20 Founder Mode43:15 Zynga board and saving the company49:30 Zynga 2.0: The Comeback55:00 Zynga company culture1:01:20 Building product at Zynga1:08:30 How Zynga was Facebook's winning strategy1:14:10 Advice to Founders1:25:15 Outro
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
November 19, 20241 hr 1 min
Ep 91 - Ishan Mukherjee on launching Rox, and living the American Dream
0:01Intro3:04 Ishan's Story4:43 Inside IIT: India's Most Competitive Universities6:50 How Quiz Championships Shaped a Tech Founder11:45 Moving to the US19:38 Building Kiva - The Early Days24:45 The Amazon Acquisition28:30 Immigration34:55 What is ROX37:00 Where are AI agents lacking/ State of LLMs41:35 Reinventing CRMs43:45 How ROX works48:30 AI's Impact on Traditional Industries53:45 The Launch: ROX Goes Public57:00 Advice to Young Dreamers58:35 The Ultimate Quiz Showdown1:01:30 Outro
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
November 3, 20242 hr 10 min
Ep 89 - Anil Varanasi from Meter on AI and networking hardware, spotting talent early, on China and Cinema
Some helpful linksMeter - https://www.meter.com/Meter command - https://command.meter.com/Link to Tyler’s book on culture - https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Commercial-Culture-Tyler-Cowen/dp/0674001885Sam Hinkie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hinkie0:00 - Intro3:48 - Anil’s early years and background5:23 - Unconventional parenting9:35 - Anil's journey to entrepreneurship12:30 - Sleeping in factories in China15:22 - China VS U.S.18:30 - Why Networks are so important21:35 - Why networking is still an unsolved problem24:10 - Is hardware too hard?26:11 - What does Meter do?37:17 - How does Meter work?41:08 - Future of enterprise software44:00 - Human interaction with AI models46:30 - Why Meter is building AI models50:50 - Spotting young talent54:00 - Anil's framework to find good talent57:30 - How Anil helped Dwarkesh Patel start his podcast1:02:00 - The “X factor” in Anil’s investments1:02:00 - Raising the ambition bar1:06:55 - Escaping the competitive Indian dynamics1:08:38 - How cinema influences entrepreneurship1:17:25 - Why don't we know how planes fly1:19:20 - Lessons from Sam Hinkie1:21:04 - Kindness as an operating principle1:22:10 - Why hasn’t Anil had a more public brand?1:24:03 - US Immigration1:28:00 - Aarthi, Sriram and Anil show?1:30:44 - Best Indian restaurant in London1:32:50 - Has sneaker culture peaked?1:34:25 - Why don’t wealthy people build monuments anymore?1:38:04 - London’s rich history1:40:30 - Why does Sriram have sriramk.eth?1:42:00 - Should all startups go direct on comms?1:47:07 - Are Aarthi and Sriram “too online”?1:49:10 - Sriram’s Silicon Valley groupchats1:49:46 - Will Aarthi and Sriram move back to India?1:48:12 - Aarthi and Sriram’s failures in tech1:53:55 - Netflix’s 3D and streaming software1:58:18 - Popfly1:59:55 - Microsoft success under Satya2:02:00 - On tech execs2:03:10 - Nonfiction book that Aarthi and Sriram would write2:06:27 - Aarthi and Sriram’s favorite Indian movie before 20002:09:48 - The End
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
October 3, 20241 hr 21 min
Ep 88 - Gokul Rajaram on Founder Mode and building the next Meta and Google
0:00 - Intro1:10 - Meet Gokul Rajaram, on the Mount Rushmore of Silicon Valley2:19 - Gokul's relationship with Aarthi and Sriram4:00 - What is Founder Mode? And Zuck's Micromanagement6:33 - Founder Mode Vs Management Mode8:26 - Why Gokul disagrees with Paul Graham10:56 - Learnings from Google’s Larry and Sergey15:58 - What were early days at Google like?18:58 - What makes a great CEO?20: 42 - How to engage with high performing executives25:45 - Why Gokul left Google to launch his own startup28:53 - Chamath's Acquisition offer31:30 - Fundraising advice for founders34:13 - Gokul’s HOT take on AI startups38:10 - The evolving consumer apps landscape40:55 - Career Advice for young people48:00 - When is the right time to start a company?52:17 - Why titles don't matter1:01: 45 - Why Gokul left Facebook to join Square1:06:46 - Regret Minimization Framework1:07:28 - Gokul's Best Bet - Doordash1:13:18 - Doordash’s secret hiring process1:16:11 - Sriram’s favorite interview question1:17:30 - Gokul’s advice for first time founders1:20:10 - Final Thoughts
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
September 8, 20241 hr 3 min
EP 87 - Rio Ferdinand on Life After Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alex Ferguson, Mbappe, Bellingham
Rio Ferdinand is a football legend who spent over a decade playing for Manchester United and was a cornerstone of the England national team. With six Premier League titles, two League Cups, and a UEFA Champions League trophy under his belt, Rio is no stranger to the highs and pressures of elite football. He joined Sriram and Aarthi for a deep dive into the trials and tribulations of a career in competitive sports, the mental and physical demands of playing for one of the world’s most prestigious clubs, and the new wave of young athletes rising to stardom. From his experiences with legends like Sir Alex Ferguson to his thoughts on modern football, Rio shares what it takes to truly be the greatest, not just in sports, but in life.Show Notes: (0:00) Intro(2:03) The English experience during the Euros(3:21) What’s it going to take for England to bring it home(7:19) Jude Bellingham is different (9:23) What separates young prodigies that make it vs. those that don’t(12:01) The all-timers are not normal(15:17) Underdog mentality and fighting for recognition (17:13) Handling the pressure of playing for Man Utd(19:18) Rio rewatches the 2008 UCL Final(21:06) Rio learned this while playing for Sir Alex (21:38) How Sir Alex managed the egos of the best players(28:17) A great team needs experienced players(30:43) Mbappe’s challenge ingraining to Real Madrid (34:06) Parallels between sports and tech(38:06) Tech CEOs and founders are receptive to Rio’s opinions(40:39) Clubs still need to improve how to connect with fans(41:23) Ted Lasso and Rio’s new show(42:10) Ronaldo smashes YouTube records(42:48) Ryan Reynolds and Wrexham are modeling the way for football clubs(48:17) Changing the conversation around mental health in sports(54:52) Rio’s penalty-taking strategies (57:40) How Rio would fix Man Utd (59:33) Biggest lesson from running a restaurant (1:00:47) Rio defends ballet (1:01:59) Meeting a young Drake at Old TraffordOther episodes you might enjoy:EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon ValleyEP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
September 2, 202430 min
EP 86: This Kid Built A Fusion Reactor In His Bedroom Using AI
A math undergraduate from the University of Waterloo, Hudhayfa Nazoordeen, constructed a miniature fusion reactor, known as a fusor, in his bedroom. He completed the project over several weeks, utilizing the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI assistant from Anthropic, which he provided with relevant data. In a series of tweets, he detailed the entire process of building the reactor from start to finish.Show notes:(00:00) This is an unusual episode (01:20) Welcome HudZah to the show!(01:35) Who is HudZah? (02:35) Using AI tools natively (03:49) Using Claude to build an MVP in one minute - Page Summarizer project as an example(05:12) What is a nuclear fusor? (06:10) Does Hudzah have any prior knowledge to build a nuclear fusor?(07:10) Why build a nuclear fusor in your dorm room? (08:40) Using Claude to build the nuclear fusor (11:18) Week to week progress (13:50) Is building a nuclear fusor safe? 3 ways to die! (16:00) Why use Claude Sonnet? Power of Projects in Claude. (18:50) Trusting your AI model and why is it ok(20:40) Feature requests for Claude (21:45) What’s next in the process to build a fusor? (22:50) How are people reacting? (23:10) Tyler, if you’re watching, please fund Hudzah!(24:40) How are people using AI tools natively? (28:48) Learning from kidsOther episodes you might enjoy:EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI DisasterEP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon ValleyEP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA
Follow Sriram:https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/https://twitter.com/sriramkFollow Aarthi:https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/https://twitter.com/aarthirFollow the podcast:https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
August 28, 202454 min
EP 85: A16Z's Martin Casado Explains California’s AI Safety Bill SB1047
