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 Intro 3:15 - State of AI at the beginning of 2024 12:30 - Valuations and fundraising landscape today 16:20 - Founder backgrounds for AI startups 19:15 - Are AI companies defensible? What moats do they have? 26:40 - Impact for large enterprise businesses 30 35 - Exit options and M&A 35:45 - 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 companies 58:35 - Olivia and Justine's favorite AI Tools 1:04:00 - Outro 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
January 29, 202550 min
Ep 94 - 2024 Rewind: AI, Entrepreneurship & Life Lessons
Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:50 Gokul Rajaram on Google and what makes a great CEO 14:30 Ishan Mukherjee on the State of LLMs 22:23 Mark Pincus on how to come up with good ideas and build great products 33:12 Anil Varanasi on how to spot great talent 36:18 Rio Ferdinand on Leadership and Young Prodigies 41:33 Hudzah on using Claude LLM to build products quickly 47:29 Mike Maples on patterns for successful startups 56:00 Career and life advice by Aarthi and Sriram 1:06:55 Aravind Srinivas on Google’s Larry Page being his favourite entrepreneur 1:10:50 Bryan Johnson's 7 simple hacks to live longer 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
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 Cohere 2:12 Childhood and growing up in Canada 5:50 Getting into computers and internet 10:30 Sending cold emails 14:20 How to work with Aidan 16:40 The AI paper - "Attention is all you need" 18:45 Starting Cohere 21:10 Why choose enterprise (vs consumer) as a market 24:45 AI strategy 28:20 Hallucinations in LLM models 30:10 Enterprise software and security implications 32:05 Deloitte, Accenture and the impact of generative AI 36:40 Will LLM scaling laws hit a plateau? 38:50 AGI, reasoning and inference for LLM models 41:30 Synthetic data - what is it? Why is it interesting? 43:25 Looking ahead - what is the Cohere's strategy? 46:00 Cohere's capital structure 49:15 Enterprise Use Cases 52:10 Advice for founders - adaptability 54:15 Thank 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
December 17, 20241 hr 23 min
Ep 92 - Mark Pincus on Zynga, Media, Tech, and Democracy
Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:30 The big political divide in the US 7:50 The new media election 19:55 Pre-Zynga: Mark's entrepreneurial origins 26:10 Being in the room where it happens 30:50 How to choose the right idea to work on 34:35 Meeting Mark Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook 40:20 Founder Mode 43:15 Zynga board and saving the company 49:30 Zynga 2.0: The Comeback 55:00 Zynga company culture 1:01:20 Building product at Zynga 1:08:30 How Zynga was Facebook's winning strategy 1:14:10 Advice to Founders 1:25:15 Outro 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
November 19, 20241 hr 1 min
Ep 91 - Ishan Mukherjee on launching Rox, and living the American Dream
0:01Intro 3:04 Ishan's Story 4:43 Inside IIT: India's Most Competitive Universities 6:50 How Quiz Championships Shaped a Tech Founder 11:45 Moving to the US 19:38 Building Kiva - The Early Days 24:45 The Amazon Acquisition 28:30 Immigration 34:55 What is ROX 37:00 Where are AI agents lacking/ State of LLMs 41:35 Reinventing CRMs 43:45 How ROX works 48:30 AI's Impact on Traditional Industries 53:45 The Launch: ROX Goes Public 57:00 Advice to Young Dreamers 58:35 The Ultimate Quiz Showdown 1:01:30 Outro 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
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 links Meter - 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/0674001885 Sam Hinkie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hinkie 0:00 - Intro 3:48 - Anil’s early years and background 5:23 - Unconventional parenting 9:35 - Anil's journey to entrepreneurship 12:30 - Sleeping in factories in China 15:22 - China VS U.S. 18:30 - Why Networks are so important 21:35 - Why networking is still an unsolved problem 24:10 - Is hardware too hard? 26:11 - What does Meter do? 37:17 - How does Meter work? 41:08 - Future of enterprise software 44:00 - Human interaction with AI models 46:30 - Why Meter is building AI models 50:50 - Spotting young talent 54:00 - Anil's framework to find good talent 57:30 - How Anil helped Dwarkesh Patel start his podcast 1:02:00 - The “X factor” in Anil’s investments 1:02:00 - Raising the ambition bar 1:06:55 - Escaping the competitive Indian dynamics 1:08:38 - How cinema influences entrepreneurship 1:17:25 - Why don't we know how planes fly 1:19:20 - Lessons from Sam Hinkie 1:21:04 - Kindness as an operating principle 1:22:10 - Why hasn’t Anil had a more public brand? 1:24:03 - US Immigration 1:28:00 - Aarthi, Sriram and Anil show? 1:30:44 - Best Indian restaurant in London 1:32:50 - Has sneaker culture peaked? 1:34:25 - Why don’t wealthy people build monuments anymore? 1:38:04 - London’s rich history 1:40:30 - 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 groupchats 1:49:46 - Will Aarthi and Sriram move back to India? 1:48:12 - Aarthi and Sriram’s failures in tech 1:53:55 - Netflix’s 3D and streaming software 1:58:18 - Popfly 1:59:55 - Microsoft success under Satya 2:02:00 - On tech execs 2:03:10 - Nonfiction book that Aarthi and Sriram would write 2:06:27 - Aarthi and Sriram’s favorite Indian movie before 2000 2:09:48 - The End 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
October 3, 20241 hr 21 min
Ep 88 - Gokul Rajaram on Founder Mode and building the next Meta and Google
0:00 - Intro 1:10 - Meet Gokul Rajaram, on the Mount Rushmore of Silicon Valley 2:19 - Gokul's relationship with Aarthi and Sriram 4:00 - What is Founder Mode? And Zuck's Micromanagement 6:33 - Founder Mode Vs Management Mode 8:26 - Why Gokul disagrees with Paul Graham 10:56 - Learnings from Google’s Larry and Sergey 15:58 - What were early days at Google like? 18:58 - What makes a great CEO? 20: 42 - How to engage with high performing executives 25:45 - Why Gokul left Google to launch his own startup 28:53 - Chamath's Acquisition offer 31:30 - Fundraising advice for founders 34:13 - Gokul’s HOT take on AI startups 38:10 - The evolving consumer apps landscape 40:55 - Career Advice for young people 48:00 - When is the right time to start a company? 52:17 - Why titles don't matter 1:01: 45 - Why Gokul left Facebook to join Square 1:06:46 - Regret Minimization Framework 1:07:28 - Gokul's Best Bet - Doordash 1:13:18 - Doordash’s secret hiring process 1:16:11 - Sriram’s favorite interview question 1:17:30 - Gokul’s advice for first time founders 1:20:10 - Final Thoughts 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
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 Trafford Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley EP 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/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow 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 kids Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley EP 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/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow 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
