Venture with Grace

Hosted by Grace Gong

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Episodes

639

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

I host a top VC podcast called Smart Venture Podcast (SVPpro.com). Past guests include C-level/VPs of Google, Meta, Amazon, Sephora, Dunkin' Donuts, Chipotle, Pepsi, Instagram, Deloitte, Reddit, Lyft, etc. Managing Partners of top funds (many were featured on the Forbes Midas List) and unicorn founders (founders of Craigslist, Square, Loom, Cruise, etc.) Venture with Grace is my new spin-off series that features top LPs, GPs, solo GPs, Angel Investors, top AI founders, and other experts in tech and business to cover specific domain expertise. Watch this Live on LinkedIn/ YouTube: Grace Gong

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60 recent

August 23, 202653 min

Paul Lee, Patlytics Co-Founder & CEO on AI, Patents and IP Strategy

Paul Lee is the CEO and Co-Founder of Patlytics, an AI-powered patent workflow platform built to help IP professionals drive innovation and strategic value through intellectual property. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Paul co-founded Patlytics with Arthur Jen, whom he first met while studying engineering at the University of Waterloo. Their shared experiences showed them how a strong IP strategy can fuel innovation and create lasting business value, leading them to build Patlytics around the mission of giving IP professionals more powerful tools to manage and maximize intellectual property.Before founding Patlytics, Paul built a career in venture capital, where he developed a deep understanding of how companies grow, how market leaders emerge, and how innovation can be cultivated within organizations. He served as a Partner and later Board Partner at Tribe Capital, and previously advised 8VC. His experience working closely with founders and technology companies gave him a perspective on the relationship between innovation, business strategy, and long-term value creation. Today, he brings that investor and operator perspective to Patlytics, where he is focused on applying AI to one of the most important but traditionally complex areas of innovation: patents and intellectual property.Topics How AI is transforming patent workflows, intellectual property strategy, and the way companies manage innovation Building Patlytics around the intersection of AI, patents, and strategic decision-making for IP professionals From venture capital to building a company: lessons from investing in technology #ArtificialIntelligence #Patents #IntellectualProperty #AI #Innovation

August 23, 202654 min

Ankit Jain, Infinitus CEO on AI Voice Agents in Healthcare

Ankit Jain is the Co-Founder and CEO of Infinitus, the AI company building voice agents and copilots that automate administrative workflows across healthcare. Infinitus leverages safe large language models to help healthcare organizations address workforce shortages by automating phone-based tasks, improving operational efficiency, and enabling providers to spend more time on patient care.~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Before founding Infinitus, Ankit founded Quettra, a mobile intelligence platform acquired by Similarweb, and Cuil, a search engine later acquired by Google. He also served as Director of Engineering at Google and was a founding partner at Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, where he helped launch the firm's investment strategy and backed some of the industry's leading AI startups. Drawing on his experience as a founder, operator, and investor, Ankit is helping shape the next generation of AI infrastructure for healthcare through intelligent voice automation.Topics How AI voice agents are transforming healthcare operations and reducing administrative burden Building safe, reliable AI systems for enterprise healthcare Lessons from founding AI companies, building at Google, and launching Gradient Ventures #ArtificialIntelligence #Healthcare #VoiceAI #GenerativeAI #HealthTech

August 19, 202655 min

George Bonaci, Ramp VP on AI-First Growth and Demand Generation

George Bonaci is the VP of Growth & Demand Generation at Ramp, where he leads growth, demand generation, and marketing strategies for one of the fastest-scaling financial technology companies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Previously, he led Growth and Demand Generation at Gong and served as Senior Director of Growth Marketing & Campaigns at Samsara, where he helped scale ARR more than 6x while growing the growth organization through the company’s IPO and sourcing more than half of all new business. Across these roles, George has focused on finding unconventional ways to unlock growth, from building direct mail into more than 10% of Samsara’s pipeline to identifying additional upside in established channels at Gong. At Ramp, George is building an AI-first growth organization, using agents, data, and automation to transform how marketing teams execute. He has also supported AI-driven systems for launching growth campaigns across entirely new verticals, while increasing investment in events and other high-trust channels that become more valuable as AI automates traditional marketing functions.Topics How AI is transforming growth and demand generation through agents and automation. Lessons from scaling Samsara, Gong, and Ramp through direct mail, established channels, and new market expansion Why human-driven marketing, events, and high-trust customer relationships become more valuable as AI automates traditional growth functions #ArtificialIntelligence #GrowthMarketing #DemandGeneration #B2B #Marketing

August 16, 20261 hr 1 min

Guy Marion, Chargebee CMO on AI, SaaS Growth and Customer Retention

Guy Marion is the Chief Marketing Officer at Chargebee, where he leads global marketing and growth across product marketing, digital, account-based marketing, field marketing, communications, brand, BDR, and operations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chargebee is a leading billing and monetization platform helping B2B and D2C companies launch and scale usage-based, hybrid, and credit-based business models. Guy has also led the company's retention business, Chargebee Retention, following its acquisition of Brightback, the customer retention company he founded and led as CEO. Before founding Brightback, Guy built a career focused on SaaS growth, customer retention, and revenue. As CEO of Brightback, he built an automated customer retention platform designed to help subscription businesses increase customer lifetime value. Following its acquisition by Chargebee in 2022, he led the integration of the business across product, engineering, sales, and go-to-market. Today, Guy brings that operator experience to Chargebee, where he is focused on rethinking how SaaS companies approach growth, monetization, and retention in an increasingly AI-driven market.Topics How AI Is Reshaping SaaS Marketing, Growth, and Go-to-Market Strategy Building Retention-Driven SaaS Businesses and Increasing Customer Lifetime Value Lessons from Founding Brightback, Scaling Chargebee, and Leading AI-First Marketing #ArtificialIntelligence #SaaS #CustomerRetention #B2B #Growth

August 15, 20261 hr 13 min

Ashish Kakran & Umesh Padval, Seligman Ventures MPs on AI Investing

Ashish Kakran and Umesh Padval are Managing Partners at Seligman Ventures, an early-stage venture firm investing from Seed to pre-IPO across AI infrastructure, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and modern data center technologies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Together, they have backed category-defining companies including Cohere, Harness, Isovalent (acquired by Cisco), Opaque Systems, SambaNova, Cognichip, Eliyan, and Smallest.ai, partnering with technical founders building the next generation of enterprise infrastructure. Ashish brings deep technical and product expertise, having begun his career as a software engineer building cloud applications before becoming a product manager at AppNeta. Previously a Partner at Sierra Ventures and Thomvest Ventures, he has earned recognition as one of venture capital's rising stars for his founder-first approach and investments in leading AI and cloud infrastructure companies. Umesh brings more than 35 years of operating, executive, and board experience, including serving as CEO of C-Cube Microsystems before its acquisition by LSI Logic and nearly two decades as a venture investor at Bessemer Venture Partners and Thomvest Ventures. Together, they combine extensive operating experience, technical depth, and long-term investing expertise to help founders build enduring companies shaping the future of AI, cloud infrastructure, semiconductors, and enterprise technology.Topics Investing in the AI infrastructure stack: where the next generation of billion-dollar companies will be built What technical founders need to know about building and scaling category-defining enterprise startups The future of AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and modern data centers #ArtificialIntelligence #VentureCapital #AIInfrastructure #CloudComputing #Cybersecurity

August 15, 202638 min

AI4 Panel: How AI Startups and VCs Are Building the Future of Industry

At AI4 in Las Vegas, Grace Gong moderates a conversation with Michael Montano, Partner at True Ventures, and Shan Reddy, Founder of Aristotle, exploring the forces shaping the next generation of AI companies. The discussion covers the state of AI funding, how AI is changing venture investing and startup building, the resurgence of consumer AI, building defensible moats as model companies move into new markets, and what the rise of AI agents means for the future of teams and work.The conversation examines where durable value will come from as AI becomes capable of doing more, and what founders and investors should be thinking about as the technology continues to reshape entire industries. #ai4 #ai #VC #startups #founders

August 15, 20261 hr 0 min

Marshall Choy, Rebellions CBO on AI Chips and Sovereign AI Infra

Marshall Choy is the Chief Business Officer at Rebellions, an AI semiconductor company building energy-efficient AI chips and infrastructure for large-scale inference. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~He leads the company's global business operations, including product management, sales, business development, strategic partnerships, marketing, and field engineering, helping accelerate the adoption of next-generation AI hardware and software for enterprise and sovereign AI deployments. He brings decades of leadership experience spanning AI, semiconductors, cloud computing, high-performance computing, and enterprise infrastructure. Throughout his career, he has led product strategy, go-to-market execution, customer success, and technical organizations, with deep expertise in generative AI, agentic AI, deep learning, and data center technologies. At Rebellions, he is focused on delivering high-performance, energy-efficient AI infrastructure that enables organizations to deploy frontier and reasoning models at scale while advancing the global shift toward sovereign AI and next-generation computing.Topics The future of AI chips: building energy-efficient infrastructure for large-scale AI inference Sovereign AI: why nations and enterprises are investing in their own AI infrastructure Scaling AI from silicon to software: lessons in product strategy, go-to-market, and enterprise adoption #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInfrastructure #Semiconductors #SovereignAI #DataCenters

August 14, 20261 hr 1 min

Rocky Yu, AGI House Founder & CEO on Building AGI Startup Ecosystem

Rocky Yu is the Founder and CEO of AGI House, a community and builder ecosystem focused on accelerating the development of artificial general intelligence by bringing together AI founders and researchers.~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He is also a Founding Partner at AGI House Ventures, where he invests in ambitious AI-native founders building infrastructure and applications at the frontier of artificial intelligence. Through AGI House, he has built a “startup factory” model designed to help design, launch, and scale next-generation AI companies. Prior to AGI House, Rocky founded Piki, an AR and AI-powered interactive storytelling platform. He is focused on building and investing in systems that accelerate humanity’s transition to AGI.Topics Building AI-native founder ecosystems and “startup factory” models How hacker houses and research communities are shaping the next wave of AI companies Investing in AGI-adjacent infrastructure and applications at the frontier of AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AGI #Startups #AIInfrastructure #FutureOfWork

August 14, 202646 min

Eric Nguyen, Radical Numerics CEO on AI for Biological Intelligence

Eric Nguyen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Radical Numerics, an AI research lab building general biological intelligence—next-generation foundation models that can reason across DNA, RNA, proteins, and other biological data to accelerate breakthroughs in healthcare, biotechnology, and biosecurity. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~The company launched with $50 million in seed funding led by Emergence Capital and is pioneering multimodal AI systems capable of reading, writing, and designing biology while embedding safety and biosecurity into the foundation of its models. Before founding Radical Numerics, Eric earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering and AI from Stanford University, where he helped pioneer the emerging field of generative genomics. He and his team created Evo, the first large language model capable of generating DNA at scale and one of the largest open-source biological AI projects ever released, followed by Evo 2, which advanced AI's ability to model and engineer biological systems. Today, Radical Numerics is applying these advances to cancer diagnostics, drug discovery, and next-generation therapeutics while developing AI systems that can identify AI-generated pathogens and strengthen global biodefense. Eric's work sits at the intersection of frontier AI, biology, and responsible innovation, helping define how artificial intelligence will transform the life sciences.Topics The future of AI in biology: building foundation models that can read, write, and design living systems From generative genomics to general biological intelligence: how multimodal AI will transform drug discovery, diagnostics, and healthcare Building frontier AI responsibly: balancing scientific breakthroughs, biosecurity, and the safe development of biological intelligence #ArtificialIntelligence #Biotech #HealthcareAI #GenerativeAI #LifeSciences

August 14, 202653 min

Ariel Shulman, Bright Data CPO on AI Agents and the Future of Web Data

Ariel Shulman is the Chief Product Officer at Bright Data, the world's leading web data infrastructure company for AI and business intelligence. He leads the company's AI-integrated product strategy, driving innovation in web data infrastructure, AI agents, and enterprise solutions that enable organizations to access high-quality public web data at scale for training, inference, and decision-making.Before becoming CPO, Ariel served as Bright Data's VP of Corporate Development, leading strategic partnerships and M&A initiatives that helped accelerate the company's growth. Earlier in his career, he was CEO of EyeContact.IM and Hola Spark, where he developed products that transformed video engagement and monetization for global publishers including Fox, Sky Sports, RTL, Condé Nast, and The Independent. He also led business development at Hola, helping scale next-generation video delivery technologies. With deep expertise spanning AI, internet infrastructure, networking, business strategy, and product leadership, Ariel has built and scaled technology platforms that power enterprise innovation across global markets.Topics Why high-quality web data is the foundation of AI agents, large language models, and enterprise intelligence Building AI products at scale: lessons from leading product strategy, partnerships, and innovation across global technology companies The future of AI infrastructure: how web data, automation, and intelligent agents are reshaping enterprise software #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInfrastructure #WebData #AIAgents #ProductManagement