Venture with Grace

Hosted by Grace Gong

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Episodes

675

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

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

October 28, 202637 min

Boris Sofman, Bedrock Robotics CEO on Scaling Autonomous Construction

Boris Sofman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics, which develops autonomous technology for heavy construction equipment.~~~~~~~~~~~~~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 recently raised a $600 million Series C at a $4.1 billion valuation, co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, bringing its total funding to nearly $1 billion. Bedrock plans to use the funding to expand deployments across the United States and has doubled its customer base year over year. Previously, Boris spent nearly five years at Waymo, leading autonomous trucking and engineering initiatives. He also co-founded and led Anki, an AI robotics company that shipped more than 3.7 million consumer robots and devices and approached $100 million in annual revenue. He holds a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.Topics Bringing autonomous AI systems to heavy construction equipment to address labor shortages and accelerate infrastructure development Scaling robotics companies from technical research to commercial deployment Building and financing deep-tech companies #Robotics #AutonomousSystems #PhysicalAI #ConstructionTech #VentureCapital

October 28, 20261 hr 1 min

Beatrice Aliprandi, Praktika CRO on AI Operations, Scaling and Revenue

Beatrice Aliprandi is the Chief Revenue Officer at Praktika, an AI-powered language learning platform using generative AI avatars to help people learn languages. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~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~~~~~~~~~~~~~She leads finance, operations, and revenue, having previously served as the company's Chief of Staff, overseeing initiatives across business development, investor relations, legal, HR, and general operations. At Praktika, Beatrice has helped navigate the practical challenges of scaling an AI startup, from financial planning and investor reporting to building AI-powered workflows that automate operational tasks. Before joining Praktika, she was a Principal at Lakestar, a leading European venture capital firm, where she focused on games and media investments, including Modulate.ai, Quest Portal, Fuse Games, and Included Games. She is also the co-host of Top of the Ops, a podcast offering candid insights into startup operations, leadership, and the realities of scaling companies.Topics Moving from venture capital into startup leadership . Using AI agents and automation to streamline finance, investor reporting, and legal support workflows Scaling an AI startup through disciplined cash management, operational systems, and practical decisions about growth #ArtificialIntelligence #StartupOperations #AIAgents #VentureCapital #Leadership

October 28, 20261 hr 4 min

Arnab Bose, Asana CPO on AI Teammates, Workflows and Productivity

Arnab Bose is the Chief Product Officer of Asana, where he leads the company’s product strategy and innovation with a focus on advancing AI capabilities and expanding the platform's enterprise functionality. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~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~~~~~~~~~~~~~Arnab has extensive experience driving product vision, strategy, and development, most recently serving as Chief Product Officer for the Okta Platform. Prior to that, Arnab was a Vice President of Product Management at Salesforce, where he led several efforts from integrating Quip into the Salesforce Platform, to Process Automation and Chatter. Before Salesforce, he was a Senior Program Manager Lead at Microsoft. Arnab holds a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. Topics Building AI teammates that coordinate work and collaborate with humans across enterprise teams Using organizational context and shared workflows to make AI more reliable Scaling enterprise product platforms through major technology shifts, from cloud computing and identity security to agentic AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Asana #AIAgents #EnterpriseAI #FutureOfWork

October 24, 202615 min

PANEL: What CIOs Are Actually Buying

Yousuf Khan, Founder of Clario and former CIO of Moveworks, sits down with Sree Kancharla, CIO of SailPoint, to explore how enterprise buyers evaluate AI products, what earns founders a second conversation, and where CIOs see the greatest opportunities for AI. The discussion examines why successful enterprise pitches start with a clearly defined business problem, a deep understanding of the customer, and a compelling path to time to value, rather than a generic sales deck. Sree shares how the CIO role is evolving as AI adoption expands, requiring leaders to balance cost management and security with enabling employees to experiment and build AI agents tailored to different roles. The conversation also explores enterprise AI priorities across go-to-market, customer experience, data, security, and sales productivity, alongside the concerns that can slow adoption. Together, they discuss how founders can demonstrate real customer value, navigate enterprise buying processes, and build the relationships needed to turn an initial pitch into a business opportunity. Topics Winning enterprise buyers by leading with real business problems, and a clear path to time to value How CIOs are adopting AI across go-to-market, customer experience, data, security, and sales What earns founders a follow-up meeting. #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #CIO #B2BSales #AITechnology

October 24, 202626 min

PANEL: Building AI Companies That Last

Anyone can build an AI product, but building a durable AI company requires more than access to powerful models. In this fireside, Sri Viswanath, CEO of Sycamore and former CTO of Atlassian and Managing Director at Coatue; Snehal Antani, CEO of Horizon3; and Brendan Ittelson, Chief Ecosystem Officer at Zoom, join Grace Gong, Founder and CEO of Smart Venture Media, to explore what separates lasting AI businesses from products that are quickly replicated. The discussion examines why proprietary data, domain expertise, execution, and customer trust are becoming critical advantages as models evolve. The speakers also explore enterprise adoption challenges, including data security, auditability, unpredictable AI costs, pricing, and gross margins. Topics Building durable AI moats through proprietary data, deep domain expertise, customer trust, and products Scaling enterprise AI sustainably by navigating usage-based pricing. Evolving from early product-market fit to repeatable sales while combining human expertise with AI agents #ArtificialIntelligence #AIStartups #EnterpriseAI #VentureCapital #StartupStrategy

October 24, 202620 min

PANEL: Fireside — AI at Scale

Amit Zavery is President, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Operating Officer at ServiceNow, where he leads product strategy and operations as the company advances its AI-powered enterprise platform. In this fireside chat, Amit joins Grace Gong, Founder and CEO of Smart Venture Media, to discuss how large organizations can move beyond AI experimentation and deliver measurable business value. He explains how ServiceNow is building AI agents and autonomous workflows that fit into existing business processes, alongside its AI Control Tower to help organizations monitor AI usage, security, spending, and ROI. Amit also shares ServiceNow’s approach to building a common AI-native platform rather than relying solely on disconnected point solutions. Amit discusses the company’s reported efficiency improvements of nearly $600 million last year and its expectation of exceeding $1 billion this year, illustrating the growing focus on measurable returns from enterprise AI.Topics Deploying AI at enterprise scale through autonomous agents and workflows. Measuring enterprise AI value through governance, security, visibility, and ROI. Building durable enterprise AI companies through platform strategy. #EnterpriseAI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAgents #ServiceNow #DigitalTransformation

October 24, 202631 min

PANEL: AI Security: Defending the New Attack Surface

AI is reshaping cybersecurity on both sides of the battlefield, creating new attack surfaces while giving defenders powerful new tools. In this panel, Alex Stamos, Chief Product Officer at Corridor and former Chief Security Officer at Facebook; Emilio Escobar, Chief Information Security Officer at Datadog; and Joel de la Garza, Investment Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), join Grace Gong, Founder and CEO of Smart Venture Media, to explore how AI is transforming cyber threats and defense. The conversation examines AI as a vector, an actor, and a target, including autonomous attacks, real-time vulnerability discovery, and the growing challenges facing enterprise security teams. Topics AI as a vector, actor, and targets Security by design for AI startups The future of cybersecurity businesses #Cybersecurity #ArtificialIntelligence #AISecurity #EnterpriseSecurity #CyberDefense

October 20, 20261 hr 2 min

Olga Megorskaya, Toloka AI CEO on Human Data, AI Training & Evaluation

Olga Megorskaya is the founder and CEO of Toloka AI. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~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~~~~~~~~~~~~~She established the company in 2014 and has since transformed it from a crowdsourcing and microtasking platform into a leading provider of high-quality training data for large language models and generative AI systems. Olga Megorskaya is also the CEO of Mindrift.ai, Toloka's platform for sourcing domain experts for AI training projects. Under her leadership, Toloka has grown into a trusted data partner for major AI developers including Anthropic, Amazon, and Microsoft.TopicsWhy expert human data remains essential for training, evaluating, and improving frontier AI modelsBuilding scalable quality-control systems for AI training data, from crowdsourcing to specialized domain expertiseEvaluating AI agents for real-world performance, reasoning, and safety beyond conventional benchmarks #ArtificialIntelligence #AITraining #AIEvaluation #AISafety #MachineLearning

October 18, 20261 hr 0 min

Eugen Alpeza, Edra CEO on AI Agents, Enterprise Workflows and Automation

Eugen Alpeza is the Co-Founder and CEO of Edra, an enterprise AI startup building systems that reverse-engineer business workflows from tools such as Slack, ServiceNow, Jira, and Salesforce to create auditable knowledge libraries for AI agents. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~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~~~~~~~~~~~~~Founded in 2025, Edra raised a $30 million-plus Series A led by Sequoia Capital, 8VC, A*, and HubSpot Ventures. Before founding Edra, Eugen spent seven years at Palantir Technologies, progressing through roles as Deployment Strategist, Enterprise Lead, US Commercial Lead, and Co-Head of Forward Deployed AI Engineering. His experience spans enterprise AI deployment, commercial strategy, and engineering, giving him a practical perspective on bringing AI into complex organizations. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Machine Learning Engineer at Skimlinks and a Data Scientist at Upwork. He holds a master’s degree in Computational Statistics and Machine Learning from UCL and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.Topics Turning enterprise workflows and company data into reliable, auditable knowledge for AI agents Lessons from Palantir on deploying AI in complex organizations and translating technical capabilities into business value Building enterprise AI products that automate work while preserving context, reliability, and organizational knowledge #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAgents #EnterpriseAI #AIInfrastructure #Startups

October 17, 20261 hr 7 min

Darren Bechtel, Brick & Mortar Ventures Founder on Construction Tech

Darren Bechtel is the Founder and Managing Director of Brick & Mortar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technologies modernizing architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~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~~~~~~~~~~~~~Since founding the firm in 2015, he has backed more than 70 companies developing software and hardware for the built environment. In 2019, Brick & Mortar announced a $100 million fund backed by industry leaders including Autodesk, Cemex, Hilti, United Rentals, and Sidewalk Labs. Its portfolio includes PlanGrid, BuildingConnected, Fieldwire, Rhumbix, Levelset, and EverCharge. Before Brick & Mortar, Darren founded and led South Park Ventures and served as CEO of medical device company Encapsule Medical Devices. With a background spanning architecture, product design, engineering, and venture capital, he focuses on bringing technology and industry expertise together to make construction and infrastructure projects safer, more productive, and less costly. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering/Product Design and an MBA from Stanford University.Topics Why construction remains ripe for technology adoption across design, building, and infrastructure operations Investing in early-stage software and hardware that improve construction productivity, safety, and cost efficiency How venture capital and established industry leaders can accelerate innovation across the built environment #ConstructionTech #VentureCapital #BuiltWorld #ArtificialIntelligence #Infrastructure

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