Summation with Auren Hoffman

Hosted by Auren Hoffman

Technology Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

290

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Non-obvious ideas that move the world. Auren Hoffman hosts leaders across tech, business, markets, and government. Summation is the permanent home for the relentlessly curious. Auren is CEO of NQB8, GP at Flex Capital, Chairman of Dialog; former CEO of SafeGraph and LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP).

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 27, 20261 hr 0 min

Hiring in the AI era: Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait

Daniel Chait is the co-founder and CEO of Greenhouse, the hiring platform behind thousands of companies. Before Greenhouse, he co-founded Lab49, a technology consultancy for Wall Street. He's also the author of Talent Makers. In this episode of Summation, Daniel and Auren discuss: The AI doom loop Why "tell me about a time when" beats "what are your weaknesses," Why HR quality depends on the CEO, and what Netflix got right Why "never quit" is bad founder advice You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @ auren and Daniel Chait on Linkedin

October 20, 202657 min

Olo CEO Noah Glass: the right to be known

Noah Glass is the founder and CEO of Olo, the digital commerce platform behind ordering, payments, and loyalty for many of America's biggest restaurant brands. He started Olo in 2005 with ordering by text message, before the iPhone existed, took it public in 2021, and took it private with Thoma Bravo last year in a roughly $2 billion deal. In this episode of Summation, Noah and Auren discuss: The $65 million sale that collapsed the night before he told his team How Five Guys strong-armed point-of-sale companies into opening up to Olo Why 75% of restaurant meals are eaten outside the restaurant, and only 10% are delivery The right to be known, and why you favorite the salad but reorder the milkshake You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @ auren and Noah Glass on X at @ nhglass

October 13, 20261 hr 7 min

Protege CEO Bobby Samuels on the data nobody has unlocked yet

Bobby Samuels is the co-founder and CEO of Protege, a platform that licenses real-world data from industries like healthcare and media to companies building AI. Protege has raised $65 million from Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, and Flex Capital. Before Protege, Bobby led partnerships at LiveRamp and ran Privacy Hub at Datavant. In this episode of Summation, Bobby and Auren discuss: The auction for Spirit Airlines' emails, and what a model learns from a failed airline Why synthetic data has been "18 months away" for six years Why every data pitch deck with "hedge funds" on the customer slide is wrong The genome as the most valuable dataset nobody has unlocked Why the smartest buyers are the easiest ones to sell to You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Bobby Samuels on Linkedin

October 6, 202643 min

Axios Co-founder Roy Schwartz: why average is worthless now

Roy Schwartz co-founded Axios, the news company known for smart brevity, and helped grow it to a $525 million sale to Cox Enterprises. He's now co-founder and CEO of Axios HQ, an AI-powered internal communications platform spun out of Axios. He co-wrote Smart Brevity, and his new book is Simplify . Before Axios, he was chief revenue officer of Politico. In this episode of Summation, Roy and Auren discuss: Meeting bankruptcy: wiping every recurring meeting off the calendar twice a year AI as a complexity machine and the slop it's adding to every email and deck The end of well-rounded, and why AI eats anyone who is average Building Axios for influencers instead of casual readers, plus 200 events a year You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Roy Schwartz on LinkedIn

September 29, 202641 min

Helion CEO David Kirtley on why fusion finally works

David Kirtley is the co-founder and CEO of Helion Energy, the fusion company. Helion has raised more than $1.5 billion at a $15.5 billion valuation, and Sam Altman is its biggest investor and former chairman. Before fusion, David worked on rocket and space propulsion. In this episode of Summation, David and Auren discuss: Skipping the steam turbine and pulling electricity straight out of a star How a Best Buy network card helped make fusion possible Regulating a 150 million degree machine like a hospital proton beam One cent power, and what happens when AI stops being limited by electricity You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @ auren and David Kirtley on X at @Dkirtley

September 22, 20261 hr 2 min

Alex Rampell on why the best companies have hostages, not customers

Alex Rampell is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he leads the firm’s $2.7 billion Apps practice and has driven much of the firm's fintech investing, including Plaid, Mercury, and Opendoor. Before a16z, Alex co-founded multiple companies including Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM), FraudEliminator (acquired by McAfee in 2006), Point, TrialPay (acquired by Visa in 2015), TXN (acquired by Envestnet in 2019), and Yub (acquired by Coupons.com in 2013). In this episode of Summation, Alex and Auren discuss: Why Visa is the purest network effect business in the world and why it's still a duopoly The reverse Robin Hood hidden inside every rewards credit card The "hostages, not customers" test for which software companies survive AI What was once payroll becoming payments and the businesses it unlocks You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @ auren and Alex Rampell on X at @ arampell

September 15, 20261 hr 1 min

Life360 founder Chris Hulls on existential amusement and why public markets kill bold bets

Chris Hulls is the co-founder and executive chairman of Life360 ($LIF), the family safety and location-sharing app now worth over $5 billion. He was CEO for 17 years before stepping back last year. Before Life360, he served in the Air Force in Afghanistan. In this episode of Summation, Chris and Auren discuss: Why he took Life360 public in Australia and why he'd never run a public company again Why "you want to sound smart, but not interesting" is the secret rule of corporate speak Why nobody actually cares about privacy, and what finally scares him about AI Why the work of keeping a home never ends, no matter how rich you get You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Chris Hulls on X at @chrishulls

September 8, 20261 hr 0 min

Felicis founder Aydin Senkut: why moats are dead and alive

Aydin Senkut is the founder and managing partner of Felicis, the venture firm he started in 2006, with over $4B under management and early bets on Shopify, Notion, Canva, and Adyen. He was Google's first product manager and has been on the Forbes Midas list of top investors for 13 years running. In this episode of Summation, Aydin and Auren discuss: Why the best platform companies came from Ottawa, Sydney, and Amsterdam and not Silicon Valley How capital became a commodity and people are the only real moat left Why the trait he bets on is the willingness to reset your priors How defense went from an optional purchase to a matter of survival You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Aydin Senkut on X at @asenkut

September 1, 20261 hr 7 min

Nir Eyal on belief, motivation, and the end of suffering

Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked, which became Silicon Valley's playbook for building habit-forming products, Indistractable, on taking your attention back, and the new book Beyond Belief . He taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and is one of the sharpest thinkers on what to do with technology. In this episode of Summation, Nir and Auren discuss: Why to-do lists set you up to feel like a failure and what to do instead Why 90% of the time you check your phone, it's an uncomfortable emotion, not a notification Why beliefs are tools, not truths, and how swapping one can end your suffering Why this is the safest generation of kids in history and still gets a moral panic You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @ auren and Nir Eyal on X at @ nireyal

August 25, 202645 min

SecureAuth CEO Geoff Mattson on the coming fraudpocalypse and the death of the password

Geoff Mattson is the CEO of SecureAuth, an identity security company that has raised over $200M and protects more than 50 million identities for enterprises. Before SecureAuth he was CEO of Xage Security. His work now centers on how you prove an AI agent is who it says it is. In this episode of Summation, Geoff and Auren discuss: Why an AI agent is like an Uber driver who might randomly turn into a psycho killer The deepfake fraudpocalypse, and the simplest thing that defends against it Why your agent impersonates you instead of working for you and how to fix it Why the password is finally, actually dying You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @ auren and Geoff on Linkedin

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