# StrictlyVC Download: the investor podcast, by episode

> StrictlyVC Download: Weekly interviews with investors and founders, from the StrictlyVC newsletter. 242 episodes, each linked to the investors in it.

Source: https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/strictlyvc-download (Millionrounds; every figure on the page links to its filing or article)

The week's news · new episode 21 Oct 2026

# StrictlyVC Download

Hosted by **Connie Loizos and Alex Gove**

Weekly interviews with investors and founders, from the StrictlyVC newsletter.

Follow on Apple PodcastsBrowse the episodes

**242** episodes

**76** investors heard as guests

**33 min** an average episode

42 in the last 12 months

## The regulars

Investors named as guests in the most episode titles on StrictlyVC Download.

[PC *4* **Parker Conrad** Rippling](https://millionrounds.com/person/parker-conrad)[DP *3* **David Pakman** CoinFund](https://millionrounds.com/person/david-pakman)[HS *3* **Hans Swildens** Industry Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/hans-swildens)[KH *3* **Katie Haun** Andreessen Horowitz](https://millionrounds.com/person/katie-haun)[MK *3* **Michael Kim** Cendana Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/michael-kim-2)[AL *2* **Aileen Lee** Cowboy Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/aileen-lee)[BF *2* **Brad Feld** Foundry Group](https://millionrounds.com/person/brad-feld)[BT *2* **Bradley Tusk** Tusk Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/bradley-tusk)[BP *2* **Brynn Putnam** Mirror](https://millionrounds.com/person/brynn-putnam)[MG *2* **Mitchell Green** Lead Edge Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/mitchell-green)[RJ *2* **Reed Jobs** Yosemite](https://millionrounds.com/person/reed-jobs)[AL *1* **Alfred Lin** Sequoia Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/alfred-lin)

## Every episode 242 · page 1 of 9

- 242 **Benchmark's Five Partners on AI, IPOs, and Silicon Valley's Comeback** 21 Oct 2026 · 44 min [Jack Altman](https://millionrounds.com/fund/jack-altman)[Chetan Puttagunta](https://millionrounds.com/person/chetan-puttagunta)[Everett Randle](https://millionrounds.com/person/everett-randle) About this episode This week we're sharing a conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, host Connie Loizos sits down with all five partners at Benchmark, Peter Fenton, Erik Vishria, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle, and Jack Altman, for a rare look inside one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capital firms. The partners… ▶
- 241 **Al Gore on the $4.5 Trillion Clean Energy Opportunity** 24 Sept 2026 · 32 min [Al Gore](https://millionrounds.com/fund/al-gore)[Generation Investment Management](https://millionrounds.com/fund/generation-investment-management) About this episode In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston, head of growth equity at Generation Investment Management, to discuss how the AI boom is reshaping the global energy transition. Gore explains why the rapid buildout of AI data centers is a cause for concern but not panic,… ▶
- 240 **Keith Rabois on Why the AI Bubble Fears Are Overblown** 15 Sept 2026 · 27 min [Keith Rabois](https://millionrounds.com/fund/keith-rabois)[Khosla Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/khosla-ventures) About this episode Is the AI boom a bubble, or just the biggest productivity unlock in a generation?For this episode, we're sharing a conversation from StrictlyVC New York 2026. TechCrunch's Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos sat down with Keith Rabois, Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, to talk tech optimism, AI panic, and where the… ▶
- 239 **Grindr CEO is betting on AI to solve online dating's biggest problem** 2 Sept 2026 · 42 min [George Arison](https://millionrounds.com/person/george-arison) About this episode In this episode of StrictlyVc Download, Connie and Alex sit down with Grindr CEO George Arison to talk about how he’s transformed the company since taking over in 2022 and where he wants to take it next. Arison discusses Grindr’s rapid growth, why roughly 80% of its code is now written by AI, and how the company is… ▶
- 238 **The Anti-a16z? Vijay Pande’s Bet on a Tiny, AI-Native VC Firm** 26 Aug 2026 · 35 min [Vijay Pande](https://millionrounds.com/person/vijay-pande)[Andreessen Horowitz](https://millionrounds.com/fund/andreessen-horowitz) About this episode In this episode, Connie is joined by Vijay Pande, co-founder of VZ and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss why he believes AI is poised to transform healthcare and create a new generation of trillion-dollar companies. Pande explains how AI could improve drug discovery and clinical trials, why… ▶
- 237 **Equity Replay: Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says the lesson for founders now is that a great model isn't enough** 4 Aug 2026 · 32 min [Google](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments) About this episode This week we'r sharing a conversation from our colleagues at TechCrunch's Equity. Anthropic leaped to ⁠a $47 billion revenue run rate by May,⁠ compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures' ⁠Matt Murphy⁠ says he's never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in… ▶
- 236 **Why Founders Fund Backed a Fish Robotics Startup** 28 Jul 2026 · 23 min [Founders Fund](https://millionrounds.com/fund/founders-fund)[Delian Asparouhov](https://millionrounds.com/person/delian-asparouhov)[Los Angeles](https://millionrounds.com/person/los-angeles-platinum-equity) About this episode Much of American-caught fish is processed overseas, and often in China, before it comes back to the U.S. Shinkei wants to change that with robotics, computer vision, and a vertically integrated supply chain built from scratch. This episode of StrictlyVC Download was recorded at StrictlyVC Los Angeles 2026. TechCrunch… ▶
- 235 **Reed Jobs Is Betting Cancer Doesn’t Have to Be Fatal** 21 Jul 2026 · 49 min [Reed Jobs](https://millionrounds.com/person/reed-jobs) About this episode In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by Reed Jobs, founder and managing partner of Yosemite, to discuss the firm’s ambitious mission to make cancer nonlethal by building biotech companies from the ground up. Jobs explains why Yosemite pairs venture capital with no-strings-attached research grants, how AI is… ▶
- 234 **Uber’s Chief Product Officer on Travel, AI Agents, and Playing Both Sides of the Robotaxi Race** 14 Jul 2026 · 40 min About this episode In this episode, Connie Loizos sits down with Uber Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal to discuss the company's expanding vision beyond ride-hailing, from hotels and travel planning to AI-powered shopping and autonomous vehicles. Sachin explains how Uber decides which new products to build, why the company believes a… ▶
- 233 **The Race to Build the First Real Humanoid Robot Business with Peggy Johnson from Agility** 7 Jul 2026 · 37 min About this episode In this episode, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove sit down with Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson following the company's announcement that it will go public, making it one of the first pure-play humanoid robotics companies to reach the public markets. Peggy explains why she believes the industry is moving beyond flashy… ▶
- 232 **Is Your AI Actually Worth What You're Spending? with Parker Conrad** 30 Jun 2026 · 34 min [Parker Conrad](https://millionrounds.com/person/parker-conrad) About this episode In this episode, Connie Loizos sits down with Rippling founder and CEO Parker Conrad to discuss the company's biggest product launch in years: Rippling Data Cloud. Parker explains why he believes the future of enterprise AI depends on giving AI access to an organization's people data and business systems, not just… ▶
- 231 **Is There an AI Bubble? VCs on Valuations and ARR Inflation** 23 Jun 2026 · 26 min [Basis Set Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/basis-set-ventures)[Carter Reum](https://millionrounds.com/person/carter-reum) About this episode This episode features a conversation recorded live at StrictlyVC LA in El Segundo between Connie Loizos, Cheng Xu, partner at Basis Set Ventures, and Carter Reum, founder of M13. Together, they discuss whether today's AI boom represents a bubble, how investors are thinking about soaring startup valuations and ARR… ▶
- 230 **The return of the Consumer Gold Rush? What Chi-Hua Chien is betting on next** 16 Jun 2026 · 44 min [Chi-Hua Chien](https://millionrounds.com/person/chi-hua-chien)[Accel](https://millionrounds.com/fund/accel)[Goodwater Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/goodwater-capital) About this episode In this episode, Connie and Alex talk with Goodwater Capital co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, whose career spans some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology shifts, from helping source Accel’s investment in Facebook as a young associate to backing a new generation of consumer and AI startups. While much of the venture world… ▶
- 229 **Runway and HOLYWATER TECH: Two AI Companies Trying to Upend Entertainment** 9 Jun 2026 · 31 min About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you a conversation from our recent event in Athens. Connie Loizos spoke with Anastasis Germanidis: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Runway and Anatolii Kasianov: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, HOLYWATER TECH. Runway began within art school, with a sparse network and little investor insight… ▶
- 228 **What VCs think about SpaceX, AI-valuation fever and where to bet next** 2 Jun 2026 · 29 min [Atomico](https://millionrounds.com/fund/atomico)[Andreas Stavropoulos](https://millionrounds.com/person/andreas-stavropoulos)[Ben Blume](https://millionrounds.com/person/ben-blume) About this episode For this episode of StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you a conversation from the StrictlyVC Athens event. Connie Loizos sat down with three seasoned investors to break down the state of venture capital, the hunt for white space, and what it actually takes to back a breakout company in 2026. Featuring: Ben Blume:… ▶
- 227 **Eclipse Ventures Co-Founder Lior Susan's Insights Into a $1.3B Bet on Physical AI** 26 May 2026 · 21 min [Lior Susan](https://millionrounds.com/person/lior-susan-3) About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're sharing and interview from our 2026 event in San Francisco with TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin and Lior Susan who is dresh off raising a $1.3 billion fund. Eclipse Ventures is doubling down on what it calls physical AI. Temkin and Susan discuss robotics, manufacturing,… ▶
- 226 **Inside Stanford's Secret Tech Elite (And the Freshman Who Exposed It)** 19 May 2026 · 28 min About this episode In this episode, we talk with Theo Baker, a soon-to-be Stanford graduate and author of How to Rule the World, about what he found when he traded his coding ambitions for student journalism. Within his first semester, Theo broke the story that led to Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation, a months-long… ▶
- 225 **CEO Amjad Masad on How Replit Is Changing Who Gets to Build Software** 13 May 2026 · 19 min [Amjad Masad](https://millionrounds.com/fund/amjad-masad) About this episode This week, we're sharing a conversaiton from Strictly VC's recent event in San Francisco. Replit co-founder and CEO Amjad Masad joined Connie Loizos to talk about AI-driven software development, competing with major AI players, and how coding is changing as software creation becomes more accessible. Plus, he gives… ▶
- 224 **Is Airwallex Undervalued or is Stripe Overvalued?** 21 Apr 2026 · 34 min About this episode In this episode, we talk with Airwallex cofounder and CEO Jack Zhang about building a global financial infrastructure company by taking the long, unglamorous path. Rather than layering on top of existing banking systems, Airwallex spent a decade acquiring licenses, integrating with local payment rails, and… ▶
- 223 **How secondary markets are pricing SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic before they go public** 7 Apr 2026 · 25 min [Glen Anderson](https://millionrounds.com/person/glen-anderson) About this episode In this episode, Connie Loizos talks with Rainmaker Securities managing director Glen Anderson about the surge in the secondary market as investors race to buy shares in some of tech’s most sought-after private companies. From SpaceX to OpenAI to Anthropic, demand is intensifying ahead of a potentially reopening IPO… ▶
- 222 **High tech herding with Craig Piggott, Halter** 31 Mar 2026 · 26 min [Craig Piggott](https://millionrounds.com/person/craig-piggott) About this episode In this episode, we talk with Halter founder and CEO Craig Pigott about building a $2 billion agtech company that’s transforming how farmers manage livestock. Using solar-powered collars and virtual fencing, Halter helps ranchers increase productivity, monitor animal health, and rethink how land is used. Craig shares… ▶
- 221 **The wearable you’re never supposed to stop wearing with Will Ahmed of WHOOP** 24 Mar 2026 · 36 min [Will Ahmed](https://millionrounds.com/person/will-ahmed) About this episode WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed joins Connie Loizos and Alex Gove on StrictlyVC Download to discuss the company’s evolution from a niche wearable for elite athletes into a fast-growing health platform. The three talk about WHOOP’s unconventional decision to skip a screen, its subscription-driven business model, and… ▶
- 220 **Is Ring building towards safer neighborhoods or neighborhood surveillance?** 10 Mar 2026 · 28 min About this episode Ring founder Jamie Siminoff joins Connie Loizos and Alex Gove on StrictlyVC Download to discuss the company’s new AI-powered Search Party feature, which aims to help neighbors find lost dogs but has sparked debate about surveillance and privacy. The three discuss how the feature actually works, the company’s decision… ▶
- 219 **The AI Safety Showdown: Max Tegmark on government, Anthropic, and what’s next** 4 Mar 2026 · 41 min About this episode In this episode of StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove sit down with MIT AI researcher Max Tegmark to discuss the growing clash between AI companies and the U.S. government and the bigger question of who should control increasingly powerful AI systems. From the Trump administration’s move to phase out… ▶
- 218 **Future-Proofing work in the age of automation with Bill Gurley** 24 Feb 2026 · 42 min [Bill Gurley](https://millionrounds.com/person/bill-gurley) About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Bill Gurley, longtime venture capitalist, former Benchmark partner, and author of the new book Running Down a Dream. After stepping back from day-to-day investing, Gurley has turned his focus to a different question: how people build meaningful, enduring… ▶
- 217 **Rethinking series A in the age of mega funds** 17 Feb 2026 · 29 min [Google](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments)[Stacy Brown-Philpot](https://millionrounds.com/person/stacy-brown-philpot) About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Stacy Brown-Philpot, founder and managing partner of Cherryrock Capital. After a decade at Google and leading TaskRabbit through its acquisition by IKEA, Brown-Philpot is now building a venture firm focused on Series A and Series B software companies led by… ▶
- 216 **How Tether became crypto's most profitable company, and what it's building next** 3 Feb 2026 · 40 min [Tether](https://millionrounds.com/fund/tether) About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company behind USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. With 536 million users globally, Tether has quietly become one of crypto's most powerful players, and now it's evolving far beyond stablecoins. Ardoino is transforming Tether… ▶
- 215 **Airtable is betting big on a standalone ai agent that could replace its own product** 27 Jan 2026 · 49 min [Howie Liu](https://millionrounds.com/person/mr-howie-liu) About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove talk with Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable. On Tuesday, Liu announced the launch of Superagent, Airtable’s first standalone product outside of its core platform, and this isn’t just another AI feature bolted onto an existing product. Superagent… ▶
- 214 **Working in orbit: what happens when space goes blue-collar?** 20 Jan 2026 · 27 min [Apollo](https://millionrounds.com/fund/apollo-global-management) About this episode In this episode, Connie Loizos speaks with Mary Jane Rubenstein, a professor of religion and science and technology studies at Wesleyan University and author of "Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse", a book that served as research material for the Oscar-winning film "Everything Everywhere All at Once."… ▶
- 213 **Why VCs think consumer AI hasn't lived up to the hype** 14 Jan 2026 · 23 min [Goodwater Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/goodwater-capital)[Scribble Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/scribble-ventures)[Chi-Hua Chien](https://millionrounds.com/person/chi-hua-chien) About this episode This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're sharing a conversation with Goodwater Capital founder Chi-Hua Chien and Scribble Ventures founder Elizabeth Weil. They discuss why consumer AI hasn't lived up to the hype yet and what's coming next. Beyond ChatGPT and Gemini, the consumer AI landscape feels sparse. In this… ▶

## Who the show talks about

Firms named in its episodes, and people named in descriptions: talked about, rather than on the show.

[**Andreessen Horowitz** *6*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/andreessen-horowitz)[**Google** *6*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments)[A **Al Gore** *4*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/al-gore)[**Drive Capital** *4*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/drive-capital)[**Elon Musk** *4*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/elon-musk)[**Accel** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/accel)[B **Brendan Wallace** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/brendan-wallace)[**Cendana Capital** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/cendana-capital)[**Fifth Wall** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/fifth-wall)[**Generation Investment Management** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/generation-investment-management)[**Goodwater Capital** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/goodwater-capital)[**Haun Ventures** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/haun-ventures)

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