# The Peel: the investor podcast, by episode

> The Peel: An investor's long interviews with founders and VCs about how they built and backed companies. 164 episodes, each linked to the investors in it.

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

Investors · new episode 23 Oct 2026

# The Peel

Hosted by **Turner Novak**

An investor's long interviews with founders and VCs about how they built and backed companies.

Follow on Apple PodcastsBrowse the episodes

**164** episodes

**72** investors heard as guests

**1h 31m** an average episode

50 in the last 12 months

## The regulars

Investors named as guests in the most episode titles on The Peel.

[AA *1* **Albert Azout** Level Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/albert-azout)[AB *1* **Anamitra Banerji** Afore Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/anamitra-banerji)[AY *1* **Anatoly Yakovenko** Anatoly Yakovenko](https://millionrounds.com/person/anatoly-yakovenko-3)[AG *1* **Ankur Goyal** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/ankur-goyal)[AP *1* **Austin Petersmith** Coughdrop Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/austin-petersmith)[AR *1* **Austin Rief** Rief SPV BH](https://millionrounds.com/person/austin-rief)[BB *1* **Baiju Bhatt** Robinhood](https://millionrounds.com/person/baiju-bhatt)[BZ *1* **Bilal Zuberi** Lux Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/bilal-zuberi)[BS *1* **Bill Shufelt** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/bill-shufelt)[CD *1* **Cam Doody** Brickyard](https://millionrounds.com/person/cam-doody)[CH *1* **Celine Halioua** 1 episode](https://millionrounds.com/person/celine-halioua)[CM *1* **Charley Ma** Exponent Founders Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/charley-ma)

## Every episode 164 · page 1 of 6

- 164 **Oren Zeev's $2.7B Solo GP Playbook** 23 Oct 2026 · 1h 35m [Oren Zeev](https://millionrounds.com/person/oren-zeev) About this episode Oren Zeev runs one of the most successful venture firms in the world. The catch: he has no partners, no associates, holds no investment committee, writes no memos, and has no office. He's a solo GP managing $2.7 billion across 11 funds, an early backer of Audible, Houzz, Chegg, Tipalti, and Navan, where a… ▶Show page
- 163 **Why Stripe’s 1st Employee Bought a Bank | Darragh Buckley, Increase** 15 Oct 2026 · 1h 14m [Darragh Buckley](https://millionrounds.com/person/darragh-buckley)[John Collison](https://millionrounds.com/fund/john-collison) About this episode Darragh Buckley was the first employee at Stripe. He’s since started Increase, the banking infrastructure that moves over $500 billion a year. And he just bought a bank. We talk about how to buy a bank, why putting an API on a bank is like "strapping a jet engine to a go-kart", operating with high-empowerment, the… ▶Show page
- 162 **Why a Chemist Left $7B to Bet on Physical AI Before Everyone Else | Bilal Zuberi, Red Glass Ventures** 8 Oct 2026 · 1h 39m [Bilal Zuberi](https://millionrounds.com/person/bilal-zuberi) About this episode Bilal Zuberi spent 18 years investing hard tech, most of it as a GP at Lux ($7B AUM), before starting @RedGlassVC in 2025 to bet on AI that touches the physical world. Bilal was making defense tech investments 15 years ago, and he led the Series A in Applied Intuition, now a $15 billion company. We hung out for a… ▶Show page
- 161 **From Nearly Bankrupt to $5B+ Revenue, with Ring Founder Jamie Siminoff** 1 Oct 2026 · 1h 40m About this episode Jamie Siminoff built the first WiFi video doorbell in his garage, got rejected on Shark Tank, and nearly went bankrupt "at least four times" while growing Ring into one of the largest consumer hardware businesses in the world. We talk about the $1.15B sale to Amazon, coming back to lead Ring after leaving post-exit,… ▶Show page
- 160 **How Gusto Built a $9.5B Company with Co-founder Tomer London** 24 Sept 2026 · 1h 25m [Tomer London](https://millionrounds.com/person/tomer-london) About this episode Tomer London is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto. We go deep on how Gusto builds product, from obsessing over customers to shipping Gusto Cofounder with AI in eight weeks. We also get into what AI is doing to small businesses, surviving COVID, the manual world of payroll before software, what his… ▶Show page
- 159 **Building a Venture Firm Like a Product | Jeff Morris Jr, Chapter One** 17 Sept 2026 · 1h 37m [Jeff Morris](https://millionrounds.com/person/jeff-morris) About this episode Jeff Morris Jr is the founder and Managing Partner of Chapter One. Previously, he was employee 50 at Tinder and started Chapter One from his desk before quitting to go full-time on investing. We talk about running a venture firm more like a product team, running 50 experiments every fund cycle, why Sequoia doing $60… ▶Show page
- 158 **How Databricks Went $1M to $7B+ ARR in 10 Years | Ron Gabrisko, CRO** 10 Sept 2026 · 1h 42m [Ben Horowitz](https://millionrounds.com/fund/ben-horowitz) About this episode Ron Gabrisko might have the best sales seat in software. He joined Databricks as CRO at less than $1M in revenue, and built it into a $7B+ ARR business over the next decade. Almost no one has built a revenue engine this big this fast, so he's the right person to walk through how you actually do it, from the first 40… ▶Show page
- 157 **How Athletes Get Into the Top VC Funds | Ryan Nece, Next Legacy** 3 Sept 2026 · 1h 39m [Ryan Nece](https://millionrounds.com/person/ryan-nece)[Joe Montana](https://millionrounds.com/fund/joe-montana)[Ronnie Lott](https://millionrounds.com/fund/ronnie-lott) About this episode Ryan Nece runs Next Legacy, a $4 billion fund of funds that connects athletes and philanthropists with the top venture capital firms in the world. Ryan is the only player in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as a rookie and go 0-16 in his final season. His dad, Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, started one of the first… ▶Show page
- 156 **Leaving Sequoia to Bet on Ohio: Why America is the Best Emerging Market | Chris Olsen, Drive Capital** 27 Aug 2026 · 1h 47m [Chris Olsen](https://millionrounds.com/person/chris-olsen)[Drive Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/drive-capital)[Sequoia Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/sequoia-capital) About this episode Chris is the Co-Founder and CEO of Drive Capital. Prior to Drive, Chris was a Partner at Sequoia Capital where he helped launch the firm’s first growth fund. Chris left Sequoia in 2012 to start Drive in Ohio on a single bet: the best companies in America are getting built outside Silicon Valley (and almost nobody's… ▶Show page
- 155 **Brex’s 1st Employee On Thinking Like a Founder | Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure** 24 Aug 2026 · 1h 28m [Art Levy](https://millionrounds.com/person/art-levy)[Mike Cagney](https://millionrounds.com/person/mike-cagney)[Sam Blond](https://millionrounds.com/person/sam-blond) About this episode Michael Tannenbaum is the CEO of Figure, the blockchain lending company he took public in 2025. He was employee #1 at Brex, and before that ran the mortgage business at SoFi. Mike Cagney, who founded both SoFi and Figure, pulled him back to take Figure public in 2025. This is a conversation on how to think and act… ▶Show page
- 154 **Re-founding a Company for the AI Era | Shensi Ding, Merge** 14 Aug 2026 · 1h 22m About this episode Shensi Ding is the co-founder and CEO of Merge, the connective infrastructure that plugs into every tool. Merge started in 2020 building integrations, watched its first customers die off, then rebuilt itself twice for the AI era. Not many founders talk this honestly about tearing up their company. A lot of lessons… ▶Show page
- 153 **The 18x Midas Lister Betting $3B on AI (and calling most of it fake) | Navin Chaddha, Mayfield** 7 Aug 2026 · 1h 43m [Navin Chaddha](https://millionrounds.com/person/navin-chaddha)[Satya Nadella](https://millionrounds.com/person/satya-nadella) About this episode Navin Chaddha is the Managing Partner at Mayfield. He’s made the Forbes Midas List 18 times, and thinks a lot of the AI revenue everyone's chasing right now is fake. Mayfield is a 56-year-old firm that backs founders at the paper-and-pencil stage. They’re investing $3 billion into AI, but Navin warns the market is… ▶Show page
- 152 **Healthcare Skipped The Internet And Went Straight To AI | Alamin Uddin, NexHealth** 30 Jul 2026 · 2h 9m About this episode Alamin Uddin is the co-founder and CEO of NexHealth. Today, NexHealth’s healthcare infrastructure serves 89 million patients. But at one point, the company had $4,000 in the bank and a maxed-out Amex card. We talk about why 75% of dentists still keep a server in the closet, how healthcare skipped the internet,… ▶Show page
- 151 **Inside Solana's Plan to Replace Wall Street | Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana** 23 Jul 2026 · 1h 26m [Anatoly Yakovenko](https://millionrounds.com/person/anatoly-yakovenko-3) About this episode Anatoly Yakovenko is the co-founder of Solana, the fastest scaled blockchain in the world. We start by talking about how non-US residents were trading SpaceX on Solana pre-IPO, and which parlayed into the last 130 years of US financial markets. We then get into how Solana is removing eight layers of middlemen that… ▶Show page
- 150 **The Hidden Layer Every AI Agent Runs On | Tony Holdstock-Brown, Inngest** 17 Jul 2026 · 1h 29m About this episode Tony Holdstock-Brown is the co-founder and CEO of Inngest, the durable execution platform that quietly powers your favorite AI agents. We get into why agents work in a demo and die in production, building their own cloud to get 20x lower cost, growing 35x after AWS and Cloudflare copied them, growing a dev tools… ▶Show page
- 149 **Rebuilding a $600M Company From Scratch | Peter Rahal, David** 10 Jul 2026 · 1h 28m [Peter Rahal](https://millionrounds.com/person/peter-rahal-2) About this episode Peter Rahal is the Founder and CEO of David. Before David, he built RXBAR in his parents' basement with $10k and sold it to Kellogg for $600M. We get into why he basically rebuilt the same company again, how buying his own ingredient supplier made a food business venture-backable, why RXBAR's paleo positioning was a… ▶Show page
- 148 **Inside Goldman’s $22B Bet on Venture Capital | Hans Swildens, Industry Ventures** 3 Jul 2026 · 1h 45m [Hans Swildens](https://millionrounds.com/person/hans-swildens)[Industry Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/industry-ventures)[Zach Coelius](https://millionrounds.com/fund/zach-coelius)[Will Quist](https://millionrounds.com/person/will-quist) About this episode Hans Swildens started Industry Ventures in 2000, and this is his first podcast since selling it to Goldman Sachs in 2026. Hans has been buying venture secondaries longer than almost anyone, and the combined business is one of the largest VC portfolios in the world: 525 firms, 1,600 funds, and over $22B in capital… ▶Show page
- 147 **The Past, Present, and Future of Pre-Seed | Charles Hudson, Precursor** 25 Jun 2026 · 1h 42m [Charles Hudson](https://millionrounds.com/fund/charles-hudson) About this episode Charles Hudson started Precursor Ventures in 2015, and helped create pre-seed as a category. Ten years and hundreds of Day 0 checks later, few investors have backed as many first-time founders, making him the perfect person to talk through the state of the category today. We talk about why this is the hardest moment… ▶Show page
- 146 **Inside Elbow Grease, NYC's Hands-On Accelerator | Dan Teran, Gutter Capital** 18 Jun 2026 · 1h 48m [Dan Teran](https://millionrounds.com/person/dan-teran)[Gutter Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/gutter-capital)[Adam Neumann](https://millionrounds.com/fund/adam-neumann)[Abhinav Kapur](https://millionrounds.com/person/abhinav-kapur) About this episode Dan Teran is the co-founder Gutter Capital, a concentrated seed fund in NYC, and Elbow Grease, the accelerator that puts 15 startups in one building and helps build their teams for them. Gutter just announced a $75M Fund III and opened applications for the second Elbow Grease batch (apply below by July 31st) We get… ▶Show page
- 145 **The AI-Native GTM Playbook | Sam Blond, Monaco** 11 Jun 2026 · 1h 57m [Sam Blond](https://millionrounds.com/person/sam-blond) About this episode Sam Blond is the Co-founder and CEO of Monaco, the revenue engine for startups. Sam is one of the best sales operators in tech. He spent four years as CRO at Brex, where he helped scale it to a ~$12B valuation, ran sales at Zenefits before that, and got his start at EchoSign. If there’s a modern GTM playbook, Sam… ▶Show page
- 144 **Inside the First Quant-Driven VC Fund | Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Chamaeleon** 5 Jun 2026 · 2h 1m About this episode Nuno Goncalves Pedro is the Founder and Managing Partner at Chamaeleon. He won't describe it this way, but I'd call Chamaeleon something like "The RenTech of VC." Chamaeleon is built around its proprietary data platform, Mantis, which borrows tools like factor analysis from public-market investors and operates more… ▶Show page
- 143 **15 Hot Takes on VC and AI from the 2026 Allocate Beyond Summit** 29 May 2026 · 1h 37m [Ripple](https://millionrounds.com/fund/ripple)[Ripple Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/ripple-ventures)[Susa Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/susa-ventures) About this episode I just attended Allocate’s Beyond Summit in Deer Valley Utah. It was a peek into what the top VC's and LP’s are thinking about right now. Allocate asked me to record an episode of the show, live from the conference. So I asked everyone “What’s your hottest take on the VC market today?” Thank you to Numeral, Flex,… ▶Show page
- 142 **Building Got Easy. This Startup Solves What to Build | Alfred Wahlforss, Listen Labs** 24 May 2026 · 1h 14m About this episode Alfred Wallforss is the Co-founder of Listen Labs, the AI customer research company. Companies like Microsoft use Listen to run AI-powered customer interviews, and Alfred talks about how they first landed them as a customer at a pitch competition. We talk why startups should pursue enterprise customers early on, why… ▶Show page
- 141 **Inside the AI Sprint, Understanding Anthropic's Strategy | Tomasz Tunguz, Theory Ventures** 15 May 2026 · 1h 32m [Tomasz Tunguz](https://millionrounds.com/person/tomasz-tunguz)[Theory Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/theory-ventures) About this episode Tomasz Tunguz is the Founder and General Partner of Theory Ventures. We talk about today’s “all out sprint” in AI, Anthropic’s strategy, the three layers of AI business models, how AI compares to prior technologies, where to invest in AI today, and what Theory looks for in new investments. Thank you to Numeral,… ▶Show page
- 140 **Cursor + Kalshi Seed Investor on Spotting Outlier Talent | Ali Partovi, Neo** 7 May 2026 · 1h 56m [Ali Partovi](https://millionrounds.com/fund/ali-partovi)[Google](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments)[Hadi Partovi](https://millionrounds.com/fund/hadi-partovi) About this episode Ali Partovi is the Co-founder and CEO of Neo. Neo started in 2017 as a network for the top college students. Neo is a “people-first” investor, a thesis it developed missing out on early investments in PayPal and Google at three employees. Neo has since invested in the Seed rounds of Cursor and Kalshi, and Ali shares… ▶Show page
- 139 **How a Hillbilly in Nevada Bootstrapped a $140M ARR Manufacturing Company | Jim Belosic, SendCutSend** 30 Apr 2026 · 1h 32m About this episode Jim Belosic is the Co-founder and CEO of SendCutSend, a sheet metal manufacturing business he bootstrapped to a $140 million revenue run rate in eight years. We talk building a manufacturing business in the US, creative ways he financed the company early on, using speed and trust to compete with overseas competitors,… ▶Show page
- 138 **The $5B Venture Growth Buyout Playbook | Alex Israel, Metropolis** 24 Apr 2026 · 1h 30m [Adam Bain](https://millionrounds.com/fund/adam-bain)[Will Quist](https://millionrounds.com/person/will-quist)[Yoni Rechtman](https://millionrounds.com/person/yoni-rechtman) About this episode Alex Israel is the Co-founder and CEO of Metropolis.He unpacks the unique strategy they used as a tech startup to rollup parking lots and become the largest parking operator in the world.Thank you to Will Quist, Yoni Rechtman, Adam Bain, and Jamie Siminoff for their help brainstorming topics for the conversation.Thank… ▶Show page
- 137 **How Agentic AI is Reshaping Science, Education, and the Economy | Karthik Duraisamy at the University of Michigan** 17 Apr 2026 · 1h 49m [University of Michigan](https://millionrounds.com/fund/university-of-michigan) About this episode Karthik Duraisamy is a professor at the University of Michigan. He is co-leading U of M's newly created Institute of Agentic Computing, the first of its kind. The institute will serve researchers and developers building agentic AI infrastructure to advance scientific discovery, engineering, and the knowledge economy.… ▶Show page
- 136 **How US Healthcare Actually Works, the WWII Tax Loophole that Broke it Forever, and How AI Can Fix it | Nikhil Krishnan, Out of Pocket** 9 Apr 2026 · 1h 45m About this episode Nikhil Krishnan is the Founder of Out of Pocket, a media company that makes understanding healthcare more entertaining and accessible. We spend 100 minutes talking about how the US healthcare system actually works, how World War II changed it forever, all the ways AI is seeing real adoption across the industry, and… ▶Show page
- 135 **Sophia Amoruso on Bootstrapping Nasty Gal to $120M Revenue, Turning Down $400M, Declaring Bankruptcy, Public Failure, Starting Trust Fund to Back Other Founders** 2 Apr 2026 · 1h 32m [Sophia Amoruso](https://millionrounds.com/person/sophia-amoruso) About this episode Sophia Amoruso is the Founder of Nasty Gal and Trust Fund, an early stage venture capital firm. We talk through her journey of starting Nasty Gal as an Ebay store in 2006 to sell vintage clothing, bootstrapping it to $28 million in revenue, raising $50 million, scaling it to $120 million and a massive team, turning… ▶Show page

## Who the show talks about

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

[**Google** *9*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/google-assistant-investments)[**Founders Fund** *8*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/founders-fund)[**Khosla Ventures** *5*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/khosla-ventures)[**Accel** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/accel)[J **Jeff Bezos** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/jeff-bezos)[J **Josh Kushner** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/josh-kushner)[L **Lachy Groom** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/lachy-groom)[**Redpoint** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/redpoint)[T **Todd Goldberg** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/person/todd-goldberg)[U **University of Michigan** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/university-of-michigan)[A **Aaron Levie** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/aaron-levie)[**Afore Capital** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/afore-capital)

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