Giant Ideas

Today, we're back with Michael Moritz, the Sequoia investor who backed Google, Yahoo and PayPal, to talk about his family and his latest book.
Moritz has written a memoir, Ausländer, out in the US this month. It began with papers found when they cleared out their mother's house in Wales, and grew into an account of how his grandparents were murdered and how his father got out during the Nazi Regime.
We talk to him about what he found in the archives, why he thinks a stable society is a much more fragile thing than most people assume, his experience of anti-semitism, and if he thinks Silicon Valley is befriending Trump (and what he thinks of the US president).
Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.
Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Michael Moritz, the former chairman of Sequoia Capital, one of the most successful venture capitalists of all time.
Michael Moritz is a venture capitalist and philanthropist renowned for backing early tech giants like Google, PayPal, and YouTube during his 38-year career, first as Partner then Chairman of the firm. 
Cameron McLain and Tommy Stadlen talk to Michael about why he thinks the first 16 years of a founder's life tell you more than you can find anywhere is, why he still wears the cap of the company that lost Sequoia more money than any other, and why he shivered every time anyone called Sequoia an institution.
He speaks about:
the phone call that brought Sequoia to Google
why he asks founders about their first 15 or 16 years
meeting the Collison brothers at 20 and 18, and what was obvious within minutes
why founding pairs make each other better
why Bill Gates took the radio taken out of his Mercedes 
the $44m Webvan loss, and going back to the same idea 20 years later as Instacart
and lots more...
Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.
Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back for our FINAL episode before a 3 week summer break! We're back the first week of September.
Today we're joined by Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition and former COO of Y Combinator, to talk about his life lessons & career advice.
He speaks about:
The rule he got from a Harvard professor: a mediocre person in a high-growth industry beats the best person in a mediocre one
The most useful advice of his career
Optimising for the people you'll learn from over title and pay (at any cost)
The four life-burners problem, and which one he switched off
Working seven days a week since he was 14, and what his routine is on the weekend
Why you can't become Nirvana by copying Kurt Cobain
The three eras of Y Combinator, and why the old YC wouldn't work today
"We Make Mistakes" — the only post he wrote as COO, and why it matters
Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.
Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a physical AI company valued at $15 billion that builds the models and simulation tools behind autonomous vehicles, defence systems, and industrial machines (before this, he was COO of Y Combinator).

Tommy Stadlen talks to Qasar about why he thinks physical AI will define the next 25 years, and why Applied's ability to run the same models across cars, drones, and construction equipment is its biggest edge. They also get into how he thinks about fundraising and cap tables, and why he says not all money is equally useful.
He speaks about:
Why Applied Intuition has never spent a dollar of the ~$1 billion raised
Corporate VCs, multi-stage funds, and why the partner matters more than the firm name
Why 85% of the global economy is physical (and why that's the real AI opportunity)
Neural simulation, and how Applied trains one model to work in a car, a drone, and a tank
Why timing is the hardest thing for founders to get right
Why he's not worried about self-driving safety
The billion-machine vision (and why he still drives a 1987 manual Land Cruiser)
Enjoy!
Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc. Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.
Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.
Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.
Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back with Fareed Zakaria, the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, to talk about his lessons about how to do a great interview.
Fareed Zakaria has interviewed people from presidents, dictators, and the Dalai Lama over three decades, live on air. Tommy Stadlen and Cameron McLain talk to Zakaria about the craft behind those conversations: why he treats an interview as seduction rather than confrontation, why Lee Kuan Yew is the most impressive guest he's ever had, and why the Dalai Lama was a tough interview.
He speaks about:
Why he avoids confrontation and treats interviews as seduction instead
The Omar Bartov interview, and why he thinks a soft question made the conversation deeper than an accusation would have
Why he rarely books politicians in power anymore (and regrets it most times he has)
Lee Kuan Yew turning a "polyglot population" into a nation with no race riots
Why the Dalai Lama was his hardest interview 
What AI leaves for humans once it becomes the better "analytic machine"
Why he doubts there will be another CNN
Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.
Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.