Dave Morin, Offline Ventures - how venture studios work
Dave Morin is co-founder and managing partner of Offline Ventures, a venture fund and studio backed by Apple as anchor investor. He was an early employee at Facebook, then founded the mobile social network Path.In this episode of World of DaaS, Dave and Auren discuss:Why Meta's AI ads work while Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify fail at recommendationsHow Offline runs its venture fund/studio hybridParasocial relationships and the loneliness crisisDepression as the #1 disease by 2030 and breakthrough treatmentsLooking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Dave Morin on X at @davemorin.Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)
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1:01:48
The LM Brief: Why Many AI Projects Fail
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief highlights a Forbes piece on enterprise AI infrastructure, where the author examines why data pipelines, not the models themselves, are becoming the real bottleneck. Listen to this short podcast summary, powered by NotebookLM.
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Azeem Azhar of Exponential View - AI, hyperscalers, reshaping US GDP
Azeem Azhar is the founder of Exponential View, a newsletter and research platform on emerging technology read by over 130,000 executives and policymakers globally, and author of the bestselling book The Exponential Age.In this episode of World of DaaS, Azeem and Auren discuss:Diagnosing an AI bubbleData centers driving 33% of US GDP growthWhether energy will constrain AI before capital doesCircular financing in AI and funding quality risksLooking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Azeem Azhar on X at @azeem.Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)
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The LM Brief: Love Beats Hate
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief highlights Auren Hoffman’s latest piece, where he explores how emotion—not information—drives behavior across platforms, politics, and AI systems. The piece examines why algorithms amplify strong emotional signals, how “love” consistently outperforms “hate” in outcomes, and what this means for builders designing the next generation of data-driven products.Listen to this short podcast summary, powered by NotebookLM.
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Bolt.new CEO Eric Simons — one of the fastest growing AI companies in the world
Eric Simons is the CEO and co-founder of StackBlitz, the company behind Bolt.new, which reached $40 million ARR in five months after launching in October 2024. Bolt.new is an AI-powered platform that allows anyone to build, edit, and deploy full-stack web applications directly in the browser.In this episode of World of DaaS, Eric and Auren discuss:The explosive growth from $0 to $40M ARRPioneering usage-based pricing for AI toolsCompeting with Replit, Lovable, and VercelBuilding WebContainers technology for seven yearsLooking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Eric Simons on X at @EricSimons.Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)
deep dive into Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) businesses. World of DaaS is a podcast for data enthusiasts, by data enthusiasts, where Auren Hoffman talks to business and technology leaders about all things data - building it, acquiring it, analyzing it, and everything in between.
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