We get into:

- The Friday night football taco stand he set up in high school, which he says made the vendor millions of dollars over the next 20 years

- Working next to Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk as a sophomore intern, and passing on the chance to become Airbnb's first non-technical hire

- How Royalty Pharma got to a $25 billion market cap with about 50 employees, and why it inspired his firm over fund thesis

- Vantage, the AI tool he built from 750 meetings' worth of transcripts that now lives in a16z's Slack

- Why founders spend 95% of their time selling, and why he backs missionaries over mercenaries

so much more!

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Trailer
(00:51) David Haber, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
(01:14) Why people call him the most connected VC in New York
(02:35) From the Holocaust to Nicaragua to Tijuana
(05:23) The Friday night taco stand that made a vendor millions
(11:18) Sitting next to Airbnb's Nathan Blecharczyk as an intern
(15:40) Royalty Pharma: $25B market cap with about 50 employees
(28:48) The hardest problem in building Bond Street
(37:06) Emailing Goldman Sachs' CFO and ignoring his job description
(39:27) Vantage: the AI tool built on 750 meetings
(46:02) Why founders spend 95% of their time selling
(47:20) Missionary VS mercenary founders
(52:18) Firm over fund, and how a16z runs like a company
(59:40) Taking 275-year-old Sotheby's into NFTs
(1:00:36) Marc Andreessen's pitch: the J.P. Morgan of the information era
(1:10:45) Why he wishes Bond Street had been bigger
(1:12:31) Outro

Follow David
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haber/
X: https://x.com/dhaber?lang=en

Follow Luba
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

We get into:

- Why the right startup idea should feel like a curse, and why he tells students not to keep a list of startup ideas

- The misspelled Vinod Khosla email that made $500,000 land in his account and moved his company to Silicon Valley in a week

- Joining YouTube when it lost money on every single view, and board meetings with Eric Schmidt about shutting it down

- The skip button every salesperson said would kill revenue, and how it went from $0 to $1 billion in 18 months

- Selling Coda to Grammarly, and why he needs a sense of purpose more than a sense of ownership

so much more!

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒

(00:00) Trailer

(01:07) Shishir Mehrotra, CEO, Superhuman

(01:32) Making the Lego robotics world championships four times with his daughters

(08:59) His dad only paid for majors where the books are 50 years old

(12:18) Why most people should not start a company

(14:47) The Vinod Khosla email that moved $500,000 in one afternoon

(20:15) Joining YouTube when it lost money on every view

(25:50) Board meetings with Eric Schmidt about shutting YouTube down

(35:20) The skip button that went from $0 to $1B in 18 months

(40:30) Susan Wojcicki and the 55/45 creator revenue split

(45:54) Sketching Coda on a notepad by his bed

(53:52) Why he sold Coda to Grammarly

(59:30) Purpose over ownership and zero startup pride

(1:01:45) The bundling theory he built with Daniel Ek at Spotify

(1:04:49) Superhuman's AI agents and 60% of auto-drafted emails sent

(1:09:37) Why AI will make teams bigger

(1:15:32) Outro

Follow Shishir

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishirmehrotra/

X: https://x.com/shishirmehrotra

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

We get into:

- Why she calls the genetic lottery "super evil and unfair"

- The 5–10% chance of genetic disease if you conceive the old-fashioned way

- Her most controversial take: people aren't going to have sex for babies anymore

- Why Michael Phelps is only Michael Phelps because of a genetic lottery

- Tetrachromats, 100 million colors, and what "leveling the playing field" actually means

so much more!

Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer
(00:53) Noor Siddiqui, Founder and CEO, Orchid
(01:04) The flashmob dance proposal
(11:15) Applying to the Thiel Fellowship at 17
(24:22) Founders raising $50M and losing $100M
(31:48) Taking advice from the 500 IQ nerd
(35:36) Why genetics shape everything
(51:03) What is a super baby
(54:55) Sequencing 3 billion letters and why the genetic lottery is evil
(1:01:16) People aren't going to have sex for babies
(1:02:43) Michael Phelps and the genetic lottery
(1:07:21) Escaping the code we were stuck with 
(1:20:21) Upgrading all humans would make her cool
(1:22:20) Outro

Follow Noor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noorsiddiqui/

X: https://x.com/noor_siddiqui_

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

We get into:

-Starting a debate camp at 13 that ran 50% EBITDA margins, and landing in the principal's office for it

-Sprig: $60M raised, 1,300 employees, a shutdown, and investors who backed his next company anyway

-Why the Academy flips college around, with students building instead of attending class

-The call from Andrew Chen and ten meetings with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz that became the Academy

-Why he tells 18-year-olds that raising VC is a ten-year commitment

so much more!

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Trailer
(01:01) Gagan Biyani, Founder & CEO, Horowitz Andreessen Academy
(02:23) A one-year fellowship built around building, not class
(03:55) The three skills that are AI proof
(08:16) Grandparents from Rajasthan who never finished high school
(09:31) Starting a debate camp at 13 with 50% margins
(12:59) Why schools are afraid of student agency
(18:33) Seven jobs, three years, and rarely going to class
(18:46) Why most professors don't care about teaching
(25:41) What Udemy and Maven taught him
(33:32) Raising $60M at Sprig, shutting down, and getting backed again
(38:16) Why raising VC at 18 is a ten-year commitment
(39:21) The call from Andrew Chen that started the Academy
(41:18) Why the best builders will pick a16z over MIT or Harvard
(43:17) 50 founding students, tuition-free
(45:46) Why a Harvard dropout means nothing to him
(51:42) Outro

Follow Gagan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaganbiyani/
X: https://x.com/gaganbiyani

Follow Luba
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

We get into:

-Making $700K a year selling Android apps after his first startup shut down

-Why his doctor dad handing him a Paul Graham essay changed his career

-His mom running the entire back office of his dad's medical practice while raising three kids

-The unfairness technical co-founders feel while business co-founders get wined and dined by investors

-Going back to code after 10 years managing engineers to ship an AI co-founder for small businesses

so much more!

(00:00) Trailer
(00:51) Edward Kim, Co-Founder and CTO, Gusto
(00:57) The elaborate escape rooms he builds for his wife Yuna
(03:04) The San Francisco half marathon on a bet that reconnected him with Josh
(05:32) Making $700,000 a year selling Android apps
(10:25) Screenshot It, the $7 app for a feature Android didn't have
(18:31) His mom running the entire back office of his dad's medical practice
(26:22) The Paul Graham essay his doctor dad handed him in the car
(29:51) Getting into Y Combinator with Gary as a partner
(32:49) The unfairness technical co-founders feel while business co-founders raise money
(36:51) After 15 years of co-founding, why the workload evens out
(56:07) Building Gusto Co-Founder for the small business back office
(1:15:01) His life philosophy in one sentence
(1:15:08) Outro

Follow Edward

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edawerd/

X: https://x.com/edawerd

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

We get into:

- Calling his own teenage taste in jazz "musical masturbation," and the moment that actually taught him to love it

- The $400,000 payout a co-founder demanded for two months of work, and why there was no mechanism to force them out

- His run co-founding On Deck, where 27 cohorts helped over 1,000 founders raise $2B+, and why he thinks the co-founder problem is basically already solved

- The Hacker News post that got almost no response except one email from Dropbox's first employee

so much more!

Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer
(00:51) Julian Weisser, Founder, Solo Founders
(02:06) Calling his old jazz taste "musical masturbation"
(20:17) 27 cohorts, thousands of founders, more reps than any VC
(35:50) The $400K co-founder payout demand
(39:45) The Hacker News post that led to Dropbox's first employee
(44:45) Golden Gate Park was built from sand dunes
(54:50) Why co-founders have seasons, not forever contracts
(58:53) The "oddballs" who never wanted co-founders, including Loyal's Celine Halioua
(1:00:59) Co-founders are the car phone. Solo founders are the cell phone.
(1:06:47) Why owning less equity can mean more freedom
(1:16:18) His two-word life philosophy: keep going
(1:16:34) Outro

Follow Julian
X: https://x.com/julianweisser
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianweisser/

Follow Luba
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Today I walk with Spenser Skates, co-founder and CEO of Amplitude. Spenser shut down his first startup, a voice-to-text texting app called Sonalight, a year after it got into Y Combinator, spent years going through what he calls an identity crisis moving from founder to CEO, and has grown Amplitude into a public company of roughly 800 people, and now he's rebuilding it around Wave, an AI engine that rewrites products using their own data.

We get into:

• Why he and his co-founder Curtis intentionally shut down Sonalight a year after Y Combinator, even after a Demo Day that got them press and tens of thousands of downloads

• The customer research rule he now enforces at Amplitude: talk to 30 teams before writing a line of the original product, and only build if a real chunk of them say yes

• Wave, Amplitude's new AI engine that scans a product's own data and rewrites its features, including one fix that tripled a customer's AI usage overnight

• Why he thinks the most ambitious operators, including a SaaS "legend" he looked up to, are driven by insecurity rather than confidence

• The Norman Borlaug story that convinced a 20-something Spenser to bet his entire career on tech instead of academic research

So much more!

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Trailer

(01:08) Spenser Skates, Co-Founder & CEO, Amplitude

(01:36) Why video games stopped feeling like real achievement

(08:50) Growing up in Cambridge and hating a life scripted by other people

(15:04) The Norman Borlaug story that convinced him to bet on tech

(20:14) Convincing Curtis to leave Google and co-found a company

(24:55) Playing StarCraft until 2am while pretending to build the startup

(29:04) The exact test for knowing when to kill a startup

(32:30) Why half a founding team's time should go to customers, not code

(35:02) The identity crisis of going from founder to CEO of 800 people

(40:35) Burning the boats on the old Amplitude to go all in on AI

(42:33) Wave: the AI engine that rewrites products using their own data

(48:49) Why insecurity, not confidence, drives the most ambitious operators

(56:01) Betting on his partner Anne and being "single until Series B"

(1:05:00) Outro

Follow Spenser

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spenserskates

X: https://x.com/spenserskates

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

Today I walk with Coco Mao, CEO and co-founder of OpenArt, an AI visual storytelling platform. Coco spent years as an engineer at Google, ran her own startup inside Google's internal startup incubator, and built OpenArt through six months of weekly pivots until a prototype built in under three days went viral on Hacker News, and now she's betting the entire company on a new category she calls vibe directing.

We get into:

• Why she quit her Google side-hustles, including the Amazon fidget-toy business she overstocked right before founding OpenArt
• The six-month stretch of weekly pivots that ended with a three-day prototype going viral on Hacker News
• OpenArt's bet on "vibe directing," the video-agent category she compares directly to vibe coding
• What actually separates good AI-generated work from "total slop": idea and taste, not the tools
• Launching the AI Personality Awards with Fanvue, and why she thinks AI influencers will make human creators more valuable, not less

So much more!

Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer 
(00:54) Coco Mao, CEO & Co-Founder, OpenArt 
(03:11) Selling fidget toys on Amazon before quitting Google 
(04:56) Meeting co-founder Jon inside Google's startup incubator 
(08:01) Betting on AI art in 2022, a non-consensus space 
(08:18) The weekly pivot that led to a Hacker News-viral prototype 
(14:09) Naming OpenArt and getting mistaken for OpenAI 
(14:56) Raising a seed round on speed, not metrics 
(19:11) Hire fast, fire very fast 
(20:01) Why OpenArt survived while image-gen rivals disappeared 
(23:00) Vibe directing: the next category after vibe coding 
(28:08) What separates good AI work from total slop 
(39:40) Launching the AI Personality Awards with Fanvue 
(43:46) The hardest part of scaling: reinventing yourself 
(50:22) The one founder belief she now thinks is wrong 
(51:20) Outro

Follow Coco

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kechunmao/

X: https://x.com/cocokechun

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

We get into:

• Why he passed on investing in the friend who now runs a robotics company valued at $1 billion
• The real "nobody gives a s***" moment that came after Not Boring's meteoric growth crashed in 2022
• The clay pot experiment behind why he still writes 30 imperfect essays a year instead of a few polished ones
• Why he thinks Anthropic's careful, downside-focused posture on AI is a little too pessimistic
• Why he doubles down on his strengths instead of trying to fix a below-average memory

So much more!

Automate Compliance (and get $1,000 off!!) - https://vanta.com/luba

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Packy McCormick, Founder, Not Boring & Not Boring Capital

(01:02) Weekly business coaching calls with his mom

(06:15) Passing on the friend who built a $1 billion robotics company

(20:19) The moment nobody gave a s*** anymore

(31:02) Being scared of infinity as a kid

(34:50) Why Anthropic's pessimism wears him out

(36:19) Retiring Not Boring's founding mission

(41:09) Telling his pregnant wife he was starting over

(45:27) The clay pot experiment behind his writing process

(56:00) Double down on strengths, not weaknesses

(58:52) What made Colossus's writer profiles so good

(1:03:18) $470 million for micro nuclear reactors

(1:04:19) The GLP-1 side effect nobody saw coming

(1:07:58) What brought him joy this week

Follow Packy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/packym/

X: https://x.com/packyM

Website: https://www.notboring.co

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Today I walk with Zach Lloyd, founder and CEO of Warp. Zach is a former Principal Engineer at Google, where he led the Google Sheets team. Zach scaled his first startup, SelfMade, to 150 employees before it fell apart, and now he’s raised over $73 million for Warp from Sequoia and Google Ventures. He's betting the whole company on AI. He talks about the AI feature Warp built before Claude Code and ChatGPT existed, why not going harder at it is one of his biggest regrets as a founder, and what it's like having Marc Benioff as his cousin.

We get into:

• The AI feature Warp shipped before ChatGPT even existed, and why building something like Claude Code six months early still turned into one of his biggest regrets
• His first startup, SelfMade, scaling to 150 employees and multiple millions in revenue without ever finding real product market fit
• Why he calls hiring "just sales," and why he'd rather hand over equity than compete on salary
• Why he barely opens a spreadsheet anymore, and which AI-era tools he thinks actually survive

so much more!

Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer

(00:59) Zach Lloyd, Founder & CEO, Warp

(01:03) Grandfather Lloyd K Lloyd, San Francisco's original salesman

(04:42) Marc Benioff is his cousin

(21:33) The humility lesson from Google Sheets' original creator

(27:07) SelfMade: 150 employees, still not a real business

(34:04) Why hiring is really just sales

(39:32) Nearing a million terminal users

(41:18) Building AI before Claude Code and Codex existed

(42:52) Only going halfway in on AI

(1:03:09) Why he barely opens a spreadsheet anymore

(1:10:10) Warp is automating 30% of its own engineering work

(1:11:12) Building automated cloud factories

(1:14:49) Almost naming the company Cursor

(1:15:48) Never living on Saint Mark's again

Follow Zach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachlloyd/

X: https://x.com/zachlloydtweets

Website: https://warp.dev

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Today I walk with Michelle Lim, CEO of Flint, an autonomous web and ads building platform. Michelle interned at Meta, Slack, and Robinhood, grew Warp from employee number two to 500,000 developers over four years across engineering, marketing, and sales, and now she's building Flint to charge by outcome instead of software. She gets into her origin story that pushed her to fix marketing after four years at Warp, and why she thinks the market VCs have valued at $10 billion is actually worth $100 billion.

We get into:

-Why turning down medical school made her "a family disappointment," and the villain origin story that pushed her to build Flint after four years fixing marketing at Warp

-Her "five Infinity Stones" framework: engineering, product, marketing, customer success, and sales, for knowing exactly when she was ready to leave Warp and start her own company

-Why VCs have historically stayed away from funding marketing startups, and her bet that AI turns a market capped at HubSpot's $10 billion into a $100 billion opportunity

-Her framework for writing LinkedIn hooks that lead with credibility and actually convert strangers into customers and hires

So much more!

Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer

(00:32) Intro

(01:21) Singapore's definition of success: doctor, lawyer, or government scholar

(02:31) Applying to Yale on a whim, thanks to a one-school early action rule

(06:16) Why a startup was "one of the lowest prestige things" she could do at Yale

(10:48) Discovering computer science through a Yale entrepreneurship club

(16:21) What she took, and left behind, from Meta, Slack, Robinhood, and Warp

(19:48) Winning an hour alone with Mark Zuckerberg on her best internship project

(22:12) Sheryl Sandberg's leadership lesson: repeat the same story until it lands

(27:59) Her framework for writing LinkedIn hooks that actually convert

(35:53) Bodies "piling up" in Covid-era New York, and the push to join Warp

(40:53) Telling Warp's CEO upfront that she wanted to be a founder

(47:47) The "five Infinity Stones" framework for knowing when to start Flint

(54:47) Why VCs avoid funding marketing startups, and her bet on a $100 billion market

(1:00:23) Meeting her co-founder through a 200-question questionnaire, and his parents' interview

(1:09:14) Never try to save money on a lawyer

Follow Michelle

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michlimlim/

X: https://x.com/michlimlim

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Today I walk with Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic. Blake was roughly Amazon's 200th engineer, spent more than a decade building XB-1 into the first supersonic jet made outside a government or military, and got the US ban on supersonic flight repealed after breaking the sound barrier, and now he's scaling Boom toward carrying passengers in 2030. He gets into the six years Boom spent waiting on Rolls-Royce for an engine, and why that breakup turned out to be the best gift the company ever got.

We get into:

• Why he'd rather be a "dark matter entrepreneur" who tried and failed than spend his life asking what if
• The six years Boom spent trying to get Rolls-Royce to build a custom engine, and why losing that deal is what made the business financially viable
• Why "work on something you know about" is terrible advice, since what you know is far easier to change than what you love
• How a parenting lesson turned into the practice that built candor inside Boom's staff meetings

So much more!

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒

(00:00) Trailer

(00:41) Intro

(01:39) The day XB-1 broke the sound barrier

(05:40) 2,000 pounds overweight and called the Theranos of aviation

(09:15) How big a dent can we make in the universe

(12:01) Bill Gates and the dark matter entrepreneur

(14:55) Mom's advice: work on something you already know

(17:12) The flying lesson at 19 that decided everything

(23:17) Starting Boom with three kids under two

(24:39) The mistake dinner that became a staff meeting

(27:22) Why the Rolls-Royce breakup was the best gift Boom got

(30:37) Brian Chesky and permission to make the big swing

(34:29) Amazon at engineer 200 and automating ads at 22

(37:58) Congestion price the entire road network

(40:12) "I'd be proud of you for trying"

(43:58) The $750K prize to fly supersonic

(44:33) Outro

Follow Blake

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakescholl/

X: https://x.com/bscholl

Website: https://boomsupersonic.com/

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Today I walk with Ann Miura-Ko, co-founding partner of Floodgate. Ann has spent almost 18 years building Floodgate around a deliberately small, non-consensus fund model, made early bets on companies like Lyft and TaskRabbit, and teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford, and now she's watching AI rewrite the lean startup playbook in real time. She gets into the AI agent inside one portfolio company that quietly caught millions of dollars in missed credit, and why she believes not losing is not the same as winning.

We get into:

• Why she waited nearly 18 years to grow Floodgate's fund size, and how staying small means a $1 billion exit still moves the needle for her investors
• Making debate opponents cry for a slice of pizza, and the permission that gave her to be disagreeable for the rest of her career
• SmarterDx, the company she couldn't get other investors to take seriously at Series A, that went on to exit for over $1 billion
• The math behind "founder friendly" investing, and why a $100M exit barely registers against a $1 billion fund

So much more!

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Ann Miura-Ko, Co-Founding Partner, Floodgate

(01:35) Making debate opponents cry for a slice of pizza

(05:41) Truth-seeking VS defending your ego

(11:12) How Mike Maples treated her as an intellectual equal from day one

(18:04) Being told she was "average" before finding her calling

(26:07) How AI is rewriting the lean startup playbook

(36:35) Floodgate's bet to stay small while other firms scale up

(39:53) The AI agent that caught millions in missed credits

(46:43) SmarterDx: the $1B exit no other investor wanted

(48:49) The real math behind a "founder friendly" investor

(53:55) Category design and why Lyft had to break the law to launch

(1:08:39) The Toyota Corolla he drove for 25 years to buy her a piano

(1:11:53) Being the only woman in her electrical engineering class

(1:16:37) Turning 50 and her year of saying yes

Follow Ann

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amiura/

X: https://x.com/annimaniac

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Today I walk with Jean-Denis Greze, co-founder and CEO of Town, an AI on-ramp platform for individuals and businesses. Jean-Denis is the former CTO of Plaid, led engineering through a blocked $5.3B Visa acquisition, and walked away from the C-suite at 45 to start over from zero, and now he's turned a scrapped AI tax-prep startup into a $55M Series A company backed by Andreessen Horowitz. He gets into the week he decided to kill a business that was actually working, and why he refuses to call Town an "AI assistant."

We get into:

• Why he waited until 45, after seven years as Plaid's CTO, to become a founder for the first time
• The week he and his co-founder killed a working, revenue-generating tax-prep startup because it wasn't going to be a rocket ship
• Town's real bet: not a smarter AI assistant, but an onboarding layer that gets normal people leverage from AI without writing a single prompt
• His "accelerators, table stakes, foundations" framework for staying ahead of OpenAI, Gemini, and Google
• Why turning "uncool" work into cult culture, from Dropbox's Team Cash to Plaid's colorful tights, built teams that stuck around

so much more!

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Trailer

[00:00:43] Intro

[00:01:41] Leaving Plaid at 45 to become a founder

[00:06:01] Redefining success beyond IPOs and revenue

[00:11:56] The YC prodigy myth VS two decades of hard-earned instinct

[00:19:47] The stress gap between being an exec and being the founder

[00:25:35] Time-boxing family, health, and friends at Series A

[00:32:11] Betting on AI tax prep and grinding for a year

[00:38:13] The week they decided to shut down a profitable business

[00:41:53] The worst three weeks: telling the team and winding down right

[00:57:47] The accidental prototype that became Town

[01:04:15] Why Town calls itself an on-ramp, not an AI assistant

[01:12:29] Beating OpenAI, Gemini, and Google's home-field advantage

[01:20:31] Team Cash: making "uncool" work fun at Dropbox and Plaid

[01:32:02] Landing Andreessen Horowitz and Forerunner for the Series A

[01:37:41] Outro

Follow Jean-Denis

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeandenisgreze

X: https://x.com/jgreze

Website: https://town.com

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

We get into:

-The conference talk she was not supposed to give, and how it ended her VC chapter

-What "transcend death" actually means once you press on it, tested with a teleporter to Mars

-Why San Francisco kills intuition, and the breakdown in her mid-20s that made her protect hers

-The big magnet, and rewarming an organ in about a minute

-Why transplant patients live inside a two-hour radius with a pager on them at all times

so much more!

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer 
00:00:48 Intro 
00:01:35 "I love science" and the things that have stayed constant 
00:05:13 A childhood without rules and reconstructing what normal means 
00:07:03 What is actually worth preserving when a person dies 
00:13:00 The Dreaming Machine and the film that never got made 
00:19:02 When you could not say the word aging out loud in the lab 
00:22:55 Emailing Cynthia Kenyon at 12 and the day her life started 
00:28:49 The talk that made her leave VC for cryo 
00:32:39 San Francisco as an intuition killer
00:35:04 Molecules in clockwork synchrony and feeling loved by the universe 
00:44:39 The big magnet and rewarming an organ in about a minute
00:46:19 The two-hour radius and the pager that runs a transplant patient's life 
00:53:50 Her best arguments against her own work 
00:58:44 The teleporter to Mars and what dies in the process 
01:01:42 Outro

Follow Laura
X: https://x.com/LauraDeming?lang=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-deming-b255362a/
Website: https://www.untillabs.com/

Follow Luba I
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/ 
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

We get into:

-Why founders are more like artists than operators

-What actually compounds a person's trajectory

-His "software eating money" thesis behind Electric Capital

-Why honesty ends up being the real edge in venture

so much more!

Timestamps

00:00:00 Trailer

00:00:44 Intro

00:01:00 Watches, luxury markets, and the AI parallel

00:12:48 Opportunity is a luxury

00:14:43 Founders as artists, not just operators

00:18:26 Authenticity and cutting through market noise

00:24:38 Betting on outliers as a life philosophy

00:37:58 Storytelling as a founder superpower

00:55:41 How Elad Gil helped launch Electric

01:07:55 Why crypto was the wedge for Electric

01:19:28 Why he prefers market corrections

01:31:00 The firms Electric was modeled after

01:36:21 Honesty as the core operating principle

01:42:15 Over-committing resources to founders

01:51:03 Dodging SBF and reading fake authenticity

02:01:40 Outro

Follow Avichal
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/avichalgarg/

X: https://x.com/avichal?lang=en

Follow Luba

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

Timestamps:
00:00:00 Trailer
00:01:18 Intro
00:01:21 Stanford gymnastics and meeting Nick
00:09:06 Working with refugees at the UN
00:16:20 Deciding to start the company
00:19:10 Moving into a police department for 18 months
00:26:44 Where the Peregrine name comes from
00:31:23 Winning the California RFP
00:41:47 Growth from wilderness to product-market fit
00:44:58 Biggest mistake and hardest lessons as a leader
00:48:39 Becoming a father while scaling the company
00:48:52 How Peregrine uses AI internally and externally
00:56:01 Life philosophy and closing thoughts
00:57:00 Outro

Links:

Ben Rudolph
Website: https://www.benrudolph.info/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/__benrudolph/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brudolph

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Trailer

00:01:06 Intro

00:01:17 Growing up in the Soviet Union

00:04:02 Immigrating to the United States

00:07:34 Career dreams and studying computer science

00:09:47 First startup and early lessons

00:11:19 13 years at Qualcomm

00:22:32 Meeting Raj and founding Solana

00:26:44 Fundraising and early investors

00:28:41 Surviving the FTX collapse

00:40:19 Solana's mission and impact

00:43:54 Using AI to run side projects

00:49:39 Hardest decisions as a leader

00:52:51 Outlook on crypto and Solana's future

00:59:22 Twitter, being public, and politics

01:05:52 Beliefs on human nature and life philosophy

01:09:34 Outro

Links:

Anatoly Yakovenko
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/solanafounder/?hl=en
X: https://x.com/toly?lang=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anatoly-yakovenko

Luba Yudasina
 Instagram: Luba Yudasina (@lifeoflubaa) • Instagram photos and videos
X: luba yudasina (@LubaYudasina) / X
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Trailer
00:01:12 Intro
00:01:21 Ballet background and SF Ballet board
00:06:12 TaskRabbit's origin story
00:10:52 Move to the Bay Area
00:23:00 Selling TaskRabbit to IKEA
00:33:03 Letting go of founder identity
00:35:37 Launching Precedent VC
00:38:26 AI-powered deal scoring system
00:41:26 Investing philosophy and founder fit
00:54:30 Founder green and red flags
00:58:26 Why she wrote Breaking Precedent
01:07:12 Parenting and work-life balance
01:10:46 Defining success
01:12:20 Outro

Links:

Leah Solivan
Website: Leah Solivan
Instagram: Leah Solivan (@leah_solivan) • Instagram photos and videos
LinkedIn: Leah Solivan | LinkedIn

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: Luba Yudasina (@lifeoflubaa) • Instagram photos and videos
X: luba yudasina (@LubaYudasina) / X
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

Joe has built companies across education, fashion, software, and now vehicles — and what ties them together is his obsession with freedom, accessibility, and enabling people to do life on their own terms. He calls it the “infinite game” — a framework that shapes how he thinks about business, creativity, and life itself.

It’s a conversation about ambition, creativity, and what it actually takes to build something meaningful — without losing sight of why you’re building it in the first place.

Topics covered

• The “infinite game” framework and why finite thinking limits your potential
• From Universe (empowerment through creation) to Infinite Machine (freedom through mobility)
• Why “autonomous humans” is the core mission behind everything he builds
• Building a company with your brother and the importance of going separate ways first
• Hiring for low ego and autonomy — how to spot these qualities 

SO much more!

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:40 The motivation to make things
1:55 The infinite game
2:40 Deciding to be an entrepreneur
5:55 Artist vs capitalist
7:34 Why freedom matters
9:29 What is an autonomous human
10:26 Vehicles as tools for freedom
13:14 What's next for Infinite Machine
14:27 How Infinite Machine started
15:08 Going your own way as brothers
16:35 Different paths, same vision
17:36 Design in the DNA
18:42 How brothers handle design disagreements
22:35 The C2 app and Friday feedback
23:33 Building trust
25:38 Team culture and hiring
27:21 Friday show and tell ritual
30:26 Nurturing creativity
32:22 Fundraising
36:47 Manufacturing stories
37:46 Managing stress
39:09 Meditating daily for 13 years
42:56 Life philosophy
44:58 Top books

Links

Joseph Cohen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmc/?hl=en 
X: https://x.com/josephcohen 
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/josephmcohen 

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

Robbie is a former drug addict-turned founder who’s built something genuinely novel: a space where emotional processing and human connection are the product, and sauna and cold plunge are the delivery mechanisms. What’s rare about his story is that he’s done it with four co-founders — two couples working full-time together after seven years — and he’s obsessive about building the best version of the product, not the fastest path to profit.

We talk about the long-term vision, the willingness to go all-in on something nobody thought would work, and what it means to build a company around healing and community in a culture obsessed with optimization. Robbie gets vulnerable about the financial terror of physical retail, the near-death moments when he thought it was over, and why he turned down aggressive investor terms to maintain control and equity.

Topics covered
- From backyard experiment to $2M+ first location — and how he knew it was real
- Why he thinks fear doesn’t disappear when you succeed — it just evolves
- The almost-zero odds of building a successful company with two couples as co-founders
- How a sauna and cold plunge became a Trojan horse for emotional healing and friendship
- Why he’s terrified of competition (and how that terror drives everything he does)
- From ADHD, boredom with early fatherhood to being present — the shift that changed his priorities
SO much more!

Timestamps 

00:00 Intro 

01:52 The 20-year vision 

05:50 Horse trough to $2M 

10:00 Building with 4 co-founders 

15:39 The New York crisis 

22:10 Why didn't he quit 

24:25 What still scares him 

27:19 The social spa experiment 

31:16 Does fear ever disappear? 

34:00 His anxiety toolkit 

39:25 Health and clarity 

40:21 Competition and abundance 

43:08 Product creates community 

49:48 From addiction to healing 

53:58 How his wife changed him 

58:35 Fatherhood evolution 

01:02:18 The balance act (work, family, health, friends) 01:07:53 Other cultures and values 

01:12:46 Learning from founder stories 

01:16:31 Bathhouse inspiration worldwide 

01:21:05 Creative retreats and psilocybin 

01:23:14 Acceptance

Links

Robbie Bent
Instagram: https://instagra.com/robbiebent
X: https://x.com/robbiebent
LinkedIn: Robbie Bent

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

Sam is a Midwestern kid turned serial entrepreneur: from running a hot dog stand to building a media empire to co-hosting My First Million, one of the biggest business podcasts out there. He's also one of the most refreshingly honest people I've ever talked to about money, marriage, and what it actually takes to build a life you're proud of.

We go deep on relationships, ambition, and what it means to commit — to a partner, to a company, to a version of yourself you haven't become yet. 

Topics we cover

• Why he and his wife had a "co-founder conversation" six months into dating and how it changed everything
• What billionaires all agree on about luck that most people starting out don't want to hear
• His controversial take: overnight successes are real — and sometimes you should quit faster
• How he uses negative visualization to stay grateful 
• SO much more!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:55 When Money Doesn't Feel Real
05:55 Why My Wife Bet on Me
08:35 Run Your Marriage Like a Startup
13:43 Luck Is Real
16:57 Commit Then Figure It Out
21:43 Imagine the Worst, Feel Grateful
24:51 40 Hours Can Make You Rich
27:06 Am I a One-Hit Wonder?
30:43 How to Make Anyone Open Up

Links

Sam Parr
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesamparr
X: https://x.com/thesamparr 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MyFirstMillionPod

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

We talk about confidence, self-doubt, and what it actually takes to back people before it's obvious. Kevin opens up about feeling like there was a pane of glass between him and the people who got to make big decisions — and the slow, honest process of earning his own seat at the table.

We cover

• "Hyperstition": why enough people believing in something can make it true
• Why he thinks imposter syndrome is often just an accurate self-assessment
• The BCV Fellowship: a secret program to find star talent years before they start companies
• Full stack capitalism: why the most ambitious founders need more than just venture dollars
• His dream second career: political talent scout
• SO much more!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:01 The Invisible Glass Ceiling
08:40 Surviving the Almost-Dead Startup
13:40 Full Stack Capitalism
19:24 Bet on People, Not Sectors
23:32 Spotting Greatness Early
27:05 Build Conviction
30:36 Beyond the SaaS Playbook
36:34 Understanding Society
39:21 Why He Stayed at Bain Capital
43:52 Investing in Founders
47:24 Rapid Fire

Links

Kevin Zhang
X: https://x.com/kevinzhang 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinzhang711/

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina 
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

We go deep on metacognition, self-improvement, and what it actually takes to understand yourself well enough to build great companies and great relationships. Hiten opens up about his process for "poking at the world" to test his own thinking, how he uses Enneagram and Human Design with AI to unlock blind spots, and the mental models that have shaped how he works with co-founders, teams, and his own family.

We cover
- His "purple bruise" approach to giving advice — and how he trained himself to go from six-month-delayed feedback to next-day impact
- The Batman and Robin framework for co-founder relationships, partnerships, and even marriage
- Why building faster with AI doesn't mean learning faster — and the companies that have figured out the difference
- "Trust takes ten years" — the advice from a relative in India that keeps proving itself right
His life philosophy: "It was all a dream" — and what that has to do with presence
- SO much more!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:45 Start Your Year in October
06:15 The Purple Bruise Method
12:23 AI as a Thinking Partner
20:13 Thinking About Your Thinking
25:06 Find Your Triggers First
29:32 Decide Fast With Less
34:50 Entrepreneur Since Age Four
42:17 Shed Judgment, Stay Curious
46:09 When Strengths Become Sabotage
49:56 Batman and Robin Partnerships
52:43 Finding the Right Co-Founder
59:53 Trust Takes Ten Years
1:05:04 Fast Success Hides Lessons
1:11:57 Build Faster ≠ Learn Faster
1:21:31 The Lost Craft of Startups
1:29:38 Follow Energy, Not Goals
1:36:05 The Crisis Nobody Sees
1:44:03 Selling at Peak Value
1:52:00 Know Yourself Through AI
2:07:15 One Idea, Many Posts
2:19:20 "It Was All a Dream"

Links

Hiten Shah 
X: https://x.com/hnshah
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hnshah/

Luba Yudasina
Instagram:  https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

We talk about what it really feels like to sell two companies, why honesty is more powerful than hype, and what Ankur's learned about building, investing, and knowing when enough is enough. He gets refreshingly real about the parts of startup life nobody talks about — from emotional runway to the immigrant lens on America's self-help culture.

We cover:
- Why most people should never raise venture capital
- The three things he looks for in founders (and why the third one is controversial)
- From reading Losing My Virginity at 13 to wanting to buy a sports team — and put himself on the roster
- SO much more!

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:55 Twice Lucky, Still Humble
05:53 Confidence Is Just Age
08:18 Stress Beats Every Biohack
12:28 Venture Investing for Everyone
19:17 What Makes a Great Founder
23:05 Emotional Runway Kills First
27:53 Don't Raise Venture Capital
30:02 Your Happy Number
34:17 The $20K That Becomes Millions
37:42 Finding Your Zone of Genius
41:59 Read for Joy, Not Optimization
48:23 Maximize Your Surface Area

Links

Ankur Nagpal
X: https://x.com/ankurnagpal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankurnagpal/

Luba Yudasina
Instagram:  https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

Grant is a Stanford math grad, Khan Academy alum, and self-taught animator who built his own open-source visualization engine from scratch. From students learning linear algebra for the first time, to researchers, to millions of curious people on the internet, @3blue1brown makes math feel beautiful.

Topics we cover

• How Grant wrote the "best wedding speech anyone's ever heard" with 24 hours notice
• Why he's never felt the burnout other creators describe after 10+ years
• His take on the algorithm
• The real problem with modern education 
• Being a source vs. being a relay and original thinking
• Why he's now building a team and rethinking sponsorships

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:05 How to Write a Wedding Speech

07:04 Use Pauses Like a Pro

11:39 Going Full Time on YouTube

17:27 Why I Left Academia

20:51 Explain It vs. Discover It

27:53 Be a Source, Not a Relay

39:00 The Analytics Dopamine Trap

43:23 Your Algorithm = Your Audience

47:36 Fun Work vs. Strategic Work

52:12 Mental Hygiene for Creators

54:15 Write to Think, Not to Publish

56:49 How My Team Changed Everything

01:01:36 New Ways I'm Making Money

01:06:05 The Loneliness of Solo Creating

01:09:37 How Ego Shapes Your Topics

01:11:31 The Beauty of High Dimensions

01:17:36 Pretty Videos vs. Clear Videos

01:23:14 Will LLMs Kill Motivation to Learn?

01:29:32 Don't Niche Down Too Early

01:34:37 Happiness vs. Fulfillment

01:38:01 Growth vs. Serving Your Audience

01:48:37 Teaching Empathy to Kids

01:51:48 Lightning Round

I hope you enjoy this one!!

Links

Grant Sanderson
YouTube: https://youtube.com/3blue1brown
X: https://x.com/3blue1brown 

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina 
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

Jay is a blockchain builder who accidentally became the CEO of a social media platform — one the internet cast as a protest movement whether she liked it or not.

Jay's story is the opposite of a straight path. She grew up in rural Oklahoma with a Chinese immigrant mother and a Swiss-American father, went to Beijing for a year as a teenager, hitchhiked through Europe, learned to code through a bootcamp, and eventually landed on the mission that defines her work: building social media architecture that protects freedom of expression by removing centralized control. She's the rare founder who can talk equally fluently about the Cultural Revolution, decentralized protocols, Twitter's DNA, and why moderation at scale is a nearly unsolvable problem—because she's actually grappled with each of these.

We talk about the relationship between technology and power, and why Jay is convinced that the internet's architecture—not good intentions—determines whether a society stays free. She opens up about the bet she's making on decentralization, the years of research that led to Bluesky, and what it actually takes to rebuild social media from first principles.

• How a childhood name became destiny: "Blue Sky" in Chinese, then Jack Dorsey's unannounced Twitter project

• The moment she realized: you can't change systems from the outside—you have to know how to code

• Why "protocols, not platforms" could solve moderation at billion-person scale

• From Zcash experiments to scuttlebutt to designing her own protocol—the long road to Bluesky

• What it means to bet your career on decentralization when most of the world isn't ready

and much more…

Timestamps
 (0:00) Introduction
 (1:16) Early Life & Cultural Heritage
 (5:41) Year Abroad in China
 (18:34) Learning Programming & Career Transition
 (38:42) Getting into Cryptocurrency
 (47:47) Working on Zcash & Privacy Technology
 (58:34) Happening.app & Event Platform
 (1:08:30) Blue Sky Origins & Early Days
 (1:11:18) COVID & the Working Group
 (1:24:16) Becoming Blue Sky Lead
 (1:33:06) Decentralized Social Media Explained
 (1:36:09) Twitter Acquisition & Independence
 (1:39:19) Building a Social Media Company
 (2:05:17) Leadership & Management Philosophy
 (2:13:53) Life Philosophy & Closing Thoughts

Links

X: https://x.com/arcalinea

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaygraber/

Luba Yudasina

Instagram: / lifeoflubaa

X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

LinkedIn: / yudasinal

Haseeb is a former professional poker player, self-taught engineer, Airbnb alum, and one of the most respected voices in crypto investing.

We talk about manhood, meaning, and what it takes to build a life worth living. Haseeb opens up about his unlikely path — from poker tables to Silicon Valley, from viral salary blog posts to leading one of the most competitive funds in crypto — and what it's actually taken to prove himself at each step.

Topics covered
- How a viral salary blog post made Haseeb the most controversial new hire at Airbnb
- The genealogy of his love for teaching — and why it starts with his mother
- Why he thinks VC is "kind of cringe" — and how Dragonfly is different
- From poker to code to crypto: how he chose his path using first principles
- What makes a great co-founder partnership (and how to stress-test one)
- Masculinity, strength, and responsibility in a feminized society
- Greatness vs. excellence: why he stopped caring about legacy

SO much more!

Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(01:14) How We Met at Airbnb
(03:00) The Viral Salary Blog Post
(06:38) Imposter Syndrome and Proving Yourself
(09:14) The Airbnb Culture Mismatch
(17:41) Running Dragonfly Like a Championship Team
(22:00) The Instinct to Teach
(26:40) Learning by Teaching: How to Master Any Domain
(37:40) From Poker Player to Engineer to Crypto Investor
(41:13) Why He Chose Crypto Over AI
(43:47) Marc Andreessen and the Danger of Role Models
(48:20) Joining Metastable and Founding Dragonfly
(55:00) Why VC is Cringe (But Dragonfly Isn't)
(58:00) How to Stress-Test Co-Founder Trust
(01:11:55) The Search for Meaning in His 20s
(01:15:00) Greatness vs. Excellence vs. Flourishing
(01:18:00) Legacy — and Why He No Longer Cares
(01:22:00) Personal Writing and the Need to Be Witnessed
(01:32:45) Masculinity, Strength, and Responsibility
(01:41:50) Society's Masculinity Crisis
(01:55:30) Discipline Systems and Contracts With Yourself
(02:02:10) Vipassana and the Valley of Darkness
(02:07:20) Goal Setting: Outcome vs. Process Goals
(02:13:45) Lightning Round: Money, Mentors, Movies, and More
(02:23:20) Is Crypto Happening?

Links

Haseeb Qureshi
X: https://x.com/hosseeb

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

Juan dedicated his career to understanding and accelerating how humanity creates, stores, and expands knowledge.

What’s unique about Juan is that he thinks in decades and has organized his ventures to represent this.

Topics Covered

- Early curiosity and the quest for knowledge
- The three knowledge systems: genetic, neural, and digital
- From Bell Labs inspiration to Protocol Labs
- Building IPFS and Filecoin
- Innovation networks vs traditional companies
- Brain-computer interfaces and the future of human enhancement
- Predictions for 10 and 50 years

Timestamps

(01:37) Early Curiosity and Encyclopedia Reading
(04:18) The Internet and Information Overload
(06:42) Knowledge as Capability
(15:42) Morality and Scientific Understanding
(28:57) Three Knowledge Systems
(29:42) Genetic Knowledge System
(35:42) Neural Knowledge System
(42:18) Digital Knowledge System
(44:42) The Tree of Knowledge
(49:18) Path to Protocol Labs
(51:42) Bell Labs Inspiration
(54:18) Building IPFS and Filecoin
(56:42) Crypto and Bitcoin
(01:09:42) Innovation Networks vs Companies
(01:12:18) Protocol Labs Structure
(01:18:42) PL Focus Areas
(01:19:18) Web3 and Digital Human Rights
(01:21:42) AI and Robotics
(01:24:18) Neurotech and Brain-Computer Interfaces
(01:27:42) Three Cases for Neurotech
(01:28:42) Medical Applications and Repair
(01:33:18) Enhancing Human Experience
(01:38:42) Digital Evolution and AI Coexistence
(01:46:18) Consciousness and Digital Minds
(01:54:42) Predictions for 2036
(02:04:18) Predictions for 2076
(02:11:42) Wrap up

Links

Juan Benet
X: https://x.com/juanbenet
Protocol Labs: https://www.protocol.ai/

Luba Yudasina
https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa

https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal

We have a wide-ranging conversation about endurance, ambition, and what it takes to build hard things. Michelle opens up about her unconventional path from biomedical engineering to running marathons on every continent, to becoming one of the most active early-stage investors in defense tech and American Dynamism.

We explore the psychology of pain, the difference between process and outcome-oriented people, and why ego can be a powerful motivator when channeled correctly.

It's a thoughtful look at someone who's chosen the hard path repeatedly: whether it's running 100 kilometers through Zion National Park or leaving the comfort of a16z to start her own fund and why betting on yourself is the ultimate endurance sport.

Topics covered

• Guinness World Record for fastest seven-continent marathon aggregate time
• The psychology of loving pain and seeking hard challenges
• Why Marines and ultra-runners make great founders
• Ego as a tool: using external motivation to achieve internal goals
• Her path to Venture
• Why talent from Palantir, SpaceX, and Anduril is reshaping hard tech
• Starting a solo GP fund and the parallels to founding a company

and much more…

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(01:16) Guinness World Record Journey

(06:00) Being Process vs Outcome Orientation

(10:06) Training Philosophy and Competition

(13:57) The 100K Ultra Experience

(16:42) Type Two Fun and Founders

(17:26) The Love of Pain

(18:46) Marines and Pain-Seeking Personality

(25:54) High Ego, Low Discipline

(28:57) From Biomedical Engineering to Tech

(33:31) Working at Palantir Experience

(47:41) Mission vs Loving the Game

(51:10) MIT and Defense Tech Club

(56:11) Getting into a16z

(58:59) What is American Dynamism

(01:01:57) Palantir, SpaceX, and Anduril's Impact

(01:06:05) Cultural Shift Toward Hard Problems

(01:09:00) Bipartisan Nature of American Dynamism

(01:14:33) Working at Andreessen Horowitz

(01:18:21) Starting Pax

(01:20:37) Everyone Said Don't Do It

(01:24:36) LP Market and Fundraising Reality

(01:35:50) Time Management and Saying No

Links

Michelle Volz
X: https://x.com/MichelleVolz
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellevolz1/

Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudaisna
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

We have a wide-ranging conversation about technology, culture, and what it means to be human in the digital age. Eugene, known for his influential long-form essays on tech and culture, opens up about stepping back from Silicon Valley's relentless pace to reconnect with what matters.

The conversation moves through the performative nature of modern life, the decline of authentic community, and why Eugene believes we need to reclaim friction in our lives. They discuss the loneliness epidemic, the death of the blogging era, creator burnout, and whether we're ready to live entirely through screens.

It's a thoughtful, grounded look at someone who's choosing depth over speed, real connection over virtual performance, and asking the hard questions about what technology is doing to our humanity.

Topics covered:

• Why film festivals are his form of meditation
• The "slow cancellation of the future" and cultural stagnation
• How algorithms shape our perception of reality
• The economics of indie film and streaming
• Why tech needs better storytellers
• Finding community in an age of isolation
• The hidden costs of frictionless living
• Collective agency and hope for the future

Timestamps:

(00:00) Trailer

(01:16) Introduction to Eugene Wei

(04:31) Film Festivals and the End of Summer

(11:06) Boredom as Meditation and Creative Space

(12:32) The Slow Cancellation of the Future

(17:17) Rear Window and Social Media as Voyeurism

(20:39) The Performative Self and Creator Burnout

(21:25) Audience Capture and Writing

(24:26) The Comfort of Joining a Crowd

(28:48) Film Festival Economics and Indie Cinema

(31:15) The Streaming Model's Impact on Hollywood

(38:23) Pricing Anchors: Netflix and OpenAI

(40:32) Stepping Back from Tech's Take Culture

(43:55) Silicon Valley Culture

(47:07) AI and Desensitization to Breakthroughs

(50:17) Tech's Responsibility and Steve Jobs

(59:32) Personal Technology Hygiene

(01:03:25) Social Media as Our Perceptual Field

(01:06:31) The Pandemic Experiment: Living Through Screens

(01:09:11) Missing the Social Networking Era

(01:10:50) The Blogging Era and Tech Meme

(01:16:33) Writing as Therapy

(01:21:05) The Decline of Community Structures

(01:22:05) College as Peak Community

(01:23:26) Friction, Flaking, and the Smartphone Era

(01:26:45) Religious Movements and Community Sacrifice

(01:28:17) Remote Work and Lost Social Structures

(01:29:39) The Future is Bright: Young People at Interact

(01:31:14) Hope: Collective Agency and Micro-Communities

(01:35:47) Closing Thoughts

Eugene Wei
**https://eugenewei.substack.com/**
**https://x.com/eugenewei**

Luba Yudasina

**https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa**

**https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal**

In this episode, we dive deep into:

→ Why they believe imposter syndrome is fake 
→ The "have you raised?" trap: How bootstrapped founders get dismissed despite having more revenue 
→ Stepping away from a profitable YC company and why investor pressure was actually self-imposed 
→ Being unapologetically girly in tech: The "strive to be a 7" advice and why they ignore it 
→ Lucky girl syndrome: How believing you'll be lucky actually makes you lucky 
→ Bootstrapped to $1M ARR vs. raising millions—which path is actually better?

…and much more

 
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:56) Meet the Founders: Kathryn and Rajya
(01:17) Dealing with Uncertainty in Startups
(02:49) Therapy and Startups
(05:40) The Startup Journey: From College to Launch House
(10:33) Bootstrapping vs. Raising VC
(20:06) The Role of Female Friendships in Their Lives
(21:57) Imposter Syndrome Revisited
(31:03) Choosing Positive Narratives
(32:02) The Drive to Build Again
(33:36) Motivations and Interests
(34:07) The Intersection of Social Apps and Dating
(34:51) The Joy of Creating and Founding
(37:41) The Reality of Fundraising
(40:20) Co-Founder Dynamics
(42:51) Balancing Personal Identity and Startups
(58:56) The Pressure of Raising Capital
(1:09:35) Embracing Individuality and Attention
(1:10:09) Women in Tech: Community and Connections
(1:12:26) The YC Experience and Startup Culture
(1:15:39) Living and Building in Different Cities
(1:30:21) Influential Founders and Role Models
(1:37:45) Reflecting on Personal Values and Friendships
(1:41:36) The Importance of EQ and Marketing in Tech
(1:44:11) Ending

Links

Kathryn Cross
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-cross/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathrynjcross/
X: https://x.com/kathrynjc7

Rajya Atluri
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajyaatluri/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rajyaatluri/

Luba Yudasina

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/lifeofluba
X: https://x.com/lubayudasina

We talk about the mindsets that push founders forward, how childhood shapes ambition, why he believes the body is a data system, and the role of delusion, intuition, and “vibes” in building a generational team. Jacob also opens up about personal transformation, transcendental meditation, and what he’s learned about co-founders, hiring, and consciousness as a performance edge.

I always have such a wide range of conversations with Jacob and this one was a treat.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The subconscious “pre-prompts” that quietly drive founders

• Clean vs. dirty fuel: why ambition built on insecurity breaks down

• Why Superpower hires like a cult, and how he built a 40-person team with extreme ownership

• Interoceptive awareness and using your body as an intelligence system

• How to evaluate co-founders through intuition, energy, and pattern recognition

• The role of delusion, confidence, and narrative in recruiting and fundraising

… and much more

Highlights:

(00:00) Jacob Peters
 (02:22) Jacob's Journey: From Childhood to Consciousness Expansion
 (05:24) The Power of Subconscious Awareness
 (08:07) The Role of Interoceptive Awareness in Health
 (13:51) Jacob's Entrepreneurial Beginnings with Legos
 (19:25) From Legos to Technology: Early Ventures
 (21:20) Building Communities and the Birth of Commsor
 (24:30) Co-Founder Relationships
 (28:10) Tuning into Gut Feelings and Vibes
 (32:39) Creating a Conscious Company Culture
 (38:00) Volatility as a Feature in Company Culture
 (39:42) Building a Mission-Driven Team
 (40:21) Solving the Cold Start Problem
 (41:34) Empowerment and Ownership in the Workplace
 (41:47) Recruiting the First Few Key Members
 (44:06) The Role of Delusion in Success
 (47:38) Introspection and Self-Improvement
 (01:06:03) The Genesis of Superpower
 (01:10:57) Personal Mission Statements
 (01:17:47) Choosing Investors and Stakeholder Alignment
 (01:21:13) Founders and Future Aspirations

Links

Jacob
X - https://x.com/J__Cub
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobdpeters/

Luba
Linkedin- https://liniked.com/in/yudasinal
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X - https://www.twitter.com/LubaYudasina

We talk about why he works 90–100 hour weeks, how he thinks about ambition, fun, burnout, and why he sees company-building as a 10-year board game he refuses to lose. Marty also explains how he picked his co-founders, what finally worked after years of pivots, why most people start companies for the wrong reasons, and what keeps him locked into this pace.

It’s a grounded, honest look into a founder who’s both extreme and surprisingly self-aware — and why, even with all the sacrifice, he’s genuinely having the time of his life.

In this episode, we go deep on:

• Why he sleeps ~6 hours, works 6 days a week, and still feels energized
• How Pylon went from “living in the office” to a 55-person Series B company
• Co-founder matching, pivots, and why the early years nearly broke him
• The real motivators behind starting a company (and why most people get it wrong)
• Why he thinks passion for a problem is overrated
• What “Sprint the Marathon” means and how he measures “winning”
• Why he sees startups as a competitive board game
• The immigrant mentality, risk tolerance, and his obsession with acceleration
• How he thinks about relationships, dating as a founder, and the cost of this lifestyle
• What building Pylon has taught him about leadership, culture, trust, and pacing himself

Highlights:
(00:39) Introduction and Daily Schedule 
(03:06) Work–Life Integration 
(05:57) Defining Success and Win Conditions 
(09:10) Sustainability and Personal Sacrifice 
(13:10) Family Background and Upbringing 
(20:48) Leaving Airbnb and Starting the Journey (38:51) Finding the Right Co-founders 
(46:56) Deciding Roles and Company Structure (56:08) Learning from Airbnb and Role Models (01:03:56) Admiring Elon Musk’s Approach 
(01:09:49) Biggest Fear: Slowing Down 
(01:12:34) Life Outside Work and Relationships (01:16:11) Building Pylon and Providing Value 
(01:20:33) Regret Minimization and Priorities (01:24:07) Beliefs About Tech and Life 
(01:26:19) Daily Habits and Closing Thoughts

Marty Kausas

https://x.com/marty_kausas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martykausas/

Luba Yudasina

https://instagram.com/lifeoflubaa

https://linkedin.com/in/yudasinal