EPISODE
Jamie Cuffe, Ben Lerer, Lucas Atkins, Bridgit Mendler, Jeff Miller, Peter Steinberger, Aaron Frank
00:01:00 Jamie Cuffe, founder and CEO of Pace, an AI operations partner for leading insurers, announced the company's $10 million Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital. He discussed Pace's role in automating back-office operations for major insurers like Prudential and The Mutual Group, focusing on tasks such as new business intake, policy servicing, and claims processing. Cuffe highlighted the company's approach of converting standard operating procedures into natural language instructions for AI agents, enabling efficient and scalable automation of complex insurance workflows.
00:02:00 Ben Lerer, a native New Yorker, is the co-founder and managing partner of Lerer Hippeau Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and the founder of Thrillist, a digital media company. In the conversation, he reflects on his journey from launching Thrillist during New York's nascent tech scene to navigating the challenges of scaling a media business amid evolving digital landscapes. He emphasizes the importance of staying true to one's passion, the pitfalls of overextending in pursuit of growth, and the value of building niche, community-focused media ventures.
00:03:00 Lucas Atkins, Chief Technology Officer at Arcee AI, discusses the company's transition from customizing enterprise language models to developing their own, including the release of a 400-billion-parameter model. He highlights the shift in defining "small" language models, now considered to be under 50 billion parameters, and emphasizes the importance of task-driven reinforcement learning in enhancing model performance. Atkins also addresses the competitive landscape, noting the scarcity of U.S.-based open-source models and the need for sovereign AI solutions.
00:04:00 Bridgit Mendler, an American actress, singer, and entrepreneur, is the CEO and co-founder of Northwood Space, a satellite data startup. In the conversation, she discusses Northwood's recent $100 million Series B funding round and a $49.8 million contract with the Space Force, highlighting the company's rapid growth and its mission to streamline satellite communications by managing the entire ground infrastructure stack. She also emphasizes the importance of vertical integration to address challenges in supply chain, deployment, and regulatory approvals, aiming to accelerate the deployment of diverse and ambitious space missions.
00:05:00 Jeff Miller, Vice President of Marketing at Anduril Industries, discusses the company's expansion into merchandise, including collaborations with NASCAR and Ohio State University, and the launch of high-demand items like the flight jacket. He introduces the development of a global AI drone racing league, emphasizing autonomy and software innovation, with plans for virtual qualifiers leading to a physical competition in Columbus, Ohio. Additionally, Miller highlights Anduril's strategic growth, mentioning the upcoming Long Beach office to attract engineering talent and a focus on transparent product development to demonstrate scalability and reliability.
00:06:00 Peter Steinberger, an Austrian software engineer and entrepreneur, is renowned for founding PSPDFKit in 2011, which became the industry standard for PDF frameworks. After selling the company in 2021, he returned to the tech scene in 2025 to develop Clawdbot, an open-source AI assistant designed to run locally on users' devices, integrating with messaging platforms and performing tasks like sending emails and managing calendars. In a recent conversation, Steinberger discussed his journey from retirement back into software development, the creation and rapid adoption of Clawdbot, and his commitment to open-source projects that prioritize user privacy and autonomy.
00:07:00 Aaron Frank, a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, co-founded Final, Inc., a credit card company acquired by Goldman Sachs, contributing to the development of the Apple Card. In the conversation, he discusses the challenges and opportunities in agentic commerce, emphasizing the need for efficient payment rails to support AI-driven transactions, and explores the role of stablecoins in facilitating global financial transactions.