EPISODE
Brad Gerstner, Hermeus, Delian, Carlo, Steven Pang, Elias, Jackson, Hooman, Ferdinand, Juan Pablo, Jennifer, Teddy, Sigil, Aidan, Colton, Koki
11:05 Brad Gerstner is the founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, a technology-focused investment firm managing over $15 billion in assets across public and private markets . Born in 1971 in Goshen, Indiana, he holds degrees from Wabash College (BA), Indiana University Maurer School of Law (JD), and Harvard Business School (MBA) . Before founding Altimeter in 2008, Gerstner worked in law, served as Indiana's Deputy Secretary of State, and held roles at General Catalyst and PAR Capital Management . Under his leadership, Altimeter has invested in companies like Snowflake, Grab, and ByteDance .
41:15 Hermeus is an Atlanta-based aerospace startup developing hypersonic aircraft for defense and commercial use. Founded in 2018, it focuses on turbine-based combined cycle engines, notably the Chimera, which transitions from turbojet to ramjet to reach speeds above Mach 5. Its Quarterhorse program is testing this technology, while future aircraft include Darkhorse (a military drone) and Halcyon (a 20-seat passenger jet targeting 90-minute transatlantic flights) .
56:24 EnduroSat is a Bulgarian aerospace startup founded in 2015 by Raycho Raychev, specializing in software-defined nanosatellites and CubeSats. Its Shared Satellite Service enables clients to deploy payloads without building their own satellites, reducing costs and complexity. With over 3,000 modules in orbit, EnduroSat supports applications like Earth observation, IoT, and space weather monitoring. In 2025, it raised €43 million to expand satellite production and build a major R&D center in Sofia .
01:17:53 Carlo Kobe is the co-founder and CEO of Fizz, a fintech startup offering a credit-building debit card for college students. Originally from Germany, he studied statistics and economics at Harvard University. Kobe co-founded Fizz in 2021 after facing challenges obtaining credit as a student, leading to the development of a product aimed at helping peers build credit responsibly. Under his leadership, Fizz has expanded to over 300 U.S. campuses and raised $14.4 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins .
01:31:49 Steven Pang is the co-founder and CEO of Orbit Technologies, a neurotechnology startup developing non-invasive brain-computer interfaces to enhance immersion in gaming and virtual reality. Founded in 2023 while Pang was a sophomore at Georgetown University, Orbit's device stimulates the brain's vestibular system to create realistic sensations of movement . The company has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Dune Ventures and won multiple pitch competitions, including Georgetown's Bark Tank and Johns Hopkins' FastForward U Demo Day . In 2025, Pang was named a Thiel Fellow, recognizing his work in advancing consumer neurotechnology
01:42:49 Elias Fizesan is the co-founder and CEO of Canopy Labs, a startup developing AI models to create lifelike digital humans for software interfaces. He co-developed Orpheus, an open-source text-to-speech model capable of conveying human-like emotions and vocal nuances. A former Columbia University student, Fizesan left to focus on Canopy Labs and was named a 2025 Thiel Fellow.
01:52:13 Jackson Denka is the founder and CEO of Azura, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform launched in 2024. Azura aims to simplify DeFi by aggregating various blockchains and protocols into a unified, non-custodial interface . Denka, a former University of Chicago student, started Azura after recognizing the need for a more accessible DeFi experience following the collapse of FTX .
02:03:14 Hooman Reza Nezhad is the founder and CEO of Solcoa Industries, a San Francisco-based startup producing the first zero-carbon, American-made rare earth metals at scale. A 2025 Thiel Fellow, he previously conducted research on molten-salt electrochemical cells for extracting oxygen and metals from Martian regolith at the University of Waterloo. Nezhad is also a Foresight Institute Fellow and an advocate for youth STEM education. His work bridges sustainable industrial innovation on Earth and future space exploration.
02:12:36 Ferdinand Dabitz is the co-founder and CEO of Ivy, a Munich-based fintech offering a global API for instant bank payments. Under his leadership, Ivy has raised over €25 million from investors like Valar Ventures and Creandum . Previously, Dabitz worked at McKinsey & Company and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition . He also hosts The New Money Podcast, discussing trends in fiat and crypto finance.
02:21:24 Juan Pablo Ebrath is a 22-year-old Colombian entrepreneur and founder of Phase Labs, a biotech startup aiming to enable full-body regeneration through programmable biology . In 2025, he became the first Colombian awarded the Thiel Fellowship, receiving $200,000 to advance his work . Previously, he co-founded and sold the proptech startup Macondo to Bricksave, where he served as co-CTO . Ebrath also participated in the Z Fellows program and conducted research in developmental biology at the University of the Andes .
02:31:53 Jennifer Lin is the founder and CEO of AUG Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company developing treatments for rare pediatric and orphan diseases. She is a Thiel Fellow and an MIT graduate. Under her leadership, AUG is advancing AVTX-803, an investigational therapy for leukocyte adhesion deficiency type II, currently in clinical trials at the Mayo Clinic .
02:41:29 Teddy Warner is the 19-year-old founder and CEO of Intempus, a robotics startup launched in September 2024. Intempus retrofits robots with human-like emotional expressions by integrating physiological signals such as sweat, heart rate, and body temperature, enhancing human-robot interaction . Warner, a Thiel Fellow and former Midjourney researcher, aims to bridge the gap between observation and action in robots by introducing a "physiological state" akin to human emotions . Operating solo, he has secured partnerships with seven enterprise robotics companies and plans to expand his team for real-world testing .
02:51:03 Sigil Wen is a Canadian entrepreneur and Thiel Fellow known for founding BitSwap, a BitClout-to-Ethereum exchange valued at $10 million. He co-launched Airchat with Naval Ravikant, leading its viral growth and AI features. Wen also founded Extraordinary.com, assisting top global talent in obtaining U.S. O-1 visas, drawing from his own experience securing an O-1 at 20 and an EB1A green card shortly after. As an angel investor, he has backed startups like Kerna Labs, Dench, and Synex Medical .
03:02:55 Aidan Smith is the founder of Innerphases, a startup developing human-native communication devices aimed at transforming how people work and think . Based in Mountain View, California, Smith was named a 2025 Thiel Fellow, receiving a $200,000 grant to pursue his venture full-time . He previously worked as a software engineer at Neuralink and studied computer science at Georgia Tech before leaving to focus on entrepreneurship.
03:13:03 Colton El-Habr is the co-founder and CTO of Orbit Technologies, a neurotechnology startup developing non-invasive devices that stimulate the brain's vestibular system to create immersive virtual reality experiences. A former engineering student at Johns Hopkins, he left in 2023 to focus on Orbit full-time. The company has raised over $500,000 in pre-seed funding and won multiple pitch competitions, including Johns Hopkins' FastForward U Demo Day . El-Habr envisions Orbit's technology extending beyond entertainment to therapeutic applications for neurological disorders.
03:25:28 Koki Mashita is the founder and CEO of Aeolus Labs, a startup developing AI-driven weather intervention technologies to mitigate extreme storms. Aeolus focuses on safety-first cloud-seeding and microphysics simulations to weaken cyclones before landfall, with pilot collaborations underway in the Philippines . Mashita, a 2025 Thiel Fellow, previously worked on AI weather forecasting at Atmo and conducted machine learning research at Berkeley RISE Lab .