EPISODE
Patrick Blumenthal, Jeremy Allaire, Anastasios Angelopoulos, Dylan Patel, Dana Settle, Kat Cole, Blake Scholl
48:10 Patrick Blumenthal, a guest on the show, discusses his experiences at New York City Tech Week, highlighting the diverse range of industry events and sponsorships. He provides insights into Ukraine's recent military operations, emphasizing the strategic impact of targeting Russian airfields to degrade their nuclear triad and the challenges posed by Russia's porous borders. Blumenthal also shares his perspective on the evolving landscape of drone warfare, noting the rapid advancements and the complexities involved in counter-drone technologies.
01:05:04 Jeremy Allaire, CEO and founder of Circle, has a background in building internet software platforms and infrastructure. He discusses his journey from founding Circle in 2013 with the vision of creating a protocol for digital dollars on the internet, to the company's recent successful IPO, which he views as a significant milestone for mainstream adoption of digital currency. Allaire emphasizes the importance of trust, transparency, and compliance in Circle's operations, highlighting the company's role as a market-neutral infrastructure platform that enables other institutions to build upon its technology.
01:25:37 Anastasios Angelopoulos, a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley, discusses Lumarina, an open platform for evaluating AI models through human preferences. Users can input prompts to compare responses from leading LLMs like Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude, voting on preferred outputs to generate leaderboards across various tasks. Angelopoulos highlights Lumarina's recent $100 million funding round, emphasizing its role in guiding AI development by capturing diverse human opinions.
01:37:26 Dylan Patel, Chief Analyst at SemiAnalysis, is known for his sharp analysis of AI chips, compute infrastructure, and global supply chains. He explores the technical and political forces shaping AI—from OpenAI’s scaling bottlenecks and China’s industrial edge to the risks of centralization and the potential of decentralized, open-source alternatives.
02:37:14 Dana Settle, co-founder and managing partner at Greycroft, discusses her extensive experience in venture capital since 1998, highlighting early investments in networking equipment and semiconductors. She emphasizes Greycroft's focus on AI infrastructure and applications, as well as their sustainability fund in partnership with companies like Coca-Cola, addressing the intersection of AI and energy consumption. Settle also shares insights into the evolving IPO landscape, citing the recent public offering of Mountain, a company Greycroft invested in back in 2011, and discusses the impact of celebrity partnerships, such as Ryan Reynolds' involvement with Mountain, on business growth.
02:53:19 Kat Cole, CEO of AG1, has a rich background in the consumer industry, having previously served as President and COO at Focus Brands, overseeing brands like Cinnabon and Jamba. In the conversation, she discusses her journey from starting as a hostess at Hooters to leading global brands, emphasizing the importance of customer experience and operational excellence. Cole also highlights AG1's strategic growth, including expanding manufacturing to the U.S., investing in clinical trials, and entering retail partnerships like Costco, while maintaining a focus on product quality and customer trust.
03:20:48 Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, discusses the recent reversal of the 1973 ban on supersonic flight over land, highlighting that technological advancements now allow for supersonic travel without disruptive sonic booms reaching the ground. He explains that Boom's XB-1 demonstrator achieved supersonic flight without generating audible booms, paving the way for their Overture airliner to operate over land. Scholl also shares plans to build the first full-scale pre-production prototype of Overture next year, aiming to revolutionize air travel with faster, more efficient flights.