Sigal Mandelker served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence from 2017 to 2019. She’s currently a general partner at Ribbit Capital, which invests in fintech companies. Sigal and Auren discuss how sanctions actually work and what makes them effective. Sigal explains how the US’s role in the global financial system could change as new financial technology evolves. They also discuss how the government should work with the private sector, why crypto regulation ...
Apr 04, 2023•47 min•Ep. 87
Jonathan Greenblatt is the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. Prior to leading the ADL, he was the founder of Ethos Brands, VP of Global Consumer Products at Starbucks, and Director of the Office of Social Innovation during the Obama administration. Auren and Jonathan discuss the role of technology in amplifying hate and extremism in society, and what tech companies and regulators should do about it. Jonathan breaks down how Section 230 could be reformed and how tech companies should approach mo...
Mar 28, 2023•56 min•Ep. 86
Dr. Jonathan Levin is the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He’s the winner of the 2011 John Bates Medal, and an expert in market design, game theory, and industrial organization. Auren and Jon discuss how Stanford GSB, one of the most selective schools in the world, thinks about finding talent. Jon breaks down the non-obvious ways universities foster innovation, and how that path of research differs from the private sector. They also discuss whether or not hedge fund managers ar...
Mar 21, 2023•55 min•Ep. 85
Dr. Nir Barzilai discovered the first “longevity gene” in humans and pioneered key research around the biology of aging. He’s the founding director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the author of the book Age Later . Nir and Auren discuss the most promising studies and treatments in the field of anti-aging research and break down the major takeaways from Nir’s seminal studies on centenarians— why they live longer, and what the rest of ...
Mar 14, 2023•53 min•Ep. 84
Tony is a retired 4-star US Army General and was the commander of the US Special Operations Command from 2016 to 2019. During his 35-year military career, he played a key role in numerous high-profile operations, including the mission that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. He’s currently a partner at Lux Capital. Auren and Tony discuss what we’ve learned from the war in Ukraine and which countries are the strategic winners and losers of the conflict. Tony has a clear, nuanced view of Rus...
Mar 07, 2023•49 min•Ep. 83
Auren and Megan discuss some of the less obvious factors that contributed to the superheated economy of the last decade. Megan breaks down how she thinks about monopolies in the tech sector and explains one of the most misunderstood things about markets. Megan also shares some of her insights on politics and culture. She explains how one of the most popular negotiation techniques in politics almost never works, how companies should think about cancellation mobs, and why there’s no point having a...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 82
Jaan Tallinn is one of the founding engineers of Skype and the file-sharing service Kazaa. He’s also a co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the Future of Life Institute. Auren and Jaan discuss the trajectory of artificial intelligence and the existential risks it could present to humanity. Jann talks about the prevailing attitudes towards risk in AI research and what needs to change in order get aligned, safe AI. Jaan and Auren also talk about how Jaan’s native Estonia ...
Feb 20, 2023•27 min•Ep. 81
Baroness Dido Harding has held high-level leadership roles in the UK’s National Health Service and in the private sector, at companies like TalkTalk, Tesco, and Thomas Cook. She was executive chair of the NHS’s COVID-19 Test and Trace effort. Dido and Auren break down what we’ve learned about data and public health during the pandemic. Dido explains how publicly accessible data helped leaders and the general public make decisions, and outlines what we should be doing to prepare for the next pand...
Feb 14, 2023•45 min•Ep. 80
Oren Etzioni was the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, or AI2. He’s founded multiple companies that had successful exits, and he’s a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Oren Etzioni and host Auren Hoffman discuss Oren’s criteria for artificial general intelligence and what signs he’s looking for to indicate that AGI is about to emerge. They talk about major issues in AI research right now, including the cost of compute, accessing data, and adversarial versus collaborati...
Feb 07, 2023•39 min•Ep. 79
Vivek Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur, investor and author. He founded Roivant Sciences in 2014 and Strive Asset Management in 2021. He’s also the author of the bestselling books Woke Inc. and Nation of Victims. Auren and Vivek discuss how CEOs and leaders should think about ideology in the workplace— both their own and their employees’. Vivek breaks down the history of the ESG movement and pulls back the veil on two companies that have massive, little-understood power over the public markets— prox...
Jan 31, 2023•39 min•Ep. 78
David is a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, one of the foremost SaaS VCs. He was the former COO at Paypal and he’s invested in over 20 unicorns, including AirBnB, Facebook, Palantir, Uber, and SpaceX. David and Auren discuss the state of SaaS in 2023 and consider how layoffs, seat contraction, and the broader macro environment could affect the ecosystem this year. David shares some advice on how companies should be positioning themselves to weather the downturn. They also talk about bub...
Jan 24, 2023•50 min•Ep. 77
Bret Stephens is a foreign affairs columnist at the New York Times and author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder. Auren and Bret discuss major takeaways from the war in Ukraine, and the US's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bret offers predictions about the future of warfare and weaponry, and explains what the US will have to do to remain the preeminent global power through the next decade. They also discuss cancel culture, decadence, and environmentalism. Wo...
Jan 17, 2023•58 min•Ep. 76
Thani Shamsi is the co-founder and CEO of Datarade, a Berlin-based data commerce platform. Auren and Thani dive deep into the data market and discuss how it’s developed in comparison to SaaS. Thani shares his insights on how the most successful data companies drive sales and how expects the data space to evolve. World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts. You can find Auren Hoffman on Twitter at @auren and Thani Shamsi on Twitter @ThaniShamsi....
Jan 10, 2023•41 min•Ep. 75
Amit Bendov is a serial founder who’s scaled three unicorn software companies to massive exits. He’s currently the co-founder and CEO of Gong, an AI sales intelligence platform. Auren and Amit discuss the best practices for B2B sales, based on data Gong has collected from over a billion sales conversations. Amit breaks down how winning strategies have changed in the challenging macro environment. Auren and Amit also discuss the generational difference in startup founders and what’s made Israel t...
Jan 03, 2023•31 min•Ep. 74
Eric Frank is the founder and CEO of LightBox, a GIS real estate data company. He’s also the creator of ADR.com and former president of the Investment & Advisory division at Thomson Reuters. Eric brings his perspective from financial services to analyze data adoption in the commercial real estate space. He outlines some non-obvious effects of COVID on the market and breaks down where real estate tech is headed. Eric and Auren also discuss building a business through acquisitions, and how Eri...
Dec 20, 2022•39 min•Ep. 73
Bryan Mistele is the founder and CEO of INRIX, a leading provider of traffic data and analytics. Auren and Bryan discuss how vehicle technology is changing and when we can expect to see mass adoption of driverless cars in the US and around the world. Bryan breaks down which industries he expects will go autonomous first and how self-driving will affect total vehicle sales. Auren and Bryan also discuss the intricacies of operating a global data company and what better safety data could do for tra...
Dec 13, 2022•40 min•Ep. 72
Sarah Bond is Corporate Vice President of Xbox’s Game Creator Experience & Ecosystem at Microsoft. Auren and Sarah discuss the future of gaming across platforms and where Sarah expects to see the most growth in the next few years. They break down the democratization of game development and what the growth of the creator economy could mean for the industry. Sarah also shares insights on how Microsoft transformed its culture to become a hyper successful acquirer and how she helped lead T-Mobil...
Dec 06, 2022•45 min•Ep. 71
Richard Barlow is the CEO of Wejo, a publicly traded company that collects and analyzes connected vehicle data. Wejo gathers billions of data points a day from cars all over the world. Richard and Auren discuss the state of global connected vehicle data— what data points are out there right now, how many cars on the road are equipped with connected tech, and what new sensors could do in the future. Richard also explains how data sharing could help get autonomous vehicles to the next level and br...
Nov 29, 2022•22 min•Ep. 70
Dimitri Dadiomov is the co-founder and CEO of Modern Treasury, a payment operations software company valued at over $2 billion. Auren and Dimitri discuss the future of crypto payments, innovation (or lack thereof) in the massive B2B payments space, and what Dimitri expects to change as more instant payment services come on line in the next few years. They also dive into culture and break down how Dimitri was able to gain traction and scale Modern Treasury to a $2 billion valuation in less than f...
Nov 22, 2022•39 min•Ep. 69
Richard Hanania is a foreign policy expert and author. He’s the president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology and a visiting scholar at the University of Texas’s Salem Center. Richard and Auren discuss which players have the most sway over American foreign policy and how they’ve affected the US’s global strategic positioning. Richard breaks down the failure of expert opinion in the intelligence community to anticipate events like the fall of Afghanistan and the invasion of U...
Nov 15, 2022•48 min•Ep. 68
Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital, which manages over $800 million in digital assets. He’s also the founder of the SALT Conferences, and he briefly served as the White House Communications Director. Anthony and Auren break down the 2022 crypto crash in depth and discuss the major factors that led to the crash. Anthony shares his perspective on potential crypto regulation, institutional investing in the space, and which blockchain technologies he expects ...
Nov 08, 2022•41 min•Ep. 67
Keith Rabois is the CEO of Openstore and a general partner at Founders Fund. He’s had an amazing career as a founder and senior operator at some of the most innovative companies of the last 20 years, including Paypal, Square, Opendoor, and LinkedIn. Auren and Keith take a deep dive into spotting talent— one of Keith’s strengths— and discuss how he’s managed to hire so many incredible people over the years. They break down what makes a successful founder, why sitting on “too many” boards is the r...
Nov 01, 2022•49 min•Ep. 66
Packy McCormick is the founder and writer of Not Boring, a Web3 and startup newsletter. He’s also an investor at Not Boring Capital. Packy and Auren dive into the tech landscape on a generational scale and talk about the loss of tech optimism and what’s limiting technological progress today. They discuss how to evaluate early-stage companies as investments and Packy shares his insight on what he looks for in crypto and Web3 companies. World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episod...
Oct 25, 2022•51 min•Ep. 65
Grover Norquist is the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform and one of the most influential conservative activists in Washington. Grover and Auren discuss the historical balance of power between the two parties and what partisan realignment has meant for the country. They also talk about the future of the filibuster in the Senate and the structural shifts that have occurred in taxation, investing, and education in the last 30 years. Grover is one of the most long-term thinkers in th...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 64
Michael Brown recently finished his term as director of the Defense Innovation Unit, a DoD organization focused on accelerating the adoption of commercial technology by the military. Auren and Michael go in depth on defense spending and discuss how to reform the budget process. Michael outlines the challenges of buying commercial technology for the military and offers some advice for startups looking to work with the government. They also discuss how new technologies are being used in the war in...
Oct 11, 2022•47 min•Ep. 63
Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT 4th) serves as the chair of the National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee. Jim and Auren discuss Jim’s recent white paper on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) that explored the potential for a US CBDC and how it should be structured. They also talk about what regulation could mean for the crypto landscape and discuss why it’s so hard for the military to buy innovative tech. World of Da...
Oct 04, 2022•38 min•Ep. 62
Jason Gardner is the founder and CEO of Marqeta, an open-API card issuing platform used by companies like Square, Doordash, and Uber. Jason is one of the most knowledgeable people in the complex world of payments. He gives an in depth breakdown of how the global payments system actually works and shares his outlook on disruptors like crypto and mobile wallets. Jason and Auren also talk about the differences between startup and scale CEOs, the process of going public, and what the best executive ...
Sep 27, 2022•49 min•Ep. 61
Tim Urban is the creator of Wait But Why, a blog with over half a million monthly subscribers. He writes about productivity, science, politics and the future. Tim and Auren discuss some of Tim’s biggest ideas around technology, including cryonics, life extension, and artificial superintelligence. They break down Tim’s framework for understanding political polarization and Tim shares his unique perspective on tackling some of life’s biggest challenges, from beating procrastination to marrying the...
Sep 20, 2022•56 min•Ep. 60
RJ Pittman is the CEO of Matterport, a $1.2 billion market cap spatial data and 3D capture company. RJ and Auren discuss the mechanics of bringing real estate, an “offline” asset class, into the 21st century. RJ talks about the company’s decision to launch a smartphone capture app and adopt a freemium model. He also shares some insight on entering an organization as a non-founder CEO. World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts. You can find Au...
Sep 13, 2022•25 min•Ep. 59
Mark Penn is the CEO of Stagwell and a longtime pollster and strategic advisor. He’s a former senior executive at Microsoft and has advised politicians including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Mark and Auren discuss Mark’s books Microtrends and Microtrends Squared , in which Mark identified minor demographic trends and predicted their outsized impact on society and the economy. Mark gets into the mechanics of good opinion polling and breaks down the major differences between political and consumer...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min•Ep. 58
