Rohit Krishnan is an investor and writer; he is the author of Strange Loop Canon (he was previously on the podcast here ). Visa Veerasamy is the author of Introspect and Friendly Ambitious Nerd , among other things. In this conversation we talk about whether entrepreneurs are born or made; the role of culture in ambition; how we can make people more ambitious and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur Firs...
Feb 08, 2023•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha are the co-authors of The Startup of You , which explores how to adapt, take risks, grow your network and transform your career. Reid was co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner at Greylock. He sits on the boards of a number of organisations including Microsoft, OpenAI and, of course, my company Entrepreneur First. Ben is an investor, entrepreneur and writer and is one of the founders of Village Global , a venture capital firm. As well as their book, which I recommend,...
Jul 31, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Iason Gabriel is a research scientist at DeepMind and was previously a lecturer in political and moral philosophy at Oxford University. His work focuses on the moral questions raised by artificial intelligence. In this conversation we discuss how and why AI is different from other technologies; the problem of value alignment in AI; what political philosophy can tell us about how to build ethical AI systems; and much more. Iason's paper on value alignment that we discuss is here . In the paper, h...
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross are the authors of a new book, Talent: How to identify energisers, creatives and winners around the world . Tyler is an economist, who is perhaps best known for his daily blogging at Marginal Revolution (which I've been reading since 2003!) and as the founder of Emergent Ventures , a grant-making programme focused on ambitious young people. Daniel is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and investor, perhaps best known as the founder of Cue, a search engine, and Pione...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Kyla Scanlon is a creator and educator who focuses on explaining finance and economics through her newsletter , YouTube and TikTok videos . She has a unique perspective on how the internet continues to change everything around us. In this conversation we discuss social media and the authentic self; Elon Musk, Twitter and free speech; memes as an investment strategy; the future of the dollar as a global reserve currency and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Kyla Scanlon. You can subscribe t...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Stuart Buck is the Executive Director of the Good Science Project , a new initiative to make science funding more effective, innovative, and robust. This mission has been the major theme of Stuart’s career; he was previously Vice President of Research at Arnold Ventures , a large philanthropic foundation. In this conversation, we discuss the twin problems of reproducibility and innovation in science, and whether they’re in tension. We talk about whether and why most published research findings a...
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Tanya is an academic and entrepreneur. She leads the Digital State project at Cambridge University's Bennett Institute and is the founder of StateUp , an advisory firm focused on innovation that serves a public purpose. In this conversation, we talk about the idea of "public purpose technology", the companies that are building it and the investors that are funding it. We talk through the challenges of building for the public sector - from procurement to fundraising - as well as the big opportuni...
Apr 04, 2022•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Nadia Eghbal is an independent researcher and writer. She’s the author of Working in Public , which is an ethnographic study of how Open Source Software is made and maintained. She recently won an Emergent Ventures grant to study and write about technology wealth and philanthropy. In this conversation, we discuss how and why technology entrepreneurs think differently about philanthropy , what this means for the funding of science , how crypto is changing this space and much more. Enjoy this conv...
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 52 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Shashank Joshi is defence editor at the Economist. Long-time listeners may remember our conversation last year on geopolitics and security. Shashank joins me again today for a special edition on the situation in Ukraine. Shashank talks us through how we got here, what Putin wants, and some of the possible endgames. I should emphasise that we recorded this first thing Friday morning UK time and it’s an extremely fast-moving situation, so we tried to focus on topics that wouldn’t be completely out...
Feb 28, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Sam Arbesman is a complexity scientist and writer and is currently a scientist-in-residence at Lux Capital , a leading venture capital fund. Sam’s writing covers many topics that will be familiar to Thoughts in Between readers and listeners. In this conversation, we discuss the need for institutional innovation in science, the value of long-term thinking, the value of historical literacy in technology, and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Sam Arbesman. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruiti...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Sebastian Mallaby is a journalist and author. His latest book, The Power Law , is an exploration of the history and impact of venture capital that seeks to explain how VCs see the world and why it matters. In this conversation, we discuss why VC is so different from any other asset class, why VC networks should be considered a third core institution of capitalism alongside firms and markets, and whether VC has a positive impact in the world. You can order the Power Law here . ----------------- T...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Allister Furey is co-founder and CEO of Sylvera, a technology startup building a ratings agency for carbon markets. In this conversation, we discuss why evaluation and verification is so important for building a net-zero economy and the challenges that face innovators and investors in today's market. We talk through how Sylvera creates ratings for carbon projects and why this might be the key to unlocking trillions of dollars of investment for carbon offset and removal initiatives (Allister used...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Rohit Krishna is a venture capitalist and the writer behind Strange Loop Canon , one of my favourite Substacks (and one that regular readers of the TiB newsletter may recognise). In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about how billionaires can be better at philanthropy, why identifying extreme talent is so challenging, new ways to invest in talent, why cities tend to last so much longer than companies, and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the...
Dec 06, 2021•2 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Michelle You is co-founder and CEO of Supercritical , a startup that helps companies achieve Net Zero through carbon removal. Michelle is a serial entrepreneur (she was previously one of the founders of Songkick) and in this conversation, we dive into why she decided to focus on carbon removal for her next company. We also explore why the label Net Zero can be misleading, the challenges of creating new markets in carbon, and which carbon removal technologies she’s most excited about. -----------...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Christian Hernandez is one of the founding partners of 2150 , a venture capital firm dedicated to backing startups that are reinventing how cities are built, run, and maintained - with a particular focus on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. In this conversation, we talk about the role that venture capital and startups have to play in addressing the climate crisis. We discuss the most promising areas where startups can make a difference, why climate change is a national security issue...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 52 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Tony Kulesa is one of the founders of Petri , a new approach for funding formation stage startups at the intersection of biology and engineering. We spend a lot of this conversation talking about why there is such an explosion of activity in biotech entrepreneurship today and why new models for supporting and financing founders are needed. Regular readers of the Thoughts in Between newsletter may also remember that we recently discussed Tony’s excellent essay on Tyler Cowen’ and talent curation ...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Jason Crawford is the founder of Roots of Progress , a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Jason is a prolific writer on the history of science and technology and is one of the leading figures in the Progress Studies community. In this conversation, we discuss what causes progress; why it's not universally popular; what the history of bicycle tells us about why advances in technology sometimes take so long; why the future people imagined in the ...
Oct 11, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Azeem Azhar is an entrepreneur, investor, and the creator of Exponential View - a newsletter and community dedicated to understanding the future. He's the author of the new book, Exponential , which explores how accelerating technology is changing our world faster than our institutions are designed to react. In this conversation, we discuss some of the big ideas in the book, from the emergence of superstar corporations to the future of work and cities. I highly recommend the book, which I think ...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Ilan is CEO of Activate , a non-profit fellowship that enables entrepreneurial scientists to transform their research into world-changing deep tech products and businesses. There are lots of parallels between my day job at Entrepreneur First and what Ilan is building at Activate, so it was great to explorie what we’ve both learned in this conversation. Unlike EF, Activate is focused on science that is going to take a long time, often at least a couple of years, before it’s ready for even the ear...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 21
My guests today are Jess Whittlestone and Jack Clark. Jess is a senior research associate at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Existential Risk . Jack is a co-founder of Anthropic , an AI safety and research company, and was previously Policy Director at OpenAI. Together they are co-authors on a new paper on why and how governments should monitor AI deployment, which you can read here . In this conversation, we discuss the paper and the ways in which governments need to act not to ensure ...
Aug 31, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 20
I'd like to introduce you to a podcast from Entrepreneurs First, my new show with EF cofounder Alice Bentinck. Together, we've been talking to some of the brightest entrepreneurs who have ever set foot in an EF office about what it takes to build a business from the ground up. In this episode I speak to Alex Dalyac, co-founder and CEO of Tractable, EF's first unicorn. We're joined by LinkedIn's cofounder and Chairman, Reid Hoffman. Reid and Alex share what they believe are the most important ten...
Aug 27, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Ethan Mollick is a professor of entrepreneurship at Wharton , a former founder and author of the book, The Unicorn’s Shadow. Readers of the Thoughts in Between newsletter may also recognise him as the curator of perhaps the world’s most interesting Twitter feed . I think I link to Ethan more than to anyone else. In this conversation, we dive deeply into what the academic literature tells us about entrepreneurship. It’s the first time either of us have ever met, so during the conversation, I shar...
Aug 16, 2021•1 hr 50 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Gian Volpicelli is a journalist at Wired UK, where he covers the intersection of technology and politics. He’s also the author of the recently published Wired Guide to Cryptocurrency , which you can think of as a beginner’s guide to all things crypto. This conversation is for people who are new to crypto and feared it was too late to learn. We talk through the economics, politics, and sociology of cryptocurrency - and why you should care. Some of the links we discuss include: - The Bitcoin white...
Jul 26, 2021•2 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Jeffrey Ding is a doctoral candidate and Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he also works as the China Lead for the Centre for the Governance of AI. He’s one of the foremost English language commentators on AI in China and is the writer of the brilliant ChinAI newsletter , which is an invaluable guide to the topic. In this conversation we discuss recent developments in Chinese AI, including talent, funding and technical breakthroughs, as well as looking at Jeff’s academic work on ...
Jul 12, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Gena Gorlin is a professor and practicing psychologist. Both her academic and her clinical work focuses on how individuals can overcome psychological obstacles to achieve goals. She’s become especially interested in working with ambitious innovators, particularly startup founders. Over the last few months, I’ve been lucky to work with Gena on a major project in my day job at Entrepreneur First and I thought that her observations would be interesting to a broader audience. In this conversation we...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Meia Nouwens is a China expert who works as a senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. She’s thought deeply and written extensively on many favorite Thoughts in Between topics, from the geopolitics of semiconductors to the role of AI in the future of war. In this conversation, we discuss China’s Digital Silk Road, the likelihood of war in Taiwan, and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entr...
Jun 14, 2021•1 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Angus Mercer, Sophie Dannreuther and Gregory Lewis are three of the people behind, “Future Proof”, a report released last week by the Centre for Long Term Resilience on how the UK and the world can become more resilient to extreme risks in the decades ahead. In the wake of the pandemic, thinking about how we mitigate catastrophic risk seems both urgent and important. In this conversation, we discuss the most important steps governments can take, with a particular focus on biosecurity. I hope you...
Jun 07, 2021•1 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Ash Fontana is Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence startups. He’s also the author of The AI First Company, a new book that draws on Ash’s experience as an entrepreneur and investor and lays out the principles for building a successful business based on data learning effects. In this conversation, we dive into the book’s core ideas and discuss the past, present and future of AI. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consultin...
May 31, 2021•2 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Shashank Joshi is defence editor at the Economist and an expert in international security, geopolitics, and military affairs. I’ve known Shashank for many years and I think he has the most encyclopedic knowledge of anyone I’ve met. As a result, this is an extremely wide-ranging and, for me, educational conversation, in which we cover topics including why Vladimir Putin behaves the way he does, how spies get by in the age of ubiquitous digital surveillance, the world’s most underrated security ri...
May 17, 2021•2 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Erik Hoel is a neuroscientist whose work we’ve discussed in Thoughts in Between before. But he’s also an excellent writer of fiction: his first novel, The Revelations, has just been published in the US and is available in the UK from 13 May 2021. It’s a brilliant novel of ideas centered on the search for a theory of consciousness. It’s one of the best things I’ve read this year and this discussion is a spoiler-free introduction to some of its big themes: the sociology of science, the nature of a...
May 03, 2021•2 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 11
