In this episode of Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg interviews Lauren Farleigh and Zach Perret from Mischief VC, discussing their experiences as founders and how they leveraged those to build their venture firm. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess — SPONSORS: ☁️ Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs. OCI has four to eight times the bandwidth o...
Apr 22, 2025•46 min•Ep. 86
This week on Turpentine VC, we are releasing an episode from The Cognitive Revolution, hosted by Nathan Labenz. Nathan sits down with Olivia Moore and Anish Acharya from Andreesen Horowitz to discuss the trends, investment strategies, and future potential of AI voice technology in both B2B and consumer sectors, exploring its implications for various industries including call centers, SMBs, and personalized AI companions. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.t...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 84
Andrew Braccia, partner at Accel for nearly two decades, sits down with Erik Torenberg to discuss the firm's evolution from Silicon Valley early-stage investor to global, multi-stage powerhouse. Braccia explains Accel's two major strategic shifts: global expansion with local teams in Europe, India, and beyond; and the launch of their growth fund in 2008 targeting bootstrapped companies like Atlassian, Qualtrics, and Squarespace. Braccia reflects on lessons from his journey from Yahoo to venture ...
Apr 08, 2025•45 min•Ep. 84
This week on Turpentine VC, we’re sharing Erik Torenberg’s interview with Susa Venture’s Chad Byers, which originally aired in September 2023. Chad discusses the firm's journey, their fund structures, and their vision for specialized seed investing, emphasizing the importance of focus, discipline, and adapting to market dynamics. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at ht...
Mar 25, 2025•54 min•Ep. 83
This week on Turpentine VC, we’re dropping an episode from David Weisburd’s “How I Invest Podcast” with Nichole Wischoff of Wischoff Ventures. Nichole discusses her impressive $50 million fundraise, closed in a bear market, sharing her strategy, brand-building efforts, and tips on leveraging social media to attract investors. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https:...
Mar 19, 2025•29 min•Ep. 82
This week, we’re re-releasing Erik Torenberg’s interview with Alexis Ohanian. Alexis discusses his journey from co-founding Reddit to creating the venture firm Seven Seven Six, detailing its unique approach of using software to enhance venture capital operations and founder support, transparency, and accountability — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/Tu...
Mar 11, 2025•54 min•Ep. 81
This week on Turpentine VC, we’re re-releasing Erik Torenberg’s interview with Logan Bartlett, partner at Redpoint and host of The Logan Bartlett Show. They discuss Redpoint's approach to venture, patterns in the VC ecosystem, and the strategies of venture's most consequential firms. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse — RECOMMENDED PODC...
Mar 04, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 80
This week on Turpentine VC, we are releasing an episode from 1 to 100 hosted by Usman Hanif. Usman interviews Brendan Foody, founder and CEO of Marcor, an AI-powered recruitment platform that automates the process of hiring, vetting, and paying employees. Brendan discusses Mercor's rapid growth, technology behind their operations, and the company's focus on reducing hiring costs while improving efficiency for both employers and candidates. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publica...
Feb 25, 2025•52 min•Ep. 79
In this episode of Turpentine VC, we're sharing Erik Torenberg's 2023 interview with Sarah Tavel and Eric Vishria from Benchmark, exploring the firm's unique minimalistic approach, commitment to deep founder partnerships, and their deliberate avoidance of platform teams. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse — SPONSORS: ☁️ Oracle Cloud Inf...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 78
This week on Turpentine VC, we're re-releasing one of our most popular episode: Erik Torenberg’s interview with Somesh Dash. Somesh is a General Partner at IVP, shares insights on IVP's unique positioning in the venture capital ecosystem, the importance of team construction, the future of venture capital, and how IVP supports founders through scaling and strategic growth. — 📰Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏Help shape our show ...
Feb 11, 2025•56 min•Ep. 77
Kareem Zaki shares the founding and development of Thrive Capital, emphasizing their strategy of opportunism combined with a focus on category-defining companies, their unique approach to talent cultivation and company-building in various sectors, especially healthcare, and their intentional media minimalism. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/Turpenti...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 78
Greg Castle, founder of Anorak Ventures, discusses the evolution and future of spatial computing, particularly in AR, VR, and technology's impact on human interaction and learning. This conversation took place in February 2023. — 📰Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: 🎙️Check out Modern Relationships, where Erik Torenber...
Jan 28, 2025•46 min•Ep. 75
Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst discusses the firm's evolution from an artisanal business to an enduring venture platform, focusing on operational rigor, fund size, talent strategy, and investments in companies like Stripe and Snap, while emphasizing the importance of responsible innovation and long-term industry transformations. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener surve...
Jan 21, 2025•43 min•Ep. 74
Today on Turpentine VC, we’re releasing one of our most popular episodes: Erik’s interview with Aydin Senkut, founder and managing partner of Felicis Ventures. Aydin discusses the evolution and distinct strategies of Felicis Ventures, their focus on mental health, and insights on successful generalist investing in venture capital. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at h...
Jan 14, 2025•57 min•Ep. 73
This episode of Turpentine VC was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco in October 2018.Keith Rabois discusses his frameworks for identifying talent, sharing anecdotes about notable operators and companies like PayPal, LinkedIn, and Square. He emphasizes the importance of talent assessment, strategic thinking, and offers career advice while reflecting on his own experiences and observations. — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/e...
Jan 07, 2025•59 min•Ep. 72
This week on Turpentine VC, Andy Price, a veteran executive recruiter and venture capitalist, joins Nolan Church and Kelli Dragovich from HR Heretics, a Turpentine podcast, for a deep dive into the crucial aspects of hiring, retaining, and developing top talent. Andy has built leadership teams for renowned companies like Snowflake and DocuSign. Check out HR Heretics for more conversations like this one (links below) — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/T...
Dec 31, 2024•54 min•Ep. 71
Today we're sharing a conversation between Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and Nathan Labenz, AI scout, which originally aired on The Cognitive Revolution podcast from Turpentine. Their discussion explores AI systems complexity and debates whether AI development will lead to AGI. The conversation covers model scaling, biological AI, driverless cars, and AI safety concerns. — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse — SPONS...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 70
This ‘lost episode’ of Turpentine VC with investor Elad Gil was recorded at a unique moment in time (September 2022) — before ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity launched. Drawing from his experiences at Google, Elad discusses early ML systems, the open source debate, NVIDIA, labor markets, and AI alignment and shares some behind the scenes anecdotes. — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Check out Modern Relationships , ...
Dec 18, 2024•46 min•Ep. 69
This week on Turpentine VC, we feature a compilation episode of our popular interviews with Tom Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures who just announced a $450M second fund less than two years after launching. Over the course of the episode Tomasz explains their concentrated portfolio approach, and expands on their key theses in AI, decentralized infrastructure, and the future for data businesses (like Databricks and Snowflake). — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey a...
Dec 11, 2024•53 min•Ep. 68
This week on Turpentine VC, we’re releasing Sourcery’s Molly O'Shea’s interview with Alex Kolicich, founding partner at 8VC to discuss Alex's H1 2024 report on the venture landscape, covering AI investment challenges, the resurgence of defense technology, and broader economic trends impacting markets. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/3f9d98f9-c3d6-42c9-b2cc-e6ba32c668e4 — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveacces...
Dec 03, 2024•54 min•Ep. 67
This week on Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg interviews Ed Sim, founder of boldstart, on growing the firm from a $1 million fund to $800 million in assets, with a focus on early-stage enterprise and AI investments. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/d0139578-d85f-4171-b879-059dd2813450 — 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse . — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: 🎙️Unpack Pricing Dive into the dark arts of SaaS pricing with Metronome...
Nov 26, 2024•52 min•Ep. 66
Today, we’re sharing a special episode from our friends at the chart-topping a16z Podcast . In this conversation, a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz dive deep into the REAL story behind the creation of Netscape—the web browser co-created by Marc that revolutionized the internet and changed the world. As Ben notes at the top, until today, this story has never been fully told either in its entirety or accurately. The two discuss Marc's early life and how it shaped his journey into t...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 65
Chris Paik, general partner at Pace Capital, discusses the evolution of the venture capital industry, his frameworks for understanding AI's impact on software, and the future of consumer companies in light of changing infrastructure requirements. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/5eeb1531-f0b6-437f-95f6-3949c0ce780c — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Unpack Pricing Dive into the dark arts of SaaS pricing with Metronome CEO Scott Woody and tech leaders. Learn how strategic pricing dri...
Nov 12, 2024•49 min•Ep. 64
This week on Turpentine VC, we’re re-releasing Erik Torenberg’s 2023 interview with Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins to talk about how they have taken over the firm's iconic history and helped drive the next chapter. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/bc08c5ad-9680-4c40-8764-cba7fdf68d16 — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: 🎙️ Unpack Pricing - Dive into the dark arts ...
Nov 04, 2024•58 min•Ep. 63
Wing Capital's Chris Zeoli discusses AI infrastructure trends, foundation models, data center challenges, cloud security, and Wing's strategic investments. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/6e5d9973-6c77-4ed2-aab7-355be82b9133 — 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: 🎙️ Unpack Pricing - Dive into the dark arts of SaaS pricing with Metronome CEO Scott Woody and tech leaders. Learn how st...
Oct 30, 2024•49 min•Ep. 62
Keith Rabois, Logan Bartlett, Kevin Ryan, and Zach Weinberg share a rare anecdote about the first venture investment into OpenAI, lay out the bull and bear case for the leading AI companies and discuss regulatory chess games at play in American politics. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/8a2ea800-ab8a-4115-80c7-04c059d3fb10 — 📰Be notified early when Turpentine drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess — RECOMMENDED PODCAST: 🎙️This Won't Last Eaves...
Oct 22, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 61
This week on Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg is joined by Arif Janmohamed, partner at Lightspeed Ventures to dive into the world of AI investment. They explore Lightspeed's evolution from a strong focus on enterprise early-stage investing to becoming a global multi-stage firm with a $7 billion capital reach. Arif shares insights on identifying market opportunities, their frameworks for investing in AI, and the future of cybersecurity. — 🔥 Apply to join over 400 founders and Execs in the Turpentin...
Oct 15, 2024•33 min•Ep. 60
Mike Maples Jr., Founding Partner at Floodgate, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Mike’s new book “Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future”. This is a masterclass on early-stage venture investing. Mike shares his views on identifying ideas and founders that led to his early investments in Lyft, Twitter, and Okta. They also cover how Mike thinks about fundraising from LPs, his learnings from legendary LP David Swensen, and the power and importance of pursuing non-consensus i...
Oct 10, 2024•55 min•Ep. 59
In this episode of Turpentine VC, we’re releasing one of our most popular interviews with Roger Ehrenberg, owner of IA Capital Partners and the Managing Partner of Eberg Capital. Roger discusses his contrarian strategy to seed investing that has allowed him to generate 10x fund returns, and emphasizes the importance of focusing on concentrated portfolios to achieve outsized success. They talk about the impact of interest rates, macroeconomic factors, and the potential of sports investments. — 🔥...
Oct 01, 2024•42 min•Ep. 58
Anish Acharya, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, dives deep into the transformative potential of AI in the consumer technology sector. Anish discusses a16z’s "Abundance Agenda," detailing how AI is set to revolutionize personal finance, education, wellness, and social interactions. From the concept of "self-driving money" to AI-powered companions and personalized learning, Anish paints a vivid picture of the future while shedding light on the firms decision making and focus areas. He also ...
Sep 26, 2024•43 min•Ep. 57
