"To maintain your position as a market leader in the tech space means that you have to constantly innovate...you can't rest on your laurels. So we have to constantly push the envelope in what we do in this space. What we've been doing is really being a tech partner for educators and school systems... we have many educators in our app and many schools want that help. They want to understand what can they do with all these AI [tools] and it's changing every day... so [we're] pairing [up] with scho...
Jan 30, 2024•37 min
“It ends up being about: is this truly a venture investable business? You need to be in a massive market and have the ability to scale quickly…the company should grow with speed and accelerate.” Join Manasi Patwa in her conversation with Arjun Arora, Founder and Managing Partner at Format One, where he advises transformational companies on their growth strategies through hands-on and impactful collaboration. Prior to starting FormatOne, Arjun was a Partner at 500 Startups, where he invested in t...
Jan 29, 2024•29 min
"We don't always need an AI person [to] come up with a new transformer-like model, but we do need people who have a good intuition on understanding where these models do well and where these models can fail." In this episode, Cynthia and Leon interviewed Dr. Kanu Gulati, partner at Khosla Ventures. Kanu started her career as a research scientist at Intel, was a founding engineer at a number of early start-ups, and has since been investing at the forefront of AI/ML applications, robotics and hard...
Jan 26, 2024•30 min
“On the sustainability side, [we’re] helping our members understand the benefits and positive impact they’re having… How much are they able to reduce their carbon footprint? How much waste is diverted from landfills by shopping from our platform?... Being able to present that information is critical to helping [customers] feel good about their membership and really helps provide value that goes beyond the boring utility of grocery shopping.” This week, Leon and Zoë are joined by Sasha Siddhartha...
Jan 24, 2024•28 min
“It’s alot of reacting to the situation, but we don’t run these companies. I think that as a minority investor you have to have the mentality that you backed a set of entrepreneurs to do it, and you have to coach them and support them as best as you can, but you can’t run the company.” In today’s episode, Cynthia and Zoë welcome Wharton alumni Charles Birnbaum to the podcast. After beginning his career on Wall Street, Charles moved into the venture capital space. As a partner at Bessemer Venture...
Jan 17, 2024•28 min
“Space Traffic Management is not just about avoiding collisions, it’s about ensuring the sustainability of space for future generations.” In this podcast episode, Emma Robinson converses with Araz Feyzi, co-founder and CTO of Kahan Space. They discuss the critical issue of space traffic coordination, highlighting Kahan's pioneering Pathfinder platform for automated space traffic management. Feyzi delves into the challenges of avoiding orbital debris and satellite collisions, emphasizing the impo...
Jan 08, 2024•29 min
"When you go out to raise...you have to think about if you have a story to tell...think like an investor. Why are you the best person to solve this?" Join Manasi Patwa and Cynthia Zhou as they chat with Vivien Ho, Partner at Pear VC (Wharton '21). Listen to dive into the world of early-stage investing, tips for founders and entrepreneurs, and insights on the tech sphere as it stands today.
Dec 15, 2023•38 min
Learn in this episode from Muhammad Shahzad, CFO of Relativity Space. With a valuation of over $4B, Relativity is one of the few companies positioned to challenge SpaceX. "Our long-term goal, and as audacious as those sounds, is to create humanity's industrial base on Mars." Emma Robinson and Shahzad delve into financial strategy and risk in a capital intensive industry with some of the longest time horizons, Relativity’s unique position, and his journey from Wharton to leading the financial hel...
Nov 28, 2023•41 min
“We were the last ones in the market by years… and yet our investors have an unrealized IRR that is significantly better than anyone else’s” Join Emma Robinson as she dives into conversation with Gabe Dominocielo, co-founder and president of Umbra Space. Discover how Umbra's innovative technology is reshaping our view from space, offering unprecedented clarity and detail. Learn about their unique business strategy that prioritizes quality and affordability, setting a new standard in the industry...
Nov 27, 2023•36 min
"To be a great investor, you need to be deeply curious...you need to be great at operating in ambiguity. Show your ability to drive to an outcome. And it's very important to have that empathy or EQ." Join Manasi Patwa and Cynthia Zhou in a conversation with Meera Clark, Principal at Redpoint Ventures. Listen to learn about Meera's remarkable career journey in the investing world, her view on key drivers in the tech-enabled sustainability and wellness sectors, and advice to founders and investors...
Nov 25, 2023•31 min
“How do we use data more and more intelligently to be able to understand who do we market to, how do we market to them, [and] what’s the story that we tell each of them in a different way to be really relevant?” This week, Leon and Zoë are joined by Jessica Gilmartin, Wharton alum and Chief Marketing Officer at Calendly. With experience across large companies and startups, Jessica is an expert in her field. In this episode, she discusses the critical questions her team at Calendly is asking and ...
Nov 15, 2023•29 min
Ever wondered about the science behind your favorite tunes or podcasts? John us as we talk to Marion Boeri, Associate Director, Thought Leadership Research at Spotify and Josh McDermott, Associate Professor at MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Marion and Josh share insights on how audio shapes our experiences and emotions and how that relates to business strategy. Discover the intricate relationship between sound and human behavior in this compelling conversation....
Nov 10, 2023•25 min
“[Soon] we won't be talking about questions like, do you have to be an engineer or be super technically strong to have a meaningful impact in the space world?” Join us in talking to the new CEO of Space Tango, Sita Sonty, for the first official episode of our series on the space industry. This series is geared towards proving space is a diverse industry not only for those with technical backgrounds. Sita's leap from diplomat to space industry CEO exemplifies that space innovation isn't just for ...
Nov 08, 2023•34 min
"What I think is important in venture capital is to understand where the analogy is the same and where the analogy is different." "[There is this] opportunity to use technology to help people have more authentic human interactions online ... to create novel forms of human interaction that try to connect people more closely." Join Cynthia Zhou as she interviews Brett Martin, Managing Partner for Charge Ventures, a new york based pre-seed/seed stage venture fund. Brett is also a serial entreprene...
Nov 04, 2023•25 min
“We will see strength in a few players that will ultimately prove out this technology and in consumer and urban environments specifically… some of these other semi-controlled environments are already ripe for disruption by autonomous technologies.” Join Leon Zhang and Javier Torres as they interview Scott Walbrun, Principal at BMW i Ventures. Together they explore broad trends in the future of mobility space such as autonomous vehicles and electrification as well as current sentiment in the in...
Oct 06, 2023•30 min
“There’s a fundamental lack of data and information at every level. Even the government doesn’t have access to reliable, real time information, especially in the used home space… you just kind of had to ask some friends and try to guesstimate what [prices] would be like.” Join Leon Zhang and Javier Torres in a conversation with Brynne McNulty Rojas, the first and only female founder and CEO of a LatAm unicorn, on how she built Habi. Brynne shares her journey of identifying a market gap and found...
Sep 28, 2023•31 min
“Data is food for AI and so are the queries for generative AI…How do we ask the right questions to the machine? How do we have the right data so the machine has all of the information we need, and not misinformation or missing information?” Join Cynthia Zhou and Spandana Bhattacharya as they interview JoAnn Stonier , Mastercard Fellow of Data and AI, previously the Chief Data Officer at Mastercard. JoAnn shares her thoughts on the explosive growth of generative AI, how data plays a pivotal role,...
Sep 19, 2023•31 min
“It was disheartening… but there was also a weird voice inside me that was kind of excited. We have our backs against the wall, we have a really hard problem, how are we going to figure it out?” Join Emma Robinson as she interviews Austin Link , the co-founder of Starfish Space , a startup working on the future of on-orbit servicing. Join us as we discuss the path of founding a deep tech startup from concept to early stages while highlighting the unique challenges they face compared to other ind...
Sep 14, 2023•46 min
“The hardest problem in education is the problem of transfer. ChatGPT gives us the ability to practice transfer in other ways… we start to be able to approach problems in different ways that build expertise or intuition faster.” Join Leon Zhang and Jordan Baker in a conversation with Christian Terwiesch, Professor at Wharton and chair of the Operations, Information, and Decisions department and Ethan Mollick, Associate Professor at Wharton. Together they explore the impact of ChatGPT in educatio...
Sep 10, 2023•29 min
“[The hardest part of procurement at Zoox] is trying to convince [the major automotive companies] to give us their engineering resources on the promise that, one day, we are going to change their industry.” Join Emma Robinson and Leon Zhang in a conversation with Kit Cutler, Director of Procurement and Strategic Partnerships. Together they explore the challenges of building a supply chain for a company that is not only pioneering self-driving technology but is also reimagining the car itself. Ki...
Jun 13, 2023•31 min•Ep. 29
“We saw a lot of our event creators, who were just doing real-life events, start to do more online events. So we very quickly pivoted to give them all the tools to do online events. Now we are seeing hybrid events, event creators who might be sitting in New York and used to just do a small, local event with 20-25 attendees every week, are now suddenly doing that in a hybrid format, where they still get 20-25 attendees in New York but they have 10-15 folks from London or 5-10 from Mexico City att...
Jun 05, 2023•35 min
“9 out of 10 people that use our platform tell us that they come to get inspired. The majority of our users want to shop. So you have this wonderful intersection of inspiration and commerce on the platform. The magic of go-to-market strategy happens at the intersection of our advertising partners adding value to our users, who, in turn, help us fulfill our mission of bringing everyone the inspiration to go create the life they love.” Join Spandana Bhattacharya and Javier Torres on Wharton Tech T...
May 08, 2023•36 min
“It is a political cudgel that people try to say there is a seesaw between investor protection and capital formation and market efficiency... The US has 4.4% of the world's population, and over 60% of the world's capital was raised in the US. It's because we've pursued all of those objectives. ” Join Spandana Bhattacharya and Jordan Baker as they talk to Jay Clayton , former Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020. Mr. Clayton is also a Senior Policy Advisor at Sulli...
May 02, 2023•29 min
“If you think about how we go through our day…It’s not natural for someone to stop and switch over to email, or try to find the 1-800 number. We want to use messaging, that’s just the way we communicate.” Join Spandana Bhattacharya and Cynthia Zhou on Wharton Tech Toks as they talk to Matt Idema , who was most recently VP of Business Messaging Group at Meta and was previously the Chief Operating Officer at WhatsApp. Matt is also a proud alumni and holds an MBA from the Wharton School. In this ep...
Apr 17, 2023•25 min
“When I was ten or twelve, I thought wouldn't it be great if I found myself participating in the birth of a technology at that right time when that technology is being born. Drone technology for me is this. It is extremely challenging but fascinating to participate in the birth of a new industry.” While the delivery by drone of pizza to your high-rise window may still be far off, listen in while Andreas talks about the challenges that drone delivery is solving today. The episode covers how Matte...
Mar 29, 2023•30 min•Ep. 25
“Someone who leads large teams needs to spend a material amount of time and energy to understand what the world of AI, machine learning and natural language processing mean because it’s a muscle you need to have… If you are a student, you need to think about not only how AI helps you but how you influence where AI is going.” Join Spandana Bhattacharya and Javier Torres on Wharton Tech Toks as they talk to Sam Allen, EVP and Global Chief Operating Officer for Tableau at Salesforce. Sam is in his ...
Mar 24, 2023•39 min
“We want clients to use our service in whatever way that’s best for you, your needs, your unique exposure to styling. In the longer term, we want to build a better way to shop that will change the retail paradigm and to become the blueprint for the industry to follow. ” Join Spandana Bhattacharya and Cynthia Zhou on Wharton Tech Toks as they talk to Janiece Okpobiri, Director of Product and Growth at Stitch Fix. At Stitch Fix, Janiece focuses on client onboarding and loyalty. Prior to Stitch Fix...
Feb 21, 2023•29 min
“The worst thing you can do in your start-up journey is being paranoid that someone is going to steal your idea. Most startups will fail because of their own doing and not because someone stole their idea. For a startup it’s important to be out there, talk to people and learn what the applications are, and listen - if someone is using the product then probably they are going to be using it in a way you might not have anticipated or for reasons you might not have anticipated.” Join Spandana Bhatt...
Feb 16, 2023•31 min
“We know that AI is going to be a key differentiator in products and services, you are seeing this already in everyday life whether it is autocomplete of a search or it is within Gmail where over time it learns the words that you use and auto completes your sentences. So AI is already all around us in our everyday lives. Our principle is we want to make sure that all of our customers and users have the best technology that we can possibly provide but also there is a level of trust and assurance ...
Feb 09, 2023•36 min
“During the highs of the 2020-2021 era, a lot of companies were encouraged to grow at any cost. We’ve always been much more oriented around trying to grow but making sure you are thinking about your profitability and building a sustainable business.” Join Spandana Bhattacharya and Javier Torres on Wharton Tech Toks as they talk to AJ Jangalapalli , Principal on the Discover team at Thoma Bravo. Listen in to learn more about Thoma Bravo’s investments in Mailgun and Greenphire, the recent tech mar...
Feb 01, 2023•29 min
