0:00 Intro 3:15 - State of AI at the beginning of 2024 12:30 - Valuations and fundraising landscape today 16:20 - Founder backgrounds for AI startups 19:15 - Are AI companies defensible? What moats do they have? 26:40 - Impact for large enterprise businesses 30 35 - Exit options and M&A 35:45 - What problems do they wish founders focused on? And not so much on? 42:35 - AI therapy - is it cringe? 48:55 - Stanford dropouts and starting AI companies 58:35 - Olivia and Justine's favorite AI Tools 1:...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:50 Gokul Rajaram on Google and what makes a great CEO 14:30 Ishan Mukherjee on the State of LLMs 22:23 Mark Pincus on how to come up with good ideas and build great products 33:12 Anil Varanasi on how to spot great talent 36:18 Rio Ferdinand on Leadership and Young Prodigies 41:33 Hudzah on using Claude LLM to build products quickly 47:29 Mike Maples on patterns for successful startups 56:00 Career and life advice by Aarthi and Sriram 1:06:55 Aravind Srinivas on Google’s L...
Jan 29, 2025•51 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast Chapters: 0:00 Introduction to Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere 2:12 Childhood and growing up in Canada 5:50 Getting into computers and internet 10:30 Sending cold emails 14:20 How to work with Aidan 16:40 The AI paper - "Attention is all you need" 18:45 Starting Cohere 21:10 Why choose enterprise (vs consumer) as a market 24:45 AI strategy 28:20 Hallucinations in LLM models 30:10 Enterprise software and security implications 32:05 Deloitte, Accenture and the impact of generative AI 36:40 Will LLM sca...
Jan 28, 2025•56 min•Ep 93•Transcript available on Metacast Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:30 The big political divide in the US 7:50 The new media election 19:55 Pre-Zynga: Mark's entrepreneurial origins 26:10 Being in the room where it happens 30:50 How to choose the right idea to work on 34:35 Meeting Mark Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook 40:20 Founder Mode 43:15 Zynga board and saving the company 49:30 Zynga 2.0: The Comeback 55:00 Zynga company culture 1:01:20 Building product at Zynga 1:08:30 How Zynga was Facebook's winning strategy 1:14:10 Advice to ...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast 0:01Intro 3:04 Ishan's Story 4:43 Inside IIT: India's Most Competitive Universities 6:50 How Quiz Championships Shaped a Tech Founder 11:45 Moving to the US 19:38 Building Kiva - The Early Days 24:45 The Amazon Acquisition 28:30 Immigration 34:55 What is ROX 37:00 Where are AI agents lacking/ State of LLMs 41:35 Reinventing CRMs 43:45 How ROX works 48:30 AI's Impact on Traditional Industries 53:45 The Launch: ROX Goes Public 57:00 Advice to Young Dreamers 58:35 The Ultimate Quiz Showdown 1:01:30...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast The year is 2024 and it has been a few days since the remarkable US elections. Trump is now President elect. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (both former guests of our podcast!) are leading DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). What does it all mean for tech, for startups and for skilled immigration? What is the future of journalism and media? Is this election a one of one, or is this the first of many podcast elections? We cover it all here in our solo episode. Chapters 00:01:00:17 – 00:03:...
Nov 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast Some helpful links Meter - https://www.meter.com/ Meter command - https://command.meter.com/ Link to Tyler’s book on culture - https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Commercial-Culture-Tyler-Cowen/dp/0674001885 Sam Hinkie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hinkie 0:00 - Intro 3:48 - Anil’s early years and background 5:23 - Unconventional parenting 9:35 - Anil's journey to entrepreneurship 12:30 - Sleeping in factories in China 15:22 - China VS U.S. 18:30 - Why Networks are so important 21:35 - Why netwo...
Nov 03, 2024•2 hr 11 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast 0:00 - Intro 1:10 - Meet Gokul Rajaram, on the Mount Rushmore of Silicon Valley 2:19 - Gokul's relationship with Aarthi and Sriram 4:00 - What is Founder Mode? And Zuck's Micromanagement 6:33 - Founder Mode Vs Management Mode 8:26 - Why Gokul disagrees with Paul Graham 10:56 - Learnings from Google’s Larry and Sergey 15:58 - What were early days at Google like? 18:58 - What makes a great CEO? 20: 42 - How to engage with high performing executives 25:45 - Why Gokul left Google to launch his own s...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast Rio Ferdinand is a football legend who spent over a decade playing for Manchester United and was a cornerstone of the England national team. With six Premier League titles, two League Cups, and a UEFA Champions League trophy under his belt, Rio is no stranger to the highs and pressures of elite football. He joined Sriram and Aarthi for a deep dive into the trials and tribulations of a career in competitive sports, the mental and physical demands of playing for one of the world’s most prestigious...
Sep 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep 87•Transcript available on Metacast A math undergraduate from the University of Waterloo, Hudhayfa Nazoordeen, constructed a miniature fusion reactor, known as a fusor, in his bedroom. He completed the project over several weeks, utilizing the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI assistant from Anthropic, which he provided with relevant data. In a series of tweets, he detailed the entire process of building the reactor from start to finish. Show notes: (00:00) This is an unusual episode (01:20) Welcome HudZah to the show! (01:35) Who is HudZah? (...
Sep 02, 2024•30 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
Aug 28, 2024•55 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss the future of the AI Safety Bill SB 1047. A bill that sets out to regulate AI at the model level, is now slated for a California Assembly vote in August. If passed, one signature from Governor Gavin Newsom could cement it into California law. Show notes: (00:00) Trailer and intro on SB1047 (00:43) Welcome Martin Casado of a16z (2:30) What is SB1047? (4:10) What is the origin of SB1047 bill? (6:14)...
Aug 18, 2024•56 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast A crash course for founders from Marc Andreesen, Vinod Khosla, Stephen Wolfram, Palmer Luckey, and Aravind Srinivas. Show notes: (0:00) Marc Andreessen’s idea maze breakdown (5:29) Vinod Khosla wants you to be internally motivated (6:42) Stephen Wolfram explains how to think (8:47) Palmer Luckey’s three tips for young entrepreneurs (13:02) Aravind Srinivas’ advice for students Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disa...
Jul 24, 2024•17 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast Kyla Scanlon is an economic commentator who joins Sriram and Aarthi to discuss the disconnect between the economy and consumer sentiment. Kyla is also the author of her brand new book 'In This Economy' which reveals the hidden forces driving key economic outcomes, the most common myths to steer clear of, and the dusty, outdated assumptions that constrain our political imagination, offering a bold new path to building a prosperous society that works for everyone. Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (2:14)...
Jul 06, 2024•42 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast Show Notes: (0:00) Audio issue (0:51) Introduction (3:40) Deals are long-term relationships (6:02) Facebook-WhatsApp acquisition story (12:04) The most important part of deal-making (16:44) Don’t come off as desperate (19:35) Maintaining momentum during a deal (25:53) Know everything about the person you’re dealing with (33:37) How we closed our London home (37:54) Mistakes we often see (44:40) Managing emotions while deal-making (50:19) What to do if the deal falls through Other episodes you mi...
Jun 24, 2024•54 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast Show notes: (0:00) Intro (0:56) Prioritize hiring yourself (5:37) Always keep looking for talent (8:10) Align incentives with your hire (15:05) How to find the best hires (19:15) How to run a good loop (29:51) Reference checks are underrated (37:25) How to close the hire (45:45) Conclusion Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, Th...
Jun 08, 2024•48 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast Show notes: (0:00) Naveen’s background (5:32) Where Generative AI is today (8:00) ChatGPT-4o and Google I/O announcements were NOT fundamental shifts (9:38) Has generative AI scaling hit a wall? (16:34) AI pretraining difficulties (22:49) General AI vs. specialized AI (25:55) Biggest opportunities for generative AI startups (29:15) AI hardware landscape (33:23) How open source AI companies can compete with closed models like OpenAI? (38:59) Why Naveen doesn’t use AI in his home (40:22) Is open-s...
May 22, 2024•54 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi break down popular audience questions about jobs, work-life balance, and more. Show notes: (0:00) Intro (2:21) Advice for our younger selves (13:20) Betting on yourself (23:19) Benefits of taking more shots (28:59) Work-life balance (33:32) Aarthi’s hot take (35:45) Time to switch jobs? (47:21) Our unpopular opinions Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Sil...
May 05, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi respond to your reaction to the immigration episode. Show notes: (0:00) We’re on a billboard (2:38) Our podcast journey (4:39) Response to our skilled immigration episode (11:07) Core issues hindering skilled immigration (23:07) Remembering our immigration process (29:01) Recapping WrestleMania 40 (49:21) Mark Zuckerberg’s personal rebrand (54:00) Meta releases Llama 3 Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WO...
Apr 28, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast Debarghya 'Deedy' Das is an investor and he joins Aarthi and Sriram to break down the hurdles of immigration in America for skilled workers. Show notes: (0:00) Intro (8:08) Immigration routes to the United States (12:52) Cap for Chinese and Indian immigrants (15:30) Aarthi and Sriram’s green card story (17:48) Why should US citizens care about skilled immigration? (22:31) Challenges legal immigrants face (30:16) Aarthi and Sriram’s US citizenship ceremony (32:52) Solving the issue of skilled imm...
Apr 07, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy joins The Sriram and Aarthi Show to discuss lessons from his political campaign, wokeness in social media, the potential TikTok Ban, his views on crypto, how to fix immigration, and more. Show notes: (0:00) Intro (1:25) Lessons from entrepreneurship & campaigning (9:00) Disagreements in debates (12:55) TikTok Ban (20:31) Wokeness in social media (24:20) Vivek's views on crypto (28:30) Podcasting strategy for Vivek's campaign (33:00) Legal and illegal i...
Mar 17, 2024•39 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi talk about Google's Gemini disaster after viral 'woke' photos surface. Show notes: (0:00) Welcome to the new studio! (4:13) Our best AI episodes (10:23) Google Gemini’s launch controversy (17:15) How can Google fix Gemini? (20:55) What Gemini gets right (26:11) The rise of Groq (35:37) NVIDIA and Jenson Huang are on top of the world (42:14) Is Sora going to replace Hollywood? — Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley EP 61 - The Reality...
Mar 11, 2024•51 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, an AI conversational engine that answers users' questions with sources and citations. Show notes: (0:00) Introduction (4:44) Aravind’s background (10:05) Getting hired at OpenAI (13:30) DeepMind vs. OpenAI (22:57) Cultivating Perplexity AI’s culture (28:24) Why Aravind avoids meetings (32:30) Why Larry Page is Aravind’s favorite entrepreneur (36:30) Career advice for students (42:23) Why Perplexity AI won’t become commoditiz...
Feb 29, 2024•57 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi are joined by longevity advocate and Project Blueprint founder Bryan Johnson. _ Show notes: (0:00) Intro (6:20) Bryan’s origin story (14:43) The idea that changed Bryan’s life (20:34) Bryan’s power laws to live longer (31:07) Improving willpower naturally (33:59) Responding to online criticism (37:31) Creating the Don’t Die movement (46:50) Bryan’s blueprint explained (50:20) The future of gene therapy (53:28) Bryan’s physical appearance (56:00) Call to action to the human race...
Feb 03, 2024•57 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast Creator of Ruby on Rails, Co-owner & CTO of 37signals (Basecamp & HEY) David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) joins Sriram and Aarthi. _ Show notes: (0:00) Intro (5:07) Why Sriram used to hate DHH (13:09) Why DHH avoided VC money (17:54) Demystify wealth online (23:08) DHH’s issues with woke culture (38:15) Craft and beauty (45:51) Learnings from racing cars (54:37) DHH’s work setup (55:51) Le Mans and racing (1:02:45) Apple’s mistake could mirror Google and Microsoft (1:09:00) The Denmark fairytale — O...
Jan 24, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast Aarthi Ramamurthy breaks down her secret to be confident at work and overcome hurdles. _ Show notes: (0:00) How to build confidence (3:20) Do the work! (7:00) Build relationships (11:56) Ignore the haters (13:20) Imposter syndrome (18:00) Summary — Other episodes you might enjoy: Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And Startups EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley EP 61 - The Reality of Raising Kids in the Tech Industry EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Sh...
Jan 15, 2024•19 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram Krishnan's lessons after 20 years in the biggest tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter. _ Show notes: (0:00) Intro (1:45) My performance reviews (4:10) Execute on your strengths (5:33) Be the only YOU (8:24) Planning your career (12:15) Recognize great work (16:12 Learn from the best (19:38) Mentors matter (22:45) Writing is a superpower (24:20) Networking (25:28) Always be shipping — Other episodes you might enjoy: Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And Startups ...
Jan 07, 2024•28 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast Sriram and Aarthi review their 2023 hits, podcasting for a year, and moving across the pond. _ Show notes: (0:00) Intro (2:27) Podcast growth (6:51) Are we creators now? (14:41) Favorite episodes of 2023 (35:19) Moving to London (49:11) Best movies of 2023 (1:01:46) Best books of 2023 (1:09:23) Year in tech (1:15:38) Looking ahead to 2024 — Other episodes you might enjoy: Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And Startups EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley EP 61 - The Reali...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast A year-end compilation of some of the best nuggets on all things AI from the Aarthi and Sriram Show. _ Show notes: (00:00) The state of AI's progress ft. Alex Wang (02:00) Advice for AI founders ft. Marc Andreessen (03:00) Ethics of AI ft. Emad Mostaque (06:10) Society's model of computing ft. Steven Sinofsky (07:50) How smart Can AI Get? ft. Marc Andreessen (08:55) What if AI takes 'control'? ft. Stephen Wolfram (11:08) AI in the Metaverse ft. Emad Mostaque (13:26) What if AI goes rogue? ft. Ma...
Dec 24, 2023•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast A compilation of some of the best advice from Marc Andreessen on Sriram And Aarthi. _ Show notes: (00:00) Intro (00:37) What's a good idea for a start-up (02:12) - Big 5 personality traits (02:57) - What is openness? (04:37) - How to think creatively (07:02) - How Marc can tell if a founder is lying (09:04) - Conscientiousness (10:28) - Improvise, Adapt and Overcome (10:58) - Data versus Judgement (12:12) - What's a great book (13:00) - Bonus: Star Wars — Other episodes you might enjoy: EP 63 - ...
Dec 20, 2023•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
