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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast Christopher Ahlberg is the founder and CEO of Recorded Future, a cyberintelligence firm that sold for $780 million in 2019. He formerly co-founded the business intelligence software company Spotfire. Christopher and Auren discuss the global cybercrime landscape, from emerging threats and ransomware gangs to international conflicts and the geopolitics of taking down hackers. They dive into how the US can improve its cyber defenses, both in the public and private spheres, and talk about the sprawl...
Aug 30, 2022•58 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast Terry Kawaja is the founder and CEO of Luma Partners, a media and technology investment bank. Terry has advised on over $300 billion in transactions, including some of the biggest deals in media, tech and advertising. Auren and Terry discuss the changes in the markets over the last few months and what they expect from the M&A landscape in the near term. Terry shares his thoughts on the long-term outlook for consolidation in the media and advertising space and where he thinks the next most in...
Aug 23, 2022•37 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Sheila Heen is the Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project and the bestselling author of Difficult Conversations . She’s an internationally recognized negotiation coach and trainer. Sheila and Auren discuss how to approach your toughest conversations, including best practices for opening a negotiation, defusing conversations that feel adversarial and giving and receiving better feedback. They also talk about the surprising similarities in tough conversations at work and at home, and h...
Aug 16, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Cindy Cohn is the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the largest digital rights organization in the world. In this wide ranging conversation, Cindy and Auren touch on a number of topics across the tech space, including privacy on the Blockchain, interoperability and the politics around regulating big tech. They discuss the unintended consequences of privacy protections and what smart regulation should seek to accomplish. Cindy brings a unique perspective to the debate arou...
Aug 09, 2022•1 hr•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast Neal Katyal is a professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University, a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm, and the former Acting Solicitor General. He has argued 45 cases before the Supreme Court. Neal and Auren look back on the Supreme Court’s most recent term and Neal brings some historical context to the court’s major decisions. They discuss the court’s new balance of power and Neal explains how Supreme Court lawyers can make arguments on the most complex legal issues in under 30 minu...
Aug 02, 2022•38 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast David Epstein is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “Range” and “The Sports Gene”. Auren and David discuss David’s latest book Range and his counterintuitive ideas about specialization and why generalists are so powerful. They talk about why the 10,000 hours rule is overrated, how specialists get so many major predictions wrong, and how to think about talent and interest in your own career. David also discusses some of the intricacies of genetics in medicine and gives some non-obvious ...
Jul 26, 2022•50 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast Rob Buxton is a partner at AGC Partners where he specializes in the DaaS and SaaS capital markets. Rob has completed over 300 financings and M&A transactions in his career. Rob and Auren dive into the recent trends in the data-as-a-service (DaaS) sector. They break down the insights from Rob’s recent DaaS sector report and dig into what makes the great data companies great and the broader DaaS M&A landscape. Rob walks through the different types of data companies out there, their respect...
Jul 19, 2022•25 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Gary Marcus is the Author of Reboot AI and professor at NYU. Gary and Auren discuss the advancements in and shortcomings of artificial intelligence. They dive into how for AI to be really good, it needs to be built towards human intelligence and gain “Common Sense”, which it lacks today. 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 Gary Marcus at @GaryMarcus....
Jul 05, 2022•47 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast Or Offer is Co-Founder and CEO of Similarweb (ticker: SMWB), a digital intelligence data company. Auren and Or dive into how data businesses actually work. They explore the problems every data company faces: build vs. partner, accuracy vs. coverage, how to think about data costs, and how to focus on your core competencies. 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 Or at @oroffer....
Jun 28, 2022•34 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast Antonio Garcia Martinez is the NYT best selling author of Chaos Monkeys. He is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Network. Previously, he was the founder of AdGrok and formerly a product manager at Facebook. Auren and Antonio explore the unintended consequences of regulation, the growth of the adtech markets, and frameworks to apply when thinking about privacy. They also dive into Antonio’s pursuit of religion in an increasingly complex modern world. World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph. For...
Jun 21, 2022•45 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast Liv Boeree is a former world poker champion, a science commentator and content creator, and a philanthropist. Auren and Liv dive into a broad range of topics including poker, probability, societal progress, artificial intelligence and decision-making. Liv has an incredible mind and has thought deeply about the intricacies of life, society and science. 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...
Jun 14, 2022•41 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast Jeremy Stanley is Founder and CTO at Anomalo. Previously, he was VP of Data Science at Instacart. Auren and Jeremy dive into progress in the artificial intelligence field over the past decade and why most people think about AI incorrectly. They also discuss the approaches to building data science teams and the tactics Jeremy has seen work best. 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 Jeremy...
Jun 07, 2022•49 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast Ryan Breslow is the Chairman at Bolt, a decacorn online checkout startup. While he’s built one of the fastest growing startups in Silicon Valley, Ryan Breslow is perhaps most famous for his twitter threads about the so-called "Silicon Valley Mob". Auren and Ryan dive into the various claims Ryan made about the Silicon Valley juggernauts like Y Combinator, Stripe and Sequoia. They also dive into company building and the alternative approaches available to young entrepreneurs out there j...
May 31, 2022•28 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast Glenn Fogel is CEO at Booking Holdings, a juggernaut in the travel industry. Glenn has a remarkable track record of completing successful acquisitions. Auren and Glenn dive into the common pitfalls of M&A, the heuristics to apply when evaluating deals and why acquisitions can be transformative when done right. Glenn walks through the many acquisitions Booking Holdings has done in the travel space and their strategy over the years. They also discuss the experience of being in the travel indus...
May 24, 2022•39 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren's appearance on The Data Scientist Show. Auren and Daliana dive into the nuts and bolts of building a geospatial DaaS business. Daliana Liu is a senior data scientist and host of The Data Scientist Show. You can find her at the following places: Twitter Apple Podcasts Spotify Auren is the CEO at SafeGraph and can be found on Twitter @auren....
May 19, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Barry Nalebuff is the author of Split the Pie , co-founder of Honest Tea and professor of negotiations at Yale. A big part of the problem with most negotiations is that the parties don’t spend enough time defining the pie and spend too much time bargaining for a larger slice. Barry and Auren discuss tactics that can help you uplevel your negotiation skills 5x. Barry imparts all his wisdom from years of experience in both academia and from when he sold Honest Tea to Coca Cola. World of DaaS is br...
May 17, 2022•47 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Joel Myers is the founder and CEO of AccuWeather, one of the oldest weather companies in the world. Weather companies are really data companies at their core. Joel and Auren dive into the early days of commercial meteorology and the challenges of building a business on top of a product that was historically available for free. Joel has dedicated his entire career to AccuWeather and dives into the nuances of weather forecasting and the immense responsibility that comes with the trade. You can...
May 10, 2022•40 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast Charlie is co-founder and CEO of Sezzle, a $1.2 billion market cap alternative payment platform. Charlie and Auren dive into the unit economics of Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) businesses, why the “creditization of debit” is the hottest trend, and how underwriting BNPL loans differs from traditional consumer lending. They also explore data’s role in BNPL and how most fintech companies are on the path of becoming neobanks. You can find Auren Hoffman (CEO of SafeGraph) on Twitter at @auren and Charlie ...
May 03, 2022•46 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Jacob Helberg is the author of The Wires of War, senior adviser at the Stanford University Center on Geopolitics and Technology, and co-chair at the Brookings Institution China Strategy Working Group. Jacob and Auren explore the current tension between global superpowers, the dependencies America has on Chinese hardware and infrastructure and potential solutions to reversing these dependencies. They also dive into the generational and cultural rift between Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley and how...
Apr 26, 2022•32 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast 
