Anand Sanwal is the founder of CB Insights, a business analytics platform and global database of intel on technology companies. Anand was CEO of CB Insights for 14 years and recently stepped into the role of executive chairman. In this episode, Auren and Anand discuss: Tech and venture capital narratives vs data AI integration and workflows Future …

Scott Lynn is the founder and CEO of Masterworks, the first company to securitize art. Masterworks manages $940 million in art assets and has nearly 900,000 investors on its platform. Scott is also a multitime founder– prior to Masterworks, he founded companies in online gaming, advertising and fintech including AdKnowledge, Virtumundo, V2 Ventures…

Dmitri Alperovitch is the co-founder and former CTO of Crowdstrike, and he’s currently the chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, a national security think tank. He’s also the author of the new book World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Dmitri discuss:…

Jonathan Ross is the founder and CEO of Groq, a company that develops high performance microchips purpose built for AI and machine learning. Prior to founding Groq, Jonathan invented Google’s AI processor, the TPU. In this episode of World of DaaS, Jonathan and Auren discuss: Future of industry in the AI era Evolution of AI processing hardware Semi…

Greg Isenberg is the CEO and Founder of Late Checkout Studio, a holding company for online community businesses. Greg has founded three venture-backed startups and he was also an advisor to TikTok and Reddit. In this episode of World of DaaS, Greg and Auren discuss: Changes to startup + VC ecosystem Startup studio model vs. private equity ChatGPT b…

Saagar is the co-host of the podcast and web series Breaking Points, which has over a million subscribers on Youtube. He was previously a White House correspondent for the Daily Caller. On this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Saagar discuss: Media business models and revenue streams Bias and anti-establishment media Parallels in US history to t…

Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport, a unicorn international freight forwarding business. He’s also a Venture Partner at Founders Fund. In this episode of World of DaaS, Ryan and Auren discuss: Supply chain breakdowns Geopolitics of commercial shipping Scaling freight forwarding businesses 10X Deglobalization vs international trade Ret…

Bill Magnuson is the co-founder and CEO of Braze ($BRZE), a publicly traded customer engagement platform valued at over $5 billion. In this episode of World of DaaS: Growth of mobile technology Power of first-party relationships Modern martech mindset vs traditional advertising Tech company IPOs How SMS spam and fraud works Build vs buy martech str…

Steve was CEO of AOL during its meteoric rise from 1991 to 2003. He’s also the chairman and CEO of Revolution, which has invested over $1 billion in startups, and the author of several books, including Rise of the Rest and The Third Wave. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Steve discuss the early days of the internet and the challenges of …

Blake Hall is the co-founder and CEO of ID.me, a secure digital identity network with over 100 million members. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Blake dive into online security, passwords, AI, and geopolitics. Blake explains the concept of identity wallets and their potential to streamline access to services and benefits. He also breaks …

Daniel Diermeier is the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University. He’s a world-renowned scholar of business management and political science. Before joining Vanderbilt, he was Provost of the University of Chicago. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Daniel engage in a thought-provoking discussion on free speech, academic freedom and the state of…

Daniel Lurie is currently running for mayor of San Francisco. Prior to running for mayor, he was the founder and CEO of Tipping Point Community, a charitable organization that distributed over $30 million to organizations fighting poverty throughout the Bay Area last year. In this episode of World of DaaS, Daniel discusses tackling crime, homelessn…

Sarah Tavel is a general partner at Benchmark Capital. She serves on the board of Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Medely, Rekki, and Cambly. On this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Sarah discuss the concept of selling work in the SaaS industry and how it differs from selling traditional productivity software. Sarah explains how selling work could unlock …

Meb Faber is the co-founder and CIO of Cambria Investment Management, which has over $2B in assets under management. He’s also the host of the excellent financial podcast the Meb Faber Show. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Meb discuss global portfolio allocation, bitcoin ETFs, controversial investing strategies, and little-known financi…

Dr. Neil Buddy Shah is the CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the former managing director of GiveWell. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Buddy dive into all things data, public health, and AI. Buddy discusses innovative solutions for data scarcity in low-income countries, such as using machine learning algorithms to better t…

Dan Siroker is the co-founder and CEO of Rewind AI. He also co-founded Optimizely, and he was the Director of Analytics at Obama’s first presidential campaign. On this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Dan discuss how Rewind raised its Series A in public, and how the unconventional move benefited the company. Dan shares insights on creating a com…

Emil Michael was the Chief Business Officer at $UBER during its hyperscale period from 2013 to 2017. He’s currently the CEO of DPCM Capital, and he’s also a strategic advisor to a number of amazing companies, including Codecademy, GroupMe and Taser. On this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Emil cover everything from tech IPOs and Uber's stock pe…

Austen Allred is the founder and CEO of the Bloom Institute of Technology (formerly known as Lambda School), a coding bootcamp that’s helped thousands of students get a job in tech. The discussion kicks off with an exploration of Income Share Agreements (ISAs) and how BloomTech has used them as an alternative to student loans. Austen shares insight…

Oren Cass is the founder and executive director of the think tank American Compass, and the author of the book The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America. He was also the Domestic Policy Director for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. In this episode, Oren discusses the limitations of common economic statistics, emphasizing t…

This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren's appearance on Media Empires with Erik Torenberg. Go check out Media Empires for more from the best YouTube creators, podcasters, newsletter writers, and media entrepreneurs. In this episode, Erik and Auren discuss all things data business, including data on windfalls and net worth, reputational databases, an…

Greg Lukianoff is the President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). He’s also a bestselling author of several books, including The Coddling of the American Mind and most recently The Canceling of the American Mind. On this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Greg delve into the current state of cancel culture. Gre…

Mary Kay Henry is the president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 2 million people in unions across the US and Canada. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Mary Kay discuss the current surge in the labor movement and what it means for American companies and workers. Mary Kay breaks down some recent developments, …

Joe Lonsdale is a co-founder of a number of amazing companies, including Palantir, Addepar and OpenGov, and he’s a cofounder of the University of Austin. He’s also the founder and managing partner of the venture firm 8VC, and he’s invested in some incredible companies, including Oculus, Anduril, Wish and Flexport. In this episode of World of DaaS, …

Sam Lessin is a GP at Slow Ventures, a former Facebook product manager, and the founder of Drop.io and Fin. He’s also the co-host of an excellent podcast on tech called More or Less. On this episode of World of DaaS, Sam gives a comprehensive breakdown of the state of venture capital. Auren and Sam discuss the “unicorn factory” for building public …

Brian Halligan is the co-founder, longtime CEO and now executive chair of Hubspot, a full service platform for marketing, sales and customer service. Hubspot was founded in 2006 and has a market cap of $23B today. Brian coined the term “inbound marketing” and helped give rise to one of the biggest shifts in marketing of the last 20 years. In this e…

This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren’s appearance on the MapScaping Podcast. In this episode, Auren and MapScaping host Daniel O’Donohue go deep on geospatial data. They start by discussing Placekey– an open entity resolution service for places and addresses. Auren gives a breakdown of the complexities involved with address matching, and what tha…

Sam Corcos is the CEO of Levels, an a16z-backed health tech startup. While Levels’ mission is amazing, what really sets the company apart is how Sam runs it: Levels is highly transparent, asynchronous first, and serious about leveraging delegation for maximum productivity. In this episode of World of DaaS, Sam gives a master class on the art of vir…

Jeff Lawson is the cofounder and CEO of Twilio, a $10 billion public software communications company. Jeff has an incredible founder story. Prior to Twilio, he co-founded Versity, which he sold for $30 million when he was just 23 years old. He was also the founding CTO of Stubhub and one of the first product managers at AWS. He founded Twilio in 20…

Spencer Kimball is the founder and CEO of Cockroach Labs, a $5 billion company that makes the CockroachDB database used by Netflix, Nubank, Shipt, and many other leading tech companies. Spencer was building and contributing to major open source projects before he graduated from college. In this episode of World of DaaS, Spencer and Auren do a deep …

Michael Seibel is a group partner at Y Combinator and the managing director of YC's startup accelerator. He evaluates 1000s of startups a year and sees hundreds go through YC, which means he has better data on startup success than just about anyone in tech. He’s also the cofounder of Twitch. In this episode, Michael and Auren dive into the startup …

Ben Horowitz is the cofounder and CEO of Andreessen Horowitz, the most influential venture capital firm of the last 20 years. Ben and Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z) have invested in some of the biggest companies out there, including AirBnb, Coinbase, Facebook, Instacart, GitHub and Oculus. Prior to his VC career, Ben founded Opsware/Loudc…

Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of Vercel, a cloud platform that powers some of the biggest names on the internet, like Patreon, Ebay, Netflix and Adobe. Guillermo has an incredible founder story– he began coding at age 10, dropped out of high school and moved from his native Argentina to San Francisco as a teenager. He’s also the creator of…

Andrew Ross Sorkin is a financial columnist for the New York Times, a co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box and the founder and editor of DealBook. He’s also the co-creator of the hit-show Billions and the author of the bestselling book Too Big To Fail, on the 2008 financial crisis. On this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Andrew dive into the intersec…

Peter Thiel is one of the greatest entrepreneurs and investors of his generation. He was the co-founder and CEO of PayPal, the first investor in Facebook, and co-founder of Palantir Technologies. He’s the founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Founders Fund, and the author of Zero to One, one of the best business books of all time…

Amjad Masad is the founder and CEO of Replit, an online coding environment. Amjad and Auren discuss what the rise of AI means for coding, developers, and tech companies. Amjad shares his thoughts on consumer vs creator computer culture, why development hasn’t moved to the cloud faster, and why everyone should be able to call themselves a programmer…

Sir Martin Sorrell is the founder of WPP, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, which he ran for over 30 years. He’s currently the executive chairman of S4 Capital, which is a pure play digital advertising company he founded in 2018. In this episode, Auren and Martin dive into the fascinating intersection of AI in advertising, the e…

Neil Strauss is a 10x New York Times bestselling author and a renowned journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Esquire. Neil and host Auren Hoffman delve into the intriguing world of charisma, self-improvement, and relationships. Neil explains how anyone can learn to be more charismatic, and what charisma has to…

Bram Cohen is the creator of BitTorrent, which revolutionized digital entertainment and has been downloaded over two billion times. Today, Bram is the founder and CTO of Chia network, which manages the Chia cryptocurrency. Chia uses a unique proof of space model, in contrast to proof or work or proof of stake models like Bitcoin and Ethereum. In th…

Bryan Johnson is the founder of the payments processing company Braintree, which sold to Paypal for $800 million in 2012. He’s also the founder of OS Fund, which invests in advancing genomic and biological technology, and Kernel, which is focused on developing brain-machine interfaces. In 2021, he launched Project Blueprint, which aims to slow and …

Sue Gordon is the former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. She had a 30+ year career with the CIA, as well as serving as Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Auren and Sue discuss shifting global power dynamics and the nature of modern intelligence in an ever-evolving world. They delve into the realm of …

Ajit Pai is the former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, where he served from 2017 to 2021. He’s currently a partner at Searchlight Capital. Auren and Ajit delve into the intricacies of technology regulation, including the nuances of regulating AI and crypto. Ajit outlines the essential triggers for preemptive intervention, and the…

Steven Pinker is a linguist, cognitive scientist, and a professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard. He’s the author of twelve books, including the bestsellers How the Mind Works, Enlightenment Now, and most recently Rationality. Auren and Steven delve into the world of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and intellectual freedom. …

Erik Torenberg was the first employee at Product Hunt, and the founder and chairman of On Deck. He’s currently a partner at Village Global and the founder of Turpentine podcast network. Erik and Auren discuss the startup founder mindset and what it takes to be successful in tech. Erik shares the career strategies and frameworks that have allowed hi…

Jesse is the founder and CEO of Gateway X, a venture studio focused on DTC brands. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Ampush, a digital marketing firm which he bootstrapped to an eight figure exit. Jesse and Auren break down some of the nuances of digital marketing and discuss the state of marketing on the major tech platforms today. They…

Immad Akhund is the CEO of Mercury, a bank for startups. He’s also a multi-time founder and a Dual Threat CEO with over 300+ angel investments. Auren and Immad discuss the collapse of SVB and how Mercury handled an influx of over $2 billion in deposits. Immad explains some lesser-known structural aspects of the banking system that affect the produc…

HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud was the head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate for 24 years. He also served as the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the UK, Ireland, and the United States, and he’s the author of The Afghanistan File. Auren and Prince Turki discuss the complex history of Afghanistan and Middle East geopolitics. Princ…

Dmitri Alperovitch is the co-founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike and the founder of Silverado Policy Accelerator. Dmitri and Auren delve into the complexities of cyber warfare, geopolitics, and their intersections. Dmitri explains the intricacies of the 'vulnerabilities equities process' and the challenges in making software safer. The conversati…

Nick Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic. Prior to that, he was editor-in-chief of Wired and a senior editor at The New Yorker. Nick and Auren discuss the evolving relationship between tech and media and the impact of social media platforms like Twitter on these industries. Nick shares insights into the tech industry's self-narratives and its influ…

Hadi Partovi is the founder and CEO of Code.org. He also founded Tellme Networks and ILike, held leadership roles at Microsoft and Myspace, and angel invested in a number of incredible companies, including Facebook, DropBox, Airbnb, and Uber. Hadi and Auren discuss making computer science as part of the core curriculum in public education. Hadi exp…

David Sinclair is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the Sinclair Lab. He’s the author of the bestselling book Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To, as well as a founder of several biotech companies. Auren and David discuss the potential to expand the average human lifespan by decades. David challenges tra…