Alle afleveringen
38 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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How Toto Wolff built the most valuable team in F1
20 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 11 min
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and Co-Owner of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, joins John Collison for a pint to discuss the engineering, management, and economics behind modern Formula 1. Toto breaks down how Mercedes spots generational driver talent as early as age eight, why they enforce a strict "No Dickheads" hiring policy across 2,500 employees, and how the F1 cost cap transformed racing teams into $1B+ assets. He also shares his early career as a dot-com investor, the team’s "Navy SEALs" approach to car development, and why he believes live sports are immune to AI disruption. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:22) Spotting driver talent
(00:06:24) Engineering and team selection
(00:09:11) The F1 cost cap
(00:25:21) Toto’s early investing career
(00:38:15) Running Mercedes as an owner
(00:46:47) Why F1 team values exploded
(01:08:24) Succession planning
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The company building underwater drones for $50,000
15 oktober 2026 · 50 min
Will O'Brien, founder and CEO of Ulysses, joins John and Chris Sacca for a pint to discuss how underwater autonomous robots are scaling up to solve critical ocean challenges. Lees meer
They cover the technical history of Guinness (including the math breakthrough that created Student's t-test), why seagrass is an overlooked super-sequester of carbon, and the engineering required to operate robots thousands of meters beneath the surface. Will also breaks down Ulysses' vertical integration strategy, the reality of eco-pragmatism versus "green tape," and what it takes to sell hard tech to defense and offshore energy sectors.
Timestamps
(00:00:30) R&D at Guinness
(00:05:43) Planting seagrass with robots
(00:16:53) Lowering the cost of doing things in the ocean
(00:19:00) Landing in a Chinese prison
(00:20:38) Works in Progress(00:27:53) Building robots to withstand saltwater
(00:31:08) Live use cases for underwater robots
(00:46:03) The undersea cable vulnerability
Resources:
Guinness Quality Standards: https://www.guinnesscelebrate.com/our-quality/quality-standards
No Great Stagnation in Guinness by Will O’Brien: https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/no-great-stagnation-in-guinness
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Muse Wonder: Zuckerberg and Wang's $100B AI
12 oktober 2026 · 2 uur 14 min
As Meta scales its AI infrastructure past five gigawatts, Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO, Meta) and Alexandr Wang (Chief AI Officer, Meta Superintelligence Labs) join John for a pint to discuss the launch of Muse Wonder and the future of personal AI agents. Lees meer
In this episode, Mark and Alex open up about the creation of Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the decision to execute a complete talent reboot, and what it really feels like to make a $100B+ CapEx commitment before knowing if the model will work. They dive deep into the architecture of Muse Wonder—including active memory, multimodal perception, and frontier coding—while laying out their vision for agentic commerce, hardware form factors like smart glasses, and why superintelligence belongs in the hands of billions.
Timestamps
(00:00:24) Muse’s breakout use cases
(00:07:28) Why the model is the product
(00:14:35) Meet Muse Wonder
(00:24:56) How frontier models are actually built
(00:48:26) Betting $100B
(01:07:21) Agentic commerce(01:19:34) OpenRouter
(01:20:06) Beyond the smartphone(01:27:00) Funding
(01:34:06) Why AI won’t be winner-take-all(01:40:46) Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL)
(02:08:11) Working for Mark Zuckerberg
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What comes after smartphones, with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel
27 april 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel joins John at the pub for a deep dive into Snap's "crucible moment" of 2026: the long-awaited consumer launch of Spectacles. Evan explains why he believes the smartphone has become an isolating legacy device and how true AR glasses represent the first step toward making computing human again. They discuss the technical hurdles of fitting a spatial computer into a glasses form factor, why Snap built its own OS from scratch, and how Claude is transforming their software development, with over two-thirds of Snap’s new code now written by AI. Plus, the pair dig into the complex reality of teen phone usage, the distinction between social and media, and why Norway was the first country to embrace Snapchat. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:15) Snap’s crucible moment
(00:01:05) Specs
(00:09:12) AR as the right form factor
(00:20:45) Stablecoin payouts on Stripe
(00:21:46) Monetizing the camera
(00:28:13) Social media vs messaging
(00:47:37) Content moderation
(00:59:49) Snap’s evolution
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The economics and trends of the restaurant industry, with Tony Xu of DoorDash
21 april 2026 · 1 uur 21 min
Tony Xu, cofounder and CEO of DoorDash, joins John for a pint to discuss how they won a crowded market by obsessing over retention and the reality of fighting fraud in the physical world. They cover the harsh economics of the restaurant industry, why DoorDash succeeded where Google failed, and the harrowing story of spending 40% of their remaining cash on refunds to save the company’s reputation. Tony introduces Dot, their new autonomous delivery robot, and explains why true autonomy requires solving for the “last two feet” of delivery. Finally, he shares lessons from the early days, including why customer obsession sometimes means baking cookies. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:25) Why did DoorDash win?
(00:10:50) China
(00:17:10) Restaurant trends
(00:27:59) Loyalty
(00:30:40) Stripe Issuing
(00:44:09) Delivery modalities
(00:51:11) Fraud
(00:58:32) New products
(01:13:26) Dot
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The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs
14 april 2026 · 1 uur
Mati Staniszewski is the co-founder of ElevenLabs, the research company making audio accessible across languages and voices. He sits down with John to discuss the "voice Turing Test" and why AI has conquered text but still struggles with conversational speech. They discuss the future of human-computer interaction, including why we still can't get our phones to read a PDF properly and the massive potential for voice agents in everything from farming to healthcare. Mati also opens up about ElevenLabs’ rapid ascent to an $11 billion valuation and gives a behind-the-scenes look at how Ukraine is using their tech for digital government services. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:27) How audio models work
(00:08:52) ElevenLabs business model
(00:17:50) The conversational Turing Test
(00:21:01) Link by Stripe
(00:26:02) Cascaded vs speech-to-speech
(00:31:53) Universal translation
(00:51:41) Designing an AI-native org
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The history and future of AI at Google, with Sundar Pichai
7 april 2026 · 1 uur 9 min
Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and Alphabet. He sits down with John and Elad Gil to discuss Google’s resurgence in the AI race, managing a massive $180 billion CapEx budget, and why 2026 is the year of the supply crunch. They cover the constraints of memory and power, why he believes the US economy will grow significantly due to AI, and the internal cultural shift back to "Googley" optimism. Sundar also shares details on long-term bets like data centers in space, why he wishes he had funded Waymo even faster, and the small thing inside Google that still ignites his passion for building. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:18) The history of Google and AI
(00:05:17) Speed and Search
(00:12:12) Google’s AI comeback
(00:27:03) Stripe network intelligence
(00:27:53) Bottlenecks
(00:41:25) Capital allocation
(01:00:44) How Google works
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Compliance at scale and why TAM is a distraction with Christina Cacioppo of Vanta
31 maart 2026 · 57 min
Christina Cacioppo, founder and CEO of Vanta, joins the pub to discuss building the future of agentic trust. She explains why compliance has a “vitamin vs painkiller” dynamic, the drama behind their famous 101-billboard campaign, and why she believes "market sizing is bullshit." They cover the tension between vibe coding and rigorous security, how Vanta is using agents to generate UI, and why the best founders are relentless truth-seekers. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:17) Vanta
(00:12:30) How compliance works
(00:15:06) Breaches
(00:23:52) Stripe Tax
(00:24:43) AI and compliance
(00:44:50) Go-to-market
(00:47:22) Lessons from USV
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The 20-year journey to fully autonomous cars with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo
24 maart 2026 · 1 uur 2 min
Waymo is now doing nearly 500,000 rides a week across 10 cities. Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov came to the pub to discuss how they moved from scientific research to massive global scaling. He gives a masterclass on the sensor stack (and why you still need Lidar), how they use "Simulation" and "Critic" models to train the AI, and why he believes cars that require human supervision will never naturally evolve into robotaxis. They also cover the new custom-built vehicle that feels like a living room, the economics of ride-hailing in rural Alaska, and the "Russian math nerd" diaspora that seems to run the UK tech scene. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:22) Russia
(00:02:51) Waymo architecture
(00:09:59) Why now?
(00:19:46) Driving nuance
(00:29:37) Stripe Agentic Commerce Suite
(00:30:17) Hardware
(00:40:20) Emergent behavior
(00:46:36) Scaling
(00:57:56) Google
Article:
EMMA: End-to-End Multimodal Model for Autonomous Driving – Waymo Research: https://waymo.com/research/emma/
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Creating prediction markets (and suing the CFTC) with Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara
17 maart 2026 · 1 uur 16 min
Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara are the co-founders of Kalshi, the first federally regulated prediction market in the US. They sit down with John and Matt Huang to discuss growing their revenue 11x in six months, why they sued their own regulator to list election markets, and how they are building the "New York Stock Exchange of events." They cover why prediction markets are an antidote to social media polarization, the mechanics of market making for culture, and their vision for trading everything from GPU shipments to the Oscars and the weather. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:01:39) Suing the government
(00:14:42) Why now?
(00:17:12) Kalshi by numbers
(00:20:58) Solving market making
(00:31:33) Agentic trading
(00:33:43) Sharps
(00:38:45) Stripe Connect
(00:39:33) Evolving Kalshi
(00:44:50) Who loses from Kalshi?
(00:47:35) Insider trading
(00:53:28) The ethics of sports contracts
(00:58:08) New derivatives
(01:04:27) Politics
Article(s):
On the Observational Implications of Knightian Uncertainty – Kevin Hassett & Weifeng Zhong (AEI)
The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis – Citrini Research
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Bret Taylor of Sierra on AI agents, outcome-based pricing, and the OpenAI board
10 maart 2026 · 1 uur 41 min
Bret Taylor, co-founder of Sierra and Chair of the OpenAI board, joins John for a pint to discuss the rapid shift toward an agentic future. In this episode, Bret explains why outcome-based pricing is the future of software business models, and why he believes the atomic unit of AI productivity is a process, not a person. They cover why big companies struggle to adopt AI because they are “shipping their org charts.” Bret also discusses a new type of hyper-generalist, reflects on his experience with the OpenAI and Twitter boards, and explains why he believes we might see the end of the smartphone era. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:26) Coding
(00:16:23) Sierra
(00:27:14) Agentic UX
(00:38:47) Building support agents
(00:45:43) Co-developing with the models
(00:50:08) SaaSpocalypse
(01:00:50) Stripe Sessions
(01:01:33) Outcome-based pricing
(01:09:14) Is Sierra short AGI?
(01:13:50) AI productivity
(01:23:47) How to structure a tech business
(01:30:25) Board drama
(01:38:24) AI predictions
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Garrett Langley of Flock Safety on building technology to solve crime
5 maart 2026 · 1 uur 44 min
Garrett Langley is the founder and CEO of Flock Safety, a public safety operating system that helps communities and law enforcement eliminate crime. He sits down with John to discuss why most crime is opportunistic, how Flock helps clear over one million crimes a year, and the engineering challenges of building solar-powered cameras and autonomous drones. They cover the shifting landscape of criminal technology, why hardware requires making "one-way door" decisions, and his vision for a future where technology prevents crime before it happens. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:19) Flock(00:19:51) Safety vs privacy
(00:23:54) Crime and technology
(00:32:36) Crime rates
(00:43:56) Corporate security
(00:52:16) Stripe Radar
(00:52:54) Competitive landscape
(01:02:41) Drones
(01:09:01) The Flock business
(01:11:39) Building hardware
(01:20:01) Cameras
(01:25:17) PD procurement
(01:32:56) Building your own drones
(01:40:52) What’s next for Flock?
Books:
The Digital Silk Road: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Silk-Road-Chinas-Future/dp/0063046288
Boyd: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316796883
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Reiner Pope of MatX on accelerating AI with transformer-optimized chips
26 februari 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
Reiner Pope is the co-founder and CEO of MatX, designing specialized chips for Large Language Models. A former Google TPU architect, he joins John to discuss why the current generation of AI hardware is hitting a wall. They cover the "uncomfortable trade-off" between latency and throughput for current chips, why MatX is betting on combining HBM and SRAM to solve it, and the massive logistical challenge of manufacturing chips at scale with TSMC. Reiner also shares his predictions for AI in 2027, why he prefers Rust for hardware design, and why the best iteration loops happen in your head before writing a line of code. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:15) Google’s AI revival(00:07:54) MatX
(00:17:11) AI supply chain
(00:21:48) Designing chips
(00:37:11) TSMC
(00:44:17) Token pricing
(00:44:55) RL-ing chip design
(00:49:26) Design to production
(00:56:05) MatX culture
(01:02:57) Rust
(01:05:21) Cuckoo hashing
(01:09:35) Unexplored model architectures
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Stripe’s 2025 annual letter
24 februari 2026 · 28 min
The internet economy accelerated in 2025. The fastest-growing companies got even faster, agentic commerce and stablecoin payments started to kick into gear, and total payment volume on Stripe grew by a third as our customers continued to prosper. Lees meer
Our annual letter covers the trends that we think are worth paying close attention to as the pace of change accelerates.
Timestamps
(01:48) The sorting machine(05:45) Global by default
(09:01) Stable progress
(12:14) Working capital’s working. Capital!
(15:09) Escaping from low revenue mode
(18:33) The five levels of agentic commerce
(23:52) A Republic of Permissions
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Ramp founder Eric Glyman on the many ways AI is changing corporate spending
17 februari 2026 · 1 uur 11 min
Eric Glyman is the cofounder and CEO of Ramp, the finance automation platform that now powers over 2% of all corporate spend in the US. He sits down with John and co-host Alex Rampell to discuss how Ramp scaled to over $1 billion in revenue in just seven years, and why the future of fintech is "selling time, not money." They cover the "SaaS apocalypse" (and why lines of code are becoming a liability), how Ramp uses AI agents to review 100,000 expenses a day with 99% accuracy, and why their internal data suggests the US economy is much stronger than the Census Bureau reports. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:21) Ramp business today(00:04:27) The *correct* expense policy
(00:11:07) Bill Pay
(00:16:52) AI and software
(00:32:23) Stablecoin-backed cards
(00:33:06) Ramp data
(00:36:25) How to cut your expenses
(00:41:13) Ramp strategy
(00:57:08) Capital One
(01:06:34) Treasury
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Ben Thompson from Stratechery on AI ads, the end of SaaS, and the future of media
12 februari 2026 · 1 uur 30 min
Ben Thompson, the internet’s premier tech analyst, joins John for a wide-ranging conversation on the mechanics of the internet economy. They discuss the origins of Stratechery and the "1,000 true fans" model, why Taiwan is the most convenient place to live (and the best Uber Eats market), and why the public markets are wrong to think SaaS is "canceled." Ben also explains why the US failure to control the TikTok algorithm is a disaster, why he’s a "crypto defender" in an age of infinite AI content, and gives John some very direct feedback on Stripe’s ACH implementation. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00:20) Visiting Taiwan
(00:04:59) Aggregation and AI
(00:23:53) TikTok/Bytedance
(00:29:58) Aggregation and AI redux
(00:35:31) Agentic commerce
(00:45:08) Is SaaS canceled?
(00:52:21) Stratechery
(01:03:36) How Ben uses AI
(01:06:06) The TSMC break
(01:13:53) Rapid fire
(01:20:53) Feedback on Stripe
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Elon Musk on Space GPUs, AI, Optimus, and his manufacturing method
5 februari 2026 · 2 uur 46 min
John Collison and Dwarkesh Patel sit down with Elon Musk to discuss why the future of AI isn’t on Earth, but in the "always sunny" vacuum of space. Between pints, they discuss the brutal physics of scaling—from the "farcically cheap" solar cells coming out of China to switching Starship from carbon fiber to stainless steel—as well as the “infinite money glitch” of humanoid robots, China, and DOGE. Lees meer
Timestamps
00:00:23 Space GPUs
00:35:39 Alignment
00:58:48 xAI
01:15:01 Optimus
01:28:03 China
01:40:46 Management
02:16:38 DOGE
02:34:58 Space GPUs redux
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Julia DeWahl of Antares on building nuclear reactors for the US military
25 november 2025 · 45 min
Julia DeWahl is the cofounder of Antares, a company developing nuclear micro-reactors for the US military and critical infrastructure. She sits down with John to discuss the vision for the "Starlink of electricity", and why AI hyperscalers are driving a nuclear renaissance. They cover the bipartisan shift in nuclear regulation (and why the NRC’s old mandate made "zero" the safest number of reactors), and why true energy resilience requires more than just solar and batteries. Julia also shares lessons from the early days of Opendoor and Starlink, including why customer obsession sometimes means sitting outside a bagel shop. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00) Lessons from SpaceX and Opendoor(02:46) Introducing Antares
(06:30) The path to market
(12:20) Nuclear vibe shift
(15:11) Regulation
(19:21) Possible energy futures
(24:02) Stripe Radar
(24:55) Nuclear supply chains
(26:43) Antares origin story
(30:24) Funding Antares
(36:09) If Julia was energy tsar
(42:33) Restarting shuttered plants
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Satya Nadella describes how lessons from Microsoft’s history apply to today’s boom
18 november 2025 · 1 uur 19 min
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, sits down with John to discuss the diffusion of AI inside the enterprise. He explains why “all your data at your fingertips” is the evergreen pitch, why this AI CapEx cycle is different from the .com bubble, and his vision for "agentic commerce". They also cover Microsoft's product bundling strategy and how he "wanders the virtual corridors" of Teams to run the company. Lees meer
Links
[Read] Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle, Matthew Symonds
[Try] Superwhisper
[Read] The Internet Tidal Wave, Bill Gates
Timestamps
(00:00) AI adoption in the enterprise
(07:47) How Satya runs Microsoft(13:45) New UIs
(20:44) Microsoft tackling the early internet
(25:58) Are we in a bubble?
(31:35) Data sovereignty
(38:10) Excel
(42:01) Agentic commerce
(52:45) AI brand loyalty
(59:44) Product bundling
(01:08:18) Microsoft’s culture
(01:12:12) The law of very large companies
(01:16:20) What’s in the water in Hyderabad?
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Dave Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly, on GLP-1s and the business of pharma
11 november 2025 · 2 uur 5 min
Dave Ricks, the CEO of Eli Lilly, the world's most valuable pharmaceutical company, sits down with John and Patrick to discuss the complex business of drug development. Dave explains the true origin story of GLP-1s (from Gila monster saliva), why their potential goes far beyond weight loss to addiction and inflammation, and how "self-pay" has become the #1 way new patients get Zepbound. They cover the "shadow generic" industry undermining patents, the challenges associated with clinical trial enrollment, and what drove insulin list prices to $275 (while the net price was $40). This is a rare, candid look into the strategies, science, and future of pharma from one of the industry's most influential leaders. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00) Introducing Dave Ricks
(05:07) Making R&D decisions
(10:10) Clinical trials
(24:59) Drug pricing
(32:43) Stimulating more R&D
(54:15) Pros and cons of US healthcare
(58:20) New pharma business models
(01:05:53) Stripe and enterprises
(01:07:00) China
(01:16:31) Generics
(01:22:37) GLP-1s
(1:37:43) r/Peptides
(01:41:25) LillyDirect
(01:46:35) Why do investors love LLY?
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Stablecoin special: Zach Abrams (Bridge) and Henri Stern (Privy)
4 november 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
Zach Abrams, the CEO and cofounder of Bridge, the leading stablecoin orchestration platform, and Henri Stern, CEO and cofounder of Privy, the leading crypto wallet infrastructure, sit down with John to discuss the future of stablecoins, issuing, and what it will take for crypto to become ubiquitous. Both companies recently joined Stripe, and are uniquely positioned to dissect how crypto is changing financial infrastructure. Lees meer
Key moments
(00:00) Introducing Bridge + Privy
(06:39) How stablecoins are being used today
(14:27) US Dollar dominance
(25:50) The future of banking
(34:35) Blockchains
(42:27) Building a modular stack
(47:14) Open issuance
(56:55) M&A
(01:11:02) The future of stablecoins
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Casey Handmer of Terraform Industries on solar maximalism, hard tech, and reclaiming the Salton Sea
28 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 16 min
Description Lees meer
Casey Handmer is the founder of Terraform Industries, who is developing a machine that makes synthetic natural gas from sunlight and air. He joins the podcast to explain his solar maximalist worldview, why he believes solar costs will drop another 10x, and the core physics that doomed Hyperloop from the start. They also discuss the lessons of the underappreciated industrialist Henry Kaiser, Casey's new venture in solar-powered desalination, his grand plan to refill the Salton Sea, and why he believes "hard-edged" leaders are essential for hardware success.
Show notes
[Read] Ashlee Vance: Elon Musk
[Read] Francis Spufford: Red plenty
[Listen] Beneath the Surface, Episode 2 : Salton Sea
[Read] Marc Reisner: Cadillac Desert
[Read] Albert P. Heiner: Henry J. Kaiser
[Read] Mark S. Foster: Henry Kaiser
[Read] Ernest K. Gann: Fate is the Hunter
[Read] Captain W. E. Johns: Biggles: The Camels are Coming
Key moments
(00:00) Intro
(02:28) Henry Kaiser
(08:49) Introducing Terraform
(13:08) Where electricity won’t work
(16:50) The solar maximalist perspective
(22:57) Terraformer Mark One
(27:49) The role of intervention
(37:30) American dynamism
(47:36) The Origins of Efficiency, by Brian Potter
(48:33) Children and education
(37:30) American dynamism
(55:15) Desalination
(01:08:16) Lessons from leadership
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Dan Sundheim of D1 Capital on the art of public market investing
22 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 38 min
Seasoned public and private investor Dan Sundheim sits down with John to discuss the harrowing GameStop short squeeze, waking up at 3am for the European market open, and the emotional asymmetry of managing billions of dollars. They cover why he thinks successful private companies should avoid the public markets, the real genius of Elon Musk's business approach, and the pattern recognition that comes from years of investing. This is a rare, candid look into the strategies and mindset of a top public markets investor. Lees meer
Show notes
[Read] The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Lawrence A. Cunningham
[Read] The Buffett Partnership Letters (1957-1970)
[Read] Value Investors Club (VIC)
Timestamps
(00:00) The D1 operating model
(07:54) Getting it wrong on NFLX
(11:44) What makes a good stock picker
(18:16) Portfolio-building
(24:35) GameStop
(35:57) The art of short-selling
(41:48) How to spot a turnaround
(47:12) Waking up at 3 AM
(53:14) Money management
(59:31) Dan’s 10-year hands-off stock pick
(01:09:52) China
(01:14:44) Are we in a bubble?
(01:20:41) SpaceX
(01:25:04) Investing in private companies
(01:32:55) Thoughts on the banking industry
(01:35:58) Advice for budding investors
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How to build a $16B car company with RJ Scaringe, founder of Rivian
14 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 9 min
RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, sits down for a cheeky pint with John Collison to discuss what it takes to build a car company from scratch, developing the first electric pickup truck, the shift to a software-defined zonal architecture, Rivian's AI-driven approach to autonomy, and the strategy behind their recent $5.8 billion deal with Volkswagen. Lees meer
Timestamps
(00:00) Gen 1(12:32) Gen 2
(18:37) Developing the first electric pickup truck
(27:36) John pitches some car features
(36:46) Stripe’s payment methods
(37:54) Autonomous driving
(44:51) Component progress
(53:17) The new economics of cars
(01:01:11) Manufacturing in the US
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Tobi Lütke is still captivated by internet commerce, 20 years later
6 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 43 min
Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke joins John Collison to discuss the philosophies driving one of the internet’s most foundational companies. Tobi shares his perspective on why companies are a form of technology, how internal tools and "opinionated software" shape an organization's culture and accelerate its evolution, and why the best gift is finding a beautiful, unsolvable problem. Lees meer
Show notes
[Buy] Momax: 140W Universal Travel Adapter
[Read] Benjamin Bloom: The 2 Sigma Problem
[Buy] Ikigai: vitamin cases
[Read] Kevin Kelly: 1,000 True Fans
[Read] Erich Gamma: Design Patterns
[Read] Charles Calomiris: Fragile by Design
[Listen] Business Breakdowns: Formula One
[Watch] Netflix: Formula 1: Drive to Survive
[Read] Mark Robichaux: Cable Cowboy
Key Moments
(00:00) Intro
(07:07) How internal software shapes culture
(16:32) The Shopify vision
(27:49) Peak transaction capacity
(34:36) Agentic commerce
(49:15) Shop Pay
(55:29) Stablecoins
(59:20) Stripe + Shopify
(1:12:23) Learning from the Coinbase board
(1:17:23) Is Tobi ungovernable?
(1:25:02) Entrepreneurship
(1:31:50) Advice for Mark Carney
(1:36:40) Motor racing
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Marc Andreessen and Charlie Songhurst on the past, present, and future of Silicon Valley
1 oktober 2025 · 2 uur 8 min
Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison and Charlie Songhurst to discuss the history of Silicon Valley, spotting bubbles in real time, the "Elon method" of management, and why the mistakes that haunt you are the companies you don't invest in. Lees meer
Show notes:
Roger Lowenstein: When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
David Swensen: Pioneering Portfolio Management
Ian M Banks: Consider Phlebas: A Culture Novel
Walter Isaacson: Elon Musk
Thomas Rid: Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History
George McGovern: A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare, WSJ
Steve Blank: The Secret History of Silicon Valley
Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine
John Perry Barlow: A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
Martin Gurri: Revolt of the Public
John Malone: Born to Be Wired
Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/marc-andreessen-and-charlie-songhurst
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2IHbGJJMpiFoz5YrvRfTFw
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cheeky-pint/id1821055332
Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/
Key moments
(00:00) Marc needs to know: what is a cheeky pint?
(04:30) Are we in a bubble?
(14:55) Do VCs matter?
(19:01) The history of Silicon Valley
(32:25) How Digital Research almost made it
(39:02) A bear case on the internet
(59:52) AI productivity
(01:12:10) Stripe + AI
(01:13:08) Crypto
(01:24:08) Should a16z start a hedge fund?
(01:29:51) Big companies
(01:35:33) Boards
(01:40:27) The Elon method
(01:52:59) The future of media
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Des Traynor on reinventing Intercom twice and the “four horsemen” of good AI companies
24 september 2025 · 1 uur 18 min
Des Traynor, cofounder of Intercom, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison to discuss the growth of Fin (Intercom’s AI customer service agent), why selling AI products is hard, advice for product marketers, and cofounder dynamics. Lees meer
Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/des-traynor-on-reinventing-intercom
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:58) Reinventing Intercom
(06:31) Fin
(18:06) 1M resolutions a week
(24:22) Selling AI
(29:34) Product marketing
(37:18) Listening to users
(44:14) Usage-based billing
(45:14) Advice for startups
(52:09) AI pricing
(01:07:27) Cofounder dynamics
(01:11:04) Predictors of company success
(01:15:56) How AI-native is Intercom?
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Ambrook CEO Mackenzie Burnett on American agriculture, rural resilience, and carrying 50lbs of fresh pork on Amtrak
17 september 2025 · 55 min
Mackenzie Burnett joins John Collison to talk about American agriculture, labor and immigration challenges, building rural resilience, ERPs, and the principle of money movement. She also shares some feedback for Stripe. Lees meer
Show notes:
Where Soil is Holy, and Climate Change Is Seldom Mentioned
Farming goes digital
The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers
Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/ambrook-ceo-mackenzie-burnett-on
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introducing Ambrook(05:37) Serving farmers
(19:25) Building rural resilience
(21:49) The economics of ag
(28:03) If Mackenzie ran the USDA
(30:53) Vertical SaaS
(34:49) The wonders of accounting
(38:41) Ambrook-as-fintech
(44:00) If Mackenzie ran Stripe
(50:53) Joshua Kushner and Dylan Field
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Zipline CEO Keller Cliffton on air-dropping blood to Rwandan hospitals and getting to 50,000 aircraft per year
10 september 2025 · 1 uur 14 min
Keller Cliffton joins John Collison to talk about Zipline’s journey to 115 million miles flown, the lost art of American airplanes, building 50k drones a year in California, getting to 99.9% reliability, and US vs. Chinese manufacturing. Lees meer
Books referenced:
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Skunk Works by Ben Rich
Apple in China by Patrick McGee
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:45) 115 million miles flown
(04:10) Why drone delivery took so long
(07:38) Getting started in Rwanda
(13:31) 51% reduction in maternal mortality
(15:33) Access vs. waste
(21:45) Scaling globally
(24:05) Zipline’s Platform 1
(25:50) The Right Stuff
(27:22) Drone design and safety
(30:12) Getting to 99.9% reliability
(34:39) Multimodal logistics
(38:15) Zipline’s Platform 2
(44:03) US drone regs and the FAA
(48:02) Progress and stagnation in US aviation
(51:30) If Keller ran the FAA
(54:24) 30% WoW growth in Texas
(58:25) Why Texas and not California?
(01:00:28) Building 50k drones in California
(01:06:18) US vs. Chinese manufacturing
(01:11:30) Advice for hardtech founders
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Cognition CEO Scott Wu on acquiring Windsurf, AI replacing engineers, and the Moneyball-ification of everything
27 augustus 2025 · 58 min
Scott Wu joins John Collison to talk about Cognition’s AI software engineer, the Moneyball-ification of everything, math competitions with Alexandr Wang in 6th grade, acquiring Windsurf over a weekend, whether coding tools will be replaced by the labs, and why he thinks we already have AGI. Lees meer
Full transcript on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/cheekypint/p/cognition-ceo-scott-wu-on-acquiring
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(01:13) Early life and maths competitions
(03:47) Addepar job as a high schooler
(05:43) Where are all the young founders?
(08:45) Moneyball-ification of everything
(11:42) Cognition’s AI software engineer, Devin
(15:46) Essential and accidental complexity
(17:59) How Devin works with enterprises
(19:48) IDE productivity
(21:56) Nihilist computer use argument
(25:55) Benchmarking Devin
(27:15) Market structure
(30:32) Agent economy
(37:21) Cognition’s team of founders
(39:31) Jevons paradox and software
(42:00) When will we see AI UIs?
(45:52) “I think we have AGI”
(47:03) Windsurf deal
(52:37) M&A in AI
(54:21) Cognition’s culture
(55:48) Learning as a CEO
(57:12) Scott’s information diet
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on bitcoin going to $1 million, electing a pro-crypto Congress, and Jamie Dimon
20 augustus 2025 · 1 uur 17 min
Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what’s happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers, war stories from early scaling, confronting people who won’t use AI to code, Coinbase becoming people’s primary financial account, and why banks are now embracing crypto. Lees meer
Full episode transcript on Substack
https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-on-bitcoin
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(01:14) How Coinbase won the exchange market
(06:22) Losing money on every bitcoin purchase
(10:54) North Korean hackers
(14:54) The Everything Exchange
(17:39) Crypto will be bigger than gold
(19:22) Stablecoin adoption
(23:28) Jamie Dimon and big banks on crypto
(26:44) Coinbase as your primary financial account
(27:53) Neobanks
(29:41) Bitcoin going to $1 million
(33:16) Crypto in an investment portfolio
(34:43) GENIUS Act
(37:10) Electing a pro-crypto Congress
(45:24) Reforming accredited investor rules
(48:33) Squashing scams
(50:11) Bitcoin preserving the American experiment
(57:09) Balaji Srinivasan
(01:01:05) The mission-first company announcement
(01:05:50) How does Coinbase focus?
(01:07:44) Venture bets and Brian vetoing USDC
(01:12:02) Brian’s AI coding mandate
(01:15:13) Advice for Stripe
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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on tokenizing private companies, changing the SEC, and Frank Slootman
13 augustus 2025 · 1 uur 6 min
Vlad Tenev joins John Collison to discuss Bulgarian hyperinflation, Robinhood Banking, details from the GameStop saga—including advice from Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk, payment for order flow economics and Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys, his approach to leadership through the Frank Slootman framework, and how he would change the SEC. Lees meer
Full episode transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-makes-his
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:58) Hyperinflation in Bulgaria
(04:07) Stablecoins
(05:41) Home country bias in investing
(06:59) Robinhood’s origins
(11:23) What the book Flash Boys got wrong
(16:11) Options vs. equities
(17:38) Robinhood Gold
(19:34) Robinhood Banking
(22:04) GameStop advice from Benioff, Zuck, and Elon
(26:40) Impact of retail investors on capital markets
(31:21) Where retail dollars are coming from
(32:10) The gamification narrative
(34:17) Tokenizing private companies
(41:57) Vlad makes his pitch to tokenize Stripe
(45:00) Prediction markets: tennis, the pope, and AI
(49:26) If Vlad ran the SEC
(51:15) How does Robinhood ship so fast?
(52:38) Remote work and Robinhood’s founder community
(55:39) “What would Frank Slootman do?”
(57:32) Active traders
(59:46) Killing Robinhood’s cash card
(01:02:36) Harmonic and mathematical superintelligence
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on designing AGI-pilled products, model economics, and 19th-century vitalism
6 augustus 2025 · 1 uur 3 min
Dario Amodei joins John Collison to talk about Anthropic's growth to ~$5 billion in ARR, how AI models show capitalistic impulses, predictions for an agentic future, the economics of model businesses, and the 19th-century concept of vitalism. Lees meer
Full episode transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/a-cheeky-pint-with-anthropic-ceo
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:50) Working with your sibling
(01:43) Building Anthropic with 7 cofounders
(02:52) ~$5 billion in ARR and vertical applications of products
(07:18) Developing a platform-first company
(10:08) Working with the DoD
(11:11) Proving skeptics wrong about revenue projections
(13:13) Capitalistic impulses of AI models
(15:43) AI market structure and players
(16:56) AI models as standalone P&Ls
(20:48) The data wall and styles of learning
(22:20) AI talent wars
(26:04) Pitching Anthropic’s API business to investors
(27:49) Cloud providers vs. AI labs
(29:05) AI customization and Claude for enterprise
(33:01) Dwarkesh’s take on limitations
(36:12) 19th-century notion of vitalism
(37:27) AI in medicine, customer service, and taxes
(40:59) How to solve for hallucinations
(42:41) The double-standard for AI mistakes
(44:14) Evolving from researcher to CEO
(46:59) Designing AGI-pilled products
(47:57) AI-native UIs
(50:09) Model progress and building products
(52:22) Open-source models
(54:43) Keeping Anthropic AGI-pilled
(57:11) AI advancements vs. safety regulations
(01:02:04) How Dario uses AI
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Serial entrepreneur Pieter Levels on building in public and living as a digital nomad
9 juli 2025 · 23 min
Pieter Levels joins John Collison to discuss building successful online businesses as a digital nomad, thoughts on European accelerationism, and Pieter’s unconventional methods and philosophy as a bootstrapped founder making over $3 million per year. Lees meer
Full episode transcript
https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/4/transcript
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:37) Pieter’s resume
(01:33) Trying to make money online as a 12 year old
(02:43) Being one of the first YouTube creators
(03:18) Who should indie hack
(04:31) What Pieter hates about VC-backed businesses
(07:51) Who is digital nomading for?
(09:15) Learning from @patio11
(10:17) 125k tweets and the brand of @levelsio
(10:59) Getting referrals from ChatGPT
(11:43) What Pieter automates with AI
(13:02) Investing and home country bias
(15:05) Hacking thermostats
(15:57) EU acceleration movement
(18:34) Entrepreneurship in the EU
(19:26) Pieter's reflections on Stripe’s API
(21:21) Looking 5 years into the future
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The Bot Company founder and CEO Kyle Vogt on home robots and why he’ll never sell another company
25 juni 2025 · 23 min
The Bot Company founder and CEO Kyle Vogt—who also cofounded Twitch and Cruise—joins John Collison to talk about applying AI to home robots, the similarities between robotics and self-driving, and why the next $100 billion company will have fewer than 100 people. Lees meer
Full episode transcript
https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/3/transcript
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(00:38) The Bot Company pitch
(02:05) Single-task vs. multi-task robots
(04:27) What is the Turing test for robotics?
(05:52) Why this time is different for home robots
(08:42) The last mile in robotics and self-driving
(09:47) Viral demos and hype cycles
(10:38) Commercializing frontier tech
(13:06) Self-driving CapEx
(14:15) Regulatory hurdles
(16:18) Tesla vs. Waymo
(19:21) Why Kyle regrets selling Cruise
(21:39) The next $100 billion company
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Meta CFO Susan Li on headcount vs. GPU allocation, “free cash flow” hats, and almost becoming a PM
18 juni 2025 · 30 min
Susan Li of Meta—the youngest chief financial officer of a Fortune 100 company—joins John Collison to talk about capital allocation, managing investors, and how Mark Zuckerberg has changed over the 17 years of working together. Lees meer
Full episode transcript
https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/2/transcript
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(01:20) Early education and career
(02:15) Lessons from Michael Grimes at Morgan Stanley
(03:12) Leadership traits and succession planning at Meta
(06:05) Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership and culture of feedback
(09:06) Financial forecasting and capital allocation
(14:18) ROI on Meta’s portfolio of bets
(15:05) Investor sentiment in 2022
(17:49) The story behind the “free cash flow” hats
(18:58) CapEx trends in the AI era
(21:48) A memorable earnings call
(24:16) Challenges of allocating compute vs headcount budgets
(26:55) AI’s impact on productivity and operations
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OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman on the scaling hypothesis and refactoring as a killer AI use case
18 juni 2025 · 32 min
Greg Brockman—OpenAI cofounder and Stripe's first engineer—joins John Collison to talk about research-driven product development, an early moment he thought OpenAI was doomed, S curves in AI advancement, and energy bottlenecks. Lees meer
Full episode transcript:
https://cheekypint.transistor.fm/1/transcript
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(02:51) Was OpenAI the first company to take the scaling hypothesis seriously?
(04:53) Lessons from Dota about deep learning
(08:08) What is a good new Turing test?
(08:57) Personalization in AI
(09:57) Research-driven product development
(10:26) An early moment OpenAI felt doomed
(15:01) OS limits on AI product development
(17:59) When will AI make novel advancements in math or science?
(20:03) Energy bottlenecks
(22:30) S curves in AI advancement
(24:00) AI coding
(26:25) Refactoring as a killer AI use case
(27:26) How OpenAI decides what products to built
(28:53) Growing up in North Dakota
(30:17) How far away is AGI?
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Cheeky Pint hosted by Stripe cofounder John Collison
17 juni 2025 · 1 min
John sits down with founders and builders over a pint—Greg Brockman (cofounder of OpenAI), Susan Li (chief financial officer at Meta), Kyle Vogt (founder of The Bot Company and cofounder of Twitch and Cruise), and Pieter Levels (indie hacker). Lees meer
Watch Cheeky Pint on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@stripe.