My guest today is Darren Farber, and this is his second appearance on the show. Darren is a Managing Partner of Albion River, a defense-focused investment firm and he previously served as a special advisor to the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. We recorded this conversation in the middle of the Iranian contingency, and we spent most of our time on what winning actually means in a theater like Iran. We discuss why magazine depth matters for the American industrial base, lessons from Ukraine, and what the rise of neo-prime defense companies will require from Congress. Please enjoy my second conversation with Darren Farber. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:29) Darren Farber Intro (00:02:59) Defining What Winning Looks Like in Iran (00:12:16) The Strait of Hormuz (00:13:27) Eisenhower vs. Taylor: Two Military Doctrines Explained (00:17:12) US Military Readiness vs. the Pentagon Era (00:20:05) America's Magazine Depth (00:21:36) China's Vulnerability (00:25:28) Trading Freedom for Security (00:27:31) Today's Industrial Base (00:29:30) Lessons from the Ukraine War (00:31:11) Impact of Iran Conflict on Taiwan Risk (00:33:02) What Neo-Prime Defense Companies Need to Succeed (00:39:53) Can We Win Without Full Regime Change in Iran? (00:45:46) AI's Impact on Modern Warfare

My guest today is Gavin Baker, founding partner and CIO of Atreides Management, and this is our sixth conversation. The central theme is watts and wafers, the two physical constraints that in Gavin's view will dictate the next phase of AI. On power, he thinks the near-term shortage starts to ease in 2027 and 2028 as new sources of energy come online, and that orbital compute solves it in the long term. On wafers, he explains what is different this time from the dotcom bubble and why TSMC’s capacity decisions may be the single most important variable to watch. We also discuss Elon’s Terrafab, the disaggregation of GPUs, the role of new chip companies, and whether the economic value of AI will keep accruing to frontier models. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:29) Gavin Baker Intro (00:03:32) Anthropic's Record ARR Growth (00:11:49) Should OpenAI and Anthropic Raise at a Much Higher Valuation? (00:13:23) How Elon Preserves Investor Trust (00:14:00) Watts & Wafers (00:15:45) Data Centers in Space Explained (00:20:51) Orbital Compute’s Impact on Terrestrial Data Centers (00:26:24) TSMC Supply Discipline & Bubble Risk (00:30:50) Demand for Frontier Tokens & The Bitter Lesson (00:35:33) Continual Learning & Memory (00:40:01) New Chip Companies & Startups (00:42:49) Prefill vs. Decode Disaggregation (00:48:40) AI-Native Founders: Different & Hard (00:51:27) Token Path & Application Layer (00:56:13) How Gavin Uses AI in Atreides (01:00:06) Signs of a Diversity Breakdown (01:05:42) Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft (01:11:42) Broader Knock-On Effects of AI

My guest today is Krishna Rao, the CFO of Anthropic. The center of our conversation is how he navigates the decision around procuring and allocating compute, which he describes as the canvas on which everything else gets built. We talk about what he calls the cone of uncertainty, the three chip platforms Anthropic uses fungibly across Trainium, TPUs, and GPUs, and the daily meetings they run to allocate compute between model development, internal use, and serving customer demand. He explains why the returns to frontier intelligence keep getting higher, especially in enterprise, and how Anthropic thinks about the line between platform and application and why they choose to build their own products like Claude Code. Krishna has such a unique seat watching one of the fastest growing businesses in history, and he is generous in sharing what he has learned since joining the company two years ago. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:29) Episode Intro: Krishna Rao (00:03:14) Compute as Anthropic's Lifeblood (00:05:17) Three Fungible Chip Platforms (00:07:31) The Cone of Uncertainty (00:09:08) Competing Ways to Allocate Compute (00:10:36) What Drives Compute Efficiency (00:12:38) Why Frontier Returns Are So High (00:16:32) How Claude Code Writes Its Own Code (00:18:46) Will Talent Become Obsolete? (00:20:07) How Scaling Laws Are Holding (00:21:54) Exponential Thinking (00:23:17) The Layer Cake of Compute (00:26:36) How Anthropic Deploys New Compute (00:27:53) Platform v. Application Layer (00:32:42) Why Model Pricing Has Stayed Stable (00:35:26) Measuring Return on Compute (00:37:22) Working With Chip Providers (00:38:32) How Anthropic's Finance Team Uses Claude (00:41:32) The Jevons Paradox for Labor (00:43:08) Anthropic's Fundraising & Growth Journey (00:47:31) The Exponential Revenue Curve (00:49:02) The Hardest Thing to Explain to Investors (00:52:15) AI's Public Perception Problem (00:55:38) Mythos (00:57:31) Relationship With Government (00:58:51) Inside Anthropic's Culture (01:03:48) The Next Frontier: Virtual Collaborators (01:06:22) How Leaders Scale With a Business (01:10:55) The Biggest Risks to Continued Progress (01:12:09) What Krishna is Excited About  (01:13:45) The Kindest Thing

My guest today is Brian Chesky, the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. Our conversation traces the path from his early training as an industrial designer at RISD through the pandemic moment that forced him into founder mode.  He explains why he thinks AI founder mode will demand even more attention to the details and why founders are rarely good early CEOs. He walks through his eleven-star exercise, which is a way of imagining the most absurd version of a customer experience to achieve product market fit.  We also talk about what changed for him when he stopped chasing adulation and started making things for the love of making them.  For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:29) Episode Intro: Brian Chesky (00:03:07) Studying Industrial Design at RISD (00:08:30) Why Founders Don't Make Good CEOs (00:09:02) Founder Mode (00:12:51) AI Founder Mode (00:14:41) The End of Pure People Managers (00:18:42) Consumer AI (00:21:45) Project Hawaii (00:25:49) Make the Problem as Small as Possible (00:29:46) Becoming a Good CEO (00:32:11) What Brian Learned From Hiroki Asai (00:36:32) The Eleven-Star Experience (00:38:48) AI and Creativity (00:41:44) Making Things for the Love of It (00:43:36) The Adulation Trap (00:46:38) The Ham Sandwich Paradox (00:52:38) Why Founder-Led Businesses Endure (00:55:14) The Person as the Atomic Unit of Airbnb (00:59:40) Disrupting Yourself With AI (01:02:11) Lessons from Bodybuilding (01:07:55) Hiring as the Most Important Job (01:09:16) Are Founders Born or Made? (01:11:04) The Motivation of an Artist (01:11:47) The Kindest Thing

My guest today is Paul Tudor Jones. Paul is the founder of Tudor Investment Corporation and one of the greatest macro traders of all time, known for calling and profiting from the 1987 crash and compounding capital at extraordinary rates over more than four decades. Paul is also one of the most entertaining and interesting people I have ever met. He is full of stories and hard-earned lessons from a lifetime in markets that feels like several lifetimes compressed into one. In this conversation, he shares how he thinks about trading as a constant battle of risk management and patience, why he still wakes up in the middle of the night to watch global markets, and how he identifies the rare moments where he can take a truly big swing. We discuss whether we are in a bubble, why he sees AI as one of the greatest risks in history, and why he believes Bitcoin is the best inflation hedge. We also spend time on the difference between trading and investing, the importance of passion and discipline, and the ideas that have shaped his life both inside and outside of markets. Please enjoy this conversation with Paul Tudor Jones. This conversation was recorded in mid-February 20, 26 weeks before the geopolitical conflicts now shaping the global economy. Please enjoy this great conversation with Paul Tudor Jones.  For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Invest Like the Best listeners get a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta when you go to ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- WorkOS⁠ is the infrastructure B2B and AI-native companies use to sell to enterprise. It covers everything enterprise security requires: SSO, SCIM, RBAC, Audit Logs, AI governance, and more. Trusted by 2,000+ fast-growing companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and Vercel. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:29) Episode Intro: Paul Tudor Jones (00:04:44) Paul’s Incredible Kindest Thing Story (00:06:50) Discovering a Passion for Philanthropy (00:13:12) Paul's Commencement Speech Address (00:15:24) Trading v. Investing (00:19:23) Lessons from Warren Buffet (00:23:48) The AI Industry Lacks Proper Risk Management (00:26:54) The One Regulation AI Needs (00:28:51) What Paul Learned from Eli Tullis (00:30:39) Why Trading is Like Boxing (00:32:16) The Bull Case for the Yen (00:34:30) Why Bitcoin is the Best Inflation Hedge (00:36:06) Lessons from Historical Bubbles (00:38:57) Are We in a Bubble? (00:42:10) Paul's Daily Routine (00:44:12) Managing Information Overload (00:45:35) What Exquisite Execution Means (00:46:37) Paul’s Love of Games (00:48:13) The Secret to Longevity (00:50:51) Starting Robin Hood After the 1987 Crash (00:55:33) The Importance of Studying Journalism (00:57:12) Communicating Effectively in Today's World (00:59:13) The Four Components of a Great Life (01:01:10) Paul’s Relationship with God and Nature (01:03:53) Kill ‘Em With Kindness

My guest today is Alex Karnal. Alex is the co-founder and managing partner of Braidwell, a life sciences investment firm he built after spending 15 years at Deerfield Management. The frame we use throughout the episode is the health stack. Alex talks about how most of the diseases that will claim most of our lives are already addressable with medicines that exist today. We work through the five layers of what a defensive health strategy looks like, why GLP-1 medicines represent the first commercial proof that people are ready to be proactive about their health, and why PCSK9 inhibitors may ultimately be the more important drug class even though they get far less attention. We also get into the science and business of drug discovery itself — why most of the published literature that AI companies are training on cannot be replicated, what it would mean to have a truly agentic scientific lab running 24 hours a day, and why Alex believes we are now on a deterministic curve toward scientific superintelligence in biology. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- ⁠WorkOS⁠ is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit⁠⁠ ⁠WorkOS.com⁠⁠⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- ⁠Rogo⁠ is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:02:29) Intro: Alex Karnal (00:03:15) State of the Union: GLP1s and Life Sciences (00:07:01) The Health Stack Framework (00:12:49) Breaking Down the 5 Defensive Layers (00:21:18) GLP-1: What's Driving the Inflection (00:28:28) Diet vs. Drugs: Is Food Enough? (00:31:15) Barriers to Access: Complexity, Cost & Compliance (00:35:04) PCSK9: The Closest Thing to a Free Lunch (00:44:10) Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Disease (00:46:59) Cancer: Early Detection & New Treatments (00:54:49) Body Imaging & Diagnostic Trade-offs (00:56:31) How Drugs Are Discovered (01:02:39) AI in Drug Discovery (01:10:57) The Automated Lab of the Future (01:13:05) Peptides & Citizen Pharmacology (01:16:45) Alex's Background (01:28:25) Braidwell's Investment Approach (01:30:39) The Kindest Thing

Scott Nolan spent 12 years at Founders Fund looking for the most important problems that no one else was funding. Then he found a problem so critical, and so ignored, that he couldn't find a company to back. So he started one. General Matter is rebuilding US uranium enrichment. The United States was the world leader in enrichment through the 1980s and then stopped entirely. Today roughly a quarter of US enriched uranium comes from Russia, a ban on those imports takes full effect in 2028, and the advanced reactors everyone is counting on to power the next wave of data centers have no reliable domestic fuel source. Scott believes enrichment is the single bottleneck to a nuclear future, and that the window to solve it is narrow. The conversation covers how Peter Thiel influenced him, why being in love with an idea is dangerous for investors but required for founders, and what it actually takes to rebuild an industrial capability the country let atrophy for 40 years. Please enjoy my conversation with Scott Nolan. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- ⁠WorkOS⁠ is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit⁠⁠ ⁠WorkOS.com⁠⁠⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:45) Guest Intro: Scott Nolan (00:03:36) SpaceX, Founders Fund & General Matter (00:08:04) What Scott learned from Peter Thiel (00:10:05) The "Avoid Trends" Concept (00:10:55) Finding Important Problems No One Is Working On (00:17:32) Gut v. Intuition (00:18:49) Valuation, Competition & Capital Intensity (00:20:20) Founders Fund Strategy (00:21:06) The Steeper the Up Round, the Greater the Undervaluation (00:21:41) Being in Love with the Problem (00:26:07) Governments, Technology & History (00:28:54) Lessons from SpaceX and Elon (00:29:42) Vertical Integration (00:33:07) The Role of Energy in Civilization (00:37:36) State & Direction of US Energy (00:38:58) Why Nuclear? (00:42:20) Taxonomy of Advanced Reactors (00:45:33) The BYOE Concept (00:46:50) What Could Make Advanced Reactors Fail? (00:48:04) General Matter: Product, Business & Company (00:50:12) Enrichment & Weapons-Grade Uranium (00:56:45) North Star Metric (01:01:05) Building a Great Enduring Company (01:04:01) How Scott Runs the Company (01:06:11) Overcoming Irrational Fears About Nuclear (01:08:25) Why Aren't There More Founders Funds? (01:10:03) Operating vs. Investing (01:11:56) Kindest Thing

My guest today is Alan Waxman, co-founder and CEO of Sixth Street, a $130B global investment firm. Private credit is one of the most discussed topics in markets right now, and there is a lot to make sense of. The current discourse is almost entirely focused on symptoms. Alan Waxman has spent the time diagnosing the root cause. Alan thinks about the financial system the way a historian would, studying the incentives, guardrails, and market structure that determine how things play out. In this conversation, he traces the evolution of American finance from the 1929 crash through Glass-Steagall, the GFC, and Basel III to explain how we arrived at what he calls the factory model, the industrialization of liability-gathering and asset deployment that he believes is the root cause of everything happening in private markets today. This is my second conversation with Alan, our first one is one of my favorites from last year.  For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Ramp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Vanta. Trusted by thousands of businesses, Vanta continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit vanta.com/invest.  ----- This episode is brought to you by ⁠WorkOS⁠. WorkOS is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit ⁠WorkOS.com⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ridgeline⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:02:43) Intro: Alan Waxman (00:04:35) Financial System Guardrails & Incentives (00:05:56) System 1: Pre-1933 to 1999 (00:07:39) Glass-Steagall Legislation (00:10:46) Deregulation & Rise of System 2 (00:12:27) Leverage, GFC, and System 2's Collapse (00:14:25) Basel III, Dodd-Frank, and System 3 (00:15:32) Why System 3 Could Be the Best Ever (00:19:04) Behavioral Shifts Starting in 2018 (00:19:52) The Factory Model (00:24:33) Acceleration of Factory Model (00:28:25) FRE Multiples and GP Incentives (00:34:59) Wealth Channel & Asset-Liability Mismatches (00:36:15) Why This Won’t be the Next GFC (00:45:31) AI, Creative Destruction & Opportunity  (00:49:35) Alan’s One-Sheet Brain System (00:55:01) Lessons by Decade: Hui (00:59:28) Face the Tiger

My guest today is Sergey Levine, a professor at UC Berkeley and co-founder of Physical Intelligence. The company is building robotic foundation models designed to control any embodied system to do any task in any environment. Sergey argues that solving robotics at full generality is the right path, and that building systems that learn across many robots, environments, and tasks may be the more scalable approach than building narrow specialists. We discuss how these models can perform new tasks without being trained on them directly, and why everyday human actions remain the hardest problems in the field. He also reflects on how human trust and acceptance may matter as much as technical breakthroughs in determining when robots become part of daily life. Please enjoy my conversation with Sergey Levine. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- ⁠WorkOS⁠ is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit⁠⁠ ⁠WorkOS.com⁠⁠⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:02:43) Intro: Sergey Levine (00:03:29) Why Bet on Generality Over Specialization (00:07:24) What if PI succeeds? (00:09:05) Pros and Cons of Humanoid Robotics (00:11:02) Timeline of Major Milestones in Robotics (00:15:47) Sergey's Personal Journey (00:18:22) Making General Intelligence Happen (00:19:57) Understanding Robot Data Collection (00:22:12) Most Surprising Discovery at Physical Intelligence (00:24:48) The Science of Common Sense (00:25:36) Long-Range Tasks in Robotics (00:27:24) Why Wouldn’t We Have A Robot in Our Kitchen by 2050 (00:31:21) Other Interesting Approaches (00:32:38) Cool vs. Useful in Robotics (00:36:48) Form Factor Innovation (00:38:22) Physical Intelligence Analogy (00:39:30) Economic Transformation from Robotics (00:40:48) Controversies in the Robotics Community (00:42:16) Arguments Against End-to-End Learning (00:42:34) Compositional Learning Explained (00:43:25) Last Tasks Robots will Conquer (00:44:30) Dark Parts of the Robotics Brain (00:47:05) What Makes a Great Researcher (00:50:15) Manufacturing and Scale Challenges (00:51:17) How Companies Should Prepare for Robotics (00:53:38) Boston Dynamics' Demos (00:55:43) Converging Technologies Enabling Robotics (00:56:47) How to Stay Up To Date in Robotics (00:59:51) Near Term Objectives (01:00:49) Confidence Level Among Researchers (01:03:31) Google's Experimentation Culture (01:04:24) The Kindest Thing

My guest today is Mitchell Green. Mitchell Green is the co-founder and managing partner of Lead Edge Capital, a growth equity firm that has spent 15 years building one of the most disciplined investment machines in the business.  Unlike most firms chasing power law outcomes, Lead Edge is designed to deliver consistent returns by talking to thousands of companies a year, applying a rigorous eight-point criteria to filter down to a handful of investments, and leveraging a uniquely constructed LP base of world-class executives and entrepreneurs.  In this conversation, Mitchell walks through every component of the machine, from how they source and evaluate companies to how they think about selling, building culture, and staying competitive in a world being reshaped by AI. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠. ----- ⁠Ramp’s⁠ mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- Trusted by thousands of businesses, ⁠Vanta⁠ continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  ----- ⁠WorkOS⁠ is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit⁠⁠ ⁠WorkOS.com⁠⁠⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- Rogo is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgelineapps.com⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:00:53) Episode Intro: Mitchell Green (00:02:01) Cold Calling 10,000 Companies (00:03:54) Building the Lead Edge Machine (00:06:15) Lead Edge’s LP Profile (00:09:22) Hitting Doubles and Triples (00:11:39) Knowing When to Sell (00:15:08) Lead Edge’s Eight Buying Criteria (00:18:12) The Opportunity in Enterprise Software (00:24:54) Using Criteria for Filtering, Not Prediction (00:27:11) Building Relationships with Entrepreneurs (00:29:16) Improving the Investment Machine at Scale (00:31:59) Lead Edge’s Culture (00:35:08) Mitchell’s Schedule (00:36:37) The Mount Rushmore of Investment Machines (00:38:40) The AI Readiness Score (00:40:50) Overhyped, Frothy Markets (00:42:16 When AI Will be a Good Opportunity (00:44:29) Lessons from Competitive Skiing (00:47:33) Starting a Fund & Keeping Score (00:49:15) The Kindest Thing