Giant Ideas

Today, we're joined by Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup and the founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange. Eric wrote the book that taught a generation of founders how to build under uncertainty, and he has spent the years since trying to fix what happens to those companies once they grow. His new book, Incorruptible, is about a double mystery: why successful companies so often get ruined, and why a handful avoid that fate. Tommy Stadlen and Cameron McLain talk to Eric about why he thinks the best practices of modern corporate governance destroy value, why he believes a strong founder is not enough to protect a company, and what he'd change about The Lean Startup if he could go back. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back with Michael Moritz, the Sequoia investor who backed Google, Yahoo and PayPal, to talk about his family and his latest book. Moritz has written a memoir, Ausländer, out in the US this month. It began with papers found when they cleared out their mother's house in Wales, and grew into an account of how his grandparents were murdered and how his father got out during the Nazi Regime. We talk to him about what he found in the archives, why he thinks a stable society is a much more fragile thing than most people assume, his experience of anti-semitism, and if he thinks Silicon Valley is befriending Trump (and what he thinks of the US president). Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Michael Moritz, the former chairman of Sequoia Capital, one of the most successful venture capitalists of all time. Michael Moritz is a venture capitalist and philanthropist renowned for backing early tech giants like Google, PayPal, and YouTube during his 38-year career, first as Partner then Chairman of the firm. Cameron McLain and Tommy Stadlen talk to Michael about why he thinks the first 16 years of a founder's life tell you more than you can find anywhere is, why he still wears the cap of the company that lost Sequoia more money than any other, and why he shivered every time anyone called Sequoia an institution. He speaks about: the phone call that brought Sequoia to Google why he asks founders about their first 15 or 16 years meeting the Collison brothers at 20 and 18, and what was obvious within minutes why founding pairs make each other better why Bill Gates took the radio taken out of his Mercedes the $44m Webvan loss, and going back to the same idea 20 years later as Instacart and lots more... Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back for our FINAL episode before a 3 week summer break! We're back the first week of September. Today we're joined by Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition and former COO of Y Combinator , to talk about his life lessons & career advice. He speaks about: The rule he got from a Harvard professor: a mediocre person in a high-growth industry beats the best person in a mediocre one The most useful advice of his career Optimising for the people you'll learn from over title and pay (at any cost) The four life-burners problem, and which one he switched off Working seven days a week since he was 14, and what his routine is on the weekend Why you can't become Nirvana by copying Kurt Cobain The three eras of Y Combinator, and why the old YC wouldn't work today "We Make Mistakes" — the only post he wrote as COO, and why it matters Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a physical AI company valued at $15 billion that builds the models and simulation tools behind autonomous vehicles, defence systems, and industrial machines (before this, he was COO of Y Combinator). Tommy Stadlen talks to Qasar about why he thinks physical AI will define the next 25 years, and why Applied's ability to run the same models across cars, drones, and construction equipment is its biggest edge. They also get into how he thinks about fundraising and cap tables, and why he says not all money is equally useful. He speaks about: Why Applied Intuition has never spent a dollar of the ~$1 billion raised Corporate VCs, multi-stage funds, and why the partner matters more than the firm name Why 85% of the global economy is physical (and why that's the real AI opportunity) Neural simulation, and how Applied trains one model to work in a car, a drone, and a tank Why timing is the hardest thing for founders to get right Why he's not worried about self-driving safety The billion-machine vision (and why he still drives a 1987 manual Land Cruiser) Enjoy! Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back with Fareed Zakaria, the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, to talk about his lessons about how to do a great interview. Fareed Zakaria has interviewed people from presidents, dictators, and the Dalai Lama over three decades, live on air. Tommy Stadlen and Cameron McLain talk to Zakaria about the craft behind those conversations: why he treats an interview as seduction rather than confrontation, why Lee Kuan Yew is the most impressive guest he's ever had, and why the Dalai Lama was a tough interview. He speaks about: Why he avoids confrontation and treats interviews as seduction instead The Omar Bartov interview, and why he thinks a soft question made the conversation deeper than an accusation would have Why he rarely books politicians in power anymore (and regrets it most times he has) Lee Kuan Yew turning a "polyglot population" into a nation with no race riots Why the Dalai Lama was his hardest interview What AI leaves for humans once it becomes the better "analytic machine" Why he doubts there will be another CNN Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's flagship foreign affairs show and author of The Post-American World. Cameron McLain and Tommy Stadlen talk to Fareed about what the world could look like in 2040: why he believes the American-led order built in 1945 is dissolving, why he argues liberal democracy's issues are cultural rather than economic, and why he still thinks a coalition of the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore and India could keep a rules-based order alive. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're back with Alex Bouaziz, co-founder and CEO of Deel, to talk about his life lessons. Alex Bouaziz is the co-founder and CEO of Deel, the global payroll and HR platform he's grown from zero to a $17 billion business in just a few years. Tommy Stadlen talks to Alex about the mindset behind building Deel, from why he calls himself a "wartime CEO" to how a chance encounter on Reddit led to his first hire. Alex opens up about running the business alongside his father, why he thinks his generation's gaming habits made remote-first culture feel normal rather than crazy, and the moment of seeing Deel's logo on Arsenal shirts around London. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Alex Bouaziz, co-founder and CEO of Deel, the global HR and payroll platform now serving companies across 150+ countries with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Tommy Stadlen talks to Alex about how Deel became the fastest startup to reach $100M in recurring revenue: and why that record came down to one thing: following customers. Alex explains why Deel launched with contractors when everyone else went after employees, how they carried the intensity of Y Combinator all the way to a billion-dollar business, and why their M&A strategy (13 acquisitions in six years) has been one of their most underrated growth levers. He speaks about: The YC "time chamber" mindset they still run the company on Why speed of execution matters - and why comfort in any department is a warning sign Why hiring A players is less about finding them, and more about NOT lowering the bar when you're desperate to hire What most people miss about the Deel M&A strategy (and how they keep founders motivated years after acquisition) The case for brand marketing at the enterprise stage, and what Arsenal taught him about community Why being a remote company selling to remote companies is an unfair advantage And lots more! Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Toyin Ajayi, co-founder and CEO of Cityblock Health and a former doctor who trained in the NHS before taking on the US healthcare. Toyin built Cityblock to serve people on Medicaid. The company is now around $1.5bn in annual revenue, with 150,000 members across 11 states. Tommy Stadlen talks to her about her giant idea, value-based care: why she thinks paying doctors for procedures instead of real outcomes is the root of America's healthcare crisis, why the patients who need care most are the least likely to walk into a clinic, and why she believes AI poured onto the wrong business model will do real damage. She speaks about: Why "value-based care" is the worst brand for one of the biggest ideas in healthcare The first Cityblock patient, an elderly, partially blind man living in a Brooklyn basement Why fee-for-service ends up paying more for the amputation than for keeping someone safe at home The ~140 million Americans on Medicaid and Medicare, and the market everyone missed How AI is pushing the marginal cost of a patient interaction close to zero Why most healthcare AI dollars are making the system more expensive, not better Growing up in Nairobi during the AIDS epidemic, and the UN moment that outraged her and still drives her NHS vs US healthcare - and the one-line answer to which she'd choose... Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod and co-inventor of the iPhone. Tony is the founder of Nest (the smart thermostat acquired by Google) and the New York Times best-selling author of Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making . In this second episode, Tommy Stadlen talks to Tony about his years working alongside Steve Jobs and what he's learned about building a career, why he thinks saying "no" is the most underrated skill in product, and why giving credit away is the thing most leaders get wrong. He speaks about: what Steve Jobs was truly great at, and the one thing he was bad at the two types of assholes, and how to tell ego from mission why giving credit to your team is the most joyful part of leading hustling his way into General Magic with seven months of letters and cold calls chasing heroes instead of brands early in your career why the best mentors (like Bill Campbell) know people, not tech the General Magic crash at 25 that taught him to stay grounded Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Tony Fadell , inventor of the iPod, co-inventor of the iPhone, and founder of Nest, acquired by Google. He's also the New York Times bestselling author of Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making , and has invested in over 100 companies working across AI, surgery, textiles, and drug discovery. Tommy Stadlen talks to Tony about why Apple was so close to collapse when it bet on the iPod, why no single AI device will replace the smartphone, and the two-year internal standoff with Steve Jobs that a Wall Street Journal reviewer ended without knowing... He also speaks about: Why Apple had less than 1% market share and $500M in debt when they gambled on the iPod "Stay beginner": why great product teams design as if they've never seen the product before "Virus of doubt": the Nest approach to making people notice what they'd stopped seeing Why the iPhone was really three devices you already owned, merged into one General Magic: building the iPhone concept 15 years too early (and what that tells you about timing) Why companies (and people) only change when they're close to dying Why no single AI device will replace your phone... Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today, we're joined by Jeff Lawson - co-founder of Twilio and now founder of Inertia, a fusion energy company commercialising the Lawrence Livermore fusion breakthrough (the first experiment to produce more energy from fusion than it consumed.) Cameron McLain talks to Jeff about why he thinks the barriers to fusion are manufacturing problems, not physics problems, what a 10-15 year timeline to grid energy actually looks like, and why he thinks SaaS is heading for a structural reckoning. He speaks about: Why the Lawrence Livermore breakthrough proved the physics works. Why the two commercial barriers are cost problems, not technical problems. For almost 100 years, fusion was '3 decades away' because nobody knew if it could work. But now it can work, the question is commercialisation. Why fusion and solar will win together. In 50 years, Jeff expects the grid to run on two sources: solar-plus-battery and fusion. How to make Agile work in hardware (and why the Gantt chart is a lie!) Why SaaS has an innovator's dilemma in the AI age. Why infrastructure companies win when the world is building. Why storytelling runs through everything: fundraising, hiring, selling. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions. In this episode, Cameron McLain sits down with Barry Eggers , co‑founder of Lightspeed Venture Partners (≈$40B AUM), to decode what’s really happening in today’s venture market. From trillion‑dollar IPOs and billion‑dollar seed rounds to AI, robotics, and space, Barry explains why he thinks this moment isn’t just another bubble... Barry shares how Lightspeed grew from a $475M first fund to a global platform, why the real edge in venture is being early and decisive, and why he believes intelligence is becoming commoditised while EQ and judgment become the ultimate differentiators, and why family matters most. Key Insights: Venture has split in two: a small slice of traditional early‑stage builders and a massive pool of quasi‑public investors. Billion‑dollar seed rounds can make sense when you’re backing teams going after markets that can compound to the trillion‑dollar scale. AI is making intelligence abundant , shifting value to founders and investors with superior EQ, judgment, and speed of decision‑making . The real error in venture is missing generational companies because of price. Lightspeed's secrets to success, and why family and life experiences matter most. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

On this episode of Giant Ideas, Tommy sits down with Ajaz Ahmed , founder of AKQA and now Studio.One , to decode what truly iconic brands have in common — from Nike, Apple and Disney to Gymshark, and how founders can learn from them. Ajaz argues that “great brands are great storytellers” with a clear desire to right a wrong in the world. He shares lessons from two decades with Nike, why authenticity and category focus still win, and how founders racing from zero to billions can build brands that feel both familiar and radically new. Plus, more on his new project Studio.One: an antidote to “multi‑mediocrity” with ownership for everyone, and work that earns its place in culture. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

In this episode of Giant Ideas, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, discusses how trust, purpose, and community design shaped one of the world’s most used websites. He reflects on three photographs that define his life, Wikipedia’s core purpose and why transparency, clear purpose, and walking the walk are central to trust. He also shares the trust framework of building trust, and why execution matters more than idea secrecy, and the real‑world costs of living in mistrust. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING. Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Why did Wikipedia stay donation-funded and ad-free while OpenAI raced toward billions in GPU spend and a hybrid for‑profit model? In this episode, Jimmy Wales joins Tommy and Cameron to unpack how business models factor in truth, trust, and the future of knowledge online. Jimmy explains why he has no regrets about keeping Wikipedia a nonprofit, what he’s learned from two decades of volunteer-driven knowledge creation, and how AI changes the way we’ll all consume information. Key points: Nonprofit vs OpenAI’s model – Why Wikipedia could bootstrap on donations while frontier AI can’t be built as a pure charity. Incentives and integrity – How avoiding ads and clickbait helps Wikipedia stay mission-driven and globally focused. Human motivation – Why Muppet Wiki and gaming wikis prove passion and recognition beat “$1 per article” content farms every time. Neutrality and bias – How Wikipedians work towards a neutral point of view, and why he doesn't believe it's “Woke‑ipedia” Trust and hallucinations in AI – Jimmy’s “Kate Garvey test” for new models Wikipedia in the AI era – From being core training data (next to Reddit) to losing “quick answer” traffic as AI summaries take over. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

In this episode of Giant Ideas, Cameron sits down with the co‑founder of Robinhood to talk about where it all began, and what founders today can learn. They discuss: - The origin story & friendship of the co-founders of Robinhood: Growing up as children of immigrant and meeting at Stanford - 75 VC rejections: Why investors said young people would never invest, and what those VCs fundamentally missed - Founder mindset: Changing your mind as a superpower, “gradient descent” as a way to iterate on ideas, and why early-stage investing is really about the people. - Finding product‑market fit & the viral launch - Democratising finance: from Occupy Wall Street to a cultural shift where knowing your money is “cool" - Surviving the GameStop crisis: the most challenging chapter at Robinhood and what grit, tenacity, and “buying another day” really looked like. Plus, his 3 personal highlights of his life so far - from his childhood to the IPO bell... Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Baiju Bhatt, the co-founder & CEO of Robinhood, has a vision that the Earth will one day be like Saturn - with rings in outer space. Baiju's latest company is Aetherflux: building solar panels in space, with energy harvested continuously from the sun, and transmitting it back to Earth or directly to AI infrastructure in orbit, via laser. The economics of space-based energy are becoming interesting, and the target metric is straightforward: get cost per GPU hour competitive with Earth. Baiju thinks there's a real path there within five to seven years. In this episode: - Why AI made space energy suddenly viable - The case for and against space-based data centres - What the commercial space economy looks like right now - How a physics student ended up building one of the most ambitious infrastructure companies on the planet - His love for building cars - Why Steve Jobs had a huge impact on his career And lots more! Part II coming next week on his lessons from Robinhood. Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

In episode two with former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, he reflects on the hidden epidemic of loneliness through the story of his own life. Moving from a tight‑knit immigrant family, to the healing power of nature, to the weight of taking the oath as Surgeon General, he shares how meaning and resilience are rooted in relationships rather than status or achievement. Vivek shares how forming a Moai (a small, committed circle of friends) transformed his life, why success in any career is ultimately relational, and how we can build connection (without relying on alcohol as a social crutch)... Vivek Murthy has just released a new Substack! Check it out here: https://vivekmurthy.substack.com/ Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc . Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING . Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.