Venture with Grace

Robert Scoble is Founder/CEO of Unaligned~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~He launched Matic Robots from his home garage while chronicling Silicon Valley's bleeding edge in robots, holodecks, BCIs, and spatial computing through his legendary Scobleizer blog—first to spotlight Tesla, Uber, Siri, Instagram, Flipboard, and Cloudera before they exploded. Tech media icon who transformed Microsoft's developer relations via Channel 9 (praised by The Economist), evangelized Rackspace through Zuckerberg/Hsieh interviews, ran Fast Company TV and PodTech's video networks, served as Infinite Retina CSO for AR/VR strategy, and authored eight books on technology's future, Robert remains the ultimate insider spotting tomorrow's unicorns today.Topics:Lessons from humanizing Microsoft at Channel9 and Rackspace through raw founder storiesWhy spatial computing with robots BCIs and holodecks will redefine human experienceBrain-computer interfaces, holodecks, and immersive interfaces: what’s real vs. hype#ArtificialIntelligence #SpatialComputing #Robotics #FutureOfWork #StartupEcosystem

Jake Stauch is Founder and CEO of Serval~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators. Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~The AI-native ITSM platform automating IT, HR, finance, and legal workflows—recently hitting $1B valuation after $75M Series B from Sequoia (total $127M raised) and 5x revenue growth. Previously, he was Director of Product at Verkada and Founder/CEO of NeuroPlus, a Forbes 30 Under 30-recognized startup creating brain-controlled video games for ADHD therapy. Jake blends deep product and AI expertise with entrepreneurial experience in building high-impact technology solutions that combine AI, human-centered design, and operational efficiency.Topics:Insights from brain-controlled games at NeuroPlus to automating enterprise helpdesks at ServalBalancing human oversight with autonomous IT decision-making.Integrating AI into complex operational workflows without disrupting legacy systems.#EnterpriseAI #Startups #Forbes30Under30 #SiliconValley #EnterpriseTech

Shay is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Greenfield-Partners.~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~~~Greenfield-Partners focuses on SaaS, healthcare and Ai managing over $1B across cybersecurity, AI, infrastructure, and SaaS. He leads Greenfield's investments BigPanda (AIOps), Coralogix (observability), VAST Data, Capitolis, Silverfort, Torq, Mixtiles, floLIVE, Exodigo, and exits including Avanan (Check Point acquisition) and Guardicore ($600M Akamai sale). Prior to Founding Greenfield, Shay was a senior advisor to TPG Growth. Originally from Tel Aviv and for the last 25 years in NYC, Shay spent the early years of his career operating and maturing early growth technology companies. He then joined Thylacine Capital to lead the alternative investing activity. Shay has an undergraduate degree from Fairleigh Dickenson University and an EMBA from Columbia Business School.Topics:How Greenfield Partners turns Series B startups into unicorns using the proprietary G2M growth playbookWhy AI and cybersecurity remain the hottest growth sectors despite market turbulenceLessons from leading investments in BigPanda Coralogix and VAST Data through explosive scale#AIOps #SaaS #GrowthInvesting #AI #Cybersecurity

Chris Degnan is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake.~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators. Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~ He helped scale the Data Cloud across multiple public clouds and global enterprise clients. He iis a seasoned enterprise tech executive and board advisor, with 15+ years in building and scaling go-to-market organizations. Chris Degnan co-founded Noname Security and has advised ICONIQ, Giga, Factory, Watershed, PointFive, and Clumio, guiding companies on GTM strategy, revenue scaling, and operational excellence. With deep experience in enterprise sales, product commercialization, and board governance, Chris combines hands-on execution with strategic insight for founders and leadership team plus author of MakeItSnowBook.com detailing Snowflake's playbook, Chris guides founders on sales culture, hiring grit, and durable revenue scale after prior leadership at EMC, Aveksa, Informatica, and Clumio.Topics: Why customer-obsessed GTM motions beat product hype for trillion-dollar enterprise outcomesBoard-level insights on scaling revenue teams for hypergrowth without losing operational rigor.Lessons from deploying mission-critical cloud products in regulated enterprise environments.#EnterpriseSaaS #GTMStrategy #RevenueOps #CloudScale #BoardLeadership

Anand Raghavan is the Chief Product Officer at Snorkel AI.~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators. Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~Where he leads product strategy for programmatic AI and enterprise ML systems. Previously VP of AI Products and Engineering at Cisco and co-founder/CPO of Armorblox (acquired), Anand has spent two decades building AI-native security and data platforms from zero to enterprise scale. His career spans founding engineering roles at Blue Jeans Network (acquired by Verizon), AI/ML leadership at Medallia and ThoughtSpot, and early infrastructure work at NVIDIA. Anand brings a rare end-to-end perspective on shipping production AI—from model pipelines and human-in-the-loop systems to secure enterprise GTM.Topics:Building Snorkel AI's data foundation for custom enterprise models beyond the usualArchitecting programmatic data pipelines for production-grade AI systemsHow Cisco's AI Defense and Canvas redefine secure enterprise genAI at global scale#ProductLeadership #Cybersecurity #Analytics #Founder #SiliconValley

Shay Levi is Co-Founder and CEO of Unframe.~~~~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators. Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers. AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more~~~~~~~~~~~The enterprise AI platform delivering turnkey solutions for observability, data extraction, intelligent agents, and modernization—enabling Fortune 500s to deploy custom AI use cases in hours without data sharing, fine-tuning, or rigid vendor lock-in, achieving millions in ARR within year one. Serial entrepreneur fresh off co-founding Noname Security as CTO, scaling it to the first API security unicorn in 18 months ($40M ARR) before Akamai's $500M acquisition—backed by LSVP, Insight, Cyberstarts—Shay built on Unit 8200 elite engineering roots, Facebook senior engineering, ironSource R&D leadership, and early exits with Meme/Vidoplay (Somoto acquisition).TopicsEngineering-driven GTM: bridging technical rigor with business scaleTranslating elite intelligence R&D into commercial cybersecurity solutionsWhat serial founders learn about AI infrastructure after perfecting API security at scale#Startups #Founder #AIAgents #Hypergrowth #UnicornExit

Fatimah Hussain is a powerhouse creator with 200M+ views, 200K followers, and 50M likes across TikTok and Instagram in the education and early-career space. She is the founder of Fatimah’s Guide, an all-in-one mentorship platform connecting top college students with ambitious high schoolers. Fatimah is an EECS student at the University of California, Berkeley and has partnered with F500s including Adobe, Notion, and Microsoft to deliver practical study, productivity, and career content.She’s currently building Finnie with Chloe Hughes, a tool that automates scholarship discovery by analyzing a user’s Common App PDF. Previously, she founded Workout Wizard, a computer-vision fitness app that won Contra Costa Shark Tank and was featured on FOX, KRON4, and AOL, as well as Perky 3D Prints, a customizable 3D-printed toys venture—demonstrating a repeat founder who builds, ships, and scales products for her generation. Her work sits at the intersection of creator-led growth, AI products, and education access at scale.Topics:Building a creator-led user acquisition engine that converts audience → product usersDesigning AI-powered mentorship platforms with strong supply-demand liquidityBalancing UC Berkeley EECS, content creation, and a startup while avoiding burnout#GenZ #CreatorEconomy #Mentorship #Startups #WomenInSTEM

Deepak Prasad is a Director at Qualcomm Ventures, leading US investments across early- to growth-stage tech companies with expertise in sourcing, deal execution, and portfolio management, drawing on over five years of investment experience. As a founding team member at GPO Fund, he drove enterprise tech deals like MapAnything (acquired by Salesforce), built on prior roles at Unilazer Ventures investing in consumer successes such as Lenskart, and positions at The Carlyle Group and Soros Fund Management. A Columbia Business School MBA graduate with a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from VJTI Mumbai, Deepak combines technical depth with investing passion, while enjoying travel, hiking, snowboarding, and tennis outside work.Topics - Qualcomm Ventures' playbook for US early-stage tech dealsWhat “long-term technical advantage” actually looks like in venture diligenceUnderwriting cloud-to-edge startups with long enterprise adoption cycles#VentureCapital #QualcommVentures #DeepTechInvesting #CloudToEdge #EnterpriseTech

Sarah Klingman is Founder and CEO of Mostest, the New York-based platform reimagining event planning with AI-powered curation, professional-grade vendor matching, transparent pricing, and end-to-end execution support that eliminates research rabbit holes and vendor ghosting for hosts, while connecting vendors to serious clients and enabling brands to scale community events effortlessly. Drawing from nearly five years at adidas—rising to Sales Director, pioneering the SPEEDFACTORY-powered Lifestyle Exclusive Creation partnership with Foot Locker to let consumers drive footwear trends, and managing Foot Locker as Key Account Manager—plus Lifestyle Key Account Manager at Under Armour, Sarah applies retail partnership mastery to make unforgettable events accessible on any budget and timeline.Topics:Building a consumer-focused product strategy with AI-powered event curation and reliable vendorsLessons from adidas and Under Armour on turning partnerships into explosive community and brand growth-Transitioning from corporate leadership to startup founder#ConsumerTech #BrandInnovation #ProductStrategy #StartupLeadership #Partnerships

Vineet Edupuganti is Co-Founder & CEO of Cogent Security, deploying generative AI to supercharge vulnerability management and risk reduction for global brands, after scaling Abnormal Security from early PM through Head of Multi-Product Platform where he grew his 30-person division 4X, launched Knowledge Base/Security Posture Management, rolled out RBAC platform capabilities, and drove PLG initiatives as ARR crossed $100M with 15X headcount growth. Ex-ML engineer at Meta (generative AI for Facebook Assistant), Stanford researcher (GANs/VAEs accelerating MRI 10X, 100+ citations at top ML conferences), New Relic (time-series forecasting), and Menlo Ventures (AI incubation), Vineet fuses hardcore AI systems with enterprise security product leadership giving him deep insight into scaling AI product strategy, engineering, and go-to-market execution.Topics:AI operational excellence: building data labeling, ML pipelines, and PM systemsHow Abnormal Security rocketed to $100M ARR with smart platform pivots and product-led growthLessons from growing teams 4X during 15X company hypergrowth while launching new products#AI #Cybersecurity #Startups #VulnerabilityManagement #ML

Kristina Simmons has built, advised, and invested in leading brands, establishing herself as a trusted partner with proven venture and operational experience. At lululemon, she was an early member of the “web team,” playing a pivotal role in launching e-commerce and managing social media and digital channels, making lululemon a pioneer in these spaces. She later led Emerging Products and Concepts, focusing on innovative initiatives such as digital products, strategic partnerships, and international expansion. Kristina then joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner, where she supported market development, helping portfolio companies evolve into renowned brands and connecting them with global leaders. Her career path then led her to an early-stage food startup, transitioning later to advising and angel investing. At Khosla Ventures, she served as Chief of Staff and investment partner, serving on boards from Seed to Series D. Recognizing the need for a more founder-centric approach in venture capital, Kristina founded Overwater Ventures to create more value and support for early-stage companies.Topics:a16z GTM acceleration: Portfolio hacks turning raw tech into household brand namesArchitectural decisions that determine brand defensibility, Platform vs. productSeed→D boardroom playbook: Scaling deep-tech and consumer companies through clinical and regulatory gates#FounderLed #BrandBuilding #DeepTech #HealthTech #ConsumerTech

Travis Skelly is a Partner at Pruven Capital, where he invests across fintech, proptech, ecommerce, and enterprise software at multi-stage scale. Prior to Pruven, he was a Director at Citi Ventures, leading more than 15 investments including Socure, Betterment, SmartAsset, HighRadius, and Clarity Money. Earlier, Travis was a founding team member at FinTech Collective, backing category-defining companies like Plaid/Quovo, MoneyLion, Octane Lending, and NextCapital. Before venture, he worked in banking at Nomura and HSBC and as a strategy consultant at Accenture, giving him a rare operator-investor lens across financial services innovation.Topics:How to engineer MoneyLion, Clarity, Boom & Bucket acquisitions from seed to payout—full timelines and triggersHow enterprise fintech complements banks with data and compliance at scaleUnderwriting AI in fintech: data moats, model decay, and regulatory failure modes#Fintech #EnterpriseSoftware #StartupInvesting #VCInsights #FounderLessons

Jeff Tatarchuk is Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at TensorWave, building next-generation AI compute infrastructure powered by best-in-class AMD GPUs for training and inference at hyperscale, following his exit as Co-Founder of VMAccel (FPGA cloud/edge leader) and Lets Rolo (acquired by LifeKey) where he drove business development. A 10-year startup advisor and angel investor via Fruition Lab, Jeff specializes in scaling compute-heavy AI infrastructure from prototype to production, helping AI companies access cost-effective GPU clusters without Nvidia lock-in while navigating the white-hot demand for inference capacity in 2026's model wars.Topics:AI Compute Gold Rush: Securing GPU & FPGA capacity, beating hyperscalers on price and speed.Deep-Tech Infra Lessons: Building capital-intensive AI/cloud companies from VMAccel to TensorWave.Hardware Exit Strategies: Spotting quick flips and fast-growth opportunities in AI infrastructure.#AIInfrastructure #AICompute #GPUs #CloudAI #DeepTech

Cecilia Ziniti is CEO and Co-Founder of GC AI, the AI platform trusted by in-house legal teams at 1,200+ companies. A three-time General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer, Cecilia has helped bring to market every major tech shift of the last 20 years. Her career began at Yahoo during the early internet boom, she launched Alexa at Amazon as a founding member of the team, she advised on autonomous vehicles at Cruise, robotics and AI at Anki, AI-powered software development at Replit, and now leads one of the fastest growing startups in legal AI. A former big-firm associate, she has closed $425M+ in venture financing, served on boards for 25+ quarters, and negotiated hundreds of strategic transactions. Cecilia is also an angel investor, named AI patent inventor, media commentator, and host of the CZ & Friends podcast.Topics:$425M VC closes: Negotiation hacks + board secretary moves surviving 9 roundsAI patents payoff: Inventor secrets turning legal pain into unicorn softwareScaling legal expertise with AI: Smarter counsel for teams#AIinEnterprise #GCStack #AIForLaw #VentureScale #WomenInTech #EnterpriseAI #GCAI

Deepak Agarwal is Chief AI Officer at LinkedIn, where he leads company‑wide AI strategy, long‑horizon innovation, and the Core AI teams that power intelligence, personalization, and agents across a platform serving hundreds of millions of members. Previously, as Chief AI Officer and VP of Consumer and Trust Engineering at Pinterest, he scaled his organization from about 200 to roughly 1,000 engineers, unifying AI Foundations, Consumer Engineering, Trust & Safety, and AI Product to deliver AI‑first personalized discovery, commerce, and creator products that generated billions of predictions per day. Earlier in his career at Yahoo! and AT&T Labs, he became a leading expert in large‑scale recommender systems, publishing extensively (including a book) and eventually being elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association; today he also serves as a Distinguished Fellow and Venture Partner at Fellows Fund, advising and investing in AI startups.Topics - From Pinterest to LinkedIn: Building AI-First Consumer Platforms at ScaleScaling from 200 to 1,000+ Engineers: Org Design for AI PlatformsArchitecting Durable AI Stacks for Hundreds of Millions of Users#AILeadership #AIAgents #TrustAndSafety #PlatformEngineering #ConsumerTech

Gloria Zhang is an investor at DCM Ventures, specializing in AI-enabled enterprise software, cloud/data infrastructure, and DevOps. She brings a rare blend of engineering, product, and go-to-market experience, having incubated and commercialized AI Cloud products at IBM HQ across strategy, ML engineering, product management, and sales. A Wharton MBA, Gloria advised Taichi Graphics (open-source 3D collaboration) and served as CPO for Gradient (AI dermatology diagnostics) while in business school, and completed investment internships at Gaocheng Capital and Twenty Acre Capital focused on emerging market software. She helps founders turn early-stage innovations into global-scale businesses, connecting the dots others miss—both in tech and in life, whether skiing moguls, playing poker, or exploring Frank Gehry’s architecture.Topics:Signals Investors Look for in AI & Infrastructure Startups, Backed by Lessons from Building AI Products Inside Large EnterprisesHow do you spot AI infrastructure companies that actually deliver enterprise ROI vs. just fancy demos?What’s the biggest product mistake you see AI founders repeating from your IBM days?#VentureCapital #VC #AI #CloudInfra #DevOps

Kristin Torres Mowat is a healthcare and healthtech investor advising startups through growth, fundraising, and M&A, drawing from her SVP Corporate Development role at Castlight Health where she drove strategic partnerships, health plan relationships, and data operations to scale the transparency/engagement pioneer through IPO. Previously at Fortune 200 DaVita, she shaped corporate strategy, founded the Falcon nephrology EHR business ($12M P&L, 50-person team), co-led the Healthcare Partners merger, and built leadership recruiting—starting her career at Bain & Co. A Mexico City native with deep operator credentials across services and software, Kristin guides healthtech through critical inflection points from boardrooms to balance sheets.Topics:Healthcare M&A war room: Diligence hacks from Healthcare Partners merger that closed fastHealthtech board playbook: Operator tactics for fundraising, growth, exits in 2026 regulatory warsWhen healthcare startups should partner vs. build in-house#Healthcare #Startups #IPO #SaaS #M&A #Castlight

Bryan Liu is a Principal at Alumni Ventures, where he invests in AI-native video, full-stack AI, autonomous companies, and blockchain infrastructure. He focuses on the future of storytelling and intelligent systems, backing breakout companies like Higgsfield—one of the fastest-growing AI companies ever to reach $100M ARR—along with Veda and RealRoots. Prior to venture, Bryan Liu led M&A and venture transactions at PayPal, working across fintech, consumer, and international acquisitions, and earlier advised global technology and media leaders including Disney, Google, and Sony at Deloitte. Combining deep transaction experience with a sharp eye for AI-native products, Bryan Liu invests at the intersection of technology scale, creative tooling, and defensible business models.Topics:AI-native video: why filmmaking is becoming softwareInside Higgsfield’s $100M ARR in months breakoutAutonomous companies: when software runs the business itself#AutonomousCompanies #FutureOfStorytelling#VentureCapital #FrontierTech #AIInvesting

Yogi Goel is Co-Founder & CEO of Maxima, building agentic AI that automates accounting workflows for startups and scaleups, fresh off 7+ years as Senior Director of Finance & Accounting at Rubrik where he scaled ARR from $5M to $900M, managed 28 flawless quarterly closes, launched rolling forecasts/QBRs, and designed the Rubrik2K enterprise GTM motion that grew sales from 100 to 1,000+ while hitting IPO (NYSE: RBRK). Previously on LinkedIn Sales Navigator's early team predicting its $1B ARR path and IB at Barclays/Citi advising mega-deals like Fundtech's $1.25B sale, Dell's $24B LBO, and Kornit Digital IPO, Yogi blends Big 4 audit roots (EY) with operator rigor to make AI replace CPAs without errors.Topics:Rubrik's 180x ARR explosion: 28 flawless closes + Rubrik2K that crushed Fortune 2000Lessons from scaling Rubrik from $5M to $900M ARRThe future CFO stack: humans + agents + systems#AgenticAI #B2BSaaS #Fintech #CFOStack #StartupScaling

Guy Kawasaki is Canva's Chief Evangelist—evangelizing design democratization for 170M+ users after originating the role at Apple where he marketed Macintosh to the masses—and host of the Remarkable People podcast featuring icons from Richard Branson to Gabor Maté. Author of 14 books including Wise Guy, The Art of the Start 2.0, and Enchantment, he's an Executive Fellow at UC Berkeley Haas, adjunct at UNSW, ex-Wikimedia trustee, and serial entrepreneur who took pure equity in Canva early (genius move as it hit $40B valuation). Stanford BA/MBA UCLA grad with Babson honorary doctorate, Guy surfs, advises startups, and distills 40+ years making technology accessible from Macintosh evangelism to Canva's AI-powered graphics revolution.Topics:Evangelism tactics scaling from Apple Mac to 170M creators—AI design that kills PowerPoint forever Spotting Canva pre-unicorn, rejecting salary—serial entrepreneur timing hacksBuilding remarkable products in a world of feature overload#Canva #Entrepreneurship #PitchDeck #Leadership #Design