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Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WHOOP, scaled a wearable from elite athletes to a subscription health platform. He discusses skipping a screen to boost continuous wear, winning authentic athlete validation, and pivoting to medical-grade monitoring, blood testing, and AI-driven insights. The conversation covers subscription mechanics, retention, partnerships, and rapid global expansion.

Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring who returned to steer product launches, discusses the new AI-powered Search Party and its aim to reunite neighbors with lost pets. He tackles privacy and encryption choices, explains why a Flock Safety tie-up was dropped, and outlines how law enforcement interactions and neighborhood features are designed to be opt-in and resident-controlled.

Max Tegmark, MIT professor and founder of the Future of Life Institute, warns about losing control of powerful AI and advocates binding safety standards and oversight. He discusses the clash over Anthropic, risks of military and surveillance uses, urgent AGI timelines, deceptive AI behavior, and the push for an FDA‑style regulatory regime to keep humans in charge.

Bill Gurley, longtime venture capitalist turned author and mentor, discusses career design and reinvention. He talks about regret-minimization, when to pivot, the power of peer networks and mentorship. He argues for running toward AI, not away, and outlines practical steps like research, small experiments, and building community to future-proof work.

Stacy Brown-Philpot, founder and managing partner of Cherry Rock Capital and former TaskRabbit CEO with Google experience. She explains why she launched a firm to fill a Series A/B gap. She talks about evaluating product-market fit at scale. She discusses AI’s impact on enterprise software. She stresses quality revenue over headline ARR and how board roles shape investment judgment.

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company behind USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. With 536 million users globally, Tether has quietly become one of crypto's most powerful players—and now it's evolving far beyond stablecoins. Ardoino is transforming Tether into what he calls "the stable company," a diversified operation making bold bets on decentralized AI, agriculture, telecommunications, and gold-backed tokens.In this conversation, Ardoino explains how Tether generates billions in profit from U.S. Treasury holdings, why the company is building AI platforms that run locally on smartphones for emerging markets, and how its relationship with U.S. regulators has shifted dramatically. He also discusses Tether's geographic expansion, particularly in El Salvador and across Latin America, and makes the case that all of these seemingly disparate investments—from cattle ranching to brain-computer interfaces—are part of an interlocking strategy to serve the billions of people left behind by traditional finance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable, explains his bold launch of SuperAgent and why autonomous agents matter. He talks about agent architecture, model tuning, real-world use cases like research automation, and why SuperAgent was built as a separate product with integrations and privacy in mind. He also discusses go-to-market thinking and how this bet could reshape Airtable’s future.

Mary Jane Rubenstein, a professor at Wesleyan University and author of "Worlds Without End," dives into the ethics of space exploration. She critiques current space industry priorities that mirror Earth’s worst values, like militarization and resource extraction. Rubenstein emphasizes the importance of imagining alternative worlds through science fiction, warns against treating space workers as disposable, and advocates for international cooperation to address orbital debris. Lastly, she explores how religious narratives shape our approach to space, offering a nuanced view of its potential.

Chi-Hua Chien, founding partner of Goodwater Capital, and Elizabeth Weil, founder of Scribble Ventures, tackle the underwhelming performance of consumer AI. They explore the transition from the command line era to more intuitive interfaces, predicting that new form factors will unlock broader AI applications. The duo discusses the potential for personalized AI services, from tutoring to finance, and the challenges of building trust in AI agents. They also raise skepticism about AI-driven social networks, highlighting a need for authenticity in interactions.

Jon Callaghan, managing partner and co-founder of True Ventures, shares insights from over two decades of seed-stage investing. He emphasizes a founder-first approach, prioritizing high ownership and valuing quiet support over flashy promotion. Callaghan discusses the risks of mega-rounds, pointing out that unique outlier founders often get overlooked. He also explores the transformative potential of AI in consumer applications, predicting a shift towards personalized software and new interfaces, while cautioning against capital-intensive infrastructure risks.