BusinessEntrepreneurship

Founders and Builders

Joe Wear

Founders & Builders is your go-to channel for in-depth conversations with the world's best startup founders and operators.

Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a seasoned entrepreneur, or simply curious about the journey of building your own business, you'll find real-world experiences, and candid advice from successful entrepreneurs who have been in the trenches. Join us as we explore the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, uncover the secrets to startup success, and dive into the future of technology and business. Subscribe to be inspired, informed, and equipped to build something great!

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September 10 · 9 min
Ariel Cohen (CEO, Navan): Building the world's first AI Travel Company
Navan co-founder and CEO Ariel Cohen on the ChatGPT moment that forced him to rebuild a company processing more than $10 billion in bookings a year — recorded live at RAISE Summit in Paris. In 2020, people told Ariel that business travel was finished. Everyone had learned to sell over Zoom. Nobody used Navan at all that year. He didn't change the mission by a word — and ten years after founding the company, he took it public on Nasdaq. In this conversation he explains why the value in AI has to swing back from infrastructure to the application layer, what Navan Edge and Navan Anywhere actually change for the person booking a trip, and why he told his company it had to reinvent itself or die. What we get into: Booking an entire business trip in under seven minutes, and getting rewarded for booking under policyNavan Edge — a personal AI assistant that builds your loyalty wallet and books flights, hotels, cars, restaurants and events by chatNavan Anywhere — taking that assistant out of Navan's own app and into the tools people already work in, starting with Google Gemini EnterpriseWhy the industry's obsession with GPUs, memory and orchestration has to give way to applications that create real valueThe mission that survived Covid: empowering in-person connections when everyone said travel was deadAriel's one post-it note for founders — vision, mission, values, and never letting go of them Chapters: (00:00) Cold open: vision, mission, values(01:47) Navan Edge and Navan Anywhere(03:12) Why the mission is in-person connection(04:53) App layer vs infrastructure in AI(06:14) Reinvent the business or watch it die(07:25) One post-it note for founders Ariel Cohen is the co-founder and CEO of Navan, the AI-native travel, corporate card and expense platform, which he started with Ilan Twig in 2015 and listed on Nasdaq in October 2025. Founders & Builders is a long-form, in-person podcast with the founders and investors building the next generation of technology companies. No remote recordings. Hosted by Joe Wear. Founders & Builders is powered by CoreWeave, The Essential Cloud for AI: https://www.coreweave.com Navan: https://navan.comAriel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielmcohen/Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephwearFounders & Builders on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FoundersandBuilders Follow Founders & Builders so you get the next one the day it lands.
June 4 · 1 hr 2 min
Alex Christie (Attio CTO): The $116M Bet Against Salesforce and the AI Problem Every Founder Has
Alex Christie is the co-founder and CTO of Attio — the modern, flexible CRM taking on Salesforce, HubSpot, and a $180 billion market. Attio has raised over $116M from investors including Google Ventures, Balderton, and Point Nine, and is quietly building what could be the most important data infrastructure for the agentic AI era. In this episode we cover: Why Alex and co-founder Nick spent 3 years building before launching publicly The moment they finally admitted they were going after Salesforce Why most AI companies are building on fundamentally broken data foundations How Attio is positioning itself as the database for AI agents at scale What great engineering teams actually look like at a fast-growing startup The one principle that compounded into raising $116M — persistence pays compounding returns Whether you're building an AI company, hiring your first engineers, or thinking about taking on an established market — this episode is essential viewing. Subscribe for weekly interviews with the founders and investors shaping the future of technology. Founders & Builders is super proud to be partnering with CoreWeave, the Essential Cloud for AI. Check out CoreWeave.com to learn about how they serve some of the most important AI workloads on the planet.
May 6 · 10 min
AI Hackathon LIVE in Barcelona with Project Europe and CoreWeave
If you're building a business with AI, having a great product is only the beginning. You also need to understand infrastructure, distribution, capital, hiring, commercial strategy, and how to build the right team around you. In this live episode of Founders & Builders, I sat down with Ben Richardson, VP Strategy at CoreWeave, at the Project Europe Hackathon in Barcelona, surrounded by 80+ young builders hacking through the night. CoreWeave is one of the fastest-scaling companies in AI infrastructure, powering some of the world’s leading AI labs and building what it calls the Essential Cloud for AI. This conversation is really about what founders can learn from that journey. Ben shares why CoreWeave was purpose-built for AI workloads, how the company thinks about scaling internationally, why M&A can be a powerful tool when you’re moving fast, and why technical founders need to surround themselves with people who are strong in finance, commercial strategy, risk, and operations. We also talk about why CoreWeave showed up at Project Europe Hack Barcelona, not just as a sponsor, but to support the next generation of European technical founders with compute, advice, and access. Chapters: 00:00 Welcome to the Project Europe Hack Barcelona 01:19 Backing Europe’s next generation of AI builders 04:01 Inside CoreWeave’s hypergrowth and international strategy 05:32 Why AI needed a purpose-built cloud 06:48 What founders can learn from CoreWeave’s M&A and scaling playbook
May 5 · 12 min
Founders & Builders LIVE at Project Europe Hack Barcelona
Europe doesn’t need more people saying it should build products and start companies. It needs more rooms where people actually do it. We just got back from a live Founders & Builders episode at Project Europe's Barcelona hackathon — with 90 of Europe’s best builders hacking through the night. I wanted to sit down with Kitty Mayo and Jade Yarrow and learn how YOU can get involved in their next big hack. If you're thinking about building a company in Europe, you might want them on your cap table. Project Europe is also a startup... so we also get into their early days having been backed by Harry Stebbings and Kieran Hill and the 20VC team, now with over 200 European founders funding the next gen of companies. and thanks to all the partners that came down for the hack! THEKER Robotics Clay Preply Biorce Cala Ben Richardson Ben Carter Founders & Builders is sponsored by the awesome CoreWeave - the Essential Cloud for AI.
February 11 · 51 min
Why Most AI Agents Fail (And How to Build One That Works) | Joe and David, Founders of Asteroid
Joe and David are the founders of Asteroid, a YC-backed startup building AI browser agents that can automate real work inside the tools we use every day. In this episode, we go deep on why browser agents are such a big deal and what it really takes to get AI agents into the real world and how YOU can take advantage of them. We also unpack their journey through Entrepreneur First and Y Combinator, the hard pivots they made along the way, why most AI startups risk becoming consultancies, and what happens to jobs when agents start doing more and more of the work. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:47 The power of using AI agents 05:21 From fraud agents → the Asteroid idea 06:16 How to make your agents reliable 09:51 What Asteroid actually does (build, run, monitor agents) 13:25 Finding product-market fit 19:26 AI safety and supervision at Deepmind 28:57 Staying at the frontier of AI agents 34:23 Founder lessons and the future of work ⭐ Listener Suggestion – CoreWeave – https://www.coreweave.com/ 👍 Why subscribe? If you build, code, invest or care about the future of AI, startups and creative technology, this channel is for you. 🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔 #AI #startups #founders #agents #automation
January 7 · 42 min
Why Satellite Data Can’t Get Back to Earth (And the Startup Fixing It) | The Compression Company
Satellites scan the Earth thousands of times every day, powering AI, defence, and disaster response. But there’s a critical problem that not many people know about, but that our modern world is hindered by.In this episode of Founders & Builders, I sit down with Michael Stanway and Joe Griffiths, founders of The Compression Company, who are solving one of the hardest problems in modern infrastructure: how to move massive amounts of satellite and sensor data efficiently.We cover:- The biggest opportunities in space tech right now- Their experience moving to San Francisco as first-time founders- The “watermelon through a straw” problem of satellite data- How they raised a $3.4M round in 10 daysChapters:00:00 - Intro01:40 - The biggest problem in space and Satellite technology06:10 - How we use satellite data every day 11:46 - Entrepreneur First: Finding your co-founder14:54 - The Residency: Live & work with other founders in San Francisco18:58 - Raising $3.4M in 10 days (how they did it)21:23 - Building a compression factory for all data types31:07 - Founder wisdom: Focus ONLY on solving the most important problem38:37 - The Compression Company are hiring (reach out to them)Topics covered:Satellite data • Space tech • Data compression • AI infrastructure • Defence tech • Climate monitoring • Startup fundraising • Deep tech👉 Subscribe for weekly conversations with founders building the infrastructure behind the next generation of technology.
January 1 · 24 min
How to Start your Startup in 2026 (real learnings from $110 billion+ founders)
If you’re thinking about starting a business in 2026, or you’ve had an idea sitting in the back of your mind that you haven’t acted on yet... this video is for you.Over the last six months, I’ve interviewed 30 founders and investors on the Founders & Builders podcast. Collectively, the companies they’ve built are worth over $110 billion... and after analysing those conversations, one clear pattern kept coming up.Every successful startup goes through the same five steps, and none of it is magic. You can totally do it too.In this episode, I’ll walk you through that playbook so you can see exactly where you are, and what actually matters at each stage:Chapters:00:00 - Why NOW is the time to start your business01:51 - Step 1: Finding your startup idea & co-founder06:30 - Step 2: Raising investment (and whether you should)09:34 - Step 3: Winning your first customers15:24 - Step 4: Scaling your company (adding fuel on the fire)19:41 - Step 5: Mastering your founder mindset23:09 - What's coming up in 2026Everything you’ll hear comes directly from founders who’ve built real companies, including the people behind Google Maps, Weights & Biases, Harvey AI, and investors from CRV, Hoxton Ventures, and B Capital.If you’ve ever felt late, behind, or unsure whether now is the right time — you’re not alone. And chances are, you’re probably earlier than you think.Don’t forget to subscribe 🔔 And after you've finished watching the video, get back to building ;)#startup #founder #venturecapital #technology #entrepreneur
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Dec 27, 2025 · 12 min
Henrik Djurestål | Founder of Vorker.ai - Slush 2025
Henrik Djurestal is the founder of Vorker.ai - a deep AI coworker built specifically for the smallest businesses: one to ten-person teams who need leverage, not headcount. Fresh off raising a €700,000 pre-seed round, Henrik breaks down why deep AI agents will transform small business operations, and why the next entrepreneurial wave won’t be no-code, it will be AI co-workers running entire workflows end-to-end. From automating admin and outreach to drafting contracts, generating designs and handling integrations across thousands of tools, Vorker is building the future of how tiny teams operate. Henrik also shares candid lessons from raising as a solo founder, the challenges of selling a horizontal AI product, and why traction beats pitch decks every time. CHAPTERS: 00:18 – Introducing Vorker.ai and the €700k Pre-Seed Round 00:57 – What Vorker.ai Actually Does for 1–10 Person Businesses 01:39 – How Deep AI Agents Work Inside Vorker 02:26 – Using Off-the-Shelf Models vs Training Your Own 03:25 – The Future of AI Co-Workers for Small Businesses 05:14 – Real Tasks Vorker Can Automate Across a Business 06:50 – Hiring the Team and the Vorker “Secret Code” Challenge 09:06 – Lessons from Fundraising as a Solo Founder 11:29 – What Comes Next: Closed Beta, Open Beta and Seed Plans A huge thank you to Henrik for joining us live at Slush - a brilliant conversation with a founder building in one of the most explosive new categories in AI. #foundersandbuilders #henrikdjurestal #vorkerai #aicoworkers #startups #slush
Dec 20, 2025 · 10 min
Slush 2025 | Sam Sihvonen - CEO of Solu
Sam Sihvonen is the CEO of Solu - a precision genomics platform helping hospitals and institutions detect, prevent and control infections before they spread.What began as a diagnostics-focused tool has rapidly expanded across major verticals from food safety and agriculture to pharma, industrial bio and research. Sam and the team believe Solu can become a company that reshapes how we identify and stop infectious threats in the real world.From the economics of drug development, to the global risk of antibiotic resistance, Sam explains why the world urgently needs better tools - and why Solu is already making a measurable impact.Chapters:00:00 Intro01:12 Big verticals in genomics01:42 Why this could become a massive company02:25 The Slush talk with Enveda03:10 Why biotech execution is so hard04:05 Why no $1T biotech exists (yet)04:50 Drug development timelines + costs05:32 The antibiotic crisis06:21 What success looks like for Solu08:02 Early customers + real-world usage08:45 Advice to early-stage founders09:18 Raising the ceiling on your ambition10:02 How Slush drives bigger thinkingHuge thanks to Sam for making the time!#foundersandbuilders #samsihvonen #solu
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Dec 17, 2025 · 32 min
How Google Maps Almost Failed After Launch (And the Fix That Changed Everything) - Lars Rasmussen
Lars Rasmussen went from being a broke founder after the dot-com crash to co-founding Google Maps, one of the most important products on the modern internet. Today, billions of people use Google Maps every day without thinking twice.In this episode, Lars shares: • How Google Maps accidentally went viral before launch and nearly overwhelmed Google’s infrastructure • Why speed, not features, was the real unlock that changed everything• How a failed VC raise directly led to selling the company to Google • What it was like building on the web before smartphones, APIs or modern tooling • Why founders today have more leverage than ever, yet still feel late • His shift from builder to ecosystem builder and why he’s now creating Panathenea, a major founder conference in Athens Chapters: 01:30 - The Google Maps Story 07:36 - Larry Page Discussion 08:46 - How Widely Google Maps is Used 11:15 - Growth Challenges 15:28 - 10 Millions Users on Day One! 16:29 - Panathenea 28:00 - Advice To Young Founders ⭐ Listener Suggestion Of The Week – Canvahttps://www.canva.com/ 👍 Why subscribe?If you build companies, invest in startups, or care about technology shaping the future, this channel is for you. 🔔 Subscribe and turn notifications on so you never miss an episode. #GoogleMaps #LarsRasmussen #Startups #Founders #TechHistory #Entrepreneurship
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Dec 13, 2025 · 12 min
Ali Parsa | CEO of Quadrivia - Slush 2025
Ali Parsa is the CEO of Quadrivia - an AI company creating real-time clinical agents that automate 20 to 30 percent of a clinician’s workload. The goal is simple: reduce the global shortage of medical expertise by turning routine, repetitive clinical tasks into safe, regulated AI services.Ali’s mission is shaped by decades of building at the frontier of healthcare. Before Quadrivia, he founded CIRCLE (now the UK’s largest hospital group) and Babylon, which served millions of patients globally and pioneered AI triage and digital-first care.A huge thank you to Ali for joining us at Slush - this was an honest & deeply inspiring discussion about the future of AI in global health.Chapters:00:18 – What Quadrivia Does Explained Simply01:23 – The Fundamental Problem in Global Healthcare02:33 – Building Safe, Real-Time Clinical AI04:27 – From Circle to Babylon to Quadrivia06:13 – Lessons From Failure and Europe’s Founder Culture08:00 – Ali’s Story: Becoming a Refugee at Sixteen09:41 – How Ali Uses AI and the Future of Clinical Agents11:17 – Reflections, Resilience and Advice to His Younger Self#quadrivia #aliparsa
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Dec 10, 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
You’re One Cold Email Away From Everything You Want – Here’s How James Green Did It
James Green went from a small industrial town in Redditch to becoming a General Partner at CRV, one of the oldest and most respected venture funds in the world.In this special episode filmed in San Francisco, we unpack the real story behind how he got there - and the philosophy that’s shaped the founders he backs.James doesn’t care about pedigrees. He cares about scrappiness, conviction and people who do exactly what they say they’ll do.James has built a career on backing the underdog – the founders everyone else underestimates.Chapters:(00:00) Venture Capitalists and Cyber Security(10:26) Future Challenges in Cyber Security(18:56) Early Startup Experience and Transition(25:40) The Power of Cold Emailing(30:50) Insightful Insights on Startup Investing(40:17) Venture Capital and Company Scaling(48:33) Optimizing Startup Funding Processes(57:18) San Francisco Tech Culture Insights(01:04:07) Life Lessons and Urgency⭐ Listener Suggestion Of The Week - Ramp - https://ramp.com/👍 Why subscribe?If you build, code, invest or care about the future of AI, startups or developer tools, this channel is for you.🔔 Tap the bell so you never miss new episodes.#coldemail #jamesgreen #venturecapital
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Dec 6, 2025 · 16 min
Mirko Novakovic | Dash0 CEO - Slush 2025
Companies that win are the ones who master go-to-market faster than anyone else - even if it feels uncomfortable, risky or counterintuitive.Mirko Novakovic is the co-founder & CEO of Dash0 - the platform helping engineering teams ship faster by eliminating the complexity and noise around modern software observability.Before Dash0, Mirko built and scaled multiple high-growth companies. Today, he’s applying those lessons to a new category and teaching founders why revenue is the only real feedback that matters.From understanding sales math, to hiring ahead of growth, to pushing against the safety-first mindset many founders default to, Mirko breaks down why speed wins, how to be your own salesperson #1 and what it really takes to get to that first million in revenue.Chapters:00:00 Intro01:45 The sales math every founder must know03:10 Why you must hire 12 months ahead04:32 The burn + risk problem in high growth06:00 Why founders must sell early07:20 Conversations vs real revenue08:42 How to ask questions that close deals10:05 Getting to the first $1M in revenue11:32 When to hire sales and add fuel to the fire13:00 The mindset shift every technical founder needsHuge thanks to Mirko for making the time!#dash0 #mirkonovakovic
S1 · E36
Dec 3, 2025 · 45 min
Lessons From a $1.7B AI Acquisition | Lukas Biewald of Weights & Biases
In this episode, Lukas opens up about the real story behind W&B’s $1.7B acquisition, what it was like inside early OpenAI, why most founders move far too slowly, and the surprising truth that you’re almost always earlier than you think. Lukas breaks down how W&B became the default toolset for the world’s best ML engineers, the strategy behind seeding researchers, why platforms often fail, and the singular advantage of being “in a rush”. He also shares lessons from Travis Kalanick, what founders consistently get wrong, and how becoming a parent changed his leadership.If you care about AI, startups, product craftsmanship or developer tools, this episode is a masterclass. Don’t forget to subscribe 🔔 Chapters: 00:00 Intro – The gold rush of AI 01:18 From CrowdFlower to OpenAI 02:54 The insight: data beats algorithms 04:47 Joining OpenAI as an unpaid intern 07:57 The origin story of Weights & Biases 09:03 Getting the first 100 users 11:00 “You think you're late, but you're probably early” 12:56 Fundraising: CrowdFlower vs W&B 16:45 Building for builders, not platforms 17:22 Why seeding researchers made W&B win 22:10 Advice most founders get wrong 37:15 Breaking through ‘paper walls’ 44:56 What it was all for ⭐ Listener Suggestion – CoreWeave - https://www.coreweave.com/ Why subscribe?If you build, code, invest or care about the future of AI, startups or developer tools, this channel is for you. 🔔 Tap the bell so you never miss new episodes. #AI #startups #wandb #founders #machinelearning #openai
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Nov 29, 2025 · 12 min
Slush 2025 | Dan Wee - Chief Execution Officer (CEO) at Enveda Biosciences
We sat down with one of the most forward-thinking leaders in modern biotech!Dr. Dan Wee is the Chief Execution Officer (CEO) at Enveda Biosciences Enveda is challenging the traditional pharma model. Instead of operating several steps removed from real patients, Dan and the team are building medicines grounded in what people actually feel, experience and need.Since Enveda’s founding at the height of the pandemic, Dan has helped guide the company through the turbulence of biotech cycles while staying focused on one mission: developing the best medicines, as fast and as safely as possible.Chapters:00:00 Intro01:05 The energy of founders + VCs01:45 What Enveda actually does02:41 Mapping life’s chemistry03:38 The first year building Enveda04:50 Founding biotech during the pandemic05:27 Staying focused through turbulent markets06:20 The gap between pharma and real patients07:14 How Enveda bridges that gap08:20 Why chronic diseases need new medicines09:12 Modernity, antibiotics, and unexpected consequences10:03 Building for patients who live with conditions dailyHuge thanks to Dan for making the time!#foundersandbuilders #danwee #slush2025
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Nov 26, 2025 · 59 min
Founder-Market Fit, Sneaky Big Markets & Betting On ML Practitioners | Yanda Erlich
Yanda Erlich is a serial founder, early Weights & Biases investor, and former Coatue GP who’s helped build and back some of the most important companies in AI.In this episode, Yanda breaks down what really gets founders through hard times, why trend-chasing kills startups, how to find the work that feels effortless, and why the best markets start off looking “sneaky small”. He also shares his journey from Google to founding multiple companies, investing early in W&B, and how meditation shapes his decision-making.As always, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to like and subscribe 🔔Chapters:00:00 Intro02:10 What gets founders through dark times05:40 Trend-chasing vs authentic problems09:15 Effortless work and founder-market fit12:50 The “Cheesecake Factory” problem of choice16:05 How to pick the right market19:20 Yanda’s founder journey23:40 Quitting Google to build his first startup27:50 Becoming an investor31:10 Investing early in Weights & Biases35:00 Sneaky big markets38:45 AI agencies to in-house teams42:20 Meditation and founder mindset46:15 Permissionless leverage in 202550:30 What it’s all for⭐ Listener Suggestion - Lightricks - https://www.lightricks.com/👍 Why subscribe?If you build, code, invest or care about the future of AI, startups and creative technology, this channel is for you.🔔 Tap the bell so YouTube tells you when new episodes drop 🔔#startups #AI #founders #productmarketfit
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Nov 24, 2025 · 11 min
Slush 2025 | Europe’s Tech Awakening With Tom Wehmeier!
Tom Wehmeier from Atomico joined us just hours after stepping off stage, where he presented the annual State of European Tech report - now in its 11th year. This year's message was clear: Europe is experiencing a genuine awakening. Ambition is rising, execution is accelerating, and the ecosystem is producing breakout successes at a rate we’ve never seen before. This conversation dives into the data, the momentum, and the missions required for Europe to build not just $100B companies, but trillion-euro giants. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 00:16 – Europe’s Mindset Shift & the 2025 “Awakening” 01:13 – What Is Lovable? 01:20 – The Fastest-Growing Company in History 02:18 – Europe’s Unicorn Surge & a $4T Ecosystem 03:25 – The Funding Reality: Europe vs the US 04:54 – Mission 1: Fix the Friction 05:34 – Mission 2: Empower Talent 05:56 – Mission 3: Fund the Future 06:45 – Mission 4: Champion Risk Culture 07:12 – Why Europe Loses Growth Rounds 08:35 – The One Takeaway: Now Is the Best Time to Build 08:49 – What Founders Can Take Advantage Of in Europe 09:36 – The New Wave of European Entrepreneurship 10:21 – Zero-to-One Tools: Lovable, Framer & More 10:36 – Products Built Entirely on Lovable 10:52 – The Final Question: Three Dream Investments 11:37 – Context Switching: Why Slush Changes How You See the World Huge thanks to Tom for joining us!Make sure to check out Atomico's work here: https://atomico.com/ #slush2025 #foundersandbuilders #europeantech #saas #ai #venturecapital
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Nov 21, 2025 · 11 min
Eric Liaw | The Hardest Early-Stage Problems Every Founder Faces
Yesterday at Slush 2025, we sat down with one of the most seasoned investors in the global venture landscape. Eric Liaw is a General Partner at IVP - the multi-billion-dollar firm behind companies like Coinbase, Supercell, Snapchat, and Zynga. Since joining IVP in 2011, Eric has partnered with some of the world’s most exceptional founders, backing category-defining businesses across consumer, B2B, infrastructure, gaming and more. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 00:25 – What Is “Keynote Bingo”? 01:01 – Competing With Foundation Models 01:47 – Freemium Pressure & Surviving Big Tech 02:07 – IVP’s History & Eric’s Journey 02:55 – What Great Founders Have in Common 04:00 – Sectors IVP Is Watching Closely 05:19 – How Founders Should Ask for Feedback 06:45 – Hardest Early-Stage Problems 07:48 – How To Run a Fundraising Process 08:43 – Building Long-Term Investor Relationships 09:46 – Advice Eric Would Give His Younger Self Huge thanks to Eric for making the time! #slush2025 #foundersandbuilders #ericliaw #ivp #venturecapital
Nov 20, 2025 · 10 min
Gabe Pereyra on the Future of Legal AI at Slush 2025
Today, we’re joined at Slush 2025 by someone right at the centre of one of the most influential AI companies in the world. Gabe Pereyra is the co-founder and President of Harvey - the legal AI powerhouse now used by more than 700 customers across 58 countries. Harvey is changing how legal teams operate, from major law firms to in-house teams, by giving them AI that’s fast, reliable, and actually built for the way lawyers work. Gabe comes to us straight off the back of a major announcement here at Slush: a new partnership with ElevenLabs, unveiled on stage with Harvey investor Ilya Fushman, who led their Series B. If you want to find out more about what Gabe and the team are doing at Harvey, click here: https://www.harvey.ai/ Chapters:00:00 – Introduction00:08 – The Origin of Harvey00:55 – Why Legal?01:47 – Landing the First 100 Users02:31 – How the Product has Evolved03:53 – Lessons from DeepMind & Meta05:07 – The Future of Law Firms06:05 – Scaling Harvey: Biggest Surprises07:17 – Fundraising Journey07:57 – Advice for Founders08:25 – Advice to His Younger Self09:30 – Harvey are hiring! Big thanks to Gabe for stopping by - and enjoy the rest of Slush. #slush2025 #foundersandbuilders #gabepereyra #harveyai
Nov 15, 2025 · 7 min
The Real Way Investors Find Unicorns Before They Exist | Hussein Kanji, Hoxton Ventures
Hussein Kanji breaks down exactly how world-class investors spot billion-dollar companies before anyone else - from identifying new categories to understanding when technological, cultural, or regulatory shifts create once-in-a-generation opportunities. 👉 If you enjoyed this clip - make sure to watch the full episode with Hussein Kanji! 📌 Chapters 00:00 – How Hoxton chooses the right companies to back 00:25 – What creates new markets: cultural, tech, and regulatory shifts 01:18 – Predictive markets, Polymarket 02:37 – Why the bridge back to Silicon Valley really matters 03:15 – Europe vs US: can Europe produce the global winner? 03:35 – Winner-take-most markets (Bebo, Myspace, Meta) 04:39 – Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon — and why Spotify won 05:31 – Why European tech is the exception — and how winners emerge 05:52 – How Spotify actually cracked the market 06:23 – Where VCs get it wrong 06:49 – Relaxing constraints vs sticking to your framework 06:50 – The painful misses: Monzo and Revolut 07:08 – How pattern-matching can mislead investors 👍 Why subscribe? Real, unfiltered lessons from the world’s top founders and investors - no hype, no fluff, just what actually drives companies to break out. 🔔 Hit the bell so you don’t miss new episodes 🔔 #hoxtonventures #husseinkanji #startups #founders #venturecapital #europeantech

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