Layer Zero

I sat down with Shreyas Doshi , one of the world's top product leaders and startup thinkers known for shaping some of the most thoughtful perspectives on building and advising companies (Anthropic and Kalshi to name a few), to unpack what actually drives enduring startups beneath the surface. We talked about the mental models behind great products, why clarity of thinking matters more than spe...

I sat down with Jeremy Downs , angel investor in Anduril, SpaceX, and Snap , and an early hire at PayPal, Uber, and Facebook , to talk about what it really means to spot category-defining companies before they’re obvious. Jeremy shared lessons from being inside some of the most important tech companies of the last two decades and how those experiences shaped his approach as an angel investor. We d...

I sat down with Andy McLoughlin , Partner at Uncork Capital and former founder who built and scaled Huddle , to talk about the transition from operator to early-stage investor and what he’s learned on both sides of the table. Andy shared lessons from founding Huddle and navigating a product exit, and how those experiences shape the way he evaluates startups today. We discussed why some of the most...

I sat down with Scott Beechuk, Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, for a wide-ranging conversation on how AI, particularly agentic systems, is reshaping software and how venture is adapting to it. Before investing, Scott founded three companies and later served as an executive at Salesforce, giving him a rare operator-to-investor perspective on building and scaling technology businesses. In this...

I sat down with Abishek Das , Founder of Yutori AI , one of the fastest-scaling companies in the AI agent space. Yutori is building what many consider the most accurate web agents to date , leveraging a team of top researchers and engineers who are pushing the boundaries of autonomous reasoning and real-world task execution. The company has already raised $10M+ from some of the biggest names in AI...

I sat down with Niko Bonatsos , one of the most respected early-stage investors of the past decade and an early backer of companies like Snap, Discord, Mercor , and many more breakout successes. Niko has built a career on finding unconventional founders long before the rest of the world sees what they’re capable of and helping them scale from the earliest days. In this episode, we talk about how h...

I sat down with Matt Martin , Founder & CEO of Clockwise , the time orchestration platform used by teams at companies like Netflix, Reddit, Atlassian, Lyft, and more. Clockwise has raised over $70M from Accel, Greylock, and top operators, but more importantly, it has fundamentally changed how teams structure their days and protect their focus time. In this episode, Matt breaks down the early p...

I sat down with Trip Adler , Founder & CEO of Created by Humans , and former CEO and co-founder of Scribd ($1B+ valuation), for a deep discussion about how creators should be compensated and protected in the age of AI. After building Scribd into one of the world’s largest document and ebook platforms, Trip is now tackling one of the most urgent questions in AI: who owns the rights to human-cre...

I sat down with Ben Narasin , Founder and General Partner of Tenacity Venture Capital , for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to consistently back and build generational companies. Before launching Tenacity, Ben was a General Partner at NEA , one of the largest venture funds in the world, and earlier in his career founded FashionMall.com , which he led to an IPO during the first dot-com...

I sat down with Delian Asparouhov, Partner at Founders Fund and Co-Founder & President of Varda Space Industries, for a conversation on what it takes to build at the intersection of frontier manufacturing and venture capital. Delian’s dual role, backing high-stakes tech at one of the most influential funds while also building a company that’s sending factories into orbit, gives him a rare adva...

I sat down with Joseph Krause, Co-Founder and CEO of Radical AI, for a deep dive into how artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of scientific discovery. Radical AI is building autonomous, AI-driven research systems, what Joseph calls “self-driving labs,” that accelerate the discovery of new materials and breakthroughs across industries. Backed by over $55 million in funding by Nvidia and...

I sat down with Michele Griffin, former Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and now the Founder & CEO of Premier GTM, where she’s helping startups master the art of go-to-market. Michele has spent years advising early-stage founders on how to turn great products into scalable businesses, from refining messaging to building repeatable sales motion, and her track record speaks for itself. In t...

I sat down with Charles Hudson , Founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures , one of the most respected early-stage funds in venture capital. Charles has built Precursor on a set of unorthodox ideas, from how he sources founders to how he supports them, and it’s worked. In this episode, we explored why going against the grain has been central to his success, the philosophy behind Precursor...

I sat down with Max Marchione , Co-Founder of Superpower, the AI health company helping humans live longer. Backed by Giannis Antetokounmpo , Vanessa Hudgens , and other leading investors, Superpower has raised over $30M and is scaling fast. We talked about the culture and principles that drive Superpower’s growth, how Max builds teams around clarity and ambition, and the lessons he’s learned from...

I sat down with Vanessa, former Partner at NEA where she invested in both B2B and B2C companies and an operator who held leadership roles at Twilio and Box, for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of consumer tech. In this episode, we explored how AI is reshaping the consumer landscape, what defensibility looks like in a world of fast-moving competitors, and the behavioral shifts founders sho...

I sat down with Jimmy Yun, Principal at 8VC, for a conversation on how he approaches partnering with founders in enterprise software and frontier technology. At 8VC, Jimmy also plays a key role in the firm’s Build, a model focused not just on investing in great companies, but helping to create them from the ground up. In this episode, we explored how Jimmy evaluates opportunities at the edge of en...

I sat down with Wesley Tian, founder of Aragon AI, for a conversation on what it takes to scale a breakout AI company at record speed. Aragon develops AI-generated headshots and has grown to over $10M in annualized revenue within just two years, a rare trajectory in the consumer AI space. In this episode, Wesley shared how Aragon found product–market fit, the strategies that fueled its rapid growt...

I sat down with Adam Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Boost VC, for a conversation on what it means to invest at the very edge of technology. Since starting Boost, Adam has backed frontier founders in crypto, deep tech, and beyond, often years before these spaces went mainstream. In this episode, we explored the unique lens through which Boost operates, how Adam first discovered crypto and...

I sat down with Kyle Stanford, Director of U.S. Venture Capital Research at PitchBook, for a conversation on what the data really says about today’s venture landscape. Kyle has a front-row seat to the numbers that shape how investors, founders, and markets think... from unexpected shifts in U.S. venture activity to the statistics driving AI’s explosive growth. In this episode, we unpack the surpri...

I had the opportunity to chat with Tamar Yehoshua, former Chief Product Officer at Slack and ex-President of Glean, for a conversation on what it takes to help build generational companies. Tamar has held leadership roles early at Amazon, Google, Slack, and Glean, giving her a rare perspective on how the world’s most iconic organizations define their goals and sustain momentum. In this episode, we...

I sat down with Samir Kaul, Founding Partner and Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it means to invest at the edge of what's possible. Samir has long been at the forefront of transformative innovation, spanning AI, sustainability, health, and the future of food. In this episode, we explored how he thinks about betting early on breakthrough technologie...

I had an insightful conversation with Jason Shuman, General Partner at Primary Venture Partners and Forbes 30U30, where we dove deep into how he’s helping reshape the venture capital landscape, especially through a uniquely hands-on approach to supporting early-stage founders. We explored the evolution of DTC businesses (where Jason has deep roots as a founder himself), the operational challenges...

I caught up with Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Ventures, to talk about how regulation is reshaping the VC landscape, and how he's actively working to bring mobile voting to the mainstream. We also got into his perspective on the coming wave of AI regulation, and why it matters now in the AI race. Finally, Bradley shared stories from putting together Bloomberg’s mayoral campaign and launching I...

I had a great conversation with Lily Lyman, partner at Underscore VC, where we dug into the current state of the startup and venture scene in Boston... what makes it unique, what’s changing, and what founders should know. We also talked about how she evaluates early-stage companies, the GTM challenges she sees most often, and how founders can navigate them in today’s market. Finally, Lily shared r...

I had the change to speak with Zach Lloyd, founder of Warp, to unpack how he’s rethinking one of the most foundational tools in software... the TERMINAL. We talk about how Warp is different from the traditional command line, why it matters for modern developers, and what it takes to build a tool that engineers actually love using. We also dive into how Zach has approached go-to-market for Warp......