Top Decile Podcast

Mike Saloio spent eight years as a sell-side equity analyst at Oppenheimer, covering Cisco, Apple, and EMC, before founding Huddle, a VC-backed marketplace that helped over 150 startups assemble design and engineering teams. Now he's launching Begin Ventures to back the founders pre-seed ecosystems routinely miss: domain experts using AI to reinvent legacy consumer industries. We get into why AI i...

Moy Aras spent over a decade running brand and innovation at Chobani, Nestlé, Nespresso, Aloha, and Applegate before betting on early-stage CPG founders the way he wished someone had bet on him. He wrote angel checks, built a 13-brand portfolio, and launched Lucinda Capital in 2025. We get into why the consumer brands that matter most get built by founders with audacity rather than pedigree, how o...

Collette Tibbitts spent years at the intersection of music and tech, consulting for Island Records and Sony Music Nashville and working on blockchain at Universal Music Group. She co-founded Joker Deck to back the founders venture capital has consistently walked past. We get into why music tech is a proving ground for innovations that expand well beyond the industry, how misaligned access and capi...

Oscar Carreón and Roberto Nieves co-founded Cabra Ventures after careers spanning Mexico, China, the Netherlands, and the Middle East, including Roberto's time in institutional investment at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. They set out to build the fund they always wished existed for founders who don't fit the traditional VC mold. We get into why the next wave of fintech will be built by fo...

Backing the Systems Pharmacy Needs Next | Christian Tadrus, Pharmacy Innovator Fund Why pharmacy needs new infrastructure to connect to care, payment, and clinical workflows, how economic misalignment is holding the profession back, and what it takes to build a fund from inside the industry you're trying to change. Through Tadrus Advisory Group, Christian Tadrus launched the Pharmacy Innovator Fun...

Varun Turlapati spent 16 years as a software engineer before founding Chaanakya Capital, a $2M pre-seed fund backing US neurotech and medtech startups. His edge is his master's in electrical and computer engineering. He can evaluate the science-heavy deals most VCs don't even understand. Find out why neurotech is at the same inflection point AI was in 2016. Hear how one company puts a bionic hand...

Doug Griffin has founded four companies in computer vision and spatial AI. Three exited, including acquisitions by Apple and Roblox. Now he's running Spatial Capital, backing early-stage physical AI and spatial computing founders tackling the problems nobody else wants to touch. We get into why he only bets on unsexy problems, how AI can compressing 13-year mining timelines down to three, and what...