trading places

SpaceX just filed its confidential IPO prospectus — and prediction markets say it will be June 3rd, Elon's birthday, during a rare 6-planet alignment. Anthropic is on a generational heater — Opus 4.6, Cowork, enterprise momentum — while OpenAI cuts Sora and kills the Disney deal trying to find focus. Prediction markets now say Anthropic IPOs first, 60/40 chance. In Episode 29 of Trading Places...

Dave and Aman break down a packed week in VC and tech — from macro headwinds threatening the IPO window to the big question of whether SpaceX and Tesla are quietly becoming one company. The Private Mag7 gets a full ranking debate: SpaceX is comfortably #1 at over a trillion, but Anduril's surprise $20B DoD contract has it punching into the top three. OpenAI just raised the biggest private roun...

Episode 27 of Trading Places asks a simple question: Are we pricing AI companies completely wrong? This week, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee are joined by Nick Fusco, founder of PM Insights, a private markets intelligence platform focused on tracking valuations, secondaries, and what assets are actually trading for beneath the surface. From Cerebras at $23B to Nvidia at $4.4T, the spread in valuatio...

Dave and Aman break down how the Iran conflict is rattling markets — and what oil futures backwardation is signaling about how long it lasts. Then: Anduril closes at a $60B valuation (a portfolio company for Dave and Aman — they got in at $14B), Palmer Luckey vs. Dario Amodei, Anthropic getting flagged as a supply chain risk by the Pentagon, Kraken connecting to the Fed, Robinhood's $RVI fund...

OpenAI just closed a historic $110B funding round — the largest private raise ever. At the same time: • Stripe surged to a $159B valuation • Anthropic is selling $6B of employee shares • The Pentagon reportedly blocked Anthropic from defense work • Sam Altman quickly picked up a DoD AI contract • ByteDance hit a $550B valuation • And Jack Dorsey laid off 4,000 employees citing AI productivity Welc...

The biggest private round in history just got bigger. This week on Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down: • OpenAI’s rumored $100B raise at an $830B valuation • Anthropic’s $380B valuation surge • Stripe’s $140B employee tender • Databricks at $134B • Harvey AI jumping to $11B • SCOTUS striking down Trump’s emergency tariffs Then we go deep with Tyson Hendricksen, Founder & C...

Space, AI, SaaS carnage, secondary liquidity, and the biggest merger of all time. Welcome to Episode 23 of Trading Places — and this one covers everything from venture DPI math to Mars colonization strategy. This week, Dave McClure, Aman Verjee, and returning guest David Zhou break down:🚀 The $1.25T SpaceX + xAI merger📉 Why SaaS multiples just collapsed💰 How VCs can generate DPI before year 10...

Welcome back to Trading Places — the terrible, very bad, absolutely horrible VC secondaries podcast with Dave McClure and Aman Verjee. This week is a full-spectrum market tour: the latest rumors swirling around Elon’s empire (SpaceX + Tesla + xAI), the mega-rounds and IPO chess games of Anthropic + OpenAI, the reality check hitting public SaaS multiples reported by Jamin Ball, and a deep dive into...

In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down what’s driving markets right now, and what it means for liquidity in private tech. They’re joined by Ravi Ravulaparthi (CEO & Co-Founder, Qapita).Together, they unpack what’s actually happening across IPOs, secondaries, SPVs, and late-stage price discovery: • Why public markets rallied and what’s underwriting the optimi...

In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee dive deep into the rapidly evolving world of private tech markets. They’re joined by: • Noel Moldvai (Founder & CEO, Augment Markets) • Adam Crawley (Co-Founder, Augment Markets) • Marcelo Ballvé (Founder, Sacra) Together, they unpack what’s actually happening beneath the surface of AI, secondaries, and late-stage private companie...

In this episode of Trading Places, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down the reopening IPO market, sky-high AI valuations, and the growing push for private-market liquidity — before diving deep into Latin America’s venture ecosystem with Nathan Lustig (Magma Partners) and Karin Tenenboim (Practical VC). Karin explains why Latin America has quietly outperformed other emerging markets on $1B+ exit...

Episode 18 of the @TradingPlacesPod featuring James Riney from Coral Capital is out now! This week: Dave and Aman kick off 2026 with their macroeconomic predictions (GDP growth, Fed rate cuts, and tax refunds), break down the IPO market outlook (SpaceX at $1.6T?!, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks), and dive deep into the secondary market dynamics for companies that won't go public in 2026. Plus,...

Episode 17 of the Trading Places Pod featuring Javier Avalos of Caplight is out now! This week: the IRS as your hidden secondary buyer, why banks need private market solutions, how platform acquisitions are reshaping secondaries, and whether AI companies are in a bubble or just getting started. Plus, Oracle's cash flow crisis, TikTok's $38B deal, and why mega VC funds might be destroying r...

Episode 16 of the TradingPlacesPod featuring Adrien Gautier of Bridgespan VC is out now! This week: Oracle's debt crisis sends shockwaves through AI infrastructure stocks, the IPO market heats up for 2026 with SpaceX, OpenAI & Anthropic eyeing historic exits, and Adrien Gautier reveals how Bridgespan's unique employee stock option financing strategy gets them 30-70% discounts vs. prefe...

Episode 15 of the Trading Places Pod featuring Ben Black of Akkadian Ventures is out now! Welcome to Trading Places, the extremely terrible, very bad podcast on VC secondaries. Hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down the biggest news in venture secondaries, late-stage funding rounds, and this week's exclusive interview with Ben Black, founder and Managing Partner of Akkadian Ventures and...

Welcome to Trading Places, the extremely terrible, very bad podcast on VC secondaries. Hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee unpack the biggest news in venture capital, late-stage funding, crypto valuations, and this week's explosive valuation corner on why Grayscale's IPO might be heading for disaster. This Thanksgiving episode dives deep into Michael Burry's controversial claims that Big Tech is co...

Episode 13 of @TradingPlacesPod featuring Emily Zheng (@Pitchbook) is out now! Welcome to Trading Places, the extremely terrible, very bad podcast on VC secondaries. Hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee (with special guest Amber filling in) break down the biggest news in venture secondaries, late-stage funding rounds, market dynamics, and this week's exclusive interview with Emily Zheng from Pit...

Episode 12 of the @TradingPlacesPod featuring Sean Engel from Top Tier Capital Partners is out now!  This week: Are we in an AI bubble (again)? Data center capacity constraints meet infinite hyperscaler ambition, SoftBank sells Nvidia (again!) to bet on OpenAI, and venture secondaries are the new must-have strategy for every LP trying to escape the 15-year fund cycle. 00:00 - cold open/intro 00:53...

Episode 11 of the Trading Places Podcast featuring Daniel Blake from UI Charitable is out now! This week: the IRS as your secret secondary buyer, donor-advised fund (DAF) strategies that turn illiquid assets into tax savings, and the wild world of prediction markets—where Polymarket and Kalshi are coming for DraftKings’ and FanDuel’s lunch money. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:05 - Tech VC secondary...

This week on Trading Places, hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee cover the latest tech news, including OpenAI's path to a trillion-dollar IPO, Big Tech's massive AI spending spree, and Tether's $500 billion valuation. Plus, we sit down with Rick Baker, Managing Partner at Blackbird Venture Capital, to discuss the incredible Canva story, secondary transactions, and building Australia's venture ecosy...

Episode 8 of the Trading Places Pod featuring Phil Haslett from EquityZen is out now. This week we dive deep into OpenAI's massive semiconductor partnership deals ($500B+ across AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia & Oracle), Goldman's billion-dollar acquisition of Industry Ventures, plus emerging IPO opportunities including Tempo's $5B series A and Anysphere's $27B valuation. Our guest Phil Haslett breaks d...

Episode 9 of the Trading Places Podcast featuring Seedcamp's Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Eduardo Espinal is out now. This week we cover a jam-packed news cycle (prediction markets 📈, Google-Anthropic deal, Oracle's $38B debt raise, Tether's 500M users 🌍) plus an in-depth interview with the legendary Seedcamp co-founders on their pioneering secondary fund sale strategy. And of course, Professor Verj...

Episode 7 of  the Trading Places Podcast  featuring  Turner Novak from  The Peel Pod  and Banana Capital is out now. This week we cover a range of news highlights from a very boisterous week in tech and fundings (Polymarket, Kalshi, Navan IPO, Bitcoin shorts, gold price boom) plus a jam packed [valuation corner] hosted by Practical Venture Capital's GPs Dave McClure and Aman Verjee on OpenAI's lat...

episode 6 of @+[trading places] feat. our dear friend / VC’s chief graph officer, peter walker of carta—is out now! 00:00 — cold open [ news ] 00:38 — this week’s news 01:34 — triple triple double double = ded ded DED 03:36 — state of the software 2025 report 07:42 — openAI completes tender offer… what now? 09:43 — IPOs Q3 update 11:43 — get ur IPO on: wealthfront 12:32 — cerebras don’t need no st...

episode 5 of @+[trading places], a very bad 💩podcast about VC #secondary 2️⃣, broken unicorns 🦄💔& busted carry 😱, is out NOW! this week, we sit down with Joe Schorge and Omolade Idebisi of EU fund of funds (FoF) Isomer Capital about secondary fund strategy, GP-led vs. LP-led and how they navigate a world of weird discounts when they go to trade in the secondary market. plus Dave Mcclure sh...