PODCAST · news
StrictlyVC Download
by Connie Loizos & Alex Gove
Each week TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos, and Alex Gove, a former journalist, VC and operating exec who today runs StrictlyVC, interview a mover and shaker in the world of tech
Episodes
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Al Gore on the $4.5 Trillion Clean Energy Opportunity
In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston, head of growth equity at Generation Investment Management, to discuss how the AI boom is reshaping the global energy transition. Gore explains why the rapid buildout of AI data centers is a cause for...
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Keith Rabois on Why the AI Bubble Fears Are Overblown
Is the AI boom a bubble, or just the biggest productivity unlock in a generation?For this episode, we're sharing a conversation from StrictlyVC New York 2026. TechCrunch's Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos sat down with Keith Rabois, Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, to talk tech optimism, AI...
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Grindr CEO is betting on AI to solve online dating's biggest problem
In this episode of StrictlyVc Download, Connie and Alex sit down with Grindr CEO George Arison to talk about how he’s transformed the company since taking over in 2022 and where he wants to take it next. Arison discusses Grindr’s rapid growth, why roughly 80% of its code is now written by AI, and...
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The Anti-a16z? Vijay Pande’s Bet on a Tiny, AI-Native VC Firm
In this episode, Connie is joined by Vijay Pande, co-founder of VZ and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss why he believes AI is poised to transform healthcare and create a new generation of trillion-dollar companies. Pande explains how AI could improve drug discovery and...
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Equity Replay: Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says the lesson for founders now is that a great model isn't enough
This week we'r sharing a conversation from our colleagues at TechCrunch's Equity. Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy says he's never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the...
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Why Founders Fund Backed a Fish Robotics Startup
Much of American-caught fish is processed overseas, and often in China, before it comes back to the U.S. Shinkei wants to change that with robotics, computer vision, and a vertically integrated supply chain built from scratch. This episode of StrictlyVC Download was recorded at StrictlyVC Los...
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Reed Jobs Is Betting Cancer Doesn’t Have to Be Fatal
In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by Reed Jobs, founder and managing partner of Yosemite, to discuss the firm’s ambitious mission to make cancer nonlethal by building biotech companies from the ground up. Jobs explains why Yosemite pairs venture capital with no-strings-attached research...
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Uber’s Chief Product Officer on Travel, AI Agents, and Playing Both Sides of the Robotaxi Race
In this episode, Connie Loizos sits down with Uber Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal to discuss the company's expanding vision beyond ride-hailing, from hotels and travel planning to AI-powered shopping and autonomous vehicles. Sachin explains how Uber decides which new products to build, why…
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The Race to Build the First Real Humanoid Robot Business with Peggy Johnson from Agility
In this episode, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove sit down with Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson following the company's announcement that it will go public, making it one of the first pure-play humanoid robotics companies to reach the public markets. Peggy explains why she believes the industry is...
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Is Your AI Actually Worth What You're Spending? with Parker Conrad
In this episode, Connie Loizos sits down with Rippling founder and CEO Parker Conrad to discuss the company's biggest product launch in years: Rippling Data Cloud. Parker explains why he believes the future of enterprise AI depends on giving AI access to an organization's people data and business...
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Is There an AI Bubble? VCs on Valuations and ARR Inflation
This episode features a conversation recorded live at StrictlyVC LA in El Segundo between Connie Loizos, Cheng Xu, partner at Basis Set Ventures, and Carter Reum, founder of M13. Together, they discuss whether today's AI boom represents a bubble, how investors are thinking about soaring startup...
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The return of the Consumer Gold Rush? What Chi-Hua Chien is betting on next
In this episode, Connie and Alex talk with Goodwater Capital co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, whose career spans some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology shifts, from helping source Accel’s investment in Facebook as a young associate to backing a new generation of consumer and AI startups. While much...
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Runway and HOLYWATER TECH: Two AI Companies Trying to Upend Entertainment
This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you a conversation from our recent event in Athens. Connie Loizos spoke with Anastasis Germanidis: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Runway and Anatolii Kasianov: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, HOLYWATER TECH. Runway began within art school, with a sparse network and...
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What VCs think about SpaceX, AI-valuation fever and where to bet next
For this episode of StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you a conversation from the StrictlyVC Athens event. Connie Loizos sat down with three seasoned investors to break down the state of venture capital, the hunt for white space, and what it actually takes to back a breakout company in 2026....
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Eclipse Ventures Co-Founder Lior Susan's Insights Into a $1.3B Bet on Physical AI
This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're sharing and interview from our 2026 event in San Francisco with TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin and Lior Susan who is dresh off raising a $1.3 billion fund. Eclipse Ventures is doubling down on what it calls physical AI. Temkin and Susan discuss robotics,...
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Inside Stanford's Secret Tech Elite (And the Freshman Who Exposed It)
In this episode, we talk with Theo Baker, a soon-to-be Stanford graduate and author of How to Rule the World, about what he found when he traded his coding ambitions for student journalism. Within his first semester, Theo broke the story that led to Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s...
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CEO Amjad Masad on How Replit Is Changing Who Gets to Build Software
This week, we're sharing a conversaiton from Strictly VC's recent event in San Francisco. Replit co-founder and CEO Amjad Masad joined Connie Loizos to talk about AI-driven software development, competing with major AI players, and how coding is changing as software creation becomes more...
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Is Airwallex Undervalued or is Stripe Overvalued?
In this episode, we talk with Airwallex cofounder and CEO Jack Zhang about building a global financial infrastructure company by taking the long, unglamorous path. Rather than layering on top of existing banking systems, Airwallex spent a decade acquiring licenses, integrating with local payment...
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How secondary markets are pricing SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic before they go public
In this episode, Connie Loizos talks with Rainmaker Securities managing director Glen Anderson about the surge in the secondary market as investors race to buy shares in some of tech’s most sought-after private companies. From SpaceX to OpenAI to Anthropic, demand is intensifying ahead of a...
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High tech herding with Craig Piggott, Halter
In this episode, we talk with Halter founder and CEO Craig Pigott about building a $2 billion agtech company that’s transforming how farmers manage livestock. Using solar-powered collars and virtual fencing, Halter helps ranchers increase productivity, monitor animal health, and rethink how land…
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The wearable you’re never supposed to stop wearing with Will Ahmed of WHOOP
WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed joins Connie Loizos and Alex Gove on StrictlyVC Download to discuss the company’s evolution from a niche wearable for elite athletes into a fast-growing health platform. The three talk about WHOOP’s unconventional decision to skip a screen, its subscription-driven...
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Is Ring building towards safer neighborhoods or neighborhood surveillance?
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff joins Connie Loizos and Alex Gove on StrictlyVC Download to discuss the company’s new AI-powered Search Party feature, which aims to help neighbors find lost dogs but has sparked debate about surveillance and privacy. The three discuss how the feature actually works…
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The AI Safety Showdown: Max Tegmark on government, Anthropic, and what’s next
In this episode of StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove sit down with MIT AI researcher Max Tegmark to discuss the growing clash between AI companies and the U.S. government and the bigger question of who should control increasingly powerful AI systems. From the Trump administration’s...
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Future-Proofing work in the age of automation with Bill Gurley
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Bill Gurley, longtime venture capitalist, former Benchmark partner, and author of the new book Running Down a Dream. After stepping back from day-to-day investing, Gurley has turned his focus to a different question: how people build...
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Rethinking series A in the age of mega funds
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Stacy Brown-Philpot, founder and managing partner of Cherryrock Capital. After a decade at Google and leading TaskRabbit through its acquisition by IKEA, Brown-Philpot is now building a venture firm focused on Series A and Series B…
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How Tether became crypto's most profitable company—and what it's building next
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…
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Airtable is betting big on a standalone ai agent that could replace its own product
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove talk with Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable. On Tuesday, Liu announced the launch of Superagent, Airtable’s first standalone product outside of its core platform—and this isn’t just another AI feature bolted onto an existing...
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Working in orbit: what happens when space goes blue-collar?
In this episode, Connie Loizos speaks with Mary Jane Rubenstein, a professor of religion and science and technology studies at Wesleyan University and author of "Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse"—a book that served as research material for the Oscar-winning film "Everything...
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Why VCs think consumer AI hasn't lived up to the hype
This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're sharing a conversation with Goodwater Capital founder Chi-Hua Chien and Scribble Ventures founder Elizabeth Weil. They discuss why consumer AI hasn't lived up to the hype yet and what's coming next. Beyond ChatGPT and Gemini, the consumer AI landscape feels...
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True Ventures' contrarian playbook: High ownership, low noise
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove talk with Jon Callaghan, managing partner at True Ventures. Callaghan has spent two decades building True Ventures into one of Silicon Valley's most successful seed-stage firms, managing nearly $4 billion across 12 funds while staying...
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Competing in the post-Humane AI wearables era with Sandbar CEO Mina Fahmi
This week on StrictlyVC Download, we’re sharing a conversation from our event in Palo Alto, where TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin spoke with Mina Fahmi, the founder and CEO of Sandbar, and Toni Schneider of True Ventures. Mina Fahmi is the CEO and co-founder of Sandbar, a startup building the...
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Building and losing iRobot: Why Colin Angle thinks the FTC is to blame
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos spoke with Conlin Angle, the founder and former CEO of iRobot. Fom his living room into a household name, Angle spent 30 years turning iRobot into one of the most pioneering companies in the robotics industry stepping down as CEO following the…
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X-Light's Nicholas Kelez and Pat Gelsinger on government-backed chips
Pat Gelsinger spent 35 years across two stints at Intel, most recently as CEO. Nicholas Kelez is the CEO of X-Light, a semiconductor startup developing breakthrough EUV laser technology for next-generation chipmaking. In this conversation, they unpack what it takes to wake Moore's law from its…
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Brain-computer interfaces are coming faster than you think
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos spoke with Science Corp founder Max Hodak to discuss how brain-computer interfaces are arriving faster than anyone realizes. The Neuralink co-founder and former president shares how his company recently achieved what may be the biggest breakthrough…
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Why Kevin Hartz is betting big on teenage founders
In this episode, TechCrunch's editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, sits down with Kevin Hartz, the serial entrepreneur behind Zoom and Eventbrite who's now managing partner of A-Star Capital, a $300 million generalist fund. Recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Kevin shares his unique perspective…
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Equity: Startups should rethink how they pursue sales and traction, according to VC Tim Chen
This week we're sharing an interview from our friends over at Equity. After a small startup exit and being turned down by every VC firm he applied to, Tim Chen began angel investing and eventually stumbled into raising his own fund. Now, as the solo investor behind Essence VC, he just closed his...
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Astro Teller isn’t afraid of killing ideas; here’s why
TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, sits down with Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at Alphabet’s X, to explore what it takes to build a factory for truly radical innovation. Astro reveals the three components that define a true moonshot—a huge problem, a science fiction-sounding...
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Why Harvey's Hardest Problem Isn't AI—It's Multi-Entity Collaboration
In this episode, TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, and StrictlyVC’s Alex Gove, sit down with Winston Weinberg, co-founder and CEO of Harvey, the legal AI startup that’s quietly become one of the most talked-about companies in Silicon Valley. Winston shares the origin story of how a...
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Vinod Khosla on softening the blow from AGI, and other future bets
In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch's editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, talks with Vinod Khosla about entrepreneurship in the age of AI and the massive disruptions ahead. They discuss why Khosla believes every profession represents a startup opportunity, his...
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Roelof Botha on Sequoia, startup building, and Washington -- days before stepping down
In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, talks with Roelof Botha about Sequoia’s approach to finding and backing outlier companies — just days before he announced he was stepping down. They discuss why he thinks venture capital isn’t...
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UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts on pushing his university into the AI age
This week on Strictly VC Download, Connie Loizos sits down with Lee Roberts, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to discuss his ambitious plan to make AI the university’s “north star” amid a tumultuous year. Roberts walks through his decision to merge UNC’s School of…
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How Hans Swildens pulled off a blockbuster Goldman Sachs sale, and what it means for venture liquidity
This week's episode of StrictlyVC Download features Hans Swildens, founder of Industry Ventures, discussing his firm's transaction with Goldman Sachs that comes during Industry Ventures' 25th anniversary year. Swildens walks through the 20-year evolution of the Goldman relationship—from LP…
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The politics of AI: OpenAI’s Chris Lehane on AI’s promise and peril
This week’s episode of StrictlyVC Download was recorded live at the Elevate Festival in Toronto. TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos sat down with Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, to discuss the company’s newly launched video generation tool Sora, the complexities of...
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How Monarch Collective scored some of the biggest early deals in women's sports
This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos speaks with Kara Nortman, co-founder of Monarch Collective, the first fund dedicated exclusively to women’s sports. Nortman launched this $250 million fund in 2023—right before women’s sports exploded into the mainstream....
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How Replit went from $2.8M to $150M ARR by pivoting away from professional developers
This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC's Alex Gove spoke with with Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, fresh off the company's $250 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation. They discussed Replit's remarkable journey from hovering around…
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Google Cloud's COO isn't stressed about landing the AI giants with Francis deSouza
This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos is joined by Francis deSouza, the renowned entrepreneur, operator and, since January of this year, COO of Google Cloud. They discuss his goals for Google Cloud and how the company maintains its competitive position by...
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How the world's energy economics flipped with Al Gore and Lila Preston
his week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos sits down with former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston to explore their ninth annual Sustainability Trends Report and how the global climate transition is accelerating despite political headwinds. In fact, while traditional…
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General Catalyst's plan to eat the $16 trillion services market
This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC's Alex Gove sit down with Marc Bhargava, partner at General Catalyst, to explore his ambitious $1.5 billion Creation Fund strategy that's targeting the $16 trillion global services economy through AI-powered rollups.…
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Adeo Ressi and Sarah Lacy call B.S. on the shrinking emerging manager narrative
This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC's Alex Gove sit down with Adeo Ressi, founder of Decile Group, and Sarah Lacy, the former TechCrunch journalist turned entrepreneur to explore how one of Ressi's newest projects -- VC Lab -- has quietly launched over…
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Uncork Capital on 21 years of venture cycles—and what's different about this one
This week on StrictlyVC Download, Techcrunch EIC Connie Loizos talks with Uncork Capital honchos Jeff Clavier and Andy McLoughlin. They discuss how their seed-stage firm is positioning itself in this environment, from a recent investment in AI chip maker Groq to bets on AI-native companies...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Each week TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos, and Alex Gove, a former journalist, VC and operating exec who today runs StrictlyVC, interview a mover and shaker in the world of tech
HOSTED BY
Connie Loizos & Alex Gove
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does StrictlyVC Download have?
StrictlyVC Download currently has 241 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is StrictlyVC Download about?
Each week TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos, and Alex Gove, a former journalist, VC and operating exec who today runs StrictlyVC, interview a mover and shaker in the world of tech
How often does StrictlyVC Download release new episodes?
StrictlyVC Download publishes regularly with 241 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to StrictlyVC Download on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts StrictlyVC Download?
StrictlyVC Download is created and hosted by Connie Loizos & Alex Gove.
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