The Aarthi and Sriram Show

0:00 Intro
3:15 - State of AI at the beginning of 2024
12:30 - Valuations and fundraising landscape today
16:20 - Founder backgrounds for AI startups
19:15 - Are AI companies defensible? What moats do they have?
26:40 - Impact for large enterprise businesses
30 35 - Exit options and M&A
35:45 - What problems do they wish founders focused on? And not so much on?
42:35 - AI therapy - is it cringe?
48:55 - Stanford dropouts and starting AI companies
58:35 - Olivia and Justine's favorite AI Tools
1:04:00 - Outro

Follow Sriram:

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Chapters:

0:00 Intro
1:50 Gokul Rajaram on Google and what makes a great CEO
14:30 Ishan Mukherjee on the State of LLMs
22:23 Mark Pincus on how to come up with good ideas and build great products
33:12 Anil Varanasi on how to spot great talent
36:18 Rio Ferdinand on Leadership and Young Prodigies
41:33 Hudzah on using Claude LLM to build products quickly
47:29 Mike Maples on patterns for successful startups
56:00 Career and life advice by Aarthi and Sriram
1:06:55 Aravind Srinivas on Google’s Larry Page being his favourite entrepreneur
1:10:50 Bryan Johnson's 7 simple hacks to...

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction to Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere
2:12 Childhood and growing up in Canada
5:50 Getting into computers and internet
10:30 Sending cold emails
14:20 How to work with Aidan
16:40 The AI paper - "Attention is all you need"
18:45 Starting Cohere
21:10 Why choose enterprise (vs consumer) as a market
24:45 AI strategy
28:20 Hallucinations in LLM models
30:10 Enterprise software and security implications
32:05 Deloitte, Accenture and the impact of generative AI
36:40 Will LLM scaling laws hit a plateau?
38:50 AGI, reasoning and inference for LLM models
41:30 Synthetic data - what is...

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:30 The big political divide in the US
7:50 The new media election
19:55 Pre-Zynga: Mark's entrepreneurial origins
26:10 Being in the room where it happens
30:50 How to choose the right idea to work on
34:35 Meeting Mark Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook
40:20 Founder Mode
43:15 Zynga board and saving the company
49:30 Zynga 2.0: The Comeback
55:00 Zynga company culture
1:01:20 Building product at Zynga
1:08:30 How Zynga was Facebook's winning strategy
1:14:10 Advice to Founders
1:25:15 Outro

Follow Sriram:

https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/

https://twitter...

Chapters:
0:0 Intro
1:30 The big political divide in the US
7:50 The new media election
19:55 Pre-Zynga: Mark's entrepreneurial origins
26:10 Being in the room where it happens
30:50 How to choose the right idea to work on
34:35 Meeting Mark Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook
40:20 Founder Mode
43:15 Zynga board and saving the company
49:30 Zynga 2.0: The Comeback
55:00 Zynga company culture
1:01:20 Building product at Zynga
1:08:30 How Zynga was Facebook's winning strategy
1:14:10 Advice to Founders
1:25:15 Outro

Follow Sriram:

https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/

https://twitter...

0:01Intro
3:04 Ishan's Story
4:43 Inside IIT: India's Most Competitive Universities
6:50 How Quiz Championships Shaped a Tech Founder
11:45 Moving to the US
19:38 Building Kiva - The Early Days
24:45 The Amazon Acquisition
28:30 Immigration
34:55 What is ROX
37:00 Where are AI agents lacking/ State of LLMs
41:35 Reinventing CRMs
43:45 How ROX works
48:30 AI's Impact on Traditional Industries
53:45 The Launch: ROX Goes Public
57:00 Advice to Young Dreamers
58:35 The Ultimate Quiz Showdown
1:01:30 Outro

Follow Sriram:

https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/

https://twitter.com/sriramk<...

The year is 2024 and it has been a few days since the remarkable US elections. Trump is now President elect. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (both former guests of our podcast!) are leading DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). What does it all mean for tech, for startups and for skilled immigration? What is the future of journalism and media? Is this election a one of one, or is this the first of many podcast elections? We cover it all here in our solo episode. Chapters 00:01:00:17 – 00:03:21:15: One week after the US elections ⁠00:03:19:26 – 00:14:12:00: DOGE and Elon Musk 00:14:15:21 – 00:22:22:17: Elon, Trump and the new governme...

Some helpful links
Meter - https://www.meter.com/
Meter command - https://command.meter.com/
Link to Tyler’s book on culture - https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Commercial-Culture-Tyler-Cowen/dp/0674001885
Sam Hinkie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hinkie

0:00 - Intro
3:48 - Anil’s early years and background
5:23 - Unconventional parenting
9:35 - Anil's journey to entrepreneurship
12:30 - Sleeping in factories in China
15:22 - China VS U.S.
18:30 - Why Networks are so important
21:35 - Why networking is still an unsolved problem
24:10 - Is hardware too...

0:00 - Intro
1:10 - Meet Gokul Rajaram, on the Mount Rushmore of Silicon Valley
2:19 - Gokul's relationship with Aarthi and Sriram
4:00 - What is Founder Mode? And Zuck's Micromanagement
6:33 - Founder Mode Vs Management Mode
8:26 - Why Gokul disagrees with Paul Graham
10:56 - Learnings from Google’s Larry and Sergey
15:58 - What were early days at Google like?
18:58 - What makes a great CEO?
20: 42 - How to engage with high performing executives
25:45 - Why Gokul left Google to launch his own startup
28:53 - Chamath's Acquisition offer
31:30 - Fundraising ad...

Rio Ferdinand is a football legend who spent over a decade playing for Manchester United and was a cornerstone of the England national team. With six Premier League titles, two League Cups, and a UEFA Champions League trophy under his belt, Rio is no stranger to the highs and pressures of elite football. He joined Sriram and Aarthi for a deep dive into the trials and tribulations of a career in competitive sports, the mental and physical demands of playing for one of the world’s most prestigious clubs, and the new wave of young athletes rising to stardom. Fr...

A math undergraduate from the University of Waterloo, Hudhayfa Nazoordeen, constructed a miniature fusion reactor, known as a fusor, in his bedroom. He completed the project over several weeks, utilizing the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI assistant from Anthropic, which he provided with relevant data. In a series of tweets, he detailed the entire process of building the reactor from start to finish.

Show notes:

(00:00) This is an unusual episode

(01:20) Welcome HudZah to the show!

(01:35) Who is HudZah?

(02:35) Using AI tools natively

(03:49) Using Claude to build an MVP in...

Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss the future of the AI Safety Bill SB 1047. A bill that sets out to regulate AI at the model level, is now slated for a California Assembly vote in August. If passed, one signature from Governor Gavin Newsom could cement it into California law.

Show notes:

(00:00) Trailer and intro on SB1047

(00:43) Welcome Martin Casado of a16z

(2:30) What is SB1047?

(4:10) What is the origin of SB1047 bill?

(6:14) Should AI be regulated?<...

A crash course for founders from Marc Andreesen, Vinod Khosla, Stephen Wolfram, Palmer Luckey, and Aravind Srinivas.

Show notes:

(0:00) Marc Andreessen’s idea maze breakdown

(5:29) Vinod Khosla wants you to be internally motivated

(6:42) Stephen Wolfram explains how to think

(8:47) Palmer Luckey’s three tips for young entrepreneurs

(13:02) Aravind Srinivas’ advice for students

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networ...

Kyla Scanlon⁠ ⁠is an economic commentator who joins Sriram and Aarthi to discuss the disconnect between the economy and consumer sentiment. Kyla is also the author of her brand new book 'In This Economy' which reveals the hidden forces driving key economic outcomes, the most common myths to steer clear of, and the dusty, outdated assumptions that constrain our political imagination, offering a bold new path to building a prosperous society that works for everyone.

Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:14) How would Kyla fix the U.S. economy?

(4:05) Why home ownership might NOT be t...

Show Notes:

(0:00) Audio issue

(0:51) Introduction

(3:40) Deals are long-term relationships

(6:02) Facebook-WhatsApp acquisition story

(12:04) The most important part of deal-making

(16:44) Don’t come off as desperate

(19:35) Maintaining momentum during a deal

(25:53) Know everything about the person you’re dealing with

(33:37) How we closed our London home

(37:54) Mistakes we often see

(44:40) Managing emotions while deal-making

(50:19) What to do if the deal falls through

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immi...

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(0:56) Prioritize hiring yourself

(5:37) Always keep looking for talent

(8:10) Align incentives with your hire

(15:05) How to find the best hires

(19:15) How to run a good loop

(29:51) Reference checks are underrated

(37:25) How to close the hire

(45:45) Conclusion

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59...

Show notes:

(0:00) Naveen’s background

(5:32) Where Generative AI is today

(8:00) ChatGPT-4o and Google I/O announcements were NOT fundamental shifts

(9:38) Has generative AI scaling hit a wall?

(16:34) AI pretraining difficulties

(22:49) General AI vs. specialized AI

(25:55) Biggest opportunities for generative AI startups

(29:15) AI hardware landscape

(33:23) How open source AI companies can compete with closed models like OpenAI?

(38:59) Why Naveen doesn’t use AI in his home

(40:22) Is open-sourcing AI dangerous?

(43:46) Advice for founders

(47:00) Nave...

Sriram and Aarthi break down popular audience questions about jobs, work-life balance, and more.

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:21) Advice for our younger selves

(13:20) Betting on yourself

(23:19) Benefits of taking more shots

(28:59) Work-life balance

(33:32) Aarthi’s hot take

(35:45) Time to switch jobs?

(47:21) Our unpopular opinions

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Va...

Sriram and Aarthi respond to your reaction to the immigration episode.

Show notes:

(0:00) We’re on a billboard

(2:38) Our podcast journey

(4:39) Response to our skilled immigration episode

(11:07) Core issues hindering skilled immigration

(23:07) Remembering our immigration process

(29:01) Recapping WrestleMania 40

(49:21) Mark Zuckerberg’s personal rebrand

(54:00) Meta releases Llama 3

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Netw...

Debarghya 'Deedy' Das is an investor and he joins Aarthi and Sriram to break down the hurdles of immigration in America for skilled workers.

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(8:08) Immigration routes to the United States

(12:52) Cap for Chinese and Indian immigrants

(15:30) Aarthi and Sriram’s green card story

(17:48) Why should US citizens care about skilled immigration?

(22:31) Challenges legal immigrants face

(30:16) Aarthi and Sriram’s US citizenship ceremony

(32:52) Solving the issue of skilled immigration

(40:06) Per-country cap controversy

(41:47) Immigrating to Canada or t...

Entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy joins The Sriram and Aarthi Show to discuss lessons from his political campaign, wokeness in social media, the potential TikTok Ban, his views on crypto, how to fix immigration, and more.

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(1:25) Lessons from entrepreneurship & campaigning

(9:00) Disagreements in debates

(12:55) TikTok Ban

(20:31) Wokeness in social media

(24:20) Vivek's views on crypto

(28:30) Podcasting strategy for Vivek's campaign

(33:00) Legal and illegal immigration

(37:17) Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson

(38:12) Vivek signs off in Tamil!

—

Sriram and Aarthi talk about Google's Gemini disaster after viral 'woke' photos surface.

Show notes:

(0:00) Welcome to the new studio!

(4:13) Our best AI episodes

(10:23) Google Gemini’s launch controversy

(17:15) How can Google fix Gemini?

(20:55) What Gemini gets right

(26:11) The rise of Groq

(35:37) NVIDIA and Jenson Huang are on top of the world

(42:14) Is Sora going to replace Hollywood?

—

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 61 - The...

Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, an AI conversational engine that answers users' questions with sources and citations.

Show notes:

(0:00) Introduction

(4:44) Aravind’s background

(10:05) Getting hired at OpenAI

(13:30) DeepMind vs. OpenAI

(22:57) Cultivating Perplexity AI’s culture

(28:24) Why Aravind avoids meetings

(32:30) Why Larry Page is Aravind’s favorite entrepreneur

(36:30) Career advice for students

(42:23) Why Perplexity AI won’t become commoditized

(47:00) How Perplexity AI views distribution

(49:47) Competing with tech giants for top tale...

Sriram and Aarthi are joined by longevity advocate and Project Blueprint founder Bryan Johnson.
_

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(6:20) Bryan’s origin story

(14:43) The idea that changed Bryan’s life

(20:34) Bryan’s power laws to live longer

(31:07) Improving willpower naturally

(33:59) Responding to online criticism

(37:31) Creating the Don’t Die movement

(46:50) Bryan’s blueprint explained

(50:20) The future of gene therapy

(53:28) Bryan’s physical appearance

(56:00) Call to action to the human race

—

Other episodes you might enjo...

Creator of Ruby on Rails, Co-owner & CTO of 37signals (Basecamp & HEY) David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) joins Sriram and Aarthi.

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Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(5:07) Why Sriram used to hate DHH

(13:09) Why DHH avoided VC money

(17:54) Demystify wealth online

(23:08) DHH’s issues with woke culture

(38:15) Craft and beauty

(45:51) Learnings from racing cars

(54:37) DHH’s work setup

(55:51) Le Mans and racing

(1:02:45) Apple’s mistake could mirror Google and Microsoft

(1:09:00) The Denmark fairytale

—

Other episodes...

Aarthi Ramamurthy breaks down her secret to be confident at work and overcome hurdles.

_

Show notes:

(0:00) How to build confidence

(3:20) Do the work!

(7:00) Build relationships

(11:56) Ignore the haters

(13:20) Imposter syndrome

(18:00) Summary

—

Other episodes you might enjoy:

Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And Startups

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 61 - The Reality of Raising Kids in the Tech Industry

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The El...

Sriram Krishnan's lessons after 20 years in the biggest tech companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter.

_

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(1:45) My performance reviews

(4:10) Execute on your strengths

(5:33) Be the only YOU

(8:24) Planning your career

(12:15) Recognize great work

(16:12 Learn from the best

(19:38) Mentors matter

(22:45) Writing is a superpower

(24:20) Networking

(25:28) Always be shipping

—

Other episodes you might enjoy:

Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And Startups

EP 63 - Lessons Fr...

Sriram and Aarthi review their 2023 hits, podcasting for a year, and moving across the pond.

_

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:27) Podcast growth

(6:51) Are we creators now?

(14:41) Favorite episodes of 2023

(35:19) Moving to London

(49:11) Best movies of 2023

(1:01:46) Best books of 2023

(1:09:23) Year in tech

(1:15:38) Looking ahead to 2024

—

Other episodes you might enjoy:

Bonus: Marc Andreessen's Advice For Founders And Startups

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 61 - The Reality of...

A year-end compilation of some of the best nuggets on all things AI from the Aarthi and Sriram Show.
_

Show notes:

(00:00) The state of AI's progress ft. Alex Wang

(02:00) Advice for AI founders ft. Marc Andreessen

(03:00) Ethics of AI ft. Emad Mostaque

(06:10) Society's model of computing ft. Steven Sinofsky

(07:50) How smart Can AI Get? ft. Marc Andreessen

(08:55) What if AI takes 'control'? ft. Stephen Wolfram

(11:08) AI in the Metaverse ft. Emad Mostaque

(13:26) What if AI goes rogue? ft. Marc Andreessen<...

A compilation of some of the best advice from Marc Andreessen on Sriram And Aarthi.

_

Show notes:

(00:00) Intro

(00:37) What's a good idea for a start-up

(02:12) - Big 5 personality traits

(02:57) - What is openness?

(04:37) - How to think creatively

(07:02) - How Marc can tell if a founder is lying

(09:04) - Conscientiousness

(10:28) - Improvise, Adapt and Overcome

(10:58) - Data versus Judgement

(12:12) - What's a great book

(13:00) - Bonus: Star Wars

—

Other ep...

Sriram and Aarthi break down the gameplay for new and young leaders

Show notes

(0:00) Intro

(4:40) How to be a new leader

(9:50) The first thing you should do

(17:24) Document everything

(18:33) Pitfalls to avoid

(21:21) Make obvious changes quickly

(26:57) Setting the tone and culture

(32:59) Don’t forget to use the product

(35:21) Talk to customers early on

(38:31) Presenting your plan

(39:54) Find your first win

—

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 65 - How To Pitc...

Sriram and Aarthi break down the secrets behind angel investing.

_

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(3:39) Why should you get into angel investing

(14:38) How do you get started in angel investing

(21:09) Sriram's pro-tip!

(22:10) Pitching yourself to the founder

(26:10) Building reputation as an angel

(29:50) Signs of a good angel investor

(34:52) Signs of a bad angel investor

(39:09) What is a good angel investment?

(50:15) How to know if it's working for you?

(54:40) How Sriram goes the extra yard

Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy dissect the mystery of the ideal pitch from an investor's point of view. Don't miss out on the upcoming episode where they delve deeper into the art of pitching, exploring it from the founder's perspective.

—

Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro

(4:19) What is a good pitch?

(5:04) People who don’t need to pitch

(7:47) Big takeaway about pitching

(9:17) Aarthi’s experience working with Netflix’s Reed Hastings

(11:22) VC perspective on pitching

(15:17) Founder perspective on pitching

(18:24) Dangers o...

Vinod Khosla is a renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist and the founder of Khosla Ventures, known for his instrumental role in shaping the technology landscape. With a rich background as a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a forward-thinking investment approach, Khosla continues to drive innovation across various industries.Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

Sriram and Aarthi break down how to actually benefit from networking in your career.Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

Kevin Kelly played a pivotal role in the establishment of Wired magazine back in 1993, where he assumed the role of executive editor during its formative seven years. His journey in the tech and digital landscape began even earlier when he contributed to the launch of The Well, a groundbreaking online service, in 1985. Prior to Wired, he also held positions as the publisher and editor of a branch of The Whole Earth Catalog. Beyond his media ventures, Kevin Kelly is deeply involved in shaping the future through his role as the co-chair of the Long Now Foundation, a membership-based organization dedicated...

Sriram and Aarthi open up about balancing parenthood while working in tech.

One of the most common questions Sriram and Aarthi get is “How do you folks handle parenting and your work/schedule/life”. They had resisted for years as they felt everyone’s situation and choices were unique. However, they recently got convinced that this could be useful to listeners. Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod

We had the great David Goyer on to talk about all things Foundation, how he reinvented superhero movies with Batman, his writing process, and much more! Ask anyone about the greatest movies of the last 20 years and the Dark Knight Trilogy will be up there near the top. David Goyer has lived out every nerd’s fantasy and has had a hand in creating some of the most iconic movies and TV shows - the Dark Knight series, Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman among many others. His latest effort is the TV form of what may be the holiest bo...

We are back after the break and we have big news - we moved to London! In this episode, we discuss our move, the new startup scene in London, our new life across the UK, the Elon Musk book, the value of business school, and more. Leave us questions for our next solo episode!Follow Sriram: https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/ https://twitter.com/sriramk Follow Aarthi: https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/ https://twitter.com/aarthir Follow the podcast: https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/ https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod