Published 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
Listen on Apple PodcastsMuch 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 Angeles 2026. TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos sat down with Saif Khawaja, founder and CEO of Shinkei, and Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund to talk about one of the most unexpected bets in venture capital right now. They cover everything from the Japanese fish-killing technique that became a startup thesis, why American fish is now being imported into Japanese fish markets for the first time ever, and how Founders Fund thinks about contrarian bets in food and agriculture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 grants, how AI is accelerating drug discovery and clinical trials, and why he believes we’re entering one of the most important eras in the history of medicine.The three also discuss the current state of biotech fundraising, the importance of federal research funding, how Yosemite evaluates breakthrough science, the growing role of AI in healthcare, and why Jobs believes the biggest opportunities in medicine are still ahead of us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 the company believes a hybrid network of human drivers and robotaxis is the future, and how AI is reshaping the experience for riders, drivers, and merchants alike.They also discuss Uber's growing travel ecosystem, the strategy behind Uber One, the company's partnerships with autonomous vehicle developers, and why Uber sees itself as the platform connecting consumers, drivers, and AI in the years ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 moving beyond flashy demos and into real commercial deployment and how Agility built a $300 million pipeline for its humanoid robot Digit. They also discuss the economics of humanoid robots, Agility's robots-as-a-service model, how AI is accelerating robot training, what separates real commercial deployments from pilot programs, and why Peggy believes safety will be the defining challenge for the industry. Finally, she shares her perspective on the crowded humanoid robotics race, why Agility chose to go public through a SPAC, and what it will take for robots to eventually work safely alongside people in factories and, one day, in our homes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 systems, not just more powerful models. He also shares how Rippling is using AI internally, what the company learned from analyzing its own AI spending, and why measuring ROI—not just productivity—will become increasingly important as AI adoption grows. They also discuss Rippling's expansion into banking and financial services, the company's growth past $1 billion in annualized revenue, the state of today's fundraising and IPO markets, and Parker's advice for founders navigating soaring valuations. Finally, Parker weighs in on Rippling's ongoing legal battle with Deel and why he believes the outcome could have broader implications for the startup Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 valuations and ARR growth, and what it takes to build a lasting company in an increasingly competitive AI landscape. The conversation also explores the opportunities and risks facing founders, the impact of AI on venture investing, and where each investor sees the next generation of breakout companies emerging. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 of the venture world is focused on models, chips, and infrastructure, Chi-Hua argues that history suggests the biggest long-term winners of the AI era may be the application companies built on top of them. They talk about why AI startups are reaching unprecedented revenue levels with remarkably small teams, what’s driving today’s soaring valuations, and why he believes many infrastructure businesses will eventually face the same commoditization pressures seen in previous technology cycles. He also shares what he’s seeing inside consumer AI, from hyper-personalized entertainment and women’s health platforms to new products built around voice, agents, and individualized experiences. And they discuss the increasingly public tensions between founders and VCs, why some of the most interesting fintech innovation is happening outside the U.S., and why Chi-Hua believes one of the biggest opportunities in consumer technology may be helping people reconnect in the real world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 little investor insight into AI video. HOLYWATER TECH started in Kyiv with no venture capital, and a mandate to be profitable from day one. Seven years later, both have succeeded in disrupting, and putting some level of fear in, creative industries worldwide. At this StrictlyVC Athens 2026 discussion, host and TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos brought both on stage to get the inside story of how these two breakout companies actually broke out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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. Featuring: Ben Blume: Partner, Atomico Andreas Stavropoulos: Partner, Threshold Ventures Niko Bonatsos: Founder & General Partner, Verdict Capital Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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, manufacturing, autonomous systems, and what it takes to build enduring companies where AI meets the physical world. Plus, you can get a peek into Susan's perspective about the SpaceX IPO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 resignation, a months-long investigation into manipulated research images that put him in the crosshairs of one of the world’s largest law firms. But that was just the beginning. Baker walks us through what he calls the “Stanford inside Stanford”: a parallel world of yacht parties, slush funds, secret seminars, and VC scouts hunting for teenage talent as soon as freshmen hit campus. We also get into the secret class literally called “How to Rule the World,” why he thinks the same system that built Silicon Valley is also what corrupts it, and what the SBF saga and the overnight pivot to AI looked like from the inside. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 accessible. Plus, he gives some insight into their back-and-forth with Apple over app store policies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 rails, and constructing its own end-to-end network for moving money across borders. Jack shares why he turned down a $1.2 billion acquisition offer from Stripe early on, how that decision shaped the company’s trajectory, and why he believes this hard-won infrastructure is becoming a major advantage in the age of AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 potentially reopening IPO window. Glen explains how the secondary market really works, why some companies have plenty of buyers but no sellers, and what recent activity reveals about investor sentiment. He also shares why SpaceX has been such an outlier, what’s behind the imbalance between OpenAI and Anthropic, and how institutional investors are navigating this increasingly competitive market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 is used. Craig shares his journey from Rocket Lab to agriculture, why farming is still underserved by technology, and how AI and hardware are reshaping one of the world’s oldest industries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 business model, and how it won over top athletes early on. They also dig into the company’s push into medical-grade monitoring, blood testing, and AI-driven insights, and what it all means for the future of continuous health tracking Chapters: 00:00 — The Rise of Whoop 02:45 — From Athlete to Founder 04:50 — Rejection and Early Challenges 06:10 — Why Whoop Skipped the Screen 08:25 — How Whoop Broke Through 13:30 — The Subscription Model 20:45 — Expanding Into Health and AI 27:50 — The Future of Wearables Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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, the company’s decision to abandon a partnership with Flock Safety, what Ring ultimately hopes to build in neighborhoods around the world, and how much control over that vision Ring really has. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 move to phase out Anthropic’s technology to the broader race toward superintelligence, Tegmark argues that the real risk isn’t just geopolitical competition, but losing control of the systems we’re building. He makes the case for treating AI like any other high-stakes industry by implementing binding safety standards and independent oversight before the technology outpaces our ability to manage it. A broad coalition, including Tegmark's Future of Life Institute have released The "Pro-Human AI Declaration" outlining a path forward in which AI would best serve humanity. View the statement here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 meaningful, enduring careers—and what they might do differently if given the chance to start over.In this conversation, Gurley reflects on why nearly 60% of professionals say they would rethink their career paths, how to know when it’s time to pivot, and why “regret minimization” can be a powerful decision-making framework. He shares his views on mentorship, peer networks, and the risks of following conventional career tracks in the age of AI. Gurley also weighs in on Silicon Valley’s shifting work culture, the resurgence of 996-style intensity, and why he believes the best way to future-proof your career isn’t to avoid technology—but to run straight at it. It’s a candid discussion about ambition, reinvention, and designing a career you won’t second-guess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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 software companies led by under-invested founders—targeting what she sees as a critical gap in today’s venture ecosystem. In this conversation, Brown-Philpot explains why she launched Cherryrock in a difficult fundraising environment, how the firm evaluates product-market fit at scale, and why quality revenue matters more than headline ARR. She discusses how AI is reshaping enterprise software, how her board roles at HP and StockX inform the way she assesses companies, and why she believes strong businesses will continue to get funded despite a bifurcated venture market. It’s a grounded look at building durable companies—and backing them at a pivotal stage of growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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