Marc Andreessen and Charlie Songhurst on the past, present, and future of Silicon Valley
Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison and Charlie Songhurst to discuss the history of Silicon Valley, spotting bubbles in real time, the "Elon method" of management, and why the mistakes that haunt you are the companies you don't invest in.Show notes:Roger Lowenstein: When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital ManagementDavid Swensen: Pioneering Portfolio ManagementIan M Banks: Consider Phlebas: A Culture NovelWalter Isaacson: Elon MuskThomas Rid: Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic HistoryGeorge McGovern: A Politician's Dream Is a Businessman's Nightmare, WSJSteve Blank: The Secret History of Silicon ValleyTracy Kidder: The Soul of a New MachineJohn Perry Barlow: A Declaration of the Independence of CyberspaceMartin Gurri: Revolt of the PublicJohn Malone: Born to Be WiredFull transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/marc-andreessen-and-charlie-songhurst Subscribe to Cheeky PintSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2IHbGJJMpiFoz5YrvRfTFwApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cheeky-pint/id1821055332Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/Key moments(00:00) Marc needs to know: what is a cheeky pint?(04:30) Are we in a bubble?(14:55) Do VCs matter?(19:01) The history of Silicon Valley(32:25) How Digital Research almost made it(39:02) A bear case on the internet(59:52) AI productivity(01:12:10) Stripe + AI(01:13:08) Crypto(01:24:08) Should a16z start a hedge fund?(01:29:51) Big companies(01:35:33) Boards(01:40:27) The Elon method(01:52:59) The future of media
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Des Traynor on reinventing Intercom twice and the “four horsemen” of good AI companies
Des Traynor, cofounder of Intercom, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison to discuss the growth of Fin (Intercom’s AI customer service agent), why selling AI products is hard, advice for product marketers, and cofounder dynamics.Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/des-traynor-on-reinventing-intercomTimestamps: (00:00) Intro(02:58) Reinventing Intercom(06:31) Fin(18:06) 1M resolutions a week(24:22) Selling AI(29:34) Product marketing(37:18) Listening to users(44:14) Usage-based billing(45:14) Advice for startups(52:09) AI pricing(01:07:27) Cofounder dynamics(01:11:04) Predictors of company success(01:15:56) How AI-native is Intercom?
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Ambrook CEO Mackenzie Burnett on American agriculture, rural resilience, and carrying 50lbs of fresh pork on Amtrak
Mackenzie Burnett joins John Collison to talk about American agriculture, labor and immigration challenges, building rural resilience, ERPs, and the principle of money movement. She also shares some feedback for Stripe. Show notes:Where Soil is Holy, and Climate Change Is Seldom MentionedFarming goes digitalThe End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers Full transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/ambrook-ceo-mackenzie-burnett-on Timestamps:(00:00) Introducing Ambrook(05:37) Serving farmers(19:25) Building rural resilience(21:49) The economics of ag(28:03) If Mackenzie ran the USDA(30:53) Vertical SaaS(34:49) The wonders of accounting(38:41) Ambrook-as-fintech(44:00) If Mackenzie ran Stripe(50:53) Joshua Kushner and Dylan Field
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Zipline CEO Keller Cliffton on air-dropping blood to Rwandan hospitals and getting to 50,000 aircraft per year
Keller Cliffton joins John Collison to talk about Zipline’s journey to 115 million miles flown, the lost art of American airplanes, building 50k drones a year in California, getting to 99.9% reliability, and US vs. Chinese manufacturing. Books referenced:The Right Stuff by Tom WolfeSkunk Works by Ben RichApple in China by Patrick McGeeTimestamps(00:00) Intro(00:45) 115 million miles flown(04:10) Why drone delivery took so long(07:38) Getting started in Rwanda(13:31) 51% reduction in maternal mortality(15:33) Access vs. waste(21:45) Scaling globally(24:05) Zipline’s Platform 1 (25:50) The Right Stuff(27:22) Drone design and safety(30:12) Getting to 99.9% reliability(34:39) Multimodal logistics(38:15) Zipline’s Platform 2(44:03) US drone regs and the FAA(48:02) Progress and stagnation in US aviation(51:30) If Keller ran the FAA(54:24) 30% WoW growth in Texas(58:25) Why Texas and not California?(01:00:28) Building 50k drones in California(01:06:18) US vs. Chinese manufacturing(01:11:30) Advice for hardtech founders
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Cognition CEO Scott Wu on acquiring Windsurf, AI replacing engineers, and the Moneyball-ification of everything
Scott Wu joins John Collison to talk about Cognition’s AI software engineer, the Moneyball-ification of everything, math competitions with Alexandr Wang in 6th grade, acquiring Windsurf over a weekend, whether coding tools will be replaced by the labs, and why he thinks we already have AGI.Full transcript on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/cheekypint/p/cognition-ceo-scott-wu-on-acquiringTimestamps(00:00) Intro(01:13) Early life and maths competitions(03:47) Addepar job as a high schooler(05:43) Where are all the young founders?(08:45) Moneyball-ification of everything(11:42) Cognition’s AI software engineer, Devin(15:46) Essential and accidental complexity(17:59) How Devin works with enterprises(19:48) IDE productivity(21:56) Nihilist computer use argument (25:55) Benchmarking Devin (27:15) Market structure (30:32) Agent economy(37:21) Cognition’s team of founders(39:31) Jevons paradox and software (42:00) When will we see AI UIs?(45:52) “I think we have AGI”(47:03) Windsurf deal(52:37) M&A in AI(54:21) Cognition’s culture (55:48) Learning as a CEO(57:12) Scott’s information diet
France