The Delphi Podcast

Join José as he hosts another episode of the Emerging Manager series on the Delphi Podcast, sitting down with Ian Rowntree, founder and managing partner of Cantos. Ian details the ten-year journey of Cantos, moving from early vertical software into hard tech and physical AI, while announcing the launch of their $70M Fourth Fund.  They dive into the reality of venture capital returns, the power law dynamics of outlier funds, and why traditional SaaS playbooks fail in frontier markets. Ian shares the frameworks Cantos uses to evaluate hard-tech founders, the mechanics behind portfolio companies like Neros and Castilleja, and why vertical integration is required to displace entrenched incumbents. 

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:39 Why Invest in Venture Capital?
07:10 The Edge of Emerging Managers
11:05 From Software to Hard Tech
23:08 Contrarian Investing, Valuations, and Venture Mistakes
34:14 What Makes an Exceptional Founder?
56:38 Bringing Technology Into the Physical Economy
1:10:51 Defense Tech, Drones, and the Future of Warfare
1:23:55 Physical AI and Shaping the Future

💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔

🧠 Follow the Alpha

▸ José: @ZeMariaMacedo
▸ Ian's Twitter: @IanRountree

🔗 Connect with Delphi

🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital

Watch on
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q

Disclaimer

This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

In this episode of The Delphi Podcast, Tommy sits down with AccelXR, author of Delphi Digital’s “Evaluating the AI Labs of China” report, to break down what’s actually happening in the US-China AI race. 

You can read the report here:
https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/evaluating-the-ai-labs-of-china?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:35 Is China Innovating or Just Distilling?
06:10 DeepSeek and China’s Leading AI Labs
10:15 How China Is Working Around Weaker Chips
18:25 China’s Biggest AI Advantage: Electricity
29:45 Three Scenarios for the US-China AI Race
40:20 America’s AI Talent Advantage Is Reversing
47:45 China’s Path to AI Sovereignty

Tommy: https://x.com/Shaughnessy119
AccelXR: https://x.com/accelxr

🔗 Connect with Delphi

🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital

Watch on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@delphi_digital

DISCLAIMER
This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

Join José as he hosts another episode of the Emerging Manager series on the Delphi Podcast, sitting down with Michael Dempsey, managing partner of Compound. Michael makes the case that most venture funds being raised today are playing momentum games that won't survive contact with a real cycle, and explains why Compound has become known as one of the slowest-deploying seed funds in the US. They dive into the fallacy of founder legibility, why paying up at seed doesn't improve outcomes, and how the firm's research edge decayed the moment anyone could drop an academic paper into ChatGPT. Michael shares Compound's portfolio construction math, the thesis behind their public markets fund and the coming decade of market cap destruction, where he's investing across bio, materials, and robotics, and why the humanoid narrative is far more fragile than the market believes. 

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:24 Why Momentum Investing Fails in Venture
05:05 Price, Legibility, and the Myth of the Obvious Founder
15:10 Research as Edge and the Problem With Obviousness
32:31 Portfolio Construction and Shots on Goal
39:04 Bio, Materials, and the Commoditization of Intelligence
43:44 Public Markets, Software Margins, and the Short Side
56:58 Meta, Google, and the Mag 7
1:06:45 Crypto, Robotics, and Drone Warfare
1:21:38 Therapy, Psychedelics, and Writing

💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔

🧠 Follow the Alpha

▸ José: @ZeMariaMacedo
▸ Michael's Twitter: @mhdempsey

🔗 Connect with Delphi

🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital

Watch on
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q

Disclaimer

This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

In this episode of The Delphi Podcast, Tommy sits down with Steve McLaughlin, founder and CEO of FT Partners, to unpack how he left Goldman Sachs at 32 and built one of the most influential investment banks in fintech.

Steve shares the story behind FT Partners’ early days, including how his team took a company that had received roughly $150 million offers and ultimately sold it for $550 million. He explains why FT goes deeper than traditional investment banks, how the firm has built decades-long relationships with founders, and why incentives, founder ownership, and putting your own capital behind your conviction matter.

They also discuss FT’s $50 million investment in Revolut, what Steve looks for in great founders, the work ethic required to build a firm over 25 years, surviving multiple financial crises, and why he believes AI will ultimately be a bigger disruption to financial services than the internet, mobile, or crypto.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro
02:20 Leaving Goldman and Starting FT Partners
11:00 Turning a $150M Offer Into a $550M Sale
18:30 How FT Partners Values Companies
28:30 Building Long-Term Founder Relationships
34:00 Founder Incentives and the Revolut Bet
52:00 What Steve Looks for in Great Founders
1:08:00 The Future of Fintech, Crypto, and AI

Tommy: https://x.com/Shaughnessy119
Steve: https://x.com/FTPartners

🔗 Connect with Delphi

🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/P_JdhPqiww8

DISCLAIMER
This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

Join José as he hosts a special edition of the Emerging Manager series on the Delphi Podcast, sitting down with Andrew Kang, founder of RoboStrategy. After managing personal capital through Mechanism Capital across both public and venture markets, Andrew turned his focus entirely to the under appreciated robotics industry a space he identifies as being at a critical inflection point reminiscent of AI in 2022 or crypto in 2014.  

They dive deep into the underlying method behind finding asymmetric bets, sizing positions, and distinguishing a true contrarian play from simply being the sucker at the table. Andrew breaks down the multidisciplinary engineering breakthroughs that sparked his initial bullishness on humanoid robotics and why he believes the industry is poised to become a multi-decade, trillion-dollar powerhouse.

🎯 Key Highlights

▸ The Robotics Inflection: Why the broader acceptance and adoption of physical AI is changing dramatically after years of stagnation.
▸ The $19M Play: The conviction and framework behind Andrew’s famous $19 million pre-markup investment into Figure.
▸ From Crypto to Nasdaq: Transitioning from on-chain trading habits to running a public robotics vehicle under the Nasdaq ticker BOT.
▸ Pre-ChatGPT Moment: Evaluating the first generation of robot foundation models and why generalizability was originally overlooked.
▸ Multidisciplinary Edge: Why generating structural alpha in robotics requires mastering electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and robot learning.
▸ The Physics of "Pick and Place": Tapping into a multi-billion dollar market by automating simple factory tasks like sorting and packaging.
▸ Beyond Deterministic Code: Moving past traditional "if-then" programmatic parameters to build safe, AI-driven physical adaptions.
▸ The Ultimate Game: Applying crypto-native risk principles, position sizing, and asymmetry filters to venture-scale hardware outcomes.

💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔

🧠 Follow the Alpha

▸ José: @ZeMariaMacedo
▸Andrew Kang's Twitter: @Rewkang

🔗 Connect with Delphi

🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital

🎧 Listen on

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62PR1RigLG2YN5Pelq6UY9?si=18ac7ccf36ab4753
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-delphi-podcast/id1438148082
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q

Timestamps

00:00 — Early stage pitfalls: How crypto instills bad habits in venture
00:25 — José welcomes Andrew Kang to the Emerging Manager series
01:50 — Managing personal capital from Mechanism Capital to RoboStrategy
03:00 — Humanoid robotics as a multi-decade, trillion-dollar industry
05:30 — Looking past the consensus: Finding alpha in multidisciplinary tech fields
06:50 — The Exponential Horizon: Abandoning short-termism and trading
07:15 — The 2022 DeepMind breakthroughs and signs of true robot intelligence
11:15 — Generalizability vs. Specific programming paths in traditional robotics
12:20 — The Taylor Swift vs. Kanye West task: Evaluating early vision-language backbones
13:10 — Moving objects in factories: Breaking down the massive "pick and place" market size
14:50 — Overthinking humanoids: Transitioning from industrial code to the human form factor
15:50 — Math of a billion-dollar scale: Why it only takes 20,000 robots sold at $50,000
17:40 — The hardware inflection: When traditional controllers become AI-driven joint angles
18:30 — The Figure bet: Betting on the timeline to billions in physical AI revenue

Disclaimer

This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.