Advertise on podcast: Inspired with Alexa von Tobel

From the Microsoft boardroom to Harvard to Ukraine’s economic recovery, Penny Pritzker has held one of the rarest vantage points in business and public life. She sits on Microsoft’s board at a defining moment for AI, helps lead Harvard, served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and was the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery. She’s also the co-founder of Inspired Capital alongside Alexa von Tobel. Alexa and Penny’s relationship started more than a decade ago, when Penny built the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship program from scratch as Commerce Secretary and invited Alexa to serve. A shared belief in founders turned into a friendship, and eventually into Inspired Capital. In this episode, the two sit down together and Penny shares what it was like growing up as her family built Hyatt, the letter to her grandfather that got her into business, and the framework she leans on when the stakes are highest. They also talk about what makes Inspired different, from the hustle and the network to the intensity and care the team brings to every founder, and why, with the firm’s $450M Fund IV, they’re only getting started. 🔗 Penny Pritzker • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penny-pritzker/ 🎙️ Inspired Capital • Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners/ • X: https://x.com/InspiredCap • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ • Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:49 Welcome to Inspired 1:19 Growing Up in the Hyatt Family 5:00 Taking Hyatt International 5:44 Losing Her Father at 13 9:14 The Letter to Her Grandfather 12:45 From Harvard and Stanford to Building Businesses 14:03 Starting a Senior Living Company at 27 16:48 Early Mistakes and Learning to Fire Someone 17:45 Why Building Businesses Is Noble 20:11 Seven Companies and Becoming Secretary of Commerce 22:16 Promoting Entrepreneurship Around the World 25:25 American Ambition and Risk-Taking 29:16 “Oh My God, I Work Here”: Life at the White House 31:51 Listening to American Businesses 33:11 Diplomacy, Privacy Shield and the CHIPS Act 36:17 A Fist Bump from President Obama 37:17 Helping Rebuild Ukraine 41:01 How to Make Hard Decisions 43:48 Life Is a Team Sport 45:33 Inside Inspired’s Culture 48:34 Closing Fund Four and Portfolio Results 51:49 Inside the Microsoft Boardroom on AI 55:07 AI and the Future of Work 57:40 Inspired’s Big Bets 58:48 Closing Thoughts

James Cadwallader thinks the most important reader on the internet isn’t human anymore.  When he asked ChatGPT for a better showerhead, it visited 65 websites. He expects that number to hit 6,500 within five years, and most brands have no idea what those agents are saying about them. Profound is his bet on that shift, and it’s already inside a third of the Fortune 100. In this episode he explains why AI slop is a skill issue, why he thinks billboards and dinners are about to matter more than ever, and why he believes humans are quietly becoming the API between reality and AI. 🔗 James Cadwallader • Website: https://www.tryprofound.com/ • X: https://x.com/thejamescad • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescadwallader   🎙️ Inspired Capital • Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners/ • X: https://x.com/InspiredCap • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ • Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:10 What Profound does 2:56 Lessons from his first company, Kyra Media 6:46 AEO and GEO explained 10:19 Why ChatGPT ran 65 searches for one showerhead 12:19 How one model update can swing a brand's AI visibility 14:27 Why marketers will need 100x more content 15:55 How Profound keeps pace with the AI labs 18:28 Building a paranoid culture 20:47 How Profound won a third of the Fortune 100 23:20 Dead internet theory: the internet in 5 years 25:30 Humans as APIs between reality and AI 27:25 Why every brand will own its own evals 29:08 Marketing a product in 2030 30:20 How to avoid AI slop 32:56 The barbell: agentic marketing vs. human marketing 34:26 What excites him most: Profound Labs 35:42 Building the next Salesforce 37:30 Social media as a "biozone" for human data 40:56 Contrarian take: the AI labs won't eat every industry 41:49 How he stays sane

Boris Sofman has spent his entire career at the forefront of physical AI. He co-founded Anki, shipping more than 3.7 million consumer robots globally, before leading autonomous trucking at Waymo, where he helped pioneer the world's most advanced driverless vehicle program. Now he's applying everything he learned to the machines that build our world. Boris is the co-founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics, valued at $1.75 billion, which retrofits existing construction equipment into fully autonomous machines at a moment when demand is skyrocketing and the industry faces a shortage of more than 500,000 workers. What You'll Learn: How leading autonomous trucking at Waymo shaped Boris's vision for the future of physical AI Where autonomous trucking is headed and what the next decade looks like for the industry Why the construction industry is at a breaking point and what autonomy does about it What it actually takes to make a machine driverless outside of a test environment How autonomous heavy machinery will fundamentally change the way we build What the world looks like when physical AI works at scale across the entire economy Chapters: 2:16 Introduction4:40 Boris's Time at Waymo9:35 The Future of Autonomous Trucking13:19 What Autonomous Trucking Looks Like in Practice18:15 How Self-Driving Changes Our Cities20:40 The Birth of Bedrock Robotics24:55 What Bedrock Actually Does26:10 Why Retrofit Instead of Build From Scratch28:23 The Role of Humans on the Autonomous Job Site30:45 The Advantages of Going Autonomous34:05 Big Predictions for Physical AI36:48 The Contrarian Take on Humanoids38:50 What Excites Boris Most39:59 Quick Fire Round Follow Boris Sofman and Bedrock Robotics: Website: https://bedrockrobotics.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bedrock-robotics/ X: https://x.com/BedrockRobotics  Boris's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsofman  Boris's X: https://x.com/bsofman Follow Inspired:‍ Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners X: https://x.com/InspiredCap Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/

Windmill co-founders Max Shaw and Brian Distelburger are building the AI-powered people platform for how companies develop and manage their talent. Founded alongside Mark Tanner, Windmill replaces the broken, once-a-year performance review with something faster, smarter, and that employees actually love. Since launching in November 2025, they've reached more than 100 customers including Kalshi, The Farmer's Dog, and Rho, and Inspired is so proud to have led their recent seed round. As AI makes every employee more powerful, the companies that win will be the ones that put the best talent in exactly the right role. What You'll Learn: Why the current state of performance management is broken How AI will change the relationship between managers and their teams What the future of work looks like as companies grow more complex Why skills assessment is about to become one of the most important things a company can do Why Max and Brian are optimistic that AI will benefit people at work Chapters: 00:00 Introduction  02:33 Meet Max and Brian  03:44 What Is Windmill 05:38 The State of Performance Reviews  09:20 Where Windmill Is Headed  13:20 AI Coaching for Every Employee  16:15 Why They Chose This Problem  18:33 The Biggest Change Management Moment of Our Lives  24:15 Early Traction and What's Working  27:30 Where the World of Work Is Going  34:55 The IKEA Example  36:16 Skills Assessment and Workforce Redeployment  41:18 Why New York  43:35 Quickfire Follow Max, Brian, and Windmill: • Website: https://gowindmill.com/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gowindmill/ • X: https://x.com/trywindmill • Max's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-shaw-82287025/ • Brian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandistelburger/ Follow Inspired:‍ • Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners • X: https://x.com/InspiredCap • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ • Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/

Runway founder and CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela grew up in Chile before moving to New York to study at NYU's ITP program, where the seeds of Runway were planted. Since co-founding the company in 2018, he has built it into one of the leading generative video AI companies in the world, having raised more than $500M in funding and pioneered some of the first widely used text to video and video to video models. Runway is now pushing toward what Cristóbal calls world models, systems that can understand and simulate reality in ways that are reshaping film, advertising, gaming, and beyond. The next era of human creativity is just getting started. What You'll Learn: Why world models represent a fundamental shift in how we create and consume content How the democratization of storytelling will change culture as we know it What real time video generation means for the future of entertainment and gaming How AI is poised to transform the advertising industry from the ground up Why optimism, not fear, is the right response to AI and the future of work Chapters: 00:00 Introduction01:30 Growing Up in Chile04:20 What Is Runway06:38 Real World Use Cases10:25 The Technology Behind the Breakthrough12:00 Underestimating the Speed of Progress14:55 If Content Is Free Does It Lose Value20:10 How Runway Makes Money24:05 The Real-Time Generation Revolution29:15 Gaming and Interactive Experiences33:00 The Future of Advertising35:45 The Consequences of Infinite Content37:20 Why Billions of Stories Are Waiting41:00 Will AI Kill Jobs44:00 Quickfire Follow Cristóbal and Runway: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/runwayapp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/runwayml/  X: https://x.com/runwayml Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/runwayml Cristóbal's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cvalenzuelab/ Cristóbal's X: https://x.com/c_valenzuelab Follow Inspired:‍ Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners  X: https://x.com/InspiredCap  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/

Chainguard founder and CEO Dan Lorenc is building the security layer the entire software industry should run on. After nearly a decade at Google working on open source infrastructure, Dan co-founded Chainguard in 2021 to solve a problem hiding in plain sight. 90 to 95 percent of the code powering the world's software is open source, free, and largely unsecured. Now leading a $3.5B+ company with more than 600 customers, Dan shares his unfiltered take on where software security, AI, and the future of engineering are all headed. What You'll Learn: How Chainguard is securing the open source software the world runs on Why the AI coding boom is making software security harder, not easier What the future of software engineering actually looks like Why CISOs can't afford to say no to AI, even when it scares them Whether we've already hit AGI in the software space How to think about your own digital security right now Chapters: 00:00 Introduction01:30 Growing Up a Builder04:22 The Origin of Chainguard08:20 How Chainguard Works and Who It's For13:20 How Chainguard Cleans and Secures the Code15:20 How Dan Decides Where to Expand17:15 The Future of Software and Software Engineers25:30 Where Chainguard Goes From Here26:48 Are We Already at AGI?28:30 The Security Crisis No One Talks About31:27 Why CISOs Can't Afford to Say No33:25 Biggest Trade-Offs and What's Next for Chainguard38:00 What Disappears in an AI World39:22 What Shocked Dan Most and What Scares Him42:30 When Security Becomes Part of Engineering44:39 QuickfireFollow Dan and Chainguard: Website: https://www.chainguard.dev/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chainguard-dev/  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chainguard  X: https://x.com/chainguard_dev  Dan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlorenc/  Dan’s X: https://x.com/lorenc_dan  Follow Inspired: Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners  X: https://x.com/InspiredCap  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/

Teamshares CEO Michael Brown is on a mission to address one of the biggest problems in the American economy. Millions of small businesses are owned by Boomers and Gen X approaching retirement, and most will never find a buyer. Teamshares buys these businesses from retiring owners. With more than 90 companies acquired across 30 states, over 500 million in revenue, and a Nasdaq listing on the horizon, Michael is proving that the small business economy deserves a better solution. What You'll Learn: How Teamshares actually works and why the model gets stronger as it scales What nearly 100 acquisitions have taught Michael about small businesses that most people don't see Why going public changes everything for Teamshares and why Michael says it's still the first inning How he built through COVID and the 2022-2023 rate shock without losing conviction The long-term mindset behind building a company with a 200-year plan Chapters: 01:30 Michael's Childhood 04:04 What Is Teamshares 07:44 Why Going Public Is Just the Beginning 15:30 Lessons from 90 Acquisitions 18:50 The Future of Teamshares 28:19 The 200-Year Mindset 32:25 Building Culture at Scale 36:00 Leading Through Market Shocks 37:55 Quickfire  Follow Teamshares: Website: https://www.teamshares.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teamshares/ X: https://x.com/Teamshares Follow Inspired: Website: https://www.inspiredcapital.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inspired-capital-partners X: https://x.com/InspiredCap Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspiredcapital/ Substack: https://alexavontobel.substack.com/ Important Disclosures and Disclaimers This podcast episode features a discussion with Michael Brown, Co-Founder and CEO of Teamshares, Inc. (“Teamshares”), and Alexa von Tobel, Founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital. Ms. von Tobel and Inspired Capital are existing investors in Teamshares and may have a direct financial interest in the outcome of the proposed business combination described below. Proposed Business Combination. Teamshares has entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination with Live Oak Crest Acquisition Corp. (“Live Oak”), a special purpose acquisition company. In connection with the proposed transaction, a registration statement on Form S-4 (the “Registration Statement”) has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). This podcast does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. For important information about the proposed transaction, including where to find the Registration Statement and other legal disclaimers, please refer to the press release available at https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260403515446/en/Teamshares-and-Live-Oak-V-File-S-4. Clarifications. References to Operating EBITDA throughout refer to Pro Forma Operating EBITDA, which includes pre-acquisition results of acquired businesses as if they had been owned for the full year. References to “Corporate EBITDA” throughout the episode refers to 2025 Pro Forma Adjusted EBITDA. Investors should review the full set of assumptions and risk factors accompanying these metrics in the Registration Statement, including a full reconciliation of any non-GAAP measures.

What happens when humanity faces the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history? Serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm believes we need a backup plan. With a track record of building and exiting companies across AI, gaming, and conversational intelligence, Ben took on his most audacious venture in 2021: co-founding Colossal Biosciences with Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church to bring extinct species back to life. The company has already successfully de-extincted the dire wolf and aims to return woolly mammoths to the Arctic by 2028. In this episode, Ben shares how his self-described "unemployable" streak became his entrepreneurial superpower, why asking naive questions helps him tackle impossible challenges across industries, and how Colossal's breakthrough technologies represent humanity's essential insurance policy for planetary survival. Follow Inspired: ⁠Website⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠ ⁠X⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Substack

Watershed CEO Taylor Francis is building the infrastructure for companies to decarbonize at scale. After building Stripe's climate program, he saw how technology could move the needle faster than policy alone and set out on his journey as a founder. With a 500 million ton CO2 reduction goal by 2030 and customers like FedEx, Walmart, Airbnb, and Spotify, Taylor is proving that climate action can be both urgent and profitable. What You'll Learn: Taylor's journey from An Inconvenient Truth to founding Watershed What he learned at Stripe about scaling impact and building mission-driven companies How supply chain collaboration is the real lever for decarbonization (and why it matters more than you think) What the next decade of climate actually looks like and why the world is winning faster than predicted The frameworks and principles that attract the best people to solve the hardest problems Chapters: 1:57 Growing Up and An Inconvenient Truth 5:35 From Princeton to Policy 7:40 What Stripe Taught Him About Scale 9:54 The Origin of Watershed's 500 Megaton Mission 13:09 Breaking Down Scope One, Two, and Three Emissions 16:00 How Watershed Works With Fortune 500 Companies 18:50 The Story Behind the Name Watershed 21:00 Why Network Effects Matter in Decarbonization 23:15 What the Best Investors Taught Him 28:15 The Truth About Climate Today 33:10 Where the World Is Actually Headed 36:20 Product Footprints and AI Done Right 39:42 Why Domain-Specific AI Beats Generic Models 41:00 Quick Fire Follow Watershed and Taylor: Watershed Website Watershed LinkedIn Taylor Francis LinkedIn Follow Inspired: Website LinkedIn X Instagram Substack

Julia Berolzheimer and Thomas Berolzheimer have spent 15 years turning a fashion blog into one of the most powerful e-commerce brands in the creator economy. What started with a camera and an idea in 2011 has grown into a multi-platform empire spanning a blog, Instagram, Substack, ShopMy, Amazon, and their newest venture, Coreli. What You'll Learn: How Julia and Thomas built one of the most trusted brands in the creator economy Why curation beats creation when it comes to driving real commerce How they think about managing content, platforms, and technology as a team Where AI fits in and where it doesn't for creators who've built on authenticity What the next decade of the creator economy actually looks like Chapters: 01:52 Intro 02:35 The Beginning of Julia and Thomas's Journey 04:45 Milestones and Evolution of Gal Meets Glam 06:41 Curation and How Julia Starts Every Morning 11:30 Managing Content Across Different Platforms 15:34 ShopMy 20:25 Tools and Technology 25:20 How Julia and Thomas Work Together 29:00 The Future of the Creator Economy 31:05 Using AI for Influencer Content 35:45 Quickfire Round Follow Julia and Thomas Berolzheimer: Julia Berolzheimer Blog Julia's Instagram Thomas' Instagram Substack Coreli Follow Inspired:‍ Website  LinkedIn X Instagram Substack

Solace founder and CEO Jeremy Gurewitz is building a marketplace that connects patients with healthcare advocates—covered by insurance. After losing his mother to pancreatic cancer and witnessing firsthand how difficult it was to navigate the US healthcare system, Jeremy founded Solace to help every American manage the overwhelming complexity of healthcare, from finding the right doctors to dealing with insurance. Now, after raising $130 million in a Series C led by IVP, Solace is expanding into commercial insurance and scaling nationally. With a patient NPS of 90 and data showing improved outcomes and lower costs, Jeremy shares how he is building for a future where healthcare advocacy becomes as standard as having a primary care physician. What You'll Learn: Jeremy's personal journey from losing his mother to building Solace How healthcare advocacy works and why patients achieve a 90+ NPS Why the US healthcare system is so broken and how advocates fix it Where Jeremy sees healthcare heading in the next decade Chapters:02:00 Growing Up with a Doctor Mother06:45 From Quantitative Finance to Healthcare09:00 What Solace Does for Patients11:38 Why Inspired Invested in Solace12:45 Real Stories of Solace Saving Lives17:35 Why the US Healthcare System Is So Broken20:35 Building a Marketplace of Healthcare Advocates22:45 Measuring What Matters: Outcomes and Costs28:50 Announcing Solace's $130M Series C30:31 Building Culture at Scale33:00 Where Solace Is Headed36:30 When AI Helps and When Humans Are Essential40:20 Jeremy's Predictions for Healthcare in 2035 Follow Solace and Jeremy:‍ • Solace Website • Solace LinkedIn • Jeremy Gurewitz LinkedIn Follow Inspired:‍ • Website • LinkedIn • X • Instagram • Substack

Kevin Ryan is known as the godfather of New York City tech. Over three decades, he's founded or backed companies worth more than $40 billion combined, including DoubleClick (acquired by Google), MongoDB (now valued at $30 billion), Business Insider (sold for $450 million), and Gilt Group. As founder of AlleyCorp, Kevin has spent his career building category-defining companies and correctly predicting major technology shifts before they happened. From betting on the internet in 1996 to understanding AI's trajectory today, Kevin shares his framework for seeing what's next and why speed executed properly changes everything. What You'll Learn: How Kevin spotted the internet would change everything in 1996 and the patterns he uses to see what's next The two categories Kevin is betting on: vertical AI applications and deep science breakthroughs Why winning the first four years matters more than anything else How to compete for top 0.1% talent in today's market Kevin's 2036 predictions for work, NYC vs SF, and where technology is headed Chapters: 00:00 Introduction02:10 Kevin's Childhood 05:00 Reflecting on His Entrepreneurship Journey08:30 Speed Matters11:15 The Feeling When You Know a Company Is the One14:58 Why You Need Top 0.1% Talent17:00 Two Categories Kevin Is Betting On20:00 Drawing the Defensibility Line in Vertical AI22:22 Thinking About the Product23:10 Acceleration of Science and When Kevin's Antenna Goes Up25:08 What the World Looks Like in 203627:00 Job Loss and AI Displacement32:00 San Francisco vs New York City38:18 What Kevin Hopes for NYC Tech40:50 Interesting Topics Kevin Is Exploring42:36 Quickfire Round Follow AlleyCorp and Kevin: AlleyCorp Website AlleyCorp LinkedIn Kevin Ryan LinkedIn Follow Inspired:‍ Website  LinkedIn X Instagram Substack

Flock Safety founder and CEO Garrett Langley is building the technology infrastructure to eliminate crime in America. A repeat entrepreneur who previously built and sold two companies for over $200 million each, Garrett now leads a $7.5 billion company serving more than 6,000 communities, 5,000 law enforcement agencies, and 1,000 businesses while helping achieve nearly a million arrests annually. He shares his conviction that safety drives economic prosperity, the surprising fact that drones arrive on scene 94% of the time before officers, and how AI will free police officers from paperwork to focus on community relationships. What You'll Learn: Why it's getting easier to commit serious crimes in America and what's driving that trend How technology creates precision in law enforcement that's never existed before Why drones are transforming emergency response and saving cities money How AI will reshape policing by eliminating paperwork and doubling community presence Why safety is the foundation for economic prosperity and job growth Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:08 Why Team Is the Only Thing That Matters 04:40 Growing Up in Atlanta: Learning Sales from His Father 06:45 What Is Flock Safety and How Does It Work? 11:20 The Crime Crisis No One Talks About 14:33 Serving Neighborhoods, Businesses, and Law Enforcement 17:00 Real Cases: From U-Hauls to Black SUVs 19:55 The Future of Policing in 10 Years 23:30 Building Technology While People's Lives Are at Stake 25:38 How Drones Are Changing Emergency Response 28:09 Scaling to $300M ARR at 70% Growth 29:38 Why Safety Drives Economic Prosperity 32:30 The "Do the Work" Culture at Flock 33:48 Quickfire Round Follow Flock Safety and Garrett: ⁠Flock Safety Website Flock Safety LinkedIn ⁠⁠Flock Safety Instagram ⁠⁠Flock Safety X Garrett’s LinkedIn⁠⁠ Garrett’s X Follow Inspired: Website⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ LinkedIn⁠ X⁠ Substack

Alexa is sharing her bold predictions for 2026, from physical AI transforming our crumbling infrastructure to quantum computing breakthroughs that will reshape innovation. With her signature focus on walking into the office "in 2035," she explain why AI won't destroy jobs but will instead free us from mundane work, how autonomous vehicles will give suburban parents their time back, and why smart machines are finally taking us out of the Roman times. Chapters: 00:09 Prediction #1- Physical AI 02:06 Prediction #2- Quantum 03:00 Prediction #3 - Jobs 05:04 Prediction #4 - Autonomous cars Follow Inspired: Website⁠ Instagram⁠ LinkedIn⁠ X⁠ Substack

Suno founder and CEO Mikey Shulman is building the future of music creation. A Harvard PhD physicist who led machine learning at Kensho before it was acquired by S&P Global, Mikey had a realization in 2022 that audio was a backwater in machine learning—despite being everywhere in human life. He turned that realization into $2.5B company Suno, which grew from zero to over 100 million users. Mikey shares how Suno scales to users generating seven million tracks a day, why music's format will change as dramatically in this era as it did in the shift from vinyl to streaming, and how AI is democratizing creativity for billions of people who never thought they could make music. What You'll Learn: How growing up in a loving, stable environment with parents who encouraged following your passions shaped Mikey's leadership style Why audio was overlooked in machine learning and how Suno made it a first-class citizen How Suno went from zero users to 100 million and zero revenue to $200 million in under three years Why a quarter of songs on Suno are remixes of other songs on the platform The difference between creation and consumption in music and why that boundary is disappearing How Suno is growing the entire pie of music rather than just splitting existing revenue Why the business model for music will change when the format becomes interactive What Mikey learned about speed versus craft when building for billions of users Chapters:01:52 Growing Up: Following What You Love03:45 From Physics to a PhD at Harvard05:30 Kensho and the Path to Machine Learning09:30 Teaching Machine Learning at MIT Sloan12:10 The Birth of Suno15:30 Why Audio When Everyone Chose Text16:25 Zero to 100 Million Users in Three Years18:55 Xania Monet: The First AI Billboard Artist21:55 Stories That Keep the Team Going24:15 Music Was Invented to Be Social27:27 The Business Model for Interactive Music29:44 Reshaping the Music Industry32:45 New Boundaries of Music Creation35:00 The Future: Interactive Albums and Fan Fiction37:35 Growing the Pie for All Creators40:00 Will There Be Agentic AI Stars?41:15 Building Teams That Move Fast43:30 Speed and Craft: The Cultural Balance45:30 What's Coming Next at Suno46:30 Guardrails in a Lower Stakes Domain47:47 Managing Chaos as a First-Time CEO at Scale49:55 Quickfire Round Follow Suno and Mikey: Suno Website Suno Instagram Mikey's LinkedIn Mikey's Twittter Follow Inspired: ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Substack⁠