Newcomer Podcast

We're welcoming Bloomberg's Kate Clark to the show this week and diving into her reporting on the rough fundraising environment for any VC that isn't an a16z or GC-style megafund. The only emerging funds that can raise, it seems, are ones that are started by investors who leave these brands. If it weren't for the AI funding bonanza, the situation would look even worse. We each make our predictions for how rosy or dreary the venture market will be 2 years from now. And, of course, take a moment to comment on Elon's DOGE departure. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro and welcome to Kate Clark 00:57 Emerging managers struggle to raise 14:34 The X factor, sovereign wealth 22:07 Venture market predictions 32:51 Elon Musk out in Washington

In this special episode, we feature two interviews recorded live during Newcomer’s Breaking the Bank Summit, a financial technology summit held this week in San Francisco. We’re including two of the most dynamic discussions here, beginning with Gabriel Stengel of Rogo and Jeff Seibert of Digits, followed by an interview with Josh Reeves, CEO of Gusto. The episode kicks off with a breakdown of the event, highlighting the key debates that emerged between Rogo and Digits around the trustworthiness of LLMs in fintech, as well as Reeves’ perspective on the service intensive business and going shoeless in the office. After getting our hosts’ reactions, we dive in to live-recorded audio from the event. For a full selection of discussions from the summit, including video of each talk, visit the Newcomer Youtube at youtube.com/@newcomerpod [http://youtube.com/@newcomerpod] Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 09:43 - Rogo + Digits Discussion 28:13 - Josh Reeves, Gusto Interview

Eric relays his dispatch from Dimension Capital’s biotech summit in Park City, where the crowd was much more academic than the conferences we usually attend. Biotech stocks aren’t doing great, meanwhile university funding cuts could spell trouble for drug research. Still, people were rosy about AI tools.  We also took a temperature check on the state of fintech, which investors tell us is mixed. Everyone’s hopeful about IPOs and streamlined stablecoins, but the dollar getting destabilized by the tariffs has some investors skittish. Later in the episode, Madeline explains how Trump’s crackdown on immigration is spooking startup founders and employees.  Timestamps: 00:42 Lineup of our upcoming fintech summit02:02 Eric's dispatch from Dimension Capital and Recursion's biotech summit09:22 Fintech IPOs and stablecoins en vogue18:50 Heightened immigration enforcement spooks startup employees

How does the AI gold rush look from the helm of a $40-billion software giant? Salesforce co-founder, chair, and CEO Marc Benioff joins Eric Newcomer and Tom Dotan for a tour of the next tech boom cycle. The conversation opens with Benioff’s sweeping vision of “Agent Force 2.0,” where large language models paired with reasoning engines mint whole new classes of digital labor, and brands from Gucci to Disney are already swapping call-center scripts for autonomous agents. The episode closes on politics and philanthropy: Prop C, homelessness, the 2024 electoral tightrope, and how Benioff plans to work with any administration and still sleep at night.

This week, we kick off by discussing Ben Smith’s bombshell post ”The group chats that changed America,” that exposed the private chats that nudged Silicon Valley’s money crowd into Trump’s orbit.  Then we hop to DC’s Hill-and-Valley Forum, where the mantra was industrial renaissance or bust. The race with China, AI’s essential energy demands, and the need to reshore American manufacturing were the talk of the forum. Fear of China loomed over the entire forum and only whispers of tariffs crossed the lips of attendees and speakers alike.  In the back half, Eric and Madeline are joined by Lux Capital’s Josh Wolfe, fresh off his on-stage appearance at the Hill and Valley Forum. Wolfe predicts two flashpoints the commentariat is ignoring: a terror-fertile Sahel and a China-courting Latin America. He spars with Eric Newcomer and Madeline Renbargner over Trump’s tariffs, friend-shoring versus reshoring, and whether founder-led startups like Anduril can out-maneuver bloated primes. If you think that the only great power game is Taiwan, Wolfe widens the aperture to central Africa and the Americas.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 01:10 - Silicon Valley’s Most Important Group Chats  08:18 - Hill and Valley’s “America First” Victory Lap  16:20 - Josh Wolfe on America’s Next War