Tech Today with Eric Tarczynski

The Future of Taste and Creativity with Scott Belsky

Scott Belsky, partner at A24 and former Chief Product Officer at Adobe, joins us to explore how AI is reshaping the creative process. We talk about the rise of taste as a differentiator in a world of infinite content, the shift from production to ideation, and how brand-building evolves when machines can generate at scale. Scott also shares his perspective on the importance of story and process, why behind-the-scenes footage will matter more than ever, and how creators can cut through the noise by focusing on authenticity and meaning. We dive into his view that we're still in the early innings of the AI-creative intersection, and why that may be a good thing. We also covered Glean’s $7.2 billion valuation, Mistral’s new reasoning models, Linear’s $82 million fundraise, and Snap’s upcoming consumer AR glasses, Specs, set to launch in 2026.

How Liquidity Droughts Break Venture Cycles with Beezer Clarkson

Beezer Clarkson, managing director at Sapphire Partners, joins the show to unpack the state of venture funding from the unique perspective of an LP. We dive into why 2025 has been one of the toughest fundraising environments for venture firms in over a decade, what’s driving LP caution, and how structural shifts, like longer fund durations and fewer exits, are reshaping the market. Beezer explains why many emerging managers are struggling to close new funds, how secondary markets are evolving as a partial solution, and why “knowing your math” matters more than ever when fundraising. We also get into why LPs still believe in venture’s long-term importance despite growing selectivity in where they place their bets. We also covered Apple’s new Liquid Glass interface, Lovable’s funding talks, IonQ’s $1B quantum deal, and Waymo suspending service in LA

Why Capital Efficiency Still Wins with Larry Cheng

Larry Cheng, co-founder and managing partner at Volition Capital, joins us to explore why capital efficiency is more important than ever for founders. He explains how capital discipline can coexist with high growth, shares lessons from backing Chewy early, and breaks down why the best companies know how to build without overspending. We also dig into the resurgence of CapEx in frontier tech. Larry shares how Volition is thinking about hardware-enabled SaaS, and offers a framework for evaluating return on capital — whether you're acquiring users, building hardware, or rolling up businesses. We also covered Circle’s explosive IPO, the Rippling–Deel legal battle, Alpha School’s AI-powered academic results, and Anthropic’s appointment of a national security advisor to its board.

The Rise of the AI Coding Agent with Quinn Slack

Quinn Slack, co-founder and CEO of Sourcegraph, joins Kyle to explore how AI is transforming software development and why the “AI coding agent” is becoming the center of gravity in the modern engineering stack. Quinn walks through Sourcegraph’s new tools—Cody and AMP—and explains how model-product fit, not feature checklists, is what will define winners in this fast-moving market. They discuss why Sourcegraph made counterintuitive bets like hiding model selection and emphasizing multi-tenant design, how customer trust enables bold product choices, and why building in sync with new model capabilities is more important than chasing traditional differentiation. We also covered Anysphere’s $900 million fundraise at a $9.9 billion valuation, Anduril’s $2.5 billion round at a $30.5 billion valuation, OpenAI’s court battle over chat log retention, and Anthropic’s launch of Claude Gov models for classified U.S. environments.

The Future of Hypersonic Aviation with AJ Piplica

Hermeus just became the first private company to fly a hypersonic-capable aircraft — and it’s only the beginning. Today, AJ Piplica, founder and CEO of Hermeus, joins to break down the first successful flight of the Quarterhorse Mk 1, explain what hypersonic flight actually is, and share why this milestone could reshape both national defense and commercial aviation. We also covered Reddit’s lawsuit against Anthropic, Windsurf’s model access problems, Bolttech’s $147M fundraise, and Mistral’s new AI coding assistant