Best FirstMark Podcasts (2025)

1
GitHub CEO: The AI Coding Gold Rush, Vibe Coding & Cursor 1:04:46

6d ago1:04:46

1:04:46

AI coding is in full-blown gold-rush mode, and GitHub sits at the epicenter. In this episode, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke tells Matt Turck how a $7.5 B acquisition in 2018 became a $2 B ARR rocket ship, and reveals how Copilot was born from a secret AI strategy years before anyone else saw the opportunity. We dig into the dizzying pace of AI innovatio…

1
Episode 1: Jonathan Birnbaum - CEO & Founder of OpenYield 50:44

6d ago50:44

50:44

Jonathan Birnbaum guests on this episodeBy Desmond Fleming

1
Inside the Paper That Changed AI Forever - Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez on 2025 Agents 1:02:24

13d ago1:02:24

1:02:24

What really happened inside Google Brain when the “Attention is All You Need” paper was born? In this episode, Aidan Gomez — one of the eight co-authors of the Transformers paper and now CEO of Cohere — reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how a cold email and a lucky administrative mistake landed him at the center of the AI revolution. Aidan sha…

1
AI That Ends Busy Work — Hebbia CEO on “Agent Employees” 48:24

20d ago48:24

48:24

What if the smartest people in finance and law never had to do “stupid tasks” again? In this episode, we sit down with George Sivulka, founder of Hebbia, the AI company quietly powering 50% of the world’s largest asset managers and some of the fastest-growing law firms. George reveals how Hebbia’s Matrix platform is automating the equivalent of 50,…

1
AI Eats the World: Benedict Evans on What Really Matters Now 1:15:09

27d ago1:15:09

1:15:09

What if the “AI revolution” is actually… stuck in the messy middle? In this episode, Benedict Evans returns to tackle the big question we left hanging a year ago: Is AI a true paradigm shift, or just another tech platform shift like mobile or cloud? One year later, the answer is more complicated — and more revealing — than anyone expected. Benedict…

1
Jeremy Howard on Building 5,000 AI Products with 14 People (Answer AI Deep-Dive) 55:02

1M ago55:02

55:02

What happens when you try to build the “General Electric of AI” with just 14 people? In this episode, Jeremy Howard reveals the radical inside story of Answer AI — a new kind of AI R&D lab that’s not chasing AGI, but instead aims to ship thousands of real-world products, all while staying tiny, open, and mission-driven. Jeremy shares how open-sourc…

1
Why Influx Rebuilt Its Database for the IoT and Robotics Explosion 35:35

1M ago35:35

35:35

InfluxDB just dropped its biggest update ever — InfluxDB 3.0 — and in this episode, we go deep with the team behind the world’s most popular open-source time series database. You’ll hear the inside story of how InfluxDB grew from 3,000 users in 2015 to over 1.3 million today, and why the company decided to rewrite its entire architecture from scrat…

1
Dashboards Are Dead: Sigma’s BI Revolution for Trillion-Row Data 41:32

2M ago41:32

41:32

Sigma Computing recently hit $100M in ARR — planning on doubling revenue again this year— and in this episode, CEO Mike Palmer reveals exactly how they did it by throwing out the old BI playbook. We open with the provocative claim that “the world did not need another BI tool,” and dig into why the last 20 years of business intelligence have been “b…

1
Glean’s Breakthrough: CEO Arvind Jain on Scaling AI Agents & Search 52:11

2M ago52:11

52:11

A week after OpenAI’s o3/o4-mini volleyed with Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash, I sat down with Arvind Jain— ex-Google search luminary, Rubrik co-founder, and now CEO of Glean —just as his company released its agentic reasoning platform and swirled with rumors of a new round at a $7 billion valuation. We open on that whirlwind: why the model race is acce…

1
Box’s Big AI Leap: Aaron Levie on Agents & the Future of Work 1:15:46

2M ago1:15:46

1:15:46

In this episode, we sit down with Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box, for a wide-ranging conversation that’s equal parts insightful, technical, and fun. We kick things off with a candid discussion about what it’s like to be a public company CEO during times of volatility, and then rewind to the early days of Box — from dorm room experiments to …

1
Snowflake CEO on Winning the AI Arms Race 1:23:41

2M ago1:23:41

1:23:41

In this episode, we sit down with Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake, for an in-depth conversation about the company’s transformation from a cloud analytics platform into a comprehensive AI data cloud. Sridhar shares insights on Snowflake’s shift toward open formats like Apache Iceberg and why monetizing storage was, in his view, a strategic misst…

1
Chasing Real AGI: Inside ARC Prize 2025 with Chollet & Knoop 1:00:45

3M ago1:00:45

1:00:45

In this fascinating episode, we dive deep into the race towards true AI intelligence, AGI benchmarks, test-time adaptation, and program synthesis with star AI researcher (and philosopher) Francois Chollet, creator of Keras and the ARC AGI benchmark, and Mike Knoop, co-founder of Zapier and now co-founder with Francois of both the ARC Prize and the …

1
Why This Ex-Meta Leader is Rethinking AI Infrastructure | Lin Qiao, CEO, Fireworks AI 59:14

3M ago59:14

59:14

In 2022, Lin Qiao decided to leave Meta, where she was managing several hundred engineers, to start Fireworks AI. In this episode, we sit down with Lin for a deep dive on her work, starting with her leadership on PyTorch, now one of the most influential machine learning frameworks in the industry, powering research and production at scale across th…

1
Top AI Researcher on GPT 4.5, DeepSeek and Agentic RAG | Douwe Kiela, CEO, Contextual AI 50:44

3M ago50:44

50:44

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) has become a dominant architecture in modern AI deployments, and in this episode, we sit down with Douwe Kiela, who co-authored the original RAG paper in 2020. Douwe is now the founder and CEO of Contextual AI, a startup focusing on helping enterprises deploy RAG as an agentic system. We start the conversation w…

1
Empowering Millions of Creators with AI Video Editing | Gaurav Misra, CEO, Captions 1:13:14

4M ago1:13:14

1:13:14

In this episode, we dive into how AI is transforming video editing with Gaurav Misra, the CEO of Captions. Launched in New York in 2021, Captions already empowers over 10 million creators worldwide, leveraging AI to make video production as simple as clicking a button. Discover the strategic framework that led to the inception of Captions, and lear…

1
Farewell, Chatbots: AI Agents Are Taking Over Customer Service | Mike Murchison, CEO, Ada 1:11:27

4M ago1:11:27

1:11:27

AI customer service agents are quickly replacing the often clunky AI chatbots of years past, and revolutionizing how we all interact with customer service. In this episode, we dive into this rapid transformation with Mike Murchison, CEO of Ada, a fast-growing leader in the space. Mike shares how harnessing the power of several Generative AI models …

1
The AI Coding Agent Revolution, The Future of Software, Techno-Optimism | Amjad Masad, CEO, Replit 1:29:39

4M ago1:29:39

1:29:39

Replit is one of the most visible and exciting companies reshaping how we approach software and application development in the Generative AI era. In this episode, we sit down with its CEO, Amjad Masad, for an in-depth discussion on all things AI, agents, and software. Amjad shares the journey of building Replit, from its humble beginnings as a stud…

1
Trino, Iceberg and the Battle for the Lakehouse | Justin Borgman, CEO, Starburst 1:06:24

5M ago1:06:24

1:06:24

In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge world of data infrastructure with Justin Borgman, CEO of Starburst — a company transforming data analytics through its open-source project, Trino, and empowering industry giants like Netflix, Airbnb, and LinkedIn. Justin takes us through Starburst’s journey from a Yale University spin-out to a leading fo…

1
Understanding Data Engineering in 2025 | Ben Rogojan, Seattle Data Guy 1:02:24

5M ago1:02:24

1:02:24

As AI takes over the world, data is more than ever “the new oil”, and data engineering is the discipline that makes data usable behind the scenes. In this episode, we dive deep into the present and future of data engineering with Ben Rogojan, also known as the Seattle Data Guy. A seasoned data engineering consultant, Ben has built a big brand and r…

1
What You MUST Know About AI Engineering in 2025 | Chip Huyen, Author of “AI Engineering” 1:12:35

5M ago1:12:35

1:12:35

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of AI engineering with Chip Huyen, author of the excellent, newly released book "AI Engineering: Building Applications with Foundation Models". We explore the nuances of AI engineering, distinguishing it from traditional machine learning, discuss how foundational models make it possible for anyone to bui…

1
Dataiku's Secret to Scaling AI in Global Enterprises | Florian Douetteau, CEO, Dataiku 53:06

6M ago53:06

53:06

In this episode, we sit down with Florian Douetteau, co-founder and CEO of Dataiku, a global category leader in enterprise AI and a fixture on the Forbes Cloud 100 list and in the Gartner Leader Quadrant. Florian shares his journey from a Parisian student fascinated by functional programming to leading a global enterprise software company. We discu…

1
Building the Easy Button for Generative AI | May Habib, CEO, Writer 35:52

7M ago35:52

35:52

In this episode, we dive into the world of generative AI with May Habib, co-founder of Writer, a platform transforming enterprise AI use. May shares her journey from Qordoba to Writer, emphasizing the impact of transformers in AI. We explore Writer's graph-based RAG approach, and their AI Studio for building custom applications. We also discuss Wri…

1
State of AI 2024: Frontier Models, AI Geopolitics and The Robotics Renaissance | Nathan Benaich, Founder, Air Street Capital 51:39

7M ago51:39

51:39

Nathan Benaich, founder and GP at VC firm Air Street Capital, publishes every year "State of AI", one of the most widely-read and comprehensive reports on all things AI across research, industry, and policy. In this episode, we sit down with Nathan to discuss some of the highlights of the 2024 edition of the report, including the "vibes" shift in t…

1
Superintelligence, Bubbles And Big Bets: AI Investing in 2024 | Matt Turck & Aman Kabeer, FirstMark 1:09:38

7M ago1:09:38

1:09:38

In this special episode of the MAD Podcast, Matt Turck and Aman Kabeer from FirstMark delve into the AI market from a venture investor perspective, in the final weeks of an incredibly packed and exciting 2024. They comment on their favorite news stories, such as OpenAI's record-breaking $6.6 billion funding round and the massive $200B investments i…

1
Can AI Infrastructure Work Like Magic? | Erik Bernhardsson, CEO, Modal 56:07

8M ago56:07

56:07

Before he founded Modal, Erik Bernhardsson created Spotify's music recommendation system. Today he's bringing a consumer app approach to radically simplifying developer experience for data and AI projects on the Modal platform. In this episode, we dive into the broader AI compute landscape, discussing the roles of hyperscalers, GPU clouds, inferenc…

1
The Death of Big Data and Why It’s Time To Think Small | Jordan Tigani, CEO, MotherDuck 59:00

8M ago59:00

59:00

A founding engineer on Google BigQuery and now at the helm of MotherDuck, Jordan Tigani challenges the decade-long dominance of Big Data and introduces a compelling alternative that could change how companies handle data. Jordan discusses why Big Data technologies are an overkill for most companies, how MotherDuck and DuckDB offer fast analytical q…

1
The $4.5B Platform Driving the Open Source AI Revolution | Clem Delangue, CEO, Hugging Face 1:07:02

8M ago1:07:02

1:07:02

With a $4.5B valuation, 5M AI builders and 1M public AI models, Hugging Face has emerged as the key collaboration platform for AI, and the heart of the global open source AI community. In this episode of The MAD Podcast, we sit down with Clément Delangue, its co-founder and CEO, and delve deep into Hugging Face's journey from a fun chatbot to a cen…

1
AGI, The Future of AI Agents And The Next Wave of Opportunities in AI | Richard Socher, CEO, You.com 1:28:35

8M ago1:28:35

1:28:35

This episode is a captivating conversation with Richard Socher, serial entrepreneur, investor, and AI researcher. Richard elaborates on why he likens the impact of AI to the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Renaissance, discusses important current issues in AI, such as scaling laws and agents, provides a behind-the-scenes tour of Y…

1
Building The Database That Can Do It All | Tobie Morgan Hitchcock, CEO of SurrealDB 53:05

9M ago53:05

53:05

In this episode, we sit down with Tobie Morgan Hitchcock, the founder of SurrealDB, to dive deep into the evolving world of databases and the future of data storage, querying, and real-time analytics.SurrealDB isn’t just another database — it’s a multi-model database that merges document, graph, and time-series data, making it easier for developers…

1
AI at Datadog: Monitoring machines in the age of LLMs | Olivier Pomel, CEO of Datadog 1:01:30

9M ago1:01:30

1:01:30

In this episode, we dive deep into the story of how Datadog evolved from a single product to a multi-billion dollar observability platform with its co-founder, Olivier Pomel. Olivier shares exclusive insights on Datadog's unique approach to product development—why they avoid the "Apple approach" of building in secret and instead work closely with c…

1
AI at ZoomInfo: Superpowering GTM teams | Ali Dasdan, CTO, ZoomInfo 45:43

9M ago45:43

45:43

In this episode, we sit down with Ali Dasdan, CTO of ZoomInfo, a titan in the B2B sector, who harnesses vast datasets and advanced AI to redefine sales and marketing for over 35,000 global customers with $21.2 billion in annualized revenue. We delve deep into ZoomInfo's AI initiatives, including their transformative 'Copilot,' explore sophisticated…

1
AI at Ramp: Making Every Team Radically More Productive | Eric Glyman, CEO, Ramp 48:53

11M ago48:53

48:53

In this episode, we sit down with Eric Glyman, co-founder of Ramp, the company that revolutionized finance management to become a powerhouse valued at $7.6 billion. Eric shares the tradition of counting the days since Ramp's founding and how it fosters a sense of urgency and productivity, explains the use of AI to automate expense management and fr…

1
Making AI Work: Fine-Tuning, Inference, Memory | Sharon Zhou, CEO, Lamini 43:55

11M ago43:55

43:55

In this episode, we reconnect with Sharon Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Lamini, to dive deep into the ever-evolving world of enterprise AI. We discuss how the AI hype is evolving and what enterprises are doing to stay ahead, break down the different players in the Inference market, explore how Memory Tuning is reducing hallucinations in AI models, th…

1
An inside look at “Mastering AI” | Jeremy Kahn, Author & AI Editor, Fortune 48:38

11M ago48:38

48:38

In this episode, we sit down with Jeremy Kahn, the AI Editor at Fortune Magazine, who has recently published a book called "Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future". Jeremy shares his unique insights on AI's potential risks and transformative benefits, including the importance of UI design in maximizing AI's utility, the potential…

1
From Business to Warfare: How AI Affects the Modern World | Azeem Azhar 1:01:36

12M ago1:01:36

1:01:36

In this episode, we sit down with Azeem Azhar, an expert on AI and technologies, whose weekly newsletter "The Exponential View" (www.exponentialview.co) is read by nearly two hundred thousand people from around the world. We delve into the nuances of AI adoption, discussing how LLM's are reshaping industries and what this means for corporate leader…

1
How ClickHouse powers Netflix, Uber and Spotify’s Analytics | Aaron Katz, CEO of ClickHouse 49:07

1y ago49:07

49:07

In this episode, we sat down with Aaron Katz, the CEO of ClickHouse, a company that went from an open-source analytical database into a highly successful cloud service, utilized by Spotify, Netflix, Disney, and many more. Aaron Katz provides intriguing insights into the challenges of transitioning an open-source project into a thriving business, Cl…

1
From Tiny Romanian Startup to Global AI Automation Leader | Daniel Dines, CEO of UIPath 1:12:57

1y ago1:12:57

1:12:57

In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Dines, the co-founder and CEO of UiPath. From a small rented apartment in Bucharest to $1.3 billion in revenue, UiPath's story is one of perseverance, innovation, and strategic pivots. Daniel shares his insights on the pivotal moments that shaped UiPath, how to build a robust go-to-market strategy, the role …

1
How Airtable is Ushering 500,000 Organizations Into The Era of AI | Howie Liu, CEO of Airtable 1:02:44

1y ago1:02:44

1:02:44

In this episode, we sit down with Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable, to explore the incredible journey of Airtable from its early days to becoming a powerhouse in the enterprise software space.Howie provides a candid look at the challenges and learnings from transitioning Airtable from a PLG product to an enterprise platform, how companies …

1
AI, Data and Blockchain: a VC perspective | Tomasz Tunguz, Founder of Theory Ventures 54:54

1y ago54:54

54:54

In this episode, we sat down with Tomasz Tunguz (https://twitter.com/ttunguz), the founder of Theory Ventures and a leading voice in the tech investment space. We discussed the transformative potential of Ethereum as a database company, the importance of data security in a decentralized world, and the evolving landscape of AI technologies from foun…

1
The $9B Startup Going After Snowflake and Databricks | Renen Hallak from VAST Data 45:26

1y ago45:26

45:26

In this episode, we sat down with Renen Hallak, founder and CEO of VAST Data, a $9 billion company that's shaking the foundations of data storage, databases and compute functionality. Through the conversation, we explore VAST's perspective on AI infrastructure, the process of selling over a billion dollars worth of software, and the technical innov…

1
Navigating the AI Landscape: A Survival Guide | 2024 MAD Landscape with Matt Turck and Aman Kabeer 48:57

1y ago48:57

48:57

🔗 2024 MAD Landscape: https://mad.firstmark.com 📃 PDF: https://mattturck.com/landscape/mad2024.pdf 📃 Blog post: https://mattturck.com/mad2024/ In this episode, we delve into the 2024 machine learning, AI, and data scene (MAD), examining an evergrowing array of over 2011 logos, the meteoric rise of open-source AI, and the anticipated advancements in…

1
AI at Roblox: Revolutionizing Game Creation | Morgan McGuire from Roblox 50:34

1y ago50:34

50:34

In this episode, we sat down with Morgan McGuire, Chief Scientist of Roblox, and the mind behind the magic of the virtual universe. Together we explore the spectrum of creativity on Roblox, from no-code experiences to professional game development, dive deep into the cutting-edge AI tools Roblox is deploying, and how these tools are democratizing g…

1
Is AI a platform shift or a paradigm shift? | Benedict Evans 51:30

1y ago51:30

51:30

In this episode, we sat down with Benedict Evans, a leading voice in the tech industry and a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Known for his sharp insights and forward-thinking analysis, Benedict shares his expert perspective on what generative AI means for the future of technology, business, and society at large. Specifically, we dive deep in…

1
From Social App to Data Giant: Foursquare's Evolution | Gary Little from Foursquare 24:57

1y ago24:57

24:57

In this episode, we sit down with Gary Little, CEO of Foursquare, to discuss Foursquare's remarkable evolution from a social app to a leader in location intelligence. Gary discusses how Foursquare uses smartphone ubiquity to create a global map through crowdsourcing, covering 190 countries and over 200 million points of interest. Learn about the ch…

1
Why generative AI will unlock new art forms | Cris Valenzuela from Runway 29:52

1y ago29:52

29:52

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of AI art with Cris Valenzuela, CEO of Runway. Runway is a generative AI startup that co-invented Stable Diffusion, the deep learning technology that has captured the attention of the creative industry, including luminaries such as ASAP Rocky and Madonna's teams, by pushing the boundaries of digit…

1
2024 will be the year of Generative AI in production in the enterprise | Florian Douetteau from Dataiku 26:10

1y ago26:10

26:10

Join us in this exciting episode as we dive into the world of enterprise AI with Florian Douetteau, co-founder and CEO of Dataiku, the leading enterprise AI platform targeting Global 2000 companies. Since its founding in 2013, Dataiku has been at the forefront of democratizing AI in the enterprise. We'll explore the current state of deployment of A…

1
Why Ecosystem Partnerships Are The Future In The Age Of AI | Bob Moore from Crossbeam 44:20

1+ y ago44:20

44:20

In this episode, we sit down with Bob Moore, the CEO of Crossbeam, who turned a $2.6 billion mistake into a masterclass on Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG). Fresh off publishing his new book, Bob shares why ELG is the future of business growth, challenging traditional strategies with data-driven insights and partnerships. Bob reveals how Crossbeam can he…

1
Saving lives with AI | Emi Gal from Ezra 50:16

1+ y ago50:16

50:16

In this episode, we sat down with Emi Gal, founder and CEO of Ezra, a startup that leverages AI to detect cancer early and inexpensively. Emi provides insights into the landscape of the healthcare sector and talks about the differences between building an AI startup in healthcare versus SaaS. Turns out that "(In AI skills)... are not that transfera…

1
Embracing AI: Lessons from Intercom's Journey 1:01:58

1+ y ago1:01:58

1:01:58

In this episode, we sat down with Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, to explore the seismic shift towards Artificial Intelligence in customer service software. Intercom has gone all-in to embrace AI as people's expectations of what chatbots can do started growing with the release of ChatGPT. Des shares the pivotal moments and strategic decisions …

1
Is the Modern Data Stack Dead? with dbt Labs CEO Tristan Handy 47:22

1+ y ago47:22

47:22

In this episode, we explore the dynamic world of modern analytics with Tristan Handy, CEO of dbt Labs (https://twitter.com/jthandy). DBT, which helps more than 30,000 enterprises ship trusted data products faster, has raised more than $400 million dollars, most recently at a $4B valuation. We discuss how dbt has revolutionized analytics engineering…

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