Shows / The Upstarts Podcast
The Upstarts Podcast
On The Upstarts Podcast, you’ll hear from some of the most exciting Upstarts today: emerging technology leaders punching above their weight to achieve real impact. Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad profiled leaders from Marc Benioff to Melanie Perkins in a decade-plus at Forbes. Now as the founder and editor of Upstarts Media, he’s sitting down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more. You’ll leave each…
Episodes
The Upstarts PodcastThe Accidental YC Founder Solving AI’s GPU Crisis | SF Compute’s Evan Conrad
The tech industry has an AI scaling problem, and SF Compute CEO Evan Conrad says it all comes down to one thing: credit. Lenders don’t want to underwrite risky…
The Upstarts PodcastThe Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
If you’ve parked a car recently in the U.S. or Canada, there’s a good chance you paid through a startup called Metropolis. Founded in 2017 by CEO Alex Israel…
The Upstarts PodcastThe $7B Startup Mapping Your Health In Just One Hour | Neko’s Hjalmar Nilsonne
Neko Health CEO Hjalmar Nilsonne calls it the most valuable hour you can spend on your health. Since opening its first U.S. location in New York last month…
The Upstarts PodcastBringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah’s Ark 2.0 | Colossal’s Ben Lamm
Founder Ben Lamm has found success building startups in gaming, SaaS and AI. But the boldest — and biggest — bet of his career is Colossal Biosciences, a…
The Upstarts PodcastBasis's Matt Harpe: Why AI Won't Replace Accountants — It'll Make Them Richer
A crisis is happening in accounting that goes far beyond creative bookkeeping or lost receipts: we don't have enough people. Enough work exists for 30 million…
The Upstarts PodcastAbridge's Shiv Rao: The Doctor Founder Taking On Microsoft In Healthcare AI
Doctors are burned out. Patients don’t understand the advice they’re given. And the U.S. healthcare system is drowning each year in $1.5 trillion – with a “T”…
The Upstarts PodcastPigment’s Eléonore Crespo: Building France’s Next Unicorn With AI Agents And Tom Cruise
The world's big companies are blowing through their AI budgets. At French startup unicorn Pigment, Eléonore Crespo wants to help. "Our CEO is pressuring us for…
The Upstarts PodcastRadical AI’s Joseph Krause: The Scientist Building The ‘Waymo’ Lab For New Materials
Materials science hasn’t changed much in 150 years. Radical AI CEO Joseph Krause wants to change that. In a big new lab in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, the startup…
The Upstarts PodcastBlitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code ‘Through A Straw’
First at West Point and then as an officer in the U.S. Army Rangers, Brian Elliott always sought out the hardest, highest-impact challenge. “You can do hard…
The Upstarts PodcastWriter’s May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate ‘Normal People’ The Labs Leave Behind
Writer’s May Habib: On VC Bias, Token Maxing’, And The Customers Anthropic And OpenAI Leave Behind Fortune 500 boards are in weekend crisis meetings about…
The Upstarts PodcastMutiny’s Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI
Salespeople have a problem: they only spend 21% of their time actually selling to customers. Founder Jaleh Rezaei set out to fix that – and business was…
The Upstarts PodcastTBC’s Alex Ksendzovsky: The Neurosurgeon Using Brain Cells To Build Better AI
Ever since neurosurgeon Alex Ksendzovsky was in college, he’s been captivated by an idea worthy of a mad scientist: turning brain cell ‘wetware’ into…
The Upstarts PodcastVanta’s Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning ‘Nonsense’ Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
When Vanta co-founder Christina Cacioppo first pitched investors on compliance software, she faced a frosty reception. It wasn’t a viable product category, she…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Orchid’s Noor Siddiqui: Rigging The Genetic Lottery To Create Healthier ‘Superbabies’
If you could fix the genetic lottery to ensure your baby was born healthy, would you? For entrepreneur Noor Siddiqui, there's no question. Ever since her…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Runway’s Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn’t
The ChatGPT craze was still years away when Chilean-born Cris Valenzuela co-founded Runway to tinker on visual AI models with two classmates at an NYU lab in…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor
When Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz's parents struggled to navigate Medicare—faxes, phone calls, even a trip to the Social Security office—he figured someone had built…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Cohere's Aidan Gomez: The Canadian Founder Taking AI Models To The World, Not Just Big Tech
A self-described "shy nerd" from rural Ontario, Aidan Gomez doesn't like to scream his startup’s name from the rooftops. But the co-author of the landmark…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Decagon’s Jesse Zhang: Closing Customer Service Doom Loops With AI Concierges
When it comes to calling customer support, startup CEO Jesse Zhang knows your pain. ”It's just a very frustrating experience, because you're stuck in a loop,”…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Axiom’s Carina Hong: Solving Math’s Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math
Just nine months ago, Morgan Prize-winning prodigy Carina Hong was still on an academic track, pursuing a joint law degree and math PhD at Stanford. Now, as…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Harvey's Winston Weinberg: From Law Associate To $11 Billion Legal AI Startup CEO
Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg operates between two worlds. On one side are highly-trained lawyers who are skeptical about AI’s ability to improve their work. On…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Star Catcher’s Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space
Star Catcher CEO Andrew Rush grew up loving science fiction. Now he’s helping to bring a whole new generation of tech into reality in space by tackling its…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Synthesia's Victor Riparbelli: Using AI To Replace Boring PowerPoints With Interactive Video
Startup founder Victor Riparbelli has always been drawn to counterculture ideas. "Life's more interesting at the fringes," he says. When Victor co-founded…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Flexport’s Ryan Petersen: tech’s trade expert on solving tariff chaos with AI agents & winning again
$50 billion. That’s how much in tariff refunds Ryan Petersen hopes to retrieve for U.S. citizens using AI agents recently built by his startup, Flexport. But…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Valar Atomics’ Isaiah Taylor: Solving AI’s Energy Crisis With Nuclear ‘Gigasites’
Experts have called Valar Atomics CEO Isaiah Taylor “totally nuts.” He says that when you’re trying to build a trillion-dollar company that’s literally…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Loyal’s Celine Halioua: From Defying Doubters To Pioneering Dog Longevity
When Loyal founder Celine Halioua told people she was building a dog longevity startup, they laughed in her face. Now she's running what could be the…
- The Upstarts Podcast
Canva’s Melanie Perkins on scaling startup vision and values for global impact
Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins leads the most valuable woman-led startup in the world, a design and publishing tool used by more than 260 million…
- The Upstarts Podcast
The Upstarts Podcast | Trailer
On The Upstarts Podcast, you’ll hear from some of the most exciting Upstarts today: emerging technology leaders punching above their weight to achieve real…