Shows / The Learning Corner by Precursor
The Learning Corner by Precursor
Welcome to the Learning Corner, a weekly Precursor Ventures podcast, where members of the Precursor team walk through their favorite articles and news snippets across the venture ecosystem.
Episodes
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #101: Anthropic Files Its S1, Owning GPUs Isn't Compute, Is Venture Just Closet Indexing?
Charles and Mia break down Anthropic's S1 filing, from $16.3B in first half revenue to Charles's question of whether San Francisco is living in the future or…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #100: 300 Reads Later, Are VC Skills Obsolete?, Making Venture Exciting Again
For our 100th episode, we turn the mic on Charles to reflect on the state of venture, using the themes that have come up again and again across roughly 300…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #99: The Death of VC’s Short Kings, Seed Valuations Need a Correction
This week Mia and Charles dig into Kyle Harrison’s “The Death of Venture Capital’s Short Kings,” on Benchmark and USV, the two firms that built their…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #98: Relevance Runway vs Cash Runway, 20VC Venky Ganesan Episode Breakdown On Seed Being An Option
This week Mia and Charles start with Steve Vassallo's argument that founders obsess over cash runway when the clock that actually matters is relevance runway…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #97: Rob Go of NextView on Seed VC's Existential Crisis
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles welcome Rob Go, Cofounder and Partner at NextView Ventures, whose writing has been a staple of our reading…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #96: a16z's College Alternative, Running From the Luxury Bus, Is the Music About to Stop?
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Andreessen Horowitz's $35 million bet on the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a two year college…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #95: The Fool's Gold Problem, Dario's "We Must Pace the Frontier"
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Gil Dibner's argument that venture has barbelled into two extremes, a tiny set of consensus darlings…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #94: The Middle Ground Is Gone, Funded Teams With No Plan, Being Legible to Capital
This week Mia and Charles dig into a market that only seems to have two speeds. Ethan Kurzweil of Chemistry argues the trillion dollar startup is a pink…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #93: Vertical AI Today with Nic Poulos of Euclid Ventures
This week we sit down with Nic Poulos, Co-Founder and General Partner at Euclid Ventures and one of the sharper voices on vertical AI, to pressure test the…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #92: Working for Your AI Agent, Engineering Leaders Head for the Exit, What Capital Wants Now
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into how the rise of AI agents is paradoxically driving startup founders to work longer and harder than…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #91: AI Rocketship or Left for Dead, The Worst VC Introduction, To Be or To Do
This week on The Learning Corner, an observation from investor Matt Turck that startups today are either AI-native rocketships or left for dead opens up a real…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #90: Is Series A Broken?, Are Winners Ever Found In Hype Markets?, The Power Of The Builder Archetype
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Gil Dibner's argument that Series A investors have fundamentally abandoned their core function…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #89: Industrializing the Blame Game, VC-Backed Startups and Fraud, Will You Quit on Me?
This week on The Learning Corner, we dig into three pieces that all orbit the same uncomfortable question: who is actually accountable when things go wrong?…
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Episode #88: Supporting Young Founders Well, YC's Fall Requests For Startups, Why Labs Say Frontier Not Foundation
This week Mia and Charles are joined by Precursor intern Aleena to dig into three good reads. First up, Ashley Smith's piece on the pressures young founders…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #87: Patience Pays In Venture, Why Humans Beat AI, Managing Your Agent Workforce
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Nick Chirls' case for patience as an underrated venture strategy, using the owners versus tenants…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #86: Paying For AI Twice, Sierra's Bet On One AI Agent, Data's Next Trillion Dollar Category, NY Halts Data Centers
This week Mia and Charles dig into whether using AI tools means quietly giving away your most valuable knowledge, what Sierra learned building a single company…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #85: Venture's Cognitive Dissonance Moment, Cold Pitches Actually Work, Building Your Moat Later
Is AI venture living through its biggest bubble yet, or its biggest winner-take-all cycle ever? Charles and Mia break down Samir Kaji's read on the duality…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #84: Convicted vs. Disciplined Healthcare VCs, The Capitalist Multiverse, The Untrainable
This week we dig into a piece from Halle Tecco exploring how healthcare VCs are splitting into two camps on ownership discipline as AI drives valuations to…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #83: Tony Fadell on Building Products That Last, SAFE Adjusted TVPI, Kirkland's $500M AI Bet
This week we featured Tony Fadell's interview with Lenny Rachitsky, covering how great products are built with pain at the center and why fast software is the…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #82: What Will Be Scarce in an AI World, The Real Cost of Vibe Coding, The End of the Software Engineer
This week on The Learning Corner, economist Alex Imas makes a counterintuitive case that AI will not eliminate human labor but instead relocate scarcity toward…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #81: Does Your Boss Have AI Brain?, Career Bets That Compound, Too Much Is Happening Too Fast
This week on The Learning Corner, we dig into Rachel Karten's viral piece on AI-obsessed leadership and what happens when organizations adopt AI without any…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #80: Narrative Above All, The Job Market Signal Collapsed, IC Work Is the New Career Flex, OpenAI Files for IPO
This week on The Learning Corner, Charles and Mia discuss a good read explaining why the quiet builder playbook is no longer enough and why founders must now…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #79: Networking Is Mostly Cope, AI Is Changing What Skills Matter, CEO AI Psychosis
This week on The Learning Corner, we open with an argument on why traditional networking culture is mostly negative selection and why broadcasting your work…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #78: Owning Your AI Agents, When Your VC Leaves, Are You Actually AI-Native?
This week on The Learning Corner, Charles and Mia dig into who actually owns the AI agents you build at work and whether you can take them with you when you…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #77: The Broken Seed Model, YC's Revenue Honesty Rules, China Blocks Meta's Manus Deal
This week on The Learning Corner, Charles and Mia dig into Lucas Vaz's viral thread arguing that the era of easy, low-priced, diversified venture investing is…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #76: My Biggest Founder Regret, Fundamental Truths in VC, SpaceX Cursor Partnership
This week on The Learning Corner, Manny Medina, co-founder of Outreach, shares his biggest regret as a founder and why he believes killing your competition is…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #75: Domain Expertise in Vertical AI, The Changing Math of Seed Investing, A Generation of Cheaters
This week we are diving into whether domain expertise is becoming more important in Vertical AI, not less, breaking down new data from The Euclid Ventures team…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #74: Round Names Are Dead, How To Ask For Advice, Private Wealth Goes Direct
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into a piece by Ashley Smith of Vermilion Cliffs Ventures on why seed round names have become essentially…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #73: Startups Need Better Stories, The Value-Add LP Era, Agile Funding Is Back
This week on The Learning Corner, Ashley Mayer makes the case that tech's biggest players have forfeited the narrative and it is now up to startup founders to…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #72: Delve's Compliance Fraud, Has Startup Advice Ever Worked, OpenAI Refocuses
This week we cover the explosive whistleblower exposé on Delve, a YC-backed compliance startup accused of fabricating audit evidence and leaving hundreds of…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #71: Symbolic Capitalism and the Attention Game, Token Output as a Performance KPI, Choosing Your Intellectual Shoulders
This week on The Learning Corner, Om Malik makes the case that reputation and perceived authority now convert faster than financial capital, and that the tech…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #70: The VC Returns Suck Narrative, Venture's Nifty Fifty Moment, The Four Approaches to Early Stage Venture
This week on The Learning Corner, Micah Rosenbloom from Founder Collective challenges the viral narrative that VC returns suck and asks whether we are all just…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #69: Anthropic's Safety Reckoning, Jack Dorsey Cuts Block in Half, The Venture Consensus Addiction
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles unpack the resignation letter of an Anthropic safety researcher who walked away from one of the most valuable…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #68: The 2028 AI Crisis Memo, Rethinking Series A, 2021 Founders Hitting Reset
This week we dig into the viral Citrini Research "2028 Global Intelligence Crisis" memo, a scenario written from the future that rattled public markets and…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #67: Always In The Office, Bubbles vs. Balloons, Tool Shaped Objects
This week we're joined by a special guest, Ariana Ferwerda, CEO and co-founder of Halfdays, a women's ski and outdoor wear brand, to discuss her piece on why…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #66: AI Fatigue Is Real, Patient Capital Will Eat VC, Building a GP Reference List
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles unpack why AI is making engineers more productive but more exhausted, exploring the hidden cost of constant…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #65: I See Dead VCs, Tech Media Echo Chambers, VC-Backed Startups' Status Collapse
This week features Beezer Clarkson from Sapphire Partners discussing her analysis on venture's first substantial firm contraction in 20+ years, with fewer than…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #64: Hubristic Fundraising's Hidden Costs, VCs Can't Win Talent, SaaS Death Greatly Exaggerated
This week we discuss Jason Lemkin's analysis of Brex's $5.15B exit and how hubristic fundraising creates impossible success benchmarks, Auren Hoffman's…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #63: Sequoia Breaks Portfolio Conflict Rules, Pre-Seed Is Dead?, FAANG to Startup Regret
This week we discuss Sequoia's groundbreaking decision to invest in Anthropic despite existing stakes in OpenAI and xAI, challenging traditional VC taboos…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #62: Firm Over Fund, Relevance Decays, The Privilege of Belief
This week we explore David Haber's framework on why most investors run funds but few build lasting firms, and what it takes to create a defensible moat in…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #61: AI-Generated Reddit Hoax, Tech Career Crisis, Venture FOMO Reality
This week we unpack the viral AI food delivery hoax that fooled thousands on Reddit and what it reveals about misinformation in 2026. We discuss the crisis of…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #60: The 2025 Venture Review feat. Hunter Walk (Homebrew, Screendoor) and Peter Walker (Carta)
This end‑of‑year episode of The Learning Corner by Precursor brings together our first podcast guests, Hunter Walk (Homebrew, Screendoor) and Peter Walker…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #59: Pivots Rarely Work, Missionary Founders, Does Seattle Hate AI?
In this week’s episode, we break down Ben Casnocha’s shift in thinking on whether good ideas matter more than good founders, Aaron Harris’ challenge to the…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #58: Charles Schwab Acquisition of Forge Global, Holding "Venture Zombies" Forever, What Is Burnout Actually?
In this episode of The Learning Corner by Precursor, Mia Farnham is joined by Charles Hudson and Missy Martin to unpack three timely reads. First, we explore…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #57: Founder update signals, AI is a bubble and that's good and bad, YC's call to build "fundable" companies
This week on The Learning Corner by Precursor, Mia Farnham and Charles Hudson dive into three thought-provoking reads shaking up the venture ecosystem: First…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #56: VC is Hard, Unconcentrated Fund Math, Cluely Growth Updates
We kick things off with a short but sharp post from Ben Choi reminding us that “VC is hard”—not just because of performance pressure, but because navigating…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #55: Unsafe SAFEs, 15 Charts on the Future of VC, Big CPG Leveraging Gen AI, Sequoia Changes Guards
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles break down four of the most thought-provoking reads shaping the tech and venture ecosystem right now: •…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #54: Teaching Students to Challenge AI, Is AI The New Shadow Bank?
First up, we dive into “Beyond True or False: Teaching Students to Interrogate AI Unreliability”, a Substack by Nick Potkalitsky, which proposes a new…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #53: The Magic of DTC, Power of Iteration Speed, Secondaries in Term Sheets
We’re digging into three thought-provoking topics shaping the current startup and investing landscape: 🧼 Coterie’s $650M Exit & the Return of DTC M&A – We…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #52: Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures, Is AI Causing Brain Obesity?, Investing In A Friend's Company
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles discuss Goldman Sachs’ acquisition of Industry Ventures and what it signals for the venture ecosystem, Maria…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #51: Three Venture Paths, When Great People Leave, Solo Founders
In this week’s episode of The Learning Corner by Precursor, Mia and Charles explore three themes shaping today’s startup and VC landscape: The Three Lanes of…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #50: What Does ARR Mean?, High Agency in Silicon Valley, Debt Fueling The Next AI Wave
We start with a Fortune article on how founders are using “creative accounting” to boost ARR, once the gold standard for SaaS success and now a much murkier…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #49: Making Money on AI, Consumer Deserves Attention from Investors, Nvidia Invests in OpenAI
We explore Jerry Neumann's "AI Will Not Make You Rich," which argues that transformative technologies like AI may not deliver lasting competitive advantages…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #48: VCs are Cockroaches, Engineers Fixing Vibe-Coded Projects, Serial Entrepreneurs Continue to be Favored
This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles explore three compelling venture capital topics: (1) Micah Rosenbloom's comparison of VCs to "cockroaches"…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #47: We Are The Enemy, The AI Productivity Paradox, Anthropic's Author Class Action
First, we dive into “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us” by Euclid Ventures, which explores how venture capital is drifting from its roots as a market for…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #46: AI Troubles for Taco Bell, Is Non-Consensus Dangerous, Are Software Economics Going Off a Cliff with AI
This week on The Learning Corner by Precursor, Mia and Charles dive into three major topics shaping the future of AI, startups, and software economics: Taco…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #45: Hire the experimenters, Lessons from "failed" enterprise AI pilots, Valuations soar past the 2021 bubble
We kick off the episode by discussing Rebecca Kaden’s essay, “Hire the Experimenters”, which argues that speed, adaptability, and creative risk-taking are more…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #44: Founding Engineers Are Impossible To Hire, Regulators Come For AI Therapy Chatbots, What VCs Get Wrong About Hiring
This week on The Learning Corner, we dig into the changing dynamics of talent, regulation, and hiring in venture. We start with the San Francisco Standard’s…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #43: Two Silicon Valley Modalities, Are VCs Independent Thinkers?, 20 Somethings Swarming SF
This week on The Learning Corner, we explore three perspectives shaping how startups get built and funded in today’s environment. We start with Aditya…
- The Learning Corner by Precursor
Episode #42: The "Winners" in AI Today, DaaS Is Not Venture Backable, Seed Rounds Grow As Startups Shrink
This week on The Learning Corner, we dive into three sharp pieces exploring the evolving shape of venture. We kick off with Elad Gil’s take on why AI markets…