All episodes

Building a Power Company for the Next 50 Years | Zach Dell, Base Power

Sep 6, 2026 · 1:16:20

David Senra interviews Base Power co-founder Zach Dell about building an energy company to make electricity affordable and reliable. Dell says the grid is too small, as AI drives demand growth from 2% to 10% a year, and Base's fix is owning home batteries as a fleet—charging when power is cheap, discharging when expensive, providing backup—so customers pay 1/20th to 1/40th of owning one outright. He explains the counterposition—selling electricity, not batteries; 10-year megawatts-as-a-service deals for utilities like CoServe; and a compounding cost advantage via vertical integration and Base's custom battery, the Base Core. He covers the 'Dad Terminal' with Michael Dell, ex-SpaceX lessons, and Base's habits: monthly updates, North Stars, dashboards, a turtle marking the critical path.

How to Dominate for Decades | Doug Leone, Sequoia Capital

Aug 30, 2026 · 1:22:18

Doug Leone, who led Sequoia Capital for 26 years, tells David Senra he dominates through fear of irrelevance, and at 69 he is again a 'low-level analyst' racing to understand an AI revolution he calls more radical than anything he has seen. His investment tests are whether he would put his kids' money in, whether it is one of 20 lifetime investments, and whether it can return the whole fund — he wants only 100x outliers and says the biggest venture mistake is selling winners early, citing Sequoia's 20% of NVIDIA and 10% of Google. He recounts backing David Vélez before Nubank existed, Fred Luddy's ServiceNow pitch, and seeking founders who are hypercompetitive with a heart of gold. He advises founders to architect boards like products and to avoid 'completely fucking clueless' investors.

Building Defense Technologies to Protect Democracies | Torsten Reil, Helsing

Aug 26, 2026 · 1:23:55

Torsten Reil, co-founder of European defense-tech company Helsing, argues that AI-controlled drones and autonomous fighter jets are making tanks, artillery, and crewed aircraft obsolete, and that future conflicts will be battles of materiel won by whoever can mass-produce weapons. Citing Ukraine, he says drones have cut frontline survival times to minutes, and explains how Helsing's HX-2 strike drone scaled from dozens to a baseline of 1,000 units per month, surging to 3,000. He also reveals that Helsing's Centaur AI flew a Saab Gripen in air combat, leading the company to build the autonomous jet CA1 Europa. Reil discusses founding Helsing in 2021 to protect democracies, Daniel Ek's early 100-million-euro investment, and the talent-density philosophy that shapes his leadership.

Sam Altman on Building OpenAI & Betting on the Impossible

Aug 23, 2026 · 1:18:17

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, tells David Senra that AI capabilities will outpace society's ability to adapt, and that human connection becomes more valuable as AI improves. Altman cites Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke as the most forward-leaning CEO because he builds with AI himself. He explains OpenAI's platform strategy—one interface, one API—which meant killing Sora and Atlas to focus on general intelligence. He credits Y Combinator's iterative philosophy for making OpenAI possible, even though OpenAI broke the playbook by going four and a half years without shipping a product. He also recalls the first day at Greg Brockman's apartment and says he learns more from successes than failures.

Excellence Is the Capacity To Take Pain | Travis Kalanick, Founder of Uber

Aug 16, 2026 · 1:48:55

Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber and now Atoms, tells David Senra why he is drawn to impossibly hard problems. He recounts Uber's China war against Didi, saying he convinced regulators that progress must be in harmony with stability, and explains his fundraising auction process—starting low, running multiple rooms, building demand curves—versus Benchmark's 'war room' against him. Kalanick also describes running Uber with a 'starve next week' intensity after years of no salary at Red Swoosh, and his management philosophy: fewest possible rules, like mandatory pricing calls before launching cities. His current company, Atoms, applies that to specialized robotics for food, mining, and transport, aiming to digitize the physical world one industry at a time.

DHH: How to Build a Profitable Company Without Losing Control

Jul 26, 2026 · 1:41:40

David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) argues that constraints, not resources, are the key to building great software, and that independence from investors and customers is the ultimate freedom. He built the first version of Basecamp in just 380 hours working 10 hours a week, and credits that shortage of time for the product's quality. His marketing strategy, borrowed from Kathy Sierra, is to out-teach competitors rather than out-spend them, a principle he has applied for two decades. DHH explains why he distrusts unlimited resources—they lead to bloat—and how he applies a ruthless edit to both writing and product features. He recounts giving Jeff Bezos an absurdly high term sheet in 2005, which Bezos accepted, giving him and Jason Fried the confidence to reject all other venture capital. Most recently, he created Omachi, a Linux distribution built for himself with no customers, calling it a retirement from capitalism. He also describes how Tobi Lütke nudged him into embracing AI, and how Mark Andreessen provided crucial support during 37signals' 2021 internal crisis over workplace politics.

The Restaurant Genius Behind Carbone, ZZ’s, Torrisi & More | Jeff Zalaznick

Jul 19, 2026 · 1:47:56

Jeff Zalaznick, co-founder of Major Food Group behind Carbone, ZZ's, and The Pool, explains how his lifelong obsession with food led him from a J.P. Morgan analyst job to building 77 restaurants (76 still profitable). He details the $40 million restoration of The Pool—the only interior landmark restaurant in America—and the counterintuitive decision to close lunch to make The Grill a dinner destination. Zalaznick articulates the company's thesis: take something everyone loves and make the best version ever done, exemplified by Carbone's 70-item menu and spicy rigatoni vodka. He describes finding partners Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi after being blown away by their food at Torrisi, and the story of Carbone's iconic neon sign, broken by the previous owner but retained. The episode covers their expansion into private members clubs (ZZ's) with subscription models and a culinary concierge, and their rapid Miami growth—opening Carbone on Collins in 100 days without moving a single wall, achieving over $30 million in annual revenue. Zalaznick also shares their move into hotels, branded residential towers, and even Carbone tomato sauce sold in thousands of stores.