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PODCAST

Newcomer Pod

Eric Newcomer | newcomer.co

Hi, I"m Eric Newcomer. With this podcast, I dive straight into the heart of the tech industry, interviewing top investors and founders. I’m bringing my sensibility as someone who understands the inside story of Silicon Valley but who is happy to poke and prod as to why the tech world operates like it does. If you want first-person and insider information delivered to your newsletter, subscribe to my podcast at newcomer.co on Substack.

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All Episodes

01:00:10

Jim Lanzone — "They Had a Chance to Sell for $44...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/04/07

Jim Lanzone has spent his entire career betting on companies the internet forgot about and making them matter again. CEO of Ask.com, Tinder, and now Yahoo. Eric sat down with him to find out how he pulled off the turnaround nobody thought was possible, what single decision handed Google the internet, and why Yahoo is building its own AI search product for the first time in over a decade.They get into the $44 billion Microsoft deal Yahoo walked away from, why AI chatbots are failing publishers and

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01:25:12

The Startup That Crashed Its Own Servers Because of...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/03/31

VCs surveyed across the industry ranked their most exciting enterprise tech companies and the #1 early stage pick was a name almost nobody had heard of. Eric sits down with Han Wang, CEO of Mintlify, the knowledge infrastructure platform that quietly powers the docs for Anthropic, Lovable, and thousands of other companies and found out their servers crashed overnight because of Open Claw before Han even knew what it was.Then in the second half, Eric talks to Jesse Zhang, CEO of Decagon, ranked #4 on

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01:05:09

Matt Mahan — "California's Failure Is the Best...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/03/24

Matt Mahan is the Mayor of San Jose and a candidate for Governor of California. He is one of the only prominent Democrats in the state willing to say out loud that California's failure to fix housing, homelessness, and energy costs has handed the MAGA movement its best ammunition. It isn't a partisan argument. It's a governance one.In this conversation, Eric sits down with Matt to get into why California has spent $20 billion on high speed rail and delivered nothing, why the billionaire

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00:56:01

Shardul Shah — "I wired the money before knowing what...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/03/20

Shardul Shah, Partner at Index Ventures, was one of the first checks into Wiz — the Israeli cybersecurity company Google acquired for $32 billion. It wasn't luck. It was a decade-long relationship with the founders, a willingness to wire money on conviction alone, and a philosophy that treats risk calculus as a fool's errand.In this conversation, Eric sits down with Shardul to unpack how the Wiz deal actually came together, what Google really bought for $32 billion, and why mid-sized

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01:02:06

Barry McCardel on Why Everyone Is Copying Palantir’s...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/03/16

Barry McCardel spent years at Palantir before co-founding Hex, the AI data platform he describes as “Cursor for data.” In this conversation with Eric Newcomer, he breaks down Palantir’s business model, the truth about forward deployed engineers, how AI agents are changing data analytics and business intelligence, and why Hex is taking a different path in enterprise software.They also get into AI agents, the future of data work, the reinvention of business intelligence, whether white-collar jobs are

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00:50:12

Rick Heitzmann: The AI Boom Is Forcing a New IPO Wave

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/03/09

Rick Heitzmann of FirstMark joins the Newcomer Podcast to discuss the state of venture capital, the AI investment boom, and why the next wave of tech IPOs may be closer than many expect.Rick shares how investors are thinking about AI infrastructure, the role of data as the core advantage in the AI race, and why massive private capital has allowed companies to stay private far longer than in previous cycles. As AI companies continue raising unprecedented amounts of money, the conversation turns to

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00:46:52

Can Tech Work With Zohran Mamdani? | Julie Samuels

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/03/04

How does New York’s tech industry navigate AI, city politics, and a new mayor in the Trump era?Julie Samuels, President and CEO of Tech:NYC, joins the Newcomer Podcast to discuss the growing intersection of technology and politics. Samuels has spent years at the center of New York’s tech ecosystem, working with founders and policymakers as the industry becomes a larger force in public policy.Eric and Julie talk about tensions between the tech industry and progressive politics, including the rise of

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00:55:16

Jeremy Levine on AI Hype, Market Cycles & Playing the...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/02/19

How does one of the most established venture capital firms in the world think about the so called “SaaS apocalypse”?Jeremy Levine of Bessemer Venture Partners joins the Newcomer Podcast to discuss the SaaS repricing, the acceleration of AI, and why venture capital remains a long game.We unpack whether SaaS is broken or simply reset after years of excess, and why AI companies are scaling faster than anything we have seen before. Jeremy shares his perspective on foundation model giants like Anthropic,

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01:11:04

Keith Rabois and Eric Newcomer's Heated Conversation...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/02/12

Keith Rabois joins the Newcomer Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation that moves between tech, venture capital, and politics.On the tech side, we start with Brex being acquired by Capital One and what that means for Ramp. Rabois argues that banks won’t build the “finance organization of the 21st century,” and frames Ramp’s ambition as building the CFO’s “eyes, ears, and actions” across a company. We also discuss Rippling’s strategy, investor responsibilities around integrity and ethics, and how he

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01:01:46

Yoni Rechtman Unfiltered on Trump, AI Roll-Ups & Why...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/02/07

Today on the Newcomer Podcast, we're joined by Yoni Rechtman, a partner at Slow Ventures and one of the most outspoken voices in venture capital right now. Rechtman doesn't hold back on Trump, the tech industry's political reckoning, or where the real opportunities in AI actually are.We talk about why Slow Ventures deliberately avoided foundation models despite the massive returns, where the second-order effects of AI create better investment opportunities, and how the firm is using

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01:03:50

Tony Fadell Unfiltered on Apple, OpenAI & the Next...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/01/28

Today on the Newcomer Podcast, we’re joined by Tony Fadell, one of the most influential figures in modern hardware design. Fadell helped bring some of the most important consumer electronics to life and has shaped how people interact with technology.We talk about where the next major tech device might come from, whether it’s a pin, a pen, headphones, or the device already in your pocket, and how Apple and other major tech companies are approaching the future of hardware.We also discuss the rumors

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00:29:01

What the AI Boom Means for Databases and Enterprise...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/01/26

Today on the Newcomer Podcast, we’re at MongoDB.Local for a series of conversations on how enterprise AI is actually being built.MongoDB CEO CJ Desai joins the show 65 days into the role to explain why San Francisco is “back,” how MongoDB is repositioning itself for the AI era, and why unstructured data has made the company’s platform a natural foundation for AI-native applications. He shares his view on the AI hype cycle, the rapid rise of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, and why MongoDB is

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01:08:57

Katie Benner on Meritocracy, Race, and American...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/01/16

Today on the podcast, we’re joined by an old friend, New York Times correspondent Katie Benner.We look back on our days covering tech together at The Information and our old podcast Dead Cat, before diving into her new book, Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises.The book examines a school reform experiment that claimed a 100 percent college acceptance rate, and what happened when the pressure to prove success overtook reality. Benner’s reporting traces how race,

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00:42:00

2026 Predictions: AI Grammy Winner, OpenAI Buying...

Newcomer Pod ·

2026/01/09

The AI boom is hitting real limits. In this episode, the Newcomer team breaks down why data centers are running out of power, what is really happening inside OpenAI after its latest shakeup, and why neocloud players like CoreWeave may be heading toward a financial crunch.Eric Newcomer, Tom Dotan, and Maline Renberg explain the investor panic behind the scenes, the brutal GPU economics, and what these cracks mean for the future of AI infrastructure.

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01:12:03

The Tech Quotes That Defined 2025

Newcomer Pod ·

2025/12/31

What do Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk actually believe about the future of tech?In this episode of the Newcomer Podcast, we break down the quotes that defined tech in 2025. From OpenAI and Anthropic to venture capital, regulation, and Silicon Valley power, these are the moments where powerful people said the quiet part out loud.Rather than reacting to headlines, we look at the specific lines that revealed how AI companies think about compute and money, how

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00:43:18

The Secret to Raising $9B

Newcomer Pod ·

2025/12/19

How do you quietly raise $9 billion in a world obsessed with hype? In today’s episode, we break down the rise of Lightspeed Venture Partners: the ultra-successful, strangely under-the-radar mega-fund shaping the next decade of AI, enterprise, and consumer tech. Lightspeed has posted huge exits this year while sidestepping the froth of the AI bubble… so what are they doing differently?But first, we dig into the new rift between Amazon and OpenAI, and how shifting alliances in Big Tech are reshaping

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00:24:45

IF NETFLIX WINS WITH WARNER BROS... They’ll STILL...

Newcomer Pod ·

2025/12/12

The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery is over…for now. Netflix shocked Hollywood by announcing a deal to acquire the storied studio and its crown jewel, HBO Max, beating out a massive $108 billion hostile bid from Paramount.But in this episode, we argue that the $87 billion mega-deal is nothing more than a desperate move by Hollywood to consolidate power. David Zaslav’s WBD was a "fiasco," and the merger of "prestige" content like Succession with Netflix's data-driven

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00:23:39

OF COURSE, Trump’s AI Czar David Sacks Has ALSO...

Newcomer Pod ·

2025/12/09

In this episode, we break down the revelations around David Sacks, the venture capitalist now serving as the Trump administration’s de-facto AI czar, while simultaneously holding deep financial ties across the AI industry he’s helping shape.Following the New York Times’ recent reporting, we examine how Sacks positioned himself at the center of both AI policy and AI investing, and what happens when the person influencing federal AI strategy is also betting on the companies affected by those

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00:34:54

Inside the Sex Cult That Fooled Silicon Valley

Newcomer Pod ·

2025/12/08

Investigative journalist Ellen Huet joins the show to discuss her stunning new book on OneTaste, the wellness startup that rose to Silicon Valley fame before spiraling into allegations of manipulation, coercion, and cult-like control. We unpack how a company selling “female empowerment” turned into one of tech’s most disturbing cautionary tales, and what its downfall reveals about power, charisma, and the blind spots of the startup world.This conversation goes deeper than the headlines and asks a

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01:03:21

Reid Hoffman on Epstein, Elon Musk, and why AI is NOT...

Newcomer Pod ·

2025/12/01

Reid Hoffman Breaks Silence on Epstein Emails & AI PowerToday on the Newcomer Podcast, Reid Hoffman joins me for a wide-ranging conversation on AI power, regulation, politics, and the future of the tech economy. We get into everything — AGI timelines, Sam Altman’s real competition, AI policy, and why Reid says we’re not in a bubble. We also cover his political involvement this year, the Epstein email revelations, and his views on crypto’s future in Washington.This is a fast, sharp, insider

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97 results

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