What it takes to be a top 1% creator - Cleo Abram

In this episode, we talked to Emil Michael, who is Silicon Valley's best dealmaker. This was a masterclass in negotiation, art of making deals, when to walk away from them, his story, working with Travis Kalanick at Uber, and so much more. Emil Michael is an investor and strategic advisor to many high growth tech startups. He was the Chief Business Officer at Uber, during it’s period of expoential growth where it was the most valuable startup in the world. He’s also held leadership roles at Tellme Networks which was acquired by Microsoft, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense under the Obama administration. Today he advices founders on fundraising, M&A, corporate strategy and culture, global expansion and building exec teams. Born in Egypt, with degress from Harvard and Stanford, to us, Emil is the embodiment of the American Dream, and how an outside can truly make it and become an insider.

In this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.

In this episode, our special guest is Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games, the game developer and publisher behind League of Legends. This was an awesome episode and Marc is a fantastic guest. We talk about the origin of League of Legends, building a gaming startup, player focused culture, fundraising, building 'Arcane' the popular Netflix show and so much more. Enjoy!

In this episode, we talk to Anders Hejlsberg, the creator of programming languages such. as C#, Typescript, Turbo Pascal and Delphi, on a life spent on building programming languages, the history of Java, his systems and setup, and what the future of programing languages looks like. Anders is someone we have looked up to for a big part of our lives, and this episode was a treat for us!

In this episode, we talked to Elad Gil - a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, operating executive, and investor or advisor to companies including AirBnB, Pinterest, Square, and Stripe. He is also the author of High Growth Handbook, the playbook for turning a startup into a unicorn, and for navigating the most complex challenges that confront leaders and operators in high-growth tech startups. We covered a wide variety of topics during this chat - the current economic conditions and what it means for tech startups, his investing philosophy, how he finds founders, on AI and the AI market map, on energy and the politics of nuclear energy and so much more. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:42 Who is Elad Gil 2:42 What motivates Elad 4:56 Elad’s first investment(s) 6:24 Who to invest in? How has it changed over time 8:48 What Elad looks for in a founding team 13:47 Startups during COVID 21:33 Bloated companies and layoffs 30:16 M&A and the state of seed market 33:30 Why Elad does it all by himself 35:35 What to do if you got laid off 38:27 The state of Artificial Intelligence startups 44:26 The AI market map and used cases 55:12 Will AI replace human jobs? 58:30 Elad’s history in energy 1:00:00 Carbon footprint & nuclear energy 1:01:49 The history and politics of Nuclear energy 1:11:30 Talent and human capital flow 1:16:26 How Elad finds the smartest builders 1:18:07 Looking back and predictions 1:20:20 Passing the baton in Silicon Valley

This week, we're doing a quick 'solo episode' where we talk about layoffs in tech, what to do if you are impacted, the power of networking, shifting careers, consulting, and hitting the reset button. If you've been impacted by the recent tech layoffs, or have wondered how to think about layoffs and their impact, this episode is for you.

This week we dive deep with Noam Shazeer, founder of Character.AI, Google veteran, and inventor of much of the current revolution in large language models including transformers, Mesh-Tensorflow, T5, and Google’s LaMDA dialog system. We cover: the evolution of Google and AI, transformers, LLMs, neural networks, commercialization of Google’s research, future of ChatGPT and AI, engineering philosophy, his work at Character.AI, and much more!

Andy Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian, Artemis, Project Hail Mary, and Cheshire Crossing. His 2011 novel The Martian was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. In this episode, we talked about his story from being a software developer to a sci-fi author, getting a movie deal for The Martian starring Matt Damon, how humanity can go to another planet, his favorite sci-fi authors and what's next for him. As sci-fi nerds, this was a really fun episode for us - we hope you enjoy it too!

Brian Grazer is an Academy and Emmy award winning producer and writer. Grazer was personally nominated for four Academy Awards for Splash (1984), Apollo 13 (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Frost/Nixon (2008). His films and TV series have been nominated for 47 Academy Awards and 217 Emmy Awards. In 2002, Grazer won an Oscar for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (shared with Ron Howard). In this episode, we talked to Brian about his unique career path going from an outsider to a Hollywood insider, his curiosity, working with Ron Howard, making epic movies and so much more.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits (that sold over 9m copies!) and the popular 3-2-1 newsletter. We talked to him about writing and marketing a NYTimes bestseller, how to pick up good habits, the collective impact of small actions, and so much more. Check it out!

'tis the time for our year end roundup - we talk about our favorite episodes this year, and our favorite other content - books, movies, in-person meetup, tech trends, and what is getting us excited about 2023. Happy holidays!

This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Indra Nooyi joins us this week as our special guest. In this episode we talked about her upbringing and early life, her career including leading PepsiCo, her leadership lessons, making it as an immigrant, and her experience meeting Steve Jobs. Born in Madras (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, India, Indra Nooyi is an American business executive and former chairperson and CEO of Pepsico. She has consistently ranked among the world’s 100 most powerful women. She serves on the boards of Amazon and ICC. In 2007, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the country’s 3rd highest civilian honor. For more conversations with creators, builders and thinkers, subscribe to Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGoodTimeShowAarthiSriram

In this 'solo' episode, Sriram and Aarthi talk about their trip to India and hosting the first in-person meetup in Chennai for fans of the podcast, as well as Sriram's take on Elon's first few weeks at Twitter and what he learned from watching Elon at work.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Alexandr Wang is the founder and CEO of Scale AI. Alex is a 25 year old dropout from MIT, and is the youngest self made billionaire. Scale AI is the data platform for AI, providing high quality training data for leading machine learning teams. In this episode we talked about Alex's background and upbringing, how he stumbled onto the idea for Scale while building a camera in his refrigerator, the state of artificial intelligence, YCombinator (YC) program, department of defense and AI contracts, US vs China, use cases for artificial intelligence, how to solve for attribution and monetization for artists' IP in the world of AI, advice for founders. how to develop active thinking, company building and culture building.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to the one and only Marc Andreessen who is back by popular demand. For those of you (who are clearly living under a rock) who don't know him, Marc Andreessen is the co-founder of Netscape and co-founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz. He is an innovator and creator, one of the few to pioneer a software category used by more than a billion people and one of the few to establish multiple billion-dollar companies. He is, without exaggeration, one of the smartest person we've ever met. In this episode we talked about Elon Musk and what makes him really successful, how to know if your startup idea is good, how to find a co-founder, how to persevere, Marc's favorite books, and one of our favorite topics - how to have the courage to think creatively and independently without worrying about repercussions. We packed a lot into this one. Enjoy!

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Rich Roll, an ultra-endurance athlete who is vegan, a chart-topping podcast host and author of multiple bestselling books, on his journey from being in college at Stanford, becoming an alcoholic, and then at the age of 40, recovering from his addiction, finding purpose and becoming an ultra endurance athlete. We talked about his early life, recovery, resurgence, role of spirituality in his life, what a typical week of diet and exercise looks like, why he champions plant based nutrition, how to get started with making lifestyle changes, what makes people like Andrew Huberman and Robin Arzon so successful and what it means to him to find so much success later in life.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Tanmay Bhat, arguably India's most famous comedian, YouTuber, scriptwriter, actor, performer, producer and startup investor. We talked about Tanmay's early start with Youtube (a decade ago!), getting into live streaming, what a 'plandid' is, breaking down the construction of a joke, how comedy varies for different cultures and audiences, getting marriage proposals (!), dealing with haters, what makes Dave Chapelle, Andrew Shulz and other comedians successful, and finally Tanmay's foray into health and wellness, and getting into crypto investing and building with Superteam.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Emad Mostaque, the founder and CEO of Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion AI (Artificial Intelligence). We covered everything from Emad's unique background, his religious beliefs as a Muslim, his son's autism diagnosis and how that shaped the building of Stable Diffusion, on LLMs (Large Language Models), how he thinks about AI ethics, how developing countries like India can leverage AI, and why he believes in open sourcing and democratizing access to AI technology. AI and it's role in everyday life, especially in art and creativity is all the rage right now, and there are many questions on the role of humans and the ethical questions that arise from leveraging Artificial Intelligence.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to the one and only Gary Vee (Gary Vaynerchuck). Gary talked about his decade-long history with the hosts, what it takes to be a good online creator, the power of creating content that is contextualized, his advice to young people, his views on Logan Paul, on why Mr. Beast is incredibly successful, and how to be a good parent. Enjoy!

In our first ever 'solo' episode (as Sriram says - 'we don't have a guest, but we have...each other'), Aarthi and Sriram talk about how to successfully onboard a new employee - both from the employer's perspective and for the new employee. And also, how to handle that first 1:1 with your manager, and the different tactics for onboarding for small startups vs bigger companies. And finally, how to think about promotions at work.

In this episode, hosts Aarthi and Sriram interviewed THE internet celebrity couple, Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano and Polina Marinova. We covered everything from their life stories, how they met, their current work and building an online audience, thoughts on Andrew Tate, The Rock and others, and their lessons on parenting, building content together and finding happiness.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram interviewed Laura Deming. Laura Deming is a partner at and founder of The Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm focused on aging and life extension. At age 8, Deming became interested in the biology of aging, and at age 12 she joined the lab of Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco. Deming was accepted to MIT at age 14 and later dropped out to accept the Thiel Fellowship and start a venture capital firm. We covered topics on aging, longevity research, the philosophical implications of living 'forever', contrarian thinking, beauty of mathematics (and the number 28), homeschooling and why research funding is a popularity contest now.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Saagar Enjeti who is a journalist, political commentator and the Co-Host of Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar and The Realignment Podcast. We covered a wide range of topics from Trump and the White House, Joe Rogan, woke culture, US Presidents, Lex Fridman, bro culture and fitness, and why he believes in the American Dream.

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talked to one of our favorite economist, blogger, podcast host and author, Tyler Cowen. Tyler Cowen is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He also writes the economics blog Marginal Revolution and hosts the podcast Conversations with Tyler.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talk to our special guest Andrew Yang, American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and political candidate and is the co-chair of the Forward Party. We talked about his new party, his books, the 2020 US Presidential election, ranked choice voting, UBI and his thoughts on Trump, being a social media phenomenon and author.

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram chatted with A.R. Rahman, Oscar-winning music composer, singer, songwriter and recently movie director, fondly known as "The Mozart of Madras". This was a very unique interview - we covered a wide range of topics from his music to movies, working with world class directors, his family and kids, spirituality and the meaning of life, his creative process, technology and AI and the future of India. This was a really interesting episode and was a bucket list interview for Aarthi and Sriram, and we hope you enjoy it too!

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Balaji Srinivasan, who is a tech founder, former CTO of Coinbase, multi-disciplinarian thinker and the author of The Network State (thenetworkstate.com). We covered a wide variety of topics ranging from transhumanism, what it takes to build a new country, how Balaji predicted the first and second order effects of the pandemic, why he's bullish on Indians, future of crypto, his productivity tips, thoughts on Elon Musk and Andrew Huberman and a lot more. Enjoy!

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Andreas Kling who has a remarkable story from discovering his love for building things at a young age, his career at Apple, struggles with addiction, and the creation of Serenity OS -- which he is building from scratch, in public.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram covered a timely yet tricky topic - politics in the workplace - with special guest, Marc Andreessen. We covered the history of politics at work, with companies like IBM, where we are currently, advice for founders and startups as they think about setting policies on "bringing your whole self to work" and more.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram interviewed the one and only NBA Champion Metta World Peace (fka Ron Artest). Metta is an amazing human being - warm, genuine, optimistic with a fantastic second career building a technology company and being a founder. We covered some great Kobe stories, lessons on winning the NBA championship, the brawl (IYKYK), cultivating a winning mindset and overcoming obstacles, on mental health and building a tech company.

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram covered what it takes to build an NFT project, how to think about community and culture in web3, aligning incentives between creators and community and how crypto unlocks a new creator economy. Our special guests were Justin Blau, the founder and CEO of Royal, a web3 company revolutionizing the music industry, and Nass and Stephane, crypto builders and founders of Rebels, a new NFT project.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, we interviewed Brian Armstrong, the founder and CEO of Coinbase, along with our usual guests, Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky. We covered the current crypto market, the economic downturn and what it means for web3, on building a mission driven organization and whether it was ok to bring politics to the workplace, and advice for founders building companies and fundraising in this current economic climate.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram cover the current economic conditions and what it means for technology startups and founders, as well as what it could mean for the future of Web3. We interviewed some of the best people in the business - Marc Andreessen and David George from a16z, former Microsoft exec and author Steven Sinofsky, veteran founder and investor Elad Gil, as well as Coinbase exec turned startup founder Dan Romero.

On this episode of the Good Time Show, we have our special guests - Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky - joining us. We covered memes and meme culture, Marc's latest set of tweets on The Current Thing, on not eating bugs/living in pods, and on the current economy and what it means for all of us.