Best Rocket Software Podcasts (2025)

1
Can America Win The AI Biotech Race Against China? | Lada Nuzhna & Elliot Hershberg 1:02:23

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6h ago1:02:23

1:02:23

Two venture capitalists dissect why biotech burns billions while China runs trials in weeks—and why the next Genentech won't look anything like the last one. Elliot Hershberg reveals the "three horsemen" strangling drug development as costs explode to $2.5 billion per approval, while Lada Nuzhna exposes how investigator-initiated trials in Shanghai…

1
The Frontier of Spatial Intelligence with Fei-Fei Li 44:11

1d ago44:11

44:11

Fei-Fei Li and Justin Johnson are pioneers in AI. While the world has only recently witnessed a surge in consumer AI, they have long been laying the groundwork for the innovations transforming industries today. With the recent launch of Marble, the first product from their company World Labs, we are revisiting this conversation to explore the ideas…

1
Rocket Companies CEO: Here’s How to Fix the Housing Crisis 55:55

2d ago55:55

55:55

The Empire State Building took 110 days to build—today, changing a window would take two years. Alex Rampell (a16z) and Varun Krishna (Rocket CEO) expose how asset inflation turned housing from the American Dream into a wealth transfer machine where the median homebuyer age jumped from 30 to 38 in just fourteen years. While Silicon Valley burns bil…

1
Grant Lee: Building Gamma’s AI Presentation Company to 100 Million Users 53:17

3d ago53:17

53:17

Grant Lee was told Gamma was "the worst idea ever heard" by an investor who hung up mid-Zoom—yet he built it to 100 million users and $100M ARR without spending a dollar on advertising. While competitors hired aggressively, Grant's team of seven refused to grow, dedicating 25% of their tiny team to design and personally onboarding every influencer …

1
Michael Truell: How Cursor Builds at the Speed of AI 27:30

4d ago27:30

27:30

When four MIT grads decided to build a code editor while everyone else was building AI agents, they created the fastest-growing developer tool ever built. Cursor CEO Michael Truell joins a16z’s Martin Casado to discuss the deliberate constraints that led to breakthroughs: why they rejected the "democratization" narrative to focus on power users, ho…

1
a16z's State of Crypto: The $4 Trillion Milestone and What's Next' 1:38:31

5d ago1:38:31

1:38:31

The regulatory environment has completely inverted. Stablecoins are now a top 20 holder of US treasuries. Every major bank wants in. In a16z Crypto's 2025 State of Crypto report, Daren Matsuoka (Head of Data) and Eddy Lazzarin (CTO) reveal how crypto hit $4 trillion market cap while fundamentally reshaping how institutions think about payments, wit…

1
Amjad Masad & Adam D’Angelo: How Far Are We From AGI? 1:02:44

8d ago1:02:44

1:02:44

Adam D’Angelo (Quora/Poe) thinks we're 5 years from automating remote work. Amjad Masad (Replit) thinks we're brute-forcing intelligence without understanding it. In this conversation, two technical founders who are building the AI future disagree on almost everything: whether LLMs are hitting limits, if we're anywhere close to AGI, and what happen…

1
Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: How AI Will Cure All Disease 45:21

8d ago45:21

45:21

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg join a16z’s Ben Horowitz, Erik Torenberg, and Vineeta Agarwala to share how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is building the computational tools that will accelerate the cure, prevention, and management of all disease by century's end. They explain why basic science needs $100 million-scale projects that traditional…

1
Seeing The Future from AI Companions to Personal Software 50:20

9d ago50:20

50:20

Eugenia Kuyda, CEO of Wabi and AI pioneer behind Replika, joins Erik, Anish, and Justine to reveal how personal software will transform from a developer monopoly to a creative medium for all. She exposes why command-line AI interfaces are the new MS-DOS, explains how mini-apps will become as shareable as TikToks, and details her decade-long journey…

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ElevenLabs CEO: Why Voice is the Next AI Interface 31:14

9d ago31:14

31:14

ElevenLabs CEO and co‑founder Mati Staniszewski joins Jennifer Li to explain how the team ships research‑grade AI at lightning speed—from text‑to‑speech and fully licensed AI music to real‑time voice agents—and why voice is the next interface for human‑computer interaction. He shares the small, autonomous team model, global hiring approach, and how…

1
David Sacks: AI, Crypto, China, Dems, and SF 1:16:57

12d ago1:16:57

1:16:57

David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Czar, joins Marc, Ben, and Erik to explore what's really happening inside the Trump administration's AI and crypto strategy. They expose the regulatory capture playbook being pushed by certain AI companies, explain why open source is America's secret weapon, and detail the infrastructure crisis that could dete…

1
Why Speed, Not Size, Will Define the Next War 39:25

14d ago39:25

39:25

As global tensions rise, AI and autonomy are transforming how nations prepare for conflict. In this episode, Horacio Rozanski, CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton and Gary Shield, CEO of Shield AI join Erik Torenberg to discuss how technology, speed, and public–private partnerships are reshaping America’s defense strategy. They cover lessons from Ukraine an…

1
Beyond Chatbots: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on AI's Future 38:11

14d ago38:11

38:11

In this closing keynote from a16z’s Runtime conference, General Partner Erik Torenberg speaks with our firm’s cofounders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on highlights from throughout the conference, the current state of LLM capabilities, and why despite huge capex, AI is not a bubble. Resources: Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca Follow Ben o…

1
"Is there an AI bubble?” Gavin Baker and David George 31:50

15d ago31:50

31:50

In this conversation from a16z’s Runtime conference, Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of Atreides Management, joins David George, General Partner at a16z, to unpack the macro view of AI: the trillion-dollar data center buildout, the new economics of GPUs, and what this boom means for investors, founders, and the global economy. Resources: Foll…

1
Building the Real-World Infrastructure for AI, with Google, Cisco & a16z 32:44

16d ago32:44

32:44

AI isn’t just changing software, it’s causing the biggest buildout of physical infrastructure in modern history. In this episode, Raghu Raghuram (a16z) speaks with Amin Vahdat, VP and GM of AI and Infrastructure at Google, and Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, about the unprecedented scale of what’s being built — from chips…

1
Google DeepMind Developers: How Nano Banana Was Made 54:19

17d ago54:19

54:19

Google DeepMind’s new image model Nano Banana took the internet by storm. In this episode, we sit down with Principal Scientist Oliver Wang and Group Product Manager Nicole Brichtova to discuss how Nano Banana was created, why it’s so viral, and the future of image and video editing. Resources: Follow Oliver on X: https://x.com/oliver_wang2 Follow …

1
Raghu Raghuram: AI, Robotics, and the Rebirth of Infrastructure 30:12

19d ago30:12

30:12

From Netscape to VMware, Raghu Raghuram has been at the center of nearly every major inflection point in enterprise technology. In this episode, Raghu joins Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado and David George to reflect on the early internet wars with Microsoft, how Netscape’s browser battles shaped a generation of founders, and the inside story of one of…

1
Marc Andreessen: How Movies Explain America 1:15:30

21d ago1:15:30

1:15:30

In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc Andreessen, Katherine Boyle, and Erik Torenberg dive into the movies that best explain America, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Tropic Thunder to Fight Club. They explore how Tarantino’s revisionist masterpiece reimagines 1969 and the end of America’s cultural innocence, why Tropic Thunder was…

1
Marc Andreessen and Amjad Masad: English As the New Programming Language 1:11:38

23d ago1:11:38

1:11:38

Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, joins a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg to discuss the new world of AI agents, the future of programming, and how software itself is beginning to build software. They trace the history of computing to the rise of AI agents that can now plan, reason, and code for hours without breaking, and explore how…

1
The First Customer - The Art of Turning Pocket Change into Capital Gains with Founder Sean Heberling 25:04

16d ago25:04

25:04

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Sean Heberling, founder and CEO of Marion Street Capital. From buying up newspaper routes as a kid in Rochester, New York, to hiring friends and building a mini “paperboy empire,” Sean’s early ventures taught him how to scale, manage people, and spot opportunity. Those same instincts followed him thr…

1
Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code 1:25:15

24d ago1:25:15

1:25:15

In this episode, a16z's Anish Acharya joins Kevin Rose for an in-depth, fast-paced conversation on the rebirth of consumer technology, and how AI is reshaping what it means to build, invest, and create. They talk about why AI has reignited the consumer renaissance, what it means to build “weird and working” products, and how the next wave of apps w…

1
How Kong Was Born: APIs, Hustle, and the Future of AI Infrastructure 37:57

25d ago37:57

37:57

Augusto Marietti, CEO and cofounder of Kong, has one of the most remarkable founder stories in Silicon Valley history. In this conversation with Martin Casado, Aghi shares how he went from a garage in Milan to building one of the world’s leading API infrastructure companies, surviving years of rejection, living in the U.S. on $1,000 a month, and ra…

1
Reid Hoffman on AI, Consciousness, and the Future of Humanity 53:00

25d ago53:00

53:00

Reid Hoffman has been at the center of every major tech shift, from co-founding LinkedIn and helping build PayPal to investing early in OpenAI. In this conversation, he looks ahead to the next transformation: how artificial intelligence will reshape work, science, and what it means to be human. In this episode, Reid joins Erik Torenberg and Alex Ra…

1
Marc Andreessen on the State of Film and Hollywood 1:07:46

29d ago1:07:46

1:07:46

Hollywood is going through a major cultural and creative reset, and Marc Andreessen thinks it’s long overdue. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc joins Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle to dissect the past decade of filmmaking, from the rise of “the message” in every movie to the return of genuine comedy and art. They cover the post-…

1
Keith Rabois: Israel, OpenAI, Opendoor, and DOGE 49:08

30d ago49:08

49:08

From politics to technology to real estate, Keith Rabois has bold predictions for America’s next decade. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg, Keith breaks down why he believes the U.S. is entering a new economic expansion driven by AI, productivity, and sovereign technology. They discuss how AI could lift GDP growth to 5%, why sovereign AI pro…

1
Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi: How to Run a Billion-Dollar Business 1:04:36

1M ago1:04:36

1:04:36

By Ben Horowitz, Ali Ghodsi, Erik Torenberg

1
Is AI Slowing Down? Nathan Labenz Says We're Asking the Wrong Question 1:31:02

1M ago1:31:02

1:31:02

Nathan Labenz is one of the clearest voices analyzing where AI is headed, pairing sharp technical analysis with his years of work on The Cognitive Revolution. In this episode, Nathan joins a16z’s Erik Torenberg to ask a pressing question: is AI progress actually slowing down, or are we just getting used to the breakthroughs? They discuss the debate…

1
Columbia CS Professor: Why LLMs Can’t Discover New Science 50:54

1M ago50:54

50:54

From GPT-1 to GPT-5, LLMs have made tremendous progress in modeling human language. But can they go beyond that to make new discoveries and move the needle on scientific progress? We sat down with distinguished Columbia CS professor Vishal Misra to discuss this, plus why chain-of-thought reasoning works so well, what real AGI would look like, and w…

1
Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land? 52:44

1M ago52:44

52:44

Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about t…

1
The First Customer - How Visualization Became the Secret Weapon in Finance with Founder Adam Holt 27:31

30d ago27:31

27:31

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Adam Holt, founder and CEO of Asset-Map. Adam talks about how his entrepreneurial drive took shape from his early years in New York to leading one of the most innovative platforms in financial visualization. Adam shares how his mother’s example as a self-made realtor influenced his approach to busine…

1
Sam Altman on Sora, Energy, and Building an AI Empire 48:25

1M ago48:25

48:25

Sam Altman has led OpenAI from its founding as a research nonprofit in 2015 to becoming the most valuable startup in the world ten years later. In this episode, a16z Cofounder Ben Horowitz and General Partner Erik Torenberg sit down with Sam to discuss the core thesis behind OpenAI’s disparate bets, why they released Sora, how they use models inter…

1
How to Build a Real Estate Marketplace - Kaz Nejatian, Opendoor CEO 55:44

1M ago55:44

55:44

By Kaz Nejatian, Alex Rampell

1
Can the US Beat China’s Engineering State? 1:03:10

1M ago1:03:10

1:03:10

From high-speed rail to electric cars to batteries to AI, it’s clear that China can operate with incredible speed at massive scale. Can the US still compete? We sat down with Dan Wang, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” to discuss. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 1:36 Lawyers…

1
Monitoring the Situation #2: Alana Newhouse 58:58

1M ago58:58

58:58

Two trends in media have been abundantly clear since 2020: legacy media is dying, and independent media is rising. a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle sit down with Tablet founder and editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse to discuss the great media realignment, why real institutions will outlast the new “internet pirates", Alana’s dee…

1
Software is Eating Labor 26:49

1M ago26:49

26:49

Software has fundamentally changed the way we record, store, and share information. Its next act is to fundamentally change the nature of our economy, capturing trillions of dollars of value in the process. In this talk from the 2025 a16z LP Summit, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell discusses the history of filing cabinets and databases, how SaaS p…

1
The Ben & Marc Show: China Has Scale. Can America Catch Up? 57:16

1M ago57:16

57:16

Ben, Marc, and Erik Torenberg are joined by Brian Schimpf, Co-Founder & CEO of Anduril, and Chris Power, Founder & CEO of Hadrian. Together, they dig into America’s defense production gap: why the U.S. can out-innovate but not out-produce—and what it will take to turn that around. They discuss why U.S. war games show we run out of munitions in a we…

1
The First Customer - Turning Small-Town Hustle Into Big-Time Software with Founder Joshua Davidson 33:24

1M ago33:24

33:24

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Joshua Davidson, CEO and founder of Chop Dawg. Growing up just outside of Atlantic City during the Great Recession, Josh saw firsthand how fragile traditional industries could be. Watching friends’ families lose homes and his father work multiple jobs gave him a survival instinct and a drive to creat…

1
Cheeky Pint: Marc Andreessen, John Collison & Charlie Songhurst on Tech’s Big Questions 2:09:12

1M ago2:09:12

2:09:12

Today we’re sharing a feed drop from Cheeky Pint, where Stripe cofounder and president John Collison chats with legends in technology over a pint of Guinness. In this episode, John is joined by a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen and tech investor Charlie Songhurst for a candid conversation about bubbles, downturns, and the psychology of markets. They d…

1
Building an AI Physicist: ChatGPT Co-Creator’s Next Venture 54:20

2M ago54:20

54:20

Scaling laws took us from GPT-1 to GPT-5 Pro. But in order to crack physics, we’ll need a different approach. In this episode, a16z General Partner Anjney Midha talks to Liam Fedus, former VP of post-training research and co-creator of ChatGPT at OpenAI, and Ekin Dogus Cubuk, former head of materials science and chemistry research at Google DeepMin…

1
Meta CMO: How Advertising Works Under the Hood 1:02:52

2M ago1:02:52

1:02:52

Ads pay for the internet—and they’re about to change again. a16z General Partner Erik Torenberg, entrepreneur and author Antonio García Martínez, and Meta CMO Alex Schultz dive into growth and performance marketing, privacy myths, retail media, and the AI future of “audience-of-one” advertising—plus Instagram what-ifs, WhatsApp as a super-app, and …

1
The Common Thread of All Technology: Monitoring the Situation, Ep.1 1:00:02

2M ago1:00:02

1:00:02

Announcing our new show, Monitoring the Situation, hosted by a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg and Katherine Boyle, with guest Eddie Lazzarin, CTO of a16z crypto. In this first episode, we ask how American Dynamism, consumer, games, and crypto all fit together, from Palmer/Oculus to Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto, while also explori…

1
From Vibe Coding to Vibe Researching: OpenAI’s Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki 52:05

2M ago52:05

52:05

What comes after vibe coding? Maybe vibe researching. OpenAI’s Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki, and Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, join a16z general partners Anjney Midha and Sarah Wang to go deep on GPT-5—how they fused fast replies with long-horizon reasoning, how they measure progress once benchmarks saturate, and why reinforcement learning …

1
Software finally eats services - Aaron Levie 59:33

2M ago59:33

59:33

Should the US put a price on H-1B visas, or would that block the flow of new talent? Are AI coding agents actually making teams way more productive, or is it just hype? And in the AI platform shift, will the big winners be incumbents or new AI-native startups? Erik Torenberg is joined by Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie, a16z board partner Steven…

1
The First Customer - The Hidden Dynamics That Make Communities Thrive with CEO Rob Wenger 27:17

2M ago27:17

27:17

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Rob Wenger, CEO and founder of Higher Logic. Rob shares how Higher Logic evolved from a LinkedIn-style networking idea into a powerful engagement platform serving over 3,000 clients worldwide. With a focus on professional communities—ranging from doctors and accountants to global corporations—Rob exp…

1
America's Autism Crisis and How AI Can Fix Science with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya 58:13

2M ago58:13

58:13

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is one of the country’s top medical experts and a 24-year professor of medicine at Stanford. After being censored and deplatformed during COVID for his role in opposing harsh lockdowns, he was appointed Director of the National Institutes of Health by President Trump in 2025. a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Vineeta Agarwa…

1
Dylan Patel on the AI Chip Race - NVIDIA, Intel & the US Government vs. China 1:40:00

2M ago1:40:00

1:40:00

Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel is one of the biggest surprises in semiconductors in years. Two longtime rivals are now teaming up, and the ripple effects could reshape AI, cloud, and the global chip race. To make sense of it all, Erik Torenberg is joined by Dylan Patel, chief analyst at SemiAnalysis, joins Sarah Wang, general partner at a1…

1
Charlie Kirk and the Rise of Political Violence 23:39

2M ago23:39

23:39

In this episode of Honestly with Bari Weiss, we share a special conversation featuring a16z general partner Katherine Boyle in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s shocking assassination. Katherine reflects on what courage means in a culture where words and debate are increasingly met with violence. Drawing on faith, history, and her own response to recent t…

1
The First Customer - The Practice of Longevity in Digital Product Work with Mile6 Founder Tim Haak 32:22

2M ago32:22

32:22

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Tim Haak, founder and Vice President of Innovation at Mile6. Tim shares how growing up in a small-town family business shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, and how his curiosity for technology led him to build his first websites as a teenager—before he even had his driver’s license. From those humble …

1
The Death of Search: How Shopping Will Work In The Age of AI 45:22

2M ago45:22

45:22

The web is unhealthy, and AI agents are about to rewrite how we shop. In this episode, a16z General Partner Alex Rampell and Partner Justine Moore explore how AI agents will change commerce and the implications for Google’s business model, affiliate marketing, online shopping, and more. Timecodes: 0:00 Introduction 0:12 The Role of AI Agents in Com…

1
How OpenAI Built Its Coding Agent 1:20:12

2M ago1:20:12

1:20:12

OpenAI’s Codex has already shipped hundreds of thousands of pull requests in its first month. But what is it really, and how will coding agents change the future of software? In this episode, General Partner Anjney Midha goes behind the scenes with one of Codex’s product leads- Alexander Embiricos - to unpack its origin story, why its PR success ra…