Best Unprofessional Engineering Podcasts (2025)

1
Kobie Fuller: Upfront Ventures Partner’s High-Speed Sprint from Track Star to Venture Capital Powerhouse 44:15

1M ago44:15

44:15

Kobie Fuller is a partner at Upfront Ventures. He came to the firm after investing at Accel and leading marketing efforts at EVOLVE, the large global fashion ecommerce platform. Highlights from our conversation. -- we covered a lot of ground, so this is just a small part: Kobie’s Athletic Background and Vision for Track and Field: Kobie, a former t…

1
David Anderman: Space (Investing) is Big. Really Big. From Lucasfilm’s Star Wars to SpaceX to…The Final Frontier 58:34

3M ago58:34

58:34

David Anderman is co-founder and General Partner of Stellar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage space technology startups. He spent 16 years at Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the Star Wars franchise. As Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, he notably negotiated Lucasfilm’s $4 billion sale to Disney in 2012. Moving from imagi…

1
Cyan Banister: The Future is Cool Again / Falling in Love with Technology / A Brush with Star Wars 1:06:05

4M ago1:06:05

1:06:05

Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures is truly one of the most successful and interesting early stage venture investors. And by ‘successful investor’, I mean “invested early in Uber and SpaceX” kind of successful. She overcame a challenging childhood that included periods of homelessness (a surprisingly uplifting story, covered deeply in Tim Ferri…

1
Roger Ehrenberg: From IA Ventures to Eberg Capital – A Top Silicon Valley Investor Turns to Sports 57:51

5M ago57:51

57:51

Roger Ehrenberg's career spans three remarkable acts, each of which would be impressive on its own. He founded IA Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm, in 2010. IA Ventures invested in numerous successful startups, including Datadog, Digital Ocean, The Trade Desk, and Wise. His work with IA Ventures has earned him recognition as a three-time…

1
Mark Scianna: From Palantir Engineer to Venture Capitalist / Inside Palantir’s Early Days / VC Discovers Defense Tech 1:00:15

5M ago1:00:15

1:00:15

Mark Scianna, the founder of venture firm "Forward Deployed," which targets sectors like Defense, Energy, and A.I., was spotlighted as a 'top emerging manager' in 2022. Starting his journey as an engineer and an early investor at Palantir, Scianna offers an insider's perspective in this episode, unraveling the enigma of Palantir's inception and met…

1
Winter Mead: How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund (and more!), From Coolwater Capital’s Founder 57:13

7M ago57:13

57:13

Winter Mead is the author of How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide on Fundraising and Understanding Limited Partners. He is also founder of Coolwater Capital, a new model that helps launch, build, and scale emerging fund managers While there are a lot of investors (known in the parlance as “LPs”), and certainly a lot of funds – t…

1
Max Altman and Ben Braverman: Returning to Tradition with Saga Ventures 48:05

8M ago48:05

48:05

Max Altman and Ben Braverman were both pretty close to Silicon Valley royalty before they started Saga Ventures. Max had built Alt Capital with his brothers Sam and Jack. Ben had helped Ryan Peterson build Flexport as its Chief Revenue Officer. Recently, they came together with a third partner (Thomson Nguyen, who does not appear in this episode) t…

1
Alexis Gay: Silicon Valley’s Favorite Comedian Makes her “Unprofessional” Debut 55:00

9M ago55:00

55:00

If you don’t already know about Alexis Gay, you’re about to. Alexis is the creator and star of her solo comedy show, “Unprofessional”. Recently, her show was a hit at the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she's now touring the show for audiences across the United States. Alexis previously worked in the tech industry running Business Ope…

1
Adeyemi Ajao: A Founder Turned VC on Building Base10 Partners, and the Abundance Mindset 33:36

9M ago33:36

33:36

In this episode of Something Ventured, I talk to Adeyemi “Ade” Ajao, co-founder of Base10 Partners, one of the largest Black-led venture capital firms in the world. Ade shares his journey from growing up in Nigeria and Spain to building multiple successful companies, including Tuenti, which was sold to Telefonica. He also discusses his transition i…

1
Ignition Partners' Nick Sturiale: Reflections on a Life in Venture 43:24

10M ago43:24

43:24

Nick Sturiale reflects on a career working in venture capital, in which he invested early in companies such as Splunk, Bill.com, and Reputation.com. Nick shares insights from his extensive career, which spans roles at Ignition Partners, Icon Ventures, Seven Rosen Funds, and the Carlyle Group, among others. He reflects on the evolution of the ventur…

1
Founder Collective's Eric Paley on Empathy and Execution in Venture Capital 51:15

11M ago51:15

51:15

Eric Paley is a General Partner at Founder Collective, one of the great seed-stage venture capital brands - and one of the relatively few venture firms led by startup founders. As the name suggests, Founder Collective is a "founder stage" venture capital fund that focuses on providing the first professional round of capital to “entrepreneurs with c…

1
Homebrew’s Hunter Walk and Satya Patel: The Power of a Partnership 56:01

1y ago56:01

56:01

Homebrew is one of the great venture firm names. It hearkens back to the 1970s era computer hobbyist group that included people like Steve Jobs. Hunter Walk and Satya Patel are the partners who founded and built Homebrew (the venture capital firm). Nevertheless, if you say “Hunter and Satya” in Silicon Valley, people will know exactly who you are t…

1
Atari’s founder Nolan Bushnell and Dr. Leah Hanes Have a (Better) Plan for Educating America 46:20

1+ y ago46:20

46:20

Nolan Bushnell’s career is extraordinary. Nolan has ignited two entertainment revolutions: first with Atari, birthing the video game industry through classics like Pong, and later with Chuck E. Cheese, merging pizza and arcade games for family fun. A serial entrepreneur, he's founded over 20 companies, venturing into robotics, personal computers, a…

1
Imitators of Men: Women's Suffrage Predictions 1:06:32

1+ y ago1:06:32

1:06:32

Alex gives Patrick permission to mansplain as they dive into the hilarious hysteria and hopeful hypes of women’s suffrage. In this episode, we're sifting through the outrageous omens of doom foretold by anti-suffragettes—think society crumbling, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! On the flip side, we're exploring the bright, optimistic v…

1
Bonus Episode: AI Predictions 41:24

1+ y ago41:24

41:24

Patrick and Alex record a time capsule episode, documenting current predictions about the future of AI. Only time will tell if they come true. This episode features talking to animals, putting lawyers out of work, and childrens' (yeah, definitely childrens') toys. Theme song is “Satellites” by Swenny. Links Lifehacker: This Article Was Written by A…

1
Richard Socher: Exploring AI with the Visionary AI Scientist, Entrepreneur and Investor 47:09

1+ y ago47:09

47:09

Richard Socher is a visionary computer scientist, entrepreneur, and AI researcher who has dedicated his career to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in AI. With a Ph.D. from Stanford University, Richard's groundbreaking work in deep learning, neural networks, and NLP has paved the way for remarkable advances in AI applications. It may seem l…

1
Fish Without Engines: Robert Boyle’s Scientific Wishlist 1:12:27

1+ y ago1:12:27

1:12:27

Dive deep into the 1600s with Alex and Patrick as they unravel the legacy of the visionary scientist, Robert Boyle. Known best for “Boyle’s Law” from our hazy high school days, it’s his riveting wishlist of 24 future advancements that’s kept history buffs intrigued. How many of Boyle’s wishes have come true in the past 400 years? Were they intended…

1
Hadley Harris: Building Eniac Ventures with 3 Friends / Investing in AI 45:31

2y ago45:31

45:31

What are the odds that 4 friends can start a VC firm, and still be firing on all cylinders years later? Hadley Harris, one of Eniac Ventures’ 4 co-founders has the answer. Before co-founding Eniac, Hadley was as a developer and engineering team lead at Pegasystems, and later took on roles as a product manager at Microsoft and strategist at Samsung.…

1
The Pushbutton Classroom: Education Predictions with Unprofessional Development 1:01:49

2y ago1:01:49

1:01:49

Patrick and Alex welcome their friends and hosts of the Unprofessional Development podcast, Tudisco and Mealey, to use their expertise as educators to evaluate predictions from the past about what teaching would be like in the future. We evaluate a series of predictions from 1900, 1927, 1931, and 1958. This conversation has far more focus on pneuma…

1
All Good Things Must Come to an End - Episode 341 37:17

2y ago37:17

37:17

After seven years and 340 episodes, it is time for us to say goodbye to our amazing Unprofessional Engineering listeners. It has been a great run and we appreciate all of the emails (nice and otherwise), social posts, and care packages that were sent our way. Hosting this podcast was one of the most enjoyable things that I have been part of (and I …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Unprofessional Engineering Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
Unprofessional Engineering

Unprofessional Engineering

1
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

Kent Lindstrom

1
Mistopian

Mistopian Podcast

1
Kobie Fuller: Upfront Ventures Partner’s High-Speed Sprint from Track Star to Venture Capital Powerhouse 44:15

1
David Anderman: Space (Investing) is Big. Really Big. From Lucasfilm’s Star Wars to SpaceX to…The Final Frontier 58:34

1
Cyan Banister: The Future is Cool Again / Falling in Love with Technology / A Brush with Star Wars 1:06:05

1
Roger Ehrenberg: From IA Ventures to Eberg Capital – A Top Silicon Valley Investor Turns to Sports 57:51

1
Mark Scianna: From Palantir Engineer to Venture Capitalist / Inside Palantir’s Early Days / VC Discovers Defense Tech 1:00:15

1
Winter Mead: How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund (and more!), From Coolwater Capital’s Founder 57:13

1
Max Altman and Ben Braverman: Returning to Tradition with Saga Ventures 48:05

1
Alexis Gay: Silicon Valley’s Favorite Comedian Makes her “Unprofessional” Debut 55:00

1
Adeyemi Ajao: A Founder Turned VC on Building Base10 Partners, and the Abundance Mindset 33:36

1
Ignition Partners' Nick Sturiale: Reflections on a Life in Venture 43:24

1
Founder Collective's Eric Paley on Empathy and Execution in Venture Capital 51:15

1
Homebrew’s Hunter Walk and Satya Patel: The Power of a Partnership 56:01

1
Atari’s founder Nolan Bushnell and Dr. Leah Hanes Have a (Better) Plan for Educating America 46:20

1
Imitators of Men: Women's Suffrage Predictions 1:06:32

1
Bonus Episode: AI Predictions 41:24

1
Richard Socher: Exploring AI with the Visionary AI Scientist, Entrepreneur and Investor 47:09

1
Fish Without Engines: Robert Boyle’s Scientific Wishlist 1:12:27

1
Hadley Harris: Building Eniac Ventures with 3 Friends / Investing in AI 45:31

1
The Pushbutton Classroom: Education Predictions with Unprofessional Development 1:01:49

1
All Good Things Must Come to an End - Episode 341 37:17