StrictlyVC Download

This week we're sharing a conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where host Connie Loizos sits down with Flock Safety founder and CEO Garrett Langley to discuss the growing backlash against his company's surveillance technology and the debate over privacy, policing, and public safety.

Langley explains why cities across the country are adopting Flock's license plate readers even as others cancel their contracts over privacy concerns. Connie presses him on police misuse of the technology, immigration-related searches, and whether Flock should do more to prevent abuse. T

Plus, Langley responds to reports of talks with rival Axon, discusses the death threats and personal toll of leading a controversial company, and explains why he believes Flock's crime-fighting benefits make the backlash worth enduring.

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This week we're sharing a conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, host Connie Loizos sits down with all five partners at Benchmark—Peter Fenton, Erik Vishria, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle, and Jack Altman—for a rare look inside one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capital firms.

The partners discuss why Benchmark raised $2 billion across two new funds, how its unconventional equal-partnership structure shapes investment decisions, and what they look for when betting on founders. They also revisit the firm's early investment in AI chipmaker Cerebras, debate the risks of backing competing startups, and explain why they believe the AI market remains strong despite growing volatility.

Plus, the partners share their thoughts on whether AI companies should go public sooner and why San Francisco remains the center of gravity for ambitious tech founders.

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In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston, head of growth equity at Generation Investment Management, to discuss how the AI boom is reshaping the global energy transition. Gore explains why the rapid buildout of AI data centers is a cause for concern but not panic, why renewable energy and battery storage are becoming increasingly competitive, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for climate innovation.

They also discuss the growing strain on the electrical grid, the outlook for nuclear energy, how AI could help reduce emissions, and where entrepreneurs should be building next. Plus, Gore and Preston explain why opportunities in agriculture, industrial decarbonization, buildings, and energy infrastructure could produce some of the next generation of major companies.

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Is the AI boom a bubble, or just the biggest productivity unlock in a generation?For this episode, we're sharing a conversation from StrictlyVC New York 2026. TechCrunch's Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos sat down with Keith Rabois, Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, to talk tech optimism, AI panic, and where the smart money goes next.

They discussed: - Why he dismisses an Anthropic researcher's alarmist take on AI's societal impact - How AI is quietly creating high-paying jobs in trades and medicine, not just eliminating them - What he looks for in founders: raw talent and the ability to think through hard problems - Why he's betting Ramp beats Anthropic at its own game - The hidden cost of NYC's commute culture on recruiting senior talent

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In this episode of StrictlyVc Download, Connie and Alex sit down with Grindr CEO George Arison to talk about how he’s transformed the company since taking over in 2022 and where he wants to take it next.

Arison discusses Grindr’s rapid growth, why roughly 80% of its code is now written by AI, and how the company is using AI to rethink matchmaking and build new premium products. He also opens up about the so-called “Grindr discount” on Wall Street, the investor bias he says the company still encounters, and Grindr’s ambitions to expand beyond dating into healthcare, travel, and local discovery.

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In this episode, Connie is joined by Vijay Pande, co-founder of VZ and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss why he believes AI is poised to transform healthcare and create a new generation of trillion-dollar companies. Pande explains how AI could improve drug discovery and clinical trials, why better data could move medicine beyond unreliable animal models, and how technology is giving patients more agency over their own health.

The two also discuss Pande’s decision to leave a16z and build a small, AI-native venture firm, why VZ plans to make only a handful of highly concentrated investments, and how AI is changing what early traction means for startups. Plus, Pande shares what he learned from more than a decade investing at the intersection of technology and biology, why go-to-market matters as much as groundbreaking science, and where he thinks the hype around AI curing disease gets ahead of reality.

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This week we'r sharing a conversation from our colleagues at TechCrunch's Equity.

Anthropic leaped to ⁠a $47 billion revenue run rate by May,⁠ compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures' ⁠Matt Murphy⁠ says he's never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic's $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there.

On this episode of TechCrunch's ⁠Equity⁠ podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what's driving the fastest-growing startups he's ever seen.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

•

Why Menlo bet on Anthropic at a $4 billion pre-revenue valuation when the deal didn't fit cleanly into any of the firm's funds, and why Google and Amazon signing on as investors was an early “green shoot.”

•

Why Murphy says the model was never the real moat, and how Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills turned Anthropic from a strong model into a full platform.

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Murphy's take on the backlash to Anthropic's Mythos rollout, and why he pushes back on the idea that it was more marketing than safety.

•

Why companies like ⁠Lovable⁠ and ⁠Legora⁠ are growing faster than any startups Murphy has seen in 25 years, and what that speed means for founders trying to compete.

Subscribe to Equity on ⁠YouTube⁠,⁠ Apple Podcasts⁠,⁠ Overcast⁠,⁠ Spotify⁠ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on⁠ X⁠ and⁠ Threads⁠, at @EquityPod.

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Much of American-caught fish is processed overseas, and often in China, before it comes back to the U.S. Shinkei wants to change that with robotics, computer vision, and a vertically integrated supply chain built from scratch. This episode of StrictlyVC Download was recorded at StrictlyVC Los Angeles 2026. TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos sat down with Saif Khawaja, founder and CEO of Shinkei, and Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund to talk about one of the most unexpected bets in venture capital right now. They cover everything from the Japanese fish-killing technique that became a startup thesis, why American fish is now being imported into Japanese fish markets for the first time ever, and how Founders Fund thinks about contrarian bets in food and agriculture.

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In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by Reed Jobs, founder and managing partner of Yosemite, to discuss the firm’s ambitious mission to make cancer nonlethal by building biotech companies from the ground up. Jobs explains why Yosemite pairs venture capital with no-strings-attached research grants, how AI is accelerating drug discovery and clinical trials, and why he believes we’re entering one of the most important eras in the history of medicine.
The three also discuss the current state of biotech fundraising, the importance of federal research funding, how Yosemite evaluates breakthrough science, the growing role of AI in healthcare, and why Jobs believes the biggest opportunities in medicine are still ahead of us.

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In this episode, Connie Loizos sits down with Uber Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal to discuss the company's expanding vision beyond ride-hailing, from hotels and travel planning to AI-powered shopping and autonomous vehicles. Sachin explains how Uber decides which new products to build, why the company believes a hybrid network of human drivers and robotaxis is the future, and how AI is reshaping the experience for riders, drivers, and merchants alike.
They also discuss Uber's growing travel ecosystem, the strategy behind Uber One, the company's partnerships with autonomous vehicle developers, and why Uber sees itself as the platform connecting consumers, drivers, and AI in the years ahead.

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In this episode, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove sit down with Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson following the company's announcement that it will go public, making it one of the first pure-play humanoid robotics companies to reach the public markets. Peggy explains why she believes the industry is moving beyond flashy demos and into real commercial deployment and how Agility built a $300 million pipeline for its humanoid robot Digit.

They also discuss the economics of humanoid robots, Agility's robots-as-a-service model, how AI is accelerating robot training, what separates real commercial deployments from pilot programs, and why Peggy believes safety will be the defining challenge for the industry. Finally, she shares her perspective on the crowded humanoid robotics race, why Agility chose to go public through a SPAC, and what it will take for robots to eventually work safely alongside people in factories and, one day, in our homes.

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In this episode, Connie Loizos sits down with Rippling founder and CEO Parker Conrad to discuss the company's biggest product launch in years: Rippling Data Cloud. Parker explains why he believes the future of enterprise AI depends on giving AI access to an organization's people data and business systems, not just more powerful models. He also shares how Rippling is using AI internally, what the company learned from analyzing its own AI spending, and why measuring ROI—not just productivity—will become increasingly important as AI adoption grows.

They also discuss Rippling's expansion into banking and financial services, the company's growth past $1 billion in annualized revenue, the state of today's fundraising and IPO markets, and Parker's advice for founders navigating soaring valuations. Finally, Parker weighs in on Rippling's ongoing legal battle with Deel and why he believes the outcome could have broader implications for the startup

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This episode features a conversation recorded live at StrictlyVC LA in El Segundo between Connie Loizos, Cheng Xu, partner at Basis Set Ventures, and Carter Reum, founder of M13.

Together, they discuss whether today's AI boom represents a bubble, how investors are thinking about soaring startup valuations and ARR growth, and what it takes to build a lasting company in an increasingly competitive AI landscape. The conversation also explores the opportunities and risks facing founders, the impact of AI on venture investing, and where each investor sees the next generation of breakout companies emerging.

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In this episode, Connie and Alex talk with Goodwater Capital co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, whose career spans some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology shifts, from helping source Accel’s investment in Facebook as a young associate to backing a new generation of consumer and AI startups. While much of the venture world is focused on models, chips, and infrastructure, Chi-Hua argues that history suggests the biggest long-term winners of the AI era may be the application companies built on top of them.

They talk about why AI startups are reaching unprecedented revenue levels with remarkably small teams, what’s driving today’s soaring valuations, and why he believes many infrastructure businesses will eventually face the same commoditization pressures seen in previous technology cycles. He also shares what he’s seeing inside consumer AI, from hyper-personalized entertainment and women’s health platforms to new products built around voice, agents, and individualized experiences. And they discuss the increasingly public tensions between founders and VCs, why some of the most interesting fintech innovation is happening outside the U.S., and why Chi-Hua believes one of the biggest opportunities in consumer technology may be helping people reconnect in the real world.

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you a conversation from our recent event in Athens. Connie Loizos spoke with Anastasis Germanidis: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Runway and Anatolii Kasianov: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, HOLYWATER TECH.

Runway began within art school, with a sparse network and little investor insight into AI video. HOLYWATER TECH started in Kyiv with no venture capital, and a mandate to be profitable from day one. Seven years later, both have succeeded in disrupting, and putting some level of fear in, creative industries worldwide. At this StrictlyVC Athens 2026 discussion, host and TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos brought both on stage to get the inside story of how these two breakout companies actually broke out.

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For this episode of StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you a conversation from the StrictlyVC Athens event. Connie Loizos sat down with three seasoned investors to break down the state of venture capital, the hunt for white space, and what it actually takes to back a breakout company in 2026. Featuring:

• Ben Blume: Partner, Atomico
• Andreas Stavropoulos: Partner, Threshold Ventures
• Niko Bonatsos: Founder & General Partner, Verdict Capital

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This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're sharing and interview from our 2026 event in San Francisco with TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin and Lior Susan who is dresh off raising a $1.3 billion fund. Eclipse Ventures is doubling down on what it calls physical AI. Temkin and Susan discuss robotics, manufacturing, autonomous systems, and what it takes to build enduring companies where AI meets the physical world. Plus, you can get a peek into Susan's perspective about the SpaceX IPO.

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In this episode, we talk with Theo Baker, a soon-to-be Stanford graduate and author of How to Rule the World, about what he found when he traded his coding ambitions for student journalism. Within his first semester, Theo broke the story that led to Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation, a months-long investigation into manipulated research images that put him in the crosshairs of one of the world’s largest law firms. But that was just the beginning.

Baker walks us through what he calls the “Stanford inside Stanford”: a parallel world of yacht parties, slush funds, secret seminars, and VC scouts hunting for teenage talent as soon as freshmen hit campus. We also get into the secret class literally called “How to Rule the World,” why he thinks the same system that built Silicon Valley is also what corrupts it, and what the SBF saga and the overnight pivot to AI looked like from the inside.

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This week, we're sharing a conversaiton from Strictly VC's recent event in San Francisco. Replit co-founder and CEO Amjad Masad joined Connie Loizos to talk about AI-driven software development, competing with major AI players, and how coding is changing as software creation becomes more accessible. Plus, he gives some insight into their back-and-forth with Apple over app store policies.

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In this episode, we talk with Airwallex cofounder and CEO Jack Zhang about building a global financial infrastructure company by taking the long, unglamorous path. Rather than layering on top of existing banking systems, Airwallex spent a decade acquiring licenses, integrating with local payment rails, and constructing its own end-to-end network for moving money across borders. Jack shares why he turned down a $1.2 billion acquisition offer from Stripe early on, how that decision shaped the company’s trajectory, and why he believes this hard-won infrastructure is becoming a major advantage in the age of AI.

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