This week we're sharing an interview from the Equity podcast. Rebecca Bellan chatted with Deedy Das, principal at Menlo Ventures. Das has seen this shift from multiple angles, first as an engineer and product leader at Google, Facebook, and AI startup Glean, and now as an investor helping technical founders figure out how to build enduring companies in this new AI landscape. They discuss how compensation packages and acquisitions are warping startup hiring and retention and how VCs are thinking about key-person risk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos and Alex Gove of StrictlyVC speak with Dimitrious Kottas, the founder and CEO of Delian Alliance Industries. They discuss his journey from Apple's Special Projects Group to building autonomous defense systems in Greece, how his company is reimagining surveillance and strike capabilities using AI and commercial tech, and why he believes we're at the start of a decade-long technological race in autonomous warfare. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:04 - Dimitrios's background and journey from Apple to defense tech 05:00 - The founding moment: Why he left Silicon Valley for Athens 08:55 - Starting with surveillance towers: The perception-first strategy 13:21 - Current deployments in Greece and Ukraine aspirations 16:32 - Dual-use applications and critical infrastructure protection 18:39 - The Intercept-Egon series: Concealed autonomous weapons 21:52 - Cost advantages through vertical integration 24:46 - European defense tech landscape and procurement challenges 28:16 - Greece's defense industry and cross-border competition 31:04 - Modular vs. full-stack approach 32:54 - Thoughts on Anduril and the defense tech race 35:00 - Greek roots and the personal nature of European defense Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we're revisiting Connie Loizos' conversation with Aileen Lee, the founder of Cowboy Ventures. They discuss what’s on the horizon for Cowboy Ventures and how she’s thinking about AI’s impact on job creation, automation, and new business models—while also giving listeners a glimpse into Cowboy’s own recent team changes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Mayfield managing partner Navin Chaddha joins Connie Loizos at our event in Menlo Park to break down why the $5 trillion services sector is ready for AI disruption. Navin, an early investor in Lyft, Poshmark, and HashiCorp, explains why the next wave of winners in this space will combine human and AI teammates to deliver outcome-based services with software-like margins. They dive into why legacy firms like Accenture and McKinsey are vulnerable, what makes a true “AI teammate,” and how startups can serve the 100 million businesses priced out of traditional professional services. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:05 - Why AI will transform the $5 trillion services industry 05:09 - Lessons from offshoring and the path to AI-powered services 09:22 - The rise of outcome-based pricing and AI margins 10:48 - Backing Groove: A case study in AI-driven security 13:06 - The innovator's dilemma for Accenture and McKinsey 15:52 - Silicon Valley’s marketing problem around job displacement 18:22 - Long-term optimism vs. short-term pain 20:54 - AI valuations, the market disconnect, and FOMO is for sheep Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos is joined by Drive Capital co-founder Chris Olsen. Chris explains how Drive's contrarian approach to fund size, ownership stakes, and geographic focus is generating returns where others firms are right now struggling. Plus: why Silicon Valley billionaires are choosing Columbus, and what the "venture reckoning" means for the industry. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:28 - The $500M Distribution Week Strategy 03:08 - Why Venture Math is Broken for Mega Funds 05:00 - Thoughtful Automation Exit and Portfolio Returns 10:00 - Fund Strategy and Family Office Trends 12:00 - Secondary Sales and Series B Liquidity 15:00 - Post-Mark Kwame Evolution and Geographic Expansion 17:30 - Building Infrastructure Across Six Cities 18:30 - Beyond Pure Tech: AI in Traditional Industries 20:00 - Syndicate Strategy and Solo VC Approach 22:46 - 30% Ownership Stakes and Pricing Philosophy 25:00 - Silicon Valley Exodus to Columbus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Circle co-founder Sean Neville joins Alex Gove of StrictlyVC to discuss building banking infrastructure for AI agents. Fresh off Circle’s 450% IPO surge, Sean has raised $18 million from A16z to create Catena Labs, the first fully regulated AI-native financial institution. They explore what “agent-native finance” actually means, how AI agents will soon handle our payments and treasury management, and why the financial world needs new standards and protocols to make this safe and reliable. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and background 01:24 - Circle's IPO journey 04:12 - What is agent-native finance? 08:24 - Preventing AI hallucination in financial systems 11:07 - Building with real data and human oversight 13:53 - Building regulatory trust and compliance 16:21 - Competing with traditional financial institutions 19:02 - Creating standards for AI-to-AI payments 21:02 - Why this venture will move faster than Circle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you to our recent event in Menlo Park. Connie Loizos was joined by Katie Haun, founder and CEO of Haun Ventures, who shared an inside look at her contrarian "harpoon strategy" that targeted distressed crypto assets during the depths of crypto winter. They explored everything from stablecoin infrastructure to tokenization of real-world assets, to the regulatory landscape shaping crypto's future. They also get into what made Katie step away from A16z to start her own venture and why she believes we're still i the early days of crypto. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 02:58 - The harpoon strategy: investing during crypto winter 04:42 - Stablecoins and cross-border payment infrastructure 08:03 - User experience evolution and enterprise adoption 10:09 - Global investment strategy and A16z relationship 12:13 - Political influence and regulatory landscape 14:59 - The Genius Act: what Katie likes and dislikes 16:24 - Criminal use cases: a former prosecutor's perspective 18:50 - Trump family stablecoin and conflict of interest 20:53 - Tokenization of real-world assets 23:25 - Market adoption and fund updates 24:36 - How Haun Ventures differentiates itself Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex Gove and Connie Loizos are joined by Charles Hudson, Founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, a pre seed and seed stage venture firm that invests at the very beginning of company formation. They discuss his data-driven approach to portfolio management, how he's navigated many changes in the VC landscape, and his thoughts on the evolving LP expectations for liquidity given the recent market volatility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex and Connie are joined by Justin Fanelli, the Acting Chief Technology Officer for the US Navy and Technical Director of Program Executive Office Digital, where he oversees billions of dollars in IT infrastructure and cybersecurity initiatives. He's also a venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners and serves as a senior fellow for the Open Forum for AI. In this episode, they discuss the Navy's innovation adoption kit designed to bridge the "valley of death" between commercial technology and military implementation, the partnership with Defense Innovation Unit to streamline startup onboarding, and how the Navy is measuring success through new outcome-driven metrics that prioritize sailor time saved and operational resilience over traditional activity-based measurements. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and background 03:19 - Innovation adoption kit and valley of death solutions 05:43 - Partnership with Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) 08:27 - Onboarding non-traditional vendors and startups 13:22 - Current pain points and AI adoption challenges 15:37 - Technology modernization and team structure 17:39 - Measuring effectiveness with world class alignment metrics 21:23 - Common failure points in technology adoption 22:09 - America first policies and supply chain resilience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex and Connie are joined by return guest Elad Gil, one of the world’s most renowned solo capitalists, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in the AI investing space. He has backed companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Figma, and perplexity He’s also the co-host of No Priors. In this episode, they discuss the current landscape for AI investors and Elad offers a peek into what he believes is around the corner. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and Elad Gil's background 01:04 - AI's impact on company scaling and team efficiency 03:36 - AI relationships and the future of human-AI interaction 05:00 - AI hallucinations and setting safety standards 07:30 - Character AI investment and concerns about AI bias in education 10:00 - Open source vs. closed AI models debate 12:15 - AI tutoring for children and societal implications 15:00 - AI-driven business rollups and mature company transformations 20:00 - Market crystallization and winners in AI verticals 25:00 - Founder mode vs. delegation in leadership 30:00 - Identifying technology waves and current AI investments Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, we're bringing you to our recent event in Athens. Connie was joined by Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who shared an inside look at how the country is positioning itself as a refreshed hub for innovation, investment, and participation from the world's technology industry. They explored everything from policy changes to new global partnerships, to Greece's startup momentum — plus they offer a peek into why founders are starting to return to the country from shores near and far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode was recorded live at StrictlyVC London, host Connie Loizos sat down with Accel partner Sonali De Rycker. They discussed Europe's regulatory challenges, compares US and EU tech ecosystems, and explores venture capital's evolving exit strategies in the absence of IPOs. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction to Strictly VC Download and Sonali de Rycker 01:48 - The "Queen of European VC" title and its origin 02:11 - Accel's 25th anniversary in Europe and early challenges 05:38 - Evaluating AI startup valuations in the current cycle 09:03 - European tech potential vs regulatory headwinds 11:37 - Impact of US-EU trade tensions on tech companies 14:22 - Defense tech investment opportunities in Europe 19:31 - Capital restructuring for founder alignment: The Kry example 21:27 - Founder liquidity and lessons from the Hopin experience 23:57 - AI talent retention and closing thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're taking you with us to our StrictlyVC event in Athens. Connie led a panel discussion with some of Greece's most notable investors about Greece's  evolving startup ecosystem. You'll hear from Panos Papadopoulos: Partner at Marathon Venture Capital, Apostolos Apostolakis: Partner at VentureFriends, Marco Veremis: Entrepreneur turned investor who founded and Upstream before co-founded Big Pi Ventures, Myrto Papathanou, Partner at Metavallon VC which invests in early stage companies; and Dimitrious Kottas: Founder of a defense tech startup who returned to Greece after working at Apple in Silicon Valley. The conversation covers everything from the current state of venture funding in Greece, the role of pension funds in the ecosystem, why ambitious founders are choosing to build in Greece, and what systemic changes could further accelerate the country's tech transformation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on StrictlyVC Download, Alex Gove speaks with Eric Slesinger from 201 Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on seed-stage defense tech startups in Europe. They discuss Eric's journey from CIA to investor and how he recognized the untapped potential in European defense tech while others were dismissive, and how he's working to overcome the cultural taboo that once made defense investments "bad manners" in European VC circles. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and Eric's CIA background 04:17 - Why Europe for defense tech investments 06:32 - Changing European attitudes toward defense technology 09:00 - Ukraine as a testing ground for new technologies 11:24 - Launching 201 Ventures with NATO Innovation Fund 14:30 - Investment partnerships and sourcing strategies 18:07 - The Polar Mist story and maritime defense 20:15 - Gray zone dislocations and technology focus areas 22:59 - Evaluating government demand for new technologies 25:50 - Mission goals and the future of 201 Ventures 28:03 - Conclusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of StrictlyVC Download, hosts Connie Loizos and Alex Gove are joined by, Ali Partovi, co-founder and CEO of Neo. They talk about Neo's evolution from a scholar program that provides grants to talented technical young people to a venture fund that recently raised $320 million in committed capital. Partovi discusses Neo's investment philosophy, which focuses on identifying future tech leaders while they're still in college. He explains his three key criteria for selecting founders and emphasizes the importance of charisma, leadership potential and the ability to attract other talented individuals. Chapters: 00:00 - ntroduction 02:05 - Neo's fundraising journey 03:30 - Investment strategy and LP base 05:32 - Discovering tech talent early 07:18 - The three key founder qualities 10:00 - Embracing risk and ambition 11:35 - Portfolio success stories 14:32 - The value of computer science thinking 16:43 - Maintaining selectivity as Neo grows 19:49 - Aligning incentives through partner investments 20:57 - Discussing fund performance 22:54 - Guiding young entrepreneurs 24:35 - Location considerations for startups 26:18 - Creating value in a changing landscape Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Strictly VC Download, TechCrunch Editor in Chief, Connie Loizos, sits down with Julie Wainwright, the founder of The RealReal who faced one of tech's most public failures with Pets.com. They discuss Julie's recent memoir, Time to Get Real. They get into board dynamics, leadership challenges, and how she rebuilt her career when Silicon Valley tried to write her off. Chapter: 00:00 - Introduction 03:08 - Breaking barriers in tech leadership 06:08 - Leading pets.com through the dot-com boom and bust 09:10 - Personal fallout: Divorce, media pressure, and retreat from Silicon Valley 12:27 - Rebuilding after failure and exploring new business ideas 15:35 - The founding of The RealReal and insights on launching in luxury resale 18:08 - Leadership challenges, difficult personalities, and board dynamics 21:34 - Reflecting on stepping down from The RealReal and its impact 24:28 - Launching Ahara and the mission behind personalized nutrition 27:03 - Nutrition trends, combating misinformation, and final reflections Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Connie Loizos and Alex Gove are joined by return guest Hans Swildens. Hans is the founder and CEO of Industry Ventures, a firm known  for its pioneering role in the venture secondary market. With stakes in over 700 venture funds and years of experience in the secondaries market, we wanted to have him on to discuss how VCs are thinking about venture’s current liquidity problem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forerunner has seen a number of high-profile successes in their investments, showing an ability to get ahead of consumer trends with investments in Oura, Chime, the Farmer's Dog and beyond in non-B2C companies. And to get a sense of how that happened, and what's next for Forerunner in the AI era, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos spoke with their Founder and Managing Partner Kirsten Green during a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction and Kirsten’s Investing Philosophy 01:42 - Founding Forerunner and the Early Vision 03:28 - Identifying Consumer Behavior Shifts 05:10 - Building Trust with Founders 06:47 - Evaluating Consumer Brands Today 08:15 - Challenges and Lessons in Venture 10:03 - Forerunner’s Collaborative Approach 11:50 - What Makes a Standout Founder 13:30 - Advice for Entrepreneurs and Wrap-Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode, Connie Loizos is joined by Flexport's CEO Ryan Petersen to discuss the ins and outs of the tariffs' impact, the industry's reaction and why Petersen still sees long-term opportunity in global trade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove are joined by entrepreneur, futurist, and best-selling author Peter Diamandis. He's founder of XPRIZE Foundation and the co-founder of SIngularity University. In this conversation he laid out his vision for how tech will transform our lives and make longevity advances in the near future. The question is, will these advances just be for the unlta-wealthy? Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:02:26 - Peter Diamandis on Longevity Escape Velocity 00:08:14 - Epigenetic Reprograming and the Future of Gene Therapy 00:10:59 - Diamandis's Investments in Longevity Startups 00:11:28 - The XPrize Foundation and the Healthspan XPrize 00:14:19 - Comparing Approaches to Longevity: Brian Johnson and XPrize 00:15:18 - Fountain Life: Diagnostics and Therapeutics 00:18:28 - The Mechanics of the Healthspan XPrize 00:24:13 - Peter Diamandis and Elon Musk 00:27:13 - AI, Purpose, and the Future of Work 00:30:48 - Wealth Concentration and the Idea of Abundance 00:34:19 - The Post-Capitalist Society Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices