At 8VC, we take a strong interest in the Food and Drug Administration as entrepreneurs and builders who’ve been deeply involved in the US biotech sector for decades. Last year during the first 100 days of the new Trump administration, we published a lot of ideas for the agency.

You may have read earlier this month that Dr. Marty Makary departed as FDA Commissioner. Now, as the administration seeks a new leader for the FDA, we wanted to share with you some of the principles and frameworks that we are circulating in Washington.

Every administration has to make tough decisions amid a lot of private jockeying and feedback from various interests (not all of them honest or positively-aligned), so it’s a little unorthodox to do this in public. But after all, the FDA isn’t “for” Washington — it’s for you! More than 300 million Americans need a bold, courageous FDA because we can do so much better as a country in bringing new cures to our fellow citizens who need them most.

So, in that spirit we’re publishing the issues that we think are key right now.

One of the most gratifying parts of our work as investors is seeing the brightness of the future come into focus. In just the last month we’ve seen data from an amazing new gene therapy lowering cholesterol heart attack risk, and another attacking pancreatic cancer. Whether these breakthroughs reach patients in time will depend not only on the scientists and founders building them, but on whether the FDA has a functional, innovative culture.

As ever, it is strong leadership that ultimately matters most.

Joe

More than any other in recent memory, this administration has been willing to be bold in defense of American interests. It must do so for US biotech as well. Our US biotech ecosystem is in crisis: to be blunt, China’s industrial policy combined with a sclerotic FDA over the previous decade is stealing and eroding away the industry. This is happening at a time when AI breakthroughs should be accelerating faster and cheaper cures.

China is not “competing” with American biotech, this isn’t a level playing field. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is flooding its companies with capital, tilting rules for domestic champions, and leaning on IP theft and coercion.

To fix this, the next leader of the FDA must be a fighter. This includes not just embracing innovation but also confronting and at times overruling the internal bureaucracy. The next commissioner can do all of this by prioritizing speed, domestic resiliency, and regulatory clarity across drugs and clinical AI.

As the administration seeks a new commissioner, we think these topics make for great starting points in their interviews about their plans.

1. Accelerate generation of US clinical data on a level playing field

A. Create an expedited Investigational New Drug (IND) pathway for Phase 1 trials. Our current Phase 1 trial regulations require 12–18 months of preclinical work that Australia’s version of an IND (in Australia called a CTN) have shown unnecessary; the US regulations are a top-down, Soviet legacy of the mid-20th century that is straitjacketing us and delaying innovation. If we implement the Australian learnings, including 3^rd party or medical center trial oversight (who review the IND instead of the FDA) we can speed up patient access to novel drugs while saving FDA reviewers’ time and taxpayer dollars.

The leading research institutions of the world like MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering should be empowered to decide when and how they launch Phase 1 trials, within regulatory frameworks.

B. Scale and operationalize FDA’s Real-time clinical trials initiative to reduce the dead time in-between clinical phases. Current clinical workflows are discontinuous with weeks to months of dead time between phases. Scale the pilot into a broad initiative to monitor trials and trigger reviewer actions or feedback on trial designs quickly.

C. Ensure foreign clinical, preclinical and manufacturing sites are at US standards. Continue prioritizing foreign inspections and enforce in-person inspections with no warning. Ex-US sites, in particular those in China, have serious ethical issues (such as consent) in China Investigator Initiated Trials or trials in Xinjiang province. Chinese animal testing companies engage in work which would be illegal under US animal welfare laws. Ensure that US researchers aren’t penalized for following US rules through robust ex-US enforcement to produce a level playing field at all scientific stages.

D. Codify and harden objective criteria for the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher that require US based preclinical work, manufacturing & primary US clinical sites as a condition for receiving a voucher.

2. Create modern frameworks for AI regulations

A. Create a predictable pathway for clinical AI approval and monitoring. Clinical AI systems need clear benchmarks aligned to outcomes that matter to patients. FDA should prescriptively develop reasonable approval bars with post approval monitoring and an eye towards keeping innovation speed equal to safety concerns alongside a culture that partners with US innovators.

B. Enable controlled continuous learning. AI systems get better through continuous learning. Legacy regulations focused on single point in time evaluations and should instead enable the continuous nature of these systems so that patients can benefit from the latest and greatest data; not those from 12 months ago.

3. Better align approval and commercial requirements to patient needs

A. Create tiered commercial Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards matched to patient need. FDA rules today apply different clinical standards for different patient populations based on need. But GMP standards are the same for all. Define fit-for-purpose requirements for n-of-1, ultra-rare and broad-population products, preserving safety-critical controls while avoiding large commercial-scale burdens where they do not substantially impact patient safety for small product lots.

B. Approve more surrogate endpoints, or other alternative clinical data sources Whenever the FDA formally approves a new short-term surrogate endpoint for drug development massive capital and innovation flow to find cures for these diseases. The progression-free-survival endpoint drove tons of advances in cancer that we are reaping today (from PD-1 antibodies to curative cell therapies). FDA needs to lean into this superpower and accelerate qualification of more surrogate endpoints and beyond into more acceptance of natural-history datasets and digital endpoints that can better enable rural patient outcomes in the approval decision making frameworks. FDA must also finish the job on the Plausible Mechanism Framework for individualized therapies.

C. Convince companies they won’t be penalized for providing right-to-try or expanded access. Today many pharmas and biotechs provide little to no opportunities to access early clinical phase novel therapies under the existing right-to-try and expanded access rules. This happens since companies perceive a strong disincentive by the FDA: adverse events from either pathway must be reported to the FDA (and thus counts against your drug) but they fear the FDA ignoring positive signals from those very same patients that prove the drug works. The FDA must remove this fear from companies by providing ironclad clarity that the positive data will count.

The US can and should be the fastest, safest place in the world to generate clinical evidence, deploy clinical AI, and get promising cures to patients. If these recommendations and more from other smart experts are implemented, the future would be very bright indeed. Billions of dollars of capital would flow to US biotechs, driving a scientific renaissance that in turn saves and improves many lives.

Further Reading:

Coleman is one of the clearest voices confronting race-essentialism in America today. He’s the author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, host of the Conversations with Coleman podcast, and a visiting professor at the University of Austin.

In this episode, Coleman takes us behind the scenes of his new UATX course, where he examines the two opposing philosophies that emerged from the civil rights era: Dr. King’s colorblind vision and Derrick Bell’s Critical Race Theory. He breaks these down into two camps -- minimalist and maximalist -- and explains how he equips students to weigh the merits of each side. He contrasts the UATX approach, where Thomas Sowell versus Ta-Nehisi Coates takes center stage, to his time at Columbia University and its obsession with racial grievances. Then we dive into a few legacy debates: Is America’s wealth due to slavery? Is the collapse of the two-parent black family a result of past injustice? Finally, Coleman lays out three steps toward an optimistic vision for race in America: get race out of the law (end affirmative action), stop programming children to see race, and foster a growing economy with opportunity for all.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:40 Teaching the Legacy of Slavery

06:20 Coleman’s journey from Columbia to UATX

08:30 Dr. King vs Derrick Bell

11:20 Racial disparities by IQ and salary

13:00 Thomas Sowell & the Real History of Slavery

19:00 America’s Founding hypocrisy

24:00 Will the Left cancel Dr. King?

26:20 Understanding the 1619 Project

30:25 Breakdown of the black family

37:20 Is America wealthy because of slavery?

43:50 Are you worried about woke AI?

45:40 Three solutions for racial progress

After graduating from Claremont McKenna College, Eric emailed his way into Max Levchin’s network, becoming an early employee at HVF Labs where he learned to invest and build companies. He later spun out SciFi VC as its Founding Partner, before landing as a Principal at Founders Fund. He was an early investor in Anduril, Crusoe Energy, among others, and a senior advisor at 8VC where he helped us launch Harbor Health.

We begin our conversation with Eric’s journey — from persuading Max Levchin to hire him as a technical assistant to investing at HVF and launching SciFi VC. Next, we dive into the state of venture today. Learn why Eric believes that larger and larger fund sizes are concentrating capital into the hottest AI bets, creating real inefficiencies just below the top tier. He lays out the thesis behind his new firm and where he sees missed opportunities. Finally, Eric shares his optimistic vision for the years ahead and why he believes this is one of the best times in a generation to start and build important companies.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:30 Meeting Max Levchin and learning to build

06:30 Launching SciFi VC & investment lessons

12:05 How VC is changing

13:40 Biggest missed opportunity in venture

16:15 Enormous dislocations in the market

21:30 How AI is changing the game

24:00 Overlook Capital

27:50 Optimism for the future

His thesis, roughly, was this: a group of Jewish operators, including me, has cooked up a sneaky new framing for a nefarious agenda. In his telling, we talk about “Western civilization” now — Cicero, the Founders, the rule of law, the inheritance of Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem — as a cover or Trojan Horse for our real agenda (mass surveillance, Israel, etc.)

“The Jews are extremely sophisticated. They will outlast us. They will outsmart us. And they will come up with a new conceit. And by the way, they already have…. So they’re changing tactics, and they’re trying something new. They are starting to conflate the word ‘civilization’ and ‘the West’ with the Judeo-Christian narrative: they say it’s Christians and Jews, the United States and Israel,as civilization, versus the barbarism of the Communists and the Muslims… This is Joe Lonsdale’s line… Joe Lonsdale from Founders Fund, Paypal Mafia, ‘Cicero Institute’ — Jew.”

He went on to mention Shaun Maguire (a partner at Sequoia Capital) as well as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, whose anti-immigration politics Fuentes casts as a deception to distract from “Jew” Miller’s actual agenda.

It is the same model that has overtaken much of the academic left, beginning with the French: the belief that principles are never really principles, that ideals are only masks for power, that the Constitution is just a tool of domination, that all appeals to liberty, equality, law, or civilization are really just strategies by which one group imposes its will on another. The Jacobin, French Marxist left says that America’s founding principles are fake because they serve the oppressor class; Fuentes says they are fake because they serve as cover for Jews. It’s a different specific villain (with some overlap, no doubt) but the same failed reality model.

Fuentes has an audience, and that audience is growing, not just because many young people find his broadcasts entertaining — but because the institutional center has spent two decades failing young Americans and lying about it. In that environment all sorts of characters can find willing listeners, including regrettably for a 3,000 year old ethnic & religious scapegoat against Jews.

It is actually fortunate that he brought up the Cicero Institute, because our outlook on America’s problems is so different. We do not tell young Americans that their country is fake, that its principles are lies, or that their future depends on finding someone to blame or resent. We tell them that things can actually get better — things can work — if we find the courage to confront specific problems.

In an online culture poisoned by irony, it becomes incomprehensible that leaders would earnestly promote ideas like “Western Civilization.” As for me and Cicero… we really believe that America is exceptional because our culture and institutions were shaped by principles that are actually true: ordered liberty, equal dignity under law, constitutional government, civic virtue, the pursuit of excellence, and the belief that free people can build positive-sum institutions that lift others up.

Fuentes’ mentioning Cicero — as well as a long-running focus on Palantir — is entertaining to me, having founded and built both organizations and watched them be wildly misunderstood in ways that are easy to dispel. Cicero is a highly-effective state policy organization that understands broken systems and has partnered with legislators of both parties to confront them in specific, principle-driven ways; but if you ask the crazed demonstrators on our doorstep, we’re rounding up the homeless in order to put them into a private prison operated by none other than… you guessed it: Joe Lonsdale.

In a way, I understand the seduction of a story like this, crazy as it is. But Cicero as a cover for a Jewish agenda is actually even crazier. “Joe Lonsdale and his co-conspirators are trying to break up medical cartels” is a lot less exciting.

We are funded by people who understand that civilizational confidence flows from whether the things actually work. And we know that if we are going to solve the most pressing challenges facing our fellow Americans — a broken education system, spiraling healthcare costs, and increasing dysfunction from violent crime, homelessness, and crumbling infrastructure — we need to revisit and boldly apply the principles that made the West great. Power has to be checked, incentives have to be aligned, and public officials have to be accountable to the people they serve. All of this is actionable.

***

The Jacobin mistake is assuming that people are or want to be revolutionary class actors. Fuentes, who is like a Horseshoe Jacobin, makes the same mistake in thinking that the inheritors of a great “civilization” want to dump it in order to oppose Jews.

In the case of Americans in particular, this is a very bad misunderstanding. Our governance problems are real (that is the entire basis of our work at Cicero) but Americans really want institutions that work and a country where they can go their own way. They want to live peacefully among neighbors who may not share all their views; and they want the freedom to build, work, trade, invent, and form new institutions. It is that sense of freedom — the freedom to build the lives we want and self-actualize — that has made American life so fruitful in a country where we actually disagree with our neighbors quite a bit!

We have, despite some difficulties along the way, managed to stay at least somewhat focused on the goals so eloquently spelled out by our forefathers:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It is concerning to see a new version of “right-wing” discourse that encourages people to throw all of this away. It echoes non-right ideologies that have wreaked havoc in the last few decades, all descended in some way from the Jacobins. Extreme feminism, crazy DEI oppressor/oppressed frameworks, climate hysteria, “population bomb” anti-natalist fears… These are all dead-end sets of ideas that inevitably lead to heartbreak for those who take them too seriously for too long. Individuals ruin their lives believing this stuff, and countries destroy themselves believing it.

The real “exception” in American exceptionalism is that we’ve managed, generation after generation, to stop these loser psychoses from taking over the country.

The encouraging thing is that this new version of it isn’t winning, either. And for the young people out there, figures like JD Vance, Marco Rubio, or more recently Spencer Pratt provide strong examples for why the nihilism of Fuentes is wrong. These three men have different registers and different flavors of politics — people can pick from the buffet of what they like or dislike about each of them — but each have done something really interesting (and in the case of JD and Marco, attracted the ire of Fuentes himself).

Vice President Vance speaks to people who have been failed by institutions without telling them their country is fake or that their neighbors are the enemy. Secretary Rubio has his own optimistic way of speaking, and his rising star is, if nothing else, proof that Americans want leaders who show competence and principle in complex situations, and who can articulate real visions about who we are. Spencer Pratt’s improbable second act running for LA Mayor from his burned-down lot is a reminder that Americans still respond to humor and resilience — and strong rhetoric against a genuinely terrible regime in the form of LA’s current leadership. Even if he doesn’t win the race, a candidate like Pratt is showing what winning looks like at the level of personal character and how to fight with energy.

Americans want brokenness to end, and in the long run, broken cultures — whether left or right — that are inviting Americans to become broken themselves, whether it’s Fuentes-thought or loser communism, will lose to strong, winning cultures. In this one way, Fuentes is actually right to worry about a new strong culture emerging around the core ideas of our civilization.

But the idea that it’s “Jews” orchestrating it is silly. Actually, the conspiracy in favor of the values of our civilization is much larger than that. Americans of all stripes want to reclaim the frameworks that made our nation functional and strong in the first place, and we will.

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00:00 Episode intro

02:30 Historic deal with Philippines

05:25 Jacob's background

07:30 Why is Europe falling behind?

13:00 The asymmetric power of tech

15:35 Jacob responds to AI doomers & skeptics

19:15 Global Competition: China, AI, and Diverging Growth

21:45 What is Pax Silica?

23:45 New Global Order in AI age

29:30 Is China pushing back?

31:45 Optimism for the future

Shyam's father was raised in a mud hut in India. He and his family relocated to Nigeria but fled to the United States after armed robbers nearly murdered them. Shyam joined Palantir as the 13th employee, where he helped shape its unique culture, develop key business strategies, and scale Palantir into a $300+ billion global software giant. In 2025, he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve's new Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps, and earlier this year, he released "Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III."

We begin our conversation with Shyam’s extraordinary journey to the U.S. and what this country means to him. Next, we reminisce about the early days at Palantir and what made the culture unique, from his famous Shyam-isms to living in the office for a month straight to earn free BBQ Fridays. Learn how Shyam coined the term "Forward Deployed Engineers" and proved that the best software is built shoulder-to-shoulder with the customer. Then we dive into his new book and the dangerous atrophy of America’s defense industrial base. Shyam reveals that the U.S. expended 10 years of production in 10 weeks of conflict, and explains how we can once again become the arsenal of democracy. We also discuss the culture at the Pentagon and why some heretics must be protected at all costs. Finally, we explore the clash between leading AI researchers and the Department of War, and how to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and D.C. and secure the next great American century.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:45 Mud hut in India to life in America

05:25 Employee #13 at Palantir

09:45 How Shyam created Forward Deployed Engineers

13:05 What are Shyam-isms?

14:55 Business discipline & learning to say no

19:20 The crisis of the American industrial base

24:00 Some heretics must be protected

29:00 The factory is the weapon

34:00 Magical AI weapons

43:00 Optimism for America's future

A history major at the University of Pennsylvania, Ben began his career in finance at Goldman Sachs before earning a JD and MBA at Harvard. He worked in private equity at Apollo Global Management before founding the investment firm Fortinbras. Last fall, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as CEO of the DFC. His drive to serve was shaped by his grandfather, a WWII tail gunner in the Aleutians, and by watching his father build Apollo into a global powerhouse.

We begin our conversation with Ben’s entrepreneurial journey before diving into the history of U.S. foreign aid. Learn how the U.S. regressed from the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt Europe and fostered investment in America, to promoting a culture of waste and dependency in foreign aid — and how the Trump administration is reversing course (check out our essay from January 2025 on these issues). Next, Ben lays out the flaws in China's extractive Belt and Road model and explains how the DFC is developing trusted partners, promoting free-market principles, and investing strategically. From maritime insurance in the Strait of Hormuz to rare earth mining, Ben reveals some of the DFC's recent wins and where he sees new long-term partnerships in South America and Asia. Instead of showering NGOs with taxpayer dollars and creating charity cases abroad, the Trump administration is restoring discipline and accountability — and Ben is a key leader in executing this vision and generating returns for the American people.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:25 Ben’s path to DFC

08:30 $205 billion to invest abroad

10:00 Rethinking foreign aid

13:00 From Marshall Plan to waste and fraud

18:50 The Trump administration’s new approach

21:50 Countering China’s Belt & Road Initiative

28:00 Post-WWII order is changing / new opportunities

33:10 Maritime insurance and Strait of Hormuz

37:00 Optimism for America’s future

We dive into these topics in this week’s episode with Richard Sandler, Partner at the law firm of Maron & Sandler and Executive Vice President and Trustee of the Milken Family Foundation. Richard and Lowell Milken, Michael’s younger brother, met in first grade while growing up in Los Angeles. After practicing law with his father, Richard joined Michael and Lowell’s firm -- Drexel Burnham Lambert -- to help the high-yield bond team. He saw firsthand the entire saga: the explosive rise and fall of Drexel, the unprecedented investigation, and ultimately, President Trump’s pardon of Michael in 2020.

We begin with Michael’s breakthrough in high-yield bonds. Learn how he almost single-handedly transformed the “junk bond” market from $70 billion to $700 billion in a decade, and helped finance the growth of great American entrepreneurs and companies — Ted Turner, Steve Wynn, MCI Communications, among others. Next, Richard walks us through the investigation: the unprecedented use of RICO against Drexel, the targeting of Lowell as a “hostage,” and the novel charges Michael ultimately pled to (none of which had been prosecuted before or since). Finally, we explore the deeper lessons about prosecutorial power, media narratives, and Michael’s extraordinary resilience. He has pushed forward medicine, science, and education in myriad ways, while inspiring many of our great leaders today.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:35 Richard’s career & Michael Milken’s legacy

06:25 Why write this book?

08:00 How Michael Milken transformed finance

14:00 Why did they go after Drexel & Michael?

19:30 Using RICO to bring down Drexel

22:30 Prosecutorial abuse & the power of government

26:30 Why did Michael agree to a plea deal?

33:25 Trump grants Michael a full pardon

35:00 Lessons on government power, media influence & Michael’s resilience

We discuss these and other timely topics with John. At an early age, he fell in love with science fiction and built vacuum-tube amplifiers in his parents' basement, before studying physics and materials science at Stanford. There he became a research scientist until pivoting to investing, first at StartX and later Spark Capital. Born out of firsthand experience, he co-founded Standard Metrics alongside the 8VC Build team to create a better solution for portfolio management software.

We begin our conversation with John’s path from academia to investor and founder. Next, we explore how Standard Metrics centralizes data, improves portfolio intelligence, and powers smarter investment decisions. Then we dive into the new possibilities with AI, from technical diligence copilots and investment stress-testing to new workflows and internal AI analysts. In an era of new agentic tools and shifting competitive advantages, we discuss new moats for existing software companies built around network effects, data, and more. The world of finance is changing quickly; John offers a unique perspective on the AI wave and how top investors are leveraging new workflows to get ahead.

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00:00 Episode intro

02:10 Academia to investor and founder

08:00 The pain point that led to building Standard Metrics

12:10 How AI is transforming venture capital

14:20 AI as a technical copilot

17:10 AI Analyst vs human in the loop

19:20 Parsing pitch decks and new AI tools

23:10 How AI search is changing marketing

28:30 New capabilities and workflows

33:47 How quickly is everything changing?

Raised in a small town in North Carolina, Will developed an early love for building, starting with electronic kits and later unique apps. After studying at Penn and Wharton, a trip home revealed the looming crisis: millions of local businesses that lack succession plans. This sparked the creation of American Operator, which pairs retiring owners with high-agency operators, along with the capital and know-how to build a thriving business.

We begin with Will’s entrepreneurial journey and the coming “Silver Tsunami.” Will explains why only 48% of small business owners have succession plans and what this means for the next generation of owner-operators. He highlights stories like Greenway Painting in Jackson, Wyoming, and how American Operator is helping create millionaires on Main Street while keeping local business local. Next, we explore the historical and cultural importance of small business in America, dating back to John Hancock’s import-export firm and Ben Franklin’s printing shop. Looking ahead, we examine AI’s impact on small businesses. Learn why Will believes SMBs are a great AI hedge, while also having unique upside as new AI tools make small cohorts of people dramatically more productive. Finally, Will explains the operate-to-own model and how American Operator aligns incentives so that original owners become valuable advisors, new operators can earn their way into majority ownership, and American Operator remains a committed partner over the long run.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:25 Will’s entrepreneurial journey

04:15 The small business succession crisis

06:40 American Operator’s approach vs. private equity

11:55 Does AI mean boom or bust for small business?

15:55 Forget law school? Buy a small business instead?

21:20 AI use cases for small business

23:00 Why many business owners shut down instead of sell

26:00 How the operate-to-own model works

33:50 Optimism for Main Street America

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00:00 Episode Intro

01:50 What sets Joby aircraft apart

04:50 Key partnerships with Toyota & NVIDIA

06:50 Closing in on FAA Certification

08:00 Air Taxis coming to 12 states this year!

13:35 Autonomous flight is the future

20:00 Hydrogen aircraft for the Pentagon

24:10 Why AI is a game changer

28:15 Expansion in Ohio and Global Competition with China

34:40 Addressing critics / future vision

35:50 Making air travel ubiquitous

We discuss these and other timely topics with Scott and Russell. Scott was a three-time gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics and world champion at age 17. After high school, we hired him at Addepar, where he became a top software engineer. Russell began his career as a machine learning engineer on Tesla’s Autopilot team before selling his video data company, Helia, to Scale AI. In 2023, Scott and Russell co-founded Cognition, and a year later, they shocked the technology world with the release of Devin, the first AI software agent.

We begin our conversation by discussing the incredible collection of young talent at Cognition, and why the next generation has new advantages in the AI era. Next, we catch up on Cognition’s explosive growth: Devin usage in the first few months of 2026 already surpassed all of 2025. Scott reveals that Cognition engineers no longer write code and explains how they’re able to test and ship new products faster than ever before. Then, we dive into the new era of software abundance and what it means if everyone has access to high-quality engineering, from modernizing large legacy enterprises to supercharging small businesses. We also discuss Cognition’s recent foray into government services and its work to modernize complex outdated systems. Finally, we explore the talent flywheel that has drawn so many former founders to Cognition, and why Scott and Russell believe we’re moving from Minecraft “survival mode” to “creative mode” — where the only limit to building is imagination itself.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:35 Why technical talent & execution matters in AI

06:10 Do young people have an edge in the AI era?

08:26 Cognition’s rapid growth

11:55 The new era of software abundance

14:30 Cognition engineers don’t type code anymore

19:20 “Never sleep while Devin is idling”

21:25 The case for AI disinflation

23:50 How Devin generates 12X productivity gains

28:25 Cognition for government / taking on complex, broken systems

36:40 The AI race / competition with Anthropic

39:00 Forward deployed engineers?

43:40 How fast are LLMs improving?

47:10 AI-led small business explosion

We recorded this conversation the day after Jake appeared with President Trump at a Kentucky rally. He explains why he’s speaking out on politics, even if it costs him financially, and why authenticity is key to cultural influence. Next, we explore the origins of Anti Fund, and how Jake and Geoff had the conviction to back Anduril before defense tech was in vogue. They also invested in OpenAI and were instrumental in rolling out Sora; learn about the strategy behind the launch and the challenges around AI slop and identity authentication. Additionally, Jake is the co-founder of Betr, and we discuss its recent partnership with Polymarket, what’s next for prediction markets, and how to build guardrails for customers. Finally, we explore Jake’s success in pioneering the creator economy and building consumer brands. In the 1960s and 70s, most kids aspired to become astronauts. Today, they want to be content creators, in part because of Jake’s influence. We conclude with Jake’s advice for young people in the AI era, and how we can persuade the next generation to love their country and embrace a builder mindset.

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00:00 Episode intro

02:20 On stage with President Trump

06:00 Attention is the most valuable currency

08:00 The origins of Anti Fund and backing OpenAI, Anduril, Ramp, and others

09:10 Betr + Polymarket and the future of prediction markets

14:58 Launching Sora with OpenAI

16:14 Are you worried about AI slop?

19:10 How AI is changing culture; revival of in-person events

21:20 Who should become a creator?

24:30 Fighters as cultural icons

31:30 How to win the culture

We discuss these timely topics and more with Administrator Loeffler. Growing up on a farm in rural Illinois, Kelly raised cattle and was exposed to the challenges of small business early on. She became the first in her family to graduate college and built a distinguished career in financial services at Intercontinental Exchange. In 2018, she became the founding CEO and first employee of the fintech startup, Bakkt, which brought institutional infrastructure to crypto. Kelly was appointed to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2020 and later confirmed as Administrator of the Small Business Administration in February 2025.

We begin our conversation with Kelly's entrepreneurial journey, before diving into her mission at the SBA. Her leadership comes at a pivotal juncture: a $10 trillion generational wealth transfer amid a technological revolution. As Baby Boomers retire and new AI tools emerge, Kelly believes young talent should think twice about traditional pathways and consider small business ownership instead. She lays out the administration's agenda, including expanding SBA loans for reindustrialization and bolstering the manufacturing jobs of the future. Next, we dive into her other core responsibility: exposing fraud. Learn how the SBA uncovered over $400 million of COVID-era fraud in Minnesota, $9 billion in California, and they're just getting started. She's also investigating 8(a) minority contracting — a program for disadvantaged communities hijacked by the Biden administration for race-based contracting and grift. The SBA is bringing in top talent and technology, including Palantir, to expose the fraud, revamp the programs, and protect taxpayers.

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00:00 Episode intro

01:40 Farming to finance

04:46 Building Bakkt & institutional infrastructure for crypto

09:00 AI & the future of small business

13:58 How to supercharge manufacturing in America

16:15 Exposing billions in fraud

18:50 The scandal of minority contracting

20:25 Using Palantir to investigate fraud

27:15 The NGO grift scheme

29:50 Optimism for the future

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00:00 Episode intro

01:30 Top Gun as a service

07:40 Founding a billion-dollar payments company

09:30 Pioneering private spaceflight

12:00 What happened to NASA?

14:40 Getting back to the Moon by 2028

20:47 Jared announces new plans for Artemis

25:15 Future of the space economy

27:50 Nuclear power in space

29:00 Sci-fi futures becoming reality

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00:00 Episode intro

01:28 JD's entrepreneurial journey

05:18 Wins and challenges at Opendoor / meme stock moment

09:55 WithCoverage and upending insurance brokerage with AI

13:11 Mimetic frameworks for entrepreneurs

15:45 How AI is changing the way companies are built

20:21 The impact of AI on existing SaaS

26:50 How to stop AI spam and imposters

31:27 How should young people prepare for the AI era?

34:20 The new invention era / why AI levels the playing field

The most basic instinct of an American entrepreneur is that when something is broken, rather than complaining, you need to build something new. And there is a lot that is broken, like our media. In early 2024, I started talking with a younger colleague, Max Meyer, about some ideas to fight back…

Out of those discussions, Arena Magazine was born: a bold voice for American technologists, capitalists, and patriots in the form of a high-end print magazine. Yesterday, Arena announced its seventh issue. It now has thousands of subscribers and is sold in Barnes & Noble throughout the US. Max told me that the latest print run of magazines used over 10,000 pounds of paper.

I’m very proud to be a supporter of Arena, and I encourage you to be, as well. You can subscribe for your home or your office.

At a time when the legacy media is full of negativity and ugliness, Arena is daring to be both optimistic and beautiful at the same time. Technology and entrepreneurship are so important to the success of the USA in the 21st century, and our mainstream media is totally poisoned against them.

If you’re anything like me, you remember the great magazines we had a generation ago in the technology space. Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, and even Wired used to be awesome. They used to celebrate Americans who were trying to do hard things. To say that they have gone in another direction would be a serious understatement.

Restoring that legacy — bold optimism, celebrating the builders — is the mission of Arena. It’s why I and so many other leaders in the innovation world are proud supporters. We need great media institutions again.

If you want to check out Arena, start with some of the recent articles. Here are two that I enjoyed recently, including from my friend Judge Glock on the wild history of Wall Street in the 1980s, or another about the last 250 years of American technological history. Arena has a new free Substack newsletter (link below). And if you want to get the print magazines, subscribe here.

Arena Magazine on Substack

The Great Eighties Wall Street Bonanza

“It was a vast space, perhaps sixty by eighty feet, but with the same eight-foot ceiling bearing down on your head. It was an oppressive space with a ferocious glare, writhing silhouettes, and the roar…The writhing silhouettes were the arms and torsos of young men, few of them older than forty. They had their suit jackets off. They were moving about in …

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4 months ago

The progress has been inspiring over the last two years, and as more people wake up to the need for optimistic, beautiful media, Arena is going to continue to grow and inspire patriotic Americans.

Joe

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Alex Kolicich is a Partner at 8VC, where he specializes in IT and Bio-IT investments. Prior, he was a Partner at Formation 8 and worked alongside Peter Thiel at Mithril Capital Management. Alex was also an engineer and early-product advisor at Clarium, Palantir, and Google. Jack Moshkovich began his career at 8VC and helps lead our investment practice alongside Alex out of San Francisco, where he focuses on enterprise software.

We begin with Silicon Valley’s most recent technological wave: smart enterprise. In 2013, we published our smart enterprise thesis, predicting the B2B software explosion that drove tremendous value creation over the past decade. Now, we’re entering the next landmark shift: the AI wave. Learn why AI is fundamentally disruptive (you can find our thesis here), and the enormous leap from data retrieval to automated decision making and from linear to non-linear problem solving. Next, we dive into the six layers of the AI investment stack, and why we are focused on level five: the application layer. We dissect the tremendous opportunities for AI-native upstarts, as well as the challenges — and upside — for smart enterprise pioneers that can reorient around AI. Finally, we discuss some of the key questions in the years ahead: When and where will we see massive productivity gains in the economy? Will LLMs become commodities, or is each frontier model sufficiently differentiated? And are we entering a bubble, or is the AI wave just getting started?

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00:00 Episode intro

01:40 Smart enterprise thesis

04:00 Did enterprise software dramatically boost productivity?

08:30 Understanding the AI wave

11:45 Are LLMs becoming commodities?

17:10 OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Meta vs Grok

20:30 Frontier models vs enterprise incumbents

25:20 What did Palantir get right?

32:30 AI case studies/new possibilities

43:00 The most surprising aspect of the AI wave

46:10 Are we entering a bubble? Or just getting started?

52:40 Biggest concern with AI

58:00 Biggest reason for optimism

Kevin began his career in the U.S. Air Force, defending the U.S. military from some of the earliest cyber attacks. He went on to found and lead Mandiant, scaling it into an industry leader which Google acquired in 2022 for over $5 billion. In 2013, he famously exposed China’s massive state-sponsored cyber espionage inside America. Kevin has also served on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) and the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee. He recently launched Armadin to address new AI possibilities in the cyber domain.

To begin, Kevin takes us behind the scenes of the early cyber skirmishes in the 1990s, and what it was like confronting some of the first cyber incursions from Russia and China, as well as the rise of criminal cyber enterprises. In the early 2000s, Kevin noticed glaring gaps in conventional antivirus approaches and launched Mandiant. Learn how he quickly became the first person that CEOs and governments would call if they’d been hacked. After scaling Mandiant and exiting to Google, Kevin is now back in the arena building cutting-edge solutions to new AI cyber threats. He explains the dramatic increase in the productivity and sophistication of AI agents, and why it’s upending how we build cyber defenses. Find out what he’s most worried about in 2026, and what steps governments and CEOs need to take to secure their networks and infrastructure.

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0:00 Episode intro

01:30 Kevin's journey into cyber; early attacks from Russia & China

05:00 The evolution of cyber espionage and crime

08:00 Founding Mandiant; why Fortune 500 CEOs call Kevin

13:30 What's it like getting hacked by Russia?

21:30 AI hackers are here; Kevin's warning

27:00 Protecting critical infrastructure; harnessing AI for cyber defense

31:30 Engineers vs AI agents

36:40 Optimism for the future

This week, we’re honored to feature a conversation with Paul Atkins, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also served as a commissioner at the SEC from 2002 to 2008, and worked on the staff of two SEC chairmen from 1990 to 1994. Prior to returning to the SEC in 2025, Chairman Atkins was the founder and chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services firm he founded in 2009.

We begin with Chairman Atkins’ visit to Texas, the significance of Texas’ new business courts, and the importance of innovation in our financial markets. Whereas his predecessor, Gary Gensler, took an adversarial, regulation-by-enforcement approach, he’s embracing new technologies and regulatory clarity. In this vein, the Chairman lays out his strategy for making IPOs great again. Learn why the number of public companies has dropped by nearly half since 2007, and how Chairman Atkins is reforming the rules around litigation and corporate governance to deter activists from harassing America’s builders. We also discuss President Trump’s vision for making America the crypto capital of the world, and what it looks like to provide clear guidelines that promote innovation and protect investors. Finally, we explore the steps he’s taking to enable retail investors to access private markets and other alternative assets.

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0:00 Episode intro

1:35 Texas' new business courts / evolution of U.S. markets

7:20 The SEC's new approach to crypto

16:00 Making IPOs and public companies great again

25:00 Weaponization of shareholder proposals and ESG

32:10 National security concerns / China's bad actions

36:30 New rules for retail investors & private companies

44:35 Optimism for America's future