The Luba Show

Luba Yudasina

Conversations with the human behind the ambition.

  1. 3d ago

    The First Investor Behind $60B Cursor & $22B Kalshi

    Today I walk with Ali Partovi, founder and CEO of Neo and host of a new podcast Confession. Ali co-founded LinkExchange, which Microsoft bought for $265M, co-founded Code.org with his twin brother Hadi, and wrote the first check into Cursor, and now he runs Neo, the firm that backed Kalshi when every top VC passed. He gets into the night he wanted to tell Universal Music Group to f*** off, and the $12M he borrowed against his own account to keep Kalshi open before the 2024 election. We get into: - Why he wanted to tell Universal Music Group to f*** off over a Bono video, and the half measure he still regrets - How Sequoia's Mike Moritz judged hires in ten minutes while three co-founders spent an hour each and had no opinion - Betting on Alfred Lin as LinkExchange's CFO when Ali thought the idea was idiotic, years before Alfred became co-head of Sequoia - Wiring Kalshi $12M of borrowed money when no bank would lend $100M two weeks before the 2024 election - Why Elon Musk stays the face of SpaceX, and why founders shouldn't fight being the face of their company so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Trailer(00:55) Ali Partovi, Founder & CEO, Neo(01:09) Rock climbing as exposure therapy for fear(06:47) Bono, U2 and the Universal Music threat(16:00) Selling iLike for $25M after a 10x bigger first exit(17:44) Nobody cares about your failure as much as you do(22:51) Why Elon Musk stays the face of SpaceX(28:50) From MIT daycare to the Iranian revolution(37:00) The Commodore 64 stuck in Iranian customs(47:59) Mike Moritz and his 10-minute hiring verdicts(54:19) Betting on Alfred Lin before Sequoia(58:05) Spotting Paul Graham and Robert Morris at Viaweb(1:03:35) Flying campus to campus to start Neo(1:13:00) The Cursor founders who named their team "the winning team"(1:17:46) Kalshi's 40 law firm rejections(1:23:25) Wiring $12M to Kalshi before the 2024 election(1:33:58) 40 Neo scholars inside OpenAI(1:41:46) Why Neo is named after The Matrix Follow AliConfession: https://link.mgln.ai/4TnDcLX: https://x.com/apartoviLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apartovi Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    The First Investor Behind $60B Cursor & $22B Kalshi

  2. 5d ago

    He Left A $4 Billion Company To Go Back To YC At 40

    Today I walk with Bryant Chou, co-founder of Webflow and founder of Ploy. Bryant is the former CTO of Webflow, the platform behind roughly one in every hundred websites, built its growth and marketing teams, and went back through Y Combinator 13 years after his first batch, and now he's building Ploy, an AI platform that turns your website into your hardest working employee. He gets into deciding to leave Webflow in a single day, and the grandfather whose last question to him was how many people worked at his company. We get into: - Why he left Webflow after 13 years to start over solo at 40, and why he decided in a single day - Being "scared s***less" of 20-year-old founders, and why he said yes when Garry Tan asked him to do YC again - Why building a company in 2026 looks nothing like 2013, when he, Vlad, and Sergey had to cover every skill themselves - Ploy's bet on the 99% of websites that aren't on Webflow - His grandfather's escape from a wanted list in Taiwan, and the "keep going" that followed him through 800 employees so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Bryant Chou, Co-Founder of Webflow & Founder of Ploy(01:46) What running Webflow's marketing team taught a CTO(03:05) "Slurping" your website into a brand design system(07:35) Deciding to leave Webflow in a single day(11:08) Going after the 99% of websites not on Webflow(12:34) Turning your website into your hardest working employee(13:41) Scared of 20-year-old founders and doing YC again(14:30) Building a startup in 2013 VS 2026(18:04) Why a 40-year-old third-time founder went back to YC(20:16) Demoing Ploy cold after his son's baseball game(24:31) His grandfather's escape from a wanted list in Taiwan(35:41) 996, FOMO, and the San Francisco rat race(40:10) Relearning founder mode(50:58) Running three teams through Covid with two kids under two(58:00) The redemption he's chasing with Ploy Follow BryantLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryantchou/X: https://x.com/bryantchou Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    He Left A $4 Billion Company To Go Back To YC At 40

  3. Oct 8

    He Ghostwrites For Tech's Biggest Brands - Adam Delehanty

    Today I walk with Adam Delehanty, founder and CEO of Ghost, a leading ghostwriting agency for founders, VCs, and brands. Adam has written culture books for Hinge, Duolingo, and e.l.f. Beauty, advises many prominent founders and VCs on their content, and has hosted a popular writing group in his sunroom for 175 Wednesdays in a row. These days, he's been spending more time stepping out from behind the “ghost” and building his own voice online.  We get into: Why ghostwriting = journalism × therapyGrowing up the product of Irish writers and anxious Jewish therapists → "This was the only job that made sense”Why culture starts to dissipate somewhere between 200 and 1,000 employees, and the role of culture artifacts and lore in preserving aura His method for using AI: the human + Claude + human sandwich, and how to train Claude to edit its own workWhy founders who only post about their product are that person at that bar everyone runs fromWhy he spent four days in the woods recently with his phone locked in the car, and what on earth happenedWhy words like "partner" move us further from the truth so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Trailer (01:17) Adam Delehanty, Founder & CEO, Ghost (03:07) Why culture breaks between 200 and 1,000 people (04:28) What it means to become an “internal journalist” for his clients  (07:06) Hiring a ghostwriter is nothing to be ashamed of! (08:38) Cutting 12 company values down to the 4 that are real (09:59) The right reasons to start a company (13:43) The founder who only talks about his product at a bar (15:02) Why my LinkedIn posts get three likes (16:59) Human, Claude, human: how Ghost writes (19:36) Training Claude to edit its own writing (20:59) Why AI won't replace the hardest part of his job (22:13) Writing as a way to figure out who you are, and what your company is (25:51) Four days in the woods with his phone locked in the car (29:20) How Williamsburg lost all its aura  (31:22) Reading Ted Sorensen instead of TikToks about him (34:00) The subtle hints of particular words: why women call some men “dude” (35:51) Notes on trendy lingo in tech right now (e.g., “GTM engineer”) (39:33) The Ghost mantra: “find the language your ideas deserve” (40:51) What he's still becoming (41:34) Outro Follow Adam LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamdelehanty/ X: https://x.com/adam__xyz Follow Luba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/ X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    He Ghostwrites For Tech's Biggest Brands - Adam Delehanty

  4. Oct 5

    How a16z's Most Connected VC Picks Founders

    Today I walk with David Haber, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. David co-founded Bond Street and sold it to Goldman Sachs, started his career working for the founder of Royalty Pharma and investing at Spark Capital, and helped open a16z's New York office. He gets into why he'd rather back the missionary than the mercenary, and why he believes opportunity lives between fields of expertise. We get into: - The Friday night football taco stand he set up in high school, which he says made the vendor millions of dollars over the next 20 years - Working next to Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk as a sophomore intern, and passing on the chance to become Airbnb's first non-technical hire - How Royalty Pharma got to a $25 billion market cap with about 50 employees, and why it inspired his firm over fund thesis - Vantage, the AI tool he built from 750 meetings' worth of transcripts that now lives in a16z's Slack - Why founders spend 95% of their time selling, and why he backs missionaries over mercenaries so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Trailer(00:51) David Haber, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz(01:14) Why people call him the most connected VC in New York(02:35) From the Holocaust to Nicaragua to Tijuana(05:23) The Friday night taco stand that made a vendor millions(11:18) Sitting next to Airbnb's Nathan Blecharczyk as an intern(15:40) Royalty Pharma: $25B market cap with about 50 employees(28:48) The hardest problem in building Bond Street(37:06) Emailing Goldman Sachs' CFO and ignoring his job description(39:27) Vantage: the AI tool built on 750 meetings(46:02) Why founders spend 95% of their time selling(47:20) Missionary VS mercenary founders(52:18) Firm over fund, and how a16z runs like a company(59:40) Taking 275-year-old Sotheby's into NFTs(1:00:36) Marc Andreessen's pitch: the J.P. Morgan of the information era(1:10:45) Why he wishes Bond Street had been bigger(1:12:31) Outro Follow DavidLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haber/X: https://x.com/dhaber?lang=en Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    How a16z's Most Connected VC Picks Founders

  5. Oct 1

    $13 Billion CEO Thinks Most People Shouldn't Start A Company

    Today I walk with Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Superhuman, the company formerly known as Grammarly. Shishir co-founded Coda and sold it to Grammarly, built skippable ads at YouTube into a product that went from $0 to $1 billion in 18 months, and sits on the boards of Spotify and Walmart, and now he runs a company with over $700 million in revenue. He talks about why most people should not start a company, and why he gave up ownership of Coda without any startup pride. We get into: - Why the right startup idea should feel like a curse, and why he tells students not to keep a list of startup ideas - The misspelled Vinod Khosla email that made $500,000 land in his account and moved his company to Silicon Valley in a week - Joining YouTube when it lost money on every single view, and board meetings with Eric Schmidt about shutting it down - The skip button every salesperson said would kill revenue, and how it went from $0 to $1 billion in 18 months - Selling Coda to Grammarly, and why he needs a sense of purpose more than a sense of ownership so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Trailer (01:07) Shishir Mehrotra, CEO, Superhuman (01:32) Making the Lego robotics world championships four times with his daughters (08:59) His dad only paid for majors where the books are 50 years old (12:18) Why most people should not start a company (14:47) The Vinod Khosla email that moved $500,000 in one afternoon (20:15) Joining YouTube when it lost money on every view (25:50) Board meetings with Eric Schmidt about shutting YouTube down (35:20) The skip button that went from $0 to $1B in 18 months (40:30) Susan Wojcicki and the 55/45 creator revenue split (45:54) Sketching Coda on a notepad by his bed (53:52) Why he sold Coda to Grammarly (59:30) Purpose over ownership and zero startup pride (1:01:45) The bundling theory he built with Daniel Ek at Spotify (1:04:49) Superhuman's AI agents and 60% of auto-drafted emails sent (1:09:37) Why AI will make teams bigger (1:15:32) Outro Follow Shishir LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishirmehrotra/ X: https://x.com/shishirmehrotra Follow Luba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/ X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    $13 Billion CEO Thinks Most People Shouldn't Start A Company

  6. Sep 29

    She Raised $16.5M+ to End Genetic Disease - Noor Sidiqqui

    Today I walk with Noor Siddiqui, founder and CEO of Orchid. Noor was a Thiel Fellow at 17, studied CS at Stanford, and has raised $16.5M for Orchid from Vitalik Buterin, Brian Armstrong, Balaji Srinivasan, and Elad Gil, and now she's out to end what she calls the genetic lottery. She gets into why she thinks people won't have sex for babies anymore, and what she'd pick for her own kid if the tech existed today. We get into: - Why she calls the genetic lottery "super evil and unfair" - The 5–10% chance of genetic disease if you conceive the old-fashioned way - Her most controversial take: people aren't going to have sex for babies anymore - Why Michael Phelps is only Michael Phelps because of a genetic lottery - Tetrachromats, 100 million colors, and what "leveling the playing field" actually means so much more! Timestamps (00:00) Trailer(00:53) Noor Siddiqui, Founder and CEO, Orchid(01:04) The flashmob dance proposal(11:15) Applying to the Thiel Fellowship at 17(24:22) Founders raising $50M and losing $100M(31:48) Taking advice from the 500 IQ nerd(35:36) Why genetics shape everything(51:03) What is a super baby(54:55) Sequencing 3 billion letters and why the genetic lottery is evil(1:01:16) People aren't going to have sex for babies(1:02:43) Michael Phelps and the genetic lottery(1:07:21) Escaping the code we were stuck with (1:20:21) Upgrading all humans would make her cool(1:22:20) Outro Follow Noor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noorsiddiqui/ X: https://x.com/noor_siddiqui_ Follow Luba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

    She Raised $16.5M+ to End Genetic Disease - Noor Sidiqqui

  7. Sep 24

    He Co-founded $2B Udemy. Now a16z Gave Him $42M To Rethink College - Gagan Biyani

    Today I walk with Gagan Biyani, founder and CEO of the Horowitz Andreessen Academy. Gagan co-founded Udemy, which grew into a multibillion-dollar public company, built Sprig, co-founded Maven, and started his first profitable business at 13, and now he's building a16z's new school for young builders, backed by $42 million. He gets into the $60M company he had to shut down, why his investors backed him again anyway, and why a Harvard dropout means nothing to him. We get into: -Starting a debate camp at 13 that ran 50% EBITDA margins, and landing in the principal's office for it -Sprig: $60M raised, 1,300 employees, a shutdown, and investors who backed his next company anyway -Why the Academy flips college around, with students building instead of attending class -The call from Andrew Chen and ten meetings with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz that became the Academy -Why he tells 18-year-olds that raising VC is a ten-year commitment so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Trailer(01:01) Gagan Biyani, Founder & CEO, Horowitz Andreessen Academy(02:23) A one-year fellowship built around building, not class(03:55) The three skills that are AI proof(08:16) Grandparents from Rajasthan who never finished high school(09:31) Starting a debate camp at 13 with 50% margins(12:59) Why schools are afraid of student agency(18:33) Seven jobs, three years, and rarely going to class(18:46) Why most professors don't care about teaching(25:41) What Udemy and Maven taught him(33:32) Raising $60M at Sprig, shutting down, and getting backed again(38:16) Why raising VC at 18 is a ten-year commitment(39:21) The call from Andrew Chen that started the Academy(41:18) Why the best builders will pick a16z over MIT or Harvard(43:17) 50 founding students, tuition-free(45:46) Why a Harvard dropout means nothing to him(51:42) Outro Follow GaganLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaganbiyani/X: https://x.com/gaganbiyani Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/

    He Co-founded $2B Udemy. Now a16z Gave Him $42M To Rethink College - Gagan Biyani

  8. Sep 23

    $9.5B Gusto Founder Went Back to Being an Engineer to Build an AI CoFounder - Edward Kim

    Today I walk with Edward Kim, co-founder and CTO of Gusto. Edward built Gusto with two Stanford classmates into a $9.5B payroll platform running 300,000 small businesses, made over $1M selling Android apps on the side, and after a decade managing engineers, he's writing code again to ship an AI co-founder for the back office his mom used to run when he was a kid. He gets into why his doctor dad handed him a Paul Graham essay in the car, and the unfairness technical co-founders feel while business co-founders raise the money. We get into: -Making $700K a year selling Android apps after his first startup shut down -Why his doctor dad handing him a Paul Graham essay changed his career -His mom running the entire back office of his dad's medical practice while raising three kids -The unfairness technical co-founders feel while business co-founders get wined and dined by investors -Going back to code after 10 years managing engineers to ship an AI co-founder for small businesses so much more! (00:00) Trailer (00:51) Edward Kim, Co-Founder and CTO, Gusto (00:57) The elaborate escape rooms he builds for his wife Yuna (03:04) The San Francisco half marathon on a bet that reconnected him with Josh (05:32) Making $700,000 a year selling Android apps (10:25) Screenshot It, the $7 app for a feature Android didn't have (18:31) His mom running the entire back office of his dad's medical practice (26:22) The Paul Graham essay his doctor dad handed him in the car (29:51) Getting into Y Combinator with Gary as a partner (32:49) The unfairness technical co-founders feel while business co-founders raise money (36:51) After 15 years of co-founding, why the workload evens out (56:07) Building Gusto Co-Founder for the small business back office (1:15:01) His life philosophy in one sentence (1:15:08) Outro Follow Edward LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edawerd/ X: https://x.com/edawerd Follow Luba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/ X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    $9.5B Gusto Founder Went Back to Being an Engineer to Build an AI CoFounder - Edward Kim
See All (37)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Conversations with the human behind the ambition.

Information

  • Creator
    Luba Yudasina
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Luba Yudasina

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