The Luba Show

Luba Yudasina

Conversations with the human behind the ambition.

  1. 3d ago

    $3B Founder Who Left Anduril For Harvard On Purpose

    Today I walk with Cameron McCord, co-founder and CEO of Nominal, the hardware testing platform valued at $3B. Cameron is a former Navy submarine officer who spent 484 days underwater, worked at Anduril, Saildrone, Applied Intuition and Lux, and left Anduril for Harvard Business School on purpose, and now he sells to four of the five largest US defense contractors. He tells me why he made Sequoia wait until after his wedding, and why he thinks America lost two decades to unserious software. We get into: - The 70/20/10 formula Qasar Younis gave him: 70% finding a co-founder, 20% understanding a market, 10% on the product - Why Sequoia's Alfred Lin had to wait until after his wedding to lead the Series B - What happens to Nominal when the defense tech music stops, and why he calls it a pickax and shovel business across three gold rushes - The four different people you have to win over to close a single government deal - 484 days underwater on a submarine, and the clarity of mission he hasn't felt since so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(𝟎𝟎:𝟎𝟎) Trailer(𝟎𝟏:𝟎𝟒) Cameron McCord, Co-Founder & CEO, Nominal(𝟎𝟏:𝟒𝟔) What Nominal is and what it isn't(𝟎𝟖:𝟑𝟒) Nominal as an iceberg(𝟏𝟎:𝟏𝟏) Two decades lost to unserious software(𝟏𝟔:𝟓𝟗) What happens when the defense tech music stops(𝟐𝟎:𝟏𝟔) The four customers in every government sale(𝟑𝟑:𝟐𝟑) Action produces information(𝟑𝟓:𝟑𝟖) Exec coaches and getting out of the maze(𝟒𝟗:𝟏𝟑) 484 days underwater on a submarine(𝟓𝟒:𝟐𝟖) From nuclear nonproliferation to Nominal(𝟓𝟗:𝟏𝟏) Anduril, Saildrone, Applied Intuition, Lux, then Harvard(𝟏:𝟎𝟓:𝟒𝟓) Qasar Younis's 70/20/10 founder formula(𝟏:𝟏𝟏:𝟐𝟑) Sequoia called ten days before his wedding(𝟏:𝟏𝟑:𝟒𝟑) Meeting his wife and co-founder at business school(𝟏:𝟏𝟗:𝟓𝟒) What he's still becoming(𝟏:𝟐𝟑:𝟏𝟒) Outro Follow CameronLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameron-mccord/X: https://x.com/CameronLMcCordWebsite: https://nominal.io/about-us Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    $3B Founder Who Left Anduril For Harvard On Purpose

  2. Nov 5

    $56 Billion Investor Says Investors Don't Make Companies

    Today I walk with Hunter Walk, co-founder of Homebrew. Hunter led product at YouTube after Google acquired it, backed Chime years before its $11.6 billion IPO, and his firm led the seed round in Graphite before Cursor acquired it, and now he and his partner Satya Patel invest only their own money. He told me why skin in the game isn't enough anymore, and the one data point he'd use to explain why a startup succeeded. We get into: Why skin in the game isn't enough, and how a committed cap table carried Chime through its near-death years to an $11.6 billion IPOHis founder "sandwich," and the hard question he put to Graphite's three Harvard co-founders before leading their seedWhy he asks for the resumes of the first 20 hires, and what Google, Stripe, and Anthropic had in common at that stageMoving Homebrew to his own money, and why he doesn't need a markup from the next venture fund to prove he's goodNaive VS dangerous: what founders should and shouldn't sacrifice for a startupso much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Trailer (00:58) Hunter Walk, Co-Founder, Homebrew (01:29) Skin in the game VS heart in the game (02:46) How Chime almost died before going public (04:12) Secondaries and the “next hot thing” mindset (06:14) The founder sandwich (08:39) Graphite: from seed round to Cursor acquisition (12:35) Naive VS dangerous: what a startup costs you (14:16) Investing his own money and skipping the markup (15:19) Why the first 20 hires predict success (19:16) Corner Health and primary care in a box (21:12) Checking his ego and imposter syndrome (25:43) Pre-consensus bets VS pre-anointed winners (30:31) The Homebrew tattoo and Screendoor (32:50) LeBron, Wembanyama, and backing competitors (36:12) Food banks, door knocking, and touching grass (38:19) Outro Follow Hunter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterwalk/ X: https://x.com/hunterwalk Follow Luba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/ X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    $56 Billion Investor Says Investors Don't Make Companies

  3. Nov 2

    Inside Runway's $5.3B Playbook

    Today I walk with Anastasis Germanidis, co-founder and co-CEO of Runway (https://runway.com). Anastasis met his co-founders at NYU's ITP art program, built Runway into an AI video company doing over $200M in annual recurring revenue at a $5.3B valuation, and recently acquired the Paris-based Kinetix team into Runway, and now he's pushing Runway's video models into world models for robotics and software. He gets into the hour of existential crisis after OpenAI launched Sora, and how the team shipped a better model within a few months.​We get into: - How Runway accidentally built one of the best models for robotics by teaching a video model to predict pixels - Why he defines AGI as something that can never be reached, and why folding clothes is still harder for AI than the tasks people call complex - The 2022 call to drop the entire product and build 30 magic tools in 30 days - OpenAI's Sora launch, the hour the company asked if it could compete, and shipping Gen-3 at CVPR a few months later - Why proof of work beats credentials and big-lab resumes when Runway hires so much more!​𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Trailer(01:21) Anastasis Germanidis, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Runway(02:27) Accidentally building one of the best robotics models(03:04) The camera control that led to world models(07:18) How video models train robots and self-driving cars(10:47) What a world model actually is(12:10) Pitching world models to a 30-person team in 2023(16:19) Why folding clothes is still unsolved for AI(17:37) Why AGI can never be reached(19:13) Learning to code from his sister's professor(22:03) A game built on Nietzsche's eternal recurrence(30:35) Starting an AI company from art school(35:44) The book every Runway hire gets(39:47) Why staying in stealth is counterproductive(42:03) 30 magic tools in 30 days(46:01) Keeping the team smaller than it should be(52:35) Fueled by being underestimated(55:55) Sora's launch and an hour of existential crisis(57:02) Racing to beat Sora in three months(1:01:56) Solaris and software generated in real time(1:05:15) Why AI labs pay for fake versions of Amazon(1:08:27) Video requests cost 100x more tokens than LLMs(1:09:52) Why Sora struggled as a consumer app(1:16:30) Hiring on proof of work(1:19:44) Becoming co-CEO with Cristóbal Valenzuela(1:21:21) The cost of being a full-stack AI company(1:29:39) Would he live the same life again(1:30:56) What he's still becoming(1:32:52) Outro Follow AnastasisLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/agermanidisX: https://x.com/agermanidisWebsite: https://runway.com Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    Inside Runway's $5.3B Playbook

  4. Oct 28

    He Raised $130M For Voice AI Back When The Market Didn't Exist

    Today I’m talking to Dylan Fox, founder and CEO of AssemblyAI (https://www.assemblyai.com).  Dylan taught himself to code, was a machine learning engineer at Cisco, and went through Y Combinator's very first AI batch in 2017, and now AssemblyAI serves over a million developers and 100 million API calls a day with $130M raised from Accel, Insight and Y Combinator.  On October 27, AssemblyAI launches AssemblyAI-TTS-1, a text-to-speech model built for voice agents that completes its voice stack alongside streaming speech-to-text and turn detection. He gets into the five years he waited for a Series A, and why he thinks the last 10% of an AI product is where product market fit gets decided. We get into: - Five years from founding to a Series A, in a voice AI market he says has since grown 10x- Why AssemblyAI went 100% usage-based with no committed contracts, and how that produced around 180% net dollar retention- The Amazon Echo commercial that pulled him into voice while he      was at Cisco- Applying to YC a month late with no co-founder, and how partner Daniel Gross vouched for him- Scaling headcount before the business was ready, and the go-to-market reset that left AssemblyAI at 85 to 90 people and so much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒(00:00) Trailer(01:16) Dylan Fox, Founder & CEO, AssemblyAI(01:46) YC's first AI batch and five years to a Series A(05:49) Granola, Tolan and the voice agents built on AssemblyAI(07:27) Why the last 10% of an AI product creates product market fit(09:43) 180% net dollar retention with zero committed contracts(14:04) Field sales techs earning $20K more commission with voice AI(17:47) Voice as the primary interface to all hardware and software(24:42) Teaching himself to code to build a DoorDash for toiletries(29:17) Rejected by Twilio, hired by Cisco(33:07) The Amazon Echo that started AssemblyAI(40:56) Applying to YC a month late with no co-founder(45:01) How Daniel Gross got him into YC(1:01:30) Scaling up too early and resetting go-to-market(1:07:21) Leaning on Accel, Insight and founders from Synthesia and Pinecone(1:14:19) Why he quit X(1:15:10) Outro Follow DylanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanbfox/X: https://x.com/YouveGotFoxWebsite: https://www.assemblyai.com Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    He Raised $130M For Voice AI Back When The Market Didn't Exist

  5. Oct 22

    This Harvard Dropout Raised At $180M Valuation To Build An AI Brain For CFOs

    Today I walk with Ron Nachum, co-founder and CEO of Sapien, an AI company that helps CFOs understand how their businesses run. Ron dropped out of Harvard to start Sapien with two friends from high school, recently raised from Neo and Ali Partovi at a $180M valution. Sapien works with CFOs at manufacturers and Fortune 500 companies, and now at 22 he's building an engine that reads a company's financial and operational data from the ground up. He gets into the night his co-founder found a $10M mistake hours before a customer's board meeting, and why he picks investors by asking if he'd want them at his wedding. We get into: - The spreadsheet error that turned $10M in expected profit into a $2M loss, and how Sapien caught it the morning of the board meeting - Why he'd rather start a hard company than an easy one when anyone can build anything with AI - Dropping out of Harvard after Ali Partovi's first check from Neo, and why the risk felt asymmetric - The wedding test he uses on every investor, and why he chose Neo over Y Combinator - Juggling 500 times in a row in second grade, and the nurture-only belief behind everything he builds so much more! 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐬 (00:00) Trailer(01:18) Ron Nachum, Co-Founder & CEO, Sapien(01:35) The $10M error found on board meeting day(04:53) Telling CFOs twice his age they were wrong(07:55) How a 19-year-old earns trust from skeptical buyers(11:53) Why it's better to start a hard company(13:29) Rubber band bracelets and 3D-printed fidget spinners(18:32) The professor who told a 14-year-old not to email him(22:56) Pain tolerance as the top founder trait(27:16) Being too blunt as a young leader(35:43) Why he records almost every conversation(38:31) Dropping out of Harvard after Neo's first check(45:30) Choosing Neo over Y Combinator and the wedding test(46:54) From recruiting tools to the brain for CFOs(54:45) Finishing SOC 2 controls overnight to close a customer(59:18) Why he wants to build a hotel on the moon(1:00:45) Outro Follow RonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-nachum/X: https://x.com/RonNachumWebsite: https://sapien.ai/ Follow LubaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    This Harvard Dropout Raised At $180M Valuation To Build An AI Brain For CFOs

  6. Oct 19

    After A $300M Walmart Exit He Raised $60M From Khosla To Build An AI Friend

    Today I walk with Quinten Farmer, co-founder of Tolan (https://www.tolans.com/), a personal AI built to be a guide through life. Quinten has sold his last company, Even, to Walmart for $300M, saved millions of Americans billions in payday loans and overdraft fees, and raised $60M from USV and Khosla. He gets into why he has zero interest in an AI that books your flights, and why Tolan takes most of its time from TikTok and television. We get into: Why he has zero interest in an AI that books flights or writes work emails, and the guardian angel idea behind TolanSocial penetration theory, and why every Tolan gets its own lore and backstorySelling Even to Walmart for $300M after saving Americans billions in payday loans and overdraft feesThe email to David Tisch that gave him two options: hire me or I go to AfghanistanThe lunch spent on compostable takeout container margins that pulled him back into techso much more! 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Trailer (00:49) Quinten Farmer, Co-Founder, Tolan (00:58) What Tolan is and what it is not (02:02) The car accident that showed Tolan's agentic side (04:47) Anthropic's machine God VS being nice to your toaster (06:24) Social penetration theory and why every Tolan has a backstory (09:36) 200 minutes a week and taking share from TikTok (10:47) Why great friendship gets mistaken for therapy (14:26) Talking to his Tolan at 2 a.m. in the hospital (16:32) Why Silicon Valley is obsessed with AI assistants (21:38) Dropping out and the only time he saw his grandfather cry (29:35) The David Tisch email: hire me or I go to Afghanistan (32:22) Selling Even to Walmart for $300M (37:24) Why shipping a lot with AI is the wrong move (57:43) How Tolan runs without 996 (1:03:38) What he wants his boys to remember (1:04:30) Outro Follow Quinten LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quintendf X: https://x.com/quintendf Tolan - https://www.tolans.com/ Follow Luba Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal/ X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina

    After A $300M Walmart Exit He Raised $60M From Khosla To Build An AI Friend

  7. Oct 14

    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

  8. Oct 12

    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
See All (43)

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
    43
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Luba Yudasina

You Might Also Like