The Delphi Podcast

The Delphi Podcast

Conversations with Crypto Gigabrains. Hosted by Tommy, Co-Founder and Founding Partner at Delphi Ventures 

  1. 1d ago

    Why India’s Next Tech Giants Are Hiding in Plain Sight | Paavan Gami

    Paavan Gami is the founder and managing partner of Raas Partners, a concentrated, long-term Indian public equities fund. Before Raas he spent five years at Greenoaks, working across venture and public markets. José sits down with Paavan for another episode of the Emerging Managers series on The Delphi Podcast. Paavan explains how Greenoaks works as one investing system rather than a federation of partners, and tells the Carvana story from the inside: selling near the top, buying back after a 90% fall, and holding through another 75% drawdown. Then India: why its best tech companies go public at a few billion dollars while they still look like Series C businesses, why the index is a poor passive instrument, and how AI changes the bull and bear case. Paavan walks through the two businesses Raas owns, Eternal (Zomato and Blinkit) and Meesho, an Indian data center supply chain bet, how he uses AI agents in his process, and the biggest risk to his own fund. 00:00 Intro 01:59 The Road to Greenoaks 05:37 Inside Greenoaks 08:15 The Carvana Story 18:02 Why Leave for India 21:18 Betting on the Category Leader 23:45 Does AI Break the India Story? 33:26 Imagine Sam Walton Today 35:21 Is the Window Closing? 39:33 IPOs at $350 Million 42:10 What Makes an Exceptional Founder 45:08 India's FANGs 48:21 Blinkit and Quick Commerce 53:21 Meesho and Value Commerce 57:28 The India Data Center Bet 1:00:43 AI in the Investment Process 1:09:04 The Biggest Risk 1:10:32 What Success Looks Like ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Follow or get in touch in the comments... José: https://x.com/ZeMariaMacedo Paavan: https://x.com/hiro_sugimoto_ Delphi: https://x.com/delphi_digital Delphi Digital: https://delphidigital.io/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥WATCH ON YOUTUBE: Most VCs Are Afraid to Be Wrong | Rohan Pujara: https://youtu.be/RL_r5TL3kNg Why the Future of Venture Is Hard Tech, Drones & Physical AI | Ian Rountree: https://youtu.be/pAIrREY_Umk ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DISCLOSURE José Maria Macedo is an LP in Raas Partners. Nothing in this episode is investment advice; Paavan discusses positions Raas holds. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DISCLAIMER The Delphi Podcast (the “Podcast”) is produced by DELPHI MEDIA, LLC (“Delphi Media”). This content is solely for educational and informational purposes and is not, and should not be construed as, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Delphi Media is not a financial, tax, or legal advisor. You are expressly advised to consult with a professional advisor before making any investment decisions. Also, the views expressed by Podcast are solely those of hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect those of Delphi Media. Delphi Media is a member of the DELPHI DIGITAL family, a group of distinct companies sharing the same brand and vision. Delphi Ventures operates as an independent venture capital firm that seeks to invest in world-changing founders.

    Why India’s Next Tech Giants Are Hiding in Plain Sight | Paavan Gami

  2. 3d ago

    How America Is Exporting Its $40 Trillion Debt

    Alex Wilson is co-founder and co-CEO of Cyclops, which builds stablecoin rails for payments companies. Before that he co-founded The Giving Block, which lets nonprofits accept crypto, and sold it to Shift4 in 2022. Alex tells Tommy how he went from flipping domain names and selling neighbours' gear on eBay in high school to building The Giving Block nights and weekends, launching into a bear market, quitting his job at the start of COVID, and selling to Shift4 a year after raising. He talks about the $50 million Pineapple Fund donation, beating Coinbase by going narrow, and what he learned working under Jared Isaacman. Then Cyclops: why payments companies were stitching together ten crypto providers, why Shift4 became a customer and an investor, Blue Origin tickets paid in stablecoins, why payments companies win and banks lose, agent-ready checkouts, and why he thinks most of the world's 200 currencies won't survive the dollar. 00:00 Intro 04:39 The Door-to-Door eBay Hustle 15:59 The $50M Anonymous Donation 17:41 Beating Coinbase by Going Narrow 19:55 Sold to Shift4 a Year Later 25:23 From Shift4 to NASA 27:31 Lessons From Jared 29:33 Hiring to Scare People Away 31:08 Why Start Cyclops 36:22 A Ticket to Space in Stablecoins 37:54 Who Stablecoins Cut Out 40:15 Agents Need New Checkouts 43:04 200 Currencies Down to 25 46:12 Seed to Series A in a Year 49:38 Swinging for a $10B Exit ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Follow or get in touch in the comments... Tommy: https://x.com/Shaughnessy119 Alex: https://x.com/AlexWilsonTGB Cyclops: https://cyclops.io Delphi: https://x.com/delphi_digital Delphi Digital: https://delphi.link/delphipod ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥WATCH: How to Steal Satoshi's Bitcoin: https://youtu.be/WM1psGJomXg Coinbase Insider: Why Bitcoin & Crypto Are Ready to Move MUCH Higher: https://youtu.be/1xedtRsbw6E ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DISCLAIMER The Delphi Podcast (the “Podcast”) is produced by DELPHI MEDIA, LLC (“Delphi Media”). This content is solely for educational and informational purposes and is not, and should not be construed as, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Delphi Media is not a financial, tax, or legal advisor. You are expressly advised to consult with a professional advisor before making any investment decisions. Also, the views expressed by Podcast are solely those of hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect those of Delphi Media. Delphi Media is a member of the DELPHI DIGITAL family, a group of distinct companies sharing the same brand and vision. Delphi Ventures operates as an independent venture capital firm that seeks to invest in world-changing founders.

    How America Is Exporting Its $40 Trillion Debt

  3. Oct 26

    Why OpenAI Should Be Scared of Open Source

    Tarun Chitra is the founder of Gauntlet and managing partner at Robot Ventures, which just led Nous Research's $90 million round. He joins Tommy on The Delphi Podcast to explain why he backed Nous and Hermes Agent after months of diligence on OpenRouter data and GitHub forks. Tarun traces how crypto's first run at AI went wrong, from GPU networks to token-launched agents, and why the crypto people who dropped the token have done well. He breaks down why OpenClaw is the worst developer experience he's used, why Hermes is closer to Ubuntu than to Android, and how robotics makers built on Hermes without Nous knowing. The conversation closes on his market structure thesis: AI inference looks like crypto, OpenRouter looks like a DEX, some providers game cache pricing, and the money will flow to the harnesses on top and the inference providers underneath. Hermes, in his words, is like investing in Phantom or FOMO. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 06:34 Robot Leads Nous's $90M Round 09:37 Crypto AI Was Meme Coins With More Steps 14:40 Why Nous Stood Out Early 28:14 Hermes vs OpenClaw 35:39 The End of AI Lock-In 46:33 The Ubuntu of AI 56:17 Microsoft and Nvidia Join the Round 59:42 OpenRouter Is a DEX for AI 1:07:02 All the Money Goes to the Top 💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔 🧠 Follow the Alpha Tommy: https://x.com/Shaughnessy119 Tarun: https://x.com/tarunchitra 🔗 Connect with Delphi 🌐 Portal: https://delphi.link/delphipod 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62PR1RigLG2YN5Pelq6UY9?si=18ac7ccf36ab4753 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-delphi-podcast/id1438148082 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q 🔥WATCH: $100M+ Crypto Investor: How to Prepare for Next Bull Market:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQQErgSvjnc&list=PLNBYLyvyGrM8 The Worst Is Behind Us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJX1U6EeIM4 Disclaimer The Delphi Podcast is produced by DELPHI MEDIA, LLC. This content is solely for educational and informational purposes and is not, and should not be construed as, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Delphi Media is not a financial, tax, or legal advisor. You are expressly advised to consult with a professional advisor before making any investment decisions. Also, the views expressed by Podcast are solely those of hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect those of Delphi Media. Delphi Media is a member of the DELPHI DIGITAL family, a group of distinct companies sharing the same brand and vision. Delphi Ventures operates as an independent venture capital firm that seeks to invest in world-changing founders.

    Why OpenAI Should Be Scared of Open Source

  4. Oct 20

    The Secret Supplier Feeding Frontier AI

    From a pandemic side project to delivering exabytes of web data to frontier AI labs, Andrej Radonjic has built a data business most people have never heard of. The co-founder and CEO of Wynd Labs, the team behind Grass, joins Yan on The Delphi Podcast in Miami for a conversation about why the open internet is closing its doors to AI, what labs actually pay for when they buy data, and how millions of people sharing spare bandwidth became one of the ways AI reads the web. Andrej shares how an arbitrage bot he built during his PhD pulled him into web scraping, why Grass was built on consent, and what it took to scale to exabytes, including a co-founder who flew to Ashburn and assembled servers overnight. He also explains how robots are learning from web video, why he compares AI data to defense tech, and how the new Contents API turns any public web page into a single API call. The conversation closes with the ownerless Grass Foundation behind the recent revenue attestation, what a moat really is, and his vision for Grass to become the way AI accesses the world's information. 00:00 Intro 00:43 From Nuclear Physics to Web Scraping 03:38 The Pandemic Signal Everyone Missed 07:31 The Smart TV Proxy Scandal 09:10 Why the Internet Is Blocking AI 11:56 Training Data vs Live Data 16:05 Mapping the Entire Internet 18:03 Delivering Exabytes to AI Labs 21:48 What AI Labs Really Pay For 24:43 How Robots Learn From Web Video 33:02 When Labs Change Direction 35:57 One API Call for Any Website 41:58 AI Flipped Search Upside Down 47:03 Can the Network Keep Up? 49:52 The Defense Tech of AI Data 52:58 Why Data Is the Alpha 57:08 Why AI Labs Won't Buy Slop 59:17 The Metric That Matters Most 01:02:35 The $100 Billion Data Market 01:05:07 Who Actually Owns Grass 01:08:18 What a Real Moat Looks Like 01:13:16 What Happens Next ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Follow or get in touch in the comments... Yan: https://x.com/YanLiberman Andrej: https://x.com/0xdrej Wynd Labs: https://x.com/wyndLabs_ai Delphi Digital: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital Portal: https://delphi.link/delphipod LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital Podcast: https://thedelphipodcast.buzzsprout.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥WATCH: AI is Coming For Bitcoin With Quantum: https://youtu.be/-Unv3d-OXjw Crypto's $150 Trillion Opportunity: https://youtu.be/jbmersfBF1g Billionaire's Warning: The Ai Bubble is About to Pop. Prepare Now: https://youtu.be/JnKaeBXyHng ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DISCLOSURE Delphi Ventures is an investor in Grass and holds a Grass token. DISCLAIMER The Delphi Podcast is produced by DELPHI MEDIA, LLC. This content is solely for educational and informational purposes and is not, and should not be construed as, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Delphi Media is not a financial, tax, or legal advisor. You are expressly advised to consult with a professional advisor before making any investment decisions. Also, the views expressed by Podcast are solely those of hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect those of Delphi Media. Delphi Media is a member of the DELPHI DIGITAL family, a group of distinct companies sharing the same brand and vision. Delphi Ventures operates as an independent venture capital firm that seeks to invest in world-changing founders.

    The Secret Supplier Feeding Frontier AI

  5. Oct 9

    It's not AI Doom, It's a Fourth Turning

    From building TechCrunch to backing Uber and Airbnb, Michael Arrington has had a front-row seat to some of technology’s biggest shifts. He joins Tommy on The Delphi Podcast for a candid conversation about the unstoppable AI race, the psychology of exceptional founders, and why he believes Bitcoin is the hard money the world needs. Michael shares how he broke the news of Google buying YouTube, what working with Steve Jobs taught him, and how his relationships with founders translated into early investments in generational companies. He also opens up about burnout, leaving TechCrunch, reinventing himself through crypto, and staying convinced through brutal market cycles. The conversation closes with his advice for entrepreneurs: face your fears, play to your strengths, and build a team that complements your weaknesses. Timestamps 00:00 Intro & the Fourth Turning 07:00 AI, China & the race to AGI 17:00 Founder psychology & investment red flags 29:00 Building TechCrunch & lessons from Steve Jobs 44:00 Selling TechCrunch & backing Uber and Airbnb 53:00 Moving into crypto & navigating market cycles 60:00 Bitcoin, AI & an uncertain future 01:09:00 Advice for founders: play to your strengths Tommy: https://x.com/Shaughnessy119 Michael: https://x.com/arrington 🔗 Connect with Delphi 🌐 Portal: https://delphi.link/delphipod 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/YgyjaD8mgbs DISCLAIMER This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

    It's not AI Doom, It's a Fourth Turning

  6. Oct 8

    Most VCs Are Afraid to Be Wrong | Rohan Pujara

    José sits down with Rohan Pujara, general partner at Valhalla Ventures, for another episode of the Emerging Managers series on The Delphi Podcast. Rohan explains why he avoids crowded investment themes, seeks out unconventional founders, and believes venture capital has increasingly traded risk-taking for status and consensus. They explore what separates repeatable investing skill from getting lucky, why a great seed investment should have no competitors, and how Valhalla builds conviction in companies other investors overlook. Rohan breaks down the thinking behind investments in K2 Space, Jaza and Truffle—from large satellites and electricity in sub-Saharan Africa to the case for running AI on personal devices. The conversation also covers concentrated portfolios, selective follow-on investing, the appeal of owning future monopolies, and how LP incentives shape fund managers’ decisions. Rohan shares how growing up with little money shaped his willingness to take risks, why he prefers New York to San Francisco, and what it takes to build an enduring investment firm. 💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔 🧠 Follow the Alpha ▸José Macedo: @ZeMariaMacedo ▸Rohan Pujara: @rohanpuj 🔗 Connect with Delphi 🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62PR1RigLG2YN5Pelq6UY9?si=18ac7ccf36ab4753 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-delphi-podcast/id1438148082 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q Timestamps 00:00 Cold Open 00:44 Meet Rohan Pujara and Valhalla Ventures 01:56 Why Rohan Avoids Consensus Investments 10:23 Has Venture Capital Lost Its Risk Takers? 13:11 Investing Skill vs. Getting Lucky 17:23 Finding Founders Before They Raise 19:14 What Makes an Exceptional Founder? 28:28 Concentrated Portfolios and Follow-On Investing 34:32 San Francisco Groupthink vs. New York 36:48 TCI, Monopolies and Long-Term Moats 39:37 From Crypto to Deep Tech and Beyond 44:25 K2 Space: Betting Against Small Satellites 47:34 Jaza: Bringing Electricity to Africa 51:33 Investment Mistakes and Overthinking 55:17 Backing Technical AI Founders 58:44 Truffle and the Future of Personal AI 1:03:53 Growing Up Poor and Learning to Take Risks 1:11:38 Valhalla’s Future and Aligning Incentives Disclaimer This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

    Most VCs Are Afraid to Be Wrong | Rohan Pujara

  7. Sep 9

    Why the Future of Venture Is Hard Tech, Drones & Physical AI | Ian Rountree

    Join José as he hosts another episode of the Emerging Manager series on the Delphi Podcast, sitting down with Ian Rowntree, founder and managing partner of Cantos. Ian details the ten-year journey of Cantos, moving from early vertical software into hard tech and physical AI, while announcing the launch of their $70M Fourth Fund.  They dive into the reality of venture capital returns, the power law dynamics of outlier funds, and why traditional SaaS playbooks fail in frontier markets. Ian shares the frameworks Cantos uses to evaluate hard-tech founders, the mechanics behind portfolio companies like Neros and Castilleja, and why vertical integration is required to displace entrenched incumbents.  Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:39 Why Invest in Venture Capital? 07:10 The Edge of Emerging Managers 11:05 From Software to Hard Tech 23:08 Contrarian Investing, Valuations, and Venture Mistakes 34:14 What Makes an Exceptional Founder? 56:38 Bringing Technology Into the Physical Economy 1:10:51 Defense Tech, Drones, and the Future of Warfare 1:23:55 Physical AI and Shaping the Future 💡 Want to stay updated with the latest in crypto & AI? Hit subscribe and the notification bell! 🔔 🧠 Follow the Alpha ▸ José: @ZeMariaMacedo ▸ Ian's Twitter: @IanRountree 🔗 Connect with Delphi 🌐 Portal: https://delphidigital.io/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Yy99ZlQIX9-PdG_xHj43Q Disclaimer This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

    Why the Future of Venture Is Hard Tech, Drones & Physical AI | Ian Rountree

  8. Sep 2

    China’s AI Advantage Is Bigger Than You Think

    In this episode of The Delphi Podcast, Tommy sits down with AccelXR, author of Delphi Digital’s “Evaluating the AI Labs of China” report, to break down what’s actually happening in the US-China AI race.  You can read the report here: https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/evaluating-the-ai-labs-of-china?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:35 Is China Innovating or Just Distilling? 06:10 DeepSeek and China’s Leading AI Labs 10:15 How China Is Working Around Weaker Chips 18:25 China’s Biggest AI Advantage: Electricity 29:45 Three Scenarios for the US-China AI Race 40:20 America’s AI Talent Advantage Is Reversing 47:45 China’s Path to AI Sovereignty Tommy: https://x.com/Shaughnessy119 AccelXR: https://x.com/accelxr 🔗 Connect with Delphi 🌐 Portal: https://delphi.link/delphipod 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/delphi_digital 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/delphi-digital Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@delphi_digital DISCLAIMER This podcast is strictly informational and educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any tokens or securities or to make any financial decisions. Do not trade or invest in any project, tokens, or securities based upon this podcast episode. The host and members at Delphi Ventures may personally own tokens or art that are mentioned on the podcast. Our current show features paid sponsorships which may be featured at the start, middle, and/or the end of the episode. These sponsorships are for informational purposes only and are not a solicitation to use any product, service or token.

    China’s AI Advantage Is Bigger Than You Think
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4.6
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79 Ratings

About

Conversations with Crypto Gigabrains. Hosted by Tommy, Co-Founder and Founding Partner at Delphi Ventures 

Information

  • Creator
    The Delphi Podcast
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    493
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Delphi Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Delphi Podcast

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