The Neon Show

Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  • 4.9 (7)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Biweekly

Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journey from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.  Hence was born the Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.  We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings. 

  1. 3d ago

    Why Super Intelligent Models Write Super Dangerous Code | Varun Badhwar, Endor Labs

    Open source is under attack, AI code is more hackable and the things a founder can control now are very very few. Varun Badhwar is a 3x security founder, his last startup was acquired by Palo Alto networks where he grew the business from $5M ARR to $100M ARR. Now he is building Endor Labs to add controlled chaos to world of AI written code. Varun explains how nation-state actors are exploiting defenseless open-source repositories, how AI agents invent open-source libraries, why super intelligent models write super dangerous code and how we live in strange AI world where no one is control. Watch this episode to learn about the business and tech of securing billions (and billions lines of code). 00:00 Army Kid Turned Serial Founder 02:28 Bored at Salesforce, Built CipherCloud 05:13 Nothing Prepares You to Be CEO 08:02 $12M Raised, $250M Exit 09:47 “You’re My Biggest Competitor”. 12:40 Did RedLock Sell Too Cheap? 15:06 Why Leave Palo Alto? 18:37 Securing Code From Prompt to Deploy 20:36 Why AI Writes Hackable Code 24:41 Your Moat Can Vanish in 90 Days 29:58 Darth Vader in the Office 31:04 Things Founders Can Control 33:13 Win Customers Before First Sales Call 34:53 My Research is My Distribution 39:53 Without Trust Your Sales Funnel is Leaky 44:33 A Security Bug Can Wipe $40B Overnight 46:06 $9K Fix for a $90K Problem 49:05 War Between Engineering and Security 51:15 Hire Salespeople in Pairs 55:35 Inventing Cars vs Going Electric 58:30 100x Code, 100x Vulnerabilities? 01:02:04 Don't Build in the Bubble 01:03:02 Claude Isn't Done Until Endor Says So 01:04:25 AI Agents Make Up Libraries 01:06:09 Your Job Is to Be Bought 01:09:00 Why 90% of Startup Acquisitions Fail 01:11:42 Why Palo Alto Wins at M&A 01:14:10 Rapid Fire: AI Tools, GTM Hacks and More ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram:  instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/neon-fund  Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/ Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice Send us Fan Mail

    Why Super Intelligent Models Write Super Dangerous Code | Varun Badhwar, Endor Labs

  2. Oct 23

    Ex-Meta VP: ChatGPT Is Just the Trailer for What’s Coming Next

    Why would a top AI leader leave Meta at the peak of the AI boom? Manohar Paluri is the co-founder and CTO of Warp Sciences. Before that, he spent years at Meta, where he worked closely with Yann LeCun. He started his career as an intern, and his alma mater includes IIIT Hyderabad, SRI and Georgia Tech. In this episode Manohar explains why the magical personal assistants are just the trailer for AI, why physical intelligence is the hardest bottleneck in tech, the truth behind open-weights vs. closed models, and why he wants to build scientific superintelligence when he could have worked on anything. If you are interested in solving the hardest problems, watch this episode. 00:00 Why Leave "Center of the Universe"? 00:57 Frontier Models and Plane Wi-Fi 03:40 AI Has Conquered Bits Not Atoms(Yet) 07:13 Why Real World Is AI's Hardest Loop 11:29 AI Assistants Are Just the Trailer 14:01 Will Frontier Eat All Software? 17:43 Open Source Isn't Truly Open? 26:28 What If Hardware Gets 10x Better? 29:58 Is Sovereign AI Needed? 38:04 Why Zuckerberg, Sundar and Elon Launch on X 42:07 Perception Drive Reality Until It Doesn’t 43:20 Spot, Learn, Leap, Build 47:46 What Yann LeCun Taught Him 50:56 Zuckerberg and $1B Instagram Bet 54:51 Finding The Bottleneck is The Hack 57:40 The Super Hard Problem To Solve 01:03:30 How to Accelerate Scientific Discovery 01:05:44 Can You Make the Elephants Dance? 01:11:10 Silicon Valley Is a Mumbai Local Train 01:14:55 The World Will Beat Pessimism Into You 01:19:14 How to Keep Going When Things Get Hard 01:23:45 Macro Optimist and Micro Pessimist ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram:  instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/neon-fund  Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/ Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice Send us Fan Mail

    Ex-Meta VP: ChatGPT Is Just the Trailer for What’s Coming Next

  3. Oct 15

    Burning $8M on Open Source, Hitting $100M ARR and the $250 Billion Market | Harjot, CodeRabbit

    We live in strange times where AI is turning every problem into a coding problem but no one is reading the code solving those problems. On this episode of the Neon show, we have Harjot, Co-Founder & CEO CodeRabbit. Harjot explains why they didn’t go after code generation, the infinite demand for software that is coming, why Jira and Linear are being bypassed, and why he calls today's fundraising market the weirdest he has seen. We also explore CodeRabbit’s $8M open-source investment, the company’s $1.5B valuation, what successful agents will look like, and why founders need to learn to kill their ideas. Watch this episode to learn about the future of software engineering and how to ride a tech wave. 00:00 Why Coding Space Exploded 00:37 From Copilot to Claude Code 01:55 Why CodeRabbit Ignored Code Generation 04:23 Is Code Review a $250B Market? 06:24 When Claude Code Fights CodeRabbit 07:16 Developers Are Now Reviewers 10:54 Clones, Rivals and the Benchmark Problem 13:08 The Weirdest Fundraising Market Ever 17:04 Seats, Margins and the Amazon Prime Problem 21:24 Finding Co-Founder in Family 24:16 Why GitHub Can't Go Away 25:59 Will AI Agents Replace Figma? 29:12 Why Adding More Engineers Creates Chaos 30:38 The Early Decisions That Worked 31:18 Sandboxes in 2023 and Skipping MCP 32:32 The $8M Open-Source Bet 33:11 From Free Users to a Paid Business 35:50 Punjab, Alcatel-Lucent and Silicon Valley 39:08 Building, Selling, and Exiting First Startup 43:50 Right Product, Wrong Timing 45:06 You Can't Create a Wave 49:38 Does Vibe Coding Need Code Review? 51:33 Every Problem Becomes a Coding Problem 53:50 Where Founders Should Build Next 56:29 The Market for Agent Change Management 59:55 Code Review, Security, and What Comes Next ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram:  instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/neon-fund  Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn:   / siddharthaahluwalia   Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice Send us Fan Mail

    Burning $8M on Open Source, Hitting $100M ARR and the $250 Billion Market | Harjot, CodeRabbit

  4. Oct 9

    How AWS, AngleList and Now AI Killed The Old VC Playbook | Nakul, Audacious

    From a boutique industry of ~20 firms to today where there are specialised funds for every stage, geography and category, Venture Capital has changed radically. On this episode we have Nakul Mandan from Audacious Ventures. Nakul came to Silicon Valley at 28 expecting to be fired. He left Lightspeed in 2020, spent 14 months raising a $90M first fund in the middle of a pandemic, then watched ChatGPT changing the game entirely during his first two years of investing. In this episode, Nakul shares how his thinking evolved from being thesis-driven to people-driven, why he believes only five thousand people shape Silicon Valley, why there is always a younger, hungrier investor coming for you and how to invest millions of dollars in 20 year old founders. Watch this episode to understand the new Venture Capital and how it's operating in the hyper-speed AI world. 00:00 The Most Intense VC in Silicon Valley 02:30 5,000 People Run Silicon Valley 05:44 The Drive Behind the Intensity 09:13 Why You Never Arrive in Silicon Valley 11:17 Sourcing, Picking, Winning, Helping 14:37 The Ego-Bruising Reality of Fundraising 19:55 Bull Runs, Crashes, and ChatGPT 22:44 Slowing Down Deployment 24:21 Why $1B AI Companies Can Still Be Cheap 27:38 How AWS, YC, and AngelList Changed Venture 32:30 The Freedom (and Pressure) of Building Audacious 39:27 Making VC Math Work 43:06 Defining the Improbable Outcome 45:29 The 5 Traits of Exceptional Founders 48:16 When You’re on the Fence, Lean In 50:51 The Audacious Unfair Advantage 56:40 The Power Law of People 58:07 Finding Exceptional 21-Year-Old Founders 01:03:30 Backing WorkOS and Multiverse 01:10:39 Passing on Figma 01:20:24 Bubbles, Time Diversity and Staying Power 01:23:14 Why Ambitious Founders Move to Bay Area ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram:   / theneonshoww   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neon-fund Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn:   / siddharthaahluwalia   Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice. Send us Fan Mail

    How AWS, AngleList and Now AI Killed The Old VC Playbook | Nakul, Audacious

  5. Oct 1

    Which SaaS Companies Will Survive Anthropic and OpenAI? | Tim Guleri, Sierra Ventures

    Tim Guleri has spent 25 years in venture capital. Before that, he built companies with $3.8B in combined exits. And before that, he was a Punjabi guy selling Bibles door to door in the US. In this episode, we go deep into AI, venture capital, fundraising, SaaS, Silicon Valley and how great investors actually make decisions. We discuss the Gatorade Rule for equity, why Airtable sold for 2x, why 9–5 fails in Silicon Valley, why revenue durability matters more than hyperspeed growth, why Tim still operates at 120% all the time, how Sierra selects 30 companies out of 30,000, and how he missed Salesforce. Listen to this conversation to learn what it takes to win gold in the Olympics of tech. 00:00 Selling Bibles to $3.8B in Exits 01:03 Operating with Only One Gear 03:02 The Founder LOVE Framework 05:17 Four Audiences Every Founder Must Win 07:24 My $100B Mistake: Salesforce 10:42 Avoid Building Companies with 'Stretch Marks' 13:10 The Gatorade Theory of Startup Funding 15:46 Don’t Chase the Next Anthropic 18:22 Raising Sierra’s 14th Fund 19:31 Is AI Really Killing SaaS? 24:30 Golden Age of Indian Entrepreneurs 29:36 How Sierra Selects 30 Out of 30,000 32:11 "We Are Street Fighters" 35:34 Why Real Work Happens After Hours 35:57 Why He Refused to Retire After a $3B Exit 37:24 What 25 Years in Venture Teaches You 40:28 Silicon Valley Has an IPO Problem 44:00 How a VC Firm Survives for 100 Years 46:07 Is 3x Growth Still Enough? 50:49 Why Party Rounds Ruin Startups 56:32 Investing in Pre-Revenue Startups 59:10 Why Great VCs Need Killer Instinct 01:04:55 How Sierra Moves Fast ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram:   / theneonshoww   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neon-fund Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn:   / siddharthaahluwalia   Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice. Send us Fan Mail

    Which SaaS Companies Will Survive Anthropic and OpenAI? | Tim Guleri, Sierra Ventures

  6. Sep 25

    “Yes.” Building Claude Code for Marketing | Kashish, Hightouch

    Now, everyone’s talking about building AI harnesses and context layers. Kashish has been building these for years and Hightouch has now reached a stage where they are challenging giants like Adobe and Salesforce while crossing $100M in revenue. In this episode we discussed how and why LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini are failing marketing teams at enterprises, why marketing is a coding problem, what makes a harness “ thick”, why it’s a CEO’s job to be Chief Pipeline Generator in early years, controversial decisions that worked perfectly for Hightouch and why now is the time for 100x Marketer. Listen to the episode to look into the future of marketing 00:00 Quitting VC to become a Founder 01:35 Travel Startup with Terrible Margins 03:25 From Slack Agents to Customer Data 04:31 Saving a Bank $6M on "Unmarketing" 05:45 Why Make Composable CDP? 07:53 Why Every Other CDP Was Broken 11:33 Where Hightouch Creates Real ROI 12:48 Agents That Surface Revenue 16:47 Inside a Multi-Million Dollar Enterprise Rollout 21:41 Will AI Replace Marketers? 25:18 Why Skipped SMBs for Fortune 500 26:54 The Rippling Model of Running a Startup 27:48 Going Multi-Product Early 29:38 The 100x Marketer 33:03 Unstructured Data, Lead Lists & Synthetic Signals 34:49 How AI Launches Ads in New Markets 36:13 Does Marketing Success Guarantee Revenue? 38:07 What Is a "Marketing Harness"? 40:52 Thick Harness vs. Thin Harness 45:10 How Hightouch Fits Into the Enterprise Stack 46:54 Controversial Founder Decisions 49:15 Building the Company of Tomorrow 52:07 AI, GTM and Sales ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/ https: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neon-fund Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/ Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice. Send us Fan Mail

    “Yes.” Building Claude Code for Marketing | Kashish, Hightouch

  7. Sep 22

    Anthropic, Sequoia Investor: 55x Returns in 18 Months, Is Anthropic Worth Trillions? | Vishal Verma

    How do investors(LPs) invest in investors(VCs) when the world is changing so fast? Vishal Verma has invested in 20+ VC(Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, General Catalyst) funds and has seen 4 market cycles. Vishal has spent decades investing in and alongside some of the biggest venture funds in Silicon Valley. In this episode, we cover the less talked about side of venture ecosystem: LPs, family offices, access, co-investments, fund cycles and how VC has changed. We also discuss Anthropic, SpaceX, trillion-dollar IPOs, the shrinking Silicon Valley middle class, why large VC funds can no longer make small bets, roll-up strategies and what Vishal has learned from investing through multiple market cycles. Watch this episode to learn how venture ecosystem works 00:00 From ISRO to Silicon Valley 04:06 From Operator to Investor 05:58 The Early Sequoia Bet 08:07 From $300M to $15B Funds 12:24 Access Matters More Than Capital 15:02 Building Redwood Collective 19:10 Trillion-Dollar IPOs 27:24 How Silicon Valley’s Mafias Compound 31:30 How VC Returns Changed 34:02 The Disappearing Middle Class 36:14 Why People Are Leaving California 37:36 Why Big Funds Can’t Make Small Bets 39:30 Why Unicorns Aren’t Enough Anymore 40:18 What Happens After the IPO 43:02 VC Firms Becoming Financial Giants? 45:56 Why He Ignores IRR 49:25 Is AI a Commodity? 53:10 Next Generation of VC Funds 59:00 Inside the Roll-Up Strategy 01:02:36 Surviving Four Market Cycles ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/ Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/ Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice. Send us Fan Mail

    Anthropic, Sequoia Investor: 55x Returns in 18 Months, Is Anthropic Worth Trillions? | Vishal Verma

  8. Sep 18

    Why OpenAI Has No Moat & LLM Prices Will Collapse | Avinash Lakshman, Weilliptic

    What if we are looking at the wrong layer? Avinash helped build Dynamo at Amazon, created Cassandra at Facebook, two of the most widely used distributed systems in the industry. Later he founded Hedvig, which was acquired for $225M with a team of under 15 engineers. Now with Weilliptic he is building the infrastructure layer for a world run by autonomous AI agents. In this episode Avinash explains why he believes open-weight models will win, why LLMs will become commodities, why Python will become a serious problem for data-centers as millions of agents come online, why enterprises will need an immutable audit trail for agents,  and what happens when a 10-person company starts running 1,000 autonomous agents. Watch this episode to to understand the business and tech of AI infrastructure. 00:00 Is AI Infra in a Bubble? 03:08 The Missing Path to Profits 06:06 What Actually is AI Infrastructure? 08:41 Why Cloud Never Got Cheaper 11:42 The Cloud Lock-In Trap 15:21 Inference Providers Will Consolidate 19:58 AI Has a Python Problem 25:50 Rust + WASM is the Future of AI Security 27:08 From Dynamo to Cassandra to Hedvig 29:27 Why Avinash Started Welleptic 32:43 Solving Data and Compute Sovereignty 36:53 AI Needs an Audit Ledger 39:17 Why Avinash Started Hedvig 40:15 Building for the Multi-Cloud World 41:50 $52M Raised, Only 15 Engineers 43:01 Why Infrastructure Takes Time to Sell 44:52 The $225M Acquisition 46:00 What Makes a Good Deal? 50:07 How Hedvig Grew to $15M+ ARR 57:44 How Welleptic Makes Money 01:00:43 When 10 Employees Run 1,000 Agents ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before. Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/ Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww Connect with Siddhartha on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/ Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7 ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice. Send us Fan Mail

    Why OpenAI Has No Moat & LLM Prices Will Collapse | Avinash Lakshman, Weilliptic
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4.9
out of 5
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About

Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journey from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.  Hence was born the Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.  We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings. 

Information

  • Creator
    Siddhartha Ahluwalia
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    401
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Neon Show
  • Show Website
    The Neon Show

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