We The Builders

Suffiyan Malik
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Technology
  • Updated Biweekly

Conversations with practitioners at the edge of their craft across business, media, startups, frontier technologies, investing. wethebuilders.us

  1. 16h ago

    What Billion Dollar Founders Have in Common | Ali Tamaseb of DCVC

    Intro This is my first conversation with Ali Tamaseb, General Partner at DCVC, a $5B AUM fund and author of Super Founders. Ali spent years studying billion dollar startups to understand what separates their founders from the rest. We discuss the myths around age, education, cofounders, and industry experience and what the data reveals about building exceptional companies.What we cover: * The young founder myth: why age alone doesn’t predict success, and what Ali’s research reveals about billion-dollar founders. * Why repeat founders have an advantage and the early signs of ambition, resourcefulness, and a drive to build. * Inside the Super Founders Club: a network of 750 founders who become each other’s customers, cofounders, and investors. * How successful startups enter crowded markets, differentiate their products, and start with a small niche before expanding. * The myths around cofounders, technical backgrounds, and industry experience and why trust, customer understanding, and knowing when to pivot matter. Follow the guest and host on X:Ali Tamaseb: https://x.com/alitamasebSuffiyan Malik: https://x.com/suffiyanmalikkWe The Builders: https://x.com/WeThe_Builders Watch on YouTube: Timestamps 00:00 Highlights00:40 Introducing Ali Tamaseb01:34 The young founder myth06:57 Why your investors matter10:34 Peter Thiel, competition, and crowded markets13:36 Start small, think big15:16 What creates a startup moat?18:58 Customer relationships as an advantage22:14 What makes a “Super Founder”?24:20 Why startup success isn’t random27:59 Venture capital is a network business33:07 Inside the Super Founders Club37:29 Building a community of exceptional founders45:57 How VCs compete for the best founders49:54 Do degrees and university brands matter?57:19 Do you really need a cofounder?1:00:00 Super founders in AI, defense, and deep tech1:03:02 Great founders versus great markets1:06:46 Finding your wedge in a massive market1:09:25 Technical versus nontechnical founders1:12:00 Does industry experience matter?1:16:56 Customer discovery and knowing when to pivot1:18:28 The risks of backing repeat founders1:23:38 Researching and writing Super Founders1:27:21 Selling a book through networks1:31:35 What bestseller lists get wrong1:34:49 Will AI change the founder playbook?1:36:13 Why quantum is a defense bet1:37:50 Book recommendation and Persian food Brought to you by Intangible: One of the missions of the show is to highlight frontier technologies and the builders, investors and policymakers at the heart of technological progress. Our sponsor Intangible lets you show it before you build it. Intangible is an AI 3D studio. Frontier technology builders turn ideas into scenes they can edit and film, in minutes. No VFX shop, no six-week render queue. Visualize your moonshot product at intangible.ai The material presented by We The Builders & Suffiyan Malik, including on its website, podcast, social media channels, newsletters, events, and other content, reflects the opinions of the hosts, guests, and contributors and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing presented by We The Builders should be construed as investment, financial, legal, tax, or other professional advice, nor as a recommendation, offer to sell, or solicitation of an offer to buy any security, investment product, company, strategy, or asset. Discussions of companies, investments, industries, technologies, markets, or other subjects may rely on information from public sources or information provided by guests and other third parties that we believe to be reliable. We The Builders does not represent or warrant that such information is accurate, complete, or current and should not be relied upon as such. Views and opinions expressed are those of the individual speaker at the time of publication and may change without notice. Guest appearances, discussions of companies, or references to investors or investments should not be interpreted as endorsements by We The Builders. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  2. 2d ago

    In Conversation with Bryon Hargis, Cofounder & CEO of Castelion ($13B defense technology company)

    Intro My first conversation with Bryon Hargis, Cofounder and CEO of Castelion. This is a special edition of our show recorded at Reindustrialize. Since then, Castelion has announced a $1 billion Series C funding valuing the company at $13 billion making it one of the most valuable defense technology companies in the ecosystem. What we cover: * Why Bryon sold his SpaceX stock to bootstrap Castelion and bet two-thirds of his savings on the mission. * Why affordable, mass-produced hypersonic missiles are central to his vision of American deterrence. * Building Blackbeard, winning the first Navy order, and scaling production to thousands of missiles a year. * The SpaceX lessons behind faster hardware development: rapid testing, questioning convention, and knowing when to change course. * Hiring for mission over money and why company culture is built one person at a time. Watch on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 Intro01:00 Bootstrapping with SpaceX stock and crypto mining07:00 Why Bryon started a defense company11:00 Building deterrence and landing the first Navy order14:00 Scaling missile manufacturing in New Mexico18:00 Meet Blackbeard: Castelion’s hypersonic missile20:00 Hypersonic vs. ballistic vs. cruise missiles23:00 Golden Dome and the future of missile defense25:00 How SpaceX enables America’s national security27:00 Elon Musk, ambitious deadlines, and moving faster30:00 Why rapid testing beats over-engineering33:00 Lessons from SpaceX: Question convention, follow the data38:00 Hiring for the mission and building company culture45:00 Growing as a founder and being willing to be wrong Brought to you by Intangible: One of the missions of the show is to highlight frontier technologies and the builders, investors and policymakers at the heart of technological progress. Our sponsor Intangible lets you show it before you build it. Intangible is an AI 3D studio. Frontier technology builders turn ideas into scenes they can edit and film, in minutes. No VFX shop, no six-week render queue. Visualize your moonshot product at intangible.ai The material presented by We The Builders & Suffiyan Malik, including on its website, podcast, social media channels, newsletters, events, and other content, reflects the opinions of the hosts, guests, and contributors and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing presented by We The Builders should be construed as investment, financial, legal, tax, or other professional advice, nor as a recommendation, offer to sell, or solicitation of an offer to buy any security, investment product, company, strategy, or asset. Discussions of companies, investments, industries, technologies, markets, or other subjects may rely on information from public sources or information provided by guests and other third parties that we believe to be reliable. We The Builders does not represent or warrant that such information is accurate, complete, or current and should not be relied upon as such. Views and opinions expressed are those of the individual speaker at the time of publication and may change without notice. Guest appearances, discussions of companies, or references to investors or investments should not be interpreted as endorsements by We The Builders. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  3. Sep 26

    Michael Thompson, Board Member at Oklo & Joby on Betting on The Future

    Intro My first conversation with Michael Thompson who is on the board of Joby Aviation ($JOBY) and Oklo ($OKLO). He previously started Reinvent Capital with Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman where he was Managing Partner and made early investments in the physical economy through Joby, SpaceX, Nimble Robotics, Oklo and many other companies. This is a special edition of We The Builders conversation from Reindustrialize. Watch on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 Intro02:35 From hedge fund to physical-world techonolgies03:45 "Where is all this power gonna come from?" The case for nuclear04:50 Why nuclear stalled07:05 Where AI value will accrue: physical-world technologies07:55 "Recursive industrialization": SpaceX, Cursor & frontier models09:15 Joby: amplifying world-class engineers with AI10:50 Does eVTOL need a charging network like Teslas?11:30 Breaking down the Joby aircraft: airframe, controls, powertrain18:55 Why these companies need vertical integration and technical founders20:25 How to value SpaceX and Joby (it's not next year's EBITDA)22:25 Why Joby went public through a SPAC23:50 "Henry Ford never built a mile of road": financing the infrastructure25:15 FAA certification is like FDA approval27:35 Reinvent Capital and the "1870s thesis"28:55 Nimble: specialized robots and forward-deployed training data30:25 What he's changed his mind on DISCLOSURES The material presented by We The Builders, including on its website, podcast, social media channels, newsletters, events, and other content, reflects the opinions of the hosts, guests, and contributors and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing presented by We The Builders should be construed as investment, financial, legal, tax, or other professional advice, nor as a recommendation, offer to sell, or solicitation of an offer to buy any security, investment product, company, strategy, or asset. Discussions of companies, investments, industries, technologies, markets, or other subjects may rely on information from public sources or information provided by guests and other third parties that we believe to be reliable. We The Builders does not represent or warrant that such information is accurate, complete, or current and should not be relied upon as such. Views and opinions expressed are those of the individual speaker at the time of publication and may change without notice. Guest appearances, discussions of companies, or references to investors or investments should not be interpreted as endorsements by We The Builders. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  4. Sep 14

    Somesh Dash on IVP, Firm Building, Venture Investing, The AI Era and Immigration

    Intro Somesh Dash has been investing in startups for over 20 years at IVP where he is a General Partner. IVP is one of the most prominent venture firms in growth stage investing founded in 1980. In the last almost five decades, they have invested in over 400 companies, with over 135 of them going public. IVP is an investor in generational companies like Anthropic, Uber, Snap, Twitter, CrowdStrike, Snap, Robinhood, Figma, Discord, Coinbase. I had a wide ranging conversation with Somesh about his thoughts on the craft of investing itself, immigration, IVP’s firm structure, his role as a leader in the firm now, thoughts on the unprecedented era of AI and how he thinks about investing in this era and more. Watch on YouTube Timestamps 00:00:00 - Introduction00:00:55 - What 20 Years in VC Teaches You About the Job00:02:00 - Risk-Taking, Contrarianism, and Dealing with Failure00:02:45 - The Importance of LP Relationships00:03:30 - Building and Sustaining a Strong VC Partnership00:06:05 - Index / Spray-and-Pray vs. High-Conviction Investing00:08:10 - What Does "Contrarian" Mean at the Growth Stage?00:11:25 - Investing in Twitter in 200900:13:00 - Early Bet on Snapchat in 201300:14:45 - How Growth Stage Investing Has Evolved at IVP00:16:15 - Investing in Anthropic00:17:55 - How IVP Adds Value00:20:00 - Founder Mental Health & The VC as Counselor00:21:15 - Customer Introductions & The Day-to-Day VC Grind00:26:37 - The IVP Partnership Model & Shared Decision-Making00:28:05 - Depth vs. Breadth of Networks & Being In-Person00:29:40 - Cross-Pollination Across Sports, Culture, and other Industries00:33:33 - Favorite Podcasts, Comedy00:35:50 - Expanding into New Sectors: Healthcare, Defense Tech & Space00:37:45 - The Resurgence of Hardware & Semiconductors (Seagate, LSI Logic)00:41:05 - Silicon Valley, Immigration, and Global Talent00:45:15 - The Immigrant DNA of Unicorn Founders00:47:23 - Geopolitics, Soft Power, and Media Narratives00:52:16 - Immigrant Values, Capitalism, and Democracy as a Startup00:57:35 - Labor Market Matching and Skilled Immigration01:02:42 - How IVP Selects 8–10 High-Conviction Investments a Year01:05:05 - Capital Allocation Lessons from the Clean Tech Boom01:06:40 - Hot Take: Why Traditional Software/SaaS is Making a Comeback01:08:45 - VC Firm Governance: CEO Model vs. Pure Partnership Model01:11:50 - Generational Transition & Internal Mentorship at IVP01:13:55 - Navigating Market Cycles & Taking $4B in Liquidity in 202101:15:15 - How the Investment Committee Works at IVP01:19:25 - Apprenticeship in Venture Capital & Key Industry Mentors01:22:42 - Cooperation in VC01:24:48 - Somesh's Media Diet and High-Signal Information Sources01:27:25 - The Resurgence of Print Media & Top Book Recommendations This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  5. Aug 31

    Adam Grosser, The Renaissance Man behind UP.Partners on 40 Years of Investing & Building in Silicon Valley

    Intro This is my first conversation with Adam Grosser, a Silicon Valley OG. Adam has had a front row seat to what Silicon Valley is today from being at the centre of personal computing in the early days of Apple in the 1980s as Director of Engineering to directing products at LucasFilm in 1990s and investing in the still early internet days in the 2000s at Foundation Capital. Adam went on to be a Managing Director at prominent technology focused private equity firm SilverLake and co-created the Up Summit, an exclusive annual event for the future of transportation. He was also a part of building and scaling two multibillion dollar companies in the 1990s. He is also a 4x Forbes Midas list investor. He now runs Up Partners which he founded six years ago around the thesis of future of transportation enabled by software. Up Partners has been an investor in companies like Hermeus (founded by AJ Piplica), Reliable Robotics, Axiom Space, Skydio, Westmag, Pacific Fusion and Beta to name a few. What makes him unique and extremely hard to b******t to is the fact that he builds cars, airplanes and boats in his workshop in San Carlos which I had the chance to check out, this is where the technical knowhow of founders gets tested. It is not a team of 10 technicians working on these projects, it is a team of just Adam plus a couple of contractors here and there. For investors in frontier tech, this would be the equivalent of touching grass. Adam is one of the kindest and most generous humans I have come across in the industry, still a student at heart who is insatiably curious and genuinely interested in other people. Perhaps one of the reasons he has been so successful. In this wide ranging conversation we cover a bit of Silicon Valley history, what it was like working with Steve Jobs, his time in media through LucasFilm and Sony, how venture capital has changed, how Adam keeps up and how to build a successful lasting venture firm. Watch on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 02:52 – Early Days at Apple and Meeting Steve Jobs03:29 – Innovation and the History of Printing at Apple05:37 – Early User Interfaces and Working at Xerox PARC07:29 – Technological Breakthroughs at LucasFilm11:56 – Corporate Acquisitions and Maintaining Founding DNA14:43 – "Stake vs. Rank" in Corporate Structures17:19 – The Ephemeral Nature of Success in the Film Industry21:15 – Two Approaches to Creating Great Products22:22 – Spotting Breakthrough Innovations Early27:35 – How the Venture Capital Industry Has Changed31:56 – Rebuilding the Cottage Model with Up Partners38:19 – The Mobility Thesis and Stagnation in the Physical World42:18 – His San Carlos Workshop48:48 – Why Hardware Innovation Took Decades to Evolve54:36 – The True Job of a Venture Capitalist57:28 – Basic Research and the Return of the Polymath01:04:12 – The Chasm Between Tech and Business and the Value of Finishing Things01:10:53 – The "996" Work Culture01:17:34 – Choosing to Stay Nimble in Business and Investment01:23:00 – Building Alignment and Generational Stability in a VC Firm01:45:00 – Decision-Making Processes and Governance01:49:41 – Building Brand Equity Through Community Ecosystems02:02:42 – Archetypes of Successful Venture Partners02:11:15 – The Case for Investment Committees and Conviction-Driven Bets02:24:33 – Closing Questions This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  6. Aug 29

    Evan Burns on Building State Affairs, Backed by Khosla Ventures & Founders Fund, The Business of Policy Markets and State of Media

    Intro This is my first conversation with Evan Burns, CEO of State Affairs. I think Evan is building one of the most interesting companies at the intersection of politics and capitalism, with the ambitious goal of creating the category of “policy markets” which he says is more important than financial markets. In this conversation we discuss the state of media, the thesis and business of State Affairs and more. Keith Rabois was one of the first believers in the idea and they just came out of stealth with a $70m seed round funded by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund. To understand how Evan got here, perhaps sharing some of his background is important. He started a media company called Odyssey which he ran for eight years before eventually exiting and went on to start a beverage company called The Long Drink that was wildly successful in a short period of time doing 500 million in sales. Through that he learnt how important it was for companies to understand policy in real time and have relationships with policymakers. One of the best things about doing the show is meeting people that lay low and are underrated in the mainstream discourse. I think Evan is one of those people who is going to build a generational company and will be household name in the next five years or so. Watch on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 - Intro01:59 - Finding Business Alpha Outside Major Media Hubs03:25 - The Origins of the Finnish Long Drink10:44 - Launching a Drink in the US and Lessons in Policy Navigation18:33 - Reclaiming Truth and Objectivity in Modern News Media21:27 - The Stagnation and Future of Education Policy24:44 - Unpacking the Negative Incentive Structures in Politics26:59 - What Are Policy Markets? The Core Thesis of State Affairs30:50 - Building a Real-Time Knowledge Graph for Western Democracy33:01 - Business Model37:32 - Practical AI and Data Use Cases for Public Servants and Corporations41:49 - The Strategic Impact of Events Like the Hill & Valley Forum45:13 - Moats of a Monopoly Business47:43 - Why Objective Journalism Is Mathematically More Valuable Than Ever55:29 - Why Startups Must Win America Before Going International58:05 - Building Deeper Ontologies and Flywheels Over Time01:02:22 - Using AI Models to Settle a Moon Landing Debate01:07:05 - Evan’s Take on MBAs in the Startup Ecosystem01:08:24 - Overcoming Early VC Skepticism01:10:51 - Closing This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

    Evan Burns on Building State Affairs, Backed by Khosla Ventures & Founders Fund, The Business of Policy Markets and State of Media

  7. Aug 27

    Mike Solana of Founders Fund on Creating Celebrity Mafia featuring Tech Elite

    Intro Mike Solana is the CMO of Founders Fund and Founder of Pirate Wires. Marketing and media teams in technology and venture seem to be in this competition of capturing attention of the right people. The consensus strategy is covering entrepreneurs and investors on a podcast. All that has its own place but you don’t create cultural institutions or artifacts while following consensus strategies. I often think about how few cultural institutions get built that matter. They are usually decades in the making and when they arrive, they are timeless and etched in memory. Think about Starwars, Harry Potter, Lord of Rings franchises that people are still culturally relevant decades on. How would one do that in the world of technology and venture capital? In recent memory, Mike has produced at least two cultural artifacts, Hereticon which was a conference for what was described as thought crime and now the show Mafia featuring celebrities in tech and venture that took over the Twitter/X timeline when it launched with millions of views and all of tech elite engaged. Everyone I met was talking about it for at least a month after and you can always rewatch it as a good holiday watch like you would replay your favorite TV show. I asked him about the making of Mafia, whether he will transition to player from moderator, how he thinks about creating these unique new cultural artifacts and what’s next (if it happens, it will be the wildest show of all time). Watch on YouTube Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to Mafia the Game as a Show03:01 - Redefining "New Media" and Its History04:06 - The Inspiration Behind Creating Celebrity Mafia06:02 - Moving Away from Standard Tech Interview Podcasts07:56 - Standalone Projects and Cultural Artifacts10:50 - Selecting the Cast and Showing Their Real Selves13:51 - Choosing the Location: The PayPal Mafia Photo Connection15:58 - Future Plans: Will There Be a Full Season?18:01 - Why the Speaker Hates Playing as the Mafia18:41 - Current Projects: Pirate Wires and Founders Fund22:23 - Challenges in Putting the Show Together24:30 - Lessons Learned from Past Media Ventures26:41 - The Role of a Modern CMO in Venture Capital31:10 - Creative Marketing and Brand Strategy at Founders Fund33:05 - Playing Mafia with Peter Thiel and The Dream Casts35:01 - Closing Remarks This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  8. Aug 12

    Justin Lopas on the Business of Base Power and Lessons from SpaceX & Anduril

    Intro I had a conversation with Justin Lopas on building Base Power a few months back, last week they announced $1B in new funding at a $13B valuation. Justin cofounded Base Power with Zach Dell in 2023. I first met him at one of the deeptech dinners I was hosting in Austin back when they were still in stealth (adding to the list of incredible markups for anyone investing in founders from these dinners). The latest round was led by Addition with participation from friends of the show at A16Z, Trust Ventures, 137 Ventures and others. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction and Background at SpaceX03:31 - SpaceX Culture and Giving Agency to Early-Career Talent05:32 - What to Filter for When Hiring Non-Experienced Talent09:03 - Implementing and Automating AI in Non-Technical Roles10:50 - Defining Base Power: The Vision to Fix the Grid15:05 - Regulated vs. Deregulated Energy Markets in Texas17:32 - How Home Batteries Act as an Energy Hedge21:50 - Battery Storage Capacity and Bypassing the Interconnection Queue22:56 - Smooth Variability in Energy Supply and Demand24:48 - Aligning Incentives and Structural Practical Limits for Home Batteries26:13 - Navigating the Patchwork of US Energy Regulation and Expansion32:07 - The Hardest Challenges and Landed-Cost Optimization34:04 - Treating Every Aspect of a Business as a Factory38:37 - Recruiting Pitch for Base Power40:25 - Embracing Internal Failures to Foster Innovation41:39 - Learning Methods: YouTube, LLMs, and Peer Insights43:44 - Building and Maintaining a Strong Company Culture48:24 - Key Takeaways from Leading Manufacturing at Anduril50:19 - Managing Diverse Subcultures Within a Consistent Mission51:42 - Future Outlook: New Products, AI Support, and Scaling Production This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

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5
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About

Conversations with practitioners at the edge of their craft across business, media, startups, frontier technologies, investing. wethebuilders.us

Information

  • Creator
    Suffiyan Malik
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    50
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Suffiyan Malik
  • Show Website
    We The Builders

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