The Learning Corner by Precursor

Mia Farnham, Charles Hudson
  • 5,0 (9)
  • Investimentos
  • Semanal

Welcome to the Learning Corner, a weekly Precursor Ventures podcast, where members of the Precursor team walk through their favorite articles and news snippets across the venture ecosystem.

  1. há 1 dia

    Episode #92: Working for Your AI Agent, Engineering Leaders Head for the Exit, What Capital Wants Now

    This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into how the rise of AI agents is paradoxically driving startup founders to work longer and harder than ever, with some monitoring their bots around the clock and describing the experience as nothing short of addictive. They then unpack a wave of CTOs and engineering leaders quietly walking away from their roles, driven by founder mode, preference stacks that have rendered equity nearly worthless, and the fact that AI labs like Anthropic are now paying individual contributors more than most executives make elsewhere. The episode closes with a sharp, timely read on what growth investors actually want right now: a credible path to a $20 billion company with you as the emerging winner, nothing more and nothing less.

  2. 20 de ago.

    Episode #91: AI Rocketship or Left for Dead, The Worst VC Introduction, To Be or To Do

    This week on The Learning Corner, an observation from investor Matt Turck that startups today are either AI-native rocketships or left for dead opens up a real conversation about what that binary actually means for founders building outside the hype cycle. Michelle Volz's essay "To Be or To Do" uses military legend John Boyd's framework to argue that Silicon Valley has quietly shifted from rewarding builders to rewarding the performance of building, and why discipline is the actual path to the biggest outcomes. We finally close with Vinnie Lauria, Founding Partner at Golden Gate Ventures, who breaks down why a VC who already passed on your company is one of the worst people to introduce you to another investor and why credible signal matters far more than access in fundraising.

  3. 13 de ago.

    Episode #90: Is Series A Broken?, Are Winners Ever Found In Hype Markets?, The Power Of The Builder Archetype

    This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Gil Dibner's argument that Series A investors have fundamentally abandoned their core function, opting instead to invest way too late, way too early, or simply accumulating options without conviction. They then unpack Sequoia's twenty-year hype analysis that shows the most valuable companies are almost never founded in the peak hype year of their category, and what today's signals might tell us about the next big wave. The episode closes with Maple VC's Talent Arbitrage framework and why the Builder, the nonlinear, hardest-to-categorize founder, is the most important and most overlooked signal in early stage investing.

  4. 6 de ago.

    Episode #89: Industrializing the Blame Game, VC-Backed Startups and Fraud, Will You Quit on Me?

    This week on The Learning Corner, we dig into three pieces that all orbit the same uncomfortable question: who is actually accountable when things go wrong? Angela McNeal's "The Architecture of Blame" argues that AI does not invent accountability gaps, it industrializes them at machine speed across every workflow at once. New academic research reveals that VC-backed startups are statistically more likely to commit fraud, and that investors are not passive victims but active co-creators of the conditions that make it happen. We close with a Wall Street Journal investigation into how the AI talent war is turning founders into acquihire targets, with VCs now explicitly asking in diligence: will you quit on me?

  5. 30 de jul.

    Episode #88: Supporting Young Founders Well, YC's Fall Requests For Startups, Why Labs Say Frontier Not Foundation

    This week Mia and Charles are joined by Precursor intern Aleena to dig into three good reads. First up, Ashley Smith's piece on the pressures young founders face today, including predatory incubators that trade small checks for outsized equity stakes. Then, YC's Fall 2026 Requests for Startups, featuring the first ever entry from a sitting US Secretary of the Army. They close with Frontier, a piece unpacking why AI labs stopped calling their models foundation models and started calling them frontier models, and what that shift reveals about how durable their moats really are.

  6. 23 de jul.

    Episode #87: Patience Pays In Venture, Why Humans Beat AI, Managing Your Agent Workforce

    This week on The Learning Corner, Mia and Charles dig into Nick Chirls' case for patience as an underrated venture strategy, using the owners versus tenants framing to explain why short term thinking is eating the industry. They then explore David Deming's argument that humans still hold a real edge over AI in social learning, especially in reading people and building trust from just a handful of interactions. The episode closes with George Sivulka's provocative piece comparing AI agents to a workforce, drawing parallels between tokenmaxxing and headcount bloat, and looping and meetings about meetings. Tune in for a conversation on long term thinking, the future of human judgment, and how to actually manage an AI agent workforce well.

  7. 16 de jul.

    Episode #86: Paying For AI Twice, Sierra's Bet On One AI Agent, Data's Next Trillion Dollar Category, NY Halts Data Centers

    This week Mia and Charles dig into whether using AI tools means quietly giving away your most valuable knowledge, what Sierra learned building a single company wide AI agent instead of one per department, and why data, not tokens, might be the next trillion dollar category in AI. They also touch on New York's new one year moratorium on large data center construction. Tune in for a debate filled conversation about what it really means to adopt AI at work today.

  8. 9 de jul.

    Episode #85: Venture's Cognitive Dissonance Moment, Cold Pitches Actually Work, Building Your Moat Later

    Is AI venture living through its biggest bubble yet, or its biggest winner-take-all cycle ever? Charles and Mia break down Samir Kaji's read on the duality driving valuations to record highs. They also dig into a Stanford field experiment proving cold pitches to investors work far more often than founders think, and challenge Tomasz Tunguz's take on why most startups don't actually have a real moat at founding. A fast, sharp look at three ideas shaping venture right now.

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Sobre

Welcome to the Learning Corner, a weekly Precursor Ventures podcast, where members of the Precursor team walk through their favorite articles and news snippets across the venture ecosystem.

Informações

  • Criado por
    Mia Farnham, Charles Hudson
  • Anos de atividade
    2024 - 2026
  • Episódios
    93
  • Classificação
    Livre
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 The Learning Corner by Precursor
  • Site do podcast
    The Learning Corner by Precursor

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