Mayfield, a top-tier early-stage venture capital firm, today announced its sponsorship of “Fund/Build/Scale,” a new podcast series that will offer listeners a holistic look into the world of AI startups.
Across ten episodes, host Walter Thompson (TechCrunch, San Francisco Magazine, Hoodline) will delve deeply into the strategies, challenges and tactics shaping the future of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship.
“Inception and early-stage investing is a craft we have honed over decades,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner, Mayfield. “AI founders need classic company building guidance around strategy, hiring, fundraising, go–to–go-to-market, in addition to special considerations around building ethics into their DNA and navigating a regulatory environment. We believe that Walter is the perfect moderator of these conversations, given his insight into founder needs at TechCrunch. We look forward to guests sharing actionable insights with a broad audience.”
Each episode will uncover a trove of practical methods as Thompson discusses fundraising, product development, governance, policy/regulation, community building, going to market and other essential topics. Listeners will get an insider’s perspective on what it takes to build an ethically responsible company in one of tech’s most competitive and rapidly evolving sectors.
Confirmed guests include:
- Investors: Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner, and Vijay Reddy, AIStart investor (Mayfield);
- Founders: May Habib (Writer), Jerry Liu (Llamaindex), Jorge Torres (MindsDB), Rehan Jalil (Securiti), Gaurav Misra (Captions);
- Enterprise executives: Maria Latushkin (Albertsons), Jack Berkowitz, (former chief data officer, ADP);
- Developer community leaders: Adam Seligman (AWS) and Ozzy Johnson (NVIDIA);
- Privacy and compliance experts: Raj Judge (Wilson Sonsini), Laura Bisesto (Nextdoor), with additional academics, ethicists and policymakers forthcoming.
The podcast is designed to provide value to a wide audience, from aspiring AI entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts to seasoned investors and business strategists. “The guests I’m interviewing aren’t just engaging and educational,” said Thompson. “We’re exploring actual tactics that listeners can put into practice inside their own startups and test for themselves.”
Already in production, Thompson will record two live episodes in front of a live audience at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco on January 31, 2024. Tickets are available for purchase via Eventbrite (http://fundbuildscale.eventbrite.com).
Don’t miss the opportunity to join this ongoing conversation about the intersection of AI innovation and investment. Subscribe now to “Fund/Build/Scale” — the podcast will be available on all major platforms, with the first episode launching in February 2024.
For further information, updates, and exclusive content, follow “Fund/Build/Scale” on:
- Substack: https://fundbuildscale.substack.com
- Eventbrite: http://fundbuildscale.eventbrite.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14341226
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FBSpodcast
About Mayfield
Mayfield is an early-stage venture capital firm with a people-first philosophy and $3 billion under management. The Firm has a proven track record of partnering with founders starting at the inception stage to help build iconic companies that leverage innovations in IT and biology. The Firm has invested in more than 550 companies, resulting in 120 IPOs and more than 225 acquisitions. Some recent notable investments include HashiCorp, Lyft, Poshmark/Naver, Mammoth Biosciences, Marketo/Adobe, NUVIA/Qualcomm, Outreach, Rancher/SUSE, SolarCity/Tesla and Volterra/F5. For more information, go to https://www.mayfield.com or follow @MayfieldFund.