Thoughts in Between: exploring how technology collides with politics, culture and society – Details, episodes & analysis

Rohit Krishnan is an investor and writer; he is the author of Strange Loop Canon (he was previously on the podcast here).

Visa Veerasamy is the author of Introspect and Friendly Ambitious Nerd, among other things. In this conversation we talk about whether entrepreneurs are born or made; the role of culture in ambition; how we can make people more ambitious and much more.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha are the co-authors of The Startup of You, which explores how to adapt, take risks, grow your network and transform your career. Reid was co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner at Greylock. He sits on the boards of a number of organisations including Microsoft, OpenAI and, of course, my company Entrepreneur First. Ben is an investor, entrepreneur and writer and is one of the founders of Village Global, a venture capital firm. As well as their book, which I recommend, they have an accompanying podcast, also called the Startup of You. In this conversation we discuss why careers are like startups, what you can give Bill Gates that he can't buy, how to do extremely effective referencing and much more.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Sebastian Mallaby is a journalist and author. His latest book, The Power Law, is an exploration of the history and impact of venture capital that seeks to explain how VCs see the world and why it matters. In this conversation, we discuss why VC is so different from any other asset class, why VC networks should be considered a third core institution of capitalism alongside firms and markets, and whether VC has a positive impact in the world.

You can order the Power Law here.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Allister Furey is co-founder and CEO of Sylvera, a technology startup building a ratings agency for carbon markets. In this conversation, we discuss why evaluation and verification is so important for building a net-zero economy and the challenges that face innovators and investors in today's market. We talk through how Sylvera creates ratings for carbon projects and why this might be the key to unlocking trillions of dollars of investment for carbon offset and removal initiatives (Allister used to work at Entrepreneur First and I am a small investor in Sylvera).

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Rohit Krishna is a venture capitalist and the writer behind Strange Loop Canon, one of my favourite Substacks (and one that regular readers of the TiB newsletter may recognise). In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about how billionaires can be better at philanthropy, why identifying extreme talent is so challenging, new ways to invest in talent, why cities tend to last so much longer than companies, and much more.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Michelle You is co-founder and CEO of Supercritical, a startup that helps companies achieve Net Zero through carbon removal. Michelle is a serial entrepreneur (she was previously one of the founders of Songkick) and in this conversation, we dive into why she decided to focus on carbon removal for her next company. We also explore why the label Net Zero can be misleading, the challenges of creating new markets in carbon, and which carbon removal technologies she’s most excited about.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Christian Hernandez is one of the founding partners of 2150, a venture capital firm dedicated to backing startups that are reinventing how cities are built, run, and maintained - with a particular focus on sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. In this conversation, we talk about the role that venture capital and startups have to play in addressing the climate crisis. We discuss the most promising areas where startups can make a difference, why climate change is a national security issue, and much more.

Enjoy this conversation with Christian Hernandez

In the discussion, Christian recommends several books including:

All Hell Breaking Loose, Uninhabitable Earth, and How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. You can read Christian’s blog posts here.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Tony Kulesa is one of the founders of Petri, a new approach for funding formation stage startups at the intersection of biology and engineering. We spend a lot of this conversation talking about why there is such an explosion of activity in biotech entrepreneurship today and why new models for supporting and financing founders are needed. Regular readers of the Thoughts in Between newsletter may also remember that we recently discussed Tony’s excellent essay on Tyler Cowen’ and talent curation. We jump into this topic towards the end of this episode.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Jason Crawford is the founder of Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Jason is a prolific writer on the history of science and technology and is one of the leading figures in the Progress Studies community. In this conversation, we discuss what causes progress; why it's not universally popular; what the history of bicycle tells us about why advances in technology sometimes take so long; why the future people imagined in the 1960s didn't happen; and much more.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Azeem Azhar is an entrepreneur, investor, and the creator of Exponential View - a newsletter and community dedicated to understanding the future. He's the author of the new book, Exponential, which explores how accelerating technology is changing our world faster than our institutions are designed to react. In this conversation, we discuss some of the big ideas in the book, from the emergence of superstar corporations to the future of work and cities. I highly recommend the book, which I think is the best guide so far to navigating the social and political challenges of the internet age.

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Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com