Term Sheet

How This Multi-Millionaire Investor Spots Billion-Dollar Ideas | Term Sheet 25.06.2026 33min

Over 3,000 venture capital firms are operating in the U.S. today. Lux Capital's co-founder Josh Wolfe thinks more than half of them won't survive the decade. He has spent 25 years making calls nobody else would make, backing Anduril before defense tech was a category and surgical robotics before it had a market. Now, fresh off a $1.5 billion fundraise, he's warning that the AI boom is headed for a crash that will wipe out trillions in market cap and take most of the venture industry with it. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Wolfe to find out who survives the shakeout, where the defense tech bubble breaks, and the predictions he's making for 2027. 0:00 The VC Extinction Has Already Started0:50 Hot IPO Summer: SpaceX's $2 Trillion Debut2:05 The VC Who Bets Against Everyone2:26 Josh Wolfe: Half of VC Firms Are Going Extinct5:24 Why Lux Plays the Middle6:14 Turning Science Fiction Into Billions6:43 Star Wars Inspired a Billion-Dollar Exit8:41 Real-Life X-Men Is Already Here9:41 How He Spots Fake Science in Seconds11:19 Is Venture Capital Eating Itself?13:59 The AI Crash: Trillions Wiped Out16:55 Why a Fruit Fly Could Beat the Big AI Labs17:21 Soon Everything You Say Is Recorded?19:57 The Defense Bet Nobody Would Make22:51 Kill Chains and Moral Precision27:45 Wolfe's 2027 Prediction: A 15% Nasdaq Drop30:41 Why He's Still Betting on the Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Investor Who Bet on SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic Before You Could | Term Sheet 11.06.2026 53min

A hidden market for shares of the world's hottest private companies has quietly grown to an estimated $112 billion, and most of it happens off the books. As SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic edge toward going public, the investors who poured billions into pre-IPO shares may not actually know what they own. Larry Aschebrook founded G Squared in 2011, when trading secondaries made you a "bottom feeder" who got cease-and-desist letters. Today the firm manages north of $8 billion and holds stakes in SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Larry to talk about the shadow market behind the biggest names in tech, why layered SPVs could leave investors with nothing, and the reckoning he sees coming when these companies finally go public. 0:00 The $4 Trillion Problem Nobody's Talking About 0:56 Hot IPO Summer Is Here 1:58 They Wouldn't Return His Calls 3:15 His First Trade? Twitter Stock 6:06 What Secondaries Actually Are 7:26 The SPV Trap: Fees Stacked on Fees 14:27 The Doctors and Dentists Problem 18:55 Back When This Was Taboo 21:35 What Facebook's Lockup Should Teach You 23:56 "SpaceX Could Force a Reckoning" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investment Bankers Built A $2B AI To Replace Themselves | Term Sheet 28.05.2026 41min

Gabe Stengel studied computer science at Princeton and started his career as an investment banking analyst at Lazard. Then he did something a lot of bankers think about but never do: he quit at 23 to build the AI that would automate his old job. After 30 VC passes and two grueling years, his company Rogo just raised $160 million at a $2 billion valuation, and 35,000 bankers at firms like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and his former employer Lazard now use it. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Gabe to talk about the future of M&A, why some Wall Street workflows will never need a human again, and what AI means for the next generation of investment bankers.0:00 The Banker Automating Wall Street0:16 What "AI for Wall Street" Actually Means3:13 Inside the Billion-Dollar Deal Rooms6:07 Quitting Wall Street at 237:35 The Brutal Early Days & 30 Rejections14:45 Meet Felix, the AI That Never Sleeps19:55 Will AI Kill Banking Jobs?25:52 Competing With OpenAI, Anthropic & Google 30:08 Why a Finance Legend Bet on Him35:30 Does Wall Street Still Matter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Creator Investor On The Truth About The AI Gold Rush | Term Sheet 13.05.2026 36min

Claire Zau spent six years in venture capital and became the youngest investor to make partner at GSV. Then she did something very few other VCs were doing: she started posting social media videos about AI to inform the general public. A year, 337,000 followers and 1.6 million likes later, Lightspeed Venture Partners hired her in a role that's never existed in venture before: New Media and Investor. Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle sits down with Claire to talk about the AI bubble, AI education, the gap between Silicon Valley and the general public, and why one in three Gen Zers say AI makes them angry. 0:00 — From VC to Viral: How a Lightspeed Partner Built an Audience on Short-Form 0:29 — The Algorithm Is a Feedback Loop and VCs Are Finally Using It 8:37 — Why Some People Are Being Left Out of the AI Story 17:21 — Promethean Fire: The Case for Techno-Optimism When Everyone's Scared 11:23 — AI Literacy Is Like Sex Ed — You Don't Have to Love It, But You Need to Know 13:54 — The Real Problem With How People Are Using AI (And How to Fix It) 23:53 — AI Gives You Leverage, but Only If You Know How to Use It 24:49 — Can You Actually Build a Moat in AI? A VC Answers Honestly 28:21 — Why Early-Stage Investing Is Still a Bet on People, Not Products 30:29 — Bits and Atoms: The New Investment Thesis for the AI Hardware Era Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From a Palo Alto Closet to $1 Billion Revenue: How Gusto Cracked Small Business Software | Term Sheet 07.05.2026 37min

Approximately nine out of every ten net new jobs in America come from small businesses, yet they shoulder over $81 billion a year in federal paperwork. As more Americans launch their own businesses, the back office is buckling under the weight.In this episode, Josh Reeves, cofounder and CEO of Gusto, a payroll, benefits, and HR platform for small businesses, breaks down the contrarian bet that built a $9 billion company. He and Fortune's Allie Garfinkle discuss why small business tech is often overlooked, why he doesn't think AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic will touch tax compliance, and how Gusto crossed $1 billion in revenue on its path to what Reeves believes is a trillion-dollar opportunity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to Raise a CEO: The "Godmother of Silicon Valley" Esther Wojcicki 22.04.2026 33min

What is the secret to raising world-class leaders? In this episode, Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle sits down with Esther Wojcicki, the legendary educator and "Godmother of Silicon Valley." As the mother of three high-achieving daughters—including the former CEO of YouTube and the founder of 23andMe—Esther shares her leadership and parenting philosophy that works as well in the boardroom as it does in the classroom. She is also joined by her former student, Mary Minno, to discuss their latest collaboration–TreeHub–an ambitious new venture in AI-driven healthcare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Startup Fighting to Save the American Farm with Modern Finance 08.04.2026 30min

American agriculture is the backbone of the U.S. economy, yet the average farmer earns only 5 cents of every dollar spent on food. With an almost 50% spike in bankruptcies of U.S. farms and margins thinner than ever due to falling revenues and rising production costs, the agricultural economy is facing an inflection point. In this episode, Mackenzie Burnett, CEO & Co-Founder of Ambrook–a modern finance toolkit for farmers, breaks down the high-stakes world of agricultural finance. She and Fortune's Allie Garfinkle discuss why many farms still rely on paper ledgers, the "unscalable" journey to find product-market fit in a skeptical industry, and how modern financial tools are a critical part of the strategy to save American family farms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Winston Weinberg built his $11 billion AI Company | Term Sheet 18.03.2026 52min

Harvey co-founder and CEO Winston Weinberg has a method for leading his legal AI company, now valued at $11 billion after just three and a half years: psychological discipline. On this episode of Term Sheet, Weinberg tells Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle how he tracks his daily to-do list against his goals six months out, what he looks for in new hires, and how he avoids the pitfalls of being trapped by his own ego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why revenue is an outdated metric | Term Sheet 18.02.2026 27min

“Give everything you have to the people around you.” That’s Redpoint partner Meera Clark’s advice for aspiring venture capitalists looking to break into the increasingly competitive industry.In this episode of Term Sheet, Clark defines what “greatness” looks like in founders and explains why revenue is an outdated metric. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chemistry cofounder: “more talented founders than ever” are moving into health care | Term Sheet 04.02.2026 40min

Chemistry cofounder Kristina Shen says the market may be nearing a “reckoning” point. So why is she still optimistic going into 2026?In this episode of Term Sheet, Shen discusses why she decided to co-found her own VC firm, her excitement around health care, and why her team is focused on bringing the human element into venture capital. Allie also talks about the recent SpaceX and xAI merger and her exclusive feature story on Kleiner Perkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exelon CEO on if our utilities can handle the AI boom | Term Sheet 21.01.2026 41min

As resource-hungry data centers continue to sprout around the country, many are wondering whether our current utility network has the capability to handle such large-scale demands. Exelon CEO Calvin Butler says yes. Exelon is one of the nation’s largest public utility companies. It serves around 11 million customers, ranging from individual apartment owners to massive corporations. Butler joins Term Sheet to talk about how he and Exelon are working to address the surge in power demands sparked by new data centers while still serving the diverse array of consumers that make up their customer base. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenAI Researcher turned VC on what we’re missing on the AI bubble | Term Sheet 14.01.2026 37min

The artificial intelligence PhD to VC pipeline may seem relatively obvious now but Jenny Xiao, cofounder of Leonis Capital, forged this path well before the AI boom ever started. She left a PhD program at Columbia to join OpenAI as a researcher and, one week after the debut of ChatGPT, she left to cofound Leonis Capital, a “research-driven” VC firm. Having seen the world of artificial intelligence through an academic, market, and investor lens, she joins Term Sheet to talk about why AI companies should be valued closer to (or even below) SaaS, the role academia plays in AI progress, the possibility of another “DeepSeek” moment, and more. Allie also talks about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s surprising Sunday night video and her recent story on Strava. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Healthcare isn't working for anybody,” says Cityblock Health’s Dr. Toyin Ajayi | Term Sheet 05.11.2025 34min

On day 36 of the U.S. government shutdown – fueled in part by clashes over the Affordable Care Act and the country’s healthcare system – Allie talks to someone working to disrupt and fix that system: Cityblock Health cofounder and CEO Dr. Toyin Ajayi. A former physician for at-risk patients, Ajayi saw how the system can sometimes work against patients, driving burnout and increasing costs. She cofounded Cityblock Health, a tech-forward healthcare startup that provides care to underserved communities. She joins Allie to talk about healthcare reform and how technology can lead to better health outcomes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vet care for the 21st century with Modern Animal’s Steven Eidelman 29.10.2025 33min

On this week’s Term Sheet, Allie talks with Steven Eidelman, founder and CEO of Modern Animal, a tech-forward veterinary clinic with 28 locations across Texas and California. Last month Modern Animal raised $46 million in Series D funding after making 85% year-over-year growth in 2024. Eidelman founded Modern Animal after selling his first start-up, Whistle, for $119 million in 2016. Allie and Steven talk about how the affordability crisis is impacting pet care, why he decided to disrupt the veterinary industry, how AI is integrated into Modern Animal, and more. Allie also muses on the possibility of a trillion dollar startup and talks about OpenAI’s new browser, Atlas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Success disasters,” data privacy, and unlocking growth with Oura CEO Tom Hale 22.10.2025 31min

Oura has been making headlines for months, most recently with its massive $900 million funding round, valuing the wearables giant at $11 billion. And before that, for expanding its partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, causing social media controversy. In September, while at Brainstorm Tech, Allie sat down with Oura CEO Tom Hale to talk about the company’s growth, data privacy, the biggest challenge he’s faced as CEO, the unexpected places he’s unlocked consumer value, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Bubbles have almost always preceded some important technological shift”: OpenAI's COO 07.10.2025 36min

OpenAI has had a huge week. Fresh off launching the AI video generation and social app Sora 2, they closed a multibillion dollar partnership with AMD that sent the company’s stock soaring. This was quickly followed by the release of new features, like agent-building and ChatGPT app integration, meant to supercharge OpenAI’s hold on the culture. Allie sat down with OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap at the company’s DevDay in San Francisco to discuss where the company stands in the enterprise market, what he thinks of the “AI bubble,” that MIT study, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Sociology of Startup Success with VC Powerhouse Hans Tung 01.10.2025 23min

Hans Tung first became a VC in his 20s and has gone on to invest in some of the most successful companies of our time––household names like Airbnb, Slack, Coinbase, and Peloton, among others. He was an early backer of Musical.ly, the app that became TikTok. Hans cofounded the firm GGV Capital, which then split into the Singapore-based operation, Granite Asia, and the U.S.-based Notable Capital, where he’s now managing partner. Allie and Hans talk about what makes a good investor, what he looks for in founders, his take on AI bubble anxieties, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The “Egoless” Company Culture that Powers Supabase with CEO Paul Copplestone 24.09.2025 32min

Paul Copplestone is the CEO and Co-founder of Supabase, the open source Postgres development platform designed for web and mobile apps to scale quickly. The company knows a thing or two about growing fast – only 5 years old, this April they raised $200 million in Series D funding round and were valued at $2 billion. Paul stopped by Term Sheet to talk about how he builds a remote and egoless company culture, why he likes hiring founders, and how being from New Zealand has impacted his entrepreneurial journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inside Phia's $8 Million Seed Round 17.09.2025 36min

Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni met as roommates at Stanford. Now, they’re the cofounders of Phia, an AI-powered shopping agent that just raised an $8 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins and has participation from household names like Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, and Sheryl Sandberg. For this episode of Term Sheet, Allie spoke with Phoebe, Sophia, and Annie Case, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, about what’s wrong with online shopping today, how to build a consumer company, why there aren’t more women building companies, and what AI tools can bring to the digital shopping experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski on the IPO, Loving Walmart, and Embracing AI 10.09.2025 36min

Sebastian Siemiatkowski has achieved something few founders ever do: he’s brought a private company to the public market. Now, if you want, you can own a piece of Klarna. But still, to Sebastian, the day he visited Walmart Founder Sam Walton’s grave in Arkansas will always be more exciting than ringing the NYSE bell. On this episode of Term Sheet, Sebastian talks about how being from a Polish immigrant family in Sweden led him to idolize Walmart, Klarna’s bigger than BNPL business model, and how the future financial services will embrace AI and put the customer back in the driver’s seat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices