The Data Minute

Episod

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  The Case Against Obvious Deals | Lan Xuezhao, Founder & Managing Partner, Basis Set Ventures 23.07.2026 49min

  What actually separates a great early-stage bet from an obvious one? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Lan Xuezhao, Founder and Managing Partner of Basis Set Ventures, fresh off closing the firm's $250 million Fund IV. Lan built Basis Set in 2017 as one of the first venture funds structured specifically around AI, years before AI became the entire market's obsession. Her portfolio includes an early bet on Scale AI before the fund technically existed, along with Quince, Path ...
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  How to Hire Before You Raise | Francois Ajenstat, Founder and CEO, Golden Analytics 09.07.2026 57min

  What does it actually take to build an executive team from nothing? This week on The Data Minute, Ashley Neville fills in for Peter and sits down with Francois Ajenstat, Founder and CEO of Golden Analytics, to talk hiring at the earliest stages of a company, from seed through Series B. Francois spent over a decade as Chief Product Officer at Tableau before leading product at Amplitude, and recently launched Golden Analytics, an AI-native BI platform that just closed $21 million in total seed...
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  How the Best Data Builds the Best Teams | Kirk Lacob, EVP of Basketball Operations, Golden State Warriors 23.06.2026 51min

  What if you treated hiring at your startup like an NBA Front Office scouting for the next Draft? This week on The Data Minute Podcast, Ashley sits down with Kirk Lacob, EVP of Basketball Operations at the Golden State Warriors, to discuss what it's like to gather the data and make the calls on world-class basketball talent. Kirk argues that data's real value in the draft isn't identifying the best players: everyone already knows who they are -- it's in improving decision accuracy at the marg...
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  Coding Taste: AI’s Impact on Culture | Amber Atherton, Partner, Patron 11.06.2026 40min

  How do you invest in what’s cool before the rest of the world catches on? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Amber Atherton, Partner at Patron, to explore the rapidly shifting landscape of consumer venture capital. Amber reveals the tactical strategies she uses to keep her pulse on the cultural vanguard, including running multiple TikTok burner accounts and hunting for early micro-trends inside gamer communities and niche digital spaces. They dive deep into her recent thesis o...
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  The Seed Existential Crisis | Rob Go, Founding Partner, NextView Ventures 28.05.2026 51min

  Is seed investing facing an existential crisis? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Rob Go, Founding Partner at NextView Ventures, to discuss the structural shifts making the "game on the field" harder than ever for early-stage investors. Rob explains why many successful seed VCs are exiting the industry and how the rise of mega-funds and massive accelerators like YC has squeezed traditional seed firms into a narrow "subset" of the market. They dive into the "feeder fund" phen...
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  The Venture Debt Masterclass | Marshall Hawks, Author, Venture Debt Deals 14.05.2026 49min

  There is a long-standing stigma in venture capital that debt is a "company killer." This week on The Data Minute, Peter Walker sits down with Marshall Hawks, former SVB expert and author of “Venture Debt Deals,” to debunk the myths and explain why debt is often the smartest addition to a founder’s equity mix. Marshall breaks down the tactical reality of how these deals actually get done, from the "sniff test" lenders perform during office visits to the critical differences between venture ban...
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  Live from Chase Center: The Future of Private Markets | Salil Deshpande, Amit Patel, Vignesh Ravikumar, & Corey Goodman 01.05.2026 21min

  Live from the Chase Center in San Francisco, Peter gathers four leading venture investors to discuss the shifting landscape of private markets. This special episode features Salil Deshpande (Uncorrelated Ventures), Amit Patel (Owl Ventures), Vignesh Ravikumar (Sierra Ventures), and Corey Goodman, PhD (venBio Partners). The episode covers why gross margins have become the most critical metric for AI model companies and how the rise of secondary markets is challenging the traditional ten-year ...
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  Is "2 and 20" Still the Standard? | Hamza Shad, Carta Insights Team 12.02.2026 50min

  In this special deep dive episode, Peter is joined by his Carta Insights colleague Hamza Shad to unpack the operational reality of running a venture fund. They leave behind portfolio performance metrics to focus entirely on the business of the fund itself. Peter and Hamza break down the data from Carta’s inaugural Fund Economics report. They analyze how much capital GPs are actually committing to their own funds, why anchor LPs are taking larger stakes, and whether the industry standard "2 a...
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  Why VCs Should Be Pirates | Arian Ghashghai, Founding Partner, Earthling VC 22.01.2026 53min

  This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Arian Ghashghai, Founding Partner at Earthling VC, to discuss his thesis of investing in "weird stuff early." Arian explains why he bets on robotic oyster farms, virtual reality, and ocean exploration when other investors are chasing the latest consensus trends. He breaks down his "pirate ship" approach to venture capital and why being the first check is often more valuable to a founder than being the "most helpful." They also discuss the cur...
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  2026 Market Outlook | Ashley Neville, Carta Insights Team 08.01.2026 39min

  Welcome to 2026. In this special New Year’s episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with his colleague Ashley Neville from Carta’s Insights Team to dissect the data that defined 2025 and forecast the trends shaping the year ahead. Ashley and Peter analyze the "haves and have nots" market where AI startups command a 40% valuation premium over their peers. They explain why solo founders now account for over a third of all new companies and how capital constraints are driving this shift. The...
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  The AI-First VC | Ben Orthlieb, Founding Partner, Blue Moon VC 18.12.2025 1j

  This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Ben Orthlieb, Founding Partner at Blue Moon VC, for a look under the hood of a firm that has completely re-engineered the venture capital process using AI. Ben explains how Blue Moon uses a proprietary tech stack to source over 12,000 teams a year and screen them down to the top 5% based on their probability of graduating to Series B, achieving performance metrics that rival top-tier firms without the massive headcount. He breaks down why the...
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  The Solo Founder Era | Julian Weisser, Co-founder, ODF & solofounders.com 11.12.2025 39min

  Is the "co-founder mandate" dead? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Julian Weisser, co-founder of ODF and solofounders.com, to unpack the data behind a massive shift in the startup ecosystem: solo founders now make up over a third of all new companies. Julian breaks down the "Denominator Delusion"—the survivorship bias that tricks founders into forcing partnerships that often fail. They discuss why co-founder breakups are the silent killer of early-stage startups, the struct...
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  Don’t Sleep on Seattle Startups | Vivek Ladsariya (Managing Director, Pioneer Square Labs) 20.11.2025 53min

  This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Vivek Ladsariya, Managing Director at Pioneer Square Labs, for a deep dive into the Seattle startup ecosystem and the evolving world of venture studios. Vivek breaks down why Seattle has become the quiet giant of AI infrastructure, holding the second-highest concentration of AI talent in the US, and explains why the "locked up" talent at Amazon and Microsoft is finally breaking free. He also gives a candid assessment of the venture studio mo...
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  The Great VC Concentration 06.11.2025 54min

  In another special solo episode, Peter Walker dives deep into Carta's Q2 Fund Performance Report to unpack the data on what's really happening inside venture capital today. Peter walks through the critical benchmarks every GP and LP needs to know, from median and top-decile Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI across different vintages and fund sizes. He explains why the 2021 vintage is struggling, why small funds have higher performance dispersion, and how liquidity pressure is (or isn't) impacting GP beh...
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  Supernova & Shooting Star: The New AI Benchmarks | Janelle Teng (Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners) 23.10.2025 58min

  In this special live episode of The Data Minute, recorded in San Francisco, Peter is joined by Janelle Teng from Bessemer Venture Partners for a data-driven look at the state of AI fundraising. Peter and Janelle walk through the data on everything from the AI valuation premium to the new benchmarks for growth, breaking down Bessemer's "Supernovas" and "Shooting Stars" framework. They discuss why fundraising timelines have gotten longer, how dilution remains steady despite soaring valuations, ...
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  A Founder’s Guide to AI Funding 10.10.2025 10min

  In another special solo episode, host Peter Walker tackles the most requested topic on The Data Minute: AI funding and valuations. Using data from Carta and Bessemer Venture Partners, Peter unpacks what’s really happening inside the AI boom. He walks through five key charts that reveal where the capital is flowing, the massive valuation premiums AI-native companies command at Seed and Series A, and why San Francisco is still the undisputed center of the AI universe. Peter also breaks down Be...
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  The Automated VC | Yohei Nakajima, Founding Partner, Untapped VC 25.09.2025 50min

  This week, Peter is joined by Yohei Nakajima, founding partner of Untapped VC and one of the most forward-thinking investors in the AI space. Known for his public experiments with AI agents and automations, Yohei shares his radically different approach to venture capital: investing from the top down. Yohei explains how he uses the social networking site X and his AI community, Baby AGI, to map market trends, develop a unique conviction, and source founders, flipping the traditional referral-...
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  One In, One Out: A Look at Startup Hiring 11.09.2025 9min

  In this special solo episode of The Data Minute, host Peter Walker dives into the data from Carta's latest research on the state of startup hiring. With hiring down month-over-month since 2021, Peter unpacks the trends that every founder, operator, and investor needs to understand. Using five key charts, Peter breaks down the current talent landscape: the shrinking gap between layoffs and voluntary departures, the reality of net headcount growth, and the "one in, one out" philosophy that's d...
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  The Future of VC-Backed Fintech | Drew Glover, Founder and Managing Partner, Fiat Ventures and Fiat Growth 28.08.2025 52min

  On this episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Drew Glover, founder and managing partner at Fiat Ventures and Fiat Growth, for a wide-ranging conversation on what’s next in fintech and what founders actually want from their investors. They dive into how fintech is moving from DTC chaos into quietly powerful B2B infrastructure, why capital is no longer a moat, and how AI may turn traditionally “unsexy” industries into VC-ready moonshots. Drew shares how Fiat combines strategic capit...
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  What it Really Takes to IPO | Dave Chen, Co-Head of Global Technology Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley 14.08.2025 46min

  In this special episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Dave Chen, Co-Head of Global Technology Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, for a tactical deep dive on how today’s founders should think about going public. Dave shares what IPO prep really looks like in 2025 and beyond, why the best companies start working with bankers 2–3 years ahead of a listing, how institutional investors actually evaluate growth-stage companies, and which metrics every founder needs to start tracking l...