Stay ConnectedNon-obvious ideas that move the world. Auren Hoffman hosts leaders across tech, business, markets, and government.
Summation is the permanent home for the relentlessly curious.
Auren is CEO of NQB8, GP at Flex Capital, Chairman of Dialog; former CEO of SafeGraph and LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP).
Copyright: © 2024 "World of DaaS"
Chris Farmer is the founder and CEO of SignalFire, an early stage venture firm managing over $3 billion.
In this episode of Summation, Chris and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Chris Farmer on X at @chriswfarmer
This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren's appearance on the GTMnow podcast
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Auren Hoffman (Flex Capital) joins the GTMnow podcast to share some of the most contrarian takes in tech today, from why AI moats are gone, to why your next VC meeting will be with a bot, to why AI is secretly going to trigger a baby boom.
In this episode:
Auren Hoffman is the founder of NQB8, Flex Capital, SafeGraph, and LiveRamp. He's an early backer of Replit, Perplexity, Rippling, Vercel, Coinbase, Chime, and AppLovin.
Max’s socials:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler/
Auren’s socials:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/auren/
GTMnow: https://gtmnow.com
Jake Stauch is the co-founder and CEO of Serval, the AI-native enterprise service management platform. Serval was founded in 2024 and has already raised over $125M across rounds led by Redpoint and Sequoia at a $1B+ valuation. Before Serval, Jake spent five years on the product team at Verkada and earlier founded NeuroPlus, a brain-sensing hardware company that made video games for kids with ADHD.
In this episode of Summation, Jake and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Jake Stauch on X at @jakeserval
Dmitry Shevelenko is Chief Business Officer at Perplexity. He previously co-founded Tortoise, a robotics and commerce automation startup and held business development roles at Uber, LinkedIn, and Meta. He also serves on the board of Lazard.
In this episode of Summation, Dmitry and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Dmitry Shevelenko on X at @dmitry140
Ben Miller is the co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, an alternative asset management platform that gives individual investors access to private real estate, private credit, and venture capital. In March 2026, he listed the Fundrise Innovation Fund on the NYSE under the ticker VCX, one of the first publicly traded venture capital funds. VCX gives retail investors direct exposure to private companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, and SpaceX. The fund manages over $650 million and has over 100,000 individual investors. Ben is a returning Summation guest.
In this episode of Summation, Ben and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Ben Miller on X at @benmillerise
Ralph Goff is a 35-year veteran of the CIA, having served as a six-time Chief of Station across Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia. During his career, he also held the roles of Chief of Operations for Europe and Eurasia and Chief of the CIA's National Resources Division. Since leaving government, he advises on national security issues and speaks publicly on intelligence, geopolitics, and great power competition.
In this episode of Summation, Ralph and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Ralph Goff on Linkedin
Glenn Youngkin was the 74th Governor of Virginia. Before politics, he spent nearly 25 years at The Carlyle Group, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, where he rose to co-CEO. During his four-year term, Virginia generated $10B in surplus revenue, delivered $9B in tax relief, attracted $156B in capital investment, and became one of the first states in the country to mandate cell-phone-free classrooms.
In this episode of Summation, Glenn and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Glenn Youngkin on X at @GlennYoungkin
Marco Zappacosta is the co-founder and CEO of Thumbtack, the home services marketplace he started in 2008. Thumbtack connects homeowners to 300,000+ local service professionals, with nearly 100M projects started on the platform.
In this episode of Summation, Marco and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Marco Zappacosta on X at @mlz
Eric Ries created the Lean Startup methodology and authored the bestselling book of the same name, which has sold over a million copies. He's also the founder and executive chairman of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, the co-founder of Answer AI (an AI R&D lab), and the author of the upcoming book Incorruptible, releasing May 26th.
In this episode of Summation, Eric and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Eric Ries on X at @ericries
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg became Germany's youngest Minister of Defense in history, and previously served as Minister of Economics and Technology. He is the chairman and founder of Spitzberg Partners, an investment and advisory firm, a bestselling author, and co-founder of Open Minds Media, where he produces films and podcasts. He co-hosts one of Germany's most popular podcasts.
In this episode of Summation, KT and Auren discuss:
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Linkedin.
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