Technology

Uncapped with Jack Altman

Conversations with people I admire about things I’m genuinely interested in.

Latest Episodes:

Uncapped #38 | Ben Horowitz from a16z Jan 09, 2026

Show notes

Ben Horowitz is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that manages $60 billion in assets under management. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Hard Thing About Hard Things and What You Do Is Who You Are.

Prior to a16z, Ben was cofounder and CEO of Opsware (formerly Loudcloud), which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion in 2007. Earlier, he was vice president and general manager of America Online’s E-commerce Platform division, where he oversaw development of the company’s flagship Shop@AOL service. Ben also ran several product divisions at Netscape.

Ben serves on the board of Anyscale, Databricks, Mayvenn, NationBuilder, Navan, and UnitedMasters.

We covered:

Marc and Ben’s relationship as co-founders
Operating a venture firm like a CEO of a company
Why scale is important and not for everyone
The evolution of media

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:30) Marc and Ben’s relationship

(6:10) Structuring the firm to attract great talent

(10:28) Difference between execs and GPs

(14:51) Firm-wide guiding principles

(16:43) Scaling GPs vs small teams who concentrate

(20:11) Why scale is so important in venture

(23:45) What platform services work and don’t work

(26:58) Ben’s view on board seats

(34:56) The evolution of media

(44:44) Laws of physics for fund sizes

(48:28) Winning is more impactful than picking

(52:15) Defending why venture doesn’t scale

(55:00) Hiring ex founders and CEOs

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

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Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #37 | Saam Motamedi from Greylock Partners Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

Saam Motamedi is a General Partner at Greylock Partners working with enterprise software entrepreneurs at the seed and early stages who are focused on new opportunities in intelligent applications, cybersecurity, AI, and data infrastructure. In 2019 at just 26 years old, Saam became the Greylock’s youngest General Partner in its 54-year history – a remarkable achievement at an institution that had backed Airbnb, AppDynamics, Coinbase, Discord, Figma, Instagram, LinkedIn, among others.

Saam’s portfolio spans 14+ companies with collective valuations exceeding $10 billion. Abnormal Security, which Greylock incubated in its offices in 2018 with Saam as founding investor, grew into a multi-billion-dollar email security powerhouse. Cresta, where he led the Series A in 2019, became the leading generative AI platform for contact centers. Snorkel AI, Braintrust, Orb, and a portfolio of other infrastructure companies position Saam at the center of AI's business model transformation.

We covered:

Durable components to great firms
Inside look at how Greylock operates
Cracking the code on incubations
Alpha in today’s venture strategies

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:32) Greylock turning 60 this year

(4:11) What’s persisted since 1965

(8:59) Apprenticeship

(11:34) What's durable in venture

(16:29) Greylock’s ethos

(19:33) Incentive misalignments

(24:44) Breadth vs depth in venture

(29:28) Managing the team on inputs

(34:00) Why incubations are so hard

(43:22) Finding alpha

(52:38) Greylock’s approach to portfolio services

(59:18) Assessing wild revenue ramps

(1:08:10) Horizontal vs vertical SaaS

(1:11:34) Friendships and work

(1:16:26) Saam's biological age

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

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https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #36 | Pat Grady & Alfred Lin from Sequoia Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

Pat Grady and Alfred Lin are partners at Sequoia and were recently named as the storied firm’s new co-stewards. Alfred joined the firm in 2010, where he has led major investments into category-defining companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, and Kalshi. Pat has been a partner at the firm for nearly 19 years and has led Sequoia’s growth-stage investing since 2015, backing companies like Snowflake, OpenAI, and Harvey. In this episode, we unpack how Sequoia actually works: their partnership model, how they pick outliers, and what stewardship means inside one of the most respected firms in venture capital.

Some highlights:

Consensus doesn’t matter, conviction does
Freedom within frameworks: see, pick, win, help, harvest
Mid-funnel decisions are the most important
The two fears that lead to bad decisions
To do this business well, you need courage

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:01) Initial mindset as stewards

(4:30) The business of outliers

(6:27) Managing the inputs in venture

(12:11) Sourcing coverage goals

(17:57) Seeing the right companies

(22:36) Proprietary map of talent

(24:39) The impact of great engineers

(29:06) Picking winners with conviction

(36:26) Coaching asymmetry into picking

(43:16) Mentoring younger investors

(46:45) Frameworks on picking

(53:20) What it takes to win

(58:32) How to onboard with a founder

(1:02:59) Proudest board seats

(1:06:12) 2026 in the new roles

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

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https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #35 | Trae Stephens from Founders Fund Dec 03, 2025

Show notes

Trae Stephens is a Partner at Founders Fund. He is also Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril, a defense tech company focused on autonomous systems, and Co-founder of Sol, a next generation wearable e-reader. Previously, Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he led teams focused on growth in the intelligence/defense space as well as international expansion. He was also an integral part of the product team, leading the design and strategy for new product offerings.

Prior to Palantir, Trae worked as a computational linguist building enterprise solutions to Arabic/Persian name matching and data enrichment within the United States Intelligence community. He began his career working in the office of then Congressman Rob Portman and in the Political Affairs Office at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. immediately following the installation of Hamid Karzai’s transitional government.

We covered:

Hard tech and the future of warfare
AI morality and “good quests”
How Anduril scales manufacturing
Founders Fund’s investing philosophy
Contrarianism and concentration
The ethics of autonomy and national defense

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:35) Choosing good quests in the AI era

(7:35) Ethics behind solving certain problems

(11:29) Working with regulators

(16:54) What’s left to prove at Anduril

(18:32) Anduril, SpaceX, and Tesla at scale

(22:30) The future of warfare

(24:48) Juggling Anduril and Founders Fund

(29:07) A system that rewards going deep

(31:21) What’s made Founders Fund great

(37:30) The king-making strategy in VC

(40:26) Concentrating in the winners

(43:55) Where there’s alpha in the market

(47:22) Theological revival in traditional faith

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

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https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #34 | Mel Williams from TrueBridge Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

Mel Williams is a co-founder and Partner at TrueBridge Capital Partners, a fund of funds with $8 billion in AUM focused on venture capital. Since 2007, Mel’s team has backed firms like Thrive, Founders Fund, Sequoia, and Alt Capital, and powers the data behind the Forbes Midas List. Before TrueBridge, Mel co-founded UNC Management Company (UNCMC), where he worked closely with the President/CIO to manage over $2 billion of endowment capital for the University of North Carolina.

We covered:

Investing in frothy markets
Doubling down on winners
Seed vs multi-stage
Picking managers

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:10) AI valuations and a frothy market

(4:35) Long term market risks

(7:18) Should VC funds keep getting bigger?

(9:37) 10% of the market is the signal

(14:08) Venture math debate

(18:05) Characteristics of great investors

(20:46) The case for seed stage firms

(23:09) Picking managers

(24:59) Big wins and big misses

(30:12) It’s hard to kill a good brand

(33:06) Building a concentrated portfolio

(36:53) Advice to young LPs

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

---

https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #33 | Vlad Tenev from Robinhood Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), which transformed financial services by introducing commission-free stock trading and democratizing access to the markets for millions of investors. As of Q3 2025, the company is doing $1.27 billion in revenue with 11 business lines each doing roughly $100 million.

We discuss the evolution of online brokerage platforms from Schwab to E-Trade to now Robinhood. Vlad delves into the launch of Robinhood, the impact of the global financial crisis, and how mobile and high-frequency trading have transformed finance. The conversation explores the rise and success of prediction markets, the importance of engaging younger generations, and how AI is enhancing the future of trading.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(00:27) History of online brokers

(4:15) The rise of Robinhood

(9:15) Changing sentiment among generations

(14:18) Incentive alignment with customers

(18:47) The emergence of prediction markets

(25:50) Economic value vs entertainment

(28:26) Growing degree of risk taking

(35:21) Tokenization and private markets

(39:33) The impact of AI on Robinhood

(43:35) What excites Vlad about AI

(46:59) Reflections on being a founder

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

---

https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #32 | Kyle Vogt from The Bot Company Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

Kyle Vogt is a serial entrepreneur and engineer often recognized as the co-founder and former CEO of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company acquired by General Motors for $1 billion. Before Cruise, he co-founded Twitch, which transformed how people watch and share gaming online. Kyle is now building a new company at the frontier of intelligent home automation, aiming to bring advanced robotics into everyday life.

A few highlights:

Labs beginning to see their ChatGPT moment
Most robots will be specialized, not humanoids
Robots will be cooking steaks in less than 5 yrs
Indefinitely operating with less than 100 people
Running a marathon on every continent in 81+ hrs

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction

(0:34) Why robotics is suddenly booming

(1:48) AI unlocking the next wave

(3:31) Special-purpose vs generalized

(5:32) Designing robots people actually use

(9:00) Building for scale, impact, and affordability

(12:17) The myth of the humanoid robot

(15:04) Trust, safety, and privacy in your home

(17:51) The data powering robotics intelligence

(21:01) Why Kyle keeps starting hard companies

(22:32) The 100-person rule and elite teams

(26:10) How to move fast and actually ship

(27:28) What home robotics will do first

(35:05) Home security applications

(37:07) Robots should elevate our standard of living

(38:41) Lessons from Tesla vs Waymo

(41:08) Thoughts on when to sell the company

(42:41) Running marathons on every continent

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

---

https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #31 | Dylan Field from Figma Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

Dylan Field is the co-founder and CEO of Figma, a design software company that went public in July 2025. Founded in 2012, Figma transformed how people design, prototype, and build products together. After a $20 billion acquisition attempt by Adobe collapsed in 2022 because of regulators, Dylan helped Figma rebound stronger than ever. Just three years later, Figma listed its shares at nearly $20 billion and its stock price more than tripled on its first trading day.

A few highlights:

Expanding a sleepy market
Merging of designers and product roles
Counter-narrative to polarizing CEOs
If models get better, we have to
Remembering Brat Summer

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:37) The first 5 years of Figma

(5:14) Slow build vs AI gold rush

(13:01) The role of the human designer

(18:55) Small companies with $1B in revenue

(21:28) Expanding a sleepy market

(27:49) Leading with empathy as CEO

(32:51) Connecting with young people

(41:37) Getting stronger despite Adobe

(48:43) AI impacting Figma’s roadmap

(52:02) Final bastion of human designers

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

---

https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #30 | Alex Pall from The Chainsmokers Oct 29, 2025

Show notes

Alex Pall is half of the Grammy Award-winning duo The Chainsmokers. Beyond music, Alex is entrepreneur and co-founder of Mantis VC, a venture firm that invests opportunistically in early stage tech-enabled startups. Some of their investments include Alchemy, Chainguard, Kalshi, Roblox, and Rogo. We had a wide ranging conversation that broke down the creative stories behind a few of their top hits including “Closer,” “Something Just Like This,” and “Don’t Let Me Down.” We also explored the creative process at the highest level and how Alex’s experience in music influences the way he approaches venture investing.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:04) Stories behind the songs

(4:58) Coldplay collaboration

(9:57) Creating Closer

(13:25) Dependencies vs creative fuel

(18:09) Letting songs be promiscuous

(19:45) How “Don’t Let Me Down” happened

(22:57) Art vs playing the favorites

(26:18) Balancing music and business

(29:49) Albums telling stories

(35:42) Tension behind growth as an artist

(39:28) Inspiration drives creativity

(41:20) AIs impact on music

(44:34) Outlier talent

(47:22) Building a venture firm

(54:46) Experiencing elite circles

(1:01:17) Importance of momentum

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More on Jack:

https://www.altcap.com/

https://x.com/jaltma

---

https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod

Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Uncapped #29 | Thomas Laffont from Coatue Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

Thomas Laffont is the co-founder of Coatue, one of the world’s largest technology investment platforms active in both the public and private markets. Thomas leads the firm’s private investment platforms across early-stage and growth, and oversees their software investments across private and public markets. Coatue has partnered with some of the most enduring and impactful companies of the last two decades, including Applied Intuition, Canva, Databricks, Figma and Rippling. Thomas began his career at the Creative Arts Agency, where he represented artists in film and television.

A few highlights: