Brian O'Kelley is the co-founder and former CEO of AppNexus, which built core infrastructure for programmatic advertising and was acquired by AT&T for $1.6 billion in 2018. He's now the co-founder and CEO of Scope3, a company working to reduce the carbon footprint in digital advertising. In this episode of World of DaaS, Brian and Auren discuss: Th…

Trae Stephens is a partner at Founders Fund and co-founder and current executive chairman at Anduril, a defense technology company that produces software-defined, hardware-enabled major weapons programs. In this episode of World of DaaS, Trae and Auren discuss: Revolutionizing defense technology manufacturing Billionaire founders in defense tech Su…

Scott Stephenson is the former Chairman, President, and CEO of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ: VRSK), where he led the company's transformation from a nonprofit insurance data collective into a global data analytics powerhouse with a market cap of over $40 billion. In this episode of World of DaaS, Scott and Auren discuss: Data monetization and defensibi…

Martin Casado is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he focuses on AI and infrastructure investments. He previously co-founded Nicira which was acquired by VMware for $1.2 billion in 2012. In this episode of World of DaaS, Martin and Auren discuss: Economics of open source AI Chinese AI innovation with DeepSeek Model collapse and…

Bill Wise is the CEO and co-founder of Mediaocean, an adtech platform that processes over $200 billion in global media spend annually. In this episode of World of DaaS, Bill and Auren discuss: The hidden plumbing of global advertising Measurement monopolies in adtech The transition from linear TV to CTV Cultural integration in tech acquisitions Loo…

Rob Henderson is a developmental psychologist, author of the New York Times bestseller Troubled and columnist for the Free Press and the Boston Globe. In this episode of World of DaaS, Rob and Auren discuss: How elites exploit the poor with luxury beliefs The vital importance of marriage for upward mobility The conspiracy behind useless college deg…

Jackie Reses is the co-founder and CEO of Lead Bank, fintech infrastructure bank with over $2.5 billion in assets under management. In this episode of World of DaaS, Jackie and Auren discuss: Fintech's regulatory reckoning The future of community banking State regulator competition Lessons from Square's payment revolution Leadership insights from J…

Alex Cohen is the co-founder and CEO of Hello Patient, a healthcare AI company that streamlines scheduling and patient management for medical practices. In this episode of World of DaaS, Alex and Auren discuss: The hidden costs of SaaS sprawl Why specialized tools beat all-in-one solutions Building relevancy through niche content The future of heal…

Mario Gabriele is the founder of The Generalist, a tech analysis substack with over 132,000 subscribers. Mario also runs Generalist Capital, which invests in early stage companies. In this episode of World of DaaS, Mario and Auren discuss: Why 70-80% of VCs destroy value The rise of mullet capitalism Navigating secondary sales in venture Looking fo…

Annie Duke is a former World Series of Poker champion, bestselling author of Thinking in Bets and Quit, and decision science expert who advises Fortune 500 companies on strategic decision-making. In this episode of World of DaaS, Annie and Auren discuss: Cognitive biases in venture capital Loss aversion and mental accounting One-way versus two-way …

Deven Parekh is Managing Director at Insight Partners, a global software investment firm with over $90B in assets under management. Since joining in 2000, he has led investments in companies including Twitter, DocuSign, Alibaba, and JD.com. In this episode of World of DaaS, Deven and Auren discuss: Why gross retention beats net retention AI adoptio…

Tim Vanderhook is the co-founder and CEO of Viant Technology (NASDAQ: DSP), a leading advertising technology company that went public in 2021 at a $2.5B valuation. In this episode of World of DaaS, Tim and Auren discuss: The trillion dollar advertising market opportunity Why linear TV is massively undervalued The explosive growth of streaming audio…

Rajeev Goel is the co-founder and CEO of PubMatic (NASDAQ: PUBM), a sell-side advertising platform that processes over 780 billion ad impressions daily. In this episode of World of DaaS, Rajeev and Auren discuss: Building private cloud infrastructure for ad tech Processing 780 billion daily ad impressions The rise of retail media networks Political…

Mark Pincus is the founder of Zynga, which developed some of the most popular mobile games of all time like Farmville and Words With Friends. He currently runs Reinvent Capital and teaches product management at Stanford University. In this episode of World of DaaS, Mark and Auren discuss: Why games predict the future of tech Building on platforms l…

Adam Singolda is the founder and CEO of Taboola (NASDAQ: TBLA), a content discovery platform that powers recommendations for Apple News, Yahoo, and other major publishers, reaching over 500 million daily active users. In this episode of World of DaaS, Adam and Auren discuss: The war for internet user attention Why Apple and Amazon are becoming ad c…

Mark Zagorski is the CEO of DoubleVerify (NYSE: DV), a $3.4B market cap company that provides digital media measurement and verification software to major advertisers and platforms. In this episode of World of DaaS, Mark and Auren discuss: The $100B digital ad fraud economy Why marketing data is wrong but works The death of cookies and what's next …

Farley Mesko is the CEO and co-founder of Sayari, a financial intelligence and supply chain risk platform that serves major financial institutions, government agencies, and corporations. In this episode of World of DaaS, Farley and Auren discuss: How geopolitics are reshaping global supply chains The evolution of financial crime networks Building d…

Michael Barrett is the CEO of Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the largest independent sell-side advertising platform with a market cap of over $2.2 billion. In this episode of World of DaaS, Michael and Auren discuss: The $200B shift from linear TV to streaming How retail media networks are reshaping advertising Big Tech's dominance in digital advertising …

Samo Burja is an entrepreneur and political researcher. He’s the founder of Bismarck Analysis and the editor of Palladium Magazine, a publication focused on governance and societal challenges. In this episode of World of DaaS, Samo and Auren discuss: Why great founders shape civilization Global fertility decline and its implications The magic of fo…

Nate Baker is the cofounder and CEO of Qualia, the leading real estate closing platform which powers millions of real estate transactions a year. He’s also the cofounder of Fractal, a business incubator that has launched over 150 vertical SaaS companies. In this episode of World of DaaS, Nate and Auren discuss: AI impacts on real estate Housing sup…

Chris Hulls is the co-founder and CEO of Life360 (NASDAQ: LIF), the family safety platform used by over 70 million people worldwide. Life360 has a market cap of $3.3 billion. In this episode of World of DaaS, Chris and Auren discuss: Building a safety super-app The rise of tech-enabled helicopter parenting Psychedelics and CEO mental health Why vis…

George Fraser is the co-founder and CEO of Fivetran, the category-leading data integration platform that does over $300M in revenues. In this episode of World of DaaS, George and Auren discuss: The Databricks/Snowflake “war” Building a data stack for AI workloads Evidence based decision making for tech companies Parallels between neuroscience and a…

DJ Patil served as the first U.S. Chief Data Scientist under President Obama. He's currently a GP at GreatPoint Ventures, on the Board of Devoted Health, and co-chairs the taskforce on GenAi for the Pentagon. In this episode of World of DaaS, DJ and Auren discuss: AI's impact on data science Healthcare data transformation Innovation, bureaucracy an…

Alex Lieberman is the co-founder of Morning Brew, a business newsletter with over 4 million subscribers. Alex founded Morning Brew in his dorm room and sold a majority stake to Business Insider for $75 million in 2020. In this episode, Alex and Auren discuss: Why B2B marketing is broken The future of influencer marketing Finding purpose after the e…

Evan Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Altana, a global supply chain management platform. Altana is one of the newest freight tech unicorns out there– they recently raised $200mm in a Series C round that valued the company at over a billion dollars. In this episode, Evan and Auren discuss: Why "Globalization 2.0" is replacing free trade How Russia…

Arup Banerjee is the co-founder and CEO of Windfall, a data company that estimates the net worth of every American. In this episode of World of DaaS, Arup and Auren discuss: Why accurate wealth data is so difficult to come by The best indicators of high net worth Common misconceptions about wealth distribution Building data co-ops Looking for more …

Sam Parr is the co-host of My First Million podcast and the founder of Hampton, a community of entrepreneurs and founders. Sam previously founded The Hustle, a business and tech newsletter that was acquired by HubSpot for reportedly $27 million in 2021. In this episode of World of DaaS, Sam and Auren discuss: Branding strategies for tech founders D…

Tomas Pueyo is the author of the Uncharted Territories blog, where he analyzes global trends in technology, politics, and economics. Tomas gained international recognition in 2020 for his data-driven analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic, with his articles reaching over 40 million views and being translated into more than 40 languages. In this episode …

Eric Glyman is the co-founder and CEO of Ramp, a financial operations platform. Ramp is one of the fastest growing startups in history, reaching $100M ARR in just three years. Prior to Ramp, Eric co-founded Paribus, a consumer finance app acquired by Capital One in 2016. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Eric discuss: Corporate spending t…

Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and founder of WordPress on the ongoing trademark dispute between WordPress and WP Engine, a hosting company owned by private equity firm Silver Lake. Matt Socials: Twitter: https://x.com/photomatt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattm/ Host Auren Hoffman Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/auren Substack: …

Ben Casnocha is a cofounder and partner at Village Global, an early-stage venture capital firm backed by tech luminaries including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. He was also chief of staff to Reid Hoffman and co-authored two best selling books with him, “The Alliance” and “The Startup of You.” In this episode of World of DaaS, Ben and…

Matt Clifford is the co-founder and chair of Entrepreneur First, a global talent investor that has helped create over 500 companies worth more than $10 billion. He’s also the founding chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, the UK’s answer to DARPA. In this episode of World of DaaS, Matt and Auren discuss: Investing in talent Traits of…

Daniel Pink is the author of seven bestselling books on business, work, and human behavior, including Drive and To Sell Is Human. His TED Talk on the science of motivation has been viewed more than 20 million times. His most recent book is The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. In this episode of World of DaaS, Daniel and Auren…

Michael Walrath is the chairman and CEO of Yext, a publicly traded digital presence platform. Prior to Yext, Michael cofounded Right Media, the first at-scale digital ad exchange, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2007. In this episode, Michael and Auren discuss: Software vendor consolidation Changing attitudes around growth vs profitability New dynam…

Bjorn Lomborg is the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and has authored several bestselling books including "The Skeptical Environmentalist", "False Alarm" and recently “Best Things First.” In this episode of World of DaaS, Bjorn and Auren discuss: The most efficient policies to save lives Evaluating charitable ROI The real costs of clim…

Alex Wirth is the cofounder and CEO of Quorum, a public affairs software platform. In this episode of World of DaaS, Alex and Auren discuss: How AI is affecting lawmaking The evolution of modern lobbying Predicting policy outcomes statistically Building govtech companies Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com…

Bryan is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He’s also the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Case Against Education, The Myth of the Rational Voter, and recently Build Baby Build. In this episode of World of DaaS, Bryan and Auren discuss: Education signaling and ROI The myth of involved parenting Immigration & …

Oleg Rogynskyy is the founder and CEO of People.ai, an ai-powered revenue intelligence platform. He’s also an advisor to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. In this episode of World of DaaS, Oleg and Auren discuss: How AI will transform the sales process Sales automation and APIs Maximizing data value and differentiation Geopolitical…

Alex Tabarrok is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the co-author of Marginal Revolution, one of the most popular and long-running blogs on the internet. In this episode of World of DaaS, Alex and Auren discuss: The decline of American dynamism Challenges to innovation Crime and bail reform Preparing for the next pandemic Looki…

Or Lenchner is the CEO of Bright Data, a leading web data collection company. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Or discuss: Web data freedom and ethics Bright Data's legal battle with Meta Data pricing strategies The Israeli tech scene Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newslett…

Adam is the co-founder & CEO of Daffy, a fintech platform for charitable giving. Prior to Daffy, Adam was CEO of Wealthfront, VP of Product & Growth at Dropbox and VP of Product Management at LinkedIn. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Adam discuss: Trends that will dominate fintech in 2030 Financial giants & disruptors Tax strategies and…

Jason Bordoff is an expert on geopolitics, energy security and the clean energy transition. He is the Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and he also held senior roles in the Obama administration, including on the National Economic Council, and the National Sec…

Chris is the co-founder and CEO of Substack. Prior to Substack, he co founded the messaging service Kik. In this episode of World of DaaS, Chris and Auren discuss: Attention, quality, and gatekeepers in media The state of freedom of speech Building an audience AI as a creative tool Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to Worl…

Robert Cialdini is a world renowned psychologist and author. His seminal work, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion," published in 1984, is a classic in the field. He taught marketing, business and psychology at Stanford and he is the Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. In this episode of World o…

Ben Miller is the co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, an online investment platform that gives retail investors access to private assets like real estate and venture capital. Fundrise has invested over $7B in real estate and has 385,000+ investors on its platform. In this episode, Auren and Ben discuss: Real estate data adoption Public/private market c…

Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify ($SHOP), a leading ecommerce platform valued at over $80 billion. Shopify powers over 2 million ecommerce stores in 175 countries. On this episode, Harley and Auren discuss: Entrepreneurial renaissance & record business creation Nonobvious brand success stories Shopify's ecosystem and partnerships play…

Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Permanent Equity, a unique private equity firm that buys cash-generating small and mid-sized businesses— with the intention to hold them indefinitely. Permanent Equity owns over a dozen businesses in diverse sectors including aerospace, building and construction, and martech. On this episode of World of DaaS,…

Mark Gerson co-founded Gerson Lehrman Group, the world’s largest expert network. He’s also the co-founder and Chairman of United Hatzalah and the African Mission Healthcare Foundation. In this episode of World of DaaS, Auren and Mark discuss: Measuring charity impact and ROI Real philanthropy vs “fake charities” Building GLG and expert networks Mar…

Michael Batnick is a managing partner and Director of Research at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He’s also the host of the excellent investing and finance podcast network The Compound. In this episode, Auren and Michael discuss: Mega caps, crypto and retail investors Impact of index funds on the stock market Fintech vs legacy financial institutions In…

Anand Sanwal is the founder of CB Insights, a business analytics platform and global database of intel on technology companies. Anand was CEO of CB Insights for 14 years and recently stepped into the role of executive chairman. In this episode, Auren and Anand discuss: Tech and venture capital narratives vs data AI integration and workflows Future …