Best Rocket Software Podcasts (2025)

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How AI Created the Fastest Product Cycle in History 50:54

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11h ago50:54

50:54

Recently, a16z General Partner Anish Acharya joined Ollie Forsyth on NEW ECONOMIES. They talked about why consumer tech is surging again, how AI is enabling 100M-user products at unprecedented speed, and what founders need to understand heading into 2026 — from distribution shifts to founder mindset to the mechanics behind the fastest product cycle…

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Turning Trash into Tech: The Garbage Company Using AI to Save Millions with Ryan Collins 1:26:53

16h ago1:26:53

1:26:53

Ryan Collins calls himself a garbage man, but he's also the Managing Director at Tahoe Truckee Sierra Disposal (TTSD), a third-generation waste collection and recycling company in Northern California. After a stint in Silicon Valley, he came back to join the family business and walked into a world still powered by slide rulers, highlighters, and pa…

1
The First Customer - Turning Chaos Into Testing Clarity with Co-Founder Joel Montvelisky 31:08

1d ago31:08

31:08

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Joel Montvelisky, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of PractiTest. Joel shares his unlikely journey from Costa Rica to the world of software testing. He talks about becoming a Cowboys fan in the 1970s, stumbling into QA because it paid slightly better than bartending, and eventually discovering th…

1
Appraising the Future: How Tech Is Reshaping the Profession 28:17

24h ago28:17

28:17

Meet the appraiser who went from old-school clipboard to full-blown tech evangelist. In this episode, Hal and Jim sit down with Kurt Rehak, Chief Appraiser and CEO of ZAP Appraisals, to talk about the rapidly shifting profession, and the new tools reshaping it. Kurt shares how the idea for the ZAP App was born, how UAD 3.6 updates influenced its de…

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Why AI Moats Still Matter (And How They've Changed) 51:31

1d ago51:31

51:31

a16z General Partners David Haber, Alex Rampell, and Erik Torenberg discuss why 19 out of 20 AI startups building the same thing will die - and why the survivor might charge $20,000 for what used to cost $20. They expose the "janitorial services paradox" (why the most boring software is most defensible), explain why OpenAI won't compete with your o…

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How To Lead | Ben Horowitz on My First Million 1:10:40

2d ago1:10:40

1:10:40

A16Z co-founder Ben Horowitz joins Shaan Puri and Sam Parr on My First Million to talk about how to be a great leader. Resources: Follow Ben on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Follow Shaan on X: https://x.com/ShaanVP Follow Sam on X: https://x.com/thesamparr Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your frien…

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The $700 Billion AI Productivity Problem No One's Talking About 58:17

3d ago58:17

58:17

Russ Fradin sold his first company for $300M. He’s back in the arena with Larridin, helping companies measure just how successful their AI actually is. In this episode, Russ sits down with a16z General Partner Alex Rampell to reveal why the measurement infrastructure that unlocked internet advertising's trillion-dollar boom is exactly what's missin…

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How OpenAI Builds for 800 Million Weekly Users: Model Specialization and Fine-Tuning 53:24

6d ago53:24

53:24

In this episode, a16z GP Martin Casado sits down with Sherwin Wu, Head of Engineering for the OpenAI Platform, to break down how OpenAI organizes its platform across models, pricing, and infrastructure, and how it is shifting from a single general-purpose model to a portfolio of specialized systems, custom fine-tuning options, and node-based agent …

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Ben Horowitz: Why Open Source AI Will Determine America's Future 46:50

7d ago46:50

46:50

Ben Horowitz reveals why the US already lost the AI culture war to China—and it wasn't the technology that failed. While Biden's team played Manhattan Project with closed models, Chinese developers quietly captured the open-source heartbeat of global AI through DeepSeek, now running inside every major US company and university lab. The kicker: Goog…

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Appraisers Aren’t Going Anywhere 30:26

8d ago30:26

30:26

In a world obsessed with automation, AI, and “instant valuations,” Simon Blackburn has a refreshingly bold message: appraisers aren’t going anywhere. In this episode, Hal sits down with the CEO of MtgeFi to dig into why appraisers still sit at the center of the real estate finance ecosystem. Simon breaks down the staggering numbers behind daily mor…

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The Secret Marketing Strategy That Built a16z: From Zero to Legendary VC Firm 59:55

8d ago59:55

59:55

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz sit down with Margit Wennmachers—the woman who turned two unknown entrepreneurs with $300 million and zero investing track record into the most talked-about firm in venture capital. She unpacks how they weaponized transparency in an industry built on secrecy, why Fortune's cover story triggered a cartel meltdown, an…

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How Marc Andreessen Actually Uses AI 34:02

9d ago34:02

34:02

Half a billion people can access the world’s best AI on their phone. So why are most using it to write emails while only some are using it to build empires? In this conversation with Mark Halperin from Next Up, Marc Andreessen reveals why small bakeries are beating Fortune 500 companies at AI adoption, how to turn ChatGPT into your personal board o…

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The 2045 Superintelligence Timeline: Epoch AI’s Data-Driven Forecast 1:00:10

10d ago1:00:10

1:00:10

Epoch AI researchers reveal why Anthropic might beat everyone to the first gigawatt datacenter, why AI could solve the Riemann hypothesis in 5 years, and what 30% GDP growth actually looks like. They explain why "energy bottlenecks" are just companies complaining about paying 2x for power instead of getting it cheap, why 10% of current jobs will va…

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Robinhood CEO: Making Everyone An Owner 1:05:02

13d ago1:05:02

1:05:02

Vlad Tenev built Robinhood by breaking every rule Wall Street wrote: zero commissions when competitors charged $10, mobile-first when "serious" investors demanded desktop, a brand that made finance feel like rebellion instead of a club you'd never join. By 2021 they'd forced every major brokerage to slash fees and attracted millions who'd never own…

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Building Global Culture for Purpose and Profit: Lessons from Scaling Twitter with Maya Hari 1:21:16

14d ago1:21:16

1:21:16

In this episode, Ashok is joined by Maya Hari, global executive, board member, and now co-founder of Genie Health. Maya has led teams across Twitter, Google, Samsung, and other global companies, and now sits on the boards of public enterprises like Saint-Gobain. What makes her perspective rare isn't just her resume. It's her clarity around what cul…

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Can Community Banks Survive the Next SVB? | ModernFi CEO Paolo Bertolotti and Former Comptroller Gene Ludwig 43:42

14d ago43:42

43:42

The former bank regulator who invented deposit networks just revealed why SVB's collapse was inevitable—and why the solution that could have saved them is finally being rebuilt. Gene Ludwig ran the OCC during the Clinton administration, created a half-trillion-dollar market solving a problem his Aunt Betty faced riding buses between banks, then wat…

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The First Customer: How the Red Pill Sparked AI, Cloud, and Co-location with CEO Andy Kochanowski 33:11

15d ago33:11

33:11

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Andy Kochanowski, founder and CEO of Alerify, a data center based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Andy shares his journey from a 30-year career in corporate America, including service in the Navy, to taking the leap into entrepreneurship. He explains how Alerify serves a niche market of small and medium…

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Inside Rocket Mortgage’s UAD 3.6 Game Plan 25:53

15d ago25:53

25:53

UAD 3.6 is no longer some far-off deadline. It’s happening. The limited-production phase has begun, and Rocket Mortgage is gearing up to start sending actual UAD 3.6 appraisal orders out the door. In this episode, Hal sits down with Rachel Robinson of Rocket Mortgage to talk through what appraisers really need to know now. Rachel breaks down the bi…

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Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen: Why Silicon Valley Turned Against Defense (And How We’re Fixing It) 1:16:13

15d ago1:16:13

1:16:13

Palmer Luckey got fired from Meta for backing the wrong candidate—now he's the hero saving American defense, and that shift tells you everything about how fast the ground moved beneath Silicon Valley's feet. For decades, tech and defense were allies, then came 15 years of hostility so visceral that Google employees revolted over a Pentagon AI contr…

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Emmett Shear on Building AI That Actually Cares: Beyond Control and Steering 1:10:36

17d ago1:10:36

1:10:36

Emmett Shear, founder of Twitch and former OpenAI interim CEO, challenges the fundamental assumptions driving AGI development. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg and Séb Krier, Shear argues that the entire "control and steering" paradigm for AI alignment is fatally flawed. Instead, he proposes "organic alignment" - teaching AI systems to genu…

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Can America Win The AI Biotech Race Against China? | Lada Nuzhna & Elliot Hershberg 1:02:23

20d ago1:02:23

1:02:23

Two venture capitalists dissect why biotech burns billions while China runs trials in weeks—and why the next Genentech won't look anything like the last one. Elliot Hershberg reveals the "three horsemen" strangling drug development as costs explode to $2.5 billion per approval, while Lada Nuzhna exposes how investigator-initiated trials in Shanghai…

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Top 5 Mistakes Leaders Make in AI & Data Strategy, And How to Fix Them with David Cohen 58:43

21d ago58:43

58:43

Leaders are under pressure to "do something with AI," but many end up making the same preventable mistakes that derail their data strategy before it starts. In this episode, Ashok sits down with David Cohen, founder of Superposition Strategy, to run a live workshop identifying the top five strategic missteps leaders make—and more importantly, how t…

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The Frontier of Spatial Intelligence with Fei-Fei Li 44:11

21d ago44:11

44:11

Fei-Fei Li and Justin Johnson are pioneers in AI. While the world has only recently witnessed a surge in consumer AI, they have long been laying the groundwork for the innovations transforming industries today. With the recent launch of Marble, the first product from their company World Labs, we are revisiting this conversation to explore the ideas…

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The 24-Hour Appraisal: Hype, Hope, or the Future? 23:14

22d ago23:14

23:14

The future of appraisal just got a whole lot faster. In this episode, Hal sits down with Reggora CEO Brian Zitin to unpack one of the biggest tech stories in valuation: the push toward a true 24-hour appraisal workflow. They dig into how it works, what it means for appraisers in the field, why some folks are skeptical, and how this shift could resh…

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Rocket Companies CEO: Here’s How to Fix the Housing Crisis 55:55

22d ago55:55

55:55

The Empire State Building took 110 days to build—today, changing a window would take two years. Alex Rampell (a16z) and Varun Krishna (Rocket CEO) expose how asset inflation turned housing from the American Dream into a wealth transfer machine where the median homebuyer age jumped from 30 to 38 in just fourteen years. While Silicon Valley burns bil…

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Grant Lee: Building Gamma’s AI Presentation Company to 100 Million Users 53:17

23d ago53:17

53:17

Grant Lee was told Gamma was "the worst idea ever heard" by an investor who hung up mid-Zoom—yet he built it to 100 million users and $100M ARR without spending a dollar on advertising. While competitors hired aggressively, Grant's team of seven refused to grow, dedicating 25% of their tiny team to design and personally onboarding every influencer …

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Michael Truell: How Cursor Builds at the Speed of AI 27:30

24d ago27:30

27:30

When four MIT grads decided to build a code editor while everyone else was building AI agents, they created the fastest-growing developer tool ever built. Cursor CEO Michael Truell joins a16z’s Martin Casado to discuss the deliberate constraints that led to breakthroughs: why they rejected the "democratization" narrative to focus on power users, ho…

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a16z's State of Crypto: The $4 Trillion Milestone and What's Next' 1:38:31

25d ago1:38:31

1:38:31

The regulatory environment has completely inverted. Stablecoins are now a top 20 holder of US treasuries. Every major bank wants in. In a16z Crypto's 2025 State of Crypto report, Daren Matsuoka (Head of Data) and Eddy Lazzarin (CTO) reveal how crypto hit $4 trillion market cap while fundamentally reshaping how institutions think about payments, wit…

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Amjad Masad & Adam D’Angelo: How Far Are We From AGI? 1:02:44

27d ago1:02:44

1:02:44

Adam D’Angelo (Quora/Poe) thinks we're 5 years from automating remote work. Amjad Masad (Replit) thinks we're brute-forcing intelligence without understanding it. In this conversation, two technical founders who are building the AI future disagree on almost everything: whether LLMs are hitting limits, if we're anywhere close to AGI, and what happen…

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Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan: How AI Will Cure All Disease 45:21

28d ago45:21

45:21

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg join a16z’s Ben Horowitz, Erik Torenberg, and Vineeta Agarwala to share how the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is building the computational tools that will accelerate the cure, prevention, and management of all disease by century's end. They explain why basic science needs $100 million-scale projects that traditional…

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Clipboard vs. Code: How Software Providers Are Tackling UAD 3.6 30:05

29d ago30:05

30:05

Today, hosts Hal Humphreys and Jim Morrison sit down with Matt Johnson of SFREP, one of the first software companies verified by the GSE's for UAD 3.6, to talk about what UAD 3.6 means from the software side of things: how software companies are preparing, what roadblocks they’ve hit, and why now might be the perfect time for appraisers to reevalua…

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Seeing The Future from AI Companions to Personal Software 50:20

29d ago50:20

50:20

Eugenia Kuyda, CEO of Wabi and AI pioneer behind Replika, joins Erik, Anish, and Justine to reveal how personal software will transform from a developer monopoly to a creative medium for all. She exposes why command-line AI interfaces are the new MS-DOS, explains how mini-apps will become as shareable as TikToks, and details her decade-long journey…

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ElevenLabs CEO: Why Voice is the Next AI Interface 31:14

30d ago31:14

31:14

ElevenLabs CEO and co‑founder Mati Staniszewski joins Jennifer Li to explain how the team ships research‑grade AI at lightning speed—from text‑to‑speech and fully licensed AI music to real‑time voice agents—and why voice is the next interface for human‑computer interaction. He shares the small, autonomous team model, global hiring approach, and how…

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David Sacks: AI, Crypto, China, Dems, and SF 1:16:57

1M ago1:16:57

1:16:57

David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Czar, joins Marc, Ben, and Erik to explore what's really happening inside the Trump administration's AI and crypto strategy. They expose the regulatory capture playbook being pushed by certain AI companies, explain why open source is America's secret weapon, and detail the infrastructure crisis that could dete…

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Why Speed, Not Size, Will Define the Next War 39:25

1M ago39:25

39:25

As global tensions rise, AI and autonomy are transforming how nations prepare for conflict. In this episode, Horacio Rozanski, CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton and Gary Shield, CEO of Shield AI join Erik Torenberg to discuss how technology, speed, and public–private partnerships are reshaping America’s defense strategy. They cover lessons from Ukraine an…

1
Beyond Chatbots: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on AI's Future 38:11

1M ago38:11

38:11

In this closing keynote from a16z’s Runtime conference, General Partner Erik Torenberg speaks with our firm’s cofounders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz on highlights from throughout the conference, the current state of LLM capabilities, and why despite huge capex, AI is not a bubble. Resources: Follow Marc on X: https://x.com/pmarca Follow Ben o…

1
"Is there an AI bubble?” Gavin Baker and David George 31:50

1M ago31:50

31:50

In this conversation from a16z’s Runtime conference, Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and CIO of Atreides Management, joins David George, General Partner at a16z, to unpack the macro view of AI: the trillion-dollar data center buildout, the new economics of GPUs, and what this boom means for investors, founders, and the global economy. Resources: Foll…

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De-risking AI-enabled Business Models with Lean Thinking 13:49

1M ago13:49

13:49

In this episode, Ashok shares a story from a long established services company with a big vision for transformation. The leadership team set their sights on launching a new AI enabled membership business. The original plan involved technology, acquisitions, and a long wait before revenue or even a customer touchpoint. Instead of waiting nine months…

1
Breaking News: Meet the First UAD 3.6 Software Provider Approved by the GSEs 8:22

1M ago8:22

8:22

Big news in UAD 3.6 land! Just a month after his last appearance on the show, we invited back Jake Lew, CEO of AIVRE, to give us an update so major we couldn’t wait to share. Jake digs into what it means to be the first software provider approved for UAD 3.6 by the GSEs, the pressure that comes with blazing the trail, and how appraisers should prep…

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Building the Real-World Infrastructure for AI, with Google, Cisco & a16z 32:44

1M ago32:44

32:44

AI isn’t just changing software, it’s causing the biggest buildout of physical infrastructure in modern history. In this episode, Raghu Raghuram (a16z) speaks with Amin Vahdat, VP and GM of AI and Infrastructure at Google, and Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, about the unprecedented scale of what’s being built — from chips…

1
Google DeepMind Developers: How Nano Banana Was Made 54:19

1M ago54:19

54:19

Google DeepMind’s new image model Nano Banana took the internet by storm. In this episode, we sit down with Principal Scientist Oliver Wang and Group Product Manager Nicole Brichtova to discuss how Nano Banana was created, why it’s so viral, and the future of image and video editing. Resources: Follow Oliver on X: https://x.com/oliver_wang2 Follow …

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Raghu Raghuram: AI, Robotics, and the Rebirth of Infrastructure 30:12

1M ago30:12

30:12

From Netscape to VMware, Raghu Raghuram has been at the center of nearly every major inflection point in enterprise technology. In this episode, Raghu joins Ben Horowitz, Martin Casado and David George to reflect on the early internet wars with Microsoft, how Netscape’s browser battles shaped a generation of founders, and the inside story of one of…

1
Marc Andreessen: How Movies Explain America 1:15:30

1M ago1:15:30

1:15:30

In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, Marc Andreessen, Katherine Boyle, and Erik Torenberg dive into the movies that best explain America, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Tropic Thunder to Fight Club. They explore how Tarantino’s revisionist masterpiece reimagines 1969 and the end of America’s cultural innocence, why Tropic Thunder was…

1
Marc Andreessen and Amjad Masad: English As the New Programming Language 1:11:38

1M ago1:11:38

1:11:38

Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, joins a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg to discuss the new world of AI agents, the future of programming, and how software itself is beginning to build software. They trace the history of computing to the rise of AI agents that can now plan, reason, and code for hours without breaking, and explore how…

1
Preparing Your Company for AI: Cultural Values and Principles You NEED Before You Make Big Changes 27:46

1M ago27:46

27:46

Learn the best culture secrets from top tech companies! Guest Farhan Thawar of Shopify shares powerful principles—from "Responsibility vs. Accountability" to "Subtraction"—that CEOs in any industry can use to build elite teams. You've heard the AI hype, but what about the culture that builds it or integrates it well? Successful tech companies run o…

1
The First Customer - The Art of Turning Pocket Change into Capital Gains with Founder Sean Heberling 25:04

1M ago25:04

25:04

In this episode, I was lucky enough to interview Sean Heberling, founder and CEO of Marion Street Capital. From buying up newspaper routes as a kid in Rochester, New York, to hiring friends and building a mini “paperboy empire,” Sean’s early ventures taught him how to scale, manage people, and spot opportunity. Those same instincts followed him thr…

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Appraisers, It’s Time to Speak Up 13:57

1M ago13:57

13:57

Big things are happening for appraisers — and Candy Cooke is right in the middle of it. Newly elected as Vice Chair of the Real Property Valuation Committee with NAR, Candy joins hosts Hal and Jim to talk about what this role means for the industry and why it’s time for appraisers to make their voices heard. She shares why representation matters, h…

1
Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code 1:25:15

1M ago1:25:15

1:25:15

In this episode, a16z's Anish Acharya joins Kevin Rose for an in-depth, fast-paced conversation on the rebirth of consumer technology, and how AI is reshaping what it means to build, invest, and create. They talk about why AI has reignited the consumer renaissance, what it means to build “weird and working” products, and how the next wave of apps w…

1
How Kong Was Born: APIs, Hustle, and the Future of AI Infrastructure 37:57

1M ago37:57

37:57

Augusto Marietti, CEO and cofounder of Kong, has one of the most remarkable founder stories in Silicon Valley history. In this conversation with Martin Casado, Aghi shares how he went from a garage in Milan to building one of the world’s leading API infrastructure companies, surviving years of rejection, living in the U.S. on $1,000 a month, and ra…

1
Reid Hoffman on AI, Consciousness, and the Future of Humanity 53:00

2M ago53:00

53:00

Reid Hoffman has been at the center of every major tech shift, from co-founding LinkedIn and helping build PayPal to investing early in OpenAI. In this conversation, he looks ahead to the next transformation: how artificial intelligence will reshape work, science, and what it means to be human. In this episode, Reid joins Erik Torenberg and Alex Ra…