Newcomer Pod

Read the full Emergent list of 29 promising startups here: https://www.newcomer.co/p/emergent-2026AI could create a world with billions of agents, millions of robots, and entirely new industries we have barely begun to imagine.Felicis founder and former Google product manager Aydin Senkut joins Eric Newcomer to break down the technologies he believes will define the next decade, from artificial intelligence and robotics to biotech and the infrastructure powering the AI boom.Aydin explains why he believes robotics is finally reaching an inflection point, how AI could transform healthcare and drug discovery, and why the biggest opportunities may come from solving problems that previously looked impossible. He also shares lessons from joining Google when it had roughly 30 employees, building Felicis from a $41 million first fund into a firm managing billions, and backing companies including Shopify, Canva, Adyen and Supabase.They also discuss the AI bubble debate, why Aydin believes the underlying demand matters more than market hype, the companies building the infrastructure behind AI agents, and why Google may be better positioned for the AI era than many people realize.

Mercury CEO Immad Akhund on the AI startup funding frenzy, agents that spend money, and the future of banking.Immad joins Eric Newcomer to discuss building Mercury to $1 billion in annualized revenue, competing with JPMorgan Chase, and developing financial tools for AI agents. What happens when an agent can move money, make purchases, or help run a business? They explore the controls and human oversight those tools need, plus the possibility of companies with no employees.As a founder and active angel investor, Immad also explains why he sees signs of a startup funding bubble. With 10 or 20 funded companies competing in categories that once attracted just one or two, he argues that plenty of AI startups and their investors will lose, even as the technology creates major winners.The conversation also covers Y Combinator valuations, building AI tools in-house instead of buying software, and why Mercury is hiring more as its engineers adopt AI.Subscribe to Newcomer for conversations with the founders and investors shaping Silicon Valley.Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

OpenAI’s revenue confusion, Apple’s AI missteps, and Nvidia’s investments raise a bigger question: how much depends on the AI boom continuing?Big Technology founder Alex Kantrowitz joins Eric Newcomer to examine OpenAI and Anthropic’s businesses, the market’s sensitivity to their growth, and the competition reshaping Big Tech.They discuss Apple’s siloed culture and struggles with Apple Intelligence, Meta’s push into personal AI assistants, and Amazon’s resistance to outside shopping agents. The conversation also covers Google’s position in the AI race, Microsoft’s missed opportunities, and questions around Nvidia investing in companies that buy its chips.Alex and Eric debate AI safety, access to powerful models, and the trade-offs of giving assistants more personal information. They also explore how Google’s AI Overviews are affecting publishers, Silicon Valley’s hostility toward the press, and what it takes to build an independent media business.

Reid Hoffman on ChatGPT, the future of jobs, and why he believes the AI boom is keeping America out of a recession.The LinkedIn co-founder joins Eric Newcomer to explain why America needs to keep building AI while being careful about how powerful new systems are released. He shares why nobody can confidently predict AI’s impact on employment, how AI-native startups could disrupt established businesses, and what it would take to help workers navigate that transition.Hoffman also recounts knowing three people whose lives he says were saved by ChatGPT as a medical second opinion. He argues for making AI medical assistants, legal advice, and tutoring more widely accessible, with privacy protections and clear rules.The conversation covers the backlash against AI, data center investment, the limits of universal basic income, and how AI-driven prosperity could benefit local communities. They also discuss government debt, political corruption, AI safety, longevity, and the potential for AI to advance cancer research.Subscribe to Newcomer for conversations with the founders, investors, and technology leaders shaping Silicon Valley.

Why did Josh Elman leave Apple, and where can AI startups still win against OpenAI? The former Siri and Apple Intelligence team member explains why he’s betting on a new wave of consumer companies.Josh joins Eric Newcomer to discuss his move to Andreessen Horowitz, what held Siri back, and how Apple can rebuild users’ trust. He shares why OpenClaw changed his thinking about startups and why founders don’t need to build their own AI models to create valuable products.They also explore personal AI agents, the future of shopping and travel, lessons from Musical.ly and TikTok, AI-generated entertainment, and the opportunities for new AI devices.In this episode, we discuss working on Siri and Apple Intelligence, why OpenAI and Anthropic won’t be the only AI winners, how OpenClaw helped inspire Josh’s return to venture capital, what personal AI agents could change about everyday life, TikTok, microdramas, and the next consumer platforms, and how to build products people trust and keep using.Subscribe to Newcomer for conversations with the founders, investors, and technology leaders shaping Silicon Valley.

Renee Jones on how billion-dollar startups escaped public scrutiny, why founders became more powerful than their boards, and what happens when private markets operate in secrecy.Renee Jones, Boston College Law School professor, former SEC official, and author of Untamed Unicorns, joins Eric Newcomer to examine how the startup financing system shifted from investor oversight to founder control. Renee explains how changes to securities laws allowed companies to raise enormous sums while remaining private, avoid meaningful disclosure, and delay going public indefinitely.They discuss what FTX, Theranos, WeWork, and Uber reveal about startup governance; why unicorn valuations can be misleading; how employees are asked to accept stock without the information needed to value it; whether venture capital’s AI obsession is distorting innovation; and why Renee believes stronger disclosure and financial controls are essential. They also debate the SEC’s approach to crypto, the political power of the industry, and whether meaningful private-market reform is still possible.Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, investors, executives, and policymakers shaping the tech industry.

What does NVIDIA really get from Hugging Face—and what is Silicon Valley missing about China?Zavain Dar, co-founder of Dimension and an early Hugging Face investor during his time at Lux Capital, joins Eric Newcomer to unpack NVIDIA’s open source strategy, the competition with OpenAI and Anthropic, and why his trips to China changed how he thinks about the future of technology.They discuss China’s AI and biotech boom, the limits of US chip restrictions, and why American startups are building on Chinese models. Plus: Dimension’s Coefficient Bio exit to Anthropic, whether AI can make most human diseases treatable in our lifetime, and why human trials remain a bottleneck.Subscribe to Newcomer for more reporting on the people, companies, and deals shaping Silicon Valley: https://www.newcomer.co

Sam Parr on getting fired by Airbnb the day before he started, selling The Hustle, and why $10 million in revenue changes everything.Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle and Hampton and co-host of My First Million, joins Eric Newcomer to talk about how he went from an Airbnb firing to an eight-figure media exit. Sam breaks down what 5,000 Hampton founder interviews reveal about the messy middle between $1M and $10M in revenue, what shifts on the other side of that number, why he studies successful businesses before building anything new, how AI is reshaping agency margins, why he thinks OpenAI buying TBPN was a mistake, and how founders can build an audience by going obsessively niche.Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, investors, and executives shaping the tech industry.

How can billions of video game clips train AI to control robots? General Intuition CEO Pim de Witte explains why gaming data may be the missing ingredient for the next generation of robotics and AI agents.Pim de Witte built the world's largest RuneScape private server as a teenager before founding Medal, one of the biggest gaming clip platforms in the world. Today, Medal processes roughly one billion gameplay clips every year, creating a unique dataset that powers General Intuition's AI models for robotics, world models, and autonomous agents.In this conversation with Eric Newcomer, Pim explains why video games may be one of the most valuable training grounds for artificial intelligence, how gaming data transfers to real world robotics, why humanoid robots may not be the future, and what AI means for gamers, developers, and the future of work.

John Coogan, co-founder of TBPN, joins Eric Newcomer to talk about the acquisition that shocked the tech media world. John breaks down how TBPN went from two guys in suits to one of the most-watched live tech shows on the internet, why OpenAI came calling, what an editorial independence clause actually means in practice, and why he and Jordy chose to sell when they didn't have to. He also gets into the mechanics of building a media brand that works, why they monetized everything from day one, and what Sam Altman actually needs to do better on comms.