28 Jul 2026etn Raise $1.6M Seed Round and Go 5 Days A Week
Mathias Döpfner on Media, AI & Journalism
The Axel Springer CEO joins the show, with the hosts teeing up topics including how media is changing, the £575M Telegraph acquisition, European technology, and the intersection of AI and journalism. The interview opens with the hosts asking how he sees the wave of lean new-media entrants and the relationship between traditional and new media.
Sequoia's George Robson on European Deep Tech & Sovereignty
Sequoia partner George Robson recounts going from building a consumer subscription business at Revolut and founding a healthcare startup to joining Sequoia's London office via Roelof Botha. On sovereignty he argues Europe should pursue being 'indispensable' rather than isolation, pointing to strengths in photonics (Eindhoven, Grenoble, Zurich), chip design around Cambridge, Motorsport Valley engineering near Milton Keynes, robotics, and defense companies like Helsing and Stark. He also discusses Jensen Huang's open-source letter, the coexistence of open and closed models, the risks of distillation, and says Sequoia is excited about photonics and sovereign GPU orchestration in the EU.
UK AI Minister's Re-Industrialisation Plan & Robo-Taxi Pushback
The hosts read a weekend FT interview with the UK's AI minister in Burnham's government, who says chip building and AI-powered drones will drive Britain's re-industrialisation. They criticise a Burnham-team comment questioning robo-taxis ('has anyone thought about cab and Uber drivers') as the same thinking that once resisted Uber, and cite a Sky News take arguing chip factories create few jobs and that data centers were similarly oversold on job creation. They note the commentator behind that take will be on Wednesday's show.
8 Nov 2025Armis raises $435M, Attio updates, Sequoia shifts, Google Maps joins, Palantir dips Big Short 2 more
George Robson (Sequoia): Leadership Change, $950M Funds & Kickstart
After some technical difficulties, Sequoia partner George Robson explains Roelof Botha stepping down after 23 years and the handover to Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, plus what he learned from Botha's culture of excellence and polymath investing. He recounts joining Sequoia at 25 during COVID after co-founding the Kickstart accelerator at LSE and meeting Revolut through it, and walks through the $950 million seed and venture funds, his Europe/US focus, and how AI has changed company building versus five years ago. He closes with advice for young people — don't go into VC, seek agency, become a student of industry — and the hosts read Sean Maguire's tweet praising Botha's embrace of risk.