Season 1

This episode features an interview with Mike Maples, Jr, the co-founder of Floodgate that took place in 2020. Mike's interview on Turpentine VC from September 2023 is one of our most popular episode to date, and this earlier interview offers …

In this episode Chris Dixon, GP at a16z Crypto, joins Erik Torenberg along with cohosts Dan Romero and Antonio Garcia Martinez to discuss his recent book Read Write Own: The Next Era of the Internet, how he thinks AI and …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Michael Dempsey, Managing Partner at Compound, joins Erik Torenberg to discuss thesis-driven vs founder-driven investing, Compound’s AI thesis, company building opportunities, ways to win at venture, advice for emerging managers, and much more.

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Somesh Dash, General Partner at IVP, joins Erik Torenberg to discuss how IVP differentiates itself, winning late stage deals, team construction, why venture capital in 2024 looks like private equity in 2008, the future …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Ali Hamed, Partner at CoVenture, joins Erik Torenberg to discuss the advantages of investing across asset classes, CoVenture’s inflection points, the importance of being liked in venture, why LPs are willing to accept lower …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures, joins Erik Torenberg to discuss the Theory Ventures model, the coming contraction in investable VC dollars, Tom’s contrarian view on blockchain, the parallels between PE and VC, …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Phin Barnes, co-founder of The General Partnership, joins Erik Torenberg to discuss Phin’s idea of building a YC for emerging fund managers, the sweat equity model, building the General Partnership, incubation at The General …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and Seven Seven Six, joins Erik Torenberg to discuss how Seven Seven Six is a “tech company that deploys venture capital”, the lack of internal metrics in venture, how …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg speaks to Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz leading the firm’s American Dynamism fund. They discuss why Katherine and a16z started the American Dynamism practice and what they hope to accomplish, …

In this episode of Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg sits with Rebecca Kaden, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures. They discuss USV's partnership-driven model, different venture strategies, whether automation in venture is imminent, and what USV looks for in investors.

Today we’re back with Sam Lessin for a round 2 focused on the changing landscape of venture. We dig into the viability of M&A as a strategy for startups, “its always been crypto”, media businesses, and the role of reputation …

Today we're joined by Elad Gil, an accomplished investor and founder, who shares his insights on the idea maze. He discusses the significance of market changes and shifts in technology in identifying viable business opportunities. In addition, Gil shares his …

Today we're joined by Howard Morgan to dive into his illustrious career in venture. He discusses the firms he helped start, Renaissance Technologies, Idealab, First Round Capital, and now at B Capital.

Today we're joined by Logan Bartlett of Redpoint to dive into shifts in venture's past, present and future - and break down the strategies and positioning of other prestigious VCs.

Today we're joined by Kareem of Thrive Capital for one of the most extensive conversations we've had on the show—we cover the core insight that drove Thrive to invest in late-stage companies like Stripe and Slack, how they approach thinking …

This week's episode of Turpentine VC features Benchmark GPs Sarah Tavel and Eric Vishria. We discuss ideas that are central to Benchmark's beliefs in firm-building, including why platform teams exist to help the general partners more so than founders themselves.

Erik is joined by Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia Capital for over 13 years, and investor in Airbnb, Doordash, Houzz, and more legendary Silicon Valley companies.

On episode eleven of Turpentine VC, Ann Miura-Ko—co-founding partner at Floodgate— sits down with Erik Torenberg to dive deep into the core fundamentals of VC partners talk about behind close doors, including how to identify inflection points to give you …

Trae Stephens, General Partner at Founders Fund, joins Erik Torenberg to chat through how the firm's focus on independent thinking and debate culture, and counterintuitive lack of true process, has been key in helping them build an enduring fund.

Sam Lessin, General Partner at Slow Ventures, and Seth Rosenberg, General Partner at Greylock, debate what the effects of AI on incumbents and the next wave of AI-first products will look like.

Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures joins Erik on episode 8 of Turpentine VC to talk about his contrarian and opinionated view of how seed funds should operate, and how that's allowed him to generate 10x fund returns.

This week, Erik is joined by Mike Maples, Jr, co-founder of Floodgate, a storied seed firm that's invested in Lyft, Okta, Twitch, and Twitter, to name a few unicorn portcos. In this episode, Mike and Erik dive into why it's …

In just under a decade, Susa has become one of the best seed firms in the industry: their $25M Fund I famously invested in Flexport and Robinhood. Now, ten years later, they’re taking all their learnings and relaunching the firm …

Hemant Taneja is the CEO of General Catalyst, and runs the firm like a true business: defining its mission and values, approaching the product from a problem-solving perspective, and more—all the things that apply to enduring businesses, Hemant applies to …