Why Kevin Hartz is betting big on teenage founders
In this episode, TechCrunch's editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, sits down with Kevin Hartz, the serial entrepreneur behind Zoom and Eventbrite who's now managing partner of A-Star Capital, a $300 million generalist fund. Recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Kevin shares his unique perspective as a founder, investor, and LP—discussing why staying in the market matters even when two-month-old companies are raising at $60 million valuations. The two explore the dramatic rise in teenage founders, with Kevin revealing that 20% of his recent investments now include teams with a teenage founder, up from just 5% two years ago. Kevin also discusses A-Star's approach to differentiated deal flow through company incubations, including Sauron, his autonomous drone security startup applying self-driving car technology to home security. They dive into the controversial question of whether venture capital is truly an asset class, the lessons learned from taking companies public through both traditional IPOs and SPACs, and why the abundance of private capital is keeping quality companies out of the public markets indefinitely.
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Equity: Startups should rethink how they pursue sales and traction, according to VC Tim Chen
This week we're sharing an interview from our friends over at Equity.
After a small startup exit and being turned down by every VC firm he applied to, Tim Chen began angel investing and eventually stumbled into raising his own fund.
Now, as the solo investor behind Essence VC, he just closed his fourth fund at $41 million "without even trying." Chen's secret weapon? Being technical enough to debate PhD founders on implementation details while understanding the market dynamics that turn scrappy startups into category leaders.
Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Julie Bort sat down with Tim Chen to explore the rise of solo VCs and who's rewriting the traditional venture playbook.
Listen to the full episode to hear about:
Why the YC playbook of "revenue at all costs" doesn't work for infrastructure startups, and what Chen tells technical founders to focus on instead
The strategic pivot Chen pushed one portfolio company to make that completely changed their trajectory
What being a "small exit founder" taught Chen about venture capital, and why he thinks the industry has it backwards
Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
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Astro Teller isn’t afraid of killing ideas; here’s why
TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, sits down with Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at Alphabet’s X, to explore what it takes to build a factory for truly radical innovation. Astro reveals the three components that define a true moonshot—a huge problem, a science fiction-sounding solution, and a glimmer of breakthrough technology—and why X deliberately kills 98% of its ideas early. Teller also explains why X keeps teams incredibly small, how it decides between spinning companies out independently versus keeping them as Alphabet “other bets” like Waymo and Wing, and his take on AI hype—why we should stop treating it like magic and start treating it like electricity.
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Why Harvey's Hardest Problem Isn't AI—It's Multi-Entity Collaboration
In this episode, TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, and StrictlyVC’s Alex Gove, sit down with Winston Weinberg, co-founder and CEO of Harvey, the legal AI startup that’s quietly become one of the most talked-about companies in Silicon Valley. Winston shares the origin story of how a first-year associate at O’Melveny used GPT-3 for Dungeons & Dragons before realizing it could transform legal work—leading to a cold email to Sam Altman on July 4, 2022, that changed everything. The three discuss Harvey’s rapid growth to more than $100 million in ARR, why 33% of the startup’s revenue now comes from corporates rather than just law firms, and the technical challenges of building a truly multiplayer platform that navigates complex ethical walls and permissioning across 63 countries. Winston also addresses the “ChatGPT wrapper” criticism — and he explains why he believes professional services will be less disrupted than people think.
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Vinod Khosla on softening the blow from AGI, and other future bets
In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch's editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, talks with Vinod Khosla about entrepreneurship in the age of AI and the massive disruptions ahead. They discuss why Khosla believes every profession represents a startup opportunity, his investment thesis of building AI workers rather than tools, and why he asks entrepreneurs to envision their company in 2030 before anything else. Khosla also shares his prediction that Fortune 500 extinction rates will triple by 2035, his controversial idea for sharing corporate wealth through a national pool, and why he thinks we'll have a hugely deflationary economy with free healthcare, education, and legal services. They also cover his early bet on OpenAI, the collision course between AI and climate (which he disputes), his investments in fusion and super-hot geothermal energy, and why the Trump administration's immigration policies represent "the worst damage possible" for American innovation.
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Each week, StrictlyVC Editor-in Chief Connie Loizos and Alex Gove, a former journalist, VC, and operating exec, review the top stories in StrictlyVC and interview a mover and shaker in the world of tech.
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