Roelof Botha on Sequoia, startup building, and Washington -- days before stepping down
In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch’s editor-in-chief, Connie Loizos, talks with Roelof Botha about Sequoia’s approach to finding and backing outlier companies — just days before he announced he was stepping down. They discuss why he thinks venture capital isn’t really an asset class, how Sequoia’s partners make investment decisions through fierce debates and consensus voting, and what the firm looks for in its Scout program. Botha also shares his perspective on the current AI boom—whether we’re in a bubble, how quickly winners are emerging in different verticals, and why founders should be careful about raising successive rounds at skyrocketing valuations.
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UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts on pushing his university into the AI age
This week on Strictly VC Download, Connie Loizos sits down with Lee Roberts, Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to discuss his ambitious plan to make AI the university’s “north star” amid a tumultuous year. Roberts walks through his decision to merge UNC’s School of Data Science and Society with its School of Information and Library Science, explaining why breaking down academic silos is essential when the technology moves faster than universities typically can. He addresses the $38 million in terminated federal research grants—concentrated in areas like public health—and why he’s less concerned about funding cuts than he was at the start of the year. Roberts also defends his $10 million annual commitment to Bill Belichick despite the team’s rocky start, explaining why football revenue is essential to supporting UNC’s 28 sports programs.
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
1:46 - AI as UNC's North Star: Research, Operations, and Instruction
5:10 - Incentivizing Faculty Without Top-Down Mandates
6:41 - The Google Gemini Partnership and Avoiding Exclusivity
8:21 - Merging Two Schools: Breaking Down Academic Silos for AI
9:49 - Addressing Student Concerns About the Library Science Merger
11:38 - The $38 Million in Federal Funding Cuts: Impact and Outlook
13:18 - Concentrated Cuts in Public Health and Underserved Populations
14:19 - Diversifying Beyond Federal Research Funding
16:31 - The Bill Belichick Investment: Why Football Drives Athletics Revenue
18:48 - Dysfunction Allegations and Staying the Course
20:31 - The 900-Person Petition and the Search Process
22:30 - Leading Without Traditional Academic Credentials
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How Hans Swildens pulled off a blockbuster Goldman Sachs sale, and what it means for venture liquidity
This week's episode of StrictlyVC Download features Hans Swildens, founder of Industry Ventures, discussing his firm's transaction with Goldman Sachs that comes during Industry Ventures' 25th anniversary year. Swildens walks through the 20-year evolution of the Goldman relationship—from LP investor to wealth platform partner to minority stakeholder in 2019—and explains why the firm decided now was the right time to fully join Goldman's external investing group. He discusses how secondaries have become "the new IPO" for venture-backed companies, shares insights from managing one of the world's largest portfolios of seed-stage venture funds with over 150 firms, and explains why the predicted wave of fund failures hasn't materialized in their portfolio. Swildens also explores the future of venture liquidity structures, from continuation funds to NAV loans, and why products that have been successful in private equity haven't yet crossed over to venture capital.
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The politics of AI: OpenAI’s Chris Lehane on AI’s promise and peril
This week’s episode of StrictlyVC Download was recorded live at the Elevate Festival in Toronto. TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos sat down with Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, to discuss the company’s newly launched video generation tool Sora, the complexities of copyright and fair use in AI training, and the massive infrastructure buildout required to keep pace with China. Lehane also explained OpenAI’s approach to iterative deployment, why the company believes it will need a gigawatt of energy per week in the near future, and what keeps waking him up at 3 AM.
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How Monarch Collective scored some of the biggest early deals in women's sports
This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos speaks with Kara Nortman, co-founder of Monarch Collective, the first fund dedicated exclusively to women’s sports. Nortman launched this $250 million fund in 2023—right before women’s sports exploded into the mainstream. But she didn’t just get lucky: she helped create the market by co-founding Angel City Football Club, which went from zero to $30 million in revenue and proved you could pack stadiums for women’s soccer. The two discuss Monarch’s unusual approach, wherein the team makes highly concentrated bets, then invests time that most PE firms would not. They also discuss into whether the numbers work, where the revenue actually comes from (merchandise, sponsorships, ticket sales, media deals), and whether this boom is sustainable.
00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - From tech VC to women's sports: Kara's journey
03:30 - The fundraising strategy and pitch for Monarch Collective
05:00 - Did they see the Caitlin Clark boom coming?
06:45 - Learning from history: the Dick Kerr Ladies story
08:30 - The operational playbook: why passive doesn't exist
11:37 - Can this model scale? Seven to nine concentrated bets
13:40 - Franchise fee explosion: from $2M to $110M
15:00 - The ownership structure debate in women's sports
17:20 - How do you value a women's sports team?
20:00 - Revenue streams: where does the money come from?
23:29 - Competition and first mover advantage
25:00 - Why big PE firms are downstream from Monarch
27:00 - The LP base: family offices and institutions
29:01 - What's next: Europe and beyond
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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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