StrictlyVC Download

This week we're sharing a conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, host Connie Loizos sits down with all five partners at Benchmark—Peter Fenton, Erik Vishria, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle, and Jack Altman—for a rare look inside one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture capital firms.

The partners discuss why Benchmark raised $2 billion across two new funds, how its unconventional equal-partnership structure shapes investment decisions, and what they look for when betting on founders. They also revisit the firm's early investment in AI chipmaker Cerebras, debate the risks of backing competing startups, and explain why they believe the AI market remains strong despite growing volatility.

Plus, the partners share their thoughts on whether AI companies should go public sooner and why San Francisco remains the center of gravity for ambitious tech founders.
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In this episode, Connie and Alex are joined by former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston, head of growth equity at Generation Investment Management, to discuss how the AI boom is reshaping the global energy transition. Gore explains why the rapid buildout of AI data centers is a cause for concern but not panic, why renewable energy and battery storage are becoming increasingly competitive, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for climate innovation.

They also discuss the growing strain on the electrical grid, the outlook for nuclear energy, how AI could help reduce emissions, and where entrepreneurs should be building next. Plus, Gore and Preston explain why opportunities in agriculture, industrial decarbonization, buildings, and energy infrastructure could produce some of the next generation of major companies.
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Is the AI boom a bubble, or just the biggest productivity unlock in a generation?For this episode, we're sharing a conversation from StrictlyVC New York 2026. TechCrunch's Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos sat down with Keith Rabois, Managing Director at Khosla Ventures, to talk tech optimism, AI panic, and where the smart money goes next.

They discussed:
- Why he dismisses an Anthropic researcher's alarmist take on AI's societal impact
- How AI is quietly creating high-paying jobs in trades and medicine, not just eliminating them
- What he looks for in founders: raw talent and the ability to think through hard problems
- Why he's betting Ramp beats Anthropic at its own game
- The hidden cost of NYC's commute culture on recruiting senior talent
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In this episode of StrictlyVc Download, Connie and Alex sit down with Grindr CEO George Arison to talk about how he’s transformed the company since taking over in 2022 and where he wants to take it next.

Arison discusses Grindr’s rapid growth, why roughly 80% of its code is now written by AI, and how the company is using AI to rethink matchmaking and build new premium products. He also opens up about the so-called “Grindr discount” on Wall Street, the investor bias he says the company still encounters, and Grindr’s ambitions to expand beyond dating into healthcare, travel, and local discovery.
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In this episode, Connie is joined by Vijay Pande, co-founder of VZ and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss why he believes AI is poised to transform healthcare and create a new generation of trillion-dollar companies. Pande explains how AI could improve drug discovery and clinical trials, why better data could move medicine beyond unreliable animal models, and how technology is giving patients more agency over their own health.

The two also discuss Pande’s decision to leave a16z and build a small, AI-native venture firm, why VZ plans to make only a handful of highly concentrated investments, and how AI is changing what early traction means for startups. Plus, Pande shares what he learned from more than a decade investing at the intersection of technology and biology, why go-to-market matters as much as groundbreaking science, and where he thinks the hype around AI curing disease gets ahead of reality.
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