Lightcone Podcast

Mar 21 2025 25 ep. 38 mins 75
Lightcone Podcast artwork

Techno optimism for technical founders

  Technology
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How To Navigate Co-Founder Disputes

Mar 21 2025 42 mins  
Technical skills build startups—but oftentimes, people skills can save them. So how do you navigate the disagreements and conflict that inevitably arise with a co-founder? In this episode of the Lightcone, our hosts share what they've learned for managing these critical, yet often overlooked challenges, offering advice on how to handle the messy realities that go beyond build

Vibe Coding Is The Future

Mar 05 2025 31 mins  
Andrej Karpathy recently coined the term “vibe coding” to describe how LLMs are getting so good that devs can simply “give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.” In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts discuss this new method of programming and what it means for builders in the AI age.Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/

How AI Is Changing Enterprise

Feb 19 2025 49 mins  
The Lightcone hosts sit down with Aaron Levie, the co-founder & CEO of Box, to hear reports from the front of how large enterprise and Fortune 500 companies are adapting to the AI age.

How To Get AI Startup Ideas

Feb 07 2025 43 mins  
Apply to AI Startup School in SF: https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-susThere’s never been a better time to launch an AI startup, but many prospective founders find themselves stuck when it comes to thinking of a good idea. In this episode, the Lightcone hosts look at different ways breakthroughs can be discovered.Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply

AI Revolution: Why This Is The Best Time To Start A Startup

Jan 24 2025 39 mins  
In this special episode of Lightcone, we’re joined by YC partner and creator of Gmail, Paul Buchheit, to dig into some of the latest trends in the world of AI and startups. We recorded our conversation at a recent retreat where 300 of the top AI founders in the world gathered to share expertise and make predictions about how this technology will shape our future. In the discu

The Lightcone 2025 Forecast

Jan 01 2025 7 mins  
Happy New Year! In this mini-episode, the Lightcone hosts ring in 2025 with their predictions for startups, AI, crypto, and more.

2024’s Biggest Startup Trends

Dec 13 2024 38 mins  
2024 has been quite a year for AI and startups. As we head into the holidays and the new year, the Lightcone hosts reflect on this year’s biggest startup trends, moments, and breakthroughs.

Vertical AI Agents Could Be 10X Bigger Than SaaS

Nov 22 2024 42 mins  
As AI models continue to rapidly improve and compete with one another, a new business model is coming into view: vertical AI agents. In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts consider what effect vertical AI agents will have on incumbent SaaS companies, what use cases make the most sense, and how there could be 300 billion-dollar companies in this category alone.

Why The Next AI Breakthroughs Will Be In Reasoning, Not Scaling

Nov 14 2024 35 mins  
There's an ongoing debate about whether AI scaling laws will hold or hit a wall in the near future. However, what's clear now is today's models already have the power to increase productivity in ways that would have been unimaginable even a few years ago. In this episode of the Lightcone, we dig into the results of a recent o1 hackathon hosted by YC to find out what can be unlock

The 10 Trillion Parameter AI Model With 300 IQ

Nov 01 2024 33 mins  
Earlier this month, OpenAI raised the largest venture round ever at $6.6 billion. The company’s CFO says AI is now at the point where orders of magnitude matter and the next generation of models will be capital intensive. In this episode of the Lightcone, the hosts consider what a world with ultra-intelligent models would look like, and what potential unlocks could be made possi