20VC with Harry Stebbings

Joelle Pineau, Chief Scientist at Cohere and Professor at McGill University, joins Harry Stebbings on 20VC to explore the evolving frontiers of AI research and deployment. In this conversation, Joelle reflects on her journey from Meta to Cohere, what she learned leading Meta AI’s Montreal Lab, and how those lessons shape her philosophy on scaling laws and practical AI systems today. They dive deep into topics including reinforcement learning breakthroughs, data efficiency, capital allocation in AI, enterprise adoption, and the rising cost of high-quality data. Joelle also discusses the promise and pitfalls of synthetic data, model degradation, and why she believes scaling laws will continue to define AI progress. The discussion touches on security concerns with AI agents, how enterprises can adopt AI responsibly, and what the next generation of researchers should focus on. Recorded for The Twenty Minute VC, this episode offers a rare window into how one of AI’s leading minds sees the balance between science, engineering, and responsibility in building the future of intelligent systems.

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has raised $10 billion in new funds, marking one of the largest fundraising rounds in venture capital history. In this episode of 20VC, host Harry Stebbings is joined by Jason Lemkin, Founder of SaaStr, and Rory O’Driscoll, General Partner at Scale Venture Partners, to discuss what this means for the venture ecosystem and where capital allocation is headed next. The conversation dives into the details of a16z’s latest raise, the strategic implications for early- and late-stage founders, and how the venture landscape is evolving amid shifts in AI, infrastructure, and global capital flows. They also explore Mercor’s $350M raise at a $10B valuation—how the company scaled so rapidly, what differentiates it in the AI talent marketplace, and what this signals for startups blending automation, freelancing, and AI-driven labor models. Later in the episode, the guests analyze patterns behind 'spray and pray' investing, the role of option checks in venture capital, and why IRR might be an overrated metric in evaluating fund performance. This conversation captures the pulse of modern venture capital—from mega-funds to micro-checks—and how top investors think about risk, scale, and the next decade of innovation.

David Cahn is a Partner at Sequoia Capital and one of the world’s leading AI investors. At Sequoia David has led investments in Clay, Juicebox, Sesame, Kela, Stark, etc.. Before Sequoia, David was a General Partner at Coatue where he led investments in Notion and Hugging Face.

20VC’s Harry Stebbings hosts Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) & Rory O’Driscoll (Scale VP) on Vertical SaaS, AI investing, Revolut $75B, OpenAI cloud play & TAM myth.

Alex Bouaziz discusses Deel's remarkable growth journey, including their recent $300M fundraise at a $17BN valuation, achieving $1BN+ in ARR, and their first $100M revenue month. The conversation covers their acquisition strategy, leadership culture, fundraising during Covid, and insights on scaling a global payroll company while remaining profitable for over 3 years.

A discussion covering major tech industry moves including Goldman Sachs's $665M acquisition of Industry Ventures, Thinking Machines co-founder's $2BN raise before joining Meta, SoftBank's $5BN leverage against ARM stock for OpenAI investment, and insights into venture capital portfolio management and future alpha generation in 2025.

Mike Cannon-Brookes is the Co-Founder and CEO of Atlassian, the $50BN software giant behind products like Jira, Confluence, and Trello. Since founding the company in 2002, he has scaled it to over 300,000 customers globally, generating more than $5BN in annual revenue. Atlassian now employs over 10,000 people across 13 countries and is one of the most successful bootstrapped-to-IPO stories in tech history. Mike is also a leading climate investor and co-owner of several major sports teams.

A discussion covering major tech industry developments including OpenAI's partnership with AMD, Microsoft's OpenAI partnership challenges, OpenAI's Developer Day announcements, venture capital valuations, IPO prospects for 2025, Vercel's $300M raise, and insights into kingmaking in venture capital. The episode also covers the return of SPACs and Polymarket's significant funding round.