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From the real-world impact of AI and the rise of operator-investors, to the growing influence of women and underestimated founders in the funding landscape. Sarah breaks down what’s happening beyond Silicon Valley, explore how capital and media now move together, and spotlight the billion-dollar ideas driving the next wave of innovation.

Executing On Your Purpose & Making Eggs Without Chickens

"If not now, then when? I had no job, nowhere to stay but I had to try. Even if I failed, I would have the peace of mind that at least I tried. I would have always wondered, what if?" From the rise of Impossible Foods to McDonalds announcing their McPlant menu, plant-based food has undeniably taken the market by storm. Beyond the mainstreaming of veganism, fast-forward to 2021, a global crisis and global lockdowns drove consumers to reassess what they eat and their impact on the planet. Riding this wave is Clara Foods (www.clarafoods.com), a Silicon Valley venture-backed company making animal protein without the animals. Led by Arturo Elizondo, Clara Foods is disrupting food technology, developing performance protein products and making the world's first animal free egg white protein. Using advanced fermentation to brew protein that is cleaner, greener and kinder to our environment today, this week, we take a personal deep dive with the man behind the vision of eggs without chickens.

Enterprise is Eating Venture Capital with Cathy Gao, Sapphire Ventures

We travel today to the West Coast of the United States where it's becoming increasingly clear that Enterprise Tech is dominating venture capital — where every company is becoming a software company. From retailers to established financial institutions and even health providers, the underlying technology has enabled everything from payments to CRM, information management, and so, much more. But how did we arrive at this inflection point and what next? Cathy Gao, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, a leading venture capital firm with more than $6.8B in AUM across the Sapphire group weighs in. For nearly two decades, Sapphire has been investing capital, resources and expertise in innovative startups and technology-focused venture funds around the world.

SOLD MY STARTUP FOR $780M: THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY

This week we went deep on the growing pains of a startup, from PR nightmares to co-founder breakups, the challenge of shifting from a scarcity to growth mindset, and so much more with Jack Smith, serial entrepreneur & investor who sold his startup Vungle, to Blackstone for $780M.

Building Biotech with Brian Conn

The Bay Area landscape is still covered with large tech companies and countless tech startups, but the map is increasingly dotted with biotech startups. Apple is making constant strides in healthcare – so much so that Tim Cook RECENTLY said, “that there will be a day we look back and say Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind has been in healthcare.” And believe it or not, Google’s DeepMind is leading the field in protein engineering. Today, human kind is experiencing a revolution, a revolution in science that will save and transform our lives. From microbiome manipulation, to genomic sequencing biotechnology promises an unprecedented future But what does it really take to build a biotech company that will last? In comes my next guest, Brian Conn, who has served as the CFO of numerous biotech companies over two decades where he has raised over $300M for his companies and completed 20 M&A deals. He’s seen it all, in labs where stress levels are at an all-time high, where millions are burned before a product is seen in market. Currently, Brian is the CFO of a genomic sequencing startup Quantapore, is co-founder of a synthetic biology company Levadura, AND is an advisor for the VC firm General Inception.

HOW TO LEAD DISTRIBUTED TEAMS IN 2021 AND THE FUTURE OF WORK

Culture eats strategy any day—and yet, in this time of a pandemic, where teams are distributed, what does it take to really build a culture that sustains? Slack's Brian Elliott weighs in.