Thomas Laffont: The $4T AI IPO Wave, 2026's Unicorn Economy, and the 10X Paradox
(0:00) Coatue's Thomas Laffont joins the Besties!
(0:30) Public markets are back as AI is dominates the "Unicorn Economy"
(5:15) The $4T AI IPO explosion
(7:48) The case for SpaceX: Compounding launch monopoly and Starlink
(10:38) The 10x Paradox: Why we're seeing unprecedented scaling
(15:33) Segmenting AI markets and future impact
(18:32) Bestie Q&A: Power Law in AI, future of VC, where revenue is coming from, liquidity explosion
Thanks to our partners for making this possible!
EY - Agentic AI is introducing a new investment discipline. As AI shifts to consumption-based models, EY connects spend to enterprise value.
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IPOs and SPACs are Back, Mag 7 Showdown, Zuck on Tilt, Apple's Fumble, GENIUS Act passes Senate
(0:00) The Besties welcome Thomas Laffont!
(3:26) State of LA, Hollywood's decline, positivity around GDP growth and AI productivity
(10:19) Zuck on tilt over AI: $100M offers, Scale AI deal, hiring spree
(23:58) Mag 7 AI Showdown: Ranking the most likely AI winners, biggest stock divergences, and more
(42:41) Why Apple is fumbling AI and how they can fix it?
(57:02) IPOs and M&A heating up in 2025
(1:16:18) State of liquidity: SPACs, Direct Listings, and more
(1:25:40) Amazon's "kingmaker" position, job displacement
(1:37:47) Sacks joins to discuss the GENIUS Act passing the Senate
(1:52:13) Animal trailer
Follow Thomas Laffont:
https://x.com/thomas_coatue
Animal Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NNW5r63oXU
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Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://x.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://x.com/TheZachEffect
Referenced in the show:
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/17/sam-altman-says-meta-tried-and-failed-to-poach-openais-talent-with-100m-offers
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/10/zuckerberg-makes-metas-biggest-bet-on-ai-14-billion-scale-ai-deal.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/technology/meta-scale-ai.html
https://scale.com/blog/scale-ai-announces-next-phase-of-company-evolution
https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-talks-hire-former-github-ceo-nat-friedman-join-ai-efforts-information-2025-06-18
https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/11/mark-zuckerberg-our-biggest-mistake-with-mobile-was-betting-too-much-on-html5
https://www.reuters.com/technology/china-launch-new-40-bln-state-fund-boost-chip-industry-sources-say-2023-09-05
https://x.com/JoannaStern/status/1933564098291048764
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCEkK1YzqBo
https://x.com/chamath/status/1932157508698919320
https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/Stats/Pricings
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-on-generative-ai
https://x.com/chamath/status/1935369326321877153
https://x.com/chamath/status/1935740807925100853
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/COIN:NASDAQ
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/SPOT:NYSE
https://x.com/ylecun/status/1935108028891861393
https://x.com/ben_j_todd/status/1934284189928501482
https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-senate-ohio-brown-moreno-74c4b91e5866215d4201377fefcadad0
https://companiesmarketcap.com/microsoft/revenue
https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-senate-ohio-brown-moreno-74c4b91e5866215d4201377fefcadad0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NNW5r63oXU
Coatue’s Laffont Brothers. AI, Public & VC Mkts, Macro, US Debt, Crypto, IPO's, & more | BG2
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week, they welcome Coatue’s Thomas and Philippe Laffont to discuss the AI Super cycle, Stablecoin and crypto, consumer AI, NVIDIA GPU’s, Macroeconomics, publc markets, VC markets, M&A’s, insights for founders and CEO’s, and more. Enjoy another episode of BG2!
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:36) The AI Super Cycle
(07:47) Stablecoin & Cryptocurrency
(16:19) Consumer AI & Impact on $GOOG
(22:54) GPU Allocation v Cloud Revenue Market Share
(28:56) AI Impact on Macro + Debt
(35:20) Private Markets, IPO’s, M&A’s
(45:59) Golden Age of Margin Expansion
(51:48) Jevon’s Paradox
(53:19) Insights for Founders and CEOs
Show Notes:
Coatue EMW 2025 Slides
Produced by Benny Beausoleil
Music by Yung Spielberg
Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com
Follow:
Brad Gerstner @altcap https://x.com/altcap
Bill Gurley @bgurley https://x.com/bgurley
BG2 Pod @bg2pod https://x.com/BG2Pod
How to Scale a Profitable Agency with 0 Employees (Using AI Agents)
Episode 714: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) sits down with Matt Mazzeo ( https://x.com/Mazzeo ) about using AI agents as your go-to-market.
—
Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(3:30) AI as the Go-to-Market
(8:50) The Billion Dollar Secret
(12:03) Mario Kart Theory
(18:55) Being a Tinkerer/Supabase
(25:38) Amjad Masad/Replt
(28: 41) Taste
(36:44) Agents replacing VCs
(37:57) Agent Employees
(42:28) Story Game
—
Links:
• Want Sam's guide to use ChatGPT? Get it here: https://clickhubspot.com/wpv
• Supabase - https://supabase.com/
• Replit - https://replit.com/
• Clay - https://www.clay.com/
• Alpha Go Movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com
• Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire worldwide talent like Shaan and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than US equivalents.
• Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
Fed Hesitates on Tariffs, The New Mag 7, Death of VC, Google's Value in a Post-Search World
(0:00) The Besties intro Philippe Laffont!
(2:12) Miami F1 Recap!
(12:10) Fed holds rates steady on tariff uncertainty
(32:47) Google drops after Apple sees fall in search queries on Safari
(56:48) Creating a new Mag 7
(1:07:00) Private markets: Is traditional VC dead? Philippe details Coatue's new fund structure and what makes a great investor
Follow Philippe Laffont:
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Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://x.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://x.com/TheZachEffect
Referenced in the show:
https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-june/fed-decreases-interest-rates-by-50-bps-after-june-2025-meeting?tid=1746821096114
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20250507a.htm
https://www.mlex.com/mlex/antitrust/articles/2337168/apple-exec-testimony-on-search-volume-drop-hurts-google-stock-price
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-07/apple-working-to-move-to-ai-search-in-browser-amid-google-fallout
https://blog.google/products/search/statement-press-reports-about-search-traffic
https://x.com/EconomyApp/status/1915501252420784499
https://x.com/Similarweb/status/1920026287625658628
https://openai.com/index/leadership-expansion-with-fidji-simo
https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/Q1_2025_PitchBook-NVCA_Venture_Monitor_19001.pdf
https://stockanalysis.com/ipos/statistics
Trump's First Week: Inauguration Recap, Executive Actions, TikTok, Stargate + Sacks is Back!
(0:00) The Besties intro Thomas Laffont!
(6:22) Behind the scenes: Inauguration Weekend recap!
(15:58) Biggest takeaways from DC during the Inauguration
(31:38) Trump Executive Action breakdown
(33:39) TikTok's grace period extended, valuing the business, US new equity strategy?
(57:01) Jan 6th pardons, birthright citizenship
(1:09:49) Stargate: $500B AI investment, is Masa the GOAT?, bull case for OpenAI
(1:23:41) How electricity production capacity plays into the global AI race
(1:36:20) Netflix's stock rise correlates with some alarming societal trends
(1:47:40) BREAKING: AI/Crypto Czar David Sacks joins to discuss the President's three new EOs
Follow the besties:
https://x.com/chamath
https://x.com/Jason
https://x.com/DavidSacks
https://x.com/friedberg
Follow Thomas Laffont:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-laffont-02430914
Follow on X:
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Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://x.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://x.com/TheZachEffect
Referenced in the show:
https://x.com/dontcallmeraylo/status/1882444994264629402
https://x.com/craigkellyXXX/status/1882170281722339700
https://www.wdsu.com/article/donald-trump-executive-orders-inauguration-parade/63486993
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/us/trump-birthright-citizenship.html
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed74.asp
https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1881830103858172059
https://x.com/sama/status/1882106524090482701
https://x.com/GavinSBaker/status/1882081746877063677
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1881923570458304780
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1882303826214162580
https://x.com/satyanadella/status/1882340818289307954
https://x.com/GregKamradt/status/1881762305152872654
https://x.com/chamath/status/1881773205498876255
https://x.com/documentingbtc/status/1882530869010989287
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/strengthening-american-leadership-in-digital-financial-technology
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/presidents-council-of-advisors-on-science-and-technology
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/489251-in-this-age-in-this-country-public-sentiment-is-everything
https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1882083118032846868
Ep11. Coatue Conference Recap, Tesla & ISS Controversy | BG2 with Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner
Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week they recap Coatue Conference and discuss Elon’s pay package, Tesla's shareholder vote, ISS controversy, AI market trends, OpenAI IPO, Delaware court case, and more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Overview of Coatue’s East Meets West Conference
(5:05) AI and Market Trends
(18:17) Insights on Venture Markets and IPOs
(24:15) Challenges and Opportunities in Going Public
(30:05) The Case for OpenAI Going Public
(33:03) Challenges and Considerations for IPOs
(35:55) SPECIAL GUEST: Coatue Founder Phillipe Laffont
(39:27) AI Startups Staying Lean
(42:31) AI Agents and the Future of Work
(45:28) Tesla's Shareholder Vote and ISS Controversy
(50:57) Delaware's Legal Precedent and Corporate Implications
(58:27) Globalization and Competitive Advantage
Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com
Follow:
Brad Gerstner @altcap
Bill Gurley @bgurley
BG2 Pod @bg2pod
Dan Rose - How Stunning Founders Operate - [Invest Like the Best, EP.316]
My guest today is Dan Rose. Dan is the chairman of Coatue Ventures and has one of the most interesting collections of experiences of anyone I’ve talked to. He spent 20 years at Amazon and Facebook in their early days, working closely with Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg. He’s had a front-row seat to the defining products and founders of our era and his lessons from those experiences do not disappoint. Please enjoy this great discussion with Dan Rose.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:27] - [First question] - The story behind Amazon’s Kindle and the lessons it taught him
[00:09:19] - Amazon’s philosophy of working backwards and the most creative solutions he and his team had to come up inside of that framework
[00:13:04] - What he did to convince publishers to get on board with his vision
[00:16:02] - His overall experience of the relationship between innovation and constraints
[00:18:43] - Thoughts about the fine line between genius and nutcase
[00:22:02] - What the key points of his theory on partnerships would be
[00:24:28] - When advising portfolio companies becomes relevant
[00:26:09] - The dark arts of building companies that could be adopted by partnerships
[00:28:40] - Why he thinks the best technology companies drive strategy through product
[00:32:23] - Resolving micro management while also giving skilled talent their own space
[00:36:07] - Where Javier Olivan fits into his ideal executive team
[00:36:57] - What about growth requires its own expertise
[00:37:35] - What makes Dave Schneider an ideal sales leader
[00:39:08] - The most stressful period of time while working at Facebook
[00:42:51] - General thoughts on great versus good business models in tech
[00:45:36] - Topics where Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg would disagree the most
[00:47:13] - Defining the platonic ideal of a great investor approaching corporate enterprises
[00:50:25] - Overview of the investing environment we’re in today from coast to coast
[00:55:07] - What made Sheryl Sandberg so successful; Lean In
[01:00:35] - Why he started his career at Life Mastery selling personal growth seminars
[01:05:47] - What will define the next generation of leaders
[01:07:59] - A product he would build if he could that doesn’t exist yet
[01:08:59] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
SaaStr 618: Scaling for the Enterprise: Top 5 Lessons on the Upmarket Journey with Airtable CEO Howie Liu and Coatue Management General Partner Caryn Marooney
For many SaaS companies, serving the world's largest businesses requires evolving some of its most critical business strategies and operations. In this session, Airtable's Howie Liu sits down with Coatue's Caryn Marooney to share the lessons he's learned from scaling Airtable. From how to think about competitors and categories, to the importance of building the right organizational culture, Howie and Caryn reveal what SaaS leaders need to consider as they move upmarket.
Video: https://youtu.be/if4nKnNMl4s
Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the 🌎largest community for B2B software.
Subscribe for weekly updates: https://www.saastr.com/subscribeform
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Disney open doors to the NBA, NYSE rings the bell, plus former Facebook Exec on Zuckerberg's WFH move
Kara and Scott talk about Disney open its doors to the NBA as professional sports leagues attempt to resume their seasons. Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange will be open to traders again this week. Scott thinks there will be a strong class of IPOs by the end of the years. Then we hear from Caryn Marooney, the former VP of Global Communications at Facebook. She gives an insider's look at Mark Zuckerberg's new work from home policy. Jacinda Arden is Kara's win and Joe Biden's lack of momentum is Scott's fail.
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E33: “Angel” Podcast: Dan Rose, Chairman at Coatue Management is leading a $700M early-stage fund, shares insights on working with Bezos & Zuckerberg during pivotal years at Amazon & Facebook, 100+ angel investments, standout founder traits & more
0:50 Jason intros Coatue Management's Dan Rose
1:52 Dan takes Jason through getting his internship at Amazon in 1999 and meeting Jeff Bezos
6:55 What was Amazon's core business in 1999? What was it like incubating the Kindle in the mid-2000s?
10:04 How did Bezos grow as a leader and businessman during Dan's tenure at Amazon?
18:21 How does Bezos' ability to turn Amazon around in the eyes of public investors relate to Uber, Lyft and other large & unprofitable companies? How does Bezos inspire so much loyalty?
23:27 What was Amazon's company culture during Dan's tenure? How was AWS developed?
26:08 How did Dan wind up at Facebook as employee ~130? What did he see in a young Mark Zuckerberg?
32:13 Who created the original Facebook News Feed?
35:34 How did they get the ad-network to work at scale?
42:50 Where do Elon, Bezos & Zuckerberg rank in the Pantheon of Entrepreneurs?
44:06 How did the billion-dollar acquisition offer from Yahoo! fall apart?
46:42 Why launching open registration led to the billion-dollar investment by Microsoft
48:30 Insights on the Instagram deal
51:00 How Facebook bounced back from the stock dropping from $31 to $17 shortly after IPO & how Dan's experience at Amazon helped him rally the troops?
58:44 Zuckerberg's response to mistakes
1:03:01 How did Dan wind up at Coatue Management leading a $700M early-stage fund?
1:08:01 What is Coatue's strategy around data science?
1:11:20 Dan had over 100 Angel investments before joining Coatue
1:13:18 What is Coatue's new fund strategy?
1:16:09 How does Dan think of diligence in regards to early-stage companies?
1:20:25 What does Dan want to see in an ideal founder?
Episode 78: Matt Mazzeo
Matt is managing partner at Lower Case Capital with Chris Sacca. We talk about how Matt transitioned from 8 years at CAA to the world of VC, the future of Lowercase and VC in general, advice for breaking into startups/VC, difference between LA and SF, and much more. Matt is one of the best investors in the game and also one of the kindest. Edited by @alexkontis Lavish Praise to @Mazzeo Constructive Criticism to @eriktorenberg
20VC: Lowercase's Matt Mazzeo on Being Chris Sacca's Partner and The 3 KPIs to Successful Investing
Matt Mazzeo is Managing Director at Lowercase Capital, alongside legendary angel investor, Chris Sacca. At Lowercase Matt leads a seed and series A investment strategy managing a portfolio of over forty investments including Uber, Twitter, Stripe and Optimizely just to name a few. Prior to joining Lowercase Capital, Matt spearheaded many of the digital and venture efforts at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Matt helped shape the agency’s seed stage investment strategy and played an integral role in the founding of CAA’s incubated start-up companies, including Funny or Die, WhoSay, and Moonshark. Matt has been recognized as an innovative force across technology, entertainment, and advertising for which Fast Company named Matt one of the Most Creative People in Business. In addition to making Forbes Midas Brink List in 2014, Matt has been recognized on both Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 List in 2013, and The Wrap’s Inaugural Innovators List.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Matt made the transition from the world of celebrity management to the world of venture capital?
2.) How have we seen the personalisation of VCs in the emerging eco-system? Are VCs themselves brands now? How does Matt look to establish his brand?
3.) What are the required KPI's to make a successful investor? What is Matt pleased with in himself and what would he like to improve?
4.) Why will we see the decentralisation of VC away from the traditional Sand Hill Road? How does being in LA affect the operations and deal flow of Lowercase?
5.) What are Matt's biggest learnings from being partner with Chris? What has Matt founded the most challenging in making the transition from CAA to VC?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Matt's Fave Book:
Fooled By Randomness
Matt's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Jessica Lessin: The Information
Matt's Most Recent Investment:
Mobcrush
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Matt on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! This episode was supported by Wunder Capital, the leading online investment platform that allows individuals to invest in large scale solar projects across the U.S. Wunder’s solar investment funds allow you to earn up to 11% annually, while diversifying your portfolio, curbing pollution and combating global climate change. Do well by doing good and sign up for a free account here and join the thousands of people that are already achieving their investment targets.
Maker Stories: Episode 8 w/ Matt Mazzeo
Matt Mazzeo is Managing Director of Lowercase Capital, partners w/ Chris Sacca, and one of the best guys in the biz. We interviewed him and many others at the LAUNCH festival last month. Edited by Daniel Russell