Valor Equity Partners

(0:00) The Besties welcome Antonio Gracias! (0:30) DOGE updates: Government complexity worse than imagined, how to fix it (9:00) Talent acquisition: How Elon attracted 10x engineers for DOGE, a better model for civil service (15:54) Voter fraud findings: illegal immigrants voting in elections, building a zero-defect voting system (22:12) Fixing immigration in the US Thanks to our partners for helping make this happen! Check out OKX: https://www.okx.com Check out Circle: https://www.circle.com Follow Antonio: https://x.com/AntonioGracias Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

(0:00) The Besties welcome Ben Shapiro and Antonio Gracias (1:54) Why Antonio is helping out and what it's like working with DOGE (4:56) DOGE's latest findings: illegal immigration, social security, and more (27:59) Was Biden's open border policy a Dem strategy to expand their voter base? (39:55) Tariffs: Liberation Day chaos, reactions, strategy (55:26) Impact, consequences, and risks for the Trump Administration (1:13:50) How the US can thrive in a high-tariff world (1:31:33) Future US political landscape if the tariff strategy fails (1:42:27) Chamath recaps his best-performing asset of 2025 + wrap Follow Antonio: https://x.com/AntonioGracias Follow Ben: https://x.com/benshapiro Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod 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/AntonioGracias/status/1906877800511893670 https://polymarket.com/event/magnificent-7-shrinks-below-30-of-sp-500-in-2025?tid=1743434648860 https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1907553323387072774 https://x.com/enriqueabeyta/status/1907796286763409439 https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/1907622848149037509 https://x.com/litcapital/status/1907813630227173534 https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/asml-euv-machine-lithography-chips-967954d0 https://www.hoover.org/publications/goodfellows https://www.ft.com/content/bcb1d331-5d8e-4cac-811e-eac7d9448486

Ben Shapiro

Co-Founder and Host

The Daily Wire

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

(0:00) The Besties intro Antonio Gracias! (3:11) DOGE takes on USAID (31:44) Sacks breaks in to talk USAID (34:00) Sacks explains what he's working on: Crypto/AI Frameworks (46:41) The Democratic Party's shrinking base (52:33) US Sovereign Wealth Fund + Breaking DOGE/Tax News (1:09:07) Google to spend $75B on AI buildout in 2025, future of work in the age of AI (1:23:21) Science Corner: GLP-1 macro study Follow Antonio: https://x.com/AntonioGracias Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://x.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agency_for_International_Development https://www.wsj.com/opinion/usaid-donald-trump-elon-musk-marco-rubio-state-department-foreign-aid-8d2a1920 https://www.usa.gov/agencies/u-s-agency-for-international-development https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/agency-for-international-development?fy=2024 https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/at-usaid-waste-and-abuse-runs-deep https://www.wsj.com/finance/banks-sell-5-5-billion-of-x-loans-after-investor-interest-surges-4b84f89c https://www.usaspending.gov https://www.foxnews.com/media/ex-politico-reporters-reveal-editors-quashed-slow-walked-negative-biden-stories-with-no-explanation https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/fa0cefae-7cfb-881d-29c3-1bd39cc6a49e-C/2024 https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/funding https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid https://x.com/susancrabtree/status/1884034727046226317 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886627783138316442 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/usaid-security-leaders-removed-refusing-elon-musks-doge-employees-accercna190357 https://x.com/Jason/status/1885082871074886110 https://x.com/anc_aesthetics/status/1886176995433763188 https://x.com/wikileaks/status/1887501752213409919 https://x.com/pm_viktororban/status/1887224829352280505 https://x.com/daily_romania/status/1887883017550430435 https://x.com/kanekoathegreat/status/1887261736618893636 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/strengthening-american-leadership-in-digital-financial-technology https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1886878016183394403 https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/majority/scott-hagerty-lummis-gillibrand-introduce-legislation-to-establish-a-stablecoin-regulatory-framework https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/02/rahm-emanuel-democrats-voters-kitchen-table https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/a-plan-for-establishing-a-united-states-sovereign-wealth-fund https://www.americanprogress.org/article/scott-bessents-3-percent-deficit-target-would-require-massive-cuts-to-anti-poverty-programs-and-middle-class-tax-increases https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-weigh-block-doge-accessing-treasury-department-records/story?id=118498817 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_DOGE_Service https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1887585824218509380 https://fedscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/02/show_temp.pdf https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/05/alphabet-shares-fall-7percent-on-revenue-miss-heightened-ai-investments.html https://abc.xyz/assets/a3/91/6d1950c148fa84c7d699abe05284/2024q4-alphabet-earnings-release.pdf https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1886899315735507255 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03412-w

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website! Go to ⁠https://www.squarespace.com/twist⁠ for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. CommandBar. Seamlessly integrate an AI-powered guide into your software, making navigation intuitive and interactive. Visit ⁠https://www.commandbar.com/twist⁠ to get a custom live demo. Brex. the financial stack founders can bank on. Brex knows cash is king for startups, so they built a banking experience that takes every dollar further. Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at ⁠https://www.brex.com/twist24 * Todays show: Alex leads us into two great talks from Liquidity Summit 2024. First Jason sits down for a one-on-one with Valor’s Antonio Gracias (1:38), followed by a great talk with Gavin Baker of Atreides (39:01) * Timestamps: (0:00) Teaser of today’s Liquidity Summit talks from Alex. (1:13) Alex kicks off the show. (1:38) Valor’s Antonio Gracias joins Jason (4:26) Unbiased data and business models in AI (10:02) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (11:14) Achieving AGI and robots in real-world applications (14:26) Venture capital dynamics and innovation (18:09) Athena case study: Investor operational support (22:05) CommandBar - Visit ⁠https://www.commandbar.com/twist⁠ to get a custom live demo. (23:04) Traditional venture playbook and crossover hedge funds (28:33) US balance sheet implications and emerging entrepreneurship regions (33:39) Immigration policy's role in recruitment (36:19) Investing in socially impactful companies (38:09) Brex - Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://www.brex.com/twist24 (39:01) Atreides Management’s Gavin Baker joins Jason (47:38) The importance of investing in relationships (54:32) Resilience in public equity investing and learning from failure (1:00:29) AI adoption differences between startups and enterprises (1:02:32) America's innovation through resilience and immigration (1:03:43) Google and Apple's AI strategies and infrastructure (1:11:32) Meta's strategic moves in search and the metaverse * Subscribe to the TWiST newsletter: https://www.ticker.thisweekinstartups.com * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Check out Valor: https://www.valorep.com/ Check out Atreides: https://atreidesmgmt.com/ Follow Antonio: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonio-p-gracias Follow Gavin: X: https://x.com/GavinSBake LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinbaker-portfoliomanager/ * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/ * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: (10:02) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (22:05) CommandBar - Visit ⁠https://www.commandbar.com/twist⁠ to get a custom live demo. (38:08) Brex - Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://www.brex.com/twist24 * Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

Gavin Baker

Managing Partner & CIO, Atreides Management

Atreides Management

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… CommandBar - Seamlessly integrate an AI-powered guide into your software, making navigation intuitive and interactive. Visit https://www.commandbar.com/twist to get a custom live demo. .Tech Domains - Don’t miss our “Jam with JCal” contest! To apply and get more details go to https://www.jamwithjcal.tech brought to you by .tech domains. Lemon.io - Hire pre-vetted remote developers, get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.Lemon.io/twist * Todays show: Antonio Gracias of Valor and Liran Zvibel of WEKA join Jason to discuss WEKA’s product market fit and real-world applications (13:49), energy solutions for future data centers and capital allocation strategy (30:07), and a Jam with JCal session with Uptrend AI’s Ramsey Shaffer (37:00). * Timestamps: (0:00) Antonio Gracias of Valor and Liran Zvibel of WEKA join Jason. (2:52) Investment thesis for WEKA and discussion on investment strategies (5:30) Investing in winners and the future of compute and AI technology (10:14) CommandBar - Visit https://www.commandbar.com/twist to get a custom live demo. (13:49) WEKA’s product market fit and real-world applications (21:49) .Tech Domains - Apply for the Jam Session with JCal contest today at https://www.jamwithjcal.tech (23:08) Innovative customers and technology behind the Las Vegas Sphere (23:08) Innovative customers and technology behind the Las Vegas Sphere (25:12) Impact of Weka’s technology on rendering and data management (30:07) Energy solutions for future data centers and capital allocation strategy (34:22) Weka's hiring and job opportunities (35:34) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.Lemon.io/twist (37:00) Jam with JCal winner Ramsey Schaffer, CEO of Uptrends AI. (38:09) Ramsey’s pitch and Jason's feedback (45:22) Importance of founder-led sales, pricing strategy, and UX improvements (51:02) Engaging with customers and final thoughts on Uptrends ai * Links from show: Check out Valor Equity Partners: https://www.valorep.com Check out WEKA: https://www.weka.io Check out Stability AI: https://stability.ai Check out the Sphere: https://www.thesphere.com Enter the Jam with JCal contest: https://www.jamwithjcal.tech Check out Uptrends AI:https://www.uptrends-ai.tech * Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Follow Liran: X: https://x.com/liranzvibel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liranzvibel/ * Follow Ramsey: X: https://x.com/RamseyShaffer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramseyshaffer/ * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Thank you to our partners: Timestamps: (10:14) CommandBar - Visit https://www.commandbar.com/twist to get a custom live demo. (21:49) .Tech Domains - Apply for the Jam Session with JCal contest today at https://www.jamwithjcal.tech (35:34) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.Lemon.io/twist * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

Liran Zvibel

Co-Founder & CEO

WEKA

(0:00) Antonio Gracias and Gavin Baker join to discuss SpaceX's Starship launch (28:58) Fox News settles with Dominion Voting Systems, will pay $787M (40:38) AI update: Reddit to start charging for training data, how the next startup bubble will materialize, navigating the AI "dust storm" (53:49) Why AI is challenging/exciting to invest in right now, late-stage implosion, pay-to-play rounds (1:21:26) Is crypto dead in America? Plus DeSantis vs Trump polling update and wrap Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://twitter.com/GavinSBaker/status/1649107858267439108 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65294084 https://twitter.com/thePrimalSpace/status/1649051677377560578 https://www.wsj.com/articles/spacex-starship-elon-musk-second-launch-attempt-bf932aaf https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533408313894912001 https://www.reuters.com/technology/fcc-votes-approve-spacex-satellite-plan-official-2021-04-27 https://www.axios.com/2023/04/18/fox-news-settles-dominion-lawsuit https://investor.foxcorporation.com/static-files/3b2bdb74-8ebe-4173-9f0f-ac18831ff094 https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484 https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1648462770936115202 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/technology/reddit-ai-openai-google.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/20/alphabet-merges-ai-focused-groups-deepmind-and-google-research.html https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1647010187377774596 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal%C3%ADland- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/business/buzzfeed-news-shut-down.html https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/18/23688627/meta-layoffs-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-instagram-whatsapp https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/series-c-funding-decline-q1-2023 https://www.theinformation.com/articles/tiger-global-managements-12-7-billion-venture-fund-records-20-loss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://www.wired.com/story/stack-overflow-will-charge-ai-giants-for-training-data https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/04/18/coinbase-could-move-away-from-us-if-no-regulatory-clarity-ceo-brian-armstrong https://news.yahoo.com/poll-trumps-big-post-indictment-bounce-is-fading-fast-183753992.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/20/desantis-trump-new-hampshire-poll

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

Gavin Baker

Managing Partner & CIO, Atreides Management

Atreides Management

This talk was recorded LIVE at the All-In Summit in Miami and included slides. To watch on YouTube, check out our All-In Summit playlist: https://bit.ly/aisytplaylist 0:00 Antonio Gracias joins to talk: Tesla's early days, investing in Elon, macroeconomic outlook, ROIC, importance of energy independence, future of manufacturing, financial-ization of the P&L & more 22:35 Q: How has the poker game influenced your decision making in business and life? 29:33 Q: What was the scariest step of becoming a first-time fund manager? 32:34 Q: Crypto market unwinding & how it relates to the money supply 35:57 Q: Current pre-seed / seed valuations & metrics 38:58 Q: When investing in early-stage SaaS companies, how to find outliers? 42:11 Q: What would you do if dropped in the middle of Kansas at age 25 with no resources? 44:46 Q: Where will the next disruptions in industrial automation come from & how will the US hit economies of scale in semiconductor manufacturing 47:02 Q: Any plans for All-In Media? 50:02 Q: US strategy in the Russia/Ukraine War 54:19 Q: How have your first impressions changed as you've matured in your career, and whose first impressions have stood out to you the most? 58:29 Q: Are you interested in crypto micropayments? 1:00:55 Q: Biggest mistakes of your career that you've learned the most from? 1:09:54 Q: What impact could tech have on political discourse? What does a viable path forward look like? 1:15:36 Q: Are remote / distributed startup systems viable coming out of the pandemic? 1:19:41 Q: Advice for non-technical people trying to get into the startup world? 1:24:44 Q: Thoughts on the potential consumer credit crisis? 1:26:17 Lightning round: What problem do you most want to solve right now? All-In consortium? Can SMBs democratize their own labor supply? How to get more investors interested in hardware? Will this be a relatively short recession? Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners

My guest today is Antonio Gracias, founder, CIO, and CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Antonio is perhaps best known for his role at Tesla, as the earliest institutional investor and Director from 2007 to 2021. But he has deep operating and investing experience, having first acquired and managed a number of manufacturing and technology companies during his 20s. And it was during those formative years that Antonio and his team developed the skills that led to Valor, which provides operational expertise to the high growth private companies they invest in.   Our conversation is a deep exploration of the drivers behind Antonio and Valor’s success. We dive into his concept of pro-entropic investing, what he learned as a 25-year-old running a manufacturing business, and trust me when I say, you don't want to miss his answer to the kindest thing ever. Please enjoy this great conversation with Antonio Gracias.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   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 [00:02:51] - [First question] - Defining what a pro-entropic company is [00:07:26] - Understanding external forces of chaos and why they’ll continue to increase [00:11:32] - What he’s learned about identifying and investing in pro-entropic companies [00:13:43] - Investing with entropy in mind can be a bet on unchanging aspects of human nature [00:15:08] - Defining durability in contrast with resiliency and entropy [00:18:53] - Coming from a traditional background and the origin of Valor [00:22:05] - The theory of constraints and why it’s so powerful; The Goal [00:26:32] - Transitioning into a private equity structure and Valor’s 2001-2005 era [00:42:02] - Decision making bias and combating bias effectively in practice  [00:44:30] - Where security and control figures into his thinking [00:45:45] - Identity in relation to ego; the tools he uses to combat identity related decisions [00:49:04] - Lessons learned from the Japanese language versus Western languages [00:53:07] - Questions he returns to when he’s getting to know a company [00:56:16] - An episode of operational deployment that most stands out in memory [00:58:54] - Key concepts that most stick with him from working alongside Elon Musk [01:01:32] - Why there aren’t more Musk’s or Bezos’ in the world [01:04:20] - Ensuring Valor invests in the best companies going forward [01:06:06] - How to pass the torch of what Valor is to others when his time is done [01:08:25] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Antonio Gracias

Founder and CEO

Valor Equity Partners