Shows
The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing DemystifiedInvestor Stories 454: When There Are No Good Choices: Navigating Ethical Dilemmas, Founder Splits, and Existential Company Threats (Cohen, Effron, Austin) On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: David Cohen of Techstars Jacob Effron of Redpoint Ethan Austin of Outside VC We discuss major conflicts that guests have faced and how they resolved them. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. We're proud to partner with Ramp, the modern finance automation platform. Book a demo and get $150—no strings a...
2026-01-2207 min
TBPNAmazon x OpenAI, Ford's EV Reality Check, Kushner Drops WB Bid | Sarah Guo, David Senra, Doug O'Laughlin, Doug Bernauer, Jacob Effron, Logan Kilpatrick(02:12) - Ford's EV Reality Check
(21:03) - Amazon x OpenAI
(33:13) - Kushner Drops WB Bid
(39:53) - 𝕏 Timeline Reactions
(57:33) - Sarah Guo is the founder and managing partner of Conviction, an early-stage venture firm focused on backing transformative software and AI companies. She’s known for combining deep technical fluency with a strong product lens, shaped by her experience as a partner at Greylock and as a former Facebook product leader.
(01:32:29) - Doug O'Laughlin an expert in artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure, discusses Amazon's strategic partnership with OpenAI, emphasizing Amazon's superior execution in data center expansion and power availability. He hi...
2025-12-173h 18
Unsupervised Learning with Jacob EffronEp 78: Jordan Schneider, Host of China Talk, on AI Race, Key Policy Decisions & Unpacking Geopolitical Chip TensionThis week on Unsupervised Learning, Jacob Effron is joined by Jordan Schneider, host of China Talk, who challenges widespread assumptions about US-China AI competition. China's AI development is driven by private capital and market competition—not central government planning—with companies like DeepSeek, Alibaba, and ByteDance operating more like Silicon Valley startups than state projects. The critical bottleneck is compute: the West maintains a 10-15x advantage in advanced chips, and US export controls implemented one month before ChatGPT created a structural edge favoring America for years. Chinese companies aggressively open-source models from strategic necessity—they couldn't establish a qualit...
2025-12-051h 13
The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified496. How Model Progress Shifts the Goalposts, Why The Death of Software Is Overstated, and How to Diligence Hypergrowth Without Getting Burned (Jacob Effron) Jacob Effron of Redpoint joins Nick to discuss How Model Progress Shifts the Goalposts, Why The Death of Software Is Overstated, and How to Diligence Hypergrowth Without Getting Burned. In this episode we cover: Investing in AI and Vertical Applications Model Layer Advancements and Future Milestones Challenges and Opportunities in Agentic AI Investing in Tooling and Middleware Product Market Fit and Defensibility in AI Applications Verticals with Real Product Market Fit The Evolution of AI Investing Metrics Future Trends in AI and Robotics Guest Links: Jacob's LinkedIn Jacob's...
2025-11-1737 min
mbanerjeepalmer+listennotes 's Listen LaterEp 68: CEO of Mercor Brendan Foody on Evals Replacing Knowledge Work, AI x Hiring Today & the Future of Data Labeling Podcast: Unsupervised Learning with Jacob Effron (LS 37 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: Ep 68: CEO of Mercor Brendan Foody on Evals Replacing Knowledge Work, AI x Hiring Today & the Future of Data LabelingPub date: 2025-06-04Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationBrendan Foody is the co-founder and CEO of Mercor, a company building the infrastructure for AI-native labor markets. Mercor’s platform is already used by top AI labs to label data, evaluate human and AI candidates, and make performance-driven hiring decisions. Th...
2025-09-1744 min
The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | InvestorsSaaStr 815: Redpoint Ventures Playbook: How Top VCs Are Really Investing in AISaaStr 815: Redpoint Ventures Playbook: How Top VCs Are Really Investing in AI with Jacob Effron, Managing Director of Redpoint Ventures Jacob Effron, Managing Director at RedPoint, discusses the state of AI investing and the rapid advancements in AI technology. He highlights the significant decrease in model costs, increased AI capabilities in applications like coding, voice models, and customer support, and the rapid scaling of AI startups. Jacob also talks about how venture capital strategies have shifted, with a focus on AI-driven end-use cases and quality. He outlines a three-part investment framework focused on identifying effective AI applications a...
2025-08-1331 min
Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil KrishnanEp 60: General Medicine's Elliot Cohen on Lessons from PillPack and Amazon and The Future of AI x HealthcareElliot Cohen—PillPack co-founder and now co-founder of General Medicine—joins Jacob Effron and Nikhil (Out-of-Pocket) to unpack what “best care” really means in 2025. He explains why General Medicine is building a broad front door to care. Elliot also revisits the PillPack vs. PBMs saga, what Amazon Pharmacy got right (and what was unexpectedly hard), and how AI is already raising the bar in intake, clinical prep, and follow-up. (0:00) Intro(0:58) Simplifying Healthcare with General Medicine(1:53) The Importance of Triage in Healthcare(3:22) Consumer Empowerment in Healthcare(5:10) Patient Experience and Structured Forms(6:27) Challenge...
2025-07-311h 07
跨国串门儿计划#127. 对话Anthropic核心研发：揭秘Claude新模型与AI未来图景📝 本期播客简介本期我们克隆了：Claude 4, Next Phase for AI Coding, and the Path to AI CoworkersJacob Effron 邀请到 Anthropic Claude 模型（如Opus）的核心研发成员 Sholto Douglas，在模型发布当天进行深度对谈。他们探讨了开发者应如何看待和使用新一代 Anthropic 模型，AI模型在未来半年至三年的发展走向，以及构建可靠AI代理的关键条件。节目中，Sholto 分享了这些模型何时能在医疗、法律等领域达到编程领域的卓越水平，并深入交流了他对AI价值观校准研究的见解、目前进展、有效方法及未来挑战，以及他对AI 2027研究的看法。这是一场与大语言模型研究顶尖学者的精彩对话。感谢minimax提供的语音克隆技术支持，我们采用了minimax的speech-02模型进行声音复刻。通过minimax目前业界领先的语音克隆技术，我们能够精准还原原播客主持人和嘉宾的声音特征、情感色彩和语调变化，让您在聆听中文内容的同时，依然能感受到原声音的独特魅力。🧑💻 本期嘉宾Sholto Douglas，Anthropic Claude模型的核心研发成员。作为大语言模型领域的顶尖研究者，他在推动如Opus等先进AI模型的开发中扮演了关键角色，致力于提升模型在编程、复杂任务处理、可靠性及AI价值观对齐方面的能力。📒 文字版精华见微信公众号（点击跳转）🌟 精彩内容新模型能力：Sholto分享了最新Claude模型（如Opus）在软件工程中的惊艳表现，尤其在自主完成模糊任务、信息查找和执行测试用例方面。开发者策略转变：讨论了新模型如何改变开发者的编程策略，从处理简单任务到管理更长周期的复杂项目，以及AI工具链（如Claude Code）的重要性。AI智能体与可靠性：深入探讨了构建可靠AI代理的挑战与进展，强调了通过多次尝试提升成功率，并展望了未来AI在医疗、法律等领域的应用前景。AI价值观对齐与可解释性：分享了对AI价值观校准研究的见解，包括预训练模型的内在对齐性、强化学习的挑战，以及可解释性研究的突破性进展。未来展望与经济影响：展望了AI在未来几年的发展（如2027年AI能力预测），及其对白领工作和全球GDP的潜在影响，并讨论了算力、能源和数据等瓶颈。评估体系的重要性：强调了建立严谨、可验证的内部和外部评估体系对于衡量AI进步和指导研发方向的关键作用。世界模型与创造力：探讨了“世界模型”作为被低估的研究方向的潜力，以及AI工具如何极大地增强个人和团队的创造力。🌐 播客信息补充翻译克隆自：Claude 4, Next Phase for AI Coding, and the Path to AI Coworkers本播客采用原有人声声线进行播客音频制作，也可能会有一些地方听起来怪怪的使用 AI 进行翻译，因此可能会有一些地方不通顺如果有后续想要听中文版的其他外文播客，也欢迎联系微信：iEvenight
2025-05-2946 minUnsupervised Learning with Jacob EffronEp 61: Redpoint’s AI Investors Break Down What Separates Enduring AI Companies from the HypeAt Redpoint’s annual meeting with investors, Redpoint partners Scott Raney, Alex Bard, Patrick Chase and Jacob Effron shared unfiltered thoughts on some of the most topical questions in AI today, where value will accrue, which industries are best positioned for defensibility at the application layer, and more. (0:00) Intro(0:39) AI Investment Landscape(1:30) Market Projections(3:25) Strategic Imperatives in AI(6:04) AI Model Layer Insights(10:06) Infrastructure Layer(11:46) Application Layer(15:04) Vertical AI SaaS Opportunities(21:45) Evaluating Early-Stage Founders(23:39) First Mover Advantage and Competitive Dynamics(25:28) Domain Expertise vs. AI Expertise(26:58) Why...
2025-04-0943 min
InProdE24: Healthcare's New Era: AI Insights with Jacob Effron (Redpoint)We're excited to chat with Jacob Effron, a Partner at Redpoint Ventures. Before joining Redpoint in San Francisco, Jacob served as a product manager at Flatiron Health. In addition to being an investor, Jacob hosts two podcasts, Unsupervised Learning and Vital Signs. Jacob sheds light on the impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare, the influence of large language models (LLMs) on drug discovery, the current importance of value-based care, and the future prospects of AGI!Episode Chapters:Economic Development in East Africa - 1:26Breaking down the Product Manager Role - 2:54Redpoint's Strategy - 4:42Healthcare AI Themes...
2024-01-2430 min
The Logan Bartlett ShowEP 52: Jason Warner & Jacob Effron (Redpoint Ventures) - Former GitHub CTO Explains AI for DummiesIn the 52nd episode of the Logan Bartlett Show, Redpoint’s Jason Warner and Jacob Effron join to discuss the quickly expanding AI landscape, what the AI models are, and why we should be paying attention.(0:00) Welcome Jason Warner and Jacob Effron(8:30) Why does the AI boom feel like it’s come out of nowhere?(12:30) How does it actually work?(16:02) Compounding on itself through usage & training reward models(18:08) Two most mainstream AI models(22:20) Why do people care about open source vs closed source?(30:45) Companies at the...
2023-02-171h 10
The Big UnlockJacob Effron: The macro trends driving the growth of digital health funding are still in placeIn this episode, Jacob Effron, Principal at Redpoint Ventures, discusses the venture capital (VC) environment for digital health. Redpoint Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early, and growth-stage companies and has been investing in the healthcare tech landscape for the last decade.
Jacob believes that the fundamental trends driving the growth of digital health are in place. However, later-stage companies looking to raise additional capital may experience some uncertainty in the short term. He also talks about the demand environment for Redpoint’s portfolio companies and his advice to founders looking to na...
2022-10-3123 min