Cognition CEO Scott Wu on acquiring Windsurf, AI replacing engineers, and the Moneyball-ification of everything
Scott Wu joins John Collison to talk about Cognition’s AI software engineer, the Moneyball-ification of everything, math competitions with Alexandr Wang in 6th grade, acquiring Windsurf over a weekend, whether coding tools will be replaced by the labs, and why he thinks we already have AGI.Full transcript on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/cheekypint/p/cognition-ceo-scott-wu-on-acquiringTimestamps(00:00) Intro(01:13) Early life and maths competitions(03:47) Addepar job as a high schooler(05:43) Where are all the young founders?(08:45) Moneyball-ification of everything(11:42) Cognition’s AI software engineer, Devin(15:46) Essential and accidental complexity(17:59) How Devin works with enterprises(19:48) IDE productivity(21:56) Nihilist computer use argument (25:55) Benchmarking Devin (27:15) Market structure (30:32) Agent economy(37:21) Cognition’s team of founders(39:31) Jevons paradox and software (42:00) When will we see AI UIs?(45:52) “I think we have AGI”(47:03) Windsurf deal(52:37) M&A in AI(54:21) Cognition’s culture (55:48) Learning as a CEO(57:12) Scott’s information diet
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on bitcoin going to $1 million, electing a pro-crypto Congress, and Jamie Dimon
Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what’s happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers, war stories from early scaling, confronting people who won’t use AI to code, Coinbase becoming people’s primary financial account, and why banks are now embracing crypto.Full episode transcript on Substackhttps://cheekypint.substack.com/p/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrong-on-bitcoinTimestamps(00:00) Intro(01:14) How Coinbase won the exchange market(06:22) Losing money on every bitcoin purchase(10:54) North Korean hackers(14:54) The Everything Exchange(17:39) Crypto will be bigger than gold(19:22) Stablecoin adoption(23:28) Jamie Dimon and big banks on crypto(26:44) Coinbase as your primary financial account(27:53) Neobanks(29:41) Bitcoin going to $1 million(33:16) Crypto in an investment portfolio(34:43) GENIUS Act(37:10) Electing a pro-crypto Congress(45:24) Reforming accredited investor rules(48:33) Squashing scams(50:11) Bitcoin preserving the American experiment(57:09) Balaji Srinivasan(01:01:05) The mission-first company announcement(01:05:50) How does Coinbase focus?(01:07:44) Venture bets and Brian vetoing USDC(01:12:02) Brian’s AI coding mandate(01:15:13) Advice for Stripe
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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on tokenizing private companies, changing the SEC, and Frank Slootman
Vlad Tenev joins John Collison to discuss Bulgarian hyperinflation, Robinhood Banking, details from the GameStop saga—including advice from Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk, payment for order flow economics and Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys, his approach to leadership through the Frank Slootman framework, and how he would change the SEC.Full episode transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/robinhood-ceo-vlad-tenev-makes-hisTimestamps(00:00) Intro(00:58) Hyperinflation in Bulgaria(04:07) Stablecoins (05:41) Home country bias in investing(06:59) Robinhood’s origins(11:23) What the book Flash Boys got wrong(16:11) Options vs. equities(17:38) Robinhood Gold(19:34) Robinhood Banking (22:04) GameStop advice from Benioff, Zuck, and Elon(26:40) Impact of retail investors on capital markets(31:21) Where retail dollars are coming from(32:10) The gamification narrative(34:17) Tokenizing private companies(41:57) Vlad makes his pitch to tokenize Stripe(45:00) Prediction markets: tennis, the pope, and AI(49:26) If Vlad ran the SEC(51:15) How does Robinhood ship so fast?(52:38) Remote work and Robinhood’s founder community (55:39) “What would Frank Slootman do?”(57:32) Active traders(59:46) Killing Robinhood’s cash card(01:02:36) Harmonic and mathematical superintelligence
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1:05:50
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on designing AGI-pilled products, model economics, and 19th-century vitalism
Dario Amodei joins John Collison to talk about Anthropic's growth to ~$5 billion in ARR, how AI models show capitalistic impulses, predictions for an agentic future, the economics of model businesses, and the 19th-century concept of vitalism.Full episode transcript on Substack: https://cheekypint.substack.com/p/a-cheeky-pint-with-anthropic-ceoTimestamps(00:00) Intro(00:50) Working with your sibling(01:43) Building Anthropic with 7 cofounders(02:52) ~$5 billion in ARR and vertical applications of products(07:18) Developing a platform-first company(10:08) Working with the DoD(11:11) Proving skeptics wrong about revenue projections(13:13) Capitalistic impulses of AI models(15:43) AI market structure and players(16:56) AI models as standalone P&Ls(20:48) The data wall and styles of learning(22:20) AI talent wars(26:04) Pitching Anthropic’s API business to investors(27:49) Cloud providers vs. AI labs(29:05) AI customization and Claude for enterprise(33:01) Dwarkesh’s take on limitations(36:12) 19th-century notion of vitalism(37:27) AI in medicine, customer service, and taxes(40:59) How to solve for hallucinations(42:41) The double-standard for AI mistakes(44:14) Evolving from researcher to CEO(46:59) Designing AGI-pilled products(47:57) AI-native UIs(50:09) Model progress and building products(52:22) Open-source models(54:43) Keeping Anthropic AGI-pilled(57:11) AI advancements vs. safety regulations(01:02:04) How Dario uses AI
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1:02:51
Serial entrepreneur Pieter Levels on building in public and living as a digital nomad
Pieter Levels joins John Collison to discuss building successful online businesses as a digital nomad, thoughts on European accelerationism, and Pieter’s unconventional methods and philosophy as a bootstrapped founder making over $3 million per year.Full episode transcripthttps://cheekypint.transistor.fm/4/transcriptTimestamps(00:00) Intro(00:37) Pieter’s resume(01:33) Trying to make money online as a 12 year old(02:43) Being one of the first YouTube creators(03:18) Who should indie hack(04:31) What Pieter hates about VC-backed businesses(07:51) Who is digital nomading for?(09:15) Learning from @patio11(10:17) 125k tweets and the brand of @levelsio(10:59) Getting referrals from ChatGPT(11:43) What Pieter automates with AI(13:02) Investing and home country bias(15:05) Hacking thermostats(15:57) EU acceleration movement(18:34) Entrepreneurship in the EU(19:26) Pieter's reflections on Stripe’s API(21:21) Looking 5 years into the future
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