Elad Gil on startup fundraising in 2023, his bold predictions for Silicon Valley, AI market map, energy and the politics of nuclear power, and how he finds the smartest builders

In this episode, we talked to Elad Gil - a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, operating executive, and investor or advisor to companies including AirBnB, Pinterest, Square, and Stripe. He is also the author of High Growth Handbook, the playbook for turning a startup into a unicorn, and for navigating the most complex challenges that confront leaders and operators in high-growth tech startups. We covered a wide variety of topics during this chat - the current economic conditions and what it means for tech startups, his investing philosophy, how he finds founders, on AI and the AI market map, on energy and the politics of nuclear energy and so much more. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:42 Who is Elad Gil 2:42 What motivates Elad 4:56 Elad’s first investment(s) 6:24 Who to invest in? How has it changed over time 8:48 What Elad looks for in a founding team 13:47 Startups during COVID 21:33 Bloated companies and layoffs 30:16 M&A and the state of seed market 33:30 Why Elad does it all by himself 35:35 What to do if you got laid off 38:27 The state of Artificial Intelligence startups 44:26 The AI market map and used cases 55:12 Will AI replace human jobs? 58:30 Elad’s history in energy 1:00:00 Carbon footprint & nuclear energy 1:01:49 The history and politics of Nuclear energy 1:11:30 Talent and human capital flow 1:16:26 How Elad finds the smartest builders 1:18:07 Looking back and predictions 1:20:20 Passing the baton in Silicon Valley