Warning: This is a brief-ish, but hopefully entertaining intermission from the usual Superclusters programming.

When we passed the 50th episode mark more than a few episodes ago, Tyler (my editor) and I thought it'd be interesting to record an episode where I change seats. Instead of me asking the questions, someone else would ask me questions. And I couldn't imagine any better person to do so than my good friend, Allie, who in my humble opinion, is one of the best interviewers alive today.

Allie Garfinkle is a senior finance reporter for Fortune, covering venture capital and startups. She authors Fortune’s weekday dealmaking newsletter Term Sheet, hosts the Term Sheet Podcast, and co-chairs Fortune Brainstorm, a community and event series featuring an annual retreat in Deer Valley, Utah. A regular contributor to BBC’s Business Matters podcast, Allie is also a frequent moderator at major conferences such as SXSW. Before joining Fortune, she covered Amazon and Meta at Yahoo Finance and helped produce Emmy-nominated PBS Frontline business documentaries, including Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover and The Power of the Fed. A graduate of The University of Chicago and New York University, Allie currently resides in Los Angeles.

You can find Allie on her socials here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-garfinkle1/

X / Twitter: https://x.com/agarfinks

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:01] Art

[09:39] Competition

[17:49] Paleontology

[18:14] Allie's Tiki mugs

[22:49] How has VC evolved?

[29:41] Evaluating risk

[43:04] Why is it important for VCs to stay in touch?

[47:10] Are there reliably good investors?

[53:09] Young GPs in market

[54:58] How useful is education that come via public talks?

[57:50] Does your niche fund size make sense for the market?

[1:01:16] Is there too much venture capital?

[01:05:24] How much of VC is art vs science?

[1:07:18] What's going on in Allie's world?

[1:09:45] Post-credit scene: Receipts

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:

For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com

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