Episode 7 of the Trading Places Podcast featuring Turner Novak from The Peel Pod and Banana Capital is out now.
This week we cover a range of news highlights from a very boisterous week in tech and fundings (Polymarket, Kalshi, Navan IPO, Bitcoin shorts, gold price boom) plus a jam packed [valuation corner] hosted by Practical Venture Capital's GPs Dave McClure and Aman Verjee on OpenAI's latest $500B valuation.
[ tech news + IPOs ]
00:44 - Navan IPO
03:38 - Reflection AI, Base Power
04:33 - prediction markets on fire
08:18 - China / Trump crypto crash
11:36 - Gold: gonna be gonna be Golden
[ turner novak, banana capital interview ]
15:09 - turner novak's background
27:10 - VC-posting
39:29 - “going viral” / distribution channels
53:41 - secondary strategies for DPI
[ valuation corner: openAI ]
1:11:42 - $500B secondary: AI bubble?
1:17:06 - OpenAI / Oracle / Nvidia deal
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pod highlights this week:
-prediction markets are having a moment: Kalshi and Polymarket both announce huge funding rounds
-gold prices skyrocket; bitcoin crashes
-turner novak of banana capital on the art of 💩posting and how being a social media vc-fluencer helps him support his port co's and get better access to deal flow
-turner drops wisdom from his years working as an intern at AFORE to launching his own fund during quarantine and his investment thesis these days ("you need to fix something for someone")
-professor verjee walks us through the insane latest $500B OpenAI valuation at $500B (up from $300B in March 2025)
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[ trading places podcast = www.linktr.ee/tradingplacespod ]
[ turner novak = https://x.com/turnernovak ]
[ aman verjee = https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-verjee/ | https://x.com/amanverjee ]
[ dave mcclure = https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure/ | https://x.com/davemcclure ]