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Term Sheet

Fortune Magazine

Welcome to the Term Sheet podcast! In this series, Allie Garfinkle adapts her Term Sheet newsletter in audio and video format, diving deeper into the latest news and insights on private equity, venture capital and start-ups. Every week, the show features conversations with industry leaders, insights, and a roundup of the biggest funding news.

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August 26 · 36 min
Inside Wonder's Plan to Automate Restaurants: From Robotic Kitchens to Drone Delivery | Term Sheet
An automated assembly line inside a Wonder kitchen can churn out 500 customized burrito bowls with zero order errors. This is a system CEO Marc Lore views as merely the baseline for his $9 billion food-tech enterprise. Fresh off acquiring Sweetgreen’s robotic kitchen technology, Wonder told Fortune's Allie Garfinkle it might go public early next year. Listen to Term Sheet to find out more. 4:06 — The Biggest Risk Isn’t Taking a Risk 6:16 — Why NBA Teams Could Be the Ultimate Investment 10:40 — The Billion-Dollar Bet on the Future of Food 17:37 — Inside Wonder’s Radical New Management System 22:12 — AI Could Turn Anyone Into a Restaurant Owner 24:39 — The “Infinite Bowl Machine” Is Coming 26:06 — Millions of People Could Soon Own Their Own Restaurants 28:17 — The Future of Food Delivery Is Coming From the Sky 30:43 — The M&A Mistake That Can Cost Companies Millions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 13 · 47 min
This Mentalist Says He’s Training ChatGPT to Hypnotize People | Term Sheet
Mentalist Max Major has spent decades hypnotizing people. Now, he says he's training a ChatGPT voice model to do it too. As people turn to AI for advice, therapy, companionship, and everyday decisions, a bigger question is emerging: Could AI become persuasive enough to shape human behavior? If AI can reliably influence our decisions, the implications stretch far beyond chatbots, affecting advertising, consumer spending, investing, and financial advice. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Max Major to explore the emerging world of AI hypnosis, why he believes it works, and what it could mean for the future of business and human decision-making. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
July 29 · 33 min
The $11.5B Startup 100 Investors Turned Down | Term Sheet
Live shopping in China is a massive, multi-billion-dollar market, but for years, American platforms have struggled to crack the format. But in 2019, Grant LaFontaine and Logan Head started a live shopping marketplace for Funko Pops that not many investors believed in. Fast forward to today, Whatnot has transformed into a $11.5B valuation company, hitting 1 billion orders this year, overseeing transactions for everything from Pokémon cards to live seafood. It is now among the nation’s biggest shippers. Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle sits down with CEO Grant LaFontaine to talk about this unforeseen growth and the next steps for the company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 25 · 33 min
How This Multi-Millionaire Investor Spots Billion-Dollar Ideas | Term Sheet
Over 3,000 venture capital firms are operating in the U.S. today. Lux Capital's co-founder Josh Wolfe thinks more than half of them won't survive the decade. He has spent 25 years making calls nobody else would make, backing Anduril before defense tech was a category and surgical robotics before it had a market. Now, fresh off a $1.5 billion fundraise, he's warning that the AI boom is headed for a crash that will wipe out trillions in market cap and take most of the venture industry with it. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Wolfe to find out who survives the shakeout, where the defense tech bubble breaks, and the predictions he's making for 2027. 0:00 The VC Extinction Has Already Started 0:50 Hot IPO Summer: SpaceX's $2 Trillion Debut 2:05 The VC Who Bets Against Everyone 2:26 Josh Wolfe: Half of VC Firms Are Going Extinct 5:24 Why Lux Plays the Middle 6:14 Turning Science Fiction Into Billions 6:43 Star Wars Inspired a Billion-Dollar Exit 8:41 Real-Life X-Men Is Already Here 9:41 How He Spots Fake Science in Seconds 11:19 Is Venture Capital Eating Itself? 13:59 The AI Crash: Trillions Wiped Out 16:55 Why a Fruit Fly Could Beat the Big AI Labs 17:21 Soon Everything You Say Is Recorded? 19:57 The Defense Bet Nobody Would Make 22:51 Kill Chains and Moral Precision 27:45 Wolfe's 2027 Prediction: A 15% Nasdaq Drop 30:41 Why He's Still Betting on the Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 11 · 53 min
The Investor Who Bet on SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic Before You Could | Term Sheet
A hidden market for shares of the world's hottest private companies has quietly grown to an estimated $112 billion, and most of it happens off the books. As SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic edge toward going public, the investors who poured billions into pre-IPO shares may not actually know what they own. Larry Aschebrook founded G Squared in 2011, when trading secondaries made you a "bottom feeder" who got cease-and-desist letters. Today the firm manages north of $8 billion and holds stakes in SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Larry to talk about the shadow market behind the biggest names in tech, why layered SPVs could leave investors with nothing, and the reckoning he sees coming when these companies finally go public. 0:00 The $4 Trillion Problem Nobody's Talking About 0:56 Hot IPO Summer Is Here 1:58 They Wouldn't Return His Calls 3:15 His First Trade? Twitter Stock 6:06 What Secondaries Actually Are 7:26 The SPV Trap: Fees Stacked on Fees 14:27 The Doctors and Dentists Problem 18:55 Back When This Was Taboo 21:35 What Facebook's Lockup Should Teach You 23:56 "SpaceX Could Force a Reckoning" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 28 · 41 min
Investment Bankers Built A $2B AI To Replace Themselves | Term Sheet
Gabe Stengel studied computer science at Princeton and started his career as an investment banking analyst at Lazard. Then he did something a lot of bankers think about but never do: he quit at 23 to build the AI that would automate his old job. After 30 VC passes and two grueling years, his company Rogo just raised $160 million at a $2 billion valuation, and 35,000 bankers at firms like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and his former employer Lazard now use it. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Gabe to talk about the future of M&A, why some Wall Street workflows will never need a human again, and what AI means for the next generation of investment bankers. 0:00 The Banker Automating Wall Street 0:16 What "AI for Wall Street" Actually Means 3:13 Inside the Billion-Dollar Deal Rooms 6:07 Quitting Wall Street at 23 7:35 The Brutal Early Days & 30 Rejections 14:45 Meet Felix, the AI That Never Sleeps 19:55 Will AI Kill Banking Jobs? 25:52 Competing With OpenAI, Anthropic & Google 30:08 Why a Finance Legend Bet on Him 35:30 Does Wall Street Still Matter? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 13 · 36 min
This Creator Investor On The Truth About The AI Gold Rush | Term Sheet
Claire Zau spent six years in venture capital and became the youngest investor to make partner at GSV. Then she did something very few other VCs were doing: she started posting social media videos about AI to inform the general public. A year, 337,000 followers and 1.6 million likes later, Lightspeed Venture Partners hired her in a role that's never existed in venture before: New Media and Investor. Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle sits down with Claire to talk about the AI bubble, AI education, the gap between Silicon Valley and the general public, and why one in three Gen Zers say AI makes them angry. 0:00 — From VC to Viral: How a Lightspeed Partner Built an Audience on Short-Form 0:29 — The Algorithm Is a Feedback Loop and VCs Are Finally Using It 8:37 — Why Some People Are Being Left Out of the AI Story 17:21 — Promethean Fire: The Case for Techno-Optimism When Everyone's Scared 11:23 — AI Literacy Is Like Sex Ed — You Don't Have to Love It, But You Need to Know 13:54 — The Real Problem With How People Are Using AI (And How to Fix It) 23:53 — AI Gives You Leverage, but Only If You Know How to Use It 24:49 — Can You Actually Build a Moat in AI? A VC Answers Honestly 28:21 — Why Early-Stage Investing Is Still a Bet on People, Not Products 30:29 — Bits and Atoms: The New Investment Thesis for the AI Hardware Era Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 7 · 37 min
From a Palo Alto Closet to $1 Billion Revenue: How Gusto Cracked Small Business Software | Term Sheet
Approximately nine out of every ten net new jobs in America come from small businesses, yet they shoulder over $81 billion a year in federal paperwork. As more Americans launch their own businesses, the back office is buckling under the weight. In this episode, Josh Reeves, cofounder and CEO of Gusto, a payroll, benefits, and HR platform for small businesses, breaks down the contrarian bet that built a $9 billion company. He and Fortune's Allie Garfinkle discuss why small business tech is often overlooked, why he doesn't think AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic will touch tax compliance, and how Gusto crossed $1 billion in revenue on its path to what Reeves believes is a trillion-dollar opportunity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
April 22 · 33 min
How to Raise a CEO: The "Godmother of Silicon Valley" Esther Wojcicki
What is the secret to raising world-class leaders? In this episode, Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle sits down with Esther Wojcicki, the legendary educator and "Godmother of Silicon Valley." As the mother of three high-achieving daughters—including the former CEO of YouTube and the founder of 23andMe—Esther shares her leadership and parenting philosophy that works as well in the boardroom as it does in the classroom. She is also joined by her former student, Mary Minno, to discuss their latest collaboration–TreeHub–an ambitious new venture in AI-driven healthcare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
April 8 · 30 min
The Startup Fighting to Save the American Farm with Modern Finance
American agriculture is the backbone of the U.S. economy, yet the average farmer earns only 5 cents of every dollar spent on food. With an almost 50% spike in bankruptcies of U.S. farms and margins thinner than ever due to falling revenues and rising production costs, the agricultural economy is facing an inflection point. In this episode, Mackenzie Burnett, CEO & Co-Founder of Ambrook–a modern finance toolkit for farmers, breaks down the high-stakes world of agricultural finance. She and Fortune's Allie Garfinkle discuss why many farms still rely on paper ledgers, the "unscalable" journey to find product-market fit in a skeptical industry, and how modern financial tools are a critical part of the strategy to save American family farms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
March 18 · 52 min
How Winston Weinberg built his $11 billion AI Company | Term Sheet
Harvey co-founder and CEO Winston Weinberg has a method for leading his legal AI company, now valued at $11 billion after just three and a half years: psychological discipline. On this episode of Term Sheet, Weinberg tells Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle how he tracks his daily to-do list against his goals six months out, what he looks for in new hires, and how he avoids the pitfalls of being trapped by his own ego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
February 18 · 27 min
Why revenue is an outdated metric | Term Sheet
“Give everything you have to the people around you.” That’s Redpoint partner Meera Clark’s advice for aspiring venture capitalists looking to break into the increasingly competitive industry. In this episode of Term Sheet, Clark defines what “greatness” looks like in founders and explains why revenue is an outdated metric. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
February 4 · 40 min
Chemistry cofounder: “more talented founders than ever” are moving into health care | Term Sheet
Chemistry cofounder Kristina Shen says the market may be nearing a “reckoning” point. So why is she still optimistic going into 2026? In this episode of Term Sheet, Shen discusses why she decided to co-found her own VC firm, her excitement around health care, and why her team is focused on bringing the human element into venture capital. Allie also talks about the recent SpaceX and xAI merger and her exclusive feature story on Kleiner Perkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
January 21 · 41 min
Exelon CEO on if our utilities can handle the AI boom | Term Sheet
As resource-hungry data centers continue to sprout around the country, many are wondering whether our current utility network has the capability to handle such large-scale demands. Exelon CEO Calvin Butler says yes. Exelon is one of the nation’s largest public utility companies. It serves around 11 million customers, ranging from individual apartment owners to massive corporations. Butler joins Term Sheet to talk about how he and Exelon are working to address the surge in power demands sparked by new data centers while still serving the diverse array of consumers that make up their customer base. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
January 14 · 37 min
OpenAI Researcher turned VC on what we’re missing on the AI bubble | Term Sheet
The artificial intelligence PhD to VC pipeline may seem relatively obvious now but Jenny Xiao, cofounder of Leonis Capital, forged this path well before the AI boom ever started. She left a PhD program at Columbia to join OpenAI as a researcher and, one week after the debut of ChatGPT, she left to cofound Leonis Capital, a “research-driven” VC firm. Having seen the world of artificial intelligence through an academic, market, and investor lens, she joins Term Sheet to talk about why AI companies should be valued closer to (or even below) SaaS, the role academia plays in AI progress, the possibility of another “DeepSeek” moment, and more. Allie also talks about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s surprising Sunday night video and her recent story on Strava. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 5, 2025 · 34 min
“Healthcare isn't working for anybody,” says Cityblock Health’s Dr. Toyin Ajayi | Term Sheet
On day 36 of the U.S. government shutdown – fueled in part by clashes over the Affordable Care Act and the country’s healthcare system – Allie talks to someone working to disrupt and fix that system: Cityblock Health cofounder and CEO Dr. Toyin Ajayi. A former physician for at-risk patients, Ajayi saw how the system can sometimes work against patients, driving burnout and increasing costs. She cofounded Cityblock Health, a tech-forward healthcare startup that provides care to underserved communities. She joins Allie to talk about healthcare reform and how technology can lead to better health outcomes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 29, 2025 · 33 min
Vet care for the 21st century with Modern Animal’s Steven Eidelman
On this week’s Term Sheet, Allie talks with Steven Eidelman, founder and CEO of Modern Animal, a tech-forward veterinary clinic with 28 locations across Texas and California. Last month Modern Animal raised $46 million in Series D funding after making 85% year-over-year growth in 2024. Eidelman founded Modern Animal after selling his first start-up, Whistle, for $119 million in 2016. Allie and Steven talk about how the affordability crisis is impacting pet care, why he decided to disrupt the veterinary industry, how AI is integrated into Modern Animal, and more. Allie also muses on the possibility of a trillion dollar startup and talks about OpenAI’s new browser, Atlas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 22, 2025 · 31 min
“Success disasters,” data privacy, and unlocking growth with Oura CEO Tom Hale
Oura has been making headlines for months, most recently with its massive $900 million funding round, valuing the wearables giant at $11 billion. And before that, for expanding its partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, causing social media controversy. In September, while at Brainstorm Tech, Allie sat down with Oura CEO Tom Hale to talk about the company’s growth, data privacy, the biggest challenge he’s faced as CEO, the unexpected places he’s unlocked consumer value, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 7, 2025 · 36 min
"Bubbles have almost always preceded some important technological shift”: OpenAI's COO
OpenAI has had a huge week. Fresh off launching the AI video generation and social app Sora 2, they closed a multibillion dollar partnership with AMD that sent the company’s stock soaring. This was quickly followed by the release of new features, like agent-building and ChatGPT app integration, meant to supercharge OpenAI’s hold on the culture. Allie sat down with OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap at the company’s DevDay in San Francisco to discuss where the company stands in the enterprise market, what he thinks of the “AI bubble,” that MIT study, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 1, 2025 · 23 min
The Sociology of Startup Success with VC Powerhouse Hans Tung
Hans Tung first became a VC in his 20s and has gone on to invest in some of the most successful companies of our time––household names like Airbnb, Slack, Coinbase, and Peloton, among others. He was an early backer of Musical.ly, the app that became TikTok. Hans cofounded the firm GGV Capital, which then split into the Singapore-based operation, Granite Asia, and the U.S.-based Notable Capital, where he’s now managing partner. Allie and Hans talk about what makes a good investor, what he looks for in founders, his take on AI bubble anxieties, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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