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The Index Podcast

Index Studios

The Index podcast goes beyond the code to get at the real stories behind some of today's most interesting emerging tech companies, the founders, the strategy, the stuff that actually happens behind the scenes.


Every week, host Alex Kehaya sits down with entrepreneurs, builders, and investors who are shaping where the internet is headed. Alex is CEO of ABK Labs and Corbits, a platform that helps companies put AI agents into production without losing sleep over it. Corbits handles the hard parts: knowing who or what is actually acting, keeping permissions locked down, managing credentials, and keeping a clear record of what happened. Run it on Corbits' cloud or your own, with whatever model you want.


We've got some news: two new co-hosts are joining the show!


First up, Anne Ahola Ward from CircleClick. CNN dubbed her "The Mother of Startups," and it's a title she's earned. Anne is a technical SEO with a reputation for growing startups by any means necessary, and she's become a trusted voice in tech with well over 100 TV appearances. She’s someone who can break down what's actually happening under the hood rather than just talking around it.

Then there's Steve Schoonebeek from Triton One. Steve leads BD there, and he spends most of his time talking to builders about what it really takes to move fast, reliable data at scale- no small feat. He's seen a lot of infrastructure get built (and rebuilt), and he's bringing his sage industry perspective to the table.


So now you've got Alex, Anne, and Steve all bringing different angles to the table. Same goal as always: real conversations with the founders actually building startups that matter.





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  • S2026 · E73
    Saturday · 35 min

    Spout Finance: What Are You Really Trusting When You Hold a Tokenized Stock?

    Most tokenized stocks are wrappers, which means there are more parties in the chain than most people realize. Marc Ryan, co-founder and CEO of Spout Finance, breaks down what you are really trusting when a stock goes on chain. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Marc, a former tech investment banker, explains how Spout Finance is bringing a prime brokerage style product to Solana, why overnight gaps shape how the platform handles risk, and why he thinks Wall Street is warming up to Solana. This is the unglamorous side of tokenized stocks that most people skip. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🔍 What you're really trusting when you hold a tokenized stock: issuers, wrappers, and custodians 🌍 Why tokenized stocks open US markets to people in emerging economies 🧮 How Spout Finance's options-based model works, explained in plain English 🌙 Why overnight gaps and thin after-hours liquidity shape how the platform handles risk 🗽 Is Wall Street warming up to Solana? What Marc hears from institutions in New York ⚖️ Why Marc thinks building on an EVM chain is the riskier bet 📜 What tokenized stock regulation could mean for the whole market 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Marc Ryan (X): https://x.com/0xmryan 🔗 Marc Ryan (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-ryan/ 🌐 Spout Finance (Website): https://spout.finance 🐦 Spout Finance (X): https://x.com/SpoutFi Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E72
    Friday · 40 min

    Untangle: Can One Founder and AI Agents Disrupt Divorce Law?

    Ryan Carson taught a million people to code at Treehouse. Now he runs Untangle almost entirely on his own, with a fleet of AI agents, and says all technology is about to be worth almost zero. In this episode of The Index Podcast, the four-time founder explains why his first idea was a total dud, how Untangle pivoted from consumers to an AI paralegal for divorce lawyers, and how an AI called Grace finds what the other side missed. This is what building a company looks like when product market fit and distribution matter more than the technology itself. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: ⚖️ How Untangle pivoted from helping consumers to building an AI paralegal for divorce lawyers 👁️ Meet Grace, the AI with the "eye of Sauron" that runs 90-minute forensic analysis on a case 🔨 Why Ryan says all technology is almost going to be worth zero, and what matters instead 🤖 How his agent R2 cold emailed law firms and landed the first meeting ☁️ Why he ships dozens of pull requests a day from his phone with cloud agents 🧠 Why agents are still amazing and stupid at the same time 🛰️ Ryan's breakdown of a wild story about AI agents teaming up through a hidden message board 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Ryan Carson (X): https://x.com/ryancarson 🌐 Ryan Carson (Website): https://ryancarson.com ⚖️ Untangle (Website): https://untangle.us Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E71
    Friday · 36 min

    Stanify: Why Do 97% of Brand Comments Go Unanswered?

    97% of comments on business pages never get a reply. Hank Leber, co-founder of Stanify, says that is the biggest missed opportunity in social media, and he built an AI to fix it. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Hank explains how Stanify hides toxic comments without the troll ever knowing, drafts replies in a brand's own voice with a human in the loop, and turns millions of comments into business insights. This is what happens when a company stops treating its comment section like a liability and starts treating it like a goldmine. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 💬 Why 97% of comments on brand pages go unanswered 🙈 How Stanify hides toxic comments without the troll knowing 🚪 The lobby analogy: why social media needs a private room, not a screaming match 🎙️ How Stanify learns a brand's voice in 15 seconds 🧑‍💼 Why humans stay in the loop instead of an auto-posting hallucination machine 📊 Why Stanify is really an insights and data company, not just AI automation 🤖 What happens when AI agents start talking to brands on behalf of customers 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🌐 Stanify (Website): https://stanify.ai 🐦 Stanify (X): https://x.com/stanify_ai Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E70
    Thursday · 24 min

    Context.dev: How Angry Emails Built a 400-Customer AI Startup

    Yahia Bakour kept getting angry emails from big companies about bad data quality. Instead of panicking, he treated them as a signal, killed his other projects, and went all in on one product. In this episode of The Index Podcast, the founder of Context.dev, backed by Y Combinator, explains how a web data API for AI agents went from a first customer that took a month to 400 customers, and why a team of four runs its DevOps with AI agents. This is what finding product market fit looks like when there is no data, only noise. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 📧 How angry customer emails became the signal to kill every other project and go all in 🌐 How Context.dev turns any website into an API with a single schema ⚡ Why scraping 100,000 URLs takes minutes with Context.dev instead of a day on your own machine 🆓 Why free credits beat a paywall when it comes to churn 🤖 How a team of four uses AI agents as its DevOps 🛰️ The monitors feature that had almost 500 monitors created within 20 minutes of launch 🏁 What Y Combinator's outlandish two-week goals actually feel like 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Yahia Bakour (X): https://x.com/mynameisyahia 🔗 Yahia Bakour (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/yahia-bakour/ 🌐 Context.dev (Website): https://context.dev 🐦 Context.dev (X): https://x.com/getcontextdev Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E69
    Thursday · 36 min

    Is Identity the Internet's Biggest Unsolved Problem? - Fidelity Labs

    Evan Schnidman, head of Fidelity Labs, believes the hardest problem in technology today isn't intelligence, it's identity. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Evan explains why verifying who or what you're transacting with is the key to unlocking agentic commerce at scale. This is what happens when a Harvard trained game theorist who sold his last company builds central-bank grade prediction models, and now runs the innovation lab inside one of the biggest financial companies on earth. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🕵️ Why Evan believes identity, not intelligence, is the hardest unsolved problem in tech 🏢 What Fidelity Labs actually is: a venture studio building inside an 80 year old financial giant 🤖 How agentic commerce could let agents pay each other for a single data point at a time 📜 How Fidelity built the first fully modern transfer agent in three decades 🔓 The real story of an AI agent that escaped its sandbox by finding a zero day vulnerability 🎭 Why AI generated impersonation scams are becoming an identity crisis of their own 🏦 Why Fidelity is betting on digital assets and alternative investments converging 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🔗 Evan Schnidman (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-schnidman/ 🌐 Fidelity Labs (Website): https://fidelitylabs.com 🐦 Fidelity (X): https://x.com/Fidelity Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E68
    Wednesday · 33 min

    Clean Coders: Is Uncle Bob Right That Buying Software Is Dead?

    Robert C. Martin, better known as Uncle Bob, wrote Clean Code. Now he says the days of buying software products are waning, and he built a word processor in 20 minutes to prove it. In this episode of The Index Podcast, the creator of Swarmforge explains why he now calls his own AI agent swarm a failed experiment, why reading agent-written code slows you down to human speed, and why programmers who master agents will be more in demand than ever. This is what more than 60 years of programming sounds like when the whole game changes. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🛒 Why Uncle Bob says the days of buying software products are waning ⚡ How he built a Scrivener-style word processor with an agent in 20 minutes 🧪 Why he calls Swarmforge, his own AI agent harness, a "failed experiment" 🦌 Alex's Claude Code vs Codex A/B test that built an elk hunting app 👀 Why reading agent-written code slows you down to human speed 📈 Why he thinks demand for programmers will go "through the roof" 🎓 How to onboard junior programmers: treat them like an agent first 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Uncle Bob (X): https://x.com/unclebobmartin 🛠️ Swarmforge (GitHub): https://github.com/unclebob/swarm-forge 📚 Clean Coders (Website): https://cleancoders.com 🌐 Uncle Bob (Website): https://cleancoder.com Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E67
    Wednesday · 40 min

    Is Quantum Computing About to Save Crypto, Not Kill It? - Franklin Crypto

    Chris Perkins, head of Franklin Crypto at Franklin Templeton, thinks the quantum computing threat to crypto is actually its biggest tailwind. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Chris explains why the race to build post quantum cryptography could be led by crypto itself, and what that means for the $500 trillion secured by public key encryption today. This is what happens when a Franklin Templeton executive, a CFTC advisor, and a former Marine sit down to explain why the end of encryption as we know it might be the best thing that ever happened to crypto. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: ⚛️ Why Chris thinks quantum computing is crypto's biggest tailwind, not its biggest threat 🔐 Why $500 trillion in assets secured by public key encryption is suddenly at risk 🏦 Why SWIFT took 7 years just to upgrade a messaging protocol, and what that means for post quantum migration 🏴‍☠️ Inside privateers, the new executive order letting white hat hackers hunt crypto scammers 📜 Why Franklin Templeton, an 80 year old asset manager, got into crypto back in 2017 🏛️ Chris's inside view from the CFTC's Global Markets Advisory Committee on tokenized collateral 🥤 Why regulation forces consolidation, and why AI could end up as a Pepsi and Coke duopoly 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Chris Perkins (X): https://x.com/perkinscr97 🌐 Franklin Templeton Digital Assets (Website): https://digitalassets.franklintempleton.com 🐦 Franklin Templeton Digital Assets (X): https://x.com/FTDA_US Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E66
    Tuesday · 59 min

    Horizons Law: Who's Legally Liable When a $100M Wallet Hack Happens?

    Chris Perkins, head of Franklin Crypto at Franklin Templeton, thinks the quantum computing threat to crypto is actually its biggest tailwind. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Chris explains why the race to build post quantum cryptography could be led by crypto itself, and what that means for the $500 trillion secured by public key encryption today. This is what happens when a Franklin Templeton executive, a CFTC advisor, and a former Marine sit down to explain why the end of encryption as we know it might be the best thing that ever happened to crypto. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: ⚛️ Why Chris thinks quantum computing is crypto's biggest tailwind, not its biggest threat 🔐 Why $500 trillion in assets secured by public key encryption is suddenly at risk 🏦 Why SWIFT took 7 years just to upgrade a messaging protocol, and what that means for post quantum migration 🏴‍☠️ Inside privateers, the new executive order letting white hat hackers hunt crypto scammers 📜 Why Franklin Templeton, an 80 year old asset manager, got into crypto back in 2017 🏛️ Chris's inside view from the CFTC's Global Markets Advisory Committee on tokenized collateral 🥤 Why regulation forces consolidation, and why AI could end up as a Pepsi and Coke duopoly 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Chris Perkins (X): https://x.com/perkinscr97 🌐 Franklin Templeton Digital Assets (Website): https://digitalassets.franklintempleton.com 🐦 Franklin Templeton Digital Assets (X): https://x.com/FTDA_US Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E65
    Tuesday · 52 min

    Is the 9:30 to 4 Stock Market About to Become Obsolete? - Raydium

    Ben Ungvari, CMO of Raydium, the Solana exchange that clears the majority of tokenized equity trading, explains why the 9:30 to 4 stock market is a relic of a world where you had to physically stand on a trading floor. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Ben breaks down how SpaceX's IPO traded on Raydium before most retail investors could touch it anywhere else, and why 24/7 trading is quietly becoming the new normal. This is what happens when the exchange that survived two bear markets by never chasing hype ends up clearing more stock volume than the NASDAQ on certain days. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🏛️ Why the 9:30 to 4 stock market is a relic of a world where you had to physically stand on a trading floor 📊 Why 63% of tokenized stock trading on Solana settled outside market hours in August 🚀 How SpaceX's IPO traded on Raydium before most retail investors could touch it anywhere else 💰 How Raydium cleared over $1 trillion in volume and $370 million in revenue in five years 🐕 The Trojan horse trick that pairs meme coins with tokenized stocks to get people invested 🌙 What actually happens when you trade a tokenized stock at 2 AM on a Sunday 🔮 Why Ben thinks 24/7 trading is going to feel completely boring in five years 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Ben Ungvari (X): https://x.com/ben_ungvari 🔗 Ben Ungvari (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/benungvari/ 🌐 Raydium (Website): https://raydium.io 🐦 Raydium (X): https://x.com/Raydium Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E64
    November 2 · 45 min

    Jake Brukhman: The Truth About Decentralized AI Training - CoinFund

    Jake Brukhman, founder and CEO of CoinFund, predicts we'll train a 400 to 500 billion parameter AI model on a decentralized network within the next six to nine months, with no data center required. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Jake breaks down why decentralized AI training is becoming the real counterweight to centralized AI labs, and why token incentives might be the missing coordination layer for the next era of intelligence. This is what happens when a crypto investor who called decentralized training two years ago before anyone believed it comes back to explain why it's actually happening now. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🚀 Jake's bold prediction: a 400 to 500 billion parameter model trained on a decentralized network within 6 to 9 months 💰 Why open source AI models don't have a business model, and why decentralized AI training does 🔓 Why cutting access to Fable 5 was a wake-up call for enterprises relying on centralized AI labs 🖥️ How training on a swarm of consumer hardware could actually be cheaper than a data center 💸 Why a trillion dollar inference market has almost no room for open models 🌐 How token incentives could crowdsource $100 million worth of compute in a single weekend 🏢 Inside CoinFund's bets on Pluralis, Bagel, Gensyn, and Prime Intellect 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Jake Brukhman (X): https://x.com/jbrukh 🌐 CoinFund (Website): https://www.coinfund.io 🐦 CoinFund (X): https://x.com/coinfund Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E63
    October 30 · 45 min

    Is This The Easiest Way To Trade Solana Options? - Richard King (Leaps Finance)

    Richard King, co-founder of LEAPS Finance, is building a Solana options protocol that pays you upfront in cash, whether or not your position ever triggers, with none of the Greeks that make options trading so intimidating. This is what happens when a former on-chain market maker decides the fix for illiquid Solana options isn't more volume, it's a completely different structure. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 💸 How LEAPS lets you sell options and get paid upfront in cash, whether or not the position triggers 📊 Why LEAPS focuses on selling options instead of buying them, and why that fits DeFi's yield culture 🧮 How covered calls and cash secured puts actually work, in plain English, no Greeks required 🤖 How an AI liquidity engine sources buyers from institutions and DeFi protocols 🔐 Why LEAPS locks funds behind multiple hardware key signatures instead of a single admin key 📉 Why crypto's implied volatility has been higher than its realized volatility this cycle 🚀 Why Richard thinks options could see 1,000x to 10,000x growth on Solana 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Richard King (X): https://x.com/richardkingxyz 🌐 LEAPS Finance (Website): https://www.leaps.finance 🐦 LEAPS Finance (X): https://x.com/leaps_finance Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E62
    October 30 · 35 min

    Reid Cuming (Ground): Why Banks Keep Your Yield and Give You Scraps

    Your bank keeps most of the yield on your deposits and hands you scraps once a month. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Reid Cuming, CEO and co-founder of Ground, breaks down how he's building the API that lets neobanks and fintechs plug into transparent, instant on-chain yield instead. This is what happens when the co-founder of Superstate decides the compliance playbook he built for tokenized treasuries needs to power an entire industry, not just one company. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🏦 Why your bank keeps most of your deposit yield and hands you scraps once a month 🔌 How Ground's API lets neobanks and fintechs plug into on-chain yield without building it themselves 🎛️ The risk button that lets clients choose exactly where their yield comes from ⚡ Why instant on-chain settlement is different from liquidity, and why that difference matters 🏛️ Why Ground is leaning hard into compliance and licensing instead of avoiding regulators 💰 Inside Ground's $3.6 million pre-seed raise from Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi 🗳️ Reid's read on the CLARITY Act and whether crypto regulation actually passes this year 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Reid Cuming (X): https://x.com/rmcuming 🔗 Reid Cuming (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidcuming/ 🌐 Ground (Website): https://www.groundtech.co 🐦 Ground (X): https://x.com/ground_onchain Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E61
    October 29 · 27 min

    How Startups Hit $10M Revenue With Under 10 People - Volition Capital

    Larry Cheng, co-founder and managing partner of Volition Capital, has seen companies hit $10 million in revenue with fewer than 10 employees in under 10 months, something that never happened in his 28 years of investing. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Larry breaks down why AI isn't just another tech cycle, it's a full capital reset, and what that means for moats, due diligence, and how founders should be building right now. This is what 28 years of pattern recognition sounds like when the old patterns stop working. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 📈 Why Larry is seeing companies hit $10 million in revenue with fewer than 10 employees in under 10 months 🐕 The inside story of how Volition backed Chewy and helped it beat Amazon at its own game 🧭 Why Larry now asks whether time is a company's friend or its enemy before investing 🏰 What actually counts as a moat when a company like Anthropic can ship your feature overnight 🤖 How Larry built an AI agent trained on 50 to 100 hours of his own investment thinking ☕ Why Larry paid the price of a couple of coffees for an app that used to cost $50,000 🔮 Why Larry believes the real winner of the AI compute race will be the end user 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Larry Cheng (X): https://x.com/larryvc 🔗 Larry Cheng (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrycheng/ 🌐 Volition Capital (Website): https://www.volitioncapital.com 🐦 Volition Capital (X): https://x.com/volitioncapital Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E60
    October 29 · 37 min

    Micah Alcorn: The $3.5 Trillion Market Missing From Crypto

    Options trading does $3.5 trillion a day in traditional finance, and crypto has almost none of it. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Micah Alcorn, founding CEO of Joyride, breaks down why he's building the first dedicated decentralized options exchange on Solana, and why 0DTE options could be the next wave of on-chain trading. This is what happens when a commercial real estate broker turned self-taught engineer decides the hardest problem in DeFi is the one worth solving. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 📊 Why options move $3.5 trillion a day in TradFi and almost nothing in crypto ⚡ 0DTE options: the most volatile, most traded instrument in traditional options markets 🔐 Why Joyride is betting on self-custody and on-chain accounting instead of a centralized exchange 🤖 How an AI co-pilot could make options as easy to trade as perps 🧮 Inside Joyride's RFQ system and why order books don't work for options on-chain yet 🚀 How Solana's V1 transaction upgrade unlocks multi-leg options trades 🏛️ Why Micah thinks options, not perps, could become DeFi's biggest market 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Micah Alcorn (X): https://x.com/micahalcorn 🌐 Joyride (Website): https://joyride.exchange 🐦 Joyride (X): https://x.com/JoyrideExchange Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E59
    October 28 · 42 min

    Jeremy Schifeling (The Job Insiders): Why CS Majors Have Higher Unemployment Than Art Majors

    Computer science majors now have a higher unemployment rate than art history majors. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Jeremy Schifeling, founder of The Job Insiders and author of Unbreakable, breaks down why being human is becoming the most valuable career skill in the age of AI. From AI-proofing your job search to winning LinkedIn's algorithm to landing your next role through relationships instead of cold applications, this conversation covers what actually works in today's AI-driven career and job search landscape. This is what happens when a former kindergarten teacher and a former Solana podcast host realize career advice and networking work the exact same way for everyone. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 📉 Why CS majors now have higher unemployment than art history and philosophy majors 🤖 Why 8 billion coders changed what skills actually matter in the job market 🎓 How Sam Altman personally called Khan Academy to test ChatGPT before it launched 💡 Jeremy's framework for AI-proofing your career, from his book Unbreakable 🤝 Why asking for advice works better than asking for a job 📖 The Ken Griffin story that explains why hustle still beats credentials 🔗 How to actually win on LinkedIn's algorithm instead of fighting it 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Jeremy Schifeling (X): https://x.com/schifeling 🌐 The Job Insiders (Website): https://www.thejobinsiders.com 🐦 The Job Insiders (X): https://x.com/2LinkedInGuys Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E58
    October 28 · 40 min

    Greg Lipschitz: The AI That Sees PTSD Where MRIs Can't (Firefly Neuroscience)

    Firefly Neuroscience is building an AI system that can read the human brain, and catch things MRIs and CT scans miss entirely. In this episode of The Index Podcast, CEO Greg Lipschitz and President Dave DeCaprio break down Evoke, their FDA-cleared EEG platform built on the world's largest standardized brain scan database. This is what happens when a finance guy, a neurophysiologist, and an MIT AI researcher all end up chasing the same problem from different directions. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🧠 How Firefly Neuroscience built the world's largest standardized EEG and ERP brain database, over 200,000 sessions 🩺 Why EEG can catch PTSD and cognitive decline that MRIs, CT scans, and PET scans miss entirely 🧩 The wild story of assembling Firefly from acquired pieces instead of building from scratch 🏆 How co-founder Dave DeCaprio's old startup beat IBM Watson and the Mayo Clinic to win a $1.6 million federal AI contest 📈 Firefly's data flywheel: over 1,500 brain scans a month and growing 🏥 The business model behind selling AI powered brain scans to neurology and psychiatry clinics 🔮 What's next: guiding treatment and building a Whoop for brain health 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🔗 Greg Lipschitz (X): https://x.com/Greg_Lipschitz 🧑‍💻 Dave DeCaprio (X): https://x.com/davedecaprio 🌐 Firefly Neuroscience (Website): https://fireflyneuro.com 🐦 Firefly Neuroscience (X): https://x.com/firefly_aiff 🔗 Firefly Neuroscience (Linkedin) https://ca.linkedin.com/company/fireflyneuroscience Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E57
    October 27 · 32 min

    Ken Berenger: Why Water Infrastructure Is Moving On-Chain

    Water infrastructure is quietly becoming one of the most interesting new real world asset classes in finance. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Ken Berenger, CEO of Water On Demand and Gridwater, breaks down how he built a real world asset platform that turns restaurant grease traps into a fully tokenizable, investable asset class, and why he believes water infrastructure is headed on-chain next. From a $20 billion pitch to European family offices to a new tax law that just made water more attractive than real estate or energy, this conversation covers how Water On Demand is building the real world asset infrastructure behind the next wave of tokenization. This is what happens when a stock broker from the '90s and a room full of crypto builders realize they built the exact same thing. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 💧 How Ken built Water On Demand to turn water treatment into an investable asset class 🍟 Gridwater: the grease trap and FOG treatment business that became the pilot case for the whole model 🏛️ How a new tax law suddenly made water treatment more advantaged than real estate or energy 💰 Ken's story of pitching $20 billion in family office money in London, and the question that changed everything 🔗 Why Ken believes water infrastructure is headed on-chain within 24 months 🖥️ The AI boom's hidden water problem: why data centers need millions of gallons for cooling 🧩 How tokenizing micro-shares of infrastructure could open up asset investing to everyone 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🔗 Ken Berenger (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-berenger-6a487a10/ 🧑‍💻 Ken Berenger (X): https://x.com/KenBerenger 🌐 Water On Demand (Website): https://waterondemand.com 🌐 Gridwater (Website): https://gridwater.com 🐦 Water On Demand (X): https://x.com/waterondemand Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E56
    October 27 · 25 min

    He Built an AI That Beats Insurance Companies at Their Own Game | Dean Margolis x Red Sky Health

    Health insurers use AI to deny thousands of claims a minute. Dean Margolis built the AI that fights back, and it doesn't get paid unless the hospital does. Inside this episode: a serial founder with 3 exits and an IPO, a product literally named after "denial," and a business model Gartner is already calling the future of software. 🩺 What we cover: 💸 The clerical error hiding inside half of all denied claims, and how AI catches it instantly 🥊 Insurers auto deny thousands of claims at once. Red Sky auto fixes them at the same scale 🔍 The 4 denial types costing hospitals millions: coding errors, eligibility gaps, missing pre auths, and "not medically necessary" 🔒 Why one compliance mistake could send a CEO to prison, and why Anthropic or OpenAI legally can't touch this data 🧠 Agentic AI, machine learning, and old school table lookups working together, not one silver bullet 💼 3 startups sold to public companies, 1 IPO, and why Dean says his own ideas are usually terrible 🌍 Zero office, a team across 10 states and 3 continents, and just 4 engineers because Claude and Cursor write the code 📊 The 20% outcomes based fee model Gartner is calling the death of traditional SaaS 🚀 First hospital network signed, $5M raised, and a Series A already lining up 🔗 Links: Watch more episodes of The Index: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Dean Margolis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-margolis-48935 Red Sky Health website: https://www.redskyhealth.com/ Red Sky Health LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/redskyhealth Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2025 · E55
    October 26 · 27 min

    Eddie Zhang (Arcus) on Tokenizing Wall Street: Zero-Fee Stocks, Robinhood Chain & 3x Leveraged ETFs

    Arcus is bringing Wall Street on-chain. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Eddie Zhang, Founder & CEO of Arcus, the decentralized exchange built by dYdX in partnership with Robinhood, breaks down how tokenized US stocks and perpetuals are going 24/7 on Robinhood Chain. This is what it looks like when the entire US stock market becomes as accessible as a stablecoin. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🏦 How Arcus brings 95+ tokenized US stocks on-chain with zero fees, 24/7 🤝 Why dYdX partnered with Robinhood to build Arcus on Robinhood Chain 🌍 The story behind giving people outside the US direct access to American equities 🧾 Inside Arcus' securitize-on-demand model for scaling to 10,000+ stock tokens 📈 A first look at 3x leveraged ETF tokens on SPY, HOOD, and Bitcoin 💰 Arcus by the numbers: over $500 million in stock and perpetual trading in month one 🔮 Eddie's take on AI compute, on-chain routers, and what's next for finance Chapters: 0:00 Intro & sponsor message 1:10 Meet Eddie Zhang, Founder and CEO of Arcus 1:52 What gets Eddie out of bed: opening access to wealth creation 3:54 How Arcus is different from what came before 6:51 The story behind unlocking global access to US stocks 10:48 Inside Arcus' securitize-on-demand smart contract 12:08 Why Arcus partnered with dYdX and Robinhood 15:28 Arcus by the numbers: $500M+ in the first month 19:30 AI tokens, on-chain routers, and the future of finance 20:51 First look: 3x leveraged ETF stock tokens 23:53 Why Robinhood launched its own chain now 26:22 What's next: the Arcus mobile app 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🧑‍💻 Eddie Zhang (X): https://x.com/epic_edge_ 🌐 Arcus (Website): https://arcus.xyz 🐦 Arcus (X): https://x.com/arcus_xyz Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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  • S2026 · E54
    October 26 · 33 min

    Sebastian Rodriguez (Billions Network) on AI Deepfakes, 2.5M Humans & Agents That Pay for Pizza

    AI deepfakes are already impersonating real people, including the host of this very podcast. In this episode, Sebastian Rodriguez, Chief Product Officer at Billions Network, breaks down how Billions is building the identity layer that tells humans, AI agents, and bots apart before the internet drowns in fake content. This is what it takes to prove you're real in a world where anyone can be faked. 🚀 In this episode, we cover: 🕵️ Why an AI deepfake has been impersonating this podcast's host to run scams 🔐 How Billions Network verifies humans and AI agents, 2.5M+ users and counting 🏦 Why HSBC and TikTok already trust Billions for identity verification 🌐 WebBotAuth: the new standard for signing every request on the internet 🤖 Inside X402: letting AI agents pay for pizza, beer, and free trials without getting abused 🧠 What identity even means for an AI agent that has no body 📉 A gray-beard take on the AI bubble: what pops and what doesn't 🔗 Follow & learn more: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🔗 Sebastian Rodriguez (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastianrodriguezbcn/ 🌐 Billions Network (Website): https://billions.network 🐦 Billions Network (X): https://x.com/billions_ntwk Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube

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Showing 1–20 of 57 episodes