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We The Builders

Suffiyan Malik

Conversations with practitioners at the edge of their craft across business, media, startups, frontier technologies, investing.

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  • 23 episodes
  • Avg 1 hr 15 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • April 11 · 1 hr 40 min

    E24: Rob Leclerc on Building AgFunder, the Biggest Media Platform & Venture Fund focused on Food & Ag

    Intro Rob Leclerc is the Cofounder and General Partner of AgFunder which is $300m AUM venture fund focused on food and agriculture. He also started AgFunder News which has over 100,000 subscribers and is the largest publication and source of news for the world of venture and startups focused on food & ag. In this conversation we discuss how media and venture have always gone together and how Rob was able to use that as a platform to build the venture business. We also dive into his personal story of why and how he got started in venture capital having no experience in the space. What people might not know is that AgFunder actually started out as a crowdfunding platform for food & ag startups and was part of the 500 Global accelerator. Watch on YouTube: Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:55 - From being un-hirable to a PhD and starting a VC Fund 04:03 - The 2008 financial crisis and exposure to the Agriculture space 07:47 - Going from computer science and philosophy to food and bio 13:36 - The “Miserable Failure” of Rob’s first startup 16:40 - Building the TechCrunch for AgTech 22:28 - Going from media to venture and finding your own voice 27:44 - 500 Global and the million-dollar demo day 31:19 - Transitioning from Broker to Principal 37:50 - “Trust can’t be rushed”, how that applies to fundraising 42:21 - AgFunder’s business model and keeping storytelling alive 51:35 - The evolution of AgFunder’s thesis 1:00:26 - Managing customer relationships 1:04:55 - What builds founder resilience 1:08:58 - The true definition of agency and how do you inculcate that in kids 1:13:48 - What’s more important agency or intelligence? 1:14:56 - Rob’s vision for 2050 1:21:42 - Humanoid Robotics and the “Specialized vs. General” debate 1:26:08 - Rob’s lessons in storytelling 1:30:51 - Reputation through Reps: The intentional practice of the pitch 1:38:04 - Closing questions, how does Rob build relationships This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  • April 9 · 2 hr 19 min

    E23: Leland Miller Breaks Down the China Threat. IP Theft, GDP Fabrication, Taiwan Takeover. What is Really Going On?

    Intro: Leland Miller is the Cofounder of China Beige Book, which according to some media reports has been labelled as a firm having more data on China than even the CIA. He is also a Commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission. He has advised Fortune 50 CEOs and top government officials including the Congress on China. In this conversation we talk about: —> The espionage in the tech industry from universities to companies —> Why China has long-term strategy for Taiwan where they expect the West to self-implode —> How U.S banks including JP Morgan were partially responsible for covering up China’s real economic condition —> How China fabricated their GDP —> What happened to the great China opportunity? —> China’s military readiness And more. Full episode now available wherever you get your podcasts. Watch on YouTube: Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction01:26 - China 101: The death of the “China Dream” 09:26 - Surveillance, residency permits, and the reality of internal environment 11:04 - Supply chain leverage: Why critical minerals are national security 13:50 - The pharmaceutical threat: Chinese control of U.S. medication supply chains 16:34 - Strategic decoupling: Reshoring and friendshoring national security nexuses 19:45 - Dependence on Chinese foundational materials 24:21 - The military balance in the Pacific: Why everyone thinks they would lose 27:56 - Command readiness: Xi Jinping’s military purges and wartime memory loss 31:13 - Geostrategy in the neighborhood: Japan, Philippines, and missile distance 35:20 - Made in China 2025: The fourth industrial revolution playbook 37:46 - Reindustrialization hurdles: Shipbuilding, chips, and bipartisan focus 39:50 - Breaking the rare earth processing monopoly 43:54 - An Economic Security Strategy: A 5-point master plan for the US 49:19 - IP theft and clones: The deep-rooted issue of technological espionage 52:01 - The STEM dilemma: Training talent in the U.S. and letting them go back55:27 - China’s compute disadvantage and U.S incentives 01:00:23 - The Food and Energy problem01:06:12 - Xi Jinping’s psyche: Paranoia, time horizons, and the Taiwan ticking clock 01:10:56 - Economic sensibilities: Global frustration with the imbalanced trade model 01:16:35 - Why China doesn’t drive global growth 01:19:02 - GDP Fabrication: Trillon-Yuan exaggeration 01:28:41 - Tracking credit and stimulus in a “non-commercial” system 01:33:59 - AI, Quantum, and Biotech integration 01:45:18 - Counterbalancing industrial policy01:58:19 - Why China uses 12x more robots than prediction 02:08:52 - Why Xi doesn’t care about consumers 02:14:35 - Closing thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

  • April 8 · 29 min

    In Conversation with Shahin Farshchi at Lux Capital, $7B Fund Accelerating SciFi

    Special conversation with Shahin Farshchi at Hill & Valley Forum 2026 now available wherever you get your podcasts. Lux Capital has deployed over $7B in deeptech and have been accelerating us towards SciFi future for over 20 years. Shahin has invested in companies manufacturing in space (Varda), building autonomous transportation systems (Zoox), providing robots as a service (Formic), automating industries (Covariant), using space to revolutionize the Earth observation industry (Planet), 3D printing rockets (Relativity Space) and many more. Watch on YouTube This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wethebuilders.us

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes