What if SpaceX isn’t a space company at all — but a colonial monopoly with rockets? in ep.5 of trading places , @amanverjee compares Elon Musk’s empire to the dutch east india company. Dave McClure tries not to say “wtf.” armies, charters, monopolies — welcome to venture

Another great conversation this week with the founders of seedcamp on the one and only VC podcast about venture secondaries ⬇️

Congrats to the Phil Haslett and the team at EquityZen on their acquisition by Morgan Stanley announced today! Loved having Phil on the pod last week to talk about the state of the private market and institutional interest / Wall Street moving deeper into venture secondaries.

AI valuations are at record highs. But did we actually learn anything from the last bubble? 👀 Dave McClure and Peter Walker (Carta) take a look at the current state of funding data with Seed stage valuations at a record high and what AI companies' price tag mean for the

🦄 What happened to all those unicorn startups from the 2021 boom? Phil Haslett breaks down the shift: "For like 90% of them, the reason they didn’t need to go raise is because they literally could not. There was a bunch of haves and have-nots... and the longer it’s gone since

🎙️ Episode 10 of [trading places] featuring Rick Baker from Blackbird Ventures is out now. This week on trading places, hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee cover the latest tech news, including OpenAI's path to a trillion-dollar IPO, Big Tech's massive AI spending spree, and

Episode 13 of trading places featuring Emily Zheng (@Pitchbook) is out now! Welcome to Trading Places, the extremely terrible, very bad podcast on VC secondaries. Hosts Dave McClure and Aman Verjee (with special guest Amber filling in) break down the biggest news in venture

Venture secondaries are no longer on the sidelines. In Q3 2025, the US VC secondary market hit an estimated $94.9B across direct and GP-led deals, thanks to ballooning valuations from top unicorns and broader adoption, PLUS: 📈 Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab

Absolutely loved this interview with benjamindblack, the OG secondary VC and creator of the iconic RAISE Global for emerging managers and LPs. Watch the full episode below and subscribe to the pod for more conversations with alpha-only VCs ⤵️

our latest very bad #TradingPlaces pod covers: - #AdrienGautier explains Bridgespan.vc #secondary strategy for investing/financing startup stock options - Oracle crash on AI data ctr "junk bond" debt risk - 2026 IPO market looking like a BANGER, potential huge $1.5-2T

🚀 Huge IPOs may be coming in 2026: Aman breaks down why there’s reason to be optimistic for public markets: "You now have some very high profile players talking about going public...SpaceX and OpenAI and Anthropic... All of them are signaling that they're either hiring

Episode 17 of Trading Places Pod featuring Javier Avalos of Caplight is out now! This week: the IRS as your hidden secondary buyer, why banks need private market solutions, how platform acquisitions are reshaping secondaries, and whether AI companies are in a bubble or

🚩 TikTok isn't going anywhere, but the deal to save it is WEIRD. Aman Verjee breaks down how ByteDance is keeping exactly 19.9% to dodge the ban, plus a massive play from Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund. "The intent of the ban was really to reduce ByteDance and it's the direct

🚗 The wild gap in auto industry valuations: "The market is getting almost half the value of the entire vehicle market to Tesla today, even though Tesla's got only 2% share of global cars… BYD sells more cars than Tesla and may generate more revenue next year, but their market

First pod of the year out now! Focus: Japan and secondaries + a fresh look of the #mag7 in a public vs. private market teardown

Episode 19 of [trading places] is here. Dave McClure and Aman Verjee break down what’s actually happening in venture right now. we start with the reopening IPO market in 2026, a16z raising another $15B, Bill Gurley's latest AI takes, and why everyone suddenly cares about

2026 IPOs will boom, and so will the secondary market. 💥📈 New Trading Places Podcast episode with Noel Moldvai and Adam Patrick Crawley of Augment and Marcelo of Sacra. We discuss: • AI secondaries + Augment Power 20 • SPVs & liquidity • Why private markets now set the price

Most investors ride their winners straight back down to zero. Why? Ego. benjamindblack explains why feeling "safe" is the ultimate sell signal. If you hit a 5x return in years 3-5, take the win. "When you feel the safest, when you feel like I can do no wrong...that's exactly

🚨 Episode 21 of the Trading Places Pod is here! In this episode, Dave McClure and Aman Verjee are joined by Ravi Ravulaparthi (CEO & Co-Founder, @Qapita). Together, they unpack what’s actually happening across IPOs, secondaries, SPVs, late-stage price discovery, and a deep

this week our very bad horrible terrible no-good #TradingPlaces VC secondary podcast covers: - @Qapita cap table + #secondary platform - @AndurilTech $30B valuation - EquipmentShare & BitGo IPOs - Brex $5B, #CollerCapital $3.7B acquisitions - top #India unicorns 🇮🇳🦄 -