Smart Venture Podcast

Smart Venture Podcast The best information diet for future CEOs. Follow for practical career advice from the top leaders

06/01/2026

CEO Club Dinner No. 8. One of the best ones yet.

In the room: AI founders from seed to Series C, second-time founders who sold to Stripe, former engineering leaders from Cohere and Google DeepMind, the founder of Google Wallet, the founder of a $3.5B company, and some of the best AI investors in the game.

That's the room. And rooms like this don't just feel good — they compound. The intro that turns into a partnership. The conversation that reframes how you think about your company. The person across the table who's already solved the problem you're stuck on.

This is what we build. Every single time.

The best ideas in AI aren't in tweets or papers. They're at dinner tables like this.

Major thanks to our partners Auth0 and Nebius for making this happen 🙏

Sign up for future dinners in the comments. 👇

🎉 Week 118 — Venture with GraceWeek 118 explored AI platforms, AI-native go-to-market, frontier technology investing, an...
06/01/2026

🎉 Week 118 — Venture with Grace

Week 118 explored AI platforms, AI-native go-to-market, frontier technology investing, and the infrastructure powering the AI boom — with operators and investors sharing lessons from scaling some of the most important companies in the ecosystem.

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0Tu
Apple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpD
Youtube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnv
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8GQP
Website: https://svppro.com

Week 118 lineup:
Alex Triplett, COO at You.com:
Scaling AI platforms through M&A, platform strategy, and building durable AI businesses

Jordan Van Horn, COO at Monte Carlo:
AI-native GTM transformation and how modern software organizations are evolving around AI

Jim Adler, General Partner at Toyota Ventures:
Investing in frontier technologies and backing founders building at the edge of innovation

Chase Lochmiller, Co-Founder & CEO at Crusoe:
AI infrastructure, energy, and the compute systems enabling the next generation of AI models

Another powerful week — with a clear takeaway: the AI race is being won by companies that can combine distribution, infrastructure, and ex*****on at scale.

More coming next week.
See you live 👋

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0TuApple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpDYoutube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnvLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8G...
06/01/2026

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0Tu
Apple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpD
Youtube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnv
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8GQP
Website: https://svppro.com

Chase Lochmiller is Co-Founder, CEO & Chairman of Crusoe, building AI compute infrastructure with 300+ team across engineering, manufacturing, and operations while raising $600M+ from venture/project/credit investors—after General Partner at Polychain Capital, Quantitative Trader at Jump Trading, and Managing Director of Algorithmic Trading at KCG Holdings; serial quant trader-turned-founder scaling mission-critical compute platforms for AI workloads with playbook for capital-intensive deep tech at hyperscale. Previously Chase was a quantitative researcher and trader at Jump Trading and GETCO, where he developed and managed a portfolio of algorithmic trading strategies. Chase holds undergraduate degrees in math and physics from MIT and a masters degree in computer science from Stanford, where he specialized in artificial intelligence. He is currently on the board of CSforAll, an organization whose mission is to make high-quality computer science an integral part of the educational experience of all K-12 students and teachers. As a personal interest, Chase has climbed five of the “seven summits” including Mt. Everest.

Topics
- How Crusoe delivers AI compute without grid constraints or energy bottlenecks
- Growing Crusoe $600M capital during rapid expansion at AI infrastructure scale
- Quant trading readiness with algorithmic systems at Crusoe 300+ team scale

05/31/2026

CEO Club Dinner No. 5. And if you were wondering who was in the room.
Solo founders doing million-dollar ARR. Public company execs. Managing partners of billion-dollar funds. One dinner. No summit. No panels. Just the people you actually want to be around.

In a world where AI can generate anything — human connection is the one thing it can't replace. That's what we protect every time we build one of these rooms.

And we're just getting started. Our next dinner will even be better.

Massive thanks to our partners HubSpot for Startups, CIBC, and Virio for making this possible 🙏

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0TuApple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpDYoutube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnvLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8G...
05/31/2026

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0Tu
Apple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpD
Youtube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnv
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8GQP
Website: https://svppro.com

Jim Adler is the Founder and General Partner of Toyota Ventures, the venture capital arm of Toyota, where he leads investments across AI, robotics, mobility, cloud infrastructure, climate, and frontier technologies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.
Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.
AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He also serves as Executive Advisor at Toyota Research Institute. Prior to Toyota Ventures, Jim was VP of Products and Marketing at Metanautix, a big data analytics startup acquired by Microsoft, and previously served as VP of Data Systems and Chief Privacy Officer at Intelius. Earlier in his career, he founded VoteHere, a cryptographic online voting company backed by Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Entrust, and began his career as a rocket engineer at Lockheed Martin. Across investing and operating roles, Jim has focused on scaling transformative technologies at the intersection of data, infrastructure, mobility, and privacy.

Topics
- How Toyota Ventures invests in AI, robotics, and mobility for sustainable transportation
- From rocket engineer at Lockheed Martin to Toyota Ventures GP: frontier tech evolution
- Lessons from building and scaling venture-backed infrastructure companies

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0TuApple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpDYoutube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnvLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8G...
05/31/2026

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0Tu
Apple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpD
Youtube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnv
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8GQP
Website: https://svppro.com

Jordan Van Horn is the Co-Founder and COO of Monte Carlo, the data and AI observability platform helping companies like Intuit, Fox, and Roche improve the reliability of their data and AI systems.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.
Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.
AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since co-founding Monte Carlo in 2020, he has focused on scaling AI-native go-to-market organizations and operationalizing data quality across enterprises. Previously, Jordan held multiple leadership roles at Segment, where he led global sales expansion across EMEA, APAC, and North America, and earlier held sales leadership roles at Dropbox and Hay Group. At Monte Carlo, he has driven internal AI adoption across GTM teams, helping the company achieve over 80% AI workflow adoption through integrated AI systems and operational transformation.

Topics
- How Monte Carlo achieved 80% AI adoption across entire GTM team using unified OS
- Building world's first data and AI observability platform for Snowflake and Databricks
- From power user AI sprawl to organizational intelligence: compound capabilities at scale

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0TuApple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpDYoutube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnvLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8G...
05/31/2026

Spotify: https://bit.ly/3v1R0Tu
Apple: https://bit.ly/4bTCwpD
Youtube: https://bit.ly/3uXthnv
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/3Xs8GQP
Website: https://svppro.com

Alex Triplett is Chief Operating Officer at You.com. Before joining You.com in 2026, he served as COO & CFO at Appfire, where he led corporate strategy, product positioning, partnerships, PLG systems, and operational scaling across a 200+ person organization.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This episode is brought to you by Nebius — the ultimate cloud for AI innovators.
Nebius provides AI infrastructure you can count on, combining reliability and speed with flexibility and engineering support unmatched by hyperscalers.
AI leaders like Meta, Shopify, and Higgsfield already partner with Nebius to run their AI workloads. Plus, venture-backed startups can save up to $150,000 on compute costs when they apply for access. Visit nebius.com or nebius.com/startups to learn more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier, at ION, he helped drive revenue growth from $150M to $3B, leading 23 acquisitions totaling $11.7B in enterprise value alongside large-scale financing and integration efforts. Across his career, Alex has focused on scaling complex software platforms through operational rigor, inorganic growth, and product-led expansion.

Topics
- How You.com scales AI search and assistant through enterprise GTM motion
- Product-led growth, pricing strategy, and GTM ex*****on at scale
- Lessons from leading multi-billion-dollar corporate development initiatives

Address

San Francisco, CA
94105

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Smart Venture Podcast posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Smart Venture Podcast:

Shortcuts

Share

Category