"World of DaaS"

This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief covers Auren Hoffman’s guide to running a job search like a full-time commitment. Instead of vague networking, he lays out a five-step process that stresses clarity, specificity, and creating value before asking for help. From defining target roles to demonstrating impact with real work, the approach reframes job hunting as a strategic, disciplined pursuit.

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Zac Bookman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenGov, which provides cloud software and AI solutions to over 2,000 government agencies across the United States. In February 2024, OpenGov was acquired by Cox Enterprises for $1.8 billion.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Zac and Auren discuss:

• Making public data truly accessible
• Growth vs sustainability in GovTech
• How COVID transformed government digitization
• AI's potential in local...

This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief covers the lawsuit filed by Penske Media Corporation, parent of Rolling Stone, against Google over its AI Overviews feature. PMC argues that these AI-generated summaries siphon traffic and revenue from publishers by removing the need for users to click through to original articles. The case raises major questions around copyright, fair use, and the long-term sustainability of the publishing indust...

Jason Kwon is the Chief Strategy Officer at OpenAI.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Jason and Auren discuss:

• Compute bottlenecks and power infrastructure challenges
• User expectations vs AI capabilities
• Geopolitical competition in AI development
• Bringing top AI talent to the United States

Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @wo...

Tyler Denk is the co-founder and CEO of beehiiv, a newsletter platform that has grown to over $20 million in annual revenue in under four years. He was the second employee at Morning Brew, where he built the growth infrastructure that helped scale the company to 3.5 million subscribers before its $75 million acquisition by Business Insider in 2020. He’s also the creator of big desk energy, a newsletter with over 100k subscribers. 

I...

Gokul Rajaram is a founding partner at Marathon Management Partners and former product leader who helped build Google AdSense and Facebook's advertising platform. He serves on the boards of Pinterest, Coinbase, and The Trade Desk, and previously led product teams at Square and DoorDash.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Gokul and Auren discuss:

• Building massive advertising platforms at Google and Facebook
• How AI is transformi...

This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief explores the evolving role of synthetic data in AI. Synthetic datasets are increasingly used to safeguard privacy, cut costs, and speed up model training, particularly in testing rare scenarios. But challenges remain, including risks of carrying over biases from real-world data and the need for careful validation to ensure reliable outcomes.

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Patrick Lencioni is one of the founders of The Table Group and is the pioneer of the organizational health movement. He is the author of 13 books, which have sold over 9 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.

As President of the Table Group, Pat spends his time speaking and writing about leadership, teamwork, and organizational health and consulting with executives and their teams.  After more than twenty ye...

This episode is a rebroadcast of host Auren Hoffman's appearance on the CMO Confidential Podcast.

Auren shares why he believes vendor management is the #1 skill for future executives—and why most companies should rent world-class capabilities rather than hire executives they can’t fully utilize. From “scaffolding” young talent to his provocative views on procurement’s negative value, Booz Allen, MBAs, and the transformation of ...

This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief looks at new research from MIT, which finds that 95% of generative AI pilot programs inside companies are failing to deliver meaningful financial impact.

The issue is not model quality but enterprise integration and a steep organizational learning gap. The report shows ROI is strongest in back-office automation even as most budgets flow to sales and marketing, and that success comes from buying spe...

Rujul Zaparde is the co-founder and CEO of Zip, the $2.2 billion AI platform for procurement trusted by OpenAI, Anthropic, Snowflake, and hundreds of leading enterprises. He previously co-founded FlightCar, which raised over $40 million and was acquired by Mercedes-Benz. A former Airbnb product manager and Y Combinator visiting partner, Rujul has built Zip into the category-defining leader in procurement orchestration.

In this episo...

This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief looks at a recent piece by Auren Hoffman, co-authored with Sushant Bhardwaj and Lily Petherick from Flex Capital, on a little-known but impactful clause in VC term sheets that can strip founders of their voting rights when they leave their company.

We cover how this “employment-tied voting rights” provision, often overlooked until it is too late, can leave founders as shareholders without a voice a...

Brian Potter is a structural engineer and author of Construction Physics, a weekly Substack about the economics, technology, and productivity of building and infrastructure. He's also a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Progress. 

In this episode of World of DaaS, Brian and Auren discuss:

• Why construction productivity has flatlined for decades
• The failure of modular construction and automation barriers
• The unprecedented innov...

Howie Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Airtable, the AI-native app platform which has raised over $1.3 billion in funding and is valued at more than $11 billion. Howie sold his first startup, Etacts, to Salesforce when he was just 21 years old.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Howie and Auren discuss:

• The evolution of the no-code/low-code movement
• How AI is transforming software development
• Pricing strategies for SaaS products
• The ...

Dwarkesh Patel is the host of the Dwarkesh Podcast, where he interviews leading scientists, founders, and economists about AI, science, and progress.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Dwarkesh and Auren discuss: 

• Why experts overestimate AI capabilities  
• The continual learning bottleneck in current models 
• Japan's economic crash and global productivity stagnation 
• Spaced repetition and effective learning strategies

Lo...

Michael Ramlet is the co-founder and CEO of Morning Consult, a global decision intelligence company with more than $100 million in annual revenue. Morning Consult conducts 30,000 daily interviews across 40+ countries and serves more than half of the Fortune 500.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Michael and Auren discuss:

• The evolution from telephone to online polling 
• Building representative polling samples in the modern era 
• Real...