deep dive into Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) businesses. World of DaaS is a podcast for data enthusiasts, by data enthusiasts, where Auren Hoffman talks to business and technology leaders about all things data - building it, acquiring it, analyzing it, and everything in between.
This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren's appearance on the We the Builders podcast.
We The Builders: https://twitter.com/WeThe_Builders
Host Suffiyan Malik: https://twitter.com/suffiyanmalikk
Substack: https://wethebuilders.us
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This week I sat down with Auren Hoffman founder, builder, prolific investor, and one of the most connected peo...
Craig Fuller is the founder and CEO of FreightWaves, a freight media company, and SONAR, a supply chain data platform. He’s also the founder of Firecrown, which owns more than 50 publications across aviation, marine, and supply chain sectors, and he recently released his first book, Moving the World: How the Supply Chain’s Evolution Affects Us All.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Craig and Auren discuss:
Tanay Kothari is the co-founder and CEO of Wispr Flow, a voice-first AI assistant that recently raised $56 million in Series A funding.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Tanay and Auren discuss:
Microsoft is investing $17.5 billion to turn India into a global AI powerhouse — from training 20 million workers to building new data infrastructure. We break down what this means for the future of AI talent, innovation, and digital sovereignty.
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Vinicius Vacanti is the co-founder and CEO of YipitData, an alternative data intelligence platform that analyzes billions of consumer data points daily for institutional investors and corporations. The company reached unicorn status with a $475 million Series E from Carlyle Group in 2021.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Vin and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief: MIT’s new research reveals how large language models can be fooled by their own grammar. By prioritizing sentence structure over sense, these systems risk producing confident but misleading outputs—and even ignoring built-in safety rules.
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Patrick McGee is the author of Apple in China, which was named one of the most notable books of the year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. The book is a deeply reported investigation into how Apple and China built each other over 25 years—and what that means for technology, supply chains, and geopolitics. Patrick has been a reporter with the Financial Times since 2013.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Patrick and Auren...
Dave Morin is co-founder and managing partner of Offline Ventures, a venture fund and studio backed by Apple as anchor investor. He was an early employee at Facebook, then founded the mobile social network Path.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Dave and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief highlights a Forbes piece on enterprise AI infrastructure, where the author examines why data pipelines, not the models themselves, are becoming the real bottleneck.
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Azeem Azhar is the founder of Exponential View, a newsletter and research platform on emerging technology read by over 130,000 executives and policymakers globally, and author of the bestselling book The Exponential Age.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Azeem and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief highlights Auren Hoffman’s latest piece, where he explores how emotion—not information—drives behavior across platforms, politics, and AI systems. The piece examines why algorithms amplify strong emotional signals, how “love” consistently outperforms “hate” in outcomes, and what this means for builders designing the next generation of data-driven products.
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Eric Simons is the CEO and co-founder of StackBlitz, the company behind Bolt.new, which reached $40 million ARR in five months after launching in October 2024. Bolt.new is an AI-powered platform that allows anyone to build, edit, and deploy full-stack web applications directly in the browser.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Eric and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief explores our latest roundtable, where data leaders discussed the evolving challenges of retaining and expanding enterprise customers in an increasingly competitive data economy. The conversation explored how companies are mitigating churn, proving ROI, and deepening customer value in the era of AI.
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Garrett Langley is the co-founder and CEO of Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based public safety technology company recently valued at $7.5 billion. Flock manufactures hardware like license plate recognition cameras, drones, and gunshot detection systems, as well as software used by thousands of communities and law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Garrett and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief explores Auren Hoffman’s latest Substack post, 46ers, 55ers, 81ers, and today - a fascinating look at how generational ambition and the rise of AI are shaping the next wave of builders. Auren draws parallels between past innovation eras and the new generation driving today’s tech transformation.
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Mark Ein is the founder, chairman and CEO of Venturehouse Group and has been involved in the founding or early stages of six companies worth over $1 billion. He also served as Chairman of the President's Export Council, is Executive Chairman of Kastle Systems, owns the DC Open, and was a key partner in the $6.05 billion acquisition of the Washington Commanders.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Mark and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief explores The New Stack’s article on the ethical challenges of agentic AI systems that can act autonomously. As organizations hand off more decisions to machines, questions around accountability, transparency, and data governance are becoming central to building and maintaining trust.
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Richard Shotton is the founder of Astroten and author of several bestselling books on marketing, including The Choice Factory, The Illusion of Choice, and most recently Hacking the Human Mind, co-authored with MichaelAaron Flicker. He specializes in applying behavioral science to marketing and has worked with brands like Google, Meta, BrewDog, and Barclays.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Richard and Auren discuss:
This week’s World of DaaS LM Brief explores Big Data Wire's article on how electricity, not data or compute, is emerging as the ultimate constraint on AI progress. As global data center demand surges, performance per watt efficiency and access to reliable power are becoming the new competitive edge. Some nations and companies are pursuing nuclear-powered computation hubs to secure a strategic energy advantage.
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Varun Anand is the co-founder and Head of Operations at Clay, a GTM platform that helps over 10,000 companies with data enrichment and sales outreach. Clay recently raised a $100M Series C funding at a $3.1B valuation.
In this episode of World of DaaS, Varun and Auren discuss:
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.
"SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!