BILLIONS28 Joulu 2025

From building a multi-billion dollar company to General Partner at the world’s top startup incubator

Today on BILLIONS, I’m sitting down with Nicolas Dessaigne — the engineer who bet everything on one idea, built Algolia into a multi-billion-dollar global search platform… and then did something almost no founder ever does:

he walked away.

Nicolas went from obsessing over one company for a decade… to shaping hundreds of startups every year as a General Partner at Y Combinator, the most influential accelerator on the planet.

In this episode, we will talk about why he left Algolia, how founders should think about liquidity, what really happens inside YC, and why the next wave of AI will be bigger — and stranger — than anyone expects.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a unicorn founder switches sides and becomes the one choosing the next unicorns… this conversation will change the way you think about ambition, ego, and the future of startups.

TIMELINE :

00:00:00 - 00:06:39: Why I walked away from my billion-dollar company

00:06:39 - 00:11:46: The brutal truth about founder liquidity and secondary sales

00:11:46 - 00:17:35: Inside YC's investment strategy and partner dynamics

00:17:35 - 00:22:31: How to spot the next unicorn founders before anyone else

00:22:31 - 00:28:02: The AI company revolution happening right now

00:28:02 - 00:34:50: Why your kids will outperform you with AI superpowers

00:34:50 - 00:40:47: Robotics and the future of physical AI agents

00:40:47 - 00:46:09: The model wars - who's really winning the AI race

00:46:09 - 00:51:04: Why Google shocked everyone and OpenAI's real advantage

00:51:04 - 00:54:44: The counterintuitive way to find billion-dollar startup ideas

REFERENCES :

- Bryan Onel, Oneleet founder

- François Chollet, ARC Prize founder

- Yann LeCun

- Y Combinator

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(31)

How to redesign an $800M-a-year software giant for the AI era - Dan Rogers [Asana]

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Dan Rogers, CEO of Asana, to discuss AI agents, the future of SaaS, and what comes after the chatbot.Dan took over an established software business with around...

29 Syys 37min

From 100 sales meetings a week to $600M ARR - Carles Reina [ElevenLabs]

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Carles Reina, the first investor and fourth employee at ElevenLabs, to unpack the AI bubble, the rise of Chinese models, and Europe's fight to stay in the race...

15 Syys 50min

Why the "SaaS is dead" narrative is completely wrong - Aaron Levie [box]

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Aaron Levie, the co-founder and CEO of Box, who has rapidly transitioned his enterprise platform from a pure SaaS model into a cutting-edge playground for auto...

9 Heinä 34min

Why focus on only ONE product built a $1B super-brand (on just $6,000) - Pete Maldonado [Chomps]

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Pete Maldonado, the visionary who took $6,000, one failed food venture behind him, and zero institutional backing and built a dominant food empire that's appro...

2 Heinä 52min

The man who built a bank for people banks don't want - Jason Wilk [Dave]

On this episode of BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Jason Wilk, four-time founder and CEO of Dave, the neobank built to take on the predatory overdraft fees that quietly bleed billions a year from the ...

25 Kesä 47min

Why the world’s biggest tech companies may never IPO again - Peter Singlehurst [Baillie Gifford]

On this episode of BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Peter Singlehurst, who built the private companies team from scratch at legendary investment firm Baillie Gifford, deploying billions into more than ...

18 Kesä 58min

Why high valuations are secretly killing tech unicorns — Martino Cadoni [Deepl]

On this episode of BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with elite finance operator Martino Cadoni, current CFO of DeepL (one of Europe's leading AI companies) and the veteran strategist behind one of Central E...

12 Kesä 58min

How a $75 sneaker bot became a $300M/Month financial engine - Steven Schwartz [Whop]

Is traditional international banking officially obsolete?On this episode of BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Steven Schwartz, co-founder of Whop, the internet marketplace that is quietly constructing a...

4 Kesä 53min