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StrictlyVC Download

StrictlyVC Download

By: Connie Loizos & Alex Gove
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 Each week, StrictlyVC Editor-in Chief Connie Loizos and Alex Gove, a former journalist, VC, and operating exec, review the top stories in StrictlyVC and interview a mover and shaker in the world of tech.© 2024 StrictlyVC, LLC Politics & Government
Episodes
  • How Tether became crypto's most profitable company—and what it's building next

    How Tether became crypto's most profitable company—and what it's building next
    Feb 3 2026
    This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos talks with Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company behind USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. With 536 million users globally, Tether has quietly become one of crypto's most powerful players—and now it's evolving far beyond stablecoins. Ardoino is transforming Tether into what he calls "the stable company," a diversified operation making bold bets on decentralized AI, agriculture, telecommunications, and gold-backed tokens.In this conversation, Ardoino explains how Tether generates billions in profit from U.S. Treasury holdings, why the company is building AI platforms that run locally on smartphones for emerging markets, and how its relationship with U.S. regulators has shifted dramatically. He also discusses Tether's geographic expansion, particularly in El Salvador and across Latin America, and makes the case that all of these seemingly disparate investments—from cattle ranching to brain-computer interfaces—are part of an interlocking strategy to serve the billions of people left behind by traditional finance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    40 mins
  • Airtable is betting big on a standalone ai agent that could replace its own product

    Airtable is betting big on a standalone ai agent that could replace its own product
    Jan 27 2026
    This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos and Alex Gove talk with Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable. On Tuesday, Liu announced the launch of Superagent, Airtable’s first standalone product outside of its core platform—and this isn’t just another AI feature bolted onto an existing product. Superagent represents a bit bet on autonomous agents that handle tasks end-to-end, rather than chatbots that provide text-based answers. In this conversation, Liu walks us through why he decided to build Superagent as a separate product rather than just another Airtable feature, how it actually works under the hood—from native integrations to browser automation—and the early signals that suggest he might be onto something big. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 mins
  • Working in orbit: what happens when space goes blue-collar?

    Working in orbit: what happens when space goes blue-collar?
    Jan 20 2026
    In this episode, Connie Loizos speaks with Mary Jane Rubenstein, a professor of religion and science and technology studies at Wesleyan University and author of "Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse"—a book that served as research material for the Oscar-winning film "Everything Everywhere All at Once." As the space economy heats up and venture capital pours into startups promising everything from asteroid mining to lunar gas stations, Dr. Rubenstein offers a critical perspective on the ethics and values shaping humanity's expansion beyond Earth. Dr. Rubenstein discusses how religious stories have shaped space exploration from the Apollo missions to today's commercial ventures, examines how science fiction has influenced the industry (sometimes as cautionary tales that get misread as instruction manuals), and makes the case for why space debris might be the issue that brings nations together—ultimately challenging listeners to consider whether we're truly imagining new possibilities in space or simply extending the worst of what we have here on Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    27 mins
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