The Peel with Turner Novak

Bilal Zuberi spent 18 years investing hard tech, most of it as a GP at Lux ($7B AUM), before starting @RedGlassVC in 2025 to bet on AI that touches the physical world.

Bilal was making defense tech investments 15 years ago, and he led the Series A in Applied Intuition, now a $15 billion company.

We hung out for a few hours and he shared everything he's learned investing in hardware, why hardware is still hard, why the deployment layer is the most attractive area of physical AI, taking a 90% pay cut to start Red Glass, "AUM as a moat", how to become a billionaire off management fees, and why consensus investing is mostly a circle jerk.

Thanks to this episode's sponsors:
Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://monaco.com
Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital
Clerk: Everything you need for authentication https://clerk.com
Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://numeral.com

Timestamps:
(0:00) Leaving $7B to bet on physical AI
(0:51) What most people get wrong in physical AI
(4:17) Why a startup has to become a business
(11:31) Hardware is still hard, so what changed?
(15:40) How government went from SBIR mills to real customer
(17:48) Robotics goes from hard-coded to probabilistic
(23:34) Where value accrues: full stack, then wedges
(25:24) How Applied Intuition became a $15B company
(28:03) The deployment layer is the real prize
(32:22) OpenAI and Anthropic hint what will happen in physical AI
(36:14) Why customers have all the downside
(37:56) The best founders paint a picture and execute
(40:53) Why it's called Red Glass (founders chew glass)
(42:17) Every founder hates fundraising, even Travis
(44:29) Red Glass's four core values
(50:49) Why founders really take your call (the $250k effect)
(53:28) What Bilal looks for in a founder
(58:44) Why technical founders underrate fundraising
(1:00:26) The Tiger Global era
(1:04:02) From $10B to $100B, the goalposts moved
(1:06:21) Is this a bubble? Portfolio construction
(1:08:55) Building a firm that outlasts him
(1:12:13) From Nobel-lab chemist to Zero-to-One investor
(1:13:45) Are small funds just outsourced associates?
(1:16:35) When AUM becomes the moat
(1:18:34) How big funds choke off SPV money
(1:21:24) The risk of VCs backing competitors
(1:23:31) Why fund economics push everyone bigger
(1:26:20) Consensus investing is a circle jerk
(1:29:51) You can be a billionaire on fees alone
(1:33:09) Equal carry and the right to win
(1:35:55) Why good ethics in VC matter

Check out Red Glass VC: https://www.redglass.vc/

Follow Bilal
Twitter: https://x.com/bznotes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bzuberi

Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Jamie Siminoff built the first WiFi video doorbell in his garage, got rejected on Shark Tank, and nearly went bankrupt "at least four times" while growing Ring into one of the largest consumer hardware businesses in the world.

We talk about the $1.15B sale to Amazon, coming back to lead Ring after leaving post-exit, and what he learned having a fresh set of eyes on the business.

We also get into the near death stories, like Christmas the company almost died from $1M of bricked doorbells, the $175k "F you, wire it" fight for the Ring.com domain, betting millions on TV ads when the board said no, landing Shaq as an early investor and celebrity endorser, the real backstage story of three dead demo units on Shark Tank, and why Jamie thinks AI can zero out crime in neighborhoods.

Thanks to this episode's sponsors:
Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://monaco.com
Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital
Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://numeral.com
Amplitude: AI analytics https://amplitude.com

Timestamps:
(0:00) Leaving Amazon, coming back with fresh eyes
(7:49) Deleting every useless meeting
(10:21) Zero-based time budgeting
(15:31) Bubble, or the golden age of AI?
(19:50) $480M to several billion in revenue
(23:48) Lessons on obsession from MrBeast
(30:17) The AI vision for Ring
(34:05) The $10k feature he can't ship yet
(38:50) Building apps on top of Ring
(40:03) Building in his garage, the Kickstarter ban
(44:45) The pre-sale, and the fear of getting copied
(47:59) How he talked his way onto Shark Tank
(49:24) Three dead units backstage
(54:04) Threatening Shopify's CEO before air
(55:23) The Christmas Ring almost died
(58:59) The midnight fix that saved the company
(1:01:22) Raising from True Ventures, the "ass hat" email
(1:05:04) Hiring gritty “new to business” people
(1:07:15) Missionaries, not mercenaries
(1:10:13) Building an authentic brand people trust
(1:12:49) Buying Ring.com with the last $175k of cash
(1:18:11) “We were always on the verge of bankruptcy”
(1:19:12) Betting $1M on TV ads when the board said no
(1:22:43) Why TV ads actually work
(1:25:26) Richard Branson, and doubling mid-raise
(1:28:46) Closing Shaq, how to do authentic celebrity endorsements
(1:33:27) Selling to Amazon for $1.15 billion
(1:35:16) Being paranoid to lose people's money
(1:36:38) Mentors, and never meeting your heroes

Referenced:
Ring: https://ring.com
Dyson: https://www.dyson.com
True Ventures: https://www.trueventures.com
Om Malik: https://om.co
Adam D'Augelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamdaugelli/
Saar Gur: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saargur/
Eoghan McCabe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoghanmccabe/
Sky Dayton: https://www.skydayton.com/
Tobi Lütke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiaslutke/

Follow Jamie
Twitter: https://x.com/JamieSiminoff
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiesiminoff/

Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Tomer London is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto.

We go deep on how Gusto builds product, from obsessing over customers to shipping Gusto Cofounder with AI in eight weeks. We also get into what AI is doing to small businesses, surviving COVID, the manual world of payroll before software, what his dad's 40-year clothing store taught him, starting Gusto out of YC, and how Gusto thinks about making acquisitions now that it’s crossed $1B ARR.

Thanks to this episode's sponsors:
Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://numeral.com
Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital
Amplitude: AI analytics https://amplitude.com
Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://monaco.com

Timestamps:
(0:00) Obsessing over small businesses
(10:09) Building Gusto Cofounder in 8 weeks
(13:57) What AI is actually doing to small businesses
(19:52) COVID and "the end of small business"
(27:42) Why running a small business is so hard
(32:21) SVB and why payroll can't be late
(36:29) How GTM changes after 500,000 customers
(39:27) Running payroll manually before Gusto
(46:19) Why payroll and compliance are so hard
(49:14) What his dad's clothing store taught him
(54:00) Are we regulating small business out of existence?
(58:04) Starting as ZenPayroll in 2012
(1:05:02) Getting the first customers
(1:07:28) Minimum Lovable Product vs MVP
(1:11:28) How AI changed the way Gusto builds
(1:15:58) Gusto's M&A playbook
(1:22:52) Shimon Peres and "no room for small dreams"

Referenced
Gusto: https://gusto.com
Guideline: https://www.guideline.com
Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com
Sam Blond on The Peel: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-ai-native-gtm-playbook-sam-blond
No Room for Small Dreams, by Shimon Peres: https://www.amazon.com/No-Room-Small-Dreams-Imagination/dp/1538412209

Follow Tomer
Twitter: https://x.com/tomerlondon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomerlondon

Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Jeff Morris Jr is the founder and Managing Partner of Chapter One. Previously, he was employee 50 at Tinder and started Chapter One from his desk before quitting to go full-time on investing.

We talk about running a venture firm more like a product team, running 50 experiments every fund cycle, why Sequoia doing $60 million Seeds has killed round labels, why the best firms only pick right 4-7% percent of the time, running the world's smallest accelerator, branding a venture firm, when to pivot, the time he delivered Valentine's flowers himself in Kansas, why none of his Fund 1 winners were in the Bay Area, and why he never announced his $64m Fund 3.

Thank you to Numeral, Flex, Amplitude, and Monaco for supporting this episode.

Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://numeral.com
Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital
Amplitude: AI analytics https://amplitude.com
Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://monaco.com

Timestamps:
(0:00) Publishing IC notes every week
(3:48) Do round names matter anymore?
(8:20) Putting a big check into Erebor's $2B round
(11:40) Why deep tech went from instant pass to preferred in 3 years
(15:32) When deep tech companies should raise debt
(19:03) Should this company raise $1M or $100M?
(23:25) You have two days to say yes
(25:58) Sourcing software he built at Tinder
(28:05) Their crypto book hit 22x, then the market turned
(30:58) Paradigm, SendCutSend, and re-founding a firm
(33:35) If you're going to pivot, re-found the company
(37:21) Flex's wedge was too illegible to fund
(40:13) When should you actually pivot?
(42:47) Zaarly, the Uber for everything
(45:17) Moving to Kansas City with a bag of clothes
(47:25) Delivering flowers door-to-door
(51:31) Raising a $64M Fund 3 and not announcing it
(56:33) Joining Tinder as employee 50
(57:35) The push notification that took down Tinder
(1:00:59) Why you shouldn’t start a dating app
(1:04:18) Consumer got too predictable
(1:09:00) Why consumer AI economics look worse than enterprise
(1:13:02) Launching Chapter One from his Tinder desk
(1:15:08) 50 experiments per fund cycle
(1:16:11) Product Club, the world's smallest accelerator
(1:19:05) Evolving portfolio construction between funds
(1:21:25) Why picking rates have fallen
(1:24:41) Smaller funds can invest in illegible categories
(1:27:27) Zero Fund 1 returners were in the Bay Area
(1:29:16) Don't compete with Sequoia at Seed
(1:32:01) His grandfather built Mervyn's

Referenced
Chapter One: https://chapterone.com
Erebor: https://erebor.bank
Flex: https://flex.one
SendCutSend: https://sendcutsend.com
Paradigm: https://www.paradigm.xyz
Supabase: https://supabase.com
Poke: https://poke.com
Floodgate: https://www.floodgate.com
SV Angel: https://svangel.com
Union Square Ventures: https://www.usv.com
Zaarly: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zaarly
Mervyn's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn's
Mervin Morris obituary: https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2021/09/10/mervin-morris-founder-of-mervyns-stores-atherton-resident-dies-at-101/

People Mentioned
Jamesin Seidel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesin-seidel-5325b147/
Palmer Luckey: https://x.com/PalmerLuckey
Mike Maples Jr: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maples/
Scott Belsky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbelsky/
Josh Elman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshe/
David Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlee10/
Max Mullen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxmullen/

Follow Jeff
Twitter: https://x.com/jmj
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmorrisjr

Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Ron Gabrisko might have the best sales seat in software. He joined Databricks as CRO at less than $1M in revenue, and built it into a $7B+ ARR business over the next decade.

Almost no one has built a revenue engine this big this fast, so he's the right person to walk through how you actually do it, from the first 40 reps to selling AI into the enterprise today.

We talk through Databricks' early decisions, like killing seat-based pricing as usage took off, using a16z to land the first big logos, the four C's every enterprise now weighs on AI, how Ben Horowitz recruited him to seven PhDs who were giving away their software for free, why he only hires sellers who can demo the product themselves, and how he runs his entire sales org on his own product, Databricks' Genie.

Thank you to this episode’s sponsors!

Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://www.numeral.com
Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital
Amplitude: AI analytics https://www.amplitude.com
Merge: Every model, one API https://www.merge.dev/turner
Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://www.monaco.com/

Timestamps:
(0:00) From under $1M to $7B+ in revenue
(1:07) Seven founders and three big bets
(2:49) Why going cloud-only was contrarian
(5:14) Monetizing open source: "what will they pay for?"
(11:40) What Databricks actually is
(14:17) Genie, the AI he runs the business on
(19:20) It's the data context, not the model
(21:36) The early AI bet, before LLM's
(26:32) Why enterprise AI beats consumer AI
(30:00) Automating his own sales org
(32:18) How Ben Horowitz pitched him
(33:48) Why seven co-founders is an advantage
(35:54) Teaching the CEO sales: org charts and MEDDIC
(42:08) Biggest sales mistakes and four growth stages
(45:14) Why technical products need technical sellers
(47:21) The seller profile: technical, gritty, no short stints
(50:45) Back-channeling references that don't BS you
(53:32) Hiring 40 reps and why PLG didn't convert
(58:07) How a16z opened enterprise doors
(1:05:47) Why he gives POC's away for free
(1:08:50) Raising prices to match value
(1:11:34) Why he killed seat-based pricing
(1:14:37) Build for enterprise requirements early
(1:16:46) Consumption selling and the six-month planning cycle
(1:19:54) Expanding internationally without breaking it
(1:23:38) The four C's of enterprise AI
(1:26:54) Why messy data blocks AI adoption
(1:29:07) Forward deployed engineers: what makes them win
(1:31:56) When does Databricks go public?
(1:33:36) LL Cool J, Michael Jordan, and never losing a game

Referenced
Databricks: https://www.databricks.com
Careers at Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/company/careers
Apache Spark: https://spark.apache.org
MosaicML: https://www.mosaicml.com
Relentless Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1797121782?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Follow Ron
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-gabrisko-4a21a

Follow Turner
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/