Inside The Silicon Mind

About Inside The Silicon Mind

Inside the Silicon Mind, hosted by Firas Sozan, takes you behind the scenes with the Founders, CEOs, and Venture Capitalists building the future of technology. Every week, Firas sits down with the operators and investors rewriting the rules of technology - from the zero-to-one startup journey to scaling billion-dollar companies like Snowflake, Microsoft, and Google. Discover how the best teams in Silicon Valley are actually built, what top VCs look for before writing a check, and the make-or-break decisions that separate companies that win from those that don't. Whether you're a founder raising your next round, an engineer deciding where to build your career, or an investor looking for an edge, this is the show that pulls back the curtain on what's really happening inside the Silicon Valley machine. New episodes every Wednesday at 8AM PT.

Publisher

Firas Sozan

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Aug 2025

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

61 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   Physical AI: Building Intelligence for the Real World

   Eighty-five percent of the world economy runs on physical things, and almost none of today's AI was built to understand them. I sat down with Ivan Poupyrev, co-founder and CEO of Archetype AI, who spent nearly a decade at Google shipping radar and sensor products, worked at Disney and Sony before that, and left to build Newton, a single foundation model for the physical world. He pulls back the curtain on why the next wave of AI will run on sensor data, not language. He breaks down why a car or a turbine can't tell you what's wrong in words and only speaks in measurements, why the fastest wins won't come from robots but from the computers already sitting inside every crane, car and power line, why one general model can replace the patchwork of single-use tools industry pays for today, and why big tech stays late to new markets until they're earning a hundred million dollars a day. Then he gets into why AI raises the stakes on every hire instead of lowering them. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, CEOs, and VCs rewriting the rules of technology. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro1:34 - The Next Trillion Dollar Company2:28 - What Physical AI Actually Means4:11 - The Language Of Sensors5:41 - Where Physical AI Hits First8:53 - One Model For The Physical World11:08 - How To Know If You're Too Early14:12 - The Shrinking Physical Workforce15:52 - Why Startups Beat Big Tech19:29 - Building The Founding Team24:09 - Why AI Makes Every Hire Critical25:44 - Book Recommendation Book Recommendation:What Is Real? by Adam Becker About Ivan Poupyrev Ivan Poupyrev is co-founder and CEO of Archetype AI, the Palo Alto physical AI company behind Newton, a foundation model that reads real-time sensor data and turns it into insight and action for industries like manufacturing, energy, logistics and transportation. Before founding Archetype AI in 2023 with four of his former Google colleagues, he spent about nine years at Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group, where his team built radar and other complex sensors and shipped them in consumer products, including Project Soli and Project Jacquard. Earlier in his career he worked at Disney Research and Sony. Archetype AI raised a thirteen million dollar seed round led by Venrock, followed by a thirty-five million dollar Series A led by IAG Capital Partners and Hitachi Ventures, with Bezos Expeditions, the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Samsung participating. He argues that the real economy lives in the physical world, and that the AI that learns to understand it will matter more than the AI that understands words. Follow Ivan Poupyrev on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-poupyrev/ About the showInside the Silicon Mind takes you behind the scenes with the founders, CEOs, and VCs building the future of technology. Every week, Firas Sozan sits down with the operators and investors rewriting the rules - from deep‑tech startups to the security challenges created by AI.Hosted by Firas Sozan. 🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives on:  - AI and the future of software - Venture capital and company building - Developer tools, infrastructure, and engineering careers YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMindApple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsmSpotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm Follow the host on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/ Website links: https://www.harrisonclarke.com/ https://www.harrisonclarkeventures.com/ https://thepmfplaybook.com

2. 

   30 Sept 2026

   Starting Over in Silicon Valley: Reinvention in the Age of AI

   The hardest part of starting over isn't learning something new. It's unlearning everything that made you successful. I sat down with Julia Seregina, an engineer turned tech and industrial executive who ran teams from London to Singapore to Abu Dhabi, then walked away from the big salary to become a first-time founder after thirty in a field where she had no authority at all. Now building in stealth at the edge of AI and science, she pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to reinvent yourself once you're already an expert. She breaks down why no one has managed to recreate Silicon Valley, why she has to melt old thought patterns before she can think like a founder again, why macro thinking is becoming a more valuable skill than shipping fast, and the three-month test she recommends before anyone quits a career to start a new one. Then she gets into the one thing that has stayed true across every industry and country she has built in. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, CEOs, and VCs rewriting the rules of technology. Chapters:0:00 - Intro 1:18 - Why No One Has Recreated Silicon Valley 4:44 - Why Other Places Punish Failure 6:57 - What You Lose When You Leave The Bay 9:21 - Speed Versus Thinking 10:48 - Founder Challenges AI Created 12:06 - Building AI For Science In Stealth 13:28 - Starting Over As A Newcomer 16:05 - Unlearning Old Patterns 17:22 - Never Too Late, Just Harder 17:59 - What Stays The Same Across Industries 19:22 - What Reinvention Taught Her 20:40 - The First Step If You Feel Trapped 24:04 - Book Recommendation Book Recommendation:A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett About Julia Seregina Julia Seregina is a founder building in stealth in AI for science, working on tools that help biology and life sciences researchers do better work and on AI that reasons like a scientist over long time horizons rather than simply automating steps. She began her career as an engineer and rose quickly into executive roles at technology and industrial companies, working across London, Italy, Poland, Central Asia, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Abu Dhabi and Berlin. She then left corporate life to found companies in AI for healthcare and life sciences, a field she had no formal training in. She has been part of the South Park Commons community and splits her time between the Bay Area and Abu Dhabi. She argues that reinvention starts with unlearning, that conviction and great talent matter more than chasing whatever trend is hot, and that the smartest way to test a new chapter is to build on the side, time-box it, and see whether your conviction grows with every conversation. Follow Julia Seregina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-seregina-4a7a30142/ About the show Inside the Silicon Mind takes you behind the scenes with the founders, CEOs, and VCs building the future of technology. Every week, Firas Sozan sits down with the operators and investors rewriting the rules - from deep‑tech startups to the security challenges created by AI. Hosted by Firas Sozan. 🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives on:  - AI and the future of software - Venture capital and company building - Developer tools, infrastructure, and engineering careersYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMindApple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsmSpotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm Follow the host on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/Website links:https://www.harrisonclarke.com/https://www.harrisonclarkeventures.com/https://thepmfplaybook.com/

3. 

   23 Sept 2026

   From Founder to CEO: Why Scaling a Company Starts with Reinventing Yourself

   The thing that got you your first twenty customers is the exact thing that will break your company at two hundred. I sat down with the founder and CEO of Concentric AI, who started the company three months before the world shut down, raised a forty five million dollar Series B and acquired two companies at once to keep pace with AI, and he pulls back the curtain on what it actually costs a founder to become a CEO. He breaks down the three versions of himself he has had to become, the stress versus frustration framework a VC gave him that now decides which environments suit which people, why context switching quietly destroys a founder's judgment, and why deliberate hiring beats headcount because three hires never give you three people's productivity. Then he gets into the part that keeps him up at night, staying relevant to a market that can wipe out an entire category overnight. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, CEOs, and VCs rewriting the rules of technology. Chapters:0:00 - Intro0:46 - Advice At One Million ARR4:30 - The Cost Of Context Switching7:59 - Becoming Three Different CEOs13:16 - What Worked At Zero To One 15:42 - When A Founder Becomes A CEO 18:40 - Stress Versus Frustration 22:48 - Hiring Without Adding Frustration 24:49 - Keeping Your Finger On PMF 28:00 - The Problem That Never Goes Away 32:06 - Culture Is Doing Not Saying 35:56 - Book Recommendations Book Recommendations:Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanTeam of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin About Karthik KrishnanKarthik Krishnan is founder and CEO of Concentric AI, the data security platform that uses AI to find, classify and protect sensitive data across cloud and on premises environments. He spent decades in product before starting the company, including roles at Intel, Juniper Networks, PGP Corporation and Embrane, and was part of the founding team at security analytics company Niara, which was acquired by HPE, where he then served as vice president of product management. At Concentric AI he has raised a forty five million dollar Series B led by Top Tier Capital Partners and HarbourVest Partners, acquired Swift Security and Acante in a single move to bring GenAI governance and AI data curation into the platform, and built the company into a business selling directly to enterprise CISOs. He is one of the clearest voices on the founder to CEO transition, arguing that the job is to stay intellectually honest about whether you are still the right person to lead, to protect your company from frustration for as long as possible, and to keep your head outside the building where the market actually decides your fate.Follow Karthik Krishnan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkrishnan/ About the show Inside the Silicon Mind takes you behind the scenes with the founders, CEOs, and VCs building the future of technology. Every week, Firas Sozan sits down with the operators and investors rewriting the rules - from deep‑tech startups to the security challenges created by AI.Hosted by Firas Sozan.🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives on: - AI and the future of software  - Venture capital and company building - Developer tools, infrastructure, and engineering careersYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheSiliconMindApple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/apple-itsmSpotify: https://bit.ly/spotify-itsm Follow the host on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firassozan/Website links: https://www.harrisonclarke.com/ https://www.harrisonclarkeventures.com/ https://thepmfplaybook.com

Who has been a guest on Inside The Silicon Mind

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Steve Cox
• Shriram Sridharan
• Mark Rostick
• Benny Chen
• Evan Powell

Contact Inside The Silicon Mind

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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