10X Growth Strategies

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies recorded live at SF Climate Week, founder and host Preethy Padmanabhan sits down with Rajesh Swaminathan, Partner at Khosla Ventures. Drawing on decades of deep tech and climate investing experience, Rajesh breaks down how AI and energy infrastructure have become deeply intertwined, why Climate 2.0 requires a fundamental focus on techno-economics, and how startups can successfully integrate into existing legacy infrastructure.

 

In this episode, we discuss:

 

• Why baseload clean energy is the ultimate bottleneck for AI scale and data centers
• Super hot rock geothermal and nuclear fusion as game-changers for 5-cent kilowatt-hour clean power
• Solving compute limitations through chip stacking, panel-based approaches, and photonic interconnects
• Rebuilding U.S. manufacturing leadership across semiconductors, photonics, and energy
• Strategic learnings moving from CleanTech 1.0 to Climate 2.0
• "David AND Goliath": Why integrating into legacy infrastructure beats trying to replace it
• Top investment themes for the next 3 years: digital grid management, critical minerals, cement, and bio-manufacturing
• What transforms high-risk science into a venture-scalable company with massive impact

Whether you are a deep tech founder, investor, or policy strategist navigating the intersection of AI, climate, and energy—this conversation offers critical insights for building enduring companies.

 

10X Growth Strategies is a community founded by Preethy Padmanabhan, started as a podcast five years ago and now grown into a community of over 14,000 founders, investors, and executives across Luma and LinkedIn. The community hosts monthly events on timely topics in tech, AI, and entrepreneurship.

 

Connect:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10x-growth-strategies/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preepadu/
Website: https://grow10x.podbean.com/
Luma: https://luma.com/user/preepadu

 

#AI #Energy #ClimateTech #DeepTech #AIInfrastructure #Geothermal #NuclearFusion #Semiconductors #VentureCapital #10XGrowthStrategies

Chapters:

00:00:09 - 00:01:10 - Welcome to SF Climate Week & 10X Community Intro

00:01:11 - 00:02:25 - The 10X Growth Strategies Mission & Sponsorships

00:02:26 - 00:03:33 - Introducing Rajesh Swaminathan (Khosla Ventures)

00:03:34 - 00:04:26 - 18 Years in Deep Tech: Journey into Climate Investing

00:04:27 - 00:06:00 - Climate 1.0 vs. 2.0: The AI + Energy Paradigm Shift

00:06:01 - 00:09:02 - Geothermal & Fusion: Energy as the Deciding Factor in the AI Race

00:09:03 - 00:11:43 - Next-Gen Compute: Chip Stacking, Photonics & U.S. Manufacturing

00:11:44 - 00:13:34 - Geopolitics, Policy Inconsistency & Building Resilient Infrastructure

00:13:35 - 00:16:12 - Techno-Economics: How Khosla Ventures Structures Seed to Late-Stage Risk

00:16:13 - 00:18:44 - The "David and Goliath" Integration Strategy for Hard Tech

00:18:45 - 00:19:35 - High-Priority Themes: AI for Digital Grid, Critical Minerals & EV/Robotics

00:19:36 - 00:23:25 - Audience Q&A: Geopolitical Friction vs. Founder Execution

00:23:26 - 00:24:38 - Vertical Integration vs. Partnering with Legacy Industries

00:24:39 - 00:25:39 - Audience Q&A: Bio-Based Compute and Manufacturing

00:25:40 - 00:27:20 - What Separates a Venture-Scale Startup from a Science Project

A single customer request can now generate 10,000 fake documents in under five minutes - and that's just one signal of how fast AI is reshaping trust across cybersecurity, identity, and engineering.

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Preethy Padmanabhan talks to Purvi Desai (VP Engineering, Zscaler) and Raul Liive (Product Director, Marketplaces, Veriff) about what it actually takes to build - and defend - AI systems that enterprises can trust.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why has the question shifted from "can AI do this?" to "can AI do this predictably, accurately, and with the right governance?"
• How AI has scaled document fraud from a manual editing job into a mass-produced, minutes-long process
• Why identity verification now has to answer not just "who are you" but "are you still you tomorrow, with good intent?"
• The move from AI-as-copilot to full agentic engineering, spec-driven development, and multi-agent workflows
• Why unscoped agentic commands and LLM context limits create new engineering risk
• What trustworthy AI actually requires: accuracy, predictability, traceability, and data segregation
• The role of offline and live evals, judges, and adversarial testing in validating AI output
• How enterprises are evaluating AI vendors on leading-edge capability, compliance, and ease of integration
• Why trust, not just capability, is becoming the hardest problem to solve for AI-driven companies
• The real story behind "15x productivity" claims and how gains actually compound over time

Whether you're a founder, an engineering leader, or someone trying to understand where AI, identity, and cybersecurity intersect - this conversation is for you.

10X Growth Strategies is a community founded by Preethy Padmanabhan, started as a podcast five years ago and now grown into a community of over 7,500 founders, investors, and executives across Luma and LinkedIn. The community hosts monthly events on timely topics in tech, AI, and entrepreneurship.

#cybersecurity #AItrust #AIsecurity #identityverification #enterpriseAI #AIagents #deepfake #zerotrust #growthstrategies #10xgrowth

Chapters:

00:00:06 - 00:01:14 - Meet the Speakers: Purvi Desai (Zscaler)
00:01:15 - 00:01:40 - Meet the Speakers: Raul Liive (Veriff)
00:01:42 - 00:02:56 - How AI Has Changed Customer Trust
00:02:57 - 00:04:13 - The Rise of AI-Generated Fake Documents
00:04:14 - 00:07:18 - AI's Impact on Engineering Workflows
00:07:19 - 00:09:09 - Identity Verification in the Age of AI Agents
00:09:10 - 00:12:17 - What Trustworthy AI Looks Like (Evals, Guardrails, Compliance)
00:12:18 - 00:12:53 - New Opportunities for Startups
00:12:54 - 00:16:31 - Inside Veriff: Securing Identity Without Compromising Trust
00:16:36 - 00:18:38 - Audience Q&A: Evaluating AI Vendors
00:18:40 - 00:20:29 - Why Trust Is the #1 Vendor Selection Criteria
00:20:30 - 00:22:43 - Audience Q&A: Productivity Gains & Validating AI Output

A customer discovered 11,000 AI agents running in their environment - and most weren't even built by developers.

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Preethy Padmanabhan talks to Ankur Shah (CEO, Straiker) and Nick Shevelyov (CEO, vCSO.ai) on how AI is reshaping cybersecurity for enterprises and startups alike.

 

In this episode, we discuss:

• The two sides of AI and cybersecurity: using AI to improve security, and securing the AI itself

• Why LLMs and AI agents can be socially engineered just like humans and why that's a fundamentally new attack surface
• The discovery of 11,000 "citizen agents" inside a single enterprise, built without developer oversight
• Why visibility, governance, and guardrails are the new foundation of AI security
• What "YOLO mode" is, and why human-in-the-loop approval matters for high-risk agent actions
• How CISOs are thinking about traceability, accountability, and blast radius when deploying agentic AI
• Why distribution and trust are now the hardest problems in cybersecurity
• How MYTHOS and AI-discovered vulnerabilities are changing patching cycles and concentration risk
• Founder advice on building enduring companies in a crowded, fast-moving cybersecurity market

Whether you're a founder, a CISO, or an investor trying to understand where AI and cybersecurity intersect - this conversation is for you.

10X Growth Strategies is a community founded by Preethy Padmanabhan, started as a podcast five years ago and now grown into a community of over 7,500 founders, investors, and executives across Luma and LinkedIn. The community hosts monthly events on timely topics in tech, AI, and entrepreneurship.

Chapters:

00:00:10 - 00:00:55 - Introduction & Community Milestone

00:00:56 - 00:01:43 - Sponsor & Partner Shout-Outs

00:01:44 - 00:02:52 - Audience Check: Founders vs. Investors

00:02:53 - 00:03:38 - Meet the Speakers: Ankur Shah (Straiker)

00:03:39 - 00:05:01 - Meet the Speakers: Nick Shevelyov (vCSO AI)

00:05:02 - 00:06:44 - How AI is Changing Cybersecurity

00:06:45 - 00:08:36 - Why AI Agents are Hard to Secure

00:08:37 - 00:26:26 - Variables vs. Invariables in Cyber Strategy

00:26:27 - 00:28:40 - Audience Q&A: Standing Out in a Crowded Market

00:28:41 - 00:31:00 - Audience Q&A: Is Your Data Safe with ChatGPT & Claude?

00:31:01 - 00:33:19 - Closing Advice for Founders

Connect:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/preepadu

Website: https://grow10x.podbean.com/

Luma: https://lu.ma/10xgrowthstrategies

Are your AI agents truly safe to deploy at scale? In this episode, two founders come together to tackle one of the most urgent questions for every AI startup and enterprise today: how do you build AI systems you can actually trust? Hosted by Preethy Padmanabhan and the 10x Growth Strategies community, this panel brings together Tatyana Mamut (WayFound) and Prukalpa Sankar (Atlan) - two founders redefining how enterprises govern, monitor, and scale AI responsibly. In this episode, we discuss:

• How supervisor/guardian agents help enterprises reach 3-nines and 5-nines reliability
• Real-world example: a customer service AI agent secretly offering refunds with perfect guardrails in place
• Why sampling logs isn't enough and why 100% monitoring is now a legal requirement
• How the OpenAI and Workday lawsuits are reshaping enterprise AI accountability
• How to architect AI-ready data systems with lineage, traceability, and explainability built in
• How enterprises across the US, Germany, and Australia are navigating evolving AI regulation
• Hybrid deterministic + AI system design for production-grade agents

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, or a venture capital investor evaluating AI startup opportunities - this conversation on 10x growth, scaling up, and responsible AI is unmissable. 10X Growth Strategies is a community co-founded by Preethy Padmanabhan, built to bring together founders, investors, and executives for meaningful connection and growth. With thousands of members across LinkedIn, Luma, and Partiful, the community hosts monthly events on timely topics in tech, AI, and entrepreneurship.

Chapters

• 0:00 - 3:32 - Introduction
• 3:32 - 7:59 - Understanding Enterprise Trust in AI
• 7:59 - 13:47 - Legal Challenges and Compliance in AI
• 13:47 - 19:00 - Architecting AI systems for Compliance
• 19:00 - 21:52 - Benefits of Working with this New Technology
• 21:25 - 25:21 - Proactive vs Reactive Compliance Strategies
• 25:21 - 41:35 - Audience Interactions
• 41:35 - 44:04 - What is your Leadership Principle?

Connect: 

Website: https://grow10x.podbean.com/

Luma: https://lu.ma/10xgrowthstrategies

🎙️ E121: Building From Zero — The Realities of Nearshoring & Global Talent In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Saradha Sriram sits down with Brian Samson, founder of a nearshore staffing firm connecting top Latin American talent with U.S. companies, to explore what it really takes to build a business from nothing — in a country you barely understand. Drawing parallels with Shoe Dog, Brian shares how bold, uncertain decisions — like moving to Argentina with no roadmap — shaped his journey as a founder. From navigating cultural friction and operational chaos to building teams across borders, he explains why founders must adapt to environments instead of forcing familiar systems onto them. The conversation dives into global hiring, nearshoring, and talent arbitrage, unpacking why Latin America is emerging as a powerful alternative to traditional outsourcing markets — and how companies can actually make it work. A grounded, experience-backed look at risk, culture, hiring, and the personal trade-offs behind building something meaningful. 

⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – 00:45 • Intro & Brian’s background
00:45 – 02:20 • Taking the leap — moving to Argentina with no plan
02:20 – 04:20 • Building from zero — early uncertainty & first principles
04:20 – 06:00 • Cultural miscalculations — operating outside your home market 06:00 – 08:00 • The reality of doing business in Latin America
08:00 – 09:45 • Hiring missionaries vs mercenaries — building belief-driven teams 09:45 – 11:30 • Why “top talent” is contextual — culture fit over credentials
11:30 – 13:30 • The rise of nearshoring — LATAM’s growing advantage
13:30 – 15:00 • Remote work, time zones & global collaboration
15:00 – 16:30 • Founder trade-offs — risk, pressure & personal cost
16:30 – 18:00 • From 3 people to scale — what changes as you grow
18:00 – 19:00 • Outro — key takeaways & closing thoughts

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Preethy Padmanabhan brings together a diverse panel of experts to explore one of the most important questions of our time — who decides what AI becomes?

Featuring Natalia (Strategic Foresight), Denise Umubyeyi (Head of Partnerships, AGI), and Jonathan Azoff (Co-Founder & GP, SNOCAP), the conversation unpacks how artificial intelligence is not shaped by a single entity, but by a complex ecosystem of builders, investors, users, and institutions.

The discussion moves through how early-stage AI is influenced by those building models, but increasingly shaped by users, startups, capital, and global governance. The panel examines the role of startups as the interface between technology and everyday users, and how they translate complex systems into usable products.

A major focus is on ethics and control — from the values embedded in AI systems to the challenge of governing technologies we don’t fully understand. The conversation also explores the importance of open-source models, the role of global partnerships, and the need to ensure access beyond developed markets.

From infrastructure and cost barriers to questions of power, incentives, and long-term impact, this episode looks at AI not just as a technological shift — but as a societal transformation shaped by multiple competing forces.  

A sharp, multi-perspective conversation on the future of AI — and the forces quietly shaping it.

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⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – 01:50 • Introduction & Panel Overview
01:50 – 04:30 • Who Decides What AI Becomes?
04:30 – 07:30 • Builders, Investors & the Power of Ecosystems
07:30 – 10:30 • Role of Startups in Shaping AI Products
10:30 – 14:30 • Ethics, Values & AI Governance
14:30 – 18:30 • Can We Control What We Don’t Fully Understand?
18:30 – 22:00 • Access, Infrastructure & Global Inequality in AI
22:00 – 26:30 • Capital, Compute & Who Holds Power
26:30 – 30:30 • Incentives: Profit vs Transformation
30:30 – 36:00 • Open Source vs Closed AI Systems
36:00 – 42:00 • Future of AI: Efficiency or Transformation?
42:00 – 52:00 • Audience Q&A & Closing Thoughts

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Preethy Padmanabhan sits down with Dr.Vivek Mansingh — technologist, entrepreneur, author, and former Silicon Valley leader — to unpack what meaningful success truly looks like beyond titles, money, and conventional achievement. Drawing from a career that spans Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, startups, and leadership roles alongside icons such as Steve Jobs, John Chambers, and Michael Dell, Dr. Vivek reflects on the principles that shaped his journey — from aspiring big and becoming number one in his field, to understanding why professional success alone is never enough. The conversation centers around ideas from his award-winning book Achieving Meaningful Success, where he introduces frameworks such as the “Wheel of Goals” and the importance of balancing professional ambition with health, relationships, spirituality, and inner growth. Through personal stories, he explains how some of life’s most defining decisions came not from career milestones, but from choosing family, purpose, and long-term fulfillment. The episode also explores the power of mentors, books, role models, and lifelong learning — including lessons drawn from leaders such as Ratan Tata, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Rahul Dravid, and John Chambers, all featured in Dr. Vivek’s interviews on excellence, leadership, and grounded success. A thoughtful conversation for anyone trying to build ambition without losing balance — and success without regret.

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00:00 – Introduction & Dr. Vivek’s Career Journey
02:00 – From India to Silicon Valley
05:00 – What “Meaningful Success” Really Means
08:30 – The Wheel of Goals: Beyond Career Alone
11:00 – Mentors, Role Models & Becoming Your Best Self
16:30 – Books, Learning & Continuous Growth
19:00 – Thinking Big: Setting Bold Goals
23:00 – Steve Jobs, Excellence & Professional Achievement
25:00 – Family, Relationships & Life Priorities
30:30 – Why Goals Matter in Life
31:30 – Lessons from Extraordinary Leaders
34:30 – Book Awards, Giving Back & Final Advice
37:00 – Closing Thoughts

In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Arthi Vijayaraghavan sits down with Lakshmi Nair — drug development scientist and genetic engineering researcher — to unpack the science, promise, and responsibility behind CRISPR and gene editing. Drawing from her journey across academia and biomedical research, Lakshmi explains how CRISPR transformed genetic engineering from slow, uncertain experimentation into precise DNA editing — and why that leap could reshape medicine, cancer treatment, and hereditary disease forever. From transgenic models and drug development to the realities of scientific failure and perseverance, the conversation reveals what modern biomedical innovation truly looks like behind the scenes. The episode explores the ethical frontier of gene editing — germline modification, designer traits, disability vs identity, and who gets to decide what should be “fixed” in humans. The discussion also connects CRISPR with AI-driven research, data-intensive clinical trials, and the global scientific ecosystem that turns basic research into life-saving therapies. From biohacking and scientific curiosity to regulation, responsibility, and the future of humanity, this is a thoughtful, deeply grounded conversation on what it means to hold the power to rewrite life itself. A fascinating listen for technologists, policymakers, investors, and anyone curious about where biology, AI, and human evolution intersect.

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00:00 – Introduction & Lakshmi’s Background
02:00 – Why CRISPR Changed Genetic Engineering
06:00 – Scientific Journeys, Curiosity & Upbringing
12:00 – CRISPR Explained for Non-Biologists
18:30 – Medical Applications: Cancer & Genetic Disease
23:30 – Scientific Collaboration & Peer Review
26:30 – Biohacking & Democratizing Biology
30:00 – Gene Editing Ethics & Germline Debate
36:00 – Identity, Disability & Human Choice
40:00 – From Lab Research to Drug Development
45:00 – AI in Clinical Trials & Biomedical Data
50:00 – Future of Gene Editing & Responsibility
54:00 – Closing Reflections

🎙️ E117: Building AI Rocketships — From Idea to Exit In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Pretty Padmanabhan sits down with Omer Gottlieb, CEO & Co-Founder of Sale Speak.AI (formerly Co-Founder of Totango), and Guy Yalif, Chief Evangelist at Webflow , to unpack what it really takes to build, scale, and exit AI-driven companies. Drawing from decades of combined experience raising over $150M+, leading global teams, and navigating acquisitions, Omri and Guy go beyond startup clichés to discuss the realities of product-market fit, hiring, fundraising, and scaling in an AI-first world. From building MVPs earlier than you’re comfortable with, to running relentless customer validation, to learning when not to hire — this conversation is packed with operator-level insight. The episode dives deep into the evolving go-to-market playbooks in the age of AI, why experimentation beats rigid frameworks, and how founders must “know the game they’re playing” before choosing between bootstrapping and venture capital. The guests also share candid lessons on hiring mistakes, investor-founder alignment, scaling sales too early, and why raising from the wrong fund can define your company’s destiny. From culture design and blind references to timing, luck, and the uncomfortable truth that founders control the odds — not the outcome — this episode offers a grounded, experience-driven view of how real companies go from idea to exit. A thoughtful, practical conversation for founders building in the AI era — and trying to do it without burning out, blowing up, or playing the wrong game.
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00:00 – Introduction & Speaker Backgrounds
02:00 – Origin Stories: Why Start Again?
06:30 – MVP Strategy & Customer Validation
09:00 – Hiring the Right Team (Culture or Pedigree)
12:30 – Remote Teams & Building Culture Intentionally
16:00 – Scaling Mistakes: Hiring Sales Too Early
18:30 – Why There Is No Universal GTM Playbook
21:00 – Funding Decisions: Bootstrapping vs VC
24:30 – Investor–Founder Fit & “Know the Game You’re Playing”
28:00 – Building Toward Exit: Timing, Luck & Controlling the Odds
32:00 – Final Lessons for Founders

🎙️ E116: When AI Meets Healthcare — Promise, Proof & the Human-in-the-Loop In this episode of 10X Growth Strategies, host Arthi Vijayaraghavan sits down with Faisal Mushtaq — author of Transforming Healthcare: The Role and Impact of Artificial Intelligence — to unpack how AI is actually changing healthcare beyond buzzwords, demos, and exaggerated claims. Drawing from over a decade of hands-on experience building AI systems across wellness, medtech, and large enterprises, Faisal explains where AI is genuinely delivering impact today — from early disease detection and AI-assisted diagnostics to reducing false negatives in mammography — and where human judgment remains non-negotiable. The conversation dives deep into the idea of augmented intelligence, why “human-in-the-loop” is the most realistic path forward, and how guardrails, regulation, and explainability will decide whether AI earns trust inside hospitals and clinical workflows. Faisal also breaks down why healthcare adoption must be methodical, how AI can relieve clinician overload through back-office automation, and why fully autonomous diagnosis is still a long way off. From generative AI and agent-based systems to regulation, training future clinicians, and the parallels between healthcare AI and self-driving cars, this episode offers a grounded, experience-driven view of what’s possible — and what’s premature. A thoughtful, no-hype conversation on how AI can make healthcare faster, safer, and smarter — without replacing the humans who matter most.

00:00 – First chapter: Why now & motivations for the book
06:50 – Human-in-the-loop AI & guardrails design
13:00 – Impact of AI on training new clinicians
19:07 – Agentic AI in healthcare
35:00 – Investment areas of focus for the author

👉 Links & Resources
TechCon Global: https://www.techconglobal.com • iExchange: https://iexchange.co • iExchange Newsletter: https://iexchange.substack.com • Faisal Mushtaq (website): https://faisalmushtaq.co/ • Books by Faisal Mushtaq: https://faisalmushtaq.co/books/