Uncapped with Jack Altman

Brad Lightcap serves as OpenAI's COO, overseeing its business, operations, and strategic partnerships across Research, Applied AI, and go-to-market. He also manages the OpenAI Startup Fund. Previously, Brad was part of Y Combinator Continuity and led finance and operations initiatives at Dropbox.

We discussed the shift from chat-based AI to agents that can take action, and what that means for software and the broader economy. We also covered how these systems are being built and deployed, how tools like Codex are changing how work gets done, and what this next phase of AI unlocks for startups and incumbents alike.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:39) The early days of OpenAI

(3:47) A research centric culture

(7:32) Post-ChatGPT chapters

(11:54) Sci-Fi future or good software

(15:26) AI’s impact on rural communities

(18:57) Codex and coding of the future

(24:04) Doing a lot of things at once

(27:55) What VCs should invest in

(35:43) The software sell off

(38:23) Using Codex over ChatGPT

(42:32) FDEs and Private Equity

(44:53) Working with Sam

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Links:

https://x.com/bradlightcap

https://x.com/jaltma

https://openai.com/

https://uncappedpod.com/

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[email protected]

Ron Conway is the Founder and a Managing Partner of SV Angel. He has been an active angel investor since the mid-90s and has received wide recognition for his role in the tech ecosystem. He has been included on Vanity Fair’s 100 most influential people in the Information Age, awarded Best Angel at the TechCrunch Crunchies Awards, and has been named on Forbes Magazine's Midas list of top “deal-makers” since 2011. Prior to founding SV Angel, Ron was with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions (1973-1979), Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President, and CEO (1979-1990), taking the company public on Nasdaq in 1982.

Ron reflects on decades of investing, from semiconductors to AI, and what it really means to be an “all in” partner to founders. He shares how relationships compound into an unfair advantage, why the best investors show up at inflection points, and how being willing to fight, whether in boardrooms or Washington, can change outcomes.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:50) From semiconductors to AI

(8:39) Two investments that changed everything

(11:46) Nonpassive angel investing

(14:57) Becoming a relationship broker

(18:00) Building authentic relationships

(24:48) Going deep with OpenAI and Airbnb

(29:19) Fighting for founders

(31:39) Remarkable returns at seed

(33:20) The state wealth tax

(37:17) Tech and politics

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Links:

https://x.com/RonConway

https://x.com/jaltma

https://svangel.com/

https://uncappedpod.com/

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At 23, with no legal background, Max Junestrand co-founded Legora to transform how lawyers work.

Legora recently (March 2026) raised $550 million at a $5.55 billion valuation in a Series D funding round to accelerate its expansion across the United States. Over the past year, Legora has grown from 40 to 400 team members across the globe and the platform supports tens of thousands of lawyers each day across 800 customers in more than 50 markets.

Max shares the story of building Legora, what it really means to build AI-native software from day one, why legal work is uniquely suited for AI, and how a small team from Stockholm convinced some of the world’s largest law firms to change how they work.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:31) Legora's origin story

(9:05) Building an AI-native company

(18:16) No sacred cows, the models will be amazing

(27:36) Winning pilots and global expansion

(36:43) Starting in Europe

(47:15) Stockholm culture and "blodsmak"

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Links:

https://x.com/MaxJunestrand

https://x.com/chetanp

https://x.com/jaltma

https://legora.com/

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https://uncappedpod.com/

[email protected]

In this episode, the team behind Y Combinator reflects on what has — and hasn’t — changed since the early days of YC, and how AI is reshaping what it means to be a founder. They discuss how they evaluate builders now, why execution still matters more than competition, and what YC is prioritizing as the startup landscape evolves. At its core, the mission remains the same: increase the number of great startups in the world.

Garry Tan is president and CEO of Y Combinator and a group partner. He was a partner at Y Combinator from 2011 to 2015, where he built key parts of the YC experience for founders including Bookface and the Demo Day website. Garry is the co-founder of Initialized Capital and Posterous (YC S08), a blog platform acquired by Twitter, and prior to that, he was an early designer and engineering manager at Palantir.

Harj Taggar is a Managing Partner at YC. Of the 1,000+ companies Harj has advised while at YC, 5 have gone public. He was previously founder and CEO of Triplebyte (YC S15) and Auctomatic (YC W07), which was acquired by Live Current Media in 2008. He first joined YC as a partner in 2010, leaving in 2014 to start Triplebyte and rejoining in 2020.

Jared Friedman is a Managing Partner at YC. Jared has advised more than 20 YC unicorns while at YC. He was co-founder of Scribd, which was funded by Y Combinator in 2006 and grew to be one of the top 100 sites on the web. Jared previously worked at a pioneering AI company.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:18) The YC product

(5:05) AI and the new builder

(13:01) Pivots and upcoming trends

(22:26) Making something people want

(24:50) What’s in store for SaaS

(33:02) Capital in the age of AI

(36:28) The human capacity for desire

(42:18) Building in America

(44:29) Fixing San Francisco

(47:58) Scaling YC

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Links:

https://x.com/snowmaker

https://x.com/harjtaggar

https://x.com/garrytan

https://x.com/jaltma

https://www.ycombinator.com/

https://uncappedpod.com/

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[email protected]

Bret Taylor is the founder and CEO of Sierra, an AI agent company transforming customer service. Bret’s legendary career includes being CTO of Meta, co-CEO of Salesforce, chairman of the board at OpenAI, co-creating both Google Maps and the Like button, and founding three companies.

We unpacked the so-called “SaaS-pocalypse” and what AI agents mean for the future of enterprise software. We talked through the shift from systems of record to autonomous agents, outcome-based pricing, platform transitions, Codex and the transformation of software engineering, and who is structurally positioned to win in the next era of AI.

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:20) The SaaS-pocalypse and systems of record

(12:34) Sierra's competitive landscape

(17:05) Outcomes-based pricing

(24:22) The rapid evolution of AI support technology

(28:21) Young founders vs. experienced founders

(34:12) Beyond support: The full customer lifecycle

(38:47) Codex and the future of software engineering

(51:49) OpenAI and advertising

(54:59) How to run a board

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Links:

https://x.com/btaylor

https://x.com/jaltma

https://uncappedpod.com/

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Email: [email protected]