Silicon Valley Girl: AI, Tech and Career Growth

Felix Rieseberg has led engineering for Claude.ai, Cowork, and Claude Code Desktop at Anthropic. He thinks many of us are still giving AI tasks it has already outgrown. If you’re only asking Claude to summarize emails, what are you missing? How to hand AI bigger goals. Why “you’re an expert” isn’t enough аnd how to catch mistakes when the answers sound convincing. Felix shares how to start trusting AI with more – and stop being the bottleneck in your own company. 📩 Your first AI agent in 20 minutes — get the guide through my free newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/p/your-first-autonomous-agent-in-20-min-5429?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=first-agent&utm_term=felix-rieseberg ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

James Manyika runs research and labs at Google, and his team recently studied millions of real Gemini conversations to see how people use AI at work. In a typical job, it's only about a fifth of the tasks. I asked him what that means for your job and your salary, why he bet against the people who predicted half of white-collar jobs would disappear in two years, which three signals would change his forecast, and which AI breakthroughs are already in your life without you noticing.📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=30-days-plan&utm_term=james-manyika ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co⁠

Brian Chesky built Airbnb into an S&P 500 company, and he says starting a business today is easier than it was 20 years ago. In this episode we go step by step: how Airbnb is becoming AI-native, why chat is the wrong interface for most work, how Brian generates 30,000 ideas a year and picks the ones worth doing, why the phone is the enemy of focus, and the one habit that separates real builders from everyone else. 📩 7 skills that make you irreplaceable: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/p/7-skills-that-make-you-irreplaceable-adc6?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=7-Brian-Chesky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

Daron Acemoglu is an MIT economist and a 2024 Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences. He believes some of AI’s biggest business opportunities are being overlooked—but where does he see the real money, and what should you learn to stay valuable? In this episode, I ask Daron where founders should look for opportunities beyond the AI hype. We talk about why helping workers become more productive can be better for business than replacing them, why existing models are already powerful enough to build useful applications, and where high-quality data creates an advantage. Daron also shares what he would study now and why builders need to spend more time talking to workers. Links: 📌 Subscribe to my free newsletter where I go deeper on AI tools, career strategies, and building with AI: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/p/7-skills-that-make-you-irreplaceable-adc6?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=7-skills&utm_term=daron-acemoglu ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 :…

Greg Brockman co-founded OpenAI and previously served as CTO of Stripe. He believes AI could spark a massive renaissance of entrepreneurship—but what should we actually build when the models keep getting better? In this episode, I show Greg the AI app I created to prepare for our interview and ask how to make it more ambitious. We talk about what makes an AI product worth paying for, why domain expertise matters more than ever, and how founders and small-business owners can use AI today. Links: 📌 Subscribe to my free newsletter where I go deeper on AI tools, career strategies, and building with AI: 📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=GregBrockman ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects which jobs will grow through 2035, and it rated 831 occupations by how much of the work AI can do or help with. I went through the data to find the careers where demand is growing, what they pay, and what it takes to get in.We rank 10 growing careers by median salary, from management analysts at $101,860 to computer and information systems managers at $175,140. You'll see why nurse practitioners are the fastest-growing occupation in the country, why software developers are still projected to add 174,700 jobs, and which six-figure healthcare job sits in the lowest AI exposure group. Then we look at the five occupations shrinking fastest and what they have in common.At the end, I show you a simple exercise from Stanford economist Erik Brynjolfsson. Split your last two weeks of work into define, execute and evaluate. Pick one repetitive task, try it with AI, and check the result. Then decide what responsibility you want to grow into with the time you get back.📌 FREE:…

Anton Osika runs Lovable, one of the fastest-growing AI companies in the world, and he's done with the words "vibe coding." Vibes work for a demo, but people now run real businesses on Lovable. In this episode we go step by step: how to turn a tool you built for yourself into a real business, how to set up a backend without knowing how to code, and how to price your product. And as building gets easier every month, Anton names the one skill that matters most for an AI founder right now. *The website Anton improved for Marina:* https://marinamogilko.co/ 📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/p/the-one-prompt-you-should-run-every-month-d907?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=one-prompt&utm_term=anton-osika 𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

Shishir Mehrotra ran product for YouTube, founded Coda, and has sat on Spotify's board for over a decade. He now runs Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, which 40 million people use every day.In this episode, he reverses the career advice he gave for twenty years — stop trying to be a great executor, start learning to manage. He explains why the best jobs never come through the recruiting funnel, walks through the framework he built at Google for how promotions actually work, and points to the moment mid-career where the rules quietly change and most people panic. He pushes back on the word "replaced," gives away the interview question he used for hundreds of hires until he talked about it publicly too much, and shares what Bill Campbell told him in 2000 that changed how he measures his own success. 📩 7 skills that get you promoted…

Seven people who run companies employing more than 30,000 people answer the same question: who are you hiring right now? Sal Khan, Yamini Rangan, Aaron Levie, Luana Lopes Lara, Grant Lee, and Conor Grennan get unusually specific about what they look for in you before the interview starts and what makes them say yes. And Ryan Roslansky, who ran LinkedIn for six years, opens up LinkedIn's own data. By the end, you have a step-by-step plan for getting hired in 2026. 📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/p/7-skills-that-make-you-irreplaceable-adc6?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=7-skills 𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

Andrew Ng co-founded Coursera, built the founding team at Google Brain, and has taught roughly 8 million people AI. In this episode, he pushes back on the AI job panic making the rounds this year, walks through the actual math on how much of a job AI can automate, and explains why he thinks universities are still teaching students for a job market from 2022. He also gets specific about what he looks for when hiring marketers, recruiters, and ops people now — and admits that despite building his career on AI education companies, AI is currently terrible for learning. 📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/p/your-first-autonomous-agent-in-20-min-5429?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=first-agent ⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

What if the highest-paying jobs today are the ones disappearing first?Erik Brynjolfsson is Stanford's leading AI economist,director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and one of the most cited voices on how technology reshapes the workforce. He's spent decades studying which jobs getdestroyed, which get created, and who wins in everymajor shift.In this Moment, Erik Brynjolfsson names the specific professions being replaced right now, why radiologists are thriving while paralegals are losing ground, and the one skill he believes every worker needs to become the CEO of their own AI agents. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2mqN4S2Q48iHMyBKSBFey8?si=vqmIay61RLGyZl9RWoHzVw Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/silicon-valley-girl-ai-tech-and-career-growth/id1819090545?i=1000777720945 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/72duHF7iZiU?si=YSY7h6rPhR9-A4yW

What if the most powerful language models on Earthare missing the one piece that makes intelligence real?Fei-Fei Li is the "Godmother of AI" who built thedataset that made modern artificial intelligencepossible, spent years leading Stanford's AI Lab,and now runs World Labs, a $1 billion startupbuilding the next frontier of AI.Fei-Fei Li reveals the missing piece of intelligencethat language models can't see, the four abilitiesthat make it up, and what her billion-dollar startupis racing to build to solve it. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/1FvQHmEJoGUARR2EY6AEWk?si=5Cg_cgN4RaiaC4UkIDaH-A Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/silicon-valley-girl-ai-tech-and-career-growth/id1819090545?i=1000774171967 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/subu-xHrp1w?si=2nyuRfaTPdHTs8s-

Luana Lopes Lara is the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire, by Forbes' count. In 2018, she co-founded Kalshi, a platform where anyone can look up the odds on things that haven't happened yet. This May, the company raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation. Her entire job is watching what people bet real money on.Luana Lopes Lara sits down with Marina Mogilko, Silicon Valley Girl, to discuss what the board already knows. What actually changes for a normal person by the end of this year? Will 2026 feel lighter or heavier for most people? Will any jobs suddenly become safer? And how much should you be relying on the public's opinion versus reality?They cover:- The exact odds the market is giving AI as the #1 reason for job cuts this month- The doomsday AI scenario the market is quietly pricing in — and the five conditions behind it- Which jobs Luana thinks are actually getting safer, and which ones people are wrong about- Her 2026 forecast for money, and the one variable it hangs on- How Kalshi…

We rebuilt Silicon Valley Girl for GEO. Generative Engine Optimization. Two months ago, if you asked ChatGPT or Perplexity for AI podcast recommendations, the podcast Silicon Valley Girl didn't show up at all. Today we're the 5th most visible of the 11 podcast brands we track. Our AI visibility doubled.I'll show you the 5 steps in the exact order we did them, so you can run the same system on your business, your podcast, or your website. Links: 📩 Get our free 30-day GEO plan in the Future Proof newsletter : https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/geo-30-day-plan?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=geo-30-day-plan🔗 My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ 📌 My Companies & Products: https://partnerships.marinamogilko.co

What if the smartest thing you could do for your kids in the age of AI is not send them to college? Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer at Google X, where he spent over a decade running business innovations before becoming one of the world's leading voices on AI and its impact on humanity.In this Moment, Mo Gawdat reveals why he believes college won't exist in ten years, the four skills every kid needs to prepare for an AI-first world, and his prediction thatAGI is arriving this year. Listen to the full episode here! Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/1tMNXqcvziqiV1xgT032ih?si=zB4Lk1A4TduntKVsSzSq9Q Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/silicon-valley-girl-ai-tech-and-career-growth/id1819090545?i=1000758651130 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/E0Q96IKXx6Q?si=BfISl1WByxtLJBpw Links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠⁠⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠

In this episode of the Silicon Valley Girl Podcast, Marina Mogilko sits down with Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe — the genetic testing company that has helped more than 14 million people understand their ancestry and health risks, and built one of the largest human genetic datasets in the world.After 23andMe went through bankruptcy and Anne lost control of the company she started in 2006, she fought to win it back at a court-approved auction and relaunched it as a nonprofit (TTAM Research Institute) — so no single pharma company would ever own your DNA.In this conversation she breaks down what AI + your DNA can actually do for your health right now: predicting disease years before you feel it, the genetic risk factors everyone should test for, why the healthcare system is built to treat disease instead of preventing it, and the small daily habits that move the needle most.She also opens up about the hardest year of her life — losing her sister, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, to lung cancer,…

Erik Brynjolfsson is the Stanford economist who has spent 30 years measuring what technology actually does to jobs. He wrote "The Second Machine Age," directs the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and just published "Canaries in the Coal Mine" — the paper showing AI has already cut employment 16% for workers under 25 in the most exposed jobs. If you're trying to figure out where your career goes in an AI world — which side of the line your job is on, and what to do about it — this one is for you. Topics: AI and jobs, future of work, automation, career advice, AI agents, entry-level jobs, economics of AI, Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford Digital Economy Lab, Silicon Valley Girl Links: 📌 Subscribe to my free newsletter where I go deeper on AI tools, career strategies, and building with AI: ⁠⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=ErikBrynjolfsson ⁠⁠⁠𝕏 : ⁠⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠⁠ 🔗 Instagram:…

Who actually gets access to AI, and does it stay open to everyone or slowly turn into a privilege for a few? Daniil and David Liberman came on to answer that. They're building a decentralized alternative to Big Tech AI. We got into why every job eventually gets disrupted (and the real timeline), the one-hour-a-day habit that beats Netflix for staying ahead, and how pointing ChatGPT's camera at a broken pipe fixed 3 years of no hot water in their house. Stay to the end for the rapid-fire round: whether today's AI leaders will still lead in five years, and the single most underrated move you can make tomorrow to control your life in ten. Feeling behind on AI? This is the 3-year map. We cover: 1. Is AI overhyped, and the COVID-like moment they expect within 2 years 2. The plumber test: 3 years of no hot water, fixed by ChatGPT's camera 3. Why Dario Amodei owns ~1.5% of Anthropic, and who really controls AI 4. Which jobs get disrupted first, and the timeline (next year vs. 5–10 years) 5. Why "open weight"…

Sal Khan built Khan Academy into a free education platform used by over 200 million people worldwide. Now he's writing a book called Job Shock, arguing AI could disrupt jobs faster than his own past predictions accounted for. Which jobs are already disappearing. Which ones are safe. What Khan Academy is doing internally with AI, including a $1.2M/year Anthropic bill. And Sal's new venture with TED and ETS: a $10,000, accreditation-pending degree built around durable skills — the kind AI still can't replicate. Links: 📌 Subscribe to my free newsletter where I go deeper on AI tools, career strategies, and building with AI: ⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=SalKhan ⁠𝕏 : ⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠ 🔗 Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/⁠ 💼 LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠https://Marinamogilko.co

Matthew Derella runs the ads business at LinkedIn, a platform with over 1 billion professionals. A recent guest on this podcast told me you have two years left to build a personal brand before AI floods the feed. I brought that argument to Matt at Cannes, and he took the other side: the more AI content there is, the more the credibility of the source decides who gets found, and LLMs already lean on citations from people who know their stuff. He shared the numbers behind it: founders who post regularly on LinkedIn are 71% more likely to drive business on the platform, video is growing at over 20%, and 3 out of 4 CMOs now say a media plan without a creator is incomplete. Stay till the end for his 3 steps to start on LinkedIn in 2026 Links: 📌 Subscribe to my free newsletter where I go deeper on AI tools, career strategies, and building with AI: ⁠⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=MatthewDerella ⁠⁠⁠𝕏 :…

Govind Balakrishnan is the SVP running Adobe Express. He's spent 20 years at Adobe and watched creation move from desktop to mobile to social feeds. We sat down at Cannes to talk about why AI content doesn't get views. His answer: everyone blames the algorithms, but it's humans who are tuning it out. AI now gets you 60–70% of the creative work in minutes. The last 20–30%, where you add your own taste and voice, is the part people actually watch. He also told me why he expects the industry to need more designers 3 years from now. Stay till the end for his advice to designers who are already losing clients to AI.

Steve Jurvetson has worked with Elon Musk for 29 years and was one of the earliest investors in SpaceX and Tesla, back when space wasn't even a category for venture capital. Today he runs Future Ventures, where he bets on nuclear fusion, epigenetic editing, and analog AI chips. We recorded this live on stage, with audience Q&A at the end. We cover: Why compute has compounded for 130 years, and what that curve says about the next 3 years Superintelligence odds: why Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark gives it a 30% chance of arriving next year What 29 years next to Elon taught Steve: focus, learning loops, and spotting talent (Tesla collects more AI training data in 4 days than Waymo has in its entire history) The 50-year question Steve asks every founder before writing a check His 30-day plan if you're one person with a crazy idea Where he's investing now: fusion, meat without slaughter, free healthcare via your phone When machines do everything, what's left for us Links: 📌 Subscribe to my free newsletter where…

📌 Head to https://granola.ai/marina and enter the code MARINA for 3 months off. Richard Socher is the fourth most-cited researcher in the history of natural language processing — he invented the word vectors and prompt engineering that run inside almost every chatbot you use. He sold his first startup to Salesforce, built You.com into a $1.5B unicorn, and in May 2026 raised $650M at a $4.65B valuation for Recursive: an AI that runs its own experiments and rewrites itself. In this conversation he explains why he thinks the self-improvement loop arrives within two years, which jobs grow and which disappear, and his hack for seeing the future — look at what only the wealthy can afford today, then ask which of it is bottlenecked on intelligence. Stay till the end for the first question he'd ask a superintelligence.Feeling behind on AI and don't know where to start? Start here. Feeling behind on AI and don't know where to start? Start here. We cover: Reward hacking: why an AI told to raise customer satisfaction…

Dr. Fei-Fei Li created ImageNet — the dataset that triggered the deep learning revolution. Now she runs World Labs, where she just raised $1 billion to teach AI something it still can't do: understand physical space. She was named Time Person of the Year in 2025 and won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. David Rogier founded MasterClass in 2015 on the idea that everyone should have access to world-class teachers. He has an MBA from Stanford and now builds all his own work tools with Claude Code instead of buying software — including a to-do list app that auto-deletes anything sitting on the list for more than a day and a half. In this episode, we get into what AI can already do and what it still can't, why the two loudest takes on AI — that it'll save the world, and that it'll take all the jobs — are both wrong, and what your kids' schooling and your own career actually look like in 10 years. We cover: Why Fei-Fei Li says "the cost of intelligence goes to zero" is an irresponsible claim — and what…

Peter Yang spent 10+ years building products at Roblox, Reddit, Amazon (Twitch), and Meta. Then he walked away from a high-paying job at Roblox to go all-in as a solo builder. His newsletter Behind the Craft has 140K+ readers, and his podcast has deep conversations with 30+ AI leaders from Anthropic, Google, Cursor, and Replit. In this episode he breaks down how: how to move from using AI like a search engine to building systems that run your work, how to build a personal AI that knows your strategy, and the one thing to do this week to get ahead. We cover: The 5 layers of AI adoption, from "I ask ChatGPT questions" to "AI runs my whole operation," and how to find which layer you're actually on Why you should stop using ChatGPT and Claude chat and switch to Codex or Claude Code, even if you've never written a line of code The one-day reset: cancel every meeting, brain-dump your real workflows out loud, and let AI turn them into skills that save hours every week TRICK: the personal advisor skill — a one-page…

Esther Wojcicki is the "Godmother of Silicon Valley." She raised three daughters: Susan, who ran YouTube; Anne, who founded 23andMe; and Janet, a professor and anthropologist. Her parenting advice got me through the hardest parts of new motherhood, and YouTube, which Susan built, is the reason I have a career at all. In this episode we cover: The one rule that decides whether AI makes a kid smarter or just lets them cheat themselves: do the work first, then ask AI to grade it like a teacher Why she's against banning phones, social media, or AI for kids, and what she'd teach instead TRICK: the five-part system (Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, Kindness) she used to raise three founders, and how to run it on yourself as an adult How to rebuild trust in yourself if you were raised to chase everyone else's approval The three sentences she told Anne when 23andMe was falling apart The billion-dollar bet Susan almost didn't make, the one that became YouTube Why she still tells parents to push for…

Grant Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Gamma — the $2.1B AI tool that turns one prompt into a finished presentation, now used by 100 million people. We covered: How Gamma hit $100M in revenue with a team of just 50 — profitably, on only $23M of funding The two signs you have product-market fit before the money shows up, and why "your friends will lie to you" about your product How to run a full fundraise in two weeks — Grant did 100+ pitches and how he turned a wall of no's into yes's How to tell if an idea is worth a year of your life (he picks by energy, not spreadsheets) Why a top investor called Gamma "the worst idea I've ever heard" — and what that investor actually got right The exact first-30-days plan he gives any founder starting today Links: Subscribe to my newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=GrantLee Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X:…

Eddie Kim is the co-founder and CTO of Gusto — the $10B payroll and HR platform that millions of small businesses run on. Gusto just launched Gusto Cofounder — an AI teammate for small businesses: payroll, compliance, and daily ops handled before they become problems. Learn more about cofounder here -> https://gusto.com/cofounder?idgm=2mm6b6i2 We covered: The two levels of using AI in a business, and why almost everyone is still stuck on the first one How Gusto's AI found $70M in tax credits owners had no idea they qualified for, including one pool company now collecting $50K a year How to hand off the "work before the work" so payroll runs itself two days early and all you do is tap approve How to run your whole back office from a text message, with your Notion and spreadsheets plugged straight in How to stay ahead of tens of thousands of changing tax rules without reading a single one Links: Subscribe to my newsletter:…

In 5 years the most valuable companies will run as a closed AI loop — every call, email, and content metric feeding back into one system that acts faster than any human team. In this video I walk through the 5 levels we're building inside my own company, from the foundation layer to the part most founders skip. If you're a founder, creator, or operator trying to make this real in your own business, this is the playbook. Links: Subscribe to my newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=5layers-system Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠ My Companies & Products: https://partnerships.marinamogilko.co

📌 Head to https://granola.ai/marina and enter the code MARINA for 3 months off.Chris Pedregal built a $1.5 billion AI app in 3 years, in a category where Zoom and Google already had similar features before he launched. In this conversation he hands over the exact playbook for breaking out of a crowded market with a tiny team and a small marketing budget — a playbook anyone can use to win in the AI era. We cover: Why Chris kept Granola in closed beta for a full year before launching — and how 150 users taught him more than any public launch would The 2x2 matrix he uses to decide if a startup idea can survive in a market with big competitors How Granola grew virally with zero built-in growth loops — no automated emails, no forced sharing The dot plot: the early-stage retention tool that replaced usage graphs for Chris's team Why he doesn't use AI for product decisions — and what he uses it for instead How to turn 2,500 meeting recordings into a virtual chief of staff The one thing small teams can do that…

Howie Liu co-founded Airtable in 2012, the no-code app builder used by over 80% of Fortune 100 companies. After scaling Airtable into one of the biggest software businesses on the planet, he's now building HyperAgent: a platform where anyone can deploy AI agents into their team chats, email, and calendar without writing code. In this conversation, Howie asked me a question I couldn't answer: if you could hire as many people as you wanted for almost zero cost, what roles would you fill first? That's the question agents force you to answer in 2026. We covered: The two skills that separate the people who become almost superhuman from everyone else How to build a virtual twin of yourself so you stop being the bottleneck in your own company Why builders win the next few years and what the "tinker mindset" actually means How to choose between Claude, ChatGPT, and HyperAgent (Howie maps the full landscape) A live demo of his real productivity setup, including an agent that watches X 24/7 and only pings him when…

Thibault Sottiaux is the head of ChatGPT and Codex at OpenAI. He told me that in a few months, people who don't use AI at all will get the same benefits as those who've spent two years figuring it out. So what's actually going to be your edge in a market this competitive? Thibault opened up and shared a few of his secrets — he showed me how his own agents work and how anyone can set them up. We covered the must-have files everyone should create, the one file you should never write yourself, and the new skill that replaces prompting entirely. If you work with a computer for a living, this is the one to watch this week. Links: Subscribe to my free newsletter where I go deeper on AI tools, career strategies, and everything I can't fit into a 30-minute podcast: ⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=Tibo 🔗 My Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠ 📌 My Companies & Products: ⁠⁠⁠https://Marinamogilko.co⁠

Josh Woodward runs Google Labs, AI Studio, and the Gemini app — basically every AI product Google ships. Google just launched Gemini Spark, the AI agent that works for you 24/7 in the background. In this episode, Marina sits down with Josh during Google I/O to talk about: — Why we're moving from "doing" to "directing"— Why human judgment and taste are becoming more valuable, not less— Why voice is about to become the dominant way we interact with AI— How his small teams ship viral products in two weekends— What Google actually shipped at I/O 2026: Gemini Spark, 3.5 Flash, Ask YouTube, smart Gemini glasses with Gentle Monster, and Docs Live— Whether Google is really losing the AI race Topics: Google Gemini, AI agents, future of work, voice AI, Notebook LM, AGI, Josh Woodward, Google Labs, Silicon Valley More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=guest-name&utm_term=⁠Josh…

Aaron Levie built Box into a $4 billion company used by 64% of the Fortune 500. Now he says we're at the best moment to build an AI company in 15 years — and the window is 3 years. In this episode, Marina sits down with Aaron to talk about what's actually happening inside enterprise AI, why younger founders have a surprising advantage right now, and which jobs are genuinely at risk vs. which ones AI will make more valuable. Aaron shares why AI agents still need humans at the beginning and end of every process, why the real new constraint isn't code — it's sales and marketing, and what he'd do if he were 19 and starting over in 2026. If you're building, thinking about building, or trying to figure out your next career move in an AI world — this one is for you. Topics: AI startups, entrepreneurship, future of work, enterprise AI, career advice, business building, AI agents, Aaron Levie, Box, Silicon Valley Links: 📩 Follow my Newsletter:…

MacKenzie Price built Alpha — an AI-first school where kids do academics for 2 hours a day, score in the top 1% nationally across every grade, and learn from AI tutors instead of teachers. She also has a prediction. In the next 6 months, our friends, the people we work with, maybe even ourselves — will start losing jobs to AI. Which is why she's so urgent about this. The school we grew up in was built to raise factory workers. The world our kids are walking into is something else entirely. I came into this conversation skeptical. I went to school in Russia, my parents and grandparents went through the same system, and a part of me still thinks it's the version that works. But MacKenzie's results are hard to argue with — kids in the 25th percentile growing exponentially, kids in the 95th still gaining 80–90%. Not because the technology is magical. Because for the first time, every kid gets the kind of one-to-one mastery learning that used to cost a private tutor. In this episode, MacKenzie breaks down how the…

In this episode, Marina breaks down 6 AI business models you can actually start in 2026 — from the easiest (zero tech skills required) to the most scalable (think: automated SaaS with 50% margins). No fluff, no theory. Just specific ideas with action steps you can take this week. You'll hear directly from: Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn founder, legendary investor) on how to double your income right now Mati Staniszewski (CEO of 11Labs, the biggest voice AI company in the world) on where the biggest gap is Robbie Stein (VP of Product, Google Search) on what actually gets you found by AI Alex Mashrabov (founder of Higgsfield, $200M/year) on the agency model that exploded in 2024 Daniel Priestley (UK Entrepreneur of the Year) on why "GPT wrapper" is actually a real business Whether you're a recent grad, a career switcher, or just someone who keeps saying "I should start something" — this episode gives you the clearest roadmap out there.Links: 📩 Follow my Newsletter:…

What 6 AI tools are the smartest people in the room actually using every day? I asked the same question to dozens of founders, investors, and AI leaders this year — which AI tool changed your income the most? Six tools kept coming up.In this compilation, Mo Gawdat (former Chief Business Officer at Google X), Allie K. Miller (former Global Head of ML at AWS), and Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO of VaynerMedia) share the exact stack they use to earn more, work faster, and stay ahead — and how to start using each one this week. Silicon Valley Girl is a weekly AI and technology podcast hosted by Marina Mogilko. 📌 Launch your dream business with the best designs the world has to offer — Design.com: https://go.design.com/cd5msoz More from Silicon Valley Girl: Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=aitoolstack-sub&utm_content=compilation_aitools Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconValleyGirl…

What would you build today if you had to start from zero? I asked 6 founders the same question: with just a laptop, AI, and no funding — what would get you to $10,000 a month in 90 days? In this podcast they share how they'd build a business today from scratch: what to build, how to choose a niche, marketing advice, and how to get your first paying customer by day 30. Gary Vee, Amjad Masad (Replit), Young Zhao (Opus Clip), Mati Staniszewski (ElevenLabs), Alex Mashrabov (Higgsfield), and Bill Gurley (investor) on what they'd actually build today. Silicon Valley Girl is a weekly AI and technology podcast hosted by Marina Mogilko. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=compilation_aibusiness Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconValleyGirl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn:…

Job postings with AI skills now pay $18,000 more per year (Lightcast, 2025). By 2030, 39% of today's skills will be outdated. These are the ones that won't. So I asked the people building these AI tools and working inside the biggest AI companies in the world — what skills will make you irreplaceable in the AI era? From every conversation, 7 skills kept coming up — the ones that actually keep you employable, valuable, and ahead of everyone else. I asked Amjad Masad (CEO, Replit) how to actually get good at prompting. Mike Krieger (Instagram co-founder, now CPO at Anthropic) showed me how solo founders run lean companies with AI workflows. Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder) explained why creative thinking is the one thing AI still can't copy. And Mustafa Suleyman (CEO, Microsoft AI) told me what he's teaching his kids that matters more than any app. Topics: AI skills 2026, high income skills, AI careers, Replit, Anthropic, Microsoft AI, LinkedIn, Amjad Masad, Mike Krieger, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman,…

John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery that made quantum computing possible. At 67, he retired from UC Santa Barbara to build Qolab, his quantum hardware startup. President Trump named him to the PCAST science council with Zuckerberg, Brin, and Huang — the only physicist in the room. This is the uncut Davos conversation. What we cover:— How quantum computing could replace rare earth elements with common materials— Why JPMorgan and Robinhood are already running quantum algorithms— What a Nobel physicist actually thinks about the multiverse— Why his biggest breakthroughs came from being pushed out Topics: quantum computing, Nobel Prize Physics 2025, John Martinis, Qolab, quantum computer, superconducting qubits, AI vs quantum, deep tech, Davos, career in tech. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Follow my Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=futureproof-sub&utm_content=guest-name&utm_term=John-Martinis…

Roman Yampolskiy has spent 15 years at the University of Louisville studying one question: can we control AI? His answer is no. And in 2026, the early evidence is showing up inside his own department — a 28% drop in co-op placements for CS students. Prediction markets for AGI have collapsed from 2045 down to 2028–2030. So I asked him the question everyone actually wants answered: if 99% of jobs really do get automated, which ones survive? He named five — and they're not the ones you'd expect. We also cover: — What to invest in when AI can replace most human labor — Why he told his own 17-year-old to think twice about college — How to raise kids with agency in a world that automates thinking — And the answer he gave when I asked if we're living in a simulation If you've been using "AI" and "superintelligence" as the same word, this conversation will fix that. Topics: AI safety, Roman Yampolskiy, AGI 2030, jobs AI can't replace, future of work, AI superintelligence, investing in AI era, simulation theory,…

If you lost everything tomorrow — your money, your network, your reputation — and had to rebuild from zero in 2026, what would you actually do? I asked the founders who've already done it. In this episode, I talk to Samir Vasavada (CEO of Vise), Young Zhao (CEO of Opus Clip), Aravind Srinivas (CEO of Perplexity), Daniel Priestley, and Amjad Masad (CEO of Replit) about the exact strategies they'd use to start over today. We cover: How to find your real superpower — and why asking your friends is the fastest way The 30-day framework for testing an idea before you commit Why obsession beats strategy in the AI era The "7-7-6 apprenticeship" — why your first move shouldn't be starting a company How to build a moat when AI can copy anything in days At the end, I share my own plan for starting from scratch in 2026 — the niche, the content system, the 30-day sprint, and what I'd focus on first. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram:…

AI is already solving problems scientists said were impossible — and we're just getting started. In this episode, Yossi Matias, VP of Engineering & Research at Google, explains why we're living through the golden age of research and what that means for your career, your kids, and your future. We cover: Why AI agents and vibe coding are actually underhyped How Google's AI co-scientist cracked a superbug hypothesis in 3 days (vs. years of lab work) Flood prediction in 150 countries — from "impossible" to deployed in 7 years What Google is building for education, healthcare, and climate resilience The one mindset shift to stay relevant in 2026 and beyond Yossi also shares what Google looks for when hiring today — and why the ability to adapt matters more than any specific skill. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube:…

Which Jobs Survive AI by 2030? Saadia Zahidi (WEF) Reveals What the Data Actually Shows Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director at the World Economic Forum, joins Silicon Valley Girl live from Davos to break down the WEF Future of Jobs Report — and what it actually means for your career. The data: 78 million new jobs are coming by 2030. But 23% of all roles will go through major disruption. And roughly 1 in 10 workers won't find a place inside their own industry. We cover: Why AI isn't the real reason entry-level jobs are disappearing — and what actually is The "catch-22" problem young job seekers are stuck in right now Which jobs are growing (agriculture, education) and which are declining fast Why human skills — creativity, empathy, leadership — are more valuable than ever in an AI world The "learn to earn" framework WEF launched at Davos to fix broken hiring What no-regret career moves look like in 2025–2030, no matter which scenario plays out If you're figuring out your next move — whether you're a student,…

📌 Try Granola — the AI notepad that turns meetings into action: https://www.granola.ai/marina or use code MARINA at checkout for 3 months free. Luis von Ahn built Duolingo into a company with 100M+ monthly active users and $1B in the bank — and he's never done a single layoff. While every other CEO is blaming AI for firing people, he's hiring more. In this episode, Luis breaks down exactly how his team used AI to build a chess course from scratch in 6 months — two people, no engineering background, no chess knowledge. It now has 7 million daily users. That's the real story of what AI can do for your career, if you know how to use it. We also get into: why "AI is taking your job" is mostly a lie companies tell to cover over-hiring, what happened when Duolingo's stock dropped 82% and why Luis has zero regrets, the one mindset shift that lets him not check the stock price every day, and his honest takes on which jobs are actually going away — translator, teacher, social media manager, strategist, project…

What happens after AI? John Martinis — Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the scientist behind Google's quantum computing breakthrough — says most people are focused on the wrong threat. He's the only scientist on Trump's new tech advisory council, alongside Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Jensen Huang. And he has a very different read on where this is all going. In this episode: why quantum computers could crack Bitcoin encryption, which assets are already at risk, why the entire internet needs to switch encryption protocols in the next decade — and why investing in quantum hardware right now mirrors the Nvidia GPU bet before anyone knew what GPUs were for. If you're thinking about your career, your savings, or your business in an AI world — this one changes the frame. Topics: quantum computing, AI future, Bitcoin encryption, cybersecurity, career in tech, future of work, tech investing, Nobel Prize, Silicon Valley More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Follow my Newsletter:…

Allie K. Miller is the #1 most-followed voice in AI business on LinkedIn with 2M followers. She launched IBM's first multimodal AI team, then became global head of machine learning for startups at AWS. Now her advisory firm, Open Machine, works with Novartis, ServiceNow, Warner Bros. Discovery — and she's advised Reid Hoffman and Melinda French Gates's Pivotal Ventures. In 2025 Allie was named TIME100 AI.In this episode, she shows us her exact setup — 36 proactive workflows, around 100 agents running while she sleeps — and walks us through how to build it yourself without writing a single line of code. We covered the 3 context documents everyone should create first, why most people are using AI at 20% of its potential, and what separates the people winning with AI from the ones falling behind.This is the most practical AI episode I've recorded. Watch it once and you'll spend the rest of the day inside Claude. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Follow my Newsletter: ⁠https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/⁠…

Mo Gawdat spent 12 years at Google, wrote Scary Smart, and now predicts 12–15 years of disruption before things get better. In this episode, he breaks down the 7 forces already reshaping jobs and power, why 23–30% of new grad hiring has collapsed, and how he built an AI startup in 6 weeks instead of 4 years. Mo Gawdat is former Chief Business Officer at Google X and one of the few tech insiders saying out loud what most are only thinking. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com?utm_source=spotify&utm_medium=video&utm_content=Mo-Gawdat-interview Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconValleyGirl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠https://x.com/siliconvalleymm⁠

Yossi Matias has been inside Google Research for 20 years. He built Autocomplete, Google Trends, and Google Duplex before most people knew what a large language model was. His argument isn't that AI is coming. It's that we already passed the inflection point and most of us didn't notice because we adapted. In this conversation: 6 things changing how we work right now, why one person can now do the work of three, which skills Google actually hires for in 2026, and what the flood prediction system covering 2 billion people tells us about what's possible next. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconValleyGirl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

I spent 8 years waiting to have this conversation. Gary Vaynerchuk on whether this is actually our last chance to build wealth with AI, what he'd do if he woke up broke tomorrow, why the middle of the market is the most dangerous place to be right now, and the mindset that separates people who thrive from people who freeze. One of the most honest takes on AI, ambition, and identity I've heard. More from the Silicon Valley Girl: Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_content=gary-vee-interview Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@SiliconValleyGirl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/marinamogilko⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: https://x.com/siliconvalleymm