Term Sheet

Welcome to the Term Sheet podcast! In this series, Allie Garfinkle adapts her Term Sheet newsletter in audio and video format, diving deeper into the latest news and insights on private equity, venture capital and start-ups. Every week, the show features conversations with industry leaders, insights, and a roundup of the biggest funding news.

Term Sheet is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 28 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Term Sheet, a business show with 28 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Term Sheet

  This Billion-Dollar Soda Brand Founder Explains Why Fortune 500s Can’t Win Gen Z

  Sep 24, 202644 min

  Soda is one of the hardest categories to break into, where a few legacy giants dominate shelf space. Yet Poppi, the prebiotic soda company, turned a Texas farmers' market side hustle into a $1.95 billion sale to PepsiCo. On Term Sheet, Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with co-founder Allison Ellsworth to unpack how she cracked the Gen Z code, how she turned three-day TikTok trends into lasting demand, and why incumbents are still struggling to win over the next generation of soda drinkers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Term Sheet

  Inside Wonder's Plan to Automate Restaurants: From Robotic Kitchens to Drone Delivery | Term Sheet

  Aug 26, 202637 min

  An automated assembly line inside a Wonder kitchen can churn out 500 customized burrito bowls with zero order errors. This is a system CEO Marc Lore views as merely the baseline for his $9 billion food-tech enterprise. Fresh off acquiring Sweetgreen’s robotic kitchen technology, Wonder told Fortune's Allie Garfinkle it might go public early next year. Listen to Term Sheet to find out more. 4:06 — The Biggest Risk Isn’t Taking a Risk 6:16 — Why NBA Teams Could Be the Ultimate Investment 10:40 — The Billion-Dollar Bet on the Future of Food 17:37 — Inside Wonder’s Radical New Management System 22:12 — AI Could Turn Anyone Into a Restaurant Owner 24:39 — The “Infinite Bowl Machine” Is Coming 26:06 — Millions of People Could Soon Own Their Own Restaurants 28:17 — The Future of Food Delivery Is Coming From the Sky 30:43 — The M&A Mistake That Can Cost Companies Millions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Term Sheet

  This Mentalist Says He’s Training ChatGPT to Hypnotize People | Term Sheet

  Aug 13, 202647 min

  Mentalist Max Major has spent decades hypnotizing people. Now, he says he's training a ChatGPT voice model to do it too. As people turn to AI for advice, therapy, companionship, and everyday decisions, a bigger question is emerging: Could AI become persuasive enough to shape human behavior? If AI can reliably influence our decisions, the implications stretch far beyond chatbots, affecting advertising, consumer spending, investing, and financial advice. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Max Major to explore the emerging world of AI hypnosis, why he believes it works, and what it could mean for the future of business and human decision-making. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Term Sheet

  The $11.5B Startup 100 Investors Turned Down | Term Sheet

  Jul 29, 202634 min

  Live shopping in China is a massive, multi-billion-dollar market, but for years, American platforms have struggled to crack the format. But in 2019, Grant LaFontaine and Logan Head started a live shopping marketplace for Funko Pops that not many investors believed in. Fast forward to today, Whatnot has transformed into a $11.5B valuation company, hitting 1 billion orders this year, overseeing transactions for everything from Pokémon cards to live seafood. It is now among the nation’s biggest shippers. Fortune’s Allie Garfinkle sits down with CEO Grant LaFontaine to talk about this unforeseen growth and the next steps for the company.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Term Sheet

  How This Multi-Millionaire Investor Spots Billion-Dollar Ideas | Term Sheet

  Jun 25, 202634 min

  Over 3,000 venture capital firms are operating in the U.S. today. Lux Capital's co-founder Josh Wolfe thinks more than half of them won't survive the decade. He has spent 25 years making calls nobody else would make, backing Anduril before defense tech was a category and surgical robotics before it had a market. Now, fresh off a $1.5 billion fundraise, he's warning that the AI boom is headed for a crash that will wipe out trillions in market cap and take most of the venture industry with it. Fortune's Allie Garfinkle sits down with Wolfe to find out who survives the shakeout, where the defense tech bubble breaks, and the predictions he's making for 2027. 0:00 The VC Extinction Has Already Started0:50 Hot IPO Summer: SpaceX's $2 Trillion Debut2:05 The VC Who Bets Against Everyone2:26 Josh Wolfe: Half of VC Firms Are Going Extinct5:24 Why Lux Plays the Middle6:14 Turning Science Fiction Into Billions6:43 Star Wars Inspired a Billion-Dollar Exit8:41 Real-Life X-Men Is Already Here9:41 How He Spots Fake Science in Seconds11:19 Is Venture Capital Eating Itself?13:59 The AI Crash: Trillions Wiped Out16:55 Why a Fruit Fly Could Beat the Big AI Labs17:21 Soon Everything You Say Is Recorded?19:57 The Defense Bet Nobody Would Make22:51 Kill Chains and Moral Precision27:45 Wolfe's 2027 Prediction: A 15% Nasdaq Drop30:41 Why He's Still Betting on the Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Term Sheet. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.