August Podcasts: 9 Episodes on AI, Startups, and Talent Hiring

«SmartCast: How to Build a Network of 5,000 Screens in Six Countries»

In the new episode of The Founders, representatives of SmartCast participated — Ruslan Rakhmatov, Rachel Kuronboeva, and Temur Kuronboev. The founders shared how the idea for a digital advertising service on screens was born, how they launched their first MVP for Bellissimo Pizza in just two weeks, and how they later raised $200,000 in investments. Today, SmartCast manages more than 5,000 digital screens and operates not only in Uzbekistan but also in Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and African countries. 

«Kazakhstan's Tokenomics: The Market for Tokenized Assets Could Reach $16 Trillion by 2030»

The guest of the «Fintech Time» program was Bayan Konirbaev, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Alatau City Authority. According to Boston Consulting Group forecasts, the global market for tokenized assets could reach $16 trillion by 2030 — approximately 10% of global GDP. Kazakhstan is still at the beginning of this path: the first real estate tokenization pilot was launched in February 2026. Participants discussed how asset tokenization is structured in the country and what is needed to develop this sector.

«Harry Tan: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the Rules of Startup Creation»

In Anish Acharya's podcast, he spoke with Y Combinator President and CEO Harry Tan about how artificial intelligence is rewriting the approach to building companies. The speaker recalled how he declined an offer to join Palantir in 2003 and explained why chasing «hot» topics often turns out to be the wrong strategy. They separately discussed agentic companies, the idea that a markdown file can replace an employee, and why traditional SaaS is losing its former advantages.

«Evgeny Kim, CEO of Sergek Group: Who Owns Data About Us»

The guest of the «Under Tamara Vaal's Knife» show was Evgeny Kim, CEO of Sergek Group — a company that creates video surveillance systems and digital infrastructure for the state. The conversation revolved around the topic of privacy: who has access to data from cameras, whether a state system can be used for personal purposes, and what happens if algorithms make mistakes. They also discussed fines, smart traffic lights, reasons for traffic jams in cities, and the artificial intelligence tools Kim himself uses. The host learned how many fines the guest himself receives and whether he covers his laptop camera.

«Adam Ward — On Hiring Strong Specialists in the Age of Artificial Intelligence»

Adam Ward, Head of Hiring at Cursor — one of the fastest-growing tools for developers — previously founded the recruitment company Growth by Design and spent over 20 years building teams for leading technology companies. In the conversation, he explained why the traditional hiring funnel — which he calls a «funnel of doom» — leads to mediocre results. Ward shared a three-step approach to finding talent: defining the task, mapping the market, and persistently pursuing candidates. They also discussed the worst question when searching for strong specialists and the growing role of the forward deployed engineer — an engineer working directly with clients.

«Temirlan Musaev, Developer at DeepInfra — On Vibe Coding and Hiring in the ChatGPT Era»

In the nFactorial podcast, host Arman Suleymenov spoke with DeepInfra developer Temirlan Musaev about how artificial intelligence is changing the work of engineers. Through screencasting, the participants analyzed how the Fantasy Football platform was created using Claude Code and discussed how to delegate routine tasks to autonomous AI agents. In the second part of the conversation, they talked about the AI inference market and DeepInfra's business — how startups can connect top-tier language models at low cost and how the creators of the IMO messenger built infrastructure for neural networks. Finally, they shared insights from competitive programming and discussed how to conduct technical interviews in the ChatGPT era.

«Fei-Fei Li — On How Human Intelligence Differs from Artificial Intelligence»

Stanford University professor and one of the key figures in the development of artificial intelligence, Fei-Fei Li, explained how AI can be safely used to enhance human capabilities — not just for information retrieval, but also for developing intelligence and creativity. They separately discussed how the collaborative work of humans with artificial intelligence and robots could change healthcare and everyday life. Li explained how artificial intelligence fundamentally differs from human thinking and why human intuition and unique experience cannot be replicated by machines. The conversation concluded with a discussion of the World Labs project and the concept of spatial intelligence.

«Jason Lemkin and Rory O'Driscoll — On the Deal Around Cursor and Anthropic's First Profit»

Investor Jason Lemkin, whose portfolio includes Algolia, Talkdesk, and RevenueCat, and Scale Venture Partners partner Rory O'Driscoll, who invested in Box, DocuSign, and Bill.com, discussed key deals in the technology market. They talked about rumors surrounding the acquisition of Cursor by SpaceX for $60 billion, the deal between OpenRouter and Stripe for $7 billion, and why Microsoft might end up losing out on the Cursor deal. They also discussed how Anthropic achieved its first profit with revenue of $11.5 billion, and a budget of $100,000 per engineer for AI tokens. They separately talked about the buyout of Workday by Silver Lake for $43 billion and valuations of Higgsfield at $5.5 billion and Lovable at $13.3 billion.

«Balaaji Srinivasan in Almaty — On Technologies That Are Changing the Fabric of Society»

At a meeting at Almaty Hub, entrepreneur and investor Balaaji Srinivasan — founder of Network School, former CTO of Coinbase, and former General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz — shared which technologies will define the coming decades. The speaker shared his perspective on how artificial intelligence and blockchain are changing entrepreneurship and investment, and what opportunities are opening up for startups in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. They separately discussed the future of the crypto industry, the creation of global companies, and the concept of Network State — the idea of how digital communities can transform cities and states. At the end of the meeting, Srinivasan answered participants' questions.