We have backlog of unicorns valued at $3.9 trillion 'ripe to go public', says Alumni Ventures' Rippy - part 1/2
2025-12-30_23-05 • 6m 19s
? (?)
00:00.000
Oh,
no,
that
that's
true.
So,
let's
let's
let's
bring
in
Laura
Rippy
of
of
Alumni
Ventures.
The
number
one
ranked
female
early
stage
investor
in
the
United
States.
Also,
big
investor
in
Grock,
GROQ,
which
just
had
a
non
I
guess
a
non-deal
deal
with
Nvidia,
but
Exactly.
And
So
? (?)
00:18.920
welcome
now
you'll
be
by
the
way.
Yes.
Why
thank
you
for
being
here.
I
appreciate
it.
You
You
got
Blue
Sky.
You've
got
a
number
of
other
companies
in
your
profile.
Ragetti
Computing,
Quantum
Computer.
Um
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
00:28.000
Aura.
Aura
? (?)
00:29.120
Ring.
Yeah.
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
00:30.040
Yep,
for
a
ring.
? (?)
00:31.080
Thank
you.
Whole
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
00:32.000
bunch
of
nuclear
companies.
I
know
you
like
energy.
? (?)
00:34.240
I
want
to
get
that
nuclear
yeah
because
that's
that's
my
jam.
Let's
talk
about
it
and
just
there's
some
of
your
companies.
Congratulations,
by
the
way,
on
some
of
these
accolades.
What
are
you
seeing
that
others
are
missing?
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
00:44.480
Yeah.
So,
we
see
a
lot
in
the
early
stage,
right?
So,
about
two-thirds
of
our
work
is
seed
in
Series
A.
So,
we
start
early.
So,
to
give
you
an
example,
with
Blue
Sky,
we
were
in
starting
at
the
Series
A
with
uh
Aura,
Series
A.
Now,
it's,
you
know,
multi-billion-dollar
company,
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
01:01.960
Impulse
Space
Series
A,
that's
kind
of
the
next
SpaceX.
We
can
talk
about
IPOs
if
you
want.
So,
I
think
for
us,
we
come
in
early.
And
we
follow
our
alumni
connections
when
we
can,
and
we
bring
that
to
individual
accredited
investors.
? (?)
01:16.280
That's
That's
really
what
makes
it
different.
The
the
veterans
of
the
companies
that
you
have
founded
or
or
worked
with
or
worked
out
or
whatever
it
might
be.
Um,
the
top
of
the
show
we
had
a
pretty
serious
conversation
about
what
would
happen
if
Open
AI
were
to
stumble.
What
? (?)
01:33.480
would
happen
to
the
entire
AI
data
center
ecosystem?
If
huge
if
Yeah.
that
were
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
01:40.000
to
happen.
Yeah,
huge
if.
So,
they're
not
alone,
right?
I
mean,
there
are
a
lot
of
folks
who
are
biting
and
scratching
and
crawling
their
way
to
compete
against
Open
AI.
So,
I
think
if
they
stumble,
there
will
be
AquaHires.
There
will
be
other
competitors
and
we've
got
a
few,
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
01:58.160
you
know,
public
companies
like
Google
that
is,
you
know,
hungry
for
that
market.
So,
I
I
I
have
I
have
no
fear
that
there
will
be
a
problem.
It
would
be
a
function
of
bit
of
a
scrum,
fight
it
all
out.
But
you
know,
the
Grock
deal
is
part
of
the
teas
here
where
Aqua
hires
are
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
02:17.520
going
to
be
a
bigger
part,
bigger
increasing
part
of
what
happens
in
this
? (?)
02:21.080
market,
too.
Great
to
have
you
here.
Maiden
voyage
for
you,
but
you'll
be
back
no
doubt.
In
26,
what
are
the
emerging
markets
that
the
market's
not
paying
enough
attention
to
that
you
are.
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
02:31.040
Yeah,
so
in
venture,
we
look,
you
know,
head
of
the
curve.
We
look
sort
of
around
the
corners.
So,
defense
innovation
is
enormous.
You
think
of
the
public
market
bets
on
defense
other
than
Palantir,
you're
really
talking
about
the
primes.
But
all
of
the
innovation
that's
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
02:46.880
happening,
that
is
happening
in
the
early
stage,
and
it's
accessible
for
individual
credit
investors
who
want
to
go
into
venture,
but
if
folks
aren't
playing
there,
they
won't
see
the
impact
of
those
companies
for
years.
And
say
a
second
pocket
is
in
space.
So,
I
mentioned
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
03:01.440
Impulse
Space.
This
is
a
company
that's
probably
the
next
SpaceX.
It's
now
only
a
few
billion
dollars
in
valuation,
but
man,
that
has
grown
like
a
rocket
ship
on
the
private
side.
No
pun.
Yeah,
pun.
? (?)
03:12.720
Pun
was
fully
intended.
Fully.
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
03:15.120
Man,
you
guys
are
Well,
let
me
answer
this
though.
? (?)
03:17.640
Yeah
On
the
defense
stuff
and
again,
like
you
say,
it's
been
really
hot.
Androll
is
probably
the
poster
child
for
that,
right?
In
the
private
side.
In
the
private
side.
When
you
think
about
the
reliance
of
some
of
these
hardware
manufacturers,
right?
Whether
it
comes
to
drones
? (?)
03:30.280
on
China.
Yeah.
for
the
parts,
the
authentic.
All
this
stuff
that
goes
into
them,
they're
all
in
China.
They
make
like
85%
of
them.
Does
that
worry
I
know
you're
very
early
seed
Yeah.
in
the
egg
So
it's
so
strategic
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
03:41.000
for
the
US.
Do
you
know
China,
Ukraine,
Russia,
all
produce
2
million
drones
a
year.
Do
you
know
how
much
we
produce?
Want
to
take
any
? (?)
03:50.000
guesses?
Less.
? (?)
03:52.480
God,
I'm
so
glad
I
sit
next
to
I
you.
do
? (?)
03:54.400
How
many?
See
that's
Yes.
some
mapping
right
there
That's
Elliott
just
want
to
be
around
the
whole
Around
the
whole
anybody
getting
It's
like
hundreds
of
thousands.
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
04:01.280
It's
like
no.
Yeah.
25,000.
25,000.
25,000.
25,000
We
said
we
said
25,000
to
Ukraine.
Yeah.
No.
So
we
are
behind
the
curve.
So
think
about
the
innovation
that's
happening.
One
of
our
companies
is
Firestorm.
They
do
basically
manufacturing
at
the
edge.
So
they
can
make
those
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
04:22.600
drones
at
the
edge
of
the
fighting
uh
conflict.
And
those
are
the
kinds
of
things
where
we
bring
the
brilliance
of
American
innovation
and
we
bring
it
to
bear
with
back
in
the
defense
industry.
? (?)
04:32.080
So,
I
want
to
ask
you
about
the
evolution
of
VC
investing.
It
used
to
be
you
do
I
don't
know
CD
round,
maybe
then
try
to
file,
go
public.
That
seems
very
different
now.
You
have
a
lot
of
companies
do
it
like
Armis,
the
life
cycle
just
did
an
L
round
that
got
taken
out.
There
was
? (?)
04:45.520
never
a
stop
on
the
IPO
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
04:48.120
sort
of
You're
totally
right.
Yeah.
In
2000,
it
took
maybe
five
to
eight
years
to
go
public.
Now,
it
takes
more
on
the
order
of
12
to
14.
We
have
a
backlog.
There's
$3.9
trillion
dollars
of
value
you
in
unicorns
right
now.
830
unicorns
and
half
of
those
have
been
around
for
9
Laura Rippy (Managing Partner)
05:05.640
plus
years.
Those
are
companies
that
are
ripe
to
go
public.
They
need
Autoscroll