Summation with Auren Hoffman

Carson Block is the founder of Muddy Waters Research, one of the defining activist short-selling firms of the last decade and a half. Since 2010, Muddy Waters has published forensic research exposing accounting fraud at publicly traded companies across China, Europe, and the US and has been right enough times that 11 companies have been delisted as a result.
In this episode of Summation, Carson and Auren discuss:
why outright fraud is only 20-25% of Muddy Waters'  focus
the Wirecard saga
why high-trust countries like Germany are a paradise for criminals
how the thing that killed Enron is still completely legal
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Carson Block on LinkedIn and on X @muddywatersre

Anders Jones is the CEO and co-founder of Facet, a fintech company built to bring high-quality, flat-fee financial advice to an underserved market: the mass affluent. Facet has raised over $250M and manages more than $7B. Anders has seen the real finances of tens of thousands of households.
In this episode of Summation, Anders and Auren discuss:
why the percentage-of-assets fee is the greatest heist in finance
the retention data showing people stick 3x longer when you help them act, not just advise
the horizontal wealth transfer to spouses that nobody is planning for
why most companies should never raise venture capital
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Anders Jones on LinkedIn

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker. He is the author of The Power of Habit, Smarter Faster Better, and Supercommunicators. His work focuses on the science of habits, productivity, decision-making, and human connection.
In this episode of Summation, Charles and Auren discuss:
why producing the words is only 10% of an author's job, and the 90% AI can't do
what GLP-1s actually do to the brain 
the serendipity tax: why you pay for five dead-end dinners to get the one that changes your life
the three skills that separate supercommunicators from everyone else
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Charles Duhigg on X at @cduhigg

Chris Farmer is the founder and CEO of SignalFire, an early stage venture firm managing over $3 billion. 
In this episode of Summation, Chris and Auren discuss:
why the time to return 1x has stretched to 9+ years and funds are lasting 20 years
the engineering hiring boom hiding behind the layoff headlines
the five functions of a VC firm and the one place data helps the least
why almost all conventional career advice is now bad
You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Chris Farmer on X at @chriswfarmer

This episode is a rebroadcast of Auren's appearance on the GTMnow podcast 
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Auren Hoffman (Flex Capital) joins the GTMnow podcast to share some of the most contrarian takes in tech today, from why AI moats are gone, to why your next VC meeting will be with a bot, to why AI is secretly going to trigger a baby boom.
In this episode:
Why Auren runs 500+ AI agents to source deals, and what that means for founders raising capital
The "agent-to-agent" meeting prediction: by end of 2026, first VC conversations will be fully automated
Why every software moat has been "blown up" and what Salesforce, LinkedIn & DocuSign need to do to survive
The OpenAI x The Hustle acquisition breakdown: why it's the smartest (and cheapest) distribution play in AI
Why missing a great deal is 10x more painful than making a bad one, Auren's honest VC mistake framework
The baby boom thesis: why AI, IVF, self-driving cars & cheaper energy could reverse the fertility decline
Why companies won't sign yearly SaaS contracts anymore, and what that means for every B2B founder
Auren Hoffman is the founder of NQB8, Flex Capital, SafeGraph, and LiveRamp. He's an early backer of Replit, Perplexity, Rippling, Vercel, Coinbase, Chime, and AppLovin.
Max’s socials: 
https://x.com/hackitmax
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler/
Auren’s socials:
https://x.com/auren
https://www.linkedin.com/in/auren/
https://auren.substack.com/
GTMnow: https://gtmnow.com