Why IPOs Are Optional Now: Jack on Sand Hill Road

Scott McGrew Hosts Jack on THE Sand Hill Road PoDcast

About Sand Hill Road:

Hosted by NBC Bay Area business and technology reporter Scott McGrew, Sand Hill Road is a weekly podcast featuring interviews from the heart of Silicon Valley with the venture capitalists, start-ups, and innovators behind the trending technologies of tomorrow.

The podcast takes its name from the street in Menlo Park known as the “Main Street” of the venture capital industry, and home to some of Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firms that have invested into the likes of Facebook/Instagram, Alphabet, Inc., and Twitter.

ON This EPISODE: Why IPOs Are Optional Now

7GC co-founder Jack Leeney joined the Sand Hill Road podcast to discuss his path from Morgan Stanley — where he worked on the IPOs of Tesla, LinkedIn, and Facebook — to venture investing in the current AI cycle. He explores how public markets have structurally contracted, why IPOs are now one exit path among many rather than the default, and what that means for founders and investors. Drawing on 7GC portfolio companies Hims, Jackpocket, and Anthropic, Jack makes the case for Anthropic's enterprise-first approach as a durable differentiator in a crowded AI landscape — and argues that with only around 10% of Fortune 500 companies having deployed AI at scale, the biggest part of the adoption curve is still ahead.

Listen to the full episode: Sand Hill Road, Episode 198 — Apple Podcasts. AVAILABLE ALSO ON Spotify