All episodes

In the fourth edition of Burn Rate Intelligence, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the Moon Economy. Deloitte estimates the potential economic value of a future lunar economy at USD 343 to 566 billion by 2050. But before commercial business models can emerge, an entire infrastructure must be built: transport, energy, communication, navigation and life support. Who pays for the first ten to twenty years? How does government demand change the risk for private investors? And at what point does a politically financed vision become a self-sustaining market? An episode about the ultimate burn rate question: How much capital must...

In this episode of Burn Rate, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss three major international AI deals, the fundamental question of bootstrapping vs. VC and a Swiss cybersecurity case with remarkable customer retention.

In the news segment, they cover Nvidia's USD 13B acquisition of Hugging Face and whether open-source AI can remain independent from Big Tech. They then examine Mistral's EUR 3B Series D led by Samsung with Nvidia, ASML and the EU Scaleup Fund at a EUR 21B valuation. Finally, they look at the AI secondary market, where Anthropic trades at USD 1.3 to 1.4 trillion and is significantly...

In the third edition of Burn Rate Intelligence, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi revisit one of the oldest questions in venture capital: What do you actually bet on – the founder or the market? The jockey or the horse?

Starting from a John Thornhill article in Sifted and a Scandinavian study, they introduce a third factor: the quality of early employees. Not just how good the founder is, but whether that founder can convince exceptional people to follow them.

Topics include Arthur Rock's jockey thesis versus Don Valentine's market logic, why talent density is becoming the decisive competitive advantage in...

In this episode of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the sudden SaaS recovery, why 32% of young Swiss startups are considering leaving Europe and when VCs become operators.

They start by examining the SaaS stock recovery: Salesforce up 23%, CrowdStrike up 20%, Okta up 29%. SaaS renaissance or simply a bounce after an extreme selloff?

In the news segment, they cover a new Strand Partners/AWS study showing 32% of young Swiss startups considering leaving Europe – primarily due to lack of capital. They then analyze the new PitchBook Global VC Ranking with...

In the second edition of Burn Rate Intelligence, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss an uncomfortable question: Has venture capital maneuvered itself into an AI concentration trap?

OpenAI and Anthropic alone absorbed over 60% of all US VC dollars in H1 2026. More capital is flowing into fewer companies. The discussion covers the mechanics behind this concentration, the open-source risk for frontier lab valuations and the paradoxical thesis: Even if the big AI IPOs arrive and LPs finally get cash back, the VC market could become even more concentrated – because the returns land at exactly the funds that are...

In this episode of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss digital health consolidation, the Physical AI boom and an antitrust investigation into Andreessen Horowitz.

In the news segment, they cover the Aepsy acquisition of Kinastic as an early sign of consolidation in Swiss digital health. They then analyze the latest Crunchbase data: USD 47.4 billion flowed into Physical AI startups in H1 2026 – nearly four times the amount in H2 2025. Finally, they examine the DOJ investigation into a16z over parallel board seats at competing companies and what it means for the...

In the first edition of Burn Rate Intelligence, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi break down the Dealroom report on European VC financing in H1 2026.

The headline numbers suggest recovery: USD 44.5 billion in six months. But behind them lies an extremely concentrated market. 60% of European VC capital flows into AI, and over half of all invested money sits in rounds above EUR 100 million – which account for less than 2% of all deals.

For Switzerland, the picture is different: CHF 1.245 billion, down 15.5% year-over-year. But the number of deals remained stable. The decline comes mainly from...

In this episode, Season 4 of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast officially launches. From now on, there are two episodes per week: the Saturday episode with news, listener question and deal of the week, and Burn Rate Intelligence on Wednesdays with a focus topic or guest.

In the news segment, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the latest PitchBook numbers: 87.5% of all US VC dollars are going into AI megadeals, and the Anthropic IPO could reach a $2 trillion valuation. The second news covers new research on fraud in VC-backed startups and why certain market conditions create...

In this final episode before the summer break of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss a new Swiss growth fund, the old VC math and whether payments in Switzerland have become an invisible tax.

In the news segment, they cover the new Swiss Champion Fund targeting CHF 100M for Series A and B, Swisscom closing its Silicon Valley office after 28 years, and new PitchBook data showing experienced European founders raise 72% more capital than first-time founders.

In the focus topic, they examine Max's new Bilanz column: Does the old venture capital math...

In this episode of Burn Rate – The VC Insider Podcast, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss European billion-dollar rounds, a new AI venture studio and whether European venture capital faces a structural correction.

In the news segment, they cover the eight European startups that have each raised over USD 1 billion in 2026 – accounting for nearly a quarter of all European funding. They then look at the Swiss Founders Fund's new SFF Studio, which aims to systematically build AI-first startups in Zurich. And they congratulate Nicole Herzog on being named Business Angel of the Year 2026 by SECA....