The $2B AI Startup Changing Content Forever | Victor Riparbelli
Before founding Synthesia, Victor Riparbelli grew up in Denmark with parents who struck a balance between ensuring his future security and giving him the freedom to pursue his passions, with his father steering him toward technology.
At Stanford, the intense academics and ambitious peers challenged him to question the status quo and honed his approach to creating helpful tools.
We also get into:
• why complex video games were his first playground for building business
• how Mark Cuban became their first investor without meeting them
• why the future of communication is video
ABOUT US:
We’re proudly sponsored by Brex—a brand I co-founded, now supporting over 30,000 businesses like Anthropic, DoorDash, and Scale AI, helping them make every dollar count.
I’m grateful for their continued support as I bring you all conversations with some of the most exceptional founders of our generation. For more information, please go to: https://www.brex.com/?ref_code=bmk_audio_HDinHD
Connect with us here:
1. Victor Riparbelli- https://x.com/vriparbelli
2. Brex- https://x.com/brexHQ
3. Henrique Dubugras- https://x.com/hdubugras
This episode was produced and distributed by our friends at Atomik Growth: https://atomikgrowth.com
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How Vercel Saves Dev Teams $10M+ in Time | Guillermo Rauch
Before founding Vercel, Guillermo Rauch, was a self-taught teenager in Argentina earning his first dollars online to help his family.
From early open-source work to remote freelancing, this episode traces how his drive to figure things out led to solving web performance at scale.
We also get into:
• how his dad instilled a mindset of pushing tech boundaries
• what growing up during Argentina’s economic swings taught him
• why he sees Minecraft as a healthy game for his kids
• why he believes speed without direction is meaningless
ABOUT US:
We’re proudly sponsored by Brex—a brand I co-founded, now supporting over 30,000 businesses like Anthropic, DoorDash, and Scale AI, helping them make every dollar count.
I’m grateful for their continued support as I bring you all conversations with some of the most exceptional founders of our generation. For more information, please go to: https://www.brex.com/?ref_code=bmk_audio_HDinHD
Connect with us here:
1. Guillermo Rauch- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauchg/
2. Brex- https://x.com/brexHQ
3. Henrique Dubugras- https://x.com/hdubugras
This episode was produced and distributed by our friends at Atomik Growth: https://atomikgrowth.com/
00:00 Intro
02:00 Early Years
04:50 Parenting, First Experiences with Computers
07:40 Screen Time Rules
11:40 Video Games & Developing Programming Skills
15:30 Freelance Coding & Earning in U.S. Dollars
19:40 High School
24:10 Startup Offer
30:30 Silicon Valley & First Acquisition
41:45 Founding Vercel
54:40 AI Wave: v0, Agents & “Token Factories”
01:14:28 Vercel's Success and Client Impact
01:20:58 The Role of AI in Development
01:40:49 Iterating Towards Greatness
01:52:27 Balancing Luck and Skill
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Why Jack Zhang Is Betting Against SWIFT and Stripe
Jack Zhang landed in Melbourne at 15 with no money, no English, and no one to lean on.
By 30, he was turning down a billion-dollar offer from Stripe.
In this episode of HD in HD, I sit down with the co-founder and CEO of Airwallex to trace his zero-to-borderless journey—from small-town China to building one of the biggest tech stories ever to come out of Australia.
We get into:
• What Airwallex did differently that Stripe couldn’t in APAC
• The $100,000 mistake that nearly derailed their first client
• How Jack handled 2022’s valuation reset (and why he didn’t panic)
• The AI opportunity he thinks everyone is sleeping on
• how Airwallex hit $1B in volume before raising a proper Series A
00:00 Trailer
00:46 Introduction
01:18 Airwallex
04:58 No English from China to Australia
15:15 My first business, no financial support
23:06 All work, no fun
31:03 Development and coffee
36:26 Nothing is that hard
40:05 Startups
45:40 Brex
46:29 Starting Airwallex
53:27 The whole thing fell apart
57:20 Sequoia Capital and Tencent
1:05:41 Billion-dollar acquisition offer
1:11:59 Managing globally
1:16:20 Motivation and efficiency
1:23:26 Worth billions, hard to turn
1:24:58 Lessons from China
1:29:38 Outro
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Why Pfizer, Dell, and Uber Trust This Man With Their Data | Alex Rinke
Everyone ignored this problem—until it became an opportunity. Alexander Rinke, co-founder of Celonis, turned a student project into a $13B+ process mining giant from Germany.
Born and raised in Berlin, he went on to build a software empire that has saved companies like Pfizer $300M.
This episode of HD in HD explores Alex’s path from student founder to CEO—and how he sees AI transforming the way companies run.
Alex and I also unpack:
• how 1,500 handwritten letters helped him land Siemens
• why AI’s next wave hinges on process overhaul
• how a $50K project outgrew his McKinsey dreams
ABOUT US:
We’re proudly sponsored by Brex—a brand I co-founded, now supporting over 30,000 businesses like Anthropic, DoorDash, and Scale AI, helping them make every dollar count.
Connect with us:
1. Alex - https://x.com/alexanderrinke
2. Henrique Dubugras- https://x.com/hdubugras
This episode was produced and distributed by our friends at Atomik Growth: https://atomikgrowth.com/
00:00:00 Trailer
00:01:20 Introduction
00:02:40 Process Mining
00:03:59 Real-World Applications
00:06:46 Early Life
00:09:48 Education and Early Career
00:24:32 The Birth of Celonis
00:42:36 Initial Funding Challenges
00:49:45 Scaling and Venture Capital
01:01:15 Mentorship and Role Models
01:05:39 The Future of Celonis and AI
01:13:28 Reflections on Success and Upbringing
01:24:24 Closing Thoughts
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1:26:15
Inside Revolut: How Nikolay Storonsky Built a $45B Fintech Empire
Old-school banking leans on control and complacency.
Revolut charted its own course—flourishing by bending conventions, outrunning oversight, and favoring execution over protocol.
Nikolay Storonsky, Revolut’s co-founder and CEO, was forged by a mix of physics-driven upbringing and competitive swimming. This drilled in his mantra: systems can be cracked, and tenacity outshines flair.
That drive transformed Revolut from a currency workaround to a global financial juggernaut, clashing with the establishment.
In this episode, we dig into:
• Why Nik fueled the start with trading earnings despite later raising $2 billion
• How Revolut leapfrogged regulators and legacy players
• Why breakneck expansion needs discipline when costs soar and margins tighten
explore Nikolay's background
other fintech innovators
ABOUT US:
We’re proudly sponsored by Brex—a brand I co-founded, now supporting over 30,000 businesses like Anthropic, DoorDash, and Scale AI, helping them make every dollar count.
I’m grateful for their continued support as I bring you all conversations with some of the most exceptional founders of our generation. Onward and upward, together.
Connect with us:
1. Revolut - https://x.com/RevolutApp
2. Brex - https://x.com/brexHQ
3. Henrique Dubugras- https://x.com/hdubugras
00:00 Trailer
00:49 Introduction
01:52 Nik's Early Life and Education
11:50 Transition to Finance and Trading
14:19 The Collapse of Lehman Brothers
25:15 Starting Revolut
36:28 YC Combinator and Fundraising Challenges
41:24 Product Development and Market Fit
44:23 Company Culture and Hiring Philosophy
47:01 Management Style and Systems
59:52 Expansion and Systematizing Processes
01:06:30 Reflections on Success and Challenges
01:09:00 Closing Thoughts
This episode was produced and distributed by our friends at Atomik Growth: https://atomikgrowth.com/
Henrique Dubugras founded fintech giant Brex when he was twenty-one years old. In his journey from São Paulo to Stanford to the heights of Silicon Valley he made connections with some of the biggest names in the ecosystem. Now, they’re not just business connections, but friends.