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Sherveen Mashayekhi - startups, culture, recruiting and more | E62

·42 min·2 clips

Shirveen says Mark Andreessen has been "extraordinarily dishonest" about the Biden AI-regulation story.

1. Madvertising by AdQuick E62 centers on Sherveen Mashayekhi, Free Agency, and the overlap between tech recruiting, politics, and AI. 2. Adam and Sherveen are longtime friends, and Sherveen is founder and CEO of Venturebacked Free Agency, an angel investor, and host of two YouTube shows. 3. The episode asks how founders, employees, and job seekers should act when tech, governance, and the job market all feel unstable. 4. Sherveen says the job market today is “awful,” and he tells clients that six-month and 12-month searches are now common. 5. He argues that job seekers need to build a system for weekly search behavior instead of deciding each morning whether to apply, follow up, or do homework. 6. He describes Free Agency as “Hollywood-style representation for tech talent,” with concierge support from interviews to negotiation. 7. He says the service has helped candidates win over $400 million in job offers since 2019. 8. He also mentions Breakthrough Job Search, a five-day intensive course that teaches the same tools with less hand-holding. 9. The conversation shifts to tech’s politicization after COVID and the way venture capital became more public, louder, and more directly tied to power. 10. Sherveen says the “tech right” is not truly pro-immigration, even when it tweets support for access and founders. 11. He argues that policies affecting immigrants matter because many startup founders are immigrants or visa holders. 12. He says people who once assumed VC would support immigrant founders now have to ask whether that support still exists. 13. On AI regulation, Sherveen says Mark Andreessen has been “extraordinarily dishonest” about a Biden-era meeting on startup restrictions. 14. He says he uses AI “70% plus of my day,” but he still does not subscribe to either AI doom or uncritical AI optimism. 15. He wants open debate with figures such as Sam Altman and Ezra Klein instead of podcast-era talking points. 16. He also says it is plausible to imagine bad actors using drones, vision models, large language models, and other generative AI systems against people. 17. The tone is argumentative but practical, with Adam pressing for specifics and Sherveen answering in long, policy-heavy stretches. 18. The format stays conversational and personal, with career advice, political critique, and product discussion all folded into one interview. 19. Best for listeners following tech hiring, VC politics, and AI policy. 20. Skip if you want apolitical startup talk or short, tactical recruiting tips.

As heard by us

A loose but useful founder conversation about hiring, culture, and the signals behind success.

Sherveen Mashayekhi offers a founder's-eye view in a conversation that moves from recruiting and startup culture into AI, policy, and how people build influence online.

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Why you'd press play

A founder-to-founder conversation about careers, culture, and how influence shows up in tech.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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