Celesta Capital | Deep Tech Venture Capital Firm
32 episodes listed below
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The TechSurge: Deep Tech VC Podcast explores the frontiers of emerging tech, geopolitics, and business, with conversations tailored for entrepreneurs, technologists, and investment professionals. Presented by Celesta Capital, and hosted by Founding Partners Nic Brathwaite, Michael Marks, and Sriram Viswanathan. Send feedback and show ideas to [email protected]. Each discussion delves into the intersection of technology advancement, market dynamics, and the founder journey, offering insights into the vast opportunities and complex challenges ahead. Episode topics include AI, data center transformation, blockchain, cyber security, healthcare innovation, VC investment trends, tips for first-…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
TechSurge connects deep technology's mechanics with the capital, infrastructure, and policy decisions that determine whether it can scale.
TechSurge follows emerging technology all the way from underlying science to investment decisions, public infrastructure, and government policy.
From mammogram math to national chip ambitions, your AI curiosity picks up a balance sheet.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sober look at sovereign AI and the practical limits of full independence.
The episode treats sovereign AI as a policy and infrastructure problem, not a slogan. It keeps coming back to the same pressure point: where control matters most when few countries can build every layer on their own.
A sharp case for treating AI safety as a governance problem, not a company promise.
The conversation treats AI safety less like a product feature and more like a governance problem. If aviation, pharmaceuticals, and banking set safety rules outside the company, the same question hangs over AI.
A look at India's move from IT services toward deep technology and globally competitive companies.
This piece frames India's next-tech push as a practical test, not a slogan. It focuses on the gap between being a huge technology user and building deep technology, foundational IP, and companies that can compete globally.
A grounded look at how open and closed AI shape the frontier and its reach.
TechSurge treats open and closed AI as a question of power and incentives: who pays for breakthroughs, who spreads them, and who gets to steer the direction of intelligence.
A wide-ranging venture conversation that connects AI, Zoom, Canva, and crypto to founder discipline.
Bill Tai is used as a clear lens on how early conviction turns into companies that can survive scale. The talk moves through AI infrastructure, venture judgment, Zoom, Canva, and crypto, but the steady idea is simpler: find a big problem, keep the product low friction, and make…
AI's upside looks bigger when access, adoption, and infrastructure move together.
It frames AI less as a slogan than as a system, tying together productivity, labor effects, adoption gaps, and the infrastructure that keeps the whole thing moving.
Bell Labs, AI RAN, and Nokia's reinvention story, framed as telecom architecture rather than slogan.
This episode treats Nokia's strategy as reinvention, and Bell Labs gives that claim concrete weight. Nishant Batra links the lab's legacy to the transistor, wireless networks, Unix, and topological quantum computing, then widens the frame to telecom's shift from 2G, 3G, 4G, and…
A sober case that U.S. tech leadership is built, not assumed.
China's research output, the limits of private capital, and the long-standing government-university compact sit at the center of this conversation with MIT President Emeritus Raphael Reif. It is strongest when it treats U.S.
Frontier technology, seen at civilizational scale.
Water tech, with teeth and numbers.
Consumer brand strategy without the gloss.
Southern startups, capital, and conviction.
Loose, opinionated hallway talk about AI products and craft.
Anil Ananthaswamy, author of Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI, joins Shiram to trace machine learning from Rosenblatt’s perceptron to GPT-style systems.
John says AI is moving at five times the speed and three times the impact of the internet.
A discussion with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on the shift in U.S.
This episode explores the invention and impact of the CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensor, which enabled cameras to be embedded in smartphones and other devices.
The conversation opens with a blunt premise: AI is moving faster than people can confidently control it.
The conversation opens on a warning about how a small number of people hold outsized power in AI.
This episode explores India's push to become a deep tech superpower through interviews with a senior policymaker, a national strategist, and a venture capitalist.
A deep tech VC podcast exploring the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and business with insights for entrepreneurs and investors.
Michael Marks interviews Senthil Kumar on the open vs closed AI development debate, sparked by DeepSeek's efficient model release.
Legendary investor Bill Tai shares stories of backing Zoom, Canva, and crypto early, revealing how he spots transformative founders and navigates structural shifts in tech.
OpenAI Chief Economist Ronnie Chatterjee discusses the economic implications of AI, including job market impacts, infrastructure needs, and geopolitical competition.
Nokia's Chief Strategy and Technology Officer Nishant Batra discusses the company's reinvention, backend network dominance, and Bell Labs' role in driving innovation.
Michael sits down with MIT President Emeritus Dr.
The episode turns on Microsoft's strategic posture.
Charlie Giancarlo argues that enterprise AI is still being slowed down by fragmented data and the effort required to bring it together.
Mike Nohaly, a biotech leader, argues that AI is overhyped for creating new medicines, citing data limitations and a lack of de novo drugs.
Juan Zarate, a former national security official, discusses the convergence of technology, economic security, and geopolitics in modern conflicts.
Michael Marks interviews Bob, a global managing partner at McKinsey, exploring how McKinsey is evolving its partnership model with venture capital to drive disruption.
An interview with Dr.
This episode explores the impact of AI on healthcare, featuring CEOs of AI healthcare startups discussing opportunities and challenges.
Host Sriram Viswanathan interviews Mark McLaughlin, former CEO of Palo Alto Networks, about his career in cybersecurity and tech leadership.
An interview with the founders of Crescendo AI about using AI to transform customer service and call center operations.
Host Michael Marks interviews former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi about technology's dominance in the economy and market trends.
Host Michael Marks introduces a panel of experts to discuss bioconvergence, the intersection of high technology and biology in healthcare.
Host Michael Marks interviews veteran investor Vinod Khosla about the future of technology, venture capital, and his vision for the next 10-25 years.