$22B Kalshi Co-Founder: How Life Changes in the Next 12 Months

📌 Transkriptor records your calls, splits them by speaker, and hands you the decisions and action items — 300 free minutes on a work email: https://transkriptor.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=midroll&utm_campaign=siliconvalleygirl2 Luana Lopes Lara is the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire, by Forbes' count. In 2018, she co-founded Kalshi, a platform where anyone can look up the odds on things that haven't happened yet. This May, the company raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation. Her entire job is watching what people bet real money on. So I spent this conversation asking her what the board already knows. What actually changes for a normal person by the end of this year? Will 2026 feel lighter or heavier for most people? Will any jobs suddenly become safer? And of course, how much should I be relying on the public's opinion versus reality? *Timestamps:* 0:00 — Intro 1:16 — The market Luana's team watches most right now 3:04 — What people ask to bet on now vs a year ago 4:05 — The layoffs market and why 73% was a number you could trust 6:20 — How a New York bar used a market as insurance 7:34 — Why 70% of Kalshi users never place a trade 8:50 — One number for the sentiment of a whole country 11:32 — What actually changes for you by the end of this year 13:10 — Will 2026 feel lighter or heavier financially? 14:00 — Which jobs get safer from here 14:26 — The 1% chance on Kalshi that came true anyway 16:51 — How agents changed the way she runs 170 people 18:22 — The weekly planning agent you could copy tomorrow 19:57 — Why she put engineers inside design and legal 23:27 — How long can you stay a solo founder with agents? 26:12 — What Kalshi looks for in job interviews now 28:50 — What years of ballet taught her about building Kalshi 30:17 — How suing the U.S. government helped Kalshi grow 31:48 — Luana's advice for women building something hard *Links:* 📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/ 🔗 My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ 📌 My Companies & Products: https://partnerships.marinamogilko.co

Marina MogilkohostLuana Lopes Laraguest

Aug 11, 202633mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: August 11, 2026
Duration: 33m
Channel: Silicon Valley Girl
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

📌 Transkriptor records your calls, splits them by speaker, and hands you the decisions and action items — 300 free minutes on a work email: https://transkriptor.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=midroll&utm_campaign=siliconvalleygirl2 Luana Lopes Lara is the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire, by Forbes' count. In 2018, she co-founded Kalshi, a platform where anyone can look up the odds on things that haven't happened yet. This May, the company raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation. Her entire job is watching what people bet real money on. So I spent this conversation asking her what the board already knows. What actually changes for a normal person by the end of this year? Will 2026 feel lighter or heavier for most people? Will any jobs suddenly become safer? And of course, how much should I be relying on the public's opinion versus reality? *Timestamps:* 0:00 — Intro 1:16 — The market Luana's team watches most right now 3:04 — What people ask to bet on now vs a year ago 4:05 — The layoffs market and why 73% was a number you could trust 6:20 — How a New York bar used a market as insurance 7:34 — Why 70% of Kalshi users never place a trade 8:50 — One number for the sentiment of a whole country 11:32 — What actually changes for you by the end of this year 13:10 — Will 2026 feel lighter or heavier financially? 14:00 — Which jobs get safer from here 14:26 — The 1% chance on Kalshi that came true anyway 16:51 — How agents changed the way she runs 170 people 18:22 — The weekly planning agent you could copy tomorrow 19:57 — Why she put engineers inside design and legal 23:27 — How long can you stay a solo founder with agents? 26:12 — What Kalshi looks for in job interviews now 28:50 — What years of ballet taught her about building Kalshi 30:17 — How suing the U.S. government helped Kalshi grow 31:48 — Luana's advice for women building something hard *Links:* 📩 Follow my Newsletter: https://siliconvalleygirl.beehiiv.com/ 🔗 My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconvalleygirl/ 📌 My Companies & Products: https://partnerships.marinamogilko.co

SPEAKERS

Marina Mogilko
host
Host of “Silicon Valley Girl,” interviewing founders and business leaders about tech and startups.
Luana Lopes Lara
guest
Kalshi co-founder discussing prediction markets, regulation, and company strategy.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Silicon Valley Girl, featuring Marina Mogilko and Luana Lopes Lara, $22B Kalshi Co-Founder: How Life Changes in the Next 12 Months explores kalshi’s co-founder on prediction markets, AI’s impact, and work’s next shift Luana Lopes Lara explains how Kalshi uses prediction markets to turn uncertain future events into tradable probabilities that many users consume as a new kind of news signal.

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