Former CAA Talent Agent Turned Investor with $70B in AUM on AI and Venture Strategy | Ep. 29

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

October 22, 2025

Duration

1h 2m

Channel

Uncapped with Jack Altman

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Thomas Laffont is the co-founder of Coatue, one of the world’s largest technology investment platforms active in both the public and private markets. Thomas leads the firm’s private investment platforms across early-stage and growth, and oversees their software investments across private and public markets. Coatue has partnered with some of the most enduring and impactful companies of the last two decades, including Applied Intuition, Canva, Databricks, Figma and Rippling. Thomas began his career at the Creative Arts Agency, where he represented artists in film and television. A few highlights:

• The system of record being over
• Wanting to be a founder’s second call
• Investing with a wide aperture
• Tom Cruise validating star quality
• Working with family

Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:25) Making sense of the current cycle (5:31) Investing from inception through IPO (10:36) Depreciation of the system of record (14:04) Value beyond databases (18:46) Winning strategies in venture (23:43) Operating at early-stage (28:56) Navigating investing conflicts (34:29) Wide aperture lens of investing (36:45) Star quality being a reality (40:30) Firm strategy and decision making (48:25) Everything that’s great about golf (54:34) Working with family (57:20) Advice to young professionals More on Thomas: https://www.coatue.com/ https://x.com/thomas_coatue More on Jack: https://www.altcap.com/ https://x.com/jaltma https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Thomas Laffont

  guest

• Jack Altman

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Uncapped with Jack Altman, featuring Thomas Laffont and Jack Altman, Former CAA Talent Agent Turned Investor with $70B in AUM on AI and Venture Strategy | Ep. 29 explores coatue’s Thomas Laffont on AI cycle, venture strategy, and founders Laffont frames the current AI moment as a cycle shift driven by escalating competitive intensity and a move from cash-flow-funded buildouts to leveraged, existential spending—highlighting Oracle and AI labs as key signals.

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