Alexa von Tobel Launches Inspired Podcast to Revive American Ambition

Alexa von Tobel, cofounder of Inspired Capital and founder of LearnVest, has launched a new podcast titled 'Inspired.' The podcast aims to reignite American ambition, particularly among venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Von Tobel believes that the ease of access to capital in recent years has led to an influx of incremental ideas rather than truly ambitious ventures. She hopes that her podcast will inspire listeners to think bigger and tackle more significant problems.

The podcast, which is released bi-weekly, features von Tobel interviewing entrepreneurs about their ambitious projects and the challenges they face. The first episode features Ben Lamm, founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, known for its de-extinction efforts, including the successful genetic engineering of the long-extinct dire wolf. Other scheduled guests include Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at Google X, and Dr. Becky Kennedy, founder and CEO of Good Inside.

Von Tobel's motivation for the podcast stems from her concern about the world's problems and her desire to inspire people to dream bigger. She believes that ambition should be about more than just drive; it should be the ability to face roadblocks and find a way around them. She encourages listeners to push themselves to think about the scale of their ideas and their potential impact on the world.

The podcast is a continuation of von Tobel's previous work as a podcast host. From 2019 to 2024, she hosted The Founders Project podcast for about 250 episodes. She has also been an investor, backing companies like ShopMy, Solace, and Teamshares. In 2024, Inspired raised $330 million for its third fund.

Von Tobel's vision for the podcast is to inspire listeners to think about the scale of their ideas and their potential impact on the world. She believes that ambition should be about more than just drive; it should be the ability to face roadblocks and find a way around them. She encourages listeners to push themselves to think about the scale of their ideas and their potential impact on the world.

Von Tobel argues that American ambition has corroded in recent years and that it’s time for a reset, one that revives ambition to its most sweeping, optimistic form. This is especially true for VCs and entrepreneurs. During a period of capital being effectively free, it became very easy to start companies. We were creating a lot of direct-to-consumer this and that, and building out incremental ideas—because capital effectively was everywhere. And in some ways, it was great: Entrepreneurship became mainstream. But as entrepreneurship became mainstream and capital was easy to access, we just started seeing a lot of incremental ideas. Coming out of COVID, some of that’s beginning to reset.

Von Tobel has been thinking about this as an investor, backing companies like ShopMy, Solace, and Teamshares. A long-time podcast host, she’s also been considering the state of entrepreneurial ambition from a narrative perspective. The bi-weekly episodes are generally about an hour long and feature von Tobel interviewing entrepreneurs about taking truly ambitious swings and what it takes to make a vision reality.

“I worry about the world,” von Tobel said. “As somebody who deeply cares about making the world a better place, I believe we have more problems than we’ve ever seen. And when I really dug deep on what I hope we see more of in the world it’s—no pun intended—inspiring people to dream bigger, think bigger.”