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What if the crypto kid mining Ethereum in milk crates next door is now the person Fortune 500 companies trust to keep their AI secure? That's exactly the journey Alex Mirran, co-founder and COO of Gridweave, shares in this episode — and the skills that built a crypto mining rig in a parents' garage are now powering enterprise AI infrastructure.

In Season 1, Episode 2 of America's Angels: Life Finds a Way, hosts Jenny Kaehms, Andrea Kalmans, and Nick Travers sit down with Alex to unpack how his unconventional path — from GPU mining in milk crates in Austin to building AI factories in his living room — led to GridWeave, a platform helping enterprises own their AI deployments, protect proprietary data, and control costs. The conversation dives deep into decentralized compute, federated learning, data sovereignty, and the explosive GPU market fueling the AI boom. The team debates whether we're in an AI bubble, what the NVIDIA-Hugging Face deal means for open source AI, and whether hacker houses should host one focused company or multiple startups for maximum innovation. Plus, a lively debate on the future of hacker houses as startup incubators.

Whether you're an investor, founder, or just AI-curious, this episode will change how you think about who's building the infrastructure behind the AI revolution — and why the people who care most about privacy might just be the ones who started in crypto.

Subscribe to America's Angels and hit the bell so you never miss an episode. Have thoughts on data sovereignty or hacker houses? Drop a comment below, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and join the conversation — because life always finds a way.

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How do you go from handing out beverage samples at Costco to backing a nuclear reactor startup? In the premiere episode of America's Angels, Austin-based angel investors Jennifer Kames and Andrea Kelmans sit down with fellow investor Nick Travers to unpack the wild, winding journey of startup investing—from a $300 million bet on Bai drinks to the front lines of the nuclear energy renaissance.

Nick shares the story of cornering Bai's founder at a Princeton street fair, riding that investment to a $1.7 billion acquisition, and learning hard lessons from cowboy-themed energy drinks, medical devices, and cancer immunotherapy along the way. The conversation then goes deep on nuclear: the Department of Energy's reactor pilot program, the founders behind Austin's Allo Atomics, and why small modular reactors may be the key to powering our AI-driven future. The episode wraps with the inaugural "Gong Debate"—can angel investors actually move the needle on a capital-intensive nuclear startup?—plus a pitch for an Alicia Keys theme song.

Whether you're a seasoned investor, a founder chasing your first check, or just curious about the Austin tech boom, this episode is packed with real stories, real lessons, and zero investment advice. Subscribe to America's Angels on your favorite podcast platform, follow us on social media at @americas_angels, and visit americasangelspodcast.com to stay up to date as we take the show on the road this season.