Venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz, a former Googler and partner at Theory Ventures, has built an AI-powered tool called "The Podcast Orchestrator" to automate the process of extracting valuable insights from tech podcasts. Designed to help his firm stay ahead in the competitive world of venture investing, the app scans, transcribes, and analyzes podcast content to surface startups and founders worth watching. Tunguz developed the tool in just two to three hours using AI coding assistants like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Whisper for audio-to-text transcription. Once transcribed, the system uses multiple AI models to summarize the content, identify key startups and founders, and pull in relevant details such as company backgrounds, market size, and public signals like blog posts, GitHub activity, and Hacker News discussions. The AI doesn’t stop at data extraction—it acts like a junior VC associate by generating investment memos and making recommendations based on Theory Ventures’ specific criteria. These summaries are then automatically sent to Tunguz via email and used to create tasks in Asana, streamlining his workflow. He runs the tool every morning, processing new podcast content in just 5 to 10 minutes. The system helps him quickly identify promising opportunities without having to listen to hours of recordings. Tunguz believes there’s significant "alpha" in podcasts—unique insights not easily found elsewhere. Experts often share deeper, more candid thoughts during long-form interviews, revealing trends, product ideas, and team dynamics that aren’t captured in press releases or public filings. Despite the tool’s potential, Tunguz isn’t planning to release it publicly. He notes it currently runs via command line and requires technical knowledge to operate. Turning it into a user-friendly app would take additional work, even for someone with his software engineering background. When asked why he wouldn’t launch it as a product—perhaps under a name like "Podcast Alpha"—he responded simply: “There’s no money in podcasts.” He sees limited commercial appeal, especially compared to other AI-driven tools targeting larger markets. Still, the tool exemplifies a growing trend: how AI is enabling individuals, even non-engineers, to build powerful internal applications quickly and efficiently. It also highlights how venture capitalists are leveraging AI not just for investment decisions, but to automate knowledge gathering and stay ahead in fast-moving industries.