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DreamWorks & the Science of Storytelling | Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang, WndrCo

DreamWorks & the Science of Storytelling | Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang, WndrCo

Published 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Description

Jeffrey Katzenberg & ChenLi Wang join Sourcery for a deep, candid conversation on how WndrCo was built, and how they think about investing, company-building, and storytelling in the age of AI.


Katzenberg reflects on his third act after Disney & DreamWorks, tracing a lifelong pattern of using technology as a competitive advantage for storytelling. ChenLi shares how scaling Dropbox shaped his views on product craft, distribution, and why benchmarks often fail to capture what actually makes great companies.


Together, they break down WndrCo’s hybrid model spanning builds, venture, and seed investing, and discuss how that framework has led them to back category-defining companies including 1Password, Airtable, Harvey, Abridge, Granola, and Deel — as well as internally built platforms across consumer security, health, and the future of work.


They unpack why WndrCo sometimes chooses to build companies from scratch rather than invest, how they deploy capital across stages, and why real differentiation today comes from product obsession, storytelling, and hands-on operating support, not capital alone.


The conversation also dives into the state of venture capital, the coming AI reckoning, what happens after $700B+ in hyperscaler capex, and why only companies delivering visible ROI and real adoption will survive the next cycle.


Jeffrey Katzenberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-katzenberg-4b3b47123/

Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 

Sourcery:https://x.com/sourceryy


𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒

YouTube: https://youtu.be/8ZpodkQ0rn8


𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒

Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery


Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery


DeelDeel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery


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