Life Outside Poker: David Daneshgar on Start-Ups, AI & Private Game Cheating
Life Outside Poker is a podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.
In the 27th episode, Connor talks with World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and venture capitalist David Daneshgar, who used poker winnings to launch a successful start-up that raised tens of millions. The Californian with $2.5 million in Hendon Mob earnings talks about his companies BloomNation and Whippy AI, teaching a college poker class, quitting his finance job to play poker, and getting Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss to write his letter of recommendation to business school.
Daneshgar also spoke about getting cheated in private LA games, AI in poker, and why entrepreneurs should play in poker games.
This interview was filmed in March in the new Venetian Poker Studio at Venetian Las Vegas.
The Life Outside Poker podcast is available on major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud and iHeartRadio. You can also watch the interview with David Daneshgar by heading to the PokerNews YouTube channel.
Be sure to follow David Daneshgar and Connor Richards on X.
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Timestamps
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Intro |
| 1:15 | Memories at the Venetian |
| 1:50 | Growing up in LA |
| 5:30 | Teaching a poker class at UC Berkeley |
| 10:38 | Quitting finance job to play poker |
| 14:34 | 2008 WSOP bracelet win |
| 17:44 | Jerry Buss letter of recommendation |
| 22:29 | Starting BloomNation w/ poker winnings |
| 26:37 | Whippy AI |
| 30:09 | AI and poker |
| 33:04 | Private LA games |
| 33:47 | Getting cheating in home game |
| 34:49 | Business and poker |
| 37:21 | Return to poker |
| 38:36 | Book recommendation |
| 39:54 | Advice for younger self |
| 41:01 | Favorite life lesson from poker |
