Jorgenson's Soundbox

Links for Matt’s stuff: Aalo.com Matt on Twitter Aalo on Twitter Aalo Job Board

Link to invest alongside Eric in deals like Aalo: rolling.fun

Links to stuff mentioned: Decouple Podcast Titans of Nuclear Podcast Nuclear Barbarian Substack Atomic Awakening by James Mahaffey Why Nuclear Power Has Been a Flop by Jack Devanney

Topics: (00:03:08) How the popular opinion of nuclear has changed from the 1950’s (00:15:16) The regulation issues surrounding nuclear (00:17:20) Water-based nuclear reactors vs. advanced nuclear reactors (00:19:40) Matt’s journey into nuclear energy (00:34:42) Aalo’s strategy (00:41:12) What is the TAM for this nuclear microreactors? (00:45:53) The manufacturing process for a nuclear plant (00:48:51) The nuclear supply chain (00:50:01) The change in public opinion on nuclear energy (00:55:56) Support for nuclear energy in the VC world (01:01:12) Recommendations for learning more about the sustainable energy industry (01:03:30) What do you look for when hiring? To support this podcast:

Important quotes from Naval on building wealth and the difference between wealth and money: How to get rich without getting lucky. - Naval Ravikant Making money is not a thing you do—it’s a skill you learn. - Naval Ravikant Seek wealth, not money or status. - Naval Ravikant Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant Money is how we transfer time and wealth. - Naval Ravikant Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games. You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom. - Naval Ravikant

Important quotes from the podcast by Naval on Leverage: “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.” —Archimedes To get rich, you need leverage. Leverage comes in labor, comes in capital, or it can come through code or media. But most of these, like labor and capital, people have to give to you. For labor, somebody has to follow you. For capital, somebody has to give you money, assets to manage, or machines. - Naval Ravikant Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you. - Naval Ravikant Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts. - Naval Ravikant Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment. - Naval Ravikant Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. - Naval Ravikant Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

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Links: Andrew on Twitter Andrew’s Substack Thea Energy The AI Salon Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez

Topics: (00:00:00) Eric welcomes you to the episode (00:03:20) The rocketing popularity of superconductors (00:05:28) The LK-99 Superconductor Breakthrough (00:19:44) How to commercialize room-temp superconductors (00:25:36) The value of superconductors and their impact (00:34:16) When will Nuclear Fusion produce energy? (00:52:08) The overlap of engineering and science (00:57:48) Understanding the physics behind economics (01:03:53) How technology breakthroughs affect civilization (01:13:16) Predicting second-order economic effects from introducing this technology, punctuated equilibrium & (01:18:00) Crazy biotech breakthroughs (01:21:47) How much of a breakthrough in the superconductor do we actually have? (01:27:15) Where to get more of Andrew Cote

What’s Happening with Superconductors RIGHT NOW Researchers have spent their entire careers researching room-temperature Superconductors. It’s one of the Holy Grails of material science. About a week ago, two papers were published simultaneously claiming a breakthrough – actual Room-Temperature Superconducting Materials, created in a lab in Korea. There seems to be big drama between the scientists. A nobel prize may be at stake. Or even scientific immortality. It’s not the main story and there are many unconfirmed details, I won’t go into it here, but @8teAPi is basically live-tweeting an HBO series so follow them for that angle. We might be one week into a MASSIVE change in humanity, seeing the first ripples of a coming tidal wave. Now, RIGHT now, there are thousands of scientists all over the world working frantically to reprocuce these results, confirm theory, run simulations, and improve methodologies. It is INCREDIBLE to see the scientific base of humanity from all over the world rise as one and tackle this opportunity. Feel like a scene from a Michael Bay movie, but nerdier. Here is what they’re working on…

Superconductors put simply Superconductors are materials with zero electrical resistance. Normally, when energy moves between sources (an outlet to a phone battery), or over distance (through wires and power lines) there is loss of energy. Some estimates of that loss between generation and end user are 66%!! With zero resistance transmission materials, there could be near-zero loss of energy. Cost of energy could fall by one-third JUST by improving transmission. That would be great – and just the beginning. I’m sure this description would make a Physics PhD cringe, but hey it’s my first week. The problem is so far all of our superconductors only work at insanely cold temperatures. Those are complex and expensive to maintain, so superconductors have only been used very rarely in special circumstances to date. Superconductors that work at room temperature would be an enormous breakthrough, making them less finnicky and cheaper to operate. We could put superconducting materials many more places like power lines, wires, computers, transportation, etc. Why is everyone SO DAMN EXCITED about the impact of room-temperature superconductors? So glad you asked…

Why It Matters “If successful LK-99 would be a watershed moment for humanity easily on-par with invention of the transistor. Overnight, we revolutionize all of electronics and energy.” -Andrew Cote

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Links: Center for Growth and Opportunity Where’s my Flying Car by J. Storrs Hall Eli on Twitter Eli’s Substack Ethan on Twitter Ouros Energy Episode #32 of Smart Friends: book recap of Where’s My Flying Car? Episode #34 of Smart Friends w/ J. Storrs Hall Episode #58 of Smart Friends w/ Brett Kugelmass

Timestamps: (00:04:09) Eli Dourado & Ethan Loosbrock’s backgrounds (00:05:53) Impact of Next-Gen Batteries on the future: Flying Cars, EVTOL Jets, Electric Vehicles, AR Contact Lenses, Off-Grid Power, and more. (00:10:51) Lithium-Ion Battery’s role in sustainable energy (00:11:52) Higher Energy density is the key metric for battery quality (00:27:18) Why Ethan Loosbrock devoted his life to battery technology (00:30:55) How Ethan Loosbrock and Eli Dourado met and worked together (00:33:32) What needs to happen to change the world through batteries (00:43:02) Starting Ouros Energy, the Standard Oil of Batteries

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Links: David on Twitter Mitchell on Twitter Founders Podcast

Stuff mentioned: Jocko Go Drink Capital Camp

People mentioned: Jeremy Giffon on Twitter Brent Beshore on Twitter Clayton Dorge - CEO of Capital Camp

Books mentioned: Setting the Table by Danny Meyer Becoming Trader Joe by Joe Coulombe In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman Sam Walton: Made in America The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro The Creative Act by Rick Rubin Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda

Podcasts mentioned: Jocko Podcast Modern Wisdom w/ Chris Williamson Founders episode 305 - Robert Caro Invest like the Best w/ Sam Hinkie Smart Friends - Kevin Espiritu Invest like the Best with Peter Chernin Acquired - Louis Vuitton Audience of one with Jeremy Giffon Infinite Loops: Billy Oppenheimer

Timestamps (00:04:09) David & Jocko Go: a Love Story (00:15:49) Recapping Capital Camp (00:40:35) The power of audio & writing, Sam Hinkie, Podcast recommendations (00:50:37) Finding conviction in your career pursuits (00:56:58) The opportunity for niche businesses (01:06:29) Power Leaking & the HoldCo phenomenon (01:21:47) Favorite moments from Capital Camp (02:00:49) The power of taste (02:09:23) The Climb and the Summit

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Links

Epic Gardening Kevin Espiritu on YouTube Creator Capitalists post from Eric Kevin’s first appearance on Smart Friends Scribemedia.com/consult

Timestamps

(00:04:23) Kevin’s career leading to content (00:14:00) What did raising capital unlock for you? (00:20:36) Attaching a dollar value to your niche (00:27:08) What is your high-leverage work today? (00:28:24) What do you see for Epic Gardening over the next 10 years? (00:29:43) What other places can this playbook work? (00:37:29) Being good on every platform (00:39:00) Not thinking about “Marketing” (00:40:41) Is it easier to start with media and attach commerce after? (00:46:52) The importance of authenticity (00:53:55) Q&A (01:03:00) Wrap up

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Links: Zach on Twitter & LinkedIn Money 20/20 For Fintech’s Sake Podcast TripleBlind Rule 1033 Propel Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller

Topics: (4:25) - Recap the last episode with Zach and Eric (5:34) - Fintech Industry Overview (15:21) - Money 20/20 – the Biggest Fintech Conference in the world (24:02) - Regulation looms over Fintech, always (27:12) - The “Off The Record” Stage at Money 20/20 (29:28) - The CFPB and Rule 1033 (43:15) - Stripe, Adyen, Warren Buffett, and The Media (49:01) - Behind the scenes at Money 20/20 (59:20) - How do you get Serena Williams on stage? (1:01:58) - Holding the keys to so much potential ROI (1:04:33) - Defining the relationship between a fintech org and a bank (1:11:21) - Entrepreneurs buying their own community banks (1:16:58) - The intersection of Crypto and Fintech (1:27:11) - Is OnlyFans only a bad thing? (1:35:34) - What is the overarching story that Money 20/20 tells? (1:41:50) - Wrapping up

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Topics: (5:29) - Max’s background and career (14:15) - Is it reasonable to use Neural Net, Deep Learning and Machine learning interchangeably? (26:37) - The Future of AI (39:18) - Google & AI Writing (49:42) - Hiring AI for help in our personal lives (55:02) - How Improvements in Robotics will massively push things forward (57:12) - Computers being able to smell and taste (1:04:56) - Scarier futures of AI (1:08:13) - Is there a new field of opportunities you’re paying attention to now in Computer Vision? (1:16:03) - Prompt Engineering (1:24:54) - Final recap Links: Max on Twitter MaxOlson.com Max’s Newsletter, Blog & Podcast - FutureBlind Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders from Max Olson Mashgin LEX AI GPT-3 Juggernaut AI Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark Turing Test Midjourney community showcase Jasper AI Copy AI

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Topics: (4:12) - David on how to grow a podcast & Mitchell as a connector (13:32) - David on changing the structure of his podcast (15:58) - Creator-Led Business, Kobe Bryant, Arnold Schwarzenegger & Balaji (36:49) - The genius of Berkshire Hathaway & The power of Twitter (51:24) - Creator Economics & Story time with David Senra (1:06:38) - Eric’s impact on David (1:09:48) - Mitchell’s career model & Building a bookkeeping business (1:28:11) - Focusing career growth (2:04:32) - Thoughts on TikTok (2:16:43)- How the guys spend their time (Finding operational leverage) (2:21:29) - Trying to convince Mitchell to start a podcast (2:24:34) - David’s thoughts on his new business model (2:33:38) - Wrap Up Links: - The Founder’s Podcast w/ David Senra - Connect with Mitchell Baldridge - Mitchell Baldridge on Twitter - David Senra on Twitter - BetterBookkeping.com - David’s appearance on Jorgenson’s Soundbox - Mitchell’s appearance on Jorgenson’s Soundbox - Trung Phan on Twitter - Sam Hinkie - WorkWeek - Coked Up Options on Twitter - Ed Thorpe on The Tim Ferriss Show - Business Breakdowns - Berkshire Hathaway - Money20/20 - George Mack on Twitter - Frank Niu on TikTok To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (1:05) - Life updates and catching up from Al’s Quilting Capital: Hamilton, MO (20:08) - Fund updates for end of Q2 (25:15) - Fund updates for Q3: Omello, Ohm, Driv.ly & Glyph (49:35) - Closing out Q3 (50:28) - Updates on old portfolio companies: StableCoin, Terran, Gently (55:23) - How to get involved with Rolling Fun! Links: Rolling Fun #1 Rolling Fun #2 Portfolio Al on Twitter Bo on Twitter Wongo Puzzles Positive Food Co. Omella Smart Ohm Driv.ly Glyph To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (5:53) - Start of Balaji Interview (6:24) - How would you introduce yourself to a stranger? (8:19) - Do you think of your work as “whatever it takes” to advance your ideology? (10:05) - What would you like to see most achieved? (13:14) - What are the things you believe you are the best at? (20:52) - What are the ideas you are most confident telling others that you know for certain? (30:22) - Balaji’s upbringing & growing up in an age before the internet (1:03:35) - Have you always been like this? Was there an inflection point that made you who you are today? (1:11:41) - Are there any formative media, movie or books that really had an impact on you growing up? (1:19:15) - Doing math as a hobby & philosophical frameworks (1:29:19) - The Feynman Lectures & Magic the Gathering (1:51:29) - Were there any inspirations you looked to in your transition into entrepreneurship? (1:56:45) - What do you consider your career or body of work? (2:07:20) - Where have you seen some of the bigger obstacles in your career? (2:25:57) - Wealth, Burn Rate, and feeling “free to speak your mind” (2:38:40) - How are you spending time and resources to have an impact according to your mission? (2:50:56) - Are you trying to start your own network state or help people start theirs? (2:55:06) - What’s your process with getting up to speed on new technologies? (3:00:23) - What do you think about the trade-off between focusing on learning vs. when to start doing? (3:03:50) - Countries that impacted Balaji’s philosophy (3:08:33) - Balaji’s predictions on what Eric chose to have in the book (3:13:13) - What are the mental models or heuristics you use most often? (3:19:21) - Eric’s Themes of Balaji’s work (3:28:14) - What is your definition of technology? (3:36:09) - Do you believe a startup is synonymous with a great new technology? (3:37:20) - The co-evolution of technology and humanity & Youth-Extension (3:43:34) - The long-term battle for Network systems (3:45:50) - What do you envision transhumanism looking like? (3:53:05) - Wrap Up Links: Balaji on Twitter The Network State Feynman Lectures on Physics From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew The Man Who Knew Infinity Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos Howl's Moving Castle Isaac Azmov Elements of Mathematical Modeling Paul Tipler Physics books Visual Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham One Thousand Exercises in Probability fast.ai Quantum.country Classical Electrodynamics by John Jackson The PERL Cookbook PLEAC Obey the Testing Goat Nobody cares by Ben Horowitz The Jewish State by Theodore Herzl How ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Color Wheel Explains Humanity Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence by Kellie Jackson Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham Limitless To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics:

(7:05) - Updates from Zach: hiring, firing, building software, and finding PMF (13:41) - What drove the decision to focus more on the marketplace rather than services? (20:18) - How different was it working with a fund rather than angels? (23:03) - Cost cutting measures (24:35) - What was it about services that made them not repeatable or scalable? (37:00) - Fear mongering (38:19) - Regional focused marketplaces (41:07) - Corporate Enterprise focuses (45:15) - Rebuilding community and staffing via website development (50:38) - How does affiliate marketing discounts fit into your strategy? (54:34)- Firing a customer (59:17) - A bias for action, mixed with patience (1:07:06) - What are your hopes for our next meeting? (1:10:38) - Homework for the audience

Links:

Zach on Twitter Conterra Security Listen to Episodes 1-3 of this series The Art of the Start by Guy Kawaski Webflow Zapier AirTable New Illinois crime law going into effect

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Topics:

(7:05) - Updates from Zach: hiring, firing, building software, and finding PMF (13:41) - What drove the decision to focus more on the marketplace rather than services? (20:18) - How different was it working with a fund rather than angels? (23:03) - Cost cutting measures (24:35) - What was it about services that made them not repeatable or scalable? (37:00) - Fear mongering (38:19) - Regional focused marketplaces (41:07) - Corporate Enterprise focuses (45:15) - Rebuilding community and staffing via website development (50:38) - How does affiliate marketing discounts fit into your strategy? (54:34)- Firing a customer (59:17) - A bias for action, mixed with patience (1:07:06) - What are your hopes for our next meeting? (1:10:38) - Homework for the audience

Links:

Zach on Twitter Conterra Security Listen to Episodes 1-3 of this series The Art of the Start by Guy Kawaski Webflow Zapier AirTable New Illinois crime law going into effect

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Topics: (1:46) - Who are your heroes? (7:25) - Sebastian’s affinity for studying history, sports, art & professional gamers (11:30) - How do you take lessons learned from these studies and apply them to entrepreneurship? (13:01) - Why do you approach life and work with a lens of ruthless optimization? (18:12) - Breaking down the concept of ‘productivity’ (26:56) - Non-value producing work (28:11) - Do you find that you have a higher sense of baseline after experimenting with optimizing your entire life? (34:25) - Maximum sustainable pace vs. Maximum possible pace (39:44) - Optimizing for fun (44:34) - Can you expand on the growth of Ultraworking? (50:04) - Improving scope-to-quality of work (55:36) - Sebastian’s period of life attempting to visit every country in the world (1:00:59) - Sebastian’s writing eras and how they changed him (1:14:40) - Agree or disagree: Self-measurement is self-punishment (1:19:51) - Monthly themes for life (1:22:45) - What is the mental model you find yourself implementing in your life the most? Links: Ultraworking Sebastian Marshall on Medium The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon by B. H. Lidell Hart On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle You and Your Research by Richard Hamming Stedi Annual Letter - Operational excellence Gateless by Sebastian Marshall Extreme Productivity by Robert Pozen Product Hunt Clockwork Nutrition To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (1:46) - Who are your heroes? (7:25) - Sebastian’s affinity for studying history, sports, art & professional gamers (11:30) - How do you take lessons learned from these studies and apply them to entrepreneurship? (13:01) - Why do you approach life and work with a lens of ruthless optimization? (18:12) - Breaking down the concept of ‘productivity’ (26:56) - Non-value producing work (28:11) - Do you find that you have a higher sense of baseline after experimenting with optimizing your entire life? (34:25) - Maximum sustainable pace vs. Maximum possible pace (39:44) - Optimizing for fun (44:34) - Can you expand on the growth of Ultraworking? (50:04) - Improving scope-to-quality of work (55:36) - Sebastian’s period of life attempting to visit every country in the world (1:00:59) - Sebastian’s writing eras and how they changed him (1:14:40) - Agree or disagree: Self-measurement is self-punishment (1:19:51) - Monthly themes for life (1:22:45) - What is the mental model you find yourself implementing in your life the most? Links: Ultraworking Sebastian Marshall on Medium The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon by B. H. Lidell Hart On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle You and Your Research by Richard Hamming Stedi Annual Letter - Operational excellence Gateless by Sebastian Marshall Extreme Productivity by Robert Pozen Product Hunt Clockwork Nutrition To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (3:15) - Mark’s career & background (4:40) - Do you think there is a popular renaissance behind Nuclear Energy? (6:27) - Realizing the regulatory problem holding back energy advancement (15:35) - The costs behind Nuclear (18:06) - The Nuclear customer & Europe’s approach to Nuclear (31:46) - France’s energy price crisis (37:00) - The history of Nuclear Power (51:07) - The next wave: Advanced Nuclear (1:01:51) - Who’s behind the push for Advanced Nuclear? (1:03:27) - How did the USA lose its ability to build new reactors? (1:08:38) - Nuclear success in the United States Navy (1:21:57) - Debunking Plutonium (1:224:26) - What is the supply chain of building reactors in the Navy? (1:27:10) - What are reliable resources for people to learn more about or work in Nuclear? (1:32:14) - Wrap up Links: Mark on Twitter Radiant Energy Fund Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by David JC MacKay The World Nuclear Association Library Clean Corps The rePLANET Network The Mothers for Nuclear Organization To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (5:14) - Matt & Ben’s friendship origin (8:42) - Starting Texts From Last Night (18:17) - Matt’s early career with Google, Coachella & Lafayette American (43:33) - Mille Mitten (58:34) - Tik Tok, Ads and Algorithms (1:06:55) - Elon Musk & Twitter (1:15:38) - Fixing Movie Theaters & car charging infrastructure (1:38:07) - Fixing conferences (1:50:50) - Exercise: Rebranding the podcast Links: Texts from Last Night Lafayette American TickPick Mille Mitten Mil-Spec Automotive Alamo Drafthouse To support this costs of producing this podcast:

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Links:

Rohun on Twitter

JT Capital

The Sovereign Individual by James Davidson

CBRE

JLL

4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

Loom

Maven

The Fear Setting Exercise - Tim Ferriss

Topics:

(6:10) - Why Eric and Rohun Should have been friends 10 years ago

(8:30) - Rohun’s Heroes & family dynamic

(15:44) - Journeying into Real Estate

(20:52) - Getting Reps: Underwriting Deals

(26:57- The importance of scale

(30:14) - What is the order of operations for buying a deal?

(33:17) - How did you find your partners for JT Capital?

(35:26) - Did your uncle pay you for your apprenticeship?

(37:25) - What kind of expense ratios are you getting with these large deals as opposed to smaller properties

(40:31) - What was your vision for building the company?

(43:32) - Were you thinking about leverage at all in this process?

(47:26) - Was there anything you brought with you from your career in tech into the RE industry?

(50:49) - How are you using EA’s and Virtual assistants in your business?

(1:05:04) - Is there anything in your business that cannot be automated or delegated?

(1:10:46) - How has your life changed after making this investment?

(1:13:36) - How do you balance having partners when you’re structuring your career around freedom?

(1:16:15) - How do you compare the pressures of your job now vs. all the unique things you did before this?

(1:21:53) - What was the single biggest inflection point of your career?

(1:23:41) - Was there any single deal that was make or break for the company?

(1:24:56) - What is the mental model you use most frequently?

(1:28:50) - Final thoughts & Wrap up

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Topics: (6:21) - What is your specific knowledge? (7:20) - Taylor’s career (12:38) - Transaction Cost Economics (20:02) - The work behind Taylor’s first book: The End of Jobs (21:20) - Was publishing that book a major inflection point in your career? (23:53) - Taylor’s writing on the crypto space and work in investing & finance (29:03) - Mutiny Funds (32:57) - The Long-Volatility Strategy (36:33) - The Thousand-Year Portfolio (40:49) - Who is using the long-volatility strategy and how are they using it? (43:16) - What does the strategy look like day to day? (50:07) - Volatility Index (55:33) - Are there future products in the funnel for Mutiny? (57:44) - What do you look for in the hedge funds you assemble? (1:00:20) - How long have you been building this core of knowledge? (1:04:11) - How do you know when to shift your focus? (1:07:11) - Are there people you look up to who are great examples of playing the long game? (1:09:25) - What is the long game for Mutiny? (1:12:49) - How do you maintain discipline when the world tells you to take the other path? (1:16:22) - What mental model do you use most often? Links: Mutiny Funds Taylor’s website Taylor’s The Interesting Times newsletter The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson Blog post: Markets Are Eating The World by Taylor Pearson The Kelly Criterion with Edward Thorp The Cockroach Portfolio The Volatility Index The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone A Man for All Markets by Edward Thorp To support this costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (3:48) - David Hijacks the podcast: Eric’s Heroes, Munger as a copywriter and “Jeffisms” (8:31) - How did you start Founders Pod and build it into a business? (27:39) - How did you engrain this level of discipline in your craft? (34:41) - Emulating Ed Thorpe (43:59) - The power of podcasting (50:43) - Eric and David discuss career goals (57:46) - Thoughts on the ‘serial entrepreneur’ (1:08:18) - Deep dive into David’s approach to reading (1:19:17) - Is this just a chapter of your life, or is this the business to dedicate your life to? (1:25:24) - Do you think more people should do what you’re doing? (1:28:20) - How to get the most value from what David is doing (1:36:06) - How have you changed pre-Founders vs. today? (1:38:29) - What does the best version of this podcast look like? (1:53:48) - Compounding & Leverage (1:59:38) - Books are the original links (2:04:45) - Final thoughts Links: FoundersPodcast.com Kevin Rose interviewing Elon Musk on the Tesla Factory Floor Jocko Podcast Paul Graham’s “How to Do what You Love” Masters of Doom by David Kushner Chapo Trap House Edwin Land Founders Podcast: Founder of Hyundai Neckar’s Minds of the Market Readwise The Kanye West Genius documentary The Great Books Program Biographics on YouTube Graphtreon.com To support this costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (7:11) - Brett’s earliest memories of his strengths (9:58) - Understanding different skills and abilities (13:36) - Brett’s early career (18:08) - What was the moment of conception for Remind? (26:03) - What were some pivotal moments early on? (30:08) - How much did Twilio aid your growth? (31:18) - What role did investor selection play into the success of Remind? (35:00) - Transitioning into Omella (44:18) - How many customers did you talk to before building the product? (45:11) - What’s the process of building conviction in your product? (50:38) - How much wider is the purview of Omella than Remind in terms of the market it helps? (55:11) - Thoughts on distribution, engagement and retention (1:01:15) - How has the founder experience compared with your second company vs. the first? (1:03:38) - How does leverage fit into structuring Omella? (1:08:23) - What are the most common mental models you use to make decisions? (1:12:50) - Do you find people to be overthinking while building a product? (1:14:13) - Where would you like Omella to be in the next 5-10 years? (1:15:09) - How do you ensure you can keep a small high-performance team rather than solve problems via headcount? (1:16:16) - How often do customers that you interact with become evangelists for Omella? Links: BrettKopf.com Brett Kopf on Twitter and LinkedIn Omella Remind Acton academy The Theory of Constraints To support this costs of producing this podcast:

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(2:29) - How clear is the picture of how far you’ve come in the past 4 months? (3:27) - Recapping Track Zach #2 (10:36) - What are customers buying now and how have the service offerings changed? (20:06) - Do you know the bootstrapping process of these other industry marketplace products? (21:49) - How did you arrive at home security audit and family protection as the right first products to offer? (29:20) - What’s your ultimate revenue goal as it pertains to fundraising? (38:35) - What do your internal operations look like? (41:06) - Zach’s experience in Launch New York (43:32) - Spending too much time on “shiny object” opportunities (48:55) - Traction and the fundraising process (57:01) - Entrepreneurship is really hard (1:06:01) - Is there anything you’ve changed your mind on in the past quarter? (1:17:06) - Are there other mental models from your time as a SEAL that you apply in business? (1:20:44) - Feeling high leverage work shift over time (1:26:22) - How can people listening help Conterra? Links: ConterraSecurity.com LaunchNY.org The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen NfX Marketplaces Other Episode You’ll Like: Kevin Espiritu: Bootstrapping Epic Gardening to 8 Figgures by mixing Media + D2C Biz Models. Oh and Poker, Pink Pineapples, and Male Models. To support this costs of producing this podcast:

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Topics: (4:56) - Chris’ background and work at Athena (6:53) - What does a Chief Client Officer do? (10:20) - Robert’s background and work at Athena (17:00) - Robert recruiting Chris to Athena (20:20) - What distinguishes Robert as an operator (25:02) - Robert’s first year with Athena and how the company has scaled (33:39) - Chris’ decision to join Athena (37:28) - Creating a great experience for both clients and the EAs (46:17) - What people use their EAs for at Athena (50:28) - How Athena focuses on leverage (57:46) - Thoughts behind recruiting EAs and training (1:09:04) - Playbooks and systems for delegation (1:13:14) - biggest moments of relief gained from an EA? (1:17:58) - How does someone know when they need an EA? (1:32:28) - Where is Athena today? (1:38:40) - Where do you predict the global workforce goes over the next several decades? (1:46:30) - What are the mental models or heuristics you use in making decisions? (1:55:41) - Athena helps clients provide feedback (1:58:06) - Wrap up Links: Athena - www.athenago.com Island Heights Construction - https://www.islandheights.ca Humi - https://www.humi.ca Eric’s Site: www.ejorgenson.com

Other Episodes You’ll Like: EA Delegating w/ Michelle Penczak: Founder of Squared Away - Military Spouses becoming Top Tier Virtual Assistants Drug Cartels, Vanguard, And Goldman Sachs with Codie Sanchez Andrew Wilkinson: De-risking Leverage, Investing vs. Operating, and the Best Part About Business To support the costs of producing this podcast:

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The sponsor for this week’s episode is Founders Podcast.

David Senra, the host of Founders Podcast, is a biography-reading machine. If you don’t have time to spend 40 hours reading the full-length biography of some gilded-age entrepreneur, listening to David’s high-quality recap is the next best thing.

The Founders Podcast is a paid podcast that costs $99/year or $299 for lifetime access. Subscribing gives you access to more than 200 episodes including the back catalog with episodes about Anthony Bourdain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elon Musk, and many more.

Visit founderspodcast.com to subscribe or listen to sample episodes.

Topics:

(7:05) - Do you agree that a business is simply a nexus of contracts?

(9:07) - What is FE International?

(10:38) - What are some of the economics of being an M&A firm?

(13:12) - Do you have recurring customers or do people tend to only transact 1-2 businesses in their lives?

(15:07) - Do you think of FE as a professional services firm?

(16:33) - Did you bootstrap this business?

(19:38) - Building trust and reputation with both sides of the marketplace

(21:15) - What’s your long-term vision for this business?

(23:34) - How did you come to start FE International?

(30:46) - Who are the people behind the businesses and the buyers?

(35:37) - How do you as an investor look at this variety of businesses and decide what to buy?

(48:33) - Thinking about different ways to create Alpha and what defines a “good deal”

(55:38) - How does an FE International Prospectus’ differentiate from an ameteur?

(1:02:49) - Is there a massive database you’ve collected over the years?

(1:06:03) - How do you discuss valuations with sellers?

(1:08:12) - What would you say your multiples are for content businesses, SAAS and E-comm?

(1:17:09) - What percent of deals get publicly listed for sale vs. the private transactions?

(1:20:25) - The post-sale transition process

(1:23:18) - How do you monitor your buyer alumni and their success?

Links:

FE International

FE International Whitepapers

Client Case Studies

Thomas on Twitter

Thomas on IG

Thomas on Facebook

Join our Fund at Rolling.Fun

Support our sponsor: founderspodcast.com

Other Episode You’ll Like:

Andrew Finn: WaitButWhy and G64 C-Founder on How to Acquire a Free Company

Codie Sanchez: Drug Cartels, Vanguard, And Goldman Sachs

To support this costs of producing this podcast:

Important quotes from Naval on building wealth and the difference between wealth and money:

How to get rich without getting lucky. - Naval Ravikant

Making money is not a thing you do—it’s a skill you learn. - Naval Ravikant

I came up with the principles in my tweetstorm (below) for myself when I was really young, around thirteen or fourteen. I’ve been carrying them in my head for thirty years, and I’ve been living them. Over time (sadly or fortunately), the thing I got really good at was looking at businesses and figuring out the point of maximum leverage to actually create wealth and capture some of that created wealth. - Naval Ravikant

Seek wealth, not money or status. - Naval Ravikant

Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

Money is how we transfer time and wealth. - Naval Ravikant

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom. - Naval Ravikant

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn. The old model of making money is going to school for four years, getting your degree, and working as a professional for thirty years. But things change fast now. Now, you have to come up to speed on a new profession within nine months, and it’s obsolete four years later. But within those three productive years, you can get very wealthy. - Naval Ravikant

Important quotes from the podcast by Naval on Leverage:

“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”

—Archimedes

To get rich, you need leverage. Leverage comes in labor, comes in capital, or it can come through code or media. But most of these, like labor and capital, people have to give to you. For labor, somebody has to follow you. For capital, somebody has to give you money, assets to manage, or machines. - Naval Ravikant

Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media). - Naval Ravikant

Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you. - Naval Ravikant

Code and media are permissionless leverage. They’re the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

If you can’t code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts. - Naval Ravikant

Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment. - Naval Ravikant

Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. - Naval Ravikant

“We live in an age of infinite leverage, and the economic rewards for genuine intellectual curiosity have never been higher. Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.” - Naval Ravikant

Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

But usually, the real wealth is created by starting your own companies or even by investing. In an investment firm, they’re buying equity. These are the routes to wealth. It doesn’t come through the hours. - Naval Ravikant

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Topics:

(2:11) - Tech Gossip about Elon, Twitter & Fast

(9:26) - Q1 Portfolio Recap: Gently & Terran Robotics

(28:36) - Q2 Portfolio Update: Lumo, Stablegains

(43:05) - How listeners can help portfolio companies

(46:07) - Fund Updates

(51:29) - Explaining how quarterly investments work in the fund and deadlines

(53:01) - Reasons we passed on companies

Links:

Rolling.Fun

Gently.com

Terran Robotics

Terran Robotics on YouTube

Lumo.co

Stablegains.com

Other Episode You’ll Like:

Shane Mac: Building Messaging Protocol for Web3 (XMTP), Company Culture, and Scaling Trust

Chris Powers: Starting A Real Estate Empire at 17, Focus, Podcast Flywheels