Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup: Recent Episodes
Podcast Notes
We take notes on the best podcasts so you don't have to. Subscribe to this playlist in your podcast app to automatically get all the episodes we've taken notes for along with the notes themselves! The latest for the tag STARTUP
Honestly with Bari Weiss ✓ Claim
Key Takeaways * Prominent people are shifting to the right because they never signed up for the left’s intellectual straight-jacket * The 2024 presidential election marked a collapse of liberalism and the Democratic Party; it is too narrow of thinking to blame it on a senile Biden or a goofy Kamala * If the machine always wins, then you no longer have a democracy nor a democratic process: If Trump would have lost to the machine in 2024, who would have ever been able to defeat it? * If we are going to avoid World War III, we must learn the lessons of WWI and WWII; we cannot have excessive appeasement to dictators, but also, we cannot sleepwalk into armageddon * On the elite Ivy League institutions: “Maybe they’re good places for training conservatives. If you go to Yale Law School and you’re one of five people in the class who are still conservative at the end, you’ll be pretty good at understanding what’s wrong with liberalism.” * Populism and democracy may be a Russell conjugate: It is democracy when people vote the right way and it is populism when they vote the wrong way * Both extreme dogmatism and extreme skepticism are incompatible with science * If you make something into God, you make it into a scapegoat for all the problems too * If you’re addicted to the 140 characters on your shiny iPhone screen, you may not realize that the New York Subway and your decrepit apartment building are collapsing around you * It matters what people do; there is room for human agency and human thought in the trajectory of the future
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
On Tuesday night, president-elect Donald Trump announced that the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, along with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new department in the Trump administration: the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE.”
Aside from the very strange fact that internet meme culture has now landed in the White House—Dogecoin is a memecoin—more importantly, what the announcement solidifies is the triumph of the counter-elite. A bunch of oddball outsiders ran against an insular band of out-of-touch elites supported by every celebrity in Hollywood—and they won. And they are about to reshape not just the government but also the culture in ways we can’t imagine.
And there was one person I wanted to discuss it with. He is the vanguard of those antiestablishment counter-elites: Peter Thiel. People describe the billionaire venture capitalist in very colorful terms. He’s been called the most successful tech investor in the world. A political kingmaker. The bogeyman of the left. The center of gravity in Silicon Valley. There’s the “Thielverse,” “Thielbucks,” and “Thielists.” To say he has an obsessive cult following would be an understatement.
If you listened to my last conversation with Thiel a year and a half ago on Honestly, you’ll remember that Peter was the first guy in Silicon Valley to publicly embrace Trump in 2016. That year, he gave a memorable speech at the RNC, and many in his orbit thought it was simply a step too far. He lost business at Y Combinator, the start-up incubator where he was a partner. Many prominent tech leaders criticized him publicly, like VC and Twitter investor Chris Sacca, who called Thiel’s endorsement of Trump “one of the most dangerous things” he had ever seen.
Well, a lot has changed since then. For one, Thiel has taken a step back from politics—at least publicly. He didn’t donate to Trump’s 2024 campaign. There was no big RNC speech this year. But the bigger change is a cultural one. He’s no longer the pariah of Silicon Valley for supporting Trump.
On the surface, Thiel is someone who seems full of contradictions. He is a libertarian who has found common cause with nationalists and populists. He likes investing in companies that have the ability to become monopolies, and yet Trump’s White House wants to break up Big Tech. He is a gay American immigrant, but he hates identity politics and the culture wars. He pays people to drop out of college, but, in this conversation at least, still seems to venerate the way that the Ivy Leagues are an indicator of intelligence.
But perhaps that’s the secret to his success: He’s beholden to no tribe but himself, no ideology but his own. And why wouldn’t you be when you make so many winning bets? From co-founding the e-payment behemoth PayPal and the data analytics firm Palantir (which was used to find Osama bin Laden) to being the first outside investor in Facebook, Thiel’s investments—in companies like LinkedIn, Palantir, and SpaceX, to name a few—have paid off big time.
His most recent bet—helping his mentee J.D. Vance get elected as senator and then on the Trump ticket as vice president—seems also to have paid off. The next four years will determine just how high Thiel’s profit margin will be.
Today: Thiel explains why so many of his peers have finally come around to Trump; why he thinks Kamala—and liberalism more broadly—lost the election; and why the Trump 2.0 team will be better than last time, with antiestablishment figures who are willing to rethink the system. We talk about the border, trade deals, student debt, Israel and foreign policy, the rise of historical revisionism, the blurry line between skepticism and conspiracy, and his contrarian ideas about what we might face in a dreaded World War III.
If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today.
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Learning Leader Show
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk
Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com
My books:
Welcome to Management - https://amzn.to/3XWyZAH
The Pursuit of Excellence - https://amzn.to/4eX9vtP
The Score That Matters - https://amzn.to/3zPub7Z
Seth Godin is the author of 21 international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about work and art. They have been translated into 38 languages. His breakthrough books include Purple Cow, Tribes, The Dip, Linchpin, and his latest book is called This is Strategy. He writes one of the most popular daily blogs in the world and has given 5 TED talks. He is the founder of the altMBA, and the former VP of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!
Notes:
- "If you want word of mouth, you have to create something remarkable, and that means it’s worthy of remark."
- The elegant path is the most useful way forward. “My neighbor is a barefoot runner. He glides without apparent effort.” Elegance is simplicity, efficiency, and effectiveness.
- Dorothy and Her Crew. How did Dorothy persuade the Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow to join her on the trip to see the Wizard? Did she make a case about how much she missed home? No. She created the conditions where the others could get what they wanted by joining her.
- Seeing Strategy Clearly. Strategy is a flexible plan that guides us as we seek to create a change. It helps us make decisions over time while working within a system.
- Low-Hanging Fruit Isn’t. It’s all been picked. The easy, direct, obvious paths are unlikely to get you the results you’re working so hard to obtain. In fact, these paths are probably a trap.
- Seth, at one point, got 800 rejection letters. Have to keep going...
- "I wouldn't call Steve Ballmer a good leader."
- An example of Seth making a difference... He went to Kenya and talked with 60 people who started a book club based on his book Linchpin. "They decided to be leaders."
- Make decisions in the moment:
- Examine the issue
- Get feedback
- Look for patterns
- "Taste is knowing what the market wants before it knows it."
- Rick Rubin
- Reality distortion field
- Johnny Cash
- "What do you think?"
- "Objections are your friends."
- What are the commonalities among leaders with whom Seth has worked and who have sustained excellence? They are all different, but the one thing they have in common is they all have chosen to be leaders. And that means that they are here to make a change happen.
- Management doesn’t just exist. It was invented. When you race to the bottom, You see people as resources, not as people.
- Questions That Lead To Strategies. 84 questions. They’ll force you to think through your strategy. By answering them, you’ll be better prepared to make a difference… And make a ruckus. Some of them: Who is this project for? What is my timeline? What systems would need to change for my project to succeed? Where will I cause tension? What resistance should I anticipate? Where is the empathy? What asset would transform my project? What can I learn from comparable projects? Is the change I’m making contagious? Can I make it easier for others to decide? How can I design for network effects? What are common objections I expect to encounter?
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways * “If Steve Jobs studied Edwin Land, I think every other founder should as well.” – David Senra * Optimize for breadth as well as depth; hire the chemist who does photography on the side! * Something magical exists at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences * “Missionaries make better products.” – Jeff Bezos + Missionaries and mercenaries are the two types of people that will be attracted to a company + While the mercenaries are there for the perks, status, and money, the missionaries are there to make better products because they believe in what the company is doing * Leverage the power of demonstration: No argument in the world can compare with one dramatic demonstration * A first-class product needs first-class packaging and marketing! * The founder is the guardian of the company’s soul * If you are lucky enough to find your life’s work, why would you quit? * You should take yourself seriously, but don’t make yourself miserable; none of us get out of this alive
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos.
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Episode Outline:
— The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.
— Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.
— Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.
— Books on Edwin Land:
Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)
A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)
Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)
The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)
Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)
— Biography about Steve Jobs: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli
— Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. — Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214)
— Book on Henry Ford:
I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow (Founders #9)
The Autobiography of Henry Ford by Henry Ford (Founders #26)
Today and Tomorrow Henry Ford (Founders #80)
My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen (Founders #118)
The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn (Founders #190)
— Another parallel to Jobs: Land's control over his company was nearly absolute, and he exercised it to a degree that was compelling and sometimes exhausting.
— When you read a biography of Edwin land you see an incredibly smart, gifted, driven, focused person endure decade after decade of struggle. And more importantly —finally work his way through.
— Another parallel to Jobs: You may be noticing that none of this has anything to do with instant photography. Polarizers rather than pictures would define the first two decades of lands intellectual life and would establish his company. Instant photos were an idea that came later on, a secondary business around which his company was completely recreated.
— “Missionaries make better products.” —Jeff Bezos
— His letter to shareholders gradually became a particularly dramatic showcase for his language and his thinking. These letters-really more like personal mission statements-are thoughtful and compact, and just eccentric enough to be completely engaging. Instead of discussing earnings and growth they laid out Land's World inviting everyone to join.
— Land gave him a four-word job description: "Keeper of the language.”
— No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. — My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170)
— The leap to Polaroid was like replacing a messenger on horseback with your first telephone.
— Hire a paid critic:
Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. I had had my eye on him for all those years because of his bold criticism of our first machine.
He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough. It had too much wow and flutter, he said. He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique.
— Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.
— Another parallel to Jobs: Don't kid yourself. Polaroid is a one man company.
— He argued there was no reason that well-designed, wellmade computers couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile.
A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way as a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Rather than competing with commodity PC makers like Dell, Compaq and Gateway, why not make only first-class products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products?
The company could make much bigger profits from selling a $3,000 machine rather than a $500 machine, even if they sold fewer of them.
Why not, then, just concentrate on making the best $3,000 machines around? — Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.
— How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher
— Books on Enzo Ferrari
Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97)
Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and The Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca Dal Monte (Founders #98)
Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine by Brock Yates (Founders #220)
— Soul in the game. Listen to how Edwin Land describes his product:
We would not have known and have only just learned that a new kind of relationship between people in groups is brought into being by SX-70 when the members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing the photographs: it turns out that buried within us—
there is latent interest in each other; there is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, companionability and humor; it turns out, in this cold world where man grows distant from man,
and even lovers can reach each other only briefly, that we have a yen for and a primordial competence for a quiet good-humored delight in each other:
we have a prehistoric tribal competence for a non-physical, non-emotional, non-sexual satisfaction in being partners in the lonely exploration of a once empty planet.
— “Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company’s owners are slim at best.” —Charlie Munger
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Rich Roll Podcast
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Tom Holland is the star of Spider-Man, a nascent entrepreneur, and one of Hollywood’s most grounded young actors.
This conversation traverses the nexus of fame, personal growth, and Tom’s journey toward sobriety, which catalyzed his foray into the non-alcoholic beverage industry. We explore his evolution from child actor to global superstar, his therapeutic relationship with golf, and how he’s remained attuned to his authentic self amidst Hollywood’s gilded chaos.
Tom candidly reflects on navigating the intricacies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and his recent return to the verité of Shakespearean theatre.
Tom’s infectious enthusiasm is palpable. Enjoy!
Show notes + MORE
Watch on YouTube
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Invest Like the Best
Key Takeaways * “The founder has to be accountable for the story. The founder holds this secret knowledge and vision that other people do not.” – Lulu Meservey * Go Direct: If the founder’s secret has to go through seven layers of filtering before it is shared with the world, then it will become something that is already familiar to people and that already exists * The Core Ingredients of Founder Communications: + 1. Have a willingness and eagerness to take on the company’s comms + 2. Have a clear vision of the company’s goals + 3. Know your audience + 4. Reach people where they intellectually hang out * “Communication is a vector, not a scalar. It only matters if there is a direction attached to it.” – Lulu Meservey * Know your audience; if you are talking to the wrong people, then you would be better off talking to nobody because you may be making new enemies or unwanted friends * Do not worry about converting your haters into believers; doing so successfully is so rare that it is probably not worth your scare time * Know where your target audience intellectually hangs out so that your message can reach them in that medium * Do not worry about converting your haters into believers; doing so successfully is so rare that it is probably not worth your scare time * Craft your hook and know the erogenous zone of your target audience, then present them with a “gateway drug” that bridges them into the new world that you are creating
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
My guest today is Lulu Meservey. Lulu is the Founder and CEO of Rostra, a company that partners with founders to level up their communications around all strategic initiatives, from hiring to fundraising. She is also on the board at Shopify. I have been recently fascinated by the challenge of founders telling their story and Lulu is an expert in comms and a believer in creative problem-solving through effective communication and compelling storytelling. We discuss the evolution of media and its pitfalls, innovative methods for managing crises, and the power of going direct with your communication. Please enjoy my conversation with Lulu Meservey.
I’m excited to announce that we are hiring an Editor in Chief at Colossus. This will be a critical and central role in our growing media platform and in our quest to find and showcase the best people, businesses, and ideas in the world. This person will work on existing shows like Invest Like the Best and Founders, our soon-to-be-announced print publication, and more. We aim to be the dominant media company exploring business and investing frontiers, so this person needs to be obsessed with these topics and bring serious operational chops. I firmly believe this role can help define someone’s career. Go to joincolossus.com/eic to apply.
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For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform.
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This episode is brought to you by Alphasense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Imagine completing your research five to ten times faster with search that delivers the most relevant results, helping you make high-conviction decisions with confidence. AlphaSense provides access to over 300 million premium documents, including company filings, earnings reports, press releases, and more from public and private companies. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegas help you make smarter decisions faster.
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
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Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:06:48) The Evolution of Media and Communication
(00:11:25) The Importance of Direct Communication for Founders
(00:20:20) Choosing the Right Partners and Clients
(00:25:20) The Art of Launching a Product
(00:34:01) Fundraising Tips for Entrepreneurs and Investors
(00:35:32) The Pitfalls of Inauthentic Fundraising
(00:36:05) Crafting a Compelling Macro Narrative
(00:37:54) Crisis Management Strategies for Founders
(00:42:41) Lessons from Counterinsurgency
(00:44:24) The Rugby Analogy for Founders
(00:49:34) The Power of K-Pop Marketing
(00:56:30) Vision and Future of Rostra
(01:01:17) The Importance of Direct Communication
(01:10:36) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Done For Lulu
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career✓Claim
Key Takeaways * “Every tap on a mobile app is a miracle for you as a product developer.” – Nikita Bier * Teens see each other everyday; this is one of the most important factors for why teen consumer apps have a higher probability of going viral * If you are building a product with network effects and that is a communication tool, then you want to be positioned on that upward curve of adding connections to your social graph, because there is a higher urgency to connect * Search for product ideas by using the concept “latent demand”: Identify the user’s motivation, clear up what they are actually trying to do, and then crystalize the process for them; this leads to intense adoption * The most important thing to increase your probability of success: Develop a reproducible testing process * You will know when your product is working; if there is any uncertainty, then your product is not working * People download apps to make or save money, find a mate, or unplug from reality * How to take a product from Zero to One: Execute at 100% for the thing you are trying to validate at that specific stage of the product development cycle * Always do right by users; if you do wrong to users, the internet will eventually find a way to seek its revenge on you * While discovering a new communication product is a once-in-a-decade black swan event, growing a product can be more of a science * Your app must demonstrate value in the first three seconds or it is not going to work * “Consumer products live and die in the pixels.” – Nikita Bier
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Nikita Bier is one of the most in-demand consumer, social, and growth experts in the world. He’s the co-founder of TBH (sold to Meta for more than $30 million) and Gas (sold to Discord for millions more) and has helped more consumer apps that have hit #1 in the app stores than any other person I’ve come across. He currently spends his time advising founders on growth, product, and design and is an investor and advisor to some of the best consumer tech companies, including Flo, Locket, Eight Sleep, Citizen, BeReal, Captions, and more. In our conversation, we discuss:
• The inside story of how TBH and Gas achieved explosive growth
• Strategies for building viral consumer apps
• Why teens are such a great audience
• Fighting the human trafficking hoax at Gas
• The challenge of creating durable social products
• His experience working as a PM at Facebook
• Advice for founders on building consumer apps
• Much more
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Brought to you by:
• Webflow—The web experience platform
• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security
• Explo—Embed customer-facing analytics in your product
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Book Nikita for 1:1 consultation/mentoring: https://intro.co/NikitaBier
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Find the transcript and show notes at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-consistently-go-viral-nikita-bier
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Where to find Nikita Bier:
• X: https://x.com/nikitabier
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@nikitabier
• Website: https://intro.co/NikitaBier
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Nikita’s background
(06:08) Nikita’s early ventures: Politify and Outline
(08:42) Transition to consumer apps
(13:45) The birth of TBH
(16:43) Building for teens vs. adults
(20:00) TBH’s viral success
(32:18) Leveraging live chat
(34:08) Lasting lessons from TBH
(37:00) Selling TBH to Facebook
(42:19) Big-tech product management
(48:46) Nikita on why “product management is not real”
(51:49) The Tim Cook painting story
(53:53) Leaving Facebook and starting a new venture
(58:02) Rebuilding TBH and overcoming challenges
(59:46) Addressing criticism
(01:04:24) The human trafficking hoax
(01:09:51) Selling to Discord and lessons learned
(01:11:36) Lasting lessons from Gas
(01:13:14) Building durable consumer apps
(01:22:35) The VC route
(01:23:27) Contact permissions in iOS 18
(01:26:53) The success of Dupe
(01:31:53) Advice for startup founders
(01:34:14) Work with Nikita
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
My First Million
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 622: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Jesse Pujji ( https://x.com/jspujji ) about bootstrapping Ampush and the four levers of digital marketing.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) Unique insight + unfair advantage
(3:05) How Jesse bootstrapped Ampush using GLG
(14:00) Digital marketing in masterclass in 3 minutes
(20:30) How to sell to the ultra rich
(27:38) Red Ventures' Playbook
(32:40) The Four Big Levers
(41:00) Calling Zuck's cell
(46:30) Noah Kagan's $100M mistake at facebook
(58:45) What's the thing you can't not do?
(1:01:00) Nelly performs at Jesse's birthday party
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Links:
• Gateway X - https://www.gateway.xyz/
• Aux Insights - https://www.auxinsights.com/
• Accordion - https://www.accordion.com/
• GrowthAssistant - https://growthassistant.com/
• GLG Insights - https://glginsights.com/
• Triple Whale - https://www.triplewhale.com/
• Ampush Lead Gen Overview - https://tinyurl.com/mw3f7cbk
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Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/
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Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
My First Million
Key Takeaways * The nine non-obvious lessons that Shaan Puri has learned while building an audience: + 1. Forget the numbers + 2. Find your inner nerd + 3. Build a magnet, not an audience + 4. The First, Last, Best, Worst, Weirdest framework + 5. Use the Five D’s + 6. Nothing is too long, only too boring + 7. Don’t worry about style or production quality + 8. Create a Binge Bank + 9. Be so good that they cannot ignore you
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 620: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) breaks down the 9 lessons he’s learned while building an audience.
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Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(2:17) Forget the numbers
(6:11) Find your inner nerd
(9:57)Build a magnet
(10:40) First, Last, Best, Worst, Weirdest
(12:40) The thing I wish I knew earlier
(15:53) No such thing as too long
(16:18) A+ content with C- delivery
(17:58) Create a binge bank
(18:32) People don’t want information
(19:55) Be so good they can’t ignore you
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Get our business idea database here https://clickhubspot.com/mfm
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
Twenty Minute VC
Kaz Nejatian is Shopify’s VP of Product & Chief Operating Officer. Before Shopify, Kaz founded Kash, a payment technology company which was acquired in 2017 by one of the largest fintech companies in the U.S. Kaz then served as Product Lead for Payments and Billing at Facebook, reducing the barriers for businesses in cash-dependent markets to purchase digital ads without a credit card.
In Today's Episode with Kaz Nejatian We Discuss: 1. Learnings From the Greats:
- Mark Zuckerberg: What are Kaz's biggest lessons from working with Zuck? Why does Kaz believe Zuck is massively under-appreciated?
- Keith Rabois: What are Kaz's biggest lessons from working with Keith? How did it change how he operates on a day to day basis?
-
Tobi Lütke: What have been Kaz's biggest lessons from working with Tobi? What has he changed most significantly since working with Tobi?
-
Shopify: Why We Build Our Own Tools:
-
Why does Kaz believe it is crucial for Shopify to build their own tools?
- When did he doubt this strategy most? What caused him to question it?
- Why does Kaz believe the Stripe <> Shopify partnership is the most important in business?
- What is the role of a PM at Shopify?
-
Why do Shopify focus on how not what product is built?
-
Eight Truths The Startup World Gets Wrong:
-
Why does Kaz believe "The Lean Startup" has done more damage than any other startup book?
- Why does Kaz believe that 90% of companies do not know what they want when they hire?
- Why does Kaz believe the way that companies pay their staff is totally wrong?
- Why does Kaz believe that most companies pick fights they do not need to pick?
- Why does Kaz believe that for 90% of companies remote work is a terrible idea?
- Why does Kaz believe that everyone in sales and marketing should be able to code?
- Why does Kaz believe that married people with kids are more, not less productive?
- Why does Kaz believe that we totally misunderstand divorce rates?
Invest Like the Best
Key Takeaways * The keys to creating a business culture of excellence: + Have a small number of people who are elite in their field + Compensate them very well + Ensure that compensation and promotion are perfectly tied to performance + Ruthlessly minimize bureaucracy + Celebrate people who do big things with the fewest number of people possible * “Mathematical superintelligence” is a more specific way to refer to artificial general intelligence (AGI) * Mathematical superintelligence is an AI that solves math problems at a superior capability compared to the sum total of all humans on earth * It will be able to solve any problem, but especially those that have a quantitative element or that require quantitative reasoning * The coming years and decades include a $100+ trillion wealth transfer from boomers to millennials; given the company’s customer base, Robinhood is well-positioned to benefit from this wealth transfer * De-emphasize the significance of the “number of people” managed; the desire to manage a larger number of people warps incentives and attracts empire builders instead of problem-solvers * “Sometimes I just read the reviews of the Robinhood credit card app before bed.” – Vlad Tenev * Advice for entrepreneurs: Imagine if Frank Slootman took over your company… What are the ten things that he would do?
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
My guest today is Vlad Tenev. Vlad is the CEO and co-founder of Robinhood. It was such a treat to sit down with him and discuss the behind-the-scenes of a revolutionary business we all know well. He details Robinhood’s journey to zero-cost trading and what it means to build a consumer-centric financial product. Vlad believes in finding the harmonies across mathematics and art and applies this lens to everything he builds. We discuss Robinhood’s new credit card and more products on the horizon, the company’s toughest moments, including the Gamestop episode, and the compelling future of AI in financial services. Please enjoy this conversation with Vlad Tenev.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform.
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Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:03:56) The Next Frontier in AI: Reasoning and Logical Deductions
(00:06:19) Challenges and Approaches in AI Development
(00:09:08) Formal Mathematics and AI Integration
(00:11:23) Practical Applications of Mathematical Superintelligence
(00:17:30) Robinhood's Journey to Zero-Cost Trading
(00:24:38) Building a Consumer-Friendly Trading Platform
(00:28:52) Robinhood Gold and the Future of Financial Services
(00:35:51) Understanding Robinhood's Business Model
(00:42:34) Navigating the GameStop Crisis
(00:49:17) Improving Customer Satisfaction
(00:52:43) Reputation Repair
(00:54:52) The Future of Financial Services
(00:59:06) Crypto and AI in Finance
(01:08:09) Building a High-Performance Culture
(01:11:42) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Vlad
Infinite Loops
Key Takeaways * Investing is a service-based business; focus on the karma! * “The four horsemen of the investment apocalypse are fear, greed, hope, and ignorance. And only ignorance is something that you can address.” – Jim O’Shaughnessy * Take actions that increase the surface area of your luck * Ironically, in a changing world, playing it safe is one of the riskiest things that you can do * Learn how you are going to react to every phase of the market * You have to be selective, but you also have to be okay with rejection * Trust is a function of experience, and experience is a function of time * You do not need to be right every time to dominate; the best traders in history are right just a little more than 50% of the time * How to add value early in your career: Find the 10% of a person’s life that they hate, and make that problem go away for them * The investing industry is based on trust and reputation – it is wise to remember this
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Let me introduce you to the four horsemen of the investment apocalypse:
Fear.
Greed.
Hope.
Ignorance.
Notice anything?
Three of four are emotions.
I’ve long argued that effective investing is far more about emotional control than technical know-how (although the latter certainly helps!) By hook or by crook, the best investors can find a way to tame their pesky emotional impulses and overcome that primal urge to respond impulsively to panic, passion, or pride.
My guest, the razor-sharp Ateet Ahluwalia, is a veteran trader and investor who has spent well over 15 years at the coalface, from trading at Goldman at the dawn of the financial crisis to his current role as founder and managing director of the venture capital firm Island Green Capital Management. As you’ll hear from our conversation, Ateet has built an insanely deep understanding of the emotional constitution required to succeed in finance and venture capital, which informs his approach to risk management, hiring, investing, due diligence, and everything in between.
I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation, whose implications extend well beyond investing. For episode takeaways, a full transcript, and various other goodies, check out our Substack.
Important Links:
- The Thinker and The Prover; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
- Ateet’s LinkedIn
- Island Green Capital Management
Show Notes:
- Why Venture Capitalists Should Shun the Glory
- “In a changing world, playing it safe is one of the riskiest things you can do."
- Risk: Why Size Matters
- The Emotional Constraints of Investing
- How to Find Out What Someone Really Wants
- The Purifying Power of Mistakes
- Pick up the Phone!
- Being Humbled by the Market
- Public vs Private Investing
- Why Hit Rates Matter
- Assessing the Macro Position
- Bullshitting, Question-Dodging, and Other Red Flags
- The Many Bosses of the Venture Capitalist
- Be a Painkiller
- Ateet as Emperor of the World
- MORE!
Books Mentioned:
- The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna
- Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist; by Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson
- Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean; by Karen Berman, Joe Knight & John Case
- Adventures of a Bystander; by Peter F. Drucker
Twenty Minute VC
Key Takeaways * “Extraordinary careers, when you are junior in venture, do not get built sitting behind a desk in an office behind a laptop. You have to be willing to go meet with founders in person, figure out how to understand their business and how to convince them to even spend time with you when you are not one of the big general partners.” – Delian Asparouhov * Startups must have a strong vision for the future of the world, and then build towards making that vision the reality * Young venture capitalists do not focus enough on differentiation; many young VCs spread themselves too thin by focusing on a multitude of sectors * In venture, you have no moat other than your brand; “US dollars” is the product that you deliver – a product that anybody else can deliver * The number one thing that Delian has learned from Peter Thiel: There is always a way to structure your argument so that you are on the winning side no matter what * “People love software because the marginal distribution costs are zero, but perhaps what people need to realize is also that the marginal returns are zero as well because there is no moat.” – Delian Asparouhov * The only rule of the Founders Fund is that there are no rules * Over the next 100-200 years, our biggest geopolitical and moral crisis is humanity speciating by way of artificial selection pressures (such as embryonic scoring and CRISPR DNA changing) and natural selection pressures (such as humans existing on new frontiers, perhaps in space) * Say what you think; it doesn’t really matter how society chooses to react to it
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Delian Asparouhov is a Partner at Founders Fund and Co-Founder and President of Varda Space Industries, which is building the world's first space factories. At Founders Fund Delian has led deals in the likes of Ramp ($7BN) and Sword Health ($3BN) among others. Before joining Founders Fund, he was a Principal at Khosla Ventures, Head of Growth at Teespring, and Founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale.
In Today's Episode with Delian Asparouhov We Discuss: 1. Venture Capital: Winners, Losers and Everyone Else:
- Who are the Top 3 venture firms in the world today according to Delian?
- Why does Delian believe that Benchmark are not the firm they were?
- Who will be the winners in venture in the next 10 years?
-
Who will be the losers in venture in the next 10 years?
-
Inside Founders Fund: What No One Sees:
-
What are the most important and impactful elements of Founders Fund that no one knows about?
- What does Delian believe that the Founders Fund partnership will strongly disagree with him on?
- Why does Founders Fund believe the path of most resistance is the best way to make decisions?
-
What single topic has Delian publicly disagreed with Peter Thiel on most? How did it go?
-
What Every Young VC Needs to Know:
-
What are Delian's single biggest tips to young VCs looking to scale the VC ladder today?
- What are the five core pillars of venture according to Delian? What should young VCs focus on?
- Why does Delian disagree with Founders Fund partners that "the best founders do not need the help of their VCs?"
- Does Delian agree with Vinod Khosla that "90% of VCs do detract value?"
-
What are the biggest ways that Delian believes VCs can and do detract value?
-
Europe Will Be Third World, Parenting and Marriage:
-
Why does Delian believe that Western Europe will become like the third world?
- What are Delian's single biggest tips on finding a life partner?
- What have been the biggest changes to Delian since becoming a father?
- What question does no one ask Delian that someone should ask him?
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career✓Claim
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Rory Sutherland is widely regarded as one of the most influential (and most entertaining) thinkers in marketing and behavioral science.He’s the vice chairman of Ogilvy UK, the author of Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, and the founder of Nudgestock, the world’s biggest festival of behavioral science and creativity. He champions thinking from first principles and using human psychology—what he calls “thinking psycho-logically”—over mere logic. In our conversation, we cover:
• Why good products don’t always succeed, and bad ones don’t necessarily fail
• Why less functionality can sometimes be more valuable
• The importance of fame in building successful brands
• The importance of timing in product success
• The concept of “most advanced, yet acceptable”
• Why metrics-driven workplaces can be demotivating
• Lots of real-world case studies
• Much more
Note: We encountered some technical difficulties that led to less than ideal video quality for this episode, but the lessons from this conversation made it impossible for me to not publish it anyway. Thanks for your understanding and for bearing with the less-than-ideal video quality.
—
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—
Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-most-people-miss-about-marketing
—
Where to find Rory Sutherland:
• X: https://x.com/rorysutherland
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorysutherland
• Book: Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life: https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Curious-Science-Creating-Business/dp/006238841X
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Rory’s background
(02:37) The success and failure of products
(04:08) Why the urge to appear serious can be a disaster in marketing
(08:05) The role of distinctiveness in product design
(12:29) The MAYA principle
(15:50) How thinking irrationally can be advantageous
(17:40) The fault of multiple-choice tests
(21:31) Companies that have successfully implemented out-of-the-box thinking
(30:31) “Psycho-logical” thinking
(31:45) The hare and the dog metaphor
(38:51) Marketing’s crucial role in product adoption
(49:21) The quirks of Google Glass
(55:44) Survivorship bias
(56:09) Balancing rational ideas with irrational ideas
(01:06:19) The rise and fall of tech innovations
(01:09:54) Consistency, distinctiveness, and clarity
(01:21:12) Considering psychological, technological, and economic factors in parallel
(01:23:35) Where to find Rory
—
Referenced:
• Google Glass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass
• Meta Portal TV: https://www.meta.com/portal/products/portal-tv/
• Rory’s quote in a LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brad-jackson-04766642_the-urge-to-appear-serious-is-a-disaster-activity-7093497742710210560-1LYN/
• The MAYA Principle: Design for the Future, but Balance It with Your Users’ Present: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/design-for-the-future-but-balance-it-with-your-users-present
• Ogilvy: https://www.ogilvy.com/
• MCI: https://www.mci.world/
• Veuve Clicquot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veuve_Clicquot
• Why do the French call the British ‘the roast beefs’?: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/2913151.stm
• The Killing on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-killing-f5da5c2d-4626-4ba9-bcf3-ff5f891771fb
• Original The Killing on BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017h7m1
• The Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong: https://www.mandarinoriental.com/en/hong-kong/victoria-harbour
• SAT: https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/sat
• The Widening Racial Scoring Gap on the SAT College Admissions Test: https://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html
• What is the age of the captain?: https://www.icopilots.com/what-is-the-age-of-the-captain/
• Octopus Energy: https://octopus.energy/
• Kraken: https://octopusenergy.group/kraken-technologies
• Toby Shannan: https://theorg.com/org/shopify/org-chart/toby-shannan
• Dunbar’s number: Why we can only maintain 150 relationships: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191001-dunbars-number-why-we-can-only-maintain-150-relationships
• AO: https://ao.com/
• Zappos: https://www.zappos.com/
• Joe Cano on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeycano/
• John Ralston Saul’s website: https://www.johnralstonsaul.com/
• Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West: https://www.amazon.com/Voltaires-Bastards-Dictatorship-Reason-West/dp/0679748199
• Psycho-Logic: Why Too Much Logic Deters Magic: https://coffeeandjunk.com/psycho-logic/
• Herbert Simon’s Decision-Making Approach: https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/4995/1/Fulltext.pdf
• Robert Trivers’s website: https://roberttrivers.com/Welcome.html
• Crazy Ivan: https://jollycontrarian.com/index.php?title=Crazy_Ivan
• The Joys of Being a Late Tech Adopter: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/technology/personaltech/joys-late-tech-adopter.html
• Jean-Claude Van Damme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Van_Damme
• Tim Berners-Lee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
• Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/
• The real story behind penicillin: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic
• What Are Japanese Toilets?: https://www.bigbathroomshop.co.uk/info/blog/japanese-toilets/
• reMarkable: https://remarkable.com/
• Chumby: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumby
• Survivorship bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
• Jony Ive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jony_Ive
• Marc Newson’s website: https://marc-newson.com/
• Designing Men: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2013/11/jony-ive-marc-newson-design-auction
• Qantas A330: https://marc-newson.com/qantas-a330/
• Herodotus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus
• Big Decision? Consider It Both Drunk and Sober: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2016/03/22/wine-and-sleep-make-for-better-decisions/?sh=5c97fdc524b1
• How Henry Ford and Thomas Edison killed the electric car: https://www.speakev.com/threads/how-henry-ford-and-thomas-edison-killed-the-electric-car.4270/
• Watch Jay Leno get nostalgic and swoon over this 1909 EV: https://thenextweb.com/news/jay-leno-talk-about-electric-car-1909-baker
• Jay Leno’s Garage: https://www.youtube.com/@jaylenosgarage
• Nudgestock: https://nudgestock.com/
• Akio Morita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akio_Morita
• Don Norman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnorman/
• What Makes Tesla’s Business Model Different: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/072115/what-makes-teslas-business-model-different.asp
• Monica Lewinsky on X: https://x.com/MonicaLewinsky
• Blindsight: The (Mostly) Hidden Ways Marketing Reshapes Our Brains: azon.com/Blindsight-Mostly-Hidden-Marketing-Reshapes-ebook/dp/B07ZKZ5DWF
• Branding That Means Business: https://www.amazon.com/Branding-that-Means-Business-Economist-ebook/dp/B09QBCCH9N
• PwC: https://www.pwc.com
• Ryanair: https://www.ryanair.com
• British Airways: https://www.britishairways.com/
• Wrigley’s began as a soap business: know when to pivot: https://theamericangenius.com/entrepreneur/wrigleys-began-as-soap-know-when-to-pivot/
• Transport for Humans: https://www.amazon.com/Transport-Humans-Perspectives-Pete-Dyson/dp/1913019357
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career✓Claim
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Mike Maples, Jr. is a legendary early-stage startup investor and a co-founder and partner at Floodgate. He’s made early bets on transformative companies like Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, Okta, Rappi, and Applied Intuition and is one of the pioneers of seed-stage investing as a category. He’s been on the Forbes Midas List eight times and enjoys sharing the lessons he’s learned from his years studying iconic companies. In his new book, Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future, co-authored with Peter Ziebelman,he discusses what he’s found separates startups and founders that break through and change the world from those that don’t. After spending years reviewing the notes and decks from the thousands of startups he’s known over the past two decades, he’s uncovered three ways that breakthrough founders think and act differently. In our conversation, Mike talks about:
• The three elements of breakthrough startup ideas
• Why you need to both think and act differently
• How to avoid the “comparison trap” and “conformity trap”
• The importance of movements, storytelling, and healthy disagreeableness in startup success
• How to apply pattern-breaking principles within large companies
• Mike’s one piece of advice for founders
• Much more
Pre-order Mike’s book here and get a second signed copy for free. Limited copies are available, so order ASAP: patternbreakers.com/lenny.
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-find-a-great-startup-idea-mike-maples-jr
—
Where to find Mike Maples, Jr.:
• X: https://x.com/m2jr
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maples/
• Substack: https://greatness.substack.com/
• Website: https://www.floodgate.com/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Mike’s background
(03:10) The inspiration behind Pattern Breakers
(08:09) Uncovering startup insights
(11:37) A quick summary of Pattern Breakers
(13:52) Coming up with an idea
(15:30) Inflections
(17:09) Examples of inflections
(28:10) Insights
(36:58) The power of surprises
(47:36) Founder-future fit
(55:33) Advice for aspiring founders
(56:41) Living in the future: valid opinions
(55:34) Case study: Maddie Hall and Living Carbon
(58:40) Identifying lighthouse customers
(01:00:53) The importance of desperation in customer needs
(01:03:57) Creating movements and storytelling
(01:24:22) The role of disagreeableness in startups
(01:34:42) Applying these principles within a company
(01:40:43) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future: https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Breakers-Start-Ups-Change-Future/dp/1541704355
• Justin.tv: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin.tv
• Airbnb’s CEO says a $40 cereal box changed the course of the multibillion-dollar company: https://fortune.com/2023/04/19/airbnb-ceo-cereal-box-investors-changed-everything-billion-dollar-company/
• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach
• The Unconventional Exit: How Justin Kan Sold His First Startup on eBay: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/the-unconventional-exit-how-justin-kan-sold-his-first-startup-on-ebay-4d705afe1354
• Kyle Vogt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylevogt/
• The State of Telehealth Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9035352/
• The Craigslist Killers: https://www.gq.com/story/craigslist-killers
• The social radar: Y Combinator’s secret weapon | Jessica Livingston (co-founder of Y Combinator, author, podcast host): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-social-radar-jessica-livingston
• Michael Seibel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwseibel/
• The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions ... and Created Plenty of Controversy: https://www.amazon.com/Airbnb-Story-Ordinary-Disrupted-Controversy/dp/0544952669
• Scott Cook: https://www.forbes.com/profile/scott-cook/
• Chegg: https://www.chegg.com/
• Aayush Phumbhra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aayush/
• Osman Rashid on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osmanrashid/
• Okta: https://www.okta.com/
• The Man Who Makes the Future: Wired Icon Marc Andreessen: https://www.wired.com/2012/04/ff-andreessen/
• Peter Ludwig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwludwig/
• Qasar Younis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qasar/
• Paul Allen’s website: https://paulallen.com/
• Louis Pasteur quote: https://www.forbes.com/quotes/6145/
• What was Atrium and why did it fail? https://www.failory.com/cemetery/atrium
• Patrick Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/
• Drew Houston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston/
• William Gibson’s quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-here-it-s-just-not-evenly
• Maddie Hall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddie-hall-76293135/
• Living Carbon: https://www.livingcarbon.com
• Zenefits (now Trinet): https://connect.trinet.com/
• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama
• Steve Wozniak on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wozniaksteve/
• Horsley Bridge Partners: https://www.horsleybridge.com/
• David Swensen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Swensen
• Judith Elsea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judithelsea/
• 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy: https://www.amazon.com/7-Powers-Foundations-Business-Strategy/dp/0998116319
• Business strategy with Hamilton Helmer (author of 7 Powers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/business-strategy-with-hamilton-helmer
• Lyft’s Focus on Community and the Story Behind the Pink Mustache: https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/17/lyfts-focus-on-community-and-the-story-behind-the-pink-mustache/
• Logan Green on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/logangreen/
• John Zimmer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzimmer11/
• Storytelling with Nancy Duarte: How to craft compelling presentations and tell a story that sticks: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/storytelling-with-nancy-duarte-how
• Steve Jobs Introducing the iPhone at MacWorld 2007: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7qPAY9JqE4
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull: https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Livingston-Seagull-Richard-Bach/dp/0743278909
• The paths to power: How to grow your influence and advance your career | Jeffrey Pfeffer (author of 7 Rules of Power, professor at Stanford GSB): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-paths-to-power-jeffrey-pfeffer
• Robin Roberts on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-roberts-393a934b/
• Skunkworks: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/business-areas/aeronautics/skunkworks.html
• Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/vision-conviction-hype-mihika-kapoor
• Hard-won lessons building 0 to 1 inside Atlassian | Tanguy Crusson (Head of Jira Product Discovery): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-0-to-1-inside-atlassian-tanguy-crusson
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/
• Vinod Khosla: https://www.khoslaventures.com/team/vinod-khosla/
• Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing: https://www.amazon.com/Top-Five-Regrets-Dying-Transformed-ebook/dp/B07KNRLY1L
• Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty: https://www.amazon.com/Chase-Chance-Creativity-Lucky-Novelty/dp/0262511355
• Clay Christensen’s books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Clayton-M.-Christensen/author/B000APPD3Y
• Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform: https://www.amazon.com/Resonate-Present-Stories-Transform-Audiences/dp/0470632011
• Ferrari on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Ferrari-Adam-Driver/dp/B0CNDBN672
• Montblanc fountain pens: https://www.montblanc.com/en-us
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show✓Claim
Show Notes:
(0:00) Audio issue
(0:51) Introduction
(3:40) Deals are long-term relationships
(6:02) Facebook-WhatsApp acquisition story
(12:04) The most important part of deal-making
(16:44) Don’t come off as desperate
(19:35) Maintaining momentum during a deal
(25:53) Know everything about the person you’re dealing with
(33:37) How we closed our London home
(37:54) Mistakes we often see
(44:40) Managing emotions while deal-making
(50:19) What to do if the deal falls through
Other episodes you might enjoy:
EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America
EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster
EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley
EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from reading How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty.
Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event
"Learning from history is a form of leverage." — Charlie Munger.
Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast.
Get access to Founders Notes here.
You can also ask SAGE (the Founders Notes AI assistant) any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you.
A few questions I've asked SAGE recently:
What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs?
Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas)
How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent?
What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors?
Get access to Founders Notes here.
(2:00) My father was a self-made man who had known extreme poverty in his youth and had a practically limitless capacity for hard work.
(6:00) I acted as my own geologist, legal advisor, drilling superintendent, explosives expert, roughneck and roustabout.
(8:00) Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #212)
(12:00) Control as much of your business as possible. You don’t want to have to worry about what is going on in the other guy’s shop.
(20:00) Optimism is a moral duty. Pessimism aborts opportunity.
(21:00) I studied the lives of great men and women. And I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.
(22:00) 98 percent of our attention was devoted to the task at hand. We are believers in Carlyle's Prescription, that the job a man is to do is the job at hand and not see what lies dimly in the distance. — Charlie Munger
(27:00) Entrepreneurs want to create their own security.
(34:00) Example is the best means to instruct or inspire others.
(37:00) Long orders, which require much time to prepare, to read and to understand are the enemies of speed. Napoleon could issue orders of few sentences which clearly expressed his intentions and required little time to issue and to understand.
(38:00) A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Peter Bevelin. (Founders #202)
(41:00) Two principles he repeats:
Be where the work is happening.
Get rid of bureaucracy.
(43:00) Years ago, businessmen automatically kept administrative overhead to an absolute minimum. The present day trend is in exactly the opposite direction. The modern business mania is to build greater and ever greater paper shuffling empires.
(44:00) Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going!by Les Schwab (Founders #330)
(46:00) The primary function of management is to obtain results through people.
(50:00) the truly great leader views reverses, calmly and coolly. He is fully aware that they are bound to occur occasionally and he refuses to be unnerved by them.
(51:00) There is always something wrong everywhere.
(51:00) Don't interrupt the compounding. It’s all about the long term. You should keep a fortress of cash, reinvest in your business, and use debt sparingly. Doing so will help you survive to reap the long-term benefits of your business.
(54:00) You’ll go much farther if you stop trying to look and act and think like everyone else.
(55:00) The line that divides majority opinion from mass hysteria is often so fine as to be virtually invisible.
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Key Takeaways * Be non-consensus, but right: Great startups identify something that is missing in the future that no one else realizes is missing * Figure out what you want that you can’t already get, then build it * It is important for the founders of a company to truly want the thing that they are creating * You must be willing to have thoughts and say things that cause investors to say, “that is the dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard” * You can succeed with a consensus idea if you are willing to relentlessly out-execute everyone else, but it is going to be much harder than succeeding with a non-consensus idea * Seek honest feedback from users and consumers instead of seeking validation from them * Have a broad hypothesis, but be open to the non-obvious thing when it presents itself or when you discover it * Winning is a mindset that pervades all else * Err on the side of over-persistence; people tend to give up before they really give something a shot
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Emmett Shear was a gamer long before he helped define one of the most important new media companies at the intersection of gaming, media, and the creator economy. What can we learn from his success as a founder? (hint: it has something to do with truly listening to users.) Check out the new Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.comfor even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike. You can also pre-orderMike's new book Pattern Breakers wherever you buy books.
Invest Like the Best
Key Takeaways * The question to consider: Does AI help the strong get stronger, or does AI allow for new businesses to emerge and disrupt the incumbents? * The top five technology companies are spending 2x on capital expenditure than the top five energy companies * Companies should strive to increase the consumer’s willingness to pay * “Regulation is the friend of the incumbent.” – Bill Gurley * Venture capital is one of the few asset classes that has high persistence: the past winners tend to be future winners * Develop a framework that allows you to benefit from the group dynamics of pattern recognition, but that does not tie you to one specific type of pattern * Instead of nit-picking how an investment may fail, make the primary focus of the discussion: “How big could this be?” * Investors must capture the extreme events if they wish to outperform * The sharpest minds desire to know where they are wrong about something
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
My guests today are Bill Gurley and Michael Mauboussin. Bill is a General Partner at Benchmark, and Michael is the Head of Consilient Research for Counterpoint Global. While they are longtime friends with one another, I’d never heard them appear somewhere together so it was a real treat to be able to do this with the two of them. They are two of the leading minds in their fields, and we combined their decades of expertise into one wide-ranging conversation. We discuss the different kinds of increasing returns to scale, the issue of regulatory capture, AI, and hardware. Please enjoy this great conversation with Bill Gurley and Michael Mauboussin.
Listen to Founders Podcast
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the only investment research platform built for the investor. With traditional research vendors, the diligence process is slow, fragmented, and expensive. That leaves investors competing on how well they can aggregate data — not on their unique ability to analyze insights and make great investment decisions. Tegus offers an end-to-end platform with all the data you need to get up to speed on a company or market: up-to-the-minute financials, customizable models, management and culture checks, and, of course, our vast and growing library of expert call transcripts. Tegus is changing the world of expert research. Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:03:38) Dissecting the Dynamics of AI, LLMs, and Market Disruption
(00:05:06) The World of AI Investments and Market Trends
(00:08:13) Integration of New Technologies in Business
(00:15:27) The Power of Increasing Returns and Strategic Investments
(00:22:26) Unpacking the Role of Intangibles in Scaling and Innovation
(00:28:54) Transformative Potential of Open Source and Idea Recombination
(00:34:42) The Complex Landscape of Regulation and Innovation
(00:43:17) Today’s Venture Capital Ecosystem
(00:47:08) Impact of Fewer IPOs and Private Market Dynamics
(00:50:38) Capital Allocation in Zero Interest Rate Environments
(00:54:44) The Evolution of Venture Capital and High-Stakes Investment Games
(00:57:21) Exploring New Frontiers: AI, Energy, and Physical World Innovations
(01:01:14) The Power of Learning by Doing
(01:17:49) Working with Genius
(01:26:47) The Value of Teaching, Writing, and Sharing Knowledge
My First Million
Key Takeaways * You must have “one reason” to found a start-up; if you have five or six reasons to start it, then you have not yet found the single, very strong reason * Hire for raw IQ and hard work, then constantly iterate on solving the single problem at hand * Using your mind to its fullest capacity is the ultimate pleasure * The most successful people in the world are extremely focused and allow their focused efforts to compound over time * It is easy to identify conceptual gaps; developing the path toward closing that gap is the challenging part * You must figure out 1) what you are passionate about and 2) what you are good at * How you invest your time is more important than how you invest your capital, if wealth creation is your goal
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 578: Shaan Puri ( https://twitter.com/ShaanVP ) sits down with Joe Lonsdale ( https://twitter.com/JTLonsdale ) to talk about how he leveraged one internship at PayPal into one billion dollar success after another.
Want to see Sam and Shaan’s smiling faces? Head to the MFM YouTube Channel and subscribe - http://tinyurl.com/5n7ftsy5
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Show Notes:
(0:00) The One Reason strategy
(3:18) Learning Global Macro Finance from Peter Thiel
(5:35) Taking multi-million dollar bets at 4:30am
(8:43) Hire for raw IQ over expertise
(10:33) Nurturing employees into unicorn founders
(12:24) Solving hard problems with Addepar
(13:53) Always “Being on”
(15:32) How to spot opportunities for new businesses
(21:10) How Epirus landed a military defense contract
(27:09) Getting hits in hard domains
(28:24) Business Idea: AI-powered Estate Planning
(29:19) Business Idea: Business Process Outsourcing for local government
(30:58) Big swings vs. base hits
(31:49) Idea vs. execution
(32:38) Focus vs. diversity of thought/attention
(33:33) Insights from Elon’s inner circle
(35:36) Joe Lonsdale’s unfair advantages
(38:48) How to invest your time to make your first $1M
(40:40) Working on an A+ problem as an intern at PayPal
(43:15) Be within 2 standard deviations of top talent
(44:14) Early days at Palantir
(46:56) Building a top engineering culture
(48:31) Borrowing trust as 21-year old defense contractor
(52:22) Peter Thiel’s biggest contrarian bet
—
Links:
• Joe's Twitter - https://twitter.com/JTLonsdale
• Joe's blog - https://blog.joelonsdale.com/
• Addepar - https://addepar.com/
• Palantir - https://www.palantir.com/
• Epirus- https://www.epirusinc.com/
• OpenGov - https://opengov.com/
• Prologis - https://www.prologis.com/
• Lessons from Peter Thiel - https://joelonsdale.com/lessons-peter-thiel/
—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd
—
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
—
Other episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
• #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways * Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from reading The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes
Follow Founders Podcast on YouTube
(1:00) This is a 100 page biography of the human species
(1:00) The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant (Full Set)
(2:30) Generations of men establish a growing mastery over the earth, but they are destined to become fossils in its soil.
(4:00) Ruthlessly prioritize how you spend your time.
(4:00) The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows.
(4:30) ALL OF THE NAPOLEON EPISODES:
Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294)
The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Wordsedited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)
Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza. (Founders #337)
(8:00) Our job is to make our companies and ourselves better equipped to meet the test of survival.
(11:30) Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group.
(12:30) The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191)
(14:30) In the end, superior ability has its way.
(16:30) Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed.
(19:00) The imitative majority follows the innovating minority and this follows the originative individual, in adapting new responses to the demands of environment or survival.
(20:00) If you can identify an enduring human need you can build a business around that.
(21:00) In every age men have been dishonest and governments have been corrupt.
(25:00) Survival at all costs: Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under.
(25:00) Victory in our industry is spelled survival. — Steve Jobs
(25:00) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. (Founders #224)
(26:00) By being so cautious in respect to leverage and having loads of liquidity, we will be equipped both financially and emotionally to play offense while others scramble for survival. — The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham (Founders #227)
(27:00) History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.
(31:00) The Iron Law of Oligarchy
(32:00) Every advance in the complexity of the economy puts an added premium upon superior ability.
(33:00) The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. (Founders #215)
(34:00) Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman
(37:00) All technological advances will have to be written off as merely new means of achieving old ends
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Deep Questions with Cal Newport✓Claim
One of the most common strategies for achieving a powerful ideal lifestyle vision is to leverage entrepreneurial activities to find a stable source of income that allows autonomy and flexibility. To help understand how to succeed in such ventures, Cal interviews the entrepreneur and author Noah Kagan about his new book, "The Million Dollar Weekend." Recording on the road as part of his book tour for "Slow Productivity," Cal also shares some lessons about what he's been observing.
Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo
Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia
INTERVIEW: Marketing guru Noah Kagan [11:06]
Links:
Use this link to preorder a signed copy of “Slow Productivity”:
peoplesbooktakoma.com/preorder-slow-productivity/
FREE download excerpt and 2 Bonuses for “Slow Productivity”:
calnewport.com/slow
Thanks to our Sponsors:
This show is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at
betterhelp.com/deepquestions
mauinuivenison.com/deepquestions
zocdoc.com/deep
expressvpn.com/deep
Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Kieron Rees for slow productivity music, and Mark Miles for mastering.
LaBossiere Podcast
Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder, President and Chairman of Varda Space Industries, a company building spacecraft to manufacture materials in microgravity that are difficult or impossible to produce on Earth— starting with pharmaceuticals. He’s also a Partner at Founders Fund.
Previously, he was a principal at Khosla Ventures, head of growth at Teespring, and founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale. Delian is Bulgarian, attended MIT, and likes to ski and play soccer.
0:00 - Intro3:14 - How Does Innovation Happen?6:23 - Varda and the No Science Allowed Rule7:52 - A Primer on Solid State Microgravity Manufacturing18:25 - Space Industrialization, Trading Posts, and the Chinese and Portuguese Navies21:13 - Economic Incentives and Future Business Models in Space24:24 - SpaceX and The Costs of Mass to Orbit27:45 - Demand for Space Manufacturing and Varda at Scale33:44 - Manufacturing, Servicing, Machining, and Future Markets for Space36:42 - Incubating Companies40:33 - When Would Varda Have Been Started Otherwise?42:19 - The Hollywood Model of Startups45:20 - Future of Incubations47:47 - Media’s Role in Technology50:39 - What Media Inspired Varda’s Founding?52:38 - Talent, Culture, and Cementing Company Trajectory53:57 - Narratives and Talent Recruitment55:28 - Traits Delian Looks for in Founders57:38 - The ‘Why Now’ When Investing1:00:08 - Bring Non-Consensus and Right1:02:53 - Is Varda Consensus Yet?1:03:24 - Identifying Non-Consensus Opportunities1:05:12 - Lessons from Founding and Investing1:07:40 - What Skill Do You Wish You’d Developed Earlier?1:10:11 - Immigrant Mentality1:11:24 - Less Obvious Reasons for Success1:12:55 - On Speed1:14:23 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?
🎙️More Episodes🎙️YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFtApple: https://apple.co/478Be6MSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE
📲Socials📲
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adlabossiere
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/
The Network State Podcast✓Claim
Key Takeaways * The United States of America is the greatest startup in world history * As an entrepreneur, your social role is to make profits, but you also need to ensure that socialists do not take over your country * “Every founder starts as lead engineer and ends up as Chief Psychologist.” – Balaji * There is light in the world and there is darkness; accelerationism want light and the decels want darkness * A world of degrowth is a world that is full of war; when the pie is forced to be shrunk, the people are forced to fight because there are less resources available * Academics do not understand that what matters is how systems and incentives work * We must take the frameworks that work in the entrepreneurial world and apply them to other things * Make America States Again * The darkest of times reveal who is on the side of darkness and who is on the side of the light
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Joe Lonsdale is one of the most prominent investors in technology. He's the co-founder of Palantir, 8VC, Addepar, and the Cicero Institute — and one of Balaji's longtime friends. We have fun talking about education, longevity, space, and the little matter of completely reforming all governments with the internet.OUTLINE:00:00 - How Silicon Valley got expensive09:18 - Tech founders as philosophers17:39 - 100% Democracy and .01% Democracy28:51 - Internet Values vs Western Values36:05 - How Academics Become Capitalists46:40 - Red States, Purple States, Foreign States for AI58:11 - Thoughts on Space, Robotics, Longevity
VIDEO
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ny93ZjlR93gSOCIALhttps://ciceroinstitute.orghttps://www.8vc.comhttps://thenetworkstate.com/podcasthttps://twitter.com/JTLonsdalehttps://twitter.com/balajis
The Network State Podcast✓Claim
Key Takeaways * Blockchains provide the societal benefits of protocol networks but with the competitive advantages of corporate networks * “Come for the tool, stay for the network.” – Chris Dixon * If every command line tool becomes an app, does every protocol become a blockchain? * Distribution was so scarce in the early days of the internet that Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) killed for it * The Web3 version of a given Web2 app adds balances and the ability to cryptographically sign messages and transactions * Many tech companies suffer from Stockholm Syndrome; they have become accustomed to the App Store taking a significant portion of their revenue * Web3 combines the best of both worlds of Web1 and Web2 * Web3 is as structured as the Web2-style databases but as open as a Web1-style web * Crypto is a counter-force to many of the things that AI is doing * Blockchains enable property rights in the digital space * “Technology changes microeconomic leverage.” – Balaji
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Read Write Own (readwriteown.com) is a new book by Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and founder of the largest crypto fund in the world. It's an important work that is simultaneously the best crypto tutorial for newcomers and an accessible reference for experts. Balaji and Chris are long-time friends and worked together at a16z for years. Here they discuss Read Write Own and the state of crypto in 2024.OUTLINE00:20 - Chris Introduces Read Write Own 05:04 - Why Books Are Harder than Essays11:40 - Overview of Read Write Own18:01 - The 2000s: Open RSS vs Proprietary Social25:32 - Every Protocol Now Gets Global State31:42 - Web3 Versions of Web2 Apps35:27 - Proprietary Networks Are Locking Down38:47 - Crypto Subsidizes Creatives42:53 - Virtual Goods and Online Status44:13 - Own Usernames Like Domain Names47:55 - What Digital Ownership Means48:52 - Tech Giants' Power and User Leverage.58:28 - Collaborative Storytelling01:02:06 - Digital Identity with Web301:09:36 - Conclusion
VIDEO
YouTube: https://youtu.be/_nIQztk5KWYSOCIALhttps://readwriteown.comhttps://thenetworkstate.com/podcasthttps://twitter.com/cdixonhttps://twitter.com/balajis
A16z Podcast
Key Takeaways * Universities still matter, especially the really good ones; the decisions made at elite universities end up influencing the future of the country * The bundling of the university is evidence that it has evolved; however, it is important for university leaders to continually evaluate that bundle to ensure that it makes sense * The main credentialing of the college degree is in two parts: the fact that you were admitted and the fact that you graduated * The admissions process is an IQ test and the graduation process is a conscientiousness test * For many degrees, the degree is worth less than the wage that it will command in the free market * University tuition rates have increased 2-3x more than the general inflation rate; if current trends continue, the cost of a four-year education at an elite university will cost $1M * Increasingly, the policy recommendations that come out of the think tank component of universities are sharply partisan and extreme * Stanford and Yale have more administrative staff than they have students! * Universities are highly dependent on their current model continuing indefinitely; they are not as fiscally stable as they may seem from the outside perspective * In 2015, 57% of American voters had a positive view of American universities; in 2023, that number fell to 36% * Entrepreneurial opportunities tend to emerge when an industry experiences systemic shifts
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this one-on-one conversation, Marc and Ben tackle the university system – what has certainly been a hot topic that’s been dominating the news over the past few months. As Marc states at the top of the episode, universities matter tremendously to our world, but they’re currently in a state of crisis.
Together, Ben and Marc take a “structural” look at higher education, delving deep into the twelve functions of the modern university. They also unpack the numerous challenges that universities face today – student debt and the replication crisis, among them.
They also discuss topics including DEI, student athlete admissions, accreditation, inflation, and much more.
As colleges face an existential threat that could have long lasting repercussions, how can we find ways to improve these institutions, while being open to new entrepreneurial opportunities in education?
Check out the Ben and Marc show: https://link.chtbl.com/benandmarc
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Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin✓Claim
Key Takeaways * The more technology and capitalism we get, the better things are going to get * Fundamentally, whether or not a startup succeeds depends on whether it is building a product that people want * Great people want to be around other great people; most companies are too tolerant of mediocrity * In the long run, even the most innovative companies eventually become boring * Tall Poppy Syndrome: Due to humanity’s tribal inclinations, the Tall Poppy – the person trying to do something new – tends to get cut * When something in tech is successful, it tends to change the status structures and hierarchies of society * The Law of Crappy People: The quality of any level in the company will degrade to the worst person at that level * “More companies die of indigestion than of starvation.” – Marc Andreessen * The best companies can think in the long term despite the pressures to prioritize the short-term * New things in the world are not going to show up predictably * By 2030 or 2035, you will be able to have the equivalent of 1,000 AI programmers writing code for you * Most people who are opposed to technological change are not opposed to the given technology but are opposed to how that technology may diminish their status and power
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Marc Andreessen is a prominent entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer best known for his key role in the development of the early internet. In the early 90s, Marc co-created Mosaic, a pioneering web browser, while a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In 1994, he founded Netscape, launching the popular Netscape Navigator browser. After selling Netscape to AOL in 1999 for $4.3 billion, Marc founded Opsware, selling it later for $1.6 billion. In 2009, he co-founded Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that has backed, among others, Airbnb, Facebook, Instagram, and SpaceX. Known for his insights into technology, Marc's early work with Mosaic and Netscape significantly shaped the internet's growth, and his ongoing contributions continue to influence the tech industry.
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Artificial Intelligence Podcast
Key Takeaways * The universe is biased towards certain futures; there is a natural direction where the whole system wants to go * If you believe the future will be better, and that you have the agency to make it happen, then you are increasing the likelihood of that better future happenings * “Technically, e/acc was started in a basement. I quit big tech, moved back in with my parents, sold my car, let go of my apartment, bought about $100K of GPUs, and I just started building.” – Guillaume Verdon * The goal of the e/acc movement is for the human techno-capital mimetic machine to become self-aware and to superstitiously engineer its growth * The core thesis of e/acc: The adaptation of the system is what has gotten us to this point in time; this process is good, and we should keep it going * The market is more efficient at achieving optimums than are heavy-handed regulations, which tend to be subversive and written by the incumbents * Any centralized power structure becomes a target for those who want to co-opt it * A system that maintains dynamism and adaptability avoids tyranny * The way to a good future is to shape adversarial equilibria between the various AI players * Whatever configuration of matter or information leads to maximal growth is where humans and AI will converge; we can either align ourselves with this trajectory or get left behind by trying to decelerate * Continuing to climb up the Kardashev scale is the great challenge of our time
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Guillaume Verdon (aka Beff Jezos on Twitter) is a physicist, quantum computing researcher, and founder of e/acc (effective accelerationism) movement. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/guillaume-verdon-transcript
EPISODE LINKS:
Guillaume Verdon Twitter: https://twitter.com/GillVerd
Beff Jezos Twitter: https://twitter.com/BasedBeffJezos
Extropic: https://extropic.ai/
E/acc Blog: https://effectiveaccelerationism.substack.com/
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OUTLINE:
Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(09:18) - Beff Jezos
(19:16) - Thermodynamics
(25:31) - Doxxing
(35:25) - Anonymous bots
(42:53) - Power
(45:24) - AI dangers
(48:56) - Building AGI
(57:09) - Merging with AI
(1:04:51) - p(doom)
(1:20:18) - Quantum machine learning
(1:33:36) - Quantum computer
(1:42:10) - Aliens
(1:46:59) - Quantum gravity
(1:52:20) - Kardashev scale
(1:54:12) - Effective accelerationism (e/acc)
(2:04:42) - Humor and memes
(2:07:48) - Jeff Bezos
(2:14:20) - Elon Musk
(2:20:50) - Extropic
(2:29:26) - Singularity and AGI
(2:33:24) - AI doomers
(2:34:49) - Effective altruism
(2:41:18) - Day in the life
(2:47:45) - Identity
(2:50:35) - Advice for young people
(2:52:37) - Mortality
(2:56:20) - Meaning of life
My First Million
Key Takeaways * We are in a new era of marketing; entertainment is being built around the product * Focus is a superpower * Having the optimal mix of optimism and pessimism is key to business success * “You can’t tell kids to follow their dreams when their dreams suck.” – Palmer Luckey * Do not wait for your current thing to get bad before choosing to work on something else * People who do one thing and take it very seriously win over the long-term
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 531: Shaan Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (https://twitter.com/theSamParr) bring you…..The 2023 Milly Awards. Actors have the Oscars, musicians have the Grammy’s and what do business people have? They have The Milly Awards.
No more small boy spreadsheets, build your business on the free HubSpot CRM: https://mfmpod.link/hrd
—
Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(2:30) Favorite MFM Guests of the Year
(10:30) Billies of the Year
(18:00) Biggest Change for 2024
(34:00) Person You'd Bet It All On
(40:30) Best Business for Someone Else to Do
—
Links:
• Kevin Ryan’s episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cLWUCE02KE
• Sarah Moore’s episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF6zvTXimxY
• Connor Price’s episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4KFqL3z2fg
• Palmer Luckey’s episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBeosjr7PyY
• Jesse Itzler episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff1z3GUcfO8
—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Try Shepherd Out - https://www.supportshepherd.com/
• Shaan's Personal Assistant System - http://shaanpuri.com/remoteassistant
• Power Writing Course - https://maven.com/generalist/writing
• Small Boy Newsletter - https://smallboy.co/
• Daily Newsletter - https://www.shaanpuri.com/
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
—
Other episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
• #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways * Life is hard for the man who thinks he can take a shortcut * Once you become complacent, it is all over * You might not be smarter than everyone else, but youcan know more about something than everyone else * Get out of your office and help the customers * Appeal to interest, not to reason * Employees are inherently self-interested; ensure that the company’s incentive structure aligns with this reality * Never take advantage of a customer or employee, but take every advantage you can over the competition * “Whatever you do, you must do it with gusto. You must do it in volume – it is a case of repeat, repeat, repeat.” – Les Schwab
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from rereading Les Schwab Pride In Performance: Keep It Going! by Les Schwab.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes
(8:00) I didn't know how to ride a bike. We never had one. All the other young kids delivered newspapers on a bike.
He's got no money. He doesn't have a bike. So he ran his routes for two months in order to get enough money to buy his first bike. He’d run nine or 10 miles a day.
(8:00) I was too proud to complain.
(10:00) For a poor boy, money was much more important than pride.
(10:00) Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel by Sam Zell. (Founders #269)
(13:00) I was young. I was cocky. But the same cockiness helped me a lot in going through life.
(15:00) The very first sentence describing his very first day in business is mind blowing: I had never fixed a flat tire in my life.
(15:00) the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger (Founders #329)
(29:00) Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America's Richest Man by Vance H. Trimble (Founders #150)
(35:00) I always knew that if we fixed all the flat tires in town, we'd have all the tire business in town.
(40:00) If we become complacent, then brother, it's all over with.
(52:00) Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc (Founders #293)
(56:00) If you’re not serving the customer, or supporting the folks who do, we don’t need you. —Sam Walton
(1:00:00) The company paid low wages and had a lower overhead. The flaw was they didn’t get —with the low pay— near the quality of employees we had.
(1:01:00) Life is hard for the man who thinks he can take a shortcut.
(1:06:00) Decision making should always be made at the lowest possible level.
(1:08:00) Whatever you do, you must do it with gusto, you must do it in volume. It is a case of repeat, repeat, repeat.
(1:08:00) Charlie Munger analyzes why Les Schwab was successful.
(1:11:00) Extreme success is likely to be caused by some combination of the following factors:
1 Extreme maximization or minimization of one or two variables. Think Costco.
2 Adding success factors so that a bigger combination drives success, often in nonlinear fashion, as one is reminded by the concept of breakpoint and the concept of critical mass in physics. Often, results are not linear. You get a little bit more mass and you get a lollapalooza result. And, of course, I've been searching for lollapalooza results all my life, so I'm very interested in models that explain their occurrence.
3 An extreme of good performance over many factors. Example, Toyota or Les Schwab.
4 Catching and riding some sort of big wave. Example, Oracle.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways * “Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth.” – Charlie Munger * Genius has the fewest moving parts * “Good ideas are rare. Bet heavily when you find them.” – Charlie Munger * Understand the power of inversion; get what you want by avoiding what you do not want * Wisdom is prevention: wise people don’t solve problems, they avoid them * If you play games in which other people have an edge, and you do not, you are going to lose * Do not silo your educational pursuits; study different disciplines and make connections between them * Learn how to ignore the examples of others when they are wrong * Life will have terrible blows; you must not engage in self-pity and be able to pick yourself back up * “The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more.” – Charlie Munger
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from reading the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger.
Listen to this incredible conversation between Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes
(2:00) The practical wisdom of Poor Charlie's Almanack, this ode to curiosity, generosity, and virtue will similarly compound at successive generations of entrepreneurial readers extend his lessons to their own circumstances.
(12:00) Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired. — Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252)
(22:00) Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth.
(29:00) Charlie is content to trust his own judgment when it runs counter to the wisdom of the herd.
(31:00) Animated: Charlie Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgement
(31:30) Aim for durability. Durability has always been a first rate virtue in Charlie’s eyes.
(32:00) Charlie only focuses on great businesses and great businesses have moats.
(33:00) Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin. (Founders #183)
(42:00) You can flourish in a niche: People who specialize in the business world —and get very good because they specialize— frequently find good economics that they wouldn't get any other way.
(45:00) Being so well known has advantages of scale. This is what you might call an informational advantage. It increases social proof.
(46:30) Business Breakdowns episode on Coca Cola
(49:00) Occasionally scaling down and intensifying gives you a big advantage. (You can find great profit margins this way)
(50:00) Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234)
(51:00) Scale and fanaticism combined is very powerful. (Think Sam Walton)
(57:00) I also believed then, as I do now after more than fifty years as a money manager, that the surest way to get rich is to play only those games or make those investments where I have an edge. — A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #222)
(1:08:00) The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more.
(1:14:00) Optimism is a moral duty. — Edwin Land
(1:17:00) You want to maximize the playing time of your top players.
(1:17:00) The game of competitive life often requires maximizing the experience of the people who have the most aptitude and the most determination as learning machines.
(1:22:00) The most important rule in management is get the incentives right.
(1:25:00) Never, ever think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
Founders✓Claim
What I learned from reading Ted Turner's Autobiography.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes
Listen to Art of Investing #4 David Senra Lessons from the Founder Historian.
(9:00) My net worth dropped by about 67 million per week, or nearly 10 million per day, every day for two and a half years.
(10:00) Once to drive home a point about the difficulties of attracting good loyal employees he told me: Jesus only had to pick 12 disciples and even one of those didn't turn out well.
(10:00) Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise .
(11:00) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Founders #141)
(13:30) The problem isn't getting rich, it's staying sane. — Charlie Munger
(17:00) I learned a lesson that would stick with me throughout my career. When the chips are down in the pressure's on it's amazing to how creative people can be.
(20:00) My father always maintained many of the different billboard businesses as separate legal entities. (He didn’t want to dilute ownership of his main company and separate entities allowed for periodic reorganization to offset capital gains liabilities.
(20:30) When you own an asset your job is to maximize its value.
(23:00) He combines the assets he has in a way his competitors can not.
(24:00) The more I learned about TV stations the more I realized that ours was a disaster. Of the 35 people who were on the payroll when we took over only two were still there a year later —the custodian and the receptionist.
(25:00) Ted Turner believed in the power of television more than almost anybody else.
(30:30) My dad taught me early on that longterm relationships with your customers and partners are very important. You never know how the guy who you're friendly with today might be able to help you tomorrow.
(31:00) Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux. (Founders #268)
(32:00) What other people in his industry sees as a threat, Ted sees as an opportunity.
(37:00) These issues were all unchartered territory. All of us, the regulators, the broadcasters, the program suppliers and the leagues were sorting things out on the fly. I was working as hard as I could. I'd go all out during the day, working on sales, distribution, regulatory issues, whatever the battle happened to be, and I'd worked right up until it was time to fall asleep. I had a pull down Murphy bed in my office and I would literally work until the point of total exhaustion. Then I'd put my head on the pillow at night worried about problems. Then I'd wake up and spend the entire next day trying to solve them.
(44:00) One of the most important ideas in the book is the power of Belief: Clearly the company for whom the economics of 24 hour news would have made the most sense with a big three broadcasters. They already had most of what was needed: studios, bureaus, reporters, anchors. They had everything but a belief in cable.
(45:00) I'm going to be a billionaire. And here's why. I'm going to put this station up on a satellite and I'm going to get a news thing going. Sports, movies and news, 24 hours a day, all over the world. He said this in 1976.
(46:00) Henry Ford didn't need focus groups to tell him that people would prefer inexpensive, dependable automobiles over horses. Alexander Graham Bell never stopped to worry about whether people would prefer speaking to each other on a phone.
(49:00) I'm always convinced that one of the reasons that I've been successful is that I've almost always competed against people who were bigger and stronger, but who had less commitment and desire than I did. For Turner Broadcasting this dispute meant everything. We had to win.
(52:00) Ted’s Superstation idea is printing money: $177 million in revenue and $66 million in profit. This is in the 1980s!
(53:00) It would be 13 years before we faced another 24 hour news channel.
(57:00) He has a keen understanding of how to combine assets to create an advantage that no one else has.
(58:00) The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel. (Founders #65)
(58:00) Genius has the fewest moving parts. Never get into deals that are too complicated.
Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by investing in a subscription to Founders Notes
“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
"Age of Miracles"
Key Takeaways * More energy means more humanity flourishing * Nuclear fission is the cleanest and safest form of energy that we have * As of 2022, nuclear energy accounts for 20% of the electric grid * Energy is a positive-sum game; the more we have, the better we do! * A shift is occurring in the United States: In 2023, 57% of Americans say they favor more nuclear power plants to generate electricity in the country, up from 43% who said the same in 2020 * What if you were told the nuclear industry was the only industry that managed its toxic waste… wouldn’t you be impressed? * All of the nuclear waste that has been produced in the United States can fit inside of a football field, stacked 10 meters high * It is impossible to create nuclear weapons from nuclear fuel * Using more energy raises the floor and ceiling for humanity; it can bring the rest of the world up to the Western standard of living, and help power all of the futuristic technology that entrepreneurs will create * The amount of radiation that leaked out of the Three Mile Island incident was about the same amount of radiation that you would be exposed to getting a chest X-ray at the doctor – a negligible amount * The reaction to Fukushima was completely overblown: it is debated whether zero people or one person died from any sort of radiation at Fukushima * While nuclear fission has matured from a technological perspective, it has gotten bogged down from a political, cultural, economic, and regulatory perspective * Significant strides are being made in nuclear fusion; it actually might be less than 30 years away!
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Welcome to the first episode of the first season of “Age of Miracles”. This new show from Packy McCormick, investor and writer of the Not Boring newsletter, asks the question: how do we create a future of abundance?
This season, we’re exploring the future of energy – specifically, diving deep into nuclear energy, both fission and fusion. The world needs more energy, not less, argues Packy, and nuclear has been neglected as a clean, reliable source of energy for too long. Joining Packy as co-host this season is Julia DeWahl, who previously helped scale SpaceX’s Starlink and Opendoor and is now co-founder of micro-nuclear reactor startup Antares.
In this episode, Packy and Julia set the stage for the season. They start with how they each got nuke-pilled and how the global narrative on energy has shifted, following events like the war in Ukraine and growing inflation. Next, they bust the three most common myths about nuclear energy: it’s too unsafe, there’s too much nuclear waste, and nuclear energy = nuclear weapons. And then they set the stage for the real challenges we’ll tackle this season: the economics of nuclear power, regulation and the role of government, and the power of public perception.
If you’re curious about the future of energy, technology, or how to get out of a doomer loop and start working towards an abundant future, join us. An age of miracles is within reach — if we're willing to work for it.
Huge thank you to our sponsors:
Secureframe: the only compliance automation platform with AI capabilities that help customers speed up cloud remediation and security questionnaires. Get 20% off your first year of Secureframe by mentioning "Age of Miracles" during your free demo: https://secureframe.com/
Pilot.com: accounting, CFO, and tax services that are designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. To get 20% off your accounting bill for the first 6 months, go to https://pilot.com/packy
Clean Air Task Force
For the full list of resources referenced in this show: https://ageofmiracles.co/
Subscribe to Not Boring to get weekly doses of tech and business strategy, straight to your inbox: https://www.notboring.co/
Follow our hosts:
Packy McCormick on Twitter and LinkedIn
Julia DeWahl on Twitter and LinkedIn
Timestamps:
(00:00) Why the world needs more energy
(06:43) Preview of this season of Age of Miracles
(10:03) Let's talk nuclear fission
(19:15) Busting common nuclear myths: disasters, waste, and proliferation
(30:22) The 201 challenges with nuclear energy
(36:21) Could all the energy in 2050 just be fusion?
(45:23) Closing thoughts
This show is produced and distributed by Turpentine, a network of shows and other media properties.
Credits: Nancy Xu produced this season of Age of Miracles. Audio editor: Justin Golden. Video editor: Jake Salyers. Executive producers: Amelia Salyers, Packy McCormick, and Erik Torenberg.
"Age of Miracles"
Key Takeaways * Check Out the Age of Miracles Website
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What if we treated building nuclear more like a manufacturing challenge than a construction challenge? How could nuclear benefit from the tried-and-true methodologies of other large industrial industries like ship-building and oil and gas to make nuclear as cheap as solar and wind to produce?
In this episode – the first of two with leading nuclear fission startup founders – Packy and Julia talk to a new crop of nuclear entrepreneurs who are focused on manufacturing small modular reactors at scale. Drawing on best practices from very different industries like building reactors in shipyards or adapting the methods of offshore oil and gas rigs, these founders are taking a radically different approach from the incumbents in nuclear power plant construction. They’re focused on bringing the experience curves for building nuclear way down
But how will it actually work in practice? How do they balance pleasing regulators with innovating on new designs for more efficiency and manufacturability? How do they finance these businesses? What is the plan for connecting these power sources to the grid – or finding other “behind the meter” use cases? Tune in to go deep with the people turning theories about nuclear manufacturing into reality.
Thank you to this episode’s guests: Matt Slotkin, Nick Touran, Bret Kugelmass, Katherine Boyle, Josh Wolfe, and Jake DeWitte
Huge thank you to our sponsors:
Secureframe: the only compliance automation platform with AI capabilities that help customers speed up cloud remediation and security questionnaires. Get 20% off your first year of Secureframe by mentioning "Age of Miracles" during your free demo: https://secureframe.com/
Pilot.com: accounting, CFO, and tax services that are designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. To get 20% off your accounting bill for the first 6 months, go to https://pilot.com/packy
Clean Air Task Force
For the full list of resources referenced in this show: https://ageofmiracles.co/
Subscribe to Not Boring to get weekly doses of tech and business strategy, straight to your inbox: https://www.notboring.co/
Follow our hosts:
Packy McCormick on Twitter and LinkedIn
Julia DeWahl on Twitter and LinkedIn
Timestamps:
(00:00) Building a shipyard to manufacture nuclear reactors
(06:22) The experience curve
(11:00) Which industries can we steal ideas from?
(19:40) Blue Energy with Matt Slotkin
(25:10) Last Energy with Bret Kugelmass
(31:40) Good strategy, bad strategy
(38:41) Financing nuclear companies
(44:00) Oklo going public
(51:30) Recap
This show is produced and distributed by Turpentine, a network of shows and other media properties, where experts talk to experts about tech, business, culture, and more.
Credits: Nancy Xu produced this season of Age of Miracles. Audio editor: Justin Golden. Video editor: Jake Salyers. Executive producers: Amelia Salyers, Packy McCormick, and Erik Torenberg.
Invest Like the Best
Key Takeaways * Trust people when they tell you what their problems are, but don’t what they think the solution is * Go “back to the future” in your research; you will discover promising ideas that were discussed in the past but have since been discarded * Care more about how other people will evaluate the impact of your work, rather than just doing what feels good to you * If America is going to be a nation that rewards and promotes innovation, then it should be steering people in that direction * If you have unconventional ideas, you can create a large impact by forcing those ideas onto people and systems that exist in conventional institutions * Impactful businesses are rarely built on the idea of doing something a little better or a little cheaper * Problems emerged and have persisted in the national security industry as a result of a broken incentive structure * “We have learned a lesson: Don’t try to defend countries that aren’t willing to defend themselves.” – Palmer Luckey * Anduril will save Western civilization by saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year, as we make tens of billions of dollars a year * If AGI enables the capability to create dangerous things, then it will likely also enable the capability to defend against those dangerous things
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
My guest today is Palmer Luckey. Palmer is the founder of Defense company Anduril Industries, which makes next-generation military technology for the US and its allies. Since bringing the company to life in 2017, Palmer and Anduril have disrupted the established order in the Defense industry. Prior to Anduril, Palmer founded Oculus VR, a virtual reality business that he sold to Facebook for $2 billion.
Palmer is only in his early 30s, but he has already experienced more than most people will in a 40-year career. We talk about innovation, invention, differentiated thinking, and so much more. Please enjoy this great discussion with Palmer Luckey.
Listen to Patrick's Business Breakdown with Anduril CEO.
Listen to Founders Podcast
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors, and provider of Canalyst. Tired of calculating fully diluted shares outstanding? Access every publicly-reported data point and industry-specific KPI through their database of over 4,000 drivable global models hand-built by a team of sector-focused analysts, 35+ industry comp sheets, and Excel add-ins that let you use their industry-leading data in your own spreadsheets. Tegus’ models automatically update each quarter, including hard-to-calculate KPIs like stock-based compensation and organic growth rates, empowering investors to bypass the friction of sourcing, building, and updating models. Make efficiency your competitive advantage and take back your time today. As a listener, you can trial Canalyst by Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick.
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes:
(00:03:28) - The importance of synthetic long-chain hydrocarbon fuel
(00:09:37) - Ranking America's potential for innovation
(00:12:43) - Why there aren't more Thiel Fellowships
(00:14:56) - The principles that motivate and drive him
(00:18:21) - What it has been like working in the world of defense after the attack on Israel
(00:20:34) - Surprising lessons learned when building a large company
(00:24:02) - How to approach a new field initially
(00:28:45) - Meeting other out-of-the-box thinkers
(00:33:11) - Inventors working backward from existing systems versus forward from their ideals
(00:34:51) - The most pressing issue in national security
(00:41:01) - What matters most for America from a defense perspective
(00:43:58) - How to determine which problems to prioritize
(00:50:24) - Lessons learned from working with AI
(00:57:21) - How Apple is shaping the future of VR
(01:01:36) - Which videogame a prospective employee should excel at
(01:04:06) - Why Oculus was so successful in marketing
(01:11:13) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Palmer
Twenty Minute VC
Key Takeaways * The best talent wants to join a company not at the highest price, but at the best price with the right amount of capital for the right risk * There are three types of seed rounds: Discovery (sub $2m), Classic ($3m to $5m), and Megatron Jumbo ($5m+) * To win in today’s venture climate, you must get “ball control” in any round that is presented to you * Be as disciplined as possible concerning your entry price * “I think AI is the most transformational thing that we are ever going to see in a long time. However, I still think it’s fing hard to make money there.” – Ed Sim * While some people encourage investors to perpetually lean into their investments, sometimes it is best to lean out and strategically sell in increments over time * Ownership matters, but it must also be balanced out with valuations* * The hardest problems to solve often take longer to solve; businesses working on addressing these problems may appear “slow”, but they might be massive winners in the long run
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman.
In Today's Episode on Seed Rounds We Discuss: 1. The Three Types of Seed Round:
- What are the three different types of seed round today?
- Has seed ever been this competitive?
- Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing?
-
Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed?
-
Too Much Cash Will Kill You!
-
Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round?
- Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price?
- What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round?
-
What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed?
-
Is Growth Dead?
-
Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead?
- What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before?
-
How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months?
-
IPOs, AI and M&A:
-
What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again?
- Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia?
- Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero?
- Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months?
- How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian?
A16z Podcast
Key Takeaways * Capitalism and free markets are the machine that has lifted people out of poverty for the last 500 years * It is best to embrace, support, and accelerate technology as much as possible, and then deal with the issues as they arise * “I think the single biggest policy mistake of my lifetime was the decision in the 70s and 80s to essentially ban civilian nuclear power throughout the U.S. and throughout Europe as well.” – Marc Andreessen * It can take decades for the consequences of certain decisions to materialize * The digital technologies that most people worry about are actually the mostegalitarian technology that has ever been produced, even more so than running water and electricity * Incumbents frame new technologies as dangerous so that governments step in and effectively create sanctioned barriers to competition * A society built on the idea that love scales becomes an incredibly dark, dystopian, murderous place; when you take away the carrot, all you have is a stick * Humans are the ultimate resource: By having more of us, we will find better ways to solve existing problems * If the education industry were primarily market-based, competitive pressures would force universities to be good and to meet the needs of society better * Humility is key; technologists must not “cross the line” and do societal engineering in their spare time * People who are hyper verbal and “work in ideas” tend to get arbitrarily unhinged over time and become more disconnected from the real world * Throughout history, the inventors of the new technology have not been great at speculating on how it is to be regulated
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Subscribe to The Ben & Marc Show on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3SdsfNt
Subscribe to The Ben & Marc Show on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3SclPOr
Read the full manifesto: https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/
This past week, Marc released his new vision for the future – “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”.
In an article that has sparked widespread conversation across traditional and social media, Marc challenges the pessimistic narrative surrounding technology today, and instead celebrates it as a liberating force that can lead to growth, progress and abundance for all. In this one-on-one conversation based on YOUR questions from X (formerly Twitter), Ben and Marc discuss how technological advancements can improve the quality of human life, uplift marginalized communities, and even encourage us to answer the bigger questions of the universe.
We hope you’ll be inspired to join us in this Techno-Optimist movement. Enjoy!
Stay Updated:
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Infinite Loops
John Fio is an inventor and entrepreneur who has bootstrapped four products that have collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.
He joins the show to discuss why ideas are harder than execution, what he learned from being Justin Bieber’s intern, what most people get wrong about Kanye West, why magic is real, and what the success of Barbie and Taylor Swift can tell us about the future.
Enjoy!
Important Links: * Twitter * LinkedIn * MoonPals * Fio Creations
Show Notes: * From Bieber’s Intern to Moon Pals * Ideas Are Harder Than Execution * Kickstarting Gravity Blankets * How to Have a Good Idea * Kanye West & the Creative Process * The Wizard & the Warrior * Magic is Real * Social Situations Are a Departure From the Truth * Moon Pals, Barbie, Taylor Swift & the Dawn of a New Paradigm * Long Tails, Curation & Good Taste * John as Emperor of the World * MORE!
Books Mentioned: * The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism, by Howard Bloom. * The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch * Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu * The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow
Founders✓Claim
What I learned from the first 6 years of making Founders.
I recorded a new episode with Patrick. It should be out soon. Follow Invest Like the Best in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it.
Knowledge Project
Frank Slootman doesn’t start companies. But no CEO has a better track record for turning the ideas of others into jackpots. On this episode of the Knowledge Project, Slootman dives deep into the no-nonsense, results-based strategies that have made him a leading executive, including how to approach the first 90 days after taking over a company, doing less and doing better, the difference between a good sales organization and a great one, how to get the best out of people, positioning yourself for future success, and so much more. Slootman is the Chairman and CEO at Snowflake, a cloud computing–based data company which currently boasts a market capitalization of $81 billion. Prior to taking over at Snowflake im April 2019, Slootman served as the Chairman and CEO of cloud computing company ServiceNow, and he also spent six years as the President and CEO of Data Domain Inc., a venture-backed storage company. --
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My First Million
Key Takeaways * Sam Parr’s 6-step process for finding +$1,000,000 business ideas: + #1. What problem(s) do people have? + #2. How many people share that particular problem? + #3. Who are the leaders in that space? What is succeeding, and why? + #4. Of the leaders in that space, what shortcomings do they have? + #5. What business models are most effective? + #6. What problems are not being solved? * Pay attention when a large company shares information about a rising trend, and when it shares information about one of its shortcomings * Sam regularly asks himself, “What can I accomplish this week, month, or year that makes every other task not important?” * Strong men do not give into fear; a lot of people chase the new shiny object out of fear that their main thing is not going to work * Massive wealth is typically generated from a person devoting their time to one thing instead of multiple things * Find something that interests you and turn it into a passion, even if it is not popular * Do what you say you are going to do and follow through * Ask people open-ended questions to let them and encourage them to talk about themself; this makes you appear more interesting
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 479: Sam Parr (https://twitter.com/theSamParr) answers listener questions in this special Q&A episode. Learn how he researches & validates business ideas, what his hiring process looks like, how he’s managed to build huge, passionate communities, and much more.
Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here.
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton
• Ideation Bootcamp
• Copy That
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
• Try Shepherd
• Shaan's Personal Assistant System
• Power Writing Course
• Daily Newsletter
• Small Boy Newsletter
—
Show Notes:
(00:00) Intro
(00:40) How Sam Researches Business Ideas
(9:45) Sam’s Health & Fitness Routine
(14:55) When to Embrace Shiny Object Syndrome
(19:00) How to be Interesting
(26:20) Why Loyalty is Everything
(28:45) How to Hire
(33:30) How to Build Community
(37:00) Tips to Start a Productized-service
—
Links:
• Similarweb - https://www.similarweb.com/
• Annual Reports - https://www.annualreports.com/
• Companies House - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house
• Central Athlete - https://www.centralathlete.com/
• MyBodyTutor - https://www.mybodytutor.com/daily-coach/
• ViralCuts - https://www.viralcuts.co/
• Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
—
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
—
Other episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
• #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Twenty Minute VC
Key Takeaways * If you really want to move the team on something, you need to say it so many times that you want to throw up in your mouth if you say it again; then say it again, again, and again * It is important to get a range of different experiences early in your career so you can figure out your aspirations and values in a more informed way * Doing good work and succeeding in the market boosts morale more than anything else * Teenagers spend more time in DMs than they do in Stories, and they spend more time in Stories than they do in Feed * If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying big enough things * Simplicity is not always better for design * “I think they are the most well-executing competitor we’ve ever faced. There are a couple of others up there, but I think they’re at the top of that.” – Adam Mosseri on Tik Tok * How to think about innovation: What is the fundamental human need that is being met? And is that need going to change or persist? * In reference to Threads, it is way easier to build something that people will try compared to building something they will want to use a year from now * When choosing between two courses of action, ensure that both sides are heard, that it is clear who the decision maker is, and that it is clear when the decision has been made
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Adam Mosseri is the Head of Instagram, where he is responsible for overseeing the engineering, product, and business teams and leading Meta’s efforts on creators and Reels. Adam has been at Meta for more than fifteen years. He started at Meta as a designer for Facebook's mobile app before moving to product management, where he led the Facebook News Feed product and engineering teams, and served as the Head of Facebook News Feed. Adam began his career founding a design consultancy focused on graphic, interaction, and exhibition design before joining TokBox as the company’s first designer.
In Today's Discussion with Adam Mosseri We Discuss: 1. From Designer to Product Leader to Instagram CEO:
- What did Adam learn from his first job bartending? How did it impact his approach to customer support and research?
- What are the top 1-2 pieces of advice Adam would give to someone wanting to make the move from individual contributor to leader?
- If Adam was "not amazing at anything", what did he do that enabled him to rise above the rest and become CEO of Instagram?
-
What have been 1-2 of the biggest lessons from working with Mark Zuckerberg for 15 years?
-
A Deep Dive on the Wild Times as Instagram CEO:
-
What has been Adam's single biggest mistake as CEO of Instagram?
- What does Adam believe is the least known feature within Instagram that has made them successful?
- What does Adam believe has been the biggest product decision he has made as CEO?
- Why does Adam believe that Instagram is too complicated as a product?
- Who does Adam believe is the most formidable competitor to Instagram?
- Was Instagram Reels a simple copy of TikTok? What have Instagram learned from TikTok?
-
How does Adam respond to the statement that Instagram is a "copy-cat machine" and lacks innovaton?
-
Threads: The Journey from 0-100M Users in Three Days:
-
Did Adam and the team expect the response they got to Threads?
- Why did they decide to break Threads out into a separate app?
- What went into bootstrapping the Threads friendship and interest graph?
- What was the Threads influencer activation strategy? What worked? What did not? Did they pay influencers? How did they choose which verticals to focus on?
- What is Adam's core focus with Threads today?
- How is the team analysing and measuring retention? What are their goals?
- What are the 1-2 core reasons why Threads would not work? How do they aim to prevent them?
-
In 12 months, where will Threads be?
-
The Future of Consumer Social: What Happens Now?
-
Does Adam believe we have seen the transition from the social graph to the interest graph? Is it that binary?
- Is it possible to have both the interest and the friendship graph all in one app?
- How does the monetization potential differ when comparing Threads (text) to Instagram (visual)?
- How important is it for the next consumer social platforms to have stars that are native to their platform (Mr Beast on Youtube, D'Amelio on TikTok etc.)
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career✓Claim
Key Takeaways * LinkedIn strives to connect people with economic opportunities by connecting people with people, and by connecting content with people * Content with knowledge and/or advice works best on LinkedIn * If you do not have the functional experience for a given role, focus on how your industry experience makes you a strong candidate * The skills needed to manage a complex ecosystem are different than the skills needed to design a complex ecosystem * Recruiters look for two things: 1) skills and capabilities and 2) intent and interest in the role * RAPID: Recommender, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide * According to Hari Srinivasan, you need three skills to be a great product manager: + 1. Be a Steven Spielberg-type creator + 2. Skills around data science (to recognize patterns & see the future) + 3. General management skills * Working on a product that people genuinely love reveals how rewarding this role can be * Own your product and speak up about where you want to drive it * Favorite interview question: “What is the most complex thing you have ever built?”
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Brought to you by Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life | Brave Search API—An independent, global search index you can use to power your search or AI app | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments
—
Hari Srinivasan is VP of Product at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, where he oversees LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Jobs, and LinkedIn Learning. He’s also a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University. Previously, he served as the CEO and founder of We Created It, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2014. Hari has a passion for building products, with experience ranging from creating the first U.S. hybrid SUV to developing a No. 1 app and writing a beloved children’s book. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• LinkedIn’s unique business model and org structure
• How to optimize your LinkedIn experience and improve your chances of getting a PM role
• How to adapt to a skills-first talent market
• The story of Hari’s failed first product review, and how he pivoted for success
• Strategies for building and maintaining complex systems
• How to get into product management
—
Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/linkedins-product-evolution-and-the-art-of-building-complex-systems-hari-srinivasan-linkedin/#transcript
—
Where to find Hari Srinivasan:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsrinivasan1/
• Website: https://www.mindofhari.com/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Hari’s background
(05:04) How Twitter brought Lenny and Hari together
(06:32) LinkedIn’s positive evolution, and what they did right
(10:14) Specific changes that made LinkedIn’s feed more interesting
(11:12) Understanding the algorithm and what kinds of content perform best
(12:21) The talent solution product
(15:46) The shift to skills-first hiring, and how LinkedIn changed their approach
(20:24) The open-to-work signal, and the newly released open-to-internal-work signal
(22:13) The PM talent landscape, and tips for landing a PM role
(24:55) How to optimize your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters
(28:38) Hari’s first product review at LinkedIn
(30:38) LinkedIn’s North Star, and how to operationalize the North Star at any company
(33:24) LinkedIn’s members-first value
(35:32) Building and maintaining complex systems
(38:09) The RAPID framework and the Five-Day Alignment framework
(39:51) What LinkedIn looks for in new hires
(40:51) The latest innovations at LinkedIn
(43:16) LinkedIn Learning
(45:00) Hari’s product management course
(48:19) Advice for people hoping to get into product management
(50:40) How to level up your PM skills
(51:57) Hari’s creative side projects
(55:02) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• Tweet from TheCuriousPM: https://twitter.com/zatin_jatin/status/1658616200560254978?s=20
• The Curious PM on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zatin_jatin
• Decision-making at LinkedIn: https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2018/03/scaling-decision-making-across-teams-within-linkedin-engineering
• LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning
• Thinking in Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow:https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-novel-Gabrielle-Zevin/dp/0593321200
• An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us: https://www.amazon.com/Immense-World-Animal-Senses-Reveal/dp/0593133234
• Star Wars on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/brand/star-wars
• Case 63 on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4c9ZKaFtEKweSYOlYvxfvp
• E.T. on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/607451/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial
• BriteBrush: https://www.amazon.com/BriteBrush-Interactive-Smart-Toothbrush-featuring/dp/B07VLL8QH4
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Invest Like the Best
My guest today is Jeremy Giffon. I spend all my time trying to find people who have some “singularity” to them. People who seem like they can do an N of 1 something. Having spent many days with Jeremy recently, he strikes me as one of those people. He was the first employee and general partner at private equity firm, Tiny, which buys and holds internet and technology focused businesses. Prior to that, he was on the founding team of MediaCore, which was acquired by Workday. The focus of our discussion is about esoteric opportunities that exist in private markets. How misaligned incentives and co-ordination problems create special situations for people like Jeremy to invest in. The rest of the conversation is wide-ranging and covers everything from compensation advice to meeting your heroes. Please enjoy my discussion with Jeremy Giffon.
Founders Podcast
Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder
Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Tired of running your own expert calls to get up to speed on a company? Tegus lets you ramp faster and find answers to critical questions more efficiently than any alternative method. The gold standard for research, the Tegus platform delivers unmatched access to timely, qualitative insights through the largest and most differentiated expert call transcript database. With over 60,000 transcripts spanning 22,000 public and private companies, investors can accelerate their fundamental research process by discovering highly-differentiated and reliable insights that can’t be found anywhere else in the market. As a listener, drive your next investment thesis forward with Tegus for free at tegus.co/patrick.
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
(00:03:15) - (First question) - What defines the nature of a perfect business in his mind
(00:05:21) - Key characteristics he’d look for in a perfect investment
(00:09:58) - Coordination problems that excite him
(00:14:02) - Raising funds and ghostship companies
(00:16:17) - Examples of a special situations transaction in private markets
(00:18:55) - Building up a sourcing mechanism
(00:22:18) - The biggest mistakes he’s seen in buying and selling companies
(00:25:42) - Refining the underwriting process
(00:28:57) - Thoughts about minimum rates of return and multiples on capital for the investments he makes
(00:30:44) - Being lazy enough to wait for good deals on enduring businesses
(00:33:32) - Why people do things they don’t like
(00:35:47) - Whether or not he feels like he knows what he wants in life
(00:40:48) - Invest Like The Best - Kevin Kelly; The reward for good work is more work
(00:42:58) - Hiring CEOs
(00:44:54) - Really good respective returns in low risk companies and why those opportunities continue to persist
(00:47:05) - Tactics for negotiating with and sourcing CEOs
(00:50:37) - Binaries - pre and post fall
(00:55:58) - Being hard to kill
(00:59:15) - His favorite interview question
(01:06:07) - Having an audience is incredibly underpriced
(01:10:13) - What else is significantly underpriced
(01:12:14) - Things he feels are overpriced today writ large
(01:15:54) - Criticisms of the cult of learning
(01:20:21) - The one call that everyone needs to make
(01:27:18) - Meeting your heroes and having mentors
(01:30:48) - Notable differences between the business environments of Canada and the US
(01:33:13) - Lessons learned from people he admires and models for seeing the world
(01:35:35) - Views he holds that would make people scratch their heads
(01:40:02) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
A16z Podcast
Key Takeaways * Waymo believes that a fully autonomous car will be safer than the human-driven alternative * Autonomous driving can be distilled down to: + Is the car aware of what’s happening around it? + Can it anticipate what the things around it are going to do? + Given its surroundings, can the vehicle reason on what it should do next? * Autonomous vehicles use machine learning to make predictions on what pedestrians will do next depending on the gate and hand motions of the given pedestrian * Instead of debating LiDAR vs video, Saswat believes the more important question is whether or not the radars, lasers, cameras, and sensors position the vehicle better than the individual * Waymo has driven +20M miles in testing and billions of miles of simulation * Waymo took every fatal crash that ever occurred in Phoenix, re-simulated them, and showed that Waymo’s technology could have avoided the crash * Our society is designed around driving; consider how much of our cities are designed around parking, the amount of air pollution idling cars cause, and the amount of wasted real estate designated for parking * Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Self-driving cars have been on the horizon for quite some time. But, they might actually be here.
We got to ride around in one all over San Francisco with Waymo’s Chief Product Officer, Saswat Panigrahi.
We discussed so much, including the five levels of autonomy, the infamous LIDAR vs video debate, regulation, UX, and the role of AI in fine-tuning these models. But most importantly, if autonomy is here… now what?!
Topics Covered:
- 00:00 - Introduction
- 03:20 - A first look at Waymo
- 05:21 - How much progress has been made?
- 09:45 - Technology challenges
- 14:32 - LiDAR vs video debate
- 18:19 - How Waymo differentiates
- 19:01 - Technological unlocks on the horizon
- 20:39 - The role of AI in autonomous vehicles
- 25:37 - How Waymo views safety
- 32:05 - Collaborating with regulators
- 37:26 - Learnings from the first 2m miles
- 39:45 - Driving user retention
- 43:47 - Waymo’s expansion strategy
- 47:00 - Changing regulation
- 47:41 - Societal unlocks enabled by autonomy
- 52:21 - Will self-driving cars replace humans?
- 52:58 - Closing thoughts
Resources:
Check out Waymo: https://waymo.com/
Check out Waymo's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Waymo
Find Saswat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saswat101
Check out a16z's 8-part series on the autonomous vehicle ecosystem: https://a16z.com/2018/02/03/autonomy-ecosystem-frank-chen-summit/
Stay Updated:
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Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Recode Media with Peter Kafka
Mosheh Oinounou worked his way up through the TV news ranks and ended up running CBS Evening News. Now he’s starting over - this time on Instagram - with Mo News, a platform he says is a more responsive way to deliver news to an engaged audience. Oinounou talks to Vox’s Peter Kafka about the maladies affecting conventional news, the challenge of bootstrapping a news outlet in 2023, and why CNN’s former boss Chris Licht may have gotten at least one thing right.
Then, Peter talks to his friend and former co-worker Jason Del Rey about his adventures covering Amazon and Walmart, and how he turned that into Winner Sells All, his deeply researched new book.
Featuring: Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh), Founder of Mo News
Jason Del Rey (@DelRey), Journalist & Author of Winner Sells All
Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.
About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.
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Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
When he was a little boy growing up in Sweden, Daniel Ek was obsessed with two things: the binary realm of computers and the artistry of music. As a young adult, he combined his love for both by co-founding Spotify, which became the global standard-bearer for streaming, Spotify now has more than 500 million users per month. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Daniel Ek to break down the importance of recognizing technology infections, securing the perfect niche to secure early product-market fit, and how creating something radically different changed the music industry while redefining consumer listening habits.
Founders ✓
Claim
Key Takeaways * “The difference between one advertisement and another, when measured in terms of sales, can be as much as nineteen to one.” – David Ogilvy * Pay peanuts and you get monkeys * “I admire people who work with gusto. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, I beg you to find another job. Remember the Scottish proverb: Be happy while you are living because you are a long time dead.” – David Ogilvy * The most important thing you will decide is what benefit to promise * “You are not advertising to a standing army. You are advertising to a moving parade.” – David Ogilvy * Most successful careers are built on isolated incidents * Study the great work that came before you * “I have come to the conclusion that the top man has one principal responsibility: to provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work.” – David Ogilvy * Tolerate genius and do not strangle the goose that lays the golden egg * Talent is most likely found among non-conformists, dissenters, and rebels * “In the best companies, promises are always kept, whatever it may cost in agony and overtime.” – David Ogilvy
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from reading Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy.
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(4:15) When Fortune published an article about me and titled it: "Is David Ogilvy a Genius?," I asked my lawyer to sue the editor for the question mark.
(4:45) The people who built the companies for which America is famous, all worked obsessively to create strong cultures within their organizations. Companies that have cultivated their individual identities by shaping values, making heroes, spelling out rites and rituals, and acknowledging the cultural network, have an edge
(5:30) We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles. A blind pig can sometimes find truffles, but it helps to know that they grow in oak forests.
(5:48) We hire gentlemen with brains.
(6:16) Only First Class business, and that in a First Class way.
(6:25) Search all the parks in all your cities; you'll find no statues of committees.
(9:45) Buy Ogilvy on Advertising
(10:45) One decent editorial counts for a thousand advertisements. + You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two, or even several. — Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300)
(15:22) It was inspiring to work for a supreme master. M. Pitard did not tolerate incompetence. He knew that it is demoralising for professionals to work alongside incompetent amateurs.
(16:66) You have to be ruthless if you want to build a team of A players. It's too easy, as a team grows, to put up with a few B players, and they then attract a few more B players, and soon you will even have some C players. The Macintosh experience taught me that A players like to work only with other A players, which means you can't indulge B players.
(18:12) In the best companies, promises are always kept, whatever it may cost in agony and overtime.
(18:33) I have come to the conclusion that the top man has one principal responsibility: to provide an atmosphere in which creative mavericks can do useful work.
(19:38) I admire people who work hard, who bite the bullet.
(19:58) I admire people with first class brains.
(20:23) I admire people who work with gusto. If you don't enjoy what you are doing, I beg you to find another job. Remember the Scottish proverb, "Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead."
(20:50) I admire self-confident professionals, the craftsmen who do their jobs with superlative excellence.
(21:40) The best way to keep the peace is to be candid.
(23:18) That’s been the most important lesson I’ve learned in business: that the dynamic range of people dramatically exceeds things you encounter in the rest of our normal lives—and to try to find those really great people who really love what they do. — Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words. (Founders #299)
(24:39) The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Arthur W. Schultz. (Founders #206)
(25:09) Claude Hopkins episodes:
My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins. (Founders #170)
Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. (Founders #207)
(25:47) Talent is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.
(26:49) The majority of business men are incapable of original thinking because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Their imaginations are blocked.
(28:21) This podcast studies formidable individuals.
(31:40) Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam by Michael R. Marrus. (Founders #116)
(37:47) I doubt whether there is a single agency (or company) of any consequence which is not the lengthened shadow of one man.
(39:51) Don't bunt. Aim out of the park. Aim for the company of immortals.
(40:13) Most big corporations behave as if profit were not a function of time.
When Jerry Lambert scored his first breakthrough with Listerine, he speeded up the whole process of marketing by dividing time into months. Instead of locking himself into annual plans, Lambert reviewed his advertising and his profits every month.
The result was that he made $25,000,000 in eight years, where it takes most people twelve times as long. In Jerry Lambert's day, the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company lived by the month, instead of by the year.
(41:30) The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words edited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)
(41:36) I am an inveterate brain picker, and the most rewarding brains I have picked are the brains of my predecessors and my competitors.
(43:27) We make advertisements that people want to read. You can't save souls in an empty church.
(44:05) You aren't advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.
(45:13) The headline is the most important element in advertisements.
(47:47) Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill Gurley
(48:15) Set yourself to becoming the best-informed man in the agency on the account to which you are assigned.
If, for example, it is a gasoline account, read text books on the chemistry, geology and distribution of petroleum products. Read all the trade journals in the field. Read all the research reports and marketing plans that your agency has ever written on the product. Spend Saturday mornings in service stations, pumping gasoline and talking to motorists. Visit your client's refineries and research laboratories. Study the advertising of his competitors. At the end of your second year, you will know more about gasoline than your boss.
Most of the young men in agencies are too lazy to do this kind of homework. They remain permanently superficial.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
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Modern Wisdom
Key Takeaways * Tracking how you spend your time allows you to optimize your life; it becomes very apparent where you waste time and where you should be spending more of it * Be excited about becoming a better version of yourself * Take the time to design the life you want to live, and then take the steps to grow into it * Create disciplined habits to reduce the effort required to stick with them; eventually, these habits become intuitive and effortless * Immediately take action on emergent friction, eliminate it, and get back into harmony * The joy of life is living in a balanced and harmonious state, and continually evolving into your limitless potential * You must reflect so you can decide which parts of your life must change or adapt * Your ability to spend your time on the things that you want will be dictated by the amount of money you need to live the life you want to live * “You don’t ever want to ‘get somewhere.’ You want to be there, always.” – Rob Dyrdek
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Rob Dyrdek is a former professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, reality TV star, venture capitalist and a producer.
What if you tracked every second of your life? What if you dialled in every process, calorie, action and thought to facilitate your best performance? What if you manifested a Playboy wife out of thin air by just wanting her a lot? Today we get to find out.
Expect to learn about Rob’s journey from a small-town kid to a globally successful entrepreneur, his rigorous system for intentionality and productivity, the crucial factors that propelled him towards success, the system behind Rob’s meticulous tracking of his daily activities, how Rob met his dream wife, Rob's bulletproof investment strategy, his thoughts on the personal development space and much more...
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Founders✓Claim
What I learned from reading Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson for the 4th time. You can also find the book on Book Finder.
This episode is brought to you by Meter: Meter is the easiest way for your business to get fast, secure, and reliable internet and WiFi in any commercial space. Go to meter.com/founders
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Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra: Passion and Pain
[4:30] Invention: A Life by James Dyson (Founders #205)
[2:41] I am a creator of products, a builder of things, and my name appears on them. That is how I make a living and they are what have made my name at least familiar in a million homes.
[11:00] Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Definitive Biography of The Engineer, Visionary, and Great Briton by L.T.C. Rolt. (Founders #201)
[13:10] After the idea there is plenty of time to learn the technology. My first cyclonic vacuum cleaner was built out of cereal packets and masking tape long before I understood how it worked.
[14:15] Difference for the sake of it. In everything. Because it must be better. From the moment the idea strikes, to the running of the business. Difference, and retention of total control.
[18:00] I would not be dragged into something I didn't want to do.
[22:40] They were all running round and round the track like a herd of sheep and not getting any quicker. Difference itself was making me come in first.
[23:34] As I grew more and more neurotic about being caught from behind I trained harder to stay in front. To this day it is the fear of failure, more than anything else, which makes me keep working at success.
[27:20] Isambard Kingdom Brunel was unable to think small, and nothing was a barrier to him. The mere fact that something had never been one before presented, to Brunel, no suggestion that the doing of it was impossible.
He was fired by an inner strength and self-belief almost impossible to imagine in this feckless age.
While I could never lay claim to the genius of a man like that —I have tried to be as confident in my vision as he was.
And at times in my life when I have encountered difficulty and self-doubt I have looked to his example to fire me on.
[30:33] The vision of a single man pursued with dogged determination that was nothing less than obsession.
[36:30] The root principle was to do things your way. It didn't matter how other people did it.
[41:38] You simply cannot mix your messages when selling something new. A consumer can barely handle one great new idea, let alone two, or even several.
[49:30] A direct relationship with the customer is the holy grail. Do not abandon it.
[52:00] One of the strains of this book is about control. If you have the intimate knowledge of a product that comes with dreaming it up and then designing it, I have been trying to say, then you will be the better able to sell it and then, reciprocally, to go back to it and improve it. From there you are in the best possible position to convince others of its greatness and to inspire others to give their very best efforts to developing it, and to remain true to it, and to see it through all the way to its optimum point. To total fruition, if you like.
[1:02:20] Before I went into production with the dual cyclone I had built 5,127 prototypes.
[1:02:30] There is no such thing as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence – and in the end you make it look like a quantum leap.
[1:03:30] While it is easy, of course, for me to celebrate my doggedness now and say that it is all you need to succeed, the truth is that it demoralized me terribly. I would crawl into the house every night covered in dust after a long day, exhausted and depressed because that day's cyclone had not worked. There were times when I thought it would never work, that I would keep on making cyclone after cyclone, never going forwards, never going backwards, until I died.
[1:06:20] I was broke, hungry and depressed. The outlook was very dreary. My doggedness and self-belief in the absence of any real evidence that they were justified was beginning to look more and more like insanity.
[1:10:30] Persistent trial and error allows them to wake up one morning after many, many mornings with a world beating product.
[1:13:15] I began to consider forgetting the whole thing and doing something else with my life.
[1:16:00] The poor buggers were so wrong, to think that designers knew nothing about business, or about marketing, or is about selling. It is the people who make the things that understand them, and understand what the public wants.
[1:21:30] Go further. There is nothing wrong with making the consumer laugh. Conventional looks do not make a product more marketable.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
My First Million
Key Takeaways * Martin Shkreli worked for Jim Cramer’s hedge fund when he was in high school * Martin became a millionaire at the age of 29 when he took his pharma company public * “PubMed is the government database of all scholastic biomedical literature – so 36 million papers. If you sit there long enough and you have the passion, you can become a billionaire.” – Martin Shkreli * It is not a crime to choose the price of your product * He was bothered by the politicians trying to take the right away from entrepreneurs to set the price of their products, what he calls “regulation by embarrassment” * If the regulators can tell Martin Shkreli what the price of his product should be, what is stopping them from setting the price of the iPhone? * How much should a drug cost if it prevents the need for getting a $1 million surgery? * After raising the price of the drug, there were zero patients that were unable to get the drug * He hoped his casualness would encourage them to do some research and find out that no one (other than the insurance companies) were affected by the price increase * Modern CEOs are not allowed to have a real personality: no one in the corporate world is allowed to have an opinion because it might be held against them or their company * Magic happens when you provide capital to great people with great assets * Healthcare is more expensive than we’d like mostly because of the artificially constrained supply of healthcare professionals, according to Martin Shkreli
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 445: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) talk with Martin Shkreli (@marty_catboy), aka "the most hated man in America", about how he got started in pharma, his logic behind raising the price of Daraprim, why he spent time in prison, and what business he's starting now.
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Show Notes:
(00:30) - Intro to Martin Shkreli
(02:10) - When Martin worked with Jim Cramer
(23:00) - How he turned $2M into $1B in pharma
(35:40) - Why did you jack up the price of the drugs?
(54:20) - What do you do with your money?
(01:00:33) - The Fun Strikes Back Movement
(01:08:30) - Introducing Martin's New Company: Dr. Gupta AI
(01:33:50) - Who are your heroes?
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Knowledge Project
Key Takeaways * Be the same person at work as you are at home * Earned success is the key to happiness * Understand that reality hits you at every moment and that there are costs to not embracing it * Understand what it is you are actually betting on when you make an investment * Write about the topics that you actually care about; do not write about what you think someone else will think is interesting * “It’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.” – Dr. Clayton Christensen * Leaders often spend more time worrying about the 95% of people delivering 10% of the value compared to worrying about the 5% of people that deliver 90% of the value * Your role as a leader might be to find a handful of people that will change the trajectory of a company * “The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.” – Jim Barksdale * Good decision-makers do not confuse activity with insight * You can bounce back from any mistake other than a mistake of integrity * “I think all you can really do as a leader of a company is have people believe that the decisions you’re making are always in the best interest of the company.” – Ravi Gupta
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
One of the main jobs Ravi Gupta has as a partner at venture capital giant Sequoia Capital is to help founders see the difference between fantasy and reality. On this episode of The Knowledge Project, Gupta dives deep into a wide range of topics that will help you better understand the realities of success, decision making, why it’s crucial to practice doing things you don’t want to do, the best advice he ever received, and the value of quality over quantity. Gupta has served as a partner at Sequoia Capital since 2019. Prior to joining the world of venture capital he served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Instacart, and he also spent a decade working in private equity with KKR & Co. --
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Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show✓Claim
Key Takeaways * By keeping the mechanics of your life as straightforward as possible, you can increase the amount of effort you put into the intellectual, creative side of your life * ChatGPT is adding a word at a time and figuring out the likely way that humans would continue that particular piece of text, based on what they have written in a few billion web pages * “This whole idea of computational language just got much more exciting … because it becomes this medium for communication and collaboration between humans and AIs.” – Stephen Wolfram * In the end, the world will have a civilization of AIs that have an infrastructure that operates in these ways that humans cannot readily understand + Ironically, this is the situation that humans have been in with respect to the natural world the whole of our existence + The natural world does all types of computations that we do not really understand, and yet we coexist with the natural world
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
0:00 Intro1:54 How Stephen Wolfram approaches productivity6:12 Stephen's day-in-life7:45 Stephen's outlook on artificial intelligence13:05 The human brain-artificial intelligence analogy16:40 Wolfram's unique approach to GPT31:00 The Pi computation34:14 Risks of AI45:32 Stephen's X factor51:36 Are things as complex as they seem?1:03:00 Do the simple things rightRenowned physicist, mathematician, and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram joined us on the podcast to discuss AI, physics, and more. We explored the state of artificial intelligence and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Stephen shared his insights into the computational universe and cellular automata and their relationship to physics. 🎙️ The Good Times Show: Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan host conversations with leading builders, and CEOs and reveal what it takes to make it to the inside.
The Nick Huber Show ✓ Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Capital providers are waiting for interest rates to stabilize prior to coming back into the real estate market * Despite how it may seem on Twitter, it is actually really hard to make money in the real estate business * Class A storage is branded as “nice storage” but it requires renting a truck, moving your stuff with a dollie, putting it on an elevator, etc. * As interest rates rise, the people with the capital can now park it in treasury bills and earn 4-5% “risk-free” instead of allocating to real estate ventures * The risk-free rate is no longer 0% like it was for much of the last several years * Many real estate investors, accountants, and CPAs are not aware of cost segregation * Any real estate that people have bought after September 2017 can still be cost-segregated, or “cost-segged” by filing a Form 3115 * Cost segregation is effectively borrowing money from the IRS and works best when you plan to hold the property for several years * You get a look into someone’s brain when you follow them on Twitter * Sharing what you know on Twitter can pull forward your career trajectory by twenty years * Twitter is a modern-day business tool to build trust and friendships at scale * The ability to simplify complex topics and share that with the world is a superpower
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Today’s episode is a repost from The Fort podcast by Chris Powers that originally aired on February 16th, 2023. I sit down with Chris and my business partner Mitchell Baldridge to discuss the current real estate market, how Twitter changed our lives, and Mitchell and I’s new business RE Cost Seg.
Chris is a mentor of mine and I highly recommend listening to his podcast, The Fort. https://www.thefortpod.com
If you want to learn more about RE Cost Seg, please click here. https://www.recostseg.com
Thank you and I hope you enjoy the conversation.
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Read the full show notes here: https://sweatystartup.com/series/the-nick-huber-show/
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Have some questions? Send me an email and I'll feature you in the next episode: nick@sweatystartup.com
Radiolab
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Sci-Hub is a library website that provides free access to millions of research papers and books, without regard to copyright * It was created in 2011 by a single person named Alexandra Elbakyan * All of the papers made available on Sci-Hub are copyrighted and owned, so open-sourcing them is technically illegal * The four for-profit publishers that dominate the scientific journal industry are charging the scientific community to read the research that was conducted by the scientific community * At its peak, Sci-Hub hosted over 90% of every scientific article that was ever published * The publishes have sued Alexandra Elbakyan for violating copyright laws, claiming that she broke the law by distributing material that she did not have the legal right to distribute * She did not show up for the trial and became famous for not showing up to subsequent hearings and trials * “Maybe I was a little bit naive. But I thought the app [was] going to overthrow academic publishing and the corporatized system.” – Alexandra Elbakyan * She is involved in an ongoing copyright case in India, which she has chosen to participate in because she believes she has a higher chance of winning + As part of an agreement, new uploads to Sci-Hub have been paused until a verdict is reached (they have now been paused since 2020) * However, the scientific journal industry is changing and shifting more toward the open-access model * By 2026, every paper that gets federal funding will be made immediately free for all to read * Sci-Hub may be losing the battle, but open access is winning the war
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
How much does knowledge cost? While that sounds like an abstract question, the answer is surprisingly specific: $3,096,988,440.00. That’s how much the business of publishing scientific and academic research is worth.
This is the story of one woman’s battle against a global network of academic journals that underlie published scientific research. In 2011, Alexandra Elbakyan had just moved home to Kazakhstan after a disappointing few years trying to study neuroscience in the United States when she landed on an internet forum where a bunch of scientists were all looking for the same thing: access to academic journal articles that were behind paywalls. That’s the moment the very simple, but enormously powerful, website called Sci Hub was born.
The site holds over 88 million articles and serves up about a million downloads to people in practically every country on the globe. We travel to Kazakhstan to meet the mysterious woman behind it all and to find out what it takes to make everything we know about anything available to anyone anywhere, for free.
Special thanks toVrindra Bhandari, Balázs Bodó, Stephen Buranyi, Ian Graber-Stiehl, Joel Joseph, Noorain Khalifa, Aparajita Lath, Steve McLaughlin, Marcia McNutt, Randy Scheckman Tanmay Singh, Deborah Harkness, Joe Karaganis, Lawrence Lessig, Glyn Moody, and Steven Press.
Episode Credits:Reported by - Eli Cohen
Reporting help from - Karishma Mehrotra
Produced by Simon Adler
with help from - Eli Cohen
Original music and sound designed by - Simon Adler
Mixing by - Jeremy Bloom
Edited by - Alex Neason
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Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Modern Wisdom
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * People live out all of the potential downsides in the mere reflection of what other people will think about them in the future, should they fail * Shame only exists in the shadows; identify when you have the hesitation to confront something and ask yourself why you may be experiencing that hesitation * The difference between successful people and the most successful people is that the most successful people say no to almost everything * Success comes down to doing the obvious thing for an extraordinary period of time without convincing yourself that you are smarter than you are * The first step to achieving a massive dream is conquering tiny impulses * Opportunities only look like opportunities in the rear-view mirror; today, they only seem like risk * Most of the pain that people experience is purely in their own minds * There is always someone who has had it worse and has done it better * Power follows the blame finger: you give power to wherever you point the blame to * Pain moves people far more effectively than pleasure does * We commonly sacrifice the thing we want for the thing that is supposed to get it * Three most common traits that hyper-successful people have: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control * What is the thing that you can do longer than anyone else where to them it looks like work, and to you, feels like play? * Constantly ask yourself: “What are we optimizing for?” * Try to be directionally correct instead of trying to be absolutely correct
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Alex Hormozi is a founder, investor and an author.
Alex's Twitter has been one of my favourite sources of great insights over the last year. Today we get to go through some of my favourite lessons from him about life, human behaviour, psychology, business and resilience. This is really good.
Expect to learn how your ego is keeping you poor, why you never need to care about what anyone else thinks of you, why having a life that sucks is actually a blessing, whether most easy opportunities are just distractions, how to conquer your tiny impulses, why you are built to deal with things being hard, how to beat anyone who ever copies you and much more...
Sponsors:
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Get in touch.
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Pod of Jake
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * OpenStore’s mission is to reinvent e-commerce to allow for the serendipitous discovery of products in a way that obviates the need to shop in the real world * Optimally, a fundraising round should directly de-risk a certain aspect of the business * People are more emotional about selling their business compared to selling their future cash flows * There is a fixed cost of pain when building a start-up; you might as well amortize the same pain across the biggest possible vision * Having success in the first vertical is so hard that most people lose the energy, enthusiasm, and time to conquer other verticals in the future * From day one of running a company, identify your goal and work backward from it * Automate the processes that can be automated to maximize scalability * Successful companies work in person and have a critical density of talent where everyone works in the same room * The art of company building is to find people whose talent is not yet appreciated by the rest of the world and who have incredible potential * A question every entrepreneur must consider: “Does your company have the best possible people working against the most important challenges?”
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Keith is the CEO & Co-Founder of OpenStore and a General Partner at Founders Fund. He is an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur, a prolific investor, and a self-described contrarian. Keith previously served as a General Partner at Khosla Ventures. Before that, he was COO at Square and served in influential roles at LinkedIn. He also co-founded Opendoor. Keith began his career in technology as a senior executive at PayPal. He has since invested early in many great companies including YouTube, Airbnb, Palantir, DoorDash, Stripe, Quora, Yammer, Affirm, Eventbrite, and many others. He also served as a Board Member from inception to IPO at Yelp and Xoom. Follow Keith on Twitter @rabois.
[0:00] - OpenStore's early momentum and fundraising strategy
[5:35] - How an decentralized department store could unlock eCommerce growth
[12:33] - Introducing OpenStore Drive and why it is great for Shopify store owners
[16:49] - OpenStore's horizontal approach and why Keith believes it is best
[18:41] - OpenStore’s business acquisition strategy and thoughtful process design
[24:09] - How learnings from OpenStore’s initial acquisitions have led to improvements
[28:56] - Why OpenStore’s business is resilient in various macroeconomic environments
[35:06] - Acquisition offers and accept rates as metrics and countermetrics at OpenStore
[38:45] - Introducing Gumdrop which matches long-tail influencers to long-tail SKUs
[41:40] - The advantages of aggregation that benefit OpenStore’s business model
[45:19] - Building a great company culture; finding & developing undiscovered talent
[51:11] - The most high-leverage activities Keith allocates time to as OpenStore's CEO
homeofjake.com
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out Starting Greatness Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Startup founders dealt with uncertainty, stress and trauma in the wake of the run on Silicon Valley Bank, but the most important lessons from this crisis never showed up in social media. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE calls on the actions of a variety of founders who showed incredible courage and competence to showcase three crucial lessons for founders for how to deal with another potential crisis: Scenario planning, financial agility, and crisis communication.
My First Million
Podcast Notes Intro * Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) walks us through his tried and tested template for pitching your business idea to potential investors. Follow along on YouTube for the visuals. * Additional context: This template is in slideshow format, otherwise known as a pitch deck. To explain each slide in further detail, Shaan often refers to the company Shuni, which is an app dedicated to sleep and meditation.
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 436: In a special Friday episode, Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) gives a special masterclass on his pitch deck that has raised millions from investors. Go to the MFM YouTube channel to see examples.
Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here.
SHAAN'S NEW DAILY NEWSLETTER --> shaanpuri.com
Links:
shaanpuri.com/deck
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
Show Notes:
(01:35) - Title
(05:41) - Data/personal story
(07:30) - Future vision
(10:30) - Hero metric
(14:15) - Track record
(16:30) - Sweeten the pot
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Artificial Intelligence Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * We will look back on GPT-4 as we do the early computers: buggy, slow, room for improvement, but nonetheless a monumental achievement * Progress is a continuous exponential; very rarely is there “a single moment” where technology crosses the rubicon * OpenAI is building in public because they think it is important for the world to get access to this technology early and to shape the way it is going to be developed * Better alignment techniques lead to better capabilities, and vice versa * Ideally, the world comes together, discusses, and agrees on where it wants to draw the boundaries on the GPT system * It is possible that GPT-4 is the most complex software object that humanity has produced, and it will be trivial in a couple of decades * Maybe AGI is never achieved; maybe narrow AI just continues to make humans better * There is some chance of an AGI destroying humanity, and it is important to acknowledge that chance because if we do not discuss and treat it as potentially real, then we will not put enough effort into solving it * AGI could happen soon or far in the future; the takeoff speed from the initial AGI to more powerful successor systems could be slow or fast * It would be “crazy” to not be a little bit afraid of AGI * Sam worries about the entities creating AGIs that do have incentives to capture unlimited value * “I definitely grew up with Elon as a hero of mine. Despite him being a jerk on Twitter or whatever, I’m happy he exists in the world. But I wish he would do more to look at the hard work we’re doing to get this stuff right.” – Sam Altman * These AI systems will make a lot of jobs go away, as is true for every technological revolution, and will also create many new types of jobs that we cannot yet imagine * Over the next several decades, the two dominant changes will be the reduced cost of intelligence and energy * “Listening to advice from other people should be approached with great caution.” – Sam Altman
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind GPT-4, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Codex, and many other state-of-the-art AI technologies. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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GPT-4 Website: https://openai.com/research/gpt-4
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OUTLINE:
Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(08:41) - GPT-4
(20:06) - Political bias
(27:07) - AI safety
(47:47) - Neural network size
(51:40) - AGI
(1:13:09) - Fear
(1:15:18) - Competition
(1:17:38) - From non-profit to capped-profit
(1:20:58) - Power
(1:26:11) - Elon Musk
(1:34:37) - Political pressure
(1:52:51) - Truth and misinformation
(2:05:13) - Microsoft
(2:09:13) - SVB bank collapse
(2:14:04) - Anthropomorphism
(2:18:07) - Future applications
(2:21:59) - Advice for young people
(2:24:37) - Meaning of life
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * There are four ways to frame a meeting with a company leader: + I am doing this, FYI + I am doing this, but I need your approval + I am trying to decide between A, B, or C. Can you help me think that through? + Remember that thing we agreed on? Here is what happened. * Company updates or memos should address “What, Why, and So What?” * Fierce nerds are all in on the thing they are pursuing; they do not have a social thing to fall back on, and lack the emotional maturity to separate themselves from the competition * Competition is deeply personal to fierce nerds; they are fully obsessed * Being well-read allows you to connect dots between seemingly unrelated things and create new things * Get closer to the truth by challenging each assumption in the argument * A leader must surround themself with people who are willing to tell them the uncomfortable truth
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In a special episode of My First Million, Shaan (@ShaanVP) talks about the nine things he learned from Emmett Shear - CEO of Twitch - who resigned today.
Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here.
SHAAN'S NEW DAILY NEWSLETTER --> shaanpuri.com
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Invest Like the Best
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Many of the high-margin software businesses have no impact on society, and sometimes can even have a negative impact on society * Founders in the dynamism category are creating teams that are mission-oriented and interested in more than just making money; they want to build techno-optimist solutions for strategically important problems * It is important for society’s best players to choose good quests * It is best to lean into your passions and overinvest in them * We must encourage people to be “spikey” instead of only encouraging them to be “well-rounded” * In his early days at Founder Fund, Trae was looking to invest in a 21st-century reboot of Lockheed Martin; it did not exist, so he started it * If a company is going to work, each team member must leverage their own superpower to achieve the company’s audacious goal * The adversary must know that Anduril’s product will prevent their offensive from happening and that the defensive cost to prevent it is far lower than the offensive cost to launch it * “The DoD has done a really good job at creating theater around their innovation efforts.” – Trae Stephens * The big defense primes are effectively government agencies that respond to the incentives presented to them * Mimetic desire is the primary motivation for conflict in society because we are all going after the scarce resources that other people want * Working and learning about an industry in a supporting role is 100x better than graduate school * The first question that Trae Stephens asks in every pitch meeting is: “What is the origin story of this business?” * Ask yourself what you are uniquely suited to do to contribute to a greater good * We lose the wonders of virtue when we rely on ourselves as the source of all truth
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
My guest this week is Trae Stephens. Trae is a partner at Founders Fund and co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril. Trae’s philosophy can be boiled down to finding good quests, which has led him to investing in businesses that work closely with the government on societally important issues. Clearly, that extends to co-founding Anduril and I would highly recommend listening to my Business Breakdowns episode on Anduril if you haven’t already. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of lobbyists, why the high-tech defense firms of the past became stale, and how he hunts for disagreeableness in founders. Please enjoy my conversation with Trae Stephens.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
Listen to Founders Podcast
Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder
Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren
This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
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Show Notes
[00:03:17] - [First question] - Why Trae thinks most high-margin businesses are bad for society
[00:04:28] - What would he change to impact energy technology most if he were in charge
[00:06:18] - His investing focus on dynamism and mission-driven tech companies
[00:09:42] - Analyzing why relatively few people strive to make society-level advancements
[00:11:35] - What he’s done as a parent to enable his kids to develop passions
[00:12:41] - The most noteworthy adventures in his career
[00:14:41] - Founding Anduril and what it taught him about the tech industry
[00:18:40] - The cutting-edge of defense technologies today
[00:21:29] - What Shyam Sankar of Palantir taught him about defense tech
[00:23:34] - Why some of the biggest defense tech companies have stopped innovating
[00:28:29] - What he and Anduril have learned about sales and scaling in the public sector
[00:32:12] - Where lobbyists and decision makers play in to defense tech business models
[00:35:22] - His take on Peter Thiel’s notion that competition should be avoided
[00:38:24] - The importance of being psychologically disagreeable when building a start-up
[00:39:54] - The origin story that stands out the most from companies he has interviewed
[00:41:12] - How he developed an investor mindset on his unorthodox path to the venture world
[00:43:57] - What he has learned from playing supporting roles and aligning with great leaders
[00:46:11] - Important but uncommon lessons about entrepreneurship
[00:48:21] - Venture investing lessons he’s learned from Lauren Gross
[00:50:00] - His first VR project and aspirations for the future of VR
[00:54:50] - The role of religion and spirituality in his business philosophies
[00:59:13] - Why he tries to capitalize on morality as opposed to sin
[01:03:57] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
Twenty Minute VC
Mike Cessario is the Founder and CEO @ Liquid Death, the man hacking the healthy beverage market with the first hilarious water brand. It is working, Liquid Death's latest valuation was over a staggering $700M and Mike has raised over $200M since founding the company from the likes of Science Inc. Away's Jen Rubio, Dollar Shave Club's Michael Dubin, Swedish House Mafia and Tony Hawk to name a few. Prior to founding Liquid Death, Mike was in the advertising industry at a number of dirrect firms including VaynerMedia.
In Today's Episode with Mike Cessario We Discuss: 1.) From Canned Water to $700M Business:
- How did rockstars' hydration problems lead to the founding of Liquid Death?
- How did growing up with guns and heroine needles around him at school, impact how Mike sees the world today? What is he running from? What is he running towards?
- Everyone said, "canned water, that is a stupid idea". What does Mike tell to all entrepreneurs who are told their idea is stupid? How does Mike advise on picking your idea?
2.) How to Build a Truly Great Brand:
- What does the term "brand" mean to Mike?
- What does he mean when he says, "truly great brand transcends functional value"?
- What are the single biggest mistakes Mike sees founders make today on branding?
- Why does Mike believe people will always hate your brand, if it is good?
- What are the biggest brand mistakes Mike has made with Liquid Death?
- What brand does Mike most respect and admire? Why that brand?
3.) Marketing: The Secret to Reaching Millions of People with Little Budget:
- How does the Liquid Death team come up with the ideas they have for content? Why does Mike believe the label "storytelling" is kinda BS?
- Why does Mike believe people will always hate your marketing? What was Mike's biggest lesson from their Superbowl commercial with kids drinking Liquid Death, looking like beer?
- How does Mike decide which channel to prioritise? How has the rise of TikTok and short form video changed their approach to content?
- How does Mike approach resource allocation for new pieces of content? Do they spend big on few bits of content or spend little on many and see what works?
Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The recent breakthroughs with ChatGPT break the world into two groups: those who can understand exponential growth, and those that sit around and deny it * AI hallucinations are evidence that we have apparently solved the problem of computer creativity * The real breakthroughs are going to happen when entrepreneurs discard all current assumptions and purely start from scratch * “This may be the single biggest financial explosion in the history of the industry.” – Marc Andreessen * “It may only be the case that new companies can actually do anything interesting in AI.” – Marc Andreessen * Much of the current concern over AI is not about the Skynet doomsday scenario, but about how AI will abide by approved woke-speech * AI is replacing jobs in the opposite order in which people expected it to * We are in the midst of another high-octane Luddism fallacy where people panic and believe new technology is going to replace all the jobs * People always underestimate the degree to which new technology creates new jobs * Virtually every white-collar job that exists today is the result of technological advancement that occurred in the last 300 years or even 50 years * “Our biggest problem for the next decade is not going to be AI having too much effect, it’s going to be AI having too little effect.” – Marc Andreessen * We must accept that the most amazing technological breakthrough of all time – replicating human consciousness – is just going to happen accidentally * Questioning AI sentience reveals more about human values and how humans perceive the world than they reveal about the technical components of a machine * AI science fiction is largely based on the assumption that humans and machines will inevitably go to war with one another, but people are experiencing the exact opposite reaction when interacting with ChatGPT
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this episode, the gang gets back together! Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky are back to talk about all things AI. We cover the rise of ChatGPT, Bing's AI powered chat Sydney, AI ethics, sentience, whether AI will take over jobs, the economic impact, AI startups vs tech incumbents, and whether it is time for AI to become sentient. This was an incredibly fun episode! Marc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur, venture capital investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Steven Jay Sinofsky is a former president of the Windows Division at Microsoft. He was responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Internet Explorer, and online services such as Outlook.com and SkyDrive.
Knowledge Project
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out the Knowledge Project Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In the third installment in a series of episodes, The Knowledge Project curates essential segments from five guests revolving around one theme: leadership. This episode helps put a unique definition on leadership and examines whether or not good leaders are context-dependent, the differences between a great leader and an average leader, how great leaders should balance feedback, the difference between being right and doing right, a playbook for managing teams, and the importance of radical candor.
The guests on this episode are author Jim Collins (Episode 61, 110), author and leadership expert Jennifer Garvey Berger (Episode 43), co-founder of the Admired Leadership Institute Randall Stutman (Episode 96), the President and COO of Athletic Greens Kat Cole (Episode 117), the former CEO of Ford Alan Mulally (Episode 151), and co-founder of the Conscious Leadership Group Diana Chapman (Episode 130). --
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Moonshots and Mindsets with Peter Diamandis✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Building something meaningful will be a decade-long process; you might as well build something that is going to meaningfully make people’s lives better * The power law of returns describes how the minority of companies you invest in will deliver the majority of your returns * If you are a technical founder, the number one mistake you can make when approaching VCs is to only talk about the technology and not the customer * Do not create technologies and then look for problems that they can solve; identify problems and create technologies to solve them * Understand that many of the letters and names in venture capital are made up; do not get too stuck on any of the letters or names * Understand what matters to the audience that you are presenting to * It is better to make micro-pivots that add up to a larger pivot in aggregate than having to make a single massive pivot at once * The desire to grow personally and contribute to the world will endlessly fuel a person * Successful founders are unwilling to accept “no” for their long-term mission but are willing to make micro-adjustments along the way when presented with new information * Great entrepreneurs fail constantly, and their failures become learnings and fuel rather than fatal injuries * Equating failures with growth is a mindset that breeds long-term success * Consider the scope of the problem you are trying to solve if you are a first-time founder + Consider attacking a smaller niche within an area that interests you if you are a first-time founder
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this episode, Dakin and Peter discuss tips for new entrepreneurs, how to build a successful company and the power of venture capital for the economy.
You will learn about:
- 04:37 | The story of Prime Movers Lab
- 22:25 | The 'do's & don'ts' for new entrepreneurs.
- 35:47 | Ambitious Vs. Conservative: creating balance for your company.
Dakin Sloss is a venture capitalist, founder, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, a VC startup that’s become the world’s leading partner in breakthrough scientific startups.
Learn more about Prime Movers Lab.
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Moonshots and Mindsets
Founders✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Young Bill Gates was like Genghis Khan in a Mr. Rogers costume * Everything he did, he did to the max * Gates’ first interaction with a computer was at Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle where he also met Paul Allen, with whom he co-founded Microsoft with * Bill Gates became obsessed with computers at a young age to the point where his parents banned his usage of them * “You want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest.” – Charlie Munger * Gates knew that he wanted to be wealthy from an early age; he spoke about his future success and wealth as if it were predetermined * Gates was one of the best math students at Harvard, but he was not the best, which to him, meant he could never be a mathematician * Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard after much convincing from Paul Allen to start what eventually became Microsoft * Gates was financially conservative: Microsoft got from founding to IPO without having to take money from venture capital * Despite Gates being a multi-billionaire and Microsoft being the undeniable leader of its category, Bill Gates still wanted to destroy the competition * Gates knew where he was weak and was willing to listen to others * Apple was just Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives; the founder’s personality is going to be embedded into the company, which was also true for Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos with their respective companies * Bill Gates was intolerant of distractions; he believed “focus” was the key element to success
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What I learned from rereading Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson.
This episode is brought to you by: Tiny: Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Quick and straightforward exits for Founders.
Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 292 The Business of Gaming with Mitch Lasky and 293 David Senra Passion and Pain !
[4:00] Gates read the encyclopedia from beginning to end when he was only seven or eight years old.
[4:00] Gates had an obsessive personality and a compulsive need to be the best.
[5:00] Everything Bill did, he did to the max. What he did always went well, well beyond everyone else.
[6:00] You want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest. — Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger.
[7:00] Gates devoured everything he could get his hands on concerning computers and how to communicate with them, often teaching himself as he went.
[9:00] A young man with no money and tons of enthusiasm. — The Dream of Solomeo: My Life and the Idea of Humanistic Capitalism by Brunello Cucinelli. (Founders #289)
[10:00] He consumed biographies to understand how the great figures of history thought.
[11:00] The idea that some people were super successful was interesting. What did they know? What did they do? What drove those kinds of successes?
[12:00] Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen. (Founders #44)
[13:00] “I’m going to make my first million by the time I'm 25.” It was not said as a boast, or even a prediction. He talked about the future as if his success was predestined.
[15:00] Gates and Allen were convinced the computer industry was about to reach critical mass, and when it exploded it would usher in a technological revolution of astounding magnitude. They were on the threshold of one of those moments when history held its breath... and jumped, as it had done with the development of the car and the airplane. They could either lead the revolution or be swept along by it.
[17:00] Bill had a monomaniacal quality. He would focus on something and really stick with it. He had a determination to master whatever it was he was doing. Bill was deciding where he was going to put his energy and to hell with what anyone else thought.
[18:00] Don’t do anything that someone else can do. — Edwin Land
[21:00] You've got to remember that in those days, the idea that you could own a computer, your own computer, was about as wild as the idea today of owning your own nuclear submarine. It was beyond comprehension.
[23:00] There would be no unnecessary overhead or extravagant spending habits with Microsoft.
[25:00] “Pertec kept telling me I was being unreasonable and they could deal with this guy [Gates]. It was like Roosevelt telling Churchill that he could deal with Stalin.
[27:00] Four years in and Microsoft had only 11 employees.
[28:00] Gates sustained Microsoft through tireless salesmanship. For several years he alone made the cold calls and haggled, cajoled, browbeat, and harangued the hardware makers of the emerging personal computer industry, convincing them to buy Microsoft's services and products. He was the best kind of salesman there is: he knew the product, and he believed in it. Moreover, he approached every client with the zealotry of a true believer.
[29:00] When we got up to 30 employees, it was still just me, a secretary, and 28 programmers. I wrote all the checks, answered the mail, took the phone calls.
[31:00] This might be Bill’s most important decision ever: IBM had talked to Gates about a fixed price for an unlimited number of copies of the software Microsoft licensed to IBM. The longer Gates thought about this proposal the more he became convinced it was bad business. Gates had decided to insist on a royalty arrangement with IBM.
[34:00] You have to be uncompromised in your level of commitment to whatever you are doing, or it can disappear as fast as it appeared.
Look around, just about any person or entity achieving at a high level has the same focus. The morning after Tiger Woods rallied to beat Phil Mickelson at the Ford Championship in 2005, he was in the gym by 6:30 to work out. No lights. No cameras. No glitz or glamour. Uncompromised.
— Driven From Within by Michael Jordan and Mark Vancil. (Founders #213)
[36:00] Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace by James Wallace. (Founders #174)
[42:00] You can drive great people by making the speed of decision making really slow. Why would great people stay in an organization where they can't get things done? They look around after a while, and they're, like, "Look, I love the mission, but I can't get my job done because our speed of decision making is too slow."
—Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos (Founders #155)
[43:00] Alexander the Great: The Brief Life and Towering Exploits of History's Greatest Conqueror--As Told By His Original Biographers by Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius Rufus. (Founders #232)
[44:00] Gates was intolerant of distractions.
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The Network State Podcast✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out the Network State Podcast Episode Page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Tobi Lütke (Shopify Founder & CEO), Kaz Nejatian (Shopify COO), and Balaji review how Shopify rose from tiny startup to $180B+ global economy, with an annual GMV on par with the GDP of New Zealand. In the process they touch on Hayek, the Hanseatic League, merchant cavemen, the history of the corporation, and the optimal level of platform decentralization.
OUTLINE
00:00 - Introduction
02:39 - Shopify has the scale of a small country
08:49 - Lifestyle businesses take up your whole life
20:52 - SMBs can be harder than startups
27:13 - Shopify could invest in its merchants
32:23 - Shopify's economy is on par with Greece or New Zealand
38:40 - Money, time, risk, attention
39:55 - Is all retail a form of arbitrage?
47:14 - The history of the corporation informs the development of smart contracts
56:57 - Founders start as lead engineer, end up as chief psychiatrist
1:00:27 - Shopify is not just technology but community
1:06:26 - The concept of computational context
1:14:34 - Shopify as a dashboard for the global economy
1:22:48 - Atoms are so much more complex than bits
1:28:41 - Balancing centralized vs decentralized at Shopify
1:43:26 - If they could start a new country, what would Tobi and Kaz build?
2:03:28 - Kaz on working at Shopify
2:04:31 - Tobi's parting thoughts
LINKS
1) 100 true fans: kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
2) Gobekli Tepe: smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665
3) Shopify active merchant: github.com/activemerchant/active_merchant
4) Fall of Civilizations: youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations
5) Founding vs Inheriting: thenetworkstate.com/founding-vs-inheriting
6) Shopify careers: shopify.com/careers
VIDEO
YouTube: youtube.com/@thenetworkstatepodcast
CREDITS
Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep
Images: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep
SOCIAL
twitter.com/tobi
twitter.com/CanadaKaz
twitter.com/balajis
thenetworkstate.com
Y Combinator
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Almost all the advice that’s written online about hiring is written for post product-market fit companies + However, most startups are pre-product market fit + They are reading advice for a stage that they are not at now, but odds are they will never be at * Michael Seibel believes that the number of employees is one of those fun stats that second-time founders react to differently than the first time * Founders have a unique skill set – as a founder, you know the problem better than anyone else, and you know how your product works better than anyone * So much of the startup is just reacting when things are horribly broken * Generally, you should start hiring only if it’s a post-product market fit scenario and things are going well and accelerating * Over-hiring leads to a high burn rate which leads to a lower financial “runway” * If you are post product-market fit, ignore everything said and hire away + If you are pre-product, double down on everything Harj, Michael, and Brad talked about + If you don’t know if you are post or pre, don’t hire people to figure that out (lol)
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the many different mistakes founders make when they approach hiring for their startup and how to grow your team the correct way.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
A16z Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Social platforms will become a natural place for product discovery as platforms will ease the friction between inspiration, purchase intent, and completed purchases * China is mobile-only, compared to the U.S. which is mobile-first, so China tends to iterate on mobile features much faster than the U.S. * In 2019, two-thirds of Americans said they had a favorite local place they went to regularly. Four years later, that two-thirds has decreased to one-half. * Gaming bots have historically been scripted procedures but are increasingly becoming network-based AIs that are more convincing to humans * Multiplayer games of the future may consist of perfectly catered AIs specifically designed for each gamer * Brands will lean into the platforms that enable interoperability across platforms * Of the group of digital natives, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha, 2 in 5 already believe that self-expression via fashion is more important in the digital world than the physical * Generative AI will advance beyond “text to image” to more complex workflows, such as “text to SQL queries” or, eventually, “text to excel modeling” and more * Much of the truly useful data is actually proprietary enterprise data and is not widely available on the internet for AIs to train on * “If your company does not have an AI strategy, it should really be thinking about one yesterday.” – Sarah Wang * Fintech companies will need to strike a delicate balance between building with new technology rails while maintaining customer trust * Regardless of the platform shift, distribution is always key
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
At the end of 2022, our team at a16z asked dozens of partners across the firm to spotlight one big idea that startups in their fields could tackle in 2023.
Emerging from this exercise came 40+ builder-worthy pursuits for the year, ranging from entertainment franchise games to precision delivery of medicine to small modular reactors, and of course loads of AI applications.
In our 2-part series, we’ll be covering 12 of these big ideas with the partners that shared them.
Here in part 1, we’ll cover Consumer, Games, and Enterprise, with a little Fintech sprinkled in. Listen in as we chat with Connie Chan, Anne Lee Skates, Jack Soslow, Doug McCracken, Sarah Wang, and Sumeet Singh.
And look out for part 2 dropping soon, covering Fintech, American Dynamism, and Bio & Health!
For the full list of 40+ ideas, check out the full article: https://a16z.com/2022/12/15/big-ideas-in-tech-2023/
Topics Covered:
- (1:30) Breakthroughs in Buying (Finally!) - Connie Chan
- (16:40) Unlocking the “Third Place” - Anne Lee Skates
- (30:14) Games as a Neverending Turing Test - Jack Soslow
- (46:09) The Metaverse Goes Fashion Forward - Doug McCracken
- (59:24) Generative AI Advances Beyond “Text to Image” to Complex Workflows - Sarah Wang
- (1:12:23) Embracing Large Language Models and Maintaining Trust - Sumeet Singh
Stay Updated:
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z
Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out My First Million Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 370: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) talks to best-selling author, podcaster, bookstore owner, and former marketing director for American Apparel, Ryan Holiday (@RyanHoliday), about how to make money in publishing, creating a masterpiece, and investing in a ghost town.
Links:
Ryan Holiday
Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
Brass Check
The Painted Porch Bookshop
Vinyl Me, Please
Ghost Town Living
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(03:55) - Does the bestseller list still matter?
(05:30) - Breaking down the #s of the publishing industry
(29:20) - How big is your team?
(35:10) - Who do you admire?
(44:40) - The pros and cons of reality distortion fields
(50:40) - Ryan's ghost town
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Boom Supersonic is the first entrepreneurial commercial airliner startup in a century * The airliner industry has been taken over by financial types starting in the 1970s, which is one of the reasons why innovation has stalled * Don’t dismiss the thing that you actually want to create for the thing you think you’re good at because what you are good at can change with the right motivation and effort * “We’re just taking a 787, making it long and skinny, changing the wing shape, and putting in more engines.” – Blake Scholl * Very special companies, typically founder-led, are the only companies willing to cannibalize their current business to build for the future * A technically-credible founder, effective storytelling, meaningful partnerships, and top-tier talent are required for a company to succeed * Half of Boom Supersonic’s seed money came from investors that Blake knew from his previous company, and the other half came from investors that were passionate about aviation but thought he was crazy for trying to do this * When in fundraising mode, accomplish milestones that are actually progress, but also ones that look like progress * Tangible, visible, relatable progress is essential for being able to fundraise * Avoid the Bystander Effect, which describes how the more people that are watching a problem, the less likely it is that any one of those people will do something about it * Falling victim to the Bystander Effect prevents society’s most important and obvious problems from being solved
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
More than fifty years after the first Concorde took flight, consumer air travel is actually SLOWER. Blake Scholl and his team at Boom Supersonic are out to reverse this stagnation and change how we think about commercial aviation. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Scholl to learn more about the history of American aviation, the origins of Boom Supersonic and the challenges it faces now, and how tech founders are exploring unfamiliar spaces with great success.
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Having a podcast is a great excuse to talk to someone interesting for an hour * Do not start a podcast if you wouldn’t do it for free in perpetuity * Focus on what excites you and not what you think will move the metrics + Tim Ferriss did a podcast with a person on how to make violins; 80% of his subscribers probably ignored it but 20% reached out to Tim and told him it was their favorite podcast episode of the year * When you’re at a dinner table, what’s the thing that you talk about that causes people to lean in to hear what you have to say? + The answer to this question is what your podcast should be about
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Chris Hutchins recently left his position as Head of New Product Strategy at Wealthfront to focus full-time on his podcast, All the Hacks.If you’re thinking about starting your own podcast or are simply interested in the process, be sure to check out today’s episode. We dive deep on all things podcasting: the pros and cons, how to climb the charts, and how much time you should expect to spend on each episode from start to finish. We talk in-depth about the process, from pre-production to publication, and share all of the products we use for recording, editing, and publishing. Chris also offers some important tips and tricks on how to get your first subscribers and how to market and grow your podcast, as well as some incredible money-saving hacks that you can start implementing today.
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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/launching-and-growing-a-podcast-chris-hutchins-all-the-hacks-wealthfront-google/#transcript
—
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:
• Notion—One workspace. Every team: https://www.notion.com/lennyspod
• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny
• Lenny’s Job Board—Hire the best product people. Find the best product gigs: https://www.lennysjobs.com/talent
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Where to find Chris Hutchins:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hutchins
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishutchins/
• Website: https://chrishutchins.com/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
Referenced:
• All the Hacks podcast: https://www.allthehacks.com/
• All the Hacks newsletter: https://allthehacks.com/email
• Andy Rachleff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arachleff
• Kerri Walsh Jennings on All the Hacks: https://www.allthehacks.com/performance-psychology-kerri-walsh-jennings/
• Descript: https://www.descript.com/
• Erika Taught Me podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/erika-taught-me/id1650076906
• Leigh Rowan on All the Hacks: https://www.allthehacks.com/travel-hacks-leigh-rowan/
• Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans”: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
• Emily Oster’s books: https://emilyoster.net/writing/
• Chris Hutchins on The Kevin Rose Show: https://podcast.kevinrose.com/guests/chris-hutchins/
• Nick Gray’s newsletter: https://nickgray.net/signup-for-email-updates/
• The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings: https://www.amazon.com/2-Hour-Cocktail-Party-Relationships-Gatherings-ebook/dp/B0B2KW6T7J
• MrBeast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6OQ3DkcsbYNE6H8uQQuVA
• Gary Vaynerchuk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/garyvee
• The Danny Miranda Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-danny-miranda-podcast/id1532160275
• Ray Dalio on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RayDalio
• Danny Miranda’s newsletter on Substack: https://dannymiranda.substack.com/
• ATRX2100 mic bundle on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATR2100X-USB-Microphone-Bundle-Filter/dp/B082SYHRY9/r
• Riverside: https://riverside.fm/
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-Scarlett-Audio-Interface-Tools/dp/B07QR73T66
• Sony Alpha 7C mirrorless full-frame camera on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Alpha-Full-Frame-Mirrorless-Camera/dp/B08HVZLQ4F
• Adobe Audition: https://www.adobe.com/products/audition.html
• Pro Tools: https://www.avid.com/pro-tools
• Podpage: https://www.podpage.com/
• Simplecast: https://www.simplecast.com/
• Chartable: https://chartable.com/
• Podstatus: https://podstatus.com/
• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/
• Happy Money: https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Money-Ken-Honda-audiobook/dp/B07MJHJ57T/
• Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel: https://www.amazon.com/Vagabonding-Uncommon-Guide-Long-Term-Travel/dp/0812992180
• Die with Zero: https://www.amazon.com/Die-Zero-Getting-Your-Money/dp/0358099765
• Animal Spirits Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/animal-spirits-podcast/id1310192007
• Mythic Quest on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/mythic-quest
• Unclaimed money: https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money
• Savendeals.com: https://www.savendeals.com/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Chris’s background
(03:25) Lesson’s from Wealthfront
(09:25) Why storytelling and communication are every bit as important as the product
(11:04) Why you need to understand the user’s experience and keep up with what others are building
(14:56) Why you should focus on overall impact, not just doing what your boss wants
(17:39) Why Chris likes working on big, crazy ideas
(19:10) The early days of Chris’s All the Hacks podcast
(21:34) The pros and cons of starting a podcast
(24:19) The time required to produce an episode
(27:09) How Lenny started his podcast
(28:29) Launch lessons and how Apple rankings work
(30:49) Why you need to create authentic content
(32:57) Be one person’s favorite podcast
(35:01) How Chris ideated and titled All the Hacks
(40:09) How to get started and get your first subscribers
(43:52) How Gary Vaynerchuk used Twitter to establish authority
(45:07) How to take advantage of platforms with built-in growth engines
(47:42) The power of in-person interviews
(48:57) How to pitch to other podcasts
(51:27) Equipment and products for producing podcasts
(57:36) How many downloads it takes in order to be taken seriously
(1:01:28) Using Overcast as a growth lever
(1:09:02) Lightning round
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Steven Sinofsky doesn’t write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about it * The Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email * Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around * After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates’s technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” * People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time * “My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive * The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkers * Have a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework * “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky * Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go * “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.comIn this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Mailchimp was kind of an accidental business; it was originally built for just a few customers who were struggling to send out email newsletters * The freemium pricing option teleported Mailchimp’s user base from tens of thousand to over a million users within a year of adding it * It is not always better to be faster * It’s okay to be stressed and have chaotic feelings on the inside, but a calm demeanor is important to convey as a leader * “The key to happiness is staying in your lane, and knowing when people need to be in their lane. Don’t get in their lane, and don’t let them get in your lane.” – Ben Chestnut * If you are a “hands-off” leader, ensure that you are also not an “eyes-off” leader * How you are perceived as a leader is often dependent on the setting in which you are leading * Founders tend to conflate their identity with that of their business; but with time, they realize that their life is not their business when they genuinely begin to reflect on their life * Ben is grateful for easing into new levels of wealth over the course of his life instead of having a one-time, shocking liquidity event * The happiest couples have husbands who keep their damn mouth shut * “What I want the most is to not want.” – Ben Chestnut
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Ben Chestnut is the Co-Founder of Mailchimp, the all-in-one marketing platform for small businesses. Last year, in Sept 2021 it was announced that Intuit would acquire Mailchimp for a reported $12BN. There are so many things to love about the Mailchimp journey to this point. First, Mailchimp was founded as the result of a side project of a design agency Ben and his co-founder, Dan, used to run. Second, Mailchimp is and has always been based in Atalanta, eschewing the notion you have to be in SF or NYC to build a massive business. Then third, they never raised venture funding for the business all the way until their $12BN acquisition. Ben led Mailchimp to over 1,200 employees and millions of global users.
In Today's Episode with Ben Chestnut We Discuss: 1. From Mama's Kitchen to the Smell of Business and Founding Mailchimp:
- How did Ben turn a mediocre agency into the founding of Mailchimp? What was the a-ha moment?
- At what stage of the business did Ben quit the agency and go all in on Mailchimp? What sign did he need that Mailchimp had true product-market fit?
- When Ben's mother died, he bought every flower in the local town to commemorate her. How did Ben's mother impact the type of father and husband he is today? How did she impact the way that he led Mailchimp as CEO?
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Ben's fishing trips with his father played a big role in his early years, what were the single biggest lessons for Ben from his fishing trips with his father?
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Ben Chestnut: The Leader:
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How does Ben define the term "high performance" in leadership?
- What does Ben mean when he says "the secret to happiness is to stay in your lane"?
- Why would Ben describe himself as the "leader of the misfits"? How did that early experience and labeling impact both the people he hired and the culture he created at Mailchimp?
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What does Ben mean when he says he used to have a "hands off, eyes off" leadership style? What have been the single biggest drivers in his development as a leader?
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Ben Chestnut: The Person:
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Relationship to Money: How does Ben reflect on his relationship to money? How has it changed over time? Why does Ben still to this day buy lottery tickets with his wife?
- Conquering Fatherhood: What does being a great father to Ben mean? How does Ben attempt to instil the same work ethic and drive when his children are born into immense wealth?
- The secret to Marriage: What does Ben believe is the core to a successful and thriving marriage? How does Ben view his role in the marriage? How has it changed over time?
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Potential Lost Identity: A founder's identity is so closely tied to their company, how did Ben manage the challenge of selling his company but retaining his identity? What did Ben learn about himself through many different acquisition processes?
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Mailchimp: The Business:
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Why did Ben never raise venture money in the 21 year journey of Mailchimp?
- Why did Ben never accept any of the acquisition offers that came before Intuit?
- How did Ben motivate his team after they knew each acquisition offer was being turned down?
- Why did Ben decide the acquisition by Intuit was the right decision for the company?
- How does Ben view his role in the company now and moving forward?
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out My First Million Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 382: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) talk to Kevin Rose (@kevinrose), entrepreneur, founder, VC and CEO of many projects, about creating an online magazine that garners $100M/year focusing on watches, what projects he's interested in, why he loves crypto, and where he invests his money.
Links:
Kevin Rose
DIGG
Proof
Hodinkee
agelessRx
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
* Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(03:15) - Kevin's background
(13:40) - Meeting Mark Zuckerberg early in his career
(26:15) - Beginnings of Hodinkee
(33:55) - What gets you excited?
(39:00) - What ideas/projects are you interested in?
(50:30) - Web3 debate
(53:40) - Crypto
(01:13:05) - Portfolio
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Paul English has sold six companies, most notably Kayak for $2B, and is currently working on his seventh company * Paul’s internal rate of return is around 30.5% over the last several years across 60 investments * He has some “famous misses”, which include Airbnb, YouTube, Snapchat, and Dropbox * “Team first, customer second, profit third.” – Paul English * Magical teams create magical products, and magical products tend to create profits * After successfully recruiting a talented person, Paul asks them, “Do you know anyone more amazing than you?” * Companies fail because of a founder implosion or because it is trying to solve a problem that no one cares about * “It makes me sad when I see a beautiful product that solves a problem I don’t care about.” – Paul English * Find something that irritates you in your daily life and create a product that resolves that irritation * Paul questions whether a person like Elon (the richest person in the world) should have as much power as he does (control over the world’s richest source of information) * Paul thinks Elon will do something interesting with Twitter, but he’s more interested in all the Twitter replacements that will come out
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 394: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) talk with entrepreneur and Kayak co-founder, Paul English (@englishpaulm) about his latest business ideas, his famous missed investments, how to become a strong recruiter, and why he wants to create Twitter's competitor.
Links:
Paul English
Boston Venture Studio
Middle
Bipolar Social Club
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(00:25) - switched jobs for a day
(07:05) - who did you know before they met success
(13:45) - become an excellent recruiter
(20:25) - starting a company easier now?
(28:15) - Irritation becomes inspiration
(30:55) - Ideas he's working on
(34:10) - Bipolar disorder
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
* #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
A16z Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * It’s important to differentiate between the singular “metaverse” and plural “metaverses” * The metaverse can be an incredibly diverse range of experiences, but Neal understands it to be a singular metaverse with a wide variety of experiences and not multiple metaverses * Games are the closest things we have to metaverse-like experiences, such as Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft * Controversy in the gaming-crypto nexus arises from friction between the ideological crypto bros’ desire for interoperability with the game developers’ appreciation for engineering and aesthetics * “We absolutely do not need AR and VR in order to build the metaverse.” – Neal Stephenson * About 5-10% of people experience motion sickness when using state-of-the-art VR; imagine trying to popularize television in the 1950s with the caveat that 5-10% of people will throw up into a waste basket within the first 30 minutes of watching * A good way to think about the metaverse is it as a communications medium, and any communications medium is trying to reach the broadest possible audience * The question of intellectual property when it comes to things like DALL-E is an ethical question that will need to be sorted out eventually * The right of refusal must exist in the metaverse; creators must be able to dictate what their IP can and cannot be used for * People are endlessly creative in both good and bad ways; technology will continue to be used for good and for evil * Neal made his blockchain a proof-of-stake chain because it would have been weird to launch a carbon-intensive chain just after publishing a book centered around climate change * “I think the two most important things are carbon and the polarization of society.” – Neal Stephenson
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
When Neal Stephenson coined “the metaverse” three decades ago, his book Snow Crash was found on the shelves of “science fiction”. While the book remains in that category, many of its concepts are now found in reality…
Fast forward to 2022, where numerous companies are now building toward their version of the metaverse, including Neal himself – working on Lamina1 – a blockchain company oriented toward creators.
While the present metaverses don’t perfectly mimic that from Stephenson’s early imagination, we get the unique opportunity to discuss the various design decisions that he’s making, but also the intersection between the metaverse and gaming, the involvement that AR/VR might play, the evolving role of IP, how artificial intelligence fits in, what he’s building and why, and where he gets all of his ideas from.
Resources:
Neal’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nealstephenson
Lamina1’s website: https://www.lamina1.com/
Stay Updated:
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z
Find us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app:https://a16z.simplecast.com/
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out My First Million’s Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 388: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) talk to Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) about starting Braintree - which he sold for hundreds of millions - and is his current businesses as Founder/CEO of Kernel and his own personal project Blueprint, where he's working to reduce his biological age.
Links:
-
Braintree
-
Kernel
-
Blueprint
-
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
-
Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(03:25) - Background starting w/Braintree
(15:30) - Financial plans and life changes
(21:45) - Where do you put your money
(27:05) - What does Kernel do
(36:55) - Blueprint blog
(57:40) - Goal alignment
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
-
169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Value Hive Podcast ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The first rule of marketing is you can’t be remembered if you don’t stand out * Every business can be described through the Five Pillars: Brand, Channel, Technology, Demand Creation, and Operations * The brand is the gut feeling you induce, in your ideal clients, when they interact with your product * Doomberg has a “Get to, Have to” ratio, which describes how much of their day is spent doing things they get to do, and how much of their day is spent doing things they have to do + Maximize Get to, minimize Have to * The amount of work required to be successful cannot be done unless you’re truly passionate about whatever it is you’re working on * “If you have a genuine mindset of continuous improvement, there’s no such thing as a struggle. There is only an opportunity to observe data and improve.” – Doomberg * Doomberg doesn’t begin to write a piece without the perfect title * The team prioritizes quality over sticking to some arbitrary, self-imposed, internal publishing cadence * For a piece to go viral, it must capture the zeitgeist of the moment * What makes for a great piece: hook your ideal clients in with a great story, keep them interested with a great transition, deliver the promised goods, and then wrap it up tightly * Most of the people who pay for your content do so because they like you and they want you to succeed * The net present value of giving is infinite; authentically give, give, give, and sometimes money shows up * The environmental movement in the United States has a history of anti-human, Malthusian pessimists who were terrified of what humans would do with abundant, cost-effective energy * Nuclear energy solves all the problems related to energy and climate; there are no new technical inventions required, only political will and ambition * “The fascination with wind and solar, we believe, is because they know it won’t work. They don’t want it to work. If they wanted it to work, we’d be doing nuclear.” – Doomberg * Don’t get distracted from the things that drove your initial success in an effort to “grab more”
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Hey Guys! I started The Value Hive Podcast three years ago on the floor of my bedroom in my parents house. Today, I interviewed the iconic green cartoon chicken Doomberg. Lesson? Work hard and you too can interview cartoon chickens. This episode is a behind the scenes of what happens inside the hen house. Going from idea generation to the first draft, then to editing and publishing. How to use twitter to create demand. Why having a good enough title is is essential for crossing the chasm into virality, and lessons learned from starting Doomberg and what the future holds.
- [0:00] The Story behind Doomberg
- [4:50] The Story behind the Name and the iconic Chicken
- [6:20] The Five Pillars of a Business
- [9:20] Pillar #1: Brand
- [16:00] Struggles of Running a Newsletter
- [27:00] Crossing the Chasm into Virality
- [32:00] Idea Generation to First Draft
- [40:00] Editing the First Draft
- [48:30] Lessons Learned from Starting Doomberg
- [51:00] Demand Creation: Impressions.
- [1:03:00] Long/Short based on Doomberg Articles
- [1:09:40] Twitter Q&A: The Best Energy Policy in the World?
- [1:12:00] The Future of Doomberg
- [1:23:00] More from Doomberg and Closing Questions
Finally, a big thanks to the following sponsors for making the podcast a reality.
Mitimco
This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company, also known as MITIMCo, the investment office of MIT. Each year, MITIMCo invests in a handful of new emerging managers who it believes can earn exceptional long-term returns in support of MIT's mission. To help the emerging manager community more broadly, they created emergingmanagers.org, a website for emerging manager stockpickers.
For those looking to start a stock-picking fund or just looking to learn about how others have done it, I highly recommend the site. You'll find essays and interviews by successful emerging managers, service providers used by MIT's own managers, essays MITIMCo has written for emerging managers and more!
Quartr
Quartr is revolutionizing the way investors interact with IR departments, listen to conference calls, and conduct research. The best way to think of Quartr is like Spotify for investor conference calls. Quartr is 100% free and includes markets from 12+ countries (with plans to expand in the future!). Investors can easily request new companies, and Quartr is quick to add them. You can learn more about Quartr by visiting their site, Quartr.se
If you're interested in changing the way you research companies, download the app today and give it a try on Apple and Android.
Tegus
Tegus has the world’s largest collection of instantly available interviews on all the public and private companies you care about. Tegus actually makes primary research fun and effortless, too. Instead of weeks and months, you can learn a new industry or company in hours, and all from those that know it best.
I spend nearly all my time reading Tegus calls. And I know you will too. If you’re interested, head on over to tegus.co/valuehive for a free trial to see for yourself.
TIKR
TIKR is THE BEST resource for all stock market data, I use TIKR every day in my process, and I know you will too. Make sure to check them out at TIKR.com/hive.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valuehive/support
The Danny Miranda Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * All else being equal, the person who knows how to write a good cold email will be exponentially more successful than the person who doesn’t * Networking is not just about getting contact information; it’s figuring out how to help the person you connect with * Spend time with people that give you energy when you are around them * Put yourself in a position where you are excited about what you are doing * Persistence is required for success; you will eventually figure it out if you stay at it long enough * Think of the brand you are creating as a person, and brainstorm where this person would hang out, what platform they would use, who they would interact with online, etc. * Nik believes there will one day be a “Feastables Mafia” like there is a PayPal Mafia today
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Nik Sharma is a brand builder. He's the creator of Sharma Brands (a marketing agency that's worked with MrBeast and Emma Chamberlain). In this conversation, we spoke about not going to college, how he's used Twitter effectively, the two skills everyone should learn if they're about to graduate college, and how he got in contact with Mark Cuban via cold email.
(0:00) Bob The Builder
(2:16) Nik’s Childhood Teacher
(6:39) Skills To Learn
(9:49) Mark Cuban Email
(13:45) Vibes
(14:40) David Perell Friendship
(16:08) Saving Cousin’s Life
(18:49) Death
(21:11) Building A Brand
(26:55) Working With MrBeast
(33:30) Working With Emma Chamberlain
(37:04) Small Inflection Points
(40:45) Not Going To College
(47:00) Gary Vaynerchuk
(49:55) Scaling Sharma Brands
(53:39) Twitter
(59:20) Challenge
Nik's Links
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsharma
Cold Email Thread: https://twitter.com/mrsharma/status/1463205121979002890
My Links
✉️ Newsletter: https://dannymiranda.substack.com
🎙 Podcast: https://anchor.fm/dannymiranda
🎥 YouTube: https://youtube.com/dannymiranda
🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/heydannymiranda
📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/heydannymiranda
🕺 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@heydannymiranda
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check Out the 20VC Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Chris Sacca is the Founder and Chairman @ Lowercase Capital, one of the best performing funds in the history of venture capital with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more.
- From interviewing some of the world's richest married couples, how did gaining wealth change their relationship and marriage?
- What does Chris do to actively ensure his children remain hungry and know the value of money?
Chamath Palihapitiya is Founder & CEO @ Social Capital. Social’s portfolio includes the likes of Slack, Yammer, Front, Intercom and Carta to name a few.
- What does Chamath mean when he says we need to think through the mindset of "infinite games" not finite games? How does this change how you think about money?
- How does Chamath think about his relationship to risk today as a result?
Brad Gerstner is the Founder and CEO of Altimeter. Brad’s notable deals that he has helped lead include Snowflake, Mongo, Bytedance, Gusto, Unity, Okta, dbt, Modern Treasury, EPIC Games, Hotel Tonight and Zillow.
- What is the most important thing parents can do to ensure that despite wealth, their children remain grounded and ambitious?
- Why does Brad, despite being a billionaire, still live in a modest house and not spend on the excesses of life? How does Brad embrace essentialism with wealth?
Cyan Banister is one of the most successful and renowned early-stage investors in the last decade. Her portfolio includes the likes of SpaceX, Uber, Affirm, Opendoor Postmates, Niantic and Thumbtack to name a few.
- Why did Cyan used to hate money? Why was she "anti-capitalist"?
- How does Cyan approach risk management today? Why does she invest every dollar she makes back into the ecosystem?
George Zachary is a General Partner @ CRV, one of the nation's oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with a portfolio including the likes of Airtable, DoorDash, Dropbox, Niantic and many more.
- What did George learn about how the way people view you changes with your increasing wealth?
- Why does George believe rich people like to hang out with rich people?
Biz Stone is best known as the Co-Founder of Twitter and Medium. Biz is also an investor in the likes of Slack, Square, Intercom, Beyond Meat and Blue Bottle Coffee.
- What does Biz mean when he says, "wealth only serves to amplify the person you are?"
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Most people think that luck and risk are outside of their control, but that may not be entirely true * The four types of luck: blind luck, fortune favors the bold, chance favors the prepared mind and the luck that finds you * The four types of risk: mediocrity, safety, eyes-wide-shut, and market-execution-technical risk * Mediocrity is the biggest risk for someone that wants to be great * Instead of only thinking about putting your personal self at risk, think about whether or not you’re putting your dream at risk * Objectively evaluate if your current trajectory is leading you to where you ultimately want to be * People often think starting a company is risky, but the worst thing that can happen is it fails and you learn things along the way
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode #380: Shaan Puri (@shaanvp) talks about the different kinds of luck, how to put yourself in a position to be lucky, and how to mitigate different kinds of risk.
To submit your question and hear yourself on My First Million, go to MFMPod.com and click on the circle with the microphone in the lower right hand corner.
Links:
-
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
-
Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
-
169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Nudge - Marketing Science Simplified✓Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Jose Mourinho is known for his psychological approach to games, using mind games in press conferences and interviews to undermine his opposition and motivate his team * A mind game is psychologically manipulative behavior intended to discomfort another person or gain an advantage over them * He uses three mind game tactics to improve his team’s chances of success: signaling, reactants, and reframing * Signaling: conveying information, belief, and trust by means of a gesture, an action, or a sound * Reactants: the motivation to regain something after it has been lost, threatened, or taken away from you * Reframing: explaining a situation in a different way to help his players look at a problem from another angle * Using signaling and reactants to influence, persuade, and motivate can work, but not if they’re used endlessly; eventually, they will start to lose their potency or backfire on you * Be sure to match signaling with humility; as the leader, it is vital to take responsibility for bad results * When people are told they cannot do something, the forbidden activity becomes more attractive and alluring to people, i.e. if you tell someone they can’t do something, they are far more motivated to do it * Approaches that work for Jose might not work for you; he is a one-of-a-kind operating in a unique setting
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Jose Mourinho is one of the world's most successful football managers. He has consistently turned good teams into the world’s best. He’s done so by signing fantastic players, by mastering tactics, but also by using psychological mind games to motivate his players and undermine his opposition.
In this episode, I share interviews with Mourinho to pick apart why he used mind games, what he aimed to achieve, and whether or not they really worked.
Sign up for the Nudge Newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_agnew
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3mcmaiZ
Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Virtual Reality (VR) is the final platform because the only step after VR is mind-melding into the Borg; fully-formed VR makes technologies like phones, televisions, and desktop PCs obsolete * Palmer Luckey started a national security company because he thought it was the most important problem that he could work on, and one that his peers were not working on * Big Tech companies were refusing to work with the military because they were beholden to the US’s strategic adversaries * There is a vocal minority in tech who are anti-military, and the tech executives at these companies use this vocal minority as a smoke-screen reason to not do meaningful work with the US military when in reality the executives are just trying to appease China * Most defense companies operate on a cost-plus basis: they are paid for time and materials, and then a fixed percentage of profit on top * Cost-plus contracts warp incentives; defense contractors can make more money by taking longer, designing a more expensive system, and running over on costs because the percentage they make on top is just a percentage of those costs * Anduril uses its own money to build the products it sells to the US military and its allies * Many countries “Stand with Ukraine” and “Reject Russian Violence” while simultaneously giving Russia billions of dollars to fund its war machine in exchange for oil and natural gas + They stand with Ukraine up until the point it inconveniences them * The best time to wave the magic wand to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict was years or decades ago * Palmer Luckey believes China is more likely to launch a blockade around Taiwan than a full-scale invasion * The worst-case scenario for the United States is the CCP gains control over Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and only allows semiconductors to be sent to China * Palmer Luckey believes that the next-generation category of power projection technologies (AI, hypersonics, etc.) will make the traditional category (aircraft carriers, Top Gun stuff) obsolete * There is a cultural fetishization of being “the founder”, that is healthy in some ways, but it downplays the importance of other roles at startups like the chief technical officer, lead hardware engineer, etc. * Do not start a technology company if you really love technology and programming
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders.
Infinite Loops
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The majority of companies who have made money on the internet have done so via closed AI; Stability AI is an open source alternative to Big Tech’s closed AI system * Open systems are more robust, resilient, and safe than closed systems which often become brittle, fragile, and centralized * People are not the same around the world; the moral and ethical conversation around AI improves when more people from all around the world can participate * The last generation of AI was patterns-based; the next generation of AI will be principles-based * Combining principles-based AI with patterns-based AI will solve problems that were previously unsolvable * The AI of the future will be too powerful to be controlled by any one company or government; that would be too much power for an unelected company, and governments should not control it either * Giving everyone personalized access to intelligent resources will enable everyone to out-compete the legacy systems and create a better world * Open AI helps shift society’s mindset from scarcity to abundance * It’s important for AI to be open so that countermeasures can be built to prevent corporations and governments from creating the panopticon * A closed, AI-enhanced government would make it impossible for the individual to rise up and change its government * AI is the greatest lever that humanity has ever been given, according to Jim O’Shaughnessy * Artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful technologies that we’ve created because this technology is us and extends us * The bad guys have this tech right now; in order to limit the damage they can do, AI must be made open to benefit most from cognitive diversity
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Emad Mostaque is the founder and CEO of Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion.
Emad joins Stability AI’s recently announced Executive Chair of the board of directors Jim O’Shaughnessy to discuss the future of AI, the benefits of open source software, and much more.
Important Links:
- Stability AI
- Stable Diffusion Launch Announcement
- Stability AI’s Twitter
- Emad’s Twitter
- Jim’s announcement as Executive Chair
Show Notes:
- The open vs closed AI debate
- How will open AI lead to better outcomes for AI safety?
- How will AI allow us to to solve previously unsolvable problems?
- How AI can transform education
- AI and storytelling
- What is ‘clean’ data?
- Can AI technology increase IQs across the entire world?
- The future: optimism, pessimism, jobs, AI alignment and the panopticon
- Why closed AI is a bad business model
- Anticipating and defending against future problems
- What two ideas would you like to give everyone in the world?
Books Mentioned:
- The WEIRDest People in the World; by Joseph Henrich
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * It’s an end of an era for Big Tech: they’re transitioning from a phase of unfettered growth into their next phase where they must learn to operate like a cash-cow business * When the growth engines of Apple and Google slow, other tech companies don’t have to offer competitive compensation, extra benefits, and extravagant workplace environments to compete for talent as they once did * “Nobody is talking about a soft landing anymore. In fact, I think we’re all wondering who is flying the plane.” – David Sacks on the Federal Reserve * Financial markets have always had a “Fed Put”, which is a level of pain that is reached that forces the Federal Reserve to step into the market and be a buyer of last resort * “The investments that one makes in this period will probably be the best for many many years to come because they’ll have the most asymmetric upside.” – Chamath Palihapitiya * The Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the last two administrations, printed $10 trillion over the last couple of years which has caused inflation to soar * There is $300T of global debt; if interest rates increase from 0% to 5%, that’s an increase of $15T in annual debt service, which is 18% of global GDP + Chamath sympathizes with Friedberg’s concerns over global debt but thinks perpetual bailouts will continue to negate the consequences of rising debt levels * The rate-setting process should leverage more of today’s technology; humans setting the rate in quarter-percent increments every couple of weeks seems archaic to Friedberg * “If you have these irrational central bankers that are willing to constantly bail people out, you will never get a high-functioning government because the policy is irrelevant.”– Chamath Palihapitiya * Europe slept-walked its way into WWI in 1914, which is something David Sacks thinks the United States could be doing today * David’s primary gripe inShould America Go All In On Ukraine is the U.S. media’s narrative that “Putin is bluffing”; we cannot know that he is definitely bluffing, and the stakes of being wrong are too high * Wealthy and powerful people in the U.S. might begin to put political pressure on their representatives to resolve the Russia-Ukraine issue because of the strain the conflict has placed on the markets and their portfolios * “I think that the markets would have reacted much much more negatively to a nuclear incident three months ago than now, and may not even react as much as we think it would three months from now.” – Chamath Palihapitiya on Sept. 30, 2022
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
0:00 Bestie intros!
1:36 Big tech starts making cuts, plus what this means for the broader economy and startups
31:09 Global debt numbers, Fed incompetency
54:06 RIP Coolio
1:00:30 Russia / Ukraine update
Follow the besties:
https://twitter.com/chamath
https://linktr.ee/calacanis
https://twitter.com/DavidSacks
https://twitter.com/friedberg
Follow the pod:
https://twitter.com/theallinpod
https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast
Intro Music Credit:
https://rb.gy/tppkzl
https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg
Intro Video Credit:
https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect
Referenced in the show:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-29/meta-announces-hiring-freeze-warns-employees-of-restructuring
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/META:NASDAQ
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/AAPL:NASDAQ
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/GOOG:NASDAQ
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/stanley-druckenmiller-sees-hard-landing-in-2023-with-a-possible-deeper-recession-than-many-expect.html
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NFLX:NASDAQ
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/if-youre-going-to-build-something-from-scratch-this-might-be-as-good-a-time-as-in-a-decade
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/05/11/billionaire-investor-druckenmiller-blasts-feds-radical-stimulus-policy-warns-it-risks-stock-bubble-blowing-up
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/cnbc-transcript-duquesne-family-office-chairman-ceo-stanley-druckenmiller-speaks-with-cnbcs-joe-kernen-live-during-the-cnbc-delivering-alpha-conference-today.html
https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=1M
https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/unemp-per-job-opening.htm
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSJOL
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-nation-of-quitters-great-enabling-exodus-working-age-men-parents-stimulus-covid-quit-retirement-bohemian-videogame-11664112795
https://goop.com/subscribe
https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-host-kremlin-ceremony-annexing-parts-ukraine-2022-09-29
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-says-ukraine-applying-nato-membership-2022-09-30
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/qa-nord-stream-gas-sabotage-whos-being-blamed-why-2022-09-30
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/former-polish-foreign-minister-thanks-us-for-damaging-nord-stream-pipeline/2696530
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/should-america-go-all-in-on-ukraine
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “You can learn good lessons from bad people.” – Sam Parr * Throw away your shame and embarrassment, fully commit to the bit, and you’re going to be really successful * Hitler, Napoleon, Caesar, and Jeff Bezos all took tons of resources and focused them on a very small point + This was Blitzkrieg for the Nazis and is Blitzscaling for the business world * Most successful people have addictive personalities; they are addicted to something, it just so happens that it is something positive * Highly successful people are likely born with a propensity to addiction * People born with a propensity to addiction could end up conquering a vast European empire or could get hooked on drugs and end up a junkie on the streets * Times of turmoil call for leaders who are mentally ill, whereas times of stability call for non-mentally ill leaders, according to author Nassir Ghaemi * Truly charismatic people make the people they interact with feel special * Many of the great dictators and CEOs were great orators; great orating starts with great writing * It’s tempting to obsess over planning and preparing when a bias towards measurable action oftentimes results in more success * Over planning is self-masturbation and a bullshit way to convince yourself that you’re actually doing something when instead you should just start and figure it out along the way * “It’s way better to execute a bad plan than to execute no plan.” – Sam Parr + Rookies should start their business today, generate $1 in revenue in the first five days, and get addicted to hearing the “cha-ching” sound from their Shopify store * In business, you don’t always need to know the math behind things, or why certain things work and certain things don’t; you just need to try stuff until you find out what works
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 369: Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Producer Ben (@BenWilsonTweets) take a turn with One Question Friday... instead of a question they discuss traits of conquerors from yesterday and today.
Links:
-
My First Million
-
How To Take Over The World
-
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
-
Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(02:25) - lessons from Hitler
(10:45) - lessons from Edison
(10:25) - addictive personalities
(18:10) - charismatic people
(26:25) - bias to action
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
-
169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
The Rational Reminder Podcast ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Takeaways * Here is a summary breakdown of expected returns for alternative asset classes:
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
The type of assets which usually come to mind when considering investments are stocks, bonds, or cash, but what are the alternatives? And what kind of returns do alternative asset classes offer? In today’s episode, we delve into the returns which can be expected from alternative asset classes such as private equity, venture capital, angel investing, private credit, hedge funds, direct real estate, and cryptocurrencies. Hear an in-depth analysis based on empirical studies and the expertise of your hosts, Ben and Cameron, to discover whether there is any merit to alternative asset classes as investments. We unpack the extra layer of complexity associated with predicting returns on alternative assets, how to approach calculating returns, and why the associated fees are an essential consideration. We also hear details about an interesting conference Cameron recently attended and briefly recap cryptocurrencies as an investment. You’ll also hear our conversation with our 22 in 22 reading challenge guest David Senra about his reading habits, the books that most inspire him, and his advice for people who want to read more.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Outline of today’s main topic: expected returns for alternative asset classes. (0:01:51)
- Why predicting returns of alternative asset classes has an extra layer of complexity. (0:03:18)
- How to approach estimating the returns of private equity, specifically buyouts. (0:05:04)
- We unpack historical data regarding the returns of private equity. (0:07:35)
- Calculating the returns on venture capital and reasons to be cautious about it as an asset class. (0:16:35)
- The distribution of returns from venture capital based on the market numbers. (0:20:09)
- Learn what angel investing is and its associated returns. (0:20:54)
- What returns on angel investing are most dependent on and why. (0:22:21)
- The different types and the associated returns. (0:25:23)
- Hear about the fees associated with private credit. (0:27:42)
- We unravel the concept of hedge funds, the associated fees, and expected returns. (0:29:29)
- A limiting factor on hedge funds: capacity constraints. (0:33:38)
- The takeaway regarding private real estate investments. (0:36:25)
- How private real estate is valued as an asset class. (0:37:48)
- Cryptocurrencies and the returns to be expected. (0:39:34)
- We discuss some of the key takeaways from today’s main topic. (0:43:30)
- We follow up on a previous topic we covered: financial literacy. (0:45:10)
- Find out about an interesting conference that Cameron recently attended. (0:48:46)
- Hear about the recent reviews we have received about the podcast. (0:57:58)
- We introduce our 22 and 22 reading challenge guest, David Senra. (01:00:15)
- Where David’s passion for reading about founders originates from. (01:02:25)
- David shares details about his reading habits. (01:05:57)
- His approach to finding founders that he wants to read about. (01:08:49)
- David’s approach to note taking while reading a book. (01:11:07)
- We learn about the stories that have impacted David the most. (01:13:53)
- He explains the benefits of reading a book for a second time. (01:17:11)
- Books about founders that he thinks everyone should read. (01:19:20)
- David’s observation of the role of luck in a founder’s success story. (01:23:19)
- Advice he has for people who want to read more. (01:29:33)
Links From Today’s Episode:
AQR Capital Management — https://www.aqr.com/
BlackRock Asset Management — https://www.blackrock.com
Bank of America — https://www.bankofamerica.com/
‘The risk and return of venture capital’ — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X04001564
‘Performance of Private Credit Funds: A First Look' — https://jai.pm-research.com/content/21/2/31.short
‘Do Hedge Funds Hedge?’ — https://jpm.pm-research.com/content/28/1/6.short
‘The Performance of Hedge Fund Performance Fees’ — https://www.nber.org/papers/w27454
‘Higher risk, lower returns: What hedge fund investors really earn’ — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304405X1100016X
‘Another Look at Private Real Estate Returns by Strategy’ — https://jpm.pm-research.com/content/45/7/95/tab-pdf-trialist
'The Characteristics and Portfolio Behavior of Bitcoin Investors: Evidence from Indirect Cryptocurrency Investments' — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3501549
‘Beliefs and the Disposition Effect’ — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3516567
‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy: The Power of Personal Experiences in Risk Taking’ — https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2506627
S&P Global FinLit Survey — https://gflec.org/initiatives/sp-global-finlit-survey/
Future Proof Conference — https://futureproof.advisorcircle.com/
Invest Like the Best Podcast — https://investlikethebest.libsyn.com/
David Senra on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-senra-278843236/
David Senra on Twitter — https://twitter.com/FoundersPodcast?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
David Senra on Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/david.senra.1
The Founders Podcast — https://founders.simplecast.com/
A Triumph of Genius — https://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Genius-Edwin-Polaroid-Patent/dp/1627227695
Cable Cowboy — https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Cowboy-Malone-Modern-Business/
Titan — https://www.amazon.com/Rare-Chernow-Titan-Life-Rockefeller/
A Man for All Markets — https://www.amazon.com/Man-All-Markets-Street-Dealer/
Against the Odds — https://www.amazon.com/Against-Odds/
Estee: A Success Story — https://www.amazon.com/Estee-Success-Story-Lauder/
Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582.
Rational Reminder Website — https://rationalreminder.ca/
Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/?hl=en
Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/
Ben Felix — https://www.pwlcapital.com/author/benjamin-felix/
Ben on Twitter — https://twitter.com/benjaminwfelix
Ben on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
Cameron Passmore — https://www.pwlcapital.com/profile/cameron-passmore/
Cameron on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CameronPassmore
Cameron on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpassmore/
Knowledge Project
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * When scaling a company: “You have to be constantly evolving your learning pattern. What got you here, won’t get you there.”– Reid Hoffman + Examples: how you organize your management (work vs management duties in each role), go-to-market strategy (how to get new sales), adjusting the cadence of hiring (promoting from within vs outside org) + This applies to our lives too, not just business! * Want to be a better leader?“Root for better angels on people”– Shane Parrish quoting Reid Hoffman + Make everyone the hero of their own story—people often don’t realize their own potential to make the world a better place * It’s timely and costly not to have a process for making fast decisions, here’s how to improve (continue reading for more detailed instructions): + Be an explicit leaner + Learn your set of decision-guiding questions + Identify irreversible consequences * You should never try to optimize opportunity cost to be 100% efficient + Some of your decisions will seem like an opportunity cost upfront but turn out to be one of your most valuable experiences + You must leave yourself some room for exploration and serendipity
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Few figures have shaped the way we think about business over the past 20 years more than Reid Hoffman. The co-founder of LinkedIn and former PayPal executive is also a wildly successful venture capitalist, author and podcaster, but he didn’t get to his place as a Silicon Valley giant without making plenty of crucial decisions. On this episode Hoffman discusses lessons learned from decades spent as a hands-on operator and investor, including what he knows about scaling that others miss, the three principles of decision making, how to constantly evolve your learning pattern, and why the best leaders adapt to the crisis at hand.
Hoffman is perhaps best known for co-founding the professional networking site LinkedIn, which he started in 2003 and later sold for a reported $26.2 billion to Microsoft in 2016. Prior to founding LinkedIn, Hoffman was one of the first employees at PayPal, where he served as an executive vice president. He is also a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, an investor in Airbnb, the author of a series of successful business books including Masters of Scale, and the host of the podcast of the same name.
Want to hear the entire episode with Reid Hoffman? Become a member today! Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more.
Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/
Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/
Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish
Pod of Jake
Podcast Notes Takeaways * Brian Armstrong felt like a failure when he was 28: all of his friends were making good money and had careers, and he was a failed entrepreneur * All of his “failures” contributed to his eventual successes when looking back with hindsight, but at the moment they only feel like failures * A heuristic for entrepreneurs unsure what to do: work on something that is the most interesting and most awesome thing to you * Technology is one of the greatest levers to improve the world, which includes money as a technology * Bitcoin is a technology that can inject economic freedom into countries all over the world * “Everything in business comes back to hiring great people.” – Brian Armstrong * Coinbase has taken a philosophy from Amazon.com called “Disagree and Commit”: even if you disagree with a decision that has been made, you must still work really hard to make it a success * Brian Armstrong borrowed the 70/20/10 resource allocation strategy from Google: spend 70% of resources on the core business, 20% on adjacent bets, and 10% on venture bets * Trying to change the world with policy and government intervention is inefficient and tends to create unintended consequences; it is better to change the world with science and technology * Asking the mainstream media to objectively cover the tech industry is like asking Pepsi for a fair review of Coca Cola * “The business section of the New York Times is basically an anti-business section.” – Brian Armstrong
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Brian is the Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency company on a mission to increase economic freedom in the world. He is also a Co-founder of NewLimit, a biotechnology company working to radically extend human healthspan, and ResearchHub, which is aiming to accelerate the pace of scientific research. In 2018, Brian launched a nonprofit called GiveCrypto.org and signed the Giving Pledge, committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes throughout his lifetime. Follow Brian on Twitter @brian_armstrong.
[2:18] - Brian's origin story
[9:33] - Reflections on his early career and how it prepared him to start Coinbase
[16:02] - Coinbase’s mission to increase economic freedom in the world, and why economic freedom is important
[23:34] - The challenges of building through crypto's hype cycles and scaling Coinbase at a rapid pace
[31:08] - An introduction to The RAPID Decision-Making Framework
[35:36] - How years of experience with remote employees helped Coinbase become a remote-first company
[45:24] - Repeatable innovation and the rationale for Coinbase’s 70/20/10 strategy for resource allocation
[54:34] - Coinbase’s contrarian decision to work with regulators from the beginning, and how it is increasingly leaning in on decentralization
[1:03:38] - Extending the human healthspan, an overview of NewLimit, and epigenetic reprogramming
[1:15:25] - Prioritizing "new media" over mainstream media
[1:21:12] - How ResearchHub can enable more open science and help build a bridge from scientific research to commercial products
Support the show by checking out my sponsors:
Join Levels and get personalized insights to learn about your metabolic health. Go to https://levels.link/jake.
https://homeofjake.com
My First Million
Podcast Notes Intro * Sam Parr (@thesamparr) is an American businessman and podcaster co-hosting the My First Million podcast. He is best known for founding The Hustle Media Production company and selling it to HubSpot for an estimated $27 million. * Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) is an entrepreneur, investor, and co-host of the My First Million podcast. He shares insights and frameworks on his website and newsletter, which has +30K subscribers. * In this conversation, Sam and Shaan field six pitches from founders trying to raise capital for their respective startups. This is My First Million meets Shark Tank! * Check out these Podcast Notes from Sam and Shaan’s conversation with the guy that bought Sam’s company
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Episode 356: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) with the help of Stonks.com , listen to six entrepreneurs pitch their business in hopes of getting Shaan and Sam to invest.
- To watch this podcast, head over to our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/OKI1X1qFgwg
Links:
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Cherry
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Pillup
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Campus Ink
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Terrashroom
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Dealbuilder
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Field Complete
-
Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
-
Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(05:35) - Luke @ Cherry
(17:40) - Ankur @ Pillup
(30:05) - Steven @ Campus Ink
(42:45) - Jared @ Terrashroom
(54:10) - Morgan @ Dealbuilder
(01:04:05) - Tim @ Field Complete
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
-
169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Mark Pesce - The Next Billion Seconds ✓
Claimed
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The United States does not have a great history of exporting things to countries before conflicts happen * “The big defense primes are not in the position to build the right things, partly because the government has created the wrong incentives for them to do so.” – Palmer Luckey * “The point of high-end defense technology is not to win a war that has already started; it’s to deter that war from happening, to make the cost of engaging in that war so high that it never happens.” – Palmer Luckey * “The real reason that these tech companies were not doing work with the United States military, or foreign allied militaries, was that they were afraid of upsetting China.” – Palmer Luckey * Until Anduril became the third unicorn in 2019, there were only two unicorns in the defense industry since the Cold War: Palantir and SpaceX * It took billionaire-founders with previous success starting companies for venture capitalists to invest in the defense industry * Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced many venture capitalists to reconsider their assumptions about investing in defense tech * Some countries are willing to do irrational things that disrupt their economic relationships with other countries; irrational wars and conflicts are prevalent throughout history * “I think the odds of a direct, hot war between the U.S and China are very very low. I think the odds of a proxy conflict over minerals in South America, South Africa, or Southeast Asia are quite high.” – Palmer Luckey * Anduril is the answer to the question: “What would a next-generation Lockheed Martin look like?” * Without giving away Anduril’s entire roadmap, the future of defense will have a lot of autonomous things across air, land, sea, subsea, and space all working together * Palmer is more concerned about evil people using very basic AI than extremely advanced AI taking over the world in a Skynet scenario * The U.S. must be involved in the technology (nuclear, autonomous weapons, etc.) if it wants to lead and potentially regulate how those technologies are used in the rest of the world * “I want to save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year while we [Anduril] make tens of billions of dollars a year.” – Palmer Luckey
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this live interview with Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey - joined by Anduril Chief Engineer Shane Arnott - we look at the future of defense, geopolitics, and Australia's future in a transformed Indo-Pacific region. Have we shifted toward a defense-driven future? For more information about this and all our other Next Billion Seconds content, please check out https://nextbillionseconds.com
Mark Pesce - The Next Billion Seconds is produced by Ampel - visit https://ampel.com.au to find out what Ampel could do for you! If you are interested in sponsoring The Next Billion Seconds podcast, reach out to our Director of Media and Partnerships Lauren Deighton at lauren@ampel.com.au If you enjoyed this show, please leave a rating and/or review on Apple, Spotify or any other podcast platform.
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Modern Wisdom
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Have a vector that orients your time, attention, and energy towards achieving your goal, and allow for subroutines to develop off of that vector that get you closer to your goal * Design an information diet like you would design your diet with food: this information is good, this information is bad, don’t consume this type of information, only consume this type of media during this specific time of day, etc. * Failing restaurants add sugar to their meals as a last-ditch effort to attract patrons back to their restaurant, and the legacy media does the same with information * Twitter is the public war zone; it is the new parliament where ideas are shared and challenged, and it’s actually upstream of governments + You can learn a lot from Twitter by following interesting people and accounts, but it is easy to overdose on the serendipity of it * “What thesmartest people do on the weekends is what everyone else will do during the week in 10 years.” – Chris Dixon * Technologies that Balaji is interested in today: digital nomadism, a “full crypto life”, AI content creation, and synthesis search engines * Wars fought today will not look like wars fought in the past; they will include terrorism, social media memes, hacks, de-platforming, assassination, and more + The new form of war is better because it’s less destructive to property, but it’s worse because the battlefield is everywhere and nowhere * America’s conflict won’t be blue vs. red, it will be green vs. orange, or at a higher level: centralization vs. decentralization * “I am not very confident in America’s hard power in a serious fight with China in its own backyard because America is overconfident.” – Balaji Srinivasan * Russia cannot give up on Ukraine; China cannot give up on Taiwan; America can and probably will give up on Ukraine and Taiwan like it gave up on Afghanistan * The resolution of the government’s war with Big Tech is to effectively nationalize Big Tech, regardless of the justification, and it will justify its measures in the name of combatting Chinese Control * Choosing betweenAmerican Anarchy and Chinese Control is not ideal for most countries or most people * The Cold War had a “third world” consisting of non-aligned countries with neither the U.S. nor the Soviets, but it was significantly behind the U.S. and Soviet blocs + Balaji thinks a third group could emerge in the America-China conflict, but perhaps this time, it comes in first because of the modern technologies that empower the individual
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Balaji Srinivasan is an entrepreneur and essayist, he was co-founder of Counsyl, former chief technology officer of Coinbase and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Our information diets are making us mentally fat. Whether it's fake news, mis or disinformation, state propaganda or conspiracy theories, the world is very difficult to navigate. Balaji also wants to start a new type of country, he has views on how to optimise your working day and he generates more new ideas than almost anyone. Today we get an insight into his thought process behind all of this.
Expect to learn why socialism always continues to arise across the world, how Balaji tracks all of the ideas he has in his head, why Singapore is a powerhouse of a new country, how immigration will deal with remote VR workers in India, why everyone should use a dashboard to track what's going on in their life, the key trick that the legacy media uses to manipulate you and much more...
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Extra Stuff:
Read The Network State - https://thenetworkstate.com/
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Follow Balaji on Twitter - https://twitter.com/balajis
Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/
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Get in touch.
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Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE welcomes back go-to-market expert and Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer Mark Leslie for the second of their two-part interview, this time focusing on the role and responsibilities of a CEO and a deep dive into Leslie’s Compass, an essential set of heuristics for every startup founder. Leslie also discusses the value of founders focusing on a five-year plan for their startup, why it’s challenging to make meaningful change inside a large company, and why every founder should understand the relationship between their sales and marketing departments.
Where It Happens ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Think of crafting an early-stage startup like you’d create a movie + Write the script ahead of time, identify and place the ideal profiles in the appropriate roles, lock everyone in a room for six to twelve months, forge product-market fit, and emerge with the product * All other variables held constant, an in-person startup will beat out a remote startup * The best way to level the playing field is through our republic democracy via votes and policy; early-stage startups should not be forced to be the catalyst for implementing political change * “The person that is likely going to contribute the most to climate change is going to look like a heavily capitalist, venture-backed, private startup, and not through some global, large, public policy.” – Delian Asparouhov * A material percentage of the Environment, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) groups in the United States are funded by Russia and China; they are not acting in the best interests of the United States * The Chinese Communist Party operates on multi-decade time horizons; the recent, tragic developments in the United States are not by accident * Almost all of the best innovations in history came from cross-pollination, oftentimes unexpected cross-pollination, from two completely different fields consisting of top-tier, multi-disciplinary, physically co-located people working incredibly hard and incredibly smart on separate things * Organic, spontaneous connections between unrelated disciplines do not happen if you’re working entirely remote * Delian’s company, Varda Space Industries, will manufacture high-quality materials in low-orbit and then bring those materials back down to earth + Manufacturing products such as pharmaceuticals and human organs in zero-gravity space has certain advantages over manufacturing them on Earth
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Are you stuck creating on the couch? In today's episode, we explain how one small group can change the world, debate whether these people need to meet in real life, and Delian shares why he feels start-ups must hire based on merit. Hosts Sahil Bloom and Greg Isenberg are joined by guest Delian Asparouhov, principal at the Founders Fund and co-founder of Varda. Delian explains the secret to running a billion-dollar fund while simultaneously launching his first company, shares his take on where the venture world is headed and explains how China is taking control with TikTok.
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THIS EPISODE
Delian Asparouhov: https://twitter.com/zebulgar
Sahil Bloom: https://twitter.com/SahilBloom
Greg Isenberg: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
Production & Marketing Team: https://penname.co/
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SHOW NOTES
00:00 Sneak Peek
01:11 Welcoming Delian
02:23 How a Small Group Can Change the World
07:54 Hiring Based on Merit
10:14 Did ESG Create Change?
13:40 TikTok Data Rights
17:36 You Can’t Change the World from Your Couch
21:55 Greg's Unique Perspective On Working Hard and a 10-Year Bet
28:33 What is Varda and its Origin Story?
37:31 Separating Design (+) Manufacturing = Innovation
42:51 How to Become a Leader and Expert in Space
45:34 The Secret to Founding a Start-Up and Running a Fund
50:48 Delian’s Origin Story and His Prediction for the Future
56:04 Thanks for Listening
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
During the 1990s, Mark co-founded Veritas Systems, which he piloted from nothing to 6,000 employees and $1.5B in revenue in a decade. Now a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Leslie is one of the foremost experts in go-to-market strategy in Silicon Valley, and in the first of this two-part series with Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE, Leslie discusses what strategies he used to make Veritas a runaway success, and the origins for the Sales Learning Curve.
Artificial Intelligence Podcast
Podcast Notes Intro * “We want [Coinbase] to be the way that a billion people access the open global financial system.” – Brain Armstrong * All of Brian’s friends thought Coinbase was a dumb idea when he first started building it in 2010; there was a lot of uncertainty around Bitcoin at the time, which was trading at $10 per coin * Most of the best leaders are able to contribute a net positive to the world and do not care if they anger a certain percentage of people + You’ll never do something authentic to yourself if you care too much about what people think * Early startups need to “keep doing stuff” and aggressively iterate on their product or service + “Startups are like sharks; if they stop swimming they die.” – Paul Graham * People who are uncertain about their future don’t try as hard to make or achieve things because everything they produce and earn could be gone tomorrow; good property rights are foundational * Bitcoin is a new technology that can bring economic freedom to everyone around the globe, specifically in places where economic freedom had not previously existed * “I think Bitcoin could end up becoming the reserve currency of the world.” – Brain Armstrong * Companies are getting distracted from working on their core missions by “the current thing”, which is destructive to their productivity + It’s not Coinbase’s job to solve the most important societal issues + Focus on work at work and pursue your other interests during your own time * To become a better leader, consistently do things outside of your comfort zone so that your comfort zone grows * It is easy to be a critic; be the person in the arena that uses technology to improve the world and is a part of the solution and not a part of the problem
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Brian Armstrong is the CEO of Coinbase. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Audible: https://audible.com/lex – Skiff: https://skiff.org/lex – BiOptimizers: http://www.magbreakthrough.com/lex to get 10% off – Fundrise: https://fundrise.com/lex – Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil EPISODE LINKS: Brian’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong Brian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brian_armstrong Coinbase’s Website: https://www.coinbase.com ResearchHub: https://www.researchhub.com NewLimit: https://www.newlimit.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support
Knowledge Project
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “According to me, you can not develop substance, net worth, wealth, experience unless you’re constantly willing to risk your reputation”– Kunal Shah + India supports a business culture of going all-in and has a community to provide you a soft landing if you fail + Many cultures reject even risking 1% of your reputation to pursue a goal or dream * The question “why would somebody pay for this?” varies greatly across cultures + Example: Many people in India have never worked for an hourly wage, so they don’t know the exact value of their time. So as a result, convenience products do not perform well as they do in Western culture. * “Everything that feels soulful in life is inefficient”– Kunal Shah + Emotional arousal rarely happens with efficient metrics + Standardized things are easier to scale, but non-standardized things are harder to destroy * When you have too much similarity, innovation dies. When you have too much dissimilarity, trust dies. + Businesses operate on a spectrum of chaos and stagnation * Like what you’ve read so far? SUBSCRIBE to PODCAST NOTES PREMIUM to get our FULL COVERAGE of this conversation—coming out next week! + “The wisdom per word ratio is off the charts”– Shane Parrish
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Indian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Kunal Shah calls on his decades of entrepreneurial experience to discuss what he’s learned about what motivates people, and how observing trends have made him a runaway success in business. Shah also discusses the cultural differences between India and the West, the lessons he learned growing up in the family business, why he dropped out of an MBA program, strategies for decision-making, and so much more. Shah is the founder and CEO of CRED, an Indian fintech company that serves as a reward-based credit card payments app. Shah also currently sits on the board of a variety of Indian companies and has served as an investor in dozens of companies since 2016. --
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Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Talent and resources, that would otherwise be unavailable during an economic boom, become increasingly available during a recession * A founder must convince talented people to do the “irrational thing” and join their startup + Salary is just one vector of value for an employee, and one that people often over-index * There are three types of employees: creatives, completers, and collaborators * The Trillion-Dollar Venn Diagram of Success: create value at the intersection of two of your skills + Acquire skills that are rare and also ones that reinforce the skills that you’re already exceptional at * Most things require skill, not talent * Find what your time is worth on an hourly rate and either don’t do or delegate, any tasks that return a value less than that amount * Creating a successful business requires a big dream and constant iterations on ideas, processes, and products
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) talk to Co-Founder & CTO of HubSpot, Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh), about why a bad economy is a good time to start a business, creating an alternative to Wordle, and the trillion dollar Venn diagram of success.
Also, want $5,000? Check out the My First Million Clips contest.
Links:
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HubSpot
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Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy article
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WordPlay
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Maven writing course
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Shaan tweet about starting the next Pixar
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Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
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Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(02:10) - Why renting is better than owning
(25:20) - Framework for three types of employees
(35:05) - Why Dharmesh built WordPlay
(01:07:55) - Driving value through an intersection of skills (Trillion dollar Venn diagram)
(01:12:10) - Why Shaan is starting the next Pixar
Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.
Additional episodes you might enjoy:
• #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits
• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future
• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto
169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett
• #218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates
• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More
• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More
Honestly with Bari Weiss ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “The battle for the survival of the United States of America is upon us. It has not come in the form of traditional civil war. There are no uniformed armies, competing flags, or alternate constitutions. The great showdown is not being fought within the physical limits of a battlefield. It is instead happening all around us and directly to us. It defines our culture, sustains our media, and gives new shape to our public and private institutions—it is remaking the nation before our very eyes.”– Bari Weiss quoting Abe Greenwald + The forces of justice and progress are in a war against backwardness and tyranny * Cancel culture is the justice system of the Un-American Revolution: “step out of line, and you could be next” + Tools of oppression that the Un-American ideology uses to deplatform, disinvite, and discredit: Facts replaced by feelings. Excellence is replaced by equity. Rule of law was replaced with the rule of the mob. Continue reading for more examples. + “The Coalition of the Sane” – an allegiance where disagreement doesn’t result in cancellation * Preview of the 10 points of advice Bari Weiss gives to the Future Founders of America: + Defend freedom of speech – The tool that guides us in the search for truth. Be public and vocal in rejecting claims you know to be false. Cowardice is contagious, but so is courage. + Use your own eyes and ears – Narratives work because they are easy and digestible. Facts are just too stubborn to neatly fit into narratives. This is why you must seek out your own truth, and do your own research. You don’t need to be an expert to form your own opinion. + Refuse to submit your friendships and relationships to political litmus tests – The beauty of America is that there are so many realms of life (love, art, friendship) located outside of politics. Don’t submit to totalitarianism. Don’t forget what it means to be human. Not everything is political. + SEE THE 7 OTHER CALLS TO ACTION BELOW
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
There are nearly 4000 universities in the U.S.. Many of them have billions of dollars in endowments and histories that go back to well before the country's founding. So you'd be forgiven for thinking that it would be a bit ridiculous to try and compete with those Goliaths.
But that's exactly what the new University of Austin or UATX is doing. The premise, of course, is simple, and it goes like this. While the brand name schools have the money, they no longer have the mission. They have fundamentally abandoned the point of the university, which is the pursuit of truth. The good people at UATX, where I'm proud to be on the board, are not waiting for the broken status quo to change. They're not sitting around criticizing or whining. They are doing.
Just a few weeks ago, UTAX opened its doors to its first students at its inaugural summer school. I was blown away by the students that I met there, and I was honored to lecture alongside teachers like Neil Ferguson, Kathleen Stock, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Rob Henderson and Thomas Chatterton Williams. And today I wanted to share with all of you the talk that I gave at the old parkland in Dallas to that first class of students. It's about the broken moment that we're in as a culture and a country, but more it's about what I think is required of us to meet this moment.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Realignment ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The work that’s gone into building the internet and digital networks over the last 30 years is comparable to the work that went into building the physical networks, like the railroads and highways, during the second industrial revolution period of the 1880s to 1920s * Every historical achievement started as speculation + Today, society is willing to take digital risks but has become extremely adverse to taking analog risks * “Nuclear is by far the safest form of energy [for humans and the environment] that we know how to make.” + But regulators in the U.S. won’t allow new nuclear plants to be built + Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. has basically made it illegal to build real-world infrastructure in a very deliberate way * Americans’ trust in large-scale institutions has declined over the last 50 years, and the primary question is whether social media caused the collapse of trust or simply exposed the rot that previously existed * The future of the internet could involve the creation of networks built from the bottom-up that are more participatory and effective at solving today’s problems, instead of the existing top-down, traditional, hierarchical institutions that are losing the trust of the people * Today, managerial capitalism has overtaken bourgeois capitalism and largely become “capitalism” as we know it + The emergence of venture capital and private equity in the 1970s and 1980s is the “revenge” of bourgeois capitalism * Many of the misconceptions in the crypto space are caused by people working backward from price, when they should be working forwards from fundamentals * Ironically, the three most dysfunctional areas of our current society – housing, education, and healthcare – are also the most critical for achieving the American Dream * The current system has been wired in a way that makes ordinary people so frustrated that they resort to more radical politics + Fixing housing, education, and healthcare would reduce political polarization
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
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Marc Andreessen, cofounder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, cofounder of Netscape, and co-creator of the influential Mosaic web browser joins The Realignment to discuss how the second industrial revolution (1880s-1920s) shapes his view of America today, the consequences of the shift from a high to low institutional trust society, the response to Web3 skeptics, how crashes shape the tech industry, and why it's "time to build."
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * You don’t have to know exactly why your business works until well after it’s launched + “You can say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘the same as everyone else’ to all questions as long as you have that one thing”– Shaan Puri + Your business is going to change and evolve anyway, so don’t let anything prevent you from getting it started in the first place * “I don’t know anything about deodorant, but in six months, I’m going to know everything there is to know”– Moiz Ali + Nobody is an expert when they start! Apply this to any idea. * Every Direct to Consumer (D2C) business should know its customer acquisition cost (CAC) + And then, constantly improve on it! “If you’re completely divorced from customer feedback, you’re setting yourself up for disaster” – Moiz Ali * Ask more questions like this: How do you think about (blank)? + Responses will be more honest and open-ended rather than numeric and analytical * Feel good unconditionally, force the good out of the average + Think about the DMV. If you want five-star service, be a five-star customer.
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) sits down with entrepreneur and former CEO of Native, Moiz Ali (@MoizAli), to talk about how to find the competitive advantage for your business, three common mistakes DTC brands make, investment tips and more.
Links:
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Native
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Haldirams
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Manscaped
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Brumate
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Moiz's sell sheet tweet
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Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.
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Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter.
Show Notes:
(04:20) - Starting Native in secret
(13:50) - Figuring out your competitive advantage
(24:00) - Common mistakes in DTC brands
(35:00) - Stock tips on D2C tech companies
(38:10) - Real estate investments
a16z Live
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out a16z Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Katherine Boyle, General Partner at a16z is joined by Hadrian founder and CEO Chris Power, Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring, and a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen to discuss the opportunity to automate and upskill in the precision parts industry and shore up U.S. manufacturing with new technology.
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out the 20VC Episode Page & Podcast Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
David Friedberg is Founder and CEO of The Production Board (TPB), a holding company established to solve the most fundamental problems that affect our planet, by reimagining global systems of production. Prior to founding The Production Board, David founded The Climate Corporation, a 10-year journey that culminated in their $930M acquisition by Monsanto. If that was not enough, David is the Founder and Chairman at Metromile and also sits on the board of Soylent, Clara Foods, Tillable, Cana Technologies and more.
In Today’s Episode with David Friedberg You Will Learn: 1.) Origins:
- How David made his way into the world of startups and technology from academia and physics?
- What were David's biggest takeaways from scaling The Climate Corp to $930M exit to Monsanto?
- How did the exit put pressure on David for all future companies he builds? How does he manage that?
2.) The Macro: Venture + The Economy
- How does David foresee the impending rate hikes? What impact will this have on venture and the economy?
- What segment of the market will be first to be hit? Why is growth investing last to be hit? How does early stage play out in this very new environment?
- How will we see the velocity of capital deployment change in this new period? What does David believe are some of the crucial flaws of the venture model?
- How does David reflect on his own price sensitivity? What lessons has he learned from deals he has done or missed that have changed his perspective?
3.) David Frankel: The Business Builder
- What is David's rubrik for business value creation? How has this changed with time?
- How mentally plastic does one have to be around the time it takes to see margins, unit economics etc change from negative to positive?
- How does David and the team approach building new companies at TPB? Where do they find the founding teams? How do they incentivise them?
- How does TPB approach continuous funding for the companies they create? What milestones need to be hit? How do they assess them?
- How does David approach liquidity with regards to exits for the companies they create? Why does their holding company structure mean they have different incentives to VCs?
4.) David Friedberg: Father and Husband
- How does David reflect on his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time?
- What have been David's biggest realisations on what provides him true happiness?
- How did having children change his operating mentality? What does being a great father mean to David?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with David Friedberg David’s Favourite Book: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Beginner's Mind ✓
Claim
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out Beginner’s Mind Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Did you know that almost 90% of all product ideas fail in clinical trials? The most obvious reason that a clinical trial fails is lack of efficacy.
Surprising to me was that lack of efficacy doesn't seem to be the main reason why clinical trials fail in the first place. Other factors are at play, and most of them are manageable risks when the right team is at work.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Strategic considerations for setting up a clinical trial
- Inhouse vs Outsourced Clinical Study Management
- Why do some clinical trials fail?
- Steps to getting your clinical trial back on track
- Future trends of clinical trials
- and much more
Who is the expert in the show?Heike Schön is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Lumis International GmbH and Lumis Life Science Consulting GmbH.
She has more than 25 years of experience in leadership positions in international clinical research and drug development.
📞 Book a meeting here: Link
Youtube: https://youtu.be/r0qphO8Qs3o **Shownotes @ Podcastnotes: tbd
Timestamps:**(00:00) Intro
(02:25) Who Is Heike Schön, Lumis International and Lumis Consulting?
(04:20) Topics in the Episode
(04:30) Kick-Off
(05:00) Background to Lumis International and Heike Schön
(10:20) When is the Right Time to Start with the Planning of a Clinical Trial?
(12:10) The Role of a Sponsor of a Clinical Trial
(14:30) Who is Responsible for the Clinical Trial as a Sponsor?
(16:55) When Should a Company Start to Implement Clinical Trial Management in the Organisation?
(18:30) Funding Requirements for Clinical Trials
(20:00) The Reality of Inhouse and Outhouse Clinical Trial Management
(22:15) What to Think About When Planning Oversight Management
(25:00) Relationship and Culture Management in Clinical Trials
(27:25) Budget and Ressource Requirement for Clinical Trials
(28: 45) 3 Steps to a Successful Clinical Trial
(30:40) The 3 Main Reasons Why Clinical Trials Fail
(33:30) Considerations for Patient Enrollment as a Key Success Factor for Clinical Trials
(37:30) … and when enrolment fails, what are the steps to rescue the trial?
(42:45) Do Inhouse Studies Require Rescue?
(44:30) How to Rescue a Clinical Trial
(48:30) Root Cause Analysis as a Starting Point to Rescue a Trial
(52:25) Preventive Measures to Avoid Failure Early on
(53:30) How Important is Leadership in a Clinical Trial?
(56:30) The 3 Main Reasons to Stop a Clinical Trial – The Point of no Return
(59:00) How are the Cost Calculated for Rescue Study Management?
(01:00:15) Planning of a Clinical Trial – A Key Aspect of a Successful Trial
(01:02:15) How to Plan Realistic Timelines and Numbers
(01:07:15) The Role of Feasibility Studies in Clinical Trials
(01:09:30) How Clinical Trial Management Evolved in the last 30 years
(01:11:15) Upcoming Trends in Clinical Trial Management
(01:13:15) Decentralized Clinical Trials
(01:15:00) Artificial Intelligence And Big Data in Clinical Trial Management
(01:17:55) The Digital Twin
(01:19:15) The Human Factor and Leadership in Clinical Trial Management
(01:21:10) The Patient in Clinical Trials
(01:22:55) Planning and its contribution to clinical trial success
(01:26:55) Summary of What to Do When Clinical Trials Fail
(01:28:35) When is the Right Time to Add a Rescue Team to the Clinical Trial?
(01:31:00) A Risk Management Plan for Clinical Trials
(01:32:00) How to Cont
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Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out Starting Greatness Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Tim Westergren maxed out 11 credit cards, racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and was rejected 348 times for a second round of funding for his revolutionary idea for a music streaming platform. But like any true artist, Westergren remained committed to his vision of creating an aesthetically more beautiful future with Pandora, and now the company boasts more than 6 million monthly subscribers. Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Westergren to discuss the company’s humble beginnings, why it took an act of Congress to keep the company alive, and why both men believe the best founders are artists who can sell their vision.
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out Starting Greatness Episode Page & Show Notes
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Your startup will face multiple WFIO moments on the path to greatness...COUNT ON IT. But that doesn’t mean you should let these moments get inside your head. In this lesson of greatness, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE discusses how every startup team MUST be prepared to take the initiative in the crucible of the WFIO moments they will inevitably face. The bright side? You can use these horrible situations as defining moments to show everyone that your startup is destined to defeat the impossible.
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “Place your biggest bet on a focused strategy and iterate until it works” – Aaron Levietweet + Never hedge your bets as a company – if you have two paths, you have no paths + You have limited resources, don’t lower your ceiling with two bets * Design and innovation are directly influenced by the architecture of your organization, it’s important to know your identity + Amazon: decentralized with an innovation focus + Apple: centralized with a design focus * Serial entrepreneurship is overrated + Choosing the right market at the right moment is more valuable than any years of experience * Network design comparison: Airbnb vs Crypto + Crypto networks experience a value plateau as new participants have less and less upside + Airbnb users and hosts gain more value when the network grows, regardless of when you joined
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Aaron Levie is the Founder and CEO @ Box, the company incorporating the best of secure content collaboration with an intuitive user experience suited to the way people work today. Prior to their IPO in 2015, Aaron raised from some of the best in the business including the main man Mark Cuban, a16z, Emergence, DST, Coatue, DFJ and many more. Aaron founded the company from his dorm room at the University of Southern California and has led the company to 1,900 employees and over $770M in revenue, as of 2021 data.
In Today’s Episode with Aaron Levie You Will Learn: 1.) How Aaron founded Box from his dorm room at the University of Southern California? What was that founding a-ha moment? What did the first year look like? Does Aaron agree, "serial entrepreneurship is overrated"?
2.) Phases of Leadership and Company Growth:
- How does Aaron define the different phases of leadership required as a company grows?
- Which phase did Aaron find the most challenging? How did he overcome it?
- What are the first things to break when companies grow? What can founders do to prevent this?
- Does Aaron agree, "the best CEOs are the best resource allocators"?
3.) The Market:
- How does Aaron thinkj about the dislocation between private company valuations and public company market caps?
- What does Aaron believe are the biggest challenges founders face when they are over-capitalised?
- What does Aaron mean when he says, "raise when cash is cheap, spend as if it was expensive"? How does Aaron advise founders on fundraising today?
4.) The Team and Culture:
- How does Aaron create a safe space where all team members can come to him with anything?
- How does Aaron approach effective goal setting? How does one balance between achieveable and also aggressive goals?
- How does Aaron approach the art of delegation? What is his decision-making framework for what to delegate vs what to control?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Aaron Levie Aaron’s Favourite Book: Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Management of Innovation and Change)
Infinite Loops
In this episode of Infinite Loops we have Sahil Lavingia with us. Sahil is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, and author of the book “The Minimalist Entrepreneur”.
- The rise, and fall, and rise of Gumroad
- Physical vs. Digital Communities
- Befriending ‘volatility’
- Applications of Web 3
- And MUCH more!
Follow Sahil on Twitter at https://twitter.com/shl and buy his book from Amazon at amzn.to/2ZnIGOl
Below the Line
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Discover what you think – enter every creative journey with an open/curious mind, let the experience formulate your lens * Greatness can be found in studying the actions of founders before they knew the outcomes of their actions * “Never let your ambition and ego cloud what you’re really made for”– Jim Collins + Personal Hedgehog = Passion + Economic Engine + Encoding (Self-Actualization) * Don’t fall into the curse of the competence doom loop + Competence and compensation are often illusions of life/work satisfaction + “The four-word prison: what will people think. The difference between a palace and a prison is who owns the key”– James Beshara * The most successful companies are not statistically luckier + It’s not about luck, it’s about return on luck. It’s what you do with your luck opportunity. + Time in life is unequal, your performance in a massively unequal opportunity is the differentiating variable to success * “What’s changing in your life?” > “How are you?” + This is an invitation to an open conversation – cut out the questions that don’t extend a conversation
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Today's episode is with one of the greatest business authors ever, Jim Collins. Jim is one of the most inspirational figures in James' career. Not only did he inspire James, but he also is one of James' fathers, favorite authors. This has formed a bond at a young age between the two and has helped form many ideas in James' head. James and Jim cover many topics today, in one of our longest podcasts ever recorded, they talk about a wide range of VERY useful topics for founders and creators. From, breaking down Jim's personal rubric on writing a book to how an idea turns into a book. Jim explains why it is important to keep turning the flywheel even when you feel like abandoning it. James and Jim, also speak about how great leadership, can take a company, far beyond what is projected on paper. Jim also explains the difference between Good and Great. To conclude the episode, Jim speaks about luck and how not only good luck is inevitable but so is bad luck, he explains how not all time in life is equal and how you should zoom in on the good luck and reevaluate the bad luck.
Find out more about Jim Collins here:
https://twitter.com/level5leaders
https://www.jimcollins.com/
Buy Jim's new book, Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0.
(https://www.jimcollins.com/books/BE2.html)
https://bit.ly/Go_BelowtheLine
Hit the show hotline and leave a question or comment for the show at 424-272-6640, email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline
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About your host, James:
James Beshara is a founder, investor, advisor, author, podcaster, and encourager based in Los Angeles, California. James has created startups for the last 12 years, selling one (Tilt, acquired by Airbnb), and invested in a few multi-billion dollar startups to date. He has spoken at places such as Y-Combinator, Harvard Business School, Stanford University, TechCrunch Disrupt, and has been featured in outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and Time Magazine. He’s been featured in Forbes, Time, and Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30” lists and advises startups all around the world. All of this is his “above the line” version of his background. Hear the other 90% of the story in the intro episode of Below The Line.
“Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Another Podcast Network.
Artificial Intelligence Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The holy grail of orbital rocketry is making a fully reusable rocket + This alone would greatly lower the cost of achieving sustainable life on another planet, including Mars + SpaceX is trying to do just that… “I don’t care about altruism or pessimism, fuck that, we’re gonna get it done”– Elon Musk * Being multi-planetary is like buying life insurance on life itself + Given a long enough period of time, the Earth is likely to experience some sort of calamity. It’s important to think in probabilities, not certainties. + If a calamity doesn’t occur, the sun is slowly expanding and the earth will no longer be able to sustain life in roughly 500 million years + This sounds like a long time but it’s only 10% longer than Earth has existed (4.5 Billion years) * “Cryptocurrency is an interesting approach to reducing the error in the database that is called money” – Elon Musk + The government effectively has editing privileges on the ‘money database’ + Printing more money creates errors in the database - “Diluting the money supply is a pernicious form of taxation”– Elon Musk * “Tesla Autopilot features will be far better than James Bond in his best movies… impossible maneuvers that a human can not do”– Elon Musk + By next year, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) should operate at level 4 of vehicle autonomy * “Many years in the future, I think work will become optional”– Elon Musk + Tesla Bot may be a future substitute for jobs that are boring or dangerous. People typically only do this type of work out of necessity, not out of passion. * “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor”– Lex Fridman quoting Elon Musk + Be useful – contribute more than you consume, have a net positive contribution to society * Lex asked Elon if he would briefly join a long-form interview with Vladimir Putin in the future + Elon said he would be happy to
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Elon Musk is CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and Boring Company. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil – ButcherBox: https://butcherbox.com/lex to get offers & discounts – InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off – ROKA: https://roka.com/ and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order – Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings EPISODE LINKS: Elon’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/elonmusk PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes:
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “This not a new normal, this is a new abnormal. The planet will never will cooler tomorrow than it is today”– John Doerr + Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now by John Doerr – The wholesale transition plan for every human activity from a fossil fuel-based system to a renewable-based system: how we produce, consume, transport, and organize - Electrify transportation - Decarbonize the grid – shift to wind, solar, and safe nuclear - Fix food systems – reduce the amount of meat and dairy, how we grow plants, and reduce waste - Protect nature – reduce deforestation and protect the oceans - Clean up the industry – change how we produce things like steel and cement - Remove the stubborn carbon that remains – plant more trees, make the sequestering of carbon economic + Global governments are the largest obstacle – we must go for the gigatons, the messages sent to individuals to ‘go green’ are often just distractions from the bigger problem
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
John Doerr is an engineer, venture capitalist, the chairman of Kleiner Perkins, and the author of the #1 New York Times best-seller Measure What Matters. For over 40 years, John has helped build some of the most generational defining companies of our generation. He was an original investor and board member at Google and Amazon, helping to create more than a million jobs. A pioneer of Silicon Valley’s cleantech movement, John has invested in zero emissions technologies since 2006. Check out his latest book, Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now.
In Today’s Episode with John Doerr You Will Learn: 1.) What was John's entry into climate change investing? Having backed the likes of Amazon and Google, why did John decide then was the right time to do a climate fund, a pandemic fund, an iPhone fund? How does John think about market timing risk today? How does John determine between risks he is vs is not willing to take?
2.) What was one of John's biggest lessons on risk and upside from working alongside Tom Perkins? How did the Google deal come together? Where did John first meet Larry and Serge? What convinced John to write them a $12M check for 12% of the company? Why was it a contested deal within the partnership? How did the discussion go internally?
3.) Why and how is climate innovating and investing different today than it was in 2008? What are the core OKR's laid out in the book, that we need to achieve as a society? Why does John believe that governments are the biggest problem to us achieving these objectives? What does John mean when he says, "I am hopeful but not optimistic"?
4.) What does truly great listening mean to John? How would John describe his style of board membership? What do the truly special board members do? What does John do that makes him often cited as one of the best at recruiting? What is John's biggest investing miss? How did it change his mindset and approach? What investment is John most proud of, that no one knows?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with John Doerr John’s Favourite Book: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Strategy 1: Buy an existing asset + You need the most upfront money here but there can be an incredible value to capture by simply owning and upgrading an asset better than the current holder * Strategy 2: Provide supply to a marketplace with existing demand + Find deviations of keywords on google search that lack supply to fulfill the demanded and desired search + If you understand what makes supply marketable and what the marketplace algorithms prioritize, you can drive more demand * Strategy 3: Launch a unique product where you can buy customers through paid acquisition + Buy the top Google-searched word in a unique product category + Google search is a magic lamp and you can be the genie, give them what they want * Strategy 4: They didn’t discuss a 4th but Justin has an awesomeblog/substack where he gives the latest knowledge on side hustles, D2C businesses, market opportunities, and more * Other awesome D2C Ideas discussed: + AirBnB camping properties: more affordable and less maintenance + Non-alcoholic wine: booming product category with limited options + Phthalate-free products: health > price & convenience + And more….
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Justin Mares (@jwmares) joins Sam (@TheSamParr) and Shaan (@ShaanVP) on this episode. Justin breaks down his most popular blog post, the 4 types of side hustles, and brings all kinds of ideas for how you can start your own. They also talk about Justin's DTC businesses - Kettle & Fire, Perfect Keto, and Surely Wines. They end the episode with a few ideas around camping, a new dating app, and how to leverage VAs & no code tools.
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Want to be featured in a future episode? Drop your question/comment/criticism/love here: https://www.mfmpod.com/p/hotline/
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Support the pod by spreading the word, become a referrer here: https://refer.fm/million
-
Have you joined our private Facebook group yet? Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion and join thousands of other entrepreneurs and founders scheming up ideas.
Show notes:
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(1:23) How Sam & Justin know each other
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(5:17) Justin's DTC bone broth company
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(10:00) Frameworks for side hustles
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(13:22) Side Hustle 1: Buying an asset
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(17:51) Side Hustle 2: Launching on top of a marketplace with demand
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(22:08) Side Hustle 3: Unique product that grows through paid acquisition
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(25:31) How Justin balances all his projects
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(30:38) The $30K/year CGM experiment
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(39:09) The skinny on Duck Duck Go
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(42:32) Ideas: Airbnb camping
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(45:27) Idea: Non alcoholic wine
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(51:10) How to naturally boost your T levels
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(1:01:04) Idea: Dating app based on your credit card usage
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(1:03:49) Idea: The no code automation officer
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(1:07:28) How to follow Justin
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Ben Horowitz gives a detailed timeline on Loudcloud’s“IPO from Hell” and how it went from $0.35/share to being acquired for $1.65 Billion at $14.25/share + In a near-death experience as a founder, it takes a lot of humility and resiliency to make the best choice out of all the horrible choices * “If you have the will and the idea, [being a founder] is the best thing you can do with your life” – Ben Horowitz
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Startups are romanticized AFTER they win. But it takes extraordinary grit to have what it TAKES to win. Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreessen-Horowitz, is the perfect guest to tell it like it is, as he has for many years in his books "the Hard Thing About Hard Things" and "What You Do Is Who You Are." Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE interviews Ben to discuss the ups and downs of dealing with "the struggle," and why the best startup leaders are often the ones who simply refused to quit.
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “You need just as good business people on your team as you do technology people in order to win” – Brian Singerman + Anduril’s team recipe is made for success by having elite technologists and pre-existing relationships with the government * We need to control our own destiny when it comes to national security – defense products need to be built on-shore, not outsourced + Anduril is creating software (Lattice Platform) and hardware for national defense and security * Every founder needs to have ‘IT’ = Know their unique strengths and effectively supplement their weaknesses with other people + In Brian’s opinion, Palmer Luckey has ‘IT’ and compares him to Elon Musk as a technologist visionary + Relationships with founders are the key to VC success in this valuation inflation market
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Brian Singerman is a General Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the most prominent venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Anduril, SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir, Stripe, Affirm, Airbnb, Facebook, and many more. As for Brian, he has led investments in the likes of Affirm, Oscar Health, Wish, Asana, Oculus, and Postmates to name a few. Brian also sits on the board or is an observer to The Long Term Stock Exchange, Solugen, Cloud9, Modern Health, and of course, Anduril. Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent a very successful 4 years as an engineer and executive at Google.
In Today’s Episode with Brian Singerman on Anduril, You Will Learn: 1.) How did Brian first come to meet Palmer and the Anduril team? Where did the meeting take place? How did the discussion go? Did Brian instantly feel that Palmer was special? What about the way Palmer presented, suggested this to Brian?
2.) The Market: What gave Brian the confidence Anduril would be successful where so many others had failed? How did the market change or evolve in a way Brian did expect? In what ways did the market surprise Brian? Does Brian think we will see the relationship between Silicon Valley and the DOD change over time?
3.) Anduril: The Business: Why is Anduril as a business, so hard to copy? How did Brian gain comfort around their defensibility? What does Brian think is the biggest misconception people have of Anduril as a business? How does Brian think about when is the right time to add secondary and ancillary products?
4.) Investing Today: Why is Brian no longer Zoom investing today? What does Brian mean when he says you have to, "play a different game to the hedge funds today"? In what way does he and Founders Fund look to do this? How does Brian think about the current levels of pricing? How does he determine when to pay up vs when to be disciplined?
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Steph Smith and Shaan Puri discuss the multitude of opportunities there are through innovative marketing strategies and product white spaces if you simply look at the world around you + “Look for a sea of sameness, that’s your opportunity”– Shaan Puri - Look at your local pharmacy, the band-aid aisle will look ironically similar across brands * Welly changes this, giving a uniqueD2C (direct to consumer) experience on a boring product brand - Why do companies invest in their marketing products (swag, if you will) that nobody uses (water bottles, T-Shirts)? * SwagUp changes this, branding products that are unique and generate conversation amongst the target market * The Return on Investment (ROI) of swag can be much greater by investing in high-end products for your top consumers through limited-edition drops rather than worthless products for everyone - These are just two examples, the sea of sameness is vast. Shaan and Steph discuss a few more in this episode * There are people within a business who set the strategy, people who deploy the strategy, but there isn’t a person that evaluates the effectiveness of the strategy – this is the Chief Automation Officer + Identifies and evaluates the effectiveness of ‘that’s how I was thought to do it’ process pitfalls + Shadowing is more effective than it gets credit for, you truly understand the nuance of the workplace and employees’ environment. We are often more compliant with process issues than we should be. + Doing Time Right – a course designed by Steph Smith - Eliminate, Automate, and Delegate is the sequential framework the course is built on that you can apply to your everyday life
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this episode Shaan (@ShaanVP) is joined by Steph Smith (@stephsmithio) for an idea packed episode. They start off talking about opportunities around spending your FSA dollars and on swag packs. They transition to talk about the role of automation at companies and Steph shares how she would go about automating repetitive parts of her role. The end the episode talking about Steph's new course, approaches to building a company, and Fidelity allowing trading accounts for teenagers.
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Want Steph's course? You can find it at https://doingtimeright.com
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Want to be featured in a future episode? Drop your question/comment/criticism/love here: https://www.mfmpod.com/p/hotline/
-
Support the pod by spreading the word, become a referrer here: https://refer.fm/million
-
Have you joined our private Facebook group yet? Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion and join thousands of other entrepreneurs and founders scheming up ideas.
Show notes:
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(1:06) Intro
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(2:20) Ideas around spending your FSA dollars
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(15:58) Ideas around giving out awesome swag
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(21:52) The role of chief automation officer
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(27:37) Building a company around automation
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(35:03) Giving away free alcohol as marketing
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(41:22) How Steph invests her time & money
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(43:50) Steph's new course - doingtimeright.com
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(47:44) Approaches to building a company
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(51:39) Fidelity allowing teenagers on the platform
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(56:52) How to find Steph online
My First Million
Podcast Notes Intro * Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) give an updated version of Sara’s List, 12 companies with exponential growth potential in lucrative industries that could change your life as a job applicant. Regardless if you’re job hunting or not, these products and services have some awesome consumer applications.
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
In this episode Sam (@theSamParr) and Shaan (@ShaanVP) update "Sara's List". This was a list of companies Sam and his wife created 5 years ago when she was looking for a job. What was the criteria? They had to be established startups who had the potential to 5-10x over the next 5 years. She went with Airbnb. If you are looking for a new job, check out these 12.
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Want to be featured in a future episode? Drop your question/comment/criticism/love here: https://www.mfmpod.com/p/hotline/
-
Support the pod by spreading the word, become a referrer here: https://refer.fm/million
-
Have you joined our private Facebook group yet? Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourfirstmillion and join thousands of other entrepreneurs and founders scheming up ideas.
Show notes:
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(1:01) Sara's List 2.0
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(6:59) Flexport
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(9:30) Zapier
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(13:16) Uniswap
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(18:07) Anduril
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(21:45) Replit
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(27:39) Airtable
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(31:01) Figma
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(33:38) Rippling
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(36:35) OpenStore
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(40:23) Faire
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(41:33) NexHealth
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(43:31) OneTrust
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Moderna prioritizes platform over product. For so long, big pharma has created products with analog solutions. Moderna’s mRNA technology platform is designed to fork and compound on its base knowledgeto create unique and effective therapeutics quickly. + “Golden eggs (drugs) are coming out of the goose (mRNA platform)”– Stephane Bancel + Moderna is not a one drug company – If you can make one drug work safely, you can make many. There is an object-oriented style to this innovation, comparing it to the software world (re-use the knowledge base to other therapeutics). + New protein functions are discovered every day. Moderna can not comprehend what kind or how many drug solutions they will have next because the biology of those drugs are not known yet + There are true exponential possibilities for therapeutics through the mRNA platform + “Once you understand molecular biology, you start to understand the human body like never before in history”– Stephane Bancel * Stephane Bancel joined Moderna because he saw a 5% chance that their mRNA technology could change the world of medicine forever + “We as a species, if we work together, we can do amazing things. I hope this serves as an example of the risks you can take to make the world a better place” – Stephane Bancel * The power of entrepreneurship is to invent the future, break the consensus of what can and can not be done
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
What’s it like to run a startup that has achieved its goal of impacting humanity at a time of desperate need? Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel joins Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE to discuss the power of taking offensive risks to seize unlikely futures with massive upside, sometimes with the result of changing the odds of life itself. For founders seeking greatness, the conversation also teases out many of the enduring lessons of how we can increase the odds of creating massive breakthroughs.
Paradox Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “Work and life are finally coming into harmony, rather than balance” – John Andrew Entwistle + Wander is a network of company-owned smart homes designed to technologically optimize your vacation or a unique work-from-home experience - It isn’t a marketplace like AirBnB. Wander owns every part of the experience so they can actively respond to consumer demands and add updates through smart technology - At scale, Wander’s goal is to create an affordable experience at the intersection of life, work, and travel; potentially posing as a feasible alternative to rent * Progress compounds. Failing fast can sometimes provide more insights in the long run than succeeding slowly + “Time is not your friend” – John Andrew Entwistle + Speed is the number one advantage that a start-up offers * John Andrew spent months trying to understand how his business model for Wander would fail, not how it would succeed + This way he was able to address key risks/pitfalls early on – humans have a unique ability to see into the future given the right perspective * “We control how we interpret the world and how it affects us, even though it doesn’t always feel like that”– John Andrew Entwistle + John Andrew had a childhood mantra of ‘the worst thing that can happen is that you’ll die + Maintaining perspective is essential for making progress
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Go to wander.com/kyle, download the app and create an account to enter to win a free Wander Trip and you can also become a Wander Founding Member for $100 and unlock benefits like:
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Get $100 credited toward your first stay
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Limited edition founding member hoodie
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Early access to Wander Homes before everyone else
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A potential opportunity to invest in the company
For episode #19, I chatted with John Andrew Entwistle, founder and CEO of Wander.com, about the challenges of starting and scaling companies, building the future of life, work and travel, cultural pitfalls in early-stage startups, the importance of writing down life lessons and how immigrants can save America. Prior to starting Wander, John Andrew was the CEO and Co-Founder of Coder.com, on the Forbes 30 under 30 list and a Thiel Fellow.
This is a very special episode because a few weeks back I announced that I joined Wander’s founding team as CMO after initially investing in the company back when Wander was just John Andrew, an idea and an incredible domain. You might be wondering – what is Wander? It’s a network of smart homes in inspiring places that you can book for you next workcation, vacation or anything in between and control every aspect of the experience from your smartphones — from unlocking the door to setting the temperature to turning on the fireplace to adjusting lights and even accessing the Tesla in the garage. Our approach is entirely different from traditional travel options because we own and operate 100% of the homes on our platform and we believe that by owning both the bits and the atoms we can deliver a truly superior guests experience.
We just launched last week and want our early believers to join us on the ground floor. For a short period of time, you can become a Wander Founding Member for $100 and unlock benefits like:
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Get $100 credited toward your first stay
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Limited edition founding member hoodie
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Early access to Wander Homes before everyone else
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A potential opportunity to invest in the company
We’re also giving away a free Wander Trip for you and up to 3 friends for 3 nights. Just go to wander.com/kyle download our app and create an account to enter for free. This episode is a little different than most in all the right ways. I hope you enjoy this conversation with John Andrew Entwistle.
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “I am human optimization, I’m optimized to be happy. Your goal is not to be happy in pockets, your goal is to be happy every single hour of your life.”– Rob Dyrdek + You can avoid all negativity if you constantly live in a state of experiencing, creating or problem-solving * Every day for the last 5 years, Rob has written down how he feels about his life, work, and health on a scale of 1-10 + He compares this qualitative data to his quantitative data, what he’s doing and what the correlating feeling is + Mastery of self – Rob runs a daily analysis on himself to ensure his work/life always aligns with his priority for happiness * “You have a certain level of human capacity. In order to scale it, you either hire or automate it”– Rob Dyrdek * Start at the end – decide exactly what you want out of a business before you even start it + This can apply to all goals in your life, not just your work * There is great value in being open about your financial circumstances/opportunities with a peer group + Creates a strategic environment that functions off of collaboration and accountability
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Rob Dyrdek (@robdyrdek), founder & CEO of venture studio Dyrdek Machine, former professional skateboarder, and star of hit shows like Rob & Big and Ridiculousness, joins Sam (@TheSamParr) and Shaan (@ShaanVP) to discuss how he transitioned from acting and athletics to venture capital and how he structures his many business interests. He also talks about how he structures his life to achieve maximum human optimization, why he’s glad he didn’t have TikTok growing up, and much more.
Show Notes:
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(00:57) Why Ridiculousness is always on MTV
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(11:35) How Rob structures his business, money, and time
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(16:49) How Rob tracks his time with custom scripts
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(26:22) The transition from skater kid to human optimization
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(35:40) The value of opening your finances
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(44:16) Why Rob is glad he didn’t have TikTok growing up
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(58:29) Why Rob is trying to create a “Drake equation” for business
Links:
- Rob’s Podcast: https://dyrdekmachine.com/build-with-rob
Twenty Minute VC
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “It may be lucky but it’s not an accident” – Chris Sacca + Don’t dismiss your success, it will always be an unexpected combo of luck and hard work * “Training by way of tragedy. When things are going up you tend to correlate it with talent, when things are going down you tend to correlate it with luck.”– Chris Sacca + With more experience, you eventually invert this curve. You learn how to properly self-reflect on your own failures and successes * Let the large amount of good in the world outweigh the small amount of bad + When investing or decision making in general, don’t let the small potential for bad results overpower your ability to say yes * “There’s a surplus of assholes coming down the pipeline”– Chris Sacca + Many young adults growing up in computer science have never had a job that required human interaction, shaping their interpersonal capabilities often for the worse + The sheer ease of access to information is contributing to this as well as kids are not used to hearing no * Chris is leading the climate change firmLowercarbon Capitol where every deal has the potential for more than 1 gigaton of carbon removal + Climate change efforts are not just charitable, they are profitable
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Chris Sacca is the Founder and Chairman @ Lowercase Capital, one of the best performing funds in the history of venture capital with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more. Despite this incredible success, in 2017, Chris and his wife, Crystal announced they would be stepping back from day to day investing to focus on ongoing efforts to rescue our democracy, heal the planet, promote diversity within venture capital. Earlier this year, they announced Lowercarbon Capital, with $800M AUM, with the mission to back companies that make real money slashing CO2 emissions, and buying us time to unf**k the planet. Fun fact: As a result of his incredible investing success Chris has also been a Shark on Shark Tank and even starred in an episode of Billions.
In Today’s Episode with Chris Sacca You Will Learn: 1.) How Chris made his way into the world of investing having started life as a lawyer? What was his first investment? How did the first Twitter $25K angel check come about?
2.) How does Chris evaluate his own relationship to money and wealth? Why did Chris and Crystal interview some of the wealthiest people? What did they learn from those discussions? How does Chris view the role of luck? Why was it when Chris lacked optimism he lost the most money? How did being $4M in the hole from public markets impact his mindset?
3.) What does it mean for Chris to bring up healthy and happy children? Why does Chris believe today's parenting has bred a generation of asshole kids? In what way is great parenting aligned to great team management? How does Chris give feedback to his teams vs his children? What tone should be used? Should it always be "radical candor"? Should it be immediate?
4.) Does Chris believe that VCs really add any value? What does Chris believe is his secret sauce? Why does Chris believe that as a VC you have to be outspoken and loud about the value you provide? What have been some of the biggest lessons for Chris from sitting on boards and working with Bill Gurley? Why does Chris believe that most VCs are shitty managers?
5.) Why did Chris decide to come back from retirement and found Lowercarbon with Crystal? Why did he not decide to do it all with his own money? Why is now different for climate tech than prior generations of climate tech innovation? How big does Chris want to scale Lowercarbon? Will Chris make more money from climate investing than from tech?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Chris Sacca Chris’ Favourite Book: Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived, How To Raise an Adult
A16z Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * It is not a question of “either-or” but “both-and” (public and private cloud), and beyond that- it is about edge computing * “There are estimates that say there will be more applications and more data at the edge and it is not all going to come back to the center of the universe,” – Michael Dell * The massive shift to SAS (software for statistical analysis and data visualization) could be cloud wars 2.0 * Because of AI and ML rise, programmers will have to deal with the software on a new level of abstraction * Innovation is the main reason a startup should use cloud computing * Dell’s company went public, then private, then public again + They hired tons of engineers, salespeople, invested organically and it worked really quickly + The demise of the PC narrative gave them an incredible opportunity to buy the company back + Mergers and acquisitions are the No. 1 reason to go public * Leaving college to start a business: “It is not for everybody; you need to be deviant, mischievous, and a rule-breaker,” – Michael Dell * Get something up and running and then decide to leave or not – this is much better advice * There is something about the times we are in; the pull and drive of the moment (think about cryptocurrency)
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
There are lots of challenges in being public while trying to innovate, and limits to being a private company as well; but it's rare to see a company go public then private then back to public again. As is the case with Dell Technologies, one of the largest tech companies -- which went private 2012-2013 and then also pulled off one of the most epic mergers of all time with Dell + EMC + VMWare 2015-2016 (and which we wrote about here at the time).
Is there a method to the madness? How does one not just start, but keep, and transform, their company and business? Especially as it adapts to broader, underlying tech platform shifts. Michael Dell shares all this in his upcoming new book, Play Nice to Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader... he also, tellingly, may be one of the longest-standing founder-CEOs (37 years so far).
Because this is really a story about innovation, who decides, who judges, who does it, and where: In the markets, in public, in private; in the both the big picture and the inner detailed workings of a business beyond "cells in a spreadsheet"; and even in fighting -- or harnessing! -- narratives, whether it's the demise-of-PC or cloud wars 1.0 /2.0... And where trends like the cost paradox of cloud, and "end of cloud" edge computing, among others like AI & ML, also come in. In this special book-launch episode of the a16z Podcast with Marc Andreessen, Martin Casado, and Sonal Chokshi debate the Cloud Wars to the Company Wars (along with some behind-scenes stories and even some star wars) with Michael Dell... and whether you can really play nice to win.
image: Dell EMC World 2016/ © Dell Inc.
The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.
Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.
The Danny Miranda Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “Ruling institutions often go from being service providers to rent-seekers”– Mike Maples Jr. + The ability to exit is what gives your voice its power - Bitcoin provides you an exit opportunity from the centralized financial system - Covid has digitally separated work from location, creating exit power over local governments + Governments are being forced to treat us more like customers again rather than assets because more options emerge from the decentralization of products/services * Category Design: Trying to be the better choice isn’t credible, being different is believable + “I’m not the best, I’m the only. You want to force a choice and not a comparison.” – Mike Maples Jr. * Scalable start-ups that design new product categories are the way to defeat your susceptibility to inflation + Contributing towards existing institutional product categories only creates further dilution of the dollar down the corporate production line – feeding the machine per se + The phrase ‘the robots are going to eat your job’ is political speak to uphold industrial-era social contracts that maintain organizational power + Don’t subordinate your creativity as a trade-off for organizational hierarchy * Software gives people the ability to create a scalable business and participate in a more net positive, competitive, and decentralized business ecosystem + Competition drives innovation, the ‘robots’ are going to create more opportunity for the entrepreneur + “The future doesn’t happen to us, it happens because of us” – Mike Maples Jr.
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Mike Maples Jr. is the co-founder of Floodgate (early investor in Twitter, Twitch, and Lyft) and the host of the Starting Greatness Podcast.
In this conversation, we spoke about surviving how an entrepreneur survives near-death experiences, the balance of centralization vs. decentralization, why you should seek to join a breakthrough company, and how to manage your own psychology.
Emoji to describe this episode: 🤯
Mike's Links
Starting Greatness Podcast / Twitter
Advice by Patrick Collison
Continue the conversation with me...
Twitter / Instagram / YouTube / Website
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Business products designed around values consistent with ‘play’ rather than ‘work’ lead to increased efficiency and productivitythroughthe benefits of gamificationand targeting human motivation + Gamification creates an emotional connection to your work and the design can lead you to an increased capacity for flow states - “Emotions are the foundation of our memory”– Rahul Vohra * Your emotions can dictate how successful you are in your work + Games need good goals, so does your work: goals need to be concrete, achievable, and rewarding - Products designed this way specifically target the intrinsic motivations of humans * “Flow is not what you’re doing, it’s how you feel when you’re doing it”– Rahul Vohra + Products need rapid and robust controls and platforms, the extreme ease/efficient use in a product can make it feel more like a game + Five key components of flow: - Know what to do next - Know how to do it - Free from distractions - Get clear and immediate feedback - Must feel a balance of challenge and skill * Start-up advice: “Think as long-term as you possibly can. The most valuable companies are the ones that last the longest. Think big, know from day one what your multi-billion dollar story is going to be” – Rahul Vohra + If you’re going to put in the effort, you might as well put effort towards the biggest idea possible
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Rahul Vohra of Superhuman has adopted some of the most cutting-edge approaches to making a business product people want to use, rather than have to use. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr of FLOODGATE talks to Rahul about how any startup founder can apply the principles of game design to their products, and why this is becoming increasingly important in a world where users (rather than IT) increasingly decide which products win.
Pomp Podcast
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * For Keith Rabois to invest in you, your business needs to have a > 1% chance to change the world * Founders Fund launchedOpenStore to create a wealth-generation opportunity around starting/growing your own business + Almost no businesses on Shopify are venture backable or debt-financeable + OpenStore will buy your Shopify business, giving you the opportunity for liquidation and access to life-changing money, which incentivizes continuous business creation * Miami has the potential to be the next Silicon Valley + The blending of technology and culture seems to be much more natural, and it is a more accepting and innovative environment * “We are in a very confrontational state with China and the biggest risk is to be in denial of the fact that China has an agenda that is unfriendly to the future of democracy” – Keith Rabois * America has lost so much trust as a result of Afghanistan that Pomp believes it would be very hard to convince this generation of people to go fight in a war * We need an official ‘partisan-ation’ of the media + Disclosing bias > eliminating bias
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Keith Rabois is a General Partner at Founders Fund and is one of the most respected minds in Silicon Valley. Keith is also a co-founder and CEO of OpenStore. He previously was part of the PayPal mafia, served as the COO of Square, and co-founded real estate company OpenDoor. Keith also has invested in many industry defining businesses including Yelp, Linkedin, and hundreds of others.
In this conversation, we discuss building tech companies, great hiring questions, identifying the best founders, Miami, Afghanistan, China, OpenStore, Square, Founders Fund, and the state of the media.
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Invest Like the Best
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * “Software is eating the world”– Marc Andreessen + We are getting better at making more with less * If you want more job creation, you want more technology and productivity growth + Chart of the century – provides a great outline on the dilemma we are facing when it comes to this equation * System shock – Covid provided a catalyst for many macro level business decisions that wouldn’t have been made * “The more detached the legacy system (college & university) gets, the more practical and pragmatic the private sector will get” – Marc Andreessen * It’s time to build everything – we have too much bureaucracy on production
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
My guest today is Silicon Valley icon, Marc Andreessen. Before co-founding the legendary venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, Marc was an early pioneer of the internet. At age 22, he built Mosaic, the first widely adopted web browser and the technology that underpinned Netscape Communications. Marc was an early proponent of cloud computing, social networks, and the software business model. In each case, Marc seemed to be well ahead of the crowd. During our conversation, we explore how software is making the world better, how slow sectors like education, healthcare, and housing are eating the economy, and Marc’s vision of the future for A16Z. Please enjoy my conversation with Marc Andreessen.
Before we transition to the episode, I wanted to highlight our newest series, Business Breakdowns. Each week we do a deep dive into an individual business to understand what makes it great. Find more information on joincolossus.com or search for and sign up to the Business Breakdowns feed on your preferred podcast player.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
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Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:04:10] - [First question] The ways in which software is eating the world
[00:06:25] - The power of transitioning from atoms to bits and its impacts
[00:09:57] - Potential downsides and credible concerns as we shift into an automated world
[00:16:00] - Major impediments of productive growth over the coming decades
[00:23:12] - Real change versus false change due to COVID-19 writ large
[00:30:06] - Thoughts on the rising cost of post-secondary education in light of the internet
[00:37:03] - Why doesn’t Google have their own university and if they might in the future
[00:41:30] - Whether or not an entrepreneurial focus on generally slower sectors may produce excess returns
[00:44:17] - Thoughts on hardware, its unit economics, and its role in shaping society
[00:47:52] - How to think about investing in immensely complicated, large-scale projects
[00:54:10] - What they’re building at A16Z, a new crypto fund, and where their sights are set
[01:03:09] - East coast investing styles and things we can borrow from them
[01:06:01] - Potential plans to step into the public equity space
[01:11:09] - Defining why it’s time to build and the imperative it sets
[01:15:13] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The creation and maintenance of your start-up’s foundational team is critical for success + If there is a conflict around responsibilities, you have the wrong founding team + The greatest start-ups have a valuable mission and have a team that enjoys working together * Inbound recruiting processes are much more valuable to hiring talented and long-term employees + Cloudflare utilizes a blog to consistently communicate the company’s current problems, processes, technology, and goals to the public. Then, potential candidates come to them. * Understand if your employees value title hierarchy or product success, these different environments can benefit or hinder start-up growth + This article outlines Andreessen’s & Zuckerberg’s differing opinions on the topic + Growth solves a lot of problems – opens exponential opportunity to scale, hire talented people, etc.
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
It takes a lot of effort to build a breakthrough product. It's perhaps even rarer to design a company that endures. In this interview, Mike Maples Jr of Floodgate interviews Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn of Cloudflare to highlight what we can learn about how to get a startup's foundation right, along with recruiting, hiring, and company design.
a16z Live
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Check out the a16z Live show notes and episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
- What was the biggest surprise from the past 15 months of remote work? [5:24]
- How do you handle conflict and build trust? [10:09]
- What's the role of offsites? [15:45]
- Should you adjust compensation for different geographies? [24:02]
- How do you measure productivity? [34:10]
- What is the impact of remote work on retention and turnover? [49:17]
- How do startups built on decentralized platforms (e.g., Ethereum) function? [53:36]
- Is this the beginning of the end for Silicon Valley? [56:07]
For the latest a16z conversations on Clubhouse, follow the a16z Club.
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Any breakthrough worth pursuing has a high chance of failure + By definition, greatness requires the willingness to risk failure * 3Advantages of Taking Huge Risks + Taking bigger risks is a competitive advantage such most people avoid big risks, thus there will be less competition + Since there’s a high chance a risky idea will fail, on the chance that it does succeed, the payoff will be massive + Even if your idea fails, if you take a risk no one else has taken, you will learn things that no one else has learned * Take on the biggest risk first, if you succeed, you’ll generate massive value because you’re pursuing the same goal but now with massively better odds + If you can’t solve the biggest problem, then you can always pivot into doing something else
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Most people think that risk should be avoided. But Vinod Khosla teaches us otherwise...Risk is something people take when they create breakthroughs. This lesson of greatness talks about the key frameworks for why this is the case as well as how to take risks intelligently to tilt the odds in your favor.
Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * 3 traits of legendary startups: + Extraordinary teams + Breakthrough products that change the future + Creating a new category * Breakthrough startup founders are time travelers who discover a secret to a radically different future and they must come back to the present and convince early believers to embrace their secret and co-create that new future with them * 4 Steps to designing a category: + 1) Identify your founding insights and use them to identify your difference. + 2) Create your category design blueprint + 3) Define your provocative point of view + 4) Mobilize your movement
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Startups change the future so they MUST be different, rather than better. Christopher Lochhead shows us how category designers realize that different is believable from a startup, but better is not. Any powerful startup idea pre-supposes an exponentially different future, which means your startup MUST change the way the people think about the future rather than incrementally improve on the products they already use. Different forces a choice rather than a comparison. And different sticks, while better gets lost in the noise. In this lesson of greatness, we cover the specific steps involved in applying category design to your startup.
Venture Stories
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The biggest question for Keith when considering Miami was “Can we build a technology hub?” * People who moved to Miami have reported being happier * Looking at the history of startup ecosystems you can reverse-engineer some of their common ingredients + You need a mix of different skills (investors, designers, coders, and VCs) + It is usually a bottom-up dynamic, so you can’t control it from the top + You can try putting the ingredients together and see what happens + Once you get initial momentum, you need to leverage network effects to maintain it or amplify it * Keith prefers to build his teams in the same location, especially in the early days + Especially for young people, the workplace provides the opportunity to socialize, which they wouldn’t get remotely + Sharing the physical space opens to the opportunity of learning by osmosis, which would be hard to do remotely * Just as startups emulate other successful companies, if Miami’s mayor does well, we’ll see more mayors doing the same thing
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Keith Rabois (@rabois), partner at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode to discuss:
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Why he decided to move to Miami and why it’s made him 30-40% happier.
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The benefits of clustering when you’re at the earliest stages of building a company, and why remote works better for a later-stage company.
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Why he suggests you don’t visit a place you’re considering moving to for just a weekend and instead you go for a full Monday to Friday cycle.
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What he’s learned from people organizing digitally to make change in the physical world.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.
Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup
Business Lunch with Roland Frasier
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Every week at dinner, Sara Blakely’s father would ask her to share one thing she failed at that week. Her father wanted her to know failure was okay and that when you take risks, you’re going to come across failure. + “What he was doing was just reframing our definition of failure…The only failure for me is not trying” – Sara Blakely * As a salesperson, Sara listened to several motivational speakers including Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and many more + From listening to all these speakers, Sara learned about the value of visualizing your success and the power of positive thinking * What you don’t know can be your biggest asset in business + Sara didn’t get Spanx into Neiman Marcus by doing trade shows, she simply called them and asked if she could get 10 minutes to present her product to them * How does Spanx decide what products to work on? + “It’s really just based on need and listening to people and hearing where I see opportunities to make something better” – Sara Blakely * How does Sara define success? + For Sara, it’s following your passion, doing something that makes you feel alive, and helping other people along the way
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Sara Blakely took on a declining industry and ended up changing the way women dress. She is the Billionaire Founder of SPANX and was named by Time magazine on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2012).
Two years ago, we aired part of Roland Frasier's conversation with Sara Blakely. You can hear that here. Today, we're sharing some of the conversation that we held back: More questions that we think Entrepreneurs (and our business-minded listeners) will want to hear. Whether you're growing a successful business, dreaming up ideas, or struggling to navigate challenging times, this episode will encourage you on your Entrepreneurial journey.
"What he was doing was just reframing our definition of failure...The only failure for me is not trying" – Sara Blakely.
Listen For How Sara Blakely - • Stays Motivated (and who inspired her to break through the ceiling)?
• Wrote a profound (and very specific) goal in her journal two years before she had her billion-dollar idea.
• Continues to get great ideas (by making her 5-minute commute last an hour).
"I think a lot of my next inventions and ideas in the car" – Sara Blakely.
Plus, Sara Answers... 1. How Spanx's customer acquisition channel has changed over the years.
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Her strategy for maximizing customer lifetime value.
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How she expanded Internationally.
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Which Book has she gifted the most.
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Does she ever take time off and recharge?
Today's Top Takeaway What you don't know (in business) can turn out to be your biggest asset.
Did You Know? March is an extra special month for the podcast. We've also lined up the release of Roland's interviews with Sir Richard Branson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marcus Lemonis, and a special International Women's Day episode too.
Subscribe/Follow us on ApplePodcasts, so you don't miss it!
And don't forget to enter to win our Apple Giveaway! Here's that link.
You can also find us on these platforms here.
Follow Sara Blakely On Instagram
Check out The Spanx Foundation
Follow Roland Frasier On Facebook
On Instagram
Through his Website
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Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * By creating new words and terms to frame ideas you change language and thus how people think + This memetic spread that all then links back to you will exponentially grow your reach and influence * “I’ve done this for every book launch and I often advise startups to do this: look for uncrowded, undervalued channels” – Tim Ferris * “If you want to conquer the world, don’t try to do it all at once” – Tim Ferris + When first entering a market you should specify your target audience as much as possible in order to secure that initial foothold to springboard from * Organic growth by word-of-mouth is the great filter for most startups and products * Pay attention to the warning signs that people show when times are good as they will rear themselves as far larger problems when times aren’t so good + The struggle doesn’t always strengthen someone’s character, but it does always reveal their character
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
(2:47) - Tim looks back at the origins of the 4-Hour Workweek and early incarnations of the book
(9:30) - Mike and Tim discuss the idea of talking to real customers and of “getting real” to increase the chances of your startup’s success
(12:41) - Tim offers his thoughts on category design and the importance of creating a category, as well as working in categories where there were few competitors
(18:02) - Tim discusses the marketing ideas behind the 4-Hour Workweek and finding product-market fit, and offers ideas for book promotion
(31:05) - Mike and Tim share their ideas on the role of a startup advisor, and how to pick the right advisor for your company
(36:44) - Mike and Tim discuss the risks of negotiating with high-conflict people, and Tim reflects on his failures as a startup advisor
(40:27) - Tim stresses the importance of a quality product over public relations and personal brand
Below the Line
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * To 10x your chances at startup success: Fix a problem that you yourself have + Make a list of 15-20 problems in your life + Then rank them by most painful + Then try to build a product that solves one of them * “Build a company around a problem that you yourself have” – James Beshara * Why build a company around a problem you have? + You’ll have a familiarity with the problem which will help you design a solution + You’ll have knowledge of existing solutions and what they lack + You’ll know about the space + Youll know about your target market and customers * When building a company, launch earlier rather than later. + By launching early, you’ll get feedback from customers sooner and will be able to make adjustments to improve the product. * Once you get your company going, the next step is recruiting an amazing team + When looking for your first hires, you need to find people who are as passionate about solving that problem as you are * As a founder or executive, 25% of what you’re thinking about should be the current state of the company while 75% should be focused 90 days out and beyond + The managers in the company should be thinking 50% present and 50% future - The employees in the company should be thinking 75% present and 25% future
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
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Hit the show hotline and leave a question or comment for the show: 424-272-6640, email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline
James opens the show giving the #1 piece of advice he would give to founders to multiply their chances of startup success 10 fold. He then takes answers voicemail questions about how founders should decide how to to delegate their time and the strategy founders could take in the early stages of their companies. He closes the show by expounding on why he moved away from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, despite the large network effect that exists for founders in the Bay area.
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About your host, James: James Beshara is a founder, investor, advisor, author, podcaster, and encourager based in Los Angeles, California. James has created startups for the last 12 years, selling one (Tilt, acquired by Airbnb), and invested in a few multi-billion dollar startups to date. He has spoken at places such as Y-Combinator, Harvard Business School, Stanford University, TechCrunch Disrupt, and has been featured in outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and Time Magazine. He’s been featured in Forbes, Time, and Inc Magazine’s “30 Under 30” lists and advises startups all around the world. All of this is his “above the line” version of his background. Hear the other 90% of the story in the intro episode of Below The Line. “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Another Podcast Network.
My First Million
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The VC firms make 7-10x or in some cases 15x returns on their investment + It’s really the unicorns (companies worth $1 billion or more) and decacorns (companies worth $10 billion or more) that allow for those kinds of extreme returns * Most of the investments in any VC portfolio will fail but you only need 2-3 home runs to earn a great return. Those home runs can return 1,000 or 10,000x your initial investment. + “It’s complete power-law dynamics here where you have one investment or a couple of investments that scale up so quickly that it actually doesn’t matter. Like all of your other investments literally do not matter.” – Avlok Kohli * A rolling fund does 3 things differently: + You don’t have to raise all of the money upfront + You don’t have to go beg for money every time like a syndicate (the money is in the bank account) + You can publicly talk about your fund and solicit investments * Venture funds were built in a world without software, that’s why there outdated + “Rolling funds are what a venture fund structure would’ve looked like if it was built in the age of software, and so that’s what we did” – Avlok Kohli * Don’t buy a company based on its revenue multiple, buy it based on its profitable multiple * “It’s harder to have a stable, durable business in internet land because internet land is so dynamic and changes so much and is so competitive unless you have a moat” – Xavier Helgesen
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Today’s episode is a double header. Sam Parr (@theSamParr) is out today, so Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) hosts the pod today with two guests Xavier Helgesen (@XavierHelgesen) Co-CEO of Enduring Ventures and Avlok Kohli (@Avlok) CEO of AngelList. In today’s episode you’ll hear: Avlok gives his background on how he became CEO of AngelList (1:55), Shaan asks Avlok how he Fast Buy got acquired so fast (6:15), Avlok shares some ideas he has for the future of business (11:15), Shaan and Avlok talk about how to improve meetings (13:20), Shaan asks Avlok some of the cool companies he’s seen at AngelList (18:45), Shaan asks “What’s it like working with Naval?” (23:20), Shaan and Avlok talk about the problems with traditional funds and the potential with rolling funds (25:30). Shaan interviews Xavier Helgesen (54:52), Xavier gives his background (55:40), Shaan asks Xavier about his solar company in Africa (56:40), Xavier talks about his CFO-brain and how it’s helped his career (59:30), Shaan asks Xavier what he’s interested in lately (61:00), Xavier tells about his acquisition of UpCouncil (66:55), Shaan asks Xavier how to implement a profit-sharing company (78:20), Shaan explains how local and neighborhood networks are simple and profitable (85:10), Xavier explains what he looks at in financial statements when looking at a companies to acquire (68:28), Shaan asks Xavier if he has an opinion on SPACs (95:15), Xavier gives a list of a few books that every entrepreneur should read (102:45).
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Knowledge Project
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * The main problem in apparel: finding clothes that fit customers and that customers love + “Nobody was solving that core problem of how do I actually identify the clothes on this planet, out of the millions of things out there, that you specifically are going to love” – Katrina Lake * Price and speed of delivery are important in the apparel industry, but at the end of the day people want clothes that they like: + “Yes, price, speed, and delivery are important in apparel but actually more important is it right for you? Does it fit?” – Katrina Lake * Stitch Fix is solving this problem by using data science to offer clothing recommendations that people will like + Stitch Fix wants to become your personalized styler: - “What we’re really trying to do is get to this personalized storefront for every person” – Katrina Lake * Stitch Fix was cash-flow positive in 2014 and went from $0 to $1 billion in 5 years, and Katrina still had trouble raising money from VCs + “I was forced to be capital efficient. I had to make the most of our balance sheet in order to survive.” – Katrina Lake * Two of Katrina’s superpowers as a founder was her ability to recruit amazing people to come work at Stitch Fix and her authentic leadership style: + “Absolutely recruiting, I never, ever, ever would have been able to do all of the things that we did without having the incredible people on the team” – Katrina Lake + “The only thing that I had was this ability to be authentic and connect with people and to bring people along”
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
8x Olympic medalist and short-track speed skating legend, Apolo Ohno chats about his origin story, recovering from multiple failures, mental training, confidence, and leaving it all on the ice.
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Starting Greatness with Mike Maples
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * Anti-fragile teams actually get BETTER when the environment around them is high-pressure and chaotic. There are 3 key reasons for this: + They thrive under chaos - Places with uncertainty and risk are where startups should go because established corporations avoid these areas + They seize the initiative - “They will be aggressive go-getters that make luck happen for them rather than hope things go their way” – Mike Maples + They adapt and get stronger - These are startups that find new business models and strategies
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
Everyone knows a fragile team is more likely to fail. But an anti-fragile team is more than just resilient....it's more like a Hydra: When you cut off one of it's heads it grows two back in its place. Anti-fragile teams actually get BETTER when the environment around them is high-pressure and chaotic. In this lesson of greatness, we drill down into what it means to be anti-fragile and how you can apply the concept to your own startup team.
Below the Line
Podcast Notes Key Takeaways * What does Brianne look for when investing in founders? + Someone who has built great consumer products + Someone who understand the ends user - It’s also great to have two cofounder where one is the disruptor and the other has domain expertise in the area * “If you want to find investors, especially if you want to find great investors, deserve great investors” – James Beshara + Be thoughtful about the product, distribution, your vision, your competitive advantage, etc. * “Founders should really find founder partner fit. I think there’s just different styles of relationships, there’s different styles of company building.” – Brianne Kimmel + If you’re a founder, look at the companies the angel investors and VCs have previously invested in to see if they’re a good match for you * No doesn’t last forever. Investors can pass on your company early on but that same investor could be open to investing in you later in your journey. * Contrary to belief, investors are looking for investments that aren’t risky. They want to know your company is a rocket that’s going to take off with or without them so they better hop on before it’s too late. + “They probably don’t need my help but that thing is going to be a juggernaut whether I jump in or not so I better jump in quickly” – James Beshara * Don’t be too concerned with check size as a young angel investor. You want to get into deals and show your worth so that you can build up your track record. + “I often encourage people who are thinking of building a track record as an angel to not be concerned with check size and just like prove your worth and get in” – Brianne Kimmel * It took James 7 years to build a positive reputation as an investor + Why does it take so long? It can take 5 years or more for a company to become successful and signal that you made a good investment - “It takes quite a while for many of the best companies to ripen” – James Beshara
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org
"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author
Today's deep dive is with Brianne Kimmel where we discuss her (persistent) path to angel investing in technology startups. From purposefully connecting with the investor of the company she began working at (within months of starting) to hosting dinners for founders to teaching her craft openly and building a massive community to starting her own fund... and everything in between.
Brianne is an early-stage startup investor here in the Bay Area, and her fund is called Worklife. It has a very interesting vision of investing in companies that make work more flexible, creative, human, and balanced. We talk about her journey to becoming an investor, which covers her first investment, and what she was doing before she became an investor... We also discussed her designs in her career path and the choices she made early on that helped her in her current path. We even covered what types of founders and companies will thrive in this post-COVID world... all that and more.
It's a great conversation, and I'm really excited for listeners to get a deep dive into what it's like to become an angel investor. Enjoy.
You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC