Episodes
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Sarah Guo is the founder and partner at Conviction, a VC firm purpose-built to invest in AI-native companies. Some of their earliest investments were in the founding teams at Harvey, Basten and Sierra. Before launching Conviction, Sarah spent nine years investing in Greylock, working her way up to General Partner.
Through personal anecdotes and well-articulated frameworks, Sarah sits down with Rippling’s Chief Product Officer Matt MacInnis for a candid conversation on what startups ought to know about business on their first day of building.
They discuss:
When you should be worried about the foundation labs vs. when to feel confident The corporate finance basics that she tells every founder on day oneWhat really drives VCs to talk about founders behind closed doors Why ambition is in short supplyAnd so much more.
Get exclusive insights left on the cutting room floor in our newsletter → https://www.rippling.com/first-principles?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=social&utm_program=evergreen-engagement&utm_campaign=first-principles-ep-01-desc
CHAPTERS
0:00 welcome to first principles
1:30 investing when every assumption is out the window
6:48 the half-life of opportunities in ai
9:00 will the labs eat your company?
11:04 you're not competing with their a-team
13:56 why building enterprise software is still hard 14:44 name a less efficient way to sell
19:16 the number one thing i look for in founders 22:03 "we'll figure it out" never wins
24:43 the advice sarah wishes every founder heard earlier
29:23 when the net present value is negative
30:03 the seed-stage corporate finance checklist 32:20 the product game vs. the business game
34:28 why ambition is in short supply
38:30 the death of "do one thing really well"
43:20 the investor-entrepreneur dance
49:14 what vcs talk about behind closed doors
52:42 where the social cost lives
59:29 what happens when the music stops
1:02:31 the elon musk principle on capital
1:04:15 how conviction built its brand in four years 1:08:52 you won't get far being vanilla
1:10:51 what founders should know about conviction -
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