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Episodi
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Learning Leader Show
Key Takeaways Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThe 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 companyWhile 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 doingLeverage the power of demonstration: No argument in the world can compare with one dramatic demonstrationA 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.orgWhat 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
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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
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Episodi mancanti?
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Rich Roll Podcast
Key Takeaways Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgTom 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 existsThe 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 audience4. 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 timeKnow 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.orgMy 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.
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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.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
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
(00:06:48) 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 adoptionThe 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 cycleAlways 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.orgNikita 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 [email protected].
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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.orgEpisode 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—
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—
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/—
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/SupportShepherdMy First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
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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’s6. 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.orgEpisode 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—
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/SupportShepherdMy First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
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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?2. 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?3. 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 wellEnsure that compensation and promotion are perfectly tied to performance Ruthlessly minimize bureaucracyCelebrate 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 reasoningThe 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 transferDe-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.orgMy 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.
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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.This episode is brought to you by Tegus, where we're changing the game in investment research. Step away from outdated, inefficient methods and into the future with our platform, proudly hosting over 100,000 transcripts – with over 25,000 transcripts added just this year alone. Our platform grows eight times faster and adds twice as much monthly content as our competitors, putting us at the forefront of the industry. Plus, with 75% of private market transcripts available exclusively on Tegus, we offer insights you simply can't find elsewhere. See the difference a vast, quality-driven transcript library makes. Unlock your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.
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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.
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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’ShaughnessyTake 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 doLearn 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 timeYou 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 themThe investing industry is based on trust and reputation – it is wise to remember this
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgLet 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 ManagementShow 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 deliverThe 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?2. 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?3. 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?4. 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.orgRory 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 [email protected].
—
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.orgMike 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 [email protected].
—
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
Follow Sriram:
https://www.instagram.com/sriramk/
https://twitter.com/sriramk
Follow Aarthi:
https://www.instagram.com/aarthir/
https://twitter.com/aarthir
Follow the podcast:
https://www.instagram.com/aarthiandsriramshow/
https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
-
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWhat I learned from reading How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty.
----
Build relationships with other founders, investors, and executives at a Founders Event
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"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.
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(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.
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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
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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 elseErr 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. Mike's new book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buybooks. -
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.orgEpisode 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/wealthMy 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.
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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
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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 winnersDevelop 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.orgMy 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.
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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.
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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 -
Founders✓Claim
Key Takeaways Check out the episode page
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWhat I learned from reading The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes
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(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
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes
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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
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Acquired
Key Takeaways The trick of entrepreneurship is convincing yourself that it is not that hard, even when it is “Your organization should be the architecture of the machinery of building the product.” – Jensen Huang Pave the way to future opportunities; you cannot wait until the opportunity is in front of you to reach out for it Many of the great all-time tech companies began by building products and services for developers You don’t have to be that perfect if you can position yourself near opportunities Every person should learn how to use an AI to augment their productivityNvidia tries to position itself in a way that serves a need that is yet to emergePush your chips in when you know it is going to work Don’t do everything; prioritize your time, and make sacrifices, but realize that there is plenty of time in life
Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWe finally sit down with the man himself: Nvidia Cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang. After three parts and seven+ hours of covering the company, we thought we knew everything but — unsurprisingly — Jensen knows more. A couple teasers: we learned that the company’s initial motivation to enter the datacenter business came from perhaps not where you’d think, and the roots of Nvidia’s platform strategy stretch back beyond CUDA all the way to the origin of the company.
We also got a peek into Jensen’s mindset and calculus behind “betting the company” multiple times, and his surprising feelings about whether he’d go on the founder journey again if he could rewind time. We can’t think of any better way to tie a bow on our Nvidia series (for now). Tune in!
Sponsors:
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acqsnaiagents
Huntress: https://bit.ly/acqhuntress
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvantaMore Acquired!:
Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
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