Episodes
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This week on episode 4, we talked about:
Jake's train stationA disappointing dialog at the end of Diablo 3What’s so incredibly great about hoodiesTeddy Ruxpin, the original edtech product for kidsCuriosity Labs, a Character portfolio company building educational AI companions for kidsThe founding story of YouTube KidsGetting new product ideas from real-world customer behaviorTwo different ways to pitch the same companyShould founders follow “best practices” when pitching investors or try to stand out?Fathom’s Series AHow we found Fathom (and then decided to invest)Authenticity in salesWhy we go out of our way to pitch ourselves to foundersOur Design Sprint with FathomAlmond butter in oatmealA great book: Against the GodsAnd much more📩 Get an email about every episode at JakeAndJZ.com
💸 Learn more about our seed fund at Character VC
🥸 Find Jake on LinkedIn and X
🤠 Find JZ on LinkedIn and X
Chapters00:00 A diabolical dialog box
03:54 The importance of throughline
05:45 Where is Jake's sweatshirt?!
07:39 How sweatshirts work
09:13 Teddy Ruxpin
11:24 Building the pitch for Curiosity Labs
17:04 How a side project became YouTube Kids
22:49 A better way to pitch VCs
33:56 How Fathom got to Series A
40:30 How VCs do outbound sales
45:48 How authenticity shows up in products
53:21 Good beans
57:14 An extended self-congratulatory ad for Character and Design Sprints -
This week on episode 3 of Jake & JZ, we talked about:
The Seinfeld Moviefone episode (”Why don’t you just tell me what the product does?”)The Startup Wayback Machine (continued!), our technique for learning from successful companies in their early daysWebsites through the years, including Uber in 2011, iPhone in 2007, Slack in 2014–2017Solving one problem well before you try to solve a bunch of problemsA great LinkedIn post from Kushal Byatnal (founder of Character portfolio company Extend) about selling your product before you build itA fun tabletop analog game called KLASK (check out this epic game on YouTube)A great movie: The Eagle HuntressAnd much more📩 Get an email about every episode at JakeAndJZ.com
💸 Learn more about our seed fund at Character VC
🥸 Find Jake on LinkedIn and X
🤠 Find JZ on LinkedIn and X
Chapters00:00 Seinfeld and "Moviefone"
05:13 The Wayback Machine
09:09 Wayback: Uber
18:01 Wayback: iPhone
25:42 Wayback: Slack -
Missing episodes?
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This week on Jake & JZ, we talked about:
What Why How, our simple framework for great marketingHow successful companies apply this framework… or don’t! We compared Oura, Fathom, Playdate, Fletch, Meta Quest, and Apple Vision ProHow Nintendo redefined not just themselves, but the entire video game marketWhy founders should start with the story and differentiation, not the productThe Startup Wayback MachineA great book: Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples JrA great article: The Idea Maze is a Useless Idea by Cedric ChinTaking action to generate informationHowever, we did NOT talk about the election 😉
📩 Get an email about every episode at JakeAndJZ.com
💸 Learn more about our seed fund at Character VC
🥸 Find Jake on LinkedIn and X
🤠 Find JZ on LinkedIn and X
Chapters
00:00 Nintendo zags when the world zigs
04:49 Character Labs
05:34 What-Why-How Framework
09:18 The Importance of a Clear Story
12:28 Examples of the 'What, Why, How' Framework in Action
21:39 Crafting Clear and Compelling Messaging
23:47 More What-Why-How Examples
33:32 Apple Vision Pro vs Meta VR: Marketing
43:47 Lessons from 'Pattern Breakers'
50:47 Challenging the Idea Maze -
This week on Jake & JZ, we talked about:
Advantages of remote vs IRL work for startup teamsCharacter Labs, our sprint program for pre-seed foundersWhy some founders feel anxious when they aren’t writing codeOur first exit of a Character portfolio company (Reclaim was acquired by Dropbox)The ongoing quest for a distraction-free phone (Jake ordered the Lightphone III)The story of Nintendo on the Acquired podcastBit Timer, a nice timer for iPhoneAnd much more📩 Get an email about every episode at JakeAndJZ.com
💸 Learn more about our seed fund at Character VC
🥸 Find Jake on LinkedIn and X
🤠 Find JZ on LinkedIn and X
Chapters
00:00 Jake’s Sketchy Business Expense
06:39 Introducing This Podcast
08:10 Character Labs
10:24 Even More About Character Labs
22:11 The First GPU? Maybe?
23:17 In-Person is Special
25:38 Geographic Memory
36:25 Dropbox Buys Reclaim
40:18 How We Invested In Reclaim
42:11 That One Really Long Taylor Swift Song
42:35 Reclaim’s Multiplayer Sprint
43:35 Sort of a Magic Recipe
44:06 JZ Needs a Decent Timer App
49:46 $17 Per Week?!
51:56 Jake Talks About Nintendo For A Long Time
