Learn from history's Greatest Minds — and find Timeless ideas you can apply to business and life. Every podcast episode we explore a Timeless book: We strive to become polymaths like our investing and business icons, pulling the Big Ideas from a wide range of disciplines to help us become better investors and operators. For the curious-minded seeking Worldly Wisdom. Join thousands of readers by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version...
Jan 01, 2025•3 hr 53 min
Learn from history's Greatest Minds — and find Timeless ideas you can apply to business and life. Every episode we explore a Lindy book: We strive to become polymaths like our investing and business icons, pulling the Big Ideas from a wide range of disciplines. For the curious-minded seeking Worldly Wisdom. Join 3,000+ others by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version of this episode click here . A rare episode where we invited guest...
Sep 12, 2024•3 hr 33 min
Learn from history's Greatest Minds — and find Timeless ideas you can apply to business and life. Every episode we explore a Lindy book: We strive to become polymaths like our investing and business icons, pulling the Big Ideas from a wide range of disciplines to help us become better investors and operators. For the curious-minded seeking Worldly Wisdom. Join 3,000+ others by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version of this episode c...
Jul 25, 2024•3 hr 59 min
Learn from history's Greatest Minds — and find Timeless ideas you can apply to business and life. Every episode we explore a Lindy book: We strive to become polymaths like our investing and business icons, pulling the Big Ideas from a wide range of disciplines to help us become better investors and operators. For the curious-minded seeking Worldly Wisdom. Join 3,000+ others by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version of this episode c...
Jun 13, 2024•4 hr 43 min
Learn from history's Greatest Minds — and find Timeless ideas you can apply to business and life. Every podcast episode we explore a Lindy book: We strive to become polymaths like our investing and business icons, pulling the Big Ideas from a wide range of disciplines to help us become better investors and operators. For the curious-minded seeking Worldly Wisdom. Join 3,000+ curious minds and avid readers by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the...
Apr 04, 2024•3 hr
Learn from history's Greatest Minds — and find Timeless ideas you can apply to business and life. Every episode we explore a Lindy book: We strive to become polymaths like our investing and business icons, pulling the Big Ideas from a wide range of disciplines to help us become better investors and operators. For the curious-minded seeking Worldly Wisdom. Join 3,000+ others by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version of this episode c...
Jan 08, 2024•2 hr 11 min
** Apologies for the audio quality, it's been a while! New audio set-up. The audio will be significantly better from the next episode. In this transitionary episode we discuss our pivot, after 49 episodes our podcast is continuing, albeit in a much different direction, and rebranding. From the next episode (ep. 50 it will be in the new format and all changes will be reflected then). We discuss all the changes (and our view on the podcasting space) in this short transitionary episode. Video versi...
Aug 29, 2023•27 min
Jim O'Shaughnessy is one of the greatest thinkers of our time. A curious mind, Wall Street legend, Venture Capitalist (OSV.llc), best-selling author, previously founder of OSAM (sold to Franklin Templeton), podcaster (infinite loops), father, grandfather, and the list goes on. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/W-t1v-u-iAg Jim's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jposhaughness...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Jonny is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sprout : an investment platform curating access to Venture Capital deals for private investors. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/wXWu552WyVE Jonny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-blausten-b5178141/?originalSubdomain=uk Jonny's personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/JBlausten Jonny's GunnerPunner Twitter: https://twitte...
May 03, 2023•2 hr 21 min
Ben Awad is a YouTuber, software engineer, and the founder of VoidPet.com. He has 500k YouTube subscribers, 800k TikTok followers, and is known for his legendary coding tutorials and humorous and authentic videos. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/BKhV-kPavnk Ben's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bawad Ben's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benawad Ben's Twitter: https...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 8 min
Jack Raines is the fastest growing finance & money blogger on the planet right now. He created the Young Money blog ( https://www.youngmoney.co/ ) just 15 months ago and has already amassed 30,000+ subscribers. He has already been offered book deals by world class publishers. Leverage ftw. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel where we recorded this in person with Jack: https://youtu.be/F56Y...
Jan 24, 2023•2 hr 44 min
Luke Burgis has co-created and led four Silicon Valley companies in wellness, consumer products, and technology. He is the author of the best selling book "Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life", which breaks down the theories of French philosopher René Girard. Luke is currently Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Director of Programs at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship, where he also teaches business at The Catholic University of America. Girard's theories explain mos...
Oct 10, 2022•1 hr 7 min
In this Rational Musings episode, Iman and Cyrus discuss their views on whether setting up a fund or running a syndicate (SPV) makes the most sense. The guys also talk about angel investing, joining a fund and scouting deals as alternatives to running an SPV or fund. Submit questions for us to cover in podcast episodes: https://www.rationalvc.com/questions Materials referenced Samir Kaji tweet 1: https://twitter.com/Samirkaji/status/1522757321809485824 Samir Kaji tweet 2: https://twitter.com/Sam...
Aug 01, 2022•47 min
In this Rational Musings episode, Iman and Cyrus discuss antifragile principles of their favourite author - Mr Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The fellas dissect a Seeking Alpha article on managing an antifragile portfolio and also talk how to apply antifragile principles in daily life. Submit questions for us to cover in podcast episodes: https://www.rationalvc.com/questions Materials referenced Seeking Alpha article: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4454512-7-rules-for-an-antifragile-portfolio Taleb co...
May 03, 2022•46 min
Eric Jorgenson is an author and the creator of "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant" book. He is also an Angel Investor and Entrepreneur. Eric recently launched his rolling fund on AngelList. He was on the founding team of Zaarly, and has been publishing online since 2014. His blog has educated and entertained over a million readers. The guys discuss everything from Building Wealth and Judgement, to Leverage, Naval, Balaji, Angel Investing, Web3, writing books, content creation, and much more. You ca...
Mar 30, 2022•2 hr 41 min
On this Rational Musings, Iman and Cyrus discuss René Girard's mimetic theory and real life anti-mimetic principles. The guys dissect Luke Burgis' article on living a counter cultural life and why being anti-mimetic is important for becoming antifragile. Submit questions for us to cover in podcast episodes: https://www.rationalvc.com/questions Materials referenced Luke article: https://www.epsilontheory.com/25-anti-mimetic-tactics-for-living-a-counter-cultural-life/# Luke book "Wanting": https:/...
Mar 14, 2022•40 min
Mac Conwell ("Mac the VC") is the Founder and Managing Partner of RareBreed Ventures. Mac is a former software engineer and a two-time founder. One of Mac's companies failed, the other went on to a successful exit. He then broke into the world of investing by working for the State of Maryland, before raising a fund of his own in a short amount of time. From homeless to VC, "hacker turned hustler", RareBreed has seen tremendous success in a short amount of time. You can also watch this episode on...
Feb 08, 2022•52 min
Cyrus and Iman are back and they're in person! The Rational VC guys talk to the super impressive founders of Odin, Paddy and Mary. Odin is a platform and community democratising access to early stage investing. In this long-form discussion, Iman and Cyrus talk to the Odin founders about their backgrounds, childhoods, Odin's origin story, Odin's future, community building, the democratisation of access and education. https://joinodin.com/ -- Rational VC provides regular content on technology inve...
Jan 10, 2022•2 hr 25 min
Andrew is a seasoned founder (2 exits) and is now the founder of MicroAcquire, a startup acquisition marketplace that helps startups find buyers and get acquired. MicroAcquire has seen tremendous success in a short amount of time. Andrew explains his tough childhood and formative years that led to him becoming an entrepreneur, what it takes to become a success, building in public as a CEO, the company's future plans, and his thoughts on juggling family life with business. www.microacquire.com --...
Dec 13, 2021•46 min
On the latest Rational Musings, Iman and Cyrus discuss their favourite principles, spanning investing / business, life and learning. In this Lindy episode, they go deep and share their rational thinking on a list of 116 principles as outlined by Junto Investments. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/CSKMJ_rZpt8 Material referenced: Junto Principles: https://junto.investments/principles/ Odin: https://joinodin.com/ Iman video...
Nov 30, 2021•56 min
Cyrus and Iman discuss their thoughts on authenticity in life, tech, and VC. They also discuss having purpose and performing deep work, whether elite university degrees are becoming a bad investment, applying the Wall Street DNA to Venture, and how Twitter activity influences VC funding outcomes. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/2O7Ugp_kmDQ Materials referenced: James Lo post on authenticity: https://www.linkedin.com/post...
Nov 15, 2021•46 min
Samir Kaji is a seasoned Venture Capital banker and now the founder of Allocate - a company disrupting the VC market. Allocate make it easy for investors to access top-tier private alternatives within the technology sector. Samir explains how his idea to build the Allocate platform emerged from his 20+ years of experience working alongside the biggest and best VCs in Silicon Valley. The guys also discuss how tech and tech investing has changed, and what the future for venture capital and angel i...
Nov 01, 2021•47 min
Cyrus and Iman discuss contrasting management methods in tech, hiring struggles in the marketplace, mimetic desire, environmental factors affecting investor decisions, the Matthew effect in relation to VC performance, and the generational shift within VC. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/Kqf_9v5pGDM Materials referenced: AGM on Apple vs Coinbase: https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1443846265582735362?s=20 Fred Destin o...
Oct 14, 2021•43 min
Iman and Cyrus discuss Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Sequoia. They touch on a16z's approach to becoming a venture corporation and Sequoia's leader Doug Leone. The guys also deep dive on the future of expertise, and also on things to consider when becoming a content creator. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/IsKO_byvgfs Materials referenced: SigmaOS: https://sigmaos.com/ SigmaOS Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/po...
Sep 22, 2021•38 min
Iman and Cyrus discuss angel investing in detail through the lens of a recent investment they are analysing. They touch on the importance of non-technical due diligence and what to emulate from the best angels. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/A7Oki1hxlm8 Materials referenced: Immad Akhund tweet: https://twitter.com/immad/status/1431657671266955264?s=21 Kauffman angel paper: https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/data/Do...
Sep 06, 2021•49 min
Cyrus and Iman discuss the huge advancements in AI by Tesla, showcased in their AI day. They also talk hacker homes and why they're getting funding, Jeff Bezos suing NASA, the damning IPCC report on climate change, and OnlyFans dropping explicit content from its platform. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/0FOjjeKXsb4 Materials referenced: Hacker homes article: https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/lau... Manidis tweet: https:/...
Aug 23, 2021•40 min
Will Bruey is CEO & Co-Founder of Varda Space Industries. Varda is pioneering space manufacturing by building the first space factory to launch and return space-made products for terrestrial applications. Varda was incubated in Founders Fund, and has since gone on to raise* over $50MM from investors such as Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, Naval Ravikant, and others. * This episode was recorded days before the Series A announcement! www.varda.com -- Rational V...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Cyrus and Iman discuss whether diversification makes sense through the lens of Apple vs. all the world's unicorns, how fundraising is growing in VC, and the Bezos vs. Branson space race. They also discuss why right now is the best time ever to build a startup or be a Venture Capitalist. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/ALdQ_dbYhN8 Materials referenced: Apple vs Unicorns: https://www.notboring.co/p/introducin... Michael Ba...
Jul 26, 2021•33 min
Cyrus and Iman discuss the ‘deep sickness’ in the UK (vs. US) capital markets according to James Anderson, the rapid growth of startup entrepreneurship during covid, woke culture in big tech, Microsoft making new moves to compete with Apple, and what makes Nvidia a great investment. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/lKxzUl_pFbo Materials referenced: Deep sickness in UK markets: https://www.ft.com/content/81d47276-cf69-40ec...
Jul 05, 2021•34 min
Cyrus and Iman discuss the latest CB Insights report on unicorn companies, whether venture capital has stopped being innovative and risk-taking, Europe lagging behind the US, Babylon health's decision to list via a SPAC, and Tiger Management cubs including Bill Hwang of Archegos Capital. You can also watch this in video format on our youtube channel to see supporting material: https://youtu.be/F48aN8-0tjc Materials referenced: List of unicorns: https://www.cbinsights.com/research-u... The Econom...
Jun 14, 2021•31 min
