Amira Yahyaoui (@Mira404) of Mos and Deena Shakir (@deenashakir), partner at Lux Capital, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - Amira’s part in the revolution in Tunisia. - How she ended up in tech. - Why she wanted to solve this issue. - Lux’s thesis in this area. - The gap she saw and how Mos will fill it. - How COVID has impacted higher education. - Her thoughts on governance and technology. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform...
Dec 22, 2020•50 min
Siadhal Magos (@smagos), co-founder of Metaview, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - What Metaview can offer and what inspired him and his co-founder to start it. - Insights from how teams grew at Uber and Palantir. - The rich data and insights that can be drawn from conversations. - The hiring lessons to impart to founders. - Best practices for startups hiring. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at w...
Dec 20, 2020•35 min
Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) of Late Checkout, and Justin Murphy (@jmrphy), social scientist and philosopher, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - How society got to a place where it lost its collective sense-making abilities. - Why calibrating what is real is harder than ever. - Signs that your community is working and what makes it flourish. - Techniques to build your communities. - Identity and how it interacts with your community. - Communities based around people. Thanks for listening —...
Dec 17, 2020•50 min
Laís de Oliveira (@isolive), author of Hacking Communities, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The “why now” for her book. - Why we are more connected than ever but still lonelier than ever. - How to be a good storyteller and why vulnerability is important. - The tension between building a community for a business versus for the community’s own sake. - How to think about monetizing a community. - How to grow a community. - What community-building looks like in the COVID era. Thanks for lis...
Dec 15, 2020•1 hr
Erik is joined on this episode by Max Nussenbaum (@maxnuss), who runs the writing fellowship at On Deck, Kyla Scanlon (@scanlon_kyla), who runs the blog Data Data Data, and Jake Singer (@jakesing_), who runs the blog The Flywheel. They discuss: - The benefits that writing has brought to them. - How they got started writing. - Their advice on how you can get started. - How to create a flywheel in your own writing. - The highest leverage ways to improve your writing. - What the fellowship will loo...
Dec 13, 2020•37 min
Jay Kennedy (@jameswkennedy), Chief of Staff at Floodgate, and Rishi Tripathy (@rishi_tripathy_), Chief of Staff at On Deck, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The Chief of Staff role and how it has evolved over time. - What it really means to be a Chief of Staff and how they each became one. - Why the role has become so popular these days. - Why it benefits a CEO or founder to have a Chief of Staff and the value they can provide. - How working as a Chief of Staff can benefit you. - The ...
Dec 10, 2020•26 min
Brent Franson (@brentfranson), founder and CEO of Most Days (mostdays.com), joins Ben Casnocha on this episode to discuss: - How the company is creating a “Peloton for mental health.” - The most popular routines that people can cultivate using the app. - His history as an entrepreneur and lessons learned, including why “not all dollars are created equal.” - The life experience that informed the creation of Most Days. - The unique habits that he is cultivating himself with the help of the app. Th...
Dec 10, 2020•44 min
Brian Balfour (@bbalfour), of Reforge, and Long Journey Ventures, and Pascal Levy-Garboua (@2pasc) of Long Journey Ventures, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Common mistakes that early-stage companies make in their go-to-market strategy and how to avoid them. - Advice on partnership strategies and go-to-market. - Frameworks for who to hire and why. - Misconceptions that founders have around loops. - Advice for enterprise companies. - Advice on building a business development function w...
Dec 08, 2020•54 min
Joe Marchese, media exec and multiple time co-founder of CKBG, Human Ventures, true[X], and Attention Capital, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How he got to where he is and the thread that runs through his career. - What tech and startup people don’t appreciate about TV advertising. - What he’s trying to do with Attention Capital. - What people predicted in the space several years ago and why they didn't come to pass. - What he expects the landscape to look like for media and attention ...
Dec 06, 2020•49 min
Avichal Garg (@avichal), Managing Partner at Electric Capital, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How he came to be running Electric Capital. - Their perspective and thesis. - What’s newly possible with computers able to own money. - Why price fluctuations happen with Bitcoin. - What Bitcoin is correlated with. - Debates within crypto. - Thoughts on China. - How regulation interacts with crypto. - How the space will evolve in the next several years. Thanks for listening — if you like wh...
Dec 03, 2020•50 min
Candice Ammori joins Erik on this episode. Candice is heading the Climate Tech Fellowship at On Deck. They discuss: - The issue of climate change and how she came to be working on solving it. - What climate tech means exactly. - Some of the most interesting companies in the space and what they are working on. - What founding teams have typically looked like for companies in the space. - What makes a founder a good fit for the fellowship, and what the fellowship will look like. Thanks for listeni...
Dec 01, 2020•29 min
Turner Novak (@TurnerNovak), general partner (and Chief Meme Officer) at Gelt VC, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How he’s thinking about consumer social as an investor in 2020. - Where he’s interested in consumer social and his requests for startups. - New methods of monetizing in consumer social. - What he learned from studying Pinduoduo and where he’s looking for a “for X” version of it. - Why he’s excited about gaming and why he says that “gaming is eating the world.” - What he woul...
Nov 29, 2020•36 min
Jason Feifer (@heyfeifer), editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine and host of three podcasts, including Pessimists Archive, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - Why fears repeat over time throughout history. - The message he’s trying to get through to the world through his work. - The historical opposition to chess, bicycles, and waltzing. - His thoughts on The Social Dilemma. - How he expects social media to evolve. - New forms of communication throughout history and why they were feared ...
Nov 26, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Dr. Anton Howes (@antonhowes), author of Arts & Minds, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How to create conditions where innovation is easier and better. - Why he wrote the book and the key question he was trying to answer. - What Silicon Valley could learn from studying the history of Britain. - Misconceptions that people have about economic growth in the past and future. - Why people misunderstand what growth is. - How statecraft relates to economic growth. - Questions that people in the...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Brandon Hill (@IamBrandonHill), CEO of Vori, Max Mullen (@Max), co-founder of Instacart, and Mike Duboe (@mduboe), GP at Greylock, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - What led Brandon to start Vori. - Why Max and Mike were excited to invest in the company. - How the grocery space currently operates and the antiquated technology currently in use. - How the space has evolved over time and the history of the supermarket. - How it will change and evolve in the future. - Why on-demand startups di...
Nov 22, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath), CEO of Social Capital, and Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman), partner at Greylock, joined Village Global co-founder and partner Ben Casnocha at a special Village Global event. Angel Island brought together 100+ angel investors for talks from world-class investors, discussions, and opportunities to make new connections. In this session they discussed: - What is broken about venture and how to fix it. - Why Reid is backing new experiments in venture. - Their thoughts on ...
Nov 19, 2020•40 min
Ty Walrod (@tywalrod), two-time founder and program director of On Deck Scale, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The On Deck Scale program, how it works, and how it can help founders scale. - Common reasons that founders get tripped up when hiring. - Advice for delegating and decision-making in a fast-growing company. - Thoughts on growth, go-to-market, and product-market fit. - Advice for fundraising and why a founder should “believe the no, but not the why.” - Why co-founder relation...
Nov 17, 2020•34 min
Keith Rabois (@rabois), partner at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck event. They discuss: - How he would compare the state of angel investing when he was getting started years ago to angel investing today. - His learnings about building a better filter for whether to take a meeting or not, and what he looks for in a person’s LinkedIn profile. - Portfolio allocation and how much to allocate to angel investing. - What differentiates people who are an ...
Nov 15, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Alex Robinson (@arobinsontweets), co-founder and CEO of Juniper Square (@juniper_square), joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The experience that led him to create Juniper Square and the vision for the company. - How he navigated the idea maze. - How investment management will change in the future. - The vision for unbundling investment management. - How COVID changed the market and why he thinks the move to remote work is overstated. - What’s next for the company. - Where he would be inves...
Nov 12, 2020•45 min
Anthony Nardini of the On Deck Team joins Erik to discuss: - The OD50 Fellowship, what it will be like, and who should go through it. - Why people don’t leave their existing jobs. - The advice he gives for people trying to pivot into tech. - The dimensions of job suitability. - How to know when it’s the right time to leave a job. - Whether to start your own thing or find a new job. - His advice for job-seekers. - The tools that he wants to exist for job-seekers. Thanks for listening — if you lik...
Nov 10, 2020•31 min
Nikhil Krishnan (@nikillinit), founder of Out of Pocket, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How employer-based healthcare came to be and how it might change. - Comparisons of the US healthcare system to other countries. - His investing thesis in the space and areas he’s bullish on. - The dynamics of hospitals. - Thoughts on randomized controlled trials. - The excitement around digital therapeutics. - EMRs and their adoption by patients during COVID. - The state of telemedicine and what the...
Nov 08, 2020•59 min
Lenny Rachitsky (@lennysan), creator of Lenny’s Newsletter and a former PM at Airbnb, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The best bottom-up SaaS metrics to track and why these companies are so sought-after right now. - What separates great bottom-up strategies from the rest. - How to think about when to hire your first PM. - How to increase retention. - How to think about strategy. - How to increase your conversion rate. - How to evaluate marketplaces. - How to create effective flywheels. ...
Nov 05, 2020•51 min
Jacob Peters (@J__Cub), co-founder of Commsor, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - What makes a great community. - The difference between a community and a network. - How to get a community off the ground. - Phases of communities and how to scale them. - How companies can build community. - How to think about monetization of a community. - His investing thesis around communities and his requests for startups. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorit...
Nov 03, 2020•40 min
Nan Ransohoff (@nanransohoff) and Ryan Orbuch (@orbuch), who are leading the climate initiative at Stripe, join Erik to discuss: - Stripe’s climate change initiative and how it came to be. - Why they are focusing on carbon removal. - The technologies that they are looking at. - What they’ve learned about negative emissions. - Their requests for action in the space. - How investors should be looking at these fields and the areas that would be most interesting to them. Thanks for listening — if yo...
Nov 01, 2020•44 min
Erika Batista (@erikabatista) and Gonz Sanchez (@gonsanchezs), of On Deck join Erik on this episode to discuss: - How the European startup scene has changed and evolved over time. - Fragmentation in tech in Europe. - Barriers to more people starting companies and how they are being removed. - Cultural differences between Europe and other geographies. - What they see as the secret sauce of San Francisco. - Plans for OnDeck in Europe. - Sectors and companies in Europe that are exciting. - What the...
Oct 29, 2020•40 min
Karthik Puvvada (@thisiskp_), director of On Deck’s No-Code Fellowship, joins Erik to discuss: - How he got into no-code and how the space has evolved. - Why he has been building in public and how it has helped him. - What is holding back the no-code movement from having wider adoption. - Why no-code is moving past the concerns about reliability and scaling that it has had in the past. - How investors should approach the space, and the requests for startups that he has. Thanks for listening — if...
Oct 27, 2020•21 min
Nadia Eghbal (@nayafia) of Substack joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The background of her book, Working in Public, and the “why now” for it. - What she’s learned about open source that can be applied to other areas. - Shifts that she’d like to see in the internet. - The evolution of thinking around democracy in the world. - Governance in companies and countries. - Narratives in tech and the negative attention tech has received recently. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, ...
Oct 24, 2020•51 min
Shrav Mehta (@shravvmehtaa), founder and CEO of Secureframe, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How he navigated the idea maze to start Secureframe. - The problem the company is solving. - Thoughts on recruiting as a space. - How thinking on privacy has changed over the years. - Where he’s excited in education. - How he learns about new spaces. - Why marketing is getting more technical. - How to think about marketing and sales in an early-stage startup. Thanks for listening — if you like w...
Oct 22, 2020•36 min
Dani Grant (@thedanigrant), co-founder at Jam, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How she came to start Jam, the product, and the problem that it’s solving. - How she navigated the idea maze. - Why now is the right time for a product like Jam. - Different waves of collaboration tools. - The future of the company. - Where there is whitespace in collaboration tools and where she’d be investing today. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast ...
Oct 19, 2020•20 min
Dan Barto of IMG Academy joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How the game of basketball has evolved over the last few decades. - What the next changes in the game should be, and will be. - How coaching has changed over time. - How team strategy and composition will evolve. - Players building brands and businesses on their own outside of the NBA. - Whether the players could start their own league and whether they should own more equity in the business. Thanks for listening — if you like what...
Oct 18, 2020•1 hr 14 min
