In this extended episode of Venture Stories, Erik interviews Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen), professor of economics at George Mason University. They discuss about a wide range of topics, including Tyler’s book Stubborn Attachments, the value of watching sports, travel, Bitcoin, the Knicks, and Effective Altruism — among many, many others. Tyler explains why he has only two “stubborn attachments” — human rights and economic growth. He takes us through his argument that there’s a moral imperative for e...
Sep 21, 2021•2 hr 56 min
Gabby Dizon (@gabusch), co-founder of Yield Guild Games, and Linda Xie (@ljxie), co-founder of Scalar Capital, join Erik Torenberg and Lucas Bagno on this episode to discuss: - Why Gabby started YGG and the evolution of play-to-earn and blockchain in gaming. - Why gaming is a great way to onboard someone to the crypto ecosystem, as NFTs have done. - The key players in the crypto gaming ecosystem. - Why there is renewed hope that crypto governance can be solved. - Use cases for DAOs and how they ...
Sep 16, 2021•41 min
Erik is joined by Zach Perret (@zachperret), co-founder and CEO of Plaid, and David Haber (@dhaber), former co-founder and CEO of Bond Street, now at Goldman Sachs. Zach and David talk about how they met and how they started their respective companies. They explain how to find out whether you are passionate enough about an idea to start a company around it: are you passionate about it enough to be willing to pound the table to get your mother-in-law to invest? David points out that 90% of your w...
Sep 13, 2021•55 min
Elad Gil (@eladgil), entrepreneur and investor, and Kevin Hartz (@kevinhartz), investor and co-founder of Eventbrite, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What they think is special about each other’s investing abilities. - How certain people are able to stay relevant in every investing cycle. - Kevin’s latest venture and the path he took to start it. - SPACs and their advantages. - How to find your own angel investing style. - How venture will change in the next ten years. - Elad’s COVID ...
Sep 10, 2021•29 min
We're re-releasing some of the best episodes from the podcast this summer. We were thrilled to host a masterclass roundtable session for our founders with John Donahoe when he was CEO of ServiceNow. John is now CEO of Nike and was CEO of eBay for more than seven years. He is known as one of the most inspirational leaders in Silicon Valley and is a highly sought-after mentor to CEOs including Brian Chesky at Airbnb, Drew Houston at Dropbox, and Ben Silbermann at Pinterest. We’re honored to have h...
Sep 06, 2021•54 min
We’re re-releasing some of the best episodes from the podcast this summer. On this special live episode of Venture Stories, Bill Gates was interviewed in 2018 at San Francisco’s Exploratorium by Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite. We are honored to have Bill Gates, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time, among our luminary LPs whose financial capital and engagement power the next wave of Village Global founders. They covered: - Gates’s entrepreneurial journey starting Mi...
Sep 02, 2021•1 hr
We're re-releasing some of the best episodes from the podcast this summer. Erik and co-host Anuj Abrol (@nujabrol) interviewed Keith Rabois (@rabois). Keith starts out by talking about why he joined Founders Fund and the reason that the structure of VC means we don’t see more people moving from one fund to another. They talk about the future of venture and whether there will be more M&A in the space and where he sees things going in the next 10 years. Keith explains why being an effective VC is ...
Aug 30, 2021•1 hr 28 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. The discuss: - The difference between fake growth and real growth, and how to know which one your company is experiencing. - Why fake growth has taken hold in so many companies in the Valley, and its broader systemic causes. - The difference between value hacking and growth hacking. - Why once you’ve entered the growth stage, it’s next to impossible to go back to the value hacking stage. - His thoughts on the Thiel vs. Rabois ph...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 17 min
We're re-releasing some of the best episodes from the podcast this summer. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco, featuring Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen), professor of economics at George Mason University and Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt), former executive chairman and CEO at Google/Alphabet. Cowen talks to Schmidt about a wide range of topics, from Schmidt’s college years, to his time as an intern at Bell Labs, to working for Scott McNealy at Sun Microsystems, to the ...
Aug 18, 2021•54 min
We're re-releasing some of the best episodes from the podcast this summer. 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...
Aug 15, 2021•40 min
We're re-releasing some of the best episodes from the podcast this summer. Sarah Tavel (@sarahtavel), partner at Benchmark, and Nabeel Hyatt (@nabeel), partner at Spark Capital, joined Erik on this episode. They discussed: - Why they love investing in marketplaces and the evolution of marketplaces over the last decade. - Why the wave of Uber For X startups didn’t take off. - How they evaluate marketplaces, and why founders get confused about “which race they’re running” when creating a marketpla...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Ramit Sethi (@ramit), founder and CEO of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, joined Ben Casnocha to discuss: - Ramit’s philosophy of personal finance. He says he focuses on $30,000 questions as opposed to $3 questions because there’s no limit on how much you can earn, but there is a limit on how much you can save. - How “invisible scripts” rule how you think about money. Ramit talks about how to figure out and interrogate what those invisible scripts are so you can move past them. - How to figure out w...
Aug 08, 2021•49 min
Max Greenwald (@MaxPGreenwald), founder and CEO of Warmly, joins Erik to discuss: - Max’s journey navigating the idea maze to start the company. - The problems with virtual meetings and why they lead to fatigue. - How to ask questions of prospective customers without leading them into providing the answers you want to hear. - Why he says that all interviews, first-time meetings, and team meetings are better done virtually than in-person. - The future of work post-pandemic. Thanks for listening —...
Aug 05, 2021•16 min
We’re re-releasing some of the best episodes of the podcast this summer. In this episode Alex Danco (@alex_danco) of Social Capital joined Erik to talk about Silicon Valley, economics, innovation, crypto, software and more. Alex explains the influence of Peter Thiel and Rene Girard on his thinking. He explains what he means when he says the key to understanding the world is asking, "what is everyone is compelled to lie about?" He gives a history of how innovation has traditionally proceeded in t...
Aug 03, 2021•2 hr 57 min
Santiago Suarez (@SantiaSua), co-founder and CEO of ADDI, joins Village Global co-founder and partner Anne Dwane on this episode. They discuss: - What he wish he knew when he started ADDI. - Why hustle alone has never made a company successful, and why he says it’s necessary but not sufficient. - His experience going through the Village Global Accelerator, and now mentoring founders in the program. - Where he’s looking to invest in fintech. - Startups he would like to exist that don’t yet. - Why...
Jul 30, 2021•21 min
Erik was joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. We're re-releasing some of the best episodes of the podcast from over the years. They discuss: - How the best founders approach entrepreneurship. - The power of “change events” for startup creation. - How important is it for your idea to be non-consensus. - What makes a great founding team. - How you know when you have an insight that’s worth pursuing. - What VC could look like a decade from now - The relationship between VCs a...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 16 min
We're re-releasing some of the best episodes from the last few years. James Currier (@JamesCurrier) of NFX joined Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why LinkedIn hasn’t been disrupted yet - Where are today’s opportunities in consumer social - Market networks and how they’ve evolved over time - What’s wrong with education and whether homeschooling can be a solution - Commoditization of higher education - How to evaluate startup ideas - How venture will evolve over the next decade Thanks for li...
Jul 22, 2021•57 min
Kevin Kwok (@kevinakwok) joined Erik in 2018 to discuss a wide range of topics. We’re re-releasing some of the best episodes of the podcast this summer. They talked about: - Why the stock market exists and why after the crash of 2008 no one said that we should shut it down. - The ideas of "loops and funnels" and "constraints and compounding" — and how Kevin thinks about those mental models. - The history of corporate structures and what they might look like in the future. - What might be possibl...
Jul 19, 2021•2 hr
This special live episode was recorded in 2018. We’re re-releasing some of the greatest hits this summer. Erik interviewed Naval Ravikant (@naval) and Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis). They start with an overview of the history of organizing societies and the role of centralized decision-makers from kings to democracies and why decentralization — where no one in particular is in charge but everybody follows the rules — has so much potential. They talk about how this could be disruptive to a wide swa...
Jul 15, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Daniel Gross (@danielgross), founder of Pioneer, joined Erik in 2018 for a wide-ranging conversation. We're re-releasing some of the greatest hits this summer. Erik and Daniel discuss a wide variety of topics, including why saying something is “insanely great” isn’t necessarily a compliment for a founder, how to play “the video game that is life,” why the best way to get the physique you want is to move (cities), and how Twitter has reshaped the human psyche. They also cover a number of other to...
Jul 12, 2021•2 hr 32 min
We're re-releasing some of the greatest hits from the podcast over the years. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco in October 2018. Keith breaks down some of the successes that mentees of his have had over the past few years. Many of them came from non-technical backgrounds and non-elite schools. He talks about their career trajectory and the inflection points that led to their advancement. Erik explains the four dimensions of career building and where he thinks...
Jul 07, 2021•58 min
Nathan Cheng (@realNathanCheng), program director for On Deck Longevity, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The key breakthroughs in aging research in the past. - Why we're still waiting for the first success story in humans, and why he predicts the first drug will be approved in the next ten years. - Why the space has plenty of capital but not enough founders. - The challenges and roadblocks in the space. - Common misconceptions about longevity. - Who should think about applying to the pr...
Jun 29, 2021•39 min
Kevin Leland (@kmleland), founder and CEO of Halo, and Phil Taylor, Bayer’s Open Innovation Lead, join Erik to discuss: - Why the current RFP process resembles recruiting in the 1990s pre-LinkedIn and Monster, and how Halo can change that. - What open innovation is and some of its success stories. - How to connect companies and scientists to drive innovation. - How to create an innovation ecosystem. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platf...
Jun 10, 2021•21 min
Noah Smith (@noahpinion), Bloomberg Opinion writer and author of the Noahpinion Substack, joins Erik to discuss: - Why colleges should try to emulate the Cal State and CUNY systems, which Noah says provide the best value for dollars in education. - Why the US should want to copy the Japanese and Korean healthcare systems, and the power that a national health insurance program has to drive cost down. - Why the oil shock precipitated the great stagnation, and the evolution (and non-evolution) of e...
Jun 08, 2021•1 hr
Caleb Watney (@calebwatney), Director of Innovation Policy at Progressive Policy Institute, joins Erik to discuss: - How views have changed on whether we are in a great stagnation, and what someone from the 1970s who was brought to 2021 would think about the technological changes in the interim. - Whether a technological slowdown is inevitable or a choice that a society makes. - The fact that COVID drastically accelerated adoption of technology that was already in existence. - Caleb’s view that ...
Jun 06, 2021•1 hr 6 min
Chris Toy (@ChrisToy), co-founder and CEO of MarketerHire, joined Anne Dwane in a special session for Villagers. They discussed: - Why if you don’t know who your customer demo is, you need a marketer on your team earlier than you think. - The misconception that marketing is something to be done at a later stage, or is expensive, or is only about customer acquisition. - Why marketing is part of the de-risking process for your company. - The tech stack to use at the early stage. - The ideal market...
Jun 03, 2021•42 min
Emily Anhalt (@dremilyanhalt), co-founder of Coa, joins Erik to discuss: - Why people should have a proactive approach to emotional fitness and should think of it like to going to a gym on a regular basis, rather than only seeking help when things go wrong. - The seven traits of emotional fitness and how to get them. - Why the true mechanism of healing is relationships. - The fact that sometimes a founder’s biggest strength and can become a weakness. - Why so many founders aren’t happy even afte...
Jun 01, 2021•38 min
Brad Feld (@bfeld), VC at Foundry Group and co-author of The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche with Dave Jilk, joins Ben Casnocha to discuss: - Common misconceptions about Nietzsche and why being misunderstood makes him an especially interesting philosopher. - What Nietzsche can teach entrepreneurs deciding whether to pivot or persevere. Brad says that founders should view their entrepreneurial journey not in terms of a single company, but as the next 30-50 years of their life. - Why Brad hates th...
May 29, 2021•50 min
This is a special cross-posted episode of The Deep End, a new podcast from On Deck. Erik Torenberg is interviewed by Marshall Kosloff about: - What’s causing incumbent universities to fail. - The opportunities that exist for new institutions to chart a different path. - Unbundling and cost disease in education. - Talent identification and credentialism. Subscribe to The Deep End: https://ideas.beondeck.com...
May 26, 2021•47 min
Addie Lerner (@addielerner), founder of Avid Ventures, joins Erik to discuss: - Why she started Avid Ventures and how her experiences at growth-stage funds influences her investing strategy at earlier stages. - Her take on the “great barbell” in venture capital and how she thinks about investing in an environment with outsized valuations. She says that firms are now investing in seed stage companies at Series B prices. - The origins of her bullishness on fintech and why “every company is becomin...
May 24, 2021•47 min
