Erik is joined on this episode by Seth Rosenberg (@SethGRosenberg), investor at Greylock, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), fintech investor at 500 Startups. They talk about: - The biggest opportunities in fintech today. - How traditional finance can be rebuilt from the ground up using software. - How to think about different market segments in fintech. - Their requests for startups in the space. - Why the big companies in fintech are converging on the same set of features. - Facebook’s Libra and the...
Jul 31, 2019•33 min
Samo Burja (@SamoBurja), founder of Bismarck Analysis, joins Erik for this episode. You can find him on Medium at medium.com/@samo.burja. In this episode they discuss: - Why certain societies flourish while others decay - Where Samo stands on the nature versus nurture debate - Why he has “yet to hear a satisfying description of human social life” - The lessons we can learn from places like Singapore - The difference between the view of government as resource for the people versus the view of peo...
Jul 27, 2019•1 hr 4 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Daniel Pianko (@danielpianko), co-founder and managing director of University Ventures, and Andy Hall (@AndyHall_SD), COO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. They talk about: - How ISAs have been able to transform lives through Andy’s program in San Diego. - Why tech titans providing massive amounts of money for scholarships is a suboptimal way of getting underprivileged people into school. - The chasm between work and school in America. - The fact that over...
Jul 25, 2019•1 hr 2 min
On this episode Erik is joined by Chuck Trafton (@chucktrafton), of FlowPoint and edly, and Will Nelligan (@williamnelligan), of the Education Finance Institute. They talk about: - Why there needs to be a marketplace for ISAs. - How ISAs ensure that schools have “skin in the game.” - The problems with student loans. - The mechanics of ISA repayment and the ways in which they are progressive. - Why ISAs provide a unique opportunity for investors. - How ISAs can fix some of the perverse incentives...
Jul 23, 2019•48 min
Robert Wright (@robertwrighter), author of Nonzero, The Moral Animal, Why Buddhism Is True, and others, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The common theme of exploring the meaning of life that Robert says runs through all of his books. - Whether global governance could be feasible and how positive-sum thinking can play a part in reducing hostilities between nations. - Why consciousness gives life meaning. - How to deal with the quest for status. - The emotional manipulation that politi...
Jul 21, 2019•1 hr 39 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Glen Weyl (@glenweyl), founder of RadicalxChange and co-author of Radical Markets, and Tomer Kagan (@Gradish), co-founder and CEO of Merit. They discuss: - What they’re working on in the space and how it will change how identity works in the future - How to think about what makes up someone’s identity, including elements that are self-declared and those that can be independently verified - Glen’s point that the internet is missing two crucial elements: a truth f...
Jul 18, 2019•1 hr 1 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Trae Vassallo (@trae) of Defy and Lee Edwards (@terronk) of Root Ventures. They talk about: - How their backgrounds and unique experiences have informed their perspectives on investing - Whether venture capital should go back to funding technical risk - Their advice for funds and how Trae has seen investing strategies come and go over time - Why there are big opportunities in areas VCs don’t know much about, like logistics, warehousing, or agriculture - Why Trae...
Jul 16, 2019•47 min
Mike Elias (@harmonylion1), crypto consultant, joins Erik on this episode to talk about idea markets. They discuss: - How he came up with the idea - Examples of how this could be implemented in the real world - The problems with the incentives of the world’s media - Why it’s “impossible to kill an idea with force” - How an idea market is like a mix of the Nasdaq and Reddit - Why, as a society, we want to search for the ideas that are both “outrageous and true” - Why William James said that we sh...
Jul 14, 2019•55 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Alex Taussig (@ataussig) of Lightspeed, and Pete Flint (@peteflint) of NFX. They talk about: - The evolution of marketplaces over time, including a comparison of the characteristics of eBay and Lyft at the time they went public. - Why the next wave of marketplace businesses will be in financial services, and why they require a unique team with a specific set of experiences. - Examples of existing startups that are working in this space, as well as their requests...
Jul 11, 2019•45 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. The talk about: - 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...
Jul 09, 2019•1 hr 17 min
Alex Bangash (@AlexBangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik as part of our LP series. They talk about: - The myth, according to Alex, that there are such things as “good pickers” in venture. - The fact that in venture, the traditional investment model is turned on its head — assets are picking managers, rather than the other way around. - Why “the structural advantage of the big funds has all but disappeared” and why he cringes when someone tells him they want to be the next Benchmark. -...
Jul 07, 2019•1 hr 3 min
Michael Kim (@MKRocks), founder and managing partner of Cendana Capital, joins Erik on this episode to talk about what LPs look for in venture funds and the future of the industry. They discuss: - The reasons for the proliferation of seed funds over the past few years. - The rise of the "super angels." - Why portfolio construction is so important to Cendana when they're looking at a fund. - How he evaluates a fund to see whether their thesis can generate the right returns. - Why he’s “not lookin...
Jul 04, 2019•55 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Beezer (Elizabeth) Clarkson (@Beezer232), managing director at Sapphire Ventures, and Chris Douvos (@cdouvos), founder of Ahoy Capital. They talk about: - The state of the venture industry and the industry from the LP perspective. - Why venture is “either all about access or audacity.” - How LPs pick which funds to back. - Whether there is too much capital in the venture capital asset class. - What “dilettante capital” is and why there are more “clowns” in the i...
Jul 02, 2019•1 hr 1 min
On this special live episode of Venture Stories, Bill Gates was interviewed 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 small group of luminary LPs whose financial capital and engagement power the next wave of Village Global founders. They covered: * Gates’s entrepreneurial journey starting Microsoft, including the most important turning points in the early ye...
Jun 30, 2019•1 hr 1 min
This episode is a conversation between George Gilder (@ScandalOfMoney), author, investor, writer and economist, Patrick Stanley (@PatrickWStanley), head of growth at Blockstack, and Erik Torenberg, partner and co-founder of Village. It was originally released on The Stacks Podcast presented by Blockstack. They talk about: - Gilder’s Information Theory, and why it is central to everything, including the world economy and biology. - Why Gilder says that “wealth is really knowledge,” why money is n...
Jun 27, 2019•1 hr 34 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Sarah Guo (@saranormous), partner at Greylock. It was recorded live as part of a talk Sarah gave at Village Global’s Network Catalyst program in summer 2019. They discuss: - Which spaces Sarah is most interested in and where she has been investing - Her advice for entrepreneurs looking to build a company in SaaS and enterprise, as well as her interest in companies working in security and privacy - Her investment thesis at Greylock - Why a company without an init...
Jun 25, 2019•39 min
Erik is joined by Howard Lindzon (@howardlindzon), GP at Social Leverage and co-founder and chairman of StockTwits, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), FinTech investor at 500 Startups. They discuss: - Which spaces they’re most excited about within FinTech. - How the space has evolved over the last decade or so. - Why it’s a very difficult and crowded space to try to build a company in (hint: “CACs are ridonculous”). - Their takes on crypto and its future. - Why incumbents like Google and Amazon have d...
Jun 24, 2019•50 min
David Friedman (daviddfriedman.com), economist and author, joins Erik on this episode. He is the son of Milton Friedman and the father of former guest, Patri Friedman. They cover a lot of ground in this episode, including: - The rationale for privatizing government and the failures of the existing system. - What it would look like to have a fully privatized government, including how a private substitute for police and defense would work. - Why he is not a utilitarian and the framework he uses to...
Jun 20, 2019•1 hr 51 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Noah Tye (@noahlt), developer and a very interesting thinker on Twitter. They talk about: - Noah’s advice on taking advice, including why “people give others the advice that they themselves need.” - The importance of journaling and how to deal with emotions. - Why he keeps an anticipation journal. - The difference between burnout and overwork, and their relationship to depression. - What it means to “shrink the quantum of experience.” - What happened when Noah g...
Jun 18, 2019•1 hr 32 min
On this episode Erik talks to Freyja (Jess), thinker on human coordination at the Twitter handle @utotranslucence. They talk about: - How we should think about the idea of “compassion at scale.” - Why once a measure becomes a metric, it ceases to be an effective measure. - Whether it’s possible to build a social system without coercion. - The distinction between complex and complicated systems. - Markets, and how they impact communities. - Her “motivational Turing test.” - What she would like to...
Jun 16, 2019•2 hr 57 min
Arnold Kling (@KlingBlog), economist and former web entrepreneur, joins Erik on this episode for a wide-ranging discussion of tech, politics, business and economics. They talk about: - Arnold’s mission to replace neoclassical economics, including his dissection of its flaws. - How he would change how economics is taught, including his proposal for a better definition of economics than “the study of how to allocate scarce resources.” - Why capitalism is not more popular, and his responses to what...
Jun 13, 2019•1 hr 55 min
Dani Grant (@thedanigrant) of USV joins Erik on this episode to talk about education. Dani has been doing a deep dive into education and shares a wealth of insights on how the current system works, its flaws, and the people working on new forms of education for all ages. They talk about: - Why the school system is broken and why it’s often thought of as “government-sponsored daycare.” - How homeschools actually work, and how it is different than what you might think. - Why religion was a precurs...
Jun 09, 2019•42 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Karn Saroya (@karnsaroya), CEO of Cover, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), investor in FinTech. They talk about… * How Karn navigated the idea maze in starting Cover. * The quirks of the insurance market and the real business model of big insurers. * How insurance is comparable to prediction markets. * Their requests for startups in the space, where the opportunities are, and what to stay away from. * Why there has been a trend towards specialty insurance. * How comp...
Jun 06, 2019•56 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Slagh (@MikeSlagh), co-founder and CEO of Shift, and Rahim Fazal (@rahimthedream), co-founder and CEO of SV Academy. They talk about: * How they “navigated the idea maze” to come to what they are doing today. * How they are helping people with non-traditional backgrounds break into Silicon Valley. * Why what they do is valuable both to the employer and the employee changing careers. * How they came to their business models. * How they help fix the “massive ...
Jun 04, 2019•42 min
Jun 02, 2019•52 min
Jun 02, 2019•32 min
Jun 02, 2019•26 min
Jun 02, 2019•42 min
Jun 02, 2019•33 min
Erik is joined on this special live episode by Sarah Tavel (@sarahtavel), general partner at Benchmark. Sarah gave a fireside chat as part of Village Global’s Network Catalyst accelerator program in May 2019. They talk about: * The state of education and what Sarah is looking for in the space. * Why founders need to focus on “getting one thing really right, no matter how big or small.” * What Sarah sees in the crypto space and why she invested in Chainalysis. * The promise of vertical marketplac...
May 30, 2019•48 min
