Eric Vishria (@ericvishria) and Chetan Puttagunta (@chetanp), general partners at Benchmark, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The unique partnership structure at Benchmark and how it has led to the continued success of the firm. - Why they are purposefully not trying to scale the firm, unlike other venture firms. - Their investments in open source, why the space is unique, and where the white space is. - What will change in the future in open source and web infrastructure. - Biotech as...
Dec 03, 2019•59 min
Bailey Richardson (@baileyelaine), partner at People & Company, and co-author of Get Together, and Rei Wang (@heyreiwang), founder of The Grand and former CEO of the Dorm Room Fund Investment Team, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The companies they’re creating and the unique insight about communities that lies behind each company. - How they define community, and what makes a community different from other things like networks. - How communities change over their lifetimes. - The ...
Dec 01, 2019•1 hr 16 min
Brian Frank (@bfrank) of FTW Ventures, and Rob Rhinehart (@robrhinehart) of Soylent, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Some of the most exciting developments in bioscience these days. - The possibilities for biohacking and whether there is an “AWS for bioscience” emerging. - The interplay of startups and incumbents in the space and how incumbents can be more helpful to the startup community. - What is under- or over-hyped in the space. - The existing big companies in food and bioscience...
Nov 28, 2019•49 min
Joel Monegro (@jmonegro), partner at Placeholder, joins Erik on this episode. They talk about: - The waves of centralization and decentralization in finance, government, and culture over time. - How value accruing to incumbents has resulted in completely new fields opening up for innovation. - Why crypto networks are analogous to countries. - Joel’s thesis that "ultimately capital is control." - Why crypto is not a new technology revolution. - How crypto can change the problem of mis-distributio...
Nov 26, 2019•1 hr 50 min
Keith Rabois (@rabois), partner at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded live at an On Deck Fellowship event in San Francisco. They discuss: - The kinds of companies and founders he looks to fund, including why he wants half of his VC friends to laugh at how ambitious and ridiculous the companies he’s funding are. - Why going from zero to one involves roughly the same amount of pain no matter whether the “one” the company gets to is tiny or a billion-dollar-plus enterprise. ...
Nov 24, 2019•1 hr 24 min
Katherine Boyle (@KTmBoyle), investor at General Catalyst, and Bilal Zuberi (@bznotes), partner at Lux Capital, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Their requests for startups in the space. - The current landscape and the types of companies they are looking to invest in. - What implications geopolitics has for the deep tech space. - Their predictions for the next ten years. - Katherine’s thesis about the privatization of government. - What to know about how the defense sector works. Thank...
Nov 21, 2019•1 hr 5 min
Ruben Harris (@rubenharris), founder of Career Karma ( www.careerkarma.com ), and David Phillips (@davj), founder of Hackbright Academy and BloomJoy, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The history and evolution of bootcamps, including how and where they got their start. - Why Ruben thinks that in the long term the cost of education goes to zero. - Whether bootcamps for non-technical skills can become as big as those for technical skills. - Why there haven’t been bigger exits in the space...
Nov 19, 2019•49 min
Isaac Morehouse (@isaacmorehouse), CEO of Crash, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - His background and why he started Crash. - What he would change about the incentive structure of the world if he could wave a magic wand. - What kinds of big companies will possibly emerge in the education space. - What self-credentialing and peer-to-peer credentialing would look like. - Why he would like to see markets in everything. - Why the burden of proof for going to college has reached a tipping p...
Nov 18, 2019•1 hr 12 min
Greg Castle (@gpcastle12) joins Erik on this episode. He is managing partner at Anorak Ventures. They discuss: - What the future of computing beyond laptops and phones will look like, the obstacles companies will face, and the cultural challenges ahead. - Why audio will represent the first wave of AR. - Some of the coolest applications he’s seen in the space, including the work some of his portfolio companies are doing. - Which of the big incumbents are best poised to take advantage of the trans...
Nov 16, 2019•59 min
Adam Draper (@AdamDraper), founder and managing director of Boost VC, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Adam’s early involvement in crypto and how the space has evolved over time. - What he finds unique about the people working in crypto and what he loves about their outlook. - The science fiction technologies that he’s excited about and looking to invest in. - AR and VR and the opportunities and challenges for each. - Why he says the next ten years will be about big tech versus big go...
Nov 15, 2019•42 min
Kelly Chen (@kaychen22), partner at DCVC, and Kane Hsieh (@kane), partner at Root Ventures, join Erik on this episode. They talk about: - What exactly industrial automation is and why it’s such an exciting space. - The market map for industrial automation. - Some of the coolest companies and applications of technology in the space. - Advice for companies pitching their industrial automation products. - Their requests for startups (and their anti-requests for startups). - How jobs will change wit...
Nov 14, 2019•33 min
Victor Pontis (@VictorPontis), founder and CEO of Spring, and Michal Naka (@michalnaka), Product at Ride Report, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Comparisons and contrasts between micromobility and rideshare - How regulations have evolved and how cities are getting involved in the space. - The possibilities for autonomy in micromobility. - Possible new form factors. - Which metrics investors interested in the space should be tracking. - Who they would be betting on if they were betting...
Nov 13, 2019•26 min
Julia Enthoven (@JuliaEnthoven), co-founder and CEO of Kapwing, and Justine and Olivia Moore (@venturetwins), investors at CRV, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why the team at CRV was excited about Julia and Kapwing. - The rise of online video and their analysis of the space. - What it means to be a B2C2B company. - The problems with existing video editing tools. - The confluence of factors that enabled Kapwing. - Their requests for startups. Remember to apply for the winter vintage o...
Nov 12, 2019•37 min
Delian Asparouhov (@zebulgar), investor at Founders Fund, and Felix Ejeckam (@felixejeckam), CEO of Akash Systems, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The market map of the space space. - The evolution of the industry and how we got to where we are now. - The incredible possibilities that can be enabled by the companies working in space today. - What the “iPhone moment” could be for the industry. - How the government interacts with the space and the implications for companies within it. -...
Nov 10, 2019•49 min
Daniel Schmachtenberger joins Erik on this episode. He is a civilization designer interested in social architecture. They discuss: - The unsustainability of economic growth. - Why what’s best for the long-term is often also best for others. - Asymmetries in markets and why markets are not actually self-correcting. - What a healthy version of social media might look like. - What Daniel means when he says “humans are not evolutionarily precedented creatures” and what the implications of that are. ...
Nov 07, 2019•1 hr 48 min
Comedians Ben Burke and Shiva Kilaru, the creators behind the moderately successful YouTube channel KRAZAM, join Erik on this "unique" episode. They discuss: - The creative process. - Their thoughts on Austrian economics. - Mental models. - Violent communication. Remember to apply for the winter vintage of our Network Catalyst accelerator! It is a personalized program that features masterclasses from some of the best in Silicon Valley and a dedicated network leader focused on making the introduc...
Nov 06, 2019•16 min
Harj Taggar (@harjtaggar), co-founder and chairman of Triplebyte, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Strategies for finding undiscovered talent. - The vision at Triplebyte and what they’re building. - Why the recruiting space hasn’t seen huge companies come out of it. - How building a company has changed over the past decade. - How to think about finding a co-founder. - The biggest recruiting mistakes people make. - How to think about what startup to join as an employee. - How much foun...
Nov 05, 2019•46 min
Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis), angel investor and entrepreneur, and Glen Weyl (@glenweyl), economist, Principal Researcher at Microsoft, and author of Radical Markets, join Erik for a fireside chat. They talk about: - On which topics they agree or disagree. - Some of their favorite thinkers. - Glen’s critique of the libertarian view of the world. - Balaji’s concept of a person’s whitelist, blacklist, and greenlist. - What they would change about property law. - Quadratic finance and quadratic vot...
Nov 03, 2019•1 hr 16 min
Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! and founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures, joined us in downtown San Francisco to be interviewed by Village Global co-founder and partner, Ben Casnocha. They talked about stories from the early days of Yahoo! and lessons learned from the experience, what American entrepreneurs can learn from China, and his strategy for early-stage investing. Remember to apply for the winter vintage of our Network Catalyst accelerator! It is a personalized program that features m...
Oct 31, 2019•57 min
Arnold Kling (@KlingBlog), author and economist, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The future of elites. - The charter city movement. - His thoughts on Austrian economics. - How he would approach regulating finance. - Negative interest rates. - How to solve the problem of high healthcare costs in the US. - Universal basic income. - What an Elizabeth Warren presidency might look like. Remember to apply for the winter vintage of our Network Catalyst accelerator! It is a personalized prog...
Oct 29, 2019•1 hr 33 min
Wolf Tivy (@wolftivy), founder and editor of Palladium Magazine, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The liberal order, including what it specifically entails and the evolution of it over time. - Why what really defines the liberal order is a public story around what is acceptable and not. - The superstructure of non-elected power in society. - Potential alternative systems for order. - Why even in free societies, there is a small bubble of acceptable ideas that forms an orthodoxy around...
Oct 27, 2019•1 hr 24 min
Andy Matuschak (@andy_matuschak), joins Erik on this episode. He is a technologist, designer and researcher. They discuss: - The key thread throughout his work and what he’s trying to accomplish. - Why people read books despite remembering little of what they read. - What books should look like and the features they should have in the digital age. - Why spaced repetition is so powerful. - His requests for startups in the space. Remember to apply for the winter vintage of our Network Catalyst acc...
Oct 24, 2019•47 min
Martin Gurri (@mgurri), author of The Revolt of The Public, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Martin’s advice for Silicon Valley elites. - How to restore trust in democracy. - Why and how politicians became performers. - The history of information. - What will end the techlash. - The results of government colliding with digitization. … And much more. Remember to apply for the winter vintage of our Network Catalyst accelerator! It is a personalized program that features masterclasses fr...
Oct 22, 2019•1 hr 48 min
Vinay Gupta (@leashless), CEO of Mattereum, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The effects of overconsumption on the environment. - The breakdown of humanity’s carbon footprint. - Why we need to optimize waste in the same way that we optimize investment and production. - How to reduce the perceived fragility of life for those living in poverty. - Buckminster Fuller’s ambitions and why we’re living in the world that he wanted us to avoid. - Why Vinay “never trusted the decentralization f...
Oct 20, 2019•1 hr 58 min
Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) joins Erik on this episode for a conversation about friendship, Twitter as a global brain, online communities, fame, how we can better relate to others, and more. Remember to apply for the winter vintage of our Network Catalyst accelerator! It is a personalized program that features masterclasses from some of the best in Silicon Valley and a dedicated network leader focused on making the introductions you need to turbocharge your company. You can participate in-pers...
Oct 19, 2019•1 hr 4 min
Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) and Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford) join Erik on this episode. Robert is an author and creator of The Tracinski Letter. Jason is an entrepreneur and runs Roots of Progress, a blog about the ascent of mankind, from the caves to computers and beyond. They discuss: - The idea of a “capitalism appreciation society” akin to an art appreciation society. - The backward perspectives that people have on economic progress. - Their answers to the critiques of capitalism as uns...
Oct 17, 2019•54 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein). He is a biologist and evolutionary theorist. They discuss: - His start in the field of evolutionary biology and how he realized that the big questions everyone thought had been answered actually only seemed that way because the big questions had stopped being asked. - Why two characteristics of a given creature or object cannot be maximized at the same time, and why thinking in terms of trade-offs explains virtually all of biolog...
Oct 15, 2019•1 hr 11 min
Bill Janeway (@billjaneway) joins Erik on this episode. Bill is a venture capitalist and economist and is the author of the classic book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy. They talk about: - Bill’s keen interest in the interface of markets and government and how that thread has weaved its way through Bill’s career. - Why financialization has gone too far. - The fact that Bill “lived through the last AI hype cycle” and what that means for this one. - The difference between productive and...
Oct 13, 2019•1 hr 46 min
Sarah Perry (@sarahdoingthing), writer and thinker, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Sarah’s writing career and what it means to “work through your politics” early in your career as a writer. - The purpose of rituals and why democracy is itself a form of ritual. - Why ambiguity increases meaning. - What we as a culture don’t understand about meaning. - The narrative illusion in life, that there’s “nothing but time” and that that is the place from which meaning comes. - How to have non...
Oct 10, 2019•1 hr 56 min
Joe Edelman (@edelwax), philosopher, social scientist, designer, and founder of Human Systems, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why the internet didn’t achieve its promise of connecting people on a deeper level. - Why we’ve become very good at shopping and networking around goals and preferences but not around values, and how this manifests in the differences between Couchsurfing and Airbnb. - Why he says that philosophers and micro-economists have the best ability to figure out how p...
Oct 08, 2019•1 hr 40 min
