This episode with Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) was recorded as part of an OnDeck fellowship session. They discuss: - The concept of ikigai and how it can help you plan your next career move. - How to think about when to leave or join a company, and when to start something of your own. - How Balaji generates and validates ideas. - Finding a co-founder and the most important issues to work out before starting a company with them. - The impacts of COVID-19 on different markets. The final deadline f...
May 23, 2020•23 min
Dan McMurtrie (@SuperMugatu) of Tyro Partners joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - His writing on the crisis, how he has analyzed it, and why his view has changed from bearish to bullish. - The “bottom-up” recovery that’s taking place and all the ways that it might falter. - What specifically he’s watching for that might change his opinion on the market. - The impact on politics and society and why he says “it gets weird from here.” - What Schrodinger’s put means and the implications for ...
May 21, 2020•58 min
Lee Edwards (@terronk) of Root Ventures joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The story of how he became interested in the topic. - His requests for startups in the space. - The ISA model. - Which companies he’s interested in in the space. - Debt financing and possible alternatives. - Whether it’s possible to build a practical and portfolio-based education in liberal arts. - Why people remain cost insensitive when it comes to college. - Whether government should direct more money to educat...
May 19, 2020•49 min
Fred Destin (@fdestin), founder of Stride.VC, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What the ideal fund size is in Fred's opinion. - His thoughts on diversification in venture. - What his prediction for a possible bounce-back is and why he thinks this is more like '01-'03 than '08-'09. - Why founders need to reset their mindset in the COVID-19 era. - Whether there are too many entrepreneurs and if not, how to add more. - His message for entrepreneurs in this time. Applications for the summ...
May 17, 2020•55 min
Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart), creator of The Diff (diff.substack.com), joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How have the past few months changed our understanding of institutions and our trust in them - Is the current environment a win for modern monetary theorists? - Is the current environment a win or loss for bitcoin maximalists that see the Fed as a huge liability? - What should the Fed and Congress have done differently? - Is the government running on autopilot? - How do we make sense...
May 16, 2020•2 hr 7 min
Arnold Kling (@klingblog), economist and author, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What experts disagree on with respect to COVID-19. - How Arnold would deal with the pandemic if he was in charge. - What he would do about lockdowns. - Where he agrees and disagrees with the government’s fiscal and monetary response to the crisis. - The difficulty with models predicting cases. - The effects of the pandemic on globalization, libertarianism, and progressivism. Applications for the summer v...
May 14, 2020•59 min
Scott Sumner, research associate on monetary policy at the Mercatus Center, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What the US has done well and what it has not done well when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy. - Why there has been a reversal of thinking on inflation between now and decades ago, and his thinking about dealing with inflation. - Other tools that are available to influence the economy beyond interest rates. - His thinking on modern monetary theory. - The future of the eco...
May 12, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Ann-Miura Ko (@annimaniac), joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck Fellowship event. They discuss: - Her perspectives on what it was like to start a company in the last several downturns and why this one is different from the others. - Why they are telling their portfolio companies that they need to be “outlasting, not outspending” their competitors. - What a “minimal viable company” means and how to avoid “fake growth.” - What will continue to be different when the pa...
May 10, 2020•1 hr 1 min
John Danner (@jwdanner) of Dunce Capital and Michael Staton (@mpstaton) of Learn Capital join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How EdTech has evolved and the ways that perspectives have changed on the space. - Their theses about the future of the space and the key challenges that it faces. - Why the pandemic might be the catalyst for an increase in homeschooling. - The problems with the current ways that education is delivered and how certain companies are well-positioned to change things f...
May 05, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Austen Allred (@austen), CEO of Lambda School, and Rishi Mandal (@rmandal), founder of Future, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How Austen took education that typically happened in person and transformed it into digital form at Lambda School. - How Rishi is taking fitness training that happened in person and transforming it into digital form with Future. - What Austen calls the “skeuomorphic” way of translating experiences into digital form and why it doesn’t work. - How they ensure mo...
May 03, 2020•52 min
Gabe Bassin (@gabebassin) and Taylor Pearson (@TaylorPearsonMe) join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The ins and outs of what each of the fed and treasury are doing at this time. - The impacts of the pandemic on credit markets and pension systems. - The disruptions to the demand side and the effects of possible supply-side disruptions. - How the pandemic exacerbates inequality. - The impact on Bitcoin and what this says about Austrian economics. - Whether there’s a bubble in passive invest...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Conor White-Sullivan (@Conaw), founder of Roam Research, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What they're working on at Roam and what will be different about the world if they achieves their dreams with the company. - The different ways of representing the structure of thought and how tools impact thoughts themselves. - How Roam relates to and is different from Twitter, GitHub, Notion, Quora, and others. - What it means when he says he wants the product to have a “low floor and a high ce...
Apr 28, 2020•53 min
Samir Kaji (@SamirKaji), managing director at First Republic Bank, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The state of the financial world before COVID and the cracks that Samir saw in the system last year. - Why this shock is like a “train going 150 miles per hour hitting a brick wall.” - What venture funds should do in this environment. - Whether there’s hope for a recovery in the near future, or not — and why this is different than any other previous recession. - How the behavior of LPs ...
Apr 26, 2020•51 min
Jesse Genet (@jessegenet) and Stephan Ango (@kepano), co-founders of Lumi, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How Lumi works, and how the company changes how a DTC brand does business. - How community influences the success of DTC brands. - Which areas within DTC are VC-fundable. - Where they would be investing if they were running a fund focused on the space. - What will happen with some of the more obscure consumer products that are sold, and whether they will be sold DTC eventually. -...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Andreas Klinger (@andreasklinger), head of remote at AngelList and creator of Remote First Capital, joins Erik on this episode. This was recorded as part of an OnDeck session. They discuss: - The impact of COVID-19 on remote work and why he says it’s really a “double-edged sword” when it comes to the spread of remote working in the future. - Whether remote can work for early-stage companies. - Which types of companies are most suited to remote work. - What he learned from hiring engineers for Pr...
Apr 21, 2020•49 min
Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) of Better Tomorrow and Jayni Shah (@shahjayni) of Accomplice join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The state of fintech pre-COVID and the high level of activity in the space over the last several years. - Their thoughts on challenger banks and why they will have a hard time in this environment. - Which consumer habits will change permanently after the pandemic is over and which companies are best poised to capitalize on those shifts. - The impact of COVID on SMBs and...
Apr 19, 2020•48 min
Kristin Baker Spohn (@kbakes) of CRV and Deena Shakir (@deenashakir) of Lux Capital join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What Kristin has noticed about the space after moving from operator to investor. - How COVID has rapidly accelerated digital health adoption. - Which spaces and companies they’re more interested in in a post-COVID world. - Advice for founders trying to sell to large organizations and employers. - The difference between companies focused on prevention versus treatment. - ...
Apr 16, 2020•56 min
Ali Hamed (@AliBHamed), investor at CoVenture, and Brent Beshore (@BrentBeshore), founder and CEO of Permanent Equity, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Their advice for venture firms and companies trying to fundraise in this environment. - How LPs will change their capital allocations in a post-COVID world. - Whether it’s a good time to be investing right now or not. - How this time is different from the 2008 financial crisis. - How they’re spending their time. - What will go back to n...
Apr 14, 2020•51 min
Nir Eyal (@nireyal), bestselling author of "Hooked" and "Indistractable", joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The psychology behind distraction and discomfort - The role of willpower and forethought in productivity - Is willpower a limited resource? - Why to-do lists backfire - Becoming indistractable - Raising indistractable children and forging indistractable relationships - How you can use technology to prevent technology distraction - Why do children overuse technology? - Have smart ...
Apr 13, 2020•55 min
Village Global co-founder Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) chatted with Jo Varshney (@jo_getter), founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life and Kiran Bellubbi (@smalldozes), founder of Keyo, about their experience with the Village Network Catalyst program. Jo and Kiran explain what it was like to be a founder in Network Catalyst, including how the team at Village Global helped them with their business model, leveraged Village Global’s unique structure as a network to their advantage, and guided them throug...
Apr 13, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Matt Clifford (@matthewclifford) and Alice Bentinck (@alicebentinck), co-founders of Entrepreneur First, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What EF is all about and why Matt says that being an entrepreneur is one of the highest-leverage ways to change the world. - How to do ideation well, and how they think about it differently from traditional VC firms. - What they’ve learned about good founding teams and what makes a good co-founder match. - The challenges around changing the culture a...
Apr 12, 2020•1 hr 1 min
Karan Talati (@ktal90), Co-founder and CEO of First Resonance, and Keenan Johnson (@keenanjohnson), aerospace engineer, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The role of software versus processes in manufacturing innovation - Why has manufacturing been so slow to innovate and why is now the right time to disrupt it? - How platform shifts in hardware are changing the way we manufacture products - The future of manufacturing - Request for startups in the space - The role of the public sector ...
Apr 08, 2020•34 min
Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) co-founder of Tiny, joins Erik and co-host David Booth (@david__booth), CEO of OnDeck, on this episode. They discuss: - His story of building businesses in high school and how he ended up as the head of a family of 25 different companies with over 400 employees. - How they think about acquiring or investing in businesses and what they are looking for. - Where they get their capital. - How they think about founder liquidity and why they often invest in founders who ...
Apr 07, 2020•57 min
Immad Akhund (@immad), founder and CEO of Mercury, and Jude Gomila (@judegomila), founder and CEO of Golden, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What’s top of mind for them with respect to COVID-19 and the response. - Decentralized versus centralized approaches to the problem. - Which underlying problems in American society this has brought to the surface. - Which trends are going to accelerate because of the pandemic. - Common mistakes that founders make when fundraising. - Why it’s impo...
Apr 06, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Sahil Lavingia (@shl), founder and CEO of Gumroad, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The story of starting Gumroad, raising money, and getting featured in the media. - Going from a twenty person company to a five person company to a single-person company. - The advice he would give to a younger version of himself if he was starting over again. - The creator economy and which types of content do well. - How to think about raising capital. - Time as a status symbol, the merits of cities,...
Mar 31, 2020•58 min
Gigi Levy-Weiss (@gigilevy) of NFX joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The history and evolution of gaming and why he’s excited about the space. - His requests for startups in gaming and what gaming will look like in ten years. - His thoughts on e-sports and why he’s excited about VR. - Crypto, blockchain, and how those technologies interface with gaming. - Why biotech will be transformative and how data and machine learning are enabling new discoveries. - Common fundraising mistakes tha...
Mar 29, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Andy Chen (@andychen), partner at Coatue, and Jose Guardado ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseguardado/) , founder of a new company, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How hiring has evolved over the last decade. - Why startups are focusing on recruiting earlier, and hiring people dedicated to the task as some of their earliest employees. - How to find a co-founder who will work well with you, and how to deal with disagreements between co-founders. - The most common mistakes made when hi...
Mar 26, 2020•2 hr 54 min
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in January 2020 at Ayn Rand Con. Erik interviewed Jason Crawford and Yaron Brook. Jason (@jasoncrawford) writes about the history of technology and industry at Roots of Progress. Yaron (@yaronbrook) is host of The Yaron Brook Show. They discuss: - What can destroy — or save — Silicon Valley. - What Rand would say about Silicon Valley if she could see it today. - How to reconcile egalitarianism and meritocracy. - How to make her ideas more mai...
Mar 24, 2020•51 min
Rahul Vohra (@rahulvohra), founder and CEO of Superhuman, and Todd Goldberg (@toddg777), angel investor, join Erik on this episode. They’ve raised a $7M angel fund together called the Todd and Rahul Angel Fund. They discuss: - The nano fund trend, first-time fund operators, and their thinking on fund size. - How they thought about their next ideas when getting ready to start their companies. - The spaces they’re most excited about. - What it means to build “prosumer software” and what Rahul lear...
Mar 22, 2020•54 min
Nick Mehta (@nrmehta), CEO at Gainsight, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - SaaS sub-sectors that Nick is excited about - Is Customer Success a skillset, function, a software stack? - What are the most common misconceptions about customer success? - When should a startup start thinking about the customer success function? - How do you scale the customer success function? - What’s the profile of a successful customer success manager? - How has customer success evolved over the past decad...
Mar 20, 2020•50 min
