Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg), founder of Late Checkout, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How COVID has impacted the space and how it changes what is possible. - Where the opportunities and white space are in consumer social. - The possibilities for social experiences based around sports. - Why there is a plenty of room for many more social apps. - The potential for future dating apps. - Why there are plenty of social apps that didn’t work out from 2005-2018 that could still work. - His ...
Oct 15, 2020•54 min
Alex Chee (@alexnchee) and Jake Ellowitz (@wakkadojo), who help run product and engineering at Tribe Capital, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - How the product and engineering-oriented mindset at Tribe impacts their investing and why it forms part of their investment thesis. - The different incentives within a firm and how this creates new approaches. - Lessons learned from their time at Social Capital. - Products they’ve built at Tribe and how they’ve helped with the investment process. -...
Oct 13, 2020•59 min
Garrett Smiley (@gw_smiles), co-founder of Sora Schools , and Rebecca Kaden (@rebeccakaden), investor at USV, join special guest host Anne Dwane (@adwane), co-founder and partner at Village Global, on this episode. They discuss: - The story of how Sora Schools came about and how they plan to create the best high school in the world. - How Rebecca and USV evaluated the business. - Why a new model for education is needed today. - The role of a school in the 21st century and the importance of commu...
Oct 10, 2020•32 min
Karan Wadhera (@karanw), managing partner at Casa Verde Capital, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The evolution of the space and how it has changed over the last several years. - The different types of companies in the space and who they have been investing in. - Who the winners might be in the delivery space. - The biggest companies that have emerged over the last few years. - His requests for startups in the space. - How the perception of cannabis is changing in culture and the impacts...
Oct 08, 2020•37 min
Tyler Hayes (@thetylerhayes), CEO of Atom Limbs, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - His mission to create mind-controlled bionic arms at Atom Limbs. - How the company came to be. - What enables this technology at this point in time. - How the tech transfer process works from university to commercial application. - Lessons learned on commercializing something like this. - The bottlenecks to innovation in the area. - Why he is intent on curing death. Thanks for listening — if you like what y...
Oct 06, 2020•40 min
Chris Castiglione (@castig), co-founder of One Month, adjunct professor at Columbia, and author of a new book on decentralization called The Untold History of the Internet. - Why the launch of the Sputnik satellite spurred the creation of the internet. - The early days of the internet as a publicly funded program. - Why innovation has moved from government to private industry over the decades. - How decentralization became part of the ethos of the internet and why that has changed over time. - H...
Oct 04, 2020•50 min
Alfred Chuang and Chris McCann (@mccannatron) of Race Capital joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - Where they were investing during COVID and how to find opportunities in a crisis. - Where they’re excited in the crypto space in 2020. - Thoughts on valuations and why they have remained high. - IPOs, SPACs, and the Long-Term Stock Exchange. - Why they’re not concerned about a bubble. - How the enterprise space has evolved over time. - Their take on remote and how COVID will change how companie...
Oct 01, 2020•48 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 29, 2020•29 min
Keith Rabois (@rabois), partner at Founders Fund, and Jacob Helberg (@jacobhelberg), senior advisor at Stanford Cyber, adjunct fellow at CSIS, and formerly of Google, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why the US is indeed in a cold war with China. - The roles of DC and Silicon Valley in this new cold war. - The reasons for the foreign policy establishment’s dovishness on China. - How economic foreign policy became decoupled from national foreign policy. - TikTok, and how tech and geopol...
Sep 27, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Sacha Lazimi (@SachaLaz), co-founder and CEO of Yubo, and François Meteyer (@FrancoisMeteyer), partner at Alven, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - The founding of Yubo and the philosophy behind the app. - What differentiates Gen Z from other generations. - The future of social networks. - Lessons for founders building in this space for this audience. - The future of entertainment, media, and gaming, and where the investment opportunities are. - The future of Yubo. Thanks for listening — if...
Sep 24, 2020•43 min
Erik is joined on this episode by Ricardo Sequerra (@ric0seq), Pawel Chudzinski (@pawell), Christoph Janz (@chrija), and Louis Coppey (@louicop), partners at Point Nine Capital. They discuss: - The background of the fund and how it got started. - Their journeys in venture so far. - Why they have an equal partnership and how to think about when that arrangement works for a firm. - How SaaS has evolved over the last several years. - Which large companies might be disrupted by SaaS startups. - Oppo...
Sep 22, 2020•48 min
Flo Crivello (@altimor), former product manager and engineer at Uber, and now starting his next thing, joins Erik to discuss: - Lessons he learned at Uber, and what he might have done differently if he were in charge of strategy. - How transportation is evolving and who the winners in the space might be. - Why the decentralized model works at Uber. - What people misunderstand about the history of tech and Silicon Valley. - Whether egalitarianism is eating the world. - Libertarianism, government,...
Sep 20, 2020•1 hr 20 min
Kevin Gibbon (@kevingibbon), co-founder of Airhouse and formerly co-founder of Shyp, joins Erik on this episode. Airhouse provides modern, all-in-one ecommerce operations for direct-to-consumer companies. They discuss: - Kevin’s entrepreneurial journey and how he came to start Airhouse. - Lessons learned from founding Shyp. - Why entrepreneurs need to be clear about whether they are building a business that is truly VC-backable. - COVID’s implications for ecommerce and which changes endure post-...
Sep 17, 2020•42 min
Erik is joined on this episode by: - David Perrell (@david_perell), of North Star Podcast - Jeff Umbro (@jeffumbro), of Podglomerate - Sachit Gupta (@sachitgupta), of Conscious Creators They discuss: - Why you should start a podcast. - How to get a podcast off the ground. - Why having one gives you access to people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. - Monetization models and the merits of each of them. - How to ask better questions and the art of good conversation. - How to grow your podcast...
Sep 15, 2020•48 min
Ben Reinhardt (@Ben_Reinhardt), independent researcher and host of Idea Machines Podcast, joins Erik to discuss: - Why we don’t have more cool science fiction-like technology in the world. - Why there hasn’t been as much innovation or progress as humanity had hoped for. - How venture should evolve to increase innovation. - The challenges posed by system decay. - The way out of overregulation. - How to fix government grants. - How China balances innovation and regulation and how that compares to ...
Sep 13, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Aston Motes (@__aston__), first employee at Dropbox and executive director at /dev/color, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck Fellowship event. They discuss: - The story of how he became the first employee at Dropbox. - What he learned at the company and how he approached helping to set the culture there. - How to sell talent on joining your company. - His frameworks for thinking about startup ideas. - The possibilities for “bank shot” ideas. - How to think about fi...
Sep 10, 2020•56 min
Andy Johns (@ibringtraffic), investor at Unusual Ventures, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - His thoughts on transportation at short distances and the business model problem that these companies face. - Where his thinking is at with respect to opportunities in consumer social today. - His thoughts on low-code and no-code. - Why he’s interested in fintech and what a financial social network might look like. - Other areas in fintech that are interesting. Thanks for listening — if you lik...
Sep 08, 2020•47 min
Julian Lehr (@lehrjulian) of Stripe joins Erik on this episode. He is the author of the blog post Signalling as a Service. - The background of the post and why he wrote it. - Signalling as a framework and his breakdown of the component parts. - Why there is very little luxury software. - How this intersects with Eugene Wei’s idea of status as a service. - How monetization and signal amplification works in digital products. - His requests for startups in the area. - The next topics that he’s thin...
Sep 06, 2020•44 min
Alexa von Tobel (@alexavontobel) and Mark Batsiyan (@mbatny) of Inspired Capital join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What fintech 2.0 will look like and their experiences growing a company during the fintech 1.0 era. - The idea of the self-driving wallet and removing friction for consumers. - Their investment thesis and the trends they are seeing in fintech. - How incumbents will react to changes and why they will be just as acquisitive. - The impact of COVID on fintech. - How Gen Z think...
Sep 03, 2020•37 min
Marcos Veremis, managing director at Evanston Capital Management, and David Fauchier (@dfauchier), CIO at Cambrial Capital, join Erik to discuss: - How they became interested in crypto. - How institutions have approached the space. - How the space has evolved. - Bitcoin as a store of value in the current market environment. - The impact of COVID on crypto. - Crypto investment strategies. - Why generalist VCs have so far not been able to make good investments in the space. Thanks for listening — ...
Sep 01, 2020•51 min
Erik is joined by Anirudh Pai (@ani_pai), co-founder of the Conservative Curious podcast and creator of the Dreams of Electric Sheep newsletter. They discuss: - Why people don’t crave scientific advancement. - What the postmodern solution to the desire to be part of religion might look like. - What “the iPhone moment for cities” might look like. - His thoughts on stagnation. - His analysis of Thiel’s idea that “every bubble is a commentary on capitalism.” - The state of biotech and the future of...
Aug 30, 2020•1 hr 17 min
Nadia Eghbal (@nayafia), of Substack, and author of Working in Public, and Lenny Rachitsky (@lennysan), author of a newsletter on product and growth and former Airbnb PM, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - The On Deck Writer’s Fellowship in partnership with Substack. - The evolution of newsletters as a medium over time. - Nadia and Lenny’s journeys on Substack. - Their advice for people who want to get started writing their own newsletters. - How they think about what to write about and the...
Aug 27, 2020•50 min
Erik is joined by: - Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), fintech seed investor - Nick Caldwell (@nickcald), VP of Engineering at Twitter and angel investor - Anne Dwane (@adwane), partner at Village Global To discuss: - The craft of angel investing. - How Village Global is trying to decentralize VC with its Network Leader program. - The benefits of the On Deck Angel Fellowship. - Nick and Sheel’s journeys to becoming angel investors. - Why networks appreciate over time. - The advice they would give to peop...
Aug 25, 2020•40 min
Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno), author of History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What people don’t appreciate or misunderstand about China. - His thoughts on Fukuyama. - The west as a culture exporter. - Why this moment is a fork in the road for America and how it might play out for the country. - Twitter as a virtual reality platform. - How tech will transform society. - Whether a decentralized future will lead to more freedom. - Whether the stat...
Aug 23, 2020•2 hr 44 min
Stephen Kosslyn (@skosslyn), president and Chief Academic Officer at Foundry College, joins Erik to discuss: - The current challenges in traditional academia. - When the purpose of universities changed from teaching to research. - What he’s working on at Foundry and how it’s differentiated from others in the space. - His requests for startups in education. - Why a community connection is important in learning. - What outsiders don’t realize or appreciate about the dynamics in universities. - Why...
Aug 20, 2020•37 min
Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) of Bloomberg joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - Whether the current version of college as a “high tuition summer camp” can be sustained. - How universities will attract students. - Where he disagrees with Tyler Cowen on college. - How college has evolved over time. - How college will be unbundled. - Whether there will be corporate universities. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the ...
Aug 18, 2020•43 min
Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford), author of The Roots of Progress, joins Erik to discuss: - The key aspects of human progress. - The history of progress over time. - Whether we’ve traded off progress for safety. - Why the idea of progress is relatively new. - What the nature of science fiction writing tells us about our vision for progress. - Why progress happens differently in different domains. - How to think about safety with respect to new technologies. - The impacts of slowing population gro...
Aug 16, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Niko Skievaski (@niko_ski), founder and president of Redox, and Nikita Singareddy (@singareddynm), investor at RRE Ventures, join Erik to discuss: - How regulation has changed the landscape in healthcare. - How to figure out what the the next wave in healthcare will be. - Why in the past government regulation has pulled technology into the present that wasn’t ready. - The biggest trends in healthcare now. - Where they would be investing if they were running a fund focused on the space. - What it...
Aug 13, 2020•57 min
Anuj Abrol (@nujabrol), founder of Witty Wealth and formerly Chief of Staff at Atrium, joins Erik to discuss: - Why public stock activity has surged, especially among young people. - A primer on SPACs and their advantages and disadvantages. - Direct listings vs. IPOs vs. SPACs. - Why Slack is such a polarizing company. - Why there is dissatisfaction with roboadvisors. - The role of memes in public investing. - Whether there will be more new betting markets. Thanks for listening — if you like wha...
Aug 11, 2020•55 min
Mark Lutter (@MarkLutter), founder and executive director of the Charter City Institute, joins Erik. They discuss: - The key factors that make countries successful or prosperous. - The different schools of thought on charter cities. - What the key factors to get right with a charter city are. - What Silicon Valley understands and misunderstands about charter cities. - Why there are few true entrepreneurs in the US anymore. - His thoughts on Balaji Srinivasan’s ideas about charter cities. Thanks ...
Aug 09, 2020•1 hr 17 min
