Vince Hankes is a Partner @ Thrive Capital where he has led the firm’s investments in OpenAI, Melio, and Airplane.dev. He currently sits on the board of Airtable, Benchling, Lattice, and Melio. Prior to joining Thrive, Vince was an investor at Tiger Global where he learned the craft of venture from the legend that is Lee Fixel.

In Today's Episode with Vince Hankes We Discuss:

1. From Tiger Global to Partner @ Thrive Capital:

• How Vince made his way into the world of investing with Tiger Global?
• What are 1-2 of his biggest takeaways from working alongside the legendary Lee Fixel?
• Why did Vince make the move from Tiger to Thrive? How do the two firms differ?

2. The OpenAI Investment: The Memo:

• How did the OpenAI deal come to be? What were the round dynamics?
• Market Evaluation: How did Vince and the team analyze the market top down?
• Competition: Who did Vince identify as the core competitors to OpenAI?
• Defensibility: How did Vince think through the long-term defensibility of OpenAI's model? Does Vince believe these models will become commoditised?
• Price: How did Vince and the team get comfortable with the $29BN price?

3. AI: Hype or Generational Defining Transformation:

• Trend or Transformation: Why does Vince believe AI will be the defining technology of our generation?
• Startup vs Incumbent: Does Vince think the value will accrue to the incumbent or the startup?
• Open or Closed: Does Vince think we will operate in a closed (one model rules them all) environment or an open-source environment with many models?
• AI Talent: Where does Vince think the majority of the best AI talent will concentrate?
• Speed: Why would Vince be scared if he were a startup today looking at the incumbents?

4. The Changing Investor: Lessons from Good and Bad:

• How has Vince changed most significantly as an investor over time?
• What has been his single biggest investing mistake? How did he learn from it?
• What has been his biggest investing success? How did that change his mindset?
• What has Thrive done in their org structure to allow them to make bets very few other firms can do?

Mark Carney is the Vice Chair and Head of Transition Investing @ Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world's leading asset managers with over $800BN in AUM. Mark is also United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance. He has also served as Finance Advisor to the British Prime Minister. In addition to this, Mark is on the board of Stripe, PIMCO and The World Economic Forum. In a previous life, Mark spent over a decade as a Central Banker, most recently as Governor of The Bank of England and before that as Governor of The Bank of Canada.

In Today's Episode with Mark Carney We Discuss:

1. Is The Banking Crisis Over? What Happened?

• Why does Mark not believe we are in a banking crisis?
• Why does he not believe the banking turmoil is over?
• Was SVB the fault of regulatory mistakes or management mistakes?
• Is FRB a damaged asset in it's own right or the result of contagion within the banking ecosystem?

2. The Impact of the Banking Turmoil: What Happens Now?

• What does Mark believe is the future of regional banks?
• Why does Mark believe we will see massive consolidation in banks coming soon?
• Should the Fed be guaranteeing all deposits automatically?

3. What Happens To The Macro Now?

• How does the banking turmoil impact growth rates? Will we definitely go into a recession now?
• What is the impact on monetary policy? Can the Fed raise rates even higher?
• What does this mean for the future of money? Why is it a silver bullet for stablecoins?
• If Mark could bet on China or the US for the next 10 years, who would it be?
• Does Mark believe the UK is in a weaker situation than ever? What about Europe?

4. The Future of Climate and Net Zero:

• Where are we at with Net Zero? Are we ever going to make progress?
• Is it possible to make progress without the cooperation of China?
• Why does Mark disagree and suggest China has done more than most to help the climate?
• Who is talking more than they are acting in the fight to save the climate?
• On the flip side, who is acting more than they are talking?

Sarah Guo is the Founding Partner @ Conviction Capital, a $100M first fund purpose-built to serve “Software 3.0” companies. Prior to founding Conviction, Sarah was a General Partner at Greylock where she made investments in the likes of Figma, Coda, Neeva and many more incredible companies. Sarah also hosts her own podcast, No Priors with the wonderful Elad Gil.

In Today's Episode with Sarah Guo We Discuss:

1. From Large Multi-Stage Firm to Founding Conviction:

• Why did Sarah decide to leave Greylock?
• What are 1-2 of her biggest lessons from her time at Greylock? How did they impact her mindset when building Conviction today?
• What does Sarah believe are the most surprising or hardest elements of firm building?

2. The Future for AI: The Opportunities and the Challenges:

• Why does Sarah believe AI is the most foundational technology of our lifetime?
• Why did Sarah decide to centre the entire fund around AI? Is AI not an enabling technology that will power all sectors in technology?
• Is Sarah concerned by the further wealth inequality that AI and billion dollar companies created by 10 people, will inevitably bring?
• How does Sarah think about the potential for malicious AI use? What can be done to prevent this?

3. Startup and VC Principles That Are BS:

• Why does Sarah believe that defensibility is BS?
• Why do Sarah and Harry both believe that reserves in venture funds are a suboptimal use of funds?
• "Great founder, bad market, market wins". Does Sarah agree? How does Sarah prioritize the centrality of founder vs market?

4. Sarah Guo: The Investor

• How has Sarah changed most significantly as an investor over the last 5 years?
• What is Sarah's biggest miss? How did it impact her mindset today?
• What is Sarah's biggest win? How did that alter her risk appetite?
• How does Sarah see the future of venture?
• If Sarah could invest in one multi-stage firm and one seed-stage firm, which would it be?

Jack Brody is the VP Product @ Snap. Jack joined Snap in 2014 as a Product Designer, and ultimately helped build out the design organization as the Head of Design before taking on his current role overseeing all of Product for the Snapchat application and Hardware. In his 9 years at Snap, he helped create Memories, the Snap Map, and AR Lenses like Face Swap.

In Today's Episode with Jack Brody We Discuss:

1. The Shortest Internship in Tech:

• How did Jack get an internship with Evan Spiegel and Snap while he was still at college?
• How did it turn into the shortest internship in tech history?
• What are the single biggest product lessons Jack has from working with Evan Spiegel?

2. Product 101: Art vs Science:

• Does Jack believe product is more art or science? If he were to assign numbers to them, what would they be?
• How does Jack define creativity? What can founders and product leaders do to ensure their teams are as creative as possible?
• What is the 3 step framework through which product leaders should prioritize product ideas?
• Does Jack believe that when the CEO is no longer the Head of Product, the company is dead?
• Does Jack agree with Gustav Soderstrom, "talk is cheap, so we should do more of it"?

3. The SNAP Hiring Process: What Works and What Does Not:

• What is the hiring process for the product team at SNAP?
• What questions are most revealing of 10x product people in the interview process?
• What case studies and tests does Jack use in the interview process?
• What other roles and functions does Jack bring into the interview process as part of the decision?
• What are the single biggest mistakes founders make in the hiring process for product?

4. SNAP, The Future, and The World Around Us:

• What do Jack and SNAP believe will be the future for augmented reality?
• What country is SNAP not big in today but will be in the next 5 years? Why that one?
• Why did SNAP tear down its android app and start again? What has been the impact?
• Were the SNAP glasses a success? What is their future?

Avlok Kohli is the CEO @ AngelList. Under his leadership, Avlok has taken AngelList from an SPV provider to a company that is becoming the software platform for the entire industry. Today, AngelList supports over $15BN in assets and 40% of US unicorns have had a GP invest in them through AngelList. Prior to becoming CEO @ AngelList, Avlok founded 3 companies, all of which were acquired including by the likes of Square and eBay.

In Today's Episode with Avlok Kohli We Discuss:

1. From 3x Founder to Scaling AngelList to $15BN in AUM:

• How did Naval convince Avlok to join AngelList and be CEO?
• Does Avlok believe in startups having defensibility in the early days?
• How important does Avlok believe it is for companies to be "first to market"?
• Why does Avlok believe all the last-mile grocery delivery companies will go bust in the downturn?

2. What is Going On in Venture: New Funds, LPs, Secondaries:

• Are we seeing the amount of net new funds reduce in the downturn?
• Are we seeing the size of new funds being raised, being smaller?
• Is the time to first close increasing in time?
• Does AVlok agree that the fund segment hit hardest by the downturn is micro fund managers?
• Which LP class has pulled back from fund investing most significantly?
• Why does Avlok believe institutions have returned to fund investing more than ever right now?
• Are we seeing an increase in fund secondary positions?

3. What is Going on in Startups: Rounds, Valuations, Party Rounds

• Are we seeing the number of startups able to close their round reduce?
• Are we seeing the size of startup funding rounds reduce? How does this depend on the stage?
• What are we seeing for startup valuations? Why is seed as high as ever? What is the most hit?
• How is the composition of funding rounds changing? More or fewer party rounds?
• When does Avlok believe we will see down rounds and pay-to-play, really come into effect?

4. The Business of AngelList and its Future:

• What are the margins on AngelList products today?
• What is the best margin AngelList product? What is the worst?
• What product did AngelList do that in hindsight, Avlok wishes they had not done?
• Why did AngelList back out of Europe? Was it a mistake?
• How does Avlok think about AngelList's fierce competition with Carta today?

Tomasz Tunguz is the Founder and General Partner @ Theory Ventures, just announced last week, Theory is a $230M fund that invests $1-25m in early-stage companies that leverage technology discontinuities into go-to-market advantages. Prior to founding Theory, Tom spent 14 years at Redpoint as a General Partner where he made investments in the likes of Looker, Expensify, Monte Carlo, Dune Analytics, and Kustomer to name a few. Tom also writes one of the best blogs and newsletters in the business which can be found here.

In Today's Episode with Tomasz Tunguz We Discuss:

1. Founding a Firm: The Start of Theory:

• Why did Tom decide to leave Redpoint after 14 years to found Theory?
• What are 1-2 of his biggest lessons from Redpoint that he has taken with him to his building of Theory?
• What does Tom know now that he wishes he had known when he started investing?

2. From 150 LP Meetings to Closing $230M: Raising a Fund I

• How would Tom describe the fundraising process?
• How many meetings with LPs did he have? How many did he know previously?
• What documents did he share with LPs? Did he have a dataroom? How did he use it?
• How did Tom create a sense of urgency to compel LPs to come into the fund?
• How does Tom feel about the debate between one close and multiple closes?
• What was the #1 reason LPs said no to investing?
• What worked and Tom would do again for the next raise? What did not work and he would change for the next raise?

3. Where Will Value Accrue in the Next Decade of AI:

• Startup vs Incumbent: Will incumbents embrace AI before startups are able to acquire distribution?
• Infrastructure vs Application Layer: Where will the majority of value accrue in the next decade; infrastructure or application layer?
• Bundled or Unbundled: Will bundled services be the dominant consumer and enterprise choice or will unbundled specialized solutions win?

4. AI and The World Around It:

• How does Tom believe AI could save the US economy?
• Why does Tom believe Google are the losers in the AI race?
• Which incumbents have responded best to AI?
• Why does Tom believe we will be in a worse macro place at the end of the year than we are now?

Mark Goldberger is Head of Enterprise Sales at Ramp, the fastest-growing corporate card and bill payment software in America, and recently named Most Innovative Company in North America by Fast Company. Prior to joining Ramp, Mark was the first enterprise rep at TripActions (now Navan), where he helped bring in more than $100m of ARR as an IC and sales leader. Before TripActions, Mark worked at Highfive, a video conferencing company since acquired by Dialpad.

In Today's Episode with Mark Goldberger We Discuss:

1. From Wine Industry to Sales Leader:

• How Mark made his way into the world of enterprise sales having been in the wine industry?
• Mark sent out 100 CVs for his first sales role, why did they not respond? How should companies think differently about the people they hire? What could he have done better with the outreach?
• What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of sales?

2. The Sales Playbook and Why You Should Never Hire a Sales VP First:

• Why does Mark believe that you should never hire a Sales VP as the first sales hire?
• What does Mark mean when he says product-customer-fit is more important than product-market-fit?
• Why does Mark believe that revenue does not matter with your first customers? If revenue does not matter, what should you be trying to get out of them?
• When should the founder handover sales to either a junior or more senior hire?

3. How to Hire 10x Sales Teams: The Process:

• How does Mark structure the process for hiring 10x sales reps?
• What questions are most revealing in identifying a 10x sales rep? How do they respond?
• Why does Mark want candidates to pitch his own product back to him?
• How does Mark make the hiring process more challenging to really test the quality of candidates?
• What is the core difference between losers and winners in sales?

4. Discounting, Champions, Creating Urgency:

• Why does Mark not like discounting? Where do many sales teams use it poorly?
• How does Mark like to create urgency in a sales process? What works? What does not?
• How can sales reps know whether they truly have a deal champion within a buyer?
• What is the right way for sales reps to ask to meet the exec buyer?
• When is the right time to ask to meet the exec buyer?
• What are some clear signs that you are not speaking to a decision-maker?

5. Building a High-Functioning Sales Org:

• What is the right way to do deal reviews? How often? Who should be invited?
• What is the right way to do sales onboarding for all new reps?
• Why is traditional outbound still the most important thing in a sales process?
• Why do so many people get pipeline qualification so wrong?

From college party promoter to managing global stars to CEO and investor. Scott “Scooter” Braun is one of the most powerful people in media and one of the most multi-faceted entrepreneurs we have ever met.  As the founder of media company SB Projects and the co-founder of TQ Ventures, he has backed prominent companies such as Pinterest, Spotify and Uber and managed some of the world’s biggest names in music including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Demi Lovato. Braun’s other accolades include founding Ithaca Ventures (acquired by HYBE for $1BN+) in 2021, and philanthropic efforts such as being a Make-A-Wish board member, raising $55M+ for Hurricane Harvey and Irma relief and continuing to instill the value of social good wherever possible. 

In Today’s Episode with Scooter Braun We Discuss:

1. From College Party Promoter to Managing The World's Biggest Superstars:

• What was the single most catalytic moment of Scooter’s career?
• What was Scooter's most painful professional mistake, and what did he learn from it?
• What was the decision-making behind Scooter's HYBE deal?
• What is the biggest challenge in scaling the trajectories of the people Scooter works with?
• If Scooter could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

2. College Party Promoter Turned Venture Investor:

• How did Scooter originally get into investing?
• How did Scooter’s party promoting business almost lead to an early investment in Facebook?
• Do people approach Scooter differently as an investor because of his success in the music industry?
• Why is vulnerability helpful for investing?

3. Scooter's Lessons on Success (And How to Deal With It):

• Why does Scooter believe happiness and success are not aligned?
• How does Scooter approach deal-making?
• Is work-life balance bullshit? Does Scooter think you have to break your back to become as successful as Jeff Bezos?
• Is Scooter scared of mediocrity?
• Why does Scooter think all entrepreneurs are bad at having faith?

4. The Secrets to Being a Better Parent, Child, and Partner:

• How does Scooter approach trust?
• How did having kids impact Scooter's mindset?
• Why was divorce the biggest catalyst in Scooter's entire life?
• Does Scooter worry that money will negatively influence how his children are brought up?
• What is the most important thing a child can hear from a parent?

5. Finding the "Scott" Buried Inside "Scooter":

• It's easy to become the brand you create. How does Scooter prevent losing himself when that happens?
• What does Scooter need to unlearn in the future?
• What has Scooter changed his mind on in the past 12 months?
• How does Scooter approach his relationship to regret?
• What single lesson you most would Scooter most want a young person listening to this conversation to take away?

David Marcus is the co-founder and CEO of Lightspark, building infrastructure that extends the capabilities and utility of Bitcoin. Prior to Lightspark, David led all payment and crypto efforts at Facebook/Meta and scaled Messenger to 1.5BN users. David previously founded three other companies: Zong (acquired by eBay/PayPal for $240M), Echovox (acquired by MBO), and GTN (acquired by World Access).

In Today's Episode with David Marcus We Discuss:

1. From Losing Everything to Becoming Changing the World of Fintech:

• How did seeing his family lose everything lead to David starting his first company, GTN?
• Does David believe that great companies can be built in Europe?
• What are the biggest mistakes David made with Zong? How did they impact his mindset?

2. The Secret to Building a Great Company from Mark Zuckerberg's ex-Right Hand Man:

• Where does David think Paypal lost its way?
• How did David "brutally" change PayPayl's company culture when he came in?
• What worked and what didn't in scaling Messenger to 1.5BN users?
• Why did Diem (formerly Libra) fail? How did David know when to give up that fight?
• What is David's biggest lesson from working with Mark Zuckerberg?

3. Crypto & AI's Ripple Effect on The Rest of The World:

• What will be the fallout from the de-banking of crypto? 
• How does David think the future of AI will impact income equality?
• If David was in charge of the SEC, what would he do first?
• What worries David most about the next 1-5 years in the crypto industry?
• What are the most significant signs that the tea leaves not looking great for the US dollar?

4. How The Best Leaders Hire The Best Talent:

• Why does David believe that naivety is good for entrepreneurs?
• Does David believe we'll be in a worse macro position by the end of the year?
• How has David changed most as a leader over time?
• What is David's biggest piece of advice in regard to hiring across many different companies?

Joost De Valk is one of the OGs of SEO. As the Founder of Yoast, he scaled what was a side project plugin into a multi-million dollar business, used by 13 million sites and selling to Newfold Media in 2021. As one of the early SEO pioneers he is also an extremely coveted angel investor and invests through his company, Emilia Capital.

In Today's Episode with Joost De Valk We Discuss:

1. From Side Project to Multi-Million Dollar Business:

• Why and how did Joost create the first version of Yoast?
• When did he realise that this was not a side project and could be a big business?
• What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he started Yoast?

2. When, How and Why To Invest in SEO:

• When is the right time to invest in SEO?
• How should one determine how much budget to allocate to SEO?
• Once decided on budget, what are the first steps to investing in SEO?
• Which part of the org should SEO team specialists sit in?
• What are the biggest mistakes founders make when investing in SEO/

3. AI Changes The World of Context:

• How does AI change the way businesses create content?
• How can startups leverage AI to create and distribute more content for SEO?
• What are the biggest challenges/problems to leveraging AI for content creation?

4. Creating a Developer-Led Brand and Mastering PLG:

• What is the secret to creating the best developer-led brand?
• What are the biggest mistakes people make when marketing to developers?
• How does Joost navigate the balance between having enough value in a freemium product but also retaining enough value to be able to charge for the premium product?
• Is Joost concerned that budgets will revert back to CFOs and away from individual contributors with the financial downturn that is ensuing?

Rob Lacher founded Visionaries Club in 2019, in just 3 years he has scaled the firm to $600M AUM and backed some of Europe's best including Xentral, Personio, Miro, and Ledgy. Prior to Visionaries, Rob founded the fashion platform AMAZE in 2014 which he sold to Zalando, and founded the European seed and growth stage venture capital fund La Famiglia in 2016.

In Today's Episode with Rob Lacher We Discuss:

1.) From Novice Tennis Player to Investing on a Global Stage:

• When Rob realized beating Federer wasn’t an option, how did he make his way into the world of venture capital?
• When did Rob know he wanted to be a VC?
• What did Rob learn about himself after leaving La Famiglia?
• What characteristics make business partners compatible?

2.) The Secret to Building a Fund? Hire People With No Experience:

• What does Rob think is the hardest element of building a firm?
• What advice would Rob give to emerging managers when starting their firms?
• What is the single biggest mistake that Rob sees hiring managers make?
• Why does Rob prefer to hire people with no VC experience?

3.) The Red Ocean of European Venture:

• Does Rob think the Series A product in Europe is any good?
• How would Rob advise founders debating a US multi-stage fund or a European offer?
• If Rob could choose one European board member, who would it be and why?
• In Rob's dream, what would the Europe venture ecosystem look like in 2028?
• How does Rob think Europe’s family institutions can become Europe's Google?

4.) Lessons on Investing From a Pro:

• Where does Rob think VCs, founders, and boards are misaligned? 
• When Rob invests, how central of a role does price actually pay? 
• What is Rob’s single biggest investing mistake? How did it impact his mindset and approach?
• What are the three ways reserve management strategy has changed?
• What does Rob absolutely hate about VC?

Mike Salguero is the Founder and CEO @ ButcherBox, the meat delivery subscription service that he has scaled to $600M in revenue, 215 employees and the national leader in the space. All of this achieved while raising $0 of venture capital. Prior to ButcherBox, Mike was the Founder & CEO @ CustomMade, an online marketplace that, unlike ButcherBox, raised millions in venture funding from prominent VCs.

In Today's Episode with Mike Salguero We Discuss:

1.) The Makings of a Great Entrepreneur:

• How did Mike's father not being present in his childhood impact the type of leader he is today?
• How does Mike's fear of abandonment show itself in his leadership style?
• What does Mike know now that he wishes he had known when he started?

2. Consumer Subscription is Not a VC Backabale Business Model:

• Why does Mike believe consumer subscription D2C businesses are not VC backable?
• What are the biggest challenges of running a consumer subscription business?
• Why did all the D2C food prep and delivery companies fail? What did they do wrong?
• What happens to all the heavily funded D2C subscription companies of the last 5 years?
• Why does Mike believe now is the hardest time ever to do D2C consumer subscription?

3. The Secret to Efficient Marketing:

• How did ButcherBox scale to $50M in revenue with just one marketing channel working?
• When should founders think about the second channel? How should they choose which one?
• Why does Mike not like "brand marketing"? How did ButcherBox burn $8.5M on brand marketing? What are Mike's biggest lessons from doing this?
• What emerging channel does Mike see as having the biggest potential over the coming years?
• Why does customer acquisition increase with time? Why do elections cause it to increase?

4. The Economics of a $600M Revenue ButcherBox:

• How much does it cost ButcherBox to acquire a customer?
• What is their payback period on that customer? How has this change with time?
• What is the single metric that drives the profitability of ButcherBox?
• What are the single biggest points of margin in the business?
• What is the lifetime value of a ButcherBox subscriber?
• What are the single biggest points of churn in the customer lifecycle?

5. Venture Capital: To Raise or Not to Raise:

• Why did Mike never raise venture capital for ButcherBox?
• Has Mike ever sold secondary? Why not?
• What would Mike most like to change about the world of venture capital?
• What are his biggest lessons from raising VC with CustomMade? How did that impact how he approached building ButcherBox?
• What does Mike believe all founders need to know about raising VC?

Tobi Lütke is the CEO and Co-Founder of Shopify, the powerhouse company allowing anyone to start and grow their e-commerce business. Over an incredible 18 years, Tobi has scaled Shopify to 10% of total US e-commerce, millions of merchants in over 170 countries, and a market cap today of over $60BN. Huge thanks to Harley Finkelstein for making this happen.

In Today's Episode with Tobi Lütke We Discuss:

1. From a Small German Town to One of the World's Most Powerful CEOs:

• What did Tobi want to be when he was growing up?
• Who did Tobi learn most from in his younger years? How does Tobi think about the importance of mentorship in learning?
• What does Tobi know now that he wishes he had known when he started Shopify?

2. You Can Learn More from World of Warcraft Than You Can Companies:

• Why does Tobi believe you can learn more from World of Warcraft than you can from studying companies?
• Why does Tobi believe that humans are terrible at company building? What are the most obvious ways we can improve the quality of the companies we build?
• Why does Tobi believe that in-person is far superior to remote working? What are the nuances?

3. The Best Companies Operate with Many Constraints:

• Why does Tobi believe in all cases, constraints produce creativity?
• What is the difference between an enforced constraint and an artificial constraint?
• How can leaders create and enforce artificial constraints when they are not real?
• How do the best leaders use constraints to ensure their companies move faster and faster?

4. Inside the Mind of Tobi Lütke: Decision-Making & Prioritisation:

• How does Tobi reflect on his own decision-making process? How has it changed?
• Why does Tobi believe that sunk cost fallacy is BS and only leads to your outsourcing approval to someone else?
• Why does Tobi hate "black boxes"? How does he remove them from the org entirely?
• How does Tobi decide what to learn? What is his learning process once he has made this decision?
• How does Tobi decide what to prioritise in terms of strategic initiatives for Shopify?

Jackie Reses is the Chair and CEO of Lead Bank, a community bank in Kansas City.  Previously, she was the Executive Chairman of Square Financial Services and Capital Lead and Head of the People Team at Block Inc (Square). Prior, she had leadership positions at Yahoo! and was a Partner at Apax Partners Worldwide. Jackie also spent seven years at Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions and the principal investment area. Jackie is on the board of directors of Endeavor, Affirm and Nubank. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group. She has been named one of Forbes' “Self Made Women”, Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,”  and American Banker “Most Powerful Woman in Finance”. 

In Today's Episode with Jackie Reses We Discuss:

1. From Humble Beginnings to "Most Powerful Woman in Finance":

• What is Jackie running from?
• How did Jackie's upbringing impact her approach to business and management today?
• What does jackie know now that she wishes she had known when she started her career?

2. Building the Best Teams: Lessons from Square and Yahoo

• Why does Jackie believe that past experience is BS in hiring candidates for a role?
• Why does Jackie deliberately not look for domain knowledge when hiring?
• Why does Jackie believe employers should tell candidates what they suck at in hiring?
• What does Jackie mean when she says, "you have to invest in people for 20 years"?

3. The Best Deal-Maker in the Business: Secret to Negotiating:

• What does Jackie believe is the secret to successful negotiations?
• How did Jackie do the Alibaba deal for Yahoo and make $50BN for them?
• Why does Jackie believe the Laffonts and Coatue are the best risk managers?
• What are the biggest mistakes people make in deal-making today?

4. The Next Wave of Fintech:

• Who wins and who loses in the next wave of fintech?
• What will happen to the crypto industry? How will crypto be regulated?
• Why does Jackie believe that financial super apps are BS?
• Why does Jackie believe that Goldman tried and failed to innovate?
• Will we see a wave of M&A in fintech over the coming years?

Jag Duggal is the CPO @ Nubank where he is responsible for product strategy and roadmap reporting to CEO David Velez. Jag leads over 200 professionals across different functions within his role. Before Nubank, he was the Director of Product Management at Facebook, leading monetization of video and third party content. Before Facebook, Jag spent close to 7 years at Quantcast as a Senior VP of Product Management & Strategy. Finally, pre-Facebook, Jag was at Google for 5 years as a Group Product Manager and Head of Strategy (Display).

In Today's Episode with Jag Duggal We Discuss:

1. From Cushy Valley Job to CPO @ Brazilian Startup:

• Why did Jag leave the life of luxury in the valley at Facebook to join David as CPO @ Nubank?
• What does Jag know now that he wishes he had known when he took the position?
• What one piece of advice would Jag give to a product leader starting a new position today?

2. Product: The Playbook, Art vs Science:

• Why does Jag believe that product is 90% science? What is the final 10%?
• Why does Jag believe that you should not listen to your customers?
• What is the right way to ask customers questions to determine their pains?
• Why does Jag believe that you should not fall in love with your own ideas?

3. Building the Bench: Hiring the Best Team:

• How does Jag approach the hiring process for all new product hires?
• What are the single biggest mistakes Jag has made when hiring for the product team?
• What are the must ask questions when hiring for product?
• What hiring lesson did Jag learn from Kevin Systrom? How has he applied it today?
• What did Jag believe about hiring that he now no longer believes?

4. Go Time: Build, Manage and Execute:

• Why does Jag think execution is overrated and strategy deserves more credit than people give it?
• How does Nubank utilise small teams to operate fastest? What have been lessons here?
• What are the best ways to do product post-mortems? What works? What does not work?
• What has been Jag's best product decision? What has been his worst?

Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, where he has managed the company’s business in more than 70 countries around the world since 2017. Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world’s largest online travel companies. Dara was promoted to Expedia CEO after serving as the Chief Financial Officer of IAC Travel. Before joining IAC, Dara served as Vice President of Allen & Company and spent a number of years as an analyst. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Expedia and Catalyst.org and was previously on the board of the New York Times Company.

In Today's Episode with Dara Khosrowshahi We Discuss:

1. From the Iranian Revolution to One of the Most Powerful CEOs:

• What is Dara running from? What is he running towards?
• How did seeing his family lose everything impact his mindset to life and business?
• What are 1-2 of Dara's biggest lessons from working with the legendary Barry Diller?
• How did Daniel Ek @ Spotify convince Dara to take the CEO role at Uber?

2. Dara Khosrowshahi: The Foundations of Great Leadership:

• What does high performance in business mean to Dara?
• Does Dara agree, "the best CEOs are the best resource allocators"?
• Does Dara believe he is a better peacetime or wartime CEO? Which is he at Uber?
• What decision-making framework does Dara use to make really hard decisions?
• How does Dara does what to focus on and what to prioritise?

3. Investments and Acquisitions: The Scorecard:

• Why did Dara decide to make the Kareem acquisition? Has it been successful?
• What was the thinking behind the Postmates acquisition?
• What does Dara believe is the single best acquisitions he has made at Uber?
• What has been the worst acquisition he has made at Uber?
• Why does Dara believe that Uber entering scooters was a mistake?

4. The Future: Food Delivery, Parenting, Marriage:

• What does Dara say to those who suggest Uber Eats has lost the war to Doordash?
• What does Dara believe is the secret to a happy marriage?
• How does Dara define great parenting? What does Dara do to be the best father he can be?
• What would Dara like to improve or change about himself? Why?

Mike Maples is one of the OGs of seed investing. As the Co-Founder of Floodgate, he has backed the likes of Twitch, Okta, Lyft, Twitter and more. Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade and was also named a “Rising Star” by FORTUNE and profiled by Harvard Business School for his lifetime contributions to entrepreneurship. 

In Today's Episode with Mike Maples We Discuss

1.) Lesson from SVB #1: The Importance of Scenario Planning:

• What is the right way to do scenario planning in startups?
• What is the difference between good vs bad scenario planning?
• What do the best scenario plans include and involve?
• What is the right way to communicate these scenario plans to your stakeholders?

2.) Lesson from SVB #2: The Importance of Financial Agility:

• What does it mean for a startup to be "financially agile"?
• From a banking relationships perspective, what can startups do to be financially agile?
• How many accounts should a startup have? How much runway should be in each?
• Should startups bank with startup banks as well as traditional banks?
• Should startups have their money in sweep accounts and money market accounts?

3.) Lesson from SVB #3: How to Master Crisis Communications:

• Why is it so important for founder to over-communicate in tough times?
• How transparent should they be in these communications?
• What does Mike mean when he says "be radically human"?
• If Mike were to face a crisis, what would he do differently in the way he communicates to his LPs?

4.) Lessons from SVB: The Wider World:

• Why does Mike believe the level of quantitative easing that occurred in COVID was scandalous?
• Does Mike believe the USD will continue to be the reserve currency of the world?
• Will we be in a better or worse macro situation by the end of the year?
• Has Mike ever had a company that achieved true PMF and failed?

Frank Fillman is CRO/Country Leader Australia for Salesforce where he is responsible for responsible for the overall strategy, execution, success, and growth of the $1B+ Australian market across all industries. Prior to Salesforce, Frank was SVP/GM @ Tableau where he was responsible for the strategy, execution, and growth of Tableau's Top Accounts. Over the last 10 years at Salesforce, Frank's accomplishments include $500M+ new revenue closed in 5 years and $1B+ revenue managed. As a result, Frank has been awarded #1 Sales VP of the Year, North America, 3 times! Huge thanks to Zhenya Loginov @ Miro for the intro to Frank today.

In Today's Episode with Frank Fillman We Discuss:

1.) From Selling Kitchen Utensils to Leading $1BN Revenue Line for Salesforce:

• How did Frank first make his way into the world of sales selling kitchen utensils?
• Why does Frank believe, "how you handle tragedy defines you"? How did it define him?
• What does Frank know now that he wishes he had known when he started in sales?

2.) Build and Execute the Sales Playbook:

• How does Frank define what a "sales playbook" is today? What is it not?
• Literally, what are the first steps to building a sales playbook? Is it the founder who does it?
• What does a good playbook have? What does a bad playbook have? What makes the best?
• What tools should founders and sales leaders use to create their playbook?

3.) Enterprise Deal Dynamics 101:

• Why does Frank believe that you should never start with the price or "send over numbers"?
• How can enterprise sellers create urgency in a deal cycle? What works? What does not work?
• How does Frank advise sales teams on the use of discounting?
• How open should reps be in communicating the win for them as well as the win for the customer of closing a deal?

4.) Building the Bench:

• How does Frank structure the hiring process for all new sales reps?
• Why does Frank believe that all sales leaders want to be super reps?
• How does Frank rank high potential vs high experience when hiring reps?
• What matters more; the exec have experience in the sector you are selling into or the deal size?
• What are the single biggest mistakes founders and leaders make when hiring sales?

5.) Setting Quota and Deal Reviews:

• How does Frank advise founders on setting quotas? Why does Q1 set the tone for the year?
• How does Frank conduct deal reviews? How often? With who? What is the agenda?
• What is the one question that Frank always asks when a rep says, "the client told us it was not a priority and so it slipped into next quarter"?
• How does Frank advise founders and sales leaders on multi-threading large enterprise accounts?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Frank's Most Recent Book: The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea

Bill Ackman is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. Bill is also a member of the board of Universal Music Group N.V. He serves as a member of the Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School. Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC.

In Today's Episode with Bill Ackman We Discuss:

1.) From HBS to Starting Your First Fund:

• How did Bill go from HBS to raising his first fund in Gotham Partners? How was that first fundraise?
• From 100 meetings, what worked? What did not work? What were the core fundraising lessons?
• What did Bill learn about great partnerships from his time with David building Gotham?

2.) Bill Ackman: A Winner's Mindset: How To Deal with the Highs and Lows:

• On reflection, what have been the most challenging times for Bill professionally?
• What does he say to himself when he is going through the hardest times? What is his mind talk?
• When the war is lost and it is time for learning, how does Bill reflect and learn from losses?
• Bill has previously described himself as "the most persistent man in America". How does Bill know when enough is enough, he was wrong and it is time to change his approach?

3.) Bill Ackman: SVB + Bank Runs and The Future of our Financial System:

• Why does Bill believe that the depositor guarantees for SVB and Signature Bank have created a "Three Tier Banking System"? What are those three tiers?
• Why does Bill believe that SVB is now the safest place to deposit your money? Why is First Republic Bank and SVB very different in terms of their exposure?
• What can be done to prevent further bank runs? What should the Fed be doing? Why are they not doing it? What would Bill do if he was in charge of the Fed?
• Why does Bill believe the current levels of FDIC insurance are insufficient and outdated? What should be used in their place?

4.) Bill Ackman: The World Around Us & Potential Politician

• Why does Bill want Jamie Dimon to run for President? If it is Trump vs Biden, who wins?
• Why does Bill believe Biden's tax policies destroy the US economy? What should we have instead?
• Why does Bill believe we should give every newborn baby $6,500 and invest it for them when born?
• What are Bill's 10-Year Long's and 10-Year Shorts? Why them?
• Would Bill ever run for politics? When is the right time?

Ophelia Brown is the Founder of Blossom Capital, one of Europe's newest but leading early-stage venture firms. Ophelia and the Blossom team have invested in stand-outs including Checkout, Duffel, Tines, and Moonpay. Prior to Blossom, Ophelia was a GP at LocalGlobe and a Principal at Index Ventures where her investments included Robinhood and Typeform.

In Today's Episode with Ophelia Brown We Discuss:

1.) From Restaurant-Owning DJ to Leading European VC:

• How Ophelia made her way into the world of venture and came to found Blossom?
• What does Ophelia know now that she wishes she had known when she entered venture?
• What does Ophelia feel she is running away from?

2.) Venture Capital: The Market:

• Why does Ophelia believe the best venture firms focus either by stage/theme/geography?
• Why does Ophelia believe that marketing in venture has no substance? How can founders determine between what is real and what is false?
• Why does Ophelia believe that growth investors have ruined the venture market?
• When does Ophelia believe VCs will realise that FOMO investing is not a good strategy?

3.) Ophelia Brown: The Investor and Fund Manager:

• What has been Ophelia's biggest investing mistake? How did it change her mindset and approach?
• In a world where everyone does seed investing, why does Ophelia not?
• How was raising the first Blossom fund? What were some of her biggest lessons?
• Why does Ophelia believe that follow-on investing can damage returns?
• How does Ophelia reflect on her own relationship to price? When has she paid up and it worked? When has she paid up and it not worked?
• Does Ophelia think it is fair that many find her curt and abrasive to work with?

4.) Europe: Is Now Really The Right Time?

• What would Ophelia like to see change in the way European VCs act?
• If Ophelia could invest in one seed firm, one Series A firm and one growth firm in Europe, what would they be? Why?
• What are 1-2 of the biggest barriers Europe must overcome in the next 5 years?

Adam Grenier is an OG of the growth world. His first role in growth, was none other than Uber where he was Head of Growth Marketing and Innovation building the global marketing growth infrastructure and team from the ground up. He then enjoyed successful spells at Lambda School and Masterclass as VP Growth and VP of Marketing, respectively. If that was not enough, Adam is also a prolific angel having made investments in Superhuman, Table22, and FitXR to name a few.

In Today's Episode with Adam Grenier We Discuss:

1.) Entry into the World of Growth with Uber:

• How did Adam make his way into the world of growth with Uber and Ed Baker?
• What are the single biggest takeaways from his time at Uber, Lambda and Masterclass?
• What does Adam know now that he wishes he had known when he started in growth?

2.) Growth: What it is? Why You Do Not Need a Team for it?

• How does Adam define the term "growth" today? What is the role of "Head of Growth"?
• Why does Adam believe that you do not need a growth team?
• How can leaders infuse growth principles, mindsets and metrics into existing teams?
• WHat are the single biggest mistakes founders make when thinking about growth?

3.) Hiring Growth Mindsets: How to Ask the Right Question:

• What are the clearest signs to Adam that someone has a growth mindset?
• What are the right questions to ask to see how they think?
• How does Adam use tests and case studies to determine the growth mindset of a person?
• What did Uber teach Adam about the best practices to hire for growth?

4.) Uber: Scaling a Monster and Spending $1BN on Ads:

• What are some of Adam's biggest lessons from spending $1BN on advertising at Uber?
• Why at anytime were there 200 people paying for ads with their personal credit cards?
• Why does Adam believe China was "the wild-west"? How did all of their competitors in China have Uber data?
• How do growth mechanics, channels and disciplines compare between US vs China?

Jackie Reses is the CEO of Lead Bank and previous Exec Chair of Square Financial Services and Head of Lending and Banking. One of only people to have started a bank as a de no; Only tech company to get approved for a de novo. Chair Economic Advisory Council of SF Federal Reserve. 

Kris Dickson is the CFO of Lead Bank and previously the CAO / CFO of post-BK Lehman Brothers parent co-estate for 10 years. Lehman Holdco estate has liquidated and distributed $129 billion to unsecured creditors through the end of 2022.

In Today's Episode on SVB We Discuss:

What Happened?

1. How and why did SVB fail so fast?
2. Was it the result of systemic problems or a series of management mistakes?
3. What role did VCs play in the downfall of SVB?
4. What role did social media and online banking play in the failing of SVB?

What Now?

1. What happens now?
2. Will depositors have their deposits guaranteed?
3. Will there be a buyer for SVB? Who is the most likely?
4. Should founders be worried about moving their money to neo-banks?
5. Should founders in any circumstances transfer money to their personal accounts?
6. What is the best and worst outcome?

Amjad Masad is the Founder and CEO @ Replit, whose mission is to bring the next billion software creators online. With Replit, Amjad has raised over $100M from the likes of Peter Thiel, a16z, Coatue and Addition, to name a few. Before founding Replit, Amjad was a tech lead on the JavaScript infrastructure team at Facebook. Before Facebook, Amjad was #1 employee at Codecademy.

In Today's Episode with Amjad Masad We Discuss:

1.) From Troublemaker Child in Iran to Silicon Valley Founder:

• How did Amjad make his way into the world of tech and Silicon Valley having grown up as a misbehaving child in Iran?
• In what ways did Amjad show early signs of exceptionalism? Why does he always look for this in people he is hiring for Replit?
• What does Amjad know now that he wishes he had known when he started Replit?

2.) The Future: A New World with AI at the Centre:

• Why does Amjad believe we will see thousands of billionaires created from the innovation in AI?
• Why does Amjad believe AI will lead to 100 more Elon Musks?
• If Amjad were CEO of Facebook, what would he do? Why and how do they have to invest in AI?
• Will TikTok be banned in the US? How will this be resolved?
• Why does Amjad believe that 300 people control the future of AI? Is that not concerning?

3.) The Future of Society, Employment and Wages:

• Why does Amjad believe in 10 years, 1 engineer will be able to do what 100 do today?
• What will happen to the real wages of engineers?
• How does Amjad see the inclusion of universal basic income in the future?
• Is Amjad concerned about societal and civil unrest with wealth disparity widening further?

4.) Building the Replit Army:

• Why does Amjad believe that so many in tech have gotten too soft in the last few years?
• Why does Amjad release a "Why You Should Not Join Replit" page and share it with all candidates?
• How can a founder know if they have good company values or not?
• Why does Amjad feel we need a spiritual reform in company building? Why are startups and religion the same?

Glen Coates is the VP of Product @ Shopify, leading the development of Shopify’s core commerce platform. He also oversees the core developer platform and Shopify’s partner ecosystem, which includes over 10,000 publicly available apps in the Shopify App Store. Originally a CompSci grad, Glen moved from Sydney to San Diego in 2008 to run US distribution and e-commerce for an Australian eco-products company. In 2010, he attended Columbia Business School for one whole day before quitting to start Handshake, a SaaS B2B e-commerce platform. Glen joined Shopify in May 2019 when the company acquired Handshake. Glen has been in the Vice President role since October 2020.

In Today's Episode with Glen Coates We Discuss:

1. From Game Developer in Sydney to Running E-Commerce Warehouse in NYC:

• How Glen made his way into the world of product and e-commerce having started life as a game developer?
• Why does Glen believe that the best founders and product people often have their roots in gaming?
• What does Glen know now that he wishes he had known when he joined Shopify?

2. The Art of Product and Product Management:

• Is product more an art or a science? If you had to put a number on it, what would it be?
• What is "product management"? Why can it not be reduced to frameworks?
• What are "product principles"? How do Shopify use them? How should product teams set them?
• What makes the very best PMs today? What are the commonalities in them?
• What is the sign of a poor PM? What would Glen most like to change about the world of PMs?

3. The Art of Product Marketing:

• What does Glen believe is the true art of product marketing?
• How did a CEO group teach Glen how to tell truly great stories?
• How can one tell great stories when you have to cater to multiple different customers/personas?
• How does Glen evaluate the current state of Shopify's product marketing?

4. Shopify and The Future of Shopify:

• Why does Glen think it is important for Shopify to have a tops down decision-making process for product strategy?
• What does Glen believe is the #1 reason why Shopify is such a large and successful company?
• What is the single hardest element of Glen's role today?
• How does Glen believe that Shopify will be larger than Amazon in 5-10 years time?

Alex Schultz is the Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Analytics for Meta (formerly Facebook), leading Marketing, Analytics, and Internationalization. Previously, Mark Zuckerberg stood up and said, "Facebook would not be a BN user company without Alex". At Meta, Alex has pioneered the integration of product and direct response marketing at Meta and helped launch many of the company’s most impactful products and initiatives. Alex is gay and is the executive sponsor of Facebook’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group.

In Today's Episode with Alex Schultz We Discuss:

1. From Paper Planes to CMO of Facebook:

• How Alex started his career in the world of paper planes and how that led to his getting a role at an early eBay? What are 1-2 of his biggest lessons from eBay?
• How did the role at Facebook come about in 2008? Why did he decide to join the early Facebook?
• What does Alex know now that he wishes he had known when he started his time at Facebook?

2. The Secret to Scaling to 1 Billion Users:

• Mark Zuckerberg has said that "Facebook would not be a billion-user company without Alex". So what does Alex believe are the 1-2 biggest needle movers in FB scaling to 1 billion users?
• Why does Alex believe that the best leaders are patiently right?
• How can management be direct and effective but also show they care and be kind?
• What have been some of Alex's biggest lessons on people management across different phases of the company?

3. Crucible Moments in Facebook History:

Facebook Messenger Split:

• What was the decision-making process behind splitting Messenger from the core Facebook App?
• What did they do right and well in the split? What mistakes were made?

Rebrand to Meta:

• Why did Facebook decide it was right to rebrand to Meta?
• Has the rebrand gone well? How does Alex define success with the rebrand?

Reels vs TikTok vs SNAP:

• Does Alex believe we are moving away from the social graph and moving to content discovery only?
• How does Alex feel Reels is doing in the race against TikTok? What have they done well?
• Why does Alex believe SNAP hasn't innovated in the way people think and copied Kakao in cases?
• What is the key to turning Reels into a monetization machine for Facebook?

4. Alex Schultz: The Person and Leader:

• How was the coming out process for Alex in the tech community?
• How did his parents respond to the news? What does Alex mean when he says, "everyone has to mourn their own version of your future self"?
• Why when he moved to the states was Alex advised to go back in the closet?
• Does Alex feel we have a long way to go in equalizing the playing field both for homosexuality and trans-gender participation?