My guest today is Justin Fishner-Wolfson, founder of 137 Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on providing liquidity solutions to founders, investors, and employees of private businesses. In our conversation, we discuss what early career experiences led Justin to start 137 Ventures, the counter-intuitive information asymmetry between public and private markets, and the interesting trend of digitization in the physical world. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Justin.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics, and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
------
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:47] - [First question] - Why he started 137 Ventures and what’s unique about it
[00:05:31] - Overview of secondary equity markets in the tech sector
[00:07:06] - Step by step process of how a secondary market investment works
[00:09:37] - Scale of secondary transactions in markets today
[00:10:19] - Valuations of secondary transaction rounds versus primary ones
[00:11:37] - Defining great in private market investments and the competitive landscape
[00:13:13] - Why there seems to be more information available in private markets
[00:16:23] - How better capital allocation may result from less asymmetry
[00:19:14] - What excites him about companies when meeting them for the first time
[00:20:34] - Example of applying his philosophy of investing in a defensible business
[00:22:20] - Counter positioning and inversion models to gain an advantage
[00:24:17] - Lessons learned from Palantir about unlikely competitive advantage
[00:25:57] - Building good businesses when selling them to the government
[00:26:59] - What technology means in the current era
[00:28:34] - Methods for evaluating potential sources of defensibility and a lack thereof
[00:30:30] - Considering focus and expansion when scaling
[00:32:52] - Shared qualities of entrepreneurs who build these types of businesses
[00:33:50] - The business that individually taught him the most writ large
[00:35:01] - Defensabilities that might appear beyond the seven powers framework
[00:36:21] - Thoughts on what seems to be craziest in the world today
[00:37:15] - What’s surprising on the low end of the valuation side
[00:38:11] - Interesting business models and ones he’s averse to
[00:40:31] - Constructing a portfolio with companies that have a customer focus
[00:41:21] - Additional companies in their portfolio that aren’t of a similar model
[00:42:08] - Lessons learned from SpaceX’s growth
[00:44:46] - Watching a SpaceX launch in person
[00:46:03] - Advice for entrepreneurs when seeking capital and capital partners
[00:48:04] - Investors he finds most impressive that he knows well
[00:49:26] - Defining the cost of capital and what it means to him as a venture investor
[00:50:56] - Is giving entrepreneurs too much money dangerous?
[00:54:14] - What great capital allocation looks like to him
[00:55:29] - Accelerating learning curves with tighter feedback loops
[00:55:57] - Useful metrics for customer acquisition and retention
[00:57:06] - Whether or not investing firms can and should behave defensibly
[00:59:13] - What is going in the world that has his attention lately
[01:02:06] - Key factors that have allowed him and his firm to succeed
[01:03:47] - What he thinks about when his mind isn’t focused on investing
[01:04:08] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and CEO of Segment, the market-leading data customer data platform that was acquired by Twilio last year. In our conversation, we cover the fascinating journey of Segment from an education feedback tool to the business it is today, Peter’s sales philosophy on meeting the customer where they are and not where you think they should be, and why revenue operations, or RevOps, is underrated for any business. This was an incredibly honest conversation on company building that any builder can learn a lot from. Please enjoy my conversation with Peter Reinhardt.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to by Dell Technologies. Dell Technologies and Windows can help you upgrade your business tech with its Small Business Month specials. Save up to 45% on PCs with Windows 10 Pro— plus business docks, monitors & more. To learn more, call a Dell Technologies Advisor at 877-ASK-DELL or check out the deals at dell.com/en-us/work/shop/deals.
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This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep's new Pod Pro Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at your perfect temperature. Simply add the Pod Pro Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. To embrace the future of sleep and get $150 off your new mattress, go to eightsleep.com/patrick or use code "Patrick."
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:47] - [First question] - What Segment currently does for its customers
[00:03:37] - How this industry looked before Segment came along
[00:04:30] - Overview of a simple data flow and the utility of capturing user data
[00:05:55] - Insights that lead to developing the structure for a central data pipeline
[00:07:52] - Why other companies don’t just build their own data collection API
[00:10:04] - Early days of building the company and finding success outside their initial idea
[00:12:29] - Pivoting from classroom software to providing software the world needed
[00:16:17] - What Technology Wants
[00:17:06] - Sign that validated becoming a B to B software company
[00:19:49] - Challenging moments trying to scale Segment after bootstrapping the startup
[00:24:58] - Getting customers to articulate your value proposition helps grow your sales
[00:26:42] - Deciding what would be sold and what would remain open source
[00:28:05] - Structuring and developing an enterprise sales team and sales model
[00:30:23] - Overview of a 2 million dollar per sales person contract and how it’s allocated
[00:31:38] - How it feels to be participant in the SaaS industry
[00:34:02] - Lessons learned about revenue operations and how underappreciated it is
[00:36:39] - Backwards efficiency and companies who use products to bootstrap scale economics
[00:38:51] - Focusing on customer acquisition cost to maximize scale efficiency
[00:40:52] - Potential disruptors to economies of scale
[00:42:21] - Lessons learned from achieving massive scale and being acquired by Twilio
[00:45:40] - Behind the curtain view of current data use trends
[00:48:49] - His perspectives on the data privacy landscape and their implications writ large
[00:51:48] - Legitimate businesses that will be hurt by changes in data privacy standards
[00:53:11] - How data privacy standards may affect everyday merchants
[00:54:03] - The worst advice he’s heard given to new entrepreneurs
[00:56:20] - Impactful advice received along the way when growing Segment
[00:56:47] - What has him most excited about the future
[00:57:13] - Lessons learned about leadership from Jeff Lawson and his own experience
[00:58:51] - The hardest changes he’s had to make as a leader
[01:00:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Brent Beshore. For those that don’t know Brent from his frequent appearances on this podcast, he runs Permanent Equity Fund and has been a close personal friend for the past five years. Brent and I revisit our conversation from the heart of COVID to touch on key lessons learned and where that leaves us today. Brent sits at a unique touchpoint of the economy, so I particularly enjoyed his anecdotes on inflation and how to operate around these dynamics. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Brent.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics, and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
------
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:52] - [First question] - Why last year ended up being so bullish
[00:07:14] - Deal dynamics of the current landscape
[00:09:54] - Lessons learned about managing a team through the pandemic
[00:14:39] - Observations on the housing market and the pool industry
[00:18:56] - Current labor force dynamics of trades
[00:21:18] - Considering labor dependency when investing in new businesses
[00:23:10] - His perspectives on the future of tech through his investment lens
[00:25:50] - Seeking out traditional businesses that reinvent age-old frameworks
[00:27:50] - Key stages of the art and science of evaluating and acquiring a company
[00:31:45] - How much information he wants to know before making an initial offer
[00:34:25] - Psychology of structuring and aligning incentives post-acquisition
[00:37:41] - What defines a great deal negotiator
[00:40:05] - His most creative act when structuring a deal that didn’t work out as well
[00:42:17] - Hist most creative structuring act that proved useful for the upside
[00:43:34] - Notable changes in large-cap private equity markets
[00:45:41] - Skills he feels he can improve on over the coming five years
[00:48:30] - Coaching small companies on how to recruit top tier talent
[00:52:49] - How to effectively get people to say yes to job offers and openings
[00:54:19] - Absolute and relative changes in the opportunity set of small to mid-cap markets
[00:57:40] - Lessons learned from strong support networks and onramps of upward mobility
My guest today is Jeremy Cai, founder, and CEO of Italic, a subscription marketplace for consumer goods that works directly with manufacturers. I was introduced to Jeremy by my friend Blake Robbins and was dying to better understand the Italic business model. In our conversation, we discuss the Italic business model, the evolving role of manufacturers in supply chains, and the concept of building the next generation “everything store.” I love learning and discovering new business models, and this was fun to dig into. Please enjoy my conversation with Jeremy Cai.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to by Dell Technologies. Dell Technologies and Windows can help you upgrade your business tech with its Small Business Month specials. Save up to 45% on PCs with Windows 10 Pro— plus business docks, monitors & more. To learn more, call a Dell Technologies Advisor at 877-ASK-DELL or check out the deals at dell.com/en-us/work/shop/deals.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep's new Pod Pro Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at your perfect temperature. Simply add the Pod Pro Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. To embrace the future of sleep and get $150 off your new mattress, go to eightsleep.com/patrick or use code "Patrick."
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:45] - [First question] - Overview of Italic’s business model
[00:04:51] - Why comparing Italic to Costco isn’t completely accurate
[00:10:06] - His initial experience with manufacturers and how that world works
[00:15:21] - Direct to consumer commerce and the power of a brand’s story
[00:20:06] - Where manufacturers find the cash to effectively manage their inventory
[00:25:26] - How design and R & D are handled by manufacturers in the current era
[00:29:36] - Educated consumers and emotional versus rational buying decisions
[00:31:12] - Analyzing Italic’s five-step master plan and what needed to be built first
[00:35:42] - Becoming more than just an aggregator and a platform
[00:38:01] - Lessons learned from building Italic so far
[00:39:02] - Other modern business models he finds interesting
[00:43:26] - What Not Pot is and lessons learned from building it
[00:44:51] - Observations about consumer behavior in his managed marketplace
[00:48:07] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Eli Dourado, economist and senior research fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University. In our discussion, we touch on the ongoing stagnation in labor productivity, the system constraints, and some of the innovative technologies that could reverse this trend. While Eli identifies as an economist, his wealth of knowledge on biotech innovation, alternative energy, and the space opportunity are sure to leave you craving more. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Eli.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
------
This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics, and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
------
This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term.
MITIMCo is also searching for an exceptional new teammate to join their internal investment team. Visit mitimco.org to learn more – click “Join” to learn more about the Global Investor Role on MITIMCo’s team or and click “Emerging Managers” to learn more about their emerging manager activities.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:28] - [First question] - Why he’s interested the great stagnation
[00:05:41] - Is a fair analog for total factor productivity technology?
[00:07:29] - Leading theories for the stagnation in TFP
[00:09:05] - Analysis of why growth is good, and stagnation is bad
[00:10:19] - Rate limiters that are a key part of calculating stagnation
[00:11:43] - Signs that we may be returning to a higher degree of TFP returning
[00:12:24] - Exciting developments like MRNA in biotech that may lead to an explosion of innovation
[00:16:16] - Functions of a protein and their role in advances in biotech
[00:17:55] - What CRISPR is and what it unlocks for the future of humanity
[00:19:31] - The pace of progression when rolling our clinical trials of cellular engineering
[00:21:36] - How biotech may play a role in TFP as a proxy for progress and growth
[00:22:51] - Interesting observations about potential innovation in the energy sector
[00:24:10] - What currently requires energy that could be optimized if they had a lower energy cost
[00:25:34] - Sources that could provide cheaper and more efficient energy
[00:27:13] - Sage Geosystems and the future of the geothermal space
[00:27:43] - The importance of batteries in the modern era
[00:29:02] - Why energy should be a more pivotal focus in our future
[00:29:41] - What’s interesting in the world of transportation writ large
[00:31:02] - Boom’s story, supersonic air travel, and why concord shut down
[00:34:55] - Mach 5 and March 12 supersonic air travel
[00:36:19] - Second-order effects of reducing the time cost of air travel
[00:38:19] - Liftoff, SpaceX, and the future of the space sector
[00:43:07] - Other key players in space people could study; Blue Origin and Relativity Space
[00:45:15] - What will we do in space once we can travel there cheaply
[00:46:39] - What he’s most curious about in IT that could drive productive societal growth
[00:50:07] - Ethereum and how a decentralized blockchain could change the world
[00:51:19] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is James Reinhart, founder, and CEO of thredUP, an online thrift marketplace. thredUP’s online store is distinct in the way the company touches every product, processing every piece of clothing at their own facilities instead of focusing solely on being a marketplace connecting buyers and sellers. We talk about the competitive advantages of building processing plants from the ground up, how James turned thredUP from having negative gross margins to very strong unit economics, and the future of retail more broadly. I hope you enjoy this conversation with James Reinhart.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to by Dell Technologies. Dell Technologies and Windows can help you upgrade your business tech with its Small Business Month specials. Save up to 45% on PCs with Windows 10 Pro— plus business docks, monitors & more. To learn more, call a Dell Technologies Advisor at 877-ASK-DELL or check out the deals at dell.com/en-us/work/shop/deals.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep's new Pod Pro Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at your perfect temperature. Simply add the Pod Pro Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. To embrace the future of sleep and get $150 off your new mattress, go to eightsleep.com/patrick or use code "Patrick."
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:47] - [First question] - An overview of thredUP
[00:03:44] - Origination of the idea
[00:04:43] - Initial reactions to the concept
[00:05:22] - Early days trying to acquire the first customers
[00:07:32] - The evolution of their margins
[00:11:04] - Providing convenience for the customer
[00:13:01] - Lessons on working capital and inventory
[00:14:27] - How consumers use the money they receive within the platform
[00:15:47] - The evolution of the operations of the business and scaling
[00:20:20] - When it’s time to shift from human capital to automation
[00:22:00] - The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time
[00:22:39] - Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
[00:23:15] - Removing the hurdles for acquiring more buyers
[00:27:19] - Convincing investors on this concept
[00:30:44] - The most difficult time for him psychologically in creating the business
[00:31:56] - How he thinks about capital allocation
[00:32:12] - The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth
[00:33:51] - Overview of the clothing landscape and what would surprise most people
[00:38:00] - Expanding their business from here
[00:40:36] - Improving how the raw material is sourced for apparel
[00:42:45] - The nature of work
[00:42:56] - Dustin Moskovitz Podcast Episode
[00:49:04] - What he’s most excited about for the future
[00:50:35] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Andrew Sugrue, co-founder, and partner at Avenir Growth Capital. Avenir is a growth equity firm focused on backing category-defining businesses. In our conversation, we cover Andrew’s investing career, what he learned from Julian Robertson, how counter-positioning could drive unique distribution, and the difference between good and bad growth. We also spend time examining the business model of two of Andrew’s portfolio businesses, SavageXFenty and Latch. There are so many great lessons for investors and operators to take away from Andrew. Please enjoy my conversation with Andrew Sugrue.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics, and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
------
This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term.
MITIMCo is also searching for an exceptional new teammate to join their internal investment team. Visit mitimco.org to learn more – click “Join” to learn more about the Global Investor Role on MITIMCo’s team or and click “Emerging Managers” to learn more about their emerging manager activities.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:31] - [First question] - His journey leading up to his current firm
[00:05:55] - Lessons learned from time spent with Julian Robinson
[00:07:54] - The chip on his shoulder that helped keep him driven
[00:08:40] - Transforming his early motivators into a sustainable career-long fuel
[00:10:46] - The first things in mind when approaching a new business or person
[00:14:00] - Analysis of Savage Lingerie and learning about how that sector operates
[00:20:27] - Amazon producing a one-hour special Savage infomercial
[00:23:16] - Lessons learned from Savage that can be applied to other direct to consumer brands
[00:25:04] - Having a celebrity at the forefront of your brand
[00:26:41] - Levers and overview of apparel company income statements and how they can shape the way you grow and operate the business
[00:30:08] - Apparel companies always being tied to identity
[00:31:03] - Analysis of Latch and learning about the relationship between hardware and software
[00:33:40] - How Latch works and why you might need it
[00:38:56] - Other businesses that may benefit from understanding the events that drive demand and using it as an opportunity for customer acquisition
[00:40:12] - The concept of density of demand and the power behind it
[00:41:33] - Other areas of operations density of demand could be applied
[00:44:11] - Shared components that unite Avenir’s portfolio companies
[00:46:14] - How he thinks about the world of private investment, having lived such a diverse career
[00:50:22] - Developing relationships growing such a concentrated portfolio
[00:51:35] - Macro thoughts on the state of investing today
[00:52:59] - Defining and identifying characteristics of bad growth
[00:54:05] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Alyssa Ravasio, co-founder and CEO of Hipcamp, a platform to discover and book your next camping trip. I was excited for this conversation as it combines two of my favorite passions – the outdoors and internet marketplaces. In our discussion, we cover how Alyssa bootstrapped demand in the early days of Hipcamp, the importance of creating not just great experiences but magical ones, and the evolution of Hipcamp’s business model. After listening to this episode, I’m sure the first thing you’ll want to do is get outside in nature. Please enjoy my conversation with Alyssa Ravasio.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean provides founders and creators with the platform they need to get their website and apps off the ground, all with low-bandwidth pricing to save them money over other cloud providers.
If you are looking for the best place to build web apps or API backends on robust infrastructure, DigitalOcean is the place for you. They provide a fully managed solution that handles your infrastructure, operating systems, databases, and other dependencies on their new App Platform product. App Platform makes it easy to build, deploy, and scale apps. Get started for free at do.co/founders.
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Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:57] - [First question] - The original insight that led to founding Hipcamp
[00:06:15] - What she studied in college and primary lessons learned there
[00:08:18] - Specific features of studying the internet that influenced her trajectory
[00:10:14] - Deciding what to attack first when developing Hipcamp’s infrastructure
[00:14:12] - Dimensions and market size of the outdoor industry
[00:15:48] - Organizing fragmented data into a useable schema and data set
[00:18:24] - What customers cared about most in the early days of Hipcamp
[00:20:00] - Managing focus and liquidity of the initial marketplace
[00:22:58] - Helping landowners manage the logistics of their property placements
[00:25:16] - Liability insurance in the outdoor industry
[00:27:35] - The biggest challenge faced in developing an outdoor marketplace
[00:30:03] - Amplifying and accelerating naturally grooved distribution
[00:32:32] - Identifying the top correlates of making magic happen
[00:34:55] - An ideal future for Hipcamp five years from now
[00:38:28] - What bad supply looks like and creating quality standards
[00:42:08] - Their business model and revenue stream
[00:44:45] - Deciding on their take rate and the debate around booking fees
[00:46:14] - Lessons learned along the way as a leader
[00:47:42] - Unit economics from the host’s perspective
[00:52:33] - The most interesting businesses built on top of Hipcamp
[00:53:35] - Why is Hipcamp’s mission so important to her
[00:57:11] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her
My guest today is Josh Buckley. Josh is the new CEO of Product Hunt and an investor in many breakout companies like Rippling, Lattice, Boom Supersonic, and Relativity Space. In our conversation, we cover how video game companies are at the forefront of new business models, what current companies can learn from video game companies, Josh’s investing philosophy, and the three things he looks for when trying to identify the next legendary startup. Josh’s long experience operating his video game business, Mino Games, gives him such an interesting perspective as an investor, and I really enjoyed exploring that with him. Please enjoy my conversation with Josh Buckley.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
------
This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics, and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
------
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:56] - [First question] - His start as an entrepreneur in online game
[00:05:09] - His parent's reaction to selling his first company at fifteen
[00:05:57] - Starting a second video game company
[00:07:40] - The video game industry being ahead of the curve in performance marketing, distribution, and operations
[00:08:49] - Notable two year lag between gaming innovation and other consumer sectors
[00:10:50] - What is happening today in gaming that may be a glimpse into the future
[00:12:41] - Key elements for creating a great gaming experience
[00:15:29] - Building a meta game on top of the game itself to maximize engagement
[00:17:23] - Monetizing free to play games through in-game purchases
[00:20:25] - The most portable idea from fifteen years in gaming that can be applied to business
[00:22:02] - A future shift towards usage-based pricing models
[00:23:03] - His overall investment philosophy and strategy
[00:26:45] - Example of small a market with a high growth rate
[00:27:38] - Key elements of system elements and design when evaluating a business
[00:31:07] - What a flywheel looks like and investing in one such as Next Health
[00:33:24] - Working core actions versus giving credit ones that aren’t yet working but may drive desirable outcomes
[00:34:13] - Why don’t more investing firms have a flywheel?
[00:39:04] - Product Hunt as a standalone business and part of a self-reinforcing ecosystem
[00:40:17] - Emerging systems and ecosystem edges in the digital landscape
[00:42:17] - Potential barriers for crypto becoming widely adopted in a variety of ways
[00:44:29] - New frontiers and platform shifts like crypto that may unlock new doors for companies
[00:45:13] - Which person has rewired his brain in his lifetime the most
[00:47:13] - Weirdness around Stripe and Plaid when he first encountered them
[00:48:37] - Meta games people in the industry are playing or should be playing
[00:51:25] - Controversial ideas around the business world today writ large
[00:54:01] - Implications of shifting primarily towards a digital world
[00:54:14] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Thomas Tull, the founder of Tulco LLC, an investment holding company that invests in businesses with high growth potential and helps them apply machine learning and data analytics. Thomas is also the founder and former CEO of Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind the Dark Knight, Hangover, Inception, 300, and many more iconic movies which he sold in 2016. In our discussion, we cover the movie industry’s value chain, the recipe for trying to make a successful movie and how Legendary pioneered the use of data analytics to improve those odds, and Thomas’ concept of the new physics of business and why it matters for what he’s now building at Tulco. Please enjoy my conversation with Thomas Tull.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean provides founders and creators with the platform they need to get their website and apps off the ground, all with low-bandwidth pricing to save them money over other cloud providers.
If you are looking for the best place to build web apps or API backends on robust infrastructure, DigitalOcean is the place for you. They provide a fully managed solution that handles your infrastructure, operating systems, databases, and other dependencies on their new App Platform product. App Platform makes it easy to build, deploy, and scale apps. Get started for free at do.co/founders.
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:06] - [First question] - His overarching career philosophy and theme
[00:04:07] - Attacking a previously established industry in a new way
[00:05:20] - The origin story of Legendary and stepping into the film industry
[00:07:56] - Stakeholders involved in producing a movie and pre-existing profit pools when Legendary was founded
[00:12:44] - Topline and downstream revenue distribution of intellectual property from then versus now
[00:19:46] - Lessons learned about intellectual property writ large
[00:19:03] - What makes Chris Nolan such an exceptional storyteller
[00:23:42] - Power and defensibility of cinematic universes and transmedia storytelling
[00:22:21] - Applying quantitative data analysis to film production and marketing
[00:25:55] - Competitive frontiers in movie studios and his advantageous skillset
[00:28:10] - Potential investment opportunities in media or media adjacent businesses
[00:29:26] - Interesting new tools that could be developed in entertainment technology
[00:31:00] - His favorite mind-blowing and awe-inspiring movies
[00:32:41] - Telling Jackie Robinson’s story in the film, 42
[00:35:30] - Jackie Robinson and Chadwick Boseman’s quiet dignity
[00:36:56] - Building the holding company Tulco
[00:39:02] - The new physics of business that can’t be ignored
[00:42:40] - Modern velocity in the current era of business
[00:46:03] - Interweaving an antifragile mindset into the company culture
[00:47:55] - Who Tulco Labs is and what they do
[00:49:12] - What gets him most excited about exploring a new business for the first time
[00:50:48] - Unique characteristics he seeks out in a management team
[00:52:31] - Trends that make him feel worried about the future
[00:57:47] - Trends that make him feel optimistic about the future
[00:58:49] - An important lesson learned from his career on a personal level
[01:00:15] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him
My guest today is Paul Enright, managing partner at Krainos Capital, his family office. Before running his own family office, Paul worked on the buy-side at Viking Global for over a decade managing their consumer and technology portfolios and before that at Morgan Stanley on the sell-side.
I thought Paul would be the perfect person to help me demystify the world of high finance – explaining the difference between the buy-side and sell-side, how long/shorts differ from long onlys, and walking through the various jobs in the investing world. In addition to setting that foundation, we also cover the evolution of the buy-side, what makes someone a great researcher verse a great stock picker, and various portfolio construction methodologies. Paul brings such a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. I think this episode will be enjoyable for investing novices and professionals alike.
Please enjoy my conversation with Paul Enright.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – also known as MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term. MITIMCo doesn’t care how small, new, or un-institutional your firm is if you have the potential to generate amazing results that support MIT’s pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation.
Despite their willingness to invest early, they do not ask for GP economics, and they commit their initial capital for ten years.
Visit www.mitimco.org and their new emerging managers page to learn more.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:39] - [First question] - His history in both the buy and sell side
[00:05:20] - Different types of roles on the buy side and sell side
[00:06:48] - Interest sets that best align with being a buyer or a seller
[00:07:57] - The emotional experience of being on the buy side and exposed to risk
[00:08:53] - How the nature of buying and portfolio construction has changed
[00:10;15] - What Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) is
[00:12:46] - Key terminology and definitions of long-only and long-short funds
[00:17:40] - Varying clusters of long-short funds and defining each type
[00:21:48] - Differences in exposure between a platform model versus a traditional long-short stock picking sense
[00:25:16] - Skill sets that are most important to have when navigating this space
[00:29:03] - What is good and what is great when it comes to “digging”
[00:31:20] - Why the quality of one’s analysis matters
[00:33:10] - Having a potential edge when deciding based on someone else’s analysis
[00:35:19] - Foundational building blocks of an effective pitch
[00:37:20] - Finding wrongly identified stocks and reaping the rewards
[00:40:49] - Overview of good portfolio construction and lessons learned over the years
[00:44:06] - Why hedge funds tend to traffic heavily in T.M.T. and consumer sectors
[00:45:53] - Elements that strike him as great in a business
[00:48:05] - A business that once seemed great but has since faded away
[00:49:22] - Why hedge-fund managers seem to always make the most money
[00:53:50] - What a well run firm looks like
[00:56:39] - Characteristics that may make you well suited for a career in fund management
[01:00:23] - Why quality mentors and portfolio managers are so important when deciding where you want to work
[01:01:38] - What interests him mosts in markets today
[01:05:20] - Useful frameworks and formulas used when approaching a new business
[01:08:15] - Interesting features about telecom businesses and what defines them
[01:10:45] - The future of the modern world’s internet infrastructure
[01:14:44] - Abundance vs zero-sum and fixed vs growth mindsets
[01:18:12] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him
My guest today is Trevor McFedries, the founder of technology startup Brud and the creator of virtual pop star Miquela, a Gen Z icon with millions of fans worldwide. Trevor’s background is fascinating - he worked as a DJ and producer, toured with Katy Perry, worked at Spotify, and done just about every interesting thing I can imagine. In our conversation, we discuss the music-industrial complex, the creation of Miquela, and what Web 3.0 will mean for creators and builders in the future. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Trevor McFedries.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.
-----
This episode is brought to you by DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean provides founders and creators with the platform they need to get their website and apps off the ground, all with low-bandwidth pricing to save them money over other cloud providers.
If you are looking for the best place to build web apps or API backends on robust infrastructure, DigitalOcean is the place for you. They provide a fully managed solution that handles your infrastructure, operating systems, databases, and other dependencies on their new App Platform product. App Platform makes it easy to build, deploy, and scale apps. Get started for free at do.co/founders.
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:02:54] - [First question] - What unites the diversity of his career
[00:03:39] - What inspired him to pivot away from football and step into creative arts
[00:05:50] - Lessons learned from being a touring DJ and producer that apply to the creative tech sector
[00:07:40] - A view of the music industrial complex from the inside
[00:08:57] - How the internet deciding who becomes popular affected already established artists
[00:10:57] - Interesting opportunities in the music landscape in 2021
[00:11:40] - Time spent at Spotify and the spark of insight that led to founding Brud
[00:16:02] - The sequence of creating a digital artist like Lil Miquela
[00:19:02] - What it feels like to be “othered”
[00:20:24] - Embracing one's intersections and applying it to a business model
[00:21:18] - The team behind Lil Miquela and her design process
[00:25:49] - Ingredients required for building a great narrative
[00:28:35] - What social media platforms matter today, and the state of the social landscape
[00:32:21] - Expanding Lil Miquela’s world and digital media monetization
[00:36:32] - Differences between web 2.0 and 3.0 that may directly affect creators
[00:38:27] - Ways innovations like NFTs make spawn new network participants
[00:39:49] - Programmable art and media experiences
[00:41:03] - The most cutting-edge ideas in the digital persona space
[00:43:21] - Technology that wasn’t available that had to be built to enable new experiences
[00:45:49] - One of the hardest decisions he’s had to make in Brud’s history
[00:47:16] - The furthest they’ve ever pushed the envelope
[00:48:06] - What’s the thing that keeps him going every day
[00:50:12] - Finding cultural white space and inventing a character that could speak to investing to inspire new generations
[00:52:01] - Units of media contribution and creative container experimentation
[00:53:27] - What has him the most excited about the future of his industry
[00:54:32] - Missing technological components that could inspire new digital creatives
[00:56:53] - Work ethic through the lens of developing a jump shot
[00:59:00] - One business lesson that he believes in deeply
[01:00:05] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him
My guest today is Chris Dixon, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Chris is a prolific investor and thinker, having been an entrepreneur, angel investor, and is now focused on investing in the crypto and blockchain space for Andreessen. Our conversation focuses on Chris's overall thesis for investing in the cryptocurrency space, the opportunities and limitations of blockchain applications, and why this is the most interesting area for investing and building over the next ten years. What's exciting to me is blockchain technology's ability to help us re-imagine old business models and catapult them into the 21st century – and we cover a lot of them. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Chris Dixon.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:56] - [First question] - His overall crypto investing philosophy
[00:06:37] - New opportunities presented by blockchain technology
[00:15:31] - Permanent limitations and shortcomings of blockchains
[00:18:32] - Evolution of DeFi and crypto currencies
[00:21:11] - Whitepapers: Bitcoin, Ethereum, MakerDAO
[00:22:08] - How to take out a loan using the Maker protocol
[00:23:22] - Utility of Dai and stablecoins
[00:29:14] - How the DeFi network will reinvent the future
[00:39:53] - Uniswap, tokens, and fundamentally redefining leverage
[00:36:29] - The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea
[00:38:00] - Developer and entrepreneurial incentives for building blockchain technology
[00:39:46] - BitClout, Rally and the early days of social tokens
[00:46:38] - Demand curve and value creation efficiency in a digital creator economy
[00:47:24] - NFTs and a Thousand True Fans
[00:54:49] - Polkadot, Solana, Cosmos and programmable blockchains
[00:58:03] - The most exciting moment for him in the last year
[01:00:19] - Decentralized autonomous organizations
[01:02:46] - The single thing that has him most excited about the future of this space
[01:05:18] - The Next Big Thing Will Start Out Looking Like a Toy
Welcome to the first episode of our newest show, Business Breakdowns, featuring deep-dive conversations on individual businesses. In each episode, we will dissect a new company with investors and operators that know it best.
We’ve already released the first three episodes on Shopify, Chipotle, and Alibaba. Subscribe to Business Breakdowns through the podcast player of your choice:
Leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts if you like the show!
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Today we will be diving into Shopify. Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobi Lütke and Scott Lake around their original problem of why it's so hard to build an online business when they struggled to open an online snowboard equipment store. Today, Shopify's goal is to make commerce better for everyone, and it's used by more than 2 million merchants to run their online businesses. It's essentially an on-ramp for people looking to sell online.
To help us break down Shopify, I'm joined by co-host Zack Fuss and our guest Alex Danco, who works on the Money team at Shopify.
To really understand Shopify, you have to understand its different business units -- Core, Merchant Services, Ecosystem, and the new Shop platform -- and the role they each play in making commerce easier and better for merchants. We begin this breakdown by covering each of those business units and how they compare to Apple's business lines. We then dive deep into how Shopify makes money through the first and second derivative of their merchant success and how Shopify thinks about friction in e-commerce. We close with an incredible analogy of Shopify and StarCraft and the tools that Shopify has built into the still-nascent world of e-commerce.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. We created Business Breakdowns to uncover the lessons and frameworks behind every business, and that's what makes Tegus our perfect launch partner. Much of the foundational prep for these episodes starts with research on the Tegus platform.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 15,000 calls on Coinbase, Hinge Health, Farfetch, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. If you're ready to go deeper on any company and you appreciate the value of primary research, head to tegus.co/breakdowns for a free trial.
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Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss
Show Notes
[00:04:03] - [First question] - What Shopify is as a product
[00:05:58] - Product pillar 1: Core
[00:07:58] - Product pillar 2: Merchant services
[00:10:02] - Product pillar 3: Ecosystem
[00:12:04] - Product pillar 4: Shop
[00:14:08] - The evolution of commerce with the rise of the internet
[00:21:01] - Differences between high and low trust commerce
[00:25:48] - The role of friction and trust in stakeholder variety
[00:30:18] - Overview of all four product pillars’ business models
[00:33:10] - Shopify App Store
[00:34:16] - How Shopify competes and partners with their competitors
[00:36:53] - Shop Pay expands to Facebook and Instagram
[00:38:49] - Key areas where Shopify will continue to grow across their product pillars
[00:42:52] - Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay
[00:43:56] - Potential pitfalls of having such a high self-imposed quality bar
[00:45:12] - Conway’s law
[00:45:12] - Aggregators versus platforms
[00:53:35] - Unique marketing aspects for Shopify’s sales and marketing with their subscription model
[00:56:37] - Shopify: A StarCraft Inspired Business Strategy
My guest today is Tony Xu, co-founder, and CEO of DoorDash. Tony started DoorDash 7.5 years ago, and today it is one of the largest food delivery and logistics platforms globally, with operations in the US, Canada, Australia. In our conversation, we discuss the initial problem that DoorDash set out to solve, DoorDash’s counterintuitive approach to building their product, and the surprising benefits of capital constraints in DoorDash’s early days. DoorDash’s business model is an equal parts logistics nightmare and a human coordination problem, or as Tony puts it, a human and math problem. After talking to Tony, I feel his personality makes him a great candidate to solve those problems.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn, you get access to an active community of professionals with more than 722 million members worldwide. LinkedIn is the easiest place in the world to post a job and message qualified candidates. Getting started is easier than ever, and now you can do this all from your mobile device.
When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/fieldguide to post a job for free. Terms and conditions apply.
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Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:07] - [First question] - The catalytic moment that inspired Tony to build DoorDash
[00:06:33] - Network density and its role in scalability
[00:09:15] - Solving a math and sales problem simultaneously
[00:11:33] - Becoming aware of multiple problem sets for restaurant owners
[00:14:34] - Designing a team to quantify friction and turn it into useable data
[00:16:49] - How to approach difficult problems and compartmentalize them in a practical way
[00:18:38] - Accounting for high-level variance in long-term goals
[00:21:54] - Factoring in time horizons for variance and planning for the future
[00:23:08] - Slowing down an action process to minimize a high-consequence decision
[00:26:48] - Generating demand after completing their software infrastructure
[00:28:15] - Strategic choices between network health and unit economics
[00:30:32] - Why DoorDash struggled to raise financing in their seed-stage
[00:32:23] - Solving a small fraction of a larger logistics problem
[00:35:00] - Differences between local commerce and distribution centers
[00:36:44] - Creating the DashPass subscription service and how premium experiences influence user behavior
[00:38:34] - Advantages and potential diminishing returns in servant leadership
[00:40:41] - His broader philosophy on leadership and how it’s changed over the years
[00:44:55] - Creating an incentive-aligned culture of ownership at scale
[00:47:02] - The most surprising lessons learned about company building
[00:50:38] - Unexpected positive outcomes that may emerge in other areas due to DoorDash’s growth in the coming years
[00:53:44] - Will DoorDash’s presence change behavioral patterns in where people choose to live or start their business?
[00:55:36] - What has him most excited for the future
[00:56:55] - Kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guests this week are Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns, co-founders and partners at The Chernin Group, TCG, a multi-stage investment firm dedicated to building consumer businesses. Many think of TCG as some of the best media investors in the world, and in this discussion, you’ll quickly see why. In our conversation, we cover how TCG identifies creators that they can help build businesses with, how established companies should think about influencers and media today, and what innovations they are most excited for in the creator space. As I become more heavily involved in building new media properties, Jesse and Mike are always my first point of call for advice, and I’m so excited to share this with you. Please enjoy my conversation with Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – also known as MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term. MITIMCo doesn’t care how small, new, or un-institutional your firm is if you have the potential to generate amazing results that support MIT’s pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation.
Despite their willingness to invest early, they do not ask for GP economics, and they commit their initial capital for ten years.
Visit www.mitimco.org and their new emerging managers page to learn more.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:32] - [First question] - The history of TCG
[00:04:30] - iFilm (Discontinued)
[00:07:08] - Full Screen
[00:07:13] - Crunchyroll
[00:10:46] - Uniting properties across all of TCG’s brands
[00:11:14] - Barstool, MeatEater
[00:12:00] - Headspace, Food 52, Hodinkee, Surfline
[00:14:03] - Accidental businesses and pre-commercial success
[00:14:53] - Exploding Kittens
[00:16:05] - Evaluating the potential of a new pitch
[00:19:12] - Testing, tracking and understanding media brand conversions
[00:21:13] - The most important things happening in media in 2021
[00:25:12] - Analysis of MeatEater from content to commerce
[00:27:22] - First Lite
[00:29:21] - Replacing your own sponsors with owned companies
[00:30:11] - Analysis of Hodinkee from content to commerce
[00:33:42] - What sparked the resurgence of interest in collectibles
[00:38:05] - Hands on investing in the intersection of media, finance and tech
[00:40:05] - Comcast
[00:41:02] - Surprising discoveries in the sports collectibles space
[00:43:06] - NFTs and their role in generating capital for media companies
[00:44:25] - Sorare
[00:45:22] - JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as “NFT Mania” Gathers Pace
[00:47:23] - How to adapt to the NFT space as a business seeking equity
[00:51:12] - The valuation landscape of today
[00:55:25] - Defining success when working with an influencer
[00:58:48] - Upcoming trends they’re most excited about in the world
[01:01:40] - Roblox
[01:02:00] - Mr Beast, Beastburger
[01:02:47] - Pokemon Go
[01:04:01] - The kindest things anyone’s ever done for them
Welcome to Business Breakdowns, a new Colossus podcast featuring deep-dive conversations on individual businesses. In each episode, we will dissect a new company with investors and operators that know it best. We believe every business has secrets and lessons to learn from, and these conversations are designed to deliver that content in an entertaining and narrative format.
The series launches today with Shopify, so check out the links below and give it a listen.
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My guest today is Jesse Pujji, the Founder & CEO of Gateway X, a holding company that builds, buys, and invests in companies that are driving the direct-to-consumer landscape. Prior to Gateway X, Jesse was the CEO and co-founder of Ampush, a performance marketing business helping power customer acquisition across some of the world's biggest brands. Jesse is my go-to person for all things performance marketing and customer acquisition, so we decided to record this episode to bring his incredible lessons to a wider audience. It also dovetails nicely into the series of episodes we are making called Primers, where we take our audience from a 0 to a 7 on just about any topic. In this Primer with Jesse, we dive into how revenue mechanics affect ad campaigns, why long sales funnels often offer the greatest opportunities for differentiation, and the various channels and strategies available for performance marketing. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jesse Pujji.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.
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This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn, you get access to an active community of professionals with more than 722 million members worldwide. LinkedIn is the easiest place in the world to post a job and message qualified candidates. Getting started is easier than ever, and now you can do this all from your mobile device.
When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/fieldguide to post a job for free. Terms and conditions apply.
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Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:58] - [First question] - Overview of Jesse’s career and starting Ampush
[00:12:11] - Red Ventures
[00:13:11] - The four components of performance marketing
[00:17:47] - Time and other variables in between impressions and revenue events
[00:23:12] - Understanding the dimensions of a business and their offering
[00:25:32] - Common misunderstandings businesses have about their marketing
[00:27:17] - Major changes in the Facebook and Google digital marketing ecosystems
[00:29:27] - Direct response marketing vs brand marketing
[00:35:08] - The importance and impact of effective messaging
[00:37:28] - The differences between good and bad conversions
[00:40:56] - Does alpha still exist, is it worth looking for, and does beta have a place
[00:43:25] - Fundamentals of a high performing marketing organization
[00:50:04] - Attention aggregators of marketing agencies
[00:50:18] - Nerdwallet - Thumbtack
[00:51:22] - Product channel fit
[00:52:11] - PebblePost
[00:53:58] - Lessons learned from working with Uber
[00:55:42] - Retention marketing
[00:57:31] - Upcoming frontiers of performance marketing
[01:01:15] - Overview of Nerdwallet
[01:03:36] - How Jesse’s time at Ampush has shaped his investment lens
[01:07:20] - Lessons from bootstrapping a business vs venture capital funding
[01:17:05] - The entrepreneurial execution loop and operating cadence
[01:29:20] - Kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Kanyi Maqubela, co-founder of seed-stage VC firm Kindred Ventures, which he started with his partner Steven Jang in 2019. Before founding Kindred Ventures, Kanyi was a general partner at Collaborative Fund. In our conversation, we discuss the parallels between today and the Roaring ’20s of the last century, the misunderstood risk curve of seed investing, and dive deep into how Kanyi evaluates founders and businesses at the earliest stage of company formation. We also discuss Kanyi’s experience teaching the Design Your Life class at Stanford and how some of those principles convinced him to take the leap to start his own fund. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kanyi Maqubela.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
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This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. NordVPN is the best VPN to keep your internet experience private.
It has over 5,500 servers in 60 countries to ensure super-fast internet while protecting your information no matter where you are. As working from home and remote work become more prevalent, now is the time to protect your personal and business information without any data logging.
NordVPN works on all popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and supports up to 6 simultaneous connections across your devices.
To get started, go to nordvpn.com/patrick or use code PATRICK to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:04:11] - [First question] - Understanding the roaring 20s and their potential resurgence
[00:06:14] - Seed-stage investing today compared to a few years ago
[00:09:02] - Lessons learned from studying the 1920s
[00:11:52] - Supply chain infrastructure in the 21st century
[00:14:49] - His investment philosophy and what influenced it
[00:17:47] - Defining the risk curve and early-stage divergence
[00:21:31] - Assessing risk in seed-stage investing
[00:23:32] - Other moments that influenced Kanyi’s investment philosophy
[00:26:50] - Assisting early-stage companies as a VC
[00:29:31] - How he approaches VC differently than traditional US VCs
[00:31:55] - Non-consensus ways and unique views when evaluating founders
[00:35:19] - Domain insight and its importance
[00:36:53] - What he looks for in a company when considering investing in them
[00:38:17] - Assessing a team in whether or not they have characteristics of longevity
[00:40:59] - Questions he most enjoys asking people
[00:42:24] - What makes for a good problem space
[00:44:26] - Early-stage crypto investing
[00:47:27] - How the crypto space and NFTs will change and influence other sectors
[00:50:37] - Emerging trends that are catching his attention
[00:54:20] - The potential for upward mobility in the coming decade
[00:56:30] - Teaching the Design Your Life course
[01:01:21] - Advice for modern investor-operators
[01:03:26] - If he could change one major thing in the industry
[01:06:57] - The biggest lesson learned from Obama’s campaign
[01:07:44] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him
My guest today is Roxanne Petraeus, co-founder and CEO of Ethena, a modern compliance platform for businesses. Roxanne’s background is pretty incredible, before starting Ethena she was a Rhodes Scholar, served in the US Army, and worked at McKinsey. In our conversation, we cover the lessons Roxanne ported over from her military career to building a business, how she’s trying to make compliance training not suck, and the woeful state of funding female founders in VC today and what can be done about it. Far from a boring conversation about compliance, this was an incredible discussion with one of the best founders I’ve met recently. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Roxanne Petraeus.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Klaviyo is the ultimate marketing platform for e-commerce. With targeted segmentation, email automation, SMS marketing, and more, Klaviyo helps you create your ideal customer experience.
See why Klaviyo is trusted by more than 50,000 brands, like Living Proof, Solo Stove, and Nomad to help them grow their business. For a free trial, check out klaviyo.com/founders.
-----
This episode is brought to you by DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean provides founders and creators with the platform they need to get their website and apps off the ground, all with low-bandwidth pricing to save them money over other cloud providers.
If you are looking for the best place to build web apps or API backends on robust infrastructure, DigitalOcean is the place for you. They provide a fully managed solution that handles your infrastructure, operating systems, databases, and other dependencies on their new App Platform product. App Platform makes it easy to build, deploy, and scale apps. Get started for free at do.co/founders.
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:29] - [First question] - What Ethena does
[00:06:31] - Lessons from her military career
[00:09:13] - Good and bad elements of leadership training from the military
[00:11:35] - The problem of what sucks in compliance training
[00:14:33] - The enablement of bad behavior among people with power
[00:17:56] - The original idea for Ethena and bringing it to market
[00:21:15] - Determining who is the right person to serve first
[00:24:03] - Lessons for building good software
[00:26:21] - How they have adapted to working in and around regulation
[00:29:31] - Getting other companies to buy into the product
[00:34:45] - Creating effective content and measuring that effectiveness
[00:38:13] - Darker sides of growing the business and raising money
[00:39:57] - How ‘the Motherhood Penalty’ Plays Out for Startup Founders
[00:43:12] - Fixing the problems with bias in venture capital investing
[00:46:57] - What is the outlook and long-term vision for the business
[00:50:38] - What has her most excited for the future
[00:51:53] - Most interesting about the Rhodes Scholar program
[00:54:02] - Kindest thing anyone has done for her
My guest today is Jesse Walden, the founder of Variant, an early-stage venture firm investing in crypto networks and platforms building the ownership economy.
With all the hype surrounding NFTs, I wanted to talk to Jesse about them, given his background in the music industry and his focus on the creator and ownership economy. The conversation did not disappoint. We discuss the basics of what an NFT is, what new creative paradigms they might unlock, and where we are in the NFT hype cycle.
This episode is the first in what will likely become its own show we are calling Primers. Our goal for primers is to bring investors and operators from a zero to a seven understanding of a topic, concept, or industry. The goal here is for the education around these topics to be fast and entertaining. I hope you enjoy this discussion with Jesse Walden and hopefully the first of many Primers to come.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
------
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
------
This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. NordVPN is the best VPN to keep your internet experience private.
It has over 5,500 servers in 60 countries to ensure super-fast internet while protecting your information no matter where you are. As working from home and remote work become more prevalent, now is the time to protect your personal and business information without any data logging.
NordVPN works on all popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and supports up to 6 simultaneous connections across your devices.
To get started, go to nordvpn.com/patrick or use code PATRICK to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:04:19] - [First question] - Simple definition of an NFT
[00:05:22] - What distinguishes NFTs from each other
[00:06:24] - The value chain of a song, and who owns it
[00:12:07] - Monetization and royalties on traded tokens
[00:15:02] - Consumer incentives for purchasing NFTs
[00:19:19] - Long-term passive income and media legos
[00:22:23] - Technical breakdown of minting, hosting, and storing tokens
[00:24:28] - Verification of token ownership on the blockchain
[00:25:58] - NFT marketplaces and aggregators
[00:27:06] - Opensea.io
[00:27:21] - Foundation.app
[00:29:46] - Innovations inspired by the NFT explosion
[00:31:01] - Mirror.xyz
[00:32:26] - NBA Topshot
[00:32:57] - Crypto Punks
[00:23:24] - Nifty Gateway
[00:34:30] - Physical cultural assets in the digital landscape
[00:36:02] - Legacy brands exploring digital goods and tokenized ownership
[00:38:37] - NFTs becoming the port of entry of all media
[00:39:39] - An ownership economy in second generation internet platforms
[00:41:02] - Uniswap
[00:42:41] - The “hype cycle” of NFTs and incoming market correction
[00:44:18] - Lessons for investors in the NFT space
[00:45:15] - Lessons for buildings in the NFT space
[00:45:54] - Resources to continue learning about NFTs
[00:45:54] - NFTs make the internet ownable by Jesse Walden
[00:46:20] - NFTs and a thousand true fans by Chris Dixon
[00:46:13] - A beginner’s guide to NFTs by Linda Xie
My guest today is Jonathan Goldberg, the founder, and CEO of Carbon Direct, a company focused on advising and investing in carbon removal at scale. Jonathan started his career in the commodities division of Goldman Sachs and then went on to start a commodity hedge fund, BBL Commodities. In our conversation, we cover the state of the carbon problem today, the importance of global carbon standards and carbon taxes, and the future of carbon capture and removal technologies. This was a masterclass on all things carbon-related. Please enjoy my conversation with Jonathan Goldberg.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Klaviyo is the ultimate marketing platform for e-commerce. With targeted segmentation, email automation, SMS marketing, and more, Klaviyo helps you create your ideal customer experience.
See why Klaviyo is trusted by more than 50,000 brands, like Living Proof, Solo Stove, and Nomad to help them grow their business. For a free trial, check out klaviyo.com/founders.
-----
This episode is brought to you by DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean provides founders and creators with the platform they need to get their website and apps off the ground, all with low-bandwidth pricing to save them money over other cloud providers.
If you are looking for the best place to build web apps or API backends on robust infrastructure, DigitalOcean is the place for you. They provide a fully managed solution that handles your infrastructure, operating systems, databases, and other dependencies on their new App Platform product. App Platform makes it easy to build, deploy, and scale apps. Get started for free at do.co/founders.
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:25] - [First question] - Overview of his career
[00:06:02] - The start of his commodities trading strategy and its evolution
[00:09:08] - Key strategies for making money as a commodities trader
[00:10:41] - Opportunity to trade commodities today
[00:11:39] - Making the shift to carbon capture work
[00:15:04] - Range of consequences for elevated carbon emissions and biggest buckets of carbon
[00:18:52] - An outline of the Paris Climate Accord and other agreements on climate change
[00:20:26] - Ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere
[00:23:46] - The technology to remove carbon and incentives to invest in this technology
[00:26:19] - Corporate participation in the carbon trade
[00:28:35] - Balance of natural vs man-made solutions
[00:31:53] - Making money without the altruistic goals
[00:33:43] - Trends in the fossil fuel industry
[00:36:41] - Convenient ways for consumers to switch to clean energy products
[00:39:57] - The geopolitical will to shift towards cleaner energy
[00:41:58] - Primary consequences of not making this shift
[00:44:25] - The important role of regulation
[00:46:01] - Thinking through the investing side of combating climate change
[00:48:59] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest this week is Marissa King, a professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management. I was fascinated by Marissa's work after coming across her book, Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection, earlier this year. Our conversation covers the three types of social networking styles, the surprising impact of COVID on social networks, and what her research tells us about building high-performing teams. This episode covers many topics I haven't explored before that I find fascinating. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Marissa King.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
------
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
------
This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. NordVPN is the best VPN to keep your internet experience private.
It has over 5,500 servers in 60 countries to ensure super-fast internet while protecting your information no matter where you are. As working from home and remote work become more prevalent, now is the time to protect your personal and business information without any data logging.
NordVPN works on all popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and supports up to 6 simultaneous connections across your devices.
To get started, go to nordvpn.com/patrick or use code PATRICK to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
------
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:04:04] - [First question] - Origin of her career and topics she is focused on
[00:04:06] - Social Chemistry: Decoding the Patterns of Human Connection
[00:04:09] - Priya Parker Podcast Episode
[00:05:41] - Why the focus on Autism and some of the trends around it
[00:08:07] - Prevalence of mental health and substance abuse vs. raised awareness
[00:09:16] - The eureka moment for her in this research
[00:10:16] - Pattern in growing large social movements
[00:11:43] - The Expansionists group and their role in large social movements
[00:14:31] - Acid test for the Brokers group
[00:15:35] - How she developed the categories of people that drive social movements
[00:17:35] - Most memorable moments of discovery in the development of these categories
[00:18:58] - Important categories for overall network science
[00:20:20] - Behavioral changes we can make to improve the nature of our social connections
[00:23:21] - The pitfalls for each group and how they can invest in their own network
[00:25:29] - Conveners and what they need to improve
[00:26:34] - Downside of being a broker
[00:27:58] - The attachments styles of secure, anxious, or avoidant
[00:30:07] - Velocity of interactions possible today and what it means for research
[00:32:02] - How men and women develop networks differently
[00:33:55] - What is unique in organizational behavior through the lens of her research
[00:36:19] - Best practice for creating high output interactions
[00:37:33] - Putting together the perfect team
[00:38:42] - Largest pitfalls in putting together a good team
[00:40:00] - Role of conversation in effective network building
[00:41:15] - Being a great listeners and distractions
[00:42:47] - Eric Maddox Podcast Episode
[00:43:41] - Good policy for running a network, being attentive to the network
[00:46:40] - The power of touch
[00:48:39] - How movements become societal and what role technology has played
[00:52:46] - How this applies to a business
[00:53:34] - Biological underpinnings of Dunbar’s number
[00:57:13] - Kindest thing anyone has done for her
My guest this week is Jonathan Neman, the co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen. Sweetgreen is a fast-casual restaurant chain that Jonathan co-founded in 2007 during their senior year at Georgetown when he realized they couldn't find a healthy, affordable, and convenient place to eat. Today, Sweetgreen operates in 11 markets and will have about 160 restaurants across the US by the end of 2021. In our conversation, we cover the origins of Sweetgreen and how it builds a direct relationship with its customers, how Jonathan thinks restaurants should work with marketplaces like DoorDash, and the economics of operating restaurants. While Sweetgreen is primarily a restaurant concept, Jonathan brings a tech-first mindset to the food industry, focusing less on single-store economics and more about customer lifetime value and the importance of owning the relationship with the customer. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jonathan Neman.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Klaviyo is the ultimate marketing platform for e-commerce. With targeted segmentation, email automation, SMS marketing, and more, Klaviyo helps you create your ideal customer experience.
See why Klaviyo is trusted by more than 50,000 brands, like Living Proof, Solo Stove, and Nomad to help them grow their business. For a free trial, check out klaviyo.com/founders.
-----
This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn, you get access to an active community of professionals with more than 722 million members worldwide. LinkedIn is the easiest place in the world to post a job and message qualified candidates. Getting started is easier than ever, and now you can do this all from your mobile device.
When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/fieldguide to post a job for free. Terms and conditions apply.
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:04] - [First question] - The origins of Sweetgreen
[00:05:47] - Something they did from a position of naivete, working their supply chain
[00:07:18] - Most common reason restaurants go wrong
[00:08:35] - Building the first restaurant and lessons along the way
[00:12:22] - Effective menu building
[00:14:36] - The Sweetgreen network and how they view the restaurant as a network
[00:21:05] - What their digital business means compared to other restaurant businesses
[00:23:55] - How they have improved at converting people into their ecosystem
[00:27:40] - Creating win-win partnerships
[00:29:12] - The pros/cons of the marketplaces in the food industry
[00:32:58] - The general economics of a restaurant
[00:36:58] - Allocating capital differently when the focus is the customer and not the store
[00:39:36] - How tech trends aimed at improving personal health plays into Sweetgreen’s plans
[00:45:11] - Their focus on sustainability for the business
[00:47:56] - The core values of ‘Add the Sweet Touch’ and ‘Live the Sweet Life’
[00:50:18] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
[00:51:38] - Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
My guests today are Josh Wolfe and Tony Thomas, better known as T2. Josh is the co-founder and General Partner at Lux Capital. T2 is now a venture partner alongside Josh at Lux Capital, after serving for almost 40 years in the US military and becoming a 4-star general and the 11th Commander of US Special Operations Command. Our conversation focuses on the technology frontier in defense as well as the geopolitical threats that the US faces. We talk about everything from semiconductors and autonomous weapons systems to the moral dimensions of investing in defense technology. I hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation with Josh Wolfe and Tony Thomas.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
------
This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.
With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
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This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – also known as MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term. MITIMCo doesn’t care how small, new, or un-institutional your firm is if you have the potential to generate amazing results that support MIT’s pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation.
Despite their willingness to invest early, they do not ask for GP economics and they commit their initial capital for ten years.
Visit www.mitimco.org and their new emerging managers page to learn more.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:46] - [First question] - Overview of Tony Thomas’s career
[00:06:36] - His focus on the information wars and truthiness
[00:08:50] - How Josh and Tony met
[00:12:27] - Experiencing the slow pace of technology growth within the Department of Defense
[00:15:51] - History of businesses selling to and engaging with the government
[00:23:52] - Consensus of the threats we face today
[00:28:55] - Most important competitive frontier today
[00:35:09] - The lessening of kinetic warfare
[00:46:51] - State of the drone technology and industry
[00:52:56] - Mapping the arctic and the geopolitical ramifications
[00:54:31] - The frontier of space
[00:59:26] - What shouldn’t be unmanned technology
[01:02:31] - The cutting edge of simulation technology
[01:06:50] - The most important thing to know about the future of semiconductors
[01:11:36] - The moral lens of working with and investing in defense companies
[01:20:53] - Traits of the most exceptional soldiers he’s served with
[01:23:53] - Kindest thing anyone has done for Tony