My guest today is Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport. Flexport is a technology platform for global trade. In this conversation, Ryan takes us through the fragmented world of international freight shipping, and we dive deep into the history and inefficiencies of the system. We also cover how shipping containers were standardized, how new protocols get adopted internationally, and the challenges of doing business in the “no man's land” of international waters. Ryan is the type of entrepreneur I enjoy talking to most: he has incredible domain knowledge, high energy and is tackling an enormous global problem. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ryan Petersen.
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 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
[00:03:24] - [First question] - Overview of what Flexport does
[00:04:49] - His introduction into the world of shipping
[00:06:49] - Difference between parcel and freight
[00:08:53] - Market cap of the overall shipping industry
[00:09:24] - Fragmentation of shipping and what Flexport is solving for
[00:12:52] - Worst parts of the shipping world
[00:15:34] - Improving the tech behind the shipping container
[00:19:06] - Why the shipping container changed the world
[00:19:07] - The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
[00:21:27] - Teams and outsider perspectives in solving problems
[00:22:34] - How their business could make shipping more efficient and reduce costs
[00:25:24] - Where the margins and profits are made in shipping
[00:25:49] - Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
[00:27:11] - The finance side of shipping
[00:28:56] - Maritime law and the ocean
[00:30:57] - How much is left in the digitization of shipping
[00:32:48] - The perfect state of shipping using Flexport
[00:38:19] - Investing in hard assets to expand the business
[00:41:03] - Lessons about building a business and global coordination
[00:43:15] - Multidisciplinary thinking among their team
[00:44:04] - Global supply chain issues in light of Covid and ocean policing
[00:44:15] - Peter Zeihan Podcast Episode
[00:47:59] - Testing out demand in the beginning
[00:50:28] - The process of testing out new ideas and killing off losers
[00:52:33] - Important lessons/themes for founders
[00:54:51] - Hardest learned lesson, fundraising
[00:58:06] - Other opportunities in shipping
[00:59:47] - Lessons for creating a new standard
[01:02:22] - Using their standardization to improve global relief work
[01:04:40] - Creating synchronicity in a company
[01:07:09] - What he’s excited about for the future
[01:07:53] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Jeremy Grantham. Jeremy is the Long-Term Investment Strategist and Co-Founder at GMO. Jeremy has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of markets, which made it such a pleasure to have him back on the show. In this conversation, we discuss the three key signs of a bubble, why Jeremy believes we are in a bubble right now and how it’s being led by retail rather than institutional investors. We close with the important role that demographics and productivity will play over the next few decades across the world. Please enjoy my conversation with Jeremy Grantham.
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 Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked Twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.
Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com.
------
This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company. MITIMCO is the endowment office of MIT. New and small investment funds listen up. MITIMCO is looking to find investors starting funds today.
MITIMCO is partnership-driven, long-term focused, and has an extensive history of backing investors early in their careers. These partners are key in delivering the outstanding investment returns required to support MIT's pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation. MITIMCO is focused on finding and partnering with the best investors across the globe, no matter the market environment. No firm is too small, too young, or too non-institutional.
If you or someone you know is currently in the process of starting a fund or recently launched, please email partner@mitimco.org or discover more on their website at mitimco.org/partner.
------
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
[00:03:03] - [First question] - His view on the markets today
[00:03:07] - Jeremy Grantham’s Podcast Episode
[00:08:00] - Proliferation of SPAC’s and how he views them as a potential bubble
[00:10:20] - Could SPAC’s help to improve the IPO process
[00:14:30] - How he viewed the Gamestop story through his historical context
[00:18:24] - Is investor education possible
[00:19:50] - How the increasing role of retail investors impacts bubbles
[00:24:15] - Attitudes towards market bears in bubbles
[00:28:52] - Long term view on the economy and the forces pushing it higher
[00:41:50] - Returning to a hard money standard for the US economy
[00:49:39] - Would a finite supply of money change market trajectory
[00:51:02] - Best ways to improve the infrastructure of the economy and people’s willingness to work
[00:53:52] - What should one do if they believe we are in a bubble
[00:58:14] - What he is excited about in his green investments
[01:02:28] - Advice to young investors
My guest today is Carlos Brito, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev. AB InBev is the world’s largest brewer of beer and maintains a portfolio of hundreds of beer brands across the globe. Our conversation focuses on AB InBev’s culture of ownership, how Carlos balances organic growth with acquisitions and managing disruption as an industry incumbent. I loved hearing about Carlos’ story from growing up in Brazil to now running one of the largest businesses in the world. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Carlos Brito.
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 NetSuite. NetSuite allows founders to centralize their payment systems, ditch old spreadsheets and Quickbook tools, and finally gain visibility and control over their financials, HR, inventory, eCommerce - all in one place, instantly.
Whether you are doing a million in revenue or hundreds of millions in revenue - see why over 22,000 companies are using NetSuite today. Schedule your free product tour at netsuite.com/invest.
-----
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
[00:03:12] - [First question] - His career path and how he got to where he is today
[00:11:02] - Culture building lessons throughout his career
[00:14:52] - Maintaining ownership of company culture as businesses grow
[00:16:47] - How and why they avoid wasted resources
[00:18:49] - Why conserving resources is so beneficial for a company
[00:21:18] - Spreading culture into new members of a team
[00:25:26] - Lessons from managing a large portfolio of different brands
[00:27:58] - Biggest mistakes he has seen within brands
[00:29:38] - Navigating changes/threats in the beer industry, starting with craft beers
[00:32:56] - Lessons from the production and distribution side of the business
[00:36:02] - How to assess and decide to move into a new market
[00:37:12] - Role of data in deciding how to allocate resources and capital
[00:40:34] - The evolution of marketing over his career
[00:44:32] - Implementing the meritocracy to keep the right people in the company and move them around
[00:47:59] - Feedback he needed to hear
[00:49:16] - How other leaders can decide on whether to focus on inorganic or organic growth
[00:51:41] - What he’s most proud of from his career
[00:53:13] - Passion for the product
[00:54:12] - Most memorable beer in his life
[00:54:56] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Scott Belsky. Scott was the co-founder and CEO of Behance, the world's largest creative network, and a prolific angel investor, having made early-stage investments in Pinterest, Uber, Carta, and Airtable. His company was acquired by Adobe in 2012, where he is currently the chief product officer. In this conversation, we cover the importance of focusing on the first mile of a customer's experience with your product, why every user is (at first) either lazy, vain or selfish, and what the rise of creativity tools means for creators and investors in the future. We also cover the major trends that Scott thinks will dominate for the next decade. This was one of those conversations where I was left with 10 great lessons that will stick with me for a long time. Please enjoy my conversation with Scott Belsky.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked Twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.
Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com.
------
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
[00:03:24] - [First question] - Philosophy for building great products
[00:04:52] - Starting the journey of building a great product
[00:06:08] - Making the first mile better
[00:08:12] - Understanding user progress in product building
[00:10:25] - Getting to awareness and attention and interest in a product
[00:12:41] - The concept of window dressing
[00:14:24] - Taking an idea and turning it into a high-value product
[00:14:42] - The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture and Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
[00:16:49] - Keeping rewards structure in place for teams to stay engaged
[00:19:56] - Using his knowledge in product building to invest in other companies
[00:24:00] - The concept of object model
[00:25:52] - User psychology concepts they keep in mind when designing a product
[00:27:51] - Implementing all of these strategies into a product
[00:29:25] - The era of eduployment
[00:31:05] - How this will impact colleges
[00:33:27] - The evolution of the talent/audience relationship
[00:35:32] - Decentralization and the companies of 1
[00:37:44] - How that decentralization will impact his investment thesis
[00:39:21] - How increased productivity tools could help with more creativity in the workplace
[00:42:04] - Training people to be more creative in the workplace
[00:44:33] - Future of user interfaces
[00:44:58] - The Interface Layer: Where Design Commoditizes Tech
[00:48:10] - Good design principles
[00:49:51] - The future coming out of Covid
[00:52:09] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Matt Mullenweg, co-founder and CEO of Automattic, the company on top of the open-source project WordPress that Matt helped start. Today, WordPress powers 40% of all the websites in the world. Our wide-ranging conversation covers the state of the internet when Matt first started WordPress, the symbiotic relationship between open source and proprietary projects, and how the most successful companies are really master world builders. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with Matt Mullenweg.
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 Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/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
[00:03:15] – [First question] – What the internet felt like when he first started building Wordpress
[00:05:11] – What was wrong with his impression of the internet then
[00:06:50] – Being a connoisseur of things overlooked
[00:08:34] – How permission less publishing and open source software shaped the internet
[00:12:30] – Balance between centralization and decentralization and where we are in the cycle
[00:14:08] – The cycle between direct-to-consumer and having intermediary
[00:16:32] – New opportunities and challenges of the internet today
[00:18:49] – Potential of cryptocurrency to enable big changes on the internet
[00:21:22] – The idea of distributed work via the internet and the utopia of it
[00:21:38] - Sam Harris podcast with Matt Mullenweg
[00:24:31] – Advantage of having a team distributed across geographies and timezones
[00:26:46] – What he learned from the Amazon’s API mandate
[00:29:12] – Landmines of distributed work
[00:31:13] – Interesting lessons learned building Wordpress
[00:34:55] – Company building as world building
[00:35:52] – Lessons from Microsoft on platform building
[00:38:53] – Key ingredient to world building within your company
[00:41:09] – Lessons from Wix and Shopify
[00:42:23] – How to decide what to do next in resource and capital allocation
[00:47:00] – How to engage with other stakeholders in a platform business
[00:50:06] – The continued connectivity created by the internet
[00:53:14] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Michael Dempsey, General Partner at Compound. Michael invests in a broad range of areas but has a unique talent for combining brand building and direct customer relationships with technically demanding sectors. Our conversation covers the rise of virtual influencers, robotics, and how to best identify key inflection points in the evolution of new technologies. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Michael Dempsey.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked Twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.
Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com.
------
This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company. MITIMCO is the endowment office of MIT. New and small investment funds listen up. MITIMCO is looking to find investors starting funds today.
MITIMCO is partnership-driven, long-term focused and has an extensive history of backing investors early in their careers. These partners are key in delivering the outstanding investment returns required to support MIT's pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation. MITIMCO is focused on finding and partnering with the best investors across the globe no matter the market environment. No firm is too small, too young, or too non-institutional.
If you or someone you know is currently in the process of starting a fund or recently launched, please email partner@mitimco.org or discover more on their website at mitimco.org/partner.
------
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
[00:02:54] – [First question] – Early stages of his career
[00:05:13] - What are inflection points and how he views them as a source of opportunity
[00:07:40] - Real vs fake inflection points
[00:12:19] - Creativity as a key component of inflection points
[00:12:33] - On Inflection Points
[00:15:01] - Generative Adversarial Networks
[00:18:02] - History of animation and the innovation we are seeing there today
[00:20:12] - Animation is Eating the World
[00:24:11] - The concept of a digital celebrity and their scale
[00:29:17] - Characteristics of digital celebrity creators
[00:31:12] - Longevity and consistency of these personalities
[00:33:11] - Future of gaming and potential for investments in the space
[00:37:49] - The landscape for robotics and what has him excited
[00:41:07] - The exploration of space and the opportunities there.
[00:44:35] - Computational biology and the investment potentials.
[00:48:11] - How 2020 has changed the ability to solve scientific problems
[00:51:32] - The idea that Cyberpunk is now
[00:53:32] - Sam Hinkie podcast episode
[00:53:51] - Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder and CEO of Asana, a team-centric product management tool used by over 1.3 million users around the world. Dustin started Asana in 2008, 4 years after co-founding Facebook. In this conversation, we dive into Dustin's belief about the diminishing returns of hard work, the shocking amount of productivity lost in doing "work about work", and Dustin's philanthropic investment strategy around leverage and maximizing ROI. I hope you enjoy my wide-ranging conversation with Dustin Moskovitz.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/88012555/moskovitz-eliminating-work-about-work
-----
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. Visit https://www.tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.
-----
Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, go to https://www.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 at https://www.joincolossus.com/newsletter.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Follow Colossus on Twitter at @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:19] – [First question] – Balancing hard purposeful work and too much work that leads to burn out
[00:05:41] – What led to this way of thinking
[00:06:54] – Regulating hard work through culture
[00:08:25] – False tradeoffs and how Asana represents this
[00:09:43] – Origins of Asana
[00:13:22] – Organizing the chaos of a project
[00:18:09] – Change vs discipline of the mission
[00:19:55] – Transferring good ideas from one company to another
[00:23:19] – Instilling leverage as a concept in an early company
[00:25:21] – New learning curves in building Asana
[00:26:52] – Hardest boss battle during his time at Asana
[00:28:43] – The role of the work graph
[00:31:46] – The proliferation of the work management space and the overall landscape
[00:32:56] – The idea of radical inclusiveness
[00:36:31] – Best reasons to start a new company
[00:37:47] – What will lead to Asana’s continued success
[00:38:59] – Lessons building the product
[00:41:13] – Work with the Open Philanthropy Project
[00:43:44] – Work on pandemics and biosecurity
[00:46:11] – Where he sees the future of artificial intelligence
[00:50:47] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
My guest today is Chamath Palihapitiya, the founder and CEO of Social Capital, whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the world's hardest problems. I didn't know where this conversation would take us given Chamath's wide-ranging activities and interests but I think it provides an interesting glimpse into some of his core beliefs and the source of his drive. In our wide-ranging discussion we cover potential paths to closing the income inequality gap, how to manage one's personal psychology, his perspective on "value investing", and tackling climate change. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Chamath Palihapitiya.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/33654465/palihapitiya-the-major-problems-facing-the-world.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked Twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.
Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com.
-----
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. Visit https://www.tegus.co/patrick to learn more.
-----
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, go to https://www.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 at https://www.joincolossus.com/newsletter.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Follow Colossus on Twitter at @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:13] – [First question] – His experience with debt and how he approaches personal finance
[00:09:13] – Attacking the problem of perpetual income inequality
[00:12:06] – Reaching the right people to fix the problem
[00:15:04] – A for profit business to solve the problem of income inequality
[00:19:18] – Traps he has beaten and hasn’t beaten in his finances
[00:22:15] – Chamath’s focus on family, friends, memories, and legacy
[00:25:01] – Big issues of our time; inequality, climate change, improving education
[00:29:28] – Lessons learned from Social Capital 1.0, allocating funds for himself and others
[00:32:33] – The balance between data and the qualitative analysis of companies
[00:35:26] – Insights into businesses beyond the investments he makes
[00:40:29] – Absurdities in the value investing style
[00:43:32] – Benefits of SPAC investing and opportunities for late-stage entrepreneurs
[00:45:06] – Traits in managers that he invests in
[00:47:20] – What he’s learned about combatting climate change
[00:51:40] – Thoughts on the supply chain, specifically as Americans
[00:54:35] – Company life cycles and innovation
[00:57:15] – What is most broken in the capital markets system
[00:58:58] – Fixing healthcare
[01:01:36] – Fixing climate change as President for a day
[01:02:06] – Messaging effectively
[01:03:14] – Is he a “main character” in the investing world
[01:04:06] – Tweeting a picture of himself as a kid
[01:04:42] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him