My guest today is Alex Rampell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Alex has a long history in fintech, having co-founded six companies in his career, including Affirm and TrialPay. During our conversation, we cover Alex’s framework for positive selection in investing, why the best investments are often operating systems or systems of record, and Alex’s views on the future of fintech. For those that have listened to our Business Breakdown on Visa with Alex - you know the intellectual horsepower he brings to every discussion. This conversation is no exception.
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 Hall Capital Partners. Hall Capital is always looking for exceptional investment talent at any stage and size, so if you are raising capital or looking for a career change in the San Francisco or New York areas, you should check them out at hallcapital.com or e-mail at invest@hallcapital.com.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
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Show Notes
[00:03:32] - [First question] - Lean into positive selection and avoid adverse selection
[00:07:48] - Thoughts on growing capital formation in private markets
[00:14:01] - Why it’s useful for investors to think in terms of bonds and call options instead of equity
[00:18:39] - Doing more with less and hunting for operating systems to invest in
[00:28:08] - His views on infrastructure and the presentation layer conundrum
[00:33:32] - The sequencing involved in building an operating system over time
[00:40:11] - Rise of the creator class and the coming tailwind post-cloud technology; the rise of the solopreneur
[00:43:32] - The pig joke and his thoughts on the FinTech space
[00:47:47] - Big financial services functions that will be embedded in non-financial businesses
[00:51:07] - Deciding which functions and financial services models are most attractive
[00:57:01] - What a shift towards data and FinTech might unlock for the world writ large
[01:02:40] - How to improve payment profits by reducing credit rates
[01:04:12] - The threat that Buy-Now-Pay-Later companies pose to Visa and Mastercard
[01:12:17] - How the struggle between distribution and innovation continues to change
[01:15:04] - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for him