1
00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:06,840
Speaker 1: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.

2
00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:10,920
Speaker 1: This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest.

3
00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: Her name is Sarah Cone. She is the founder and

4
00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:19,320
Speaker 1: managing partner of Social Impact Capital, a venture capital investing

5
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:24,640
Speaker 1: with a really interesting slant, a tremendous track record which

6
00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:28,240
Speaker 1: we're not allowed to discuss publicly, and a list of

7
00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,800
Speaker 1: a list limited partners which I'm also sworn to secrecy on.

8
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,320
Speaker 1: But you can trust me when I say, Wow, these

9
00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:39,760
Speaker 1: are some really bold faced names. UM certainly ones that

10
00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:45,960
Speaker 1: anybody who tracks investing, politics, venture capital, technology would would

11
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,080
Speaker 1: surely recognize. Uh. Sarah has really a fascinating work history

12
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:56,600
Speaker 1: and a fascinating approach to disrupting UM the vent world

13
00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,920
Speaker 1: of venture capital. Her approaches really to look for company

14
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,800
Speaker 1: is that not only are making a difference in the world,

15
00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:09,080
Speaker 1: but can produce a strong internal rate of return. Her

16
00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,520
Speaker 1: philosophy as, if you really want to impact the world,

17
00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:16,120
Speaker 1: will build a billion dollar company and see how that

18
00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:20,760
Speaker 1: changes how everybody lives, operates and behaves in the real world.

19
00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 1: It's really um quite fascinating. She's really charming and delightful

20
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,440
Speaker 1: and and really really intelligent. UM with just the world's

21
00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 1: craziest rolodex and some really interesting stories. So I think

22
00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 1: you'll find this really intriguing. I had a great time

23
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,800
Speaker 1: speaking with her. With no further ado, my conversation with

24
00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:48,640
Speaker 1: Social Impact Capitals Sarah Cone. This is Masters in Business

25
00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:53,040
Speaker 1: with very Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest today

26
00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,920
Speaker 1: is Sarah Cone. She is the founder of Social Impact Capital.

27
00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:01,120
Speaker 1: She began her career at the VC group Omdior Network.

28
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,200
Speaker 1: Pierre Omdier was the founder of eBay. She was an

29
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:10,200
Speaker 1: associate at Illuminate Ventures, where she worked on B two

30
00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:14,440
Speaker 1: B Software as a Service UH in Silicon Valley Venture

31
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:18,600
Speaker 1: Capital UH. In addition, she worked at the nonprofit Public

32
00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:25,120
Speaker 1: Knowledge UH Group UH Tech Policy Public Policy Group. Sarah Cone,

33
00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:29,120
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you for having me. I mangled

34
00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:35,440
Speaker 1: your background, but really, to state it more conversationally, you've

35
00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,320
Speaker 1: worked at a number of the big giant tech firms

36
00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:42,000
Speaker 1: right and in the early days of your career, Google

37
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:47,880
Speaker 1: and others. You've been moving in venture capital circles for

38
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:53,799
Speaker 1: a long time, and your VC social impact focuses on

39
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,799
Speaker 1: more than just technology. Tell us a little bit about

40
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:02,600
Speaker 1: what social impact capital does. So we are a venture

41
00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:05,880
Speaker 1: capital firm, UM, but we go in as early as

42
00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: possible into what we call the best ideas and impact

43
00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:12,480
Speaker 1: which we are we think are the company is most

44
00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:16,120
Speaker 1: likely to have, you know, both make venture capital profits

45
00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,600
Speaker 1: but also have an incredible, you know, world changing positive

46
00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,520
Speaker 1: effect on the world. So it's both. It's not just

47
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:28,000
Speaker 1: socially responsible or impact investing for its own sake. You

48
00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,400
Speaker 1: have limited partners and they're expecting a serious return on

49
00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:36,160
Speaker 1: investment exactly. Um. I think what's pretty hilarious about my

50
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:38,920
Speaker 1: firm is that, in fact, um my LPs are sort

51
00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,360
Speaker 1: of this who's who of capitalism and they I don't

52
00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:45,480
Speaker 1: really have a single impact investor in the firm um

53
00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:50,120
Speaker 1: at the moment. And they actually even have two LPs

54
00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:52,880
Speaker 1: that are on the record stating how stupid they think

55
00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,120
Speaker 1: impact investing is. So why do they give you money

56
00:03:56,160 --> 00:03:58,680
Speaker 1: if they think what you do is stupid? Or are

57
00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:03,320
Speaker 1: they looking past the impact side towards Well? I asked

58
00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:04,880
Speaker 1: one of them one time, and I was like, why

59
00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:08,080
Speaker 1: are you in this firm anyway? And he's he applied

60
00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:13,360
Speaker 1: to me the performance, that's that's the interest, And well,

61
00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:17,239
Speaker 1: I I know you were bound by non disclosure rules.

62
00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:19,600
Speaker 1: You can't say who these people are, but I know

63
00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,200
Speaker 1: who some of them are, and they are front page

64
00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,920
Speaker 1: name brand investors. Is that a fair statement they are?

65
00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:29,640
Speaker 1: Does that impact how you look at the world or

66
00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:31,200
Speaker 1: is it it would be the same if it was

67
00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:36,640
Speaker 1: just a big, faceless institution. Um, well, I have. It's

68
00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:38,960
Speaker 1: sort of an internal joke at our firm because I

69
00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:43,000
Speaker 1: refer to them as widows and orphans. Um. It's it's

70
00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,159
Speaker 1: sort of a joke because of course they're you know,

71
00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:47,919
Speaker 1: all sort of billionaires that are able to take on

72
00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,839
Speaker 1: early risk in a young venture capital firm. Um. But

73
00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,800
Speaker 1: it's aspirational because we aim, you know, to become a

74
00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:57,200
Speaker 1: top tier firm that produces such great returns that I

75
00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,599
Speaker 1: am allowed to manage the money of widows. So so so

76
00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:04,000
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about that, because I think

77
00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:08,200
Speaker 1: that's kind of interesting. There are friends and family rounds

78
00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,039
Speaker 1: when somebody first gets an idea, and then there's the

79
00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:14,680
Speaker 1: angel round and eventually you moved to big firms, A

80
00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:18,000
Speaker 1: round to be around the sea round? Where is social

81
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:22,919
Speaker 1: impact in that spectrum of early to late venture investments.

82
00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,120
Speaker 1: We are the earliest possible. Um, we like to go in.

83
00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:29,800
Speaker 1: We'll do anything in the seed stage. So we'll do

84
00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:32,480
Speaker 1: you know, pre see the seed stage has become even

85
00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,640
Speaker 1: more segmented UM. So we'll do but we'll do anything

86
00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:37,799
Speaker 1: in the seed stage. We'll do preseed, we'll do seed,

87
00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,000
Speaker 1: we'll do seed extensions, UM sort of anything in the

88
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,599
Speaker 1: early days. And then what we do is what we

89
00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:48,560
Speaker 1: specialize is is in creating these social impact companies, getting

90
00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:51,720
Speaker 1: them into the place where they're real businesses, and then

91
00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,080
Speaker 1: getting them led by top tier venture capital firms in

92
00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:57,680
Speaker 1: the Series A and so far at the firm, we

93
00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,279
Speaker 1: have an eight rate of doing that, meaning that you

94
00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:04,960
Speaker 1: do a set of investment but eventually not bring in

95
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:09,760
Speaker 1: additional exactly the downstream money is, you know, from top

96
00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:13,520
Speaker 1: tier firms. I love it because I get my you know,

97
00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:18,080
Speaker 1: and the founders get their philanthropic business plots then funded

98
00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:22,120
Speaker 1: by commercial capital because they are good businesses, and so

99
00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:24,880
Speaker 1: they're able to do that. And now, how can you

100
00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:29,159
Speaker 1: tell if you're so early stage, they really it's a

101
00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,080
Speaker 1: business plan. It's a couple of founders, but typically there

102
00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:36,680
Speaker 1: isn't a product, there's barely a website. Is it more

103
00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:40,720
Speaker 1: idea than actual business? It definitely is. We're going in

104
00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:44,920
Speaker 1: UM extremely early, and so I'm making these, you know,

105
00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,920
Speaker 1: pretty risky bets, and um what, we spend a lot

106
00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:50,720
Speaker 1: of time and diligence, We spend a lot of time

107
00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:53,039
Speaker 1: with the founders, and we just do our best. But

108
00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,960
Speaker 1: as in any venture capital portfolio, you expect a you know,

109
00:06:57,040 --> 00:06:59,000
Speaker 1: a number of those to fail and then a number

110
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:02,240
Speaker 1: of them to succeed wildly and compensate for those failures.

111
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,120
Speaker 1: So let's talk about that distribution. Typically with a venture

112
00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:09,920
Speaker 1: firm that are making let's call it a rounds, so

113
00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,000
Speaker 1: they're a little more developed. There's it's not a finished product,

114
00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,720
Speaker 1: but at least there's a product, some software, websites, something

115
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:19,520
Speaker 1: you can look at. Um with those sort of a rounds,

116
00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:28,560
Speaker 1: typically ten or total bus another maybe they break even,

117
00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:32,320
Speaker 1: t makes some money and it's a really small slice

118
00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,440
Speaker 1: that really hits the bowl out of the park. What's

119
00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,400
Speaker 1: it like when you're doing earlier seed stage? I would

120
00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:42,760
Speaker 1: imagine the failure rate is much higher. Well at our firm,

121
00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:45,760
Speaker 1: I mean, the funny thing about the venture capital industry

122
00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:48,640
Speaker 1: is that you tend to there's not data published on

123
00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:51,400
Speaker 1: it that is very reliable, so you tend to only

124
00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:53,800
Speaker 1: know what's going on in your firm, and then sort

125
00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:57,120
Speaker 1: of what you read in the media. So I've read

126
00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:01,440
Speaker 1: um from on CB Insights that the failure rate for

127
00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,400
Speaker 1: seed stage investing is that only of the follow on

128
00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:09,360
Speaker 1: rounds get funding at all from seed stage deals. In

129
00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: our firm, we actually have a hundred percent hit rate

130
00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:15,320
Speaker 1: right now. Um, but you know, it's venture capital, so

131
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,559
Speaker 1: you don't really know anything until seven years, ten years

132
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:25,720
Speaker 1: down the line back cycles. There's a huge lag It's

133
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:29,480
Speaker 1: It's pretty excellent though, because what it creates is this

134
00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,840
Speaker 1: sort of uncompetite. I always describe venture capital is the

135
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:39,000
Speaker 1: only uncompetitive field in finance. Why is that? It's because

136
00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,640
Speaker 1: they're basically no good venture capitalists in the world. So

137
00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:45,360
Speaker 1: when you so by the time you learn and you

138
00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,000
Speaker 1: actually really get the knowledge, which can you know, is

139
00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: seven to ten years down the line, it's this incredibly

140
00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:53,400
Speaker 1: long lag time. So by the time you learn the

141
00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,600
Speaker 1: lessons from that, all the technology has changed, all of

142
00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,600
Speaker 1: the business models have changed, and the entire world has changed.

143
00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:02,800
Speaker 1: So if you actually take those lessons and adopt them,

144
00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,320
Speaker 1: which many venture capitalists do, then you're investing wrong in

145
00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:08,800
Speaker 1: your next fund, and you see that play out over

146
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:12,000
Speaker 1: and over again. So I think that the only really

147
00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:16,160
Speaker 1: good venture capitalists are the sort of intense real time

148
00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:19,520
Speaker 1: learner venture capitalists. So it's sort of like looking at

149
00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:21,640
Speaker 1: the light from a star. By the time the light

150
00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:23,640
Speaker 1: gets to us that hey, that star could be gone

151
00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:26,000
Speaker 1: from me exactly. That's the perfect way to describe it.

152
00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,080
Speaker 1: Quite fascinating. Let's talk a little bit about um launching

153
00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:32,080
Speaker 1: your own firm. You're here in New York, but you

154
00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:35,560
Speaker 1: used to be out in Silicon Valley. What made you say, A,

155
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,440
Speaker 1: I wanna kick off my own shop and be let's

156
00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:41,840
Speaker 1: leave all those people behind on the West Coast and

157
00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:45,840
Speaker 1: come to New York City. Well, I started my own

158
00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:50,800
Speaker 1: fund because I see this incredible arbitrage opportunity and earliest

159
00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:54,319
Speaker 1: stage impact investing that I was not able to kind

160
00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:56,840
Speaker 1: of concentrate on that thesis anywhere else in the world.

161
00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:00,120
Speaker 1: So is it too niche, too small? Why couldn't you

162
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:03,120
Speaker 1: can't strain on that elsewhere? Well, what's wonderful is I

163
00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,640
Speaker 1: always describe it as the you know, it's almost like

164
00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,240
Speaker 1: an invisibility cloak because primarily no one in the world

165
00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:13,960
Speaker 1: believes that impact investing can actually produce top tier returns.

166
00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,760
Speaker 1: I keep hearing, By the way, it's political it's so yeah.

167
00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:22,400
Speaker 1: I mean, I hear self indulgent luxury junk. I just

168
00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,760
Speaker 1: completely I constantly hear this, and I constantly I'm like,

169
00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000
Speaker 1: vcs are like kind of always saying to me, like, Sarah,

170
00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:31,760
Speaker 1: you're a great investor, you can just drop the social

171
00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,640
Speaker 1: impact branding. Now I'm like, guys, this is what's producing

172
00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,920
Speaker 1: their return. But I really I used to kind of

173
00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:42,000
Speaker 1: annoy me, but I realized that this is actually my

174
00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,280
Speaker 1: competitive advantage because it means that there's a ton of

175
00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:47,679
Speaker 1: open ice here because no one else is, you know,

176
00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,240
Speaker 1: coming into this field. So you know, when I'm getting

177
00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:54,439
Speaker 1: better valuations than anyone else in the VC industry, when

178
00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:56,760
Speaker 1: I'm getting into better companies than anyone else in the

179
00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,560
Speaker 1: VC industry, then they're sort of baffled. They still don't

180
00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,720
Speaker 1: understand it. Um, So this is it's a it's a

181
00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:08,960
Speaker 1: fantastic competitive advantage. Bafflement is a great It really is.

182
00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:12,360
Speaker 1: You know, I'm kind of intrigued by the concept of

183
00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:17,440
Speaker 1: cumulative advantage, where firms that have done well attract a

184
00:11:17,520 --> 00:11:23,760
Speaker 1: network of better vcs, better, better LPs, better companies. Do

185
00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:26,319
Speaker 1: you see that in the social impact side or has

186
00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:31,119
Speaker 1: it not yet developed that far? Where communal advantages is accruing.

187
00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:34,480
Speaker 1: I think cumulative advantage is UM one of the most

188
00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:37,439
Speaker 1: important things to any pc a firm period and one

189
00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:40,240
Speaker 1: of our advisors for our firm, Ashby Monk, has actually

190
00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:44,800
Speaker 1: written widely about this UM and we how we have

191
00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,120
Speaker 1: thought about it at our firm is that we have

192
00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:50,280
Speaker 1: an unusual structure in that it's a solo GP firm,

193
00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:53,680
Speaker 1: but I work with a wide variety of venture partners

194
00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:58,080
Speaker 1: and advisors that all have pretty specific domain expertise and

195
00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:03,080
Speaker 1: specific institutional you know connections. What other venture firms are

196
00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,520
Speaker 1: you working with is part of your broader network? Oh,

197
00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:08,520
Speaker 1: I mean all venture It's a part of the industry

198
00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:11,560
Speaker 1: that venture capital firms work with other venture capital firms.

199
00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:14,480
Speaker 1: Every venture capital firm does that. I'm saying, we especially

200
00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:17,559
Speaker 1: for follow up rounds, and we work with a bunch

201
00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:19,640
Speaker 1: of you know kind of at our firm, we work

202
00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:22,920
Speaker 1: with a bunch of academics and you know, um kind

203
00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:26,080
Speaker 1: of people in industry and people out in the world.

204
00:12:26,679 --> 00:12:30,720
Speaker 1: So more than just other other venture funts UM and

205
00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:34,200
Speaker 1: this has been this has been an incredible accumulating advantage

206
00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:37,040
Speaker 1: to us over time. What do you hear from your

207
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,560
Speaker 1: limited partners. Do they stay in close contact? How do

208
00:12:40,559 --> 00:12:43,400
Speaker 1: you communicate with them? How often do you update that

209
00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,559
Speaker 1: I have you know a small number of them, um

210
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,960
Speaker 1: that you know I'm in pretty close contact with, and

211
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:54,240
Speaker 1: then you know most of them I send quarterly updates

212
00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:58,360
Speaker 1: to their people. And how do you source and find

213
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:03,120
Speaker 1: potential investments? I think that you know, we we basically

214
00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,079
Speaker 1: scour the earth. I I, you know, will do anything

215
00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:08,440
Speaker 1: to find an investment, and we look at everything. But

216
00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,160
Speaker 1: I think most of our deals come in into primary ways.

217
00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:17,200
Speaker 1: One is through the advisory board and venture partner network

218
00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,559
Speaker 1: that I just talked about, And then the other way

219
00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:23,680
Speaker 1: is that we sort of have a reputation as being

220
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,160
Speaker 1: good foundation builders for seed stage companies. So I got

221
00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:31,400
Speaker 1: a ton of deal flow through Series A and later

222
00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:34,560
Speaker 1: vcs that go, Hey, Sarah, I love this company. It's

223
00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,600
Speaker 1: too you know early for me. You should take it,

224
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,559
Speaker 1: And I'm like, thanks, I'll invest in this and get

225
00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:42,680
Speaker 1: it into great shape for you and pass it along

226
00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:45,920
Speaker 1: when it's you know, interesting to you. What when you

227
00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:48,480
Speaker 1: say pass along? What sort of resources do you pour

228
00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:51,480
Speaker 1: into besides just writing a check? What else do you

229
00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:54,480
Speaker 1: do to help a startup company get off the ground?

230
00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:57,600
Speaker 1: And move forward. So we have these the venture partner

231
00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,520
Speaker 1: and advisory board are this immense resource us for these

232
00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:04,200
Speaker 1: people where we almost always will have the exact advice

233
00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:06,640
Speaker 1: that you need for the exact problem that you have,

234
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,360
Speaker 1: and we sort of match it an ad hawk basis.

235
00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:12,280
Speaker 1: So it's like, are you a biotech company that is

236
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,120
Speaker 1: wondering how to handle the FDA. Well, Linda a Vy

237
00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:16,920
Speaker 1: who was the co founder of twenty three and me

238
00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:19,560
Speaker 1: is on our advisory board, who knows a ton about that.

239
00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,240
Speaker 1: So we just connect you for a call um and

240
00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:25,320
Speaker 1: it's a lot better than you know, having some venture partner,

241
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,640
Speaker 1: I mean venture partner at a venture capital firm sort

242
00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:32,200
Speaker 1: of pontificate on areas that they haven't had really really

243
00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:35,920
Speaker 1: intimate familiar experience. So it's the network. What about the

244
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,360
Speaker 1: specific day to day of running and building a new

245
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,840
Speaker 1: from um. You know, we tend to sort of be

246
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:45,680
Speaker 1: hands off unless we're asked UM because we do a

247
00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:51,000
Speaker 1: lot of upfront work um into our companies, so we

248
00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:55,600
Speaker 1: tend to not sort of have the the the you know,

249
00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:59,080
Speaker 1: we need so much help in this company. You know,

250
00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:01,560
Speaker 1: we tend to only kind of invest in the companies

251
00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:04,400
Speaker 1: that are pretty fully formed and then we're there to

252
00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:08,640
Speaker 1: assist entrepreneurs with the best of class resources when they

253
00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:11,160
Speaker 1: have trouble. UM. But other than that, we try to

254
00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:14,320
Speaker 1: stand out their way of building huge companies and well,

255
00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:17,000
Speaker 1: how how are the deals typically structured, what do they

256
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:20,000
Speaker 1: look like? What what does the entrepreneur give up and

257
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,240
Speaker 1: what do they get? So, I mean the entrepreneur gives

258
00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:26,640
Speaker 1: up equity UM, and then they give up a controlling

259
00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:31,320
Speaker 1: share something we usually try and target about twenty percent

260
00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,040
Speaker 1: each share. UM. It depends a little bit on on

261
00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:37,520
Speaker 1: what the metrics of the business are in the stage

262
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:39,760
Speaker 1: of the business. But we think that's a pretty you

263
00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:44,840
Speaker 1: know fair We like clean, fair, middle of the road terms,

264
00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:48,200
Speaker 1: and we think that works well. And how do you

265
00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:52,160
Speaker 1: value a company when it's so early stage? That's UM,

266
00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:55,320
Speaker 1: that's the magic UM. I actually have a PhD and

267
00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:58,440
Speaker 1: applied math that sort of helps me do all of

268
00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,960
Speaker 1: the evaluation. UM. But it's a it's one of the

269
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,920
Speaker 1: most questions that venture capitalists disagree on most of all

270
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:11,200
Speaker 1: in the in the profession. So with a more mature company,

271
00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:16,320
Speaker 1: you have products, revenue, maybe even profits, and there's a

272
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,560
Speaker 1: formula to generate some multiple on that. But when it's

273
00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,480
Speaker 1: so early stage, it feels so much squishier. How much

274
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,800
Speaker 1: of this is science and how much of this is art?

275
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:29,760
Speaker 1: I would say it's all art. I mean, the way

276
00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:31,760
Speaker 1: to think about it is it's a discount on a

277
00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:37,520
Speaker 1: future cash flow. But that's an imaginary thing. So it's

278
00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,560
Speaker 1: a discount on your imagination. UM. And some venture capitalists

279
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:45,760
Speaker 1: are able to imagine greater scenarios and some venture capitalists

280
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,800
Speaker 1: have no imagination at all. So, and we haven't really

281
00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,960
Speaker 1: talked about returns. We know you do subsequent rounds. What

282
00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:54,800
Speaker 1: have the return has been like for the farm? Are

283
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:57,120
Speaker 1: you out? By the way, hedge funds I know are

284
00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:01,760
Speaker 1: very much precluded from sharing return information except with their

285
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:06,919
Speaker 1: accredited UM potential investors. Are do you have similar limitations

286
00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,280
Speaker 1: with venture I wish we could talk about our returns,

287
00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:17,199
Speaker 1: but no, UM, it's the SEC frowns upon that. Under understood.

288
00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:20,800
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about some of the work

289
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:26,159
Speaker 1: you're doing in social impact investing, and in particular I

290
00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:31,680
Speaker 1: want to ask you about defive ventures and build dot org. Um.

291
00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,800
Speaker 1: We'll talk a little bit about about each of those. First,

292
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:39,640
Speaker 1: what was the motivation to start along a social impact

293
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:46,720
Speaker 1: access as opposed to merely doing early seed stage venture investment. Well,

294
00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:50,040
Speaker 1: I love investing. I mean it's been my primary hobby

295
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,119
Speaker 1: in the world since I was eight. Um, but what

296
00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:55,719
Speaker 1: were you investing in at eight? Well, you know public

297
00:17:55,720 --> 00:18:01,960
Speaker 1: equities really, I mean yes, through through adults. But um so,

298
00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,200
Speaker 1: I you know, back then, the stocks were in the newspaper.

299
00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:08,359
Speaker 1: So I would come home from school every day and

300
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:10,720
Speaker 1: the first thing I do is get the newspaper and

301
00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:14,600
Speaker 1: look at my stocks. Real um yes, but I never

302
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:19,320
Speaker 1: considered that I could go into finance as a career. Um.

303
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,600
Speaker 1: I didn't know any women in finance. It never even

304
00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:24,159
Speaker 1: passed my mind. My what I wanted to do was,

305
00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:26,760
Speaker 1: you know, to do something positive for the world, to

306
00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:32,120
Speaker 1: go into public service. Um So it was quite a um,

307
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:34,040
Speaker 1: you know, great day in my life when I realized

308
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,679
Speaker 1: that I could actually combine those two things. And we

309
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:40,640
Speaker 1: talked about this briefly that it's neither impact first nor

310
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,520
Speaker 1: r o I first. It's you make the investment in

311
00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:47,000
Speaker 1: a space that you might have been attracted to because

312
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:51,040
Speaker 1: of its impact component, But the investment in itself is

313
00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:55,040
Speaker 1: strictly on the same metrics as any other venture investment exactly.

314
00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:58,240
Speaker 1: I mean, my philosophy here is that you don't change

315
00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:00,879
Speaker 1: the world by playing small games. You change the world

316
00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,000
Speaker 1: by making billion dollar companies. And I want to encourage

317
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:06,600
Speaker 1: the sort of world change or do good our types

318
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:10,520
Speaker 1: like me to think bigger and to think more, you know,

319
00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:14,520
Speaker 1: about building these huge companies that can do good. So

320
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:16,760
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you a question, but I

321
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,800
Speaker 1: kind of think you answered already. Typically venture investments are

322
00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,200
Speaker 1: looking for an exit, either by going I P O

323
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:28,480
Speaker 1: or an acquisition. No different with impact investing, is that right?

324
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,440
Speaker 1: No different um in venture capital exits or everything. They

325
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,240
Speaker 1: are the returns to our LPs, so they really matter.

326
00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:39,119
Speaker 1: So let's talk about those two firms. I mentioned that

327
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:44,240
Speaker 1: your adventure advisor to what is build dot org. Those

328
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,680
Speaker 1: are volunting. Those are actually volunteer um jobs that I

329
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:52,520
Speaker 1: do um. Build dot org teaches entrepreneurial skills to high

330
00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:56,680
Speaker 1: school students and to five ventures teachers entrepreneurial skills to

331
00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:01,280
Speaker 1: former inmates. So both very talent. I mean, the world

332
00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:04,760
Speaker 1: is full of talented entrepreneurs, and I like to encourage

333
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,920
Speaker 1: all of them. I've read that venture investing is very

334
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,840
Speaker 1: much a relationship game. Do you do you think that

335
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:18,679
Speaker 1: is true? In venture investing as well as philanthropy. I

336
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:20,760
Speaker 1: definitely think that is true. I mean, I think that

337
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:25,560
Speaker 1: being human is a relationship game. But in particular with UM,

338
00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:30,040
Speaker 1: you know, venture capital and philanthropy, you're dealing with these

339
00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 1: complex coordination problems, which is why they become social problems

340
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,399
Speaker 1: because they're so hard to solve. So you have to

341
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:42,000
Speaker 1: build these huge, extensive networks where you can interact with

342
00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:44,879
Speaker 1: you know, the nonprofit sector, with government, with the for

343
00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:49,119
Speaker 1: profit sector. UM. So we always very much concentrate on

344
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:53,760
Speaker 1: building these broad alliances between different people. And and let

345
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,680
Speaker 1: let me UM reference some of the work you did

346
00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:00,920
Speaker 1: in in academics. You see Barkeley, you want a number

347
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:05,440
Speaker 1: of awards, the Advocacy Award for Persuasive Writing, the Jurisprunce

348
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,080
Speaker 1: Award for Academic Excellence. But I want to talk about

349
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 1: your thesis Reforming Federal tax Policy to support Social Entrepreneurs

350
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:18,320
Speaker 1: that that received UM some honors as well. How does

351
00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 1: one reform federal tax policy and how does tax policy

352
00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: support social entrepreneurs? This is a very actually complicated tax

353
00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 1: policy question, UM, and it has to do with you know,

354
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:39,200
Speaker 1: kind of are you allowed to deploy nonprofit assets into

355
00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:43,040
Speaker 1: impact investing. So if you're a nonprofit organization and you

356
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: have a little spare cash, you are okay, can you

357
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: put that into an social impact investing type of funds? Right,

358
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:55,600
Speaker 1: so you are allowed to deploy nonprofit money into you know,

359
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,239
Speaker 1: for profit businesses. Um. You know, the idea of it

360
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:01,160
Speaker 1: being a nonprofit. It is just that you can't ever

361
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 1: take it out and buy a yacht or something. It

362
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,159
Speaker 1: has to kind of stay in the do good or

363
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 1: realm as defined by the i r S. Anyway, so

364
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,240
Speaker 1: the i r S needs, you know, issue has issued

365
00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:16,359
Speaker 1: rules around this. They're very unclear, um, and you know

366
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:19,000
Speaker 1: they kind of they kind of just make everyone nervous

367
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:23,760
Speaker 1: in this sector. So your thesis helped clarify those rules

368
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:27,160
Speaker 1: for the broader It suggested how I thought they should

369
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 1: be clarified, and mainly that I think they do need

370
00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:32,399
Speaker 1: to be clarified because no one is certain how to

371
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,919
Speaker 1: act in this realm and it's depressing. It. It's very

372
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,960
Speaker 1: important because actually the nonprofit sector is incredibly large. It

373
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,680
Speaker 1: is actually, you know, the nonprofit sector is actually six

374
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:47,440
Speaker 1: times larger than the entire venture capital industry. And it's

375
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:49,879
Speaker 1: a form of permanent capital as well. It is I

376
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 1: mean well managed anyway, it should persist for forever. Exactly

377
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:54,800
Speaker 1: we think of you know, we tend to think of

378
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,159
Speaker 1: anything nonprofit is like, oh, they're these weak, poor, you know,

379
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:04,199
Speaker 1: cash drapped organization, but they definitely have those. But the

380
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:09,240
Speaker 1: sector as a whole is an incredibly wealthy sector. UM.

381
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,480
Speaker 1: And so these regulations really matter about how capital is

382
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: deployed into the world. The Gates Foundation, the Go Down

383
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 1: the List, the Bezos Foundation, the Case Found. These are giant,

384
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:28,480
Speaker 1: multibillion dollar entities and they're structured to to be UM perpetual. Yes, um,

385
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:31,439
Speaker 1: they you know, they have a large influence on how

386
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,480
Speaker 1: how capital is getting deployed. And the tax you know,

387
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 1: the tax regime has a large influence. You know, the

388
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,880
Speaker 1: tax regime basically is controlling how that capital is getting deployed.

389
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of the recent social impact type

390
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,959
Speaker 1: deals in the public sphere when when we look at

391
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,080
Speaker 1: something like Beyond Meat, that i p O has been

392
00:23:55,480 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 1: wildly successful, far more than most of the other sorts

393
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 1: of UM i p O s we've seen in generally, UM,

394
00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 1: at least, it's done better than most of the unicorns

395
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,680
Speaker 1: out there, like Uber and we work it certainly has.

396
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: It was actually the best UM event. I rather, it

397
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 1: was the best venture backed I p O in two decades. Really,

398
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:22,919
Speaker 1: so would you consider that like a social impact investment?

399
00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:26,719
Speaker 1: I absolutely would. If my fund had existed, then no

400
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 1: doubt we would be on that deal. Um. So that's

401
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 1: the you know, that's the type of thing we're doing. Um.

402
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,919
Speaker 1: What else is taking place in the fake foods space?

403
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,679
Speaker 1: For lack of a better really, the I guess the

404
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:44,120
Speaker 1: better phrases green foods or low impact, low carbon impact foods. Um,

405
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 1: how do you look at that space? What else is

406
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 1: coming along there? Oh? We we're seeing a number of

407
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 1: really exciting companies in that space. Food systems are a

408
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: big problem in the world, and they're quite ripe for disruption,

409
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 1: as venture capitalists love to say. Um. Some of the

410
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,680
Speaker 1: companies we have in that space are actually Wild Pets,

411
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 1: which is a dog food company. I know we've talked

412
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 1: about this company and you dislike it because you feed

413
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 1: your dog steak every night. No, no, no, you can't

414
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 1: steak us a little rich. We basically use Purina pro Plan,

415
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: which is a commercially developed and then we put the

416
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:21,360
Speaker 1: Stella and Chewies toppers, and my dogs are so spoiled

417
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:24,959
Speaker 1: that despite all that delicious goodness, I'll give them a

418
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 1: little little scrambled egg or a little something to just

419
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:32,920
Speaker 1: make it special. Well, I'm going to send you a

420
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 1: bag of our vegan dog food, which is made from

421
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: a mushroom that's actually higher protein than steak. It was

422
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,480
Speaker 1: developed with a veterinarian. It has all of them, you know,

423
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: acids dogs need, and we have I jokingly call it

424
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: our dogs Save the World thesis because it turns out

425
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:54,719
Speaker 1: that of the agriculture in the US growing neat just

426
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: goes to feed dogs and cats. So we thought, you know,

427
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:00,879
Speaker 1: by replacing some of that with you know, this vegan

428
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: alternative that is healthy for dogs, then you know that

429
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 1: is a is an easier way than to ask people

430
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 1: to give up their hamburgers and has a bigger impact.

431
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 1: The other thing about it is that it looks like um,

432
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: a vegan diet actually has longevity um effects on dogs.

433
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: So we're going to be exploring that with some academics

434
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: in the future. One of the dogs that actually lived

435
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,560
Speaker 1: the longest UM was on an all vegan and you

436
00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:29,120
Speaker 1: know the when I think it was in the top

437
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:32,199
Speaker 1: four for the world's record holder of of you know,

438
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 1: dogs that live forever. It was an incredibly long time.

439
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: I think it was like a hundred and eighty five

440
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 1: years and people years was on an all vegan diet.

441
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 1: What's in? What's it in actual solar years? I don't

442
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,640
Speaker 1: really track the dog world very really well, aside from

443
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: my daughter constantly begging me to get a dog. I

444
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: will try vegan dog food, but from an evolutionary perspective,

445
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 1: you know, the packs of wolves, they weren't hunting wild mushrooms.

446
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,239
Speaker 1: They were out hunting meat, and there seems to be

447
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: a predilection towards that. Left to their own devices. Although

448
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: dogs will eat grass, and we feed our dogs on

449
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:18,919
Speaker 1: occasion the stew of yams and spinach and other things

450
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:23,159
Speaker 1: carrots that are really good for their digestive system. My

451
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: dogs are incredibly spoiled. Just so you know, we have

452
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: a pool for the dogs. I they occasionally let me

453
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: go in, but effectively the pool is there. Well, you

454
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 1: have to tell me what they think about this dog food,

455
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: because I've heard that the dogs love it. Yeah, we've

456
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 1: you know, we did tests where we put two dog

457
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 1: foods next to each other to see which ones the

458
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 1: dogs would eat. Really wouldn't go to this, So yeah,

459
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 1: all right, um, and what else? What else is in

460
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:55,440
Speaker 1: the food system space? We have another company called Endless

461
00:27:55,480 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 1: West UM, which can molecularly manufacture foods. I'm scinated by

462
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: that because I saw something not too long ago in

463
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: Business Week where they were describing chicken make nuggets not

464
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: from chicken, but from cells grown in a lab from

465
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 1: a chicken. Exactly. It's the same space. It's a little

466
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,360
Speaker 1: bit different because that is um, they're not Endless West

467
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 1: isn't doing proteins. That is what we call the cellular

468
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:27,439
Speaker 1: agriculture space. When you're growing a protein, that's very difficult,

469
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: and we think that that technology is not really here

470
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 1: yet in terms of cost, So we haven't gone into

471
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 1: that space. Eventually, you got to think they Eventually, it

472
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 1: definitely will happen, you know. I think it's still twenty

473
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: years off before it's going to be you know, get

474
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: down to the level. So you know, it's it's it's

475
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 1: close on the horizon. Years people will be eating food

476
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:55,719
Speaker 1: that did not come from an animal other than a culture. Absolutely.

477
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:57,960
Speaker 1: I have tried it and it is wonderful and you

478
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: cannot tell the difference. Um. The only problem is is

479
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: that it's too expensive. You know, it's it's it's two

480
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: tho dollars a pound to make and it shrinks up

481
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: to almost nothing after Yeah, um so, but the so

482
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 1: in other words, this is really just a efficiency and

483
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 1: production issue. Once that is resolved and this becomes competitive

484
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 1: price wise. Am I understanding this correctly? That sounds like

485
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: this is inevitable. It's it's definitely inevitable. Yeah, it's one

486
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 1: of those trends in the world that's quite amazing. Let's

487
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 1: let's move away from the discussion on food systems because

488
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 1: it's both fascinating and horrifying. Um Frank and foods, Let's

489
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about valuations. Um Mark and Reason

490
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: suggested that valuations don't matter. You know, he said, if

491
00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: he would have paid double what he paid for Facebook,

492
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: wouldn't remain any difference. Do you agree or disagree? Well,

493
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: Mark Andrewson is completely right. I never disagree with Mark Andreason.

494
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,360
Speaker 1: Um so, he's completely right in that you there's you know,

495
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 1: gonna be fifteen deals a year that you know, out

496
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 1: of the thousands and thousands that you look at that

497
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: are going to become these you know, outsized companies. As

498
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: a venture capitalist. All you need to do is be

499
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 1: in those fifteen deals, so it doesn't matter what you

500
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: pay for them as a matter of practice. Um about

501
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: if you look at what has actually happened in the world,

502
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:29,720
Speaker 1: the valuations of some of the biggest businesses in the

503
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: world were incredibly low. So you know, Airbnb first started

504
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: raising money at a one point five million dollar valuation. Yeah,

505
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:43,000
Speaker 1: Uber's valuation was at five million valuation, you know, So

506
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 1: I almost look at it as if you're raising with

507
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 1: two high of evaluation. It's like a negative signal um

508
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: the low. I'm not sure if it's actually that the

509
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs are so good so they're optimizing the valuation in

510
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: the seed stage for shots on the goal instead of

511
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 1: owning a lot of the company, or if it's just

512
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: that those ideas are so contrarian that no one wants

513
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: them in the seed stage and they don't become obvious.

514
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: So you know, kind of what we say is that

515
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 1: in the seed stage, the wisest route to take is

516
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 1: to optimize for shots on the goal and do a

517
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: low valuation so you have more flexibility with your capital,

518
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: and then every yeah, every subsequent round after that optimized

519
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: for valuation. Quite quite quite fascinating. So Uber, Airbnb, we Work,

520
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: Facebook all had very low I mean I don't track

521
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: we work, so I'm not sure about that. But they

522
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: all had surprisingly low valuations in the seed stage, and

523
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: then they become these major companies, you know, peloton Um.

524
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 1: It's the in the seed stage, they're not obvious. And furthermore,

525
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: these deals robin Hood is another one, they're they're also

526
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: widely shopped ump I mean Uber. I think when Uber

527
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 1: was pitching to open rooms of angel investors um in

528
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 1: in the seed stage? Is that unusual? Is usual? One

529
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 1: on one? What what's the typical structure of those No,

530
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: I mean it depends. I mean it sort of depends

531
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,239
Speaker 1: on the entrepreneurs network and and the sort of you know,

532
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 1: the company. But it's a lot of these, a lot

533
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: of the deals that become the biggest they're they're just

534
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: not apparent at all at the seat stage. So um,

535
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: they're out there, they're contrarian everybody who looks at it.

536
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 1: And it's only with all of this kind of ex

537
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:32,239
Speaker 1: post factor um looking back that we we believe we

538
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 1: believe that hindsight bias, of course, so obvious after the

539
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 1: fact that it's going to be huge. That's right, that's

540
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 1: that's really quite a quite interesting. Um. So I I

541
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 1: go to these regular dinners that we host, where there's

542
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 1: so much intellectual capital in New York. We try and,

543
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 1: um just grab a group of random hedge fund economists,

544
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,760
Speaker 1: academic media people and see if there's an interesting conversation.

545
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:03,440
Speaker 1: Been to one of those I know, and it was

546
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 1: one where I bailed. I think I was traveling. I

547
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 1: missed it. I invited you to one and then didn't

548
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 1: show up. I had the time of my life. Did

549
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,400
Speaker 1: you still? You know? Best friends with about four of

550
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: the women that I met at that dinner. We we

551
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: make it, you know, kind of gender blended where it's

552
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 1: not just like eight white dudes. We don't love that.

553
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: But um, you've tried to get some billionaires together for

554
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: dinner on your own. How has that worked out? Oh? Well,

555
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 1: So it's a It's an important part of our social

556
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: impact capital is that we hold these Jeffersonian dinners, UM,

557
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: where we bring you know, people in the world together

558
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: to have honest dialogues about issues. UM. It's part of

559
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:48,320
Speaker 1: our you know, solving these complex coordination problems. So you

560
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: actually have an issue to be if you say, Jeffersonian,

561
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: I assume you mean a debate takes place. It's not.

562
00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: It's not such a debate. It's ah, you know, it's

563
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: a it's an honest converse station about about real topics

564
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: in an incredibly confidential forum. Um. So, you know, it

565
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 1: gets harder and harder now in the world to actually

566
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,359
Speaker 1: have these forms where you can say what you think.

567
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 1: So we try and convene those between different stakeholders, and um,

568
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,319
Speaker 1: this was one that was you know, I always joke

569
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 1: about because it was a lot of billionaires and I

570
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:24,799
Speaker 1: was trying to bring them together and it was basically impossible. Um.

571
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: You know, they all had different business rivalries against each other,

572
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 1: and we're like, I won't get in the room with him.

573
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: He sued my company for twenty years. And then they

574
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,919
Speaker 1: all had personal rivalries against each other, like I heard

575
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: he went slept with my daughter. I'm never getting in

576
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: the room with him. And then they all, you know,

577
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: beyond that, they were all you know, they had political rivalries,

578
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,760
Speaker 1: like I totally disagree with what he thinks about tax policy,

579
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to talk to him. And at

580
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 1: the end of it, I was like, well, you know,

581
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: I finally brought it together. But at the end of it,

582
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 1: I was like, the good thing about this dinner is

583
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,560
Speaker 1: that it really has impressed upon me that there is

584
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:02,360
Speaker 1: no way these people are getting in the room together

585
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:06,759
Speaker 1: to control the world. It's just there's no no trilateral commission.

586
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: As a non billionaire, you definitely have this image that

587
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: they all got in you know, some smoky room, you know,

588
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:17,799
Speaker 1: smoke cigars and just decide how the world is going

589
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,399
Speaker 1: to go. And I was like, I know firsthand now

590
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,879
Speaker 1: that that is completely impossible, and that's even before their

591
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:28,200
Speaker 1: impossible schedules. They're like, great, that sounds wonderful. Let's do it.

592
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,280
Speaker 1: I have an open lunch in you know. Yeah, that's hilarious.

593
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: It's so no Illuminati running the world just it's I mean,

594
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:39,719
Speaker 1: you can never be sure, because it could have been

595
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: all an elaborately coordinated plot about that, but I'm pretty sure. Hey, hey,

596
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,839
Speaker 1: this girl Sarah is hot on our trail. We need

597
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 1: some ruse to throw her off. I know, let's make

598
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:58,319
Speaker 1: it impossible to do a dinner. She'll buy that, yeah,

599
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:00,400
Speaker 1: And then I I pulled it off the end, and

600
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,719
Speaker 1: then everyone just argued and it was incredible. And then

601
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: at the end, they're like, this is this was more

602
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: fun than these things usually are. What I was going

603
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: to say, was it productive? If you got everybody in

604
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,719
Speaker 1: the room, did they have an intelligent conversation? We definitely

605
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: did have a very intelligent conversation, and I I wouldn't

606
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:18,680
Speaker 1: call it necessarily so productive. Um, and that nothing really

607
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:21,880
Speaker 1: emerged in the best ideas, Like you know, things emerge

608
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,839
Speaker 1: out of them. But it's certainly I think, you know,

609
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,480
Speaker 1: gave people some understanding that they didn't have coming in.

610
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,759
Speaker 1: M quite quite interesting. Um. I got a bunch of

611
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 1: questions I didn't get to. Can you stick around a bit?

612
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 1: We have a ton more things to talk about. Absolutely,

613
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 1: we have been speaking with Sarah Cone, founder of Social

614
00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:47,799
Speaker 1: Impact Investing. If you enjoy this conversation, well be sure

615
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: and come back for the podcast extras. Will we keep

616
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:54,800
Speaker 1: the tape rolling and continue discussing all things venture capital

617
00:36:55,000 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 1: and impact related. You can find that at iTunes, Google podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, overcast,

618
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: wherever your finer podcasts are sold. We love your comments,

619
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:11,759
Speaker 1: feedback and suggestions right to us at m IB podcast

620
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:15,719
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot net. Give us a review on Apple iTunes.

621
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out my weekly column on Bloomberg

622
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: dot com. You can sign up from my Daily Reads

623
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: at Redholts dot com. I'm Barry Dholts. You're listening to

624
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 1: Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. Welcome to the podcast, Sarah.

625
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this. We have been

626
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 1: trying to get this together for quite a while. And um,

627
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:41,520
Speaker 1: you and I first met on Twitter, where all great

628
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: venture investments begin their their lives. And um, you and

629
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 1: I were arguing about something, but in a very polite,

630
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:54,120
Speaker 1: respectful way. We were disagreeing about something. I don't remember

631
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,320
Speaker 1: what it was me either. I. In fact, I frequently

632
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 1: meet people in the world that say I was disagreeing

633
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:03,839
Speaker 1: with you on Twitter about something, and I have no recollection,

634
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 1: and I have like I think some of this comes

635
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: from years and years of blogging, back in the day

636
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 1: when blogs had comments, and there would be this robust

637
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,720
Speaker 1: community associated with a blog. Um and the big picture

638
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 1: during the financial crisis, you know, I do a blog

639
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:24,799
Speaker 1: post and I get a hundred comments and like this

640
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:30,120
Speaker 1: crazy robust conversation. But eventually tragedy of the commons rears

641
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:34,920
Speaker 1: its head and it became overran with trolls and spammers

642
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,280
Speaker 1: and other sorts of stuff. Who Hey, there's a crowd

643
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,440
Speaker 1: here that must have some value. Let me market my

644
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 1: jump to that. Um So, I have zero tolerance for

645
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:47,680
Speaker 1: nonsense in blog comments and that's kind of carried over

646
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 1: to Twitter. I'm I'm way too cute quick to mute

647
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 1: people and probably too cute too quick to block people.

648
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: That is the only way to use Twitter. Actually, I

649
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 1: think Twitter is a very usable platform if you spend

650
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:08,759
Speaker 1: hours and hours curating and blocking people. Well, actually incubating

651
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 1: a company at Social Impact Capital that we hope will

652
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: solve that problem because we think it's actually the root.

653
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 1: I mean, we have this information problem I think online

654
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,120
Speaker 1: now where we live in the information age, but the

655
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,680
Speaker 1: information that exists in the world is sort of getting

656
00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:29,319
Speaker 1: worse and worse and acts. Yes exactly. So, um we

657
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:33,440
Speaker 1: are building a you know, a new social network. We

658
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 1: call it a you know the ideas that it makes

659
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,640
Speaker 1: you know, our users smarter, and we are kind of

660
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:43,399
Speaker 1: partnering with what we call the offline intelligent networks, like

661
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 1: the people that went to your dinner. Other examples are

662
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:48,839
Speaker 1: you know, milk in or WF um So, we're kind

663
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 1: of bringing those together. So in between your meetings, offline.

664
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 1: You can banter online um in a forum, and I

665
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 1: think it's going to be incredibly interesting. Does that have

666
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,919
Speaker 1: a name yet that's public or is it still below

667
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 1: the radar? But you will be the first to know,

668
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 1: all right, I'm intrigued by that. So so I don't

669
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 1: remember what we were arguing about with Twitter. I do

670
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 1: think we discussed the soft block on Twitter, right the

671
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:21,720
Speaker 1: is it the mute? No? Alright, so the soft block.

672
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to reveal this, and this has been around

673
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:27,800
Speaker 1: for forever and I didn't invent this, but the soft

674
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,440
Speaker 1: block is simply, if someone is following you and you

675
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 1: block and then immediately unblocked them, what you've effectively be

676
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 1: effectively done is forced them to unfollow you. So then

677
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,719
Speaker 1: you so you block unblock them. Now they've unfollowed you,

678
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 1: you mute them, and it's sort of like a stealth breakup.

679
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,440
Speaker 1: I did not know that. That is Twitter gold. I

680
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 1: will tell you that people have have said to me

681
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: it's life change, life changing, just like the only thing

682
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,840
Speaker 1: that's close to that. It used to be the ability

683
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:03,360
Speaker 1: to move the cursor on an iPhone by holding down

684
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:06,279
Speaker 1: the tab key, and you can now goes to the

685
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,959
Speaker 1: cursor where if you want. But the latest technology, which

686
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,640
Speaker 1: I tweeted, was you now have this ability I think

687
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,960
Speaker 1: it came out about a month ago, and or by

688
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 1: the time this broadcast two months ago, that you can

689
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: set your phone so that if a caller is not

690
00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 1: in your phone book, it automatically goes to voicemail, which

691
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:32,399
Speaker 1: means no more robot calls. This is why I came

692
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 1: on the show, because I knew I was going to

693
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,759
Speaker 1: get this kind of life tips. Right, this is right,

694
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 1: That's really what the show should be about, life changing technology.

695
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:44,759
Speaker 1: It's not even tech, it's technology settings. Somebody else has

696
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:48,120
Speaker 1: made a tech product that's so complicated that in order

697
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:52,240
Speaker 1: to derive value from it you need these little tweaks

698
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:56,879
Speaker 1: that suddenly Twitter is more worthwhile. And this iPhone, which

699
00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 1: is completely useless to me as a phone because of

700
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:03,240
Speaker 1: the robot calls, now is actually a fully functioning phone

701
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:08,399
Speaker 1: a decade after Steve Jobs first released it. That's now

702
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 1: come up with a name for that, right, I get

703
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:15,719
Speaker 1: tech tweaks for geeks or something um silly like that.

704
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:19,279
Speaker 1: So there's there's a bunch I love these digressions. There's

705
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,960
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of questions I did not get to that.

706
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 1: I want to work my way through. And I'm gonna

707
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 1: give you a couple of options on some questions and

708
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 1: if if you have a conflict or a compliance issual issue,

709
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,000
Speaker 1: will just wave them off. Um, early, early, early in

710
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: your career, you did one off with Howard Buffett. Do

711
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 1: you want to just discuss that really briefly or do

712
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:46,680
Speaker 1: we not want to talk about that next? That was

713
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:51,280
Speaker 1: way early in your career. Um, So such a corny question.

714
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 1: How do you balance doing good with doing well? I'm

715
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: gonna skip that. Um. It's so it's isn't it a

716
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: terrible question? It really is? Um? But this is a

717
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:08,760
Speaker 1: good question. So you invest in a broad variety of areas.

718
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:11,960
Speaker 1: It's not like you have one teeny tiny niche. You're

719
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 1: pretty pretty broad. What areas do you think are right

720
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 1: for disruption? We've already talked about food processes. What else

721
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 1: are you look? And social networks? What else is ripe

722
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:27,759
Speaker 1: for disruption? Well? I think as a venture capitalist, your

723
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 1: most fundamental belief is that everything is right for disruption.

724
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:38,320
Speaker 1: So I think healthcare, you know, food systems, education, transportation, housing, water, energy,

725
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,880
Speaker 1: even social media is all right for disruption and my

726
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: day is basically an endless stream of ideas in my

727
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:49,400
Speaker 1: inbox about how to disrupt all of these fields. Um.

728
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:51,359
Speaker 1: I joke that my inbox is pretty much the most

729
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 1: inspiring place in the world. Really, that's quite interesting. So

730
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 1: to feel that way about your inbox. I have an

731
00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: idea for a new company, but it will disrup up

732
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: to venture investing. Yes, can I get capital is one

733
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:07,479
Speaker 1: of the most DISRUPTI you know, disruptible fields. Is that true?

734
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 1: I was kidding, But is that really true? No, it

735
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: definitely is true. I think, you know, I have a

736
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: bunch of It's not really my field, but because you know,

737
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,920
Speaker 1: I think venture capital is fantastic. But certainly venture capitalists

738
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 1: talk all the time about ideas to disrupt venture VC,

739
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: disrupting vs. Well, what wasn't Andrews and Horowitz say, somewhat

740
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 1: disruptive venture firm when they rolled out? They absolutely were.

741
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:34,600
Speaker 1: What were they doing that was so different than the

742
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:39,320
Speaker 1: Kleiner Perkins um of the world. Well, they really popularized

743
00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:44,799
Speaker 1: the portfolio. Um, they really sorry, should we take that again?

744
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:50,160
Speaker 1: It's not the chime, Um, it's eleven o'clock. Yeah, I'll

745
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: turn off this. So we both turned off a phone,

746
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 1: and I forgot to turn off my other devices. Um.

747
00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you another setting that I love. I

748
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 1: don't know if it's on this What I want to

749
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 1: do is, oh my god. Yeah, I didn't even know that,

750
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 1: Oh my god until I leave this location. So now

751
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 1: you will not get any noises until you really know

752
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 1: how to operate this stuff. You know what it is.

753
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:19,480
Speaker 1: I'm an idiot savant with this stuff. You really should

754
00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:22,839
Speaker 1: have a show just on this. No, because basically I'm done.

755
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 1: I've given you my four biggest tricks. Now what do

756
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:28,359
Speaker 1: I do for the next two hours? Let's get to

757
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:30,920
Speaker 1: get it interspersed with the finance. So I'll tell you

758
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:34,920
Speaker 1: how I got that. I discovered that trick. Uh. By

759
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: the way, I not discovered it. If it doesn't have

760
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: anything to do with meat, he's not discovering. Um. I

761
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:46,960
Speaker 1: really hate whiney journalists complaining about plane delays. Um, and

762
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:50,600
Speaker 1: so I've tried really hard not to fall into that group,

763
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: although it's really really challenge. I will say most of

764
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 1: the arguments I get into on Twitter are when I'm

765
00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:58,840
Speaker 1: on a plane delay, well, because you've got nothing to

766
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 1: do with and your irritated, and it's like but I

767
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:06,240
Speaker 1: said on Twitter, God damn it, why does an Apple

768
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: have a setting like I would shut my phone off

769
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:13,920
Speaker 1: to record something? Because everybody has a podcast. They all

770
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,040
Speaker 1: everybody in the world has this problem. They shut their

771
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:21,279
Speaker 1: ringer off to um to record a podcast, and then

772
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:23,320
Speaker 1: they leave and the ringer is off and they missed

773
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 1: subsequent calls. Now, there is an entire subgroup of people

774
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,759
Speaker 1: who say, you turn your ringer on. What's sort of

775
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 1: a monster? So I was intrigued by that. But the

776
00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:39,919
Speaker 1: other group said, um, when I asked this question on Twitter, Yeah,

777
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: this is a setting you could either turn your ringer

778
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,760
Speaker 1: off for an hour, or even better, turn your ringer

779
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: off until you leave a given location. And I'm like,

780
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:51,279
Speaker 1: why didn't I know about this? And the answer is

781
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:56,440
Speaker 1: these things are so complex and so many new features

782
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 1: come out it's impossible to keep up with. That's actually

783
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:04,160
Speaker 1: a perfect illustration of the thinking behind our social media platform.

784
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:07,600
Speaker 1: Is that what so everyone thinks that Stuart Brand said

785
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:10,560
Speaker 1: information wants to be free. It's been spread all around

786
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 1: the internet that he said that. I feel somewhat sorry

787
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: for him because he didn't actually say that. If you

788
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 1: sort of the full quote was, you know, he said

789
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:24,480
Speaker 1: something like information wants to be expensive because the right

790
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: information at the right time just changes your life, the

791
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 1: most valuable thing in the world. On the other hand,

792
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:32,920
Speaker 1: information wants to be free because it's so easy to

793
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,160
Speaker 1: replicate and pass along. Now and he said, these things

794
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:43,400
Speaker 1: are going to be competing. Um, and context matters exactly. So, um.

795
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,040
Speaker 1: So social media is fantastic for kind of getting you

796
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 1: the right information at the right time. Um. And so

797
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:52,000
Speaker 1: we're kind of, you know, creating the best platform in

798
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 1: the world for that, except for the whole ambition, that

799
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:58,640
Speaker 1: whole undercoting democracy thing. We're going to try and not

800
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:03,319
Speaker 1: not do that. Not you're not going destroys that's on

801
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:07,360
Speaker 1: the mission statement. So okay, so maybe I have another

802
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:12,959
Speaker 1: technology tip. But it's just a website quote investigator dot com,

803
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:16,719
Speaker 1: which is awesome because you find out that all these

804
00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:20,320
Speaker 1: quotes that you've been using your whole life are nonsense,

805
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,360
Speaker 1: I know, and especially Albert Einstein pretty much said nothing clever,

806
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 1: nothing about compounding, nothing about hydrogen and stupidity, nothing about

807
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: there are all these Einstein, Mark Twain, Marcus Aurolius. Go

808
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 1: down the list of these people who you constantly see quoted. Um.

809
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:44,400
Speaker 1: It turns out that most of these quotes came about

810
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:49,040
Speaker 1: decades after they passed away, and and you can track

811
00:48:49,640 --> 00:48:54,880
Speaker 1: end quote. Investigator does the genesis of these quotes based

812
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 1: on when they first appeared in print, when they first

813
00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:00,360
Speaker 1: appeared in a book, and if it's and whether or

814
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:03,520
Speaker 1: not it's in the person's body of writing, body of work.

815
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:06,799
Speaker 1: And so if something shows up fifty years after Mark

816
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 1: Twain dies, probably not a Mark Twain quote, which is

817
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 1: which is pretty amazing. So the public markets are fairly efficient.

818
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:19,120
Speaker 1: They do a pretty good job at figuring out what

819
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:25,240
Speaker 1: an appropriate valuation is relative to future discounted cash flow.

820
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:29,720
Speaker 1: How efficient are the private markets? How efficient are venture

821
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 1: capital investing? Relative to what is or isn't no known?

822
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 1: It seems more opaque then we we see in the

823
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:43,000
Speaker 1: public markets. Yeah, it's certainly more opague. Um, the information

824
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:46,400
Speaker 1: isn't public. In fact, I don't even know most of

825
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 1: the performance of my very close friends in venture capital.

826
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 1: So I always describe it like running a venture capital firm.

827
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:56,360
Speaker 1: I'm running Olympic race, but I don't even know what

828
00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:58,440
Speaker 1: the times are of any of the people that I'm

829
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,200
Speaker 1: running against. Right, Um, so there's just not this information

830
00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:04,880
Speaker 1: that you have in in the public markets in in

831
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:09,240
Speaker 1: private markets, and then simultaneously they just have two different

832
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:14,200
Speaker 1: incentive systems. So the private markets are basically these max auctions,

833
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:17,960
Speaker 1: and by the time you get to the public markets, um,

834
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 1: you know, you're no longer a monopoly seller of your

835
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:22,759
Speaker 1: stock and you can't walk away to avoid setting a

836
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:25,520
Speaker 1: low price, and there are no transfer restrictions. So you're

837
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:30,560
Speaker 1: merging these two different incentive systems into each other. And

838
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:32,919
Speaker 1: I think it's like, you know, merging a car onto

839
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:36,320
Speaker 1: a high speed freeway. There's only a few drivers in

840
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 1: the world that can really do that very well. So

841
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 1: it's why I am incredible. I don't know, I'm not

842
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:45,440
Speaker 1: a great driver. It's why I am, um, you know,

843
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,000
Speaker 1: glad to be an early stage investing because by the

844
00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:51,200
Speaker 1: time the companies get to that stage, you know, for me,

845
00:50:51,280 --> 00:50:53,000
Speaker 1: it's like, is this going to be a hundred x

846
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:55,799
Speaker 1: on my return or a thousand X? And that's you know,

847
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 1: my only worry there. How do you measure how impactful

848
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:03,840
Speaker 1: a given investment is? We've we've talked about how do

849
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:08,400
Speaker 1: you measure how successful something is? And that basically is

850
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:12,399
Speaker 1: the return on investment? But how can you determine whether

851
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:16,879
Speaker 1: or not something is moving the needle. So UM this

852
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: was this is a this is always a big topic

853
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:22,120
Speaker 1: of debate in my firm and I when I originally

854
00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:24,799
Speaker 1: started out my firm, I was dad set against UM

855
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 1: any kind of impact investing metrics. Finally, my partner convinced

856
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:32,880
Speaker 1: me that these impact you know US US tracking and

857
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:37,120
Speaker 1: impact metric would be a good idea UM because LP

858
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:40,080
Speaker 1: has really really wanted this UM. You know, he thought

859
00:51:40,120 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 1: for marketing the fund. He thought impact LPs would really

860
00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:46,920
Speaker 1: really care about impact metrics. And I said, find one metric.

861
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:51,240
Speaker 1: It has to be something related to actually running the business.

862
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:54,279
Speaker 1: So that is what we do. UM. When we have

863
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:56,880
Speaker 1: an agree illegal agreement with our entrepreneurs when we make

864
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 1: an investment that there's one metric they come up with it,

865
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:02,960
Speaker 1: I sort of have to approve of it because I

866
00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:06,520
Speaker 1: don't want something that is not inherently related to running

867
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,640
Speaker 1: the business. UM. When you're an early stage startup, I

868
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 1: always tell my entrepreneurs, because they're real do getters, always

869
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:15,640
Speaker 1: want to solve every problem at once, and I say,

870
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,680
Speaker 1: pick one. Solve it, like you know that by giving

871
00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 1: us your capital, we're working on all the world's problems,

872
00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:25,319
Speaker 1: so you can rest assured that they are all. You know,

873
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:27,680
Speaker 1: progress is being made and all of them. You need

874
00:52:27,719 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 1: to just get your one done. Is this for your

875
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:33,840
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs or your LPs or my LPs do not care about,

876
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,279
Speaker 1: you know, social impact at the moment, I'm hoping to

877
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:39,680
Speaker 1: attract some LPs into the firm that care about social impact.

878
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 1: I would I would imagine given them, I'm looking for

879
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:48,240
Speaker 1: the right word and wokenesses in it. Given the rise

880
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:52,360
Speaker 1: of E S G investing and the push towards better

881
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:57,399
Speaker 1: governance and more diverse investing, that we would see more

882
00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:02,840
Speaker 1: institutional investors into uh UM something like social impact. But

883
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 1: you're relatively relevant to them, and I think someday will

884
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:10,839
Speaker 1: be incredibly popular with them. But in the beginning, they

885
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:13,880
Speaker 1: typically don't like to come into fund one right they

886
00:53:13,960 --> 00:53:15,719
Speaker 1: have to. You have to see a three year or

887
00:53:15,800 --> 00:53:17,680
Speaker 1: five year track records. I want to see you know

888
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: that we can return cash to our back to our investors.

889
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:25,920
Speaker 1: Can what you do at the seed level scale. So

890
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:28,480
Speaker 1: if you get a Cowpers and some of these other

891
00:53:28,560 --> 00:53:31,760
Speaker 1: giant firms, maybe a little bit of soft bank because

892
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:34,480
Speaker 1: they have more money than they know how to intelligently invest,

893
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:38,080
Speaker 1: can you scale up to tens of billions of dollars

894
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:41,319
Speaker 1: or by by nature does Early Seed have to be

895
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,440
Speaker 1: much smaller? No, um. That is one of the issues

896
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:46,200
Speaker 1: that I paid a lot of attention to and how

897
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:49,279
Speaker 1: I structured the firm so we can scale up to

898
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:53,120
Speaker 1: large au M and I actually have a plan for that.

899
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:55,359
Speaker 1: I feel like Elizabeth Warren, I have a plan for that.

900
00:53:56,000 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: Um for everything. Yeah, too many plans, UM, but I

901
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:03,000
Speaker 1: care for all. Are you going to invest in that

902
00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:06,279
Speaker 1: or or or are we going to see disruption of

903
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:09,960
Speaker 1: healthcare from the private sector instead of the political sector.

904
00:54:10,560 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 1: I personally think that we are Americans, so we will

905
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 1: see disruption from healthcare come from the private sector. But

906
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:22,280
Speaker 1: who knows what's going on with the Buffett Amazon Chase

907
00:54:23,719 --> 00:54:26,719
Speaker 1: healthcare program that started a couple of years ago. I

908
00:54:26,840 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 1: haven't heard anything about that. Yeah, it's right, I haven't.

909
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:31,480
Speaker 1: I haven't heard much about that either. I mean, they

910
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:34,359
Speaker 1: seem to be attracting good people, and I look forward

911
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:37,959
Speaker 1: to what they're going to do interesting. So we've seen

912
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:42,239
Speaker 1: all sorts of studies that suggest that the bulk of

913
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:46,759
Speaker 1: venture capital is Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and then

914
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 1: a vast waste land around the rest of the country.

915
00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 1: Steve Case is doing some some rise of the rest.

916
00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:58,120
Speaker 1: They literally take bus trips to different cities to do it.

917
00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:01,439
Speaker 1: But most of the rest of the country isn't seeing

918
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:06,120
Speaker 1: a lot of venture activity. What do you see across

919
00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:11,120
Speaker 1: the country geographically for where entrepreneurs and venture capitalists can

920
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 1: find each other? Yeah? Absolutely, I mean we invest all

921
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,879
Speaker 1: across the US, and you know some of our best

922
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:21,200
Speaker 1: performing companies are outside of the US. Where else have

923
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:26,360
Speaker 1: you invested? So not just US like New York and

924
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 1: San Francisco, but global? What what other countries are you

925
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 1: investing in? We even we have an investment in Africa,

926
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:36,280
Speaker 1: and we have an investment in the UK. Um London

927
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:40,560
Speaker 1: is becoming a great location for VC. Really why is

928
00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:44,759
Speaker 1: that Brexit? I have no idea, really, I think it's

929
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:46,920
Speaker 1: I think it's you know, it's still a cosmopolitan city.

930
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:50,680
Speaker 1: But the engineers, you know, it's it's still somewhat livable.

931
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:54,719
Speaker 1: Brexit has depressed the prices um, so it becomes more reasonable.

932
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:58,160
Speaker 1: I wasn't kidding when the engineers the engineers salaries are,

933
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:01,040
Speaker 1: you know, they're more reason The bull done in half

934
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:05,320
Speaker 1: in half of San Francisco and New York is particularly

935
00:56:05,360 --> 00:56:08,200
Speaker 1: bad because that, you know, all the fine Goldman pays

936
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:12,919
Speaker 1: enormous salaries to the engineers, so they're they're stealing all

937
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,440
Speaker 1: of the best talent. Doesn't that sort of vacillate depending

938
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:18,839
Speaker 1: on how well the stock market does. When the market

939
00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:21,320
Speaker 1: is doing well, all these quands ends up going to

940
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:23,399
Speaker 1: Wall Street. When it's doing poorly, they go to tech

941
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:25,759
Speaker 1: company exactly. I mean, all of these are markets, so

942
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:29,960
Speaker 1: everything vacillates. So we have built, you know, a company

943
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:32,400
Speaker 1: where we can do deals anywhere. We just want to

944
00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:36,520
Speaker 1: do the best deals in the world. And um, before

945
00:56:36,520 --> 00:56:38,680
Speaker 1: we get to our favorite question, I just have to

946
00:56:38,719 --> 00:56:44,400
Speaker 1: ask you about a magically delicious box of lucky Charms

947
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:47,520
Speaker 1: that you snuck into the White House. Can you can

948
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:50,360
Speaker 1: you explain that we did not sneak that into the

949
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:53,120
Speaker 1: White House? You are you are allowed to bring snacks

950
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:55,279
Speaker 1: into the White House, so you didn't sneak it in.

951
00:56:55,480 --> 00:56:59,000
Speaker 1: You brought it in. So you do not deny I'm

952
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 1: gonna imagine you're the water the impeachment hearings. You do

953
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:06,760
Speaker 1: not deny that you brought an authorized box of lucky

954
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:11,520
Speaker 1: Charms into the Truman lanes on the White house delicious.

955
00:57:11,640 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 1: We had a breakfast. Um, we had a breakfast bowling session.

956
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:22,440
Speaker 1: Why well these Um, it was just it was, you

957
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 1: know something, this was the Obama White House. Um, it

958
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:27,360
Speaker 1: was just something that we we they invited us to

959
00:57:27,400 --> 00:57:29,960
Speaker 1: do because I'm a big bowler. I really like bowling,

960
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:33,440
Speaker 1: and we had some um you know, we're reaching some

961
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:35,320
Speaker 1: work with them, and it was it was a fun thing.

962
00:57:35,400 --> 00:57:38,560
Speaker 1: So we invided some of our advisory board members bowing

963
00:57:38,600 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 1: with that. So you skipped over the meaty part. What

964
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:43,720
Speaker 1: was the work you were doing for the Obama White House?

965
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:47,080
Speaker 1: Not allowed to talk about that. It's all n s

966
00:57:47,160 --> 00:57:49,840
Speaker 1: A deep states. You like to work with I mean,

967
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:52,720
Speaker 1: we like to work with everyone, so you know, well

968
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:55,800
Speaker 1: we'll work with anyone who asks us. Will you know,

969
00:57:55,880 --> 00:58:01,000
Speaker 1: show up anyone do anything. We're very nonpartisan. Great, that's fair.

970
00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:05,280
Speaker 1: So let's let's jump to our favorite questions. One of

971
00:58:05,320 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 1: which I changed just for you. What are you streaming,

972
00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:13,240
Speaker 1: downloading or watching on TV? These days? Because I can't

973
00:58:13,240 --> 00:58:18,960
Speaker 1: ask you a car question. You learned that the last time. Um,

974
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:23,479
Speaker 1: let's see and by the way, it turns out that

975
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,320
Speaker 1: that's a much more interesting question. It is such a

976
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:31,640
Speaker 1: good question because everybody who's over fifty has probably has

977
00:58:31,680 --> 00:58:34,960
Speaker 1: a car, and lots of people under fifty, not only

978
00:58:35,320 --> 00:58:38,360
Speaker 1: or under forty, not only don't they have cars. Half

979
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:41,200
Speaker 1: of them don't even have licenses. It's a fantastic question.

980
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:45,240
Speaker 1: It gives you someone's age, it gives you um there,

981
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:49,080
Speaker 1: you know, interest, social class, and it gives you how

982
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:52,000
Speaker 1: good their memory is about the car. Everybody remembers that

983
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:54,800
Speaker 1: the first car. Yeah, of course I have zero idea.

984
00:58:54,960 --> 00:58:57,200
Speaker 1: I mean, I know what I know what Brando was. Sorry,

985
00:58:57,280 --> 00:58:59,800
Speaker 1: you call those models. I know what model? What model is?

986
00:58:59,840 --> 00:59:03,120
Speaker 1: It is a Buick, right, and that I would actually

987
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:06,760
Speaker 1: that's the make. That's the make. The model is the

988
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:10,400
Speaker 1: Buick Skylark or the This is like me inviting you

989
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:12,520
Speaker 1: on a finance show and going, what is the difference

990
00:59:12,560 --> 00:59:16,360
Speaker 1: between a top and a blouse? Um? No, no, dude, right,

991
00:59:16,800 --> 00:59:19,480
Speaker 1: So a blouse, I would I would be able to

992
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:23,480
Speaker 1: fake that. I would say, well, a blouse is usually

993
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:27,680
Speaker 1: a stand alone um, as opposed to a top, which

994
00:59:27,680 --> 00:59:29,720
Speaker 1: is part of an outfit with a top and a bottom.

995
00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:32,680
Speaker 1: Completely wrong, not but it sounds good, right, I could

996
00:59:32,720 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 1: b s with the best of them. What is the

997
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:36,880
Speaker 1: difference between the top and a blouse. Um, usually just

998
00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: a top is more informal, and a blouse is more

999
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 1: formal with buttons down. No, I don't like that. I

1000
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:44,160
Speaker 1: like top is part of a set, a top and

1001
00:59:44,200 --> 00:59:47,800
Speaker 1: the bottom a blouse, freestanding. I'm gonna go with mine.

1002
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:51,480
Speaker 1: Let you redefine there was. If I was in Ohio,

1003
00:59:51,520 --> 00:59:53,880
Speaker 1: I could get away with that. But here in New York,

1004
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:56,080
Speaker 1: I actually have to be a reality. But I can

1005
00:59:56,080 --> 00:59:58,400
Speaker 1: tell you about the car I want there. You know,

1006
00:59:58,480 --> 01:00:03,160
Speaker 1: electric Porsche. It's so the take hand, Yes, really handsome car.

1007
01:00:03,560 --> 01:00:07,920
Speaker 1: Have you seen the new Ford Mustang E suv that

1008
01:00:08,040 --> 01:00:13,040
Speaker 1: came out yesterday? Yeah, So they basically took a Ford Mustang,

1009
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:17,720
Speaker 1: which is a six or eight cylinder gasoline car. It's

1010
01:00:17,760 --> 01:00:20,520
Speaker 1: only been around for fifty eight years, so who cares,

1011
01:00:20,960 --> 01:00:25,200
Speaker 1: And they turned it into sort of an suv and

1012
01:00:25,200 --> 01:00:30,400
Speaker 1: and it's all all electric, competing with Um Model X

1013
01:00:30,440 --> 01:00:33,400
Speaker 1: and the Model three of Tesla. The interior looks like

1014
01:00:33,440 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: it's pure Tesla just ripped it right off of Elon

1015
01:00:37,440 --> 01:00:41,560
Speaker 1: musk Um. He's doing okay. Hopefully hopefully he comes out

1016
01:00:41,560 --> 01:00:45,280
Speaker 1: of this. I like he. You know, arguably Elon has

1017
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:50,479
Speaker 1: already won everybody, definitely, right, everybody is now doing electric cars,

1018
01:00:50,520 --> 01:00:53,919
Speaker 1: so whether Tesla survives or not, he's already dentity. Every

1019
01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:57,120
Speaker 1: time Elon gets criticized on Twitter, which is quite a bit,

1020
01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:01,560
Speaker 1: I post the gift of him law landing the rockets,

1021
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:04,000
Speaker 1: and I say, anyone that can do this deserves at

1022
01:01:04,040 --> 01:01:07,080
Speaker 1: least six months of criticism, free living, right, But he

1023
01:01:07,160 --> 01:01:09,840
Speaker 1: had that five years ago, and now that six months

1024
01:01:09,880 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 1: has a lot well lea should it should get you

1025
01:01:11,960 --> 01:01:14,440
Speaker 1: at least a decade. I mean, that's pretty impressive stuff.

1026
01:01:14,480 --> 01:01:17,960
Speaker 1: You know, mushing Solar City and with Tesla turns out

1027
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:21,960
Speaker 1: to have been a mistake. But um, but you've got

1028
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:25,600
Speaker 1: to give him properas were made. But you know, move fast, break,

1029
01:01:25,920 --> 01:01:30,920
Speaker 1: Everyone makes mistake. He is a very consequential entrepreneur and

1030
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:33,600
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by what he does, and I think people

1031
01:01:33,640 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 1: slag him way too much. I agree, and I think that,

1032
01:01:37,120 --> 01:01:39,280
Speaker 1: you know, I think what's great about him is that

1033
01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:42,000
Speaker 1: I hope he's you know, a lot of our entrepreneurs

1034
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:44,760
Speaker 1: are inspired by him, and I think that he's inspiring

1035
01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:48,120
Speaker 1: a whole generation of young entrepreneurs to think bigger and

1036
01:01:48,200 --> 01:01:51,080
Speaker 1: to do bigger things in the world. The other day,

1037
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 1: I rarely flick around television anymore. I used to just

1038
01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:58,880
Speaker 1: sort of randomly rotate and see what's on. But I

1039
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:01,200
Speaker 1: did this the other day actually, to be honest, I

1040
01:02:01,240 --> 01:02:05,160
Speaker 1: turned on the TV and what was on was a

1041
01:02:05,760 --> 01:02:08,720
Speaker 1: uh well, since the show ended, it has to be

1042
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:15,400
Speaker 1: an older one. But um, a big bang episode one

1043
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:19,240
Speaker 1: where it's Thanksgiving and they go to a soup kitchen

1044
01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:23,000
Speaker 1: to serve food and Elon Musk is on the episode

1045
01:02:23,200 --> 01:02:26,320
Speaker 1: cleaning dishes, and I have to tell you it, it's

1046
01:02:26,360 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 1: such a charming episode. You gotta give a guy like

1047
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:32,200
Speaker 1: that props. All right, So let's get to our favorite

1048
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:36,040
Speaker 1: questions that we ask all of our guests. Tell us

1049
01:02:36,080 --> 01:02:39,600
Speaker 1: what you're either streaming, down loading, or or watching, be

1050
01:02:39,760 --> 01:02:45,360
Speaker 1: it video or audio. Well I am. I am streaming

1051
01:02:45,800 --> 01:02:48,880
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley the Hbokay, so but I can not. I

1052
01:02:48,880 --> 01:02:51,160
Speaker 1: always fall asleep. I can never make it through. You know,

1053
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:53,120
Speaker 1: you don't have to watch it when a broadcast, you

1054
01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 1: can no I watch it. I usually I keep trying

1055
01:02:56,600 --> 01:02:58,680
Speaker 1: to make it through the episodes and then I fall asleep.

1056
01:02:59,280 --> 01:03:02,640
Speaker 1: What time starting right before bad? This is like my

1057
01:03:02,640 --> 01:03:04,680
Speaker 1: bad time thing I watched to tell That's what I'm

1058
01:03:04,720 --> 01:03:09,080
Speaker 1: suggesting is watch that the next to watch that on

1059
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:12,400
Speaker 1: a Monday at eight instead of a Sunday at ten.

1060
01:03:12,680 --> 01:03:15,240
Speaker 1: That would be a good idea. But alright, so Silicon

1061
01:03:15,360 --> 01:03:18,080
Speaker 1: Valley love it. Yeah, it's atastic show. In fact, it's

1062
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:21,240
Speaker 1: almost two realists and this is the last final season.

1063
01:03:21,240 --> 01:03:23,760
Speaker 1: I know. I'm very sad about it. Well, the only

1064
01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:26,000
Speaker 1: good news is when it's over, when I just hope

1065
01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:28,360
Speaker 1: the VC has got an exit. You know, that's a

1066
01:03:28,360 --> 01:03:33,439
Speaker 1: happy ending for me. Um. The whole Holy Purchase things

1067
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:37,400
Speaker 1: that it was fantastic, but it is very accurate about

1068
01:03:37,440 --> 01:03:40,480
Speaker 1: how quickly fortunes in Silicon Valley can rise and fall,

1069
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:42,960
Speaker 1: come and go very quickly. Give us another show. What

1070
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:46,800
Speaker 1: else are you watching? Mm hmm, Well I'm a big

1071
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:50,200
Speaker 1: West Wing fan as well. So I do you like

1072
01:03:50,360 --> 01:03:54,240
Speaker 1: anything has done? I do? In fact, I just saw

1073
01:03:54,360 --> 01:03:58,040
Speaker 1: his play to Kill a Mocking Verse, so amazing, right Badway,

1074
01:03:58,120 --> 01:04:02,640
Speaker 1: which was incredible with Jeff Daniels. Yeah, he was fantastic

1075
01:04:02,680 --> 01:04:06,840
Speaker 1: in it. The whole cast everybody was. Really he's my

1076
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:09,000
Speaker 1: number one person that I would want on Twitter that

1077
01:04:09,280 --> 01:04:11,920
Speaker 1: isn't on Twitter. They I'm hoping that he'll come to

1078
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:16,200
Speaker 1: our social media. Huh. That could be interesting. But Yeah,

1079
01:04:16,280 --> 01:04:19,760
Speaker 1: fantastic stuff. So if you like West Wing, you know

1080
01:04:19,920 --> 01:04:24,120
Speaker 1: the show he Sorkin did before West Wing was a

1081
01:04:24,240 --> 01:04:28,280
Speaker 1: delightful little show called sport Night and it only lasted

1082
01:04:28,320 --> 01:04:31,000
Speaker 1: like two and a half season, but it was really

1083
01:04:31,040 --> 01:04:34,480
Speaker 1: really good. You can stream that if you like that

1084
01:04:34,560 --> 01:04:39,400
Speaker 1: sort of fast paced, rapid dialogue, but a different context,

1085
01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:42,520
Speaker 1: not in the White House. It's all um, they're putting

1086
01:04:42,560 --> 01:04:47,960
Speaker 1: on an ESPN type show and all the characters are great.

1087
01:04:48,200 --> 01:04:51,320
Speaker 1: And I haven't seen it in years, but I remember

1088
01:04:51,360 --> 01:04:54,160
Speaker 1: really loving that show and was hugely disappointed when I

1089
01:04:54,200 --> 01:04:57,080
Speaker 1: was canceled. Alright, so we got Silicon Valley, got West Wing,

1090
01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:00,600
Speaker 1: Give me one more anything you're downloading or streaming. So

1091
01:05:00,880 --> 01:05:05,760
Speaker 1: Eric weinz he has a great new podcast called The Portal,

1092
01:05:06,160 --> 01:05:08,920
Speaker 1: which I listened to a lot. He had Pierre Till

1093
01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:11,960
Speaker 1: on the first episode and then Verner Hurtzog in the

1094
01:05:12,040 --> 01:05:17,080
Speaker 1: second episode. So that's fantastic. Really, I love getting new

1095
01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:20,000
Speaker 1: Uh he's my favorite new media star, and that he

1096
01:05:20,080 --> 01:05:23,520
Speaker 1: has these somewhat like you. He has these very you know,

1097
01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:30,560
Speaker 1: deep real conversations with Eric Weinstein. Oh okay, wow, this

1098
01:05:30,680 --> 01:05:38,200
Speaker 1: is relatively new, thoughtful and insightful conversation all right, I'm

1099
01:05:38,240 --> 01:05:44,200
Speaker 1: definitely checking this out. He looks vaguely familiar. This podcast

1100
01:05:44,240 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: does something different. All right, I'm definitely there. I'm definitely

1101
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:52,040
Speaker 1: gonna check that out. Um, what's the most important thing

1102
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:57,760
Speaker 1: people don't know about, Sarah Cone? Um? I think it's

1103
01:05:57,760 --> 01:05:59,920
Speaker 1: that my I r R is above my b M I.

1104
01:06:00,040 --> 01:06:03,320
Speaker 1: That is the main metric that I run my life by.

1105
01:06:03,400 --> 01:06:06,720
Speaker 1: So your I r R is above your b M I.

1106
01:06:07,080 --> 01:06:10,160
Speaker 1: And is this a metric that we see elsewhere? It's

1107
01:06:10,200 --> 01:06:13,280
Speaker 1: the It's the most important metric for the woman investor.

1108
01:06:14,320 --> 01:06:18,560
Speaker 1: So you're encouraging, though, um, either very high I r

1109
01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:20,880
Speaker 1: R or very low b m I. You don't want

1110
01:06:20,880 --> 01:06:24,240
Speaker 1: to give, not too low, not too low, So that

1111
01:06:24,440 --> 01:06:26,680
Speaker 1: that's kind of interesting. Mostly just high I r R.

1112
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:29,560
Speaker 1: There you go. How about your mentors? Who who has

1113
01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:34,360
Speaker 1: guided your career? Um? In the world's venture investing? Oh well,

1114
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:37,720
Speaker 1: so the person that really taught me m venture capital

1115
01:06:38,120 --> 01:06:41,400
Speaker 1: and this was a long time ago, um, before anyone

1116
01:06:41,520 --> 01:06:44,720
Speaker 1: cared about more women being in venture capital was Rob

1117
01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:47,560
Speaker 1: Hayes Um. And it's quite a funny story because he's

1118
01:06:47,560 --> 01:06:50,360
Speaker 1: a very famous venture capitalist. Now he led the seed

1119
01:06:50,440 --> 01:06:53,160
Speaker 1: round into Uber. He's been a long time partner at

1120
01:06:53,240 --> 01:06:56,720
Speaker 1: First Round Capital. He stays somewhat under the radar, but

1121
01:06:56,800 --> 01:06:59,720
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley he's extremely you know, well known as

1122
01:07:00,360 --> 01:07:03,640
Speaker 1: as a great investor. But back then when he was

1123
01:07:03,680 --> 01:07:07,560
Speaker 1: my mentor, he really wasn't. He didn't quite have that profile.

1124
01:07:07,680 --> 01:07:10,560
Speaker 1: But I thought he was the smartest you know person

1125
01:07:10,640 --> 01:07:12,920
Speaker 1: investing in VC. So I basically just showed up at

1126
01:07:12,960 --> 01:07:16,720
Speaker 1: his doorstep at a mediaor network and said, Hi, I'm Sarah,

1127
01:07:16,720 --> 01:07:19,000
Speaker 1: and I'm going to learn venture capital from you. Don't worry,

1128
01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:21,480
Speaker 1: you don't have to pay me or anything. Um. And

1129
01:07:21,520 --> 01:07:24,880
Speaker 1: he said like, okay, well you seem, you know, pretty

1130
01:07:24,880 --> 01:07:28,080
Speaker 1: smart and hard working. Um, I guess I'll teach you

1131
01:07:28,160 --> 01:07:31,120
Speaker 1: venture capital, but I'm gonna pay you. Yeah. So I

1132
01:07:31,200 --> 01:07:33,240
Speaker 1: learned from him, and it was great because back then,

1133
01:07:33,320 --> 01:07:36,120
Speaker 1: you know, he he actually had the time to really

1134
01:07:36,120 --> 01:07:39,280
Speaker 1: teach me, you know, everything that he thought about venture capital.

1135
01:07:39,320 --> 01:07:41,840
Speaker 1: And now I get to go, um, yeah, I was,

1136
01:07:41,960 --> 01:07:45,680
Speaker 1: you know, mentored by this extremely famous um and and

1137
01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:48,520
Speaker 1: well known venture capitalists. So that's my advice to young

1138
01:07:48,560 --> 01:07:50,840
Speaker 1: people is that when you're seeking out your mentors, like

1139
01:07:51,240 --> 01:07:53,160
Speaker 1: seek the people that you know are going to be

1140
01:07:53,320 --> 01:07:56,400
Speaker 1: famous in ten years and learn from them, not the

1141
01:07:56,600 --> 01:08:01,600
Speaker 1: creative today. I literally wrote, I literally tweeted the other

1142
01:08:01,680 --> 01:08:04,160
Speaker 1: day there's there's a technical indicator that I think is

1143
01:08:04,240 --> 01:08:08,600
Speaker 1: just junk, the Hindenburg omen and that name was was

1144
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:13,480
Speaker 1: the hint that it's junk. But I advise people the

1145
01:08:13,520 --> 01:08:17,800
Speaker 1: best way to use this is only follow the signals

1146
01:08:17,840 --> 01:08:21,640
Speaker 1: that precede big market crashes, ignore the rest of them.

1147
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:25,760
Speaker 1: So you basically have the same philosophy. Go find a

1148
01:08:25,880 --> 01:08:30,000
Speaker 1: mentor who's going to be incredibly successful and famous, and

1149
01:08:30,080 --> 01:08:32,640
Speaker 1: find them ten years before they become successful, and just

1150
01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:34,720
Speaker 1: attach yourself exactly. And if you're going to be a

1151
01:08:34,720 --> 01:08:37,000
Speaker 1: good venture copitist at all, then you'll probably be pretty

1152
01:08:37,040 --> 01:08:40,800
Speaker 1: good at doing that. And any other vcs influenced the

1153
01:08:40,840 --> 01:08:44,600
Speaker 1: way you look at the world of venture investing startups,

1154
01:08:45,920 --> 01:08:49,880
Speaker 1: I'm really not so much influenced by other vcs. I'm

1155
01:08:49,920 --> 01:08:53,600
Speaker 1: I'm influenced by other areas of finance um particularly I

1156
01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:57,320
Speaker 1: mean hedge funds, particularly the very math heavy and research

1157
01:08:57,479 --> 01:09:00,439
Speaker 1: heavy hedge fund managers I love of, you know, I

1158
01:09:00,479 --> 01:09:03,280
Speaker 1: have a PhD in in math that I've done a

1159
01:09:03,280 --> 01:09:05,800
Speaker 1: lot of our portfolio construction work with and a lot

1160
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:08,640
Speaker 1: of revaluation work with, and we're kind of doing some

1161
01:09:08,720 --> 01:09:11,719
Speaker 1: advanced work there, and then in due diligence as well.

1162
01:09:11,760 --> 01:09:14,480
Speaker 1: I love due diligence. I describe it as a combination

1163
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:18,759
Speaker 1: of library research and financial modeling, spy work and gossip

1164
01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:21,000
Speaker 1: and it's basically the most fun that you could ever

1165
01:09:21,080 --> 01:09:24,439
Speaker 1: have trying to understand the world and every deal we do.

1166
01:09:24,479 --> 01:09:27,080
Speaker 1: I feel like, is this incredible sort of romp through

1167
01:09:27,200 --> 01:09:31,000
Speaker 1: some obscure, you know, realm of the world that I

1168
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:33,519
Speaker 1: then gain a lot of knowledge about, which is what

1169
01:09:33,560 --> 01:09:36,760
Speaker 1: I love. So I'm I'm much more influenced by those

1170
01:09:36,800 --> 01:09:40,160
Speaker 1: investors rather than venture capitalists, who I like to mostly

1171
01:09:40,200 --> 01:09:44,280
Speaker 1: make fun of um by saying that it's and it's

1172
01:09:44,320 --> 01:09:46,880
Speaker 1: an industry where all the decisions are made by men's

1173
01:09:46,920 --> 01:09:50,800
Speaker 1: guts and the guts of their wives. And I only

1174
01:09:50,840 --> 01:09:52,679
Speaker 1: added that last part because I was saying that once

1175
01:09:52,680 --> 01:09:55,920
Speaker 1: to a very um famous and prestigious venture cap I said,

1176
01:09:56,080 --> 01:09:58,600
Speaker 1: you know, to this very famous and prestigious venture capital like,

1177
01:09:58,680 --> 01:10:00,240
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes I feel like I'm more king in

1178
01:10:00,240 --> 01:10:02,559
Speaker 1: an industry that's really just run by men's guts, And

1179
01:10:02,600 --> 01:10:06,080
Speaker 1: he was like, Sarah, that is completely untrue. You know,

1180
01:10:06,240 --> 01:10:10,000
Speaker 1: that is very offensive. UM My firm is also run

1181
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:13,120
Speaker 1: by the gut feelings of my wife. She is an

1182
01:10:13,120 --> 01:10:16,840
Speaker 1: incredibly important part of my firm. And I was like, okay, well,

1183
01:10:17,160 --> 01:10:19,720
Speaker 1: so he kind of explains a lot. He kind of

1184
01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:23,080
Speaker 1: missed the point that I wasn't making a comment about gender.

1185
01:10:23,240 --> 01:10:25,519
Speaker 1: It was about guts. I was making a comment about

1186
01:10:25,640 --> 01:10:30,840
Speaker 1: gut right, talk talk about talk about missing the forest

1187
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:33,519
Speaker 1: for the trees right there. Let's let's talk about books.

1188
01:10:33,520 --> 01:10:36,000
Speaker 1: What are some of the things you've really like to read,

1189
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:38,519
Speaker 1: What do you like to recommend? Tell us what you're

1190
01:10:38,520 --> 01:10:42,519
Speaker 1: reading these days. Well, I have a um twenty month

1191
01:10:42,560 --> 01:10:45,719
Speaker 1: year old daughter, so I mainly spend my time reading

1192
01:10:45,720 --> 01:10:48,479
Speaker 1: to her. And there's this fantastic series of books that

1193
01:10:48,520 --> 01:10:52,360
Speaker 1: was written everybody poops, I'm familiar with it. It was

1194
01:10:52,920 --> 01:10:55,480
Speaker 1: the series of books was written by a quantum physicist

1195
01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:59,400
Speaker 1: and it just boils scientific principles down to baby language,

1196
01:10:59,479 --> 01:11:03,160
Speaker 1: so that it is it's it's like quantum computing for babies,

1197
01:11:03,240 --> 01:11:09,639
Speaker 1: neural networking for babies, chemistry for babies. So I read

1198
01:11:09,680 --> 01:11:12,559
Speaker 1: these to her every day and I have for now

1199
01:11:12,640 --> 01:11:18,000
Speaker 1: two years. You just solved a holiday present um issue

1200
01:11:18,080 --> 01:11:21,200
Speaker 1: for me. For somebody who I know who is really

1201
01:11:21,200 --> 01:11:24,160
Speaker 1: smart and just had a baby, and that's a perfect

1202
01:11:24,520 --> 01:11:26,400
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of these books because they're the

1203
01:11:26,439 --> 01:11:29,920
Speaker 1: only books that are both interesting to me and her,

1204
01:11:30,040 --> 01:11:33,240
Speaker 1: so we love them and it works on both levels,

1205
01:11:33,240 --> 01:11:36,559
Speaker 1: it really does. And her her fourth word was adam, Um,

1206
01:11:36,880 --> 01:11:41,439
Speaker 1: so you know, so it was it's been fantastic. Um.

1207
01:11:41,439 --> 01:11:43,599
Speaker 1: We really love these books. So these are my favorite

1208
01:11:44,240 --> 01:11:46,960
Speaker 1: for babies. Yes, and my dream in life is that

1209
01:11:47,000 --> 01:11:50,040
Speaker 1: someone will write these about finance, so we need like

1210
01:11:50,120 --> 01:11:55,400
Speaker 1: monetary policy for babies, option trading for babies. It really

1211
01:11:55,400 --> 01:12:00,360
Speaker 1: needs to happen. What a genius idea. And the other

1212
01:12:00,880 --> 01:12:05,160
Speaker 1: non infant books you might want to mention, um, even

1213
01:12:05,240 --> 01:12:10,080
Speaker 1: if you haven't read them recently. Um, there's a book

1214
01:12:10,200 --> 01:12:12,680
Speaker 1: called Mating, which is a book of fiction that I

1215
01:12:12,760 --> 01:12:18,879
Speaker 1: love by Norman Rush and it's a it's a book about,

1216
01:12:18,920 --> 01:12:21,000
Speaker 1: you know, sort of the main themes of my life,

1217
01:12:21,000 --> 01:12:23,880
Speaker 1: which are you know, creating a better world and all

1218
01:12:23,880 --> 01:12:27,280
Speaker 1: the intricacies and human nous that goes on in that.

1219
01:12:27,680 --> 01:12:30,280
Speaker 1: I like it tell us about a time you failed

1220
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:34,280
Speaker 1: and what you learned from the experience. Ah, well, this

1221
01:12:34,479 --> 01:12:36,280
Speaker 1: was one of the times. So I know, we have

1222
01:12:36,320 --> 01:12:39,599
Speaker 1: this mutual friend who's a venture capitalist. Um. Named Josh

1223
01:12:39,640 --> 01:12:43,080
Speaker 1: Wolfe at lux Capitalist, who is that this dinner? And

1224
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:47,120
Speaker 1: so he so the one portfolio, the one company in

1225
01:12:47,160 --> 01:12:50,479
Speaker 1: my anti portfolio, which is the things the companies where

1226
01:12:50,479 --> 01:12:52,600
Speaker 1: you make a mistake and you didn't invest them. I

1227
01:12:52,640 --> 01:12:54,479
Speaker 1: didn't invest. He tried to get me into the seed

1228
01:12:54,560 --> 01:12:58,280
Speaker 1: round of this company called Citizen, and I said, you know,

1229
01:12:58,320 --> 01:13:01,120
Speaker 1: it's kind of a safe it's an app that's safety

1230
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:05,559
Speaker 1: alert for people. I said, Josh, that is you know,

1231
01:13:06,200 --> 01:13:07,960
Speaker 1: it would be very important to the world, but it's

1232
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:10,800
Speaker 1: completely ridiculous. No one will use it. I'm not even

1233
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:12,639
Speaker 1: going to meet with the entrepreneur and waste their time.

1234
01:13:12,680 --> 01:13:15,360
Speaker 1: And really turned out to be completely wrong. Ten percent

1235
01:13:15,520 --> 01:13:19,160
Speaker 1: of New York City is now on this app. Really yea.

1236
01:13:19,760 --> 01:13:22,280
Speaker 1: And what does it do? It just tells you it's

1237
01:13:22,280 --> 01:13:25,000
Speaker 1: like safety alerts about what is going on, and then

1238
01:13:25,040 --> 01:13:27,880
Speaker 1: now you can also kind of take eyewitness accounts and

1239
01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:30,800
Speaker 1: report things to it. So you're gonna laugh about this.

1240
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:34,479
Speaker 1: I know Josh pretty well and he never mentioned this

1241
01:13:34,560 --> 01:13:38,719
Speaker 1: company to me. But Eric Kamorrow is my chief operating

1242
01:13:38,760 --> 01:13:42,360
Speaker 1: officer at r w M, and she's the one who

1243
01:13:42,400 --> 01:13:45,559
Speaker 1: showed that app to me. And it's also a site

1244
01:13:45,960 --> 01:13:48,840
Speaker 1: and it shows you arrest here person with a gun.

1245
01:13:48,960 --> 01:13:51,840
Speaker 1: They're just all sorts of crazy things that have been

1246
01:13:51,880 --> 01:13:56,040
Speaker 1: filed through. They must just be scraping the information off

1247
01:13:56,040 --> 01:13:58,559
Speaker 1: a public source. Yeah, they definitely started with that, and

1248
01:13:58,560 --> 01:14:01,160
Speaker 1: they've kind of expanded from there into more things that

1249
01:14:01,240 --> 01:14:03,559
Speaker 1: you can do to keep the world safe as a citizen.

1250
01:14:03,680 --> 01:14:07,240
Speaker 1: But um so, my takeaway from that, well, first of all,

1251
01:14:07,280 --> 01:14:10,000
Speaker 1: aside from always listening to Josh Wolf, is that you

1252
01:14:10,040 --> 01:14:13,760
Speaker 1: should you should never you should never make venture investments

1253
01:14:13,800 --> 01:14:15,920
Speaker 1: with your gut because your gut is going to be wrong.

1254
01:14:16,160 --> 01:14:18,360
Speaker 1: Didn't you stay away from that? Now? But didn't you

1255
01:14:18,479 --> 01:14:22,599
Speaker 1: learn that from the other VCS wife, Scott I did?

1256
01:14:22,680 --> 01:14:25,959
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's just amazing how all like everything

1257
01:14:26,040 --> 01:14:28,600
Speaker 1: just makes you like all the pressures in the industry

1258
01:14:28,960 --> 01:14:32,680
Speaker 1: are causing you to feel like your gut is you know,

1259
01:14:32,920 --> 01:14:35,360
Speaker 1: the best gut out of all the guts, and you

1260
01:14:35,400 --> 01:14:37,880
Speaker 1: have to constantly kind of be saying yourself, don't make

1261
01:14:37,920 --> 01:14:42,080
Speaker 1: gut decisions, don't make so so true story one of

1262
01:14:42,120 --> 01:14:45,479
Speaker 1: the things I'm gonna tell my war story, which makes

1263
01:14:45,479 --> 01:14:48,439
Speaker 1: the guys in my office cringe. So I began on

1264
01:14:48,479 --> 01:14:54,000
Speaker 1: a trading desk and eventually you learn how to listen

1265
01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:58,479
Speaker 1: to your own body's reactions. And I had a very

1266
01:14:58,560 --> 01:15:02,639
Speaker 1: identical experience to you you where I would someone would

1267
01:15:02,680 --> 01:15:05,160
Speaker 1: bring me a trading idea and I go, oh, that company,

1268
01:15:05,200 --> 01:15:07,840
Speaker 1: it's the worst. And after you miss a couple of

1269
01:15:07,880 --> 01:15:10,800
Speaker 1: good trades that way, you eventually figure out, oh, if

1270
01:15:10,880 --> 01:15:14,120
Speaker 1: my reaction is this is the worst, then most other

1271
01:15:14,120 --> 01:15:17,800
Speaker 1: people's reaction is this is the worst, and based on

1272
01:15:17,840 --> 01:15:21,600
Speaker 1: the work of gene Varma, it's probably reflected in the

1273
01:15:21,680 --> 01:15:24,760
Speaker 1: stock price, and now it's a good opportunity to buy it.

1274
01:15:25,040 --> 01:15:28,320
Speaker 1: So eventually I learned how to become more sensitive to

1275
01:15:29,120 --> 01:15:33,280
Speaker 1: my own reaction to something. But it took missing a

1276
01:15:33,320 --> 01:15:37,200
Speaker 1: lot of great opportunities to become aware of, Oh, everybody

1277
01:15:37,240 --> 01:15:41,000
Speaker 1: must feel this way, and therefore it's a contrarian indicator,

1278
01:15:41,240 --> 01:15:45,040
Speaker 1: not a don't listen to your gut. Is kind of

1279
01:15:45,040 --> 01:15:47,719
Speaker 1: the takeaway from that. That's an excellent way to frame it. Yes,

1280
01:15:47,920 --> 01:15:50,519
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of interesting. I'm fascinated by the fact

1281
01:15:50,520 --> 01:15:53,880
Speaker 1: that you were repulsed by a VC who did the

1282
01:15:53,920 --> 01:15:57,759
Speaker 1: exact same thing, and yet human nature, you couldn't help yourself.

1283
01:15:58,040 --> 01:16:01,519
Speaker 1: The world is full of hypocrites. I don't exempt myself.

1284
01:16:01,520 --> 01:16:03,640
Speaker 1: But you know, at least I'm trying to you know,

1285
01:16:03,920 --> 01:16:08,519
Speaker 1: that's not so much hypocritical as just the human condition.

1286
01:16:08,600 --> 01:16:11,520
Speaker 1: We can help but be a slave to our emotions

1287
01:16:11,560 --> 01:16:14,320
Speaker 1: to some degree. It's also the only one. I mean,

1288
01:16:14,360 --> 01:16:16,800
Speaker 1: I think more most vcs have more than one in

1289
01:16:16,840 --> 01:16:22,320
Speaker 1: their There's literally, wow, there's literally a cognitive bias called

1290
01:16:22,640 --> 01:16:26,439
Speaker 1: the bias bias that we all have a tendency to

1291
01:16:26,640 --> 01:16:30,719
Speaker 1: observe these biases and other people and be completely blind

1292
01:16:30,880 --> 01:16:34,479
Speaker 1: in our ourselfs. Like I'm always pointing pointing out to people, Oh,

1293
01:16:34,600 --> 01:16:38,040
Speaker 1: you're confirmation bias, and and of course I'm as guilty

1294
01:16:38,080 --> 01:16:40,280
Speaker 1: of it as anybody else, but we're blind to it.

1295
01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:43,439
Speaker 1: It's it's it's quite amazing. Um, what do you do

1296
01:16:43,520 --> 01:16:45,280
Speaker 1: for fun? What do you do when you're not reading

1297
01:16:45,400 --> 01:16:50,559
Speaker 1: quantum physics for babies to your daughter? Well, I started

1298
01:16:50,600 --> 01:16:53,320
Speaker 1: this social impact venture capital firm that you might have

1299
01:16:53,400 --> 01:16:57,200
Speaker 1: heard of. So I work a huge amount um and

1300
01:16:57,400 --> 01:16:59,760
Speaker 1: don't have too much time for fun. I hear it's

1301
01:16:59,800 --> 01:17:03,479
Speaker 1: not igislatively mandated to have hobbies, so I just don't

1302
01:17:03,479 --> 01:17:09,439
Speaker 1: have anything just anything like that. I pretty much just

1303
01:17:09,600 --> 01:17:12,040
Speaker 1: work and then take care of my baby. But I

1304
01:17:12,120 --> 01:17:14,880
Speaker 1: do my I take my baby um to art. We

1305
01:17:14,920 --> 01:17:17,760
Speaker 1: go to art galleries a lot because we live incredibly

1306
01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:20,519
Speaker 1: close to the art galleries and Chelsea, so it's a

1307
01:17:20,640 --> 01:17:24,040
Speaker 1: very convenient thing for us. Is she entertained by this?

1308
01:17:24,160 --> 01:17:26,719
Speaker 1: She loves it. And so I've started this Twitter account

1309
01:17:26,760 --> 01:17:29,639
Speaker 1: to you know, record her reactions to the art called

1310
01:17:29,680 --> 01:17:33,599
Speaker 1: Ada baby art critic and that's my hobby. What are

1311
01:17:33,640 --> 01:17:37,360
Speaker 1: her reactions to art? Well, she's had this incredibly complex

1312
01:17:37,880 --> 01:17:41,120
Speaker 1: language of art criticism. So when she was really little

1313
01:17:41,120 --> 01:17:43,360
Speaker 1: baby and she couldn't move her neck, I would sort

1314
01:17:43,360 --> 01:17:45,599
Speaker 1: of hold her in front of the works and then

1315
01:17:45,640 --> 01:17:47,960
Speaker 1: she would she would make a little sound like when

1316
01:17:48,000 --> 01:17:50,479
Speaker 1: she wanted to go to the next one, and sometimes

1317
01:17:50,479 --> 01:17:53,360
Speaker 1: she would look for hours, and I'd be like, okay,

1318
01:17:53,720 --> 01:17:58,400
Speaker 1: so representational contemporary and just basically go to whatever is

1319
01:17:58,439 --> 01:18:03,800
Speaker 1: close by, but geographic, geographic, anything, And you know, does

1320
01:18:03,800 --> 01:18:06,400
Speaker 1: she have a preference? Does she like? She definitely has

1321
01:18:06,520 --> 01:18:09,479
Speaker 1: favorite artists and they don't The disappointing thing to me

1322
01:18:09,520 --> 01:18:12,000
Speaker 1: is that they don't match mine. So well, that's a

1323
01:18:12,040 --> 01:18:14,080
Speaker 1: good thing. Yeah, I know, I say, it's good. It's

1324
01:18:14,080 --> 01:18:16,280
Speaker 1: good that you have your own characteristics. But what does

1325
01:18:16,320 --> 01:18:19,280
Speaker 1: she like? Um, she liked well. She was I always

1326
01:18:19,320 --> 01:18:21,880
Speaker 1: called her. She was born in the year of the

1327
01:18:21,920 --> 01:18:24,719
Speaker 1: month of Sai Twambly, so they were having a huge

1328
01:18:24,720 --> 01:18:30,040
Speaker 1: Si Twambly retrospective at um In. So we went to

1329
01:18:30,080 --> 01:18:34,160
Speaker 1: that every single day and she loved it. Those she

1330
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:37,120
Speaker 1: would look at those for hours and hours. So I

1331
01:18:37,160 --> 01:18:39,280
Speaker 1: always but now she can do even better now now

1332
01:18:39,320 --> 01:18:41,559
Speaker 1: that she's too she's making her own works and she

1333
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:43,200
Speaker 1: can even I think she can even do better work

1334
01:18:43,680 --> 01:18:48,240
Speaker 1: to have her tastes evolved. All they definitely they know

1335
01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:50,479
Speaker 1: she tends to like like so she she really she

1336
01:18:50,520 --> 01:18:53,599
Speaker 1: seems to really like Damian hurst Um a lot, like

1337
01:18:53,680 --> 01:18:58,679
Speaker 1: the Shark time. I really don't like him. I think

1338
01:18:58,680 --> 01:19:01,479
Speaker 1: he's kind of banal and commercial, but she loves vanal

1339
01:19:01,680 --> 01:19:05,360
Speaker 1: is the right word fraud um? So yeah, so we

1340
01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:08,799
Speaker 1: so we shop you like the urinal in the corner.

1341
01:19:08,920 --> 01:19:11,040
Speaker 1: She's never seen any shomp. We then there was so

1342
01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:13,400
Speaker 1: I love Sarah Ze and we went to the Sara

1343
01:19:13,479 --> 01:19:15,840
Speaker 1: Ze Show, which I loved, and she didn't like it

1344
01:19:15,880 --> 01:19:17,479
Speaker 1: at all. I was like, I don't, I don't know,

1345
01:19:17,720 --> 01:19:20,040
Speaker 1: like maybe you just don't really have good taste in

1346
01:19:20,160 --> 01:19:23,320
Speaker 1: art because you're just a baby, or maybe she has

1347
01:19:23,400 --> 01:19:26,320
Speaker 1: the purest taste in art. Have you taken her to

1348
01:19:26,400 --> 01:19:30,080
Speaker 1: the you know, MoMA just finished this wonderful renovation and

1349
01:19:30,280 --> 01:19:35,640
Speaker 1: there's a ton of twentieth century contemporary American artists, and

1350
01:19:35,680 --> 01:19:39,240
Speaker 1: if you like that sort of post impression. Yeah, she

1351
01:19:39,280 --> 01:19:41,160
Speaker 1: loves the I mean we go to the mat sometimes

1352
01:19:41,400 --> 01:19:44,240
Speaker 1: to MoMA. She likes, she loves Picasa. She she really

1353
01:19:44,280 --> 01:19:46,360
Speaker 1: likes all like. She likes a lot of the old art.

1354
01:19:46,840 --> 01:19:49,559
Speaker 1: And it's going to be hilarious. I'm thinking like Jackson

1355
01:19:49,640 --> 01:19:53,280
Speaker 1: Salek would be entertaining for a baby, or maybe Rothco,

1356
01:19:53,439 --> 01:19:58,040
Speaker 1: which I've evolved very much. She liked Troytin a lot, well,

1357
01:19:58,120 --> 01:20:02,640
Speaker 1: giant cartoons, why not in comics. Everybody likes that as

1358
01:20:02,720 --> 01:20:05,080
Speaker 1: a as a whatever. So then when she was a

1359
01:20:05,080 --> 01:20:07,280
Speaker 1: little bit older, she then would turn her head like

1360
01:20:07,400 --> 01:20:10,320
Speaker 1: dramatically away from the painting when she didn't want to

1361
01:20:10,320 --> 01:20:12,320
Speaker 1: look at it anymore. And then when she was even older,

1362
01:20:12,400 --> 01:20:14,840
Speaker 1: not than if she liked it, she would point. And

1363
01:20:14,920 --> 01:20:18,040
Speaker 1: now that she's older she can say no. So she

1364
01:20:18,920 --> 01:20:22,080
Speaker 1: go in front of them and the paintings and go no, no, no,

1365
01:20:22,720 --> 01:20:24,439
Speaker 1: that's funny, because that's what I'm like in a lot

1366
01:20:24,479 --> 01:20:27,479
Speaker 1: of museums. My wife, who who used to teach fashion,

1367
01:20:27,479 --> 01:20:30,920
Speaker 1: illustration and design is dragging around to every museum in

1368
01:20:30,920 --> 01:20:33,439
Speaker 1: the world and every now and then, but I don't

1369
01:20:33,439 --> 01:20:35,920
Speaker 1: repeat it. Usually I just look at something, go no,

1370
01:20:36,200 --> 01:20:39,080
Speaker 1: and onto the next. Um, what's the name of the

1371
01:20:39,120 --> 01:20:44,520
Speaker 1: Twitter account from your art critic? A d A baby

1372
01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:50,320
Speaker 1: art critic. That's hilarious hobby that now I know what

1373
01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:52,120
Speaker 1: you do for fun. That is a good hobby. So

1374
01:20:52,120 --> 01:20:54,880
Speaker 1: so let's talk about within the world of startups and

1375
01:20:54,960 --> 01:20:58,240
Speaker 1: venture investing, what are you most optimistic about and what

1376
01:20:58,280 --> 01:21:02,360
Speaker 1: do you least optimistic we're most pessimistic about. Well, I

1377
01:21:02,400 --> 01:21:06,240
Speaker 1: am still very optimistic about venture capital. Um. I think

1378
01:21:06,360 --> 01:21:09,360
Speaker 1: it's the most effective way to deploy capital that man

1379
01:21:09,400 --> 01:21:13,320
Speaker 1: has ever invented. And I'm incredibly excited that I am

1380
01:21:13,360 --> 01:21:16,240
Speaker 1: able to start deploying it to solving some of the

1381
01:21:16,280 --> 01:21:20,439
Speaker 1: world's most tough problems, which is this, you know, putting

1382
01:21:20,520 --> 01:21:23,679
Speaker 1: venture capital towards these problems has really never been tried

1383
01:21:23,720 --> 01:21:27,200
Speaker 1: at all at scale. So I think my fund, you know,

1384
01:21:27,400 --> 01:21:29,839
Speaker 1: this ability to do this is going to be incredibly exciting,

1385
01:21:29,840 --> 01:21:31,559
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to see what we can do in

1386
01:21:31,600 --> 01:21:33,920
Speaker 1: the world because we've already done so much you know,

1387
01:21:33,960 --> 01:21:37,840
Speaker 1: in the first three years of our existence, what I

1388
01:21:37,880 --> 01:21:42,960
Speaker 1: am the most pessimistic about is immigration. And I think

1389
01:21:42,960 --> 01:21:47,320
Speaker 1: that America's entire competitive advantage used to be, you know

1390
01:21:47,479 --> 01:21:50,559
Speaker 1: that all the smartest people in the world I wanted

1391
01:21:50,600 --> 01:21:53,759
Speaker 1: to come to America, and all the hardest working people

1392
01:21:53,760 --> 01:21:56,080
Speaker 1: in the world wanted to come to America. What is

1393
01:21:56,080 --> 01:21:59,439
Speaker 1: it fift of Silicon Valley c suite. Yeah, yeah, so

1394
01:21:59,479 --> 01:22:03,160
Speaker 1: it's you know, fifty five of all of America's billion

1395
01:22:03,200 --> 01:22:07,439
Speaker 1: dollar startups had an immigrant founder. So this is incredibly important.

1396
01:22:07,479 --> 01:22:11,240
Speaker 1: Immigration is incredibly important to the engine of the American economy.

1397
01:22:11,280 --> 01:22:14,320
Speaker 1: And I see us as a culture sort of becoming

1398
01:22:14,439 --> 01:22:17,519
Speaker 1: less welcoming to these people. Not very smart long term,

1399
01:22:17,640 --> 01:22:21,120
Speaker 1: is not very smart for you know, for for competition reasons.

1400
01:22:21,200 --> 01:22:23,960
Speaker 1: You know, in my opinion, if you walk a thousand

1401
01:22:24,000 --> 01:22:27,120
Speaker 1: miles with your child on your back and you apply,

1402
01:22:27,360 --> 01:22:31,559
Speaker 1: you know your you fit under American asylum laws. Come

1403
01:22:31,600 --> 01:22:34,680
Speaker 1: on in. You're extremely welcome in my country. So you're

1404
01:22:34,680 --> 01:22:36,519
Speaker 1: an American. You know, if you do that, you're an

1405
01:22:36,520 --> 01:22:39,559
Speaker 1: American to me. So I'm onto the assumption that the

1406
01:22:39,560 --> 01:22:44,360
Speaker 1: past three years is a temporary aberration and a setback,

1407
01:22:44,439 --> 01:22:47,240
Speaker 1: and it eventually it will revert to what the prior

1408
01:22:47,320 --> 01:22:49,920
Speaker 1: to d years alike. Although I could be wrong. I

1409
01:22:49,960 --> 01:22:53,040
Speaker 1: hope so, because we aren't an immigrant society, and one

1410
01:22:53,040 --> 01:22:55,479
Speaker 1: of the greatest things about America is our ability to

1411
01:22:55,520 --> 01:23:00,320
Speaker 1: incorporate all these ideas and differences into a tolerance. I DA.

1412
01:23:00,360 --> 01:23:02,200
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any country in the world that

1413
01:23:02,200 --> 01:23:06,200
Speaker 1: has done that as successfully as we have, and it's

1414
01:23:06,240 --> 01:23:09,519
Speaker 1: been a huge advantage to the economy. So to the

1415
01:23:09,520 --> 01:23:12,799
Speaker 1: extent that we are are turning in the opposite direction,

1416
01:23:12,920 --> 01:23:15,360
Speaker 1: our economy is going to get worse, and I very

1417
01:23:15,439 --> 01:23:18,760
Speaker 1: much worry about that. So a recent graduate comes up

1418
01:23:18,760 --> 01:23:21,639
Speaker 1: to you and says their interest in career um, either

1419
01:23:21,680 --> 01:23:24,400
Speaker 1: as a venture capitalist or in a startup. What sort

1420
01:23:24,439 --> 01:23:28,719
Speaker 1: of advice would you give them? Well, I tell them that,

1421
01:23:29,280 --> 01:23:31,040
Speaker 1: you know, I try to find out what they care

1422
01:23:31,080 --> 01:23:33,800
Speaker 1: about most in the world, and I say, do not

1423
01:23:33,960 --> 01:23:38,479
Speaker 1: compromise between that and making money, because you can do both. Um.

1424
01:23:38,520 --> 01:23:41,960
Speaker 1: It's the fundamental premise of my fund that you can,

1425
01:23:42,200 --> 01:23:44,840
Speaker 1: you know, accomplish what you most want to accomplish and

1426
01:23:44,920 --> 01:23:47,439
Speaker 1: make money. And if you don't do that and you

1427
01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:50,000
Speaker 1: just decide that you want to make money, you eventually

1428
01:23:50,120 --> 01:23:54,120
Speaker 1: end up incredibly old and bitter very quickly. I'm often

1429
01:23:54,320 --> 01:23:56,599
Speaker 1: told that I, you know, people seem to think I'm

1430
01:23:56,640 --> 01:23:59,360
Speaker 1: a lot younger than I am, which is always funny

1431
01:23:59,400 --> 01:24:01,120
Speaker 1: to me and I I think the reason is because

1432
01:24:01,120 --> 01:24:03,679
Speaker 1: I still have ideals and that makes you just appear

1433
01:24:03,800 --> 01:24:06,600
Speaker 1: incredibly young to the world. So I it's like some

1434
01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:10,000
Speaker 1: miracle face cream to just have ideals and continue to

1435
01:24:10,040 --> 01:24:13,519
Speaker 1: execute them because most people are giving those up. Huh,

1436
01:24:13,840 --> 01:24:18,160
Speaker 1: that that's the pressing. Um, I'm sorry, I'm meaning it's

1437
01:24:18,160 --> 01:24:20,040
Speaker 1: the pressing to you that most people are giving up

1438
01:24:20,080 --> 01:24:23,320
Speaker 1: their ideals. And our final question, what do you know

1439
01:24:23,360 --> 01:24:26,559
Speaker 1: about the world investing today? I want to say that again,

1440
01:24:26,960 --> 01:24:29,679
Speaker 1: our final question, what do you know about the world

1441
01:24:29,760 --> 01:24:34,080
Speaker 1: of startups and venture capital investing today that you wish

1442
01:24:34,080 --> 01:24:38,400
Speaker 1: you knew? Can I say twenty years ago, fifteen years ago,

1443
01:24:38,439 --> 01:24:42,160
Speaker 1: thirty it's not thirty years ago? No, Um, I mean

1444
01:24:42,280 --> 01:24:45,760
Speaker 1: I went so I'm somewhat late into the industry. So

1445
01:24:46,000 --> 01:24:47,880
Speaker 1: I wish that I had known that women could go

1446
01:24:47,920 --> 01:24:50,559
Speaker 1: into this field, because I would think they weren't allowed.

1447
01:24:51,760 --> 01:24:54,760
Speaker 1: I didn't that that thought didn't cross my mind, you know,

1448
01:24:54,840 --> 01:24:59,240
Speaker 1: because I was a child. So it's it's more that. Um.

1449
01:24:59,280 --> 01:25:01,240
Speaker 1: You know, it's more that if you don't see it,

1450
01:25:01,360 --> 01:25:03,719
Speaker 1: then it doesn't cross your mind that that's a career

1451
01:25:03,760 --> 01:25:06,719
Speaker 1: path for That's interesting. So I think that now there's

1452
01:25:06,720 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 1: all these incredibly amazing women that are inspirations to me

1453
01:25:09,920 --> 01:25:13,120
Speaker 1: and venture capital, like Marymaker, who just reached the first

1454
01:25:13,160 --> 01:25:19,360
Speaker 1: billion dollar venture capital fund. You know, yeah, she started

1455
01:25:19,439 --> 01:25:22,040
Speaker 1: on chop called bond. They just raised a huge fund.

1456
01:25:22,760 --> 01:25:25,479
Speaker 1: And so now it's it's extremely easy for me now

1457
01:25:25,520 --> 01:25:27,920
Speaker 1: to go, oh, I want to be like her. Let

1458
01:25:27,920 --> 01:25:32,320
Speaker 1: me man role models? How important that is? That? That's interesting?

1459
01:25:32,320 --> 01:25:35,040
Speaker 1: I don't I never really thought of that. Um, but

1460
01:25:35,200 --> 01:25:37,800
Speaker 1: I guess it a thing to think about think about

1461
01:25:37,840 --> 01:25:40,320
Speaker 1: because I go, why, I must have been really stupid

1462
01:25:40,320 --> 01:25:42,280
Speaker 1: that it never crossed my mind. But it just it

1463
01:25:42,479 --> 01:25:45,160
Speaker 1: literally didn't. I mean, finance was my main hobby, it

1464
01:25:45,280 --> 01:25:48,240
Speaker 1: was my main love in life, and it never occurred

1465
01:25:48,280 --> 01:25:50,280
Speaker 1: to me that it could be a career. It just

1466
01:25:50,280 --> 01:25:53,800
Speaker 1: just goes to show you that having role models make

1467
01:25:53,840 --> 01:25:57,200
Speaker 1: a big difference, and that's why these things seem to

1468
01:25:57,200 --> 01:26:02,880
Speaker 1: take generations to change. He and spleens um correct. A

1469
01:26:02,920 --> 01:26:05,240
Speaker 1: lot of the man splaining is correct. All right, Well, Sarah,

1470
01:26:05,280 --> 01:26:07,400
Speaker 1: thank you so much. For doing this, We have been

1471
01:26:07,439 --> 01:26:11,559
Speaker 1: speaking with Sarah Cone. She is the managing partner at

1472
01:26:11,640 --> 01:26:15,880
Speaker 1: Social Impact Capital. If you enjoy this conversation well, be

1473
01:26:15,920 --> 01:26:17,439
Speaker 1: sure to look Up an Inch or Down an Inch

1474
01:26:17,840 --> 01:26:20,360
Speaker 1: on Apple iTunes, where you can see any of our

1475
01:26:20,360 --> 01:26:24,160
Speaker 1: previous three hundred or so conversations that we've had over

1476
01:26:24,160 --> 01:26:28,879
Speaker 1: the past five plus years. We love your comments, feedback

1477
01:26:29,000 --> 01:26:33,439
Speaker 1: and suggestions right to us at m IB podcast at

1478
01:26:33,439 --> 01:26:36,880
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot net. Check out my weekly column you can

1479
01:26:36,880 --> 01:26:40,559
Speaker 1: find that at Bloomberg dot com slash Opinion. Sign up

1480
01:26:40,680 --> 01:26:44,280
Speaker 1: for my daily list of reads that's at Rit Halts

1481
01:26:44,320 --> 01:26:48,000
Speaker 1: dot com. Follow me on Twitter at rit Halts. I

1482
01:26:48,080 --> 01:26:50,400
Speaker 1: would be remiss if I did not thank the crack

1483
01:26:50,479 --> 01:26:53,800
Speaker 1: staff that helps me put together these conversations each week.

1484
01:26:54,360 --> 01:26:59,000
Speaker 1: Karlin O'Brien is our audio engineer. Michael Boyle is my producer.

1485
01:26:59,760 --> 01:27:03,439
Speaker 1: My holbat Nick is my head of research. I'm Barry Riholts.

1486
01:27:03,560 --> 01:27:06,960
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio

1487
01:27:12,640 --> 01:27:12,680
Speaker 1: m