The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Dan Siroker is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Limitless, a personalized AI powered by what you've seen, said, or heard. For his latest funding round, Dan took an unusual approach resulting in 1,000 preliminary offers with valuations as high as $1BN — and resulted in a $350 million Series A valuation. Prior to founding Limitless, Dan was the Founder of Optimizely, scaling the company to $120M in ARR and raising from some of the best in the business including Peter Fenton @ Benchmark who led the Series A. In Today's Episode with Dan Siroker We Discuss: 1. Serial Entrepreneurs are More Investable: Why would Dan always prefer to invest in serial entrepreneurs than first time founders? How do serial entrepreneurs approach team building and size of team differently? How do serial entrepreneurs approach focus and prioritisation differently? How do serial entrepreneurs approach pivoting differently to first time founders? What is Dan's advice from Elad Gil and YC's Dalton Caldwell on when to pivot? 2. The Secret to Fundraising: How to Speak VC Should founders always be raising? What is the right thing to respond to investors when they reach out to you outside of a round? What question are investors really asking when they ask, how much are you raising? How should founders approach valuation, what should they say when they are asked for it? How can founders create urgency in a funding round? What works? What does not? 3. How to Raise the Best Funding Round: Should founders engage with associates or only worth it with decision-makers? Why should founders always choose the investor who is on the early arc of their career? Why was Dan's first meeting with Peter Fenton the best meeting he has ever had with a VC? Why does Dan believe that taking the highest price is never the right answer? To what extent does having a true Tier 1 VC lead your round, change the game for your company? 4. Dan Siroker: AMA: How did becoming a father change the way that Dan operates? Why is Dan scared we might see technological progress stall for the next 20 years? Why did Dan not do YC the second time around with Limitless? What is the story of how Optimizely nearly bought Amplitude?

Tom Blomfield is a Group Partner at YC. Before YC, Tom founded two unicorns in the UK. He was co-founder of Monzo (most recently valued at $5BN), one of the first challenger banks in the UK. Monzo raised more than £1bn and counts 15% of the UK population as customers. Before Monzo, Tom founded GoCardless (YC S11), an online payments processor, most recently valued at $2.1BN. In Today's Episode with Tom Blomfield We Discuss: 1. From Founding Two Unicorns to YC Partner: Does Tom believe that all great founders show signs of exceptionalism early? What does Tom know now that he wishes he had known when he started his first company? Why did Tom decide now was the right time to switch from founder to investor with YC? 2. The YC Application Process: How it Works: How do the YC partners select which companies are accepted vs rejected? What specifically does Tom look for in the problem the company is looking to solve? In the interview, what are the signals of the highest quality founders? What questions does Tom always want to ask in YC interviews with founders? 3. The YC Batch: How it Works: How do the YC partners work with the 25 companies in their batch? What is the interaction? What are the single biggest mistakes companies make while in YC? What are the biggest pieces of advice YC gives founders on fundraising approaching demo day? How do the best YC founders fundraise and use demo day? How do the most nervous fundraise? How are YC partners measured in terms of their success and effectiveness? 4. AI: Consumer vs Enterprise/ Infrastructure vs Application Layer: Does Tom believe there is money to be made investing in infrastructure layer models today? Why is the commoditization of foundation models the best outcome for society? Why is Tom most excited about the application layer for the next wave of AI? What are the most exciting opportunities in consumer AI that are wide open today? 20VC: Behind the Scenes at Y Combinator: The Interview Process | What the Best & Worst Do in the Program | Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | Why the Value is in Application Layer AI with Tom Blomfield

Larry Shurtz is the Chief Sales Officer at Genesys where he oversees the company's global go-to-market strategies, including commercial activities, field sales and partner ecosystem operations. Larry has nearly three decades of experience in the software industry, from leading Confluent to delivering more than 60% revenue growth and doubling customer count as Chief Revenue Officer, to scaling a 1,300-person team at Salesforce to $2.1 billion in revenue. In Today's Episode with Larry Shurtz We Discuss: From Robotics Student to $2.1BN Sales Leader at Salesforce How did Larry lead 1300 people to $2.1 billion revenue at Salesforce? What were his takeaways? What did Larry learn about building vertical sales playbooks at Salesforce? Which framework did Larry learn at Salesforce that he still uses at Genesys? Mastering Sales Leadership What are the biggest mistakes sales leaders make on prioritization today? What are Larry's "3 Rs" to master prioritization? What does Larry think are the most common reasons fast-scaling teams break in sales? Has Larry ever caused bad culture in a sales team? What did he learn from the experience? Does Larry think sales is more art or science? How does Larry blend the two? Building the Best Sales Team How does Larry structure the hiring process for a new sales hire? How big should your recruitment team be? What are Larry's most commonly asked questions when interviewing? What were Larry's biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn from them? How does Larry structure the comp? How does he get it right? What do most new hires care about today? The Onboarding: The Dos & Don'ts How does Larry structure the onboarding process? Why does Larry onboard new hires with big customers? What is the buddy system? How does Larry tell if a new hire is bad? What are the biggest red flags to look out for? What does Larry mean when he says "You can make all the physical errors, you cannot make mental errors?" Does Larry agree with Max Levchin @ Affirm that "When there's doubt, there's no doubt?"

Tom Hulme is a Managing Partner of GV (Google Ventures), and leads the European team. Today, GV has over $10BN in AUM and Tom has led investments in Lemonade.com (IPO), Snyk, Secret Escapes, Blockchain.com, GoCardless, Blue Vision Labs (exited to Lyft), and Currency Cloud (exited to Visa). Prior to joining venture full-time, Tom was one of Europe's most successful angel investors with a 5x DPI track record and 20x+ TVPI. In Today's Episode with Tom Hulme We Discuss: 1. Lessons from a 24x TVPI Angel Track Record: What are Tom's biggest lessons from his biggest winners angel investing? What are Tom's biggest takeaways from the 0's in his angel track record? What is the biggest advice Tom would give to angel investors starting out today? What are the single biggest mistakes Tom sees angel investors make today? 2. The Four Pillars of Venture Capital: What does Tom believe are the four key components of being successful as a VC? Why does Tom describe VC as "being a founder on anti-depressants"? How does Tom categorise the three different types of investors that exist? Sourcing, selecting, servicing: What is Tom best at and what is he worst at? 3. The Conventional Wisdom in Venture That is Not True: Why does Tom believe it is BS that you should never sell your winners? Why does Tom believe he has never had complete conviction in any of the companies he invests in? Why does Tom believe the "everything has to be a fund returner mindset" is BS? Why naivety doesn't lead to great founders? Why employees at rocketships are the best founders? 4. AI: Foundation Models, Generative AI, The Incumbents: Where Does the Value Go: Does Tom believe there is money to be made investing in foundation models? Why does Tom liken investing in foundation models to investing in power stations? Where does Tom believe there is value in the application layer? Why does Tom think that generative AI is largely a sustaining innovation? Why does Tom think Microsoft will win the next wave of AI? Who else is well-positioned? Why does Tom believe there is a correlation between those that fear monger around AGI and those that need funding for their businesses?

Sarah Tavel is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful and renowned venture firms in the world. At Benchmark, Sarah has led rounds in Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Medely, Rekki, Glide, Cambly and more. Prior to Benchmark, Sarah was a Partner at Greylock Partners. Before Greylock, Sarah was the first 30 employees at Pinterest. Sarah joined Pinterest in 2012 after co-leading the Series A investment while at Bessemer Venture Partners. In Today's Episode with Sarah Tavel We Discuss: 1. Becoming a GP at The Most Renowned Firm in Venture: How did the process of Sarah joining Benchmark start? How did it progress? What was it that convinced her to leave Greylock and join Benchmark? What does Sarah believe makes Peter Fenton the world-class investor that he is? What does Sarah know now that she wishes she had known when she started in venture? 2. Foundation Models: Is it All Going to Zero: Will foundation models be commoditised? Will 99% of the funding going to foundation models go to 0? How does Sarah view the future of open vs closed source? Why does Sarah believe that all frontier models of the future will be closed-source? Why does the business model of foundation models remind Sarah of the food delivery business? 3. Application Layer: Where $BN Companies Will Be Built: Why does Sarah believe that sustainable value-creating companies will be in the application layer? How does Sarah determine between a wrapper on top of ChatGPT and true product value? Are enterprises opening real budgets for AI today or are we still in experimental budgets? How does Sarah think about how AI companies differentiate when there are so many in the same space of customer service, sales team support etc etc? Why does Sarah believe that it is rational to pay more for these companies when investing in them? What does Sarah mean when she says the future is "selling the work and not the tools"? 4. Inside Benchmark: How the Best Do Venture: What is the one rule that Benchmark is willing to break when doing a deal? Why do Benchmark aim to be the best recruitment firm in the world? Why do Benchmark not agree with the concept of reserves? In a case where Benchmark have lost, why did they lose? How did they change their approach?

Eric Glyman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ramp, America's fastest growing corporate card and finance automation platform. Under Eric's leadership, Ramp has raised more than $1 billion in financing, with a valuation of $8.1 billion. Prior to Ramp, Eric co-founded Paribus, a price-tracking app to help consumers save money (acquired by Capital One). Ramp recently raised another $150 million series D round co-led by Founders Fund and Khosla ventures, with a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion. Keith Rabois is a Managing Director @ Khosla Ventures and one of the most respected venture investors of the last decade. Keith has led investments in Stripe, Faire, Ramp, Affirm and many more. Prior to Khosla Ventures, Keith was General Partner at Founders Fund, where he led investments for Ramp, Trade Republic, and Aven. In Today's Episode with Eric Glyman and Keith Rabois We Discuss: Behind Ramp's Partnership with Founders Fund & Khosla Ventures How did the first Founders Fund deal come to be? How was the first meeting? What does Keith mean when he says Ramp has the "secret sauce" to be successful? What are 1-2 things Keith thinks Eric is world-class at? What are 1-2 things Eric thinks Keith is world-class at? How did the latest Khosla deal come to happen? Ramp: The Fastest Executing Company on the Planet. How is Eric so good at executing at Ramp? What is his biggest advice to founders on speed of execution? What are Eric's biggest challenges in the next 12 months at Ramp? Why does Keith believe momentum is crucial for early stage startups? What are some easy ways founders can build momentum? How does Eric think AI will accelerate Ramp and the world of finance? Leadership Lessons From the Best Founders What are Keith's biggest lessons from Brian Chesky @ Airbnb? What did Keith learn from Jack Dorsey @ Square about leadership? What does Eric think founders today should build? What should they not build? What did Eric learn from Keith on how founders should measure time & progress? Hiring & Team Management How did Ramp build a solid talent team? What did they do differently? Does Keith & Eric believe it is better to hire externally or promote internally? What is the right balance? Does Keith agree founders should hire & get out the way or micromanage? How many direct reports does Keith think is enough?

Mark Suster is a General Partner @ Upfront Ventures, one of LA's leading early-stage venture firms. Prior to leading Upfront, Mark was a serial entrepreneur having founded two software companies, selling both with the last selling to Salesforce.com. Mark is also a prolific writer and one of his favourite pieces, Lines Not Dots is one for the ages. In Today's Episode With Mark Suster We Discuss: 1. From Serial Entrepreneur to Leading VC: How Mark made his way into the world of venture having sold two prior companies? What does Mark know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture? What advice does Mark give to all young investors starting their career today? 2. How to Raise a Fund: What are Mark's single biggest lessons from 15 years of fundraising for funds? Should managers look to institutions or friends and family first? Are LPs sheep? Do institutions anchoring funds lead to many others jumping in? What is the right amount to do a first close on? What is the right way to message the first close? What are the single biggest mistakes Mark sees managers make when raising? 3. Exit Environments are F******: What Now: Why are IPOs not the liquidity events that everyone thinks they are? When does Mark believe IPO windows will open again? How does Mark evaluate the M&A landscape today? With little M&A and IPO activity, why does Mark believe private equity will step into their shoes? With the change to private equity being the buyer, what does that mean for the sale price of the assets? What does that mean for the future of venture returns? 4. Trump, The Woke Left and The World Around Us: Is Mark concerned about the potential of Trump winning the election? Would Mark rather a Biden administration as the alternative? Why is Mark so worried by the woke left? Does Mark always believe there has been this deep-seated anti-semitism in the US education system? What can be done to remove this from our education system?

Arthur Mensch is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mistral AI. Since its inception in May 2023, Mistral has raised over $520M in funding from investors like Andreeseen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Microsoft with a current valuation of $2 billion. Before founding Mistral, Arthur was a research scientist at DeepMind, one of the leading AI institutions in the world. In Today's Episode with Arthur Mensch We Discuss: From Models to Team Building: Arthur's Greatest Lessons at DeepMind What were Arthur's biggest lessons from his time at DeepMind? How did DeepMind shape how Arthur built Mistral? Why does Arthur believe smaller teams are better for AI? Why did Arthur decide to leave DeepMind and start Mistral? Scaling Mistral to $2 Billion Valuation Within a Year What made Mistral 7B so successful? What did Arthur learn from the model release? What are the biggest barriers at Mistral today? How does Arthur balance the sales and research teams at Mistral? What does Arthur know now that he wishes he had known when he started Mistral? How to Win in AI: Open Source, Cost, & Adoption Why did Arthur open-source some models? Why did he close some? How quickly will the cost of compute go down? Why does Arthur believe marginal costs will not go to zero? How will open-sourcing LLMs affect the marginal cost? Does Arthur think open source is ready for enterprise adoption? What questions should enterprises be asking about AI adoption today? What are the biggest challenges to AI adoption today? The Future of LLMs What does Arthur think are the largest bottlenecks of model quality today? Does Arthur think future models will be more generalized or vertical-focused? What does Arthur think about the future of commoditization in models? Why is Arthur optimistic about the profitability of the application layer of AI? How should models differentiate themselves today?

Adam Gross is one of the masters of product-led growth (PLG). Most recently, Adam was Vimeo's interim CEO. Before Vimeo, Adam was CEO of Heroku, which he joined after selling his startup, Cloudconnect in 2013. Additionally, Adam has held executive leadership roles at Salesforce and Dropbox, and has been an active angel investor & advisor to companies, including Buildkite, Cribl, and Tailscale. In Today's Episode with Adam Gross We Discuss: PLG Tactics from Dropbox, Heroku and Salesforce: What were Adam's biggest takeaways from his time at Salesforce? How did it shape his growth mindset? What did Adam learn about customer acquisition at Dropbox? What would Adam most like to change about growth today? Product-Led Growth: The Fundamentals: What is growth? What is it not? What do founders get wrong about growth? Why does Adam think PLG is not for everybody? What do most great PLG businesses have in common? How are value propositions segmented in PLG? How can startups transition from individual to enterprise clients? Why does Adam think startups doing paid acquisition sub $100M aren't actually PLG? The Secrets to Optimizing Growth Channels: What are the most common reasons fast-growing companies plateau? How does Adam advise founders on diversifying channels? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when scaling into enterprise? How should startups do effective product marketing in horizontal products? What is emotive & strategic marketing? How should startups balance both? How Angel Investing Changes How You View Companies: What are Adam's top 3 pieces of advice for founders? What does Adam mean when he says you are either hiring a poet or a librarian? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring? What was Adam's biggest investment miss? What did he learn from it?

Rujul Zaparde is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zip, the world's leading Intake-to-Pay solution, adopted by leading enterprises and startups including Snowflake, Canva, Airtable, Webflow, and others. In 2023, Zip raised $100 million in a Series C round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Before founding Zip, Rujul was a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator and a product manager at Airbnb. In Today's Episode with Rujul Zaparde We Discuss: From Airbnb PM to $1.5BN Founder How did Rujul's first company fail? What were his lessons? What did Rujul learn from his time at Airbnb? How did Rujul come to co-found Zip? What was the aha moment? What did Rujul wish he'd known when he started Zip? Standing Out in a Hyper-Competitive Market Why did Rujul pick such a competitive market? How did they stand out? Does Rujul think founders should focus on pain points or platform solutions on day one? What is Rujul's advice to founders who are in the discovery process? Does Rujul agree with Trae Stephens @ Founders Fund that serial entrepreneurs doing B2B enterprise SaaS are wasting their talent? The Biggest Lessons Scaling Zip to $1.5BN Valuation Which key moment caused Zip to accelerate? Why does Rujul think speed is the most important element in startups? Why does Rujul not believe in design partners? Why does Rujul believe repeatability is the most important thing when pitching? Does Rujul think AI will destroy outbound sales? How to Hire & Manage Teams What was Rujul's "rude awakening" building a sales team? What was Rujul's biggest hiring mistake? What did he learn from it? How does Rujul decide where to focus his attention and resources? Why does Rujul believe younger managers are more creative?

Daniel Dines is the Co-Founder @ UiPath, one of the most incredible journeys in startups. For 10 years, UiPath was a bootstrapped company that scaled to just $500K in revenue. Then it all changed, product market fit became obvious and the rest is history. The company went on to raise funding from Sequoia, Accel, Kleiner Perkins and more. Today, the company is worth over $10BN, listed on the NASDAQ and does $1BN+ in revenue. In Today's Episode with Daniel Dines We Discuss: 1. From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man: How would Daniel's parents and teachers have described the young Daniel? How did Daniel first learn to code? Why was his first programming job on $300 per month the best? How did Daniel learn English by playing bridge with his friends? What was the a-ha moment for Daniel with UiPath? 2. Becoming a Billionaire: The Mental Journey: What does Daniel mean when he says everyone is a prisoner of their own mind? How does Daniel reflect on his own relationship to money? How did having absolutely nothing impact Daniel's relationship to risk? Why does Daniel think that he does not really experience or feel happiness? 3. 10 Years to $500K ARR: The Miracle Bootstrapping Journey: After 10 years, UiPath had just $500K in ARR, what was the one single moment that changed everything in 2014? How did raising the seed round change everything for Daniel? How did it change his approach to operating? What was the impact of having Sequoia invest? Does it change the game? Why did Daniel say no to them the first time they tried for the Series B? 4. Journey to a $10BN Public Company: The Crucible Moments: How did the company almost go bust when it spent $400M against a plan of $150M in 2021? What is the single proudest moment Daniel has of the 19 year journey with UiPath? What have been Daniel's biggest management lessons in scaling UiPath to $1BN in ARR? Knowing all that Daniel does today, what would he have done differently about the UiPath journey?

Girish Mathrubootham is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, India's first SaaS company to list on NASDAQ. Today, Freshworks has over $596M in ARR with a $5.27BN market cap, with investors like Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, and CapitalG. Girish is also a founding member of SaaSBOOMi, Asia's largest community of founders and product builders, and has invested in over 60 startups. On top of that, Girish is also the Founder of Together Fund, a $150M fund focusing on Indian B2B companies going global from day 1. In Today's Episode with Girish Mathrubootham We Discuss: From Online Forum to the Founding of a $5BN Company: How did a horrible customer service experience prompt Girish to start Freshworks? What was the aha moment? What were Girish's biggest challenges founding Freshwork in 2010? How was building the first product? What worked? What didn't work? Biggest Lessons on Product, Pricing and People Scaling to $5.2BN: Why does Girish believe Indian companies have to win globally before winning India? What were Girish's biggest mistakes scaling Freshworks? What were his lessons? Why does Girish believe starting high and going down never works in software? When does Girish think is the best time to build the second product? How did Freshworks lose against Slack? What did he learn from the experience? The Biggest Lessons to Becoming the Best Leader: How has Girish's leadership style changed over time? What were Girish's biggest hiring mistakes? What was Girish's biggest challenge in building culture during COVID? What is one piece of advice Girish believes every CEO should follow? How India Will Become a Global Player in Tech, AI and Football: Why does Girish believe now is the time for India tech? What are the most common misconceptions of India tech? What traits does Girish look for in founders he invests in? What was Girish's biggest investment mistake? What did he learn from it?

Vickie Peng is a Product Partner at Sequoia and the co-creator of Arc, their company-building immersion programme for pre-seed and seed stage founders. Prior to Sequoia, Vickie was a product manager at Polyvore (acquired by Yahoo for $200M) and Instagram, where she grew SMB advertising from $200M to $1BN. In Today's Episode with Vickie Peng We Discuss: Lessons from 15 Years in Product How did Vickie make her way into the world of product? How did Vickie turn a small side business into a massive revenue machine at TrialPay? How did Vickie scale Instagram SMB ads to $1BN? What were her takeaways? What was Vickie's business model at Polyvore that eventually led to the $200M acquisition by Yahoo? Lessons from Scaling 100+ Companies in Sequoia What does Vickie believe are the biggest mistakes early stage founders make when telling stories? Which 2 components does Vickie believe every great product mission should include? How should pre-product-market fit founders set their north star metric? Perfecting Product Strategy What was Vickie's biggest product mistake? What were her lessons? Why does Vickie think the best product people build less product? What is Vickie's advice to product leaders starting their first day on the job? What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring product teams? Product-Market Fit Masterclass Why does Vickie believe product-market fit is a journey not a destination? What are the biggest reasons founders fail to get product-market fit? What are the 3 types of product-market fit? How does Vickie advise founders to differentiate themselves in competitive markets? What is Vickie's framework for competing against incumbents?

Sam Altman is the CEO @ OpenAI, the company on a mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI is one of the fastest-scaling companies in history with a valuation of $90BN and $2BN+ in revenue. Prior to OpenAI, Sam was the President and CEO @ Y Combinator and made angel investments in the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Pinterest, Asana and more. Brad Lightcap is the COO @ OpenAI and the man responsible for the incredible scaling of sales, GTM, partnerships and business to today being over $2BN in revenue. Before OpenAI, Brad was an investor at Y Combinator, where he met Sam and before that led finance and operations initiatives at Dropbox. In Today's Episode with Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap We Discuss: 1. The Partnership: The Most Powerful Double Act in Tech: How did 25 people rejecting OpenAI's CFO positions 6 years ago, lead to Brad joining OpenAI before Sam even did? What did he see that the world did not? What does Brad think is Sam's biggest superpower that the world does not know? What does Sam think it Brad's biggest superpower that the world does not now? How do decisions get made between Brad and Sam? How do they decide what to delegate vs what not to? What is the most recent disagreement they had? How did they resolve it? 2. The Next 12 Months for OpenAI: Bottlenecks, Compute and Commoditisation: What are the core bottlenecks facing OpenAI in the next 12 months? How does Sam believe we solve the fundamental problem of compute? What is the single biggest barrier to the quality of models improving? What is the end state for the model landscape? Will models become commoditised? 3. OpenAI: The Fastest Scaling Company in History: What has been the secret to how OpenAI has scaled to $2BN in revenue in 24 months? Why does Sam believe that he is "not a great operator"? What drives this thinking? What have been the first things to break in the scaling of OpenAI? What do Brad and Sam know now about the scaling that they wish they had known at the start? Why does OpenAI lean towards hiring more experienced people in the team? 4. How to Invest and Operate in a World of OpenAI: What single question can founders ask that will reveal if they will be steamrolled by OpenAI? Does Sam believe huge numbers of companies will be steamrolled by OpenAI? For investors, is there money to be made investing in the application layer of AI today? What question should all businesses be asking about how to adopt and use AI in their business? 5. Sam Altman: AMA: What have been the single biggest lessons Sam has learned from the founders he has invested in? Which founders has he learned the most from? What did he learn from each? What is Sam most concerned about in the world today? Why what? What unexpected traits or characteristics does Sam most look for in the founders he invests in? Why does Sam say that he is not happy but he is grateful?

Sam Blond is the former CRO at Brex, where he led the company from near $0-$400M in ARR and a $12.5B valuation. Before Brex, Sam was VP of Sales at Zenefits, where he led the company from $0-$70M ARR in 2 years and a $4.5B valuation. Sam joined Founders Fund as a Partner in 2022 and recently left to focus more on operating. In Today's Episode with Sam Blond We Discuss: 1. Lessons From Scaling Brex to $400M ARR & Zenefits to $70M ARR: What are the secrets that very few people know, that led to the success of Brex and Zenefits? What was the single worst sales investment Brex made? What was the best? What are Sam's biggest tips to people picking the rocketship they will join? 2. Who, What and When to Hire: When is the right time to hire your first sales rep? Should the founder be the one to create the sales playbook? What is the right profile for the first sales hire? Does it matter if the new hire has domain experience? Why does Sam always advocate to hire through network and not recruiters? 3. How to Hire the Best Sales Reps: What are the questions Sam always asks in interviews with sales hires? Does Sam do case studies with candidates? What is he looking for? What are the biggest green and red flags a candidate can show in an interview process? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring sales teams? 4. How to Have the Best Performing Sales Team: What are the three ways to measure the success of a rep in the first 30-60 days? Why does Sam believe most startups are doing outbound wrong? What should they change? Why does Sam believe demand gen is the bottleneck for all companies? What can be done to solve the demand gen challenge? How does outbound change in a world of AI?

Kevin Ryan is one of the leading serial entrepreneurs and investors in New York. Previously he co-founded MongoDB, Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, Zola, Nomad Health, Pearl Health, and was the CEO of DoubleClick (Acquired by Google for $3.1B). Today, Kevin is the founder and CEO of AlleyCorp, a venture capital firm that incubates and invests in transformative companies in healthcare, diversified tech, robotics, and impact. Just yesterday, Alleycorp announced their $250M fund, their first ever external capital. In Today's Episode with Kevin Ryan We Discuss: Early Signs of Entrepreneurship How did Kevin's early life shape his career? How would his parents and teachers describe him? Does Kevin agree that successful entrepreneurs always show signs early? What does Kevin think about luck vs. skill? Why does Kevin think that most things are out of your control as an entrepreneur? Lessons from Founding 10+ Companies Worth $27BN Does Kevin agree the best CEOs are also the best fundraisers? What were Kevin's biggest lessons from scaling DoubleClick from 20 to 2000 employees? What was Kevin's a-ha moment behind Business Insider? What was the reason behind its success? Why does Kevin believe the best founders are always in unfamiliar fields? Incubating World's Best Companies How does Kevin allocate resources between incubations vs. investments? What are the biggest commonalities between successful companies at AlleyCorp? Is Kevin a market-led or people-led investor? What does Kevin think is the most important element in achieving product-market fit? What was Kevin's biggest miss on selecting founders? What were his takeaways? Current State of Venture Why does Kevin believe venture is more competitive now than ever before? What does Kevin know now that wish he'd known when he started investing? Does Kevin agree rich investors make better investors? Why does Kevin not care about ownership? Does Kevin agree with Doug Leone that venture has transitioned from a high boutique margin industry to a low margin commoditised industry? Does Kevin agree with Peter Fenton that price is a mental trap?

Basti Lehmann is the co-founder and former CEO of Postmates, the on-demand delivery service that raised over $900M from the likes of Tiger Global, Founders Fund, Spark Capital and Andreesen Horowitz. Following Uber's $2.65BN acquisition in 2020, Basti founded TipTop, a platform for fast tech sales which Marc Andreesen led the $20M seed round for. In Today's Episode with Basti Lehmann We Discuss: From US Immigrant to Billion Dollar Founder How did Basti start his career hacking AT&T? How did early hardships shape Basti's work ethic? What were Basti's biggest challenges building Postmates? Lessons from Raising $900M How did Basti raise $20M from Marc Andreesen? How does Basti select which VCs to work with? Why does Basti think 99% of VCs are sheep? Why does Basti think great VCs add no value? Why does Basti think having to educate investors is a massive red flag? Selling Postmates for $2.65BN Why did Basti sell Postmates to Uber? How did the acquisition happen? Was there anything Basti would have done differently? What does Basti think makes Dara Khosrowshahi a great CEO? What is Basti's biggest advice to founders on acquisitions? Future of AI: Startups or Incumbents? What does Basti think is the biggest challenge of LLMs today? Why does Basti think inference computing will be the future of AI? Why does Basti think incumbents can be replaced? Why does Basti think the biggest companies are being born today?

Mario Schlosser is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Oscar Health. The public company that went public with a market cap of $7.1BN. Following a tumultuous time in the markets, their stock price dropped 94%. Today, the company has rebounded and has a market cap of $3.2BN with an astonishing $5.8BN of revenues. Before co-founding Oscar, Mario also co-founded the largest social gaming company in Latin America. In Today's Episode with Mario Schlosser We Discuss: 1. From German Middle-Class to Public Company Founder: How did Mario make his way into the world of tech and come to co-found Oscar with Josh Kushner? Does Mario agree with Jensen Huang that "we should all have lower expectations"? What does Mario know now that he wishes he had known when he started Oscar? 2. Why Did Oscar Tank 94% in the Public Markets: What was the core reason why Oscar tanked 94% in the markets? What would Mario have done differently knowing all he knows now about public markets? Does Mario regret going public? What are the biggest pros and cons? 3. The Mental Challenge of a 94% Market Cap Decline: How did Mario mentally deal with the company being down 94%? What does he say to himself in the truly hard times? How did Mario use his co-founder, a coach and his family, to get through the really bad times? What are Mario's experiences like with anti-depressants? What worked? What did not? 4. Firing Yourself as CEO: Why did Mario decide to step aside as CEO? What was the decision-making process? On reflection, does Mario think he was a good CEO? Where was he good? Where was he bad? What are the biggest management pieces of advice that Mario thinks are BS?

Trae Stephens is a Partner at Founders Fund, one of the world's leading funds where he has worked with some of the best and backed the likes of Palmer Luckey with Oculus and Ryan Peterson @ Flexport since the very early days. Trae is also Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril Industries, a defense technology company focused on autonomous systems, and Co-founder of Sol, a next-generation wearable e-reader. Previously, Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he was also an integral part of the product team, leading the design and strategy for new product offerings. In Today's Episode with Trae Stephens We Discuss: 1. From Hustling into Georgetown to Peter Thiel Ushering You into VC: What is Trae's story of how he got into Georgetown University, despite being rejected the first time? How did Trae make his way into the world of VC? How did Peter Thiel recruit him to Founders Fund? What advice did Brian Singerman give Trae in his first week in VC? Why is it so important? 2. How the Best Venture Firm in the World Invests: Decision-Making Process: Why do Founders Fund not have partner meetings? What is the investment decision-making process? Why does more process lead to mediocre outcomes? Competitive Deals: Why does Trae believe the most competitive deals are always the worst? What do Founders Fund do to specifically avoid the "herd mentality"? Upside Maximisation: Why does no one at Founders Fund care about "downside protection"? How do the team approach scenario planning and upside maximisation? 3. Do VCs Really Add Value: Why does Trae think putting VCs on a board for "value add" is total BS? Are there any cases in which Trae believes the VC can really move the needle for a company? Why does Trae believe venture would be better if it were just operator investors? Why does Trae believe platform approaches to VC value add is BS? 4. The Future of VC: Who and How to Win: How did being an operator at the same time as investing, make Trae a better investor? Why does Trae believe that vertical investing is BS and generalised is better? How does Trae favour; market, product and people? Will Trae back a founder when he hates the idea? What have been Trae's biggest lessons from his biggest hits and biggest misses in 10 years?

Billy Hult is Chief Executive Officer of Tradeweb Markets (Nasdaq: TW), as Billy puts it, they are the "electronic interface that connects Citadel and Goldman". They are also one of the most under the radar but incredible businesses of the last 20 years. Through no glitz acquisitions or specific moments, TradeWeb has compounded organic growth for the last 27 years to today, with a market cap of $22BN. In Today's Episode with Billy Hult: 1. From Betting Shop Worker to Public Company CEO: How would Billy's teachers and parents have described the young Billy? Why does Billy think it is so important to have a hard first job when growing up? What does Billy know now that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. What it Takes to be a World-Leading CEO: How does Billy define the role of the CEO? What are the core tenets? What has been the single hardest element of CEOship to learn? Does Billy care about being liked? How does that impact his management style? Why does Billy think it is so important for CEOs to make "big bets"? What have been his biggest? 3. Hiring World-Class Teams in 2024: What have been some of Billy's biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn from them? How does Billy weigh IQ vs EQ and hustle? Which wins? Why? Does Billy think this generation of millennials is too soft? What are the single biggest lessons Billy has on when to delegate vs when to retain control? 4. Money, Power and Family: How does Billy approach his relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? Fame, power or money, rank them from 1-3. How does Billy rank them? How does Billy describe his own style of parenting? How has it changed over time?

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the leading venture firms of the last decade with investments in Oculus (acquired by Facebook), Coinbase, and many more. Chris also founded and leads a16z crypto, a division of the firm that he has grown from $300 million in 2018 to more than $7 billion of committed capital. Due to his many successes, Chris was named #1 on the Forbes Midas List in 2022. In Today's Episode with Chris Dixon We Discuss: From Founder to Leading GP in Venture: How did Chris make his way into the world of venture and startups? When did he realize investing was his calling? How did Chris Dixon come to co-found Founder Collective with Dave Frankel and Eric Paley? Lessons from 12 years Investing: What are Chris' biggest lessons from working with Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz? Does Chris agree with Doug Leone, "venture has transitioned from a boutique high margin business to a low margin commoditised industry"? What are the two ways to win in venture? Does Chris agree the best founders don't need their VCs? What is Chris' biggest investing miss? How did it impact his mindset? Are Incumbents Too Big To Be Replaced: What is the biggest problem with open-source internet today? Does Chris think incumbents can be replaced? Why does Chris think AI will strengthen incumbents? Does Chris think OpenAI should be open-sourced? Biggest Challenges in Crypto: What is the biggest misconception of crypto today? Does Chris think speculation is bad for crypto? What would Chris most like to change in the world of crypto? How does Chris think Trump will affect crypto?

David Clark is the CIO of Vencap, one of the leading fund of funds in the venture landscape. David has been at Vencap for 32 years and has been an LP his entire career. In Today's Episode with David Clark We Discuss: 1. From Unemployed Student in Love to Leading LP: How did a girlfriend lead to David taking his first steps into the world of fund investing? What does David know now about fund investing that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. Is Being an LP Harder than Ever Before: Does David agree with Doug Leone, "venture has transitioned from a boutique high margin business to a low margin commoditised industry"? Does David agree with Ryan Akinna @ MIT, "it is harder than ever to be an LP"? Does David think that venture returns will worsen in the coming years? Has the denominator effect for LPs gone? Do LPs have liquidity today? 3. What Makes the Best Performing Funds: What are the single biggest commonalities in managers that did a 3x net DPI fund? Of managers with a 3x net fund, how many had a single company return the fund? How do the best firms do generational transition? How do the best firms take cash off the table and sell part or all of their position? 4. Five Things LPs Hate In Potential VC Investments: What are the two most common reasons David will turn down a manager? How does David feel about the varying fee and carry levels? How does David feel about the compression of deployment times of funds? How does David feel about managers increasing fund size so significantly on every cycle? 5. Fund Sizes, Exits and Concentrating Returns: Why does David believe exit sizes will increase and fund sizes could be even larger? Why does David think that despite the above, the concentration of returns will be even smaller? Is David concerned by the IPO window being largely shut and the increased regulation on M&A?

Bryan Johnson is the founder of Blueprint, the man is at war with death and is mastering longevity. Bryan is on a mission aimed at enhancing human intelligence and being respected by people in the 25th century. Before starting Blueprint, Bryan also founded Braintree (acquired by PayPal for $800M) and OS Fund – a $100M venture capital fund investing in genomics, synthetic biology, and complex systems. In Today's Episode with Bryan Johnson We Discuss: The Philosophy of Don't Die What does Bryan think is the biggest existential threat to humankind? Why does Bryan believe humans are unfit to manage their own affairs? Why does Bryan care about being liked by the 25th century? Does Bryan think society is ready to adapt to immortality? How to Process New Ideas What 3 questions does Bryan ask to test new ideas? How does Bryan combat against his own biases? How does Bryan adapt to change? What has been his most painful experience? Why does Bryan think religion is humanity's most durable technology? The Most Measured Human in the World What did Bryan learn about himself as the most measured human in the world? How does Bryan use algorithms to take care of himself? What has been Bryan's most expensive test? How did Bryan use data to rejuvenate his sexual function? How will tech & AI play a role in human longevity? Health & Parenting Advice How does Bryan raise his children? How does Bryan get perfect sleep every night? What are his tips? What is Bryan's advice to people who think it's too late to start becoming healthy? What health advice does Bryan think is BS?

Jean-Michel Lemieux is one of the OGs of engineering and product having been the CTO at Shopify and the VP Engineering at Atlassian. Jean-Michel helped grow both Shopify and Atlassian from single-product to multi-product companies and led the building of their platforms. In Today's Episode with Jean-Michel Lemieux We Discuss: From band class to Shopify CTO How did Jean-Michel make his way into the world of product? What were Jean-Michel's biggest lessons from his time at Atlassian & Shopify? How are Shopify & Atlassian the same? How are they different? Why does Jean-Michel think Shopify could have been 10x bigger? Building the Perfect Product How does Atlassian & Shopify build movements instead of product? What does Jean-Michel know now that he wishes he had known before he joined Atlassian & Shopify? How does Jean-Michel balance between shipping speed vs. quality? Why does JM think scrums and TDDs are BS? How did his last year at Shopify change his approach in product development? What is a time horizon friction? And how does it impact teams? How to Lead a Product Team: What is micro alignment, and why does Jean-Michel think it is so important? What 3 types of decisions every team makes? What does Jean-Michel think are the most common reasons teams become average? How does he prevent it? What do Jean-Michel think are the most common mistakes CEOs make today? Hiring the Best Product Team: How does Jean-Michel structure the interview process for new product hires? What signals does Jean-Michel look out for when hiring? Why does he believe experience does not matter? What are Jean-Michel's biggest hiring mistakes? What were his lessons? What are 2 of the most common mistakes founders make when hiring a product team?

Gili Raanan is the Founder of Cyberstarts and one of the most successful seed investors ever. In his 19 company portfolio, Gili has invested in a decacorn (Wiz), seven unicorns and had three others acquired. Prior to Cyberstarts, Gili spent over 15 years as a General Partner @ Sequoia Capital investing in some of the world's best cyber security companies. In Today's Episode with Gili Raanan We Discuss: 1. From Founder to World's Best Seed Investor: How did Gili make the move into the world of venture with Sequoia? How did Mike Moritz and Doug Leone recruit him? What was that process like? What are 1-2 of Gili's biggest takeaways from working with Doug and Mike? 2. How to Find and Pick the Best Founders: What did Mike Moritz teach Gili about getting to know founders? Why does Gili look for the pain in the eyes of the founder? What questions does he ask? What are the most common signals of truly exceptional founders, having backed 7 unicorns? Why does Gili believe that both market and product is BS? Why are the founders all that matters? Why does Gili believe that the founder does not have to be a domain expert in a market to create a massive company in that market? 3. What it Takes to be the Best Seed Investor: Why does Gili believe that the best seed investors do not have theses? How important does Gili feel the brand of the VC firm is? What were his biggest lessons on brand from spending 15 years as a General Partner @ Sequoia? Why does Gili believe that the best investors are never happy? When you are happy, you lose. 4. 2021 is Back: Pricing, Uprounds and more Why does Gili believe that the best companies are always expensive and will always be expensive at every round? Why does Gili believe that 2021 pricing and funding is back? Is this a good thing? How does Gili advise founders on how much to raise and what valuation to set with investors? What does Gili believe are the single biggest sins from the zero interest rate environment?

Luca Ferrari is Co-Founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, one of the most incredible but untold success stories in startups. Luca has scaled Bending Spoons to 100M monthly active users, $380M in sales in 2023 and aiming to reach $500M in EBITDA by the end of 2026. The company's products include Evernote, Meetup, Remini, and Splice and their products have now been downloaded more than 500M times. In Today's Episode with Luca Ferrari We Discuss: From McKinsey Associate to $2BN Founder What was Luca like as a child? How would his parents have described him? Why did Luca share his McKinsey salary with his co-founders? What were Luca's biggest lessons from his failed startup? Bootstrapping Bending Spoons Why did Luca decide to bootstrap Bending Spoons? What does Luca think about the EU vs. US startup environment? Why did Luca kill a $7M project? What were his lessons? How did Luca pick his investors? How to Find the Best Talent What are the 3 key traits Luca looks for when picking the best talent? Why does Luca think traditional interview strategies do not work? What tests does Luca conduct for each candidate? What were Luca's biggest hiring mistakes? Mastering Acquisition & Growth How does Luca determine which products to acquire? How does he identify signals? How does Luca approach pricing assets? How does he win every bid? What are Luca's biggest lessons from acquiring Evernote? What key lessons on risk management does Luca wish he'd known 10 years ago? What are Luca's biggest challenges on user acquisition?

Chandra Narayanan is one of the growth and analytics OGs having spent 7 years at Facebook leading analytics for the Facebook App and for Instagram. After Facebook, Chandra became Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia Capital, helping Sequoia, find, select and help the best entrepreneurs in the world. Today, Chandra is the Founder & CEO @ Sundial, building products to help builders make meaningful use of data to fulfill *their* mission. In Today's Episode with Chandra Narayanan 1. From Working on the Weather to Leading Analytics at Facebook: How did Chandra make his way from analyzing weather patterns to leading analytics for Facebook? What does Chandra know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in growth? How did one piece of advice from his manager at Paypal change Chandra's mind forever on "quitting" and when to "quit"? 2. Growth and Analytics 101: What does growth mean to Chandra? What is it? What is it not? When is the right time to hire a growth team/person? What is the right profile for the first growth hires? 3. How to Hire the Best Growth Teams in the World: What are the must-ask questions when hiring for growth? How does Chandra use case studies to determine the quality of a candidate? What does Chandra believe are the four main reasons people go to work? What are the three different types of execs in tech? How do you know when you need each one? 4. Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook and Sequoia: What are 1-2 of Chandra's biggest takeaways from leading analytics at Facebook? What does Chandra believe are the two core skills needed to do analytics well? How can you easily test if someone is good at analytics? How did being Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia change Chandra's perspective on growth?

Joe Lonsdale is the Founder and Managing Partner at 8VC, an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $6 billion in capital. In 2003, he founded Palantir Technologies. Since then, he has founded over a dozen companies, including Addepar, a wealth management platform helping investors manage over $5 trillion, and OpenGov, recently sold for $1.8BN. In Today's Episode with Joe Lonsdale We Discuss: The Making of a Multi-Unicorn Founder: What was Joe like as a child? How would his parents and teachers have described him? What does Joe know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? How does Joe view the importance of luck and skill in success? America's New Dawn: Navigating Frontiers and Accountability What did Joe mean by describing America as a "frontier nation"? How does Joe contrast America's frontiers with Europe's social safety nets? How does Joe propose restoring America using the "scalpel over the sledgehammer" approach? How can America introduce accountability to non-profit institutions? What role do for-profit prisons play? Woke Mind Virus Why does Joe consider the Woke Mind Virus a "Bad Postmodern Religion"? Why does Joe see Elon Musk as a key figure in challenging "woke minds"? Why does Joe believe the education system is a core problem? What needs to change? Is it too late to reverse the current state of "woke mind virus"? TikTok, China, Israel: What does Joe believe is the right solution for TikTok's ownership? To what extent is TikTok a danger to American national security? What does Joe predict will happen to China from here? What needs to change? How does Joe predict the next 24 months for the conflict in Israel and Gaza? Investing Lessons: Wish, Palantir and more What are Joe's biggest takeaways from the failing of Wish? What did Joe learn from the failed project with Lady Gaga? How does Joe reflect on when is the right time to sell? How does Joe reflect on his own relationship to money?

Brendon Cassidy is one of the OG of enterprise sales of the last decade, having advised the likes of Gong.io, Pipedrive, Showpad. Previously Brendon was first Head of Sales at LinkedIn and VP of Sales at Talkdesk. In Today's Episode with Brendon Cassidy We Discuss: 1. From Recruiter to Sales OG and Linkedin's First Head of Sales: How did recruiting prepare Brendon for a career in sales? What impact did the dot-com bubble burst have on his early career? What does Brendon know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in sales? 2. The Sales Playbook and Hiring The Team: How does Brendon define the "sales playbook"? Should the founder be the one to create and execute V1 of the playbook? Should the first sales hire be a rep or a sales leader? When is the right time to make that all-important first sales hire? 3. Why Discovery and Outbound Are Broken Today: Why does Brendon feel discovery is useless in today's sales process? Why does Brendon believe outbound will move under the marketing function? How does AI change the world of outbound sales? Why will no great sales leaders join a company that doesn't have an inbound machine? 4. How to Master Onboarding and Increase Sales Performance: What is the right way to onboard new sales reps? How quickly do you know if a sales rep is not good? What are the signs? What is the right way to measure the effectiveness of sales teams today? What are the biggest mistakes founders make in onboarding sales teams?

Peter Wagner is a Founding Partner of Wing. Peter has led investments in dozens of early-stage companies including Snowflake, Gong, Pinecone, and many others which have gone on to complete IPO's or successful acquisitions. Prior to founding Wing, Peter spent an incredible 14 years at Accel, starting as an associate in 1996 and scaling to Managing Partner, before leaving to start Wing. In Today's Episode with Peter Wagner We Discuss: 1. From Associate to Managing Partner to Founding Partner: How did Peter first make his way into the world of venture as an associate at Accel? How important does Peter believe it is to have early hits in your career as an investor? What is the biggest mistake Peter sees young VCs make today? 2. The Venture Market: What Happens Now: Does Peter agree with Roger Ehrenberg that venture returns will worsen moving forward? How does Peter answer the question of how large asset management venture firms co-exist in a world of boutique seed players also? Does Peter agree with Doug Leone that "venture has transitioned from a high-margin boutique business to a low-margin, commoditized industry? 3. Investing Lessons from 27 Years and Countless IPOs: What have been some of Peter's single biggest investing lessons from 27 years in venture? Why is Peter so skeptical of capital-intensive businesses? Will defense and climate startups suffer the same fate as clean tech did in the 2000s? How does Peter reflect on his own relationship to price? When does it matter? When does it not? What have been Peter's biggest lessons on when to sell positions vs when to hold? What has been Peter's biggest miss? How did it impact his mindset? 4. Building a Firm from Nothing: How was the fundraise process when leaving the Accel machine and raising with Wing? What have been the single hardest elements of building Wing? What did he not expect? What advice does Peter have for someone wanting to start their firm today?

Nicolai Tangen is the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with $1.55 Trn in assets, owning on average, 1.5% of every listed company. Tangen was previously Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer in AKO Capital, which he founded in 2005. Prior to this, Tangen was a partner and senior analyst at Egerton Capital and an equity analyst at Cazenove & Co. In Today's Episode with Nicolai Tangen We Discuss: From Religious Town in Norway to Leading the Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund: What was Nicolai like as a child? How would his parents have described him? Why does Nicolai think that loners have a greater chance/ability to make money? What does Nicolai know now that he wishes he could tell a 20-year-old Nicolai? The Top 10 Questions: 1. US Tech Firm Concentration: Is Nicolai concerned by the concentration of enterprise value in US tech firms? Have incumbents ever been as strong as they are today? 2. Impact of AI: What does Nicolai believe the impact of AI will be on society and productivity? What is his approach to investing in it moving forward? 3. Bitcoin: Why does Nicolai not want to hold Bitcoin? Why does he not understand it? 4. China: What would need to happen for China to be investable? How will the China situation play out? 5. Europe: Does Nicolai believe Europe is so far behind the US? Why? What can we do to improve? 6. Climate Change: How does Nicolai approach investing in climate? What works? What does not? 7. Sam Altman: Would Nicolai invest in Sam's new $7Trn project? What are some of Nicolai's biggest lessons from the time he has spent with Sam? 8. Investment Psychology: How does Nicolai retain a neutral investor psychology? How does he not get too up when doing well and too low when not doing well? 9. Investing Lessons: What are Nicolai's biggest investment hits and misses? What did he learn from them? 10. The Future: Why is Nicolai so optimistic about the future? What is he concerned about? How will we overcome our greatest challenges?

Frank Quattrone is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Qatalyst and served as its CEO from the Firm's founding until January 2016. Over more than four decades, Frank and the teams he has led have advised on more than 600 mergers and acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value over $1 trillion and on more than 350 financings that raised over $65 billion for technology companies worldwide. Frank led the IPOs of Amazon.com, Cisco, Intuit, Netscape, among many others. He advised Apple on its $400 MM acquisition of NeXT (which led to Steve Jobs' return to Apple); Concur on its $8.3B sale to SAP; LinkedIn on its $28.1B sale to Microsoft; Qualtrics on its $8B sale to SAP and Twitch on its $1B sale to Amazon.com. In Today's Episode with Frank Quattrone: 1. Has Regulation Killed M&A: Why does Frank disagree that regulation has killed M&A? What is the real reason why M&A is so down at present? What would impact would a Trump administration have on the M&A environment? What are some of Frank's biggest lessons from 600 prior transactions over dour decades of what happens when an M&A market shuts down? 2. When Will the IPO Window Re-Open: Does Frank agree that the IPO window is currently closed for tech companies? How does this IPO window compare to the dot com bust and 2007? What is needed for the IPO window to re-open? What is the timeline that Frank puts on the IPO window opening again? 3. M&A: How Do Companies Get Bought: What is the process for a company to be bought? What are the single biggest mistakes the seller makes in the process? What do the best buyers and sellers do to get the best price? Does Frank agree with the notion that "companies are bought and not sold"? 4. IPOing Amazing, Selling Linkedin and Qualtrics: What is the story behind, Frank, Bill Gurley, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr pricing the Amazon IPO? How did Linkedin come to be bought by Microsoft? What did that process look like? How did Frank structure an event to ensure that Ryan @ Qualtrics and Bill McDermot @ SAP would meet and lead to the acquisiiton?

Sami Inkinen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Virta Health, the company reversing type 2 diabetes. Before Virta, Sami was the Co-Founder of Trulia, steering the company to a successful IPO and its eventual sale to Zillow Group. Outside of the boardroom, he launched Fat Chance Row, a daring venture to row 2,750 miles across the Pacific, unsupported with his wife, rowing 18 hours straight per day. In Today's Episode with Sami Inkinen: 1. From Farm in Finland to IPO Founder: Relationship to Money How did Sami's humble upbringing on a farm in Finland impact his early mindset and ambition? How does Sami analyze his relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? Why was the two weeks following Trulia's IPO the worst two weeks of his life? 2. The Secret to Marriage: Rowing 2,750 Miles Together: What are some of the biggest lessons on marriage Sami has from spending 45 days rowing the Pacific with only his wife for company? What was their single biggest argument over the 45 days? What did Sami learn from it? Sami worked with his wife, what are the biggest pros and cons of working with your spouse? Would Sami recommend it? What does Sami believe are the core fundamentals that underpin the best marriages? 3. The Secret to Parenting: The Regret of Delegation: What is Sami's biggest regret when it comes to parenting? How does Sami think about what it means to be a great father today? How has that changed? How did Sami's relationship with his wife change when they had kids? 4. Relationship to Identity: Why does Sami believe tieing your identity to the company, as a founder, is so dangerous? How does Sami advise on creating multiple personas to prevent this? Why does Sami believe that all the best founders are addicts to some extent?

Justin is the Founder and Managing Partner of one of the nation's best-performing private equity firms, Shore Capital Partners ("Shore"). Since the firm's inception in 2009, Shore has grown from 4 to over 140 team members managing over $6 billion in AUM, representing 900+ acquired companies and more than 33,000 employees. Shore is also one of the most active private equity firm in the world by deal volume according to PitchBook while continuing to achieve return profiles that rank Shore among the top 1% of private equity firms. Justin is an avid sports fan/investor and is the Alternate Governor for the Phoenix Suns (NBA), Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) and Nashville SC (MLS). In Today's Episode with Justin Ishbia: 1. From Law Student to Founding Shore Capital: How did seeing Justin's father operate impact how he thinks about building Shore today? What does he know now that he wishes he had known when he started Shore? How important a role does luck play in success? How has his mindset changed on this? 2. How to Make Top 1% PE Returns: Why does Justin see private equity done well like "using a flashlight in a dark room"? What are the top 3 elements that Justin looks for in all acquisitions they make at Shore? When did Justin think there was an advantage of scale/network effect but was proved wrong? How does Justin think about downside protection and risk mitigation? Why does Justin like to back and invest in first time founders more than any other type? 3. Building World-Class Investing Teams: Why does Justin believe the best companies are talent systems? How does Justin structure the talent system at Shore to ensure consistent incredible talent? What does Justin believe are the three traits required to win in private equity? What question does Justin ask all potential CEOs he hires for acquired companies? What has Justin learned is the single clearest sign of the top .1% talent? 4. Justin Ishbia: The Family Man and Husband: What metric does Justin use to track whether he is being a good and present father? Is it possible to be top 1% and have balance with a wife and family? What does "great fatherhood" mean to Justin? How has his thoughts on this changed? How does Justin think about bringing kids up in a world of immense privilege and ensuring they remain ground and ambitious?

Scott Williamson was most recently Chief Product Officer for GitLab, where he led a team of 65 in Product Management, Product Operations, Growth, Pricing, and Corporate Development functions. Before GitLab, Scott was VP of Product for SendGrid for over six years, where helped lead the company to a successful IPO and $3B acquisition by Twilio. In Today's Episode with Scott Williamson We Discuss: 1. From Sales to Product Leader: Why does Scott believe sales is a great starting point for product people? To what extent does an MBA help someone wanting to pursue a career in product management? What does Scott know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in product? 2. What, Who, When: How to Build a Product Team: Is product management art or science? What is the ratio? What are the four core roles of a product manager today? When is the right time to hire your first PM? What is the ideal profile for this first PM hire? What are the single biggest mistakes founders make when hiring PMs? 3. Hiring the Best Product People: What does Scott's hiring process look like for all new product hires? How does Scott test for systematic thinking and problem-solving ability? What questions does Scott always ask in interviews? What are the best case studies to use to test a candidate's skill set? How important is it for the candidate to have domain expertise in your product category? 4. The Best Product Teams are the Best Writers: What are the two different types of documents that product teams must use? How do you know when to use a one-pager vs a six-pager? How does the discussion and planning cycle for the different documents differ? How important is it for PMs to be great writers also?

Roger Ehrenberg is a legend of the venture industry as the Founder of IA Ventures, among the most successful seed-stage venture firms of this generation, having seeded companies including Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG), Digital Ocean (NYSE: DOCN), The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) and Wise (LSE: WISE.L). Today Roger is the Founder and Managing Partner of Eberg Capital, a pioneer in bridging the gap among sports franchises, sports betting, media and entertainment. Roger's current sports investments include stakes in the Miami Marlins, Real Salt Lake, Alpine Racing, Betr, Commonwealth, Kero Sports, Simplebet, SlamBall, Smarkets and WagerWire. In Today's Episode with Roger Ehrenberg We Discuss: 1. The Commoditisation of Venture and Worsening Returns: Why does Roger disagree with Doug Leone that "we have moved from a boutique high margin business to a commoditised low margin industry"? Why does Roger believe we will see consistently worsening returns in venture? Is this influx of LP capital cyclical or is it here to stay? 2. The New LPs and The Broken Existing LP World: Why does Roger think the existing incentive structure for LPs is totally broken? Who are the most important new LPs entering the venture market? How do sovereigns and pension funds entering venture change the industry? Which players have capitalised on this new LP class best? 3. Where Does the Liquidity Come From: With the closed IPO window and lack of M&A, where will liquidity come from in the next 24 months? Would a Trump administration open M&A markets? Does Roger agree M&A markets are shut down? When does Roger believe IPO markets will open again? Will Databricks and Stripe go out in 2024? If Roger were to run a continuity fund strategy, how would he structure it? What would he do? 4. When to Sell and When to Hold: How does Roger advise managers on when to sell vs when to hold? How important is it for a new firm to have a company go public in the first five years? What are Roger's biggest lessons from selling The Trade Desk at a $2.5BN valuation? How does Roger think about managers thinking they should manage the public book of their portfolio for their LPs? What are the pros and cons? 5. Relationship to Money: Do rich investors make better investors? How does investing when you have a lot of cash already change your mindset around investing and exiting? How does Roger analyse his relationship to money today? What have been the single biggest needle movers in his wealth journey? How did it feel when he made a $6M bonus? 6. The Secrets to Parenthood and Marriage: What does it mean to be a great father for Roger? How does Roger think about bringing his children up with the same level of hunger and ambition, despite being brought up with such wealth? What are Roger's two biggest lessons on the secret to a great marriage?

Christian Hecker is the Founder and CEO of Trade Republic, the company making it easy and inexpensive for everyone with a smartphone to invest. To date, Christian has raised over $1.3BN for the company from the likes of Sequoia, Founders Fund, Accel and Creandum to name a few. Previously, Christian worked in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Investment Banking department. Johan Brenner is a General Partner at Creandum. Johan has led Creandum's investments in iZettle (acquired by PayPal for $2.2bn in 2018), Trade Republic, Klarna, Pleo, Neo4J, Vivino and more. Johan was previously a repeat entrepreneur, founding one of the first online brokers in Europe in 1997 (sold to E*TRADE in the US), then JobLine (sold to Monster), Bookatable (Michelin) and Tradera (Ebay). In Today's Episode with Christian Hecker and Johan Brenner We Discuss: 1. Selling 75% of Trade Republic for €600,000: How did Christian come to sell 75% of Trade Republic for €600K? How did Johan and Creandum solve this challenge when they invested? What are some of Christian's biggest pieces of advice on cap table construction? 2. Raising $1.3BN From the Best Investors in the World: What are Christian's biggest fundraising lessons from raising $1.3BN from the best in the world? How did Doug Leone and Sequoia come to lead Trade Republic's round? What was the meeting with Doug like? What questions did he ask? How did it go? How important of a skill does Johan believe being a great fundraiser is for founders? 3. Scaling into Europe's Next Decacorn: What are the single biggest issues that arise when scaling so fast? What breaks first? Does CAC increase with time or decrease? Why did Christian decide to stop paid marketing on Google and Facebook and stop spending $100M+ there overnight? Why is Christian so bullish on influencer marketing? What works? What does not work? 4. Europe: A Hub for Innovation or a Retirement Home: Does Christian believe that young people in Europe work hard enough? What are the biggest challenges to scaling teams in Europe? Why does Johan believe the biggest challenge in Europe is the lack of exit markets? What can Europe do to improve and increase our chances of being successful?

Martin Gontovnikas, a.k.a Gonto, is a software engineer at heart who moved to the "dark side" to focus on Marketing. With this career transition, he found a way to combine his 2 passions by applying his "engineering thinking" model to Marketing. He is now a B2B SaaS Advisor to Vercel and Airbyte among others and Co-Founder & GP of Hypergrowth Partners. Previously, he was SVP of Marketing and Growth at Auth0. In Today's Episode with Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto) We Discuss: 1. From No Idea to Growth Leader: How Gonto made his way into the world of growth when it was not a thing? What does Gonto know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of growth? Why does Gonto believe product and marketing is more important than sales and marketing? 2. Growth: What, When and Who: What is growth? What is it not? What do people misunderstand most with growth? When is the right time to hire your first growth person? What is the right profile for the right first growth hire? Junior? Senior? 3. Mastering PLG and Enterprise: What are the single biggest mistakes startups make when scaling into enterprise? Why does Gonto believe that all PLG companies should start with 6-8 design partners? Is it possible to do enterprise and PLG at the same time? How does one provide enough value in a PLG motion to convert enterprise buyers? 4. Data vs Intuition: Art vs Science: Is growth more art or science? Why does Gonto believe qualitative data is more important than quantitative? How does Gonto think about psychology when selling and marketing? What do so few startups? understand about the psychology of their customers? How does Gonto approach messaging and what is truly great product marketing?

Thomas Plantenga is the CEO @ Vinted, one of the fastest-growing marketplaces in the world with a valuation of $4.5BN. Prior to becoming CEO, Thomas worked with a range of organisations including Bookaboat, OLX, Sellit/Wallapop and FJLabs. Alex Taussig is a General Partner @ Lightspeed and co-leads the fund's Consumer investment team. Alex's portfolio includes the likes of All Day Kitchens, Archive Resale, Daily Harvest, Faire, Found, Frubana, Keychain, Kikoff, Vinted, YaySay, and Zola. In Today's Episode with Thomas Plantenga and Alex Taussig We Discuss: 1. The CEO Who Did Not Want to be CEO: How did Thomas come to be CEO @ Vinted? Why did he not want the job at first? What does Thomas know now that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. The Mechanics of the Fastest Growing Marketplace: What is the single most important metric for Vinted? How does Vinted determine what market to open next? What do they look for? How does Vinted think about depth vs breadth in each country? What is the AOV today? How does it vary by country? How long does it take for each country to be cash flow positive? 3. The Biggest BS in Startups: Rule of 40 and EBITDA: Why does Thomas think VC's obsession with "Rule of 40" is BS? Why does Thomas believe EBITDA optimization is BS and useless? What are the hardest elements of scaling a marketplace that no one knows? 4. The Bull, Bear and Investor Approach to Vinted: Alex, what was Lightspeed's pre and post-mortem when investing in Vinted? How does Lightspeed analyze TAM and market sizing when investing? What was Lightspeed's single biggest concern when investing in Vinted? 5. Europe: A Hub of Innovation or a Retirement Home: Does Thomas believe that European young people have a worse work ethic than those in the US? Is Thomas concerned by the state of regulation hampering innovation in Europe? What can be done to improve work ethic and the state of regulation today? Why is Alex and Lightspeed more bullish than ever on Europe today?

Doug Leone is the Global Managing Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world's most renowned and successful venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Google, Airbnb, Whatsapp, Stripe, Zoom and many more. Marcelo Claure is the Founder & CEO of Claure Group, a multi-billion-dollar global investment firm. He is the Executive Chairman and Managing Partner of Bicycle Capital, a $500M Latin America-focused growth equity fund, and was appointed Chairman in Latin America of SHEIN, the global #1 on-demand fashion company in the world. Claure was also the CEO of SoftBank Group International where he launched SoftBank's $8B Latin America Funds, and had direct oversight for SoftBank's operating companies. Geoff Lewis is a Founder and Managing Partner of Bedrock, one of the breakout and new venture firms of the last decade, famously in search of narrative violations. He serves or has served on the Board of Directors for companies including Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT), Nubank (NYSE: NU), Epirus, and Vercel. Bill Ackman is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. Martín Escobari is Co-President, Managing Director and Head of General Atlantic's business in Latin America. Martín is Chairman of the firm's Investment Committee and also serves on the Management and Portfolio Committees. Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo's early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the top private equity firms in the world. In Today's Episode on Price Sensitivity We Discuss: Doug Leone: Why the attitude of "deploy, deploy, deploy will get so many in trouble"? Marcelo Claure: How to know when price matters and when it does not? Geoff Lewis: What is the right framework to assess price at an early stage? David Tisch: How does the importance of price change vis a vis company vs portfolio? Orlando Bravo: What have been Thoma Bravo's biggest lessons on price? Cyan Banister: Why does Cyan believe there will be a reckoning?

Erik Allebest is the CEO @ Chess.com, the #1 online chess service on the planet with more than 150+ million members and 15+ million games played each day. Erik has scaled the company to over 700 people and $100M+ in revenue with no venture funding. In Today's Episode with Erik Allebest: 1. From Unemployable to $100M+ Revenue Founder: How did Erik make his way into the world of tech and startups? Was his MBA worth it? How does he advise others on whether to get one or not? What does Erik know now that he wishes he had known when he started? 2. Scaling to $100M Revenue with No Venture Funding: Why did no one want to invest in Chess.com in the early days? What did Erik do differently as a result of not raising any venture funding? What would Erik have done if he had money from the start? What are Erik's biggest pieces of advice to founders with funding today? 3. Hard Lessons Scaling to 150M Members: What are 1-2 of Erik's biggest lessons on how to scale users with zero budget? What customer acquisition worked? What did not work? How important was COVID and The Queen's Gambit to memberships and sign-ups? What are the single biggest mistakes Erik sees founders make on customer acquisition today? 4. Parenting, Marriage, Metrics and Money: Why does Erik not care about money or capitalism today? How has Erik's style of parenting changed over the years? What works? What does not? What does Erik believe is the secret to marriage? What have been his biggest lessons? Why does Erik hate metrics? If so, how does he run the business towards goals and output? Public.com Disclosure: Options are not suitable for all investors and carry significant risk. Certain complex options strategies carry additional risk. Options can be risky and are not suitable for all investors. See the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options to learn more. For each options transaction, Public Investing shares 50% of their order flow revenue as a rebate to help reduce your trading costs. This rebate will be displayed as a negative number in the "Additional Fees" column of your Trade Confirmation Statement and will be immediately reflected in the total dollars paid or received for the transaction. Order flow rebates are only issued for options trades and not for transactions involving other assets, including equities. For more information, refer to the Fee Schedule. All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. See public.com/#disclosures-main for more information.

David Tisch is the Managing Partner of BoxGroup, one of the leading seed-stage investment firms of the last decade having invested in over 500 seed-stage startups, including Plaid, Ro, Ramp, PillPack, Amplitude, Stripe, Warby Parker, Harry's, Flexport, Classpass, Airtable and more. Terrence Rohan is the Managing Director @ Otherwise Fund, a fund that discretely empowers a network of today's top founders to make multi-stage venture investments. Terrence has invested in the likes of Figma, Hugging Face, Vanta, Notion and Robinhood to name a few. In Today's Seed Investing Special We Discuss: 1. Is Seed Investing Now a Commoditised Asset Class: Why does Dave Tisch believe seed investing will remain the most inefficient market? What does that mean for the future of returns at seed? Why should you always pay up and be price-insensitive at seed rounds? Why does David believe that no one is great at seed investing? Why does David believe that you cannot index the seed market? 2. The Biggest BS Elements of Venture Capital: Signaling: Why does David believe that the theory of signaling is total BS? Why does Terrence disagree and think it is valid and common? Group Decision-Making: Why does Terrence believe that investing decisions should be made solo and groups merely encourage consensus decision-making? Reserves: Why does Terrence believe reserves hurt DPI and are not good? How does David respond given his growth fund? Venture Value Add: Why do David and Terrence think venture value add services platforms are BS and not worth it? 3. The World of LPs: What is the single biggest misalignment between VCs and LPs? What are David and Terrence's biggest pieces of advice for emerging managers today? Should LPs expect depressed returns from venture as the asset class commoditises?

Will Wu is the CTO @ Match Group, the owner and operator of the largest global portfolio of popular online dating services including Tinder, Match.com, OkCupid, and Hinge to name a few. Prior to Match, Will was VP of Product at Snap Inc. As the 35th employee, Will spearheaded the creation of Snapchat's "Discover" content platform. He also led the creation and growth of the "Chat" messaging feature, which today is a primary Snapchat engagement driver that connects hundreds of millions of people each day. In Today's Episode with Will Wu We Discuss: 1. The Journey to Snap CPO: How did Evan make his way into the world of product and come to meet Evan Spiegel? What are 1-2 of his biggest takeaways from his time at Snap? What does Will know now that he wishes he had known when he started in product? 2. How to Hire Product Teams: How does Will structure the interview process for new product hires? What are the most telling questions of a candidate's product skills in hiring? What case studies and tests does Will do to assess a candidate? What are 1-2 of Will's biggest hiring mistakes in product? 3. How to Do Product Reviews Effectively: What are Will's biggest lessons on what it takes to do product reviews well? What are the biggest mistakes product leaders make in product reviews? How can teams drive focus in product reviews? What works? What does not? 4. Product: Art or Science? How does Will balance between gut/intuition and data in product decisions? Is simple always better in product design? What is human-centered design? How does it impact how Will approaches product?

Dave Kellogg is one of the OGs of Saas. Among his many accomplishments, Dave was the CMO of Business Objects where he helped scale the business from $30M to $1BN in revenue. Dave has also been a CEO twice, once scaling the business from $0 to $80M and the other business from $8M to $50M before selling it. Dave is also an advisor to some of the best including GainSight, Logickull, MongoDB, Pigment, Recorded Future, and Tableau. In Today's Episode with Dave Kellogg We Discuss: 1. What are the Metrics That Matter: Why is CAC payback period such a flawed metric? What is CAC ratio? Why is it more effective than understanding payback? Why is gross revenue retention more important than net revenue retention? What are the single biggest mistakes that founders make when using metrics today? 2. How to Build and Scale the Best Sales Teams: Why should founders hire three sales reps at one time? What is the benefit? What are the three different types of sales calls all teams must have? What should all CEOs and Heads of Sales ask of their sales team in forecasting? What is the single biggest mistake most companies make in forecasting? How should a CEO/board member respond to a sales team that lets a deal slip to next quarter? 3. Are CFOs Buying New Tech and How to Win Renewals: Are CFOs open for business? How has the top down sales process changed in the last year? Why is the way that startups think about renewals completely broken? What are the three different types of customer success teams we have today? What is the core role of customer success? How can we incentivise them to sell more? 4. Mastering Product Marketing, Customer Profiles and Crossing the Chasm: How can we use product marketing to increase sales velocity? What is the single biggest risk in product marketing today? What does Dave mean when he says "an ICP starts as an aspiration and becomes a regression?"

Ryan Akkina is a member of the Global Investment Team at the MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo), which is responsible for managing MIT's endowment and pension plans. Ryan has invested in the likes of Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, a16z, Greenoaks and Initialized to name a few. Ryan also leads many of MITIMCo's direct co-investments including most notably into Coupang and Rippling. Prior to joining MITIMCo, Ryan was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. In Today's Episode with Ryan Akkina We Discuss: 1. From Engineer to LP with MIT: How did Ryan make his way into the world of fund investing as an LP with MIT? Why did he turn down the chance to be a VC early in his career? What does Ryan know now that he wishes he had known when he started at MIT? 2. The Manager Evaluation Process for MIT: What does Ryan look for most when investing in new managers? How important is track record when evaluating a new manager? What is the biggest mistake Ryan has made in picking a manager? What did he not see that he wish he had seen? How did that change his process? 3. How MIT Builds Their Portfolio: How does MIT construct their portfolio from private to public to everything in between? What are the three different types of check sizes that MIT writes when investing in new managers? What are the most common reasons why MIT will not re-up with a manager? What are the single biggest reasons why great managers turn bad? 4. MIT: The Direct Investor: Why does MIT see so much opportunity in direct investing? How does MIT approach the direct investing process? How do they approach underwriting themselves vs working with their managers in the process? How do MIT think about the right number of direct deals to make up their portfolio? How do they approach check sizing on a per-company direct investment? What has been Ryan's biggest direct investing mistake? How did that change his approach and mindset? 5. LP Markets Today and Where We Go From Here: Are LPs open for business today? What type of firms will not struggle? Which will? How does Ryan view liquidity windows today? When will M&A and IPO markets open? What would Ryan most like to change about the world of LPs? Why does Ryan believe the LP incentive structure in terms of compensation is broken?

Dave Ripley is the CEO @ Kraken, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, valued in 2022 at a whopping $10.8BN. Prior to Kraken, Dave was the Co-Founder of Glidera, a market-leading Blockchain technology company that Kraken acquired in 2016. In Today's Episode with Dave Ripley: 1. From Boston Consulting Group to CEO of Kraken: How did Dave first make his way into the world of crypto? What are the single hardest elements of a CEO transition? What does Dave know now that he wishes he had known about CEOship? 2. What is the Usage for Crypto: Other than as a store of value, what application usage does crypto serve? Global payments are fine as is and are improving, why do they need crypto? Global remittance is served by Remote and Deel, why do they need crypto? No applications have been provided well, what really is the use case that makes sense? 3. Should Gensler Be Let Go and The SEC is Wrong: Why is the approach of the SEC completely flawed? Should Gensler be fired for his ineffectiveness? What is the right policy stance and approach to take from here?

Sean Murray is the CRO @ Greenhouse which is the fourth company Sean has scaled successfully into the enterprise. Sean's prior roles include revenue leadership positions at Saleloft (CRO), Xactly (VP Sales), and CEB, now Gartner (Head of MID Global Sales). In Today's Episode with Sean Murray 1. The Origin Story: Is a Love of Sales Born: How did Sean first fall in love with Sales? What does Sean know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in sales? What is Sean's biggest advice to a young person entering the sales world today? 2. Sales has Changed; You Need to Change with It: Why do CMOs need to be good sellers and CROs need to be good marketers today? Have we seen the total blending of sales and marketing today? Should we get rid of all sales teams and just have content marketing teams? 3. How to Move into the Enterprise Successfully: What are the three biggest mistakes startups make when scaling into the enterprise? What easy wins can they do early in the sales process to enterprises to get a good start? How important are logos? Does social validity really work in enterprise? How should sales teams use discounting in enterprise sales most effectively? What is the right way for sales leaders and CROs to budget for enterprise? Is there a way to test enterprise without committing the company and a lot of resources? 4. How to Build the Best Sales Team Today: What is the right hiring process for all new sales hires? What are the questions you have to ask in the interviews? What do the case studies entail? What are signals of the best reps? What are the biggest mistakes teams make when hiring new sales reps? What have been Sean's biggest lessons on comp and negotiation with new reps?

Adam Fisher is a Partner @ Bessemer Venture Partners and one of the most successful investors in Israel over the last two decades with seed investments in Fiverr, Wix, Melio, HiBob and more. Adam has now made over 60 investments and has had an incredible 23 successful exits. Adam has now been in venture for over 27 years having started his career at Jerusalem Venture Partners in 1996. In Today's Episode with Adam Fisher We Discuss: 1. Lessons from 27 Years in Venture Capital: How did Adam first make his way into the world of venture straight out of college? Does Adam agree with Doug Leone that VC has changed from a "boutique, high margin business to a commoditized, low margin industry"? What does Adam know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture? 2. How to Pick Winners: 23 Exits in 60 Investments: To what extent does Adam think pattern recognition is a good thing? When is it bad? Does Adam prefer to invest in outsider founders approaching a problem with fresh eyes or insider founders who know the problem back to front? Why does Adam believe that "category creation is BS"? Why does Adam not like to invest in big, hugely ambitious markets? Why are smaller markets best? 3. The Deal: Mastering the Art of Negotiation and the Deal: How does Adam reflect on his own relationship to price? When doing an investment, does Adam think about who would do the next round? How important is ownership to Adam? Does he want it all on first check? Why does Adam not like to invest in hot AI rounds? What have been Adam's single biggest investing mistakes? How did it change his approach? 4. Mastering the Art of Portfolio Management: Why does Adam believe that it is impossible to know which of your portfolio will be the breakout winners early on? How does Adam approach reserve allocations with this in mind? How does Adam know when is the right time to sell a position? What does Adam believe was the biggest sin of the zero interest rate environment period?

Zaria Parvez is Duolingo's Senior Global Social Media Manager where she is famed for scaling Duolingo's TikTok from 50K followers in September 2021 to 8M followers today. The Duolingo TikTok has 143 viral videos (view counts of 1M or higher) due to Zaria's creativity. What started as a test-and-learn initiative has become Duolingo's most successful social buzz and word-of-mouth initiative to date – all because of Zaria's insights, instincts, and expertise. In Today's Episode with Zaria Parvez: 1. From College Student to TikTok Star: How did Zaria make her way into the world of social media and Duolingo? When did Zaria realize the power of TikTok? What did she do as a first step? What does Zaria know now about growing on TikTok that she wishes she'd known when she started? 2. How to Create a Viral Video: What have been Zaria's biggest lessons in what it takes to create a viral video? What does Zaria mean when she says the best content is "medicine to candy"? What does the ideation process look like for new content ideas? How much budget should be set aside for new content? What does Zaria mean when she says Duolingo's TikTok needs to view like a "sitcom"? 3. How to Tie Success in Content Back to Hard Dollars: How is "success" in content measured at Duolingo? How fast does Zaria know if a video is a hit or not? What is the right cadence to post? How should companies determine whether content is ultimately successful or not? What is the single metric that Zaria is focused on today? 4. How to Build the Best Content Team: Why should companies not work with content agencies if they want the best results? Why does Zaria believe you have to hire troublemakers if you want success in content? What are the single biggest mistakes companies make w

Shyam Sankar is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies in addition to the Chairman of Ginkgo Bioworks. Shyam holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. In Today's Episode with Shyam Sankar: 1. Journey to the Top of Defence: How did Shyam make his way into the world of startups and get a role with Kevin Hartz at Xoom? How did seeing Shyam's parents lose everything impact his mindset and drive? What does Shyam know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? 2. How the World's Governments Buy Defence: What is the playbook for selling defence to different governments? Why is the way that governments purchase and procure so broken? If Shyam were head of the DOD, what would he change? Why does the DOD "need to pick winners"? Which governments are the best to work with? Which are the worst? 3. A World In Conflict: What Changes: How does conflict change the buying process and urgency for governments? How do elections change the buying cadence and process for different governments? Looking forward to 2024, how does Shyam predict the state of different global conflicts? 4. Hiring 101: You Have To Hire Artists: What have been Shyam's single biggest lessons on what it takes to hire the best of the best? Why does Shyam believe that hiring great people is like talent management in Hollywood? Why does Shyam believe talent should be "shielded from budgets"? What have been some of Shyam's biggest hiring mistakes? How did he learn from them?