Venture Stories

Erik is joined on this episode by Ryan Delk (@delk), COO of Omni, and Jared Fliesler (@JaredSF), COO of Scribd.They talk about the fact that Chief Operating Officer is a relatively new role in Silicon Valley that has emerged over the last several years. They explain how they make sure they are effective COOs. They say that being COO is analogous to being a bumblebee in that a COO is always moving from place to place within the company making sure things are running smoothly. They use “how often am I surprised?” as a question to use to take the measure of how well they are doing their job. They move on to talking tactics, including how to set up your org structure, how to think about recruiting in a growing startup, and the nuances of assigning titles in your company. They also discuss goal-setting within the company, performance reviews, the tough task of letting people go, and much more.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the w

Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen), research fellow at Y Combinator Research, joins Erik for a wide-ranging discussion about a variety of topics, including:* Why the top names in the S&P 500 change over time, but the top names in global university rankings don’t — and how to fix that.* How Michael thinks about the role of risk in science, and why he'd like to see more risk-taking.* Memory, including how to improve yours and why professional athletes seem to have such good ones.* The “compliment deficit” in the world and how to fix it.* The silver lining of the Bay Area housing problem.* The reproducibility problem in social science.* Why he’s a fan of chaos.…and much more.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined on this episode by Auren Hoffman (@auren), former co-founder and CEO of LiveRamp and Tod Sacerdoti (@tod), former CEO and founder of BrightRoll. They are now working together on a new fund.They talk about how they came to the idea they’re working on, including how to find the right intersection of ideas among those that are interesting to you, that you are uniquely skilled at, that others don’t yet appreciate, and that are worth working on.They explain what data co-ops are and the unique value that they can bring. Auren says he believes that the future is about managing vendors rather than people, and points out that WhatsApp didn’t even build their core messaging functionality themselves in the first place.Erik asks what’s changed in company building since they started their companies in the 2000s and what the next ten years will look like in venture capital. They also talk about why the Valley is flush with cash and whether they are long San Francisco in an era of distributed teams.Thanks for

Erik is joined on this episode by Ilya Sukhar (@ilyasu) of Matrix Partners and formerly of Parse, and Alex Yaseen (@alexyaseen), co-founder and CEO of Parabola.They start by talking about what exactly “devsumer” is and why it’s important. They discuss some of the biggest names in the space and how these tools are enabling people who are not engineers to have the kind of leverage that engineers typically enjoy. Ilya and Alex talk about the trends in the space and what they would be looking for if they were running a venture fund focused on devsumer. They discuss some of the common pitfalls founders face and some of the unique forces at play in this market. They talk about why people get excited about what they can build with the tools and how they intersect with some of the more developer-focused applications that exist.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglob

Erik is joined by Vinay Gupta, CEO of Mattereum, for a wide ranging discussion about crypto, world government, existential risks, science fiction, energy, and much more.Vinay says that venture capital is a 40-year-old model and that the ICO boom — while having its own significant drawbacks — was a huge innovation in capital formation. He explains why the blockchain is such a huge innovation with wide-ranging applications and laments the fact that people have a hard time seeing past its application in digital currency. He lays out his thoughts on why reputation systems are broken and why Facebook could in a few years’ time be essentially a credit rating agency and a digital identity system for all aspects of your life. Vinay discusses the existential risks that the world faces today, and why the lack of environmental sustainability is at the top of his list of fears. He says that he is neither a Keynesian or an Austrian, but instead subscribes to “ecological economics.” They also talk about the influence of sc

Erik is joined by Scott Heiferman (@heif), co-founder of Meetup.They discuss the reason that IRL (in real life) meetups are important and why in-person contact cannot be replaced by virtual interaction. They talk about some of the most important communities that have started in the past, particularly involving religion, and why the connections they make have been so powerful.Scott mentions the health benefits of belonging to a community and talks about the importance of network effects in building new groups. He also talks about what makes a successful community and how people looking to build communities can make theirs grow.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined by Laura Behrens Wu (@LauraBehrensWu), co-founder and CEO of Shippo, and Talia Goldberg (@taliagold), venture investor at Bessemer. They start out by talking about how Laura started Shippo and how the team iterated through different ideas to get to what the company is today. She tells the story of trying to get attention from investors for a space that was not too familiar to them.Talia talks about Bessemer’s investments long ago in then-new retail companies like Staples and Dick’s Sporting Goods, and where they are thinking about where they want to invest.They move on to talking about the rise of direct-to-consumer and consumer packaged goods, and discuss how companies like Shippo can help new entrepreneurs get to market. They discuss some of the changes in e-commerce over the years and how new channels like Instagram are helping create a new relationship between consumers and brands.They also talk about companies that Talia wishes she had invested in but didn’t, their recommendations for entr

On this episode Erik is joined by Miki Kashtan, author and NVC teacher. They discuss the problems of exchange in general as a way of fulfilling human needs, the issues with reciprocity, and what fulfilling needs via “flow” and “natural abundance” means.Miki talks about some of the more interesting and unique studies that she has seen about societies from the very distant past and what kinds of lessons they may hold for how we should organize societies today. They talk about why in society we are always rationing, whether we realize it or not, and are usually determining how to allocate scarce resources by wealth rather than by need. Miki talks about the idea that shame was once a useful emotion that has been co-opted by the powers that be to keep people in line.She also talks about the distinction between governments and governance, why we need to innovate on innovation, and why she never does anything for the money, but instead does things for the relationships.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hea

Robert Greene (@RobertGreene), author of The 48 Laws of Power and The Laws of Human Nature, joins Erik on this episode to talk about how we can “penetrate the masks that other people wear” and become effective judges of others' character.He calls his new book the “codebook for deciphering human behavior” and talks about why being able to look at something through the perspective of others is the most valuable thing you can do. He also says you need to combine empathy with a deep understanding of your mind’s tendencies and your personal psychological quirks. Robert warns that you should take care not to be seduced by a glittery resume or by those who use their charm to hide their lack of competence. He also discusses the role of identity and the importance of reputation in today’s world, why everyone is an actor (whether they like it or not), and how he has evolved since his first book was published decades ago.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform

Erik is joined by Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen), economist, author, and returning fan-favorite. He talks with Erik about why big business should be celebrated and why capitalism is effective but unpopular.Tyler explains why he doesn’t quite believe that the main benefit of the firm is to lower transaction costs. He talks about why big business and capitalism have a branding problem, and what benefits they bring to the American people that mean they should be celebrated. He talks about the tech behemoths and why concerns about their power are overrated, including why people don’t actually care as much about privacy as they say they do. He posits that users want more control over their information, not more privacy.They discuss the vilification of finance in America, why Tyler says that corporate lobbying isn’t such a big deal in the US, and discuss how Tyler’s views differ from those of some of the most prominent writers on this topic.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favor

Erik is joined on this episode by Noah Smith (@Noahpinion), Bloomberg opinion writer, and Parker Thompson (@pt), partner at AngelList. They cover a wide variety of topics relating to, among many others, labor productivity, the gig economy, healthcare, education, solar power and the Green New Deal.They start out by talking about productivity and why it hasn’t increased over the past decades, even though technology has in theory enabled higher productivity. Noah explains his pet theory that people waste the time they’re saving by being more productive via technology “dicking around on social media at work.” They talk about certain sectors like real estate and wealth management ripe for disruption and where technology should result in better value for consumers. They discuss the gig economy and why Noah says it is not actually the future of labor. He points out people in Silicon Valley conflate companies that will make them very rich with companies that are going to take over the world (even though Silicon Valle

On this episode Erik is joined by Stephan Kinsella (@NSKinsella), libertarian writer and patent attorney, Noah Smith (@Noahpinion), Bloomberg opinion writer, and Parker Thompson (@pt), partner at AngelList.In a spirited debate, the three of them discuss the relative merits of Austrian economics vs. Keynesian economics.They start out by defining the primary schools of economic thought and explaining where each of the guests sits on the spectrum of economic thinking. They talk about the value of empiricism when it comes to economics and whether economic theories can be derived from first principles. They discuss inflation and whether centralized control of the money supply leads to better economic outcomes, as well as how one can determine these things in the messy real world. They also touch on a number of other topics, including whether it would be a good thing to get rid of the FDA and pharmaceutical patents, whether antitrust law is “unethical,” and whether the patent system is a net positive for society.Th

Erik is joined by Zach Perret (@zachperret), co-founder and CEO of Plaid, and David Haber (@dhaber), former co-founder and CEO of Bond Street, now at Goldman Sachs.Zach and David talk about how they met and how they started their respective companies. They explain how to find out whether you are passionate enough about an idea to start a company around it: are you passionate about it enough to be willing to pound the table to get your mother-in-law to invest?David points out that 90% of your work as a founder is selling — to investors, employees, customers, and many others. They talk about the future of financial services and fintech and make some predictions about what to expect in the space over the next several years. David and Zach share some tips for people building a company in the space on what works and what doesn’t, and how the space has evolved since they started their companies.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the

Newt Bailey (@nmbailey), founder of The Communication Dojo, and a nonviolent communication coach, joins Erik on this episode to talk about how the framework of nonviolent communication can help you be more compassionate in your conversations and improve communication at work, and in all aspects of your life.Newt tells the story of a protracted conflict at work that he was able to overcome with the help of NVC and how that was the basis for his work in nonviolent communication. He breaks down the three key skills in NVC and how it is similar to the martial art of aikido, where you are defending yourself without hurting the aggressor, and also not being an aggressor yourself.He also talks about restorative justice initiatives based on NVC that are in effect around the world and explains how NVC can be compatible with the seemingly cutthroat world of business and economic growth.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villag

This episode features Kim-Mai Cutler (@kimmaicutler) of Initialized Capital and Alex Danco (@Alex_Danco) of Social Capital.They start out by talking about the huge rise in housing prices over the last decades in the Bay Area and the fact that there is now net-negative domestic US migration to the Bay Area. They discuss the reasons for this, including the fact that in California, property taxes are paid on the value of the property when it was purchased, not the market value. They talk about land and property more generally and the fact that at one time in the past property was something that would produce something (like crops or livestock) as opposed to simply remain stagnant but appreciate in value. They discuss the policies that have led to the housing crisis in the Bay Area and some of the current attitudes in the US towards housing that are counter-productive. They also talk about what would need to change for the housing crisis to abate, new forms of property rights, and why the financial crisis of the

Mike Maples (@m2jr), founding partner at Floodgate, and Alok Vasudev (@alokvasudev), early-stage crypto investor, join Erik on this episode.They start out by talking about the biggest companies in tech and the discussion about whether they constitute monopolies. Mike points out the parallels between today’s uproar over big tech and similar eras in the past, including when Microsoft was said to be a monopoly that was “theoretically impossible” to break (until Google came along). They predict that crypto will be the next big wave in tech (and finance) and that it is the most likely thing to disrupt the tech giants of today.They move on to talking in-depth about crypto, including what kinds of use cases will emerge in the next 5-10 years, why it’s in the government’s interest to see the crypto ecosystem thrive, and why the innovation in capital formation resulting from crypto will be at least as big as the innovation in tech that that will come from crypto.They also talk about how VCs should think about the cryp

Erik is joined on this episode by Rebecca Kaden (@rebeccak46), investor at Union Square Ventures, Nikhil Basu Trivedi (@nbt), VC at Shasta Ventures, and Jonathan Yoni Regev (@jyonni), CEO and co-founder of The Farmer’s Dog.They talk about where we are in the evolution of the consumer packaged goods space. Rebecca explains why this is a unique moment where consumers are eager to try new things from new brands. They discuss the three types of defensibility in a CPG startup and Nikhil points out that it’s difficult to figure out whether a business model can really be defensible at such an early stage. Jonathan explains what they’re trying to do a The Farmer’s Dog and Rebecca and Nikhil talk about why they love the pets space for new investments, including some of the unique forces at play in the pet landscape.They also talk about communities that have sprung up around certain CPG brands and how communities could be the future of both CPG and consumer social. They discuss the potential for another huge horizontal

Erik is joined on this episode by Steve Schlafman (@schlaf), partner at Primary Venture Partners, and David Marcovitz, addiction psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University.They talk about the opportunities and challenges facing startups looking to tackle mental health and substance use disorder. They tell Erik what they would focus on if they were building a company in the space and some of the different models for treating addiction that could be amenable to a startup.The three of them move on to talking about some of the challenges in selling to employers, large health providers and state governments, and how those potential roadblocks affect their view of the best business model for startups in the space.They also talk about some of their personal experiences with these topics as well as the macro-level changes over the last several years around mental health and substance use disorder.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web a

Erik is joined on this episode by Ryan Caldbeck (@ryan_caldbeck), co-founder and CEO of CircleUp.Ryan starts out by explaining how he got started in CPG and the mission of CircleUp. He talks about why some VCs don't realize that the market is worth paying attention to and some of their biases when evaluating CPG opportunities.He explains the data-driven approach that CircleUp uses to predict which companies will be most valuable and explains why a fund needs to have CPG as its only focus to succeed.Ryan also opens up about his personal experience as a founder dealing with mental health challenges and talks about why it’s so difficult for founders, employees and investors in the startup ecosystem to be vulnerable about what they're facing. He discusses what he thinks needs to happen for mental health to be addressed properly by the Valley.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on T

Dick Costolo (@dickc), former CEO of Twitter, joins Erik and co-host Jayni Shah (@shahjayni), in this special live episode. Dick explains why is focusing on travel and tells some stories from a recent trip to Tanzania where he met with a hunter-gatherer tribe. He recounts what it was like trying to make it as a comic in Chicago alongside Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, and how the lessons he learned from improv apply to being a CEO.He discusses polarization on social media, how it might be ameliorated, and regales us with stories from his days at Twitter. He also talks about his theory of why digital fitness apps are not compatible with human nature, why you should use more exclamation marks in emails, and some of the most common mistakes that he sees the entrepreneurs he mentors making.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you