We continue the conversation with Emily White, covering topics including her career path, what it was like working with Sheryl Sandberg for so many years, her time at Snap, her experience serving on public company boards, and how she operates as an investor now at Anthos Capital.

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

As promised in our holiday special, we dive into the past, present and future of clean energy funding, with the absolutely perfect guest: the former Obama administration Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Doug Rand. This episode was totally eye-opening for us, and we hope inspires many of you to think about energy and climate through an entrepreneurial lens. 

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Links:

• ARPA-E: https://arpa-e.energy.gov
• Steve Blank’s Secret History of Silicon Valley: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/
• NSF Innovation Corps: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/

Ben and David talk about some of their current investment theses at PSL and Wave, as well as how VCs think about themes and theses in general. 

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Links:

• Greg McAdoo “Wave” talk at Startup School 2008 https://youtu.be/fZ5F2KhMLiE
• The Myth of the Job Hopping Millenial https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/7/11/17559484/gig-economy-jobs-rooted-rootless-moving-job-hopping-millennials

Ever wondered what's really going on during the Monday Meetings of your friendly neighborhood VC firm? Ben and David take you behind the scenes to discuss structure (especially how the management company works), staffing, LPs, and most importantly decision-making and motivations for VC firms and their partners. Whichever side of the table you're on, we hope you find this episode useful!

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Ben and David continue the Acquired holiday tradition. Happy holidays to everyone!

Note: we apologize for David’s sound quality... we’re still working out the kinks on our mobile recording setup.

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Extended carve-out links:

• Books: 
  • David: Broken Earth trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01947LZ8A
  • Ben: eBoys  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1HTG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
• Article: 
  • David: “My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley”  http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley
  • Ben: Birth of a New American Aristocracy  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/
• Podcast: 
  • David: 996 Podcast https://996.ggvc.com/category/podcast/
  • Ben: Dissect Season 2 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dissect/id1143845868?mt=2
• Music: 
  • David: Tiny Desk concerts https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/
  • Ben: Odesza’s A Moment Apart &  https://open.spotify.com/album/3VzsvmhnUb9OZ59bq2aoNZ?si=dHUDPR4tSW2u6yey0MWTFw
• TV / Movie: 
  • Both: Black Panther https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/
• App: 
  • David: Steady Health https://steady.health
  • Ben:
    • Moment https://www.shopmoment.com
    • Weather Line: http://weatherlineapp.com
    • Auto Sleep http://autosleep.tantsissa.com

Ben and David discuss “the art of the pitch” through the lens of fundraising for seed-stage companies, but the takeaways are also (hopefully) applicable far beyond!

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Links:

• Sequoia pitch deck template:  https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/writing-a-business-plan/#
• Don Valentine talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw
• Jim Goetz talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnmYSze9M2g

Ben and David are back for episode #3, with special guest Dan Hill. Dan discusses:

- How his startup, Crashpadder, got acquired by Airbnb

- Why Airbnb succeeded, and why marketplace businesses in the US have an advantage in early growth

- How they decided on growth metrics at Airbnb

- How his new company, Alma, is making charitable giving simple

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Ben and David are back for episode #2, diving into the most elusive early-stage investing and company-building topics: product-market fit. 

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Kicking off ACQ2 (formerly known as the LP Show) and diving into some jargon-y VC vocab. 

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com