Coburn Ventures Podcast

We love to say that as leaders and investors we look to identify massive innovations, and then invest accordingly... but where does that type of advancement come from? What can we do to identify it better or earlier on?

One very key source? It comes from entrepreneurs and leaders who solve a paradox. Today we will discuss the mandorla, a visual framework for this exact situation of solving a paradox-- the ability to harness the tension between seemingly conflicting ideas to drive innovation and growth. Let's jump in.

Pull out a notepad and pen, this is an action-oriented conversation just in time for year end. Please enjoy our conversation with Dr. Morris Pickens on his framework for setting goals and achieving results.

Today we're pulling up a conversation we had on engineering uncommon inputs via questions and questions for management. This conversation is all about designing and actively engineering uncommon inputs through question asking, breaking out of what can be a rote, habituated, normalized, but professional going through the motions. Instead, let's focus in on generating uncommon understanding that is going to then move into the portfolio and impact clients. Let's jump in.

Hi everyone and welcome back. Today we're going below the surface on our topic of clean time to fill in why we think this particular methodology has risen to the top as a resonant and deeply effective tool right now. We call it noise cancellation. Let's jump in.

The third annual celebration of gratitude, friends, and thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Today we are working on the theme of identifying change, and to do that we're returning to the subject of complex systems. It turns out, understanding the system we are in is pretty crucial to whether or not our actions will have any significance at all. In addition, a misunderstanding of the complex system, whether regulatory dynamics, or power structures, can throw off our assumptions on the pace of change in an industry. Our own study of complex systems includes a multi-disciplinary approach: we love to learn from others outside the typical investor mindset, and we especially love to learn from people and organizations that have success at solving insanely hard problems. So, we are inviting you right into a conversation we had with our friend Richard Uniacke, the Executive Director at Bridges Outreach, a non-profit that serves those experiencing homelessness or on the brink of homelessness in Newark, New Jersey and surrounding areas. Bridges has had tremendous success, and in large part because leadership fully realized it didn't exist in a vacuum, but had to work to understand the extremely complex system they operated in. Whether you are listening as a leader wondering how you can better unlock change, or as an investor always wanting to understand the pace of change, this conversation is for you. Let's jump in.

One concept we espouse here at Coburn Ventures is that our processes are the controllable actions that help us yield better and better results. Importantly, if we as investors want uncommon results, then we sometimes have to work backwards. We do well to start at the beginning and take a look at whether or not we have uncommon investment processes or an uncommon investment philosophy at all! Today we'll discuss a favorite uncommon process, and you might be the rare person who decides to explore it. It's called clean time. Like many insightful processes or inputs, it arose out of some healthy tension. Let's jump in.

In the last few decades, we've experienced multiple meaningful technological shifts: the internet, cloud computing, mobility, AI. Every time we're faced with one of these new and vast shifts, I find it useful to come back to one of our core 100-year changes, data. So today we're discussing data-driven cultures to help us navigate how management teams are positioned when it comes to AI or any other technological shift. We include a few questions for management to guide us on our way. Let's jump in.

Today, we have a fascinating capstone conversation in these series on investment decision making biases. In the last few weeks we have worked to provide different lenses through which we can "escape" decision making prisons, so today we will shine a light on something equally powerful at play: our emotions. Not just the simple upside/downside happy/sad spectrum we're all familiar with in business, but the complex web of emotional pairs that do silently guide our decision-making process. Today let's dive deep with Irwin, who breaks down four critical emotional dualities that can either imprison or empower our choices. We'll cover the delicate balance between pride and guilt, to the constant push-pull between excitement and fear (and especially, in business, adrenaline-fueled decision making)- we'll explore how these emotional pairs shape everything from investment decisions to organizational leadership. Let's jump in.

Today is our third podcast on the topic of decision-making prisons. For today, we are bringing up part of a podcast we did in 2020 with Rudy Karsen. Now, in the other two conversations in the past few weeks, we covered some of the organizational or the team elements or considerations that lead to decision-making prisons. In today's conversation, you'll hear more about how this applies at the individual level, and what we can do to consider our "gut" in decision making. Let's jump in.