In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Ali Tamaseb, partner at DCVC, about his recently launched book "Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups".  

00:00​​ Intro 

01:00 Who is Ali? 

03:02 Spark of motivation for the Super Founders book 

05:49 Primary data collection 

08:13 Data set: timeframe and selection criteria 

10:28 The age of super founders 

13:04 Optimal number of co-founders 

16:12 Founder education 

17:45 Did all of them go to Stanford? 

19:38 Pre-founding work experience 

21:08 Definition of the "super founder" 

25:38 Painkiller vs. vitamin products 

27:14 Startup competition 

29:50 Defensibility factor 

31:44 Venture funding vs. bootstrapping 

34:41 Capital requirements 

35:46 Startup fundraising 

37:15 Time to hatch