Minus One

After building companies that made their mark, Joe Lonsdale launched 8VC to tackle institutional decay, backing ambitious startups and encouraging the next generation to build what’s missing.

Now overseeing $6B+ in assets, he joins Aditya Agarwal to break down where the Valley lost its way, and what real builders must remember.

Connect with us here:

1. Joe Lonsdale- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtlonsdale/

2. Aditya Agarwal- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

00:00 Trailer

00:52 Introduction

01:24 Warrior mindset

07:36 Paving the way

13:38 Early stage eligibility

19:57 Rocket ships are rare

22:52 8VC

26:49 Great founders and discipline

29:43 Cicero Institute

33:04 Hairy messy real-world problems

38:18 Outro

What does it take to build great companies?

Mukesh Bansal, founder of giants like Myntra and Cure.fit, and now building at the frontier of deep tech with Meraki Labs and Nurix, joins Prateek Mehta in a chat at SPC Bangalore. He shares lessons from his early Silicon Valley “startup MBA”, the pivots that defined his journey, and how culture, trust and health have shaped his approach to building generational companies driven by resilient teams.

Connect with us here:

1. Prateek Mehta - https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-mehta-a571972/

2. South Park Commons - https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

Baiju Bhatt helped millions learn to invest through Robinhood. He’s since taken the leap to aerospace with his new company Aetherflux.

Baiju joins Aditya Agarwal to cover what building from first principles looks like the second time around, the true meaning of the American Dream, and how he aims to make space a functional layer of the global energy system.

Connect with us here:

1. Baiju Bhatt- https://www.linkedin.com/in/bprafulkumar/

2. Aditya Agarwal- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

(00:00) Trailer

(01:10) Introduction

(02:30) Early history

(07:12) Huge courage

(11:54) Extraordinarily driven

(17:31) Making the system work

(24:09) Enamored by space

(29:36) Energy company in space

(35:41) Power scaling

(39:54) Keeping the momentum up

(43:14) Outro

How do brands like PepsiCo and Chanel convert consumer attention into real business growth?

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia and multiple New York Times Bestselling Author, joins Dylan Itzikowitz to share how his agency helps these brands turn culture, AI, and data into measurable impact.

Apply for the SPC Founder Fellowship by August 3rd: https://airtable.com/appxDXHfPCZvb75qk/pagdT5QLZFC3weCJq/form

Connect with us here:

1. Gary Vaynerchuk- https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/

2. Dylan Itzikowitz- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanitzikowitz/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

(00:00) Trailer

(00:50) SPC's Founder Fellowship

(01:35) Introduction

(03:36) Kindness and business

(07:12) AI tech and the human spirit

(11:11) “Google search is dead”

(13:58) Obsessed with today

(14:59) Posting in today’s world

(22:15) AI influencers

(24:01) Nice guys finish first

(26:34) Q&A: Directionally correct

(30:27) Q&A: Preserving humanity

(34:29) Q&A: Consumer mind

(39:17) Q&A: Businesses distribution

(43:19) Q&A: Creator-owned brands

(47:15) Q&A: Crypto

(52:02) Outro

“If there's one lesson I wish I could give my younger self, it's to focus less on the technology and more on the customer need.”

Bret Taylor has helped shape how billions interact with the internet, and now with Sierra, he’s rethinking customer interactions through AI that feels more human.

Apply for the SPC Founder Fellowship by August 3rd: https://airtable.com/appxDXHfPCZvb75qk/pagdT5QLZFC3weCJq/form

Connect with us here:

1. Bret Taylor- https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettaylor/

2. Aditya Agarwal- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

What does it take to build a global ad-tech company from India?

In this episode, Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi and Glance, gets candid about his early failures and the grit it took to bet on mobile before India was ready. He’s now reimagining commerce on lock screens through AI-powered platform Glance.

Connect with us here:

1. ​Prateek Mehta- https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-mehta-a571972/
2. ​South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

Rana Adhikari, winner of the 2019 New Horizons in Physics Breakthrough Prize, joins Aditya Agarwal to discuss his 'minus one' journey as an experimental physicist, the current state of LLMs, and the vision that led to the creation of India’s own LIGO facility.

Connect with us here:

1. Rana Adhikari- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rana-adhikari-26bb73165/

2. Aditya Agarwal- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

00:00 Trailer

01:03 Introduction

01:58 Figuring things out

07:30 Toughest lesson

12:27 Bad mentor

15:33 LIGO and Quantum Science

19:34 Intuition

26:01 LLMs

30:47 Learning the outcome = winning

35:07 Learnings from LIGO

43:43 Black hole myths

47:12 Outro

In this episode of Minus One, Facebook’s second designer, Soleio shares how he helped build the emotional layer of the internet and is now backing tools like Figma and Framer to push it further.

Connect with us here:

1. Soleio
2. Aditya Agarwal
3. South Park Commons

00:00 Trailer

01:00 Introduction

01:41 Early days

07:37 Paradigm shift and the moments

13:45 Undirected expression and exploration

21:45 Greatness has a high bar

25:46 Expressing emotions

32:17 Back to -1

44:10 More founders

47:54 Outro

Balaji Srinivasan, angel investor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Network State, joins Aditya Agarwal on Minus One to challenge prevailing assumptions about global tech and opportunity.

Connect with us here:

1. Balaji Srinivasan- https://x.com/balajis

2. Aditya Agarwal- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaagarwal3/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

00:00 Trailer

00:59 Introduction

02:07 Building Counsyl

03:40 The science and math

08:45 Founder energy

12:38 Funding opportunities

16:47 Geographical connectivity

23:47 Recentralize tech

26:21 Millionaire migration

33:07 Outside success

39:08 Outro

In this episode of Minus One, host Dylan Itzikowitz sits down with Roblox’s chief blocksmith to trace a minus one to zero prototype that evolved into a full blown digital economy, now serving more than 100M DAUs.

Connect with us here:

1. David Baszucki- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbaszucki/

2. Dylan Itzikowitz- https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanitzikowitz/

3. South Park Commons- https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/

00:00 Trailer

01:06 $275M Fund III

01:56 Two-year "minus one"

05:32 Platform of creation

06:59 More than lifestyle

08:03 Motivation = obsession?

09:09 Investing in growth

10:45 Virality hack

14:44 Building an ecosystem

20:32 Roblox in education

21:30 Building for all ages

22:48 Dress to Impress

24:58 Augmented and virtual reality

27:09 Non-boring AI

30:26 Safety and mental health

33:21 Vibrant economy

34:32 Founders should build

37:05 Q&A

57:32 Outro