Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Adrian Aoun of Forward. In it, Adrian shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more.

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In Episode #120, we explore reinventing a well-established venture capital firm. We’re joined by Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital. We cover Minimum Awesome Product, the prepared mind vs. open mind, and learnings from tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm.

“The best product matters, but it is not what defines a generationally important company.” – Steve Vassallo

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/foundation-capital-steve-vassallo 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/foundation-capital-steve-vassallo-transcript 

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to reinventing a venture capital firm. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:02:39) – From electro mechanical engineering to product design

(00:06:22) – Interdisciplinary innovation and missionary misfits

(00:10:24) – How investing snuck into Steve’s career

(00:15:33) – Working at the intersection of building and investing

(00:19:24) – A 15-year window into the investment world

(00:24:45) – Tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm

(00:39:04) – Identifying a firm’s turning point

(00:41:21) – Going down the rabbit hole of crypto and enticing investors to follow

(00:51:35) – The prepared mind vs. open mind

(00:54:44) – Building the best product matters, but it doesn’t guarantee success

(00:57:56) – The Minimum Awesome Product and evolving product-market fit

(01:02:07) – Advice for new founders

ABOUT FOUNDATION CAPITAL

Steve Vassallo is General Partner at Foundation Capital and author of "The Way to Design." In this episode, we explore what it's like to reinvent a venture capital firm. Foundation Capital was founded in 1995, 27 years ago by Bill Elmore, Catherine Gold, and Jim Anderson. One of the foundation's early claims to fame was that it was one of the first investors in Netflix back in the early 2000s. 

This episode is our definitive guide to reinventing a venture capital firm. In it, we cover Steve's early years bringing design, product, and engineering together at IDEO, and what that taught him about building successful products and companies, the early warning signs he saw that made it clear Foundation Capital needed to be reinvented, how Foundation rediscovered who they were and who they wanted to be as a team, how they changed the way they operated and made investment decisions to giving partners more latitude to invest in the ideas they thought could be massive companies in the years to come, how they began making crypto investments, which led to massive wins in Solana and Brave by making small bets and winning over LP support as the wins added up.

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ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Foundation Capital with Steve Vassallo.

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In Episode #119, we deconstruct Michael Brandt's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Michael is the Co-Founder and CEO of HVMN and Ketone IQ. We cover barefoot running, creating brand synesthesia, and the magic of walking.

“Do not reinvent the wheel for 80% of what you're doing. Because the 20% of what you're doing that's really special and interesting, that's going to take a 100% of your time. It could and should.” – Michael Brandt

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/michael-brandt-playbook/ 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/michael-brandt-playbook-transcript/ 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct Michael Brandt’s peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:02:02) – HVMN and ketones

(00:04:17) – Barefoot running and improving running form

(00:06:50) – Speaking multiple languages across the business as a founder

(00:09:37) – Continuous glucose monitoring and heart rate monitoring for peak performance

(00:13:27) – Embedding Ketone-IQ into daily life

(00:15:58) – Creating brand synesthesia with design

(00:22:22) – Recommended books, from Shoe Dog to Born to Run

(00:26:43) – The importance of daily activity and the magic of walking

(00:31:19) – Find more mentors and don’t reinvent the wheel for 80% of your business

As a listener — that’s you — you can try Ketone-iQ and save 10% off today. Simply go to HVMN.me/OutlierAcademy or use code OUTLIER at checkout.

ABOUT MICHAEL BRANDT

Michael Brandt is the co-founder and CEO of HVMN which makes the world's first drinkable ketones. HVMN stands for Health Via Modern Nutrition. And in 2017, they launched version 1.0 of their drinkable ketone product after landing a six million dollar contract with the US Department of Defense to study how ketones could improve the performance of our special forces warriors. HVMM launched version 2.0 called KetoneIQ last year in November 2021. Michael is also an avid marathoner, long distance runner, and biohacker which we talk about a lot in this episode.

In this episode, Michael shares his product design and branding principles, including his theory of synesthesia or why every part of your aesthetic and brand has to relate to every other part. He talks about how he uses drinkable ketones and KetoneIQ in his daily life, including what products he stacks it with. We discuss his favorite books on running, and the design and engineering thought that went into HVMN.

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ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Michael Brandt of HVMN and Ketone IQ. In it, Michael shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more.

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In Episode #118, we explore healthcare as a product rather than a service. We’re joined by Adrian Aoun, Forward’s CEO and Founder, and we cover why healthcare should be a product, not a service, being problem-oriented as a founder, and why the health insurance industry is destined to fall. 

“Solutions don't really matter. Problems matter.” – Adrian Aoun

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/forward-adrian-aoun  

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/forward-adrian-aoun-transcript 

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to healthcare as a product rather than a service. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:02:37) – From Google to Forward

(00:09:01) – Why founders should be problem-oriented

(00:12:31) – Advising the President on the future of technology

(00:17:22) – The root problem of the healthcare industry

(00:25:24) – Why healthcare should be a product, not a service

(00:30:01) – The imminent fall of health insurance

(00:35:06) – Does the healthcare system really matter?

(00:45:47) – Why medical specialties don’t make sense

(00:55:02) – How Forward is a mission that happens to have a company attached to it

ABOUT FORWARD

Adrian Aoun is founder and CEO of Forward, which is building an insurance-free healthcare system focused on preventative healthcare from the ground up. Forward was founded in 2017 to invert the typical model of healthcare, which follows the service model where one patient sees a single doctor whenever they need care. Forward is building healthcare focused on health and preventative care that's 1) productized so you can use it anytime, anywhere, 2) scalable so it's affordable to everyone, and 3) always on with help available through the Forward app and a network of offices around the US. This might sound like, well, how healthcare should have been all along, which is the goal.

This episode is a special one. In it we cover why Adrian is fanatical about being problem-focused rather than solution-focused, what he learned leading special projects for Sergey Brin at Google, and why Forward is focused on productizing healthcare to bring down the cost of treatments, make healthcare available 24/7, help customers manage all aspects of their health, and increase the pace of innovation and iteration.

Adrian shares his perspective on what happens as the percentage of GDP dedicated to healthcare reaches 30% and even 40%, and he talks through how he uses extreme perspectives to pick apart complex issues and come to ground truths.

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Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Forward with Adrian Aoun.

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In Episode #117, we deconstruct Adam Nash's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Adam is the Co-Founder and CEO of Daffy. We cover the importance of brutal prioritization, lessons from mentors and books, and being a leader as an engineer.

“For many people who come from an engineering background, it can be difficult separating building the product you want to build from actually building the company itself, which is going to build and maintain that product indefinitely.” – Adam Nash

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/adam-nash-playbook 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/adam-nash-playbook-transcript 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct Adam Nash’s peak performance playbook—from their favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on their life. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:02:03) – The rapid progress in space exploration

(00:03:05) – Being a leader as an engineer

(00:04:31) – The importance of brutal prioritization

(00:07:22) – On Reid Hoffman, building companies, and solving problems

(00:08:52) – Why every founder should read The Innovator’s Dilemma

(00:11:59) – Your daily top three

(00:14:08) – The lessons of delayed gratification and humility in gardening

ABOUT ADAM NASH

Adam Nash is the co-founder and CEO of Daffy, which is building a modern platform for giving and in the process rethinking how we all give to the causes and charities we care about. Adam has a long and incredible history as an entrepreneur and builder. He's been a VP at LinkedIn, helping scale the network in its earliest years, entrepreneur in residence at Greylock, the President and CEO of Wealthfront, and an advisor to a long list of incredible companies from Gusto to Bitwise.

In this episode, Adam shares why the hardest part of company building is prioritization and phasing, and how he gets these things right. We talk about why, as a founder, it's important to know everyone's superpower on your team. He shares the lessons he learned by working closely with Clayton Christensen of the Innovator's Dilemma fame. He shares why he's a big believer in interdisciplinary innovation, and that his favorite thing to do on the weekends is gardening and what that's taught him about company building.

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Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Adam Nash of Daffy. In it, Adam shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #116, we explore metabolic health with ketones. We’re joined by Michael Brandt, HVMN and Ketone IQ’s Co-Founder and CEO. We cover the basics of ketones, iterating on product, and the company’s $6 million contract with Navy SEALs.

“Your human body is the most advanced piece of technology you'll ever own.” – Michael Brandt

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/hvmn-michael-brandt 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/hvmn-michael-brandt-transcript/ 

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to metabolic health with ketones. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:03:02) – Marathon running and the origin of HVMN

(00:08:47) – Health via modern nutrition

(00:10:51) – Ketones as a metabolic substrate

(00:15:32) – Energy from ketones vs. energy from glucose

(00:20:52) – How substrates work in the body

(00:29:08) – Operation Metabolic Dominance

(00:31:56) – HVMN’s $6 million contract with the Navy Seals

(00:36:08) – How ketones can improve performance in endurance sports

(00:49:07) – Iterating on the product and moving from petrochemicals to biochemicals

(00:59:00) – Ketones as an alcohol replacement in cocktails and more

(01:05:17) – Educating consumers is step one for growth

As a listener — that’s you — you can try Ketone-iQ and save 10% off today. Simply go to HVMN.me/OutlierAcademy or use code OUTLIER at checkout.

ABOUT HVMN

Michael Brandt is Co-founder and CEO of HVMN, which makes the world's first drinkable ketones. HVMN stands for Health via Modern Nutrition, and in 2017, they launched version 1.0 of their drinkable ketones product. After landing a $6 million contract with the US Department of Defense to study how ketones could improve the performance of our special forces warriors, they launched version 2.0, called Ketone-IQ, in November 2021.

In this episode, we cover ketosis and ketones 101, including what ketones are, how they work, and why they're so helpful for boosting cognitive and physical performance. We compare and contrast ketones with sugar, covering everything from how ketones pass the blood brain barrier to why they provide energy with less oxidative stress. We dive into how drinkable ketones are used by the Navy SEALs and Operation Metabolic Dominance. And we discuss all the work that HVMN has done around bioengineering, manufacturing, and testing to produce their latest product, Ketone-IQ.

💌 FREE NEWSLETTER

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iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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