Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon

In this episode, I’m back in the hot seat again while my producer Knut grills me on what I’m calling my ‘errors of omission’. It’s part of my plan this year to cover various points in my career. Previously I've discussed details on Wallstrip and Stocktwits. Both of those episodes answered a lot of the questions I've been asked over the years. 

But one of the questions I’m asked most often as an investor and entrepreneur is, “Howard, what’s your biggest mistake, your biggest miss?” I’ve been in this game for a while now – so it’s a splendid idea to finally share them in a format where everyone can learn from my mistakes. 

I lay out my biggest errors, or what I would call errors of omission versus errors of commission, in the spirit of Bessemer Ventures “anti-portfolio” – that is some of the biggest ones they missed, like AirBnb, Coinbase, and eBay to name a few. I cover three of my biggest whiffs. It's part of the joy of investing, the irreverence, having the cojones to create a whole anti-portfolio and share it. You may have even heard of one or two of mine. 

Guest - Howard Lindzon, General partner at Social Leverage and Host of Panic With Friends Podcast 

Host - Knut Jensen 

howardlindzon.com, socialleverage.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

LinkedIn: howardlindzon, socialleverage, knutejensen

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps: 

Intro (00:33)

Knut’s biggest mistake (01:39)

The anti-portfolio (02:10)

Getting asked to dance (03:57)

Setting the stage (05:01)

First miss (06:26)

Network Effects (10:20)

Lesson on valuation (12:51)

The next big miss (14:21)

Making the same mistake (16;00)

Another big miss (17:51)

The lesson learned (24:58)

Wrapping it up (26:38)

Outro (28:18)

I couldn’t be more excited to have my good friend Downtown Josh Brown on the show! Josh and I go way back to the early, early days of Stocktwits. He’s built what’s probably the biggest financial media brand outside of CNBCq and has managed to thrive amidst the people who like to hate on people who are doing well on social media; so I’ve got lots and lots of questions about the finance industry and media. We dig a bit into AI, crypto, web2 survivors, and where we’re at with web3. You’re going to really enjoy our conversation. 

Guest - Josh Brown, Co-founder & CEO at Ritholtz Wealth Management, Host of The Compound & Friends Podcast 

howardlindzon.com, ritholtzwealth.com, thereformedbroker.com/podcast TikToK: @downtownjbrown

Instagram: @downtownjoshbrown

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @reformedbroker, @ritholtzwealth, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

LinkedIn: joshua-brown

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps: 

Intro (00:37)

Welcome Josh (03:30)

Comparing T scores (03:48)

Early days nostalgia (08:33)

Building the tribe (09:47)

Social Media wild west (13:16)

Picking the right social platform (18:19)

LinkedIn - the next generation (21:17)

Building Finance/Media culture (28:30)

Josh makes a comeback (29:34)

Birth of Ritholtz Wealth Management (31:40)

Opportunity in Wealth Management (34:02)

web2 survivors (36:32)

Evolution of web 3 (36:51)

DeFi not working as intended (38:00)

Josh’s thoughts on Oculus (39:13)

Diving deeper into web 3 (39:26)

ChatGPT changing everything (41:01)

The promise of crypto (42:33)

AI tools cut advisor workloads (44:27)

Days of arbing algo’s are over (45:63

Wrapping it up (47:11)

Outro (50:17)

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends, I speak with Rob Koyfman, the co-founder and CEO of Koyfin, a platform that offers a range of resources for investors, enabling them to conduct stock research and stay updated on market trends. He started his career at Goldman Sachs Investment Research in 2002, where he embarked on a proprietary trading role in London afterward. Subsequently, Rob held titles such as head of Macro and Thematic Trading Strategy at Citigroup and served as a Strategist at Caxton Associates, Lyxor Asset Management, and Tekne Capital. In 2016, Rob initiated the creation of Koyfin due to his dissatisfaction with the limited availability of analytical tools for investors lacking access to Bloomberg.

Guest - Rob Koyfman, Co-founder and CEO at Koyfin 

howardlindzon.com, koyfin.com 

20% Discount for New Koyfin Users

(Discount for new users only - will be applied at checkout)

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @KoyfinCharts, @koyfman, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/rob-koyfman-8b693317 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps: 

Intro (0:00)

Moving to Miami (5:30)

What’s happening at Koyfin (7:54)

Who’s using Koyfin (11:55)

Monopolies in finance (15:34)

Trends (20:00)

AI and Koyfin (26:48)

Core users (38:41)

Outro (40:00)

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends, I speak with Joe Gagnon. Joe is a seasoned adventurer, creator, and explorer, combining his entrepreneurial spirit with executive expertise as a COO/CEO for over two decades. Joe is currently the CEO of 1upHealth, a cloud-based data interoperability platform that is revolutionizing healthcare outcomes. He is also an active blogger and co-host of the Chasing Tomorrow podcast. Previously, he held the CEO position at Sparkcentral, specializing in digital messaging solutions for customer care, and co-founded Performance Tea, a plant-based beverage company aimed at unlocking human potential. Joe's impressive career includes being the President of Penn Foster, a prominent online school, and the President of e-Dialog, an influential SaaS multi-channel digital marketing organization under eBay's ownership. As the CEO of Exit41, an innovative restaurant solutions company, and the Global Leader of IBM's Retail Industry business, he demonstrated his industry acumen. Joe started his career at Mainspring, a strategy consulting firm, where he was COO until the company was acquired by IBM. He also spent a decade at Ernst & Young as a consultant implementing emerging technologies. In his free time, Joe is an accomplished endurance athlete having completed six Ironman triathlons and over 85 marathons. 

Guest - Joe Gagnon, CEO at 1upHealth, Inc

howardlindzon.com, 1up.health 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @1up_health, @jgagnon2023, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen

Joe’s blog: The High Performance Life, Joe’s Chasing Tomorrow Podcast, Joe on Linkedin, Joe on instagram, Joe’s Book 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps: 

Intro (0:00)

What is 1upHealth (5:50)

The Healthcare Industry (14:40)

Business Travel (19:55)

1upHealth’s Latest Fundraise (21:30)

Acquisitions in Healthcare (27:00)

Longevity (37:00)

Outro (46:40)

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends I speak with Doug Hecht, the CEO and Co-founder of Walla, a modern studio management platform created to transform and simplify studio operations. Doug's entrepreneurial journey began as the CEO of Lymber, a wellness app start-up that was later acquired by MINDBODY. Following the acquisition, he took on the role of SVP of Consumer Products at MINDBODY, where he played a crucial role in developing the app and spearheading other digital initiatives. Doug is committed to nurturing the start-up community in San Diego. He serves as a capital partner for Seed San Diego, dedicating his time and resources to building a better environment for start-ups. With a stake in over 30 start-ups, Doug actively participates as an angel investor in his spare time. 

Guest - Doug Hecht, Co-founder and CEO of Walla 

howardlindzon.com, hellowalla.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/doughechtsd

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps: 

Intro (0:00)

Howard and Doug catch up (8:34)

San Diego (9:52)

Hello Walla (14:00)

Working at Mindbody (15:10)

Post Web2 (15:56)

Who is Walla’s customer? (18:14)

Raising during COVID (21:22)

Walla’s metrics (24:34)

Howard’s HIIT Story (26:59)

Marketing (30:24)

Product vs. Sales (33:20)

Remote work (39:09)

Golf (45:25)

Outro (47:25)

On today’s episode of Panic with Friends, I speak to my good friend Jenny Fielding. After attending law school, Jenny found herself falling in love with technology first as a founder of two mobile companies and now as an early stage investor. She then spent nearly 8 years as the Managing Director at Techstars. After her time there, she set out to start her own global venture fund, Everywhere Ventures (formerly The Fund) where she is the Managing Partner. Throughout her career, she has invested in 300+ tech-enabled companies and has worked with hundreds of founders. Hopefully you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

Guest - Jenny Fielding, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Everywhere.vc 

howardlindzon.com, everywhere.vc, podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/venture-everywhere

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @jefielding, @EverywhereVC, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jennyfielding

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Time Stamps:

Intro (0:00)

Howard commits a crime (10:13)

Everywhere Ventures (10:33)

Techstars (15:50)

Jenny’s favorite city (19:00)

State of the markets (23:33)

Everywhere Ventures portfolio (39:58)

Emerging manager experience (45:18)

Outro (50:45)

On this week of Panic with Friends, I speak with Brooker Belcourt, founder of Covey. Brooker is a driven founder with extensive experience in the investment industry and a deep understanding of the needs he is looking to address. Prior to founding Covey, he previously worked at Citadel, Coatue Management, as well as Goldman Sachs, where he acquired valuable knowledge of the alpha capture and asset management industries. With limited resources and a lean team, Brooker has made significant strides in product development, which has led to early traction with both investment firms and individual investors alike. The Covey Legends co-trading app is now available for download on all platforms. Click the link below to check it out. 

Guest - Brooker Belcourt, Founder at Covey.io 

howardlindzon.com, covey.io, coveylegends.io, covey.io/p/bb, linktr.ee/covey.io 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @BrookerBelcourt, @coveyinvest, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/brookerbelcourt 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps:  

Intro: (0:00)

Brookers up-bringing/background (4:54)

Working at Goldman (6:24)

Pre FinTech (7:10)

Covey (9:04)

The top 1% of analysts (13:51)

Covey Training Club / Covey Legends (17:08)

Covey tech stack (18:24)

Who are the legends (22:49)

The switch from passive to active (30:12)

Crypto (30:10)

Covey Launch (29:46)

Building a community (39:08)

What’s to come / the product (41:02)

Outro (47:14)

On this episode of the Panic with Friends, I talk to Jud Valeski, co-founder and former CEO of Gnip. Jud started his career at Netscape right out of college, where he worked for three years. He then went on to AOL, where he worked for nearly seven years. Later, in 2006, in the early days of MySpace, Jud had the revelation that social media was going to be the next big thing. He believed that somewhere amidst the noise, there would be commercial value. Enter Gnip. Two years later, in 2008, Jud founded Gnip, which was later acquired by Twitter in 2014. Post acquisition Jud went to Honey where he spent five years as a General Manager. It’s not everyday you get to talk to someone who has had back to back career home runs like Jud, so sit back and enjoy! 

Guest - Guest: Jud Valeski, Investor, Co-Founder and former CEO of Gnip 

howardlindzon.com, one.valeski.org 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jvaleski 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps:

Intro (00:00)

What is panic (04:29)

The latent era of tech (06:14)

Advice for kids today (14:39)

Web2 (16:24)

Twitter (21:59)

The ad driven world (23:51)

Gnip (25:00)

Honey and browser extensions (26:44)

Howie and Jud catchup (34:09)

Outro (43:24)

I’m always excited to interview a portfolio company founder on Panic with Friends, so I’m doubly excited to have Sharona Cohen, co-founder (her husband Nave is the other co-founder who I previously had on the pod) of DSTNC (Social Leverage Fund IV) on today’s show. The company is at the forefront of fashion and technology, or as I like to call it, ‘fashology’ – for the modern cyclist. DSNTC (pronounced 'distance' - vowels removed) is a first of its kind global marketplace and content destination, curating the largest selection of high-end brands and performance products from around the world.

Nave and Sharona have done a phenomenal job over the last eight months or so, and with the site launched and a seed round raised, this is the right time to check in and hear about the company. With DSTNC I finally get to dig into 'fashology', something I’ve been talking about since the Oakley days. I’ve been able to invest and help build a Lifestyle brand from the ground up. Sharona has an eye for fashion, culture, brands and what people will buy. The curation is excellent.

The KEY business hack here is the logistics of shipping returns. DSTNC can locally take returns for all these foreign brands and customers do not have to ship items that do not fit (a large problem with cycling gear sizes) back overseas at a high cost. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Guest - Sharona Cohen, Co-Founder & CEO at DSTNC.com 

howardlindzon.com, dstnc.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @shop_dstnc, @sharonanco, @naveavimor, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

Instagram: @shop.dstnc, @sharonanco

linkedin.com/in/sharona-cohen-41588027 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Show Notes:

00:36 - Introduction

09:58 - Learning Hebrew and Yiddish in Canada

13:00 - Investing in husband and wife teams

16:04 - Trends in cycling

17:17 - Endurance culture

20:00 - Brand curation

24:08 - Challenges in the industry

26:30 - Inspiration behind starting DSTNC

28:06 - The future of cycling

30:00 - New entrants in cycling

35:00 - What to expect from DSTNC

39:00 - Competitors in endurance wear

40:20 - Dream collab

40:55 - Tricks to curation

42:16 - Outro

I’m excited to finally have my friend Joe McCann on the show. He’s the founder of Asymmetric, a modern-day crypto fund. Joe’s probably one of the smartest people I follow on Twitter and I usually get caught up reading his monthly letters. I wanted to have Joe on the show and get his thoughts on navigating the crypto space. Nowadays most people have disdain for crypto, but the data will not go away. There’s still a lot of people with significant digital assets, including myself. And at Social Leverage, we’ve invested in Lumida (Fund IV) – a digital asset first wealth manager. Remember, none of our conversation is investing advice, but crypto is a space you shouldn’t ignore while the hype is centered on generative AI. 

Guest - Joe McCann, Founder, CEO, CIO at Asymmetric

howardlindzon.com, asymmetric.financial 

Stocktwits: @joemccann 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @joemccann, @goasymmetric, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/amazing-opportunity 

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Show Notes: 

Introduction. (00:36)

Welcome Joe (06:11)

Moving to Portland (06:29)

Diving into Asymmetric (10:20)

Credit Risk reminiscent of GFC (11:25)

Bullish longer term (13:48)

Getting in to the crypto space (13:59)

Digitization of money (15:30)

Open source finance (19:15)

Meaningful disruption in finance (19:45)

Finances’ ‘Napster’ moment (22:22)

Crypto’s Market Cap (24:17)

Basic case for Bitcoin (28:18)

Behavioral Finance side of crypto (31:38)

Panic on real rates (33:12)

Are Bank Reserves strong? (34:51)

Regional Bank stress (35:15)

Costs of borrowing (38:23)

Addressing counterparty risk (41:38)

When will the Fed ease? (44:43)

Two things Joe’s excited about (47:26)

Wallet wars (49:05)

Incorporating ChatGPT trading (50:55)

Stablecoins (54:08)

Wrapping up (57:27)

Closing thoughts. (57:58)