Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon

Today’s guest is someone I’ve hung out with a few times, but mostly we’ve banged into each other on Twitter over the years. Mike Dudas is a fireball of creativity. He got the nickname ‘Foodas’ because his weight bounces around like Oprah. And I call him the White, Jewish Oprah. I’m an LP in his fund, 6th Man Ventures, which he started with his pal Serge Kassardjian. Before that Mike was the founder of The Block, where I was a small personal investor who tried to talk him out of doing that. He’s been on every side of the field, up and down and around; VC Investor, Founder, Trader, you name it. Mike was the co-founder of Button, a mobile marketing platform. He’s worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo, and PayPal. Mike started his career in corporate M&A at Disney. He’s got a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg. There’s a lot to learn here, and I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it. 

Guest - Mike Dudas, Co-founder at 6th Man Ventures 

howardlindzon.com, 6thman.ventures 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @mdudas, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/mdudas 

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

Show Notes: 

Introduction (00:38)

Welcome Mike Dudas to Panic with Friends (05:07)

Mike founds The Block around the end of the first crypto bubble and gets Howard’s advice. (06:16)

Being in the right role as a founder versus an operator. (09:31)

The business of Golf and the LinksDAO thesis. (11:16)

Operating and developing a high quality golf experience that’s accessible to everyone. (15:26)

If you don’t know crypto, just pay the 2 and 20. (19:34)

Using bitcoin as a store of value in a really high long-term inflation environment. (21:11)

Tokens allow you to have power in the network by incentivizing certain activities and helps with coordination. (22:21)

The smartest people in the world are not experts on which layer two solution will be dominant in five years time. (23:22)

We can't all be Zuckerbert; the world needs operators. (26:14)

Starting 6th Man Ventures. (26:38)

New York is back baby! (31:23)

Mike’s younger days and starting at Disney. (33:56)

The Vibe bio project. A DAO model for getting drug discovery through clinical trials and into development. (38:41)

Wrapping up. (40:39)

Closing thoughts. (42:19)

In this episode my good friend Ryan Spoon makes his Panic debut. We’ve known each other forever on the internet and met in person about seven years ago when Greg Bettinelliintroduced us at the Upfront conference. Ryan is a great connector – a super connector; and a platinum Social Leverage investor in all of our funds. Ryan is an operator extraordinaire. He was a senior vice president of digital and social at ESPN for eight years. He’s seen growth, he knows sports, he knows mobile, he knows entertainment. And now he’s the COO of Sorare – the intersection of fantasy sports, blockchain, and community. You’ve heard me say it often: the world needs operators. Everybody can start a company, everybody has an idea, and until a few months ago, everybody could raise money; put all this together and no one knows what the hell they’re doing and what we need are operators. 

Guest - Ryan Spoon, COO at Sorare 

howardlindzon.com, sorare.com, sorare.com/blog, 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @ryanspoon, @sorare, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/ryanspoon

linkedin.com/company/sorare/

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

Show Notes:

Introduction and a guest appearance by former President Donald Trump (00:40)

Welcome Ryan Spoon to Panic with Friends (06:16)

Ryan explains what it means to be a great “operator” (07:01)

Why Ryan was attracted to Sorare - the NFT based fantasy sports gaming company (08:42)

How Ryan met the Sorare founders through Benchmark (12:03)

What Ryan has had to learn about crypto and why there’s still much to learn (14:11)

The role of NFTs within fantasy sports (15:44)

How to get started and the onboarding experience (18:11)

Leveraging soccers global reach (19:41)

Why adding baseball is a no-brainer (25:14)

How professional athletes increase fandom and engagement (28:55)

Teaching your kids about investing (32:17)

Gambling - everything is regulated but kids can YOLO their last $200 of food money over the weekend (34:26)

What worries Ryan in 2022 coming out of COVID (38:03)

What is it about the holy grail of data that keeps Ryan excited (40:48)

Why Ryan is bonkers over Sleep 8 and getting a good night’s sleep (42:13)

How Benchmark and Sorare found each other (47:00)

Wrapping up and closing thoughts (47:57)

Today’s guest is David Woo, a former Wall Street Investment Strategist and now the CEO of David Woo Unbound, where he’s leveling the playing field for Main Street. His blog, podcast, and YouTube are a global forum promoting fact-based debates about markets, politics, and economics. David was previously the Head of Global Rates, Foreign Exchange, and Emerging Market Fixed Income and Economics Research at Bank of America. He holds a Ph.D in Economics from Columbia. We’re just over two years from the last market panic, and I thought it was important to bring him on to talk global macro since we find ourselves smack in the middle of another panic – inflation, rising interest rates, markets melting, and the possibility of total war. He’s got some really strong opinions, ideas, and forecasts I thought I should share. Enjoy! 

Guest - David Woo, CEO of David Woo Unbound 

howardlindzon.com, davidwoounbound.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @davidwoounbound, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/david-woo-1479a492 

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

Show Notes:

(00:43) – Intro

(05:08) – Welcome David Woo

(05:26) – The pivot in global macro

(09:00) – Tech won’t solve this

(11:01) – Global momentum is slowing

(18:23) – Waking the dragon

(20:26) – Energy is key

(25:16) – Pressure on the system

(36:09) – Profit margins under pressure

(37:01) – Looking at a recession?

(41:33) – Wall Street v. Main Street

(44:08) – Wrapping up

(47:46) – Closing thoughts

Today’s guest is former NBA player Omri Casspi. Notably, he’s the first Israeli drafted to play in the NBA, he’s the managing director of the Omri Casspi Foundation, he’s got a VC fund, he’s even got his own podcast. Omri is now part of this crossover group of athletes in the right place at the right time. Less than a year after retiring, he co-founded his fund Sheva (seven in Hebrew) with David Citron. Their $50 million fund is focused on pre-seed and seed stage high-tech startups. I had a chance to spend time one on one with Omri in Tel Aviv and am suitably impressed. (Full disclosure: I’m an investor in his fund.) And now he’s back for an in-depth discussion on moving from professional sports to investing. Enjoy. 

Guest - Omri Casspi, Tech Investor, Partner at Sheva, Managing Director at the Omri Casspi Foundation 

howardlindzon.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @Casspi18, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/omri-casspi-3a575173 

facebook.com/Omri

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

Show Notes:

(00:39) – Intro

(04:37) – Welcome Omri

(06:04) – The NBA draft

(12:17) – Moving back to Israel

(13:30) – Playing in the NBA

(14:06) – Similarities between sports teams and founders

(17:37) – Bringing value

(19:18) – Back to hoops

(26:06) – Web3 infrastructure play

(29:06) – Getting an investing edge

(30:36) – Helping founders succeed

(33:43) – Hosting a podcast

(35:21) – Screening investments

(37:30) – Israeli politics

(40:24) – The wallet is the thing

(42:48) – Wrapping up

(43:50) – Closing thoughts

Today’s guest is one of my favorite follows, and the reason I started following him is because in the old days everybody linked to everybody. That’s how the internet just worked. To get smart we linked, we shared, we discovered. Luckily I discovered Horace. He understood Apple. He studied and wrote about the company and helped me stay with Apple, not from talking specifically about the stock, but writing about what made Apple great. Horace now runs one of the best twitter streams, with a podcast arm, centered around micro mobility. If you like smart people and you like stuff that will actually help you make money, even though he’s not talking specifically about stocks, Horace will be your man. I hope you enjoy this episode, and you can be sure Horace will be a recurring guest here on Panic with Friends. 

Guest - Horace Dediu, Founder and Author of Asymco.com, Partner at Relay Ventures 

howardlindzon.com, asymco.com, micromobility.io

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @hdediu, @asymco, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/dediu 

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

Show Notes:

(00:40) – Intro

(04:25) – Welcome Horace

(06:19) – Writing on the mobile industry

(09:59) – Working at Nokia

(12:05) – Making smartphones for the masses

(13:37) – The battle between Microsoft and Nokia

(17:06) – Apple and the iPod

(19:57) – Horace starts blogging

(23:52) – Rumors of the Apple "car"

(25:21) – Communications is a commodity

(29:27) – 2008 Steve Jobs conference call

(32:57) – Humility as a business model

(38:24) – Wrapping up

(41:43) – Closing thoughts

Today’s guest is an incredible leader building an incredible company. Patrick Spence is the CEO of Sonos ($SONO), a $3.5 billion dollar hardware audio company. I get excited because this is one of those companies I like to call fashology – where fashion meets technology. Patrick made his bones at Blackberry, fighting in a land of giants; taking on Apple and Google and Microsoft and Qualcomm. And at Sonos he continues to wage war in a world of giants, competing against the likes of Apple and Google. It’s a great growth story and I hope you enjoy it.

Guest - Patrick Spence, CEO at Sonos 

howardlindzon.com, sonos.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @Patrick_Spence, @Sonos, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/patrickspence 

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

Show Notes:

(00:49) – Intro

(04:01) – Welcome Patrick

(06:33) – Taking the reins at Sonos

(10:05) – The background on Blackberry

(18:24) – Innovators Dilemma - Lessons from Blackberry

(24:23) – Taking on Big Tech

(26:18) – Hitting escape velocity 

(29:06) – Peter Lynch - Buying what you know

(30:02) – Partnering with IKEA

(36:36) – Partnerships and Collaboration

(40:20) – Tackling the Supply Chain

(42:09) – Remote work and company culture

(45:27) – Wrapping up

(47:05) – Closing thoughts

I went a little selfish with this episode and geeked out with a super smart person on the Fed, the markets, tech, fintech, lending and the economy. I’m talking with one of my favorite financial bloggers, Marc Rubinstein. Marc is retired from Lansdowne Partners, one of Europe’s largest hedge funds. While there, he advised on a US $4 billion global long/short financials equity fund. Now Marc is an active value investor and early-stage fintech investor, as well as the author of the popular weekly financial newsletter, Net Interest. He’s also a contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. 

Guest - Marc Rubinstein, Finance writer at Netinterest - Weekly newsletter on financial sector themes, and Former Hedge Fund Manager. 

howardlindzon.com, netinterest.co

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @MarcRuby, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/marc-rubinstein 

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

Show Notes:

(00:39) – Intro

(04:33) – Welcome Marc

(05:07) – Best part of living in London

(06:14) – Getting started in the markets

(09:05) – Top-down thinking about risk

(11:47) – Panicking about the Fed panicking

(16:17) – The lending side of fintech

(23:15) – Private investment & the IPO market

(29:43) – Growth and the cloud-based economy

(33:17) – Multiple disruptions of Western Union

(34:40) – Circling back to the Fed

(37:06) – Banks actually do go bust

(38:54) – Wrapping up

(40:31) – Closing thoughts

I haven’t met today’s guest in person, yet I consider him a brother. He’s a master of business development. He’s a master at brand. Sina has seen inside the belly of the beast as Robinhood’s first head of crypto during a period of hyper growth where millions are signing up and you have to hold on just to stay alive. Prior to that, he co-founded one of the earliest crypto fund of funds. But he started his career on the dark side with Morgan Stanley, and later Credit Suisse. Now Sina is performing magic in the fast-paced world of crypto on behalf of FTX. He got his BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from USC. Needless to say, Sina will be a regular on Panic with Friends. 

Guest - Sina Nader, Head of Partnerships at FTX.US 

howardlindzon.com, FTX.US 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @FTX_US, @SinaNader33, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/sinanader 

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

Show Notes:

(00:48) – Intro

(05:39) – Welcome Sina

(07:42) – Crypto Fund of Funds

(12:17) – 96 percent of the world still isn't in Crypto

(14:37) – Bitcoin as a seat at the table (Carl Icahn)

(16:45) – Genesis of a Super Bowl Commercial

(22:51) – Pitching Larry David

(25:20) – A "spreadsheet in the sky"

(38:04) – Connecting with SBF

(41:54) – Keeping the momentum going

(50:37) – The importance of compliance and regulation

(55:45) – Wrapping it up

(56:38) – Closing thoughts

My good friend Josh is the co-founder and CEO of Small Door, a startup that is completely overhauling the pet care industry with a tech-infused membership model. It’s a magical bricks-and-mortar meets software experience. And we go deep on what it takes to build a retail-physical-software company smack in the middle of a global pandemic. Prior to co-founding Small Door, Josh was a successful investor at Softbank, and before that he was part of the management team at public company Outbrain ($OB). I’m a personal investor in the company, so let’s just say Josh is probably going to need a bigger door when I bring my horse in to his West Village location.  

Guest - Josh Guttman, Founder at Small Door 

howardlindzon.com, smalldoorvet.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @JGut, @SmallDoorVet, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/joshguttman 

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

Show Notes:

(00:38) – Intro

(03:10) – Welcome Josh

(06:15) – Disrupting pet care

(09:26) – Planning, research and executing

(10:49) – Launching in a pandemic

(13:08) – Reaching profitability

(16:18) – Scaling brick and mortar

(22:21) – High-end offerings

(27:15) – Working on something mission driven

(28:37) – The war for talent

(32:56) – Fundraising during a pandemic

(34:12) – Dealing with Private Equity

(39:59) – Wrapping it up

(40:53) – Closing thoughts

I’m excited about our guest today. Jack’s been doing startups from a young age. In his early twenties he started a company called Milo, which ended up being acquired by eBay for around $80-90m. Since then he’s been using a studio model at Atomic; the “two pizza team” principle. His dynamic teams have been busy churning out innovative ideas that scale into billion dollar companies. Jack moved the firm to Miami over the pandemic and hasn’t looked back. I would encourage anyone young listening to this to definitely go out and build. There’s a lot to build, lots of problems to solve and things to fix. Just do it. 

Guest - Jack Abraham, Founder, CEO and Managing Partner at Atomic.vc 

howardlindzon.com, atomic.vc, atomic.vc/futurefounders/ 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @jackabraham, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jackabraham 

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

Show Notes:

(00:40) – Intro

(03:35) – Welcome Jack

(04:23) – Moving to Miami

(08:27) – Major firms in Miami

(13:46) – The epicenter of the startup scene

(18:34) – Founding Milo

(27:12) – Getting acquired by eBay

(31:50) – Meeting and mentoring Entrepreneurs

(32:53) – Delivery by building the last mile at scale

(36:19) – Complexity of the studio model

(39:20) – Innovating with "two pizza" teams

(42:43) – Avoiding the traps of the studio model

(44:17) – Looking for the compounders

(44:35) – OpenStore - Liquidity drives progress

(50:10) – Two public companies outside of FAANG

(53:16) – Labor participation and inflation

(53:39) – Technology improves productivity

(57:21) – Closing thoughts