Paradox Podcast

Jeff Morris Jr. (@jmj) is a full time angel investor and the founder of Chapter One who has invested in in companies including Lyft, Lambda School, Superhuman, Roman, Cameo and Branch Metrics. For episode #9, Jeff and I had a wide-ranging conversation about the impact this global coronavirus pandemic is having on millions of lives, the types of new companies and products that might be built to address new challenges and what investing in a post-COVID19 future might look like.

We also talked about career-related path dependence in time of rising uncertainty, the unbundling and distribution of talent out of Silicon Valley and the importance of family. Prior to becoming a full-time investor, Jeff was was previously the VP of Product, Revenue at Tinder. In the role, he led the revenue team to the #1 top grossing app in the App Store and directed one of the top grossing products in mobile history. Jeff is a super talented investor and operator and is always sharing really interesting insights on Twitter @jmj. Hope you enjoy this episode with Jeff Morris Jr.

Check out the PodcastNotes for this episode: https://podcastnotes.org/paradox-podcast/jeff-morris-jr-kyle-tibbitts-covid-19/

Sahil Lavingia (@shl) is the CEO of Gumroad and a prolific entrepeneur, writer, painter and thinker. For episode #8, I chatted with Sahil about the challenges of building startups and his viral essay “reflecting on my “failure" to build a $1B company”. We also escaped the world of tech and startups to talk about moving from San Francisco to Provo, Utah – the most conservative and religious city in America and lessons he learned about breaking outside our ideological bubbles and engaging with people we disagree with in a friendly way.

Lastly, we offered up some very amateur political analysis on the 2020 Presidential Race including some surprising similarities between Trump and Bernie. Full disclosure, we recorded this episode the week before Joe Biden’s South Carolina and Super Tuesday comeback so take it with a grain of salt. Sahil is a fascinating individual and I really loved how wide ranging the conversation was. I hope you enjoy this episode with Sahil Lavingia.

Katherine Boyle (@ktmboyle) is a venture capitalist based in San Francisco and former journalist. For episode #7, I chatted with Katherine about escalating tensions between the media and tech industries, her path to becoming a venture capitalist and the threat that declining economic mobility poses to future generations.

Katherine Boyle is a partner at General Catalyst, a bi-coastal venture capital firm where she leads investments in early stage companies with uncommon missions. She's invested in the likes of Anduril Industries, Nova Credit, Spring Discovery and co-leads General Catalyst's seed platform. Prior to becoming an investor, she was a reporter at The Washington Post, and is passionate about the future of media.

Kamal Ravikant (@kamalravikant) is an entrepreneur, investor and best selling author of three books: Love Yourself, Live Your Truth, and Rebirth. For this episode, we talked to Kamal about fear, forgiveness and how your internal mentality can shape your external reality. Kamal was born in India but immigrated to the United States where he and his brother were raised by a single mom in a rough neighborhood Jamaica Queens. He spent countless hours at the library where he developed an early love for books –– which became his refuge and inspired him to become a writer.

This week Kamal is re-launching an expanded version of his book “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it”. He sent Alex and I an advanced copy and I think the message of the book couldn’t more relevant for the world we live in. After hitting rock bottom when his startup during the .com boom completely fell apart, he made a commitment to change his life by reprogramming his mind and that’s the focus of his book. We hope you enjoy this episode with Kamal Ravikant.

Purchase Kamal's book, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It, here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062968726/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

James Beshara (@JamesBeshara) is a modern day renaissance man – an entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster, author, musician. James is a prolific creator who operates with passion and he’s probably one of the most honest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. James founded three startups including Tilt which was acquired by Airbnb in 2017 where he was Global Head of Airbnb Music. James has angel invested in dozens of startups like Gusto, Mercury Bank, Halo Top Ice Cream, Bolt and many others, including several multi-billion dollar companies, and is now a full-time angel investor.

This year, he launched the Below The Line podcast which is, without any exaggeration, my favorite new podcast of 2019. James is an advocate for mental health, a lover of philosophy, a beacon of honesty in the tech community and someone who always willing to help–he’s personally been very helpful in the launching of this podcast and now as our third guest. James has a book coming out next month called Beyond Coffee which you can check out at beyondcoffeebook.com and you call follow him on Twitter @JamesBeshara.

Check out our PodcastNotes from part 1: https://podcastnotes.org/2019/10/25/james-beshara-entrepreneurship-mental-health-creativity-paradox-podcast

Trae Stephens (@traestephens) is a venture capitalist at Founders Fund with partners like Peter Thiel, Brian Singerman, Cyan Banister and Keith Rabois, where he invests across sectors with a particular interest in startups operating in the government space. He’s also Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril Industries with Palmer Luckey, who founded Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014. Anduril is a defense technology company focused on developing autonomous systems for U.S. military and is by far one of the most interesting, and for some controversial, new startups in the last two years. In our conversation Trae described it as a real-life Stark Industries from Ironman.

Previously, Trae was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, where he led teams focused on growth in the intelligence/defense space as well as international expansion, helping large organizations solve their hardest data analysis problems. Prior to Palantir, Trae worked as a computational linguist within the United States Intelligence community. He began his career working in the office of then Congressman Rob Portman and in the Political Affairs Office at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. Trae is a publishing a paper on Just War Theory In the Age of Technology later this month and you can follow him on Twitter @traestephens. Our conversation with Trae was a wide-ranging and illuminating. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Read Trae's latest piece: The Ethics of Defense Technology Development: An Investor’s Perspective

https://medium.com/@traestephens/the-ethics-of-defense-technology-development-an-investors-perspective-45c71bf6e6af

James Beshara (@JamesBeshara) is a modern day renaissance man – an entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster, author, musician. James is a prolific creator who operates with passion and he’s probably one of the most honest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. James founded three startups including Tilt which was acquired by Airbnb in 2017 where he was Global Head of Airbnb Music. James has angel invested in dozens of startups like Gusto, Mercury Bank, Halo Top Ice Cream, Bolt and many others, including several multi-billion dollar companies, and is now a full-time angel investor.

This year, he launched the Below The Line podcast which is, without any exaggeration, my favorite new podcast of 2019. James is an advocate for mental health, a lover of philosophy, a beacon of honesty in the tech community and someone who always willing to help–he’s personally been very helpful in the launching of this podcast and now as our third guest. James has a book coming out next month called Beyond Coffee which you can check out at beyondcoffeebook.com and you call follow him on Twitter @JamesBeshara.

Check out the PodcastNotes for this episode: https://podcastnotes.org/2019/10/25/james-beshara-entrepreneurship-mental-health-creativity-paradox-podcast/

Show notes:

• 1:05 Introduction of James Beshara

• 2:18 Background of how the Paradox Podcast came to be

• 5:50 Why James is bullish on podcasts

• 8:24 Why radical honesty is a core part of James' life

• 15:45 Why James, a Catholic Texan, has gravitated to eastern philosophy and how meditation has impacted James' life

• 26:08 The genesis of James' serial creativity

• 28:56 Fact vs Fiction: the reality of being a founder

• 46:35 Why nuance still matters in the age of sound bites

• 52:10 How James became an angel investor and leveraged his own life challenges to help a new generation of founders

• 1:00:59 preview of James Beshara episode two available 11/1/19

Jennifer Fearing (@jenniferfearing) is one of the most successful, innovative, and admired lobbyists in California. She left a lucrative corporate consulting career to advocate on behalf of issues that are close to her heart, especially animal issues. Jennifer successfully ran the 2008 Proposition 2 campaign, also known as the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. She has led successful efforts to ban the sale of ivory and shark fin soup, to ban the use of hounds when hunting bears and bobcats, and championed numerous other issues related to animal welfare.

Jennifer spent eight years working for the Humane Society of the United States and in 2014 founded Fearless Advocacy, a lobbying firm dedicated to advancing the public policy agendas of causes she believes in. Clients include Pew Charitable Trusts, Pesticide Action Network, Defenders of Wildlife, the California Association of Nonprofits, Oceana, California Wildlife Officers Foundation and more. A graduate of UC Davis and Harvard’s Kennedy School, Jennifer has been featured on the Capitol 100, an annual list of the most impactful people in-and-around California government.

Michael Davidson (@MPDavidson) is the CEO of GenNext (@gen_next), an organization that recruits business leaders in the private sector, educates them on critical issues like economic opportunity, education and global security and empowers them to have a direct impact both inside and outside of government. Michael is a super sharp guy who cares about the restoring the marketplace of ideas, reviving civics, and solving the leadership deficit in this country.