Pattern Recognition - Investing in the Future

Having built Nasty Gal into a dominant ecommerce brand in the 2000s, Sophia Amoruso is now leading the #Girlboss movement by creating a new age social network, media company, and community designed to bridge the gender gap and empower women in business. In today’s podcast, Sophia and I reflect on lessons learned during the Nastygal experience, and how those experiences led Sophia to not only start Girlboss, but build the company’s mission, team, and culture in an intentional and deliberate way. Additionally, we also discuss how Girlboss is creating a new age of media as well as how we all can help bridge the diversity gap.

For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com

Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

Having sat at the helm of the world’s premier management consulting firm for close to a decade, Dom Barton has seen what it takes to build leading teams across the world’s most successful $bn companies. Alongside Ram Charan, Dom penned Talent Wins, a guide that lays out how to scale a dominant and long-term business by focusing on people. 

So in today’s episode, we discuss how exactly Talent Wins. Specifically, we dive into the structural building blocks found in McKinsey’s culture and values that allow its people to achieve excellence. Additionally, Dom shares the key qualities he looks for in candidates that are applying to McKinsey and how junior talent should think about scaling to senior roles. Lastly, Dom shares the consistent patterns he’s seen across his most successful clients through the lens of multiple economic cycles.

For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com

Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

The startup industry has a diversity problem. Of the thousands of VC partners out there, only 18% are female, and of the VC-backed founders out there, only 9% are female. And when you cut the statistics by race, the picture gets even more grim. Only 1 percent of venture-backed founders are black and 2% are latino. Henri-Pierre Jacques and Jarrid Tingle co-founded Harlem Capital while at Harvard Business School to level the playing field.

In today's Pattern Recognition episode, we discuss how diversity actually leads to better business results in today’s globalizing world in addtion to laying out actionable strategies for how companies and firms can up their diversity metrics. We also share a few lessons learned for any entrepreneurial investors on how to go about raising a fund.

For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com

Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

After exiting Twitch to Amazon for $1bn, Justin Kan set out on a mission to redefine B2B legal services... but on the way realized that something wasn't right. Despite his highlight reel, he felt that something was missing, and that something was a source of meaning and fulfillment that no business success can sustainably achieve. Although today's episode covers Justin's business lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur (M&A, virality, market vs. execution risk), our conversation centers around the structural practices Justin embeds into building a conscious work culture, feeling good, and making the space for mindfulness and gratitude in our day-to-day. 

For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com

Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

After building Politico into the go-to source for politics, Jim VandeHei and Roy Schwartz went about revolutionizing the media industry again, this time through Axios. As a combination of Twitter and The Economist, Axios seeks to meet modern media consumption needs through a concept Jim and Roy call "smart brevity". So it's no surprise that Axios is scaling rapidly as today's source for expert opinions and differentiated content.

In today's episode of Pattern Recognition, Jim and Roy discuss how to raise venture capital funding to build a sustainable, long-term focused media business. Additionally, we discuss how Trump has changed the media paradigm (for both good and bad) and how to evangelize a new kind of sale.

For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com

Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

Breaking through the unicorn barrier in less than 2 years, Andrew Dudum and his team at hims & hers are on a mission to make medicine more accessible... and they're having a ton of fun while they're at it. Andrew shares his insights around the novel ways hims is building a memorable and unique brand among consumers along with how he thinks about maximizing LTV/CAC. Additionally, we discuss the key performance metrics that are core to hims and hers and how the team measures their performance through concepts like multi-touch attribution. After listening to this episode, it'll be no surprise to you as to why hims has raised venture capital funding from some of the best consumer VCs out there.

For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com

Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

Scaling a technical organization that's reached $100M ARR is quite the challenge. Prashant Pandey, VP Engineering at Asana explains how he's built a thriving engineering organization that's put collaboration and efficiency at the center of its process. We dive into the concept of DevOps and how Prashant hires and structures his team to deliver value to the customer as quickly as possible. 

With a $1.8bn market cap, Upwork is revolutionizing the way we work. As the head of the largest freelancer marketplace, Stephane Kasriel walks us through the operational metrics required to scale a billion dollar marketplace, from user retention to trust and safety. In addition to sharing how Upwork differentiates, Stephane recounts his experience merging the two leading competitors in the space to form Upwork and then ultimately taking the company public in a highly successful IPO. As Stephane shares his M&A integration tips and recounts each step of the IPO, you won't want to miss out on this episode!

Having raised at a unicorn valuation from SoftBank's Vision Fund and Kleiner Perkins, Alex Garden and his team at Zume are revolutionizing the way we consume food. In today's episode, Alex and I discuss everything from the unit economics of restaurant delivery to saving the world from global climate change. And within our broad conversation, we dive really deep into how Zume is using robotic preparation and mobile kitchen deliver to provide both consumers and restaurants with a higher quality, better tasting and cheaper experience.  We also get into the nitty gritty of how Alex and his team think about KPIs and metrics, and how data-driven decisioning serves as the cornerstone of Zume’s business.

With a $19bn market cap, Ripple's cryptocurrency XRP is revolutionizing the global financial ecosystem. Monica Long, SVP Marketing at Ripple, demystifies what exactly Ripple is and does... and why their blockchain-based network is so disruptive. Additionally, she shares a few key patterns critical to evangelizing a new market, working with large financial partners, and navigating a complex regulatory system.