Podcast Notes Playlist: Business

Nick Szabo (@NickSzabo4) is a polymath. The breadth and depth of his interests and knowledge are truly astounding. He's a computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer best known for his pioneering research in digital contracts and cryptocurrency. The phrase and concept of "smart contracts" were developed by Nick with the goal of bringing what he calls the "highly evolved" practices of contract law and practice for the design of electronic commerce protocols between strangers on the Internet. Nick also designed Bit Gold, which many consider the precursor to Bitcoin. This wide-ranging conversation is co-hosted by Naval Ravikant, a mutual friend and one of the most successful investors in Silicon Valley, who also happens to be one of Nick's biggest admirers. We cover a lot, including: What is Bitcoin, what are cryptocurrencies, and what problem do they solve? What is "social scalability?" What is Ethereum and what makes it unique? Strengths and weaknesses? How will smart contracts actually get adopted or go mainstream? What are ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings)? Blockchain governance -- is there any existential risk? "Wet" versus "dry" code Pascal's scams Quantum thought What fields will you be working on in the future? Show notes and links for this episode can be found at www.fourhourworkweek.com/podcast. This podcast is brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easiest way to send invoices, get paid, track your time, and track your clients. FreshBooks tells you when your clients have viewed your invoices, helps you customize your invoices, track your hours, automatically organize your receipts, have late payment reminders sent automatically and much more. Right now you can get a free month of complete and unrestricted use. You do not need a credit card for the trial. To claim your free month and see how the brand new Freshbooks can change your business, go to FreshBooks.com/Tim and enter "Tim" in the "how did you hear about us" section. This podcast is also brought to you by Audible. I have used Audible for years, and I love audiobooks. I have two to recommend: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Vagabonding by Rolf Potts All you need to do to get your free 30-day Audible trial is visit Audible.com/Tim. Choose one of the above books, or choose any of the endless options they offer. That could be a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or even a class. It's that easy. Go to†Audible.com/Tim and get started today. Enjoy.

with Jyoti Bansal (@jyotibansalsf), Peter Levine, Satish Talluri (@satishtalluri), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90)

One of the toughest challenges for founders -- and especially technical founders who are used to focusing so much on product features over sales -- is striking "product-market fit". The concept can be defined many ways, but the simple definition shared in this episode is: it's when you understand the business value of your product.

And that comes down to users, which is where the concept of "product-market-sales fit" comes in, observes Jyoti Bansal, founding CEO of AppDynamics (which was acquired by Cisco for $3.7B the night before it was to IPO). Bansal shares this and other key milestones and frameworks for company building in conversation with a16z general partner Peter Levine; enterprise deal team partner Satish Talluri (who was a director of product and growth operations there); and Sonal Chokshi.

So in that shift from product-market fit to product-market-SALES fit, how much should you optimize your go-to-market for product... and even the other way around? What does this mean for product design and product management? When should companies offer services? As for pricing, how do you know you're not leaving value on the table? Again, it comes down to product-market fit: If your business case is strong, you will not be leaving money on the table, argues Bansal in this special podcast series on founder stories and lessons learned in enterprise go-to-market.

"Your head's for having ideas, not for holding them." — David Allen

David Allen (@gtdguy) is one of the world's most influential thinkers on productivity, and his 35 years of experience as a management consultant and executive coach have earned him the titles of "personal productivity guru" by Fast Company, one of America's top five executive coaches by Forbes, and among The American Management Association's top 10 business leaders.

David's bestselling book, the groundbreaking Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, has been published in thirty languages, and the "GTD" methodology it describes has become a global phenomenon, being taught by training companies in 60 countries. David, his company, and his partners are dedicated to teaching people how to stay relaxed and productive in our fast-paced world.

This podcast is brought to you by 99designs, the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Its creative process has become the go-to solution for businesses, agencies, and individuals, and I have used it for years to help with display advertising and illustrations and to rapid prototype the cover for The Tao of Seneca. Whether your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99designs.

You can work with multiple designers at once to get a bunch of different ideas, or hire the perfect designer for your project based based on their style and industry specialization. It's simple to review concepts and leave feedback so you'll end up with a design that you're happy with. Go to 99designs.com/tim and get $20 off plus a $99 upgrade.

This episode is also brought to you by FreshBooks. I've been talking about FreshBooks — an all-in-one invoicing + payments + accounting solution — for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.

FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info, and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. FreshBooks can save users up to 200 hours a year on accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Right now FreshBooks is offering my listeners a free 30-day trial, and no credit card is required. Go to FreshBooks.com/tim and enter "Tim Ferriss" in the "How did you hear about us?" section!

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For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.

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What can we learn from the history of the internet for the future of crypto? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, general partner Katie Haun interviews a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen -- and co-founder of Netscape, which helped popularize and mainstream the internet for many -- and who also penned "Why Software is Eating the World" (in the Wall Street Journal in 2011) and "Why Bitcoin Matters" (in the New York Times in 2014).

This episode is based on a fireside chat between Katie and Marc at our inaugural Crypto Regulatory Summit, which brings together leading crypto experts and builders, other technologists, academics, industry executives, and government officials -- along with forward-thinking regulators -- to foster collaboration and the exchange of ideas around this important emerging industry.

Why is crypto an important evolution (or revolution) of the internet? What can entrepreneurs, corporations, and policymakers learn from the beginnings of the browser, e-commerce, and other examples about how emerging technologies move forward?

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• Most VC firms are not “focused funds” – they’re more general (they invest in a wide range of companies across many different fields). This is different from Zetta – they only invest in AI & machine learning companies.
  • Focused funds get a 16% higher multiple on invested capital and a 33% higher ROI compared to generalist funds 
• The 4 Phases of AI:
  • Phase 1 (low risk): AI applied to consumer applications
    • Ex. – Google and Amazon giving recommendations
  • Phase 2 (slightly higher risk): AI applied to enterprise SaaS companies
    • Ex. – CRMs suggesting leads
  • Phase 3 (high financial risk): AI-centric applications that completely replace a workflow
    • Ex. – Using AI tech to estimate damage on a car, computer vision in autonomous cars, etc.
    • We are currently in Phase 3
    • The key metric for phase 3 AI: Is the efficacy better than a human?
  • Phase 4: (very high financial risk): Applications we haven’t considered before
    • Ex. – Using AI to optimize data center use or energy flow across an electricity grid, making medical diagnoses, etc.
  • Note – In many cases, even if an AI tech has better efficacy than it’s human counterpart, it will still incur adoption risk. Many people are not ready to trust AI as a total replacement for human judgment.
• AI itself shouldn’t be feared. However, AI can create monopolistic power held by a few companies– this is something to be concerned about.

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org



Subscribe to the Full Ratchet Podcast

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss Why SaaS is not a fit for VC and How AI Compounds Competitive Advantage. In this episode, we cover:

• Categories of AI that Ash is most interested in
• The difference between real AI and AI-enabled companies
• Why SaaS will cease to be investable by VCs
• The current AI stage of adoption
• How he times the market
• The four phases of AI
• What phase of AI they invest in
• How AI is and will be affected by limited data
• How startups can compete for talent w/ GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple)
• The moats being created by their AI-first portcos
• How they think about metrics and milestones for AI-backed companies
• If AI should be feared
• and finally we wrap up w/ Ash's thoughts on Chris Dixon's position that we will see a movement from centralization back to decentralization in tech-- and the role that AI will play

 

To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/
for all of our other episodes.

Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz interviews Josh Wolfe, co-founder and managing partner at Lux Capital and a director at Shapeways, Strateos, Lux Research, Kallyope, CTRL-labs and Variant. He is also a founding investor and board member with Bill Gates at Kymeta, which makes cutting-edge antennas for high-speed global satellite and space communications. A Westinghouse semi-finalist and a published scientist, Wolfe previously worked in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and in capital markets at Merrill Lynch.

“When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will.” — Charles Koch, quoting Frédéric Bastiat

This episode will no doubt surprise people, and my guest came to me through channels I wouldn't have expected.

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Charles Koch received a bachelor’s degree in general engineering and two master’s degrees, in nuclear and chemical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

He is chairman of the board and CEO of Koch Industries Inc., a position he has held since 1967. He is renowned for growing Koch Industries from a company worth $21 million in the early 1960s to one with revenues estimated as high as $110 billion by Forbes. It’s one of the largest privately held companies in the world, and by revenue, it’s larger than both Boeing and Disney. He has transformed the business into a diverse group of companies that employ nearly 130,000 people—making everything from Dixie cups to components in your cell phone. 

Charles credits the success of Koch Industries to applying proven principles of social and scientific progress, which led to the development and implementation of his Market-Based Management® (MBM®) business philosophy. He describes MBM and its applications in two of his books, The Science of Success and Good Profit.

Charles is now using those principles in philanthropy, as the founder of Stand Together, to tackle some of the biggest challenges in the U.S. Stand Together is partnering with thousands of social entrepreneurs to help them improve their effectiveness and scale at tackling poverty, improving K-12 education, bringing justice to our criminal justice system, and more.

This episode is brought to you by ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN is an app you run on your computer or mobile device that easily secures your Internet connection, hides your public IP address, and lets you bypass regional restrictions on content. ExpressVPN is consistently rated the fastest VPN service on the market, and it's incredibly simple to use. Just download the app, tap one button, and you're connected to a secure VPN server. Visit my special link ExpressVPN.com/TIM, and you'll get an extra three months of ExpressVPN protection for free!

This episode is also brought to you by ShipStation. Do you sell stuff online? Then you know what a pain the shipping process is. ShipStation was created to make your life easier -- whether you're selling on eBay, Amazon, Shopify, or over 100 other popular selling channels. ShipStation lets you access all of your orders from one simple dashboard, it works with all of the major shipping carriers, locally and globally, including FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Tim Ferriss Show listeners get to try ShipStation free for 60 days by using promo code TIM. There's no risk and you can start your free trial without even entering your credit card info. Just visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and type in TIM!

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!

For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.

Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.

For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.

Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.

Follow Tim: 

Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss 

Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss

Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss 

YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss

The a16z Podcast is a show that is produced by Andreessen Horowitz, an investment fund based in Silicon Valley. The a16z Podcast covers topics including software engineering, biology, media, cryptocurrencies and entrepreneurship. A16z is one of the most popular podcasts about technology. Sonal Chokshi is the editor in chief at Andreessen Horowitz and the showrunner

By popular request, Jordan interviews the one and only Seth Godin in the privacy of his native habitat about wabi-sabi, Miles Davis, feedback, and more!

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways (Psychological Effects)

• The Pratfall Effect – a psychological phenomenon that says that competent people appear more likable and attractive when they make a mistake 
  • If a company admits a flaw, they show the world that they’re honest and gain trusts from sonsumers
• The IKEA Effect – The more effort you put into something, the more you appreciate it`
  • Travel websites take 3-5 seconds to ‘compare prices’ but in reality, they can do so in less than a second
• The further people move away from cash, the less price-sensitive they become
  • Casinos separate people from their cash by giving them poker chips
  • Banks separate people from their cash by giving them a plastic card
  • Amazon does this by allowing one-click ordering
• Psychological tricks used by clubs and bars:
  • They don’t let people in right away – instead, they create a long line so the place looks busy and high in demand
  • They label VIP areas for people who are willing to spend tons of money – this demonstrates social proof of wealth to others
• Nine-enders: People whose age ends in 9 are particularly likely to make big lifestyle changes (19, 29, 39, etc)
• Dunning-Kruger Effect: A cognitive bias in which people mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is
  • Experts usually think they are less knowledgeable/skilled in an area than most people while novices tend to believe they are more knowledgeable/skilled in an area

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

Richard Shotton is a behavioural scientist, the Founder of Astroten and an author.

What is the reason that restaurants don't put £ signs in front of their prices? Why do marketing campaigns with huge flaws end up winning the market over? How does increasing wait times on comparison sites improve customer buy-in? And why do budget airlines reduce quality of experience to improve trust?

We're talking all things behavioural science today. One of my favourite topic areas with a fascinating guest, this episode is absolute gold and packed with great concepts and hilarious real world examples. Do not sleep on this one.

Extra Stuff:

Follow Richard on Twitter - https://twitter.com/rshotton

Buy Richard's Book - https://amzn.to/2YCQfdt

Buy Richard's Online Course - https://www.42courses.com/courses/behavioural-science-for-brands

Listen to Rory Sutherland on Modern Wisdom - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/049-rory-sutherland-psychology-in-the-world-of-advertising/id1347973549?i=1000428600578

Check out everything I recommend from books to products and help support the podcast at no extra cost to you by shopping through this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom

 

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