Podcast Notes Playlist: Business

• “In life, you learn very little when things go right. You learn a lot when things go wrong.” – Jared Kushner 
• You cannot worry about the things that you cannot change; have radical acceptance and focus on the things that you can do to understand the problem better 
• Focus on being long-term greedy: Create win-wins by convincing your counterparts, who have more leverage, to do something that you want to do by catering to their interests more than their sympathies or fears
  • Focus on the next deal instead of the last dollar
  • To understand what a person wants, you have to listen! 
• Find the smartest people you can who have a vested interest in the situation, and ask them about their perspective
• “I wouldn’t die for my beliefs because my beliefs might be wrong.” – Unknown 
• Practice humility and always recheck your assumptions
• To be successful, you have to make three good decisions per year
• The foundational question Jared asks himself when faced with a challenging problem:“How would you want to be a role model for your children?” 
• “Ultimately, I think the topic that will probably be the most impactful of the next four years will be how President Trump deals with artificial intelligence and what could be AGI or superintelligence, and how this is coming very rapidly.” – Jared Kushner 
• Work should not be distributed; when you find something worthwhile, go all in on it 
• Four investing principles: (1) Identify the big macro trends (2) Back phenomenal people and teams (3) Invest in businesses with structural advantages or moats (4) Be selective in where and who you invest with
• The two most important questions to ask yourself are: What do you want and what are you solving for? 
• Give everyone the benefit of the doubt; you never know what people are going through in a given moment 

My guest today is Jared Kushner. Jared has lived more lives than just about anyone I know his age. He ran Kushner companies for years, investing in real estate in and around New York City. He owned the New York Observer. He was a senior advisor to President Trump in his first term. He now runs Affinity Partners, which we discuss in detail, a private equity firm built to find and execute unique investments around the world that stem from Jared's unique set of experiences in business and government. This is one of our longest episodes ever because there was so much to discuss. We cover real estate, negotiation, geopolitics, his work in prison reform, Operation Warp Speed, and the Abraham Accords in the Middle East, business, investing, his family, and everything in between. Jared told me I could ask him about anything--and I really enjoyed doing so. Please enjoy my conversation with Jared Kushner.

My guests today For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

Show Notes:

• Check out the episode page

David Senra is the host of Founders podcast and an investor.

• Knowledge, money, and power are connecting in ways that we have not seen for the last 500 years 
  • “This moment is probably the most interesting moment of the last 100 years in terms of the opportunity set that is going to come from it.” – Micky Malka 
• There is no winning and losing if you are playing an infinite game; once you are ahead, you have to change the rules of the game so that you will fall behind
• The game is better played when you are trying to get ahead and not when you are ahead and trying to prevent people from passing you 
• Every time money becomes better, people live better lives 
• Burn the bridge that got you here; whatever got you here will not get you to the next phase 
• Be more concentrated and have more conviction 
• Life and business principles from Micky Malka:
  • 1. Never forget where you came from 
  • 2. Fewer decisions is best 
  • 3. Be genuine to yourself and those around you 
• How to build a strong team: Instead of identifying a job title and then looking for a person to fill it, just look for amazing people that you want to work with, then hire them 
• We will need streaming data and streaming money to enable automated services; people who understand both of these fields can build paradigm-shifting technologies 
• Returns are an output metric; focus on the input and let the output take care of itself 
• How to create magical outputs: (1) Create a team that is passionate about meeting others, engaging, and learning, and (2) Ensure that the inputs to the team’s machine will make the world better 

My guest today is Micky Malka. Micky is the founder of Ribbit Capital, a global venture capital firm that focuses exclusively on financial technology investments. He is a renowned investor for his adaptability and visionary approach and a believer in killing the thing that got you to where you are in pursuit of what’s next. We discuss his perspective on fintech’s evolution and why his firm boldly declares that “fintech is dead.” We dive into his theory of the "grid," which examines how knowledge, wealth, and power are being transformed by technological changes, particularly through the rise of AI, cryptocurrency, and network states. And we also explore Micky’s deep interest in digital art and NFTs, which he sees as early indicators of broader cultural and technological shifts. You’ll soon hear how he is truly taking a generative approach on all fronts. Please enjoy this in-depth conversation with Micky Malka. 

My guests today For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

• A brand is not a logo; it is a promise and what the customer expects from your product 
• The goal is not to make the product perfect for you, it is to delight your customer 
• The key to building a brand: Make a promise and keep it 
• Do not sacrifice your agency over the four most crucial things that you should be choosing: your customers, competition, source of validation, and distribution
• On the role of tension in strategy: The customer should consider what their life would be like if your product delivers on what it promises to do 
• “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” – Seth Godin 
• Better waves make better surfers: Much of your success is determined by choosing the wave and not the skills that you have  
• Professionals do their work in a non-narcissistic way: You can’t paint a picture of where you want to go; instead, you should paint a picture of where theywant to go
• Be of service to others! 
• “It is very difficult to change what people want, but it is helpful to offer people a chance to get where they always wanted to go in the first place.” – Seth Godin  

Seth Godin is a legend. He’s a marketer, teacher, entrepreneur, and author of more than 20 books, including Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, and Linchpin. He also writes one of the most popular and longest-running blogs in the world (approaching publishing 10,000 in a row!) and continues to shape how we think about marketing, brand, product, and creating lasting change in the world. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How to build remarkable products that spread

• The four critical strategic choices that determine your future

• How to develop good taste and high standards

• The role of tension in great strategy

• How Seth used Claude to write his newest book

• Much more

—

Brought to you by:

• DX—A platform for measuring and improving developer productivity

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security

• Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want

—

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/seth-godins-tactics-for-building-remarkable-products

—

Where to find Seth Godin:

• Blog: http://seths.blog/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgodin

• Website: https://www.sethgodin.com

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Seth’s background

(05:17) Understanding good taste and upholding high standards

(08:09) Become the best at whatever you do

(09:48) Seth’s journey as a product manager

(14:09) What people often get wrong when building products

(16:00) Building a brand in the age of AI

(19:04) Using AI to enhance writing

(22:40) Four critical elements for an effective strategy

(27:38) The role of tension in strategy

(29:15) The concept of the purple cow

(33:11) "Safe is risky"

(34:56) The power of systems

(37:07) Better waves make better surfers

(38:10) Rebranding vs. re-logoing

(43:07) Empathetic leadership

(44:14) Conclusion and farewell

—

Referenced:

• Seth Godin on the Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/2024/03/20/seth-godin-3/

• Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/persuasive-communication-wes-kao

• Spinnaker: https://spinnaker.io

• Ray Bradbury: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury

• Arthur C. Clarke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

• Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

• Roger Zelazny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny

• Herbie Hancock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Hancock

• Fahrenheit 451 (game): https://www.filfre.net/2013/09/fahrenheit-451-the-game/

• RTFM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTFM#

• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com

• Claude: https://claude.ai

• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com

• P.F. Flyers: https://pfflyers.com

• Steve Blank’s website: https://steveblank.com

• Marissa Mayer on X: https://x.com/marissamayer

• Jaguar unveils new logo ahead of electric relaunch: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr0pw00n7qo

• IHOP Becomes IHOb, the International House of ... Burgers: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618844977/ihop-becomes-ihob-the-international-house-of-burgers

• Oreo’s Super Bowl Power-Outage Tweet Was 18 Months in the Making: https://www.businessinsider.com/oreos-super-bowl-power-outage-tweet-was-18-months-in-the-making-2013-3

• Tesla’s New ‘Ludicrous Mode’ Makes the Model S a Supercar: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/teslas-new-ludicrous-mode-makes-model-s-supercar

—

Recommended books:

• This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life): https://www.amazon.com/This-Strategy-Better-Elevate-Community/dp/B0D47T8S7N• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

• The basics of business strategy: Recognize your structural position in the market, understand where you have permission in the market from your partners and customers who want you to win, and then do those obvious things first 
• “I think the company of this generation has already been created, which is OpenAI.” – Satya Nadella 
• To properly evaluate the AI arms race, you have to analyze it structurally by layer 
• The year 2025 will be the year of infinite AI memory; the next 10x function of ChatGPT is its having a persistent memory combined with it being able to take action on our behalf 
• Increasingly, Mag-7 capital expenditure resembles industrial companies more so than traditional software companies 
• Continued advancements in the AI tier may collapse the traditional application categories 
• How model capability will increase: Pre-training and test-time sampling create the tokens that can go back into pre-training, which creates even more powerful models that can then run on your inference 
• How to be successful in life and business:Pattern-match periods in which you are successful and in which you are not, then do more of the behaviors that you did during your successful periods 

Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week they are joined by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, to discuss becoming Microsoft’s CEO, Advice for CEO’s, Microsoft’s Investment in OpenAI, Legacy Search, Ten Blue Links, Consumer and Enterprise AI, The Future of AI Agents, Infinite Memory, CoPilot, Microsoft’s Capital Expenditure, Open AI’s future, AI safety & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:31) Becoming Microsoft CEO

(06:42) Satya’s Memo to CEO Committee 

(10:42) Satya’s Advantage as a CEO

(11:34) Advice for CEOs

(15:01) Microsoft’s Investment in OpenAI

(19:42) AI Arms Race

(23:55) Legacy Search and Consumer AI

(28:07) The Future of AI Agents

(38:32) Near-Infinite Memory

(39:47) Copilot Approach to AI Adoption

(50:26) Leveraging AI within Microsoft

(56:03) CapX

(01:00:20) The Cost of Model Scaling and Inference

(01:15:15) Open AI Conversion to Profit

(01:18:05) Next Steps for OpenAI

(01:19:43) Open vs. Closed and Safe AI

Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com

Follow:

Brad Gerstner @altcap

Bill Gurley @bgurley

BG2 Pod @bg2pod

#BillGurley #BradGerstner #Bg2Pod

• As of late 2024, the AI industry is shifting from a pre-training compute approach to test-time compute 
• Understanding the difference between pre-training and test-time compute: Pre-training occurs before testing and involves more complex, resource-intensive computation, whereas test-time compute is typically faster and focuses only on making inferences
• Moving from pre-training to inference-time is a powerful paradigm shift for the AI industry
  • 1. It better aligns revenue generation and expenditures; this is beneficial for the industry at-large  
  • 2. Having to re-architect the computing network creates new opportunities and considerations related to power generation and grid design
• Test-time compute better aligns the compute and expenditures of the model, relative to pre-training; this is better for the hyperscalers from an efficiency perspective 
• The plateau in pre-training has enabled small teams to catch up to the state-of-the-art models; the proliferation of open source models, specifically what Meta has done with Llama, has been an extraordinary force for AI scaling  
• If the plateau in pre-training continues, small teams will be able to “jump to the frontier” of model training for a specific AI use case; this allows reduces competition amongst the hyperscalers 
• It is likely for two of the Mag7 companies, such as Google and Meta, to give away an AI search product similar to ChatGPT for free 
• OpenAI is “very serious about achieving AGI”; that is the company’s mission, and everything else the company does is in service of that 
• Stability at the model layer will enable optimization at the various layers above it; when the industry is in “land-grab” mode, there is not any time to optimize! 
• Over the long-term, technology is deflationary because it is a matter of optimization 
• When technology unlocks, distribution also unlocks; this means that startups can now acquire customers that were previously too expensive to get 
• “I imagine that we’ll be pretty close to or at AGI in 2025.” – Chetan Puttagunta 

My guests today are Chetan Puttagunta and Modest Proposal. Chetan is a General Partner at venture firm Benchmark, while Modest Proposal is an anonymous guest who manages a large pool of capital in the public markets. Both are good friends and frequent guests on the show, but this is the first time they have appeared together. And the timing couldn’t be better - we might be witnessing a pivotal shift in AI development as leading labs hit scaling limits and transition from pre-training to test-time compute. Together, we explore how this change could democratize AI development while reshaping the investment landscape across both public and private markets. Please enjoy this discussion with Chetan Puttagunta and Modest Proposal.

My guests today For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

• Check out the episode page

Episode 653: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talks to Furqan Rydhan ( https://x.com/FurqanR ) about the biggest opportunities in AI right now. 

—

—

—

My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

• Instead of focusing on how something might fail, consider how big the idea could be if everything worked out 
• You don’t always want to sit behind a defensive moat; sometimes, a high-velocity attack is the best way to win 
• Mental models from one discipline are often applicable in another discipline; cross-pollinate ideas and concepts across disciplines and you may discover something novel 
• The key to success is dumb competition; competing against knuckleheads increases your chances of success
• Focusing on making money will cause you to make less money; nobody wants to give money to people who are too focused on making money 
• It is fine to want money, but wealth is a paradox; the more of it you want, the less of it you get 
  • It is better to focus on things that are upstream of making money, such as solving problems and developing skills that are valuable to other people 
• The greatest returns in investing come from allowing the compounding machine to run; do not make decisions or engage in behavior that interrupts the compounding machine 
• You have a massive arbitrage opportunity if you can avoid mimetic desire in venture capital investing 
• In life and business, you can just do things! You don’t always need permission 

Episode 648: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talks to Flexport founder Ryan Petersen ( https://x.com/typesfast ) about playing both games: bootstrapping a startup to millions and raising venture capital to build a multi-billion dollar company. 

—

—

—

My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

• The Trump win represents a dismissal of Wokeism and judgmentalism and is a ringing endorsement of meritocracy and common sense 
• Donald Trump has increased his support across the electorate; except for two demographic groups (65+ and white college women), every single demographic group shifted towards Republican from 2020 to 2024 
• Comparing Trump votes from 2020 to 2024 in areas that are bastions of elitist liberal thinking:
  • In California, Trump lost by 29 points in 2020; he lost by 17 points in 2024 
  • In New York, Trump lost by 23 points in 2020; he lost by 12 in 2024 
• The current Democratic Party base consists of the elites: The overeducated, affluent, and non-religious types who are disconnected from the reality of most Americans
  • If these people stay in control of the Democratic Party, the Republicans will probably have an electoral majority for the foreseeable future 
  • “I think that the Democrats will lose one of California or New York in the next eight years.” – Chamath 
• “The legacy media spell is broken. Their credibility has been destroyed and I think that the repudiation of the legacy media is one of the most important  results of this election. It just shows that the Democrats had a trillion-dollar propaganda machine on their side and Trump was still able to win.” – David Sacks  
• Science is the constant process of questioning whether you are right or wrong; reasserting the scientific process of skepticism in federal agencies may help restore trust and faith in our institutions
• “In the most basic calculation, the bottom fell out of the Democratic Party.” – Chamath 
• Donald Trump won because his focus is on solving real problems that are affecting Americans  
• “Americans love winners and innovation, and they hate socialism and woke nonsense – it’s time for a hard reset.” – Jason 

(0:00) Bestie intros!

(4:55) Sacks recaps election night at Mar-a-Lago

(8:28) Analyzing the results: how Trump won, why Kamala and the Democratic Party lost

(25:55) The failing Democratic coalition, campaign spend disparity, Trump's advantage in earned media

(37:59) What mattered most: Policy, Candidate, or Campaign?

(50:44) GOP will likely win House and Senate, potential cabinet positions, avoiding neocons

(1:10:42) Cabinet positions, shaking up the unelected bureaucratic branch

(1:28:47) California rejects progressives

(1:35:17) Abortion laws being settled around the US

Get tickets for The All-In Holiday Spectacular!:

https://allin.ticketsauce.com/e/all-in-holiday-spectacular

Follow the besties:

https://x.com/chamath

https://x.com/Jason

https://x.com/DavidSacks

https://x.com/friedberg

Follow on X:

https://x.com/theallinpod

Follow on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod

Follow on TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@theallinpod

Follow on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod

Intro Music Credit:

https://rb.gy/tppkzl

https://x.com/yung_spielburg

Intro Video Credit:

https://x.com/TheZachEffect

Referenced in the show:

https://x.com/twobitidiot/status/1854192602985255042

https://www.270towin.com/2024-election-results-live/president

https://x.com/ChrisCillizza/status/1854515791690953066

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e8-KX3XKL8

https://x.com/Jason/status/1854209590424121464

https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1854045298475110779

https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1854342908356297068

https://x.com/arifleischer/status/1854270972775305291

https://www.fec.gov/data/spending-bythenumbers/?office=P

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-11-01/16-billion-will-be-spent-in-the-2024-election-wheres-it-all-going

https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1829383729284067659

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people

https://x.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1840977783247286429

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024

https://polymarket.com/event/house-control-after-2024-election

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1854536321282519396

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCFJ4mlsmEG/?hl=en

https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1854202717637411199

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-chevron-curtailing-power-of-federal-agencies

https://x.com/chamath/status/1854229735477551600

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/la-district-attorney-progressive-loses-re-election-gascon-rcna175906

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-abortion.html

• The fundamental aspect of the American Dream is creating a better life for your kids than the one you lived
• Two-thirds of the American workforce has a high school education, and only one-third has a college education; on average, a person with a college education lives seven years longer than a person without one 
• “Right now, I am focused on: ‘What’s the right move for America?’ And that’s why I’m all in with Donald Trump – his policies, his thinking, his way of just looking at things, his intuition. It’s just right.” – Howard Lutnick 
• In the past, the Democratic Party used to be the party for the workers, and the Republican Party was the party for businesses, but this has completely shifted
  • Coastal elite nonsense has infiltrated the Democratic Party; it no longer represents the working class as it once did
• Instead of taxing the hell out of the American people, what if the US government made money off tariffs when other countries bought our stuff?
• All of the fentanyl that makes its way into the US comes from China; something nefarious might be at play, given the damage this drug is doing to America’s youth and working-class 
• After the 9/11 attacks, Howard Lutnick pledged to forgo his salary and bonuses for several years to support the families of Cantor Fitzgerald employees who lost their lives
• “Everytime bitcoin dips, I’m going to be the buyer.” – Howard Lutnick 
  • He has “hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of exposure to Bitcoin, and one day expects his stack to be worth billions 
• “Bitcoin will be way way way higher, sometimes lower. You just have to have faith.” – Howard Lutnick    

Howard Lutnick is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. Howard is one of the most interesting people in finance, he is a billionaire, and has incredible ideas to improve America. In this conversation, we talk about the national debt, inflation, why he is the co-head of the Trump transition team, what their plan is to balance the budget, how they are going to change things around economically, and a touching story about 9/11. 

=======================

Buy book: https://www.amazon.com/Live-Extraordinary-Life-Anthony-Pompliano/dp/0857199927/

=======================

Gemini is the safe and secure way to trade crypto. Gemini is offering eligible new users the opportunity to earn $100 in BTC when they trade $1000 in crypto within their first 30 days of signing up. Head over to ⁠https://www.gemini.com/partners/pomp⁠ and start trading crypto to earn $100 in BTC.

=======================

The Pomp Podcast is powered by BetOnline.ag, the premier crypto-friendly place to gamble on politics and sports, casino, poker and horse racing. BetOnline.ag gives you the ability to use Bitcoin and more than a dozen altcoins to make deposits and withdraw your winnings. There are no crypto transaction fees, and processing is instantaneous and secure. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://promotions.betonline.ag/pomp⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use PROMO CODE: POMP100 to receive a 100% matching bonus on any crypto deposit. BetOnline.ag is available in nearly every country around the world, making it the top global gaming destination for crypto users.

=======================

Pomp writes a daily letter to over 265,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/

=======================

View 10k+ open startup jobs: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dreamstartupjob.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Enroll in my Crypto Academy: https://www.thecryptoacademy.io/