Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup

• The best talent wants to join a company not at the highest price, but at the best price with the right amount of capital for the right risk 
• There are three types of seed rounds: Discovery (sub $2m), Classic ($3m to $5m), and Megatron Jumbo ($5m+)
• To win in today’s venture climate, you must get “ball control” in any round that is presented to you
• Be as disciplined as possible concerning your entry price 
• “I think AI is the most transformational thing that we are ever going to see in a long time. However, I still think it’s f***ing hard to make money there.” – Ed Sim  
• While some people encourage investors to perpetually lean into their investments, sometimes it is best to lean out and strategically sell in increments over time 
• Ownership matters, but it must also be balanced out with valuations 
• The hardest problems to solve often take longer to solve; businesses working on addressing these problems may appear “slow”, but they might be massive winners in the long run 

Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman.

1. The Three Types of Seed Round:

• What are the three different types of seed round today?
• Has seed ever been this competitive?
• Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing?
• Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed?

2. Too Much Cash Will Kill You!

• Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round?
• Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price?
• What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round?
• What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed?

3. Is Growth Dead?

• Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead?
• What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before?
• How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months?

4. IPOs, AI and M&A:

• What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again?
• Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia?
• Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero?
• Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months?
• How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian?

• Capitalism and free markets are the machine that has lifted people out of poverty for the last 500 years
• It is best to embrace, support, and accelerate technology as much as possible, and then deal with the issues as they arise
• “I think the single biggest policy mistake of my lifetime was the decision in the 70s and 80s to essentially ban civilian nuclear power throughout the U.S. and throughout Europe as well.” – Marc Andreessen
• It can take decades for the consequences of certain decisions to materialize 
• The digital technologies that most people worry about are actually the mostegalitarian technology that has ever been produced, even more so than running water and electricity
• Incumbents frame new technologies as dangerous so that governments step in and effectively create sanctioned barriers to competition 
• A society built on the idea that love scales becomes an incredibly dark, dystopian, murderous place; when you take away the carrot, all you have is a stick
• Humans are the ultimate resource: By having more of us, we will find better ways to solve existing problems 
• If the education industry were primarily market-based, competitive pressures would force universities to be good and to meet the needs of society better 
• Humility is key; technologists must not “cross the line” and do societal engineering in their spare time
• People who are hyper verbal and “work in ideas” tend to get arbitrarily unhinged over time and become more disconnected from the real world 
• Throughout history, the inventors of the new technology have not been great at speculating on how it is to be regulated  

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Read the full manifesto: https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

This past week, Marc released his new vision for the future – “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”.

In an article that has sparked widespread conversation across traditional and social media, Marc challenges the pessimistic narrative surrounding technology today, and instead celebrates it as a liberating force that can lead to growth, progress and abundance for all. In this one-on-one conversation based on YOUR questions from X (formerly Twitter), Ben and Marc discuss how technological advancements can improve the quality of human life, uplift marginalized communities, and even encourage us to answer the bigger questions of the universe.

We hope you’ll be inspired to join us in this Techno-Optimist movement. Enjoy!

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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• MoonPals
• Fio Creations

• From Bieber’s Intern to Moon Pals
• Ideas Are Harder Than Execution
• Kickstarting Gravity Blankets
• How to Have a Good Idea
• Kanye West & the Creative Process
• The Wizard & the Warrior
• Magic is Real
• Social Situations Are a Departure From the Truth
• Moon Pals, Barbie, Taylor Swift & the Dawn of a New Paradigm
• Long Tails, Curation & Good Taste
• John as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism, by Howard Bloom.
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow

Clay Finck is joined by Christian Billinger to discuss his quality investing philosophy.

Christian is chairman of Billinger Förvaltnings AB, which invests in publicly listed equities. The firm seeks to generate attractive long-term total returns in real terms without employing financial leverage. Christian previously covered European equities for Cheyne Capital, Gartmore, and GAM in London.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

00:00 - Intro

01:39 - What quality investing is and why it works.

04:20 - How Christian assesses the reinvestment rate for a business and a company’s runway.

10:27 - Why soul in the game is more important than skin in the game.

12:58 - Qualities to look for to find operating managers with soul in the game.

19:16 - Why Christian prefers investing in family-owned public equities.

21:59 - Why he highly prioritizes removing the risk of losing money.

25:48 - What differentiates Christian’s current holdings from companies on his watchlist.

31:44 - What Christian learned from working with institutional investors.

41:36 - What stands out to Christian about Markel.

46:37 - Why Tom Gayner is an investor and business manager worth studying.

47:46 - How the investment outlook between Berkshire and Markel differ.

49:42 - Why Christian’s fund is heavily invested in the spirits industry, and what has led to the recent underperformance in 2023.

Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

• Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, and the other community members.
• Christian’s investment firm.
• Related Episode: WSB566: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning w/ Gautam Baid or watch the video here.
• Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcasts here.

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What I learned from the first 6 years of making Founders.

I recorded a new episode with Patrick. It should be out soon. Follow Invest Like the Best in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss it. 

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• Sam Parr’s 6-step process for finding +$1,000,000 business ideas: 
  • #1. What problem(s) do people have? 
  • #2. How many people share that particular problem?
  • #3. Who are the leaders in that space? What is succeeding, and why?
  • #4. Of the leaders in that space, what shortcomings do they have? 
  • #5. What business models are most effective? 
  • #6. What problems are not being solved? 
• Pay attention when a large company shares information about a rising trend, and when it shares information about one of its shortcomings 
• Sam regularly asks himself, “What can I accomplish this week, month, or year that makes every other task not important?”
• Strong men do not give into fear; a lot of people chase the new shiny object out of fear that their main thing is not going to work 
• Massive wealth is typically generated from a person devoting their time to one thing instead of multiple things  
• Find something that interests you and turn it into a passion, even if it is not popular 
• Do what you say you are going to do and follow through 
• Ask people open-ended questions to let them and encourage them to talk about themself; this makes you appear more interesting  

Episode 479: Sam Parr (https://twitter.com/theSamParr) answers listener questions in this special Q&A episode. Learn how he researches & validates business ideas, what his hiring process looks like, how he’s managed to build huge, passionate communities, and much more.

Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here.

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• Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel.

• If you really want to move the team on something, you need to say it so many times that you want to throw up in your mouth if you say it again; then say it again, again, and again 
• It is important to get a range of different experiences early in your career so you can figure out your aspirations and values in a more informed way 
• Doing good work and succeeding in the market boosts morale more than anything else 
• Teenagers spend more time in DMs than they do in Stories, and they spend more time in Stories than they do in Feed 
• If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying big enough things 
• Simplicity is not always better for design 
• “I think they are the most well-executing competitor we’ve ever faced. There are a couple of others up there, but I think they’re at the top of that.” – Adam Mosseri on Tik Tok 
• How to think about innovation: What is the fundamental human need that is being met? And is that need going to change or persist? 
• In reference to Threads, it is way easier to build something that people will try compared to building something they will want to use a year from now 
• When choosing between two courses of action, ensure that both sides are heard, that it is clear who the decision maker is, and that it is clear when the decision has been made 

Adam Mosseri is the Head of Instagram, where he is responsible for overseeing the engineering, product, and business teams and leading Meta’s efforts on creators and Reels. Adam has been at Meta for more than fifteen years. He started at Meta as a designer for Facebook's mobile app before moving to product management, where he led the Facebook News Feed product and engineering teams, and served as the Head of Facebook News Feed. Adam began his career founding a design consultancy focused on graphic, interaction, and exhibition design before joining TokBox as the company’s first designer.

1. From Designer to Product Leader to Instagram CEO:

• What did Adam learn from his first job bartending? How did it impact his approach to customer support and research?
• What are the top 1-2 pieces of advice Adam would give to someone wanting to make the move from individual contributor to leader?
• If Adam was "not amazing at anything", what did he do that enabled him to rise above the rest and become CEO of Instagram?
• What have been 1-2 of the biggest lessons from working with Mark Zuckerberg for 15 years?

2. A Deep Dive on the Wild Times as Instagram CEO:

• What has been Adam's single biggest mistake as CEO of Instagram?
• What does Adam believe is the least known feature within Instagram that has made them successful?
• What does Adam believe has been the biggest product decision he has made as CEO?
• Why does Adam believe that Instagram is too complicated as a product?
• Who does Adam believe is the most formidable competitor to Instagram?
• Was Instagram Reels a simple copy of TikTok? What have Instagram learned from TikTok?
• How does Adam respond to the statement that Instagram is a "copy-cat machine" and lacks innovaton?

3. Threads: The Journey from 0-100M Users in Three Days:

• Did Adam and the team expect the response they got to Threads?
• Why did they decide to break Threads out into a separate app?
• What went into bootstrapping the Threads friendship and interest graph?
• What was the Threads influencer activation strategy? What worked? What did not? Did they pay influencers? How did they choose which verticals to focus on?
• What is Adam's core focus with Threads today?
• How is the team analysing and measuring retention? What are their goals?
• What are the 1-2 core reasons why Threads would not work? How do they aim to prevent them?
• In 12 months, where will Threads be?

4. The Future of Consumer Social: What Happens Now?

• Does Adam believe we have seen the transition from the social graph to the interest graph? Is it that binary?
• Is it possible to have both the interest and the friendship graph all in one app?
• How does the monetization potential differ when comparing Threads (text) to Instagram (visual)?
• How important is it for the next consumer social platforms to have stars that are native to their platform (Mr Beast on Youtube, D'Amelio on TikTok etc.)

• LinkedIn strives to connect people with economic opportunities by connecting people with people, and by connecting content with people
• Content with knowledge and/or advice works best on LinkedIn 
• If you do not have the functional experience for a given role, focus on how your industry experience makes you a strong candidate 
• The skills needed to manage a complex ecosystem are different than the skills needed to design a complex ecosystem 
• Recruiters look for two things: 1) skills and capabilities and 2) intent and interest in the role 
• RAPID: Recommender, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide
• According to Hari Srinivasan, you need three skills to be a great product manager: 
  • 1. Be a Steven Spielberg-type creator 
  • 2. Skills around data science (to recognize patterns & see the future) 
  • 3. General management skills  
• Working on a product that people genuinely love reveals how rewarding this role can be
• Own your product and speak up about where you want to drive it 
• Favorite interview question: “What is the most complex thing you have ever built?”

Brought to you by Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life | Brave Search API—An independent, global search index you can use to power your search or AI app | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments

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Hari Srinivasan is VP of Product at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, where he oversees LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Jobs, and LinkedIn Learning. He’s also a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University. Previously, he served as the CEO and founder of We Created It, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2014. Hari has a passion for building products, with experience ranging from creating the first U.S. hybrid SUV to developing a No. 1 app and writing a beloved children’s book. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• LinkedIn’s unique business model and org structure

• How to optimize your LinkedIn experience and improve your chances of getting a PM role

• How to adapt to a skills-first talent market

• The story of Hari’s failed first product review, and how he pivoted for success

• Strategies for building and maintaining complex systems

• How to get into product management

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/linkedins-product-evolution-and-the-art-of-building-complex-systems-hari-srinivasan-linkedin/#transcript

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Where to find Hari Srinivasan:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsrinivasan1/

• Website: https://www.mindofhari.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

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

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

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

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Hari’s background

(05:04) How Twitter brought Lenny and Hari together

(06:32) LinkedIn’s positive evolution, and what they did right

(10:14) Specific changes that made LinkedIn’s feed more interesting

(11:12) Understanding the algorithm and what kinds of content perform best

(12:21) The talent solution product

(15:46) The shift to skills-first hiring, and how LinkedIn changed their approach

(20:24) The open-to-work signal, and the newly released open-to-internal-work signal

(22:13) The PM talent landscape, and tips for landing a PM role

(24:55) How to optimize your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters

(28:38) Hari’s first product review at LinkedIn

(30:38) LinkedIn’s North Star, and how to operationalize the North Star at any company

(33:24) LinkedIn’s members-first value

(35:32) Building and maintaining complex systems

(38:09) The RAPID framework and the Five-Day Alignment framework

(39:51) What LinkedIn looks for in new hires

(40:51) The latest innovations at LinkedIn

(43:16) LinkedIn Learning

(45:00) Hari’s product management course

(48:19) Advice for people hoping to get into product management

(50:40) How to level up your PM skills

(51:57) Hari’s creative side projects 

(55:02) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Tweet from TheCuriousPM: https://twitter.com/zatin_jatin/status/1658616200560254978?s=20

• The Curious PM on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zatin_jatin

• Decision-making at LinkedIn: https://engineering.linkedin.com/blog/2018/03/scaling-decision-making-across-teams-within-linkedin-engineering

• LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning

• Thinking in Systems: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/1603580557

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-novel-Gabrielle-Zevin/dp/0593321200

• An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us: https://www.amazon.com/Immense-World-Animal-Senses-Reveal/dp/0593133234

• Star Wars on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/brand/star-wars

• Case 63 on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4c9ZKaFtEKweSYOlYvxfvp

• E.T. on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/607451/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial

• BriteBrush: https://www.amazon.com/BriteBrush-Interactive-Smart-Toothbrush-featuring/dp/B07VLL8QH4

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

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.