Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup

• “Do one thing and do it better than anyone else.” – Todd Graves 
• A winning idea can work for decades: Don’t think that you need to have a new idea every six months to be successful
• Combine extreme patience with an extreme intolerance for slowness 
• If you love what you are doing, then you will never stop doing it – and therefore, you will never interrupt the compounding effects of your efforts 
• Make mistakes fast, but fix them even faster 
• Make your people feel appreciated; constantly communicate your appreciation for them 
• Corporate America makes financial decisions, not personal ones; this creates an opportunity for founder-led businesses that have more skin in the game 
• You should be in a rush to get to your last business: “I’m not really interested in your first business. I’m interested in your last business.” – David Senra 
• Lock in with a singular focus and do that thing better than anybody else; if you try to be all things for all people, then you are not anything to anybody 
• Do not listen to “experts”; listen to your gut and intuition 
• Limit the amount of details to perfect, then make every detail perfect 
• “Never ever give up, and be fanatical. You’ve got to be fanatical. Nothing ever happens unless someone pursues a vision fanatically.” – Todd Graves  

Todd Graves is one of my favorite living entrepreneurs. He's a great example of Charlie Munger's maxim: Find a simple idea and take it seriously. Todd wanted to create a quick service restaurant that only focused on quality chicken finger meals and nothing else. Everyone told him that couldn't possibly work. The college paper that described the idea that would turn into Raising Canes got the lowest grade in the class. Banks wouldn't loan him any money —but nothing could stop Todd from living out his "chicken finger dream." He worked 95 hour weeks as a boilermaker, risked his life on a commercial fishing boat off the coast of Alaska, and scrounged up startup money from his bookie and a guy named Wild Bill. Todd made every mistake in the book, over leveraged himself, almost lost everything and yet he refused to give up or sell out. Today he has over 800 locations, 50,000 employees, and owns 90% of a business that's worth at least $10 billion. Todd's maxim is "Do one thing and do it better than anyone else." 

Sources: 

Trading Secrets: Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves reveals his path to building the wildly popular restaurant

Theo Von: Raising Cane’s Founder Todd Graves

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Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. 

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Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

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Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

• The best investors get excited during periods of extreme change 
• Key traits for being a successful investor: Be (1) wildly competitive and (2) incredibly curious
• Collaboration is key: Once an investment research team grows beyond 20 people, silos form and collaboration decreases  
• Design your organization in a way that encourages dialogue, debate, information sharing, and people to push one another 
• Traits of a Perfect Business
  • 1. Incredible leadership 
  • 2. Really strong unit economics 
  • 3. A solid moat around the business 
  • 4. Excellent value proposition to the customer 
  • 5. The ability to grow organically without investing meaningful capital 
  • 6. A huge runway for growth that can last for many years without being disrupted 
• The optimal portfolio should consist of several things that you are excited about and that have idiosyncratic drivers 
• Certain market backdrops are conducive for different investing styles: Certain investors play a different game from everyone else and there are certain investors who play the popular game best
• Hire self-aware and curious people who love to learn
  • Bonus points if they competed in sports at a high level; these people understand hard work, failure, disappointment, and achievement   
• Do not fall victim to paralysis by analysis: Recognize that there is always the opportunity to learn more, but know when you have enough information to make a decision 
• Investing is a pattern-matching business and the gap between winners and losers is widening 
• How to live a rewarding life: Figure out who in your life matters to you, figure out what matters to them, and then show up for them in all the ways that matter to them  

My guest today is Kelly Granat. Kelly is the Co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director at Lone Pine Capital, one of the most storied and successful hedge fund and investment firms of the last several decades. We explore how investing has evolved since Kelly joined the industry and she shares insights into Lone Pine maintaining its edge through deep fundamental research and a collaborative culture. We discuss what makes great businesses and great investments, how leadership can transform companies, and Kelly’s perspective on evaluating management teams and identifying opportunities around corporate change that the market often misprices. Please enjoy my conversation with Kelly Granat.

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• Best Michael Ovitz quotes: 
  • “Insecurity and ambition make a powerful cocktail.” 
  • “I didn’t want to be standard in any way.”
  • “I would have been much happier if I hadn’t been so determined to appear all-knowing and invulnerable.”
  • “Everyone stopped. I didn’t stop.” 
• Lew Wasserman’s five rules that created his Hollywood empire 
  • 1. Tend to the client 
  • 2. Dress appropriately 
  • 3. Never divulge information about the firm 
  • 4. Do your homework 
  • 5. Never leave the office without returning every single phone call 
• Michael Ovitz’s founding principle for CAA
  • 1. All founding members get even equity 
  • 2. Get big fast 
  • 3. Share all clients and serve them as a group; no turf wars and no silos 
  • 4. Tell the truth 
  • 5. Create opportunities instead of waiting around for them 
• Belief comes before ability: “I believe that nobody wants to be treated just as they are. People want to feel encouraged to become more than what they are, to become the best versions of themselves.” 
• CAA poached talent by assumption: The firm behaved as if the talent was already their client, then made their dreams happen before ever even signing them

• Do the job before you are hired

At the core of Michael Ovitz's success is his relentless work ethic and commitment to mastering his craft. 50 years ago he founded Creative Artists Agency. CAA starts out as just five young guys in a run down office and eventually becomes the most powerful agency in the world. Ovitz's autobiography explains how that happened. As the Wall Street Journal wrote: When the history of Hollywood is written, few people will have played a larger role than Michael Ovitz. 

This episode is what I learned from reading (for the 2nd time!) Who Is Michael Ovitz?: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Most Powerful Man in Hollywood by Michael Ovitz. 

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Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. 

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Vesto: All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben. Tell him David sent you. 

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Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

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Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book

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Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

• Identify and invest in outliers: The best venture capital investors recognize outlier potential when they see it and have a curiosity to discover what makes the outlier tick and WHY they tick that way 
• On being a VC or a founder: Inherent builders should be in the field – they should be building companies, not coaching other builders 
• Debug problems as far upstream as possible; take the rocks out of the river so the water can flow as fast as possible  
• Black magic is reserved for founders; every other area of the company-building process is mere mortal stuff 
• Stewardship over ownership: The goal is to leave your creation in a better place for the next generation 
• It is okay to choose the parallel tracked path of banking or consulting, and it is okay to take risks, but it is not okay to do one and spend your life thinking you did the other 
• The most common mistake that investors make is doing something contrary to the best interests of the founder 
• Traits of the best investment memos:
  • (1) Clearly state the one or two strongest reasons to invest
  • (2) Two to three pages max
  • (3) Present clear data from the opposing side
  • (4) argue why the investment should happen despite the opposing data
• Success starts at the foundational layer: Great culture is downstream of getting the foundation right and fostering internal belief, which is all a firm needs to be successful 
• Performance is the cultural component that matters most

Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years published once a month. These are N of one conversations with N of one people. There's nobody I've met quite like Doug Leone.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Show Notes

• Advice for Young Innovators: Work on the things that you are genuinely interested in and do not rely on other people to tell you what you should be working on 
• The term “conspiracy theorist” was invented by the CIA and used to discredit anyone who questioned the original results of the JFK assassination investigation

• “It’s pretty extraordinary that “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorists” are themselves literally born of a government conspiracy.” – Palmer 

Palmer Luckey is an entrepreneur and innovator best known for founding Oculus VR and Anduril Industries. In 2012, he launched Oculus VR and developed the Oculus Rift, a groundbreaking virtual reality headset that redefined a wide array of industries. The company was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion, where Luckey subsequently worked until 2017.

Following his departure, he founded Anduril Industries - a defense technology company specializing in autonomous systems including drones, surveillance towers, and aircraft. Anduril has secured major contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and international allies. The company has raised significant funding, including $1.5 billion in 2022, valuing it at $8.5 billion.

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• “My appetite for finding the best person in the world to do the thing instead of me doing it is almost infinite.” – Graham Duncan 
• Desire wants what it wants; get in tune with your desire 
• Leverage your comparative advantage: Most investing strategies are downstream of the simple goal of (1) making money and (2) not losing too much

• In investing, the goal is to make money – not be right or feed the go 

• Be opportunistic and flexible so that you can flow with emergent market dynamics instead of getting stuck in them 

My guest today is Graham Duncan. This conversation will make you think about your life in new ways. This is a two-hour segment of a 4.5-hour interview I did with Graham last year. It stands alone as remarkable, but those who subscribe to Colossus Review will gain access to the full conversation. This will be true in future issues, too.

In 2006, in his early 30s, Graham convinced Stuart Miller, CEO of home construction company Lennar, to let him manage $50 million of his family's wealth. A year later, Miller gave him the rest of his capital outside of Lennar. That investment turned into East Rock, where Graham built an incredible investing track record managing billions for a select group of families by focusing on people.

Our conversation explores a wide range of topics—from what makes a great investment partnership to the power of positive feedback loops to starting a restaurant.

I’m thankful to Graham for showing me the way so many times and for being willing to be so incredibly open in this conversation. Please enjoy this discussion with Graham Duncan. 

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

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

• Greatness does not come from intelligence; it comes from character, which can only be earned from overcoming adversities and developing perseverance 
• Strategy is not words; strategy is action 
• The Mission is the Boss: Nvidia exists to serve a mission and not for the sake of perpetuating its existence 
• Refuse to be outworked and be unapologetically extreme in your dedication; working long hours is a necessary prerequisite for excellence 
• Do what is natural and organic to you so that you enjoy it and can do it for a long period 
• The Speed of Light Framework for project execution: Instead of judging performance based on past performance or against the competition, judge yourself against the theoretical maximum of what can be achieved in the minimum amount of time; the law of physics should be your only constraint 
• Jensen tortures people into greatness: “The work” is the most important thing, not people’s feelings 
• Hone the sword by seeking conflict: Opportunity handled well leads to more opportunity 
• Innovation is a necessity, not an option
• Nvidia has a flat organizational structure that (1) Enables employees to act with more independence and (2) Filters out low-performing employees who are unaccustomed to thinking for themselves 
• Ship the Whole Cow: Nvidia found ways to package and sell hardware that it previously would have discarded; this helped it mitigate low-end market competition and insulate itself from the innovator’s dilemma 
• Complacency kills: The enemy is not the competition, but the company falling victim to complacency –  both real and imagined  

What I learned from reading The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim.

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Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. 

----

Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

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Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

----

Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

• While the AIs will be smart and conscientious, they will still face human bottlenecks, such as bureaucracies and committees at universities
• We may not notice AI productivity gains on shorter timeframes: Even if they only boost economic growth by 0.5% per year, that is a massive productivity gain over 30-40 years! 
• “There are going to be bottlenecks all along the way. It’s going to be a tough slug – like the printing press, like electricity. The people who study diffusion of new technologies never think there will be rapid takeoff.” – Tyler Cowen
  • Opposition to AI will only increase as the technology starts to change what the world looks like 
• There is increasing variance in the human distribution: Young people at the top are doing much better and are more impressive than they were in earlier times. The very bottom of the distribution is also getting better. But the “thick middle” is getting worse.
• Since humans are an input “other than the AI”, then humans will rise in marginal value, even if we will have to learn to do different things
• On Popularity and Progress: There is a danger that as a thing becomes more popular, at the margin it becomes much worse
• The Tyler Cowen Investment Philosophy: Buy and hold, diversify, hold on tight, make sure you have some cheap hobbies and can cook 
• Tech diffusion is universally pretty slow: While people in the Bay Area are the smartest, most dynamic, and most ambitious, they tend to overvalue intelligence 
• On progress: War should always be the main concern during a period of rapid technological progress; throughout history, when new technologies emerge, they are turned into instruments of war – and terrible things can happen  

I interviewed Tyler Cowen at the Progress Conference 2024. As always, I had a blast. This is my fourth interview with him – and yet I’m always hearing new stuff.

We talked about why he thinks AI won't drive explosive economic growth, the real bottlenecks on world progress, him now writing for AIs instead of humans, and the difficult relationship between being cultured and fostering growth – among many other things in the full episode.

Thanks to the Roots of Progress Institute (with special thanks to Jason Crawford and Heike Larson) for such a wonderful conference, and to FreeThink for the videography.

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.

Sponsors

I’m grateful to Tyler for volunteering to say a few words about Jane Street. It's the first time that a guest has participated in the sponsorship. I hope you can see why Tyler and I think so highly of Jane Street. To learn more about their open rules, go to janestreet.com/dwarkesh.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Economic Growth and AI

(00:14:57) Founder Mode and increasing variance

(00:29:31) Effective Altruism and Progress Studies

(00:33:05) What AI changes for Tyler

(00:44:57) The slow diffusion of innovation

(00:49:53) Stalin's library

(00:52:19) DC vs SF vs EU

• Hetty Green’s business maxims: 
  • 1. Seek out every piece of information on an investment before deciding on it
  • 2. Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves 
  • 3. Generally, in business, do not close a bargain until you have reflected on it overnight
  • 4. Before making a deal, if anyone is foolish enough to offer you the full amount, take it!
  • 5. Buy when everyone wants to sell and sell when everyone wants to buy  
• A defining character trait of Hetty: She lived by her own rules and did not care what other people thought; by casting off the societal norms of her time, she freed herself to do as she pleased and to live a life on her terms   
• The secret to all successful businesses and a simple strategy for wealth generation: Buy when prices are low and nobody wants them, and keep them until they go up and people become crazy to get them 
• Hetty was self-sovereign, very frugal, and very paranoid: She did not tell other people what she owned or how much she was making, and commonly bought property and stocks under fictitious names
• Greed does not drive the world, envy does; cure yourself of envy because envy is a weakness 
• Some things on Hetty Green’s list of things to NOT do in business:
  • 1. Do not cheat in business or you will find yourself in an early grave
  • 2. Do not fail to be fair in all things and do not kick a man when he is down 
  • 3. Do not envy your neighbors 
  • 4. Do not forget to be charitable and never falsify 
• When it comes to living your life, you will inevitably have to neglect some things; if you try to do too much, you will never get anywhere  

Hetty Green bailed out New York City. Her decisions on what interest rates to charge moved markets and were reported in major newspapers. She was a one woman bank and the single biggest individual financier in the world. She took no partners and ran her own money. She built a financial empire of stocks, bonds, railroads, and real estate. She battled the great men of her day and kept a gun on her desk. She did all of this alone. Defiantly independent and ferociously intelligent she built a vast, liquid fortune at a time when women couldn't even vote. She used her intelligence to increase her wealth, her independence to live as she wished, and her strength to battle anyone who stood in her way.

This episode is what I learned from reading Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon by Charles Slack and The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach. 

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Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. 

----

Vesto: All of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business bank accounts from one dashboard. Go to Vesto and schedule a demo with the founder Ben. Tell him David sent you. 

Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

----

Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

----

Founders Notes gives you the ability to tap into the collective knowledge of history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. Use it to supplement the decisions you make in your work.  Get access to Founders Notes here. 

----

“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

• 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.