Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup

• Be non-consensus, but right: Great startups identify something that is missing in the future that no one else realizes is missing 
• Figure out what you want that you can’t already get, then build it 
• It is important for the founders of a company to truly want the thing that they are creating 
• You must be willing to have thoughts and say things that cause investors to say, “that is the dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard” 
• You can succeed with a consensus idea if you are willing to relentlessly out-execute everyone else, but it is going to be much harder than succeeding with a non-consensus idea 
• Seek honest feedback from users and consumers instead of seeking validation from them 
• Have a broad hypothesis, but be open to the non-obvious thing when it presents itself or when you discover it 
• Winning is a mindset that pervades all else
• Err on the side of over-persistence; people tend to give up before they really give something a shot 

• The question to consider: Does AI help the strong get stronger, or does AI allow for new businesses to emerge and disrupt the incumbents? 
• The top five technology companies are spending 2x on capital expenditure than the top five energy companies 
• Companies should strive to increase the consumer’s willingness to pay
• “Regulation is the friend of the incumbent.” – Bill Gurley 
• Venture capital is one of the few asset classes that has high persistence: the past winners tend to be future winners
• Develop a framework that allows you to benefit from the group dynamics of pattern recognition, but that does not tie you to one specific type of pattern 
• Instead of nit-picking how an investment may fail, make the primary focus of the discussion: “How big could this be?” 
• Investors must capture the extreme events if they wish to outperform 
• The sharpest minds desire to know where they are wrong about something 

My guests today are Bill Gurley and Michael Mauboussin. Bill is a General Partner at Benchmark, and Michael is the Head of Consilient Research for Counterpoint Global. While they are longtime friends with one another, I’d never heard them appear somewhere together so it was a real treat to be able to do this with the two of them. They are two of the leading minds in their fields, and we combined their decades of expertise into one wide-ranging conversation. We discuss the different kinds of increasing returns to scale, the issue of regulatory capture, AI, and hardware. Please enjoy this great conversation with Bill Gurley and Michael Mauboussin.

Listen to Founders Podcast

Show Notes:

• You must have “one reason” to found a start-up; if you have five or six reasons to start it, then you have not yet found the single, very strong reason 
• Hire for raw IQ and hard work, then constantly iterate on solving the single problem at hand 
• Using your mind to its fullest capacity is the ultimate pleasure 
• The most successful people in the world are extremely focused and allow their focused efforts to compound over time 
• It is easy to identify conceptual gaps; developing the path toward closing that gap is the challenging part 
• You must figure out 1) what you are passionate about and 2) what you are good at 
• How you invest your time is more important than how you invest your capital, if wealth creation is your goal 

Episode 578: Shaan Puri ( https://twitter.com/ShaanVP ) sits down with Joe Lonsdale ( https://twitter.com/JTLonsdale ) to talk about how he leveraged one internship at PayPal into one billion dollar success after another. 

Want to see Sam and Shaan’s smiling faces? Head to the MFM YouTube Channel and subscribe - http://tinyurl.com/5n7ftsy5

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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

Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more.

• #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future

• #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto

• #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett

• ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates

• Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More

• How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

• Check out the episode page

What I learned from reading The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant. 

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(1:00) This is a 100 page biography of the human species

(1:00) The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant (Full Set) 

(2:30) Generations of men establish a growing mastery over the earth, but they are destined to become fossils in its soil.

(4:00) Ruthlessly prioritize how you spend your time.

(4:00) The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows.

(4:30) ALL OF THE NAPOLEON EPISODES:

Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David Bell. (Founders #294) 

The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Wordsedited by J. Christopher Herold. (Founders #302)

Napoleon and Modern War by Napoleon and Col. Lanza. (Founders #337) 

(8:00) Our job is to make our companies and ourselves better equipped to meet the test of survival.

(11:30) Economic development specializes functions, differentiates abilities, and makes men unequally valuable to their group.

(12:30) The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson. (Founders #191)

(14:30) In the end, superior ability has its way.

(16:30) Nothing is clearer in history than the adoption by successful rebels of the methods they were accustomed to condemn in the forces they deposed.

(19:00) The imitative majority follows the innovating minority and this follows the originative individual, in adapting new responses to the demands of environment or survival.

(20:00) If you can identify an enduring human need you can build a business around that.

(21:00) In every age men have been dishonest and governments have been corrupt.

(25:00) Survival at all costs: Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under.

(25:00) Victory in our industry is spelled survival. — Steve Jobs

(25:00) All that matters is to survive. The rest is just words. — Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. (Founders #224)

(26:00) By being so cautious in respect to leverage and having loads of liquidity, we will be equipped both financially and emotionally to play offense while others scramble for survival. — The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham (Founders #227)

(27:00) History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all.

(31:00) The Iron Law of Oligarchy

(32:00) Every advance in the complexity of the economy puts an added premium upon superior ability.

(33:00) The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. (Founders #215)

(34:00) Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman 

(37:00) All technological advances will have to be written off as merely new means of achieving old ends

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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes

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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

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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 trick of entrepreneurship is convincing yourself that it is not that hard, even when it is 
• “Your organization should be the architecture of the machinery of building the product.” – Jensen Huang   
• Pave the way to future opportunities; you cannot wait until the opportunity is in front of you to reach out for it  
• Many of the great all-time tech companies began by building products and services for developers 
• You don’t have to be that perfect if you can position yourself near opportunities 
• Every person should learn how to use an AI to augment their productivity
• Nvidia tries to position itself in a way that serves a need that is yet to emerge
• Push your chips in when you know it is going to work   
• Don’t do everything; prioritize your time, and make sacrifices, but realize that there is plenty of time in life  

We finally sit down with the man himself: Nvidia Cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang. After three parts and seven+ hours of covering the company, we thought we knew everything but — unsurprisingly — Jensen knows more. A couple teasers: we learned that the company’s initial motivation to enter the datacenter business came from perhaps not where you’d think, and the roots of Nvidia’s platform strategy stretch back beyond CUDA all the way to the origin of the company.

We also got a peek into Jensen’s mindset and calculus behind “betting the company” multiple times, and his surprising feelings about whether he’d go on the founder journey again if he could rewind time. We can’t think of any better way to tie a bow on our Nvidia series (for now). Tune in!

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One of the most common strategies for achieving a powerful ideal lifestyle vision is to leverage entrepreneurial activities to find a stable source of income that allows autonomy and flexibility. To help understand how to succeed in such ventures, Cal interviews the entrepreneur and author Noah Kagan about his new book, "The Million Dollar Weekend." Recording on the road as part of his book tour for "Slow Productivity," Cal also shares some lessons about what he's been observing.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode:  youtube.com/calnewportmedia

INTERVIEW: Marketing guru Noah Kagan [11:06]

Links:
Use this link to preorder a signed copy of “Slow Productivity”:
peoplesbooktakoma.com/preorder-slow-productivity/
FREE download excerpt and 2 Bonuses for “Slow Productivity”:
calnewport.com/slow

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Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Kieron Rees for slow productivity music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Delian Asparouhov is the co-founder, President and Chairman of Varda Space Industries, a company building spacecraft to manufacture materials in microgravity that are difficult or impossible to produce on Earth— starting with pharmaceuticals. He’s also a Partner at Founders Fund.

Previously, he was a principal at Khosla Ventures, head of growth at Teespring, and founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale. Delian is Bulgarian, attended MIT, and likes to ski and play soccer.

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• The United States of America is the greatest startup in world history 
• As an entrepreneur, your social role is to make profits, but you also need to ensure that socialists do not take over your country 
• “Every founder starts as lead engineer and ends up as Chief Psychologist.” – Balaji 
• There is light in the world and there is darkness; accelerationism want light and the decels want darkness 
• A world of degrowth is a world that is full of war; when the pie is forced to be shrunk, the people are forced to fight because there are less resources available
• Academics do not understand that what matters is how systems and incentives work 
• We must take the frameworks that work in the entrepreneurial world and apply them to other things 
• Make America States Again 
• The darkest of times reveal who is on the side of darkness and who is on the side of the light

Joe Lonsdale is one of the most prominent investors in technology. He's the co-founder of Palantir, 8VC, Addepar, and the Cicero Institute — and one of Balaji's longtime friends. We have fun talking about education, longevity, space, and the little matter of completely reforming all governments with the internet.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ny93ZjlR93g

• Blockchains provide the societal benefits of protocol networks but with the competitive advantages of corporate networks
• “Come for the tool, stay for the network.” – Chris Dixon  
• If every command line tool becomes an app, does every protocol become a blockchain? 
• Distribution was so scarce in the early days of the internet that Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) killed for it 
• The Web3 version of a given Web2 app adds balances and the ability to cryptographically sign messages and transactions 
• Many tech companies suffer from Stockholm Syndrome; they have become accustomed to the App Store taking a significant portion of their revenue
• Web3 combines the best of both worlds of Web1 and Web2 
• Web3 is as structured as the Web2-style databases but as open as a Web1-style web
• Crypto is a counter-force to many of the things that AI is doing
• Blockchains enable property rights in the digital space 
• “Technology changes microeconomic leverage.” – Balaji  

Read Write Own (readwriteown.com) is a new book by Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and founder of the largest crypto fund in the world. It's an important work that is simultaneously the best crypto tutorial for newcomers and an accessible reference for experts. Balaji and Chris are long-time friends and worked together at a16z for years. Here they discuss Read Write Own and the state of crypto in 2024.

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/_nIQztk5KWY

• Universities still matter, especially the really good ones; the decisions made at elite universities end up influencing the future of the country 
• The bundling of the university is evidence that it has evolved; however, it is important for university leaders to continually evaluate that bundle to ensure that it makes sense
• The main credentialing of the college degree is in two parts: the fact that you were admitted and the fact that you graduated 
• The admissions process is an IQ test and the graduation process is a conscientiousness test 
• For many degrees, the degree is worth less than the wage that it will command in the free market 
• University tuition rates have increased 2-3x more than the general inflation rate; if current trends continue, the cost of a four-year education at an elite university will cost $1M
• Increasingly, the policy recommendations that come out of the think tank component of universities are sharply partisan and extreme
• Stanford and Yale have more administrative staff than they have students! 
• Universities are highly dependent on their current model continuing indefinitely; they are not as fiscally stable as they may seem from the outside perspective 
• In 2015, 57% of American voters had a positive view of American universities; in 2023, that number fell to 36% 
• Entrepreneurial opportunities tend to emerge when an industry experiences systemic shifts 

In this one-on-one conversation, Marc and Ben tackle the university system – what has certainly been a hot topic that’s been dominating the news over the past few months. As Marc states at the top of the episode, universities matter tremendously to our world, but they’re currently in a state of crisis.

Together, Ben and Marc take a “structural” look at higher education, delving deep into the twelve functions of the modern university.  They also unpack the numerous challenges that universities face today – student debt and the replication crisis, among them. 

They also discuss topics including DEI, student athlete admissions, accreditation, inflation, and much more. 

As colleges face an existential threat that could have long lasting repercussions, how can we find ways to improve these institutions, while being open to new entrepreneurial opportunities in education?

Check out the Ben and Marc show: https://link.chtbl.com/benandmarc

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