Today, we are replaying one of my favorite conversations with Sam Hinkie. Sam worked for more than a decade in the NBA with the Houston Rockets and then as the President and GM of the Philadelphia 76ers. And now, after years of personal investing, he has launched his own venture capital firm, 87 Capital. Every conversation I have with Sam is alive with insight, and this one is no different. We explore the idea of studying the "breadcrumbs" that someone leaves behind as a way to track their progress and trajectory, finding and attracting the right people into one’s orbit, and the lessons from the NBA that most shape his investing career. Sam has taught me the most about the topic of building trust, which we cover here as well. I am excited to share my conversation with Sam with all of you. Please enjoy!

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:

(0:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(3:48) Conducting a good interview

(5:58) Drilling into topics to learn more about people

(10:36) Interest in digital breadcrumbs and how to follow them

(14:02) Building context around founders vs analyzing their pitch decks

(17:20) A real world example of the bread crumb strategy, Houston Rockets GM

(23:07) Shifting to a people-first focus

(28:24) Most amazing thing someone did in early days of working with Sam

(30:18) Lessons from sports that he carries with him

(32:31) Exceptions to relationships being a key to success

(36:07) Avoiding transactional type people

(37:04) Most effective lessons he brought to sports from the investing world

(40:01) Ideas from the sports world he is bringing to the investing world

(50:33) Lessons learned from watching them build trust

(52:26) Market areas that have his attention

(54:13) Fascination into API’s

(1:01:26) Playing the long game

(1:04:29) Calling it 87 Capital

(1:06:52) What can Caro teach us about the long game

(1:12:58) The power of breadcrumbs and how people can start to lay them out