Smart Friends

Smart Friends

By Eric JorgensonBusinessEntrepreneurship
Download on the App Store

Smart Friends episodes

  • #106 130 Million Meals made by Robots: Rajat Bhageria of Chef Robotics

    (00:00:00) - Intro

    (00:03:54) - Rajat's heroes and influences

    (00:05:21) - Introducing Chef Robotics

    (00:07:22) - Why food manufacturing is a massive opportunity

    (00:08:11) - Industry graveyard: why previous food robots failed

    (00:13:24) - Manufacturing over restaurants as go-to-market

    (00:14:50) - Current customers and what the robots make

    (00:16:07) - High-mix vs low-mix manufacturing

    (00:18:52) - Labor shortage and the reality of the job

    (00:20:55) - The research phase before starting Chef

    (00:24:24) - Building the early team

    (00:27:05) - The complexity of food manipulation

    (00:28:48) - Stealth mode and lack of competitors

    (00:31:15) - Ghost kitchens around the world

    (00:33:33) - Long-term vision and expansion strategy

    (00:37:23) - Where value accrues: hardware vs software vs models

    (00:43:03) - Impact on consumers: cheaper and safer food

    (00:46:50) - The future of home cooking

    (00:51:21) - Specialized robots vs humanoids

    (00:54:55) - Urgency as founder job number one

    (01:04:51) - Where to follow and get involved


    Links:

      Eric Jorgenson

        LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson

        Twitter / X — https://x.com/EricJorgenson

        Website — https://www.ejorgenson.com/

    Rajat on X - https://x.com/RajatBhageria

    Rajat on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajatbhageria/

    Chef Robotics - https://www.chefrobotics.ai/

    To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

    >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ 

    >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

    >> Buy a copy of The Book of Elon: https://www.elonmuskbook.org/ 

    >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage 

    >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

    >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

    >> Text the podcast to a friend

    >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!


    Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

     

    There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

     

    You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.  

     

    Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start. 

    1 hr 6 min
  • #105 ​Inside the Underground Meme Marketing World: Jason Levin of Memelord

    Topics:

    (00:00:00) - Intro

    (00:03:34) - The most effective meme and the midwit curve

    (00:08:11) - Memes as memetic warfare and communication

    (00:10:04) - Jason's internet kid origin story

    (00:13:09) - Building MemeLord and AI agents for memes

    (00:16:47) - Working with B2B and boring companies

    (00:17:50) - The arbitrage in funny B2B marketing

    (00:21:38) - Running multiple meme accounts for distribution

    (00:25:01) - Owning the distribution with owned pages

    (00:27:30) - The coming robot meme wave

    (00:28:59) - The truth about astroturfed virality

    (00:36:06) - Stop hosting dinners

    (00:39:04) - The most entertaining outcome is most likely

    (00:42:15) - The $10k protest in France

    (00:44:23) - Word of mouth and marketing books

    (00:46:14) - Build worlds around your company

    (00:48:34) - Raising capital and leveling up as a founder

    (00:52:12) - Delegation and leverage as you scale

    (00:59:56) - Dealing with hit pieces and cancel culture

    (01:03:15) - Heroes and influences

    (01:06:00) - Where to follow and closing


    Links:

      Eric Jorgenson

        LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson

        Twitter / X — https://x.com/EricJorgenson

        Website — https://www.ejorgenson.com/

    Jason on X - https://x.com/iamjasonlevin

    Jason on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamjasonlevin/

    MemeLord - https://www.memelord.com/

    Memes Make Millions by Jason Levin - https://iamjasonlevin.gumroad.com/l/memes


    To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

    >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ 

    >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

    >> Buy a copy of The Book of Elon: https://www.elonmuskbook.org/

    >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage 

    >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

    >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

    >> Text the podcast to a friend

    >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!


    Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

     

    There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

     

    You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.  

     

    Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.


    1 hr 15 min
  • #104 The Elite Private High School Where Students Earn A Million Dollars: [Nat Eliason of Founder School (via Alpha)]

    Topics:

    (00:00:00) - Intro

    (00:03:27) - Nat joins Alpha School to launch Founder School

    (00:04:11) - The million-dollar business guarantee

    (00:04:44) - Why no program like this exists yet

    (00:09:09) - How AI tutors compress academics into three hours

    (00:13:00) - Teenagers are capable of real work

    (00:15:27) - The Alpha School platform and expansion model

    (00:25:35) - Founder School's September 2026 launch

    (00:29:21) - Reproducing Stanford's entrepreneurial advantages

    (00:38:00) - Year one curriculum: sales first

    (00:48:28) - Building expertise and avoiding hustle culture

    (00:53:42) - The institutional skin in the game

    (00:56:22) - Who's applying and the $150K tuition

    (01:01:04) - Ten-year vision: 10,000 students across ten campuses

    (01:08:04) - How to learn more and get involved


    Links:

      Eric Jorgenson

        LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson

        Twitter / X — https://x.com/EricJorgenson

        Website — https://www.ejorgenson.com/

      Nat Eliason

        LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateliason/

        Twitter / X — https://twitter.com/nateliason

        Website — https://www.nateliason.com/

      Alpha School — https://alpha.school/

      Founder School — https://founders.school

    To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

    >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ 

    >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

    >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage 

    >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

    >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

    >> Text the podcast to a friend

    >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!


    Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

     

    There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

     

    You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.  

     

    Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start. 

    1 hr 12 min
  • #103 How to Destroy Bad Ideas Without Killing Relationships [The Dionysus Program with Sean Devine​]

    Topics:

    (00:00:00) - Intro

    (00:01:23) - Reading the forward to Sean’s new book

    (00:09:30) - What problem were you experiencing that sparked these ideas?

    (00:12:30) - Sean’s early arrival to AI

    (00:23:15) - Identity

    (00:27:55) - Defining Apollo and Dionysus

    (00:34:47) - Understanding and uncertainty

    (00:38:26) - Tools to deal with uncertainty

    (00:50:27) - Tools for metabolism

    (01:03:25) - Ritual time and run time

    (01:11:30) - Building trust to have hard conversations

    (01:13:40) - The key pillars of the Dionysus Program

    (01:37:09) - Applying this thinking across organizations and life

    (01:45:28) - Applying Apollo/Dionysus to investing

    (01:57:10) - Observing the learning rate of an organization

    (02:03:08) - Closing thoughts


    Links:

    The Dionysus Program - https://www.dionysusprogram.com/

    To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

    >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ 

    >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

    >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage 

    >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

    >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

    >> Text the podcast to a friend

    >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!


    Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

     

    There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

     

    You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.  

     

    Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.


    2 hr 9 min
  • #102 ​The Next Renaissance, AI Reality vs Hype, and a Movement of Hope with Zack Kass

    Topics:

    (00:00:00) - Intro

    (00:02:40) - Being the “tech for middle America” translator

    (00:06:00) - Who are your heroes?

    (00:13:40) - Zack’s unique approach to AI

    (00:57:35) - The market for identity transformation

    (01:11:08) - Writing the next renaissance

    (01:15:31) - Using AI in the writing process

    (01:18:25) - Final thoughts


    Links:

    The Next Renaissance by Zack Kass - https://a.co/d/07VwLrg4

    Zack’s website - https://www.zackkass.com/


    To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

    >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ 

    >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

    >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage 

    >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

    >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

    >> Text the podcast to a friend

    >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!


    Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship

     

    There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant

     

    You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.  

     

    Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.


    1 hr 20 min
  • The Book of Elon - Part 4

    Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success.

    This is Part 1 of 4.

    I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website.

    I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us.

    If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project:

    • Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book
    • Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram
    • Join the email list at ejorgenson.com
    • And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot.

      I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

      1 hr 36 min
    • The Book of Elon - Part 3

      Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success.

      This is Part 3 of 4.

      I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website.

      I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us.

      If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project:

      • Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book
      • Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram
      • Join the email list at ejorgenson.com
      • And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot.

        I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

        1 hr 45 min
      • The Book of Elon - Part 2

        Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success.

        This is Part 2 of 4.

        I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website.

        I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us.

        If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project:

        • Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book
        • Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram
        • Join the email list at ejorgenson.com
        • And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot.

          I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

          1 hr 11 min
        • The Book of Elon - Part 1

          Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success.

          This is Part 1 of 4.

          I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website.

          I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us.

          If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project:

          • Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book
          • Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram
          • Join the email list at ejorgenson.com
          • And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot.

            I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

            1 hr 7 min
          • The Book of Elon launches today

            The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success is now available!

            “All of Elon Musk’s Most Useful Ideas, In His Own Words.” 

            I’ve invested five years of effort and tens of thousands of dollars into making this book as useful as possible for you. 

            Order the book now on Amazon:

            Kindle: https://amzn.to/4uEf0pO

            Paperback: https://amzn.to/47avSuh

            Hardcover: https://amzn.to/4by5VWL

            Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Book-of-Elon-Audiobook/B0G3B4SJPQ

            To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

            >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ 

            >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/

            >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage 

            >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun

            >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter

            >> Text the podcast to a friend


            9 min

          About Smart Friends

          From the publisher's feed

          Casual conversations with founders, technologists, investors, and artists about building a brighter future, together. Welcome to our digital living room. 

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