Smart Friends

Topics:

(7:05) - Updates from Zach: hiring, firing, building software, and finding PMF

(13:41) - What drove the decision to focus more on the marketplace rather than services?

(20:18) - How different was it working with a fund rather than angels?

(23:03) - Cost cutting measures

(24:35) - What was it about services that made them not repeatable or scalable?

(37:00) - Fear mongering

(38:19) - Regional focused marketplaces

(41:07) - Corporate Enterprise focuses

(45:15) - Rebuilding community and staffing via website development

(50:38) - How does affiliate marketing discounts fit into your strategy?

(54:34)- Firing a customer

(59:17) - A bias for action, mixed with patience

(1:07:06) - What are your hopes for our next meeting?

(1:10:38) - Homework for the audience

Links:

Zach on Twitter

Conterra Security

Listen to Episodes 1-3 of this series

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawaski

Webflow

Zapier

AirTable

New Illinois crime law going into effect

To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(1:46) - Who are your heroes?

(7:25) - Sebastian’s affinity for studying history, sports, art & professional gamers

(11:30) - How do you take lessons learned from these studies and apply them to entrepreneurship?

(13:01) - Why do you approach life and work with a lens of ruthless optimization?

(18:12) - Breaking down the concept of ‘productivity’

(26:56) - Non-value producing work

(28:11) - Do you find that you have a higher sense of baseline after experimenting with 

optimizing your entire life?

(34:25) - Maximum sustainable pace vs. Maximum possible pace

(39:44) - Optimizing for fun

(44:34) - Can you expand on the growth of Ultraworking?

(50:04) - Improving scope-to-quality of work

(55:36) - Sebastian’s period of life attempting to visit every country in the world

(1:00:59) - Sebastian’s writing eras and how they changed him

(1:14:40) - Agree or disagree: Self-measurement is self-punishment

(1:19:51) - Monthly themes for life

(1:22:45) - What is the mental model you find yourself implementing in your life the most?

Links:

Ultraworking

Sebastian Marshall on Medium

The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon by B. H. Lidell Hart

On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

You and Your Research by Richard Hamming

Stedi Annual Letter - Operational excellence

Gateless by Sebastian Marshall

Extreme Productivity by Robert Pozen

Product Hunt

Clockwork Nutrition

To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(3:15) - Mark’s career & background

(4:40) - Do you think there is a popular renaissance behind Nuclear Energy?

(6:27) - Realizing the regulatory problem holding back energy advancement

(15:35) - The costs behind Nuclear

(18:06) - The Nuclear customer & Europe’s approach to Nuclear

(31:46) - France’s energy price crisis

(37:00) - The history of Nuclear Power

(51:07) - The next wave: Advanced Nuclear

(1:01:51) - Who’s behind the push for Advanced Nuclear?

(1:03:27) - How did the USA lose its ability to build new reactors?

(1:08:38) - Nuclear success in the United States Navy

(1:21:57) - Debunking Plutonium

(1:224:26) - What is the supply chain of building reactors in the Navy?

(1:27:10) - What are reliable resources for people to learn more about or work in Nuclear?

(1:32:14) - Wrap up

Links:

Mark on Twitter

Radiant Energy Fund

Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by David JC MacKay

The World Nuclear Association Library

Clean Corps

The rePLANET Network

The Mothers for Nuclear Organization

To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(5:14) - Matt & Ben’s friendship origin

(8:42) - Starting Texts From Last Night

(18:17) - Matt’s early career with Google, Coachella & Lafayette American

(43:33) - Mille Mitten

(58:34) - Tik Tok, Ads and Algorithms

(1:06:55) - Elon Musk & Twitter

(1:15:38) - Fixing Movie Theaters & car charging infrastructure

(1:38:07) - Fixing conferences

(1:50:50) - Exercise: Rebranding the podcast

Links:

Texts from Last Night

Lafayette American

TickPick

Mille Mitten

Mil-Spec Automotive

Alamo Drafthouse

To support this costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Links:

Rohun on Twitter

JT Capital

The Sovereign Individual by James Davidson

CBRE

JLL

4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

Loom

Maven

The Fear Setting Exercise - Tim Ferriss

Topics:

(6:10) - Why Eric and Rohun Should have been friends 10 years ago

(8:30) - Rohun’s Heroes & family dynamic

(15:44) - Journeying into Real Estate

(20:52) - Getting Reps: Underwriting Deals

(26:57- The importance of scale

(30:14) - What is the order of operations for buying a deal?

(33:17) - How did you find your partners for JT Capital?

(35:26) - Did your uncle pay you for your apprenticeship?

(37:25) - What kind of expense ratios are you getting with these large deals as opposed to smaller properties

(40:31) - What was your vision for building the company?

(43:32) - Were you thinking about leverage at all in this process?

(47:26) - Was there anything you brought with you from your career in tech into the RE industry?

(50:49) - How are you using EA’s and Virtual assistants in your business?

(1:05:04) - Is there anything in your business that cannot be automated or delegated?

(1:10:46) - How has your life changed after making this investment?

(1:13:36) - How do you balance having partners when you’re structuring your career around freedom?

(1:16:15) - How do you compare the pressures of your job now vs. all the unique things you did before this?

(1:21:53) - What was the single biggest inflection point of your career?

(1:23:41) - Was there any single deal that was make or break for the company?

(1:24:56) - What is the mental model you use most frequently?

(1:28:50) - Final thoughts & Wrap up

To support this costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(6:21) - What is your specific knowledge?

(7:20) - Taylor’s career

(12:38) - Transaction Cost Economics

(20:02) - The work behind Taylor’s first book: The End of Jobs

(21:20) - Was publishing that book a major inflection point in your career?

(23:53) - Taylor’s writing on the crypto space and work in investing & finance

(29:03) - Mutiny Funds

(32:57) - The Long-Volatility Strategy

(36:33) - The Thousand-Year Portfolio

(40:49) - Who is using the long-volatility strategy and how are they using it?

(43:16) - What does the strategy look like day to day?

(50:07) - Volatility Index

(55:33) - Are there future products in the funnel for Mutiny?

(57:44) - What do you look for in the hedge funds you assemble?

(1:00:20) - How long have you been building this core of knowledge?

(1:04:11) - How do you know when to shift your focus?

(1:07:11) - Are there people you look up to who are great examples of playing the long game?

(1:09:25) - What is the long game for Mutiny?

(1:12:49) - How do you maintain discipline when the world tells you to take the other path?

(1:16:22) - What mental model do you use most often?

Links:

Mutiny Funds

Taylor’s website

Taylor’s The Interesting Times newsletter

The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson

Blog post: Markets Are Eating The World by Taylor Pearson

The Kelly Criterion with Edward Thorp

The Cockroach Portfolio

The Volatility Index

The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker

Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone

A Man for All Markets by Edward Thorp

To support this costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(3:48) - David Hijacks the podcast: Eric’s Heroes, Munger as a copywriter and “Jeffisms”

(8:31) - How did you start Founders Pod and build it into a business?

(27:39) - How did you engrain this level of discipline in your craft?

(34:41) - Emulating Ed Thorpe

(43:59) - The power of podcasting

(50:43) - Eric and David discuss career goals

(57:46) - Thoughts on the ‘serial entrepreneur’

(1:08:18) - Deep dive into David’s approach to reading

(1:19:17) - Is this just a chapter of your life, or is this the business to dedicate your life to?

(1:25:24) - Do you think more people should do what you’re doing?

(1:28:20) - How to get the most value from what David is doing

(1:36:06) - How have you changed pre-Founders vs. today?

(1:38:29) - What does the best version of this podcast look like?

(1:53:48) - Compounding & Leverage

(1:59:38) - Books are the original links

(2:04:45) - Final thoughts

Links:

FoundersPodcast.com

Kevin Rose interviewing Elon Musk on the Tesla Factory Floor

Jocko Podcast

Paul Graham’s “How to Do what You Love”

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Chapo Trap House

Edwin Land

Founders Podcast: Founder of Hyundai

Neckar’s Minds of the Market

Readwise

The Kanye West Genius documentary

The Great Books Program

Biographics on YouTube

Graphtreon.com

To support this costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(7:11) - Brett’s earliest memories of his strengths

(9:58) - Understanding different skills and abilities

(13:36) - Brett’s early career

(18:08) - What was the moment of conception for Remind?

(26:03) - What were some pivotal moments early on?

(30:08) - How much did Twilio aid your growth?

(31:18) - What role did investor selection play into the success of Remind?

(35:00) - Transitioning into Omella

(44:18) - How many customers did you talk to before building the product?

(45:11) - What’s the process of building conviction in your product?

(50:38) - How much wider is the purview of Omella than Remind in terms of the market it helps?

(55:11) - Thoughts on distribution, engagement and retention

(1:01:15) - How has the founder experience compared with your second company vs. the first?

(1:03:38) - How does leverage fit into structuring Omella?

(1:08:23) - What are the most common mental models you use to make decisions?

(1:12:50) - Do you find people to be overthinking while building a product?

(1:14:13) - Where would you like Omella to be in the next 5-10 years?

(1:15:09) - How do you ensure you can keep a small high-performance team rather than solve problems via headcount?

(1:16:16) - How often do customers that you interact with become evangelists for Omella?

Links:

BrettKopf.com

Brett Kopf on Twitter and LinkedIn

Omella

Remind

Acton academy

The Theory of Constraints

To support this costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

(2:29) - How clear is the picture of how far you’ve come in the past 4 months?

(3:27) - Recapping Track Zach #2

(10:36) - What are customers buying now and how have the service offerings changed?

(20:06) - Do you know the bootstrapping process of these other industry marketplace products?

(21:49) - How did you arrive at home security audit and family protection as the right first products to offer?

(29:20) - What’s your ultimate revenue goal as it pertains to fundraising?

(38:35) - What do your internal operations look like?

(41:06) - Zach’s experience in Launch New York

(43:32) - Spending too much time on “shiny object” opportunities

(48:55) - Traction and the fundraising process

(57:01) - Entrepreneurship is really hard

(1:06:01) - Is there anything you’ve changed your mind on in the past quarter?

(1:17:06) - Are there other mental models from your time as a SEAL that you apply in business?

(1:20:44) - Feeling high leverage work shift over time

(1:26:22) - How can people listening help Conterra?

Links: 

ConterraSecurity.com

LaunchNY.org

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen

NfX Marketplaces

Other Episode You’ll Like:

Kevin Espiritu: Bootstrapping Epic Gardening to 8 Figgures by mixing Media + D2C Biz Models. Oh and Poker, Pink Pineapples, and Male Models.

To support this costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Topics:

(4:56) - Chris’ background and work at Athena

(6:53) - What does a Chief Client Officer do?

(10:20) - Robert’s background and work at Athena

(17:00) - Robert recruiting Chris to Athena

(20:20) - What distinguishes Robert as an operator

(25:02) - Robert’s first year with Athena and how the company has scaled 

(33:39) - Chris’ decision to join Athena

(37:28) - Creating a great experience for both clients and the EAs

(46:17) - What people use their EAs for at Athena

(50:28) - How Athena focuses on leverage

(57:46) - Thoughts behind recruiting EAs and training 

(1:09:04) - Playbooks and systems for delegation

(1:13:14) - biggest moments of relief gained from an EA?

(1:17:58) - How does someone know when they need an EA?

(1:32:28) - Where is Athena today?

(1:38:40) - Where do you predict the global workforce goes over the next several decades?

(1:46:30) - What are the mental models or heuristics you use in making decisions?

(1:55:41) - Athena helps clients provide feedback

(1:58:06) - Wrap up

Links: 

Athena - www.athenago.com

Island Heights Construction - https://www.islandheights.ca

Humi - https://www.humi.ca

Eric’s Site: www.ejorgenson.com 

Other Episodes You’ll Like:

EA Delegating w/ Michelle Penczak: Founder of Squared Away - Military Spouses becoming Top Tier Virtual Assistants

Drug Cartels, Vanguard, And Goldman Sachs with Codie Sanchez

Andrew Wilkinson: De-risking Leverage, Investing vs. Operating, and the Best Part About Business

To support the costs of producing this podcast: 

>> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.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

>> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners 

>> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa 

>> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson

>> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

Important quotes from Naval on building wealth and the difference between wealth and money: 

How to get rich without getting lucky. - Naval Ravikant

Making money is not a thing you do—it’s a skill you learn. - Naval Ravikant

I came up with the principles in my tweetstorm (below) for myself when I was really young, around thirteen or fourteen. I’ve been carrying them in my head for thirty years, and I’ve been living them. Over time (sadly or fortunately), the thing I got really good at was looking at businesses and figuring out the point of maximum leverage to actually create wealth and capture some of that created wealth. - Naval Ravikant 

Seek wealth, not money or status. - Naval Ravikant

Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant

Money is how we transfer time and wealth. - Naval Ravikant

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games. 

You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom. - Naval Ravikant

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn. The old model of making money is going to school for four years, getting your degree, and working as a professional for thirty years. But things change fast now. Now, you have to come up to speed on a new profession within nine months, and it’s obsolete four years later. But within those three productive years, you can get very wealthy. - Naval Ravikant