This Week in Startups

0:55 Jason intros Balaji Srinivasan and tees up his incident with Recode's piece: "No handshakes, please": The tech industry is terrified of the coronavirus 4:28 Balaji shares his experience with the story and his issues with corporate journalism 15:16 Balaji explains why he reacted the way he did to Shirin Ghaffary's request for an interview 19:52 History of techlash: 1995-2020, when things turned from positivity to overwhelming negativity 26:26 Balaji brings up a sentiment analysis chart published by Recode 31:25 Did both sides of the political spectrum fail in their coverage of the virus? Is citizen journalism the answer? 39:40 Balaji envisions for a new kind of journalism 41:43 Are corporate journalists too like-minded in their approach because of not being representative of the demographics of the US? 48:16 What is modern journalism's biggest blind spot? 51:22 Tips on how to start decentralizing media 54:34 Are modern journalists uncomfortable with subjects playing an active role in the reporting of the story? Did Recode & other outlets fail their readers? 1:01:55 Will the US "let it rip" strategy of dealing with COVID prove catastrophic? 1:05:53 Endgame scenarios: Bull, Bear & Base 1:10:08 Should we be experimenting with "Challenge Trials"? 1:18:52 How culpable is China for the spread of COVID-19? Should wet markets be shut down for good? 1:23:39 Why is the US still behind on mass testing? More on endgame scenarios 1:31:03 Possibility of COVID-19 being a biological weapon? 1:36:27 What should we learn from this crisis? What societal changes will happen?

0:51 Jason gives some thoughts on quarantine & intros GGV's Jeff Richards 5:11 What will this crisis look like on the other side? Benefits of having a levelheaded approach 11:38 What has Jeff seen from his seasoned portfolio founders who went through the 2008 crisis? 16:21 What advice does Jeff give to first-time founders in his portfolio? 22:22 Investor panic & differences in opinion between independent & investor board members 25:50 What could inexperienced board advice be in a time like this? 30:45 What is GGV's typical check size, how many startups do they invest in per year, and how are their funds divvied up between early-stage & growth 33:26 Chances that current deals could be renegotiated? How can founders price themselves properly? 38:05 Jeff explains liquidation preferences 42:52 How should companies approach taking venture debt in a time like this? What is Jeff's criteria for taking venture debt? 51:11 If things are going poorly, what are some things founders can do to right the ship? Examples of great pivots that saved companies 57:58 What is Airbnb's roadmap from here on out? 1:02:12 Why Jeff doesn't get enamored with IPO valuations & why he is long tech 1:08:18 Thoughts on Zoom, anti-trust laws & more

0:52 Jason intros Eric Ries and they discuss how things have been since shelter-in-place started 8:33 What good will come out of this? Will UBI proponents like Andrew Yang be proven right? 10:12 Eric's advice to today's founders after living through the 2008 recession & the dot-com bust 15:53 Eric describes the obligations of leaders during a crisis of this magnitude, what the test-and-trace method is and how it's effective 25:02 Do authoritarian countries have an advantage in handling outbreaks better than democratic countries? 28:45 Jason & Eric reminisce about 2011 in startup-land 30:38 Tactical advice for Founders in an economic downturn 39:52 Eric explains what he is doing to help at: https://schoolclosures.org/ 44:11 What is the Long-Term Stock Exchange? 48:57 Thoughts on private companies giving equity options to contractors 53:00 More tactical insights for founders: handling layoffs, figuring out new revenue opportunities, capitalizing on silver-linings, extending runway, etc. 1:01:01 Amazon & Lyft partnering to help each other, Bird's layoff approach, extending runway by trading cash for equity 1:12:21 Eric's thoughts on the future of capitalism

1:00 Jason intros Figma's Dylan Field & Dylan explains why WebGL was crucial to Figma's creation 7:09 Why ChromeOS is flourishing in schools 11:28 Who are Figma's competitors & how do they compare 14:12 How does multiplayer mode work on Figma? 17:29 What does Figma charge, Dylan's thoughts on charging for SaaS: bottom-up or top-down? 30:26 Is SaaS burnout real? Active-user pricing vs. Passive-user pricing & the importance of increasing pricing transparency 34:41 Becoming a Thiel Fellow, meeting Jason at Foo Camp, what happened between Mahalo & Google? 44:52 Jason goes deeper on what happened at Mahalo 46:33 Why Figma releases new features so quickly, the open-design theory & how it makes Figma anti-fragile 48:42 How is Figma handling COVID-19 on an internal & external basis 1:02:39 Figma's funding history, why Index led the Seed, why Greylock initially passed & wound up investing 1:08:13 Why Kleiner Perkins invested & why Sequoia passed on the Series B & wound up investing, importance of getting to know your lead investors 1:11:05 How Dylan preps for & leads Figma's board meetings 1:12:05 How working from home has given bosses better insights into who is actually making major impacts

0:52 Jason intros Greylock's Sarah Guo 3:37 How did Sarah wind up at Greylock? 5:45 Sarah explains Greylock's "Zero to One" thesis & typical term commitment of a VC 11:53 How does Sarah measure her personal performance and her portfolio's performance? What are her biggest strengths as an investor? 16:12 How does she sharpen her decision-making skills? 17:53 Ranking her investment criteria: People, Markets & Product 20:26 Balancing intensity & life outside of work, the commitment of early-stage startups 27:26 Work-life balance & how the venture landscape changed over time 35:36 Greylock's structured & what was Sarah's first investment & how did it play into her investment thesis? 43:38 Sarah's investments in work-enabling software 48:00 Sarah recommends Dylan Field of Figma join the show - episode dropping Friday! 49:22 Identifying subtle flashes of brilliance in early products 58:28 Female founders being held to a higher standard 1:02:35 Anti-portfolio: Zoom 1:10:06 Sarah turns off her virtual background and reveals her location

0:45 Jason intros Vincent Woo, who wrote "Lambda School's Misleading Promises" for New York Magazine 2:21 What drew Vincent to this story? What wrongdoings did he discover? 6:02 Vincent describes Lambda's ISAs and how they were sold 14:24 How Vincent approached Austen Allred as an investigative reporter & clip from Vincent's interview with Austen 16:19 What is Lambda's school actual placement rate? How does it compare with other coding bootcamps? 20:06 Getting Lambda's former Director of Student Placement on record to speak about the placement rates 23:43 Why ISA coding schools should exist 29:18 How Lambda's remote-only approach differentiates them & how opportunity cost plays into their issues 35:06 Where did Lambda School go wrong? 45:51 Does the business model work in broad strokes if opened up to everyone? 53:54 What does Lambda School need to do now? 58:21 Where is the blindspot in most entrepreneurs? 1:00:57 Vincent also writes about local political corruption in the Bay Area

1:04 Jason intros Alex Wilhelm & Sarah Cannon 5:00 COVID-19: Where are we now? 10:12 Have would Obama have handled this situation? What are the proper next steps? 15:29 Sarah lays out her economic stimulus plan 20:29 How much has the political landscape changed over the last few months? 22:08 How would a stimulus plan work in practice? 24:36 What will change about the gig economy and healthcare coverage? 28:35 Will the average American citizen's perspective on the world change? 33:23 Alex shares his thoughts on the media's handling of COVID-19, and what Twitter's role has been during the crisis 45:09 Jason's theory on what we should do differently next time around, and it is applicable in America? 50:08 What is the endgame of COVID-19? How long will it last and how bad will it get? 1:00:42 Chances of civil unrest/chaos? Are testing incentives the best way to bend the curve? 1:10:14 Thoughts on WeWork/SoftBank news & why Sarah didn't invest 1:13:22 How Sarah is advising her portfolio companies during COVID-19, benefits of overcapitalization 1:18:42 Durability of SaaS revenue during a recession

0:01 Jason & Chamath intro David and check in on each other's quarantines 2:26 Has the US overreacted or underreacted so far? David & Chamath give their opinions on new directives & statistics 13:15 Thoughts on potential treatment options & policy changes 22:25 Chamath explains the circumstances of recording a podcast while the Stock Market tanks in real-time 25:03 Should the US adopt Chinese & South Korean quarantine strategies? 29:53 What do the current market conditions mean for startups & VC? 41:24 Chamath explains what is currently happening in the capital markets 45:05 How close is the US on being able to do mass-testing? 54:13 Thoughts on bailouts for companies that manipulated their earnings-per-share ratio by stock buybacks? Impact on the global economy 1:03:14 Impact on luxury goods? Should there be a monthly stipend for low-income citizens? 1:12:10 COVID-19 exposing holes in the US healthcare system 1:17:44 Should we ban wet markets globally? 1:24:12 Over/Under: when Americans will be allowed to go out to restaurants again 1:28:18 When will the weekly poker game resume?

0:53 Jason intros Bessemer's David Cowan 1:54 David explains how he got his start in Venture capital in 1992 4:22 What does Bessemer look for in a potential investor today? How has VC hiring and demographics have changed over time? 8:10 David gives an anecdote about understanding "sunk cost" 14:12 David explains how and why Bessemer started owning their anti-portfolio 16:03 Stories on passing on Facebook, Tesla, Google, PayPal, Napster & Youtube 19:13 What made Youtube standout from Napster from a regulatory perspective 24:05 David describes hearing the Twitch pitch for the first time 26:00 Consumer vs. Enterprise investing 29:42 Sales-driven culture 33:31 When is the right time to sell a company? 41:15 Anti-tech backlash... is it justified? 47:38 Who is the best Founder & CEO David has ever worked with? 52:10 Meeting Wade Foster and investing in Zapier 55:29 Are growth & product people making the best VCs today? 58:53 Thoughts on Quantum Computing 1:02:19 How is David investing in Robotics? 1:09:58 Jason ends the show by showing the trailer to David's Silicon Valley mockumentary "Bubbleproof"

0:38 Jason explains the LAUNCH Accelerator 5:39 BasicBlock CEO Taylor Monks details his journey through the LAUNCH Accelerator 14:58 BasicBlock CEO Taylor Monks' biggest takeaways from the Accelerator 27:35 DaoCloud CEO Max Coleman describes his journey into the LAUNCH Accelerator 37:34 How did Max grow throughout the Accelerator? 48:36 Lately CEO Kate Bradley-Chernis describes her experience at the l LAUNCH Accelerator 55:08 What were Kate's biggest takeaways from the Accelerator?