My guest this week is Dr. Peter Attia. I’ve had Peter on the show twice before but it’s been over 5 years since his last appearance. In that period, his work has exploded and today he’s one of the clear leaders on the topic and practice of longevity and health span. He has a new book out called Outlive, which I heartily recommend. You’ll hear us refer to the last chapter of his book early in our conversation but we chose not to reveal the whole story live so you can read and enjoy it. We highlight the big picture in our conversation, including the transition from Medicine 2.0 to Medicine 3.0. I always leave these conversations with Peter full of ideas, and in this case, highly motivated to go outside and move my body in nature. I can think of no better actionable advice. Please enjoy my conversation with Peter Attia.

Listen to Founders Podcast

Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder

Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with Tegus Expert Calls. Tegus delivers expert calls at a fraction of the cost of legacy vendors, with white-glove custom sourcing for every project at the speed you need to keep your research moving. And we don’t stop there. With rigorous compliance processes baked into everything we do, you can rest assured we’ve vetted every expert to ensure your privacy and protection. Start your next project today with Tegus Expert Calls. As an Invest Like the Best listener, you can trial Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

Peter on The Tim Ferriss Show Podcast

(00:04:15) - (First question) - How Patrick influenced Peter’s decision to launch his podcast

(00:05:45) - How Peter has changed in the process of writing this book

(00:08:11) - Process of writing the last chapter of this book

(00:11:12) - How he stopped dealing with imposter syndrome

(00:15:58) - Slow vs. fast death and medicine 2.0 vs. medicine 3.0

(00:22:55) - Doing more early detection screening to avoid slow death

(00:27:00) - Impacts of compounding risks

(00:31:24) - How do we shift thinking to better lifestyle changes vs. pill popping

(00:35:32) - The outsized impact of exercise on health

(00:46:18) - Peter’s exercise portfolio (The Comfort Crisis book) 

(00:50:55) - Why habitual workouts create euphoria for exercise

(00:54:45) - How Peter’s views on nutrition have evolved 

(00:59:30) - Measuring metabolic health

(01:01:55) - Where Peter hopes the future of healthcare is heading

(01:05:40) - Benefits of mindfulness to health

(01:12:55) - Defining your purpose in life

(01:16:46) - An index card summation of this book

(01:19:45) - Lessons learned being a better interviewer

(01:21:46) - Frontier of Peter’s curiosity

My guests today are Scott Davis and Rob Wertheimer. Scott and Rob head up Melius Research and are the authors of a great book called Lessons from the Titans. The book explains what the industrial giants of old can teach the new generation of high-growth businesses about how to survive and deliver shareholder value over multiple decades. Drawing on their experience as industrial analysts, they present case studies on businesses like Danaher, Roper, Honeywell, Boeing and GE to reveal both what does and doesn’t work when it comes to capital allocation and business strategy as a company enters a more mature phase in its lifecycle. Please enjoy my conversation with Scott and Rob.

Read Lessons from the Titans

Listen to Founders Podcast

Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder

Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:03:20) - (First question) - The intersection between the current tech sector drawdown and the historical track record of industrial titans 

(00:07:10) - The most common ways they see companies start to fail and the types of errors they commit 

(00:11:01) - The best historical examples of companies that have gone from non-operational excellence to operational excellence 

(00:15:04) - Teaching the value of a business system and installing one for longevity 

(00:24:06) - Questions they’d ask and points of evaluation to uncover the health of a business

(00:31:19) - Thinking about sustainable value creation in a lower growth environment 

(00:37:04) - Lessons from operating leverage and the rental industry 

(00:39:11) - Ways industrial companies have handled growth CapEx well and badly 

(00:43:52) - The line between discovering the future in a lab versus major pivots in reality while trying to solve today’s problems 

(00:49:37) - How the best managers nurture a great shareholder base 

(00:55:35) - Lessons to learn about business model transitions   

(01:00:13) - Further important messages from their book that businesses would benefit from

(01:04:30) - The kindest things anyone has ever done for them

Today’s episode is a little different. Rather than share a new conversation, I have put together a few of my favourites from the past six and a half years of doing this show. I often listen back to these for inspiration, energy, and their timeless ideas on life and investing. Each of these is a significantly shortened version of the original episode. The first conversation you’ll hear is with Sam Hinkie, the second discussion is with Boyd Varty, and the last conversation you’ll hear is with Charlie Songhurst. Sam, Boyd, and Charlie are all exceptional in their own way and I hope you enjoy these condensed versions of our conversations.

Sam Hinkie - Find Your People

Boyd Varty - The Art of Tracking

Charlie Songhurst - Lessons from Investing in 483 Companies

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:04:40) - (Sam Hinkie)

(00:05:55) - The most amazing thing he’s seen from someone he has worked with

(00:09:51) - His interest in finding “digital breadcrumbs” on his pursuit of knowing a person

(00:13:18) - The impactful story of meeting the assistant GM of the Houston Rockets

(00:17:22) - Strategies he has developed to avoid transactional people

(00:19:22) - How he shapes his career and optimizes from an investment perspective

(00:24:06) - The strangest things he has come across in early-stage investing

(00:29:47) - (Boyd Varty)

(00:33:04) - His early experiences with tracking wildlife and how it applies to investing

(00:44:46) - What can be learned about life goals and paths from the experience of tracking

(00:47:59) - The influence of culture on decision-making and goal-setting

(00:50:39) - His concept of “the ordering of chaos on behalf of others”

(00:54:41) - The importance of moving towards the unknown to start approaching goals

(00:57:15) - His most memorable tracking experience

(01:12:40) - (Charlie Songhurst)

(01:15:10) - His diverse career highlights

(01:16:29) - His analysis of why startups succeed or fail

(01:21:21) - What founders can learn to enable and maintain productivity in their company

(01:25:21) - Nature versus nurture as it applies to adept founders, and the controversial “alien founder” concept

(01:30:10) - The importance of good recruiting from an early stage

(01:33:32) - How founders can make their companies attractive to prospective talent

(01:35:53) - Why he is interested in investing in highly boring and highly complex ideas

Hello everyone. A few days ago, we discussed what we call forever episodes, which are the few episodes of our show that we think will be as popular a decade from now as they are today. When I re-listened to this episode with David Senra, I left wildly energized and wanting to share that feeling. So we are re-releasing it today for anyone who missed it the first time or hadn't yet discovered Invest Like the Best. Please share with your friends and loved ones as I think anyone will benefit from David's perspective and enthusiasm. Have a great weekend and we'll be back with more next week.

David Senra has studied history’s great founders and entrepreneurs in more depth than anyone I’ve ever met, and I’d wager more than anyone else alive. In this conversation, we cover many of the most common themes he’s discovered studying hundreds of entrepreneurs like Estée Lauder, John Rockefeller, Enzo Ferrari, and Edwin Land. Please enjoy this great conversation with David Senra.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:01] - [First question] - When he first fell in love with reading

[00:07:01] - What’s rooted in his own history that’s made him obsessive about studying history’s great entrepreneurs and founders - Founders Podcast

[00:10:34] - The first time he connected with someone as a positive role model that he was reading about 

[00:13:45] - How often obsession is apparent in the founders he’s studied across hundreds of biographies 

[00:18:08] - What is often behind obsession and how people listening can apply the lessons to their own lives

[00:22:45] - The dynamic and relationship between inspiration and perspiration 

[00:27:11] - Commonalities between the layers of leadership and support underneath founders

[00:31:52] - Where else he’s seen ego rear its head in good and bad ways 

[00:38:34] - How often do great founders break the law or enter gray areas of it 

[00:41:22] - The role constant learning and listening plays in success

[00:45:12] - Talking about how anything worth doing is worth doing to excess 

[00:52:18] - Describing the soul of founders and businesses

[00:58:39] - What he’s learned about all of these founders as it relates to marketing 

[01:04:38] - A common story that process is often art 

[01:08:10] - Who his idols are in podcasting specifically 

[01:14:55] - Major aspects of people he’s studied that haven’t been discussed yet

[01:19:55] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is David Einhorn. David is the President of Greenlight Capital, a long-short hedge fund that he co-founded in 1996. He is a prominent value investor with a reputation for rigorous security analysis. In 2002, he revealed a short position in Allied Capital, which was ultimately proven correct and similarly in early 2008, he told the Sohn Conference he was short Lehman Brothers. Over his near three decades managing money at Greenlight, he has delivered impressive returns but it has not been without challenge. Our conversation covers both the highs and lows, his views on the current banking issues, and how he has evolved as an investor. Please enjoy my great conversation with David Einhorn.

The Sohn Conference 2023

Listen to Founders Podcast

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. 

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:03:50) - (First question) - Why he is glad he started his fund in 1996 rather than today

(00:05:58) - His view of how companies’ personnel and goals have changed since the 90’s

(00:07:01) - His counter-momentum approach to markets and how he views current trends

(00:11:17) - The jelly-donut theory of monetary policy

(00:14:46) - His outlook on inflation and the Fed from a fiscal perspective

(00:16:48) - The evolution of Greenlight’s portfolio and philosophy through history

(00:20:11) - Periods in his career that stand out as the most challenging

(00:25:58) - How tech advances have influenced his core concept of figuring out worth

(00:28:17) - His three-step process to picking investment targets

(00:29:10) - The companies he has learned the most from studying

(00:30:52) - His experience with investing in Apple

(00:33:33) - How he considers the notion of quality in a business

(00:35:05) - His views on shorting, concentration, and holding periods

(00:38:37) - What he learned from a deep dive on airline businesses

(00:40:31) - His perspective on sports franchises as an asset

(00:42:12) - His new interest in poker and how he got so good at it

(00:45:22) - Applying traditional valuation styles to the modern market

(00:47:13) - Cultivating relationships with his limited partner investors and his team

(00:54:26) - His perspectives on the insurance space

(00:57:33) - The health of the economy and financial infrastructure as he understands it

(01:01:51) - How he thinks about housing and the construction industry

(01:03:54) - How AI and other high-tech are affecting his investment decisions

(01:05:28) - Other topics on his mind, from national politics to social psychology

(01:08:22) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Avi Goldfarb. Avi is a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare, as well as the co-author of two bestselling books on AI and its economic impact. His most recent book, Power and Prediction, is probably the best piece of content I have read in explaining how AI may reshape business models, systems, and products. We recorded this before GPT-4’s release last week which, if anything, makes Avi’s ideas on AI’s impact all the more poignant. Please enjoy my conversation with Avi Goldfarb.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. 

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:03:15) - [First question] - His initial reaction to chat GPT when it first launched 

(00:07:08) - Prediction Machines; The impact price has on how much something is used by humans

(00:11:07) - The shift from steam powered factories to electric ones and the transition between the two in regards to systems and application solutions; Power and Prediction

(00:17:06) - Midpoints between a point solution and a systems solution and applications that are being built in the middle of them

(00:19:10) - What application, system, and point solutions feel like today in the world of AI

(00:27:03) - The transition from a world governed by rules to one by decisions  

(00:30:58) - How the power of prediction moves us from a binary to a decimal framework

(00:34:48) - Ways power disruption will occur as we navigate the emerging AI frontier

(00:44:33) - Other functions like personalization that entrepreneurs should think about putting into their products and features

(00:47:18) - How we should be thinking about the generation of information and data 

(00:51:32) - A future where technology either desimates or empowers specific industries

(00:54:16) - What he’s most excited and worried about given the emerging frontier of AI 

(00:55:41) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

My guest this week is Auren Hoffman. Auren is the CEO of Safegraph, which curates data on physical locations. He also founded LiveRamp, a public data connectivity business. Auren knows more about data businesses than almost anyone I know and that is the topic of today’s discussion. We look at the business of data from every angle and finish with a fun masterclass on how to host a dinner party. Please enjoy my conversation with Auren Hoffman.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:16] - [First question] - His 2x2 matrix for categorizing different types of data businesses

[00:04:59] - An example of what he calls a religion company in his matrix

[00:07:03] - His notion of data currency

[00:08:23] - His definition of a great business

[00:09:46] - An example of a so-called application religion company in his proverbial matrix

[00:11:24] - Co-op and non-profit business models within and outside of the data sphere

[00:13:35] - The truth application quadrant of his matrix

[00:16:18] - How data has exploded in prevalence for the business world as a whole

[00:18:57] - How to think about the end market for data and its demand

[00:21:09] - Characteristics of a good data set and how to identify it

[00:23:14] - Other factors that impact the usability of a data set

[00:24:30] - Optimizing data collection itself

[00:26:30] - The slow growth that’s typical of early-stage data companies

[00:27:27] - Market share considerations for data businesses

[00:30:03] - Common struggles for data entrepreneurs

[00:34:01] - The genesis of his business; SafeGraph

[00:37:08] - The power of self-maintained and user-maintained databases

[00:40:16] - Typical customers and use cases for SafeGraph’s data

[00:41:08] - How SafeGraph and other companies protect against data theft

[00:42:12] - Frequency of change as a proxy for the value of a given data set

[00:45:32] - Categorizing inbound data based on the most important criteria

[00:47:07] - The founder personalities he finds in the data industry

[00:49:53] - Why he feels the data truth quadrant of his matrix is underdeveloped

[00:50:30] - Bloomberg as an important data company to study

[00:51:42] - The importance of transparency in business and in data distribution

[00:53:07] - Failure modes that he sees most commonly in data-based startups

[00:53:53] - Data businesses becoming application businesses and vice-versa

[00:57:35] - The great dinner parties he’s known for

[00:59:50] - How he makes the dinner parties appeal to introverts

[01:03:11] - Dead people he would most like to have as dinner guests

[01:04:09] - Questions he would ask the most influential religious figures

[01:06:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest this week is Trae Stephens. Trae is a partner at Founders Fund and co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril. Trae’s philosophy can be boiled down to finding good quests, which has led him to investing in businesses that work closely with the government on societally important issues. Clearly, that extends to co-founding Anduril and I would highly recommend listening to my Business Breakdowns episode on Anduril if you haven’t already. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of lobbyists, why the high-tech defense firms of the past became stale, and how he hunts for disagreeableness in founders. Please enjoy my conversation with Trae Stephens.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

Listen to Founders Podcast

Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder

Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:17] - [First question] - Why Trae thinks most high-margin businesses are bad for society

[00:04:28] - What would he change to impact energy technology most if he were in charge

[00:06:18] - His investing focus on dynamism and mission-driven tech companies

[00:09:42] - Analyzing why relatively few people strive to make society-level advancements

[00:11:35] - What he’s done as a parent to enable his kids to develop passions

[00:12:41] - The most noteworthy adventures in his career

[00:14:41] - Founding Anduril and what it taught him about the tech industry

[00:18:40] - The cutting-edge of defense technologies today

[00:21:29] - What Shyam Sankar of Palantir taught him about defense tech

[00:23:34] - Why some of the biggest defense tech companies have stopped innovating

[00:28:29] - What he and Anduril have learned about sales and scaling in the public sector

[00:35:22] - His take on Peter Thiel’s notion that competition should be avoided

[00:38:24] - The importance of being psychologically disagreeable when building a start-up

[00:39:54] - The origin story that stands out the most from companies he has interviewed

[00:41:12] - How he developed an investor mindset on his unorthodox path to the venture world

[00:43:57] - What he has learned from playing supporting roles and aligning with great leaders

[00:46:11] - Important but uncommon lessons about entrepreneurship

[00:48:21] - Venture investing lessons he’s learned from Lauren Gross

[00:50:00] - His first VR project and aspirations for the future of VR

[00:54:50] - The role of religion and spirituality in his business philosophies

[00:59:13] - Why he tries to capitalize on morality as opposed to sin

[01:03:57] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest this week is Doug Leone. Doug led one of the world’s most successful venture firms, Sequoia, for over 25 years after he was given responsibility for the firm by its founder, Don Valentine, in 1996. Alongside Mike Moritz, the pair managed its expansion from a single $150m early-stage fund into an $85 billion global powerhouse. It was a privilege to sit down with Doug and learn from him. We talk about his tough start at Sequoia, get into the technicalities of great go-to-market motions, and survey his advice for other investors in the industry. A key theme that will stick with me from this conversation is Doug’s insistence on keeping things simple and clear. Please enjoy my great conversation with Doug Leone.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:03:21] - [First question] - What Don Valentine’s heart was like [00:06:30] - The most productive and unproductive parts of Don’s toughness 

[00:09:01] - Being the opposite of insufferable and how it was different when he was younger

[00:10:55] - Why it’s so important to understand someone’s core motivations

[00:14:18] - Questions or topics he returns to when getting to know people 

[00:15:31] - How much time he believes it can take to really get to know someone  

[00:20:37] - What venture looks like to him today relative to his prior career

[00:23:51] - His style of approaching emerging technology markets like AI as an investor  

[00:26:37] - Whether or not he’d go into venture today if he was in his late 20s 

[00:28:30] - Commonalities between the very best at going to market effectively 

[00:31:11] - The key components of great product positioning  

[00:32:10] - Helping companies circumnavigate mediocre positioning 

[00:33:25] - Generating demand and leads and doing it well 

[00:37:15] - How interacting with companies early on has changed over the ears

[00:46:14] - Sussing out the killer gene in somebody 

[00:47:25] - What high school was like for him when he first came to the US 

[00:49:04] - How successful people can instill the lessons learned from hardship into their children 

[00:50:45] - The most common failure modes he’s seen for investors 

[00:55:21] - The early 2000s clawback at Sequoia and what navigating that period was like 

[00:59:06] - What he’s learned about picking the right LPs and partnering with them

[01:00:40] - The most interesting question an LP has ever asked him 

[01:02:18] - Making sure that performance is on everyone’s minds all the time 

[01:04:04] - What the components of a fantastic investment memo are

[01:05:00] - Which dinner companions he’d pick to educate a newly successful founder

[01:05:29] - What first popped out at him as black magic when he started investing

[01:07:59] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

I’m excited to share this conversation with Tim Urban. Tim is, in my opinion, one of the best and most engaging writers of our era. He’s tackled many of the most interesting topics in the world from AI to procrastination. I interviewed him in 2017 in an episode we called “Grand Theft Life”, and it remains one of my favorite episodes ever.

In the 6 years since that episode, he hasn’t published almost anything. That’s because he’s been writing the book we discuss in this episode. The book is called “What’s Our Problem”, in which Tim investigates the big issues facing society.

The reason I love Tim’s writing so much is its density of ideas and ridiculously clear explanations: a rare combo that makes reading a joy. I hope you enjoy this great round two with Tim Urban, and go buy and enjoy his great new book.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

Listen to Founders podcast.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

[00:02:50] - [First question] - What it’s been like spending seven years thinking about a single topic: Tim's book, What’s Our Problem?

[00:05:05] - How he’s come to articulate the big question he’s trying to answer in his book

[00:07:58] - A dinner experience where a single question showed just how much of a problem there was to solve

[00:09:47] - Group ideology and the different ladder rungs of human thinking 

[00:17:28] - The concept of a social golems and genies and their implications for society 

[00:23:02] - His favorite genies and golems throughout history and their impact  

[00:29:07] - Examples of canonical high functioning genies across history   

[00:34:20] - The key ingredients within liberal democracies that allow for and correct golems

[00:40:44] - Media’s role in shaping ideas and society and what’s changed about it in today’s media landscape 

[00:46:46] - What else is going on that has him worried about modern institutions that are failing as social immune systems

[01:01:15] - The gap between what we say publicly versus what we feel privately and the growing pile of unsaid things 

[01:07:18] - What’s to be done in order to help society repair itself 

[01:14:09] - Whether or not the direction we’re most afraid to run is where we should 

[01:17:37] - Thoughts on AI having written extensively on it and the new wave of emerging tools

[01:22:13] - The role and impact of leadership in regards to golems and genies