20VC: Sequoia's Leadership Transition | Michael Burry Shorts NVIDIA and Palantir | Gamma Raises $100M at $2BN | Has Defensibility Died in a World of AI | Datadog Surges as Duolingo Plummets: What is Happening

Luca Ferrari is Co-Founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, one of the most incredible but untold success stories in startups. Luca has scaled Bending Spoons to 100M monthly active users, $380M in sales in 2023 and aiming to reach $500M in EBITDA by the end of 2026. The company's products include Evernote, Meetup, Remini, and Splice and their products have now been downloaded more than 500M times. In Today's Episode with Luca Ferrari We Discuss: From McKinsey Associate to $2BN Founder What was Luca like as a child? How would his parents have described him? Why did Luca share his McKinsey salary with his co-founders? What were Luca's biggest lessons from his failed startup? Bootstrapping Bending Spoons Why did Luca decide to bootstrap Bending Spoons? What does Luca think about the EU vs. US startup environment? Why did Luca kill a $7M project? What were his lessons? How did Luca pick his investors? How to Find the Best Talent What are the 3 key traits Luca looks for when picking the best talent? Why does Luca think traditional interview strategies do not work? What tests does Luca conduct for each candidate? What were Luca's biggest hiring mistakes? Mastering Acquisition & Growth How does Luca determine which products to acquire? How does he identify signals? How does Luca approach pricing assets? How does he win every bid? What are Luca's biggest lessons from acquiring Evernote? What key lessons on risk management does Luca wish he'd known 10 years ago? What are Luca's biggest challenges on user acquisition?

15 Maalis 202453min

Chandra Narayanan is one of the growth and analytics OGs having spent 7 years at Facebook leading analytics for the Facebook App and for Instagram. After Facebook, Chandra became Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia Capital, helping Sequoia, find, select and help the best entrepreneurs in the world. Today, Chandra is the Founder & CEO @ Sundial, building products to help builders make meaningful use of data to fulfill *their* mission. In Today's Episode with Chandra Narayanan 1. From Working on the Weather to Leading Analytics at Facebook: How did Chandra make his way from analyzing weather patterns to leading analytics for Facebook? What does Chandra know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in growth? How did one piece of advice from his manager at Paypal change Chandra's mind forever on "quitting" and when to "quit"? 2. Growth and Analytics 101: What does growth mean to Chandra? What is it? What is it not? When is the right time to hire a growth team/person? What is the right profile for the first growth hires? 3. How to Hire the Best Growth Teams in the World: What are the must-ask questions when hiring for growth? How does Chandra use case studies to determine the quality of a candidate? What does Chandra believe are the four main reasons people go to work? What are the three different types of execs in tech? How do you know when you need each one? 4. Lessons from Leading Analytics at Facebook and Sequoia: What are 1-2 of Chandra's biggest takeaways from leading analytics at Facebook? What does Chandra believe are the two core skills needed to do analytics well? How can you easily test if someone is good at analytics? How did being Chief Data Scientist @ Sequoia change Chandra's perspective on growth?

13 Maalis 20241h 15min

Joe Lonsdale is the Founder and Managing Partner at 8VC, an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $6 billion in capital. In 2003, he founded Palantir Technologies. Since then, he has founded over a dozen companies, including Addepar, a wealth management platform helping investors manage over $5 trillion, and OpenGov, recently sold for $1.8BN. In Today's Episode with Joe Lonsdale We Discuss: The Making of a Multi-Unicorn Founder: What was Joe like as a child? How would his parents and teachers have described him? What does Joe know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career? How does Joe view the importance of luck and skill in success? America's New Dawn: Navigating Frontiers and Accountability What did Joe mean by describing America as a "frontier nation"? How does Joe contrast America's frontiers with Europe's social safety nets? How does Joe propose restoring America using the "scalpel over the sledgehammer" approach? How can America introduce accountability to non-profit institutions? What role do for-profit prisons play? Woke Mind Virus Why does Joe consider the Woke Mind Virus a "Bad Postmodern Religion"? Why does Joe see Elon Musk as a key figure in challenging "woke minds"? Why does Joe believe the education system is a core problem? What needs to change? Is it too late to reverse the current state of "woke mind virus"? TikTok, China, Israel: What does Joe believe is the right solution for TikTok's ownership? To what extent is TikTok a danger to American national security? What does Joe predict will happen to China from here? What needs to change? How does Joe predict the next 24 months for the conflict in Israel and Gaza? Investing Lessons: Wish, Palantir and more What are Joe's biggest takeaways from the failing of Wish? What did Joe learn from the failed project with Lady Gaga? How does Joe reflect on when is the right time to sell? How does Joe reflect on his own relationship to money?

11 Maalis 202458min

Brendon Cassidy is one of the OG of enterprise sales of the last decade, having advised the likes of Gong.io, Pipedrive, Showpad. Previously Brendon was first Head of Sales at LinkedIn and VP of Sales at Talkdesk. In Today's Episode with Brendon Cassidy We Discuss: 1. From Recruiter to Sales OG and Linkedin's First Head of Sales: How did recruiting prepare Brendon for a career in sales? What impact did the dot-com bubble burst have on his early career? What does Brendon know now that he wishes he had known when he started his career in sales? 2. The Sales Playbook and Hiring The Team: How does Brendon define the "sales playbook"? Should the founder be the one to create and execute V1 of the playbook? Should the first sales hire be a rep or a sales leader? When is the right time to make that all-important first sales hire? 3. Why Discovery and Outbound Are Broken Today: Why does Brendon feel discovery is useless in today's sales process? Why does Brendon believe outbound will move under the marketing function? How does AI change the world of outbound sales? Why will no great sales leaders join a company that doesn't have an inbound machine? 4. How to Master Onboarding and Increase Sales Performance: What is the right way to onboard new sales reps? How quickly do you know if a sales rep is not good? What are the signs? What is the right way to measure the effectiveness of sales teams today? What are the biggest mistakes founders make in onboarding sales teams?

8 Maalis 202442min

Peter Wagner is a Founding Partner of Wing. Peter has led investments in dozens of early-stage companies including Snowflake, Gong, Pinecone, and many others which have gone on to complete IPO's or successful acquisitions. Prior to founding Wing, Peter spent an incredible 14 years at Accel, starting as an associate in 1996 and scaling to Managing Partner, before leaving to start Wing. In Today's Episode with Peter Wagner We Discuss: 1. From Associate to Managing Partner to Founding Partner: How did Peter first make his way into the world of venture as an associate at Accel? How important does Peter believe it is to have early hits in your career as an investor? What is the biggest mistake Peter sees young VCs make today? 2. The Venture Market: What Happens Now: Does Peter agree with Roger Ehrenberg that venture returns will worsen moving forward? How does Peter answer the question of how large asset management venture firms co-exist in a world of boutique seed players also? Does Peter agree with Doug Leone that "venture has transitioned from a high-margin boutique business to a low-margin, commoditized industry? 3. Investing Lessons from 27 Years and Countless IPOs: What have been some of Peter's single biggest investing lessons from 27 years in venture? Why is Peter so skeptical of capital-intensive businesses? Will defense and climate startups suffer the same fate as clean tech did in the 2000s? How does Peter reflect on his own relationship to price? When does it matter? When does it not? What have been Peter's biggest lessons on when to sell positions vs when to hold? What has been Peter's biggest miss? How did it impact his mindset? 4. Building a Firm from Nothing: How was the fundraise process when leaving the Accel machine and raising with Wing? What have been the single hardest elements of building Wing? What did he not expect? What advice does Peter have for someone wanting to start their firm today?

6 Maalis 202455min

Nicolai Tangen is the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with $1.55 Trn in assets, owning on average, 1.5% of every listed company. Tangen was previously Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer in AKO Capital, which he founded in 2005. Prior to this, Tangen was a partner and senior analyst at Egerton Capital and an equity analyst at Cazenove & Co. In Today's Episode with Nicolai Tangen We Discuss: From Religious Town in Norway to Leading the Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund: What was Nicolai like as a child? How would his parents have described him? Why does Nicolai think that loners have a greater chance/ability to make money? What does Nicolai know now that he wishes he could tell a 20-year-old Nicolai? The Top 10 Questions: 1. US Tech Firm Concentration: Is Nicolai concerned by the concentration of enterprise value in US tech firms? Have incumbents ever been as strong as they are today? 2. Impact of AI: What does Nicolai believe the impact of AI will be on society and productivity? What is his approach to investing in it moving forward? 3. Bitcoin: Why does Nicolai not want to hold Bitcoin? Why does he not understand it? 4. China: What would need to happen for China to be investable? How will the China situation play out? 5. Europe: Does Nicolai believe Europe is so far behind the US? Why? What can we do to improve? 6. Climate Change: How does Nicolai approach investing in climate? What works? What does not? 7. Sam Altman: Would Nicolai invest in Sam's new $7Trn project? What are some of Nicolai's biggest lessons from the time he has spent with Sam? 8. Investment Psychology: How does Nicolai retain a neutral investor psychology? How does he not get too up when doing well and too low when not doing well? 9. Investing Lessons: What are Nicolai's biggest investment hits and misses? What did he learn from them? 10. The Future: Why is Nicolai so optimistic about the future? What is he concerned about? How will we overcome our greatest challenges?

4 Maalis 202445min

Frank Quattrone is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Qatalyst and served as its CEO from the Firm's founding until January 2016. Over more than four decades, Frank and the teams he has led have advised on more than 600 mergers and acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value over $1 trillion and on more than 350 financings that raised over $65 billion for technology companies worldwide. Frank led the IPOs of Amazon.com, Cisco, Intuit, Netscape, among many others. He advised Apple on its $400 MM acquisition of NeXT (which led to Steve Jobs' return to Apple); Concur on its $8.3B sale to SAP; LinkedIn on its $28.1B sale to Microsoft; Qualtrics on its $8B sale to SAP and Twitch on its $1B sale to Amazon.com. In Today's Episode with Frank Quattrone: 1. Has Regulation Killed M&A: Why does Frank disagree that regulation has killed M&A? What is the real reason why M&A is so down at present? What would impact would a Trump administration have on the M&A environment? What are some of Frank's biggest lessons from 600 prior transactions over dour decades of what happens when an M&A market shuts down? 2. When Will the IPO Window Re-Open: Does Frank agree that the IPO window is currently closed for tech companies? How does this IPO window compare to the dot com bust and 2007? What is needed for the IPO window to re-open? What is the timeline that Frank puts on the IPO window opening again? 3. M&A: How Do Companies Get Bought: What is the process for a company to be bought? What are the single biggest mistakes the seller makes in the process? What do the best buyers and sellers do to get the best price? Does Frank agree with the notion that "companies are bought and not sold"? 4. IPOing Amazing, Selling Linkedin and Qualtrics: What is the story behind, Frank, Bill Gurley, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr pricing the Amazon IPO? How did Linkedin come to be bought by Microsoft? What did that process look like? How did Frank structure an event to ensure that Ryan @ Qualtrics and Bill McDermot @ SAP would meet and lead to the acquisiiton?

1 Maalis 202458min

Sami Inkinen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Virta Health, the company reversing type 2 diabetes. Before Virta, Sami was the Co-Founder of Trulia, steering the company to a successful IPO and its eventual sale to Zillow Group. Outside of the boardroom, he launched Fat Chance Row, a daring venture to row 2,750 miles across the Pacific, unsupported with his wife, rowing 18 hours straight per day. In Today's Episode with Sami Inkinen: 1. From Farm in Finland to IPO Founder: Relationship to Money How did Sami's humble upbringing on a farm in Finland impact his early mindset and ambition? How does Sami analyze his relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? Why was the two weeks following Trulia's IPO the worst two weeks of his life? 2. The Secret to Marriage: Rowing 2,750 Miles Together: What are some of the biggest lessons on marriage Sami has from spending 45 days rowing the Pacific with only his wife for company? What was their single biggest argument over the 45 days? What did Sami learn from it? Sami worked with his wife, what are the biggest pros and cons of working with your spouse? Would Sami recommend it? What does Sami believe are the core fundamentals that underpin the best marriages? 3. The Secret to Parenting: The Regret of Delegation: What is Sami's biggest regret when it comes to parenting? How does Sami think about what it means to be a great father today? How has that changed? How did Sami's relationship with his wife change when they had kids? 4. Relationship to Identity: Why does Sami believe tieing your identity to the company, as a founder, is so dangerous? How does Sami advise on creating multiple personas to prevent this? Why does Sami believe that all the best founders are addicts to some extent?

28 Helmi 20241h 1min