Elad Gil (@eladgil) is CEO of Gil & Co, a multi-stage investment firm, holding company, and operating company working on the world’s most advanced technologies. Elad is a serial entrepreneur, operating executive, and investor or advisor to private companies, including AirBnB, Anduril, Coinbase, Figma, Instacart, OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe. He was previously VP of Corporate Strategy at Twitter and started mobile at Google. He was the founder and CEO of Mixerlabs and Color. Elad is the author of the bestseller High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People.
This episode is brought to you by:
Matic the intelligent robot vacuum and mop that navigates obstacles and needs no babysitting: MaticRobots.com/Tim
AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: DrinkAG1.com/Tim
Eight Sleep Pod Cover 5 sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating: EightSleep.com/Tim
Helix Sleep premium mattresses: HelixSleep.com/Tim
Timestamps
[00:00:00] Start.
[00:02:21] What’s the “AI personal IPO” that just quietly happened across Silicon Valley?
[00:05:28] Tens to hundreds of millions per researcher: What top AI pay packages actually look like.
[00:06:44] The compute ceiling: Why Korean memory fabs are the unlikely bottleneck throttling every AI lab on earth.
[00:11:11] From zero to $30B run rate: The fastest revenue ramps in the history of capitalism.
[00:17:24] The dot-com survival rate was one in 100. Buckle up, AI founders.
[00:20:35] Your value-maximizing window: Why the next 12–18 months may be as good as it gets.
[00:21:32] Durable advantage — and why the AI market is an oligopoly (for now).
[00:24:12] Exit options for AI founders: labs, hyperscalers, vertical players, and the underrated merger of equals.
[00:28:11] Math, biology, and intuitive leaps: Elad’s pre-investing background.
[00:29:42] Elad’s revisionist genesis story.
[00:30:50] Go where the cluster is: 91% of global AI private market cap lives in a 10×10 mile square.
[00:33:20] The accidental investor: Patrick Collison walks, Airbnb intros, and deals that just happened.
[00:34:37] Want money? Ask for advice. Want advice? Ask for money.
[00:35:00] The High Growth Handbook: Tactical guide, not bedtime reading.
[00:35:41] Market first, team second — with a Perplexity-and-Anduril asterisk.
[00:37:43] Smoke in the distance: AlexNet and the transformative GPT-3 moment.
[00:45:15] AI cold-reading: Feeding photos to the model and getting eerily accurate personality reads.
[00:48:56] Has Elad ever done a retrospective on his own investing?
[00:52:13] Power laws are terrifying: 10 companies, 80% of returns, two decades.
[00:55:53] Avoiding science projects, and how SPACs accidentally saved hard tech investing.
[00:59:20] The one-belief framework: Coinbase = crypto index. Stripe = e-commerce index. That’s the whole memo.
[01:00:54] Due diligence theater vs. the one question that actually matters.
[01:02:13] The four-year vest is a relic: How venture capital ate growth investing.
[01:07:16] Boards as in-laws: You can’t fire them, so choose wisely.
[01:09:47] “Valuation is temporary. Control is forever.” — Naval Ravikant, as quoted by Elad, as relayed to you.
[01:11:30] How great companies actually grew: toolbars, name-targeted ads, and billions in distribution spend.
[01:15:36] Selling software vs. selling labor hours: The real shift generative AI made.
[01:18:40] Spotting a great market: regulatory shifts, technology shifts, and Hashi getting bought by IBM.
[01:21:28] Fake TAM, real TAM, and the Coke CEO who realized he wasn’t in the soda business.
[01:22:47] Right now, consensus is just correct. Save the contrarianism for later.
[01:25:15] Market entry vs. market disruption: SpaceX launched rockets, then disrupted the internet.
[01:26:16] How Elad learns: X, papers, 20-minute calls with the right people — and four AI models running in parallel.
[01:27:15] Deep dive: ADHD, autism, and why diagnostic rates soared without more people actually having it.
[01:33:40] Longevity for realists: sleep, creatine, and maybe rapamycin when the real drugs arrive.
[01:40:30] Ibogaine, anesthesia, and the next frontier of bioelectric medicine.
[01:45:15] Elad’s first-ever 10-year plan — and why making one changes everything.
[01:46:53] Parting thoughts.
*
For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.
For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsors
Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.
For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.
Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.
Follow Tim:
Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss
Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss
YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss
Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferriss
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Today’s show:
*Amazon’s dropping a LOT of employees for AI and robots… are Jason’s darkest predictions coming true?
Legendary investor Elad Gil joins Jason and Alex for the full show today! Together, they’re digging into the Amazon news, looking back at Jason’s predictions from just last month, and theorizing about just how many people will lose their jobs to computers, and what we’re going to do about it. (Is it possible the US hasn’t been massively hit by job displacement so far because those gigs already moved overseas?)
PLUS… Anthropic’s Dario Amodei responds to criticisms from JCal’s bestie David Sacks, Sesame emerges from stealth to work on AI wearables, and where will people in the future interact with their favorite apps? A headset? Phones? Somewhere else? The great debate continues.
Timestamps:
(00:04:04) Our guest is iconic angel investor Elad Gil! What’s he working on…
(00:04:54) Alexandria AI translates public domain books into all commonly spoken languages… Do people actually prefer AI translations?
(00:09:16) Why compute tends to centralize over time… (It’s because of economies of scale!)
(00:09:29) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(00:12:49) So are we building TOO MANY datacenters? Will AI apps eventually run on your phone anyway?
(00:16:39) Jason says “The Age of Efficiency is upon us.”
(00:19:24) When companies trade inference for market share
(00:19:27) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST
(00:21:57) Why one of the main challenges of adopting AI is buy-in and convincing teams to use it.
(00:25:47) Elad’s robotics questions: (1) What % of winners will be incumbents?
(00:27:50) Jason called the Amazon news last month and we have the receipts!
(00:29:36) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first yea
(00:45:33) Jason says Adobe and Figma should abandon the UK entirely.
(00:45:55) Time for a Polymarket: The sharps say 80% chance Tesla beats their quarterly earnings
(00:51:02) What is Sesame? They just emerged from stealth, they raised $250M, and they’re working on AI wearables.
(00:53:21) Jason has concerns about AI wearables that are always recording… Does Elad share these concerns?
(01:03:17) The crypto industry is now one of the largest purchasers of US government debt… what does that mean? Who owns who?
(01:08:53) Anthropic responded to JCal’s Bestie David Sacks… Is Dario Amodei a doomer? Fearmongering?
(01:19:12) Why Jason thinks AI companies need to self-regulate
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Follow Lon:
X: https://x.com/lons
Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
Follow Jason:
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST
Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first yea
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
Follow TWiST:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
What are the best investing opportunities in Tech for 2025?
Elad Gil is one of silicon valley's legendary investors. He's backed 40 unicorns including Airbnb, Coinbase, Figma and Stripe to name a few. He's super active in AI and hosts the no priors podcast which is like Bankless but for AI.
In this conversation, Elad explores the state of AI and how the industry is evolving, what he thinks about Crypto. and why he’s bullish on Tech in general given the new United States political administration.
------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2
🦄UNISWAP | BUG BOUNTY PROGRAM https://bankless.cc/Uniswap-Bug-Bounty
🐧 CARTESI | LINUX-POWERED ROLLUPS https://bankless.cc/CartesiSimple
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 📈 iYield: YOUR FINANCIAL PICTURE, SIMPLIFIED https://bankless.cc/iYield
🔒 SAFE | INTRODUCING SAFENET https://bankless.cc/SAFE
------ ✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨ https://zora.co/collect/zora:0x0c294913a7596b427add7dcbd6d7bbfc7338d53f/114?referrer=0x077Fe9e96Aa9b20Bd36F1C6290f54F8717C5674E
------ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro 6:02 AI in 2024 8:21 The Future of AI 12:35 Where are we on the S Curve? 17:38 AI vs Other Tech Revolutions 20:23 Are we in a Bubble? 23:59 Evolution of AI 29:06 AI x Crypto 34:12 Centralized vs Decentralized AI 37:46 AI Agents 42:32 Doomsday Scenario 47:16 Raw Crypto 52:28 Order of Trends 55:06 Silicon Valley on Crypto 58:14 Crypto Founders vs Tech Founders 1:01:27 Politics & Tech 1:14:36 Advice for 2025 1:17:13 Closing & Disclaimers
------ RESOURCES
Elad Gil https://x.com/eladgil
Elad Gil Website https://eladgil.com/
No Priors Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@NoPriorsPodcast
Prime Open sources their 10B parameter training run https://x.com/PrimeIntellect/status/1862607165669900407
------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Episode 635: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to Elad Gil ( https://x.com/eladgil ) about the three things he looks for when betting on startups, how he became an early investor in Anduril, plus 3 business ideas he thinks someone should go after.
—
Show Notes:
(0:00) How to be successful in angel investing
(3:00) How to create a bankroll
(5:00) Making the great works of history available to anyone anywhere
(7:21) The 1 thing that matters in a business
(10:21) How to master a new topic like defense tech
(12:15) Investing in Anduril in the first round
(15:47) $1b dollar 1 person companies
(18:51) Missionary vs mercenary
(22:12) Idea: new schools inspired by Ancient Greece
(25:49) Idea: A drug that makes you live longer
(34:56) Idea: Large scale monuments to flex
(44:25) Gil's Guide to Intensive Travel
—
Links:
• Elad’s blog - https://eladgil.com/
• Proof School - https://www.proofschool.org/
• BioAge Labs - https://bioagelabs.com/
—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd
—
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/
My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano
Warp: Don’t let payroll and compliance hold your startup back: visit https://joinwarp.com/peel to get started and receive a $1,000 gift card when you first run payroll.
Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel
Elad Gil is the founder of Color Genomics and Mixer Labs, which he sold to Twitter, and an early investor in iconic companies like Airbnb and Stripe, plus upstarts like Perplexity and Anduril.
This is a wide ranging conversation that covers education, AI, and advice for building a startup.
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(03:46) Building cool monuments
(09:12) Fixing education
(16:38) Why AI is underhyped
(19:02) Four trends to watch in AI
(19:55) Why there aren’t large biotech companies
(23:21) The current state of Elad Gill
(24:32) How he incubates companies
(26:32) Contemplating AI-driven buyouts
(27:29) His investing strategy, from early to late stage
(36:57) Why he remained solo for so long
(40:19) How to get conviction in unpopular investments
(42:53) What made Steve Jobs a good communicator
(44:00) The importance of ambition and leadership
(46:28) Why Elad puts so much weight in the market
(47:45) The evolution of Google’s business model
(49:17) How to monetize consumer products
(50:06) Analyzing a potential startup market
(51:23) How successful products eventually become distribution companies
(56:30) Non-obvious startup advice
(59:54) When its OK to give up
(01:02:20) Advice on raising your first round
(01:03:21) Picking board members
(01:04:45) How to hire your first three employees
(01:06:48) Avoiding bad hires
(01:08:39) The importance of speed of execution
(01:12:36) Why he’s adding to his team
(01:14:31) Gardening
Referenced:
Elad’s Blog: https://blog.eladgil.com/
Elad’s Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@NoPriorsPodcast/
Elad’s Book: https://growth.eladgil.com/
Where to find Elad:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eladgil
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil
Elad’s Website: https://eladgil.com/
Where to find Turner:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/
Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/
Explore the Future of Investment & Impact in AI with Host Lukas Biewald and Guests Elad Gill and Sarah Guo of the No Priors podcast.
Sarah is the founder of Conviction VC, an AI-centric $100 million venture fund. Elad, a seasoned entrepreneur and startup investor, boasts an impressive portfolio in over 40 companies, each valued at $1 billion or more, and wrote the influential "High Growth Handbook."
Join us for a deep dive into the nuanced world of AI, where we'll explore its broader industry impact, focusing on how startups can seamlessly blend product-centric approaches with a balance of innovation and practical development.
*Subscribe to Weights & Biases* → https://bit.ly/45BCkYz
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
5:15 - Exploring Fine-Tuning vs RAG in AI
10:30 - Evaluating AI Research for Investment
15:45 - Impact of AI Models on Product Development
20:00 - AI's Role in Evolving Job Markets
25:15 - The Balance Between AI Research and Product Development
30:00 - Code Generation Technologies in Software Engineering
35:00 - AI's Broader Industry Implications
40:00 - Importance of Product-Driven Approaches in AI Startups
45:00 - AI in Various Sectors: Beyond Software Engineering
50:00 - Open Source vs Proprietary AI Models
55:00 - AI's Impact on Traditional Roles and Industries
1:00:00 - Closing Thoughts
Thanks for listening to the Gradient Dissent podcast, brought to you by Weights & Biases. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review to help get the word out about the show. And be sure to subscribe so you never miss another insightful conversation.
Follow Weights & Biases:
YouTube: http://wandb.me/youtube
Twitter: https://twitter.com/weights_biases
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandb
Join the Weights & Biases Discord Server:
https://discord.gg/CkZKRNnaf3
#OCR #DeepLearning #AI #Modeling #ML
Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg sit down with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil, notable investors and co-hosts of the AI-focused No Priors podcast. They discuss how Sarah and Elad are approaching AI investment opportunities right now, how that differs from how they've thought about investing in the past, where in the stack from hardware to applications they expect to see value accrue, what modes of human-AI interaction they are most interested in, and more.
Sarah is the founder of $100M AI-focused venture fund Conviction VC, which she launched last fall. She was previously General Partner at Greylock. Elad is a serial entrepreneur and a startup investor. He has invested in over 40 companies now worth $1B or more each, and is also author of the High Growth Handbook.
This episode is the first in a series centered on talking to rising voices in AI media, people who are now only working overtime to understand everything going on in AI, but also creating thought leadership and educational content meant to help others get up to speed as well.
LINKS:
No Priors Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0O65xhqvGVhpgdIrrdlEYk
No Priors on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-priors-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning/id1668002688
Elad Gil's blog: https://blog.eladgil.com/
Sarah Guo's blog: https://sarahguo.com/blog
--
We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Episode preview
(04:43) What is software 3.0
(09:14) Disruption coming from startups or incumbents?
(13:42) Sarah and Elad identify overlooked investment opportunities in AI
(15:19) Sponsor: Omneky
(15:46) Future of social media
(22:45) AI agents & personal co-pilots
(25:32) Where to invest in AI?
(31:11) How our kids will interact with AI
(34:50) How to gain conviction as an investor in AI
(45:07) When should founders raise money and when should they bootstrap?
(46:28) How should startups spend their capital now that we have AI capabilities?
(48:10) Sarah & Elad’s favorite products in AI
(51:39) Would Sarah & Elad get a neuralink implant?
(53:41) AI hopes and fears
TWITTER:
@CogRev_Podcast
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@sarahnormous (Sarah)
@eladgil (Elad)
SPONSORS:
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of ALL eCommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries.From their all-in-one e-commerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With free Shopify Magic, sell more with less effort by whipping up captivating content that converts – from blog posts to product descriptions using AI. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/cognitive
Thank you Omneky for sponsoring The Cognitive Revolution. Omneky is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work, customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off.
This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.
More show notes and reading material released in our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com/
In the 49th episode of the Logan Bartlett Show, Solo Capitalist and angel investor Elad Gil joins to discuss working at Twitter vs Google, the myths of Silicon Valley, the best cities for start-ups in 2023, and the worst advice given to founders.
(00:00) Intro
(01:59) Welcome Elad Gil
(11:24) Working at Twitter vs Google
(12:48) Find your network
(14:55) Why do certain people have so much longevity?
(16:36) Angel Investing areas
(21:34) Finding Stripe in the early days
(25:19) What makes a good product market?
(28:18) Myths of Silicon Valley
(32:42) Decision-making process today vs back then
(35:22) Defining post-market fit
(40:05) Silicon valley lore of grinding is wrong
(46:19) Moving the needle
(49:01) Other silicon valley myths that aren't true
(56:06) Best cities to create a start-up in 2023
(1:02:02) Excitement for AI and other interesting new tech
(1:13:10) What's going on with Twitter?
(1:18:25) Two Modalities for long term success
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
🎙 Listen to the show
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.
Elad Gil is one of Silicon Valley's most successful and prominent angels of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Square, Airbnb, Pinterest, Instacart, Flexport and Brex to name a few. Prior to solely company investing, Elad was an operator as Founder and CEO @ Color Genomics for their first 3 years. Before Color, Elad was a VP of Corporate Strategy @ Twitter following their acquisition of the company he founded, Mixer Labs. Before founding Mixer, Elad spent 3 years at Google where he was involved with 3 acquisition including the Android acquisition.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Elad made his way into the world of startups and how that led to his investing in some of the most prominent companies of the last decade?
2.) How is the venture and startup landscape shifting right now? What does Elad make of the large multi-stage funds re-entering seed? How does Elad advise founders when it comes to taking secondaries?
3.) What are the core elements startups need to assess to fully understand their cash position? What is the optimal runway to have and to raise for today? How can founders stress test their runway models? Where does Elad see the most mistakes when it comes to runway?
4.) Does Elad believe the VC messages of "Open for Business" during COVID? How does Elad advise founders when it comes to valuation sensitivity today? What are the core terms that founders should watch out for when raising? How does Elad see venture fund reserve allocations changing?
5.) What are the core tenets of an effective layoff strategy? How should they determine the right level of aggression with which to make cuts? How can layoffs be done in a way that maintains internal culture and morale? Where does Elad see many going wrong when it comes to layoffs?
6.) Which business will thrive in COVID times? Which will die? What are the leading indicators of each? How does Elad determine in the businesses that are growing immensely during COVID, those that are sustainable growth and those which are purely due to COVID?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Elad's Fave Book: Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Elad's Most Recent Investment: Deel
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Elad and on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
My guest this week has a fascinating background. He has a PhD in biology but has split his time as both an investor and an operator. As an investor, he’s involved in companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart, Opendoor, Stripe, Square, and Pinterest—not too shabby. As an operator, he helped both Google and Twitter scale their businesses, in the case of Twitter from 100 employees to 1500 over two years. He’s just written a book about these experiences called the High Growth Handbook.
Our talk centered on what makes for a good investment and more specifically how Elad identifies an interesting market. Operators and early stage investors will find lots of nuggets in this fun conversation. Please enjoy.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
1:31 - (First Question) – Process for evaluating a young business
2:43 – Andy Rachleff Podcast Episode
3:09 – Data factors for evaluating a business
5:08 – Reference checks
6:42 – Advice for companies that are reliant on product cyclicality
7:01 – Where to Go After Product-Market Fit: An Interview with Marc Andreessen
7:31 – High Growth Handbook
9:30 - Lessons learned from marketing and growing companies
12:09 – How do you hire the best people to improve your distribution
13:16 – How does he think about lifetime customer value vs customer acquisition cost
15:57 – Should companies just focus on the high margin power users
16:35 – Best ways to organize a company hierarchy
19:16 – His interest and background in the area of longevity research
21:52 – Changes he has made in his own life as a result of this longevity research
22:56 – Most effective use of a CEO’s time
24:58 – How he evaluates or identifies interesting markets for potential businesses
28:03 – Any markets that fit his criteria that are underappreciated by investors
30:02 – Worst practices for businesses
32:19 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
33:20 – What would be the topic of his next book
34:40 – Biggest lessons he’s learned about markets
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
Startup advisor and Color Genomics co-founder Elad Gil talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People." In this episode:00:03:30 - Why Gil stepped down as CEO of Color00:06:00 - Why he wrote "High Growth Handbook"00:09:52 - Is there too much reinvention in tech businesses?00:11:25 - Startup myths and Rachleff's Law00:17:20 - Contrarians are usually wrong!00:23:00 - How to build a board and evolve it as your company grows00:29:14 - The "old-timer" problem00:32:14 - The Sheryl Sandberg effect and when CEOs should step aside00:37:10 - Is innovation dying in Silicon Valley?00:41:05 - Are startups threatened more by the Big 5 or their own founders?00:43:59 - The dangers of Silicon Valley losing its optimism00:52:05 - San Francisco's bad governance
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
with Elad Gil (@eladgil) and Chris Dixon (@cdixon)
There's a lot of knowledge out there -- and networks of talent (especially in Silicon Valley) -- on what to do in the early stages of a company, going from 0 to 1, and even in going from 1 to 100... but what about beyond that? It's not as simply linear as merely doubling or tripling resources and org structures; it's actually much more complex on many levels, communication to coordination. Because with great scale comes great complexity... and many, many more places for things to break down.
So how should founders/CEOs of growing tech startups think about everything from hiring (including key executives) to product management (what is it, really, beyond common myths/misconceptions around the role?) to thinking about late-stage financing, M&A, and other key aspects of building a company? This episode of the a16z Podcast shares both specific answers to -- and general mindsets for thinking about -- these questions. Chris Dixon, general partner on a16z crypto, interviews Elad Gil, investor/advisor to numerous tech companies; co-founder of Color Genomics; formerly of Google and also co-founder and CEO of Mixer Labs (acquired by Twitter, where he also became a VP). He's the author of the new book, The High Growth Handbook, on scaling companies from 10 to 10,000 people.
But the two also explore the growth -- and evolution -- of market and tech trends, including the continuation of mobile/cloud; machine learning (and silicon); crypto; and finally, longevity -- both in the near term and further out in the future. Should people -- and even companies for that matter -- really live longer?
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify
Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Elad Gil is the Founder @ Color, the startup that shows you your genes can help you make better health decisions. They have raised over $112m in funding from the likes of General Catalyst, CRV, 8VC, Aaron Levie and more incredible names. Elad is also an incredible angel, counting the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Optimizely, Opendoor and Wish all in his portfolio. Now Elad is adding a new string to his very talented bow with the release of his book, High Growth Handbook, published by Stripe in which Elad interviews 14 leaders from the valley from Marc Andreesen to Reid Hoffman to Patrick Collison. Plus shares his own experiences from Google, growing from 1,500 to 15,000 and Twitter, growing from 100 to 1,500. Not only is this the first book I have read voraciously from cover to cover in a long time but it is now outselling Zero To One and Lean Startup as pre-order.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Elad made his way into the world of startups, came to found 2 companies that sold to Twitter and Google and came to invest in Airbnb, Stripe, Wish etc?
2.) How does Elad define the role of the CEO today? What are the commonalities in those truly great CEOs? How do the very best CEOs hire the very best execs? How do they address role allocation internally? How do they determine between employees that do and do not scale with the firm? Where do CEOs make the most fatal mistakes in high growth startups?
3.) Why are pre-emptive rounds so common today? Why does Elad believe many people will lose a lot of money in them? What advice does Elad give to founders when they are an option? Does Elad believe the lack of liquidity is good for venture this cycle? How does Elad assess the emergence of megafunds? How does this alter and distort the market?
4.) With regards to market share, how should founders prioritise between pricing and market share? Is cash ever a defensible moat? What does Elad mean when he says that "too many people are stuck on Amazon as the winning model"? Why does Elad believe that margins and capital leverage are the unsung heroes of tech?
5.) Why does Elad believe we have seen such a reduction in M&A? Why do many founders not fully assess the financial benefits of being bought by a high growth startup? What are the big questions founders should ask when an M&A opportunity does arise? What does Elad believe are the reasons to avoid IPOing? What are the inherent benefits of going public?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Elad's Fave Book: Ben Horowitz, Andy Grove
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Elad on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
The reality is that hiring amazing developers is hard. Terminal.io is your dedicated partner in rapidly standing up world-class remote technical teams. How do they deliver both speed and quality? Terminal does this by focusing on everything necessary to successfully source, setup, and support these teams – from physical elements like beautiful workspaces and equipment to ongoing resources like HR, payroll, legal, professional learning and development. But don't take my word for this, take the word of Eventbrite, former 20VC guest Hims, and Dialpad – all customers and lovers of Terminal. You can find out more today at Terminal.io.
Whether you're starting your own small business or getting serious about making your small business more efficient, you need to invite FreshBooks to the table. FreshBooks makes cloud accounting software that's so ridiculously easy to use and you'll quickly understand why over 10 million people use it to radically streamline how they deal with their admin and paperwork. Plus, FreshBooks can handle a lot more than accounting related tasks. Using FreshBooks is kind of like having your own admin assistant who's got your back, 24/7. To claim your 30-day unrestricted free trial, click here enter Twenty Minute VC in the "how did you hear about us section".
Highfive makes meetings better for thousands of organizations with insanely simple video conferencing designed for meeting rooms. It's the easiest-to-use solution, with all-in-one hardware and intuitive cloud software. Plus, it's a high-quality experience with industry-leading audio powered by Dolby Voice. It's so easy to use, that there's no pin codes or app downloads. Just click a link in your browser, and you're in the meeting. With customers in over 100 countries, Highfive is already trusted by the likes of Evernote, Expensify, and Betterment and you can learn more by simply heading over to highfive.com.
Elad Gil is the Founder of Color Genomics, however, Elad is also one of the most prominent angel investors in the valley with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Square and Pinterest just to name a few. Prior to founding Color Genomics, Elad was VP of Corporate Strategy @ Twitter where he ran various product teams including geo and search. Before that, Elad spent 3 years at Google where he started Google's mobile team and was involved with 3 acquisitions including Android.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Elad made his way into the world of angel investing and came to invest in Airbnb, Square and Stripe?
2.) Why does Elad take a very market-driven approach to investing? Does this go against the very founder-first approach taken by many in the valley today?
3.) Why does Elad believe that people totally mislead themselves when sizing up potential markets? How should markets be addressed and evaluated? What are the core elements to look for?
4.) Should VC services always be bundled together? Is there a smarter way to decouple these services to make the best products for founders? How could this look in reality?
5.) How does Elad approach valuation? Does Elad agree with Peter Fenton that 'all best companies always seem expensive at the time and cheap in hindsight'?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Elad's Fave Book: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Elad's Most Recent Investment: Checkr
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Elad on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
eShares is the No 1 Cap Table Management platform, allowing for equity management, 409A valuations, and liquidity, all in one place. eShares is made for companies of all sizes with over 5,000 trusted customers including the likes of Squarespace, Kickstarter, and DoorDash just to name a few. To try out the must have service of the industry, simply head over to esharesinc.com it is a must.
Fond is the employee engagement suite with 3 core products, rewards: a recognition platform for rewarding achievements and milestones, perks: a premium corporate discounts program to show employees you care about them and then finally engagement IQ, a free employee engagement survey that allows you to measure the health of your organization. To check it out head over to fond.co
.jpg?width=400){kind=small}