This will make you a better decision-maker | Annie Duke (author of “Thinking in Bets” and “Quit,” former pro poker player)
Annie Duke is a former professional poker player, a decision-making expert, and a special partner at First Round Capital. She is the author of Thinking in Bets (a national bestseller) and Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away and the co-founder of the Alliance for Decision Education, a nonprofit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. In our conversation, we cover:
• What Annie learned from the late Daniel Kahneman
• The power of pre-mortems and “kill criteria”
• The relationship between money and happiness
• The power of “mental time travel”
• The nominal group technique for better decision quality
• How First Round Capital improved their decision-making process
• Many tactical decision-making frameworks
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-better-decisions-annie-duke
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Where to find Annie Duke:
• X: https://twitter.com/AnnieDuke
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-duke/
• Website: https://www.annieduke.com/
• Substack: https://www.annieduke.com/substack/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Annie’s background
(03:53) Lessons from Daniel Kahneman: humility, curiosity, and open-mindedness
(09:15) The importance of unconditional love in parenting
(15:15) Mental time travel and “nevertheless”
(20:06) The extent of improvement possible in decision-making
(24:54) Independent brainstorming for better decisions
(35:36) Making sure people feel heard
(42:41) The “3Ds” framework to make better decisions
(44:49) Decision quality
(55:46) Improving decision-making at First Round Capital
(01:05:05) Using pre-mortems and kill criteria
(01:10:15) Making explicit what’s implicit
(01:10:55) The challenges of quitting and knowing when to walk away
(01:19:23) Where to find Annie
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Referenced:
• Daniel Kahneman, Who Plumbed the Psychology of Economics, Dies at 90: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/business/daniel-kahneman-dead.html
• Adversarial collaboration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adversarial_collaboration
• Does more money correlate with greater happiness?: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/does-more-money-correlate-greater-happiness-Penn-Princeton-research#
• Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36857342/
• Strategic decisions: When can you trust your gut?: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/strategic-decisions-when-can-you-trust-your-gut
• Cass Sunstein on X: https://twitter.com/CassSunstein
• Dr. Becky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyatgoodinside
• A framework for finding product-market fit | Todd Jackson (First Round Capital): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-framework-for-finding-product-market
• First Round Capital: https://firstround.com/
• Brett Berson on X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
• Renegade Partners: https://www.renegadepartners.com/
• Renata Quintini on X: https://twitter.com/rquintini
• Roseanne Wincek on X: https://twitter.com/imthemusic
• Josh Kopelman on X: https://twitter.com/joshk
• Bill Trenchard on X: https://twitter.com/btrenchard
• Linnea Gandhi on X: https://twitter.com/linneagandhi
• Maurice Schweitzer on X: https://twitter.com/me_schweitzer
• Problems with premortems: https://sjdm.org/presentations/2021-Poster-Gandhi-Linnea-debiasing-premortem-selfserving~.pdf
• Create a Solid Plan on How to Fail Big This Year: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2020/02/07/create-a-solid-plan-on-how-to-fail-big-this-year/
• Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away: https://www.amazon.com/Quit-Power-Knowing-When-Walk/dp/0593422996/
• Richard Thaler on X: https://twitter.com/R_Thaler
• Stewart Butterfield on X: https://twitter.com/stewart
• Glitch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_(video_game)
• How the Founder of Slack & Flickr Turned Colossal Failures into Billion-Dollar Companies: https://medium.com/swlh/how-the-founder-of-slack-flickr-turned-failures-into-million-and-billion-dollar-companies-7bcaf0d35d66
• The Most Fascinating Profile You’ll Ever Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup: https://www.wired.com/2014/08/the-most-fascinating-profile-youll-ever-read-about-a-guy-and-his-boring-startup/
• The Alliance for Decision Education: https://alliancefordecisioneducation.org/
• Make Better Decisions course on Maven: https://maven.com/annie-duke/make-better-decisions
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
A framework for finding product-market fit | Todd Jackson (First Round Capital)
Todd Jackson is a Partner at First Round Capital. Before moving into venture capital, he played a crucial role as VP of Product and Design at Dropbox, guiding the company until its IPO in 2018. Prior to Dropbox, Todd led product management for Twitter’s Content and Discovery teams after selling his startup, Cover, to Twitter in 2014. Before Cover, Todd oversaw product development for Facebook’s Newsfeed, Photos, and Groups. He kickstarted his career at Google as an associate product manager and eventually led product for Gmail, witnessing its growth from beta to 200 million users. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Why product-market fit (PMF) matters
• First Round Capital’s four-part PMF framework
• Level one: Nascent product-market fit
• Level two: Developing product-market fit
• Level three: Strong product-market fit
• Level four: Extreme product-market fit
• Examples of companies at each level
• How to know if you’re stuck at a level, and how to get unstuck
• What to change if you’re stuck: persona, problem, promise, and product
• The goals and challenges at each stage
—
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-framework-for-finding-product-market
—
Where to find Todd Jackson:
• X: https://twitter.com/tjack
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Todd’s background
(06:07) First Round Capital’s PMF framework
(09:07) Why product-market fit is so important
(11:02) Who can benefit from this framework
(12:55) The product-market fit method
(16:54) Broad overview of the framework
(21:35) Level one: nascent product-market fit
(33:16) The four P’s
(39:13) Level two: developing product-market fit
(49:13) Signs you’re stuck at level two, and what to do
(55:12) Level three: strong product-market fit
(01:00:17) Signs you’re stuck at level three, and what to do
(01:02:22) Level four: extreme product-market fit
(01:06:55) Rough timelines for each level
(01:11:18) A quick recap of the framework
(01:12:15) Diving deeper on the four P’s: what to do if you’re stuck
(01:13:56) Dollar-driven discovery
(01:25:11) Apply for the product-market-fit method program
—
Referenced:
• First Round: https://firstround.com/
• Twitter Acquires Cover: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/7/11625332/twitter-acquires-cover-an-android-mobile-startup
• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/
• Rahul Vohra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulvohra/
• How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product Market Fit: https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/
• How to validate your startup idea: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/validating-your-startup-idea
• How the most successful B2B startups came up with their original idea: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-most-successful-b2b-startups
• How to know if you’ve got product-market fit: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-know-if-youve-got-productmarket
• A guide for finding product-market fit in B2B: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-product-market-fit
• Product-market fit method: http://pmf.firstround.com/
• Stripe: https://stripe.com/
• Plaid: https://plaid.com/
• Paths to PMF: https://review.firstround.com/series/product-market-fit/
• WeWork: https://www.wework.com/
• Casper: https://casper.com/
• Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/
• Christina Cacioppo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ccacioppo/
• Ramp: https://ramp.com/
• Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp-became-the-fastest-growing-saas-startup-of-all-time-geoff-charl/
• Jack Altman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman/
• Lattice: https://lattice.com/
• Zachary Perret on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zperret/
• Positioning: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning
• Retool: https://retool.com/
• David Hsu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dvdhsu/
• Persona: https://withpersona.com/
• Rick Song on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-song-25198b24/
• Lloyd Tabb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloydtabb/
• Looker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looker_(company)
• Jason Boehmig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jboehmig/
• Ironclad: https://ironcladapp.com/
• Lessons in leadership | Scaling an org and tactical management advice | Jack Altman (Lattice): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZzXqf61mrQ
• Filip Kaliszan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliszan/
• Verkada: https://www.verkada.com/
• Ali Ghodsi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alighodsi/
• Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/
• Stripe Radar: https://stripe.com/radar
• Stripe Atlas: https://stripe.com/atlas
• Square Stand: https://squareup.com/shop/hardware/us/en/products/ipad-pos-stand-integrated-card-reader
• Cash App: https://cash.app/
• Square Checking: https://squareup.com/us/en/campaign/banking/checking
• Square Loan: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5654-get-started-with-square-capital
• Casey Winters on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywinters/
• How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-sell-your-ideas-and-rise-within-your-company-casey-winters-eventbrite/
• Josh Kopelman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/
• The art and science of pricing | Madhavan Ramanujam (Monetizing Innovation, Simon-Kucher): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/videos/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan-ramanujam-monetizing-innovation-simon-kucher/
• Simon Kucher: https://www.simon-kucher.com/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
20VC: The Services Model of Venture Capital is Broken, The Best Founders Do Need Help, The Most Important Signals to Assess When Meeting Founders & Why Kids Bring Less Happiness and More Joy with Phin Barnes @ TheGP
Phin Barnes is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of The General Partnership (TheGP), a venture capital firm that's redefining what partnership means for founders. Previously, Phin spent over a decade at First Round Capital, where he was responsible for over 60 investments including Blue Apron, Notion, Clover Health, Gauntlet and Persona. Before First Round, he created an independent video game company and before that was an early employee at AND 1 Basketball where he helped scale the brand from $15 to $225 million in revenue and served as the Creative Director for Footwear.
In Today's Episode with Phin Barnes We Discuss:
From Creative Director to Venture Capitalist:
How did Phin make his way into the world of venture having been a Creative Director at a basketball brand?
What does Phin know now that he wishes he could tell himself on his first day in venture?
What are 1-2 of Phin's biggest lessons from his 10 years at First Round which shapes how he invests?
2. The Venture Capital Model is Broken:
Why does Phin believe the current services model of venture is broken?
Do the best founders need your help?
What have been some of the biggest lessons in what the best founders want from their VCs?
What happens to this generation of firms with massive support teams?
Do VCs use these support teams merely to justify massive fund size scaling to LPs?
3. The Venture Landscape Today:
How can we compete in a seed landscape of $5M on $25M against large multi-stage firms?
What founders types are attracted to big brands? What founder profiles are taken in by large rounds and high prices?
Is Phin more or less excited about seed-stage investing now than he has been before?
4. Investing Lessons 101:
What is Phin's biggest hit? How did seeing their success impact his mindset?
What is Phin's biggest loss? How did the loss impact how he views investing?
Traction, team, market; how does Phin rank the three in prioritisation?
What should all young people know when entering the venture landscape?
How Notion leveraged community to build a $10B business | Camille Ricketts (Notion, First Round Capital)
Camille Ricketts began her career in journalism, at the Wall Street Journal, in 2006. In 2010 she joined Tesla, where she worked in communications alongside Elon Musk. She transitioned into marketing and became the Head of Content and Marketing at First Round Capital and then went on to become the very first marketing hire at Notion. In today’s episode, we dig into community-led growth—what it is, and when and how to pursue it. We get super-specific on how Notion championed their most loyal users and built a passionate community, and the incredible outcome it had for the company’s growth. We also talk about how to create great content, and how content can drive growth for your business and brand.
—
Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-notion-leveraged-community-to
—
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:
• Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/
• Flatfile—A CSV importer that says yes instead of error: mismatch: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny
• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny
—
Where to find Camille:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillericketts
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillericketts/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
People referenced:
• Ivan Zhao: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanhzhao/
• Simon Last: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-last-41404140/
• Lexie Barnhorn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisbarnhorn/
• Ben Lang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmlang/
• Claire Butler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairetbutler/
• Jessi Craige Shikman at First Round: https://firstround.com/person/jessi-craige-shikman/
• Brett Berson at First Round: https://firstround.com/person/brett-berson/
• Josh Kopelman at First Round: https://firstround.com/person/josh-kopelman/#mystory
• Shaun Young on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunyou/
• David Pierce at The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/authors/david-pierce
• Francisco Cruz-Mendoza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciscocrz/
• Emma Yee Yick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmayeeyick/
Additionally, Camille would love to shout out Nate Martins and Andrea Lim, who ran Notion’s content program:
• Nate Martins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-martins/
• Andrea Lim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreawlim/
Content and companies referenced:
• Community & Content Resources: https://camnotes.notion.site/Community-Content-Resources-f18fb1db2d094ec2a4140a7737fae362
• Station F: https://stationf.co/
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Canva: https://www.canva.com/
• Stripe: https://stripe.com/
• Stripe Atlas: https://stripe.com/atlas
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Jobs to be done framework: https://jobs-to-be-done.com/jobs-to-be-done-a-framework-for-customer-needs-c883cbf61c90
• The Only App You Need for Work-Life Productivity: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-only-app-you-need-for-work-life-productivity-1521640800
• Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/
Referenced in lightning round:
• Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It: https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers/dp/1999023005
• April Dunford on Lenny’s podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/april-dunford-on-product-positioning-segmentation-and-optimizing-your-sales-process/
• April Dunford’s guest post in Lenny’s newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning
• Harry Stebbings’s podcast, 20VC: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/podcast/
• Lenny on 20VC: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/lenny-rachitsky/
• Tár: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14444726/
• Fleishman Is in Trouble: https://www.hulu.com/series/fleishman-is-in-trouble-710e51f8-3387-404d-8b07-e7c9b766d11c
• Notion: https://www.notion.so/
• Arc: https://arc.net/
• Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
• Cron: https://cron.com/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Camille’s background
(05:43) What it was like working with Elon Musk
(07:38) Working at Notion in the early days
(12:16) What is community-led growth?
(15:48) How Notion measured the impact of marketing efforts
(16:35) The most successful community efforts at Notion
(18:24) Why metrics aren’t always necessary for community growth
(19:52) When it makes sense to invest in community-led growth
(21:34) How creators make money using Notion
(23:12) The Ambassador Program and Champions Program at Notion
(27:20) Why founders should consider investing in community and delay monetizing some features
(31:03) Companies that have done well in building community
(32:54) How to determine the level of community engagement appropriate for your company to invest in
(34:00) Using Camille’s 2x2 grid to implement community
(36:42) How to launch an ambassador program
(41:22) Advice for founders who want to build community
(47:17) How Lenny got his first 500 newsletter subscribers
(48:58) Examples of Camille’s most impactful content marketing
(51:20) Content-market fit: how to determine the needs of your reader
(53:37) Content categories and the time it takes to create top-notch content
(57:02) The future of comms and how the press helped Notion grow
(1:01:35) Lightning round
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
How to Make Better Decisions
Can you get better at decision-making with practice? Many founders, investors, and builders must make many critical decisions, big and small, every day, and improving the quality of your decision-making process can become a big competitive advantage.
In this episode from October 2020, expert decision strategist, author and professional poker player, Annie Duke, joins a16z managing partner Jeff Jordan, to discuss some of the frameworks, strategies, and tactics for better decision-making by both individuals and organizations that she outlines in her second book, How to Decide. This was Annie’s second appearance on the podcast – she first joined a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen and host Sonal Chokshi to discuss her first book, Thinking in Bets, where they went deep into how to frame taking risks and placing bets, especially in the context of innovation.
You can read the full transcript of this episode here, and you can read the transcript of Annie's first episode on the a16z Podcast with Marc Andreessen here.
Stay Updated:
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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.
The art of building legendary brands | Arielle Jackson (Google, Square, Marketer in Residence at First Round Capital)
What makes a great brand? After working at Google and Square, Arielle Jackson has spent the past eight years consulting startups on how to create powerful messaging that works. In this jam-packed episode, she shares how to pick a winning name for your company, create a brand purpose that excites your team and customers, and position your company and its products for success. You don’t want to miss this one!
—
Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-of-building-legendary-brands
—
Where to find Arielle Jackson:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hiiamarielle
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariellerjackson/
• Course: https://maven.com/arielle/startupbrandstrategy
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:
• Flatfile: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny
• Unit: https://unit.co/lenny
• Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lenny
—
Referenced:
• Positioning Your Startup Is Vital—Here’s How to Nail It: https://review.firstround.com/Positioning-Your-Startup-is-Vital-Heres-How-to-Do-It-Right
• Three Moves Every Startup Founder Must Make to Build a Brand That Matters: https://review.firstround.com/three-moves-every-startup-founder-must-make-to-build-a-brand-that-matters
• What I Learned from Developing Branding for Airbnb, Dropbox, and Thumbtack: https://review.firstround.com/what-i-learned-from-developing-branding-for-airbnb-dropbox-and-thumbtack
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0071373586
• Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life: https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Curious-Science-Creating-Business/dp/006238841X
• The Vanishing Half: https://britbennett.com/the-vanishing-half
• The Mothers: https://britbennett.com/the-mothers
• Nik Sharma’s weekly newsletter: https://www.nik.co/subscribe
• How I Built This: https://www.npr.org/series/490248027/how-i-built-this
• In Depth: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
• Unseen Unknown: https://unseen-unknown.simplecast.com/
• Luca: https://movies.disney.com/luca
• Encanto: https://movies.disney.com/encanto
• Old Enough!: https://www.netflix.com/title/81506279
• The Sociology of Business with Ana Andjelic: https://andjelicaaa.substack.com
• David Ogilvy: https://www.oneclub.org/hall-of-fame/-bio/david-ogilvy
• Rory Sutherland: https://twitter.com/rorysutherland
• Seth Godin: https://seths.blog/
—
In this episode, we cover:
[04:04] From making jewelry as a side hustle to launching products for Square: Arielle’s background[12:32] What makes a good name for a product or a startup[19:17] How to come up with a great name[24:59] How to run a naming brainstorm for the best results[31:09] Bad names and naming mistakes[34:17] Arielle’s brand development framework and when founders should implement it[36:02] How do you know when brand development is completed?[41:17] How long should branding take?[42:42] How to build a brand purpose that ignites excitement[48:51] Specific tactics for building your brand purpose[51:12] How to master your positioning[55:22] Why it’s important to stay niche when you’re mastering your positioning[59:15] The process of positioning and Arielle’s bar test[1:02:38] How to build a brand personality using the five big brand descriptions[1:07:39] Where to put brand and product positioning documents so they’ll actually get used[1:09:14] How startups can get PR[1:14:49] When should you hire a marketer?—Production and marketing: https://penname.co/
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Innovating and Deciding, for Companies and People
original episode notes and transcript here:
https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/innovating-in-bets/
Longtime podcast showrunner (2014-2022), primary host, and editor Sonal Chokshi shares three best-of episodes as she shifts gears and the show goes on hiatus until relaunched with a new host.
The second of these three special rerun episodes is a conversation that originally took place spring/summer 2019, pre-pandemic (ah, that we could remember that time!) – between a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen and Sonal interviewing author, consultant/advisor, and former pro poker player Annie Duke, on one of her first few appearances with us. It’s a conversation quite unlike her other conversations, and one in a series of special joint interviews Marc and Sonal did. So there's a lot of high-speed talking, but the three cover a broad range of topics relevant to both businesses and individuals: on skill vs luck, on outcomes vs process, on asking the right questions, on how to communicate in probabilities within an organization or team, and, on how NOT making a decision is also a decision and why that matters.
Be sure to also check out this feed for the followup conversation with Annie, Jeff Jordan, and Sonal on the specifics of HOW to Decide as well -- the practical and organizational implementations. (Because the a16z Podcast became an early go-to for book authors to release their books, Annie agreed to share her next book with us first.) But overall, these evergreen episodes are really all about INNOVATION, which is another signature theme in defining the identity of the a16z Podcast…
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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.
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20VC: The Roblox Memo: First Round's Chris Fralic on The 17 Year Journey to Build a $41BN Market Cap Company, Why It Is Way Harder To Increase Ownership Across Rounds Today & What Happens Post SPACMania
Chris Fralic is a Board Partner @ First Round Capital, one of the leading seed-stage venture firms of the last decade with investments in the likes of Uber, Square, Notion, Warby Parker and more. As for Chris, he has led deals in Roblox, Ring.com, HotelTonight, Rec Room and many more incredible companies. Prior to the world of venture, Chris was VP of Business Development at social bookmarking and tagging company del.icio.us through the Yahoo! acquisition. He was also one of the early employees at Half.com and after the eBay, acquisition spent six years with eBay in a variety of business development, media and entertainment roles.
In Today's Episode with Chris Fralic You Will Learn:
1.) How did Chris come to first meet Dave and the team at Roblox? Where was the first meeting? Who was in attendance? How did Chris feel post that first meeting with the team?
2.) Turning the company down: Why did First Round turn down Roblox on first look? How does Chris assess his own relationship to price? Through what mechanism does he determine whether to pay up or not? How does Chris retain relationships with founders when saying no? Does Chris believe you can buy up ownership post first check today, with the capital proliferate we have?
3.) What does Chris mean when he discusses the lessons from First Round's portfolio when it comes to "slow bake vs fast bake"? How did the First Round partnership analyse the Uber, Square, Roblox portfolio at the time? Through what framework does Chris think about reserves management given the challenge of "slow bake companies"? How does he address it today?
4.) What does Chris mean when he discusses the hype to substance ratio? Why is it more important than ever today? What does this mean for startups? How can startups with a low hype to substance ratio raise funds at good prices? What advice does Chris have for them? How does Chris think about the importance of firm and individual brand in venture today?
5.) How has Chris seen Dave evolve as a leader and CEO over time? What caused the changes in his leadership style? What moments stand out as the most challenging moments to Chris in the scaling of Roblox? Who does Chris believe are the behind the scenes rockstars that made Roblox possible?
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Office Hours With Chris Fralic Of First Round Capital
Chris Fralic of First Round Capital was involved in funding such companies as Ring, Hotel Tonight, Warby Parker, Rec Room, and as you’ll hear today, Roblox. But in addition to being a legend, as you’ll hear, Chris is just an all around good dude...
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20VC: Annie Duke on Reversible vs Irreversible Decisions, How To Evaluate Risk, The Theory of Sunk Cost in Venture & How to Optimise Both the Discussion and Quality of Investment Decisions
Annie Duke is a former professional poker player and the author of National Bestseller, "Thinking in Bets" & "How To Decide". During her poker playing days, Annie was a World Series of Poker bracelet winner, the winner of the 2004 Tournament of Champions and the only woman to win the NBC National Poker Heads Up Championship. Today, Annie is also the founder of How I Decide, a non-profit that creates curricula and tools to improve decision making and critical thinking skills for under-served middle schoolers.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Annie made her way from professional poker player to National Bestselling author and coach to the world's leading investors?
2.) How does Annie evaluate the nature of risk? What is good risk vs bad risk? How does Annie think through reversible vs irreversible decisions? What is her framework? Why does Annie believe most irreversible decisions are actually reversible? How does it change your thinking?
3.) How does effective solo-decision-making differ from effective group decision-making? What decision-making biases does Annie often see venture being guilty of making? What 3 things can one do to improve the decision-making of the collective group?
4.) How does Annie think about sunk cost? How does one know when enough is enough and you have to walk away? How does this tie into Annie's thinking on portfolio theory? How does Annie think about pre-mortems? How should they be structured? What is included?
5.) How does Annie define critical thinking? What tips would Annie give to someone in really advancing their level of critical thinking? What behaviours can one implement to seek to protect critical thinking? How does this differ in team environments?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode
Annie's Favourite Book: The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
How to Decide, Convey vs. Convince, & More
It seems like investors are especially obsessed with the psychology of decision making -- high stakes, after all -- but all kinds of decisions, whether in life or business -- like dating, product management, what to eat or watch on Netflix -- are an "investment portfolio" of decisions... even if you sometimes feel like you're making one big decision at a time (like, say, marriage or what product to develop next or who to hire).
Obviously, not all decisions are equal; in fact, sometimes we don't even have to spend any time deciding. So how do we know which decisions to apply a robust decision process too, which ones not to? What are the strategies, mindsets, tools to help us decide? How can we operationalize a good decision process and decision hygiene into our teams and organizations? After all, we're tribal creatures -- our opinions are infectious (for better and for worse) -- so how do we convey vs. convince, and not necessarily agree but inform to decide? Especially given common pitfalls (resulting, hindsight bias, etc.), and "the paradox of experience", including even (and more so) winning vs. losing.
Decision expert (and leading poker player) Annie Duke comes back on the a16z Podcast -- after our first conversation with her for Thinking in Bets, which focused mainly on WHY our decision making gets so frustrated -- to talk about her new book, which picks up where the last left off, on HOW to Decide: Simple Tools for Better Choices. In conversation with a16z managing partner Jeff Jordan (and former CEO of OpenTable and former GM of eBay among other things) -- so, from all sides of investing, operating, life -- Annie shares tips for decision makers of all kinds making decisions under uncertainty... really, all of us.
The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.
Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.
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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.
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Josh Kopelman - The Past, Present, And Future Of Seed Investing - [Invest Like the Best, EP.170]
My guest today is Josh Kopelman, the founder of famed venture capital firm First Round Capital. Prior to starting First Round, which has invested at the earliest stages in companies like Square, Uber, and Roblox, Josh was a three-time entrepreneur, so our conversation spans early-stage investing, business building, and entrepreneurship. I’ll not sure forget his analogy distinguishing between navigators and cartographers, nor the rest of the interesting ideas he shared after seeing and investing in so many great businesses. We also discuss how First Round has bucked the trend to build what I’d call a platform adjacent to the core investing business which does a lot for their entrepreneurs and is a model for other professional investing firms, both in venture and elsewhere. Please enjoy my conversation with Josh Kopelman.
This episode is brought to by Koyfin.
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
(2:05) – (First question) – How pandemic has impacted their investing strategies
(3:54) – How this stressful environment impacts founders
(6:23) – His early career as a founder and how startup culture has changed
(10:15) – Most important lessons from his entrepreneurial career and building from just an idea
(11:50) – How to analyze a founder
(14:05) – Common disagreements when it comes to deciding on an investment
(15:33) – How many opportunities they evaluate in a meeting
(16:16) – The curvy road to their investment in Roadblox
(17:52) – Whether the concept for a platform is overused
(19:36) – Founders asking what google search they should build on
(20:46) – Solving existing or forecasted problems
(25:39) – How the startup scene is impacted by the huge legacy tech companies
(30:28) – What makes a great early stage investor
(32:19) – Do they focus on founders or themes
(33:19) – Where will valuations and returns come back to after the pandemic
(36:30) – How are business models evolving in technology entrepreneurship
(36:31) – Matt Clifford Podcast Episode
(39:40) – The Dorm Room Fund
(43:02) – Whether investment funds should have their own platform
(47:31) – Product mistakes in software building
(51:52) – What he’s most excited about for the future
(54:05) – The kindest thing anyone has done for him
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
Breaking News: Meet First Round Capital's Newest Partner, How To Approach Generational Transition as a Venture Firm & The Dangers of Attribution In Venture
Todd Jackson is First Round Capital's newest Partner (announced today) having spent the last 2 years as a Founder-in-Residence working with the FRC portfolio. Prior to his time in venture, Todd spent close to 3 years at Dropbox as VP Product & Design. Before that he was with Twitter as Director of Product Management, following his startup, Cover, being acquired by Twitter in 2014. Before founding Cover, Todd was a Product Manager @ Facebook where he helped lead major redesign of Newsfeed. Finally, Todd started his career at Google as a Product Lead taking Gmail from 0 to 200m users in 4 years.
Todd is joined today by his Partner @ First Round, Phin Barnes. Phin also writes the most fantastic blog, sneakerheadVC, that really is a must-read.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) Phin, what is the exclusive news you would like to break on the show today? Todd, taking one step back, how did you make your way to this stage, what was your entry into technology and how did you come to be a Partner @ First Round Capital today? What were Todd's biggest takeaways from working on some of the most transformative social products in Gmail, Twitter, Newsfeed @ Facebook and Dropbox?
2.) What advice does Phin have for Todd when it comes to entering a venture partnership? Where do many people go wrong in their first year in venture? What should Todd be optimising for in the partnership? In terms of measurement, how does one measure success of the first year of work as a Partner?
3.) Todd, making the move from angel to institutional VC is a mindset shift, how does Todd think his investment mentality will be impacted by the shift from angel to institutional VC? Having raised funding as a founder, what type of founder experience and investor does Todd want to be and bring?
4.) Phin, it has been a long time since FRC added a Partner, walk me through the recent changes at the top of FRC? What are the most important qualities for First Round when adding a Partner? What are the biggest tips to doing generational transition well? Where do many firms go wrong in generational transition?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Todd's Fave Book: Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Handbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
Todd's Most Recent Investment: Papaya Payments, Snackpass
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Todd on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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How to tell the story of your startup with Camille Ricketts and Carmel DeAmicis
In today's episode we talk to two expert storytellers in startupland — who also happen to be Ryan's good friends.
Carmel DeAmicis is an editor (aka word wiz) at Figma, a company that's reinventing how people design software and which recently announced a $40M round led by Sequoia. Prior to joining Figma, Ryan met Carmel when she was a reporter at Pando. She was the first journalist to write about Product Hunt and later went on to join GigaOM and Recode.
Camille Ricketts is another friend and veteran storyteller. She recently joined Notion, a hot startup building an all-in-one workspace for your notes, docs, and to-dos. Prior to joining Notion she spent nearly five years at First Round, starting and leading their content and marketing efforts. You've likely read one or many of her First Round Review articles. Earlier in her career she was a reporter at Wall Street Journal and VentureBeat and also worked at Tesla, Kiva, and the White House.
In this episode we talk about:
How to tell the story of your startup. Both Camille and Carmel are former reporters and they share some of the secrets they've honed over the years on what to do and what not to do when it comes to crafting the narrative around your company.
How Carmel and Camille ended up in their respective jobs at Figma and Notion, why it's important to take time between jobs to find the right role, and how to leverage your network to find out what a company is really like on the inside.
The wild, weird, wonderful world of TikTok, and why the constraints it imposes generate such creativity. Carmel talks about opening up the app to check it out for the first time and ending up staying up until three in the morning watching TikToks.
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to FreshBooks, Bubble, and Dipsea for their support. 😸
Quotes from This Episode
“It’s easy to tell a story about a company that just comes out as a collection of features but the better way to tell the story is to emphasize the outcomes that your audience actually wants.” — Camille
“At Notion, they have pictures of Engelbart. At Figma, they threw a party on a Sunday on the exact 50th anniversary of the famous 'Mother of All Demos.'” — Carmel
[In thinking about which company to join next] “You go through this conversion funnel where you maximize activity at the top of the funnel by emailing anyone who might have an idea for you, and then you winnow it down.” — Camille
Companies and Products Mentioned in This Episode
Figma — Styles, prototyping and design at scale.
Notion — Increase your team intelligence.
Superhuman — The best email experience ever made.
TikTok — A creative music video clip maker.
Annie Duke – Wanna Bet? - [Invest Like the Best, EP.125]
My guest this week is with Annie Duke, and the topic of our discussion is how to improve decision making.
We break decisions down into their component parts: values, beliefs, decisions, randomness, and outcomes. After diving into each, we discuss how to make better decisions, how to work in group settings, and how to harness power of tribes and identity to improve our behavior.
Annie has thought about this as much as anyone, and her various tricks for getting us to think in probabilities and to stop evaluating decisions based on outcomes that have been tainted by randomness will be useful for anyone listening.
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
1:23 - (First Question) – Why people don’t take the best investing advice
2:11 – Investing tribes
4:21 – Jay Van Bavel twitter
6:34 – Rule setting as a way of crafting an investment strategy
11:13 – How much control do we have in choosing our values
15:52 – Anatomy of a decision
19:28 – Her concept of resulting
26:47 - How beliefs impact your decision making
34:28 – Tact’s for making the best decision
42:40 – Ego and decision making
47:06 – People who are exceptional at changing their decision making
48:18 – How often do people who change their decision making, stick with the rules of the game
50:07 – Finite and Infinite Games
50:28 – Psychology of making decision that involves other people
59:20 - Never close doors on other people
1:01:57 – Best decision that Annie made
1:04:24 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Annie
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
20VC: First Round's Josh Kopelman on Why Price Is Both An Art and A Science, Why Ownership Must Be Built on First Check and The Negative Consequences of Attribution in Venture
Josh Kopelman is Founder & Partner @ First Round, one of the world's leading seed funds with a portfolio including the likes of Uber, Warby Parker, Flatiron Health, Square, HotelTonight, GOAT and more incredible companies. As for Josh, he founded First Round in 2004 to reinvent seed stage investing. Since he has invested in over 200 startups and been ranked 4th in Forbes Midas List and named one of the top ten 'angel investors' in the US by Newsweek magazine. Josh has previously sat on the boards of Flatiron Health, Clover Health, AppNexus and more.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Josh made his way into the wonderful world of venture from angel investing and what the inspiration behind the founding of First Round was?
2.) How does Josh think about price sensitivity today? What were his learnings from being priced out of the seed round for Twitter and Dropbox? How has Josh seen his relationship to price change over time? How did witnessing the boom and bust both as operator and investor affect his investing mentality today?
3.) How does Josh and First Round think about reserve allocation? How has their thinking changed and evolved over time? Does Josh believe that ownership is fundamentally built on first check? What does the investment decision-making process look like for reserves? In terms of allocation, how does Josh think about time allocation across portfolio? Spend it with the winners, they return the fund or the strugglers and save cents on the dollar?
4.) Josh has spent over 3,000 hours on boards, what have been some of the biggest inflection points that have changed the way he thinks about being a good board member? How has he seen his style and approach change over time? What advice would Josh give to an individual that has just gained their first institutional board seat?
5.) Why does Josh believe that we fundamentally neglect "the pick" today in startup world? Why does Josh believe a high degree of startup mortality begins at the pick (idea) stage? How do the very best founders aproach this stage? How should these founders approach picking their investors? What should they look for? What should they be wary of?
6.) Why does Josh want to be known as a better picker of partners than investments? How has Josh thought about the building ou of the first round partnership over time? If there was anything he would have done differently, what would it be? Why does Josh fundamentally disagree with attribution? How does Josh think about generational transition? What are the steps required to do it well?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Josh's Fave Book: Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Joel on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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20VC: First Round's Phin Barnes on How The Best Founders Optimize for Learning Per Dollar Spent, What Makes A Truly Special Founder/VC Relationship and Why Pattern Recognition is Another Term For Intellectual Laziness
Phin Barnes is a Partner @ First Round Capital, one of the most prestigious and successful early-stage funds of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Uber, Square, Warby Parker, HotelTonight, GOAT, PatientPing, Atrium and more incredible companies. As for Phin, in his own words, he learned the business of startups helping grow AND1 from $15M to $225M in revenue as Creative Director for Footwear, and started his own fitness video-game company, producing Yourself!Fitness, the first game of its kind for Xbox and PlayStation 2 where he built partnerships with the likes of Procter & Gamble and McDonald's. Phin also writes the most fantastic blog, sneakerheadVC, that really is a must read.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Phin came to be a Partner @ First Round by working for free, with no plans to be a Partner?
2.) What were Phin's biggest lessons from learning from and observing Josh Kopelman? How does Phin define true success as a VC today? Why is the model of determining success according to returns fundamentally flawed? How does Phin approach the need for VCs to be both curious and competitive? What is the nuance there?
3.) Why does Phin believe that the commonly discussed "pattern recognition" is another term for intellectual laziness? What does Phin do to prevent his forming assumptions on the founders he meets? Why does Phin fundamentally disagree with the common VC habit of looking for weaknesses in founders?
4.) Does Phin agree that we have an oversupply of capital in market today? How does Phin determine when a stretch on price is a stretch too far? Why does Phin think that more emphasis should be placed on the business model that VCs have? What does Phin mean when he says that he is on the "sell side"?
5.) What does Phin mean when he says that "VCs should focus on a founders ability to optimise for learning per dollar spent"? Is cash ever a defensible moat in it's own right? What does Phin believe is the right way for founders to use capital as a weapon?
6.) How does Phin and First Round think about the right way to allocate reserves effectively? What does that look like in reality? What does the decision-making process look like on re-investments? Why does Phin believe that the framework of "pro-rata is largely lazy?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Phin's Fave Book: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
Phin's Most Recent Investment: Ubiquity6
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Phin on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Annie Duke Explains How To Apply Poker Skills To Markets And Other Business Decisions
Anyone who watched poker on TV during the golden age of coverage a few years ago is familiar with Annie Duke. She's one of the most famous poker players of the era, and is one of the winningest women poker players of all time, with 38 money finishes at the World Series of Poker. She's been retired from poker for a few years now, but she has a new book called "Thinking In Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All The Facts." On this week's episode of the Odd Lots podcast, Annie talks about the skills that made her good in poker, and how they can be applied to many areas of our lives, including trading and business.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Uber's First Investor, First Round Capital's Rob Hayes on How The Deal Of The Decade Originated and Why Product Orientated VC Is The Future
Rob Hayes is a partner at First Round Capital where he opened up the firm's San Francisco office. Over the past eight years, he has led investments in companies such as Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), Gnip (acquired by Twitter), Square, Uber, eero, and Planet Labs. Prior to joining First Round, Rob became the first venture investor at Omidyar Network, the investment firm started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. While there, he led most of the initial venture capital deals and later built and ran the technology investing group. Before that, Rob worked at Palm, where he product managed Palm OS and started the company's corporate venture fund.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Rob made his move into the VC world from working with Palm in the heyday?
2.) Question From David Hornik : How did Rob's seed investment in Uber originate? What made Rob invest? Did Rob realise the potential for Uber when he invested? When did Rob realize it was going to be huge?
3.) Has the investment in Uber changed how Rob views seed investing? Talking of the Uber’s of the world, how do you ensure that you find and decide to invest in the next Uber, when it raises a seed round?
4.) In terms of deal closing, how does Rob approach that element of the deal and what was the competition and closing environment around the Uber deal?
5.) Question from Satya at Homebrew: Stepping back and looking at First Round, what has changed in FRC’s approach as the firm has grown? How does the firm think about managing generational transition?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Rob's Fave Book:
Travels with Charley: John Steinbeck
Rob's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dan Primack: Term Sheet
Rob's Most Recent Investment:
eero: Blanket Your Home In Fast, Reliable Wifi
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Rob on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? A hundred? A thousand? The answer is too many. But here’s the thing—even though I knew I wanted to do something about it, I didn’t know how. It’s called SaneBox. SaneBox sorts through your email and moves all of the trivial stuff into a different folder so the only messages in your inbox are the ones you actually want to see. Visit sanebox.com/20VC today and they’ll throw in an extra $20 credit on top of the two-week free trial.
Episode 60: Josh Kopelman
Josh is an entrepreneur, investor, and founder of First Round Capital. We talk about his come up story, starting half.com and selling it to ebay, how he started First Round, how he learned how to invest, advice to entrepreneurs, and much more. For anyone looking to learn how to invest, Josh is one of the best in the game and drops a bunch of gems in this episode.
Product Hunt Radio: Episode 27 w/ Camille Ricketts and Rob Hayes
This week Camille Ricketts (Editor, First Round Review) and Rob Hayes (Partner, First Round Capital) join us from bustling 500 Startups HQ. We chat about new messaging apps like Snowball, products kids use, and a fun little site to troll your friends. Enjoy. Products mentioned: - Snowball (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/snowball) - All your messages in one place (on Android) - Slack (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/slack) - Be less busy. Real-time messaging, archiving & search. - Goji (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/goji) - The Keyboard for Fun - Swipe (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/swipe-2) - See the photos & videos your friends won't post on Facebook - Ringly (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/ringly) - Fashionable wearables. Rings connected to your phone. - Sproutling (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/sproutling) - Grow happy families - Signul (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/signul) - The world's first personal beacon system - BloomThat (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/bloomthat) - Ridiculously fast flowers - Bacon Lover's Feast (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/bacon-lover-s-feast) - Monthly bacon delivery - Luxe Valet (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/luxe-valet) - On-demand valet parking - Instagram (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/instagram-6-0) - Simple way to capture and share the world's moments - Remind (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/remind) - Teacher-student-parent communication - TD4W (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/td4w) - A party in your pants - Ethan (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/ethan) - A messaging app for messaging Ethan - SHRTURL (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/shrturl) - Edit any webpage. Get short URL. Troll your friends!
