Founders Fund's Brian Singerman on building a legendary VC firm, “Adapt or Die” and "Ikigai" | E1896
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Todays show:
Jason speaks to Brian Singerman of Founders Fund about tips for emerging venture capitalists (6:40), a missed opportunity by an overconfident LP (15:49), self-awareness, strategy, the state of venture capital (40:47), and more!
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Jason speaks to Brian Singerman of Founders Fund.
(2:31) “Adapt or die!” and the unique approach and strategy at Founders Fund.
(6:40) Brian's tips for emerging venture capitalists on making investments.
(10:09) Imagine AI LIVE - Get 20% off tickets at http://www.imagineai.live/twist
(11:24) Brian reflects on his career's trials and triumphs
(15:49) Brian shares an anecdote about a gloating LP who passed on one of the greatest venture funds in history.
(21:36) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at http://www.openphone.com/twist
(23:04) Brian’s approach for securing a deal with founders.
(28:03) The sharp mind of Sean Parker.
(31:32) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.Lemon.io/twist
(32:37) The character of founders who change the world and how to work with them.
(37:30) Regulation and the anti-competitive landscape of large companies in the US.
(40:47) Self-awareness, strategy and the state of venture capital.
(44:00) Keith Rabois's transition from Founders Fund back to Khosla Ventures.
(47:27) Reflecting on Ikigai and finding joy and value in one's passion.
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Links:
Check out Founders Fund: https://foundersfund.com/
Check out past TWiST episode #748 with Brian: https://youtu.be/O8emgaUsOZY?feature=shared
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Follow Brian:
X: https://twitter.com/briansin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-singerman-9333b52/
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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20VC: Founders Fund's Brian Singerman on The Price Mismatch Between Public vs Private, Why Now Is Not The Best Time To Be Investing, Why Brian Never Thinks About Reserves and Believes in Cross-Fund Investing & Writing a $400M Check Into Anduril Across Rou
Brian Singerman is a Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the best-performing funds of the last two decades. Among their portfolio, they have the likes of Airbnb, Facebook, Stripe, Anduril, and many more generational-defining companies. As for Brian, he has led investments in the likes of Affirm, Oscar Health, Wish, Asana, Oculus, and Postmates to name a few. Brian also sits on the board or is an observer to The Long Term Stock Exchange, Solugen, Cloud9, Modern Health, and of course, Anduril. Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent a very successful 4 years as an engineer and executive at Google.
In Today's Episode with Brian Singerman We Discuss:
1.) From Google to Befriending Sean Parker to Founders Fund:
How Brian's friendship with Sean Parker led to his joining Founders Fund over 15 years ago?
What does Brian believe makes Founders Fund such a unique fund?
What does Brian know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture?
2.) The Landscape Today: Where Are We Now?
Why does Brian believe there is a huge price mismatch between private vs public companies?
How does this impact the pace with which Founders Fund invest? Why does Brian not feel any pressure to invest in this environment?
What are the 10 hypergrowth companies that Brian is looking to invest in today?
What advice does Brian give to young investors today who are concerned at their first market correction and questioning if they are actually any good at this?
3.) Brian Singerman: The Investor:
How does Brian reflect on his own investing style? What is he world-class at? What is he bad at?
Why does Brian think boards are a waste of time? What is better than a board?
Why does Brian not ever think about reserves? How does Brian answer LPs concerns when they cite them on the topic of cross-fund investing?
What does Brian believe is the secret to venture capital? What elements make those at Founders Fund thrive? What characteristics make those that do not work out, fail?
4.) Founders Fund: The Firm:
How does Founders Fund structure and optimize its decision-making process today?
How does Founders Fund approach the hiring process for all new team members? What one question do they need to be able to clearly answer with all team members joining?
How do Founders Fund approach the reference checking process for all new hires? What questions do they find most revealing of the true talent of the candidate?
What are the single biggest hiring mistakes Brian has made? What did he learn from them?
Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:
Brian's Most Recent Investment: Anduril
20VC: The Anduril Memo: Founders Fund's Brian Singerman on What Makes Palmer Luckey One of the Greatest Innovators in History, Why It Is BS The DOD Do Not Want To Work With Silicon Valley & Why in Venture You Have To Play A Different Game to the Hedge Fun
Brian Singerman is a General Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the most prominent venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Anduril, SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir, Stripe, Affirm, Airbnb, Facebook, and many more. As for Brian, he has led investments in the likes of Affirm, Oscar Health, Wish, Asana, Oculus, and Postmates to name a few. Brian also sits on the board or is an observer to The Long Term Stock Exchange, Solugen, Cloud9, Modern Health, and of course, Anduril. Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent a very successful 4 years as an engineer and executive at Google.
In Today's Episode with Brian Singerman on Anduril, You Will Learn:
1.) How did Brian first come to meet Palmer and the Anduril team? Where did the meeting take place? How did the discussion go? Did Brian instantly feel that Palmer was special? What about the way Palmer presented, suggested this to Brian?
2.) The Market: What gave Brian the confidence Anduril would be successful where so many others had failed? How did the market change or evolve in a way Brian did expect? In what ways did the market surprise Brian? Does Brian think we will see the relationship between Silicon Valley and the DOD change over time?
3.) Anduril: The Business: Why is Anduril as a business, so hard to copy? How did Brian gain comfort around their defensibility? What does Brian think is the biggest misconception people have of Anduril as a business? How does Brian think about when is the right time to add secondary and ancillary products?
4.) Investing Today: Why is Brian no longer Zoom investing today? What does Brian mean when he says you have to, "play a different game to the hedge funds today"? In what way does he and Founders Fund look to do this? How does Brian think about the current levels of pricing? How does he determine when to pay up vs when to be disciplined?
Brian Singerman – Investing in the Best Founders - [Invest Like the Best, EP.127]
My guest this week is Brian Singerman, a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund. Founder’s Fund is widely considered one of the top VC firms and its partners are known to have diverse investment strategies.
Brian invests across industries and focuses on backing exceptional founders. You’ll hear right off the bat that he cares about moat, market, and strong execution. I love his point that the only way to become a good investor is to do a lot of investing. He describes himself an investor who uses his gut a lot, which took me a while to get used to in our conversation. But I have to say that at the end of this episode I felt refreshed and generally excited to keep putting in reps in my own way, both in the podcast and the quant research settings. I hope you 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 Notesd
1:28 - (First Question) – What Brian looks for when evaluating companies
2:38 – What a moat looks like in investing
3:11 – Most memorable initial moat
4:17 – How he evaluates a potential market
5:28 – Attributes they look for in founders
6:24 – Most significant technological changes and how they have impacted his investment strategy
8:57 – The sourcing of his deals
13:00 – Qualities he likes at various stages of deal sourcing
13:46 – How he evaluates the teams he may fund
15:17 – His take on the pricing landscape for deals
16:13 – How he allocates his time as a board member
17:16 – Thoughts on long term stock exchange
18:26 – How much research does he do on an industry in order to stay on top of his investments
20:10 – Outside information he follows
21:20 - Other investors he’s learned a lot from
23:12 – What values does Peter Thiel instill in the partners
24:05 – Process of StemCentrics
26:03 – Other places holding his interest today
26:57 – His interest in e-sports
31:44 – Interactions with LP’s
32:51 – What they look for in recruiting new partners
34:32 – How geography impacts the opportunity for new ideas
36:24 – Opportunities in public companies and other investment types
37:57 – Aspects of overseeing a startup venture
39:26 – 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
20VC: Founders Fund's Brian Singerman on Why VC Is About Upside Maximisation Not Downside Minimisation, Why There Is No Right Way To Do Venture and Why They Do Not Have Monday Morning Partner Meetings At Founders Fund
Brian Singerman is a Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the world's most prestigious and successful VC funds with prior investments in the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, SpaceX, Spotify and many more incredible companies. Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent 4 years at Google where, among other projects, Brian founded iGoogle. Whilst at Google, Brian also started his career as an investor, founding his own angel fund, XGYC Fund. Brian also currently sits on the board of Affirm, Oscar, AltSchool and Emerald Therapeutics. Due to Brian's immense success he was named No 5 on Forbes Midas List for America's Top VCs.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Brian made the way from Google, to his own angel fund to being General Partner @ Founders Fund?
2.) How has Brian seen his investment mindset shift over the years from angel investing to his angel fund, XGYC to now being a partner at Founders Fund?
3.) Why does Brian believe that success in VC is purely about upside maximization? What does Brian think downside minimisation is unimportant?
4.) What does the investment decision-making process look like at Founders Fund? How does this change with the scaling cheque size? What are Brian's views on conviction driven vs unanimous team voting structures?
5.) Why is Brian a staunch generalist when it comes to investing? For Brian, why does he believe that being a generalist will deliver outsized returns over being a specialist?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Brian's Fave Book: Snow Crash
Brian's Fave Blog: Dan Primack
Brian's Most Recent Investment: Affirm
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brian on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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