EP 34: Interview w/ Oculus & Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey + Jon Sakoda Predicts Record VC Investments

The Logan Bartlett Show

Why the Government Won't Fund and Work With Small Defense Companies

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If you try to start a new defense company, most investors will say, look, i don't have to understand this market to understand that you can't be successful in it. Clearly the government is incapable of turning small defence companies into big defence companies. And for that reason, i'm not gont invest because investors wouldn't invest in new defense companies. Smart founders wouldn't start defense companies.smart employees wouldn't want to work for defence companies. It's much better for the industry to set that as the norm. I think other companies have raised more on our success than we have, which is great. Ah, i think it's, it's much betterfor the industry to setting

In the 34th episode, Palmer Luckey discusses founding Oculus VR, the controversy that got him fired from Facebook, and having to fight lies in the media. Plus his current success with Anduril and what the job of a CEO really entails. Decibel’s Jon Sakoda also makes an appearance to talk about his prediction of record VC investments and the revival of startup funding in the coming years.

(0:00) Intro

(1:02) Welcome Jon Sakoda

(6:13) Jon’s charts

(14:49) Internet Bubble

(20:34) Public vs private market valuations

(32:58) Other takeaways and predictions

(35:45) Welcome Palmer Luckey

(36:21) Journalism school

(39:10) The Oculus story

(41:41) Choosing VR over personal issues

(45:26) Donating to pro-Trump group

(50:44) Game studios “not” working with Oculus

(57:19) Facebook leadership’s intent

(1:05:29) The takeaway from Facebook controversy

(1:12:16) Founding Oculus

(1:15:11) Following talents vs passion

(1:22:33) Selling Oculus

(1:27:17) Founding Anduril

(1:40:54) What Anduril does

(1:46:40) Knowing a little about a lot

(1:50:18) Morality in war

(1:53:42) Building technology before war occurs

(1:57:15) Going to Ukraine

(2:00:51) Being a CEO

(2:05:21) An executive’s actual job

(2:07:51) Wrap up

Show Notes:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/opening-floodgates-290-billion-venture-capital-reserve-jon-sakoda/

https://twitter.com/jonsakoda/status/1572269690810159105?s=21&t=FLkGcKd2el-h38sX9AMsaw

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Hyn4FWHSNRrWJeddi0BMEQIMlmXy2SNj50T8jJcrKbw/edit#slide=id.g1273c4d3e67_15_0

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson

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A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

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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, 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.