Curiosity-Driven Investment Insights: The Uber Story

Cyan Banister (@cyantist) is a general partner at Long Journey Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on early and new investments. Cyan was an early investor in Uber, SpaceX, DeepMind, Flexport, and Affirm and has invested in more than 100 companies. Prior to that, she was at Founders Fund, a top-tier fund in San Francisco. Subscribe to Cyan's Substack at uglyduckling.substack.com.

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start 

[06:16] Early life and education as a white minority on a Navajo reservation.

[11:18] Strained family dynamics and a cycle of neglect.

[18:20] The intervention of Officer Pratt and becoming a ward of the state at 15.

[22:46] Crusty punk survival strategies and life on the streets.

[32:02] The positive influence of Cyan's "second" mother.

[34:17] Crass, Chris Collins, and computers.

[38:03] An unorthodox path to angel investment beginning with Uber.

[48:13] Niantic/Pokemon GO.

[56:27] How stalking Garrett Langley led to a Flock Security investment.

[01:00:07] GameCrush, activist investors, and lessons learned.

[01:07:00] Sales lessons from the street.

[01:10:08] A mindful approach to questioning narratives.

[01:15:35] The pre-OnlyFans story of Zivity.

[01:24:44] Views on sex and relationships.

[01:28:47] Magic glasses, esoteric rabbit holes, and rolling the dice.

[01:44:02] How Aleister Crowley and Bill Murray paved a path to ex-atheism.

[02:02:21] Cyan's billboard.

[02:04:41] Enduring a stroke and its aftermath.

[02:08:31] Meditation, throat-singing, and philosophy.

[02:17:50] The Boston spiritual experience and duck boat baptism.

[02:40:53] A book in the works, the Ugly Duckling Substack, and parting thoughts.

*

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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