Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures is truly one of the most successful and interesting early stage venture investors. And by ‘successful investor’, I mean “invested early in Uber and SpaceX” kind of successful.

She overcame a challenging childhood that included periods of homelessness (a surprisingly uplifting story, covered deeply in Tim Ferriss’ interview with Cyan).

Here we discuss Cyan’s journey from these early struggles to becoming a prominent figure in Silicon Valley. Along the way she learns to program computers, and co-founds Zivity – an early social networking site one might compare to OnlyFans.  She was a partner at VC juggernaut Founders Fund (the VC fund founded by Peter Thiel, that invested in AirBnB, Spotify and OpenAI among others).  She also is author of “The Ugly Duckling” substack.

This episode also includes her brush with Star Wars’ “Lucasfilm” (the singular matters), her meeting with Marc Andreesen and her (incredible) plans for the future.

Ugly Duckling

Long Journey Ventures

Something Ventured

8-Bit Capital