James Tynan: Energy management post auto immune illnesses, scaling Khan Academy to the world's biggest EdTech, Venture capital unknowns & climate tech thesis

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Welcome to episode #88 w James Tynan! Here are 5 key takeaways you will learn from this episode:

1. Growing up in an ambitious household, being very driven from day 1

2. Why James felt the need to move to the US post university

3. Key learning from scaling Khan Academy from a YouTube channel to the world’s biggest ed tech (at that time)

4. Energy management learnings from dealing with a number of autoimmune illnesses

5. Behind the scenes of James' workings with founders & personal development areas

Please enjoy!

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TIMESTAMPS

02:58 - Fun facts about James

03:38 - Wife Kate being a high flyer

04:33 - Big change when James was 10 years old

05:20 - Parents in architecture and medicine

05:44 - Personality in high school

06:36 - Biggest influence in first 10 years

07:42 - Success at age 18

09:41 - How life changed in first year of university

11:38 - Learning movement building with Obama 2008 campaign

13:17 - 4 key learnings from scaling Khan Academy, joining very early

16:50 - Critical story that helped understand emotional intelligence

19:16 - How the move back to Australia happened

20:31 - Seeing the building of Australia’s startup ecosystem in 2014

22:36 - Energy vs time management

25:23 - Why energy management hacks are not useful

27:50 -  Balance in Health vs performance

29:28 - Transition from startmate to squarepeg

32:11 - Joining Squarepeg during COVID lockdowns

34:14 - Making founders comfortable in the 1st meeting

36:47 - Connection to younger vs seasoned founders

39:40 -  How does SquarePeg  differ to other big VC’s?

42:49 - SquarePeg’s global presence across ANZ, Israel and Singapore

43:58 - Analysis of current economic market

45:47 - Does the VC firm or partner matter more?

49:02 - Personal investment philosophy outside VC

51:12 - Thesis on climate-tech

54:57 - Area of improvement focus

57:45 - Final sprint