Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Cyan Banister - Investing for a Higher Purpose - [Invest Like the Best, EP.361]

Feb 20, 2024

01:25:37

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Learn about Cyan Banister's incredible journey from homelessness to becoming a successful angel investor. Discover how she navigates the transition from qualitative to quantitative investing and the importance of resilience in facing adversity. Explore the power of reconnecting with one's inner child, making investments with intuition and purpose, and embracing spiritual awakening. Hear about unexpected encounters with Bill Murray and a young violinist, and how investments can create magic and empower artists.

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Quick takeaways

Having faith in something higher can lead to a more fulfilling and purposeful life.

Embracing joy in mundane moments can bring a sense of curiosity and wonder to life.

Supporting young talent and creating magic can make a positive impact in the world.

Deep dives

Believing in the magical world

After a period of reflection during the pandemic, the speaker underwent a spiritual awakening and transitioned from atheism to embracing faith and spirituality. They realized that the world is magical and started to view everything through a new lens. They learned to let go of past trauma and saw it as a construct of their imagination. This realization allowed them to find peace, trust their intuition, and experience a sense of ease in life. They believe that having faith in something higher than oneself can lead to a more fulfilling and purposeful life.

Facing Adversity with Curiosity and Wonder

02:07

Investing in Uber: A Perspective from a Major Investor

00:55

Qualitative, gut-based investing is better for early stage investing, like Angel investing

03:07

Importance of Hospitality Orientation in Seed Stage

01:01

Introduction

2min

From Homelessness to Angel Investor: A Story of Resilience and Success

3min

Navigating the Transition in Investing

8min

Resilience in the Face of Adversity

7min

Rediscovering Inner Child Wonder

14min

Venturing into Investments with Intuition and Purpose

14min

A Journey of Spiritual Awakening

8min

Unexpected Golf Day with Bill Murray

3min

Lessons on Staying Present and Appreciating the Moment

2min

10.

Whimsical Encounter at Defcon with a Young Violinist

1min

11.

Creating Magic Through Investments and Personal Growth

13min

12.

Empowering Artists and Challenging Mainstream Entertainment

5min

13.

Navigating the Future: Technology, Education, and Work

3min

14.

A Life-Saving Act of Kindness from a Stranger

3min

My guest today is Cyan Banister. Cyan’s life story is remarkable. She was homeless at a young age, dropped out of high school, and five years ago she suffered an extremely rare stroke. Yet, in spite of everything, she is one of the most optimistic and curious people you can hope to meet. Cyan is also one of the great angel investors of this era, having invested early in SpaceX, Uber, Postmates, and Deepmind to name a few winners. She became the first female investing partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and now invests at Long Journey Ventures.

Our conversation is as much about investing as it is about the essence of life and how connecting with that will help us in our professional pursuits. It is also full of awesome stories about people and companies like SpaceX and Bill Murray. Please enjoy this great conversation with Cyan Banister.

Listen to Founders Podcast

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the only investment research platform built for the investor. With traditional research vendors, the diligence process is slow, fragmented, and expensive. That leaves investors competing on how well they can aggregate data — not on their unique ability to analyze insights and make great investment decisions. Tegus offers an end-to-end platform with all the data you need to get up to speed on a company or market: up-to-the-minute financials, customizable models, management and culture checks, and, of course, our vast and growing library of expert call transcripts. Tegus is changing the world of expert research. Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:04:03) First question - Spirituality as an Investable Category

(00:06:51) Journey to Founders Fund

(00:12:13) Overcoming Adversity and Embracing Optimism

(00:14:28) The Power of Authenticity and Curiosity

(00:25:28) The Skill of Feeling in Business

(00:30:26) Investing in Uber

(00:36:18) The Changing Dynamics of Early-Stage Investment

(00:39:07) The Philosophy of 'Set it and Forget It'

(00:42:24) The SpaceX Story: A Leap of Faith

(00:48:02) Cyan’s Spiritual Awakening

(00:61:34) Her Story of the Violin Kid

(01:05:36) The Art of Trusting Your Gut in Business

(01:07:47) The Spirit of Founders Fund and the Future of Venture Firms

(01:15:16) What She Would Do With 1 Trillion Dollars

(01:24:05) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Cyan

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Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Cyan Banister - Investing for a Higher Purpose - [Invest Like the Best, EP.361]