Unicorn Founder on Unseen Arbitrages, the Paradox of Wealth + Charlie Munger Wisdom ft. Ryan Petersen

My First Million

Key Takeaways 

• Instead of focusing on how something might fail, consider how big the idea could be if everything worked out 
• You don’t always want to sit behind a defensive moat; sometimes, a high-velocity attack is the best way to win 
• Mental models from one discipline are often applicable in another discipline; cross-pollinate ideas and concepts across disciplines and you may discover something novel 
• The key to success is dumb competition; competing against knuckleheads increases your chances of success
• Focusing on making money will cause you to make less money; nobody wants to give money to people who are too focused on making money 
• It is fine to want money, but wealth is a paradox; the more of it you want, the less of it you get 
  • It is better to focus on things that are upstream of making money, such as solving problems and developing skills that are valuable to other people 
• The greatest returns in investing come from allowing the compounding machine to run; do not make decisions or engage in behavior that interrupts the compounding machine 
• You have a massive arbitrage opportunity if you can avoid mimetic desire in venture capital investing 
• In life and business, you can just do things! You don’t always need permission 

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

---

Episode 648: Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talks to Flexport founder Ryan Petersen ( https://x.com/typesfast ) about playing both games: bootstrapping a startup to millions and raising venture capital to build a multi-billion dollar company. 
—
Show Notes: 
(0:00) Import Genius
(5:36) Paul Graham's superpower
(9:34) Data-as-a-service framework
(13:51) Charlie Munger's worldly wisdom
(19:45) Prioritizing adventure
(24:09) The paradox of wealth
(28:51) Charlie Munger's student experiment
(31:00) Negotiation masterclass
(37:23) Inside Founders Fund
(43:16) Being in a crowd v following a crowd
(46:29) Highs and lows
(48:52) "You can just do things"
(50:16) Unseen arbitrages
(53:00) $50M Phone booths

—
Links:
• Flexport - https://www.flexport.com/ 
• Flexport on X - https://x.com/flexport
• ImportGenius - https://www.importgenius.com/ 
• Schlep Blindness - https://paulgraham.com/schlep.html
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack - https://www.stripe.press/poor-charlies-almanack 
• Founders Fund - https://foundersfund.com/ 

—
Check Out Shaan's Stuff:
Need to hire? You should use the same service Shaan uses to hire developers, designers, & Virtual Assistants → it’s called Shepherd (tell ‘em Shaan sent you): https://bit.ly/SupportShepherd

—
Check Out Sam's Stuff:
• Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/
• Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/
• Copy That - https://copythat.com
• Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth
• Sam’s List - http://samslist.co/

My First Million is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Production by Arie Desormeaux // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano