My guest this week is Trae Stephens. Trae is a partner at Founders Fund and co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril. Trae’s philosophy can be boiled down to finding good quests, which has led him to investing in businesses that work closely with the government on societally important issues. Clearly, that extends to co-founding Anduril and I would highly recommend listening to my Business Breakdowns episode on Anduril if you haven’t already. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of lobbyists, why the high-tech defense firms of the past became stale, and how he hunts for disagreeableness in founders. Please enjoy my conversation with Trae Stephens. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. Listen to Founders PodcastFounders Episode 136 - Estee LauderFounders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:17] - [First question] - Why Trae thinks most high-margin businesses are bad for society[00:04:28] - What would he change to impact energy technology most if he were in charge[00:06:18] - His investing focus on dynamism and mission-driven tech companies[00:09:42] - Analyzing why relatively few people strive to make society-level advancements[00:11:35] - What he’s done as a parent to enable his kids to develop passions[00:12:41] - The most noteworthy adventures in his career[00:14:41] - Founding Anduril and what it taught him about the tech industry[00:18:40] - The cutting-edge of defense technologies today[00:21:29] - What Shyam Sankar of Palantir taught him about defense tech[00:23:34] - Why some of the biggest defense tech companies have stopped innovating[00:28:29] - What he and Anduril have learned about sales and scaling in the public sector[00:35:22] - His take on Peter Thiel’s notion that competition should be avoided[00:38:24] - The importance of being psychologically disagreeable when building a start-up[00:39:54] - The origin story that stands out the most from companies he has interviewed[00:41:12] - How he developed an investor mindset on his unorthodox path to the venture world[00:43:57] - What he has learned from playing supporting roles and aligning with great leaders[00:46:11] - Important but uncommon lessons about entrepreneurship[00:48:21] - Venture investing lessons he’s learned from Lauren Gross[00:50:00] - His first VR project and aspirations for the future of VR[00:54:50] - The role of religion and spirituality in his business philosophies[00:59:13] - Why he tries to capitalize on morality as opposed to sin[01:03:57] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Trae Stephens, Partner at Founders Fund, discusses the unconventional deals and decision-making process at the VC firm. He highlights the importance of avoiding competitive deals, prioritizing upside maximization, and focusing on strong founders over markets. The conversation also touches on the impact of billionaire co-founders in tech success and reflections on Western political mediocrity.

Explore the effective comms strategy of Anduril with insights from Lulu Cheng Meservey and Trae Stephens. Learn about the 10 rules that shaped Anduril's success, how to navigate PR challenges, and the importance of building your audience. Discover the secrets behind founder communication strategies and the power of repeating the mission consistently.

EPISODE FOUR: In this episode, Mike is joined by Kmele Foster and Trae Stephens. We break down the movie Oppenheimer, the aftermath of dropping nuclear weapons, and the discourse surrounding the film. Featuring Mike Solana , Kmele Foster, Trae Stephens Subscribe to Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/ Pirate Wires Twitter: https://twitter.com/PirateWires Mike Twitter: https://twitter.com/micsolana Kmele Twitter: https://twitter.com/kmele Trae Twitter: https://twitter.com/traestephens TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro - Welcome Kmele & Trae 1:48 - SPOILER ALERT If You Don't Know The Ending To WWII 2:25 - Christopher Nolan's Past Movies We Liked 3:23 - Review Of Oppenheimer 13:30 - Creating A Doomsday Device To End All Wars 20:13 - Controversy Around The Name Oppenheimer - Accountability For Actions - We're Missing This Today 29:20 - Famous Physicist Who Worked On Manhattan Project 32:45 - McCarthyism 35:32 - Was The Movie Too Pessimistic? 38:00 - No Nuclear Bombs Have Been Dropped After WWII 39:18 - "Thank God For The Atom Bomb" - Why We Needed To Drop The Nuke 55:23 - Preventing Other Countries From Getting Atom Bombs 56:52 - What's More Dangerous? Dropping The Nuke or Not? 59:50 - Depravity For The American Project 1:03:58 - No One Wants War 1:05:00 - Thanks For Joining For This Special Episode! Pirate Wires Podcast Every Friday!

Trae Stephens, General Partner at Founders Fund, discusses the importance of independent thinking and debate culture at the firm. They emphasize their unique approach to deal-making driven by individual conviction. They also talk about the governance structure at Founders Fund and their focus on making highly concentrated bets. Additionally, they discuss the challenges and opportunities of investing in government tech and their approach to hiring new talent.

Trae Stephens, a general partner at Founders Fund and co-founder of Anduril, teams up with Michael Kratsios, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer, to tackle pressing issues in the defense sector. They reveal the shortcomings of the defense industrial base and discuss innovative strategies to maintain competitiveness against China. With a focus on revitalizing American manufacturing and leveraging new technologies, they explore how modern warfare demands a shift in defense spending. The conversation also highlights the challenges of attracting tech talent for public service.

EPISODE NINE: In this episode, Mike is joined by John Coogan and the Founder of Anduril Trae Stephens. We discuss the history of defense companies, how the tech startup Anduril became a player in the defense industry, the shift in opinion working with the government, and what the future of tech defense holds. Featuring Mike Solana , John Coogan, Trae Stephens. Subscribe to Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/ Topics Discussed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI4l-o4AcHs&t=1s&ab_channel=JohnCoogan Pirate Wires Twitter: https://twitter.com/PirateWires Mike Twitter: https://twitter.com/micsolana John Twitter: https://twitter.com/johncoogan Trae Twitter: https://twitter.com/traestephens TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 0:25 - Welcome John & Trae to the show! Preview of John's documentary on YT - Link in Description 2:55 - History Of Defense Companies 8:35 - What Does The Defense Industry Look Like Today? 12:40 - Competing With The Big Companies As A Startup 21:15 - Talking To Congress 23:20 - Will There Be New Players In The Space? 26:30 - Changes At Founders Fund To Accommodate Anduril 28:30 - Project Maven 37:15 - Tech Industry Has Zero Power In San Francisco 40:15 - The Dream Team Needed To Make Anduril A Success 45:45 - What's Next For Defense Industry? 51:30 - Go Watch John's Documentary on YouTube! And Follow John & Trae On Twitter (X) 51:50 - See You Next Week! Pirate Wires Podcast Every Friday!! #defense #tech #defenseindustry #lockheedmartin #boeing #war #anduril

Trae Stephens, Co-founder of Anduril, discusses the importance of government funding for defense startups. He advocates for investing in a small number of companies with high potential and moving away from bespoke solutions to commercial off-the-shelf solutions. The podcast explores the intersection of Silicon Valley and national defense, government procurement challenges in buying software products, and talent recruitment in the defense industry.

Trae Stephens, General Partner at Founders Fund and co-founder of Anduril, brings a wealth of experience to the table. He shares insights on Founders Fund's culture of open debate and high conviction in investments, emphasizing their unique hands-off approach with founders. Trae highlights the importance of concentrated portfolios and decision-making processes that embrace diverse opinions. The conversation also touches on navigating the defense technology sector and the need for creativity and risk-taking in fostering innovation.

Trae Stephens, investor and entrepreneur, discusses the ethics of scaling, the role of venture capital, and the importance of personal connections. They explore the dialectic of love and judgment, the challenges of commodification in different industries, and the impact of celebrities on society. The podcast also delves into decisive moments and life-shaping, biblical psychological profiles, and the idea of God as an investor.