The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator

Kaz Nejatian, COO of Shopify, shares his journey from Iran to Canada, his tech passion, and why Shopify ditched meetings. Topics include product culture, hiring unique talent, marriage's career benefits, and the power of prayer for CEOs.

Blake Murray, Divvy CEO, shares insights on building a successful startup. Topics include: identifying a big idea, creating a world-class team, selling before building, hiring like-minded individuals, building a performance culture, sacrificing for upside, and seeking loyal investors. Learn about Divvy's journey to success and valuable founder advice.

Guest Scott Sandell, NEA's Executive Chairman, shares his investment philosophy, emphasizing understanding founders' life stories and future goals. Topics include characteristics of unicorn founders, passion-driven missionaries, purposeful growth at Tableau, navigating board relationships, and the era of decreasing LP commitments.

Jake Gibson, co-founder of NerdWallet, and Sheel Mohnot, founder of FeeFighter, discuss fintech trends. They touch on starting companies during the 2008 crisis, SEO strategies, launching Better Tomorrow Ventures, pandemic-induced fintech surge, embedded fintech future, and changing bank profit pools. They also share their nominees for best operators and investors.

Immad Akhund, CEO of Mercury and serial entrepreneur, discusses the early days of Mercury, the neobank industry, advice on operating, and his strategies on investing. Topics include launching Mercury, the SVB fallout, AI hype cycle, and operating advice like the six-year vesting plan.

Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Alex Rampell may be the most true version of an investor-operator. Alex's first entrepreneurial endeavor started as a child when he built and sold shareware out of his parent's house. Eventually he added more businesses to his portfolio before launching the payment platform TrialPay after college and eventually Affirm. Today, Alex invests in some of the largest companies at Andreessen Horowitz and he shares with Tyler and Sterling what he looks for in entrepreneurs and shares tactical advice from his days building. Chapters: (00:03:00) How Alex Started His First Company in Middle School(00:14:46) Investing in People: The Key to Startup Success(00:18:33) Building Relationships for Business Success(00:21:23) The Advantage of Naivete in Entrepreneurship(00:26:41) Interconnected Attributes for Building a Successful Business(00:28:44) Building a Strong Entrepreneurial Framework(00:36:04) Mitigating Risk of Overdependence on Initial Customers(00:42:20) The Battle for Market Dominance(00:46:05) The Crucial Role of Distribution for Startups(00:57:17) The Challenge of Convincing Buyers(01:00:38) Leveraging fear to drive successful acquisitions

VC titan Geoff Lewis from Bedrock Capital joins the podcast to share insights on venture capital and raising funds. He discusses assessing founders, the power of authenticity, when to double down on investments, and the OpenAI situation. They also talk about the future of social media and the challenges of regaining health in a technology-driven society.

Learn from Mark Cranney, former a16z partner, as he shares his playbook for building world-class revenue organizations. Topics include finding sales leaders, hiring courageous team members, running a sales playbook, building cohesion through bootcamps, and avoiding common mistakes made by first-time founders.

Henry Ward, CEO of Carta, recounts his journey to entrepreneurship and shares critical advice for other builders. They discuss developing insights, filling a need for customers, finding product-market fit, fundraising strategy, and establishing a strong culture at your startup. Henry also shares his famous Henryisms and gives advice to current founders. The hosts talk about the future plans of Carta and the challenges of being a founder. They also express admiration for operators and investors.

Garry Tan, President and CEO of YCombinator, shares valuable startup advice on cofounder dynamics, paying attention to competition, healing adverse childhood experiences, users lying until they pay, and the importance of founder culture in startups. He also talks about why SF is the best place for product-market fit and the hosts discuss their takeaways.