The Quest Pod with Justin Kan

It's finally coming to an end... 2020 has been a crazy year. Going through lockdowns has been stressful, though I spent a lot more time with family and friends I hadn't connected with for a while. I'm glad that many of those moments have been documented on the podcast: my goal is to tell the Justin Kan of 10 years ago what I know to be important today. Doing this gives me peace, and makes me feel happy. Going into 2021, I want The Quest to evolve with you all. We are launching a Fellows program to co-build the podcast with this community. We want people walking their own paths to be involved in our production process, work with me, and be in the room for when the conversation happens live. Applications for The Quest Fellows goes live on Jan 5th, 12pm PST. I will be hosting a Reddit AMA at the same time at r/IAmA to answer any questions you might have. Looking forward to what the New Year brings. Happy holidays and stay safe. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan💬 Reddit AMA: link🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

As we head into Season 2 of The Quest in 2021, I want to take you all back to the beginning. I started The Quest to share the stories of those who have found happiness and deeper meaning beyond success. This was inspired by a 15-year journey of my own, often grueling but one which I would not trade for the world. On this episode, I go back to my roots. I talk to Anne Miura-Ko, one of our first investors in Justin.tv (the company that eventually grew into Twitch) at my alma mater Yale University. We talk about my college days, the experience of being a part of YC's inaugural cohort and working with Emmett and Michael for the first time. We cover the setbacks, the times where I felt lost, and how those times put me on a path in search of fulfillment. Merry Christmas and I hope you guys enjoy this extra episode. P.S. watch out for a big annoucement next week for The Quest 2021! 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Amitt Mahajan is the co-creator of Farmville, the single most popular Facebook game that brought in $1B+ in total player purchases. He is also a close friend who introduced me to daily gratitute journaling, a habiting I have kept for two years. On this epsiode we go through the lessons he learned and unlearned building Farmville, and the path he charted to become the source of his own approval. We talk about lead-climbing for each other, auditing energy and finding our flow machines. We also announce Kin for the first time in public: the wellness app that Amit and I have been working on for the past six months. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

By popular request: I speak to my brother, Dan Kan about what it was like growing up in the Kan household. Dan is the co-founder of Cruise, a self-driving car company that sold to General Motors for more than $1B. We talk about the moments from our formative years that set us up as entrepreneurs, founding a company together, learning to talk about emotions, negotiating a billion dollar deal with GM, and much more. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Matt Gamache-Asselin is one of the scrappiest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. Five years ago, he was a junior engineer at Facebook, dreaming about startups. Today, he’s the founder of Alto, a digital pharmacy startup that serves tens of thousands of patients and has raised $350M in investment funding. I’ve watched him struggle, survive, and thrive on his journey, and am lucky to consider him a close personal friend. In the podcast we discuss coming to Silicon Valley and founding Alto, the grind of the early days, conflict aversion, learning from mentors, meditation, and more. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Janusz Welin is a meditation teacher and the cofounder of Deep Mindfulness Collective. He’s also my meditation teacher, and helped me transform my own life through meditation. Janusz and I talk about his background as an artist, how art relates to meditation, what awakening actually is, how meditation intersects with technology, and much more. 🎥 Check out our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club 

I sat down today with my friend Scott Phoenix, founder and CEO of AI startup Vicarious. Vicarious is dedicated to creating Artificial General Intelligence and ushering forth a new golden age of robotics, and Scott has raised over $150m to do it. Two things I love about Scott: his dedication and focus to a singular mission to create AI, and his adoption of Conscious Leadership, a management philosophy that fundamentally changes the way we relate to ourselves and others. Learning about Conscious Leadership was one of the most impactful things that has happened for me in the past few years. In our conversation we talk about both those things, as well as our relationship with death, the difficulties founding a startup, and much more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Steve Huffman is the founder and CEO of Reddit. I’ve watched his whole journey since we both started as entrepreneurs in 2005: from founding Reddit, getting acquired by Conde Nast, leaving the company and coming back again as CEO in 2015.  In this episode Steve opened up in a broad ranging conversation that covered the Reddit origin story, his personal growth journey, quitting alcohol, his sometimes contentious relationship to the Reddit community, and more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

Arlan Hamilton, the founder of Backstage Capital, a VC firm focused on backing underrepresented minority founders, and one of the most determined people I’ve ever met. Five years ago, knowing nothing about the technology industry she set out to become a VC no matter what -- even spending time homeless and living out of the SF airport to make it happen. We talk about her new book, resilience and determination, what she’s learned from being an investor in over 150 companies, overcoming alcohol addiction, and more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

A tale of two industries. In this episode we talk to Ranidu Lankage, my cofounder of Whale (among other ventures) and Sri Lankan Pop Artist/DJ.  In our conversation, Ranidu shared what it was like to grow up in a country during a civil war, his journey of becoming a Sri Lankan pop star, how he got into tech, and all the lessons learned along the way. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​