"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today's episode is with Immad Akhund who is a serial entrepreneur and serial investor. He has been through Y Combinator a couple times, and his current business, Mercury, is a bank built for startups. But really, it's a bank built for all businesses and full disclosure, I am fortunate enough to be an investor (but there’s a side to this that I still kick myself for — more details in the episode). Immad shares with us the “below the line” version of being acquired, the toll the founder life can take on a person and their family, as well as the reasons behind starting Mercury. He also shares why he persisted through many negative conversations, and why he still decided to build his current (and now very hip startup) even though there are many people who weren’t fans of the idea in the beginning — myself included. We talk about all of these things and more — and I really loved the candor and the simplicity in which he's able to articulate just what he was going through, what matters (and what doesn’t), and what decisions he would have made differently. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC.

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today’s episode is with one of the world’s best venture investors coming from perhaps the world’s best venture firm… My guest is Alfred Lin, who is a partner at the famed venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Alfred is an investor in companies like Airbnb and DoorDash and Instacart among others. With one of the best track records, I’ve ever come across… with publications like Forbes saying he has the Midas Touch. His track record as an investor is impressive, but as an operator, building companies like LinkExchange (sold to Microsoft), his own venture firm years ago that invested in winners like OpenTable, and then Zappos (selling to Amazon)… his track record as a builder is just about as impressive as an investor. So, as you can imagine, Alfred has a lot of insights from uniquely being at such high levels on both sides of the table. We talk about how he spots great founders, what the process at Sequoia is really like/peeking behind the veil of one of the most prestigious investment firms in the world. We talk about the books that have impacted his thinking as an investor, it’s not what you would expect. We talk about the silver lining of this new world we all find ourselves in, and we talk about the stories that shaped who he has become… All that and more with one of the smartest (but also kindest) people in Silicon Valley. This is Below The Line. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today's deep dive is with Brianne Kimmel where we discuss her (persistent) path to angel investing in technology startups. From purposefully connecting with the investor of the company she began working at (within months of starting) to hosting dinners for founders to teaching her craft openly and building a massive community to starting her own fund... and everything in between. Brianne is an early-stage startup investor here in the Bay Area, and her fund is called Worklife. It has a very interesting vision of investing in companies that make work more flexible, creative, human, and balanced. We talk about her journey to becoming an investor, which covers her first investment, and what she was doing before she became an investor... We also discussed her designs in her career path and the choices she made early on that helped her in her current path. We even covered what types of founders and companies will thrive in this post-COVID world... all that and more. It's a great conversation, and I'm really excited for listeners to get a deep dive into what it's like to become an angel investor. Enjoy. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author John’s monthly “Global Guerillas Report”: https://www.patreon.com/johnrobb Today's episode is with John Robb, a former aeronautical engineer, special-ops soldier, and then the first internet analyst in the 90’s (followed by becoming an extremely successful entrepreneur). He chats with us about his research report that he releases monthly called “The Global Guerillas Report” and answers the question of “What the hell is going on right now?” in the life and times of Covid-19. He predicted social networks and their impact on the world back in 1996. He also predicted this pandemic in January before most people knew what was about to happen. And he has a few other observations that I haven’t heard anyone mention anywhere else to date that make this one of my favorite episodes to date. Simply put, John’s monthly “Global Guerillas Report” is some of the best research and journalism on geopolitical trends I’ve ever come across. John was months ahead of pretty much everyone else with predicting this pandemic, and for someone that thinks deeply about the ramifications of what's happening in the present (and for what can / what will likely happen in the future), this is one of my favorite conversations that I've had in several months cutting across almost every question on my mind with regards to the global situation we’re currently in. Enjoy. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today's episode is with Andrew Wilkinson. I've been really anticipating meeting Andrew for a few years now. I'm a big fan of his agency, MetaLab, his firm, Tiny Capital, and his original views on investing and running technology businesses for a while. He has done things so idiosyncratically that there isn't anyone like him on the internet that I'm aware of — From starting businesses at 15 and dropping out of college a few years later to pursue his entrepreneurial path, that sounds like a story that you might have heard before. But the part that you probably haven't heard before is that a few years later, he's running five businesses at the same time, after that it’s 25. And he’s likely still just getting started. Instead of finding companies that he wants to invest in and deploy capital, they do things a little bit differently at his firm, Tiny Capital. They actually are looking to buy companies from founders that might have been running it for years, and are looking for some smart way out. If you’re familiar with venture capital, this is the exact opposite of that model. I can't wait for you to hear from Andrew himself on the story behind it, and how he thinks through approaching this unique side of investing, owning, and running businesses. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author This plog (podcast+blog post mashup) is called “The Wisdom of Insecurity”...“The desire for security is the same thing as insecurity” — Alan Watts. On my blog, podcasts, and even in my music, I reference the philosopher Alan Watts. If you haven't heard of him, you likely will in the coming decades because he happened to do three things uniquely well in the 20th century... He introduced the West to many Eastern concepts such as Vedanta, Daoism, and Zen Buddhism through a deep understanding of each (especially for someone that was born in Great Britain and was an ordained Anglican minister) + He articulately wrote and spoke widely throughout the country + And he happened to record those philosophical lectures for us to listen to 60-70 years later. In one of his books, “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, he makes the case that insecurity is both the inextinguishable and extremely valuable *if* we question why we’re trying to rid ourselves of it. Want to hear my personal point of view about this topic? Listen to this mini-episode to learn more. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author I am really excited about today's episode with none other than Hiten Shah. This is a topic that many people are thinking about, myself included — which is how to work from home productively and efficiently. I've been doing it for about a year and a half now. If you google “remote or work from home best practices” Hiten’s content is the stuff that comes up at the top of the list and for good reason. He's been working from home and running distributed teams for almost two decades... way longer than anyone else I know... So when I thought about a deep-dive episode in this topic, I couldn't think of anyone better than Hiten to join us with his best practices in general (as well as a COVID-19 version) of working from home. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today's episode is with Taryn Toomey, one of my favorite founders in the world, and though I am an investor in her company (called The Class), that isn’t why she’s one of my favorites… Her company is a cult-craze that started in New York City and is now growing internationally. And though it started as a “physical experience” (not going to call it a workout class) in-person in NYC, those who would like to join The Class digitally now have the ability to actually participate around the globe instead of needing to be there in-person. So... now anyone can actually discover what it’s all about. We talk about her company, the genesis (the real version of the story), and also about “grieving well”... a phrase I'd never really heard of before or considered. We talk about the principles behind The Class, the conversations she had in life right before it began, and a whole lot more. I'm really excited for you all, to listen to this episode with Taryn. Enjoy. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today's episode was originally recorded near the end of February, and we usually take a week before releasing a recorded podcast. But with the exponential disruption that the Coronavirus was unleashing in many places around the world in the subsequent weeks, we wanted to hold off on releasing this episode until we felt like people had been able to get their feet beneath them. We recorded a COVID-19 focused episode and released that recently with Eric Ries — Now we're back to our more typical conversation style today with Mike Duboe from Greylock Partners. Mike is an old friend and colleague, and he's one of the smartest thinkers when it comes to startup growth in Silicon Valley. He has a rare combination of analytical, practical, and creative thinking all-in-one which makes him a pretty high in-demand advisor, investor, and name that comes up when people start talking about healthy (and still aggressive) ways of growing your company. We cover a whole host of different topics under the umbrella of "growth". And I'm really excited for a deep-dive like this that goes into how startups and companies grow, how they should grow, how they *could* grow, and how they should *avoid* to grow. Enjoy. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

"The most exciting new podcast in the startup world.” - Eric Ries, Founder, and NYTimes bestselling author Today's episode was originally recorded on February 26th. We usually take a week before releasing a recorded podcast, but with the exponential growth and disruption that the coronavirus has been unleashing on the world, we wanted to hold off on releasing this episode and a few others until we felt like people had been able to get their feet beneath them. We recorded a Covid 19 focused episode and released it recently that you can check out. And now we're back to our more typical conversation style today with Geoff Lewis. Geoff is unique in that he is a previous founder himself, turned venture capitalist at the world-class Founders Fund venture firm, and then became a founder again combining his two passions (founding and investing) by starting his own venture capital firm called Bedrock Capital with partner Eric Stromberg. We talk about Geoff’s entrepreneurial path, the lessons he learned alongside some of the best investors in the world, including Peter Thiel, the creation of a lens into which he finds insights (that has become mimetic with other investors) called “narrative mirages” and “narrative violations”, his hardest moments as a founder and investor, and more. I'm excited for listeners to hear this conversation with a candid and original thinker like Geoff. You can email James questions directly at askbelowtheline@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/gobelowtheline — “Below the Line with James Beshara" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC