Village Global Podcast

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in January 2020 at Ayn Rand Con. Erik interviewed Jason Crawford and Yaron Brook. Jason (@jasoncrawford) writes about the history of technology and industry at Roots of Progress.Yaron (@yaronbrook) is host of The Yaron Brook Show.They discuss:- What can destroy — or save — Silicon Valley.- What Rand would say about Silicon Valley if she could see it today.- How to reconcile egalitarianism and meritocracy.- How to make her ideas more mainstream.- Objectivism, libertarianism, and individualism.- Progress as a human achievement and how to appreciate it.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Rahul Vohra (@rahulvohra), founder and CEO of Superhuman, and Todd Goldberg (@toddg777), angel investor, join Erik on this episode. They’ve raised a $7M angel fund together called the Todd and Rahul Angel Fund.They discuss:- The nano fund trend, first-time fund operators, and their thinking on fund size.- How they thought about their next ideas when getting ready to start their companies.- The spaces they’re most excited about.- What it means to build “prosumer software” and what Rahul learned from building Superhuman.- The common mistakes founders make when thinking about product-market fit.- How to think about raising — and spending — money.- How to create product experiences that result in flow.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Nick Mehta (@nrmehta), CEO at Gainsight, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- SaaS sub-sectors that Nick is excited about- Is Customer Success a skillset, function, a software stack?- What are the most common misconceptions about customer success?- When should a startup start thinking about the customer success function?- How do you scale the customer success function?- What’s the profile of a successful customer success manager?- How has customer success evolved over the past decade and where is it going?- Nick’s thoughts on the sales enablement spaceThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Angela Tran (@angelatytran), GP at Version One, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- How digital health is helping to empower consumers.- The unbundling of healthcare.- Her requests for startups in healthcare.- The questions she asks when evaluating marketplace companies.- Why she looks for marketplace companies that are creating new behaviours for consumers, rather than just unbundling them from their previous providers.- Her thoughts on fitness, consumer social, and the Toronto Raptors.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Alex Bangash (@alexbangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- Why and how he wants to disrupt venture.- How VC is changing and why later stage investing is becoming more private equity-like.- Why he says common stock is the biggest driver of disruption in the industry now, and why it’s also the most misunderstood.- The myth of being a great picker in venture.- If and where data can provide an unfair advantage.- Why he likes the platform model.- What he thinks of the nano fund model.- Trends on the LP side of things, including investing directly in companies.- How crypto and crowdfunding might disrupt venture in the future.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Amit Mukherjee (@AmitMukherjee) of NEA and Kyle Doherty (@kydoh) of General Catalyst join Erik on this episode:They discuss:- How data is being used in private market investing, how it differs from the approaches used in public markets, and how it will evolve in the future.- Crossover investing between public and private-oriented firms and why public investors are moving to earlier stages. - The advantages and disadvantages of going public and whether in the future there will be companies that never go public.- The importance of founder vs. team vs. market at the early stages versus the later stages.- Whether VC firms will expand into other specialized practices like real estate, crypto, biotech, and others.- Their predictions for how VC firms will evolve in the next ten years.- Their lessons from investing in food companies.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Delian Asparouhov (@zebulgar), principal at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- Delian’s essays on what he’s learned from working with Keith Rabois at Founders Fund, and why he says “osmosis is the best way to learn.”- How they evaluate talent in general, and specifically founders.- Why he says that the more technical the company, the better the founder has to be at fundraising and storytelling.- Why they are more excited about lending these days.- Companies that help you improve your sleep with personalized solutions.- What the “business equation” means for a company and Keith’s rules of thumb for figuring out whether it’s viable or not.- What to look for when interviewing executives, and the difference between value-creating and value-protecting positions.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Ajay Agarwal (@ajay_bcv) and Kevin Zhang (@kevinzhang) of Bain Capital Ventures join Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The history of enterprise software and how the way it has been sold has changed over time.- How SaaS, cloud-based software and changing customer expectations have transformed enterprise software.- The ways that investors are investing differently in software in a bottom-up world.- The most interesting places where bottom-up software can go next.- Why Ajay says that supply chain innovation has been and will be the key to long-term success.- Some of their requests for startups in the space.- Predictions for the next 5-10 years.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart), creator of The Diff (diff.substack.com), joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The fox/hedgehog dichotomy- Is it better to be a specialist or generalist?- Do institutions drift leftward over time?- How will the culture war evolve over time?- How are financial bubbles created?- What we can learn from financial bubbles?- The future of K-12 and higher education- The future of identity and anonymity- Why filter bubbles are good- The future of journalism- Why we’re polarized- What should be the role of government and Wall Street?- The value of social capital and how to think about it- Are financial bubbles necessary- The tyranny of the long generationThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart), creator of The Diff (diff.substack.com), joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The role of cost disease in healthcare, education, and construction- The future of globalization- Can bitcoin become a reserve asset- Is Wall Street good for society- How interest rates will change over the next 5-10 years and the role of negative interest rates - Mental models for thinking about financial bubbles- Betting on the future of Silicon Valley- Reasons for the Tech Lash and how it will evolve over the next decade- Future of the US-China relationshipThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.