Village Global Podcast

Samo Burja (@SamoBurja), founder of Bismarck Analysis, joins Erik for this episode. You can find him on Medium at medium.com/@samo.burja. In this episode they discuss:- Why certain societies flourish while others decay- Where Samo stands on the nature versus nurture debate- Why he has “yet to hear a satisfying description of human social life”- The lessons we can learn from places like Singapore- The difference between the view of government as resource for the people versus the view of people as resources for the government- Why he’s skeptical of happiness research as it relates to countries- Why neither Obama nor Trump were inevitable- The future of China, the US, and globalizationThanks 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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined on this episode by Daniel Pianko (@danielpianko), co-founder and managing director of University Ventures, and Andy Hall (@AndyHall_SD), COO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership.They talk about:- How ISAs have been able to transform lives through Andy’s program in San Diego.- Why tech titans providing massive amounts of money for scholarships is a suboptimal way of getting underprivileged people into school.- The chasm between work and school in America.- The fact that over 50% of all private donations go to 50 schools in the US.- Potential bottlenecks to ISA adoption and how they can be solved.- Why only 25% of people end up with a first job related to their degree.- How to think about public vs. private responsibility to increase access to education in the US.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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

On this episode Erik is joined by Chuck Trafton (@chucktrafton), of FlowPoint and edly, and Will Nelligan (@williamnelligan), of the Education Finance Institute.They talk about:- Why there needs to be a marketplace for ISAs.- How ISAs ensure that schools have “skin in the game.” - The problems with student loans.- The mechanics of ISA repayment and the ways in which they are progressive.- Why ISAs provide a unique opportunity for investors.- How ISAs can fix some of the perverse incentives that schools have.- Legislation that will enable ISAs to be more widespread.- Why it makes financial sense for schools to spend so much money on “customer acquisition” and how ISAs can create a new funding model for higher ed institutions.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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Robert Wright (@robertwrighter), author of Nonzero, The Moral Animal, Why Buddhism Is True, and others, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The common theme of exploring the meaning of life that Robert says runs through all of his books.- Whether global governance could be feasible and how positive-sum thinking can play a part in reducing hostilities between nations.- Why consciousness gives life meaning.- How to deal with the quest for status.- The emotional manipulation that political leaders employ.- Why we shouldn’t rush to bring in new technologies before we know the consequences.- Why evolution has not programmed us to be happy.- How to deal with tribalism.- Why people say that “to explain something is to excuse it” and why not thinking that way can bring about a more compassionate world.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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined on this episode by Glen Weyl (@glenweyl), founder of RadicalxChange and co-author of Radical Markets, and Tomer Kagan (@Gradish), co-founder and CEO of Merit.They discuss:- What they’re working on in the space and how it will change how identity works in the future- How to think about what makes up someone’s identity, including elements that are self-declared and those that can be independently verified- Glen’s point that the internet is missing two crucial elements: a truth function and a dignity function- How the world will be different if their projects succeed- Pseudonymous identities- The problem with large-scale identity or reputation systems, like the Chinese government or Uber have created- Why blockchain is the wrong answer to the right question when it come to identity, and the idea that “most truth is local, not global”- What they are still trying to figure out in the 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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined on this episode by Trae Vassallo (@trae) of Defy and Lee Edwards (@terronk) of Root Ventures. They talk about:- How their backgrounds and unique experiences have informed their perspectives on investing- Whether venture capital should go back to funding technical risk- Their advice for funds and how Trae has seen investing strategies come and go over time- Why there are big opportunities in areas VCs don’t know much about, like logistics, warehousing, or agriculture- Why Trae doesn’t differentiate between consumer and enterprise businesses- Their requests for startups in the 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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Mike Elias (@harmonylion1), crypto consultant, joins Erik on this episode to talk about idea markets.They discuss:- How he came up with the idea- Examples of how this could be implemented in the real world- The problems with the incentives of the world’s media- Why it’s “impossible to kill an idea with force”- How an idea market is like a mix of the Nasdaq and Reddit- Why, as a society, we want to search for the ideas that are both “outrageous and true”- Why William James said that we should measure ideas primarily by their usefulnessThanks 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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined on this episode by Alex Taussig (@ataussig) of Lightspeed, and Pete Flint (@peteflint) of NFX.They talk about:- The evolution of marketplaces over time, including a comparison of the characteristics of eBay and Lyft at the time they went public.- Why the next wave of marketplace businesses will be in financial services, and why they require a unique team with a specific set of experiences.- Examples of existing startups that are working in this space, as well as their requests for startups.- The pros and cons of ISAs, and their potential impact.- Conversational commerce, and why it didn’t live up to the hype.- How healthcare and other heavily regulated markets might be be attacked by entrepreneurs.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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. The talk about:- The difference between fake growth and real growth, and how to know which one your company is experiencing.- Why fake growth has taken hold in so many companies in the Valley, and its broader systemic causes.- The difference between value hacking and growth hacking.- Why once you’ve entered the growth stage, it’s next to impossible to go back to the value hacking stage.- His thoughts on the Thiel vs. Rabois schools of markets.- His tips for growing SaaS companies.- How to think about incumbents.- Why a pivot is not the same thing as a mulligan.- The reasons for the fact that, in his opinion, there is too much money in VC.- Why companies are staying private longer.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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Alex Bangash (@AlexBangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik as part of our LP series.They talk about:- The myth, according to Alex, that there are such things as “good pickers” in venture.- The fact that in venture, the traditional investment model is turned on its head — assets are picking managers, rather than the other way around. - Why “the structural advantage of the big funds has all but disappeared” and why he cringes when someone tells him they want to be the next Benchmark.- How he is trying to disrupt the entire venture model by democratizing access to capital.- Why he’s bullish on the studio model and which kinks still need to be worked out.- Where the next big thing in VC will come from.- What he means when he says he’s “trying to bring a tennis racket to a basketball game” when talking about whether star GPs could be thought of as analogous to big NBA free agents.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.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.