LaBossiere Podcast

Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder and General Partner at A*, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments. Before establishing A*, Kevin co-founded Eventbrite and guided the company as CEO for its first 11 years before it went public. His entrepreneurial journey also includes co-founding Xoom, a digital money transfer service that PayPal acquired in 2015 for over $1 billion. Kevin has established himself as a successful angel investor with seed investments in companies like PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Ramp, Trulia, and Anduril. His investment portfolio also includes early stakes in prominent companies such as Uber, Palantir, SpaceX, Square, Gusto, and numerous others.00:00 - Intro04:25 - Kevin's North Star06:27 - The Bottleneck to Entrepreneurship09:20 - The Explosion of Capital in Private Technology Markets11:52 - Monopolies and the Shift in Private Enterprise Value Distribution15:18 - Do Public Markets Price Themselves In?16:37 - When Is VC a Suitable Capital Instrument?19:09 - Agglomeration and The Future of Venture Capital20:56 - Cost of Capital and Competing in Venture23:09 - Is Value-Add Real?25:33 - On IPOing27:14 - Picking and Magnitude of Outcomes28:41 - Founders and Investors as Personality Types29:56 - Seed and Growth Investing as Distinct Skillsets32:02 - Incubations33:56 - Symptoms of Excess Capital35:55 - Can You Kingmake With Capital?37:17 - When Does It Make Sense to Raise a Huge Round?38:17 - Capital Efficiency39:39 - The Expansion of Technology Markets41:51 - Capital Innovation in Venture43:47 - The Endgame of Evaluation44:33 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?🎙️More Episodes🎙️YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFtApple: https://apple.co/478Be6MSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE📲Socials📲Twitter: https://twitter.com/adlabossiereLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/

Amjad Masad is the co-founder and CEO of Replit, a programming environment for everyone that allows anyone to write and deploy code, regardless of experience. Replit has 34 million users globally and is one of the fastest-growing developer communities in the world.Before Replit, Amjad was a tech lead on the JavaScript infrastructure team (which he helped start) at Facebook, where he contributed to popular open-source developer tools. Additionally, he played a key role as a founding engineer at the online coding school Codecademy.0:00 - Intro4:31 - Utopia, Dystopia, and Life in a Post-AI World11:28 - Replit and Expressiveness in Computing17:01 - Balancing Accessibility and Control in Products19:53 - Is AI a Sustaining or Disruptive Technology?25:04 - Building With AI and the Future of Company Structure29:32 - The Shape and Defensibility of Software in a World of AI33:37 - The Nation State and Stagnation in the Physical World38:28 - Technology and Resilience41:54 - What Shouldn't Get Automated?43:54 - What Becomes Valuable in a Post-AI World?47:10 - AI Augmenting vs Competing with Humans51:51 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?🎙️More Episodes🎙️YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFtApple: https://apple.co/478Be6MSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE📲Socials📲Twitter: https://twitter.com/adlabossiereLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/

Katherine Boyle, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and a former reporter at The Washington Post, dives into compelling discussions about the evolving role of public service and the push to make it more appealing. She passionately advocates for free speech and highlights the cultural shifts in talent from government to tech. Katherine also explores the effects of technology on resilience in modern adulthood, emphasizing the need for meaningful challenges. Lastly, she critiques Silicon Valley's aversion to national security and the importance of cultural narratives in the innovation landscape.

Keith Rabois, Managing Partner at Khosla Ventures and CEO of OpenStore, shares insights from his illustrious career in tech investing and startup culture. He discusses the importance of identifying exceptional founders and the competitive landscape of startup investment. Rabois emphasizes strategic hiring for cultural fit and how to create a monopoly on talent. With anecdotes about effective fundraising and the vital role of thorough reference checks, he paints a picture of what it takes to succeed in the fast-paced startup world.

Elad Gil is a serial entrepreneur, executive, and one of the greatest tech investors of all time, with early stakes in something like 40 billion-plus dollar companies: AirBnB, Anduril, Coinbase, Figma, Flexport, Instacart, Notion, OpenDoor, Pinterest, Square, Stripe… I could really go on. He’s now managing a new billion dollar venture fund, for which he’s the sole investor. Elad is also the co-founder of 2 companies: Color Genomics, a company providing genetic testing, software and clinical services for large-scale health programs – and before that, Mixer Labs, a company building location infrastructure for mobile devices that was acquired by Twitter. He worked as a VP at Twitter and also started the mobile team at Google. 0:00 - Intro 6:11 - Blank Slates and Decaying Institutions 8:16 - Western Pessimism and Agendas of Abundance vs Scarcity 12:30 - The Long Boom: Is Innovation Speeding Up? 16:26 - Are Startups Founder Limited or Market Limited? 19:26 - EIR Syndrome and Choosing the Right Market 21:41 - What Makes for a Good Investor, Operator and Entrepreneur? 24:05 - Positives and Negatives of Investing and Operating 26:17 - The Brand Value of Individuals vs Institutions 28:05 - Competing with Massive Firms 30:33 - Market-Driven Investing 33:23 - Starting Companies as Surfing Waves 36:09 - Age of Accomplishment and The Deferral of Adulthood 42:15 - What to Say Yes To 44:21 - Defense Tech and Complacency 49:25 - Private Markets and The Future of Venture 52:11 - Discontinuities in AI 53:49 - On Google 55:16 - LLM Oligopoly and Long-Term Scenarios for AI 1:00:41 - AGI and Sleeping 3 Hours a Night 1:03:19 - AI Doomerism 1:06:05 - The Deterioration of Speed 1:09:27 - Bureaucracy and the State of Nuclear 1:12:52 - Generosity and the Culture of Silicon Valley 1:15:19 - What Should More People Be Thinking About? 🎙️More Episodes🎙️ YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFt Apple: https://apple.co/478Be6M Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE 📲Socials📲 Twitter: https://x.com/adlabossiere Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/

Tech entrepreneur Erik Torenberg discusses investing, legacy media, Turpentine, creator monetization, community building, modernity, and the evolving media landscape. Topics include the future of media, content creation challenges, niche content, and the impact of social media on society.

This podcast features Bryan Johnson, known for his metabolic health achievements, longevity projects, and investments in technology. He shares insights on gene therapy, reducing aging, and the future of humanity. Johnson's endeavors include Project Blueprint, Rejuvenation Olympics, and OS Fund, showcasing a unique blend of innovation and impact-driven initiatives.

Entrepreneur and technology investor, Anthony Pompliano, discusses topics such as incumbents and competition in the age of AI, media's relationship with technology, consensus and misinformation, decline of trust in institutions, legislating technology, increasing the number of entrepreneurs, lessons from 1300 interviews, the state of crypto, and more.

Bryan Caplan is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a New York Times Bestselling author. He’s the author of 8 books, including The Myth of the Rational Voter, The Case Against Education, and Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration. His next book, Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing, will be published by the Cato Institute in 2024. He’s the editor and chief writer for Bet On It, the blog hosted by the Salem Center for Policy at the University of Texas. He’s published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, Atlantic, American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Law and Economics, and Intelligence, blogged for EconLog from 2005-2022, and appeared on ABC, BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, and C-SPAN. 0:00 - Intro 2:23 - The Most Irrational Beliefs in Society 3:43 - Why Do People Vote? 5:57 - The Most Net Positive Delusions in Society 7:30 - Bottlenecks in Democracy 9:13 - Idea Traps 13:13 - The Ideological Turing Test 15:16 - Caricatures of Political Parties 17:49 - The Case for Open Borders 21:48 - Tribalism and Social Cohesion 25:33 - Privatization and The Confluence of Cultures 26:56 - What’s the Point of Countries? 28:26 - What Values Are (Mostly) Non-negotiable? 30:27 - The Net Present Value of Immigration 33:43 - The Competition of Cultures 38:15 - Is Globalism Inevitable? 39:30 - Resources and Culture 42:49 - How to Fix Immigration 45:07 - The Case Against Education 48:48 - What is a Degree Actually Worth? 52:05 - Why is Bryan a Professor? 53:13 - The Value of Conformity in Society 55:25 - Is Learning How to Learn Real? 57:51 - Is There Value in the Liberal Arts? 29:27 - Bryan’s Approach to Learning 1:01:49 - Who Does Education Well? 1:02:49 - The Biggest Problems in Academia 1:05:47 - Should we Abolish Tenure? 1:09:32 - Why Parenting is Overrated 1:11:51 - What Kind of Parenting Has an Effect? 1:14:23 - Positive Effects of Having Kids 1:16:03 - The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation 1:18:50 - Intangible Costs of Deregulation 1:21:39 - How does Ideology Propagate Itself? 1:24:09 - If Everything’s Mimetic are Free Markets Overrated? 1:25:54 - How to Get Ideas Into the Mainstream 1:28:19 - Are Politicians Evil? 1:31:35 - The Future of Labor Markets Under Remote Work 1:34:21 - What Should More People Be Thinking About? 🎙️More Episodes🎙️ YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QDLQFt Apple: https://apple.co/478Be6M Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sfiFiE 📲Socials📲 Twitter: https://twitter.com/adlabossiere Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlabossiere/

Delian Asparouhov, co-founder and Chairman of Varda Space Industries, talks about microgravity manufacturing, space industrialization, and future business models in space. The podcast also covers the role of media in shaping public perception of technology and the qualities Delian looks for in founders. The chapter on building a company discusses the importance of culture and cementing its trajectory, while the 'obsession with speed' chapter reflects on impatience and desire for accomplishment.