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The NFX Podcast

Latest episodes

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Oct 14, 2020 • 36min

The Golden Age of Simulation with Chris Anderson & James Currier

null On this episode of the NFX Podcast we have one of the most generative people in Silicon Valley, Chris Anderson. He was famously Editor in Chief at Wired for over a decade during an insanely influential time in tech. He also is an author of The Long Tail, Free, and Makers. Chris has since founded 3DR, an American company headquartered in Berkeley, California that makes enterprise drone software for construction, engineering, and mining firms, along with government agencies. In this episode, we cover:- How regulations need to catch up with technology- What is Simulation- Why it’s the Golden Age of AI/Simulation- Virtual Reality for Robots- We’re transitioning to an abundance of data, are we using it right?- & different use cases for simulation
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Oct 12, 2020 • 20min

The Founders’ List: “Social Capital in Silicon Valley” by Alex Danco (Shopify & Social Capital)

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. "The 20s will see San Francisco face down some really big problems, and we’ll see if the city makes it out better or worse. But the wealth of social capital they’ve compounded will remain an undeniable asset to the tech community for a long time. " This is the audio version of Alex Danco's popular essay on Social Capital in Silicon Valley. Alex is currently head of Shopify Money and was a previous associate at Social Capital. Read the full article here - https://alexdanco.com/2020/01/23/social-capital-in-silicon-valley/
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Oct 8, 2020 • 14min

The Founders' List: Slack's Internal Memo 'We Don't Sell Saddles Here' (Famous Memos)

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. The memo below was sent to the team at Tiny Speck, the makers of Slack, on July 31st, 2013. It had been a little under seven months since development began and was two weeks before the launch of Slack’s ‘Preview Release’. "When you want something really bad, you will put up with a lot of flaws. But if you do not yet know you want something, your tolerance will be much lower." Read the full memo here - https://medium.com/@stewart/we-dont-sell-saddles-here-4c59524d650d
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Sep 30, 2020 • 6min

The Founders’ List: “The Guide to Unbundling Reddit” by Greg Isenberg (Late Checkout, Indicator Fund, TikTok Advisor, Previously

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. "The broad networks are everything to everyone, the niche ones are something special to a certain group." This is the audio version of Greg Isenberg's popular essay on The Unbundling of Reddit. Greg is a co-founder of Late Checkout, venture partner at Indicator Fund, and Growth advisor at TikTok. Previously he was the head of product strategy at WeWork and Founder of Islands & 5by. Read the full article here - https://latecheckout.substack.com/p/the-guide-to-unbundling-reddit
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Sep 24, 2020 • 1h 35min

The Founders’ List: “Status as a Service (StaaS)” by Eugene Wei (Former Product Leader at Amazon, Hulu, Flipboard, Oculus)

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. A Must Listen for all Founders - audio version of Eugene Wei’s hugely popular essay on the role of status in product development. Eugene was a product leader at Amazon, Hulu, Flipboard, and Oculus. Read the full article here - https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service
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Sep 21, 2020 • 1h 3min

Good vs. Great Companies: The Unseen Truths of Breakout Success with James Currier & Selina Tobaccowala

null NFX partner James Currier talks with Selina Tobaccowala - co-founder of Evite, CTO and President of SurveyMonkey, and cofounder of the fitness app Gixo. It’s rare to get a candid view into what happens behind the scenes of companies that break out from the pack - and the hard decisions that lead to their success. In this episode, James and Selina talk about: - Knowing when and how to sell your company- The difference between selling Evite vs. selling Gixo- Why to build strategic relationships as early as possible- How to upfront the hard conversations- How to build and measure product virality- & more great advice for early-stage Founders Read the full essay here - https://www.nfx.com/post/good-vs-great-companies/
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Sep 17, 2020 • 5min

The Founders' List: James Currier (Managing Partner at NFX) on "The Psychology of Founders Who Win in Downturns"

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. This essay was written and published by James Currier, General Partner at NFX. Read the full article here: https://www.nfx.com/post/psychology-winning-founders-downturns/
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Sep 14, 2020 • 53min

Prof. Tom Eisenmann (HBS) on Hidden Patterns of Startup Failure

null NFX partner James Currier talks with professor Tom Eisenmann about why, exactly, over 75% of startups fail. Tom has been teaching entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School for more than a decade and has uncovered patterns of startup failure that we want every Founder to hear -- so you can avoid making these same mistakes yourself.
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Sep 10, 2020 • 25min

The Founders' List: Company Culture at Netflix (Famous Memos)

null This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. Netflix’s memo on company culture on their employee website is geared toward those looking to join the company. Netflix's leadership outlines its values, company structure, communication style, and overall mission as a company and is widely regarded as a center of excellence with a strong culture in the tech industry. Read the full memo here - https://jobs.netflix.com/culture
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Sep 8, 2020 • 39min

Cyan Banister on the Future of AR/VR

null Cyan Banister is an early stage investor in Uber, Niantic, SpaceX, many others. She’s a partner at Long Journey Ventures and spends most of her time dreaming about what the future could look like. In this NFX conversation with James Currier, they talk about the opportunities of AR, VR and the future of human connection.  Highlights from the conversation: - Allow yourself to become obsessed with something. Really obsess about the product and dream about what it can become.- Invest in things that will become part of your life. - Futurism is more than being intellectual, it’s more about daydreaming, it’s about how you feel and how you live.- Silicon Valley is getting too serious. Where did the hacker mentality go? AR, and crypto are real frontier categories where there is still bright eyedness of “we don’t know what’s going to happen.”- Endless curiosity helps identify people who are solving problems that are actually real problems.- Be curious about how systems work. Analyze businesses and what makes them special. Try to figure out the economics of everything, anything.- Sometimes it makes sense to paint inside the lines, but sometimes you really have to paint outside the lines. Regarding the future of VR: There's no reason why you and I, if we want to hang out, that we have maybe 8 options… go to dinner, have a phone call, see a movie, maybe go for a walk… but why aren't there thousands of options? There should be so many, that's why Founders need to think bigger.

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