My guest today is Thomas Tull, the founder of Tulco LLC, an investment holding company that invests in businesses with high growth potential and helps them apply machine learning and data analytics. Thomas is also the founder and former CEO of Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind the Dark Knight, Hangover, Inception, 300, and many more iconic movies which he sold in 2016. In our discussion, we cover the movie industry’s value chain, the recipe for trying to make a successful movie and how Legendary pioneered the use of data analytics to improve those odds, and Thomas’ concept of the new physics of business and why it matters for what he’s now building at Tulco. Please enjoy my conversation with Thomas Tull. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossusShow Notes[00:03:06] - [First question] - His overarching career philosophy and theme[00:04:07] - Attacking a previously established industry in a new way[00:05:20] - The origin story of Legendary and stepping into the film industry[00:07:56] - Stakeholders involved in producing a movie and pre-existing profit pools when Legendary was founded[00:12:44] - Topline and downstream revenue distribution of intellectual property from then versus now[00:19:46] - Lessons learned about intellectual property writ large  [00:19:03] - What makes Chris Nolan such an exceptional storyteller[00:23:42] - Power and defensibility of cinematic universes and transmedia storytelling[00:22:21] - Applying quantitative data analysis to film production and marketing[00:25:55] - Competitive frontiers in movie studios and his advantageous skillset[00:28:10] - Potential investment opportunities in media or media adjacent businesses[00:29:26] - Interesting new tools that could be developed in entertainment technology[00:31:00] - His favorite mind-blowing and awe-inspiring movies[00:32:41] - Telling Jackie Robinson’s story in the film, 42[00:35:30] - Jackie Robinson and Chadwick Boseman’s quiet dignity[00:36:56] - Building the holding company Tulco [00:39:02] - The new physics of business that can’t be ignored[00:42:40] - Modern velocity in the current era of business[00:46:03] - Interweaving an antifragile mindset into the company culture[00:47:55] - Who Tulco Labs is and what they do[00:49:12] - What gets him most excited about exploring a new business for the first time[00:50:48] - Unique characteristics he seeks out in a management team[00:52:31] - Trends that make him feel worried about the future[00:57:47] - Trends that make him feel optimistic about the future[00:58:49] - An important lesson learned from his career on a personal level[01:00:15] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him

My guest today is Paul Enright, managing partner at Krainos Capital, his family office. Before running his own family office, Paul worked on the buy-side at Viking Global for over a decade managing their consumer and technology portfolios and before that at Morgan Stanley on the sell-side. I thought Paul would be the perfect person to help me demystify the world of high finance – explaining the difference between the buy-side and sell-side, how long/shorts differ from long onlys, and walking through the various jobs in the investing world. In addition to setting that foundation, we also cover the evolution of the buy-side, what makes someone a great researcher verse a great stock picker, and various portfolio construction methodologies. Paul brings such a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. I think this episode will be enjoyable for investing novices and professionals alike. Please enjoy my conversation with Paul Enright. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.------Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:39] - [First question] - His history in both the buy and sell side[00:05:20] - Different types of roles on the buy side and sell side[00:06:48] - Interest sets that best align with being a buyer or a seller[00:07:57] - The emotional experience of being on the buy side and exposed to risk[00:08:53] - How the nature of buying and portfolio construction has changed [00:10;15] - What Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) is[00:12:46] - Key terminology and definitions of long-only and long-short funds[00:17:40] - Varying clusters of long-short funds and defining each type[00:21:48] - Differences in exposure between a platform model versus a traditional long-short stock picking sense[00:25:16] - Skill sets that are most important to have when navigating this space[00:29:03] - What is good and what is great when it comes to “digging”[00:31:20] - Why the quality of one’s analysis matters[00:33:10] - Having a potential edge when deciding based on someone else’s analysis[00:35:19] - Foundational building blocks of an effective pitch [00:37:20] - Finding wrongly identified stocks and reaping the rewards[00:40:49] - Overview of good portfolio construction and lessons learned over the years[00:44:06] - Why hedge funds tend to traffic heavily in T.M.T. and consumer sectors[00:45:53] - Elements that strike him as great in a business[00:48:05] - A business that once seemed great but has since faded away[00:49:22] - Why hedge-fund managers seem to always make the most money[00:53:50] - What a well run firm looks like[00:56:39] - Characteristics that may make you well suited for a career in fund management[01:00:23] - Why quality mentors and portfolio managers are so important when deciding where you want to work[01:01:38] - What interests him mosts in markets today[01:05:20] - Useful frameworks and formulas used when approaching a new business[01:08:15] - Interesting features about telecom businesses and what defines them[01:10:45] - The future of the modern world’s internet infrastructure[01:14:44] - Abundance vs zero-sum and fixed vs growth mindsets [01:18:12] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him

My guest today is Trevor McFedries, the founder of technology startup Brud and the creator of virtual pop star Miquela, a Gen Z icon with millions of fans worldwide. Trevor’s background is fascinating - he worked as a DJ and producer, toured with Katy Perry, worked at Spotify, and done just about every interesting thing I can imagine. In our conversation, we discuss the music-industrial complex, the creation of Miquela, and what Web 3.0 will mean for creators and builders in the future. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Trevor McFedries. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:02:54] - [First question] - What unites the diversity of his career[00:03:39] - What inspired him to pivot away from football and step into creative arts[00:05:50] - Lessons learned from being a touring DJ and producer that apply to the creative tech sector[00:07:40] - A view of the music industrial complex from the inside[00:08:57] - How the internet deciding who becomes popular affected already established artists[00:10:57] - Interesting opportunities in the music landscape in 2021[00:11:40] - Time spent at Spotify and the spark of insight that led to founding Brud[00:16:02] - The sequence of creating a digital artist like Lil Miquela[00:19:02] - What it feels like to be “othered”[00:20:24] - Embracing one's intersections and applying it to a business model[00:21:18] - The team behind Lil Miquela and her design process[00:25:49] - Ingredients required for building a great narrative [00:28:35] - What social media platforms matter today, and the state of the social landscape[00:32:21] - Expanding Lil Miquela’s world and digital media monetization[00:36:32] - Differences between web 2.0 and 3.0 that may directly affect creators[00:38:27] - Ways innovations like NFTs make spawn new network participants[00:39:49] - Programmable art and media experiences[00:41:03] - The most cutting-edge ideas in the digital persona space[00:43:21] - Technology that wasn’t available that had to be built to enable new experiences [00:45:49] - One of the hardest decisions he’s had to make in Brud’s history[00:47:16] - The furthest they’ve ever pushed the envelope[00:48:06] - What’s the thing that keeps him going every day[00:50:12] - Finding cultural white space and inventing a character that could speak to investing to inspire new generations[00:52:01] - Units of media contribution and creative container experimentation[00:53:27] - What has him the most excited about the future of his industry[00:54:32] - Missing technological components that could inspire new digital creatives[00:56:53] - Work ethic through the lens of developing a jump shot[00:59:00] - One business lesson that he believes in deeply[01:00:05] - The kindest thing anyone’s ever done for him

My guest today is Chris Dixon, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Chris is a prolific investor and thinker, having been an entrepreneur, angel investor, and is now focused on investing in the crypto and blockchain space for Andreessen. Our conversation focuses on Chris's overall thesis for investing in the cryptocurrency space, the opportunities and limitations of blockchain applications, and why this is the most interesting area for investing and building over the next ten years. What's exciting to me is blockchain technology's ability to help us re-imagine old business models and catapult them into the 21st century – and we cover a lot of them. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Chris Dixon.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ------ This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick. ------ This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.   With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more. ------ Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:56] - [First question] - His overall crypto investing philosophy [00:06:37] - New opportunities presented by blockchain technology [00:15:31] - Permanent limitations and shortcomings of blockchains [00:18:32] - Evolution of DeFi and crypto currencies [00:21:11] - Whitepapers: Bitcoin, Ethereum, MakerDAO  [00:22:08] - How to take out a loan using the Maker protocol [00:23:22] - Utility of Dai and stablecoins [00:29:14] - How the DeFi network will reinvent the future [00:39:53] - Uniswap, tokens, and fundamentally redefining leverage [00:36:29] - The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea [00:38:00] - Developer and entrepreneurial incentives for building blockchain technology [00:39:46] - BitClout, Rally and the early days of social tokens [00:46:38] - Demand curve and value creation efficiency in a digital creator economy [00:47:24] - NFTs and a Thousand True Fans [00:54:49] - Polkadot, Solana, Cosmos and programmable blockchains [00:58:03] - The most exciting moment for him in the last year [01:00:19] - Decentralized autonomous organizations [01:02:46] - The single thing that has him most excited about the future of this space [01:05:18] - The Next Big Thing Will Start Out Looking Like a Toy

Welcome to the first episode of our newest show, Business Breakdowns, featuring deep-dive conversations on individual businesses. In each episode, we will dissect a new company with investors and operators that know it best.  We’ve already released the first three episodes on Shopify, Chipotle, and Alibaba. Subscribe to Business Breakdowns through the podcast player of your choice:  Apple Spotify Google Overcast Amazon  Leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts if you like the show! ----- Today we will be diving into Shopify. Shopify was founded in 2004 by Tobi Lütke and Scott Lake around their original problem of why it's so hard to build an online business when they struggled to open an online snowboard equipment store. Today, Shopify's goal is to make commerce better for everyone, and it's used by more than 2 million merchants to run their online businesses. It's essentially an on-ramp for people looking to sell online.  To help us break down Shopify, I'm joined by co-host Zack Fuss and our guest Alex Danco, who works on the Money team at Shopify. To really understand Shopify, you have to understand its different business units -- Core, Merchant Services, Ecosystem, and the new Shop platform -- and the role they each play in making commerce easier and better for merchants. We begin this breakdown by covering each of those business units and how they compare to Apple's business lines. We then dive deep into how Shopify makes money through the first and second derivative of their merchant success and how Shopify thinks about friction in e-commerce. We close with an incredible analogy of Shopify and StarCraft and the tools that Shopify has built into the still-nascent world of e-commerce. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss Show Notes[00:04:03] - [First question] - What Shopify is as a product[00:05:58] - Product pillar 1: Core[00:07:58] - Product pillar 2: Merchant services[00:10:02] - Product pillar 3: Ecosystem[00:12:04] - Product pillar 4: Shop[00:14:08] - The evolution of commerce with the rise of the internet[00:21:01] - Differences between high and low trust commerce[00:25:48] - The role of friction and trust in stakeholder variety[00:30:18] - Overview of all four product pillars’ business models[00:33:10] - Shopify App Store[00:34:16] - How Shopify competes and partners with their competitors[00:36:53] - Shop Pay expands to Facebook and Instagram[00:38:49] - Key areas where Shopify will continue to grow across their product pillars[00:42:52] - Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay[00:43:56] - Potential pitfalls of having such a high self-imposed quality bar [00:45:12] - Conway’s law[00:45:12] - Aggregators versus platforms[00:53:35] - Unique marketing aspects for Shopify’s sales and marketing with their subscription model [00:56:37] - Shopify: A StarCraft Inspired Business Strategy 

My guest today is Tony Xu, co-founder, and CEO of DoorDash. Tony started DoorDash 7.5 years ago, and today it is one of the largest food delivery and logistics platforms globally, with operations in the US, Canada, Australia. In our conversation, we discuss the initial problem that DoorDash set out to solve, DoorDash’s counterintuitive approach to building their product, and the surprising benefits of capital constraints in DoorDash’s early days. DoorDash’s business model is an equal parts logistics nightmare and a human coordination problem, or as Tony puts it, a human and math problem. After talking to Tony, I feel his personality makes him a great candidate to solve those problems.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick. ----- This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn, you get access to an active community of professionals with more than 722 million members worldwide. LinkedIn is the easiest place in the world to post a job and message qualified candidates. Getting started is easier than ever, and now you can do this all from your mobile device.   When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/fieldguide to post a job for free. Terms and conditions apply. ----- Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:07] - [First question] - The catalytic moment that inspired Tony to build DoorDash [00:06:33] - Network density and its role in scalability [00:09:15] - Solving a math and sales problem simultaneously [00:11:33] - Becoming aware of multiple problem sets for restaurant owners [00:14:34] - Designing a team to quantify friction and turn it into useable data [00:16:49] - How to approach difficult problems and compartmentalize them in a practical way [00:18:38] - Accounting for high-level variance in long-term goals [00:21:54] - Factoring in time horizons for variance and planning for the future [00:23:08] - Slowing down an action process to minimize a high-consequence decision [00:26:48] - Generating demand after completing their software infrastructure [00:28:15] - Strategic choices between network health and unit economics [00:30:32] - Why DoorDash struggled to raise financing in their seed-stage [00:32:23] - Solving a small fraction of a larger logistics problem [00:35:00] - Differences between local commerce and distribution centers  [00:36:44] - Creating the DashPass subscription service and how premium experiences influence user behavior [00:38:34] - Advantages and potential diminishing returns in servant leadership [00:40:41] - His broader philosophy on leadership and how it’s changed over the years [00:44:55] - Creating an incentive-aligned culture of ownership at scale [00:47:02] - The most surprising lessons learned about company building [00:50:38] - Unexpected positive outcomes that may emerge in other areas due to DoorDash’s growth in the coming years  [00:53:44] - Will DoorDash’s presence change behavioral patterns in where people choose to live or start their business? [00:55:36] - What has him most excited for the future [00:56:55] - Kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guests this week are Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns, co-founders and partners at The Chernin Group, TCG, a multi-stage investment firm dedicated to building consumer businesses. Many think of TCG as some of the best media investors in the world, and in this discussion, you’ll quickly see why. In our conversation, we cover how TCG identifies creators that they can help build businesses with, how established companies should think about influencers and media today, and what innovations they are most excited for in the creator space. As I become more heavily involved in building new media properties, Jesse and Mike are always my first point of call for advice, and I’m so excited to share this with you. Please enjoy my conversation with Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ------ This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you've been scrambling to keep up with the deluge of IPOs and SPACs these days, Canalyst has models on Coinbase, Roblox, Qualtrics and everything in between. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/patrick. ------ This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – also known as MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term. MITIMCo doesn’t care how small, new, or un-institutional your firm is if you have the potential to generate amazing results that support MIT’s pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation. Despite their willingness to invest early, they do not ask for GP economics, and they commit their initial capital for ten years. Visit www.mitimco.org and their new emerging managers page to learn more. ------ Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:32] - [First question] - The history of TCG  [00:04:30] - iFilm (Discontinued) [00:07:08] - Full Screen [00:07:13] - Crunchyroll [00:10:46] - Uniting properties across all of TCG’s brands[00:11:14] - Barstool, MeatEater[00:12:00] - Headspace, Food 52, Hodinkee, Surfline [00:14:03] - Accidental businesses and pre-commercial success[00:14:53] - Exploding Kittens [00:16:05] - Evaluating the potential of a new pitch [00:19:12] - Testing, tracking and understanding media brand conversions [00:21:13] - The most important things happening in media in 2021[00:25:12] - Analysis of MeatEater from content to commerce [00:27:22] - First Lite [00:29:21] - Replacing your own sponsors with owned companies [00:30:11] - Analysis of Hodinkee from content to commerce [00:33:42] - What sparked the resurgence of interest in collectibles [00:38:05] - Hands on investing in the intersection of media, finance and tech  [00:40:05] - Comcast  [00:41:02] - Surprising discoveries in the sports collectibles space [00:43:06] - NFTs and their role in generating capital for media companies [00:44:25] - Sorare [00:45:22] - JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as “NFT Mania” Gathers Pace [00:47:23] - How to adapt to the NFT space as a business seeking equity [00:51:12] - The valuation landscape of today [00:55:25] - Defining success when working with an influencer [00:58:48] - Upcoming trends they’re most excited about in the world [01:01:40] - Roblox [01:02:00] - Mr Beast, Beastburger [01:02:47] - Pokemon Go [01:04:01] - The kindest things anyone’s ever done for them

Welcome to Business Breakdowns, a new Colossus podcast featuring deep-dive conversations on individual businesses. In each episode, we will dissect a new company with investors and operators that know it best. We believe every business has secrets and lessons to learn from, and these conversations are designed to deliver that content in an entertaining and narrative format.   The series launches today with Shopify, so check out the links below and give it a listen.    Subscribe to Business Breakdowns via:  Apple Spotify Google Overcast Amazon   Leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts if you like the show.    With each new episode, we will be releasing full episode transcripts, show notes, and the best content we could find on that business from across the internet. Check out www.joincolossus.com for more. 

My guest today is Jesse Pujji, the Founder & CEO of Gateway X, a holding company that builds, buys, and invests in companies that are driving the direct-to-consumer landscape. Prior to Gateway X, Jesse was the CEO and co-founder of Ampush, a performance marketing business helping power customer acquisition across some of the world's biggest brands. Jesse is my go-to person for all things performance marketing and customer acquisition, so we decided to record this episode to bring his incredible lessons to a wider audience. It also dovetails nicely into the series of episodes we are making called Primers, where we take our audience from a 0 to a 7 on just about any topic. In this Primer with Jesse, we dive into how revenue mechanics affect ad campaigns, why long sales funnels often offer the greatest opportunities for differentiation, and the various channels and strategies available for performance marketing. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jesse Pujji.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick. ----- This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn, you get access to an active community of professionals with more than 722 million members worldwide. LinkedIn is the easiest place in the world to post a job and message qualified candidates. Getting started is easier than ever, and now you can do this all from your mobile device.   When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/fieldguide to post a job for free. Terms and conditions apply. ----- Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:58] - [First question] - Overview of Jesse’s career and starting Ampush [00:12:11] - Red Ventures [00:13:11] - The four components of performance marketing [00:17:47] - Time and other variables in between impressions and revenue events [00:23:12] - Understanding the dimensions of a business and their offering [00:25:32] - Common misunderstandings businesses have about their marketing [00:27:17] - Major changes in the Facebook and Google digital marketing ecosystems [00:29:27] - Direct response marketing vs brand marketing[00:35:08] - The importance and impact of effective messaging [00:37:28] - The differences between good and bad conversions [00:40:56] - Does alpha still exist, is it worth looking for, and does beta have a place [00:43:25] - Fundamentals of a high performing marketing organization [00:50:04] - Attention aggregators of marketing agencies[00:50:18] - Nerdwallet - Thumbtack  [00:51:22] - Product channel fit [00:52:11] - PebblePost[00:53:58] - Lessons learned from working with Uber [00:55:42] - Retention marketing [00:57:31] - Upcoming frontiers of performance marketing [01:01:15] - Overview of Nerdwallet [01:03:36] - How Jesse’s time at Ampush has shaped his investment lens[01:07:20] - Lessons from bootstrapping a business vs venture capital funding [01:17:05] - The entrepreneurial execution loop and operating cadence  [01:29:20] - Kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Kanyi Maqubela, co-founder of seed-stage VC firm Kindred Ventures, which he started with his partner Steven Jang in 2019. Before founding Kindred Ventures, Kanyi was a general partner at Collaborative Fund. In our conversation, we discuss the parallels between today and the Roaring ’20s of the last century, the misunderstood risk curve of seed investing, and dive deep into how Kanyi evaluates founders and businesses at the earliest stage of company formation. We also discuss Kanyi’s experience teaching the Design Your Life class at Stanford and how some of those principles convinced him to take the leap to start his own fund. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kanyi Maqubela. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.------Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:04:11] - [First question] - Understanding the roaring 20s and their potential resurgence[00:06:14] - Seed-stage investing today compared to a few years ago[00:09:02] - Lessons learned from studying the 1920s [00:11:52] - Supply chain infrastructure in the 21st century[00:14:49] - His investment philosophy and what influenced it[00:17:47] - Defining the risk curve and early-stage divergence[00:21:31] - Assessing risk in seed-stage investing[00:23:32] - Other moments that influenced Kanyi’s investment philosophy[00:26:50] - Assisting early-stage companies as a VC [00:29:31] - How he approaches VC differently than traditional US VCs[00:31:55] - Non-consensus ways and unique views when evaluating founders[00:35:19] - Domain insight and its importance[00:36:53] - What he looks for in a company when considering investing in them[00:38:17] - Assessing a team in whether or not they have characteristics of longevity[00:40:59] - Questions he most enjoys asking people[00:42:24] - What makes for a good problem space[00:44:26] - Early-stage crypto investing[00:47:27] - How the crypto space and NFTs will change and influence other sectors[00:50:37] - Emerging trends that are catching his attention[00:54:20] - The potential for upward mobility in the coming decade[00:56:30] - Teaching the Design Your Life course[01:01:21] - Advice for modern investor-operators[01:03:26] - If he could change one major thing in the industry[01:06:57] - The biggest lesson learned from Obama’s campaign[01:07:44] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him