This week’s conversation is an ode to old school, fundamental public market investing. My conversation is with IMC’s Connor Leonard, who spends most waking hours thinking and reading about markets. His mandate is to invest purely as if it was his own money, with no pressure to hug a benchmark, and no pressure to do much of anything other than earn strong long-term returns. The portfolio that results from this approach is highly concentrated and unique. Connor’s strategy is to sort companies into four categories based on their type of sustainable competitive advantage. As you’ll hear, the vast majority fall into the first category, which means they don’t have such an advantage and therefore should be largely set aside. We spend the majority of our conversation talking about the other three categories: 1) companies with a legacy moat, 2) companies with a re-investment moat, and 3) an interesting category Connor calls “capital light compounders,” which we explore in detail. When you step back and think about public markets, you realize how amazing it is that we can, from afar, buy an interest in so many companies around the world. A select few go on to deliver outstanding returns. This conversation highlights how hard that can be, but also how fun and ultimately rewarding. Please enjoy my talk with Connor Leonard.                                                For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Books Referenced Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success        Links Referenced Pat Dorsey Podcast Episode David Tisch podcast    Will Thorndike Podcast episode   Show Notes 2:31 - (First Question) –   Trends in value investing             2:52 – Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor 4:43 – A look at Connor’s backstory and the history of IMC, parent company of Golden Corral 8:01 – Why Connor loves the public markets so much   9:21 – The concept of intrinsic value when looking at companies 12:36 – How Connor categorizes MOATS             13:21 – Pat Dorsey Podcast Episode 14:27 – Legacy MOATS 16:11 – Reinvestment MOATS 17:58 – Capital light compounder MOAT 20:00 – Why classifieds are an interesting business model 25:12 – Looking at platform businesses 26:56 – Looking at companies in the 500 million to 5 billion range and what makes it so enticing 30:34 – What is the process that gets Connor to find investment opportunities             35:53 – David Tisch podcast   36:15 – How Connor looks at industry classifications 41:30 – Connor’s strategy for running his portfolio 46:36 – The circumstances in which Conno would buy a legacy MOAT company             46:49 – Will Thorndike Podcast episode             46:51 – The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success     49:21 – How do you pick managers that will beat the markets 52:21 – Second reason to buy a legacy MOAT 54:48 – Comparing the reinvestment MOAT and Capital A compounder in Connor’s portfolio 58:16 – Connor’s Mt Rushmore of Capital Allocators 1:00:03 – Impactful mentorships for Connor 1:01:52 – kindest thing anyone has done for Connor 103:04 – What in the discussion with founder of IMC got him the job   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is unique. As you will hear early and often, he is programmed to go his own way, to, as he says, go one way when everyone else is going another. His name is Dhani Jones, a name I knew as a Notre Dame football fan, because he won a championship with our arch-rivals, the University of Michigan, in the late 90’s. Dhani went on to a long and successful career in the NFL, but even more interesting has been his many pursuits in business and investing outside of football. Like my conversation with Tim Urban, I’ll remember this conversation as a reminder to use a first principles mindset. Dhani seems to have this fresh mindset baked into his character, and as you’ll hear this has led to many a great adventure. Please enjoy my conversation with athlete, businessman, investor, philanthropist, movie buff, and bowtie wearer, Dhani Jones.                                                For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 1:30 - (First Question) –  A introduction into Dhani Jones and everything he’s done 5:35 – How did Dhani change throughout his football career 9:55 – The power of your mind in every aspect of life 10:34 – Most memorable experience in the NFL 13:10 – Making the transition from the NFL to the business world 18:20 – Looking at Bowtie Cause 22:40 – The role of creative agencies in Dhani’s ventures and why story telling is so important for him 26:48 – Looking at some of the TV stuff that Dhani has done, particularly around travel 28:21 – Dhani’s favorite movie 30:35 – Back to the joy of travel and “Dhani Tackles the Globe.” 36:54 – How does Dhani think about risk 38:56 – Some of the other sports and activities Dhani did while filming his show 41:45 – The psychological benefit of travel in your personal and business life 44:41 – Looking into the business part of Dhani’s career 51:19 – How to expand diversity in the financial world 54:56 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Dhani   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

This episode is a continuation of the Hash Power series. It is the first of what we will call a Hash Power single—a series of conversations each with a single guest on a specific topic. In this case my guest is Chris Burniske, and the topic is cryptoasset valuation. This conversation is loaded with information, I think you are going to love it. Chris recently released book called Cryptoassets, which is a must read for those interested in this field. Chris was at one point the only tradintional buy side analyst covering bitcoin, and is now a partner at a new crypto firm called Placeholder. Chris has developed new frameworks for evaluating and valuing cryptocurrencies, marrying techniques and ways of thinking for several different asset classes to assess the newest asset class. Chris prefers the term cryptoassets because as you’ll hear, several of these tokens aren’t really currencies at all. We discuss the differences between cryptocurrencies, cryptocommodities, and cryptotokens. We begin our conversation with a deep dive into the equation of exchange, which Chris has been using as a starting point for understanding utility value.  You can see all crypto related conversations at investorfieldguide.com/Hashpower. Please enjoy this conversation with Chris Burniske. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Books Referenced Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond   Links Referenced Hash Power Podcast Documentary Nic Carter (twitter) Cryptoasset Valuations (Medium)   Show Notes 4:58 - (First Question) – Chris’s overall method for evaluating cryptocurrencies             5:14– Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond 6:47 – The equation exchange 11:19 – Bonding 12:35 – How bonding may represent a more efficient way of representing consensus over proof of work 14:29 – Why the amount being bonded and held should be taken out of the float 16:58 – Using bitcoin as an example to figure out remittances in the PQ side 18:31 – Looking at the velocity of various crypto-assets 21:04 – Chris’s impression of the different way of categorizing various crypto assets 24:37 – Explaining Auger as an example of a cryptotoken 25:38 – How could these networks be impacted by not having any censorship 27:57 – Exploring the gap between expectation vs reality in the value of crypto currency 30:43 – Other ways of valuing these crypto assets             30:50 – Hash Power Podcast Documentary 33:32 – Explaining the idea of billion dollar a day onchain transactions 36:05 – How to measure the value of the underlying network             36:37 – Nic Carter (twitter) 37:13 – What are the variables that matter when investing in cryptocurrency on a long-term horizon 39:24 – Determining when it’s better for a network to be centralized vs decentralized 42:03 – Networks that Chris is most excited about 44:06 – Understanding the consumption side of the steam marketplace 46:01 – Deep dive into the Aragon network 47:27 – How does Chris evaluate existential risk of networks 51:09 – Could these assets really ever go to zero? 54:07 – Is there a scenario in which velocity gets so high that it negatively effects the price 56:10 – What are the unknowns of cryptocurrency that Chris is most interested in             56:24 – Cryptoasset Valuations (Medium)   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Brad Katsuyama, the founder of the IEX exchange and protagonist of Michael Lewis’s famous book Flash Boys, which chronicled the role of high frequency trading in markets. This conversation was yet another reminder of how complicated markets can be, and that very few participants know all aspects of the process well. Brad and I get deep into the history behind his company, and the ways in which markets and exchanges have evolved, better or worse.  One of my favorite parts of this conversation was our exploration of entrepreneurship. Brad’s whole story is one that entrepreneurs will appreciate, and is full of lessons for those aspiring to start their own business. Please enjoy my conversation with Brad Katsuyama   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Books Referenced Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt   Show Notes 2:10 – (First Question) Brad’s original discovery of a latency problem in trading stocks 12:51 – how the business model of the NASDAQ and exchanges and how it may surprise people  14:16 – The edge that exchanges are now monetizing  16:46 – How Brad went from finding a solution to his current firm  20:18 – Types of high frequency traders that there are  24:33 – The formation of IEX  27:56 – Funding IEX 30:48 – What happens to the initial funding 32:30 – Describe what IEX is as it was sold to early buy side investors  34:31 – Explaining the concept of a speedbump  38:18 – Pitching companies so they will be listed on their index  40:37 – Explains maker-taker fees  44:47 – The sources of revenue for IEX vs traditional exchanges  46:53 – Most memorable meeting Brad has had in establishing IEX  49:39 – How did he do this with young kids? 52:38 – Has the pool of potential profits that high-frequency trading firms can earn gone down 53:53 – What has Brad most excited about the future in terms of helping the buyside 55:17 – What was it like to see Brad’s venture get turned into a best-selling book. (Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt) 59:00 – Biggest thing that Brad has learned 1:00:56 – What would Brad do if he couldn’t work in the investing world. 1:02:25 - Kindest thing anyone has done for Brad          Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

This week’s episode is part of an experiment and so requires a longer than normal introduction. I’ve come to view this podcast as a learning tool, a means to understand a new topic in a short window of time. One of those areas is venture capital and startups—an area that one year ago was completely foreign to me. I think the best way to learn is aggressive immersion in a topic along with some consequences, what we often call some skin in the game. Accordingly, this is a conversation with the founder of a startup in which I am an investor.The founder is Brett Maloley and his company is called Ladder. Ladder represents an overlap of many topics we’ve explore together over the last year. We’ve talked about venture capital, health and wellbeing, the difficultly of fundraising and power law outcomes in startups. We also spent an entire episode, with Alex Moazed, talking about the business model that Ladder is pursing: what Alex calls platform business model and what my favorite technology writer Ben Thompson calls the Aggregator model.I hope you enjoy this collective experiment, which is largely the result of what I’ve learned from past guests and from all of your support which helps me meet those great people in the first place. Let’s dive in to my conversation with the founder of Ladder, Brett Maloley, who starts by describing how he got his start in the fitness world. Show Notes5:25 – (First question) – Brett describes his history in the fitness industry10:04 – Realized he could fix the commercial fitness industry by changing it12:46 – Explain how Ladder works14:14 – What does the ratio of digital to in-person coaching need to be in order to be effective coaching17:12 – Explaining the platform business model as a whole and how to scale these types of business22:15 – Origin of health clubs24:01 – Current state of the health fitness space through some key stats26:44 – What happened where gyms were able to start charging a lot less for memberships30:20 – How Ladder is going to attract customers in the beginning36:10 – How to drive engagement37:46 – The opportunity for coaches on the platform40:28 – How will ladder ensure the quality of coaches on the platform remains high42:41 – Exploring the value of the data45:32 – How will Ladder work with gyms in the scope of how a new business can take advantage of existing businesses48:58 – Comparing Ladder to crossfit and what is not sustainable about 53:14 – Difference between a franchise model vs a license model55:12 – Strategy for building an audience59:56 – Competitors to this business1:03:39 – Brett’s thoughts on brand broadly speaking and how he’s worked to shape Ladder’s brand1:05:00 – Best individual experience of the platform so far 

This week’s conversation is about artificial intelligence and interplanetary travel. Its about content creation, thinking from first principles, and death progress units. Its about brain machine interfaces and why it is crucial that you be a chef and not a cook.  My guest is Tim Urban, along with his business partner Andrew Finn. Tim is the most entertaining writer I’ve come across in years, who explains complicated and interesting topics to his millions of dedicated readers on the website “Wait, But Why.” As an example, Tim’s last post on Elon Musk’s neurlink venture is 40,000 words long, roughly the length of a short book. It explains almost all of human progress and our potential future using drawings and cartoons. Its impossible to stop reading. While this conversation is wildly entertaining, it is also chock full of metaphors and lessons that will be useful to anyone doing creative work or building a company. I hope this leaves you as energized as it left me. I called this episode Grand Theft Life because that is the name that Tim and Andrew give to their worldview, which I think will change the way you behave, too. Please enjoy my conversation with Tim Urban.   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/urban For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Books Referenced Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies   Links Referenced The Cook and the Chef: Musk’s Secret Sauce Wait But Why Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future Wait But Hi YouTube Channel  Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell   Show Notes 1:50 – (First question) –  Explaining his concept of planets 1, 2, 3 and 4 and understanding the human colossus 5:46 – Tim’s favorite idea of the human knowledge compounding 7:52 – Die Progress Units (DPU) 9:45 – Different stages of AI and the positives and negatives of each stage 14;04 – What happens when AI gains breadth and general intelligence 16:23 – The idea of a cook vs a chef and how Tim had the chance to interview Elon Musk 17:48 – Why you should reason from first principles instead of reasoning by analogies 25:19 – Why it’s possible to turn a cook into a chef 30:08 – Why being a chef is the safer route in a world with AI and what Tim has changed in himself as to why. 31:22 – Looking at the discovery process             34:39 – Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies\ 40:01 – Being the person who creates the metaphor vs being the people who simply using them             43:41 – YouTube Channel  Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell 44:54 – Most fun that Tim has had researching a topic 46:08 – Musk model for attaining your goals 53:43 – Why not caring what people think is one of the world’s best superpowers, grand theft life 56:50 – Neuralink – what is it and how did Tim come to research it 1:02:38 – Elon Musk’s concerns about AI 1:14:28 – What then if the Neuralink concept works out 1:18:02 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Tim   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

In episodes one and two of Hash Power, we explored blockchain technology and cryptocurrency investing. In this episode, we discuss the current and potential future states of the crypto world. We cover new forms of cooperation, regulation, security and storage, and why blockchains allow systems to evolve at such a rapid pace.  Be sure to listen until the end, where we close with some advice about conducting ourselves in a new world where creativity reigns and repetitive jobs disappear—a trend that may only accelerate thanks to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag    Show Notes 0:05 – Intro to episode 3 and what to expect  4:00 - Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of Polychain, on how the funding and investing in cryptocurrencies could easily get out of hand  5:00 – How people are creating holding companies to fund cryptocurrencies protocols  6:45 – Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and how they will replace the aforementioned holding companies  8:32 – Could fully decentralized organizations replace other more traditional organizational structures, even outside of crypto currency  9:59 – How can DAO’s impact everyday lives  12:39 – Why your skills and accomplishments will become more important than who you are or where you are from             15:38 – Ready Player One: A Novel  16:09 - Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angellist, on the way humans cooperate and build new entities  17:51 – When people will demand oversight and regulation over crypto currency  20:42 - Peter Van Valkenburg, Director of Research at Coincenter on the current state of regulation  26:06 - Jameson Lopp on security needed to protect your cryptocurrency             26:22 - Glacierprotocol.org  27:51 - Ari Paul, co-founder of Blocktower, on how nail polish is used to protect their crypto wallet  30:03 – Juan Benet explains the Filecoin Protocol  35:52 - Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Blockstack, on how his team is plans to provide basic tools that will allow the broader developer community to build apps that the cryptocurrency population will use.  38:01 - Comparing blockstack to the analogy of creating a city  40:17 – How the blockstack token fits into everything  43:15 – Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on forking in blockchains  47:52 – Naval Ravikant on how the idea of work will change in the future, and how that change helped to produce the idea of a blockchain in the first place.  49:31 – Why curiosity should govern what you do in life 53:22 - Naval’s framework for making money   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

In episode 1 of Hash Power, we explored blockchains as a technology—how they work, why tokens (also known as cryptocurrencies) are an integral part of any blockchain, and how these new networks might change the world. In episode two, we spend time with the leading investors in the field. Like any frenzied asset class, there are countless cryptocurrency hedge funds popping up everywhere. But founders from three of the original firms—Polychain, Metastable, and Blocktower Capital—are our primary guides this week.As I speak, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies is $136B. There are hundreds of tokens currently available, but bitcoin and Ethereum represent 75% of the total market cap. $136B sounds like a big number, but its tiny relative to any other asset class—and I use that term with hesitation. To put it in perspective, that’s exactly the same size as the market cap of IBM. But IBM had more than $10B of earnings in 2016. Tokens have none. As you will hear, valuing tokens is a very hard exercise.In such a nascent world, we are seeing investing strategies take hold. Olaf Carlson-Wee, Josh Seims, and Ari Paul walk us through different takes on cryptocurrency investing, be it early stage, long term buy and hold, or more hedge fund style strategies.Hash Power is presented by Fidelity InvestmentsFor comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpowerFor more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier.Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag Links ReferencedFat Protocols (Joel Monegro) Show Notes0:05 – Recap of part 1 and introduction to part 2 of Hash Power2:58 – Ari Paul, CIO of Blocktower explains how he got involved in cryptocurrencies5:23 – Why do we need bitcoin7:23 – Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee on why the value of tokens accrue9:23 – How main stream money is getting into this space12:26- Useful comparisons when talking about ICOs when compared to IPOs15:01 - Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angellist, is asked to explain the protocols of cryptocurrencies to platform businesses like Uber or Airbnb17:43 – Naval’s interest in investing in cryptocurrencies23:07 - Olaf Carlson Wee on the lifecycle of a token24:02 – SAFT note, Simple Agreement for Future Tokens25:31 – What is the earliest stage that edge is most present for investors in cryptocurrency protocols28:12 – How do you mitigate the volatility that is present in blockchain31:18 - Jeremiah Lowin, a risk and statistics expert, who runs risk management for a large private family office, talks about why he no longer owns cryptocurrencies 34:19 - Jordan Cooper, a venture capital investor, is optimistic about blockchains in general, but thinks there may be some overvaluations in current currencies37:02 – How Jordan would value a single cryptocurrency42:10 – Fat Protocols (Joel Monegro)43:52 - Josh Seims, of Metastable, the value investor in blockchain?51:15 - Ari Paul on the equivalent of listed stocks in the crypto currency world52:33 – Understanding the concept of a coin in blockchain and how people are getting access to them55:07 – The fairground analogy to understand cryptocurrencies57:57 – What lessons from traditional markets can you apply to investing in cryptocurrencies1:06:51 – Ari is asked to discuss some of the alternative cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum. He starts with Ripple1:10:27 – What would help firms or traders create edge in investing in cryptocurrencies Learn MoreFor more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclubFollow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Welcome to the first episode of Hash Power, an audio documentary that explores the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies with leaders in the field like Naval Ravikant, Olaf Carlson-Wee, Fred Ehrsam, & Ari Paul. Hash Power is meant to be an introduction, but really, it is an invitation to explore this emerging world on your own. In the coming weeks, we will cover the technology, the power of decentralization, bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, cryptography and hashing. We will spend time with the leading active hedge fund managers in the field, and with outside investors who are both optimistic and skeptical. Episode one covers the big picture, and answers the question: what is blockchain and why might it significantly affect our world?If you enjoy what follows, you’ll still be very early in understanding this field. Most don’t. So help me spread it like wildfire, because the more people that understand blockchain, the better its impact might become. Please enjoy episode one, and stay tuned next week for episode 2, which explores investing in cryptocurrencies.Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpowerFor more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier.Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag Books Referenced The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age Nostalgia for the Absolute Links ReferencedBitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash SystemReddit User jav_rddtSHA-256 Calculator The BitCoin Model for CrowdfundingFat Protocols#cryptotwitter Show NotesCHAPTER 1 – Understanding the Concept of Blockchain (3:25)4:30 – Jeremiah Lowin explains how blockchain is like a database5:14 – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System5:46 – Owning a digital asset7:14 – Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angelist on how blockchains can help to create personal networks and organize humans13:33 – New coins popping up around data storage and utility needs like solar panels14:57 – Permission vs permissionless networks18:13 – Keeping track of scarcity and the introduction of tokens18:51 – The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age21:55 – The role of blockchains in the informational age and the rise of more individual sovereignty23:29 - Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on the increasing shift to digital worlds led by incentive structures CHAPTER 2 – Blockchain Technology (27:48)29:09 - Reddit User jav_rddt30:43 - SHA-256 Calculator31:53 - Charlie Noyes, Pantera Capital, explains how SHA-256 was developed and what make its so special35:48 – How miners create new blocks and the incentives to do so46:54 – Ethereum, the “spiritual successor” to bitcoin48:36 – How the Ether network is an ecosystem in which other tokens can sit50:51 - Naval Ravikant on alternative coins or tokens50:50 - The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding52:35 – Fat Protocols53:22 – Blockchain as an experiment in distributed government54:47 – How cryptocurrency is more than just technology, it’s a movement54:50 – Nostalgia for the Absolute57:27 - #cryptotwitter1:00:58 - Peter Jubber, of Fidelity, on how huge institutions, like theirs, are getting into the cryptocurrency game1:05:21- Olaf Carlson-Wee, first employee at Coinbase and the founder of Polychain, on the early excitement for cryptocurrency1:06:56– Closing thoughts from PatrickLooking to work in this space - hashpowerdeveloper@gmail.com Learn MoreFor more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclubFollow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is David Tisch, who was instrumental in building and fostering venture capital investing in New York City. If you liked my conversation with Jerry Neumann--who, incidentally, introduced me to David--you are going to love this one.  David was a co-founder at tech stars, New York's answer to Silicon Valley’s famous tech incubator Y Combinator. He now runs the Box Group, a prominent seed stage venture capital firm, which has looked at thousands of startups and invested in more than 200.  We explore tech investing outside of Silicon Valley, the tech accelerator model, the evolution of early stage investing, and why the best companies may start coming out of non-traditional venture hubs.  David does a great job of explaining how things have changed for technology startups and why certain strategies--especially those for acquiring customers--won't work nearly as well in the future.  I learned a lot during this hour, and I think you will too. Please enjoy.    For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/tisch For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 2:16 – (First question) – Looking at David’s motivation and role in building up the venture capital tech investment scene in New York 6:14 – What David did to further the mission of fostering tech startups in New York, namely his work with TechStars 10:11 – What is Y Combinator and how does that differ from Tech Stars 13:02 – What is the procedure for getting into a startup incubator   17:08 – Most memorable applications 19:12 – What is the boot camp/incubator experience like 20:34 – What should future incubators be focused on to help develop the right ideas 23:46 – What aspects of the business should a start up be focused on in the beginning 26:46 – What got David interested in investing 28:47 – The challenges of launching new tech today and the colonization of identity 32:04 – Exploring David’s investing strategy 35:45 – Finding the consumer facing companies that can scale and provide a return for venture capitalists 38:03 – The problem of scaling up for start ups 39:20 – What business models does David prefer when making venture investments 40:53 – What’s important to look at when investing in other sectors, starting with Fintech 44:41 – Where does David think we are in the venture capital cycle 49:37 – How much does the exit strategy play into the initial seed investment 50:18 – David’s thinking on the portfolio of companies when picking an investment 52:48 – David’s biggest sin of omission 53:56 – Common personality traits among potential founders 55:24 – Is storytelling relevant for startups focused on the enterprise side of the business 56:07 – David’s story to convince founders to work with him 57:51 – biggest mistakes that David has seen 1:01:47 – What does it mean for our health that are time has become completely consumed by technology 1:03:58 – What trend has David most excited looking forward 1:06:44 – Kindest thing anyone has done for David   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag