vc firms

Episode 468: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP), Sam Parr (@theSamParr), and Jack Smith (@_jacksmith) discuss: Balaji Srinivasan on why people will have to hide their real identities in the future How Silkroad was actually a well-run company while co-workers remained anonymous (American Kingpin) The crazy story of the founder of Silkroad ordering killings on his co-workers Taboola's billion-dollar payday Clubhouse just raised at $1B -- but are its best days behind it? How Wall Street Bets is beating Wall Street - How Grayscale is printing money with GBTC Why a VC firm (Andreessen Horowitz) is entering the media game Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to the MFM YouTube channel here. ----- Check Out Shaan's Stuff: * Try Shepherd * Shaan's Personal Assistant System * Power Writing Course * Daily Newsletter Check Out Sam's Stuff: * Hampton * Ideation Bootcamp * Copy That ------ Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto * #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Jason is BACK with Molly to break down the news! They cover Sequoia leaving Citizen's board after passing on a "pay to play" round (5:46), two major companies reportedly going public in 2023: Instacart and ARM (27:11), and the recent turmoil at Dapper Labs (50:44).

(0:00) J+M tee up today's news show!

(2:25) Jason's back!

(5:46) Sequoia leaves the board of Citizen

(14:21) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% at https://Squarespace.com/TWIST

(15:51) How investors make the decision to pass on a "pay to play" round

(25:41) Contra - Get $500 off your first hire at https://contra.com/twist

(27:11) IPO window starts to open, Instacart prepares for IPO after big Q4

(35:42) Revelo - Get 20% off the first 3 months by mentioning TWIST at https://revelo.io/twist

(37:09) ARM prepares for IPO, reasons for CHIPS Act speed

(50:44) Chaos at Dapper Labs: reckless spending, securities lawsuit

FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis

FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkhmBWfS7pILYIk0izkc3A?sub_confirmation=1

First up, Jason answers some founder questions! (1:46) Then, MycoWorks Co-Founder Sophia Wang joins for this week's edition of The Next Unicorns! (10:12)

(0:00) Molly tees up today's segments!

(1:46) Ask Jason! What happens if a VC finds a great startup/founder to invest in, but they've already invested in a similar business

(4:31) Ask Jason! What is the ideal number of slides in a pitch deck? What are some general tips to spruce up a pitch deck?

(8:34) LinkedIn Marketing -  Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at LinkedIn.com/nextunicorn

(10:12) Molly welcomes MycoWorks Co-Founder Sophia Wang to discuss her founding story, why she got into Mycelium solutions, and more!

(19:37) OpenPhone - Get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist 

(21:05) Sophia breaks down the technology process at MycoWorks

(27:39) MycoWorks's unusual fundraising journey

(30:15) Blueground - Get up to $1000 off your booking at https://promos.theblueground.com/twist 

(31:43) Sophia explains her role as Chief Culture Officer, and explains some of the brands they work with

FOLLOW MycoWorks: https://twitter.com/MycoWorksInc

FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis

FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Subscribe to our YouTube to watch all full episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkhmBWfS7pILYIk0izkc3A?sub_confirmation=1

My guest today is Antonio Gracias, founder, CIO, and CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Antonio is perhaps best known for his role at Tesla, as the earliest institutional investor and Director from 2007 to 2021. But he has deep operating and investing experience, having first acquired and managed a number of manufacturing and technology companies during his 20s. And it was during those formative years that Antonio and his team developed the skills that led to Valor, which provides operational expertise to the high growth private companies they invest in.   Our conversation is a deep exploration of the drivers behind Antonio and Valor’s success. We dive into his concept of pro-entropic investing, what he learned as a 25-year-old running a manufacturing business, and trust me when I say, you don't want to miss his answer to the kindest thing ever. Please enjoy this great conversation with Antonio Gracias.   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're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   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 [00:02:51] - [First question] - Defining what a pro-entropic company is [00:07:26] - Understanding external forces of chaos and why they’ll continue to increase [00:11:32] - What he’s learned about identifying and investing in pro-entropic companies [00:13:43] - Investing with entropy in mind can be a bet on unchanging aspects of human nature [00:15:08] - Defining durability in contrast with resiliency and entropy [00:18:53] - Coming from a traditional background and the origin of Valor [00:22:05] - The theory of constraints and why it’s so powerful; The Goal [00:26:32] - Transitioning into a private equity structure and Valor’s 2001-2005 era [00:42:02] - Decision making bias and combating bias effectively in practice  [00:44:30] - Where security and control figures into his thinking [00:45:45] - Identity in relation to ego; the tools he uses to combat identity related decisions [00:49:04] - Lessons learned from the Japanese language versus Western languages [00:53:07] - Questions he returns to when he’s getting to know a company [00:56:16] - An episode of operational deployment that most stands out in memory [00:58:54] - Key concepts that most stick with him from working alongside Elon Musk [01:01:32] - Why there aren’t more Musk’s or Bezos’ in the world [01:04:20] - Ensuring Valor invests in the best companies going forward [01:06:06] - How to pass the torch of what Valor is to others when his time is done [01:08:25] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Zach Coelius joins Jason to answer live listener questions (1:09), and then the pair discuss Apple's recent debacle in firing Antonio Garcia Martinez after being pressured by employees (42:43). Check out the pod notes here: https://bitly.com/e1215notes