You should listen to grandpa!

#7.2023

Feb 24, 2023

First of all, I would like to thank all the people who gave me constructive feedback after the last post. I've collected every single insight, idea, and feedback and will continue to search for the best model for me and for all of you. Thanks for your support.

He's been a high-profile name in the entrepreneurial and venture circles since he became a partner and later president of YC - Y Combinator, the most prestigious entrepreneurship program on the planet (AirBnb, Dropbox, Brex, Stripe, and many other hyper-growth companies have come out of the program), but it's only with OPEN AI that Sam Altman has become the CEO and co-founder of the most talked about company of 2023 and perhaps this century.

Sam has written a 13-point guide to success where he shares his theories of success far beyond creating and IPOing a company, but he brings a more holistic approach to success. I can see a lot of overlap with Naval's approach to happiness, but I will give full credit to Sam for a well-written piece.

I hope this article helps you with your knowledge compound - read it here.

Following up on Sam's intro, I'd like to share this very interesting piece on how AI can create drugs that we haven't been able to create yet. I think this is a clear example of how AI can be a force for good and bring positive value to our lives. - read it here.

Best from Podcast

1. Marshall Goldsmith + The Knowledge Project

Have you ever wished you could have a heart-to-heart talk with a very wise and experienced grandfather?

Okay. I know I have.

In Knowledge Project #142 (1:37:01), the host brings out a conversation with Dr. Mashall Golsmith, the #1 executive coach in the world. Up until that point, I had no idea who he was, but the conversation went smoothly and he is so down to earth and open about it that the very next thing I did was buy a copy of his book Triggers.

BTW, he made $150k for 2 hours of coaching with the former CEO of a PE firm.

Listen to the episode here.

Key Moments for me:

11:10 - The Key to Making Change Last
15:30 - The #1 problem of all the successful people you have coached
27:30 - Three things you need to have a great life
32:50 - "I thought that happiness was a dependent variable based on achievement, that I would be happy if I achieved... I finally realized that happiness and achievement are independent variables..."

2. Tim Ferris + Bill Gurley

One of my favorite podcast hosts welcomes a legendary venture capitalist, and the conversation is one to save and revisit from time to time.

Bill Gurley is one of the most respected venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. As a general partner at Benchmark, Gurley has backed a slew of unicorns, including Grubhub, Liveops, Nextdoor, OpenTable and, most famously, Uber.

BTW, he missed out on Google and he talks about it on this show.

Listen to the episode here.

“Linux has been a DAO for 20 years” - Bill Gurley

Key moments for me:

32:53 - “I don’t write to express what I think, I write in order to think” - Kevin Kelly
48:20 - Two books recommendation: Innovation Dilemma and Crossing the Chasm.
53:00 - Advice on how to be a good Angel Investor and Investor in tech

EXTRA:

Bill worked with McKinsey on an article and I think it's worth taking notes on. I don't want to spoil it, but he thinks it's a great time to start a company. Here.

3. 20VC + Emil Michael

I got another story about Bill. In the excellent 20VC podcast with Emil Michael, former Chief Business Officer at UBER, Emil tells a story about how Bill Gurley kicked him and Travis out of Uber. Bill, the GP of Benchmark, was on the board of UBER when it became the most valuable private company in the world, and he was not happy with how Travis was running the company.

"I got out of Uber with Travis because Benchmark Capital lost a nerve. In reality, this is another economic principle called lost aversion. You invest $33 million in Uber and after 4 years it looks like $10 billion..." (the total fund size was $500 million).

Guess who he credits as the most influential person in his professional development? The one and only, Bill Campbell. If you want to learn more about Bill and his enormous influence on many business leaders and entrepreneurs, I recommend the excellent book, The Trillion Dollar Coach, written by none other than Eric Schmidt.

Listen to this episode here.

Key moments for me:

12:15 - Art of Negotiation - During their $6 billion exit from China operations to their Chinese competitor, Didi, Emil used two clear techniques to win the deal: Trust and knowing yourself and your enemy. The deal was closed in less than 45 days.

General - In the current market, Emil says that investors are moving from FOMO to JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out, to demonstrate their caution in making new investments despite all the dry powder in the market.

“40% of VC-backed startups end up being acquired by Google or Meta (Facebook); other major acquirers include Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.” - Here
“If a VC turns you down because of any reason other than they do not believe in your ability to execute; they are doing one of three things.” - Here
“Here are the 15 most important metrics that VCs & investors use to analyze startups, and how to calculate them.” - Here

Startup of the Week

In any given week, I have 20+ video calls and it's extremely difficult to keep track of what I need to deliver and what I need to follow up on. I realize that my lack of discipline with follow-ups is diminishing my ability to make a bigger impact.

I recently came across Fellow.App and I think they have an interesting value proposition for people like me. It's worth checking out.

Let's never have worthless video calls again.

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