Spearhead
70 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 105 ratingsNaval on angel investing. David Sacks on scaling. On Twitter at @spearhead.
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Episodes
Rapidly Growing Valuations Shouldn’t Scare You Off
June 29, 2020 16:43 - 53 seconds - 874 KBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/rapid
Reading Social Proof Is an Art Form
June 26, 2020 17:53 - 2 minutes - 1.88 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/art
Social Proof Is a Valid Signal
June 22, 2020 13:38 - 1 minute - 1.42 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/social-proof
Ask About the Metrics They’re Not Showing You
June 17, 2020 17:13 - 1 minute - 1.06 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/metrics
It’s Easy to Exaggerate Early Traction
June 16, 2020 13:56 - 1 minute - 1.58 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/exaggerate
Everything Is a Proxy for Traction
June 12, 2020 16:06 - 2 minutes - 1.98 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/traction
Early Winners Don’t Always Make It to the Finish Line
June 10, 2020 13:52 - 1 minute - 1.17 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/finish
Invest in the First Credible Mover
June 08, 2020 11:45 - 1 minute - 1.22 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/credible
Monopolies Fall When Platforms Shift
June 05, 2020 15:47 - 2 minutes - 2.09 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/platform
A Lot of Great Tech Businesses Are Natural Monopolies
June 03, 2020 18:49 - 1 minute - 1.37 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/monopolies
Great Companies Expand Their Markets
June 02, 2020 19:20 - 1 minute - 1.05 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/market
Invest in $0 Billion Companies
May 29, 2020 16:13 - 1 minute - 1.47 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/zero-billion
Invest in Pure Tech Companies
May 27, 2020 16:10 - 1 minute - 1.08 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/pure
Raising Money Without Any Product Is a Red Flag
May 25, 2020 12:00 - 1 minute - 1.51 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/pre-product
Product Is the Resume of the Team
May 22, 2020 15:07 - 1 minute - 1.76 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/product
Growth Investors May Force You to Expand Quickly
May 19, 2020 18:02 - 2 minutes - 2.03 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/expand
Expanding Fast vs. Dialing in the Model
May 19, 2020 18:02 - 2 minutes - 2.03 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/expand
In PayPal’s Early Days, We Lost Money on Every Transaction
May 15, 2020 17:23 - 1 minute - 1.03 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/PayPal
Get the Operation Working at a Small Scale
May 13, 2020 14:32 - 2 minutes - 2 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/small-scale
‘Tech-Enabled’ Often Means Thin Margins
May 11, 2020 18:20 - 52 seconds - 863 KBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/margins
Startups Didn’t Have to be Good at Accounting Until Software Ate the World
May 08, 2020 07:47 - 1 minute - 1.83 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/accounting
You Can’t Optimize Profits If There Are No Profits to Optimize
May 06, 2020 14:05 - 1 minute - 1.59 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/scale
Negative Unit Economics Create the Illusion of Success
May 04, 2020 15:51 - 1 minute - 1.84 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/unit-economics
Startups Are Susceptible to ‘Happy Talk’
May 01, 2020 16:35 - 1 minute - 1.08 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/happy-talk
Mature Your Culture as You Grow
April 30, 2020 16:39 - 1 minute - 1.42 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/culture
Nobody Wants to Give a Founder Tough Love
April 23, 2020 16:16 - 2 minutes - 2.36 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/tough-love
Founder Psychology Is at the Heart of Most Blitzfails
April 22, 2020 18:15 - 2 minutes - 1.92 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/crazy
Culture Is a Macrocosm of the Founder’s Psychology
April 21, 2020 18:33 - 1 minute - 1.81 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/psychology
Micro-Bubbles Are Constantly Building and Bursting
April 20, 2020 08:31 - 1 minute - 1.25 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/micro-bubble
‘High-Burn Startup Meets Macro-Shock’ Is a Recipe for Blitzfail
April 17, 2020 17:27 - 1 minute - 1.75 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/macro-shock
Moving Fast May Mean You're Not Really Moving at All
April 16, 2020 17:42 - 1 minute - 1.08 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/fast
Startups Are a Race to Get to Scale
April 15, 2020 17:50 - 1 minute - 1.71 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/race
Blitzfail: Why Startups Go off the Rails
April 14, 2020 20:25 - 1 minute - 1.67 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/blitzfail
Repeat Founders Often Don’t Want to Start Over From Scratch
April 13, 2020 17:37 - 2 minutes - 2.57 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/repeat
Repeat Founders Don’t Really Want to Start Over From Scratch
April 13, 2020 17:37 - 2 minutes - 2.57 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/repeat
‘First-Time Founders’ Often Have Been Tinkering for Quite a While
April 09, 2020 16:05 - 1 minute - 1.71 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/repeat
Avoid Teams That Would Sell Early
April 08, 2020 15:09 - 1 minute - 1.31 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/early
Founders Almost Can’t Be Referenced
April 07, 2020 15:41 - 2 minutes - 2.09 MBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/references
Your Reputation Is Built by the Companies That Are Doing Poorly
April 06, 2020 15:14 - 53 seconds - 877 KBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/reputation
Coachability Is Overrated
April 02, 2020 17:45 - 32 seconds - 547 KBTranscript: http://spearhead.co/coachability
You’re Not Investing in Nice People
April 01, 2020 17:05 - 2 minutes - 2.47 MBInvest in people with high energy, intelligence and integrity. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/nice
Invest Only in Technical Teams
March 31, 2020 15:38 - 1 minute - 1.87 MBIf there’s no technical team, you’re not investing in technology. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/technical
Invest in the Smartest Scientists in a New Field
March 30, 2020 14:16 - 2 minutes - 2.32 MBYou’re not going to become a great tech investor by reading TechCrunch. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/scientists
Don’t Fantasize About What You Would Do If You Were the Founder
March 25, 2020 13:20 - 1 minute - 1.1 MBYou're not running the company—you’re betting on the founder. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/fantasize
You’ll Get Less Money in Your Winners
March 23, 2020 20:46 - 2 minutes - 1.98 MBAlways try to get your standard bite-size. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/winners
You Can Give Every Deal One Fatal Flaw
March 11, 2020 12:00 - 1 minute - 1.69 MBA startup that breaks all the rules won’t get anywhere. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/flaw
The Best Deals Look Weird
March 09, 2020 17:04 - 2 minutes - 2.36 MBIf nobody thinks it looks weird, you’re making a consensus investment. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/weird
Judgment Requires a Willingness to Be Unpopular
March 06, 2020 17:05 - 1 minute - 1.47 MBGroupthink leads to poor judgment. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/unpopular
Are Good Investors Piling in the Round with You?
March 04, 2020 20:04 - 1 minute - 1.71 MBIt’s a sign of good judgment when proven investors pile into the round. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/pile
Pivots Mean Your People Judgment Really Matters
March 02, 2020 17:19 - 2 minutes - 2.44 MBBets on seed-stage startups are bets on founders. Transcript: http://spearhead.co/pivots