Village Global Podcast

How Crypto Changes Corporations, Capitalism and Identity with Lawson Baker

Erik is joined on this episode by Lawson Baker (@lwsnbaker), head of special projects at TokenSoft. He’s also working on a new company. They talk about: * Bitcoin as the future not just of finance, but also of work. * What the internet and the future of work looks like ten years out. * The “de-evolution of the firm” and how corporations will become less important in business. * Where Lawson would be investing if he was running a venture fund. * Why prediction markets are so exciting to ...

Systematizing Social Capital with Brad Glisson

Erik is joined on this episode by Brad Glisson (@GlissonBrad), co-founder and CEO of Quilt, formerly Thoughtblox. They discuss: - What social capital is, why it is important, and how it is distinctive from other forms of capital. - The studies around social capital and some of their insights. - How social capital impacts and intersects with reputation. - Whether a codified reputation system, like a “Yelp for people” would ever be feasible (or desirable). - What makes a great community. ...

Anne Wojcicki on Direct-To-Consumer Healthcare and The Future of Digital Health

We are honored to have Anne Wojcicki (@annewoj23), co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, among our small group of luminary LPs whose financial capital and engagement power the next wave of Village Global founders. She joined us in Mountain View for an intimate fireside chat with the first Chief Data Scientist for the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy, DJ Patil (@dpatil). They discussed: - Why the US healthcare system is broken. - The state of direct-to-consumer healthcare. ...

The State and Future of Robotics, Machine Learning, and Digital Celebrities with Michael Dempsey

Michael Dempsey (@mhdempsey), partner at Compound, joins Erik on this episode to talk through a wide array of sectors that he has delved into. (We apologize for the audio quality of this episode. We had technical difficulties during recording). They talk about: - The model and approach at Compound, including how writing definitive blog posts about a particular industry fits into their investing strategy. - The state of robotics today, including why he’s not as bullish on robots in warehou...

Government, Technology, and The New Social Safety Net with Nicolas Colin

Erik is joined on this episode by Nicolas Colin, co-founder and director of The Family, and author of Hedge: A Greater Safety Net For The Entrepreneurial Age. They discuss: - Why in the future we can expect more social change from tech companies than from government. - The key functions of version 1.0 of the social safety net. - How to solve the problem that most jobs are located in cities, but cities are also mostly unaffordable. - Why the 21st century will be more like the 19th century...

The Thiel Fellowship, 1517, and The Future of Education with Danielle Strachman and Mike Gibson

Erik is joined on this episode by Danielle Strachman (@DStrachman) and Mike Gibson (@William_Blake), co-founders and general partners at 1517 Fund. They also both worked extensively on the Thiel Fellowship. They discuss: - The story of the genesis of the Thiel Fellowship. - The lessons learned from running the Fellowship. - Their idiosyncratic paths to running a venture capital fund. - The signals they relied on to find the right applicants. - How to change how higher ed works in the US...

What Alex Tabarrok Thinks About Basically Everything

Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok), economist and author, joins Erik on this episode for a wide-ranging discussion. They talk about: - The contributions of economics to society over the past several decades and the biggest challenges ahead for the field - What “the great forgetting” means in economics and why bad ideas from the past keep coming back - The arguments for open borders - Why Alex thinks we should focus on increasing the number of police as opposed to increasing punishment for offend...

The State of Fintech in 2019 with Seth Rosenberg and Sheel Mohnot

Erik is joined on this episode by Seth Rosenberg (@SethGRosenberg), investor at Greylock, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), fintech investor at 500 Startups. They talk about: - The biggest opportunities in fintech today. - How traditional finance can be rebuilt from the ground up using software. - How to think about different market segments in fintech. - Their requests for startups in the space. - Why the big companies in fintech are converging on the same set of features. - Facebook’s Lib...

What Samo Burja Thinks About Basically Everything

Samo Burja (@SamoBurja), founder of Bismarck Analysis, joins Erik for this episode. You can find him on Medium at medium.com/@samo.burja. In this episode they discuss: - Why certain societies flourish while others decay - Where Samo stands on the nature versus nurture debate - Why he has “yet to hear a satisfying description of human social life” - The lessons we can learn from places like Singapore - The difference between the view of government as resource for the people versus the v...

How Income Share Agreements Can Help Rebuild The Middle Class with Daniel Pianko and Andy Hall

Erik is joined on this episode by Daniel Pianko (@danielpianko), co-founder and managing director of University Ventures, and Andy Hall (@AndyHall_SD), COO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. They talk about: - How ISAs have been able to transform lives through Andy’s program in San Diego. - Why tech titans providing massive amounts of money for scholarships is a suboptimal way of getting underprivileged people into school. - The chasm between work and school in America. - The fact t...

The Next Phase For Income Share Agreements with Chuck Trafton and Will Nelligan

On this episode Erik is joined by Chuck Trafton (@chucktrafton), of FlowPoint and edly, and Will Nelligan (@williamnelligan), of the Education Finance Institute. They talk about: - Why there needs to be a marketplace for ISAs. - How ISAs ensure that schools have “skin in the game.” - The problems with student loans. - The mechanics of ISA repayment and the ways in which they are progressive. - Why ISAs provide a unique opportunity for investors. - How ISAs can fix some of the perverse...

What Robert Wright Thinks About Basically Everything

Robert Wright (@robertwrighter), author of Nonzero, The Moral Animal, Why Buddhism Is True, and others, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The common theme of exploring the meaning of life that Robert says runs through all of his books. - Whether global governance could be feasible and how positive-sum thinking can play a part in reducing hostilities between nations. - Why consciousness gives life meaning. - How to deal with the quest for status. - The emotional manipulation th...

The Future of Identity with Glen Weyl and Tomer Kagan

Erik is joined on this episode by Glen Weyl (@glenweyl), founder of RadicalxChange and co-author of Radical Markets, and Tomer Kagan (@Gradish), co-founder and CEO of Merit. They discuss: - What they’re working on in the space and how it will change how identity works in the future - How to think about what makes up someone’s identity, including elements that are self-declared and those that can be independently verified - Glen’s point that the internet is missing two crucial elements: a ...

Requests For Startups: Hard Tech with Trae Vassallo and Lee Edwards

Erik is joined on this episode by Trae Vassallo (@trae) of Defy and Lee Edwards (@terronk) of Root Ventures. They talk about: - How their backgrounds and unique experiences have informed their perspectives on investing - Whether venture capital should go back to funding technical risk - Their advice for funds and how Trae has seen investing strategies come and go over time - Why there are big opportunities in areas VCs don’t know much about, like logistics, warehousing, or agriculture ...

A Primer on Idea Markets with Mike Elias

Mike Elias (@harmonylion1), crypto consultant, joins Erik on this episode to talk about idea markets. They discuss: - How he came up with the idea - Examples of how this could be implemented in the real world - The problems with the incentives of the world’s media - Why it’s “impossible to kill an idea with force” - How an idea market is like a mix of the Nasdaq and Reddit - Why, as a society, we want to search for the ideas that are both “outrageous and true” - Why William James said...

The Intersection of Financial Services and Marketplaces with Pete Flint and Alex Taussig

Erik is joined on this episode by Alex Taussig (@ataussig) of Lightspeed, and Pete Flint (@peteflint) of NFX. They talk about: - The evolution of marketplaces over time, including a comparison of the characteristics of eBay and Lyft at the time they went public. - Why the next wave of marketplace businesses will be in financial services, and why they require a unique team with a specific set of experiences. - Examples of existing startups that are working in this space, as well as their r...

Value Hacking and How To Avoid The Fake Growth Epidemic with Mike Maples

Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. The talk about: - The difference between fake growth and real growth, and how to know which one your company is experiencing. - Why fake growth has taken hold in so many companies in the Valley, and its broader systemic causes. - The difference between value hacking and growth hacking. - Why once you’ve entered the growth stage, it’s next to impossible to go back to the value hacking stage. - His thoughts on the Thiel ...

The LP Perspective: Alex Bangash

Alex Bangash (@AlexBangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik as part of our LP series. They talk about: - The myth, according to Alex, that there are such things as “good pickers” in venture. - The fact that in venture, the traditional investment model is turned on its head — assets are picking managers, rather than the other way around. - Why “the structural advantage of the big funds has all but disappeared” and why he cringes when someone tells him they want to be the next Benc...

The LP Perspective: Michael Kim

Michael Kim (@MKRocks), founder and managing partner of Cendana Capital, joins Erik on this episode to talk about what LPs look for in venture funds and the future of the industry. They discuss: - The reasons for the proliferation of seed funds over the past few years. - The rise of the "super angels." - Why portfolio construction is so important to Cendana when they're looking at a fund. - How he evaluates a fund to see whether their thesis can generate the right returns. - Why he’s “n...

The LP Perspective: Beezer Clarkson and Chris Douvos

Erik is joined on this episode by Beezer (Elizabeth) Clarkson (@Beezer232), managing director at Sapphire Ventures, and Chris Douvos (@cdouvos), founder of Ahoy Capital. They talk about: - The state of the venture industry and the industry from the LP perspective. - Why venture is “either all about access or audacity.” - How LPs pick which funds to back. - Whether there is too much capital in the venture capital asset class. - What “dilettante capital” is and why there are more “clowns”...

Bill Gates on Advice For Founders, Mistakes, and Philanthropy

On this special live episode of Venture Stories, Bill Gates was interviewed at San Francisco’s Exploratorium by Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite. We are honored to have Bill Gates, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time, among our small group of luminary LPs whose financial capital and engagement power the next wave of Village Global founders.  They covered: * Gates’s entrepreneurial journey starting Microsoft, including the most important turning points in the ...

The Past and Future of the World Economy with George Gilder and Patrick Stanley

This episode is a conversation between George Gilder (@ScandalOfMoney), author, investor, writer and economist, Patrick Stanley (@PatrickWStanley), head of growth at Blockstack, and Erik Torenberg, partner and co-founder of Village. It was originally released on The Stacks Podcast presented by Blockstack. They talk about: - Gilder’s Information Theory, and why it is central to everything, including the world economy and biology. - Why Gilder says that “wealth is really knowledge,” why mone...

Sarah Guo on SaaS Investing and Building an Enterprise Company

Erik is joined on this episode by Sarah Guo (@saranormous), partner at Greylock. It was recorded live as part of a talk Sarah gave at Village Global’s Network Catalyst program in summer 2019. They discuss: - Which spaces Sarah is most interested in and where she has been investing - Her advice for entrepreneurs looking to build a company in SaaS and enterprise, as well as her interest in companies working in security and privacy - Her investment thesis at Greylock - Why a company without...

Requests For Startups: Consumer FinTech with Howard Lindzon and Sheel Mohnot

Erik is joined by Howard Lindzon (@howardlindzon), GP at Social Leverage and co-founder and chairman of StockTwits, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), FinTech investor at 500 Startups. They discuss: - Which spaces they’re most excited about within FinTech. - How the space has evolved over the last decade or so. - Why it’s a very difficult and crowded space to try to build a company in (hint: “CACs are ridonculous”). - Their takes on crypto and its future. - Why incumbents like Google and Amaz...

The Case For Anarcho-Capitalism with David Friedman

David Friedman (daviddfriedman.com), economist and author, joins Erik on this episode. He is the son of Milton Friedman and the father of former guest, Patri Friedman. They cover a lot of ground in this episode, including: - The rationale for privatizing government and the failures of the existing system. - What it would look like to have a fully privatized government, including how a private substitute for police and defense would work. - Why he is not a utilitarian and the framework he...

A Journey Through Mental Models with Noah Tye

Erik is joined on this episode by Noah Tye (@noahlt), developer and a very interesting thinker on Twitter. They talk about: - Noah’s advice on taking advice, including why “people give others the advice that they themselves need.” - The importance of journaling and how to deal with emotions. - Why he keeps an anticipation journal. - The difference between burnout and overwork, and their relationship to depression. - What it means to “shrink the quantum of experience.” - What happened w...

Human Coordination, Compassion at Scale, and Non-Coercive Social Systems with Freyja (@utotranslucence)

On this episode Erik talks to Freyja (Jess), thinker on human coordination at the Twitter handle @utotranslucence. They talk about: - How we should think about the idea of “compassion at scale.” - Why once a measure becomes a metric, it ceases to be an effective measure. - Whether it’s possible to build a social system without coercion. - The distinction between complex and complicated systems. - Markets, and how they impact communities. - Her “motivational Turing test.” - What she wo...

What Arnold Kling Thinks About Basically Everything

Arnold Kling (@KlingBlog), economist and former web entrepreneur, joins Erik on this episode for a wide-ranging discussion of tech, politics, business and economics. They talk about: - Arnold’s mission to replace neoclassical economics, including his dissection of its flaws. - How he would change how economics is taught, including his proposal for a better definition of economics than “the study of how to allocate scarce resources.” - Why capitalism is not more popular, and his responses ...

The Future of Income-Share Agreements and Life as a Publicly-Traded Person with James Gallagher

Erik is joined on this episode by James Gallagher (@jamesg_oca), publicly-traded person and researcher and writer in the income-share agreement space. They discuss: - What life is like as a publicly-traded person, including some funny stories from James's experiment. - How one's incentives are transformed by having “shareholders” and how this arrangement creates value for everyone involved. - The promise of ISAs to “leverage human potential at scale” and why they are a better replacement ...

A Deep Dive on Education with Dani Grant

Dani Grant (@thedanigrant) of USV joins Erik on this episode to talk about education. Dani has been doing a deep dive into education and shares a wealth of insights on how the current system works, its flaws, and the people working on new forms of education for all ages. They talk about: - Why the school system is broken and why it’s often thought of as “government-sponsored daycare.” - How homeschools actually work, and how it is different than what you might think. - Why religion was a ...

A Deep Dive On InsureTech with Karn Saroya and Sheel Mohnot

Erik is joined on this episode by Karn Saroya (@karnsaroya), CEO of Cover, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), investor in FinTech. They talk about… * How Karn navigated the idea maze in starting Cover. * The quirks of the insurance market and the real business model of big insurers. * How insurance is comparable to prediction markets. * Their requests for startups in the space, where the opportunities are, and what to stay away from. * Why there has been a trend towards specialty insurance. ...

Helping Nontraditional Talent Break Into Tech with Rahim Fazal and Mike Slagh

Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Slagh (@MikeSlagh), co-founder and CEO of Shift, and Rahim Fazal (@rahimthedream), co-founder and CEO of SV Academy. They talk about: * How they “navigated the idea maze” to come to what they are doing today. * How they are helping people with non-traditional backgrounds break into Silicon Valley. * Why what they do is valuable both to the employer and the employee changing careers. * How they came to their business models. * How they help fix the ...

Founder Stories: Sasha Jokic of Formdwell

Founder Stories: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Promise

Founder Stories: Nancy Yu and Onno Faber of RDMD

Founder Stories: Kevin Caldwell of Ossium

Founder Stories: Andrew Landau of usejewel.com

Sarah Tavel on Evaluating Markets, The State of Education, and Crypto [Live Episode]

Erik is joined on this special live episode by Sarah Tavel (@sarahtavel), general partner at Benchmark. Sarah gave a fireside chat as part of Village Global’s Network Catalyst accelerator program in May 2019. They talk about: * The state of education and what Sarah is looking for in the space. * Why founders need to focus on “getting one thing really right, no matter how big or small.” * What Sarah sees in the crypto space and why she invested in Chainalysis. * The promise of vertical m...

How To Be Great at Twitter, The Future of Identity, and Why Meditation is Overrated with Michael Mayer

Erik is joined on this episode by Michael Mayer (@micjm), co-founder of Bottomless. They talk about: * Pseudonymous accounts on Twitter. * Whether Twitter should be more ephemeral. * The dynamics of Twitter and why people seek entertainment instead of facts. * How to curate your Twitter feed. * Why Michael says it’s the responsibility of high-profile people to be on Twitter and speak their mind freely. * Whether college is valuable. * Capitalism as a moral framework. * Starting a c...

Mental Models with Scott Page

Erik is joined on this episode by Scott Page (@Scott_E_Page), professor at the University of Michigan and author of The Model Thinker. They talk about: * The idea of the wisdom of crowds. * Why cognitive diversity is important for a wise crowd. * Whether individual experts or groups of ordinary people make better predictions. * Which mental models VCs should be using. * Why Scott says “mastery is knowing when to use the right mental model at the right time.” * Why, if you’re watching b...

Augmenting Employees with Artificial Intelligence with Deon Nicholas and Brianne Kimmel

Erik is joined by Deon Nicholas (@dojiboy9), founder of Forethought, and co-host for this episode, Village Global Network Leader Brianne Kimmel (@briannekimmel). They talk about… * How Forethought is “making everyone a genius at their job” through their artificial intelligence platform. * How Deon navigated the idea maze and came to the idea for Forethought. * Why customer support is a prime candidate for Forethought’s solution. * Why Deon says that they aim to “augment employees, not au...

Enterprise Investing with Matt Garratt

Erik is joined on this episode by Matt Garratt (@mdgarratt), managing partner at Salesforce Ventures. They discuss: * Trends in enterprise software and enterprise investing, including voice, consumerization, and no-code. * How their thinking has evolved over time and where they’re looking to invest. * As a corporate VC fund, how to think about the potential for investing in companies that might come to disrupt the “parent” company. * How their fund is enabling innovation in the enterpri...

Requests For Startups: Beauty with Bee Shapiro and Natalie Toren

Erik is joined on this episode by Bee Shapiro (@BeeShapiro), New York Times columnist and founder of Ellis Brooklyn, and Natalie Toren (@NatalieToren), creative consultant. They talk about: * The current landscape in the beauty sector, including the clout of the massive incumbents and some of the up-and-coming brands. * Whether successes like Kylie Jenner's line or Glossier can be replicated. * How fragrance is unique from other categories. * Where Bee would be investing if she was runn...

A Primer on All Things Growth with Mike Duboe, Dan Hockenmaier, and David Weinstein

Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Duboe (@mduboe), investor at Greylock, Dan Hockenmaier (@danhockenmaier), of Basis One, and David Weinstein (@dw_stein), working on Special Projects at On Deck and TokenDaily. They talk about… * The history and different “eras” of growth as a standalone team. * Why there’s been a shift in mindset towards growth teams, how they will change in the next 5-10 years, and why relentless optimization has backfired for some companies. * Why you should think ...

The History and Future of Bitcoin with Dan Held

Erik is joined on this episode by Dan Held (@danheld), co-founder of Interchange. He was an early advocate of Bitcoin in San Francisco and is an influential writer in the space. Dan and Erik cover the history of Bitcoin, discuss some of Dan’s most interesting blog posts, and talk about what the future might hold for crypto. Dan explains why Satoshi had a brilliant go-to-market strategy with Bitcoin. He talks about the reasons why various aspects of Bitcoin were set up the way they were, inc...

The State of Prediction Markets and Crypto in 2019 with Joey Krug

Joey Krug (@joeykrug), founder of Augur and co-chief investment officer at Pantera Capital, joins Erik on this episode. A year ago Joey was on the podcast to talk about the launch of Augur, a prediction market platform. In this episode Joey follows up on that conversation to talk about what he’s learned in the last year and to talk about the state of crypto in 2019 more generally. They discuss the launch of Augur, how it has evolved over the last year and what’s next for the platform. Erik...

Tim O’Reilly and Parker Thompson on Company Building, Venture Capital, and Inequality

Erik is joined on this episode by Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly), Valley legend and founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, and returning fan favorite Parker Thompson (@pt), partner at AngelList. They start out talking about Tim’s piece in Quartz about the hazards of the view that scaling one’s company as fast as possible should be one's top priority above all else. He says that this approach is not for every entrepreneur and that it’s an artifact of the amount of money floating around today chasing...

A Primer on Life Sciences Investing with Jenny Rooke and Jared Seehafer

Erik is joined by Jenny Rooke (@drjennyrooke), Managing Director at Genoa Ventures, and Jared Seehafer (@seehafer), Village Global Network Leader and CEO and co-founder of Enzyme. They start out by talking about how Jenny got to where she is today and her career journey thus far. She explains what makes the team at Genoa unique and why it’s such a competitive advantage to have a team that is able to look at the raw data that a company is putting out and understand whether it’s compelling or...

Requests For Startups: Software Meets Physical World with Sean Linehan

Erik is joined on this episode by Sean Linehan (@seanlinehan), Village Global Network Leader, and former VP of product at Flexport. Sean explains how he found his way to Flexport, which he says was like “the TurboTax of customs brokerages.” He explains the trend of entrepreneurs building software companies that are not afraid to “get their hands dirty” in areas that involve a lot of people and logistics. He talks about his study of the history of different industries and why he says that t...

Arjun Sethi of Tribe Capital on Data-Informed Investing

Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi) of Tribe Capital joins Erik on this episode to talk about Tribe Capital’s approach to investing. He talks about the “first principles” approach they take to evaluating companies and why he says rather than the company pitching their firm to Tribe, instead he tells prospective investments, “we will pitch you.” He breaks down the data-driven analysis that Tribe does of the companies they look to work with, and talks about the kinds of data that work best for their ana...