20VC Newsletter - Mar 17th 2024
Here are the transcripts and top takeaways from 20VC episodes released this last week!
Monday’s episode with Joe Lonsdale, Founder and Managing Partner at 8VC:
Download the full transcript here:
Here are my top 7 takeaways:
1. America Needs to Be a Frontier Nation
There are 2 types of communities:
Core: Safer & protected, but harder to make changes & get things done.
Frontier: More dangerous, people are forced to innovate to survive.
America needs to be a frontier nation to advance, but also inject parts of the core into its society.
2. Woke Mind Virus is a Postmodern Religion
A lot of their ideologies come from a good place.
“Woke mind virus” isn’t about helping people effectively.
It’s about virtue signalling and focusing on things that don’t matter in a functional society.
3. Why the Education System is Broken
It’s almost impossible to get a PhD without becoming a Marxist.
A liberal education is supposed to be where students explore and debate different ideas.
Students are learning how to advance themselves by shutting up and going along.
4. How to Fix America: Scalpel not Sledgehammer
We need to fix the system without using a destructive “sledgehammer” approach.
We need to start with the administrative state, which have been captured by corporations and special interests with millions of rules.
We need smart, data driven policies that justify themselves.
5. China is USA’s Biggest Threat
TikTok’s algorithm is controlled by China and it’s brainwashing America.
They are targeting the US under Xi Jinping’s dictatorship.
The world would benefit from a free China in terms of innovation.
6. How I Lost $100M+ on Wish
I invested because of their top data culture & fast growth.
Chinese regulation and dysfunctional management caused the company to crash.
We ended up losing hundreds of millions from not selling early.
7. Biggest Lesson Working with Peter Thiel
There is usually one good reason that dominates all the others.
If you’re lacking one good reason to do something, you’re thinking sloppily and haven’t figured it out yet.
Wednesday’s episode with Chandra Narayanan, former Director of Analytics for Facebook and Chief Data Scientist for Sequoia Capital.
Download the full transcript:
My top 5 takeaways:
1. One Advice From My Manager at Paypal that Changed My Mind on “Quitting”
I wanted to quit my job at PayPal.
My manager told me, “You never want to be a quitter.”
Set things right, fix things, then come back to me when you’re in a better state of mind.
I got PayPal’s trajectory back on track before transitioning to Facebook.
I learned to never back down from a problem and it helped me throughout the later stages of my career.
2. The Only Two Skills of Analytics
Indexing: Checking if your benchmark is over or under-indexed.
Asking the “so what” question.
Mastering these 2 skills is 99% of analytics.
3. How to Measure Impact in Three Ways
You’re moving the north star metric.
You’re influencing a product decision
You’re changing the work process.
Setting new product roadmaps, automating work processes, etc.
If what you’re doing doesn’t apply to one of these 3, you’re probably not having an impact.
4. Four Reasons Why People Go To Work
They love what they do
They love the people they work with.
They are learning from the people around them.
The company is going up to the right.
If one of these four does not work, they will leave.
5. Three Different Types of Execs
Those who can take the company from bad to okay.
Those who can take the company from okay to good.
Those who can take the company from good to great.
Not all execs are good at every stage, taking a company from bad to okay will need a lot of firing.
Friday’s episode with Luca Ferrari, Co-Founder & CEO at Bending Spoons.
Download the full transcript:
My top 6 takeaways:
Why I Shared My McKinsey Salary with My Co-Founders
We had a funding agreement with each other for our first startup.
Whoever got the highest-paying job would cover food and rent, while others would work full time on our startup.
McKinsey loved the idea and I worked for a year before fully joining.
Why We Decided to Bootstrap Bending Spoons
We were three people with a failed startup behind us.
We had a unique business model that did not attract international VCs.
We had a multi-decade vision and did not want to relinquish control too early.
We could afford not to – we were cash flow positive early on.
Bending Spoons’ Core Business Strategy
We can’t predict product-market fit, so we buy it.
We acquire products with an established brand, user base & market.
We rewrite the software, redesign UI & UX & monetization.
It’s like if PE and Google had a baby.
Lessons From a Failed $7M Gaming Project
We were building the Netflix of mobile games.
The KPis were horrible despite the great subscription value, so we scrapped the entire project.
We learned to be intellectually humble when predicting the market.
When you’re doing something new, always assume you’re being positively biased towards your idea.
Secret Behind Bending Spoons' Insane Talent Pool
There are 3 important components to hiring:
Talent
Motivation
Experience
Trying to do all 3 will lead to worse outcomes on all of them.
We prioritize talent and motivation.
We can provide experience, but talent and motivation is harder to find.
We Pushed For This Term in Every Investment Round
Nobody has liquidation preferences.
Many of our colleagues aren’t as financially savvy as an investor.
We don’t want anybody to leave empty handed if things go south.
Let us know what your big takeaways from this week’s shows were in the comments below!
Thank you for reading, and don’t miss the great guests we have next week:
Cyberstarts Founder Gili Raanan on Monday, former CTO of Shopify Jean-Michel Lemieux on Wednesday, and the one and only Bryan Johnson coming Friday.
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