Coburn Ventures Podcast

Today we’re continuing our work on encountering and moving through framework failures. Our instinct as investors can be to think harder, talk more, come up with our unifying theory and wait for clear evidence to show up. But Karl Weick's work points somewhere else entirely. Jorgen van der Sloot is with us today to dig into what it looks like practically to act our way into a new framework even bef...

What if the key to navigating massive change and framework failure isn't about pushing harder, but about slowing down and getting into the space between? As we continue our work on framework failure and response, we're joined by Elise Jones, who has been through a few significant reframes, which may be why we delighted in a mix up of words that gave us a new path forward in our framework f...

Sometimes I see that AI is being used to somehow get better at processing all the noise, and that’s definitely one interesting way to use it. But what if we commit to using it to get to “uncommon” insights instead of trying to get better at managing noise? How would that look different? Today’s AI Module presents a way to look through a “lens” and get a different perspective. We may even look thro...

A big topic in the news today is whether or not, or maybe by how much, investors' insight generation will be commoditized by AI. If we’re going to create a future in which we thrive as investors, we are well served to think through exactly why or why not insight would be commoditized, and that's just what we're getting into today. Let’s jump in. 

What happens when the frameworks and mental models we rely on stop working, and in some cases, we don't even notice? Today we dig into framework failure: why our deepest assumptions about intelligence, creativity, housing, education, and the future are cracking, and what's not changing at all that can be our path to advance forward wisely. Let's jump in

In episode #263 we discussed a new market structure. One idea from our friend Boris continued to come up: “What if the language of active management is spoken by fewer and fewer? ” Today we are getting very specific about language and going right to the root of much of our industry's basis: valuation. Let's jump in.

Something really interesting happened this week -- a conversation with a brilliant friend in Paris sent us into an exploration of two ridiculously useful frameworks for what investors and leaders are navigating right now. It started with a misheard name, and it ended with two thinkers who have no business being in the same conversation, except that together their work describes what framework fail...

Many of us have been investors for decades, witnessing tech adoption across the enterprise in computing, networking, mobile, internet and now AI. Today with Bob Gower, we work through what’s similar and what’s very different about deploying AI in the enterprise, generating some great threads for investors to be pulling when asking management teams about the rollout. Let’s jump in.

Today is a rather quick highlight: our goal is to share an AI fix we’ve been finding really helpful and flexible: asking for five blind spots, sometimes over and over again. This module is so applicable that in fact, during this conversation, we designed a few additional ways to use it. Let’s jump in.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast and reading our work, you know that we have been advocating for some awareness and action regarding a change in the market structure and what investors can be aware of as they work to adapt. Today we offer a few questions that our community has been wrestling with in an attempt to move from thinking about "yes we probably need to adapt" to decisively making...

You want better meetings and energy on your team, but becoming a facilitator was probably not on your to do list when you became an investor or executive, right?  You don’t have to go that far, because today we are going to offer some simple skills and practical ideas to try out. Implementing them could be more of an impactful lever than you realize! Let’s jump in.

What is one of the most important “technologies” investors have at their disposal? Meetings. Today we are offering 10 practical ways to adjust and enhance what you are already doing that you know could be even more valuable. Let’s jump in.

A few weeks ago, in episode #254, we had a conversation about flipping the idea of needing to get better and Saying No on its head: instead of the cliche, meme-filled "we need to get better at saying no!", let's look at it another way and see if we notice something different. How about, let's avoid saying yes . Today a master in discovery and discernment joins us-- Irwin Kula wil...

What I am loving about AI coming on as a new widespread technology is how we are adopting it: it's so uniquely human - we are diving in, learning so quickly, watching and observing what others do, then mimicking that, then making it our own, it's like compressing the years 0-5 when a human is growing from baby to toddler to kindergartner and that whole time has been a giant sponge. That’s us, toda...

Last week we laid the foundation for AI workshops by offering our design principles. Today, we get into the meat of the matter, with three modules designed to create a deeper partnership with AI, all toward the goal of unearthing uncommon insights on your most important investment questions.  Let's jump in.

Many of you have asked us in one way or another about how we and how investors are using AI. Today we take you through the design principles of our current iteration of our AI workshop. We’re taking time on this foundational layer because it influences the power of everything else.  There are three elements we’ll cover today, and I think you'll see how each one is likely different from how mos...

In recent podcasts and writings, we’ve been exploring how investors can better determine whether they are truly developing uncommon insights. Today we are getting a deeper perspective from our friend and long-time investor Jeff Cardon. Through his great storytelling, Jeff illustrates what it means to follow the judgment inherent in your investment philosophy, within the pressures and the ebb and f...

Our people, our teams, our talent... they are integral to our ability to generate sustained uncommon results for clients. But, were you ever deeply trained on hiring or developing that team? Probably not! We're investors! But...we know we need to do it well. Here's a snapshot of three elements of hiring that Pip has found useful. Let's jump in.

Today our conversation starts with a really simple refrain that goes around in high functioning circles: “I just need to learn to say no”. Pip breaks apart the comfort of that meme, predictably-- but then we discover even more about this false duality, and why the skillset and capacities involved in learning to say no is also revealed as one of the greatest skills for investors to develop and hone...

Today, we're discussing uncommon understanding: we know we need to systematically generate uncommon insight, but how do we know if we're actually achieving it? Today we’ll discuss four feedback mechanisms of sorts that we can use right now to assess whether our thinking is truly differentiated. Then, we'll break down three forms uncommon understanding. We're finding that most of us...

Welcome to the New Year! There’s celebration, renewal, and…. perhaps a bit of tension in the air! As we were taught by our friend Irwin Kula, “Where there is tension, there is value,” so let’s jump in.

If you’re using AI or considering using AI as a thinking or writing partner, come with us today as Pip walks through how he’s been modulating his work to achieve more insights from working with this tool. Singularity or not, let's jump in.

This is our second conversation about failure rates and mistakes. Last week, we distinguished between the two, and how important that is in our industry in which a 60% success rate, so to speak, will get you into the "Investment Hall of Fame", but that 60% means that 40% of the time you could be considering there is something wrong or off, and by distinguishing between living in that failure rate...

We’re discussing how to more surgically understand your  mistakes and your successes, but to do that, we want to first understand a crucial element that gets in the way of all the rest of our thinking: the failure rate of our industry. Let’s jump in.

The thesis statement is our #1 tool: it's the key representation of uncommon, uncorrelated investable insights that only your specific firm with your specific team and your specific investment philosophy can create. It’s also the bridge between investment philosophy and stock level work. Finally, it's how we communicate without getting dragged back to the mean and instead, communicate at t...