This Week in Startups

0:01 Jason & Chamath intro David and check in on each other's quarantines 2:26 Has the US overreacted or underreacted so far? David & Chamath give their opinions on new directives & statistics 13:15 Thoughts on potential treatment options & policy changes 22:25 Chamath explains the circumstances of recording a podcast while the Stock Market tanks in real-time 25:03 Should the US adopt Chinese & So...

0:53 Jason intros Bessemer's David Cowan 1:54 David explains how he got his start in Venture capital in 1992 4:22 What does Bessemer look for in a potential investor today? How has VC hiring and demographics have changed over time? 8:10 David gives an anecdote about understanding "sunk cost" 14:12 David explains how and why Bessemer started owning their anti-portfolio 16:03 Stories on passing on F...

0:38 Jason explains the LAUNCH Accelerator 5:39 BasicBlock CEO Taylor Monks details his journey through the LAUNCH Accelerator 14:58 BasicBlock CEO Taylor Monks' biggest takeaways from the Accelerator 27:35 DaoCloud CEO Max Coleman describes his journey into the LAUNCH Accelerator 37:34 How did Max grow throughout the Accelerator? 48:36 Lately CEO Kate Bradley-Chernis describes her experience at t...

0:01 Jason intros Chamath and Episode 0 of All-In and they discuss their current self-quarantine 0:55 Jason intros David Friedberg 1:35 Chamath gives the inaugural (& potentially final) All-In ad read 2:17 As a Warriors owner, Chamath gives his reaction to the NBA postponing & uncoordinated actions of government & private sectors 4:37 Why was the US so slow to react on both an individual & governm...

0:01 Jason intros today's topics 2:15 George calls in and asks Jason about social media interference in the 2020 election 11:13 Joey calls in and asks Jason for some tips on starting and growing a podcast 21:05 Dan asks Jason about which health-tech startup idea to pursue 26:49 Alex calls in and asks Jason about the types companies that will thrive in an economic downturn 34:35 Karen asks Jason ab...

0:53 Jason intros Nicole Quinn 1:59 Nicole & Jason describe their separate Calm investments, will it be the first mental health IPO? 8:00 Calm's I.C.E. celebrity engagement method & how it got them LeBron James 8:54 Investing in Sophia Amoruso & Girlboss: what is it about "Force of Nature" product people that attracts Nicole to invest? 16:03 Investing in Gwyneth Paltrow & Goop: what is Goop's busi...

0:40 Jason intros Jeff Housenbold 2:16 What did Jeff do before joining the Vision Fund? How did he help scale eBay & Shutterfly? 4:15 How did he wind up at SoftBank? What was it like being recruited by Masayoshi Son? How did Masa pitch the Vision Fund to Jeff? 13:28 What was the timeframe for deploying the $100B Vision Fund? 18:10 How does SoftBank size their bets and how do they counsel founders...

0:54 Jason intros Max Lobovsky 3:21 What is Max's business with Formlabs? What are people printing? Is it hitting scale with consumers yet? 10:52 Where does the majority of their business come from? 15:40 Is coronavirus impacting the supply-side of Formlabs? 20:16 Understanding the most lucrative use cases for 3D printing 21:58 What skill do you need to be a 3D modeler? 31:04 How did Max raise his...

0:51 Jason intros Bain Capital's Ajay Agarwal 3:17 Are we experiencing late-stage capitalism? Is capitalism broken? 8:22 Why is upward mobility stalling? 15:29 What is it about founders & startups that made him dedicate his life's work to? 18:46 What piece of knowledge got him in startups? Ajay describes gross margin & incremental costs 23:03 Two insights on why enterprise software is the best bus...

0:54 Want to see what it's like to be an Angel Investor in Jason's Syndicate? DM @thesyndicate415 to read Jason's last 3 deal memos 1:37 Jason intros Austen Allred & gets his side of the recent Lambda School controversy 6:22 Jason intros Katherine Boyle & gets her take on how she would have advised Austen on PR 7:58 Explaining Lambda School in simple terms 13:10 Setting up Lambda School as a count...

0:42 Jason intros Jack Kramer & Nick Martell of Robinhood Snacks 1:06 Starting Market Snacks as a side hustle after rooming together in college 13:24 What Series of Robinhood were they acquired at? 14:11 Jason's origin story meeting Vlad & investing in Robinhood 18:38 Coronavirus impact on the public market... worrisome or no big deal? 30:16 Iger steps down as Disney CEO, will this hurt them long-...

0:50 Jason intros Benchmark's Sarah Tavel 1:20 Aside from Slack, what other companies grew like consumer-facing but charge like enterprise? 3:19 How was Sarah recruited to Benchmark? How is Benchmark different from other major VC firms? 12:04 Limited upside of talking to the press in 2020 17:30 Growing up in NYC and going to Harvard 21:30 Jason on becoming a "Don't touch the thermostat" dad 23:58...

0:44 Jason shares some thoughts on hard work 1:52 Jason intros Anthemos Georgiades and they discuss how Zumper was launched at TechCrunch 4:02 How did Anthemos wind up as a founder after working in consulting 6:45 What is Zumper's origin story? How many iterations did they go through before coming up with an MVP? 15:34 How did Zumper monetize their marketplace? 18:30 Partnering with Facebook & div...

0:36 Jason intros Monique & Wade 8:29 Tech Journalists vs. Founders/VCs 14:48 Is link-baiting press a systemic, societal issue? 19:21 Future of Founders/VCs controlling their own voice via podcasts, email newsletters, etc. 23:59 SpaceX sending passengers into space in late 2021, early 2022 28:02 Kickstarter employees vote to Unionize 41:28 Gray New World - how lucrative is the growing elderly demo...

0:50 Jason intros CRV's George Zachary 2:20 Passing on Google at MDV and coming to peace with the anti-portfolio 5:51 Differences between leadership & management, where Steve Jobs, Larry & Sergey fell on that scale 10:27 Why 1990's VC was sales & marketing-driven instead of product-driven as it is now 12:52 What shifted the philosophy to product-driven businesses? 18:00 Meeting Elon Musk in the 19...

0:56 Jason intros David Heinemeier Hansson (@DHH) and asks about the work-from-home paradigm shift 5:28 Measuring programming success via budgets instead of estimates, quantifying creativity 9:57 Are incentive systems inherently bad? 13:01 How terrible commutes turned the tides for remote work in Silicon Valley, why do executives subject themselves to horrible working conditions? 17:59 What is the...

0:41 Jason intros "Edge" Author Laura Huang 3:00 How do Harvard MBA students compare with Stanford MBA students? 7:17 Why did Laura write "Edge" at this time? 8:55 Overcoming disadvantages based on race, ethnicity & gender 14:56 Laura's experience reading her own audiobook 17:23 What does her research show about structural bias against Female entrepreneurs? 23:33 How can a founder turn adversity i...

0:50 Jason intros Coatue Management's Dan Rose 1:52 Dan takes Jason through getting his internship at Amazon in 1999 and meeting Jeff Bezos 6:55 What was Amazon's core business in 1999? What was it like incubating the Kindle in the mid-2000s? 10:04 How did Bezos grow as a leader and businessman during Dan's tenure at Amazon? 18:21 How does Bezos' ability to turn Amazon around in the eyes of public...

0:46 Jason intros Dr. Brian Moore 3:39 What does Orreco do and how do they help elite athletes? 4:46 Do they sample blood? 6:33 What teams do they work with? 7:50 What is a bio-marker? 9:05 Why has inflammation monitoring become so popular? 15:01 Brian demos the Orreco app 22:56 What are the top reasons for elite athletes to use Orreco? 28:06 How did Brian get into this business? 30:34 How does bl...

0:57 Jason intros Alex & Sachin 4:46 When and why did they start Cocoon? 6:40 Why did Facebook keep changing their developer tools platform? 9:22 What is the vision for Cocoon and who is it made for? 14:58 How did they get the cocoon.com domain name and why do strong domain names breed trust? 16:57 What are they doing with customer data and how will they monetize? 20:20 Cocoon demo and Alex takes...

0:01 Jason intros Season 4 of Angel & Index Ventures' Sarah Cannon 3:22 How did working for the Obama administration lead Sarah into Venture Capital? 4:56 Picking a fight with Larry Summers as an intern 15:42 Choosing Harvard's MBA program over Stanford's 18:26 Getting into VC 20:27 Working at CapitalG 24:09 How was the foundation of Index built by Danny Rimer and what is Sarah's role? 31:42 What...

1:07 Megan pitches Moment AI (facial recognition software that helps drivers) 3:19 Juan pitches DreamOn (wearable and app that help you fall asleep and sleep better) 5:38 Elissa pitches Fumé (marijuana products) 7:46 Feedback & questions for Cohort 3 19:54 Rankings for Cohort 3 23:38 Stewart pitches EVOLUTIONS (marketplace for financial fitness) 25:34 Nadia pitches Keybee (marketplace for short-te...

1:31 Bryan pitches Project OWL (smart communications platform) 3:46 Erin pitches Nude Barre (DTC eco-friendly hosiery) 6:02 Mike pitches STACT (Athlete performance tracking) 8:05 Feedback & questions for Cohort 1 16:53 Rankings for Cohort 1 19:53 Jonathan pitches Move38 (smart tabletop gaming) 22:04 Brandon pitches ReplyBuy (text messaging support for sports, entertainment & higher education) 24:2...

0:48 Jason intros Iain Thomson & Kristen Dumont 1:58 Iain on the grim state of his WeWork office 4:34 Bezos phone hack, Saudi interference 15:12 DJ Elon plays Jason out of the break 16:45 $TSLA vs. $TSLAQ, Elon haters & more 23:07 Airborne Tesla in LA 27:30 Coronavirus effects on business, are China's numbers legit? 35:27 How regulated are food markets in China? 47:46 Iain's thoughts on Brexit 50:...

0:47 Jason intros One Drop CEO Jeff Dachis 2:37 What was Jeff's original vision with One Drop? How has it evolved over time? 5:39 How did One Drop go from collecting data to making it actionable? 8:09 How important was getting the One Drop retail products into Apple stores? 9:46 Raising money as a hardware healthcare product 15:23 How did the Bayer partnership come about? 17:57 Have any major drug...