Village Global Podcast

Josh Clemente (@joshuasforrest), founder of Levels, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The personal story that led him to start the company. - The fact that most people in America are metabolically unhealthy and what Levels is doing about it. - How they are taking huge amounts of complex data and distilling it down to a single score. - The history of nutrition research and the debates in the...

Owen Willis (@jowenwillis), lead of the On Deck Health Tech Fellowship, and Nikhil Krishnan (@nikillinit) of Out-of-Pocket, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - How health has evolved from a historical perspective. - How the environment has changed for companies in the space in the last decade. - Common misconceptions about building a company in healthcare. - Why in healthcare no one cares abou...

David Fauchier (@dfauchier), of Nickel Digital Asset Management, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The philosophy at Nickel Digital and the strategies they’re looking to back. - A primer on market making. - His thoughts on the Tether controversy. - His explanation of the allegations of Bitcoin double-spending and the cascade of effects from it. - An explanation of the self-reinforcing marke...

Logan Ury (@loganury), Director of Relationship Science at Hinge and author of How To Not Die Alone, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - Why a great relationship is really just a culmination of a series of small decisions, and how to be “intentional every step of the way.” - How the three dating tendencies apply to cofounders as well as to romantic partners. - What leads to external CEO candi...

Andrew Barry (@Bazzaruto), program director for On Deck Course Creators, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The history of online courses and why they’ve exploded in the past few years. - What the On Deck Course Creators program is and what people can expect to get out of it. - The two key things you need to get right when creating an online course. - Common misconceptions that people have a...

Ali Hamed (@AliBHamed) and Brian Harwitt (@bharwitt) of CoVenture join Erik on this episode to discuss: - Their new fund, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and what they’re investing in. - The types of new asset classes they’re looking at and why these are often “a better version of something old school.” - Their thoughts on investing in creators. - The merits of equity vs. other forms of capital from a...

Nabeel Hyatt (@nabeel), investor at Spark Capital, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck Angels event. They discuss: - His path to becoming an investor. - Why he likens being a VC to being a middle manager at a large conglomerate company. - How he thinks about frameworks for investing. - How to quickly get up to speed on spaces that are new to you as an investor. - Why...

Robbie Crabtree (@robbiecrab), founder of On Deck Performative Speaking, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The importance of conveying emotion to an audience. - Communicating in a Zoom world. - How he uses pop culture as inspiration. - Common misconceptions people have about being a great speaker. - The ingredients of a great story. - What people can expect to learn during the On Deck Perfo...

Michelle Zatlyn (@zatlyn), co-founder, president, and COO of Cloudflare, joined Village Global co-founder and partner Ben Casnocha for a masterclass with our founders in late 2020. They discussed: - The origin story of Cloudflare, including how the co-founders met, and how Michelle realized that she too could start a company. - Her advice on fundraising after raising more than $300M for Cloudflare...

Morgan Housel (@morganhousel), partner at Collaborative Fund, and author of the book The Psychology of Money, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - Why it’s not realistic to be rational and an investor should aim to be merely reasonable instead. - What people don’t understand about compounding. - The difference between getting wealthy and staying wealthy. - Bets on what is going to change vs. w...

Marc Andreessen of a16z (@pmarca) and Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) joined Sriram Krishnan (@sriramk) and Aarthi Ramamurthy (@aarthir) on their Good Time show on Clubhouse. Topics discussed: - Why college is broken. - The reasons for the lack of innovation. - Why it’s so hard for colleges to be disrupted. - How college could be unbundled. - New approaches that are being tried in the space. - How...

Michael Acton Smith, co-founder and co-CEO of Calm, joined Ben Casnocha, co-founder and partner of Village Global, at a special virtual masterclass for Village Global founders, Network Leaders, and friends of the firm. They discussed: - How Michael got into meditation, his personal practice, and meditating together as a company. - The story of the early days of Calm, including their fundraising jo...

Mindaugas Petrutis, head of the On Deck Design Fellowship, and Jeff Anders (Hilnbrand) (@jeffand_), Co-Founder of Ambrook, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The On Deck Design Fellowship. - The five I’s of design. - How to think about the forks in the road you’ll face as a designer. - Whether to move into management or continue as an individual contributor. - What you will get out of the...

Hikari Senju (@hisenju), founder of Omneky, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The state of online advertising today. - Why Hikari started Omneky, how it works, and how it’s helping small businesses. - Advances in AI and computer vision and how they’re impacting advertising. - What it means when he says the cost of attention is getting to be higher than the cost of content. - How antitrus...

Peer Richelsen (@peer_rich), founder of Lean Hire and Head of Product at On Deck, and Andreas Klinger (@andreasklinger), CTO at On Deck, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why global hiring is broken. - How companies should get started with contract-to-hire and common challenges they may face. - The background of Lean Hire. - What needs to happen for this to become a norm for companies. -...

Phin Barnes (@phineasb), venture capitalist, most recently at First Round, joins Erik on this episode which was recorded as part of an On Deck Angels event. They discuss: - Why he thinks of an investment as a product. - Advice for founders working with investors. - The reasons he has changed his mind after a meeting with an entrepreneur. - How to ask better questions. - Why he loves “seeing someth...

Marc McCabe (@mccabe), partner at Oyster Capital, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - What people get wrong when they’re preparing to fundraise. - The importance of stress-testing a deck, and how to do it. - The right investor to pitch first, and the right time to follow-up. - Whether to give a VC a deadline or not. - Common mistakes people make when fundraising and how to avoid them. - Lesso...

Increasing Scientific Progress and Improving Institutions with Alexey Guzey Alexey Guzey (@alexeyguzey), independent researcher, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - His thoughts on how to make scientific institutions work better. - What people get wrong most often when analyzing institutions. - How he would change the FDA and academia. - Why people under appreciate scientific progress. - Wher...

Shellye Archambeau (@ShelArchambeau), one of tech’s first black female CEOs and author of Unapologetically Ambitious, joins Village Global co-founder and partner Anne Dwane for this masterclass held in December 2020. They discuss: - How to decide what you want in life and your career. - Why she makes choices but never sacrifices, and what the difference is. - How to adopt a mentor. - How to overco...

Paul Martino (@ahpah), co-founder of Bullpen Capital, joins Village Global co-founder and partner Anne Dwane on this episode. They discuss: - Stories from his entrepreneurial journey. - Advice for founders navigating the pandemic. - How the venture ecosystem today differs from ten years ago. - What characterizes the post-seed phase. - Why they look for companies that are “off by one.” - Their appr...

Amira Yahyaoui (@Mira404) of Mos and Deena Shakir (@deenashakir), partner at Lux Capital, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - Amira’s part in the revolution in Tunisia. - How she ended up in tech. - Why she wanted to solve this issue. - Lux’s thesis in this area. - The gap she saw and how Mos will fill it. - How COVID has impacted higher education. - Her thoughts on governance and technology....

Siadhal Magos (@smagos), co-founder of Metaview, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - What Metaview can offer and what inspired him and his co-founder to start it. - Insights from how teams grew at Uber and Palantir. - The rich data and insights that can be drawn from conversations. - The hiring lessons to impart to founders. - Best practices for startups hiring. Thanks for listening — if you...

Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) of Late Checkout, and Justin Murphy (@jmrphy), social scientist and philosopher, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - How society got to a place where it lost its collective sense-making abilities. - Why calibrating what is real is harder than ever. - Signs that your community is working and what makes it flourish. - Techniques to build your communities. - Identity...

Laís de Oliveira (@isolive), author of Hacking Communities, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The “why now” for her book. - Why we are more connected than ever but still lonelier than ever. - How to be a good storyteller and why vulnerability is important. - The tension between building a community for a business versus for the community’s own sake. - How to think about monetizing a communi...

Erik is joined on this episode by Max Nussenbaum (@maxnuss), who runs the writing fellowship at On Deck, Kyla Scanlon (@scanlon_kyla), who runs the blog Data Data Data, and Jake Singer (@jakesing_), who runs the blog The Flywheel. They discuss: - The benefits that writing has brought to them. - How they got started writing. - Their advice on how you can get started. - How to create a flywheel in y...