Village Global Podcast

Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg), founder of Late Checkout, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - How COVID has impacted the space and how it changes what is possible. - Where the opportunities and white space are in consumer social. - The possibilities for social experiences based around sports. - Why there is a plenty of room for many more social apps. - The potential for future dating apps. - W...

Alex Chee (@alexnchee) and Jake Ellowitz (@wakkadojo), who help run product and engineering at Tribe Capital, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - How the product and engineering-oriented mindset at Tribe impacts their investing and why it forms part of their investment thesis. - The different incentives within a firm and how this creates new approaches. - Lessons learned from their time at Soc...

Garrett Smiley (@gw_smiles), co-founder of Sora Schools , and Rebecca Kaden (@rebeccakaden), investor at USV, join special guest host Anne Dwane (@adwane), co-founder and partner at Village Global, on this episode. They discuss: - The story of how Sora Schools came about and how they plan to create the best high school in the world. - How Rebecca and USV evaluated the business. - Why a new model f...

Karan Wadhera (@karanw), managing partner at Casa Verde Capital, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - The evolution of the space and how it has changed over the last several years. - The different types of companies in the space and who they have been investing in. - Who the winners might be in the delivery space. - The biggest companies that have emerged over the last few years. - His request...

Tyler Hayes (@thetylerhayes), CEO of Atom Limbs, joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - His mission to create mind-controlled bionic arms at Atom Limbs. - How the company came to be. - What enables this technology at this point in time. - How the tech transfer process works from university to commercial application. - Lessons learned on commercializing something like this. - The bottlenecks to i...

Chris Castiglione (@castig), co-founder of One Month, adjunct professor at Columbia, and author of a new book on decentralization called The Untold History of the Internet. - Why the launch of the Sputnik satellite spurred the creation of the internet. - The early days of the internet as a publicly funded program. - Why innovation has moved from government to private industry over the decades. - H...

Alfred Chuang and Chris McCann (@mccannatron) of Race Capital joins Erik on this episode to discuss: - Where they were investing during COVID and how to find opportunities in a crisis. - Where they’re excited in the crypto space in 2020. - Thoughts on valuations and why they have remained high. - IPOs, SPACs, and the Long-Term Stock Exchange. - Why they’re not concerned about a bubble. - How the e...

Elad Gil (@eladgil), entrepreneur and investor, and Kevin Hartz (@kevinhartz), investor and co-founder of Eventbrite, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What they think is special about each other’s investing abilities. - How certain people are able to stay relevant in every investing cycle. - Kevin’s latest venture and the path he took to start it. - SPACs and their advantages. - How to f...

Keith Rabois (@rabois), partner at Founders Fund, and Jacob Helberg (@jacobhelberg), senior advisor at Stanford Cyber, adjunct fellow at CSIS, and formerly of Google, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why the US is indeed in a cold war with China. - The roles of DC and Silicon Valley in this new cold war. - The reasons for the foreign policy establishment’s dovishness on China. - How econ...

Sacha Lazimi (@SachaLaz), co-founder and CEO of Yubo, and François Meteyer (@FrancoisMeteyer), partner at Alven, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - The founding of Yubo and the philosophy behind the app. - What differentiates Gen Z from other generations. - The future of social networks. - Lessons for founders building in this space for this audience. - The future of entertainment, media, and...

Erik is joined on this episode by Ricardo Sequerra (@ric0seq), Pawel Chudzinski (@pawell), Christoph Janz (@chrija), and Louis Coppey (@louicop), partners at Point Nine Capital. They discuss: - The background of the fund and how it got started. - Their journeys in venture so far. - Why they have an equal partnership and how to think about when that arrangement works for a firm. - How SaaS has evol...

Flo Crivello (@altimor), former product manager and engineer at Uber, and now starting his next thing, joins Erik to discuss: - Lessons he learned at Uber, and what he might have done differently if he were in charge of strategy. - How transportation is evolving and who the winners in the space might be. - Why the decentralized model works at Uber. - What people misunderstand about the history of...

Kevin Gibbon (@kevingibbon), co-founder of Airhouse and formerly co-founder of Shyp, joins Erik on this episode. Airhouse provides modern, all-in-one ecommerce operations for direct-to-consumer companies. They discuss: - Kevin’s entrepreneurial journey and how he came to start Airhouse. - Lessons learned from founding Shyp. - Why entrepreneurs need to be clear about whether they are building a bus...

Erik is joined on this episode by: - David Perrell (@david_perell), of North Star Podcast - Jeff Umbro (@jeffumbro), of Podglomerate - Sachit Gupta (@sachitgupta), of Conscious Creators They discuss: - Why you should start a podcast. - How to get a podcast off the ground. - Why having one gives you access to people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. - Monetization models and the merits of each...

Ben Reinhardt (@Ben_Reinhardt), independent researcher and host of Idea Machines Podcast, joins Erik to discuss: - Why we don’t have more cool science fiction-like technology in the world. - Why there hasn’t been as much innovation or progress as humanity had hoped for. - How venture should evolve to increase innovation. - The challenges posed by system decay. - The way out of overregulation. - Ho...

Aston Motes (@__aston__), first employee at Dropbox and executive director at /dev/color, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck Fellowship event. They discuss: - The story of how he became the first employee at Dropbox. - What he learned at the company and how he approached helping to set the culture there. - How to sell talent on joining your company. - His frameworks...

Andy Johns (@ibringtraffic), investor at Unusual Ventures, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - His thoughts on transportation at short distances and the business model problem that these companies face. - Where his thinking is at with respect to opportunities in consumer social today. - His thoughts on low-code and no-code. - Why he’s interested in fintech and what a financial social netwo...

Julian Lehr (@lehrjulian) of Stripe joins Erik on this episode. He is the author of the blog post Signalling as a Service. - The background of the post and why he wrote it. - Signalling as a framework and his breakdown of the component parts. - Why there is very little luxury software. - How this intersects with Eugene Wei’s idea of status as a service. - How monetization and signal amplification...

Alexa von Tobel (@alexavontobel) and Mark Batsiyan (@mbatny) of Inspired Capital join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What fintech 2.0 will look like and their experiences growing a company during the fintech 1.0 era. - The idea of the self-driving wallet and removing friction for consumers. - Their investment thesis and the trends they are seeing in fintech. - How incumbents will react to c...

Marcos Veremis, managing director at Evanston Capital Management, and David Fauchier (@dfauchier), CIO at Cambrial Capital, join Erik to discuss: - How they became interested in crypto. - How institutions have approached the space. - How the space has evolved. - Bitcoin as a store of value in the current market environment. - The impact of COVID on crypto. - Crypto investment strategies. - Why gen...

Erik is joined by Anirudh Pai (@ani_pai), co-founder of the Conservative Curious podcast and creator of the Dreams of Electric Sheep newsletter. They discuss: - Why people don’t crave scientific advancement. - What the postmodern solution to the desire to be part of religion might look like. - What “the iPhone moment for cities” might look like. - His thoughts on stagnation. - His analysis of Thie...

Nadia Eghbal (@nayafia), of Substack, and author of Working in Public, and Lenny Rachitsky (@lennysan), author of a newsletter on product and growth and former Airbnb PM, join Erik on this episode to discuss: - The On Deck Writer’s Fellowship in partnership with Substack. - The evolution of newsletters as a medium over time. - Nadia and Lenny’s journeys on Substack. - Their advice for people who w...

Erik is joined by: - Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), fintech seed investor - Nick Caldwell (@nickcald), VP of Engineering at Twitter and angel investor - Anne Dwane (@adwane), partner at Village Global To discuss: - The craft of angel investing. - How Village Global is trying to decentralize VC with its Network Leader program. - The benefits of the On Deck Angel Fellowship. - Nick and Sheel’s journeys to...

Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno), author of History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What people don’t appreciate or misunderstand about China. - His thoughts on Fukuyama. - The west as a culture exporter. - Why this moment is a fork in the road for America and how it might play out for the country. - Twitter as a virtual reality platform. - How tech wi...

Stephen Kosslyn (@skosslyn), president and Chief Academic Officer at Foundry College, joins Erik to discuss: - The current challenges in traditional academia. - When the purpose of universities changed from teaching to research. - What he’s working on at Foundry and how it’s differentiated from others in the space. - His requests for startups in education. - Why a community connection is important...