Village Global Podcast

Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) of Better Tomorrow and Jayni Shah (@shahjayni) of Accomplice join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The state of fintech pre-COVID and the high level of activity in the space over the last several years. - Their thoughts on challenger banks and why they will have a hard time in this environment. - Which consumer habits will change permanently after the pandemic is over...

Kristin Baker Spohn (@kbakes) of CRV and Deena Shakir (@deenashakir) of Lux Capital join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What Kristin has noticed about the space after moving from operator to investor. - How COVID has rapidly accelerated digital health adoption. - Which spaces and companies they’re more interested in in a post-COVID world. - Advice for founders trying to sell to large organi...

Ali Hamed (@AliBHamed), investor at CoVenture, and Brent Beshore (@BrentBeshore), founder and CEO of Permanent Equity, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Their advice for venture firms and companies trying to fundraise in this environment. - How LPs will change their capital allocations in a post-COVID world. - Whether it’s a good time to be investing right now or not. - How this time is d...

Nir Eyal (@nireyal), bestselling author of "Hooked" and "Indistractable", joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The psychology behind distraction and discomfort - The role of willpower and forethought in productivity - Is willpower a limited resource? - Why to-do lists backfire - Becoming indistractable - Raising indistractable children and forging indistractable relationships - How you can...

Village Global co-founder Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) chatted with Jo Varshney (@jo_getter), founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life and Kiran Bellubbi (@smalldozes), founder of Keyo, about their experience with the Village Network Catalyst program. Jo and Kiran explain what it was like to be a founder in Network Catalyst, including how the team at Village Global helped them with their business model,...

Matt Clifford (@matthewclifford) and Alice Bentinck (@alicebentinck), co-founders of Entrepreneur First, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What EF is all about and why Matt says that being an entrepreneur is one of the highest-leverage ways to change the world. - How to do ideation well, and how they think about it differently from traditional VC firms. - What they’ve learned about good f...

Karan Talati (@ktal90), Co-founder and CEO of First Resonance, and Keenan Johnson (@keenanjohnson), aerospace engineer, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The role of software versus processes in manufacturing innovation - Why has manufacturing been so slow to innovate and why is now the right time to disrupt it? - How platform shifts in hardware are changing the way we manufacture product...

Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) co-founder of Tiny, joins Erik and co-host David Booth (@david__booth), CEO of OnDeck, on this episode. They discuss: - His story of building businesses in high school and how he ended up as the head of a family of 25 different companies with over 400 employees. - How they think about acquiring or investing in businesses and what they are looking for. - Where they ge...

Immad Akhund (@immad), founder and CEO of Mercury, and Jude Gomila (@judegomila), founder and CEO of Golden, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - What’s top of mind for them with respect to COVID-19 and the response. - Decentralized versus centralized approaches to the problem. - Which underlying problems in American society this has brought to the surface. - Which trends are going to accele...

Sahil Lavingia (@shl), founder and CEO of Gumroad, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The story of starting Gumroad, raising money, and getting featured in the media. - Going from a twenty person company to a five person company to a single-person company. - The advice he would give to a younger version of himself if he was starting over again. - The creator economy and which types of con...

Gigi Levy-Weiss (@gigilevy) of NFX joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The history and evolution of gaming and why he’s excited about the space. - His requests for startups in gaming and what gaming will look like in ten years. - His thoughts on e-sports and why he’s excited about VR. - Crypto, blockchain, and how those technologies interface with gaming. - Why biotech will be transformati...

Andy Chen (@andychen), partner at Coatue, and Jose Guardado ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseguardado/) , founder of a new company, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How hiring has evolved over the last decade. - Why startups are focusing on recruiting earlier, and hiring people dedicated to the task as some of their earliest employees. - How to find a co-founder who will work well with...

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in January 2020 at Ayn Rand Con. Erik interviewed Jason Crawford and Yaron Brook. Jason (@jasoncrawford) writes about the history of technology and industry at Roots of Progress. Yaron (@yaronbrook) is host of The Yaron Brook Show. They discuss: - What can destroy — or save — Silicon Valley. - What Rand would say about Silicon Valley if she cou...

Rahul Vohra (@rahulvohra), founder and CEO of Superhuman, and Todd Goldberg (@toddg777), angel investor, join Erik on this episode. They’ve raised a $7M angel fund together called the Todd and Rahul Angel Fund. They discuss: - The nano fund trend, first-time fund operators, and their thinking on fund size. - How they thought about their next ideas when getting ready to start their companies. - The...

Nick Mehta (@nrmehta), CEO at Gainsight, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - SaaS sub-sectors that Nick is excited about - Is Customer Success a skillset, function, a software stack? - What are the most common misconceptions about customer success? - When should a startup start thinking about the customer success function? - How do you scale the customer success function? - What’s the prof...

Angela Tran (@angelatytran), GP at Version One, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How digital health is helping to empower consumers. - The unbundling of healthcare. - Her requests for startups in healthcare. - The questions she asks when evaluating marketplace companies. - Why she looks for marketplace companies that are creating new behaviours for consumers, rather than just unbundling...

Alex Bangash (@alexbangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why and how he wants to disrupt venture. - How VC is changing and why later stage investing is becoming more private equity-like. - Why he says common stock is the biggest driver of disruption in the industry now, and why it’s also the most misunderstood. - The myth of being a great picker in ventu...

Amit Mukherjee (@AmitMukherjee) of NEA and Kyle Doherty (@kydoh) of General Catalyst join Erik on this episode: They discuss: - How data is being used in private market investing, how it differs from the approaches used in public markets, and how it will evolve in the future. - Crossover investing between public and private-oriented firms and why public investors are moving to earlier stages. - Th...

Delian Asparouhov (@zebulgar), principal at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Delian’s essays on what he’s learned from working with Keith Rabois at Founders Fund, and why he says “osmosis is the best way to learn.” - How they evaluate talent in general, and specifically founders. - Why he says that the more technical the company, the better the founder has to be at fundra...

Ajay Agarwal (@ajay_bcv) and Kevin Zhang (@kevinzhang) of Bain Capital Ventures join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The history of enterprise software and how the way it has been sold has changed over time. - How SaaS, cloud-based software and changing customer expectations have transformed enterprise software. - The ways that investors are investing differently in software in a bottom-up w...

Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart), creator of The Diff (diff.substack.com), joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The fox/hedgehog dichotomy - Is it better to be a specialist or generalist? - Do institutions drift leftward over time? - How will the culture war evolve over time? - How are financial bubbles created? - What we can learn from financial bubbles? - The future of K-12 and higher educatio...

Byrne Hobart (@ByrneHobart), creator of The Diff (diff.substack.com), joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The role of cost disease in healthcare, education, and construction - The future of globalization - Can bitcoin become a reserve asset - Is Wall Street good for society - How interest rates will change over the next 5-10 years and the role of negative interest rates - Mental models for...

Joining Erik on this episode are: - Dan Hockenmaier (@danhockenmaier), founder of Basis One - Casey Winters (@onecaseman), Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite - Lenny Rachitsky (@lennysan), former founder as well as former growth PM at Airbnb They discuss: - How marketplaces have evolved over the last several years. - The trend towards owning more of a user’s experience, and the pros and cons of t...

Don Stalter (@westsides) of Global Founders Capital and Ryan Darnell (@ryan_darnell_) of Max Ventures join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Where are the opportunities in the ISA space and the new businesses ISAs will enable - How ISAs will enable new forms of homeschooling - The downsides of ISAs - The evolution of Digital Health and where it’s going - The evolution of digital commerce - The...

Jerry Neumann (@ganeumann), founder of Neu Venture Capital, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Carlota Perez’s work and the implications for investors and founders, including what would change if VCs took her ideas seriously. - What people misunderstand the most about moats. - Why he wants to invest in situations where there is uncertainty, and what the right kind of uncertainty is. - Whe...