Village Global Podcast

Nadia Eghbal (@nayafia) of Substack joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How the internet changes how we find meaning and why new religions haven’t emerged from the internet yet. - The future of newspapers and publishing, and what happens if people can go direct to the reporters they trust via tools like Substack and others. - Her interest in the economics of content creators on the interne...

Sarah Tavel (@sarahtavel), partner at Benchmark, and Ben Rubin (@benrbn), founder of Houseparty and Meerkat, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Where the white space is in social and the possibilities for vertical-specific social networks. - Why Facebook looks to young people today the way Yahoo! looked to Sarah’s generation. - What participatory social looks like and how to solve the prob...

Phin Barnes (@phineasb) and Brett Berson (@brettberson), partners at First Round Capital, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why when First Round was started VC was mainly an “anti-network business.” - How the needs of founders and companies have evolved since First Round was started. - The four phases of a company and when to think about raising funds. - How to think about price as an inv...

Hiten Shah (@hnshah), Co-Founder of FYI, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Frameworks for picking startup ideas - Navigating the Idea Maze - How has the enterprise market changed in the past decade - Investment outlook for “future of work” - How has growth hacking and go-to-market evolved over the past decade - How to select your customers - Deciding on pricing - When do you start chargi...

Justin Mares (@jwmares), founder of Kettle & Fire and Perfect Keto, joins Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The state of CPG, the history of the market, and the problems with the incentive structure today. - What has led to the decline in the health of the average American and where Silicon Valley goes wrong with its approach to food. - Where he would be investing if he was running a fund focu...

Santiago Suarez (@SantiaSua) of Addi joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - Is lending a cyclical business - Lending as a form of customer acquisition - What can fintech lending companies learn from Affirm and Square - How lending in LatAm differs from North America - How to develop competitive advantages as a lending business in LatAm - Lessons to learn from scaling very fast - How to hire e...

Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. They Discuss: - Have all of the low hanging fruit of startup ideas been picked - How do the best founders approach entrepreneurship - Mike’s thoughts on the various conventional wisdoms of building startups - The power of “change events” for startup creation - How important is market timing - How important is it for your idea to b...

James Currier (@JamesCurrier) of NFX join Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - Why hasn’t Linkedin been disrupted yet - What does crypto do for generating network effects - Where are today’s opportunities in consumer social - Market networks and how they’ve evolved over time - What’s wrong with education and can homeschooling be a solution - Commoditization of higher education - How to evaluate s...

Neal Hansch (@nhansch) and Liz Keen (@Liz_Keen) of Silicon Foundry join Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - How Silicon Foundry is building bridges between communities - How corporations have interfaced with Silicon Valley over time - The purpose and rise of Corporate Venture Capital - How have accelerators evolved and what opportunities have they created for corporations - The role venture stud...

Charlie Noyes (@_charlienoyes) of Paradigm joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - How has the crypto landscape changed in the last year - The future of Decentralized Finance - Is Bitcoin likely to be more valuable a decade from now - The future of Ether - Will ICOs make a comeback - How tied is the rise of crypto to global disorder - Will prediction & idea markets ever happen - Charlie’s requ...

Ike Lasater (@IkeLasater) joins Erik on this episode to discuss nonviolent communication. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal. Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg.

Turner Novak (@TurnerNovak) of Gelt Venture Capital joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - Can the Vision Fund find product market fit through mega LPs - The relationship between LPs and VCs and how it’s going to change over time - How will venture as an asset class change over the next decade - The future of WeWork - Is Uber's valuation reasonable - Who are the winners of micro mobility - Wh...

Phil Bonello (@PhilJBonello) joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - Building an investment thesis around The Sovereign Individual - The future of nation states - Crypto’s role in self-sovereignty - What will lead to user adoption of crypto - Why is censorship on the rise - How has the logic of violence evolved over time - The future of cities - How does education need to respond to the Inform...

Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt), a social psychologist at NYU-Stern, joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - What are the problems with social media and are they temporary or lasting issues - How social media has affected Gen Z - What led to the rise of polarization - What needs to happen to solve the issues of social media - When do you design for humanity’s evolutionary flaws - Has politics repla...

Patri Friedman (@patrissimo) of Pronomos Capital joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - Why now for charter cities - The role of Incrementalism versus disruption in creating charter cities - Request for startups - Which geographies will be the most important for the charter city movement - How will geopolitics affect the growth of charter cities - What’s going to be the spark that allows char...

Ash Fontana (@ashfontana), General Partner at Zetta, and Leo Polovets (@lpolovets), General Partner at Susa Ventures, join Erik on this episode. They Discuss: - What does the future of venture capital look like? - Which firms are leading venture capital and who will be the top venture firms 10 years from now? - Being a generalist investor versus a specialist - Portfolio structure and the role of f...

Olaf Sakkers (@osakkers), Partner at Maniv Mobility, and Prescott Watson (@prescottwatson), Principal at Maniv Mobility, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - How mobility has changed in the past 5 years - Investable companies in mobility - The role of private infrastructure versus public infrastructure - Buying versus leasing assets in mobility - When and where do incumbents beat startups -...

Nan Li (@nanli), Managing Director at Obvious Ventures, and Zavain Dar (@zavaindar), Partner at Lux Capital, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: -How Deep Tech has evolved over time -The state of Computational Biology today -What the future of Biology looks like -What Big Pharma is focused on and the market opportunity for biotech startups -What’s their request for startups in computational b...

Malay Gandhi (@malayhgandhi) of Evidation Health and Nikhil Krishnan (@nikillinit) of TrialSpark join Erik to talk all things digital health in 2019. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal. Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global a...

Venture capitalists Greg Rosen (@Grosen) at Bedrock and John Melas Kyriazi (@jmelaskyriazi) at Spark join Erik to discuss: - Deep tech as the answer to the drought of pure play consumer companies. - Leveraging regulatory arbitrages for deep tech companies to get to market faster. - Intersection of consumer and biotech. - Enabling infrastructure for biotech. - Emergence of food/agtech. - New comput...

Sarah Tavel (@sarahtavel), partner at Benchmark, and Nabeel Hyatt (@nabeel), partner at Spark Capital, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Why they love investing in marketplaces and the evolution of marketplaces over the last decade. - Why the wave of Uber For X startups didn’t take off. - How they evaluate marketplaces, and why founders get confused about “which race they’re running” when...

Eric Vishria (@ericvishria) and Chetan Puttagunta (@chetanp), general partners at Benchmark, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The unique partnership structure at Benchmark and how it has led to the continued success of the firm. - Why they are purposefully not trying to scale the firm, unlike other venture firms. - Their investments in open source, why the space is unique, and where the...

Bailey Richardson (@baileyelaine), partner at People & Company, and co-author of Get Together, and Rei Wang (@heyreiwang), founder of The Grand and former CEO of the Dorm Room Fund Investment Team, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - The companies they’re creating and the unique insight about communities that lies behind each company. - How they define community, and what makes a community...

Brian Frank (@bfrank) of FTW Ventures, and Rob Rhinehart (@robrhinehart) of Soylent, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Some of the most exciting developments in bioscience these days. - The possibilities for biohacking and whether there is an “AWS for bioscience” emerging. - The interplay of startups and incumbents in the space and how incumbents can be more helpful to the startup communi...

Joel Monegro (@jmonegro), partner at Placeholder, joins Erik on this episode. They talk about: - The waves of centralization and decentralization in finance, government, and culture over time. - How value accruing to incumbents has resulted in completely new fields opening up for innovation. - Why crypto networks are analogous to countries. - Joel’s thesis that "ultimately capital is control." - W...