The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:45:44 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:45:44] S1: What have you changed your mind on [00:45:45] S0: in the last twelve months? I used to think that I should try to read as many books as possible. Quantity, I wouldn't say is irrelevant, but not so important. What's really valuable is to select them well and try to read each and analyze each in-depth, really ponder. You learn a lot more. It's a lot [00:46:02] S1: more useful that way. What three books would you most recommend to someone listening? [00:46:06] S0: Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark. I'll say The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. And then maybe to go fiction versus non fiction, I would say A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Tawls. I believe that's how you pronounce it. Wonderful, wonderful novel. Maybe the best novel I've ever read. One of the best. [00:46:25] S1: I was gonna suggest Venture Deals by Brad Felden, so you have a lot more diversity than me, Luca. So don't worry. Some people tell me I need to get out of venture. I probably agree with them. What does a day look like for you? Do you have a routine? I'm just intrigued. You look like a fit dude.
00:46:25 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:46:25] S1: I was gonna suggest Venture Deals by Brad Felden, so you have a lot more diversity than me, Luca. So don't worry. Some people tell me I need to get out of venture. I probably agree with them. What does a day look like for you? Do you have a routine? I'm just intrigued. You look like a fit dude. [00:46:41] S0: I mean, I don't think I have anything incredibly surprising. Wake up around seven, 07:30, walk my dogs, go to the gym. Either, you know, can run, maybe lift weights. I try to mix it up a little bit. Then I have breakfast and read at the same time. That's my half an hour of meditation. To me, reading and eating a light breakfast is really recharging. And then I have my work day. I try to have a lot of time to do individual work. I think you'd be surprised by our few meetings and external meetings particularly. What we're doing here is quite rare for me. I maybe do two of these, three per year max. So most of the time I spend it doing individual work. We promote individual work a lot at the company at all levels. We want all of our managers to be incredibly hands on. [00:47:19] S1: Do you not have direct reports that report to you, Luca? Yeah, I do.
00:47:19 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:47:19] S1: Do you not have direct reports that report to you, Luca? Yeah, I do. [00:47:22] S0: I do. Once every two weeks, maybe it takes about five hours a week. And then I have other meetings, but I would say I probably have no more than twenty hours of meeting a week and I squeeze in maybe forty, fifty hours of individual work each week. And then I try... Tend to be done around maybe 08:39 in the evening. I spend an hour with my fiancee, with my dogs again, you know, they're just chatting, watching a part of a movie, eating dinner, then walk the dogs again, read a book, fall asleep. Pretty simple. [00:47:51] S1: Tell me, if you could choose one person as a board member, who would it be? It can be anyone. [00:47:56] S0: Siddhartha, the fictional character from the book by Hermann Hesse. I think it'd be great as a board member. [00:48:02] S1: Most say Bill Gurley, so, you know, good. That that works for me. [00:48:07] S0: That's boring. [00:48:08] S1: That that works for me too. What's the biggest piece of BS advice that you hear most often, Luca? [00:48:13] S0: The opinion I hear most often that I think is really poorly informed and poorly thought out is that artificial intelligence will create more jobs than it will eliminate. We will see. I I might be very wrong. I'm quite confident that it will prove to be otherwise. Destruction of jobs? Yeah. If far in excess of job creation in the medium long term. I don't know if it's a few years or few decades, but I'm quite convinced of that. [00:48:38] S1: An ultimate one, what's the kindest thing anyone's done for
00:48:38 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:48:38] S1: An ultimate one, what's the kindest thing anyone's done for [00:48:41] S0: Two friends from middle school or classmates. I told you I was almost pathologically shy at the time. They went out of their way to pull me out of my shell and teach me how to socialize with others. For two kids of 10 years of age, to do that showed a level of, I think, selflessness and maturity that I still remember today with incredible gratitude. And it changed my life, for real. [00:49:07] S1: And you gave them 10% of Bending Spoons to thank them in gratitude. [00:49:12] S0: I did not, but maybe I should. [00:49:14] S1: Oh, you know, it's a it's a $230,000,000 gift. I'd I'd help you socialize more if if that was on the cards. Final one for you, Luca. The most ambitious that you can be for Bending Spoons, ten years out, What is Bending Spoons then if everything goes right?
00:49:14 · Harry Stebbings, Luca Ferrari
[00:49:14] S1: Oh, you know, it's a it's a $230,000,000 gift. I'd I'd help you socialize more if if that was on the cards. Final one for you, Luca. The most ambitious that you can be for Bending Spoons, ten years out, What is Bending Spoons then if everything goes right? [00:49:28] S0: I do think and hope we we can continue doing roughly what we do. We like what we do. We think it has potential, and we have fun doing it. I think we can do it at a much bigger scale. We can do it a lot better, And I hope that we have developed a level of competence and accumulated enough resources that we can increasingly find ways of making a positive difference. I think it's quite difficult in business. Everybody talks about it, but it's very few businesses that you can really say, you know, they're making a very positive difference. I don't think we we make a very positive difference nor do 99% of the businesses as far as I can tell, but I would like to be in a position to make that difference without a doubt. I love to see the things like the Gates Foundation. It's very inspiring to me. Being able to tackle polio and almost eradicate it, that is incredibly inspiring to me. So being in a position to to do something like that, maybe it doesn't have to be charity, can be many ways, maybe it's charity, maybe not. But have that level of resources and credibility and access to tackle some of those problems at that level, that will be a dream come true.
00:49:28 · Luca Ferrari, Harry Stebbings
[00:49:28] S0: I do think and hope we we can continue doing roughly what we do. We like what we do. We think it has potential, and we have fun doing it. I think we can do it at a much bigger scale. We can do it a lot better, And I hope that we have developed a level of competence and accumulated enough resources that we can increasingly find ways of making a positive difference. I think it's quite difficult in business. Everybody talks about it, but it's very few businesses that you can really say, you know, they're making a very positive difference. I don't think we we make a very positive difference nor do 99% of the businesses as far as I can tell, but I would like to be in a position to make that difference without a doubt. I love to see the things like the Gates Foundation. It's very inspiring to me. Being able to tackle polio and almost eradicate it, that is incredibly inspiring to me. So being in a position to to do something like that, maybe it doesn't have to be charity, can be many ways, maybe it's charity, maybe not. But have that level of resources and credibility and access to tackle some of those problems at that level, that will be a dream come true. [00:50:27] S1: You mentioned that you do, you know, two or three of these a year. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. I've long been an admirer as a model that you have. I've wanted to do it for a long time. So thank you so much for the time today, Luca. [00:50:38] S0: Thank you, Harry. My pleasure, and congrats on all you do. I