Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
· Gokul Rajaram, Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Even when you go to market, you've got to target, instead of trying to be too horizontal, unless it’s bottoms-up. On the sales side, you've got to try to go after one or two very specific verticals because there is a very clear lighthouse effect. You want to go after the best one and get the best one. And then you basically win all the other ones in that vertical. [00:00:00] S0: I think you might know my traditional closing question that I ask everybody. What is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you? [00:00:00] S1: There are so many. A guy called Bob McDonald. I was a business school student on the East Coast. I was on a visa. I wanted to get a job in Silicon Valley. I was somewhat unqualified. I'd never been a product manager before. I'd been an engineer and never worked in photonics, optical networking before. And Bob saw a spark in me and said, "You know what, I'm going to make a bet on you and I'm going to hire you and I'm going to bring you to Silicon Valley." It was a Sequoia funded company, one of the hottest companies in the Valley. He could have had a pick of anyone, but he bet on me. So I basically have taken this approach that I try to pay it forward, and I have no expectation when I do something for someone. [00:00:00] S0: What created the spark in you? Where did the spark come from?
· Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Gokul Rajaram
[00:00:00] S0: What created the spark in you? Where did the spark come from? [00:00:00] S1: For me, it's all about just knowing how fortunate I am to be healthy, to have a family that loves me and to know that in almost every run of the simulation, I could be in a million different worse circumstances than I am today. And so just gratefulness and gratitude about where I'm sitting. I mean, we are sitting in literally the top 1% of the 1% of the 1% of situations right now. So literally, I think I feel pain when I see somebody suffering. As I say, there for the grace of God go I, in some ways… but for the grace of God. And you basically realize that you're very lucky to be given this one life and you have a responsibility to the world and yourself to be grateful and to lead the best life you can. [00:00:00] S0: Gokul, this was incredibly fun. Thank you so much for your time. [00:00:00] S1: Patrick, thank you, my friend.