Sachin and Adam
00:12:23 · Adam
[00:12:23] S0: of joked about it and, like, we never really taken it that seriously. I think we'd always talked about, like, we would love to do it full time to see what happened and almost like a gap year. Like, Tim Ferriss does this thing... Well, he did this thing that was, like, the personal NBA where he took a year off, Angel invested in companies, started to do podcasting, and he was like, I'm gonna put, like, a $100 into this. If it doesn't work, it's only $100, and I get a bunch of learnings. If it works, I might might might meet really cool people. I might start a new business, whatever. And so he talked about it in that fashion. But I think at the time, you were really keen to do that because you'd been at Airtree for a year and a half and you... Like, on your CV, great. Like, been at Deloitte at Airtree, had that experience. And I was like, I didn't feel as... Like, I'd achieved enough at that point. I'd done Deloitte for a bit, and there was the whole tech crash at the time. And I was like, I really wanna work in VC for a year or two before I go take off that year for an MBA. And so I started applying to a bunch of things, and I found this, like, almost dream job at the time working for a fund called Second Quarter Ventures. And I came second in that process. And that was, like, a bit of an existential moment because after that, I was, like, I was, like, really angry. I was like, fuck this. Like, do I keep keep on... Continue doing this? There's, like, no good jobs in the market. And I think I made a very rash decision to, like, I'm gonna move to The States. And that's where the paths almost went different ways.
00:13:45 · Sachin, Adam
[00:13:45] S1: Yeah. I think there was a lot of times in the last year where our paths could have gone in very different ways. So I've always talked about living in New York, and I would have moved there now if we weren't starting this company. You were, like, looking at opportunities in The US, in London. You know? There was very many, like, there was a... Very many situations in which we could have, like, spent the next five years completely apart, which is, like, the polar opposite of, like, what happened now. That was the thing. [00:14:09] S0: So when you were talking about potentially going to New York after Airtree, I was talking about going to The States to work for a VC. And we're like, okay. This is probably how we're gonna do it. We're sort of talking about doing the podcast full time, but we're like, it's gonna bring us apart. And it's like, do we want that now? And maybe we can do the podcast full time in five years time. But in five years time, we could be married. We could have children. That's really hard to take a year off. So it was this existential point of decision making.
00:14:09 · Adam, Sachin
[00:14:09] S0: So when you were talking about potentially going to New York after Airtree, I was talking about going to The States to work for a VC. And we're like, okay. This is probably how we're gonna do it. We're sort of talking about doing the podcast full time, but we're like, it's gonna bring us apart. And it's like, do we want that now? And maybe we can do the podcast full time in five years time. But in five years time, we could be married. We could have children. That's really hard to take a year off. So it was this existential point of decision making. [00:14:35] S1: Yeah. Like, it... It's a Bezos framework. It's like the regret minimization, like, way of looking at life. And, like the way I remember it is that we started having this conversation of like we're about to turn 25. This is realistically the last time where we will be able to go into something, live in the same place, go home and live with our parents so we can fund this thing and live around the world. Yeah. Like, this is realistic last time because let's say you went into venture, I moved to New York, we're back in Sydney in our early thirties or something like that. It becomes a lot harder.
00:14:35 · Sachin, Adam
[00:14:35] S1: Yeah. Like, it... It's a Bezos framework. It's like the regret minimization, like, way of looking at life. And, like the way I remember it is that we started having this conversation of like we're about to turn 25. This is realistically the last time where we will be able to go into something, live in the same place, go home and live with our parents so we can fund this thing and live around the world. Yeah. Like, this is realistic last time because let's say you went into venture, I moved to New York, we're back in Sydney in our early thirties or something like that. It becomes a lot harder. [00:15:12] S0: Yeah. And at that point, you'd crafted that argument and you really believed in it, but I didn't. I didn't at all. Because for me, it was still the thing like, I've only done, like, a year or two at Deloitte, and now I'm going off to take a year off to do podcasting. I was like, what is my future career? What am I doing? And so I wasn't bought into it all because it wasn't big enough. Like, I either... I wanted to go all in on the next thing I was doing. Like, I wanted to move to San Francisco and work hundred hour weeks for, like, the top VC or whatever. Just, like, do whatever I could. I think there was an insecurity driving me of, like, I hadn't done enough in my career at
00:15:12 · Adam, Sachin
[00:15:12] S0: Yeah. And at that point, you'd crafted that argument and you really believed in it, but I didn't. I didn't at all. Because for me, it was still the thing like, I've only done, like, a year or two at Deloitte, and now I'm going off to take a year off to do podcasting. I was like, what is my future career? What am I doing? And so I wasn't bought into it all because it wasn't big enough. Like, I either... I wanted to go all in on the next thing I was doing. Like, I wanted to move to San Francisco and work hundred hour weeks for, like, the top VC or whatever. Just, like, do whatever I could. I think there was an insecurity driving me of, like, I hadn't done enough in my career at [00:15:44] S1: that point. And I think that was, like, a bit of tension between us at that point. Yeah. Because you felt that, like, I was more derisked maybe because I've had that experience. And I think we had a lot of discussions about that because it was like, for me, it's maybe like I've done the dream role in Venture and like maybe like I've had that experience I want to have, but I feel like because you were a year behind in your career Yeah. You felt like you hadn't had that yet. [00:16:09] S0: Yeah. And we had a bunch of arguments at that stage. Like, not bad arguments, but you could feel this tension of, like, this really deep
00:16:09 · Adam, Sachin
[00:16:09] S0: Yeah. And we had a bunch of arguments at that stage. Like, not bad arguments, but you could feel this tension of, like, this really deep [00:16:18] S1: two beliefs coming at each other from different ways. And that... And, like, I think, like, rightly so because that was gonna be the trajectory of the most important years of potentially our lives. Like these next five to ten years when you've had a few years working under your belt, you still have the energy of your mid twenties and nothing really holding you back. Like, I think we both believe that these are, like, exponential years.