The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
00:37:16 · Gabe Stengel, Ed Elson
[00:37:16] S2: Yeah. Hopefully. What am I trying to... Why what do I think is important, or what what do I think will be important? I mean, I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out. [00:37:26] S1: Do you view yourself as [00:37:28] S2: talented? I mean, I think I'm, like, you know, of of normal to, you know, high intelligence. I can work on problems. I'm interested in things. I'm really curious. Mhmm. And I'm passionate about the technology and how it works and how it can work for people. [00:37:47] S1: The reason I ask is because I think a lot of this is about the ability to walk into a room with important people. In your case, you're talking with CEOs of banks and believing that you have a right to be in the room. And I think with a belief in your own abilities and your and your own talents, I'm sure that's a lot easier. And I wonder to what extent do you feel that you deserve to be in the room when you walk in there? [00:38:16] S2: Yeah. I mean, look, I think there's there's a lot of people who are smarter than me with better ideas, who could be more impressive in that room. And I've been lucky to be at this cross paths, this intersection of being born with an enormous amount of privilege and then being born as someone who can take advantage of those opportunities and, you know, prosecute them. [00:38:37] S1: So what advice would you give to a founder who's trying to start those meetings, who's trying to
00:38:37 · Ed Elson, Gabe Stengel
[00:38:37] S1: So what advice would you give to a founder who's trying to start those meetings, who's trying to [00:38:45] S2: Oh, reach out to people. So it's... I think one one part of it is, you know, being born with privilege and connectivity. I mean, I also... I probably send 40 cold emails, DMs, Twitter DMs, things a day that get ghosted or people literally, you know, tell me to fuck off Mhmm. Every day to all sorts of people. And I've been doing that for years. And I think you just you just have to reach out. I mean, if you send a 100 emails to a 100 different, you know, let's call it managing partners at a hedge fund, one is gonna respond. Once that one responds, you can say to the other 99, hey, I just chatted with, you know, Joe Schmo at this hedge fund. He mentioned this. Is that interesting to you? And then it can avalanche and compound. Right? But you you need to reach out to people yourself. You need to create that connectivity, and and I've done that as well. But that's, I mean, that's vital. [00:39:33] S1: You have a a cofounder, John Willett, who you started the company with, and he is the [00:39:39] S2: COO or Okay. [00:39:42] S1: How has that relationship developed? Because I know that you were you were friends in college. You joint wrote a thesis together in college, and now you started this company. What have been some of the learnings from starting a company with a friend?
00:39:42 · Ed Elson, Gabe Stengel
[00:39:42] S1: How has that relationship developed? Because I know that you were you were friends in college. You joint wrote a thesis together in college, and now you started this company. What have been some of the learnings from starting a company with a friend? [00:39:59] S2: Yeah. So he was one of my best friends. He was simultaneously the funniest guy I knew and the smartest. And so when it came time to write a thesis, I was like, I'm gonna get John to write this with me because he's gonna do most of the work. He's way smarter than I am, and he's the funniest dude ever. John and I do not hang out socially for even an hour a month anymore. I mean, we spend so much time together for work, and we work in the office six days a week basically, you know, nine to nine. I really don't wanna see John when I'm leaving work and I'm getting dinner with friends. And I enormously love him and think he's one of the funniest guys ever. We just have a work relationship now. [00:40:39] S1: Has that surprised you? [00:40:40] S2: No. I don't think I had robust expectations going in. I think that I think that it would be weirder if I finished a a long work week, and the first thing I wanted to do is, like, hang out with John. I think that would be more concerning in a lot of ways. And we have a great relationship. We're still best friends and incredibly close. And now it just has a whole new dimension that I've never had in any other relationship before, and so I'm learning to navigate what that looks like too.
00:40:40 · Gabe Stengel, Ed Elson
[00:40:40] S2: No. I don't think I had robust expectations going in. I think that I think that it would be weirder if I finished a a long work week, and the first thing I wanted to do is, like, hang out with John. I think that would be more concerning in a lot of ways. And we have a great relationship. We're still best friends and incredibly close. And now it just has a whole new dimension that I've never had in any other relationship before, and so I'm learning to navigate what that looks like too. [00:41:09] S1: How have you managed stress in your relationship with him? Because, you know, you're working with him all day, every day. [00:41:17] S2: He's he's just he's just so stoic and patient and great. And so I can afford to be less so, less great, more anxious, more, you know, irascible and and given to anger and anxiety because he's there as a stabilizing force. Right. I think that if he were less sort of, you know, composed and rational and stoic, we would have a harder dynamic. But I think he knows, oh, you know, Gabe's getting upset that this this PowerPoint page had a typo. I know he's just, you know, in a bad mood. And so it's actually fine.
00:41:17 · Gabe Stengel, Ed Elson
[00:41:17] S2: He's he's just he's just so stoic and patient and great. And so I can afford to be less so, less great, more anxious, more, you know, irascible and and given to anger and anxiety because he's there as a stabilizing force. Right. I think that if he were less sort of, you know, composed and rational and stoic, we would have a harder dynamic. But I think he knows, oh, you know, Gabe's getting upset that this this PowerPoint page had a typo. I know he's just, you know, in a bad mood. And so it's actually fine. [00:41:51] S1: Yeah. One of the things that Scott talks about a lot is the value of stoicism. I mean, his line that I really like is nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. But it sounds like from your perspective, there might be some value to your anxiety. Now checking that the deck has one typo and freaking out about it, why it's not stoic, but it results in the in the mistake being fixed. I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on perhaps if there's value in not being stoic as a founder. [00:42:25] S2: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I am I am not a stoic guy. By no means am I a stoic guy. I am a high highs and a low lows guy. [00:42:33] S1: Yep.
00:42:33 · Ed Elson, Gabe Stengel
[00:42:33] S1: Yep. [00:42:33] S2: And I think that helps me be very passionate and diligent about what I'm doing. I am a perfectionist in a lot of ways. I'm low patience in a lot of ways. And at the end of the day, I am just so interested in making a product that's enormously valuable and just fantastic for the people we serve. And that means I need to be nitpicky and low lows and high highs, and I need to be so proud of when it works well, and I need to so embarrassed and disappointed when it doesn't so that I have the drive to then make it better. I think it's a superpower in one way. And then in the other way, it it is, you know, it it it can grate on you. If you're if you're constantly having low lows and high highs, it feels like you're on a roller coaster. [00:43:17] S1: If you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you were starting the company, and this is kind of another way of saying what do you regret most about when you started the company, but what's what's the number one piece of advice you would have given to yourself?