00:29:01 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:29:01] S1: Was part of the team. Many people can say that they were [00:29:04] S0: I on those just want to make it clear. It's not like I'm trying to sit here and say, Oh, I led SpaceX. No way. [00:29:09] S1: Congratulations. [00:29:12] S0: But sorry, go on. The other big one is that I was a part of the team. The other thing is that Founders Fund, tend to not do individual credit on things, A lot of people are involved. But yes, we can talk about it from a perspective of like, was helping drive the team on some of these investments. [00:29:29] S1: So, you were helping drive the team on SpaceX, Palantir, Airbnb. You were on these deal teams. [00:29:38] S0: Palantir, yes, but remember that Palantir, Peter is a co founder of Palantir. So, that one was like we put a lot of money into it. I think we put like 30 something percent of [00:29:50] S1: You put 33% of fund investment. [00:29:53] S0: Think that [00:29:53] S1: sounds $75,000,000 of a $240,000,000 fund at a billion dollar valuation. [00:29:58] S0: Very good, Molly. That's something like that. That was pretty bold. Now, Peter was a co founder there. I think I put that one in a special bucket because Peter's co founder there. But then, Airbnb, Stripe, StemCentrix, even like things like Anduril, Affirm, obviously. [00:30:18] S1: And StemCentrics was one of your first exits? [00:30:21] S0: Maybe. It was one of the first bigger exits, but I don't know anything about biotech. That was just a bet on it because I knew how good the team was. [00:30:28] S1: That's crazy.
00:30:28 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:30:28] S1: That's crazy. [00:30:30] S0: I just never seen it. There's never been another CEO of a biotech company like that. [00:30:37] S1: Right. I think like the biggest thing that I was, I was looking at all these names and I've listened to you on, on interviews and listened to you speak. It's like, you're so down to earth about it. Like, you're very clear that like, you're not an expert in these things. You have high conviction on the founders. [00:30:53] S0: I know what I'm good at. And I know what I'm not good at. And I don't try and pretend to be good at most things. I don't feel the need to do the whole VC, Oh, I know about everything. Nonsense. [00:31:06] S1: So, what are you looking for in these founders? What are the main capabilities?
00:31:06 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:31:06] S1: So, what are you looking for in these founders? What are the main capabilities? [00:31:09] S0: What was I looking for? I'm not doing pitch meetings anymore. It's hard to put into words. Think we had a one time I had an author come into Founders Fund to try and help us put into words what is a Founders Fund founder? And we never could figure out the proper words for it. The one thing about us is we all approach these things from slightly different perspectives, but we could all generally agree on, woah, this person is actually really good. I think that's what the other thing, part that made Founders Fund work is like all these contrarian people with no cohesion around the type of business, other than the monopoly thesis and all that. But where we all did come together was we were all on somewhat the same page with, Oh, this is an actual A plus founder. Not just like an A minus founder, an actual A plus founder, of which I think there's very few. [00:32:08] S1: Does that avoid Do you get them at maturity, or do you think that they have potential? You
00:32:08 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:32:08] S1: Does that avoid Do you get them at maturity, or do you think that they have potential? You [00:32:17] S0: probably see the potential, but to me, my style was a little bit later. You probably can see that somebody is really good at the very start, but I need to see that paired with execution just because I don't know how to do execution. And so, I can take the whole like, Oh, this person's probably A plus and maybe make an investment. But from an execution perspective, I need to kind of see the execution because I don't know anything about execution. This goes back to the strategy versus tactics thing. Couldn't actually never run a company. It's one of the reasons I wanted to retire from venture capital. When I would talk to these founders, I was always pretty good at corporate strategy and I was really good at figuring out if the person was A plus but there was always some sense of imposter syndrome. I've never founded a company. I have no idea. I don't try and claim that I could run a company. So you'd always find people who could in really, really, really good ways. Why when you run into like a Max Levgen, you're like, Oh, this person can run a company. You're like, Great. Because I could never do it. But on the thing that I'm doing now, no, there's no imposter syndrome. So that I can do. [00:33:25] S1: Yeah. I wanted to ask about that. So of the individuals I reached out to, Scott Nolan was one of them, and he was curious how you're applying that framework to investing in funds. Fund investors.
00:33:39 · Brian Singerman
[00:33:39] S0: Specifically, like these emerging or whatever you want to call it, Same thing. It's the same thing, but without the imposter syndrome. I'll know in the first five minutes if I don't think somebody is an A plus GP, and the work is I'll meet with somebody and be like, Oh! What I'm actually looking for is, Hey, is there some chance this person could have beaten me in my prime? Playing their game. Their game is not going to be the same as mine. You're not going beat me at my game, but playing their game, could they beat me in my prime? If the answer is maybe, right? Then I want to spend more time with them and I want to work with them. And so that's what I'm doing now. I'm spending a whole bunch of time with these GPs. I'll know immediately if they definitely are not, but it'll take spending a bunch of time with them to think, Oh, person actually could have beaten me. We would have hired this person at Founders Fund if there was, but they're not hireable. And so that's what I'm looking for now. And it's the same motion as when I was dealing with Founders pitching other than there's no imposter syndrome. So it can be like very much no holds barred from minute one. It doesn't have to be like a sense of politeness and I don't like small talk and I don't like preamble. Like I'm very much into, okay, let's get to the meat. So I like getting to the meat like real quick with these GPs and like challenging them on this kind of stuff. And it's harder to do that with founders because you always need to be much more respectful and genuinely because I had never done it. So who am I to like, rip whatever they're doing from immediately? This I can rip immediately.
00:35:22 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:35:22] S1: With these, are the main themes that you're seeing out of this new cohort of GPs and funds? [00:35:29] S0: What do you mean, in terms of what they're investing in? Don't know. [00:35:32] S1: No, their style. [00:35:35] S0: All different. [00:35:36] S1: I think, though, for a fact, a lot of people are trying to rip off the Founders Fund concentration strategy. Everybody, of a sudden, let's go after vertical integration, let's go after concentration bets. [00:35:49] S0: I'm very good at spotting when something is somebody's natural versus when they're trying to say things they think that I want to hear. I think that is one of the things that you have to get really good at. It's okay, it's the bullshit meter. Is somebody saying something because you can tell they think you want to hear it? Right? Or is somebody truly being themselves? I love when people are truly themselves. And when I can see that their natural self can be dominant, that's what I love. Just talk naturally because you don't know what I'm looking for. I'm open to any strategy under the sun. I'm open to somebody being the best in the world at whatever it is. I just have to be convinced that they're the best at their strategy. [00:36:34] S1: Who do you think the most naturally authentic people are? [00:36:36] S0: Oh, I don't know. We've talked about some of them like authentic people. I mean, I think I'm fortunate to be around a lot of authentic people. One of the things I always say though is like, Cyan Bannister is one of the most authentic people. [00:36:46] S1: Oh my gosh.