00:06:11 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:06:11] S1: Let's bring it back to 2007. You were talking with Sean Parker, he told you about Founders Fund, you were running an angel fund at the time, and was it SpaceX that piqued your interest of joining? What was it like back then? [00:06:25] S0: It was amazing back then. Was running my own fund. I was still at Google. I was going to leave Google, raise another fund, raise a bigger fund, became friends with Sean. And then he said, Hey, why don't you come take a look at what we're doing at Founders Fund? So I went there, just kind of hung out, met the guys. I didn't know who the other guys were, didn't know who Peter was, started and hanging out. That's when they were starting to look at a ridiculous company called SpaceX. And it was just so unbelievably cool. And there was just absolutely no other way that I was going be able to do that, just angel investing. And so I'm like, Oh yeah, this is the kind of stuff I want to focus on. And so I joined Founders Fund in early 'eight. [00:07:07] S1: That's crazy. How did you get to know Sean? [00:07:10] S0: I think I met Sean because I was either helping talk to one of the companies he was involved in. And I met him through, I believe I met Joe Green first, was his co founder at Causes. And then I met Sean through Joe. Everything, Silicon Valley networking, you never know exactly where it happened, but yeah, we became friends and there you go.
00:07:10 · Brian Singerman, Molly O'Shea
[00:07:10] S0: I think I met Sean because I was either helping talk to one of the companies he was involved in. And I met him through, I believe I met Joe Green first, was his co founder at Causes. And then I met Sean through Joe. Everything, Silicon Valley networking, you never know exactly where it happened, but yeah, we became friends and there you go. [00:07:34] S1: That's a good segue because another one of Max's questions, and I don't know if there's like backstory to this question, if there's something deeper to this, but if there is, I want to know all about [00:07:45] S0: it. Okay. [00:07:46] S1: Silicon Valley is a collection of characters. Who are the most interesting ones, whether they're in your portfolio or otherwise?
00:07:46 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:07:46] S1: Silicon Valley is a collection of characters. Who are the most interesting ones, whether they're in your portfolio or otherwise? [00:07:54] S0: Silicon Valley is a collection of characters. I don't know who the most interesting ones are. Mean, I think everybody is here, let me tell it like this. I think Silicon Valley is full of a couple of different types. There's a lot of sheep in Silicon Valley just going wherever they're supposed to, but there's definitely a lot of people in Silicon Valley who are truly unique and who are truly the best in the world at something. And I just love that. I love meeting the people who are the best at what they do in a way that I could never do. I feel like, woah, these are the people. And so without saying best, there's reason why Peter Thiel is the greatest venture capitalist in history. And talk about cast of characters. That's one of the things that attracted me to Founders Fund to begin with, was like each of these guys seemed like the best in the world at what they were doing. When I did get to meet Elon and learn more about SpaceX, it was extremely clear that there was nobody else like him on the planet who could actually pull something like SpaceX off. And so I'm not going get into who the favored best, but yeah, definitely we can go through specific people that I know really well, and I can try and tell you what I think that they are the best in the world at. And whenever I meet somebody who I think is the best at what they do, I get really excited.
00:09:29 · Molly O'Shea
[00:09:29] S1: I would love to do that. So one of the questions I usually do, revolves around performance and people's like personal networks, because I believe that you are an extension of the people that you're closest with and, and even through Founders Fund and that sort of thing, the people that you're close with, like, what did you learn from Peter Thiel? What is he like?
00:09:49 · Brian Singerman
[00:09:49] S0: I mean, he's like a lot of things, but I think the thing that he did best in terms of venture capital was he surrounded himself with other people who like most people, they just can't push back on Peter. They're like too scared to, or they're just like, they just don't. But when you surround yourself with people who are extremely smart and not scared to use their own individual talents, you build something truly great. And I think that's probably one of the things that he and Founders Fund just did best was hiring very smart people, people who could push back whenever they needed to, and then using their own specific skill set, not like pushing back in a way that's like, Oh, let me try and say what I think Peter wants to hear. That doesn't work. That'll never work. People are too smart to see right through that kind of stuff. But when you're saying something from your perspective that is truly like uniquely you and is a good perspective, that can work. So as long as you're not scared. So I think he built up a team full of people who were having nothing in common in terms of how we saw the world, but also were our own truly our own individual characters who could absolutely push back on him such that, you know, if he didn't like something at first and you're just like, nope, this is actually really good. You're really wrong. It would actually get done. So in other words, surrounding yourself with non yes men, non people who are just going to do the thing that you weigh. I mean, I think he was just, he was and is ridiculously good at that.
00:11:26 · Molly O'Shea, Brian Singerman
[00:11:26] S1: What part of the DNA of that culture? Most people are afraid to share what they feel, but you're full of a team of high conviction individuals. How did that happen? How do you continue to support that and create that culture of strength? [00:11:46] S0: You have to actually respect the people that you're around and know that they are better than you at some things. I have no ego about this. I'm very good at knowing what I'm good at, And I only play to those strengths. [00:11:59] S1: What are you good at?