Speaker 1: This is the Startup Sales Safe podcast.
Speaker 2: Thank you for junion you as a favor like, subscribe
Speaker 2: on YouTube or LinkedIn, and be sure to give us
Speaker 2: your feedback. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Hello everyone, thanks
Speaker 2: for joining us today. Welcome to a brand new episode
Speaker 2: of Startups. They'll say, as always, I'm your host, Anthony Prakash,
Speaker 2: and today I am joined by a very special guest,
Speaker 2: Ernest Sweat. He's joining me from not too far from
Speaker 2: here in the Bay Area. We'll jump into why Ernest
Speaker 2: is here, his mission, and what he is doing very shortly,
Speaker 2: but before that, I wanted to welcome you all to
Speaker 2: the twenty fifth edition of Startups. They'll say, it's this
Speaker 2: very special episode, and I'm so glad that Ernest has
Speaker 2: agreed to be as a guest on this particular podcast.
Speaker 2: I also want to thank all of my previous guests
Speaker 2: we've been on this podcast. It's almost ten months since
Speaker 2: I started this and little did I imagine I'll get
Speaker 2: to a twenty fifth episode. So thanks to all of
Speaker 2: you for your tremendous support. That Ernest welcome to Startups.
Speaker 2: We'll say, thank you.
Speaker 1: For having me, Anthony. I am honored to be your
Speaker 1: twenty fifth guest, and as a fellow podcaster, I think
Speaker 1: people outside of podcasting world don't understand how big of
Speaker 1: an achievement that is. Like it's I can't remember what
Speaker 1: the stat is, but I believe around ninety percent of
Speaker 1: podcast phil Or they stop cease to make a new
Speaker 1: episode after episode ten. So you've already you're in rare air.
Speaker 1: But it's about consistency and keep going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for that. Honest, I didn't know that statistic.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, for me, it's just been so
Speaker 2: much fun doing this and just getting to learn from
Speaker 2: people like you. So why don't we just start with
Speaker 2: a little bit of background in your own words about yourself?
Speaker 2: You know whatether, I know you wear a variety of hats.
Speaker 2: The number of hats I can't even imagine. But maybe
Speaker 2: you just talk to people about currently. I know, literally
Speaker 2: you're wearing one, but I mean, in honesty, you're wearing
Speaker 2: so many others. Why don't you just tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about yourself? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. I
Speaker 1: start there because I built a lot of kind of
Speaker 1: values and approach to life that I have not just
Speaker 1: because of the place, but more importantly, like my two
Speaker 1: pillars on my parents. And so my father was a
Speaker 1: computer compsigrad who then went to work for the state
Speaker 1: and be the director of it for their workforce development agency.
Speaker 1: And on top of that people talk about the hats
Speaker 1: that I wear. He was also a full time pastor,
Speaker 1: so that whole like, you know, being able to balance
Speaker 1: an act and you can be a full person even
Speaker 1: though as humans we always try to like box people
Speaker 1: in just so we can take on all the information.
Speaker 1: He was living proof of that and inspiration. And then
Speaker 1: my mother who in our own right just like phenomenal person.
Speaker 1: She has always been an educator, and so she taught
Speaker 1: in public schools and Little Rock for about forty years,
Speaker 1: half of that being in Pe. And then around when
Speaker 1: I started going to high school about to go to college,
Speaker 1: she went back to school and then became a science
Speaker 1: teacher in middle school. And so they those careers choices
Speaker 1: of theirs really put it imprint on me and my
Speaker 1: sister is like, you want something where you can earn
Speaker 1: a living but also be able to constantly feed your
Speaker 1: desire to learn, which they had to do in their careers.
Speaker 1: And then the cherry on top is if you can
Speaker 1: find something where you're using those learnings to literally invest
Speaker 1: in other people's success. And so they did that as teachers, preachers,
Speaker 1: government workers. And when I actually found Venture, I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is like a through line to kind
Speaker 1: of what our sweat mantra is.
Speaker 2: Beautiful story. I mean, it's amazing how many of us
Speaker 2: get so inspired by our parents. A lot of people,
Speaker 2: I mean even my friends. You know their dads, the doctors,
Speaker 2: they end up being a doctor. The mom's a teacher,
Speaker 2: they end up being a teacher or a nurse. I
Speaker 2: mean during our childhood we don't realize it, but over
Speaker 2: a period of time, I mean we realize that it's
Speaker 2: in our DNA, that's our mission in life as well.
Speaker 2: I mean, so beautiful story. They're honest since little Rock
Speaker 2: and you know your college and I've seen that you've
Speaker 2: been a consultant in a financial services firm. You were
Speaker 2: a founder by yourself, and what you're trying to do
Speaker 2: to pave the way for the next generation of founders.
Speaker 2: So I know it's a long and arduous journey. I'm
Speaker 2: sure right. I mean, you've had a fun, a lot
Speaker 2: of fun along the way to realize saying Okay, I'm ernest.
Speaker 2: This is my mission in life to go help the
Speaker 2: next generation of founders do my own fund. If you
Speaker 2: will talk to us a little bit about you know,
Speaker 2: how did you come to the realization that this is
Speaker 2: what was your calling at least from a professional perspective
Speaker 2: from where you were. I mean, you obviously took your
Speaker 2: first job. I guess that came right out of college
Speaker 2: where you were just tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like most people, I like finding your and I
Speaker 1: put them one in the same. I think your vocation
Speaker 1: can be a purpose in calling that helps be kind
Speaker 1: of the catalyst to other things that you're passionate about,
Speaker 1: or your influence or even just your responsibility as somebody
Speaker 1: with talent, time and resources. And so for me finding venture,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until of all places, New Delhi, India, where
Speaker 1: I found I was like, oh, this is what I
Speaker 1: want to do for the rest of my life. So
Speaker 1: to not bury the lead. Had experience as an equity
Speaker 1: research analyst, then a failed founder in the world of
Speaker 1: kind of like future of work in at tech and
Speaker 1: that experience in Sunsetting that that company led me to
Speaker 1: go to a business school at Kellogg in the Chicago
Speaker 1: Land area, and I had every intention kind of to
Speaker 1: either kick the can down the road and just be
Speaker 1: like a management consultant, or if I was lucky to
Speaker 1: find a you know, startup, to be the first, second
Speaker 1: or third business hire for them. And I came across
Speaker 1: this opportunity through Kellogg to work at an international venture
Speaker 1: firm and be placed there for the summer, and so
Speaker 1: I applied, I got in, and I was placed in
Speaker 1: New Delhi for an organization called Central Square, which I
Speaker 1: had a venture firm under the Umbrella organ and I
Speaker 1: got placed in New Delhi, India. And so that experience,
Speaker 1: despite in the summer it being one hundred and seventeen
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit, you know, it was a blast. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I saw how I could take my experience from equity
Speaker 1: research and apply it to the private markets and just
Speaker 1: the things everything I've been missing in other career stops.
Speaker 1: It answered right. Having the ability to talk to a
Speaker 1: ton of people, having the ability to thesis, build and
Speaker 1: then putting skin in the game. Had everything that I wanted.
Speaker 1: And so that's what really motivated me not to had
Speaker 1: every intention to move back to New York after business school.
Speaker 1: But that gave me the inspiration. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe I should probably look out to the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: So that's what brought me out to the Bay. It
Speaker 1: made me kind of like zero in to venture got it.
Speaker 2: Got it along the way said and I said, you
Speaker 2: were a failed founder as well, I'm pretty sure you
Speaker 2: maybe think about it, learnings from it, whatnot. And then
Speaker 2: I mean, you obviously to a lot of founders today,
Speaker 2: whether it's just to consult with them or as part
Speaker 2: of your VC role, if you're well, what are the
Speaker 2: sort of learnings that you got being a founder that
Speaker 2: I mean might have formed your principles on? Okam, I mean,
Speaker 2: here are some of the pain points founders go through.
Speaker 2: How can I help circumnavigate some of those things? And
Speaker 2: you know, in today's world.
Speaker 1: And then it's a great question because one thing I
Speaker 1: look for I've always looked for, but I'm really looking
Speaker 1: for now in founders is their ability and their team's
Speaker 1: ability to have learning velocity. And what I mean from
Speaker 1: that is like when they get information from the market
Speaker 1: that might be a hidden insight, or whether they get
Speaker 1: like smacked in the face from competition or a mistake
Speaker 1: with a customer, they're able to take that learning and
Speaker 1: quickly iterate on it to then get escape velocity as
Speaker 1: fast about and so being able to always take information
Speaker 1: figure out what to do next move I needed to
Speaker 1: apply in my own life as well. So yeah, without
Speaker 1: that framework in mind, I came across it. But when
Speaker 1: it looks back at like, hey, my company failed because
Speaker 1: I picked a really tough go to market motion, trying
Speaker 1: to sell through universities or through municipalities. And second kind
Speaker 1: of like a compounding mistake together is if you're going
Speaker 1: to choose that path, you need to have advisors who
Speaker 1: can help you skip steps. And I didn't do that.
Speaker 1: And so ironically enough, as I became a venture capitalist
Speaker 1: and joined a corporate VC out here is my first
Speaker 1: kind of stint as a full time venture capitalist. I
Speaker 1: really got good at like helping companies with go to market,
Speaker 1: helping companies find the advisors that could help them find
Speaker 1: strategic partners or customers, And yeah, I just leveraged the
Speaker 1: hell out of my opportunity working at a large real
Speaker 1: estate company that was in the intersection of logistics and
Speaker 1: real estate and commerce, and not just leverage at brands,
Speaker 1: but really ug in and got my own relationships through
Speaker 1: that organization that could help my portfolio companies and help
Speaker 1: companies that weren't even my portfolio companies but were from
Speaker 1: founders that I respected or that I was trying to
Speaker 1: convince to take my money.
Speaker 2: Got it? Yeah, beautiful. I mean as to how little
Speaker 2: little things in life impact us in the long run.
Speaker 2: And then you know, you think back and saying, I
Speaker 2: had that aha moment from when I was a founder.
Speaker 2: You know, how do I ensure that these ten people
Speaker 2: ahead of me who are taking my money and my
Speaker 2: you know, people who are investing in me, you know,
Speaker 2: applied the right way? So as as a would would
Speaker 2: you call it? You would call yourself a VC right
Speaker 2: now even though you're looking forward to building stress would.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm still I'm still investing right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, perfect. Yeah. So so we'll talk about stress
Speaker 2: would in a in a little bit and your vision
Speaker 2: for that and everything. But when you invest in a startup,
Speaker 2: if you will honest right, I mean, how much of
Speaker 2: it is pure research numbers and what I mean, the
Speaker 2: tim and the projections and whatnot versus your gut feel
Speaker 2: as a person you know, with whom you're talking to
Speaker 2: sitting on the other side of the table. I mean,
Speaker 2: do you give that any any weight as it all
Speaker 2: from just your individual perspective.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's an asset class that is more of a
Speaker 1: balance between science and art than others. And based on
Speaker 1: how early you're invested, it's going to be more art
Speaker 1: than science. And because there aren't any real numbers to
Speaker 1: dig into, it's just assumptions. Yeah, and so for me,
Speaker 1: because I'm a Series A and Series B investor, there's
Speaker 1: a little bit more data. But what you're trying to
Speaker 1: determine is like what's repeatable and what has the opportunity
Speaker 1: to actually have what you're underwriting against this, Does this
Speaker 1: team have the opportunity to do something special and unique
Speaker 1: and have a venture backable exit and so a lot
Speaker 1: of that, and this is even before you join the board.
Speaker 1: Invest A lot of that is determining is like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you know, I see these numbers, Like, all right,
Speaker 1: what have you learned? What's the learning velocity there? Like
Speaker 1: what have you learned? What are you going to exploit
Speaker 1: because of that? What's going on in the market that
Speaker 1: might influence you? How's that going to you know, contribute
Speaker 1: or restrict your product? Roadmap. But then the other piece
Speaker 1: is just like who are you as a person, what
Speaker 1: motivates you? What does success look like for you? And
Speaker 1: then how have you been able to do those things
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to do as a founder, but like
Speaker 1: build a strong team around you of both employees and
Speaker 1: advisors that give you a competitive advantage, and that really
Speaker 1: speaks to today's time and opportunity.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Your question, Anthony in the beginning kind of like felt
Speaker 1: like it was a great question and normal question, but
Speaker 1: what underline is like, hey, what frameworks are you using?
Speaker 1: Earnest And I'm in a stage now where you have
Speaker 1: to question every framework, even stuff that made you successful
Speaker 1: in the past. You have to question every paradigm because
Speaker 1: we are at a point in history, whether we're talking
Speaker 1: about venture capital or all the way to politics or economics,
Speaker 1: to healthcare, to every function, every industry, We're at a
Speaker 1: time of change where one world is dying and the
Speaker 1: other world is emerging. And so what you need to
Speaker 1: do is see with like I can't I don't know
Speaker 1: who said this quote, but people always talk about history
Speaker 1: doesn't repeat itself in rhymes. You need to understand what's
Speaker 1: the rhyme scheme, what are the invisible truths that are
Speaker 1: non consensus today but will be trends tomorrow. And so
Speaker 1: for me, even thinking about what's the ideal founder that
Speaker 1: creates outlier you know, outcomes, I think that's actively changing too.
Speaker 2: Got it? Got it? Thank you for that. Looks I
Speaker 2: couldn't have framed it the way you framed the question
Speaker 2: about the framework. That's what I was alluding to. That's
Speaker 2: where we are. We see DNA is skicking in. So
Speaker 2: you mentioned the move. You went to India. You wanted
Speaker 2: to be in the Silicon Valley where there's a lot
Speaker 2: of action. From a rec perspective, I mean, do you
Speaker 2: do you feel validated in the fact that you chose
Speaker 2: to be here? And the second part of that question
Speaker 2: and instance, I mean, how has Silicon Valley changed you
Speaker 2: as a as a VC? I mean maybe you wouldn't
Speaker 2: have done certain things, you know, if you were probably
Speaker 2: not looking at the eighteen number of vcs out here.
Speaker 2: And of course the founders are flocking here, especially in
Speaker 2: today's world with AI. I mean just as a person, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, how has Silicon Valley influenced you?
Speaker 1: Wow, that's such a deep question and a great question.
Speaker 1: I you know, first I'll start with the first question,
Speaker 1: to do I feel validated? You know, like I thinks preferences.
Speaker 1: Life is about preferences, and so for me, if you
Speaker 1: you know, I had a friend who recently reconnected from
Speaker 1: like college where you know, we didn't go to the
Speaker 1: same school but we were admitted to the same school
Speaker 1: in high school and then just kept in touch, and
Speaker 1: you know, she told me, she was like, You've always
Speaker 1: been a kind of big city person. And so even
Speaker 1: though I grew up in little Rocket's like all right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I went to New York next, and then you know,
Speaker 1: I went to Chicago, and now I've been in Bay Area.
Speaker 1: They're all different in different ways. But I think it
Speaker 1: just speaks to kind of like my preference, and you know,
Speaker 1: as somebody who's always had the code switch and you know,
Speaker 1: society regionally, whatever I ability, I've always been kind of
Speaker 1: like in I've read this book last year called Range,
Speaker 1: which speaks about how like generalists will win in a
Speaker 1: specialized world, and there was one section about just like
Speaker 1: how Charles Darwin would always journal and talk to as
Speaker 1: many experts as possible, and he the researcher called him
Speaker 1: a professional outsider, so he always would take in new
Speaker 1: ideas to like iterate on his own views, but he
Speaker 1: always appreciated doing both the both like internal debate as
Speaker 1: well as like talking to people who focused on it
Speaker 1: the best, you know, instead of just being like a
Speaker 1: big city person. I think that's what I aspire to, Like,
Speaker 1: I love meeting new people, and this is why this
Speaker 1: job is a perfect fit for me, and asset class
Speaker 1: is the right fit for me. Is I'm paid to
Speaker 1: ask questions and meet people who are thinking big, Like
Speaker 1: that's literally at all and so for me they are
Speaker 1: the second question about like what it's done to me,
Speaker 1: I think it's just like what was already there. It
Speaker 1: kind of just made it more prevalent and made me
Speaker 1: think of like how my career can be aligned with
Speaker 1: kind of high view the world. Things I really appreciate
Speaker 1: and this idea of kind of truth and it's always changing.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if that answers your question, but
Speaker 1: like I.
Speaker 2: Think it does. I mean the way I interpret it is,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know too, with the different moves that
Speaker 2: you said you're dead, I mean it kind of showed
Speaker 2: your mental preference to where you want it to be,
Speaker 2: Like you said, you know, it suits the fact that
Speaker 2: you want to talk to a lot of people. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you're in a small city as you can do
Speaker 2: it to a zoom and whatnot. But I mean it's
Speaker 2: not like meeting people in person like in a big
Speaker 2: city Part one. And again, I also think in the
Speaker 2: way I understood what you said is that it also
Speaker 2: has brought kind of the best out of you because
Speaker 2: it kind of resonates with the energy of the place
Speaker 2: as well, right, I mean, which is more that founder
Speaker 2: of mentality and that v see mentality and the more
Speaker 2: like minded people you meet. I mean it kind of reiterates.
Speaker 2: That is how I read it.
Speaker 1: Can I say like a fallo up to that, like yeah, please,
Speaker 1: I'm an optimistic realist as well. Though, like it's not perfect.
Speaker 1: This is far from perfect. It's a lot of problems
Speaker 1: being in the Silicon Valley, especially when you look at
Speaker 1: just like how the lack of inclusivity there actually is
Speaker 1: in how being like a barn of risk rewards certain
Speaker 1: people and won't reward everybody, right, or even my industry
Speaker 1: has gotten wider and meller over the last even five years,
Speaker 1: and so it's not perfect. And even like I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm in a better place now here. I've always
Speaker 1: liked it, but like realizing it's unlike like that New
Speaker 1: York mentality of like, hey, there are steps to success.
Speaker 1: I add the dprogram myself from that and take the
Speaker 1: best from that of just like all right, I can
Speaker 1: make it anywhere, but also incorporate my southern ability to
Speaker 1: sometimes be so naive and my ability to like feel
Speaker 1: like I can connect anyone, but more importantly being able
Speaker 1: to genuinely disarm people in a way that makes them
Speaker 1: feel comfortable, and how we can co collaborate success successfully.
Speaker 1: So it's not perfect, and you can be successful a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways, but you have to break it.
Speaker 1: Break the idea of I need to follow a playbook
Speaker 1: because if you ask chat GPT or Soro or an Adali,
Speaker 1: I guess to make a picture of a typical VC
Speaker 1: is not going to look like me. And so given
Speaker 1: that not going, I shouldn't follow a playbook that's set
Speaker 1: up for them. That honestly, even for somebody who does
Speaker 1: look like that, if they're from a different generation, like
Speaker 1: that's still not going to work because things are actively moving.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point just about inclusivity. And how
Speaker 2: people look at us and you know, and I think
Speaker 2: coming to your point on the playbook aspect as well,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, just the mentality of the different places.
Speaker 2: And I can also tie to as you were saying
Speaker 2: thinking about the learning aspect that you mentioned about founders,
Speaker 2: you know, how you adapt to the different changes and
Speaker 2: how you can help you supercharge es capablocity and all
Speaker 2: of that. I'm also a firm believer in lifelong learning.
Speaker 2: Unless you have that mindset, you're just not going to grow,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, because the world is changing so fast.
Speaker 2: And I've also realized sometimes the hard way, you also
Speaker 2: have to unlearn some things as fast as possible if
Speaker 2: you think that's not good for you. So as much
Speaker 2: as learning is important, I always tell this to my
Speaker 2: daughter as well. I mean, whether it's bad habits right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: learning is as important in life as learning, but you
Speaker 2: need to know to what to unload and what's good
Speaker 2: for you. Absolutely part of what you said, I mean
Speaker 2: resonated with me that way, because there's a lot of
Speaker 2: similarities there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it makes me think of this. I was
Speaker 1: talking to this LP once who had been at a
Speaker 1: large endowment of a university in the East Coast and
Speaker 1: see he said he always expected great fund managers to
Speaker 1: take like take sixty percent of his advice and know
Speaker 1: what forty percent wasn't true or was it didn't serve him? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, my first response was like, wow, you think
Speaker 1: it's sixty percent? Wow, okay this But what he was
Speaker 1: getting at the gist is like, even well thought out
Speaker 1: advice isn't always applicable to you, you know what's inside
Speaker 1: And even this journey of a pie like it's been
Speaker 1: kind of like little tidbits and stories like that that
Speaker 1: can show you. Yeah, I had plenty of people who
Speaker 1: are well meaning, love me, respect me, think I'm smart
Speaker 1: and told me not to do it, and now we're
Speaker 1: sixty episodes and it's one of the most shrewd things
Speaker 1: I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful, great segue. I know you have a lot
Speaker 2: of things in progress, but I mean everything is kind
Speaker 2: of aligning towards you know, what do you want to
Speaker 2: do with stress wood and all of that. How did
Speaker 2: all that come to your head and how did you
Speaker 2: put that vision together to say, Okay, I mean the
Speaker 2: podcast is going to help me with this, you know,
Speaker 2: I know you launch something called groundwork, which is not
Speaker 2: really blogging or not really you know, write ups and whatnot.
Speaker 2: But I mean, you know, I think you mentioned it
Speaker 2: as well. It's not a resume, it's not this, it's
Speaker 2: not that. But I mean you have a certain vision
Speaker 2: for it. Can you paint a picture? And what was
Speaker 2: in your head when you kind of put that all together?
Speaker 2: I mean I felt like, I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of thought gone into that for you to come up
Speaker 2: with that, because I mean eventually, I mean, it looks beautiful,
Speaker 2: but I mean you probably thought about it for many months,
Speaker 2: many years before you came up with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would like to say I did, but it
Speaker 1: kind of like it's almost had happened over time, but
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of thought in it. But it
Speaker 1: does It's not always going to be as sequential as
Speaker 1: you think. So like, honestly, the podcast came, you know, first,
Speaker 1: and it was a time and period when I was
Speaker 1: looking to transition it out of my venture firm and
Speaker 1: knew I wanted to stay in the venture but like,
Speaker 1: what was that going to look like? Was I going
Speaker 1: to join at a level below which I that I
Speaker 1: was at? Was I going to work in to have
Speaker 1: a seat work in something or vertical that maybe I
Speaker 1: didn't feel like I was equipped for, or you know,
Speaker 1: actually maybe didn't even believe it. And so after a
Speaker 1: lot of conversations and speaking to Alexa as my co
Speaker 1: host for Swimming with Allocators, we were having similar stories,
Speaker 1: and she said and we were having conversations with LPs separately,
Speaker 1: and we both came to this idea of like, hey,
Speaker 1: this'd be great to share these conversations because I'm learning
Speaker 1: from your conversations as you tell me, and you're learning
Speaker 1: from mine. And when she came up with a name,
Speaker 1: it was just like, we got to do that. Even
Speaker 1: if we suck and don't do more than three episodes,
Speaker 1: the name is something we have to try. And so
Speaker 1: that gave me the idea of like, all right, just
Speaker 1: putting myself out there and learning from other people and
Speaker 1: then we'll see what comes from it. And it gives
Speaker 1: me a kind of a trojan horse to developing relationships
Speaker 1: that will last me the next twenty thirty years. And
Speaker 1: then I was able. Actually, the name Stresswood came from
Speaker 1: one of the interviews of a knew one to start affirm,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know what the name would be and
Speaker 1: and I've written about this and this and groundwork, and
Speaker 1: so people can go I can share the link that
Speaker 1: other people can see. But another conversation helped start something
Speaker 1: that then helped me go to work. And so this
Speaker 1: balance again of like that I got in research, is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can be an individual contributor and come up with something,
Speaker 1: but I ideas come from like other people other ideas,
Speaker 1: and then you put your flavor on it, or you
Speaker 1: take analogies from outside of your own industry and apply
Speaker 1: it to it, and you'll have breakthroughs. So once I
Speaker 1: had the nose I always had the north Star, I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, it looks like I'm about to
Speaker 1: start affirm. Okay, great, I got a name. Ames make
Speaker 1: things real. Yeah, you know the story and uh, you
Speaker 1: know the Christian Bible is just like and also the
Speaker 1: Jewish face the Torah is like, oh, when Adam is
Speaker 1: naming things, now they're realer. For some reason, they were
Speaker 1: still there, but like it makes them realer. And so
Speaker 1: now the way I'm thinking is like, all right, I
Speaker 1: got this north Star. I want to launch fundraising this
Speaker 1: period in two years. Now what I need to do
Speaker 1: in the meantime in between to actually best position myself.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I kind of use the things
Speaker 1: that I was doing using insights to have kind of
Speaker 1: like these different pillars. And the podcast is a part
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful. I mean the party you said about the
Speaker 2: name part of it is so true for me as well.
Speaker 2: When I started my podcast, because I have the idea
Speaker 2: for six months to do something like this, because I've
Speaker 2: always been so interested in talking to people learning from them,
Speaker 2: especially the founders and that ecosystem. But once I came
Speaker 2: up with a name, and just like you, I mean,
Speaker 2: I was driving somewhere, I connected two things and said,
Speaker 2: this is the name for my podcast, and then within
Speaker 2: two weeks I had my first guest. You know, so
Speaker 2: it is it is so true what you said. I mean,
Speaker 2: I can totally resonate with that part. So what why
Speaker 2: how would you differentiate yourself with the firm you're trying
Speaker 2: to build with stress word earnest I mean again based
Speaker 2: off of the learnings and you know you're upbringing and
Speaker 2: your values and everything. I mean, what what is your
Speaker 2: vision for stress word? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well, that concept is one in nature and it essentially
Speaker 1: like what it is is trees have natural stressors like
Speaker 1: when rain, heat, ice, whatever, and those natural stressors create
Speaker 1: a certain type of wood and bark that helps them
Speaker 1: sustain themselves with more stressors as well as as they
Speaker 1: get bigger and bigger, they can hold their own weight.
Speaker 1: And Sarah Samuels, who is from any PC, when we're interviewing,
Speaker 1: she spoke about this and then she told a juxtaposition
Speaker 1: like juxtaposed it to this experiment in the late eighties
Speaker 1: early nineties called biosphere to which was like in Arizona,
Speaker 1: this dome and was supposed to be like the best
Speaker 1: thing for any vegetation, no stressors, no wind, And what
Speaker 1: happened is the trees shot up, but then they fell
Speaker 1: over on themselves because they didn't have this certain type
Speaker 1: of wood and bark that built up resilience and made
Speaker 1: them stronger. And so that was just like a light
Speaker 1: bulb to me of like as we enter, you leave
Speaker 1: the era of growth at all costs and enter an
Speaker 1: exciting opportunity. But equally as humans do if you overdo
Speaker 1: it in moderation, the proficiency at all costs or productivity
Speaker 1: at all. With AI and automation, you need certain type
Speaker 1: of founders to be able to navigate those changes. It
Speaker 1: was enough when like the market and macro stayed pretty similar,
Speaker 1: was always up into the right. But now so much
Speaker 1: is changing from a macro climate to demographic factors, and
Speaker 1: so you need founders who have resilience, learning, velocity, and
Speaker 1: discernment of how to make decisions and how to build teams.
Speaker 1: And so what you need is this great combination of
Speaker 1: human plus machines and building a firm that lives through
Speaker 1: that applies. That is going to be critical. And so
Speaker 1: for us, it's really about the team of investors, right.
Speaker 1: And there's been questions on like do vcs actually have
Speaker 1: that much impact? And I agree with folks like that,
Speaker 1: like if we want an analogy, it's like a more
Speaker 1: Quincy Jones than Michael Jackson. Right, the founder is going
Speaker 1: to be Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But in a little bit that you can do of
Speaker 1: a suggestion of like hey, what if that song went
Speaker 1: like this, or what if we limit it to only
Speaker 1: ten songs versus fourteen and stuff like that that can
Speaker 1: make that could prove out to be strong dividends. So
Speaker 1: we really want to test this idea of like what
Speaker 1: do network effects look like? And I think it's a
Speaker 1: combination of having a team that is truly aligned, which
Speaker 1: doesn't usually happen in venture capital, and one in which
Speaker 1: that is a group of professional outsiders, so people who
Speaker 1: are able to gather those hidden insights that AI can't
Speaker 1: get and find what's non consensus today that will be
Speaker 1: consensus later to help bridge worlds for the firm as
Speaker 1: well as their portfolio founders.
Speaker 2: Okay, beautiful, honest, I love the love the story, love
Speaker 2: the version. I mean, I'm going to be sharing for
Speaker 2: you and everybody that stress that comes to life before
Speaker 2: we wrap up. I also want to do everything that
Speaker 2: you've seen in this world. I mean both from a
Speaker 2: personal perspective, all the founders you've met, being a founder
Speaker 2: who started and failed and then where journey on. Any
Speaker 2: core principles are advice that you would give to upcoming founders.
Speaker 1: I think, and this goes to investors as well and
Speaker 1: literally almost anybody. Be clear on your why and if
Speaker 1: your why matches up with what your north star is.
Speaker 1: So for founders is like what type of business do
Speaker 1: you want to create? Why? Being self aware unlike what
Speaker 1: type of product type is that? And why? And not
Speaker 1: just going to being weather veins on like creating ais
Speaker 1: hot that'll help me get funded instead of like, no,
Speaker 1: this is really a problem I want to solve. I
Speaker 1: believe I'm equipped to solve it like no one else
Speaker 1: and hit a certain mark of exit and success that
Speaker 1: is appealing not only to this pilling to me as
Speaker 1: well as my team. Not because I think the by
Speaker 1: side of whatever market that I'm selling is that's what
Speaker 1: they're into, because that could be fleeting. And what we
Speaker 1: see now is a lot of growth companies that are
Speaker 1: in between kind of two different markets and now trying
Speaker 1: to shift again or figure out what they want to be.
Speaker 1: So that why is important. And then for the investors,
Speaker 1: like why do you want to be a venture capitalist?
Speaker 1: Is venture the right asset class for you? Because it's
Speaker 1: more of an art than like lower market pe and
Speaker 1: so are you an artist? Are you an architect? Or
Speaker 1: are you an executor? And let me not like you
Speaker 1: have to execute as a fund manager and venture but
Speaker 1: it's a little bit different than kind of like the
Speaker 1: kind of you know, the digits and kind of like
Speaker 1: the financial statements of one asset class and more of
Speaker 1: you looking at like being a coach, being a motivator,
Speaker 1: diligencing people, which is more soft.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks so much on this. I mean, I couldn't
Speaker 2: have said it better. Your experience really comes through in
Speaker 2: everything you talk about, I mean, and your thoughts are
Speaker 2: like so well taught through so I couldn't thank you
Speaker 2: enough for being on my podcast today and wish you
Speaker 2: the very best on this.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much again, Thank you, Anthony, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: This is a huge achievement and continue going.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Think that