Podcasts about good time show

Charlie wants to talk about the latest Paul Graham essay "How to Do Great Work" and Oz wants to talk about jiu-jitsu (again).Show notes:How to Do Great Work - Paul Graham You and Your Research - Richard Hamming"Jozef Chen On Rapid Learning From Jiu-Jitsu Instructionals & Technique Tinkering"Jozef Chen recent competition victoryMikey Musumeci on Joe Rogan"There's no speed limit" - Derek SiversTeach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy LessonsOz's article about how his 3 year old learned to readLaura Deming on The Good Time Show#computerscience #learning #education #jiujitsu #startup #technology

0:00 Intro0:47 The song and dance of WWE 4:02 The final whistle 6:55 Why did Rob take on the Wrexham FC challenge13:53 The bromance of Rob and Ryan 17:48 The emotional weight of running a football club22:49 Mythic Quest and the gaming community28:25 Gareth Bale to Wrexham FC?29:05 On SriramWe sit down with Rob McElhenney, American actor, producer, writer and podcaster, and more recently, Rob is the co-owner of Wrexham FC. We discuss the club's remarkable promotion journey. Join us as we delve into the thrilling behind-the-scenes stories of Wrexham's rise to success, led by McElhenney's vision and passion. From acquiring the club alongside Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds to implementing transformative changes, McElhenney shares his insights on the revitalization of this historic football institution.

0:00 Intro to Paul Buccheit8:14 History of different emails13:03 Building in public, 100 happy users19:43 Gmail, over the years27:35 Platforms built on open APIs33:00 Iterate internally, User Experience36:00 Advice for founders and startups, YC culture50:00 Founders: Keep trying! Learn from failures53:00 The state of Artificial Intelligence1:00:00 I am nothing - identity, imposter syndrome, ego Paul Buchheit is a computer engineer and entrepreneur who is best known as the creator of Gmail. He worked at a number of Silicon Valley companies, including Intel and Compaq, before joining Google in 1999. At Google, he played a key role in the development of a number of products, including AdSense and Google's search infrastructure.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Based in San Francisco, Lenny Rachitsky is a Product specialist with a strong focus on growth. He spent seven years at Airbnb, where he started as a Product Manager in 2012 and later became a Product lead for supply growth. Lenny now works as a writer, investor, and consultant for product growth. He creates content on Substack, YouTube, and other podcasting platforms.Subscribe to Lenny's newsletter: https://www.lennyrachitsky.com/

It's both easier and harder than ever to build a successful podcast. In this episode, we chat with Sriram and Aarthi from the Good Time Show, who ventured into the world of audio peak pandemic and have since interviewed the likes of Elon Musk, Calvin Harris, and Naomi Osaka.We get their perspective on how to succeed in this competitive landscape, differentiation and the sliding scale of entertainment and information, the difference between an audience and a community, podcast analytics and how they're changing, and even what Sriram has learned from his frontrow experience at Twitter recently.Topics Covered:00:00 - Intro02:20 - Podcast trivia06:07 - Starting a podcast08:45 - Differentiating13:10 - Information vs entertainment18:08 - Getting off the talk track20:40 - Growth and metrics22:31 - Authenticity27:10 - Secret sauce of podcasting28:10 - Advice for new podcasters29:58 - In-person events32:06 - Tech as a force for good34:50 - The next wave of social37:23 - Creator middle class41:16 - Podcast infrastructure42:55 - ChatGPT45:10 - Swapping lives with a celebrity52:26 - Your personal monopoly Resources:Find Sriram on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sriramkFind Aarthi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarthirFind Aarthi and Sriram on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AarthiAndSriramCheck out the Good Time Show: https://www.aarthiandsriram.com/ Stay Updated: Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16zFind us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16zSubscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithioPlease note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

➡️ Are you curious about the future of work and the rise of remote teams? Meet Alex Bouaziz, the innovative leader behind Deel, a groundbreaking platform that simplifies global hiring, payments, and compliance for businesses of all sizes. In this episode, we sit down with Alex to learn more about his mission to make work more flexible, accessible, and rewarding for everyone.

Brought to you by Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | Dovetail—Bring your customer into every decision | LMNT—Zero-sugar hydration—Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan are founders, angel investors, and product leaders who host the podcast Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show. They have both held leadership roles at major technology companies including Meta, Twitter, Snap, Microsoft, and Netflix. In today's episode, we dive into how and why to build your personal brand, how to deal with impostor syndrome, and stories from Aarthi's time at Clubhouse and Sriram's time working with Zuck. Aarthi and Sriram share their lessons from past failures, their experience building communities, and their techno-optimism, and Sriram offers his hot take on the Jobs to Be Done framework.Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/hot-takes-and-techno-optimism-from-techs-top-power-couple-sriram-and-aarthi/#transcriptWhere to find Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy:• Aarthi's Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarthir• Sriram's Twitter: https://twitter.com/sriramk• Good Time Show Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod• Good Time Show website: https://www.aarthiandsriram.com/Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/Referenced:• Naval Ravikant on Twitter: https://twitter.com/naval• Marc Andreessen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmarca• Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/• Eugene Wei's Status as a Service: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service• Kylie Jenner on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/kyliejenner• The Rock on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therock/• Cristiano Ronaldo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cristiano• Charli D'Amelio on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio• Addison Rae on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@addisonre• The founder of TikTok's speech: https://ludlow.notion.site/Alex-Zhu-TikTok-4631f80fdcc4423a845e145e807d8e2b• Naval's network tweet: https://twitter.com/naval/status/847134295600746496?lang=en• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/• How Duolingo reignited user growth: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth• Hunter Walk on impostor syndrome: https://hunterwalk.com/2023/03/01/imposter-syndrome-is-definitely-misnamed-might-be-a-condition-of-privilege-has-a-fascinating-history/• On Reviews: https://boz.com/articles/reviews• Jobs to Be Done framework: https://jobs-to-be-done.com/jobs-to-be-done-a-framework-for-customer-needs-c883cbf61c90• First-principles thinking: https://fs.blog/first-principles/In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Sriram and Aarthi's backgrounds(04:16) How Sriram and Aarthi got Elon Musk on their podcast(08:47) Reflections on Clubhouse and other social networks(14:14) Why Aarthi and Sriram are optimistic about tech(25:53) Why you should put yourself out there and build your personal brand(27:09) Why you should build a network with authentic relationships, and how to do it(28:56) Sriram's curated communities(31:20) What you need to get right when starting a community(38:35) Why everyone who wants to should create content(44:22) Why you shouldn't try to project expertise when you're still learning(47:54) Dealing with impostor syndrome, and why you should lean into your strengths(54:01) Transitioning to a role of authority(57:30) What Sriram learned about effective management from Mark Zuckerberg(1:01:20) The biggest failure Aarthi had, and why you shouldn't fall for fads(1:02:08) Sriram's lesson from building mobile(1:09:21) Why Sriram hates the Jobs to Be Done framework(1:18:06) Advice for immigrantsProduction and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

In this episode, our special guest is Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games, the game developer and publisher behind League of Legends. This was an awesome episode and Marc is a fantastic guest. We talk about the origin of League of Legends, building a gaming startup, player focused culture, fundraising, building 'Arcane' the popular Netflix show and so much more. Enjoy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Subscribe to The Realignment to access our exclusive Q&A episodes and support the show: https://realignment.supercast.com/.The Good Time Show YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AarthiAndSriram/featuredREALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/PURCHASE BOOKS AT OUR BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail us at: realignmentpod@gmail.comAarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan, investors and hosts of The Good Time Show, join Saagar and Marshall on The Realignment to discuss all things tech and Silicon Valley. They cover the implications of ChatGPT and the rise of AI, their critiques of mainstream media's tech coverage, where crypto goes from the crash, the future of social media, and more... 

In this episode, we talk to Anders Hejlsberg, the creator of programming languages such. as C#, Typescript, Turbo Pascal and Delphi, on a life spent on building programming languages, the history of Java, his systems and setup, and what the future of programing languages looks like. Anders is someone we have looked up to for a big part of our lives, and this episode was a treat for us!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we're doing a quick 'solo episode' where we talk about layoffs in tech, what to do if you are impacted, the power of networking, shifting careers, consulting, and hitting the reset button. If you've been impacted by the recent tech layoffs, or have wondered how to think about layoffs and their impact, this episode is for you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andy Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian, Artemis, Project Hail Mary, and Cheshire Crossing. His 2011 novel The Martian was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott.In this episode, we talked about his story from being a software developer to a sci-fi author, getting a movie deal for The Martian starring Matt Damon, how humanity can go to another planet, his favorite sci-fi authors and what's next for him. As sci-fi nerds, this was a really fun episode for us - we hope you enjoy it too!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode #105, we deconstruct Gokul Rajaram's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Gokul is an angel investor and Product and Business Helper at DoorDash. We cover crypto, international investing, and habits and routines. “I always believe the hierarchy of anyone, any individual should be health, then family, then work. Why not family before health? Because if you're not healthy, you become a burden to your family and you can't help them. So, your health is actually very, very important.” – Gokul Rajaram EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/angel-investor-gokul-rajaram-playbook-show-notes  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/angel-investor-gokul-rajaram-playbook-transcript  CHAPTERS In this episode, we deconstruct Gokul Rajaram peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover: (00:01:21) – The evolution of crypto (00:02:44) – Superpowers and struggles (00:06:08) – Inspirations and the importance of exercise (00:08:24) – Recommended books (00:10:19) – Tools and routines (00:12:26) – Defining success (00:14:32) – International investing ABOUT GOKUL RAJARAM Gokul Rajaram is a prolific angel investor in over 300 companies and counting, and an executive at DoorDash, which he joined after DoorDash acquired Caviar from Square in 2019. I was fortunate enough to get to work with Gokul at Square, and I am beyond thrilled to have him on the show today. In this episode, Gokul shares what he thinks his investing superpowers are, why he loved Marc Andreesen's interview on the Good Time Show, why he loves Andre Agassi's book, Open, and the advice he'd give his younger self if he could go back 20 years to the start of his career.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits (that sold over 9m copies!) and the popular 3-2-1 newsletter. We talked to him about writing and marketing a NYTimes bestseller, how to pick up good habits, the collective impact of small actions, and so much more. Check it out!

I had fun chatting with Aarthi and Sriram.We discuss what it takes to be successful in technology, what Sriram would say if Elon tapped him to be the next CEO of Twitter, why more married couples don't start businesses together, and how Aarthi hires and finds 10x engineers.Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan are the hosts of The Good Times Show. They have had leading roles in several technology companies from Meta to Twitter to Netflix and have been founders and investors. Sriram is currently a general partner at a16z crypto and Aarthi is an angel investor.Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Timestamps(00:00:00) - Intro(00:01:19) - Married Couples Co-founding Businesses(00:09:53) - 10x Engineers(00:16:00) - 15 Minute Meetings(00:22:57) - a16z's Edge?(00:26:42) - Future of Twitter(00:30:58) - Is Big Tech Overstaffed?(00:38:37) - Next CEO of Twitter?(00:43:13) - Why Don't More Venture Capitalists Become Founders?(00:47:32) - Role of Boards(00:52:03) - Failing Upwards(00:56:00) - Underrated CEOs(01:02:18) - Founder Education(01:06:27) - What TV Show Would Sriram Make?(01:10:14) - Undervalued Founder ArchetypesTranscriptThis transcript was autogenerated and thus may contain errors.[00:00:00] Aarthi: it's refreshing to have Elon come in and say, we are gonna work really hard. We are gonna be really hardcore about how we build things.[00:00:05] Dwarkesh: Let's say Elon and says Tomorrow, Sriram, would you be down to be the [00:00:08] Sriram: CEO of Twitter Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But I am married to someone. We [00:00:12] Aarthi: used to do overnights at Microsoft. Like we'd just sleep under our desk,, until the janitor would just , poke us out of there , I really need to vacuum your cubicle. Like, get out of here. There's such joy in , Finding those moments where you work hard and you're feeling really good about it. [00:00:25] Sriram: You'd be amazed at how many times Aarthi and I would have a conversation where be, oh, this algorithm thing.I remember designing it, and now we are on the other side We want to invest in something , where we think the team and the company is going to win and if they do win, there's huge value to be unlocked. [00:00:40] Dwarkesh: Okay. Today I have the, uh, good pleasure to have Arty and Sriram on the podcast and I'm really excited about this.So you guys have your own show, the Arty Andre Good Time show. Um, you guys have had some of the top people in tech and entertainment on Elon Musk, mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Yang, and you guys are both former founders. Advisors, investors, uh, general partner at Anderson Horowitz, and you're an angel investor and an advisor now.Um, so yeah, there's so much to talk about. Um, obviously there's also the, uh, recent news about your, uh, your involvement on, uh, twitter.com. Yeah, yeah. Let's get started. [00:01:19] Married Couples Starting Businesses[00:01:19] Dwarkesh: My first question, you guys are married, of course. People talk about getting a co-founder as finding a spouse, and I'm curious why it's not the case that given this relationship why more married people don't form tech startups.Is, does that already happen, [00:01:35] Aarthi: or, um, I actually am now starting to see a fair bit of it. Uhhuh, . Um, I, I do agree that wasn't a norm before. Um, I think, uh, I, I think I remember asking, uh, pg p the same thing when I went through yc, and I think he kind of pointed to him and Jessica like, you know, YC was their startup , and so, you know, there were even pride.There are a lot of husband and wife, uh, companies. Over the last like decade or so. So I'm definitely seeing that more mainstream. But yeah, you're right, it hasn't been the norm before. Yeah, the, the good time show is our project. It's [00:02:09] Sriram: our startup. Very, I mean, there are some good historical examples. Cisco, for example, uh, came from, uh, uh, husband, wife as a few other examples.I think, you know, on, on the, in, on the pro side, uh, you know, being co-founders, uh, you need trust. You need to really know each other. Uh, you, you go through a lot of like heavy emotional burdens together. And there's probably, and if you, you're for the spouse, hopefully you probably have a lot of chemistry and understanding, and that should help.On the con side, I think one is you, you're prob you know, you, you're gonna show up at work, you know, and startups are really hard, really intense. And you come home and both of you are gonna the exact same wavelength, the exact same time, going through the exact same highs and lows as opposed to two people, two different jobs have maybe differing highs and lows.So that's really hard. Uh, the second part of it is, uh, in a lot of. Work situations, it may just be more challenging where people are like, well, like, you know, person X said this person Y said this, what do I do? Uh, and if you need to fire somebody or you know, something weird happens corporate in a corporate manner, that may also be really hard.Uh, but having said that, you know, uh, [00:03:13] Aarthi: you know, yeah, no, I think both of those are like kind of overblown , like, you know, I think the reason why, um, you know, you're generally, they say you need to have you, it's good to have co-founders is so that you can kind of like write the emotional wave in a complimentary fashion.Uh, and you know, if one person's like really depressed about something, the other person can like pull them out of it and have a more rational viewpoint. I feel like in marriages it works even better. So I feel like to your first point, They know each other really well. You're, you're, you are going to bring your work to home.There is no separation between work and home as far as a startup is concerned. So why not do it together? Oh, [00:03:51] Sriram: well, I think there's one problem, uh, which is, uh, we are kind of unique because we've been together for over 21 years now, and we start for, we've been before, uh, let's not. Wow. There's gonna be some fact checking 19 on this video.99. Close enough. Close enough, right? Like close enough. He wishes he was 21. Oh, right, right, right. Gosh, feels like 21. We have do some, um, [00:04:15] Aarthi: editing on this video. No, no, no. I think 20 years of virtually knowing, 19 years of in-person. [00:04:20] Sriram: There we go. Right. Uh, fact check accurate. Um, ex experts agree. But, um, you know, but when you first met, we, we originally, even before we dating, we were like, Hey, we wanna do a company together.And we bonded over technology, like our first conversation on Yahoo Messenger talking about all these founders and how we wanted to be like them. And we actually then worked together pretty briefly when you were in Microsoft. Uh, before we actually started dating. We were on these sort of talent teams and we kind of met each of the word context.I think a lot of. You know, one is they have never worked together. Um, and so being in work situations, everything from how you run a meeting to how you disagree, uh, you know, uh, is just going to be different. And I think that's gonna be a learning curve for a lot of couples who be like, Hey, it's one thing to have a strong, stable relationship at home.It'll be a different thing to, you know, be in a meeting and you're disagreeing art's meetings very differently from I do. She obsesses over metrics. I'm like, ah, it's close enough. It's fine. , uh, it's close enough. It's fine. as e uh, here already. But, uh, so I do think there's a learning curve, a couples who is like, oh, working together is different than, you know, raising your family and being together.I mean, obviously gives you a strong foundation, but it's not the same thing. Have you guys [00:05:25] Dwarkesh: considered starting a company or a venture together at some point? [00:05:28] Aarthi: Yeah. Um, we've, uh, we've always wanted to do a project together. I don't know if it's a, a startup or a company or a venture. You have done a project together,Yeah, exactly. I think, uh, almost to today. Two years ago we started the Good Time Show, um, and we started at, uh, live Audio on Clubhouse. And, you know, we recently moved it onto video on YouTube. And, um, it's, it's been really fun because now I get to see like, it, it's neither of our full-time jobs, uh, but we spend enough, um, just cycles thinking through what we wanna do with it and what, uh, how to have good conversations and how to make it useful for our audience.So that's our [00:06:06] Sriram: project together. Yep. And we treat it like a, with the intellectual heft of a startup, which is, uh, we look at the metrics, uh, and we are like, oh, this is a good week. The metrics are up into the right and, you know, how do we, you know, what is working for our audience? You know, what do we do to get great guests?What do we do to [00:06:21] Aarthi: get, yeah, we just did our first, uh, in-person meetup, uh, for listeners of the podcast in Chennai. It was great. We had like over a hundred people who showed up. And it was also like, you know, typical startup style, like meet your customers and we could like go talk to these people in person and figure out like what do they like about it?Which episodes do they really enjoy? And it's one thing to see YouTube comments, it's another to like actually in person engage with people. So I think, you know, we started it purely accidentally. We didn't really expect it to be like the show that we are, we are in right now, but we really happy. It's, it's kind of turned out the way it has.[00:06:59] Sriram: Absolutely. And, and it also kind of helps me scratch an edge, which is, uh, you know, building something, you know, keeps you close to the ground. So being able to actually do the thing yourself as opposed to maybe tell someone else, telling you how to do the, so for example, it, it being video editing or audio or how thumbnails, thumbnails or, uh, just the mechanics of, you know, uh, how to build anything.So, uh, I, I dot think it's important. Roll up your sleeves metaphorically and get your hands dirty and know things. And this really helped us understand the world of creators and content. Uh, and it's fun and [00:07:31] Aarthi: go talk to other creators. Uh, like I think when we started out this thing on YouTube, I think I remember Shram just reached out to like so many creators being like, I wanna understand how it works for you.Like, what do you do? And these are people who like, who are so accomplished, who are so successful, and they do this for a living. And we clearly don. And so, uh, just to go learn from these experts. It's, it's kind of nice, like to be a student again and to just learn, uh, a new industry all over again and figure out how to actually be a creator on this platform.Well, you know [00:08:01] Dwarkesh: what's really interesting is both of you have been, uh, executives and led product in social media companies. Yeah. And so you are, you designed the products, these creators, their music, and now on the other end, you guys are building [00:08:12] Sriram: the, oh, I have a great phrase for it, right? Like, somebody, every once in a while somebody would be like, Hey, you know what, uh, you folks are on the leadership team of some of these companies.Why don't you have hundreds of millions of followers? Right? And I would go, Hey, look, it's not like every economist is a billionaire, , uh, uh, you know, it doesn't work that way. Uh, but during that is a parallel, which, which is, uh, you'd be amazed at how many times Aarthi and I would have a conversation where be, oh, this algorithm thing.I remember designing it, or I was in the meeting when this thing happened, and now we are on the other side, which is like, Hey, you might be the economist who told somebody to implement a fiscal policy. And now we are like, oh, okay, how do I actually go do this and create values and how? Anyway, how do we do exactly.Create an audience and go build something interesting. So there is definitely some irony to it, uh, where, uh, but I think hopefully it does give us some level of insight where, uh, we have seen, you know, enough of like what actually works on social media, which is how do you build a connection with your audience?Uh, how do you build, uh, content? How do you actually do it on a regular, uh, teams? I think [00:09:07] Aarthi: the biggest difference is we don't see the algorithm as a bra, as a black box. I think we kind of see it as like when the, with the metrics, we are able to, one, have empathy for the teams building this. And two, I think, uh, we kind of know there's no big magic bullet.Like I think a lot of this is about showing up, being really consistent, um, you know, being able to like put out some really interesting content that people actually want to, and you know, I think a lot of people forget about that part of it and kind of focus. If you did this one thing, your distribution goes up a lot and here's this like, other like secret hack and you know Sure.Like those are like really short term stuff, but really in the long term, the magic is to just like keep at it. Yeah. And, uh, put out really, really good content. [00:09:48] Sriram: Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's good to hear. . [00:09:53] 10x Engineers[00:09:53] Dwarkesh: Um, so you've both, um, led teams that have, you know, dozens or even hundreds of people.Um, how easy is it for you to tell who the 10 X engineers are? Is it something that you as managers and executives can tell easily or [00:10:06] Sriram: no? Uh, absolutely. I think you can tell this very easily or repeat of time and it doesn't, I think a couple of ways. One is, uh, Uh, before, let's say before you work with someone, um, 10 x people just don't suddenly start becoming 10 x.They usually have a history of becoming 10 x, uh, of, you know, being really good at what they do. And you can, you know, the cliche line is you can sort of connect the dots. Uh, you start seeing achievements pile up and achievements could be anything. It could be a bunch of projects. It could be a bunch of GitHub code commits.It could be some amazing writing on ck, but whatever it is, like somebody just doesn't show up and become a 10 x person, they probably have a track record of already doing it. The second part of it is, I've seen this is multiple people, uh, who are not named so that they don't get hired from the companies actually want them to be in, or I can then hire them in the future is, uh, you know, they will make incredibly rapid progress very quickly.So, uh, I have a couple of examples and almost independently, I know it's independently, so I have a couple of. Um, and I actually, and name both, right? Like, so one is, uh, this guy named, uh, Vijay Raji, uh, who, uh, was probably one of Facebook's best engineers. He's now the CEO of a company called Stats. And, um, he was probably my first exposure to the real TenX engineer.And I remembered this because, uh, you know, at the time I was. Kind of in my twenties, I had just joined Facebook. I was working on ads, and he basically built a large part of Facebook's ad system over the weekend. And what he would do is he would just go, and then he con he [00:11:24] Aarthi: continued to do that with Facebook marketplace.Yeah. Like he's done this like over and over and over [00:11:28] Sriram: again. . Yeah. And, and it's not that, you know, there's one burst of genius. It's just this consistent stream of every day that's a code checkin stuff is working. New demo somebody, he sent out a new bill or something working. And so before like a week or two, you just like a, you know, you running against Usain Bolt and he's kind of running laps around you.He's so far ahead of everyone else and you're like, oh, this guy is definitely ahead. Uh, the second story I have is, uh, of, uh, John Carmack, uh, you know, who's legend and I never worked with him in, uh, directly with, you know, hopefully someday I can fix. But, uh, somebody told me a story about him. Which is, uh, that the person told me story was like, I never thought a individual could replace the output of a hundred percent team until I saw John.And there's a great story where, um, you know, and so John was the most senior level at Facebook and from a hr, you know, employment insecurity perspective for an individual contributor, and it at, at that level, at Facebook, uh, for folks who kind of work in these big tech companies, it is the most, the highest tier of accomplishment in getting a year in a performance review is something called xcs Expectations, or, sorry, redefines, right?Which basically means like, you have redefined what it means for somebody to perform in this level, right? Like, it's like somebody, you know, like somebody on a four minute mile, I'll be running a two minute mile or whatever, right? You're like, oh, and, and it is incredibly hard sometimes. You doing, and this guy John gets it three years in a row, right?And so there's this leadership team of all the, you know, the really most important people on Facebook. And they're like, well, we should really promote John, right? Like, because he's done this three years in a row, he's changing the industry. Three years in a row and then they realized, oh wait, there is no level to promote him to Nick be CEOWell, maybe I don't think he wanted to. And so, uh, the story I heard, and I dunno, it's true, but I like to believe it's true, is they invented a level which still now only John Carmack has gotten. Right. And, um, and I think, you know, it's his level of productivity, uh, his, uh, intellect, uh, and the consistency over time and mu and you know, if you talk to anybody, Facebook work with him, he's like, oh, he replaced hundred people, teams all by themselves and maybe was better than a hundred percent team just because he had a consistency of vision, clarity, and activity.So those are [00:13:32] Aarthi: the two stories I've also noticed. I think, uh, actually sheam, I think our first kind of exposure to 10 x engineer was actually Barry born, uh, from Microsoft. So Barry, um, uh, basically wrote pretty much all the emulation engines and emulation systems that we all use, uh, and uh, just prolific, uh, and I think in addition to what Fred had said with like qualities and tenets, Um, the, I've generally seen these folks to also be like low ego and kind of almost have this like responsibility to, um, mentor coach other people.Uh, and Barry kind of like took us under his wing and he would do these like Tuesday lunches with us, where we would just ask like, you know, we were like fresh out of college and we just ask these like really dumb questions on, you know, um, scaling things and how do you build stuff. And I was working on, uh, run times and loaders and compilers and stuff.And so he would just take the time to just answer our questions and just be there and be really like, nice about it. I remember when you moved to Redmond, he would just like spend a weekend just like, oh yeah. Driving you about and just doing things like that, but very low ego and within their teams and their art, they're just considered to be legends.Yes. Like, you know, everybody would be like, oh, Barry Bond. Yeah, of course. [00:14:47] Sriram: Yeah. It, I can't emphasize enough the consistency part of it. Um, you know, with Barry. Or I gotta briefly work with Dave Cutler, who's kind of the father of modern operating systems, uh, is every day you're on this email li list at the time, which would show you check-ins as they happen.They would have something every single day, um, every day, and it'll be tangible and meaty and you know, and you just get a sense that this person is not the same as everybody else. Um, by the, this couple of people I can actually point to who haven't worked with, uh, but I follow on YouTube or streaming. Uh, one is, uh, Andrea Ling who builds Serenity Os we had a great episode with him.Oh, the other is George Hart's, uh, geo Hart. And I urge people, if you haven't, I haven't worked with either of them, uh, but if I urge which to kinda watch their streams, right? Because, uh, you go like, well, how does the anti killing build a web browser on an operating system? Which he builds by himself in such a sharp period of time and he watches stream and he's not doing some magical new, you know, bit flipping sorting algorithm anybody has, nobody has seen before.He's just doing everything you would do, but. Five bits of speed. I, yep, exactly. [00:15:48] Dwarkesh: I I'm a big fan of the George Hot Streams and Yeah, that's exactly what, you know, it's like yeah, you, he's also curling requests and he is also, you know, you know, spinning up an experiment in a Jupyter Notebook, but yeah, just doing it [00:15:58] Aarthi: away way faster, way efficiently.Yeah. [00:16:00] 15 Minute Meetings[00:16:00] Dwarkesh: Yeah. That's really interesting. Um, so ar Arthur, I'm, you've gone through Y Combinator and famously they have that 15 minute interview Yes. Where they try to grok what your business is and what your potential is. Yeah, yeah. But just generally, it seems like in Silicon Valley you guys have, make a lot of decisions in terms of investing or other kinds of things.You, in very short calls, you know. Yeah. . Yeah. And how much can you really, what is it that you're learning in these 15 minute calls when you're deciding, should I invest in this person? What is their potential? What is happening in that 15 minutes? [00:16:31] Aarthi: Um, I can speak about YC from the other side, from like, uh, being a founder pitching, right.I think, yes, there is a 15 minute interview, but before that, there is a whole YC application process. And, uh, I think even for the, for YC as, uh, this bunch of the set of investors, I'm sure they're looking for specific signals, but for me as a founder, the application process was so useful, um, because it really makes you think about what you're building.Why are you building this? Are you the right person to be building this? Who are the other people you should be hiring? And so, I mean, there are like few questions or like, one of my favorite questions is, um, how have you hacked a non-computer system to your advantage? Yeah. . And it kind of really makes you think about, huh, and you kind of noticed that many good founders have that pattern of like hacking other systems to their advantage.Um, and so to me, I think more than the interview itself, the process of like filling out the application form, doing that little video, all of that gives you better, um, it gives you the, the entire scope of your company in your head because it's really hard when you have this idea and you're kind of like noodling about with it and talking to a few people.You don't really know if this is a thing. To just like crystallize the whole vision in your head. I think, uh, that's on point. Yes. Um, the 15 minute interview for me, honestly, it was like kind of controversial because, uh, I went in that morning, I did the whole, you know, I, I had basically stayed at the previous night, uh, building out this website and, uh, that morning I showed up and I had my laptop open.I'm like really eager to like tell them what you're building and I keep getting cut off and I realize much later that that's kind of my design. Yeah. And you just like cut off all the time. Be like, why would anybody use this? And you start to answer and be like, oh, but I, I don't agree with that. And there's just like, and it, it's like part of it is like, makes you upset, but part of it is also like, it makes you think how to compress all that information in a really short amount of time and tell them.Um, and so that interview happens, I feel really bummed out because I kind of had this website I wanted to show them. So while walking out the door, I remember just showing Gary, Dan, um, the website and he like kind of like. Scrolls it a little bit, and he is like, this is really beautifully done. And I was like, thank you.I've been wanting to show you this for 15 minutes. Um, and I, I mentioned it to Gary recently and he laughed about it. And then, uh, I didn't get selected in that timeframe. They gave me a call and they said, come back again in the evening and we are going to do round two because we are not sure. Yeah. And so the second interview there was PG and Jessica and they both were sitting there and they were just grueling me.It was a slightly longer interview and PG was like, I don't think this is gonna work. And I'm like, how can you say that? I think this market's really big. And I'm just like getting really upset because I've been waiting this whole day to like get to this point. And he's just being like cynical and negative.And then at some point he starts smiling at Jessica and I'm like, oh, okay. They're just like baiting me to figure it out. And so that was my process. And I, by the evening, I remember Shera was working at. I remember driving down from Mountain View to Facebook and Sheam took me to the Sweet Stop. Oh yeah.Which is like their, you know, Facebook has this like, fancy, uh, sweet store, like the ice cream store. I [00:19:37] Sriram: think they had a lot more perks over the years, but that was very fancy back then. [00:19:40] Aarthi: So I had like two scoops of ice cream in each hand in, and, uh, the phone rang and I was like, oh, hold onto this. And I grabbed it and I, and you know, I think it was Michael Sibu or I don't know who, but somebody called me and said, you're through.So that was kind of my process. So even though there was only 15 minutes, mine was actually much longer after. But even before the, the application process was like much more detailed. So it sounds [00:20:01] Dwarkesh: like the 15 minutes it's really there. Like, can they rattle you? Can they, can they [00:20:06] Aarthi: you and how do you react?Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I also think they look for how sex you can be in explaining what the problem is. They do talk to hundreds of companies. It is a lot. And so I think, can you compress a lot of it and convince, if you can convince these folks here in three months or four months time, how are you going to do demo day and convince a whole room full of investors?[00:20:27] Sriram: Yeah. Yeah. For, I think it's a bit different for us, uh, on the VC side, uh, because two things. One, number one is, uh, the day, you know, so much of it is having a prepared mind before you go into the meeting. And, for example, if you're meeting a. very early. Are we investing before having met every single other person who's working in this space, who has ideas in the space.So you generally know what's going on, you know, what the kind of technologies are or go to market approaches are. You've probably done a bunch of homework already. It's usually, uh, it does happen where you meet somebody totally cold and uh, you really want to invest, but most often you've probably done some homework at least in this space, if not the actual company.Um, and so when you're in the meeting, I think you're trying to judge a couple of things. And these are obviously kind of stolen from Christ Dixon and others. Um, one is their ability to kind of go walk you through their idea, ma. And so very simply, um, you know, the idea MAs is, uh, and I think say the biology of Christen came with this, the idea that, hey, um, uh, How you got to the idea for your company really matters because you went and explored all the data ends, all the possibilities.You're managing around for years and years, and you've kind of come to the actual solution. And the way you can tell whether somebody's gone through the idea Mac, is when you ask 'em questions and they tell you about like five different things they've tried, did not work. And it, it's really hard to fake it.I mean, we, you maybe fake it for like one or two questions, but if you talk about like how we tried X, Y, and Z and they have like an opinion what of the opinions, if they've thought about it, you're like, okay, this person really studied the idea, ma. And that's very powerful. Uh, the second part of it is, uh, you know, Alex sample.Uh, uh, one of my partner says this, Yes, some this thing called the Manifestation Framework, which sounds like a self-help book on Amazon, but it's not, uh, uh uh, you know, but what if is, is like, you know, so many, so much of early stage startup founders is about the ability to manifest things. Uh, manifest capital, manifest the first hire, uh, manifest, uh, the first BD partnership.And, um, usually, you know, if you can't, if you don't have a Cigna sign of doing that, it's really hard to then after raising money, go and close this amazing hotshot engineer or salesperson or close this big partnership. And so in the meeting, right? If you can't convince us, right? And these are people, our day job is to give you money, right?Like, if I spent a year without giving anybody money, I'll probably get fired. If you can't, uh, if you can't convince us to give you money, right? If you wanna find probably a hard time to close this amazing engineer and get that person to come over from Facebook or close this amazing partnership against a competitor.And so that's kind of a judge of that. So it is never about the actual 60 Minutes where you're like, we, we are making up of a large part of makeup of mind is. That one or two conversations, but there's so much which goes in before and after that. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of [00:22:57] What is a16z's edge?[00:22:57] Dwarkesh: venture capital, um, I, I'm curious, so interest and Horowitz, and I guess why Combinator too?Um, but I mean, any other person who's investing in startups, they were started at a time when there were much less capital in the space, and today of course, there's been so much more capital pour into space. So how do these firms, like how does A 16 C continue to have edge? What is this edge? How can I sustain it [00:23:20] Sriram: given the fact that so much more capital is entered into the space?We show up on podcasts like the Lunar Society, , and so if you are watching this and you have a startup idea, Uh, come to us, right? Uh, no. Come, come to the Lunar society. . Well, yes. I mean, maybe so Trust me, you go in pat, you're gonna have a find, uh, a Thk pat right there. Uh, actually I, you think I joked, but there's a bit of truth.But no, I've had [00:23:40] Dwarkesh: like lu this [00:23:40] Aarthi: suddenly became very different [00:23:43] Sriram: conversation. I have had people, this is a totally ludicrous [00:23:46] Dwarkesh: idea, but I've had people like, give me that idea. And it's like, it sounds crazy to me because like, I don't know what, it's, what a company's gonna be successful, right? So, but I hasn't [00:23:55] Aarthi: become an investor.[00:23:57] Sriram: I honestly don't know. But it is something like what you're talking about Lu Society Fund one coming up, right? You heard it here first? Uh, uh, well, I think first of all, you know, I think there's something about the firm, uh, um, in terms of how it's set up philosophically and how it's set up, uh, kind of organizationally, uh, and our approach philosoph.The firm is an optimist, uh, uh, more than anything else. At the core of it, we are optimist. We are optimist about the future. We are optimist about the impact of founders on their, on the liberty to kind of impact that future. Uh, we are optimist at heart, right? Like I, I tell people like, you can't work at a six and z if you're not an optimist.That's at the heart of everything that we do. Um, and very tied to that is the idea that, you know, um, software is eating the world. It is, it's true. 10 years ago when Mark wrote that, peace is as true now, and we just see more and more of it, right? Like every week, you know, look at the week we are recording this.You know, everyone's been talking about chat, G p T, and like all the industries that can get shaped by chat, G P T. So our, our feature, our, our idea is that software is gonna go more and more. So, one way to look at this is, yes, a lot more capitalists enter the world, but there should be a lot more, right?Like, because these companies are gonna go bigger. They're gonna have bigger impacts on, uh, human lives and, and the world at large. So that's, uh, you know, uh, one school of thought, the other school of thought, uh, which I think you were asking about, say valuations, uh, et cetera. Is, uh, you know, um, again, one of my other partners, Jeff Jordan, uh, uh, always likes to tell people like, we don't go discount shopping, right?Our, the way we think about it is we want to, when we're investing in a market, We want to really map out the market, right? Uh, so for example, I work on crypto, uh, and, uh, you know, we, you know, if, if you are building something interesting in crypto and we haven't seen you, we haven't talked to you, that's a fail, that's a mess, right?We ideally want to see every single interesting founder company idea. And a category can be very loose. Crypto is really big. We usually segmented something else. Or if you look at enterprise infrastructure, you can take them into like, you know, AI or different layers and so on. But once you map out a category, you want to know everything.You wanna know every interesting person, every interesting founder you wanna be abreast of every technology change, every go to market hack, every single thing. You wanna know everything, right? And then, uh, the idea is that, uh, we would love to invest in, you know, the what is hopefully becomes the market.Set category, uh, or you know, somebody who's maybe close to the, the market leader. And our belief is that these categories will grow and, you know, they will capture huge value. Um, and as a whole, software is still can used to be undervalued by, uh, a, you know, the world. So, um, we, so, which is why, again, going back to what Jeff would say, he's like, we are not in the business of oh, we are getting a great deal, right?We, we are like, we want to invest in something which, where we think the team and the company and their approach is going to win in this space, and we want to help them win. And we think if they do win, there's a huge value to be unlocked. Yeah, I see. I see. Um, [00:26:42] Future of Twitter[00:26:42] Dwarkesh: let's talk about Twitter. [00:26:44] Sriram: Uh, . I need a drink. I need a drink.[00:26:48] Dwarkesh: um, Tell me, what is the future of Twitter? What is the app gonna look like in five years? You've, um, I mean obviously you've been involved with the Musk Venture recently, but, um, you've, you've had a senior position there. You were an executive there before a few years ago, and you've also been an executive at, uh, you've both been at Meta.So what [00:27:06] Sriram: is the future of Twitter? It's gonna be entertaining. Uh, uh, what is it El say the most entertaining outcome is the most, [00:27:12] Aarthi: uh, uh, like, best outcome is the most, uh, most likely outcome is the most entertaining outcome. [00:27:16] Sriram: Exactly right. So I think it's gonna be the most entertaining outcome. Um, I, I mean, I, I, I think a few things, uh, first of all, uh, ideally care about Twitter.Yeah. Uh, and all of my involvement, uh, you know, over the years, uh, uh, professionally, you know, uh, has, it's kind of. A lagging indicator to the value I got from the service person. I have met hundreds of people, uh, through Twitter. Uh, hundreds of people have reached out to me. Thousands. Exactly. Uh, and you know, I met Mark Andresen through Twitter.Uh, I met like, you know, uh, people are not very good friends of mine. We met through Twitter. We met at Twitter, right. There we go. Right. Uh, just [00:27:50] Aarthi: like incredible outsized impact. Yeah. Um, and I think it's really hard to understate that because, uh, right now it's kind of easy to get lost in the whole, you know, Elon, the previous management bio, like all of that.Outside of all of that, I think the thing I like to care about is, uh, focus on is the product and the product experience. And I think even with the product experience that we have today, which hasn't like, dramatically changed from for years now, um, it's still offering such outsized value for. If you can actually innovate and build really good product on top, I think it can, it can just be really, really good for humanity overall.And I don't even mean this in like a cheesy way. I really think Twitter as a tool could be just really, really effective and enormously good for everyone. Oh yeah. [00:28:35] Sriram: Twitter is I think, sort of methodically upstream of everything that happens in culture in uh, so many different ways. Like, um, you know, there was this, okay, I kinda eli some of the details, uh, but like a few years ago I remember there was this, uh, sort of this somewhat salacious, controversial story which happened in entertainment and uh, and I wasn't paying attention to, except that something caught my eye, which was that, uh, every story had the same two tweets.And these are not tweets from any famous person. It was just some, like, some, um, you know, somebody had some followers, but not a lot of, a lot of followers. And I. Why is this being quoted in every single story? Because it's not from the, you know, the person who was actually in the story or themselves. And it turned out that, uh, what had happened was, uh, you know, somebody wrote in the street, it had gone viral, um, it started trending on Twitter, um, and a bunch of people saw it.They started writing news stories about it. And by that afternoon it was now, you know, gone from a meme to now reality. And like in a lot of people entertainment say, kind of go respond to that. And I've seen this again and again, again, right? Uh, sports, politics, culture, et cetera. So Twitter is memetically upstream of so much of life.Uh, you know, one of my friends had said like, Twitter is more important than the real world. Uh, which I don't, I don't know about that, but, uh, you know, I do think it's, um, it has huge sort of, uh, culture shaping value. Yeah. I thing I think about Twitter is so much of. The network is very Lindy. So one of the things I'm sure from now is like five years from now, you know, what does that mean?Well that, uh, is that something which has kind of stood the test of time to some extent? And, um, and, uh, well the Lindy effect generally means, I don't think it's using this context with ideas like things which, with withstood the test of time tend to also with some test of time in the future, right? Like, like if we talked to Naim is like, well, people have lifting heavy weights and doing red wine for 2000 years, so let's continue doing that.It's probably a good thing. Um, but, but, but that's Twitter today. What is the future of Twitter? Well, uh, well, I think so one is, I think that's gonna continue to be true, right? 10 years from now, five years from now, it's still gonna be the metic battleground. It's still gonna be the place where ideas are shared, et cetera.Um, you know, I'm very. Unabashedly a a big fan of what Elon, uh, as a person, as a founder and what he's doing at Twitter. And my hope is that, you know, he can kind of canoe that and, you know, he's, you know, and I can't actually predict what he's gonna go Bill, he's kind of talked about it. Maybe that means bringing in other product ideas.Uh, I think he's talked about payments. He's talked about like having like longer form video. Uh, who knows, right? But I do know, like five years from now, it is still gonna be the place of like active conversation where people fight, yell, discuss, and maybe sometimes altogether. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the Twitter, [00:30:58] Is Big Tech Overstaffed?[00:30:58] Dwarkesh: um, conversation has raised a lot of, a lot of questions about how over or understaffed, uh, these big tech companies are, and in particular, um, how many people you can get rid of and the thing basically functions or how fragile are these code bases?And having worked at many of these big tech companies, how, how big is the bus factor, would you guess? Like what, what percentage of people could I fire at the random big tech [00:31:22] Sriram: company? Why? I think, uh, [00:31:23] Aarthi: yeah, I think. That's one way to look at it. I think the way I see it is there are a few factors that go into this, right?Like pre covid, post covid, like through covid everybody became remote, remote teams. As you scaled, it was kind of also hard to figure out what was really going on in different parts of the organization. And I think a lot of inefficiencies were overcome by just hiring more people. It's like, oh, you know what, like that team, yeah, that project's like lagging, let's just like add 10 more people.And that's kind of like it became the norm. Yeah. And I think a lot of these teams just got bigger and bigger and bigger. I think the other part of it was also, um, you lot of how performance ratings and culture of like, moving ahead in your career path. And a lot of these companies were dependent on how big your team was and uh, and so every six months or year long cycle or whatever is your performance review cycle, people would be like, this person instead of looking at what has this person shipped or what has like the impact that this person's got had, uh, the team's done.It became more of like, well this person's got a hundred percent arc or 200% arc and next year they're gonna have a 10% increase and that's gonna be like this much. And you know, that was the conversation. And so a lot of the success and promo cycles and all of those conversations were tied around like number of headcount that this person would get under them as such, which I think is like a terrible way to think about how you're moving up the ladder.Um, you should really, like, even at a big company, you should really be thinking about the impact that you've had and customers you've reached and all of that stuff. And I think at some point people kind of like lost that, uh, and pick the more simpler metric, which just headcount and it's easy. Yeah. And to just scale that kind of thing.So I think now with Elon doing this where he is like cutting costs, and I think Elon's doing this for different set of reasons. You know, Twitter's been losing money and I think it's like driving efficiency. Like this is like no different. Anybody else who like comes in, takes over a business and looks at it and says, wait, we are losing money every day.We have to do something about this. Like, it's not about like, you know, cutting fat for the sake of it or anything. It's like this, this business is not gonna be viable if we keep it going the way it is. Yeah. And just pure economics. And so when he came in and did that, I'm now seeing this, and I'm sure Sheam is too at like at eight 16 Z and like his companies, uh, but even outside, and I see this with like my angel investment portfolio of companies, um, and just founders I talk to where people are like, wait, Elon can do that with Twitter.I really need to do that with my company. And it's given them the permission to be more aggressive and to kind of get back into the basics of why are we building what we are building? These are our customers, this is our revenue. Why do we have these many employees? What do they all do? And not from a place of like being cynical, but from a place of.I want people to be efficient in doing what they do and how do we [00:34:06] Sriram: make that happen? Yeah. I, I stole this, I think somebody said this on Twitter and I officially, he said, Elon has shifted the overturn window of, uh, the playbook for running a company. Um, which is, I think if you look at Twitter, uh, you know, and by the way, I would say, you know, you know the sort of, the warning that shows up, which is don't try this at home before, which is like, so don't try some of these unless you're er and maybe try your own version of these.But, you know, number one is the idea that you, you can become better not through growth, but by cutting things. You can become better, by demanding more out of yourself and the people who work for you. Uh, you, you can become better by hiring a, you know, a higher bar, sitting a higher bar for the talent that you bring into the company and, uh, that you reach into the company.I think at the heart of it, by the way, uh, you know, it's one of the things I've kinda observed from Elon. His relentless focus on substance, which is every condition is gonna be like, you know, the, the meme about what have you gotten done this week is, it kinda makes sense to everything else, which is like, okay, what are we building?What is the thing? Who's the actual person doing the work? As opposed to the some manager two levels a about aggregating, you know, the reports and then telling you what's being done. There is a relentless focus on substance. And my theory is, by the way, I think maybe some of it comes from Iran's background in, uh, space and Tesla, where at the end of the day, you are bound by the physics of the real world, right?If you get something wrong, right, you can, the rockets won't take off or won't land. That'd be a kalo, right? Like what, what's a, the phrase that they use, uh, rapid unplanned disassembly is the word. Right? Which is like better than saying it went kaboom. Uh, but, you know, so the constraints are if, if, you know, if you get something wrong at a social media company, people can tell if you get something really wrong at space with the Tesla.People can tap, right? Like very dramatically so and so, and I think, so there was a relentless focus on substance, right? Uh, being correct, um, you know, what is actually being done. And I think that's external Twitter too. And I think a lot of other founders I've talked to, uh, uh, in, sometimes in private, I look at this and go, oh, there is no different playbook that they have always I instituted or they were used to when they were growing up.We saw this when we were growing up. They're definitely seen some other cultures around the world where we can now actually do this because we've seen somebody else do this. And they don't have to do the exact same thing, you know, Elon is doing. Uh, they don't have to, uh, but they can do their variations of demanding more of themselves, demanding more of the people that work for them.Um, focusing on substance, focusing on speed. Uh, I think our all core element. [00:36:24] Aarthi: I also think over the last few years, uh, this may be controversial, I don't know why it is, but it somehow is that you can no longer talk about hard work as like a recipe for success. And you know, like growing up for us. When people say that, or like our parents say that, we just like kind of roll our eyes and be like, yeah, sure.Like, we work hard, like we get it. Yeah. But I think over the last couple of years, it just became not cool to say that if you work hard, then you can, there is a shot at like finding success. And I think it's kind of refreshing almost, uh, to have Elon come in and say, we are gonna work really hard. We are gonna be really hardcore about how we build things.And it's, it's very simple. Like you have to put in the hours. There is no kind of shortcut to it. And I think it's, it's nice to bring it all tight, all back to the basics. And, uh, I like that, like, I like the fact that we are now talking about it again and it's, it's sad that now talking about working really hard or having beds in your office, we used to do that at MicrosoftYeah. Uh, is now like suddenly really controversial. And so, um, I'm, I'm all for this. Like, you know, it's not for everyone, but if you are that type of person who really enjoys working hard, really enjoys shipping things and building really good things, Then I think you might find a fit in this culture. And I think that's a good thing.Yeah. I, [00:37:39] Sriram: I think there's nothing remarkable that has been built without people just working really hard. It doesn't happen for years and years, but I think for strong, some short-term burst of some really passionate, motivated, smart people working some really, you know, and hard doesn't mean time. It can mean so many different dimensions, but I don't think anything great gets built without that.So, uh, yeah, it's interesting. We [00:37:59] Aarthi: used to like do overnights at Microsoft. Like we'd just like sleep under our desk, um, until the janitor would just like, poke us out of there like, I really need to vacuum your cubicle. Like, get out of here. And so we would just like find another bed or something and just like, go crash on some couch.But it was, those were like some of our fun days, like, and we look back at it and you're like, we sh we built a lot. I think at some point sh I think when I walked over to his cubicle, he was like looking at Windows Source code and we're like, we are looking at Windows source code. This is the best thing ever.I think, I think there's such joy in like, Finding those moments where you like work hard and you're feeling really good about it. [00:38:36] Sriram: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so you [00:38:37] Next CEO of Twitter?[00:38:37] Dwarkesh: get working hard and bringing talent into the company, uh, let's say Elon and says Tomorrow, you know what, uh, Riam, I'm, uh, I've got these other three companies that I've gotta run and I need some help running this company.And he says, Sriram would you be down to be the next, [00:38:51] Sriram: uh, next CEO of Twitter Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But I am married to someone. No, uh uh, no, uh uh, you know, you know when, uh, I don't think I was, the answer is absolutely not. And you know this exactly. Fun story. Um, uh, I don't think it says in public before. So when you, when I was in the process, you know, talking to and nor words and, you know, it's, it's not like a, uh, it's not like a very linear process.It's kind of a relationship that kind of develops over time. And I met Mark Andreen, uh, multiple times over the years. They've been having this discussion of like, Hey, do you want to come do venture or do you want to, if you wanna do venture, do you wanna come do with us? And um, and, and one of the things Mark would always tell me is, uh, something like, we would love to have you, but you have to scratch the edge of being an operator first.Um, because there are a lot of, there are a lot of ways VCs fail, uh, operator at VCs fail. Um, and I can get, get into some of them if you're interested, but one of the common ways that they fail is they're like, oh, I really want to go back to, um, building companies. And, uh, and now thing is like antis more than most interest, like really respects entrepreneurship, fraud's the hard of what we do.But he will, like, you have to get that out of a system. You have to be like, okay, I'm done with that word. I want to now do this. Uh, before you know, uh, you want to come over, right? And if you say so, let's have this conversation, but if not, we will wait for you. Right. And a woman telling me this all the time, and at some point of time I decided, uh, that, uh, you know, I just love this modoc.Um, you know, there are many things kind of different about being an operator versus a BC uh, and you kind of actually kind of really train myself in what is actually a new profession. But one of the things is like, you know, you kind of have to be more of a coach and more open to like, working with very different kinds of people without having direct agency.And it's always a very different mode of operation, right? And you have to be like, well, I'm not the person doing the thing. I'm not the person getting the glory. I'm here to fund, obviously, but really help support coach be, uh, a lending hand, be a supporting shoulder, whatever the, uh, the metaphor is, or for somebody else doing the thing.And so you kind of have to have the shift in your brain. And I think sometimes when VCs don't work out, the few operator on VCs don't work out. There are few reasons. Uh, number one reason I would say is when an operator, and I, I hate the word operator by the way, right? It just means you have a regular job.Uh, you know, uh, and, uh, but the number one reason is like when you have a regular job, you know, you're an engineer, you're, you're a product manager, you're a marketer, whatever. , you get feedback every single day about how you're doing. If you're an engineer, you're checking in code or you know your manager, you hire a great person, whatever it is.When you're at Visa, you're not getting direct feedback, right? You know, maybe today what I'm doing now, recording this with you is the best thing ever because some amazing fund is gonna meet it and they're gonna come talk to me, or maybe it's a total waste of time and I should be talking some else. You do have no way of knowing.So you really have to think very differently about how you think about patients, how we think about spending your time, and you don't get the dopamine of like, oh, I'm getting this great reinforcement loop. Um, the second part of it is because of that lack of feedback loop, you often don't know how well you're doing.Also, you don't have that fantastic product demo or you're like, you know, if an engineer like, oh, I got this thing working, the builder is working, it's 10 x faster, or this thing actually works, whatever the thing is, you don't get that feedback loop, uh, because that next great company that, you know, the next Larry and Sergey or Brian Armstrong might walk in through your door or Zoom meeting tomorrow or maybe two years from now.So you don't really have a way to know. Um, so you kind of have to be, you have a focus on different ways to do, uh, get. Kind of figured out how well you're doing. The third part of it is, uh, you know, the, uh, the feedback loops are so long where, uh, you know, you, you can't test it. When I was a product manager, you would ship things, something you, if you don't like it, you kill it, you ship something else.At, at our firm in, you invest in somebody, you're working with them for a decade, if not longer, really for life in some ways. So you are making much more intense, but much less frequent decisions as opposed to when you're in a regular job, you're making very frequent, very common decisions, uh, every single day.So, uh, I get a lot of differences and I think, you know, sometimes, uh, you know, folks who, who are like a former CEO or former like VP product, uh, uh, I talk a lot of them sometimes who went from, came to BC and then went back and they either couldn't adapt or didn't like it, or didn't like the emotions of it.And I had to really convince myself that okay. Hopefully wouldn't fate those problems. I probably, maybe some other problems. And, uh, uh, so yes, the long way of saying no, , [00:43:13] Why Don't More Venture Capitalists Become Founders?[00:43:13] Dwarkesh: um, the desk partly answer another question I had, which was, you know, there is obviously this pipeline of people who are founders who become venture capitalists.And it's interesting to me. I would think that the other end or the converse of that would be just as common because if you're, if you're an angel investor or venture capitalist, you've seen all these companies, you've seen dozens of companies go through all these challenges and then you'd be like, oh, I, I understand.[00:43:36] Sriram: Wait, why do you think more VCs driven apart? You have some strong opinions of this . [00:43:40] Dwarkesh: Should more venture capitalists and investors become founders? I think [00:43:43] Aarthi: they should. I don't think they will. Ouch. I dunno, why not? Um, I think, uh, look, I think the world is better with more founders. More people should start companies, more people should be building things.I fundamentally think that's what needs to happen. Like our single biggest need is like, we just don't have enough founders. And we should just all be trying new things, building new projects, all of that. Um, I think for venture capital is, I think what happens, and this is just my take, I don't know if Farram agrees with it, but, um, I think they see so much from different companies.And if you're like really successful with what you do as a vc, you are probably seeing hundreds of companies operate. You're seeing how the sausage is being made in each one of them. Like an operating job. You kind of sort of like have this linear learning experience. You go from one job to the other.Here you kind of sort of see in parallel, like you're probably on like 50, 60 boards. Uh, and oftentimes when it comes to the investor as like an issue, it is usually a bad problem. Um, and you kind of see like you, you know, you kind of see how every company, what the challenges are, and every company probably has like, you know, the best companies we know, I've all had this like near death experience and they've come out of that.That's how the best founders are made. Um, you see all of that and I think at some point you kind of have this fear of like, I don't know. I just don't think I wanna like, bet everything into this one startup. One thing, I think it's very hard to have focus if you've honed your skillset to be much more breath first and go look at like a portfolio of companies being helpful to every one of them.And I see Sure. And do this every day where I, I have no idea how he does it, but key context, which is every 30 minutes. Yeah. And it's crazy. Like I would go completely and say, where if you told me board meeting this founder pitch, oh, sell this operating role for this portfolio company. Second board meeting, third, board meeting founder, pitch founder pitch founder pitch.And that's like, you know, all day, every day nonstop. Um, that's just like, you, you, I don't think you can like, kind of turn your mindset into being like, I'm gonna clear up my calendar and I'm just gonna like work on this one thing. Yeah. And it may be successful, it may not be, but I'm gonna give it my best shot.It's a very, very different psychology. I don't know. What do you [00:45:57] Sriram: think? Well, Well, one of my partners Triess to say like, I don't know what VCs do all day. The job is so easy, uh, uh, you know, they should start complaining. I mean, being a founder is really hard. Um, and I think, you know, there's a part of it where the VCs are like, oh, wait, I see how hard it is.And I'm like, I'm happy to support, but I don't know whether I can go through with it. So, because it's just really hard and which is kind of like why we have like, so much, uh, sort of respect and empathy, uh, for the whole thing, which is, I, [00:46:20] Aarthi: I do like a lot of VCs, the best VCs I know are people who've been operators in the past because they have a lot of empathy for what it takes to go operate.Um, and I've generally connected better with them because you're like, oh, okay, you're a builder. You've built these things, so, you know, kind of thing. Yeah. Um, but I do think a lot more VCs should become [00:46:38] Sriram: founders than, yeah. I, I think it's some of the couple of other things which happened, which is, uh, uh, like Arthur said, like sometimes, uh, you know, when we see you kind of, you see, you kind of start to pattern match, like on.And you sometimes you analyze and, and you kind of, your brain kind of becomes so focused on context switching. And I think when need a founder, you need to kind of just dedicate, you know, everything to just one idea. And it, it's not just bbc sometimes with academics also, where sometimes you are like a person who's supporting multiple different kinds of disciplines and context switching between like various speech students you support.Uh, but it's very different from being in the lab and working on one problem for like long, long years. Right. So, um, and I think it's kind of hard to then context switch back into just doing the exact, you know, just focus on one problem, one mission, day in and day out. So I think that's hard, uh, and uh, but you should be a founder.Yeah, I think, yeah, I think more people should try. [00:47:32] Role of Boards[00:47:32] Dwarkesh: . Speaking of being on boards, uh, what the FTX Saga has raised some questions about what is like the role of a board, even in a startup, uh, stage company, and you guys are on multiple boards, so I'm curious how you think about, there's a range of between micromanaging everything the CEO does to just rubber stamping everything the CEO does.Where, what is the responsibility of a board and a startup? [00:47:54] Aarthi: What, what, what are the, this is something I'm really curious about too. I'm [00:47:57] Sriram: just, well, I just wanna know on the FDX soccer, whether we are gonna beat the FTX episode in interviews in terms of view your podcast, right? Like, so if you folks are listening, right?Like let's get us to number one. So what you YouTube like can subscriber, they're already listening. [00:48:10] Aarthi: What do you mean? Get us [00:48:10] Sriram: to number one? Okay, then, then spread the word, right? Like, uh, don't [00:48:13] Aarthi: watch other episodes. It's kinda what you [00:48:15] Sriram: should, I mean, if there's [00:48:16] Dwarkesh: like some sort of scandal with a 16 Z, we could definitely be to fdx.[00:48:21] Sriram: Uh, uh, yeah, I think it's gonna, well, it's gonna be really hard to read that one. Uh, , uh, uh, for for sure. Uh, uh, oh my goodness. Um, uh, but no, [00:48:29] Aarthi: I'm, I'm genuinely curious about [00:48:31] Sriram: these two. Well, uh, it's a few things, you know, so the multiple schools of thought, I would say, you know, there's one school of thought, which is the, uh, uh, you know, which I don't think I totally subscribe to, but I think some of the other later stages, especially public market folks that I work with sometimes subscribe to, which is the only job of a, uh, board is to hire and fire the ceo.I don't think I really subscribe to that. I think because we deal with more, uh, early stage venture, um, and our job is like, uh, you know, like lot of the companies I work with are in a cdc c, b, you know, they have something working, but they have a lot long way to go. Um, and hopefully this journey, which goes on for many, many years, and I think the best way I thought about it is to, people would say like, you want to be.Wave form dampener, which is, uh, you know, for example, if the company's kind of like soaring, you want to kind of be like kind the check and balance of what? Like, hey, okay, what do we do to, uh, you know, um, uh, to make sure we are covering our bases or dotting the is dotting the, crossing The ts be very kind of like careful about it because the natural gravitational pool of the company is gonna take it like one direct.On the other hand, uh, if the company's not doing very well and everybody's beating us, beating up about it, you're, you know, your cust you're not able to close deals. The press is beating you up. You want to be the person who is supportive to the ceo, who's rallying, everybody helping, you know, convince management to stay, helping convince, close host, hire.So, um, there are a lot of things, other things that go into being a board member. Obviously there's a fiscal responsibility part of things, and, um, you know, um, because you kind of represent so many stakeholders. But I think at the heart of it, I kind of think about, uh, you know, how do I sort of help the founder, uh, the founder and kind of dampen the waveform.Um, the other Pinteresting part was actually the board meetings. Uh, Themselves do. Uh, and I do think like, you know, about once a year or, uh, so like that there's every kind of, there's, there's almost always a point every 18 months or so in a company's lifetime where you have like some very decisive, interesting moment, right?It could be good, it could be bad. And I think those moments can be, uh, really, really pivotal. So I think there's, there's huge value in showing up to board meetings, being really prepared, uh, uh, where you've done your homework, you, you know, you've kind of had all the conversations maybe beforehand. Um, and you're coming into add real value, like nothing kind of annoying me if somebody's just kind of showing up and, you know, they're kind of maybe cheering on the founder once or twice and they kind of go away.So I don't think you can make big difference, but, uh, you know, I think about, okay, how are we sort of like the waveform, the, you know, make sure the company, [00:50:58] Aarthi: but I guess the question then is like, should startups have better corporate governance compared to where we are today? Would that have avoided, like, say the FTX [00:51:08] Sriram: saga?No, I mean, it's, I mean, we, I guess there'll be a legal process and you'll find out right when the FTX case, nobody really knows, you know, like, I mean, like what level of, uh, who knew what, when, and what level of deceptions, you know, deception, uh, uh, you know, unfolded, right? So, uh, it, yeah. Maybe, but you know, it could have been, uh, it could have been very possible that, you know, uh, somebody, somebody just fakes or lies stuff, uh, lies to you in multiple ways.[00:51:36] Aarthi: To,

'tis the time for our year end roundup - we talk about our favorite episodes this year, and our favorite other content - books, movies, in-person meetup, tech trends, and what is getting us excited about 2023. Happy holidays!

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn't write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around  After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThis week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn't write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around  After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThis week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn't write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around  After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgThis week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.

Indra Nooyi joins us this week as our special guest. In this episode we talked about her upbringing and early life, her career including leading PepsiCo, her leadership lessons, making it as an immigrant, and her experience meeting Steve Jobs. Born in Madras (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, India, Indra Nooyi is an American business executive and former chairperson and CEO of Pepsico. She has consistently ranked among the world's 100 most powerful women. She serves on the boards of Amazon and ICC. In 2007, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, the country's 3rd highest civilian honor. For more conversations with creators, builders and thinkers, subscribe to Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGoodTimeShowAarthiSriram

In this 'solo' episode, Sriram and Aarthi talk about their trip to India and hosting the first in-person meetup in Chennai for fans of the podcast, as well as Sriram's take on Elon's first few weeks at Twitter and what he learned from watching Elon at work.

MEET AARTHI RAMAMURTHY:From meeting her husband over AOL chat in India to building products that delight millions at Xbox, Facebook, and Netflix, to launching the Good Time Show and hosting conversations with guests like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sonam Kapoor - Aarthi Ramamurthy is the original tech optimist. Her industry insights and success as a Y Combinator-backed founder and leader in international growth at Clubhouse have helped crystalize the next phase of her personal mission - redefining the (im)balance of power between proprietary platforms and the creators who use them.Contact:https://www.aarthiandsriram.com/https://www.youtube.com/@TheGoodTimeShowAarthiSriramhttps://twitter.com/aarthirSUPPORT THE SHOW BECAUSE I LOVE PUPPIES! Talia di Napoli – PIZZAClick on the title for $6.00 off your order of AMAZING pizza shipped fresh from NapoliBUY MY BOOK BECAUSE IT'S AMAZING!!!BE LEFT BEHIND: Discover Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Before Your Grandma Beats You to Ityuricataldo.comCREDITS:Our theme music is written and mixed by Chicago-based composer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Black of the Black's Backbone collaborative. And produced by REB Records.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Virtual Reality (VR) is the final platform because the only step after VR is mind-melding into the Borg; fully-formed VR makes technologies like phones, televisions, and desktop PCs obsoletePalmer Luckey started a national security company because he thought it was the most important problem that he could work on, and one that his peers were not working onBig Tech companies were refusing to work with the military because they were beholden to the US's strategic adversariesThere is a vocal minority in tech who are anti-military, and the tech executives at these companies use this vocal minority as a smoke-screen reason to not do meaningful work with the US military when in reality the executives are just trying to appease China Most defense companies operate on a cost-plus basis: they are paid for time and materials, and then a fixed percentage of profit on top Cost-plus contracts warp incentives; defense contractors can make more money by taking longer, designing a more expensive system, and running over on costs because the percentage they make on top is just a percentage of those costsAnduril uses its own money to build the products it sells to the US military and its alliesMany countries “Stand with Ukraine” and “Reject Russian Violence” while simultaneously giving Russia billions of dollars to fund its war machine in exchange for oil and natural gasThey stand with Ukraine up until the point it inconveniences themThe best time to wave the magic wand to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict was years or decades agoPalmer Luckey believes China is more likely to launch a blockade around Taiwan than a full-scale invasion The worst-case scenario for the United States is the CCP gains control over Taiwan's semiconductor industry and only allows semiconductors to be sent to ChinaPalmer Luckey believes that the next-generation category of power projection technologies (AI, hypersonics, etc.) will make the traditional category (aircraft carriers, Top Gun stuff) obsolete There is a cultural fetishization of being “the founder”, that is healthy in some ways, but it downplays the importance of other roles at startups like the chief technical officer, lead hardware engineer, etc.Do not start a technology company if you really love technology and programming Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Virtual Reality (VR) is the final platform because the only step after VR is mind-melding into the Borg; fully-formed VR makes technologies like phones, televisions, and desktop PCs obsoletePalmer Luckey started a national security company because he thought it was the most important problem that he could work on, and one that his peers were not working onBig Tech companies were refusing to work with the military because they were beholden to the US's strategic adversariesThere is a vocal minority in tech who are anti-military, and the tech executives at these companies use this vocal minority as a smoke-screen reason to not do meaningful work with the US military when in reality the executives are just trying to appease China Most defense companies operate on a cost-plus basis: they are paid for time and materials, and then a fixed percentage of profit on top Cost-plus contracts warp incentives; defense contractors can make more money by taking longer, designing a more expensive system, and running over on costs because the percentage they make on top is just a percentage of those costsAnduril uses its own money to build the products it sells to the US military and its alliesMany countries “Stand with Ukraine” and “Reject Russian Violence” while simultaneously giving Russia billions of dollars to fund its war machine in exchange for oil and natural gasThey stand with Ukraine up until the point it inconveniences themThe best time to wave the magic wand to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict was years or decades agoPalmer Luckey believes China is more likely to launch a blockade around Taiwan than a full-scale invasion The worst-case scenario for the United States is the CCP gains control over Taiwan's semiconductor industry and only allows semiconductors to be sent to ChinaPalmer Luckey believes that the next-generation category of power projection technologies (AI, hypersonics, etc.) will make the traditional category (aircraft carriers, Top Gun stuff) obsolete There is a cultural fetishization of being “the founder”, that is healthy in some ways, but it downplays the importance of other roles at startups like the chief technical officer, lead hardware engineer, etc.Do not start a technology company if you really love technology and programming Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders.

Aarthi and Sriram's Good Time Show ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Virtual Reality (VR) is the final platform because the only step after VR is mind-melding into the Borg; fully-formed VR makes technologies like phones, televisions, and desktop PCs obsoletePalmer Luckey started a national security company because he thought it was the most important problem that he could work on, and one that his peers were not working onBig Tech companies were refusing to work with the military because they were beholden to the US's strategic adversariesThere is a vocal minority in tech who are anti-military, and the tech executives at these companies use this vocal minority as a smoke-screen reason to not do meaningful work with the US military when in reality the executives are just trying to appease China Most defense companies operate on a cost-plus basis: they are paid for time and materials, and then a fixed percentage of profit on top Cost-plus contracts warp incentives; defense contractors can make more money by taking longer, designing a more expensive system, and running over on costs because the percentage they make on top is just a percentage of those costsAnduril uses its own money to build the products it sells to the US military and its alliesMany countries “Stand with Ukraine” and “Reject Russian Violence” while simultaneously giving Russia billions of dollars to fund its war machine in exchange for oil and natural gasThey stand with Ukraine up until the point it inconveniences themThe best time to wave the magic wand to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict was years or decades agoPalmer Luckey believes China is more likely to launch a blockade around Taiwan than a full-scale invasion The worst-case scenario for the United States is the CCP gains control over Taiwan's semiconductor industry and only allows semiconductors to be sent to ChinaPalmer Luckey believes that the next-generation category of power projection technologies (AI, hypersonics, etc.) will make the traditional category (aircraft carriers, Top Gun stuff) obsolete There is a cultural fetishization of being “the founder”, that is healthy in some ways, but it downplays the importance of other roles at startups like the chief technical officer, lead hardware engineer, etc.Do not start a technology company if you really love technology and programming Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Rich Roll, an ultra-endurance athlete who is vegan, a chart-topping podcast host and author of multiple bestselling books, on his journey from being in college at Stanford, becoming an alcoholic, and then at the age of 40, recovering from his addiction, finding purpose and becoming an ultra endurance athlete. We talked about his early life, recovery, resurgence, role of spirituality in his life, what a typical week of diet and exercise looks like, why he champions plant based nutrition, how to get started with making lifestyle changes, what makes people like Andrew Huberman and Robin Arzon so successful and what it means to him to find so much success later in life.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus and now the founder and CEO of Anduril. We talked about Palmer's unique childhood, how he started Oculus and essentially made re-ignited the VR movement, sold to Meta, got fired, and then went on to start another challenging company called Anduril which focuses on building defense technology. We talked about Palmer's recent trip to Ukraine, the current state of the Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan and the threat of nuclear war. We also talked about John Carmack, Elon Musk, dealing with haters, working on hard problems and what drives incredibly productive people and his advice for founders.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Tanmay Bhat, arguably India's most famous comedian, YouTuber, scriptwriter, actor, performer, producer and startup investor. We talked about Tanmay's early start with Youtube (a decade ago!), getting into live streaming, what a 'plandid' is, breaking down the construction of a joke, how comedy varies for different cultures and audiences, getting marriage proposals (!), dealing with haters, what makes Dave Chapelle, Andrew Shulz and other comedians successful, and finally Tanmay's foray into health and wellness, and getting into crypto investing and building with Superteam.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Emad Mostaque, the founder and CEO of Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion AI (Artificial Intelligence). We covered everything from Emad's unique background, his religious beliefs as a Muslim, his son's autism diagnosis and how that shaped the building of Stable Diffusion, on LLMs (Large Language Models), how he thinks about AI ethics, how developing countries like India can leverage AI, and why he believes in open sourcing and democratizing access to AI technology. AI and it's role in everyday life, especially in art and creativity is all the rage right now, and there are many questions on the role of humans and the ethical questions that arise from leveraging Artificial Intelligence.

In this episode, Aarthi and Sriram talked to the one and only Gary Vee (Gary Vaynerchuck). Gary talked about his decade-long history with the hosts, what it takes to be a good online creator, the power of creating content that is contextualized, his advice to young people, his views on Logan Paul, on why Mr. Beast is incredibly successful, and how to be a good parent. Enjoy!

In Episode #105, we deconstruct Gokul Rajaram's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Gokul is an angel investor and Product and Business Helper at DoorDash. We cover crypto, international investing, and habits and routines. “I always believe the hierarchy of anyone, any individual should be health, then family, then work. Why not family before health? Because if you're not healthy, you become a burden to your family and you can't help them. So, your health is actually very, very important.” – Gokul Rajaram EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/angel-investor-gokul-rajaram-playbook-show-notes  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/angel-investor-gokul-rajaram-playbook-transcript  CHAPTERS In this episode, we deconstruct Gokul Rajaram peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover: (00:01:21) – The evolution of crypto (00:02:44) – Superpowers and struggles (00:06:08) – Inspirations and the importance of exercise (00:08:24) – Recommended books (00:10:19) – Tools and routines (00:12:26) – Defining success (00:14:32) – International investing ABOUT GOKUL RAJARAM Gokul Rajaram is a prolific angel investor in over 300 companies and counting, and an executive at DoorDash, which he joined after DoorDash acquired Caviar from Square in 2019. I was fortunate enough to get to work with Gokul at Square, and I am beyond thrilled to have him on the show today. In this episode, Gokul shares what he thinks his investing superpowers are, why he loved Marc Andreesen's interview on the Good Time Show, why he loves Andre Agassi's book, Open, and the advice he'd give his younger self if he could go back 20 years to the start of his career.

In our first ever 'solo' episode (as Sriram says - 'we don't have a guest, but we have...each other'), Aarthi and Sriram talk about how to successfully onboard a new employee - both from the employer's perspective and for the new employee. And also, how to handle that first 1:1 with your manager, and the different tactics for onboarding for small startups vs bigger companies. And finally, how to think about promotions at work.

Shamus Madan sits down with Aarthi Ramamurthy who is formerly a Product Manager at Microsoft, Netflix, the Co-Founder of multiple startups including True&Co, Lumoid (a try before you buy service for consumer electronics), the former Director of Product for Facebook, and more recently the Co-Host of the Good Time Show hosting guests like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andressen, The Chainsmokers, and many more.Learn how Aarthi has built up a network from ground 0 with the Good Time Show. Twitter of Host (Shamus Madan): @mbitpodcastTwitter of Guest (Aarthi Ramamurthy): @aarthir

In this episode, hosts Aarthi and Sriram interviewed THE internet celebrity couple, Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano and Polina Marinova. We covered everything from their life stories, how they met, their current work and building an online audience, thoughts on Andrew Tate, The Rock and others, and their lessons on parenting, building content together and finding happiness.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram interviewed Laura Deming. Laura Deming is a partner at and founder of The Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm focused on aging and life extension. At age 8, Deming became interested in the biology of aging, and at age 12 she joined the lab of Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco. Deming was accepted to MIT at age 14 and later dropped out to accept the Thiel Fellowship and start a venture capital firm. We covered topics on aging, longevity research, the philosophical implications of living 'forever', contrarian thinking, beauty of mathematics (and the number 28), homeschooling and why research funding is a popularity contest now.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Saagar Enjeti who is a journalist, political commentator and the Co-Host of Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar and The Realignment Podcast. We covered a wide range of topics from Trump and the White House, Joe Rogan, woke culture, US Presidents, Lex Fridman, bro culture and fitness, and why he believes in the American Dream.

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talked to one of our favorite economist, blogger, podcast host and author, Tyler Cowen. Tyler Cowen is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He also writes the economics blog Marginal Revolution and hosts the podcast Conversations with Tyler.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talk to our special guest Andrew Yang, American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and political candidate and is the co-chair of the Forward Party. We talked about his new party, his books, the 2020 US Presidential election, ranked choice voting, UBI and his thoughts on Trump, being a social media phenomenon and author.

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram chatted with A.R. Rahman, Oscar-winning music composer, singer, songwriter and recently movie director, fondly known as "The Mozart of Madras". This was a very unique interview - we covered a wide range of topics from his music to movies, working with world class directors, his family and kids, spirituality and the meaning of life, his creative process, technology and AI and the future of India. This was a really interesting episode and was a bucket list interview for Aarthi and Sriram, and we hope you enjoy it too!

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Cleo Abram, a top creator on YouTube and TikTok, on her journey from Vox to being a full-time creator, how to be good on camera, how she made the now iconic videos on F1, artificial wombs etc. and why she's optimistic about the future!

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talked to Balaji Srinivasan, who is a tech founder, former CTO of Coinbase, multi-disciplinarian thinker and the author of The Network State (thenetworkstate.com). We covered a wide variety of topics ranging from transhumanism, what it takes to build a new country, how Balaji predicted the first and second order effects of the pandemic, why he's bullish on Indians, future of crypto, his productivity tips, thoughts on Elon Musk and Andrew Huberman and a lot more. Enjoy!

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram talk to Andreas Kling who has a remarkable story from discovering his love for building things at a young age, his career at Apple, struggles with addiction, and the creation of Serenity OS -- which he is building from scratch, in public.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram interviewed the one and only NBA Champion Metta World Peace (fka Ron Artest). Metta is an amazing human being - warm, genuine, optimistic with a fantastic second career building a technology company and being a founder. We covered some great Kobe stories, lessons on winning the NBA championship, the brawl (IYKYK), cultivating a winning mindset and overcoming obstacles, on mental health and building a tech company.

In this episode of the Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram covered what it takes to build an NFT project, how to think about community and culture in web3, aligning incentives between creators and community and how crypto unlocks a new creator economy. Our special guests were Justin Blau, the founder and CEO of Royal, a web3 company revolutionizing the music industry, and Nass and Stephane, crypto builders and founders of Rebels, a new NFT project.

In this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram covered a timely yet tricky topic - politics in the workplace - with special guest, Marc Andreessen. We covered the history of politics at work, with companies like IBM, where we are currently, advice for founders and startups as they think about setting policies on "bringing your whole self to work" and more.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, Aarthi and Sriram cover the current economic conditions and what it means for technology startups and founders, as well as what it could mean for the future of Web3. We interviewed some of the best people in the business - Marc Andreessen and David George from a16z, former Microsoft exec and author Steven Sinofsky, veteran founder and investor Elad Gil, as well as Coinbase exec turned startup founder Dan Romero.

On this episode of the Good Time Show, we have our special guests - Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky - joining us. We covered memes and meme culture, Marc's latest set of tweets on The Current Thing, on not eating bugs/living in pods, and on the current economy and what it means for all of us.

On this episode of The Good Time Show, we interviewed Brian Armstrong, the founder and CEO of Coinbase, along with our usual guests, Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky. We covered the current crypto market, the economic downturn and what it means for web3, on building a mission driven organization and whether it was ok to bring politics to the workplace, and advice for founders building companies and fundraising in this current economic climate.

Sriram Krishnan is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, investing in crypto/web3. Prior to a16z, Sriram led product teams at consumer social platforms - Snap, Facebook, and Twitter.Together with his wife and cohost Aarthi, he broke the Internet during Covid, hosting the Good Time Show on Clubhouse. Where he brought on guests like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg, and Virgil Abloh.Learn more about Sriram and a16z Crypto:Sriram Krishnan Twitter: @sriramkSriram Krishnan Website: https://sriramk.comThe Good Time Show: https://www.thegoodtimeshow.cluba16z Crypto Website: https://a16zcrypto.coma16z Crypto Canon: https://a16z.com/2018/02/10/crypto-readings-resourcesa16z 2022 State of Crypto Report: https://a16zcrypto.com/state-of-crypto-report-a16z-2022/In this episode we discuss:Behind the scenes story of hosting Elon Musk on ClubhouseThe preparation and psychology of preparing live showsJohn le Carre - “In the first minute or so of the host talking to him, the host made le Carre feel like you're going to be okay - we're going to take care of you.”Favorite episode stories: Calvin Harris, Naomi OsakaWhy Sriram moved from investing in Consumer to Crypto at a1z6How to get onboarded into Web3How a16z Crypto team id structuredThe Web2 to Web3 migrationWhy social media is right for Web3Differences between Operator and InvestorDifferences between Angel and VCWhat Sriram looks for in foundersTell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

The Good Time Show with special guests Marc Andreessen and Steven Sinofsky. In this episode we cover the current macro economic landscape and uncertainty, advice for founders, we discuss Marc Andreessen's tweets on the 'current thing', web3 and crypto, memes and so much more.

What does the future of Twitter look like as it transitions to a private company? Sriram Krishnan joined us on the pod to explore that question. Sriram is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and host of "The Good Time Show.” With a focus on investing in crypto and web3, he brings a unique perspective to help us understand the shifting social media landscape. In this episode, we also cover the crashing stock market, Aku World's $33 million mistake, and receive valuable advice from our guest on raising capital. ►► Want more community? Learn more here: http://trwih.com THIS EPISODE Sriram Krishnan: https://twitter.com/sriramk Sahil Bloom: https://twitter.com/SahilBloom Greg Isenberg: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Production & Marketing Team: https://penname.co/ FIND US ON SOCIAL Twitter: https://twitter.com/_trwih Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_trwih TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@_trwih Web: https://trwih.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6aB0v6amo3a8hgTCjlTlvh Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-it-happens/id1593424985 SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

Our first podcast of 2022! Thanks to the magic of the Tubi channel we were able to view two Clive Baker films from the 90’s – The Night Breed and Lords of Illusions. Here are our thoughts Listen to the podcast … Continue reading →

Aarthi Ramamurthy is the head of International at Clubhouse. She co-hosts "The Good Time Show" and was recently signed with WME as a creator focused on telling optimistic stories about technology. In this conversation, we talk about building technology products, connecting shared experiences globally, and Aarthi's fascinating background to get to where she is today. ======================= Mode, UK Fintech app, allows you to buy, earn and grow Bitcoin, all in one app. Not only is it a secure app to buy & hold Bitcoin, Mode allows you to pay & receive up to 10% Bitcoin Cashback from its growing list of online partner brands.   Available on the App Store and Google Play. Download Mode at modeapp.com and set up your account to be in with the chance of winning ONE WHOLE Bitcoin. Offer ends Jan 31, 2022. Only available in the UK. ======================= Fundrise is largest direct-to-investor real estate investment platform out there, giving you the opportunity to achieve upside of an asset class previously reserved for institutions and high net worth individuals. That's right, Fundrise is making high-end private market real estate investing accessible to everyone via an easy-to-use, automated platform. See for yourself how over 190,000 investors have built a better portfolio with private real estate. It takes just a few minutes to get started with as little as $10. Go to Fundrise.com/Pomp today and, for a limited time, get $10 when you place your first investment. That's Fundrise.com/Pomp =======================

Live Recorded Set from VirtualDJ Radio ClubZone

Sriram Krishnan is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, investing in early-stage startups. He is also a social media product veteran who previously held leadership roles at Twitter, Snap, and Facebook. Along with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy, he hosts the "Good Time Show" on Clubhouse which covers interesting people in the world of technology, sports, and entertainment. He also publishes "The Observer Effect". In this episode we spoke with Sriram about the following: How he navigated being a rebel in a conformist culture What he learned working alongside Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey Why he believes creating content and building a personal brand online is an infinite game If you enjoyed today's conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We'd really appreciate it! Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com and follow us @acrossthelinespodcast to get the latest updates.

Sriram Krishnan is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He's also the popular host of the Good Time Show, a late-night Clubhouse event that has featured guests such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Calvin Harris and more. Before getting into venture capital, Sriram spent more than a decade across Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.  Sriram has had an incredible journey: he grew up in India, came to the States and worked with Silicon Valley's top 1%. In this conversation, we talk about what it's like to be around people like Jack Dorsey and Evan Spiegel, his content creator learnings, tips for anyone hoping to break into tech and more.  I'm a big fan of Sriram's content. You can find his YouTube channel here and subscribe to the GTS Clubhouse show here. If you liked  this episode, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter! A thank to our sponsors Universe and CashApp for making this podcast possible.   THE QUEST MEDIA | CONTENT MEETS SILICON VALLEY |

Indra didn't plan her career -- and that was a good thing [2:15]The personal tradeoffs of professional success [4:24]Deciding between a job at GE and PepsiCo [7:27]Rising up the ranks of PepsiCo [12:13]Transitioning PepsiCo to healthier foods... and doing well by doing good [16:34]Management hack: writing letters to parents [19:04] "Performance with Purpose" -- what is it and why does it matter? [22:15]Work-life balance requires tradeoffs [23:24]Meeting Steve Jobs and learning the power of design [31:02]The loneliness of leadership [33:15]This is an excerpt from the Good Time Show on  Clubhouse. To catch full live episodes of the show, follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse. 

The early days of Zimrides [2:08]Driving early virality [7:56]Competing with Uber [15:47]Why they took political stances [27:03]Managing through the pandemic [38:09]The future focus for Lyft -- autonomous vehicles and the end of car ownership [42:50]Follow the a16z Club to join conversations with tech founders, builders, and leaders live and in-full.

SPEAKERS:Aarthi Ramamurthy, international, ClubhouseDonnie Dinch, founder and CEO, BitskiGabby Dizon, cofounder, Yield Guild GamesJarrod Dicker, operating partner, TCGJesse Walden, founder, Variant FundJon Lai, principal, a16zPacky McCormick, founder, Not BoringSriram Krishnan, general partner, a16zTwobadour, founder, MetapurseJustin “3LAU” Blau, producer and musicianoriginally aired on Clubhouse  https://twitter.com/sriramk/status/1422987628958208007

In this week's episode of Reformed Millennials, Broc and Joel discuss investing in some of the most common millennial vices; things like — gambling or sports betting, ubering everywhere, and buying used cars. We start with comparing Penn National versus Draftkings... how Uber and Lyft paying drivers over $40/hr to meet resurging demand is affecting their businesses, and whether the seed stage Carvana of Canada can replicate their success with used-vehicle vending machines. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.If you aren’t in the Reformed Millennials Facebook Group join us for daily updates, discussions, and deep dives into the investable trends Millennials should be paying attention to.👉 For specific investment questions or advice contact Joel @ Gold Investment Management. 📈📊Market Update💵📉Happy Wednesday, y’all.That secret weapon is JC Parets at @Allstarcharts (twitter)The S&P 500 and Dow Jones both closed at all-time highs yesterday, $4,436 and $35,264.Energy was the strongest sector, followed by materials and financials. 💪The United States Senate approved a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. The package, which contains $550 billion for roads, broadband, and utilities, has bipartisan backing.There were some high-flying moves made after hours. Check out Coinbase, Fubo, and Upstart’s earnings below. Following the major boom in crypto, many long-duration risky assets are following along. The cup spillith over. 🚀 🚀However, the messy market for everything but Google and MRNA continues. Sure, a few stock indexes in the United States have made new highs, but how many stocks in those indexes are doing that? VERY FEW.Divergences persist….This environment continues to remind me of a lot of the “Year 2” of market cycles that we’ve seen before. Take the initial thrust off the 2009 lows for example. Notice the sideways chop in Year 2 of that cycle:How about 2004 after that initial thrust in 2003?This first leg higher was sparked after the ultimate low following the tech bubble popping. Look at Year 2. Chop Chop Chop….We’ve seen it many times before. 1982… 1976…it’s hard to argue that the past year(2020) wasn’t a classic year 1 of a bull cycle. And it certainly reminds me of 2009.To me, it’s right in front of us, right in plain sight.CHOP CHOP CHOP… 🌊 Canadian Companies Mentioned 🇨🇦Zapper.fi - (Montreal) - Track all your DeFi portfolio from one place. Invest into the latest opportunities in open finance.Curbie - (Saskatoon) - The better way to buy a car. Buy online | Delivered to your door | 7-Day Test-Own💸Reformed Millennials - Post of The WeekWe’ve had a few friends of the show ask us about the PENN acquisition of Canada's Score app. Below is a bunch of thoughts and opinions from across the web on the acquisition. This move from PENN has changed my opinion on the stock. And when the CEO buys back in, so will I.I'll be watching the insider buying.Overall I think this locks in the gambling experience for PENN which they didn't quite have before.SO, PENN has acquired Score Media for $2B. This is in addition to Barstool Sports last January.What makes a great gambling experience is the community and culture of the host (think Vegas).No company has done a better job of building a cult-like culture than Dave Portnose.But is a satire sports site the best way to get someone to download an app to gamble? Probably not.Similar to cannabis - only 24 states allow sports betting today, with many of those still banning online betting. We're still in the middle innings of this category. Most Stoolies don't bet on sports, right now.SO WHY WOULD PENN BUY THEM?Barstool has started to create scripted and live shows around sports betting.They're introducing betting to the casual sports fan who knew nothing about betting, but in a way that's still funny and to the ethos of Dave and crew.As betting becomes legal, Stoolies will make their first bet with the Barstool Sportsbook.IMPORTANT NUMBERS:DraftKings' average Life Time Value of a customer is $2,500 with a Customer Acquisition Cost of $370. (think free $ to make a sign up or make your first bet)$PENN paid $136M for 36% of Barstool.Take away all the profit from merch/ads & Penn only needs 55K Stoolies to sign up to break even.WHAT ABOUT SCORE?There's a lot of passionate sports bettors out there today and most aren't Stoolies, so where do they go for their sports info?The score is the #1 app in Canada and #3 in the US for sports betting.It has 475K reviews averaging 4.8/5.It's where sports bettors live when on their phones.Now, with Penn's purchase, they'll give that audience the lowest barrier to go from information to action.It also gives Penn a huge advantage in the mobile space.Acquiring app downloads is a tough game and buying your way into an audience can work (see Facebook with Instagram).IF IN 5 YEARS SPORTS BETTING IS LEGAL ONLINE, PENN WILL HAVE THE NETWORK EFFECT TO RUN AWAY AS THE LEADER.They'll have the top of the funnel to introduce betting to casual sports via Barstool, the utility app for the habitual bettor, and the in-person Casinos.FWIW, $2B does seem steep.Doing quick math I think a fair price is closer to $1.3-1.5B, but there's a value in capturing an audience that your competitors can't in a fast-growing category.In a few years, I think we look back and see this as a steal.This acquisition changes my opinion on PENN from being a cult stock to something with legit tangible growth opportunity and competitive advantage.https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2021/08/05/penn-national-to-acquire-score-media-and-gaming-for-2-billion/?sh=1424ff463583Status Monkeys - From Packy McCormickfrom the link attached:Over the past few weeks, the Metaverse has gone mainstream. Matthew Ball published his 9-part series. Satya Nadella talked about the enterprise Metaverse (sounds fun!). Zuck and Co have said “metaverse” a million times over the past couple weeks. Ben Thompson wrote a piece on the Metaverse.NFTs will clearly play a role in the Metaverse. When everything is digital, proving that you own something and being able to bring it with you across the internet will be key. But this isn’t a Metaverse piece. It’s a social network piece.At one point in the Good Time Show conversation, Jarrod Dicker brought up the importance of community and status in web3 and it triggered a high kid thought: NFTs tick a lot of the boxes of a successful social network from Eugene Wei’s Status-as-a-Service.Before the full Metaverse arrives, there’s already something happening that’s bigger than jpegs. NFTs are starting to feel a lot like a new kind of social network that sits above other social networks and communities -- something of a Superverse -- and there’s no better framework to evaluate a social network than the one Wei put forth in Status-as-a-Service (StaaS).Status-as-a-Service(If you’ve read and internalized Status-as-a-Service, you can skip this section.)Eugene Wei, a former product leader at Amazon, Hulu, Flipboard, and Oculus, is one of the best tech essayists on the internet. Practically everything he writes becomes canon, and Status-as-a-Service, which he wrote in February 2019, might be his greatest contribution.The piece makes Not Boring seem short. It comes in at a whopping 19,825 words. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend that you do so, but for now, I’ll summarize a few of the main points that are relevant to this piece.Wei begins with two principles:People are status-seeking monkeysPeople seek out the most efficient path to maximizing social capitalEven though those are uncontroversial statements, Wei argues that we don’t analyze social networks through the dimension of status or social capital. Money is easier -- there are numbers, and what gets measured gets analyzed -- but, he says (emphasis mine):Social capital is, in many ways, a leading indicator of financial capital, and so its nature bears greater scrutiny. Not only is it good investment or business practice, but analyzing social capital dynamics can help to explain all sorts of online behavior that would otherwise seem irrational.Less than 1,000 words into his piece and two full years before NFT mania, Wei unknowingly laid the groundwork for analyzing what’s happening. NFTs blur the lines between social and financial capital, and as the media has been quick to point out, buying jpegs for thousands or millions of dollars seems irrational.The mistake that those who dismiss NFTs make is the same that Wei argued people were making in analyzing social networks: missing the importance of social capital. Traditionally, people have used Metcalfe’s Law to explain the network effects powering social networks: “The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n^2).” The more users a social network has, according to Metcalfe’s Law, the more valuable it is to every new user.The problem was, Metcalfe’s Law didn’t perfectly explain what was happening in the real world. Metcalfe’s Law alone would predict that whichever network got big first would continue to build up an increasingly insurmountable lead by being the most valuable to each new user. But Facebook took down MySpace, and Instagram and Snapchat stole younger users’ attention from Facebook. People’s preferences aren’t captured so cleanly.🎙️Links Mentioned in the Episode 🎙️ Carvana - Ernie Garcia Disrupting the Auto Buying Experience (Podcast)Blowback Season 2 - Cuba (Podcast) Reality has a surprising amount of detail. (Essay)Making of the Southpark pandemic special. (Youtube Video)Toronto housing market cools off (Tweet)Uber surge pricing example (Tweet)🌊 Best Links of The Week🔮New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned today. Here’s the WSJ with the deets. 1 Trillion dollar US Infrastructure Bill passes with bipartisan support!Five Things You Didn’t Know Were in the Infrastructure BillSEC v. DeFi - the fight over crypto regulation is going to be about decentralized-finance (DeFi) lending protocols.Dark kitchens are interesting - if you only do delivery, then you don't need premium retail space, don't need to shape the kitchen around sittings at 7 and 9pm, and can serve multiple menus and brands from the same place.The Age of Constant Growth is over. What comes next? Get on the email list at www.reformedmillennials.com

This podcast is an excerpt. Follow the a16z Club to join conversations with tech founders, builders, and leaders live and in-full.Early days of a16z crypto [2:38]New crypto governance capabilities [16:34]How is the VC model different when investing in crypto? [22:24]Crypto regulation and the recent attempt at holiday rulemaking [29:49]Is anyone effectively regulating crypto? [34:15]How do you start working in crypto? [36:58]What problems should crypto founders work on? [43:51]Identity, crypto, and the future of social networks [45:15]Centralized vs. decentralized: the battle for the internet [48:17]

This podcast is an excerpt. Follow the a16z Club to join conversations with tech founders, builders, and leaders live and in-full.In this episode: The abandoned M&A with Visa [3:47]Communicating to employees around the M&A [8:29]Plaid's near death experiences in the early days [12:41]The fintech trends that made Plaid possible [17:29]What is a bank now? [26:54]Fintech and new revenue models [29:20]Plaid's role in the creator economy [35:21]What is a neobank? [37:30] 

Decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, are one of the hottest topics in crypto and tech right now. But what exactly are they? Why do they matter? And what new modes of governance, ownership, and creation do they make possible?

More beautiful new music this week! There are songs about trying to get over a lost love with the passing of time, looking to the future for hope, making a... LEARN MORE The post A good time – Show #198 (part 1), 9 May 2021 appeared first on Miss Chatelaine.

So Elon announced he's going to do a Clubhouse conversation with Kanye on The Good Time Show. Find out what all of that means and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices