The NFX Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Coming Soon: The Network Effects Masterclass [special audio edition] Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

At NFX, we've spent over 20 years studying the power of network effects. As founders, we’ve built them into companies worth $10B+. As investors, we teach our founders these playbooks. Now we’re putting everything we know into an 11-episode Network Effects Masterclass, made for early-stage startup founders and their teams. There will be a full video and transcript experience on NFX.com — but we’re also abridging each episode for a native audio experience here for our NFX podcast listeners. Few understand the hidden complexities of network effects - learn everything there is to know about building iconic companies from day one. Coming soon to The NFX Podcast.

NFXBio: Academia or Startup? A Decision Matrix for Future Scientist-Founders Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

NFX Bio is committed to backing Scientist-Founders who are inspired to change the world. But there are far fewer scientists-Founders today than there should be. Instead, scientists often follow the path that academia paves for them: from graduate school, to a PhD, to a postdoc, to another role in academia. In this episode, NFX General Partner and Head of NFX Bio, Omri Amirav-Drory, sat down with Stanford professor and Pumpkinseed Founder Jennifer Dionne and former Columbia professor and Founder of Eleven Therapeutics Yaniv Erlich to discuss forging your own path: starting your own company. Here’s how to think through leaving academia, how to know whether it’s time to spin out of your university, and the key takeaways from each of their scientist-turned-founder journeys. Read the full essay here - https://www.nfx.com/post/techbio-scientists-academia-or-startup

Crazy Until It’s Not: New Story Charity’s Bitcoin-Based Mortgages, NFTs, and 3D-Printed Homes Dec 14, 2021

Show notes

Some problems are so big, they feel crazy to even try to solve them. Global homelessness, for example. 1.6 billion people today are living without adequate housing*. This represents a massive, underserved market, and a type of problem often overlooked by tech Founders. Fortunately, Brett Hagler and his Co-Founders at New Story Charity are tackling it head-on, with an unlikely combination of 3D printed homes, Bitcoin-based mortgages, and fundraising via NFTs. Pete Flint has had the privilege of serving on New Story’s board since they graduated YCombinator in 2015 and have since witnessed their impressive, fearless growth. What looked at first like an intractable problem now seems like fertile ground for radical proptech-meets-Web3 innovation. Real estate is the story of our lives.

The Inside Story of Nextdoor with Sarah Friar Nov 18, 2021

Show notes

Nextdoor, the social media app for neighborhoods, which is actively used in 1 in 3 households in the U.S., was recently valued at $4.3B and listed on the NYSE last week (November 8, 2021) under the ticker symbol "KIND." Today’s episode is a glimpse into the thoughtful, humanist view of Sarah Friar, the CEO of Nextdoor, former CFO of Square, and board member of Slack. She cautions us not to disappear into the metaverse, and also encourages today’s and tomorrow’s Founders to cure gaps in the world — and do it with eyes wide open to consequences at scale. There’s more tension than there is harmony between “offline vs. online,” and yet one company is uniquely positioned to bridge the two for the benefit of us all.

Building Confidence Networks In Latin America Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

NFX has been increasingly active in LatAm over the last few years, largely drawn there by an incredibly talented pool of Founders in the region. To understand the unique challenges and opportunities of LatAm, James talked with Antonia Rojas, the youngest female partner at ALLVP and a rising star in the startup ecosystem there. They co-led the Nuvocargo Seed round together. Based in Mexico City, she has a “boots on the ground” view of Latin America that I love. Methods for building network effects there is not what one might think -- and as a result, go-to-market in Latin America demands building trust bridges and leveraging confidence networks. Understanding the psychology of LatAm consumers is a powerful unlock for new Founders entering the region.

Eynat Guez & Gigi Levy-Weiss on 7 Mental Shifts For Hiring Now Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

The Covid pandemic removed barriers to global hiring and remote team building. It exposed startups, by necessity, to all-new solutions for growing and bonding their teams. Most companies advanced through the pandemic by stages: first survival mode, then waiting it out -- and now they are ready to fundamentally shift their hiring strategies to reflect our new reality. It’s clear now that there are lasting shifts in the market, and that Founders and CEOs need to update their mental models for hiring. Our guest today, Eynat Guez, sees this recent change in strategy more clearly than most. She’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Papaya Global, a global people & payroll platform, now valued at $3.7 Billion. Eynat is also the first-ever female CEO of a unicorn company in Israel. Her insights on hiring are twofold. First, she builds from her own experience rapidly scaling her global team to unicorn status during the pandemic. Second, from working directly with Papaya’s clients to grow their teams. Today she shares with us her set of mental models for building a world-class team -- wherever it may be.

Community-First Company Building with Cuy Sheffield & Micah Johnson Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

The next evolution of companies will be created in public with early customers, partners, and supporters. They’ll be community-owned and operated, building upon the playbooks created by early NFT and play-to-earn projects. Because many of the web 3.0 advantages are hard to adopt as a large web 2.0 company, as a Founder you have to focus on the big ideas: ownership, collaboration, and community. In today's episode, NFX Partner Morgan Beller talks with Cuy Sheffield (head of crypto at Visa) and Micah Johnson (Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, and Aku and former professional baseball player) as they explore tactics for building community, no matter what industry you’re in. Listen to their conversation as they uncover why Founders can’t skip the community-building part anymore, as it’s essential to company building in today's ecosystem.

A Founder’s Exponential Toolset with Azeem Azhar & James Currier Sep 14, 2021

Show notes

Visionary Founders, instead of solving market failures or fixing problems that are clear, push market evolution. They commit to pushing society to the upward bend of the exponential technology curve. Today, our friend Azeem Azhar, former VC-backed Founder, creator of The Exponential View blog, and author of the new book The Exponential Age, gives Founders specific hooks and non-obvious ways of explaining how quickly something’s going to change — right before it does. For Founders, market needs are often a lagging indicator of technological progress. In many cases, like the iPhone, we didn’t even know that we needed a thing, until the thing made us want it. Read the full NFX Essay here - https://www.nfx.com/post/exponential-age/

NFXBio: Inside a Scientist-Founder’s Journey from Pre-Seed to Series D Sep 09, 2021

Show notes

Today, Mammoth Biosciences announced their series C and D at more than a $1B valuation. Mammoth is a startup story that Founders should be following because there is so much to learn from their path from the lab to unicorn status. At no other time in modern history has the need for science to lead our society toward a better future been more apparent and immense. We can meet this need by investing in the next generation of tech-bio companies like Mammoth. NFX led Mammoth’s Pre-Seed and Seed rounds, co-led the Series A, and has invested in every round including today’s Series D. We even helped them name the company. Mammoth is the poster child for the NFX strategy of using network effects to build bio platforms — this approach to building tech-bio businesses should allow them to get 10x the size of a normal bio company. It’s also a great example of how NFX Bio supports Scientist-Founders as they become great Founders and CEOs after they leave the lab. Listen in with Omri Drory, head of NFX Bio, and Partner James Currier as they take an inside look with Mammoth’s Co-Founder & CEO Trevor Martin at his journey from idea to unicorn — for the benefit of up-and-coming Scientist-Founders worldwide.

Choosing The Final Frontier: Launching a Rocket Company with Andy Lapsa of Stoke Space Aug 04, 2021

Show notes

"We have all the technical and economic ingredients needed to build a massive economy in space. We’re not focused on Mars or the Moon, we’re singularly focused on building a space economy that makes life better on Earth.” Today NFX Partner Morgan Beller is joined by Andy Lapsa, Co-Founder & CEO of Stoke Space Technologies, a company building reusable second-stage rockets to seamlessly Earth and orbit. Founded in 2019 and based in Renton, Washington they have been focused on the reusability aspect of rocketry to make space access more available and frequent in our future lives. Lapsa was a former employee and award-winning rocket engineer at Bezos's Blue Origin, while the rest of their team come from SpaceX and other leading aerospace companies. As a lead investor, Morgan uncovers how they originally met, Andy's full Founder journey, why space is such an important industry to apply talented engineers to, and his overall decision to enter one of the most complex sectors in the world of tech. Visit their website - https://www.stoke-space.com/

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