Village Global Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Sahil Lavingia on the Creator Economy, Venture Capital, and Rethinking Success Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

Sahil Lavingia (@shl), founder and CEO of Gumroad, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- The story of starting Gumroad, raising money, and getting featured in the media.
- Going from a twenty person company to a five person company to a single-person company.
- The advice he would give to a younger version of himself if he was starting over again.
- The creator economy and which types of content do well.
- How to think about raising capital.
- Time as a status symbol, the merits of cities, and what it means to “play poker with an open hand.”
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Gaming, Crypto, and Advice For Founders with Gigi Levy-Weiss Mar 29, 2020

Show notes

Gigi Levy-Weiss (@gigilevy) of NFX joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- The history and evolution of gaming and why he’s excited about the space.
- His requests for startups in gaming and what gaming will look like in ten years.
- His thoughts on e-sports and why he’s excited about VR.
- Crypto, blockchain, and how those technologies interface with gaming.
- Why biotech will be transformative and how data and machine learning are enabling new discoveries.
- Common fundraising mistakes that founders make.
- What people misunderstand about product-market fit.
- Startup leadership and what makes a great leader and culture.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

All Things Recruiting with Andy Chen and Jose Guardado Mar 26, 2020

Show notes

Andy Chen (@andychen), partner at Coatue, and Jose Guardado (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseguardado/), founder of a new company, join Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- How hiring has evolved over the last decade.
- Why startups are focusing on recruiting earlier, and hiring people dedicated to the task as some of their earliest employees.
- How to find a co-founder who will work well with you, and how to deal with disagreements between co-founders.
- The most common mistakes made when hiring.
- How to figure out how equity should be distributed between founders and early hires.
- How to source the best candidates at early-stage companies.
- Their best advice for doing reference checks.
- Startups in the talent and recruiting space and potential opportunities for founders.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Ayn Rand, Progress, and Silicon Valley with Jason Crawford and Yaron Brook Mar 24, 2020

Show notes

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in January 2020 at Ayn Rand Con. Erik interviewed Jason Crawford and Yaron Brook.
Jason (@jasoncrawford) writes about the history of technology and industry at Roots of Progress.
Yaron (@yaronbrook) is host of The Yaron Brook Show.
They discuss:
- What can destroy — or save — Silicon Valley.
- What Rand would say about Silicon Valley if she could see it today.
- How to reconcile egalitarianism and meritocracy.
- How to make her ideas more mainstream.
- Objectivism, libertarianism, and individualism.
- Progress as a human achievement and how to appreciate it.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

The Angel-Operator Fund Trend, Building Prosumer Software, and Finding Product-Market Fit with Rahul Vohra and Todd Goldberg Mar 22, 2020

Show notes

Rahul Vohra (@rahulvohra), founder and CEO of Superhuman, and Todd Goldberg (@toddg777), angel investor, join Erik on this episode. They’ve raised a $7M angel fund together called the Todd and Rahul Angel Fund.
They discuss:
- The nano fund trend, first-time fund operators, and their thinking on fund size.
- How they thought about their next ideas when getting ready to start their companies.
- The spaces they’re most excited about.
- What it means to build “prosumer software” and what Rahul learned from building Superhuman.
- The common mistakes founders make when thinking about product-market fit.
- How to think about raising — and spending — money.
- How to create product experiences that result in flow.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Nick Mehta on The State of SaaS and Customer Success in 2020 Mar 20, 2020

Show notes

Nick Mehta (@nrmehta), CEO at Gainsight, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- SaaS sub-sectors that Nick is excited about
- Is Customer Success a skillset, function, a software stack?
- What are the most common misconceptions about customer success?
- When should a startup start thinking about the customer success function?
- How do you scale the customer success function?
- What’s the profile of a successful customer success manager?
- How has customer success evolved over the past decade and where is it going?
- Nick’s thoughts on the sales enablement space
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Digital Health and Marketplaces with Angela Tran Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

Angela Tran (@angelatytran), GP at Version One, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- How digital health is helping to empower consumers.
- The unbundling of healthcare.
- Her requests for startups in healthcare.
- The questions she asks when evaluating marketplace companies.
- Why she looks for marketplace companies that are creating new behaviours for consumers, rather than just unbundling them from their previous providers.
- Her thoughts on fitness, consumer social, and the Toronto Raptors.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

#OpenLP: Platforms, Common Stock, and Disrupting Venture with Alex Bangash Mar 15, 2020

Show notes

Alex Bangash (@alexbangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- Why and how he wants to disrupt venture.
- How VC is changing and why later stage investing is becoming more private equity-like.
- Why he says common stock is the biggest driver of disruption in the industry now, and why it’s also the most misunderstood.
- The myth of being a great picker in venture.
- If and where data can provide an unfair advantage.
- Why he likes the platform model.
- What he thinks of the nano fund model.
- Trends on the LP side of things, including investing directly in companies.
- How crypto and crowdfunding might disrupt venture in the future.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Building a Venture Firm, Investing Across Stages, and The Future of VC with Amit Mukherjee and Kyle Doherty Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

Amit Mukherjee (@AmitMukherjee) of NEA and Kyle Doherty (@kydoh) of General Catalyst join Erik on this episode:
They discuss:
- How data is being used in private market investing, how it differs from the approaches used in public markets, and how it will evolve in the future.
- Crossover investing between public and private-oriented firms and why public investors are moving to earlier stages.
- The advantages and disadvantages of going public and whether in the future there will be companies that never go public.
- The importance of founder vs. team vs. market at the early stages versus the later stages.
- Whether VC firms will expand into other specialized practices like real estate, crypto, biotech, and others.
- Their predictions for how VC firms will evolve in the next ten years.
- Their lessons from investing in food companies.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Delian Asparouhov’s Lessons From Keith Rabois Mar 10, 2020

Show notes

Delian Asparouhov (@zebulgar), principal at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- Delian’s essays on what he’s learned from working with Keith Rabois at Founders Fund, and why he says “osmosis is the best way to learn.”
- How they evaluate talent in general, and specifically founders.
- Why he says that the more technical the company, the better the founder has to be at fundraising and storytelling.
- Why they are more excited about lending these days.
- Companies that help you improve your sleep with personalized solutions.
- What the “business equation” means for a company and Keith’s rules of thumb for figuring out whether it’s viable or not.
- What to look for when interviewing executives, and the difference between value-creating and value-protecting positions.
Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.
Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

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