Village Global Podcast

Latest Episodes:

“What’s Not Being Said” with Zack Kanter Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

Zack Kanter (@zackkanter), founder and CEO of Stedi.com, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- How Zack thinks about Twitter, why from outside it seems absurd, and why he calls it a “text-based role-playing game.”
- How he navigated the idea maze in starting Stedi and the key insight he had that led him to start the company.
- How the legibility problem from the book Seeing Like a State has changed how he approaches company-building.
- Why he says that “code is not an asset, code is a liability” and how AWS Lambda has changed how he built Stedi —and how all of this is related to legibility.
- Why they don’t do performance reviews and what it means to have an “event-driven” culture.
- His perspective on bootstrapping versus taking VC, why he says that founding companies requires domain expertise now, and why he built the company in Boulder.
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

What Nadia Eghbal Thinks About Basically Everything Jan 18, 2020

Show notes

Nadia Eghbal (@nayafia) of Substack joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- How the internet changes how we find meaning and why new religions haven’t emerged from the internet yet.
- The future of newspapers and publishing, and what happens if people can go direct to the reporters they trust via tools like Substack and others.
- Her interest in the economics of content creators on the internet.
- Shamelessness as a strategy.
- Status on the internet and whether it’s really zero sum.
- Global cooperation and local versus global impacts.
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

The Next Era of Consumer Social with Sarah Tavel and Ben Rubin Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

Sarah Tavel (@sarahtavel), partner at Benchmark, and Ben Rubin (@benrbn), founder of Houseparty and Meerkat, join Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- Where the white space is in social and the possibilities for vertical-specific social networks.
- Why Facebook looks to young people today the way Yahoo! looked to Sarah’s generation.
- What participatory social looks like and how to solve the problem of presence.
- Their ideas for new social networks.
- What Twitter could have been.
- How social interacts with gaming, audio, dating, and other spaces.
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Brett Berson and Phin Barnes on Lessons Learned From Over a Decade at First Round Capital Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

Phin Barnes (@phineasb) and Brett Berson (@brettberson), partners at First Round Capital, join Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- Why when First Round was started VC was mainly an “anti-network business.”
- How the needs of founders and companies have evolved since First Round was started.
- The four phases of a company and when to think about raising funds.
- How to think about price as an investor.
- What, in their opinion, are the predictors of founder success.
- Some of the projects and initiatives they’ve worked on at First Round.
- How they get up to speed quickly on different spaces.
- The future of the firm.
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Hiten Shah on Building an Enterprise Startup Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

Hiten Shah (@hnshah), Co-Founder of FYI, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- Frameworks for picking startup ideas
- Navigating the Idea Maze
- How has the enterprise market changed in the past decade
- Investment outlook for “future of work”
- How has growth hacking and go-to-market evolved over the past decade
- How to select your customers
- Deciding on pricing
- When do you start charging
- How to think about retention
- Can Linkedin be disrupted
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Justin Mares on CPG, Health & Wellness, and Finding Non-Traditional Talent Jan 10, 2020

Show notes

Justin Mares (@jwmares), founder of Kettle & Fire and Perfect Keto, joins Erik on this episode.
They discuss:
- The state of CPG, the history of the market, and the problems with the incentive structure today.
- What has led to the decline in the health of the average American and where Silicon Valley goes wrong with its approach to food.
- Where he would be investing if he was running a fund focused on health and wellness.
- How to find non-traditional talent.
- Why he is short San Francisco.
- And much more.
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Grace Chen is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Santiago Suarez on Building a Great Lending Business Jan 07, 2020

Show notes

Santiago Suarez (@SantiaSua) of Addi joins Erik on this episode. They Discuss:
- Is lending a cyclical business
- Lending as a form of customer acquisition
- What can fintech lending companies learn from Affirm and Square
- How lending in LatAm differs from North America
- How to develop competitive advantages as a lending business in LatAm
- Lessons to learn from scaling very fast
- How to hire early employees
- How to decide your company’s culture
- How can lending startups compete with banks
- How should lending startups think about balance sheet risk
- How has the lending ecosystem changed in the past decade
- Thoughts on Clearanc
- Common mistakes of finch startups
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg.

Mike Maples on Building Successful Startups and Venture Funds Jan 06, 2020

Show notes

Erik is joined on this episode by Mike Maples (@m2jr) of Floodgate. They Discuss:
- Have all of the low hanging fruit of startup ideas been picked
- How do the best founders approach entrepreneurship
- Mike’s thoughts on the various conventional wisdoms of building startups
- The power of “change events” for startup creation
- How important is market timing
- How important is it for your idea to be non-consensus
- What makes a great founding team
- Can you predict product market fit
- Why do co-founder breakups happen and how do you prevent them
- How do you know when you have an insight that’s worth pursuing
- Thoughts on the Operator Angel movement
- What does VC look like a decade from now
- The relationship between VCs and their LPs
- Investing in non-tech businesses
- Can crypto disrupt the VC model
- Mental models for what makes a successful investor
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg.

James Currier on Network Effects, Education, and Evaluating Startup Ideas Jan 04, 2020

Show notes

James Currier (@JamesCurrier) of NFX join Erik on this episode. They Discuss:
- Why hasn’t Linkedin been disrupted yet
- What does crypto do for generating network effects
- Where are today’s opportunities in consumer social
- Market networks and how they’ve evolved over time
- What’s wrong with education and can homeschooling be a solution
- Commoditization of higher education
- How to evaluate startup ideas
- How will venture evolve over the next decade
- What should founders better appreciate about the psychology of VCs
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg.

Neal Hansch and Liz Keen on Corporate Innovation Jan 03, 2020

Show notes

Neal Hansch (@nhansch) and Liz Keen (@Liz_Keen) of Silicon Foundry join Erik on this episode. They Discuss:
- How Silicon Foundry is building bridges between communities
- How corporations have interfaced with Silicon Valley over time
- The purpose and rise of Corporate Venture Capital
- How have accelerators evolved and what opportunities have they created for corporations
- The role venture studios play in corporate innovation
- When should startup founders start talking to Corp Dev teams
- What are the most common mistakes of corporations dealing with startups and vice versa
- What does great corporate innovation look like from an organizational perspective
- The role of Economic Development Corporations
- Corporate VCs betting against their core business
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.
Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Village Global Podcast

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6