LA Venture Scott Nolan - Founders Fund
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Feb 7, 2024 
Scott Nolan, Partner at Founders Fund and one of the first hires at SpaceX, discusses the unique investing approach of Founders Fund and their focus on backing companies with a real mission and vision. The podcast also explores the early investment in SpaceX by Founders Fund, the importance of hard engineering and solving big problems, high expectations and culture within companies, expanding horizons at Founders Fund, and the potential of containerized nuclear energy as a cheaper, cleaner, and safer source of energy.
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Network-Based Deal Sourcing
- Founders Fund finds founders mostly through trusted networks, not networking events or demo days.
- They value authenticity and long-term relationships over random pitches for sourcing deals.
Embrace Rigorous Founder Scrutiny
- Critique companies thoroughly before investing to surface hidden flaws for founders' benefit.
- Great founders welcome deep scrutiny and reveal their answers and next challenges openly.
Critical Early SpaceX Investment
- Founders Fund invested in SpaceX in August 2008 after three failed launches, the first outside investor.
- They believed each launch showed progress and the fourth launch succeeded, validating their contrarian bet.