Village Global Podcast

Keith Rabois (@rabois), partner at Founders Fund, joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- Why he decided to move to Miami and why it’s made him 30-40% happier.- The benefits of clustering when you’re at the earliest stages of building a company, and why remote works better for a later-stage company.- Why he suggests you don’t visit a place you’re considering moving to for just a weekend and instead you go for a full Monday to Friday cycle.- What he’s learned from people organizing digitally to make change in the physical world.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Ash Fontana (@ashfontana), author of The AI-First Company and partner at Zetta Venture Partners, joined Erik for a fireside chat for Villagers in May 2021. They discussed:- Why AI creates defensibility and a true, compounding, first-mover advantage.- Why AI should be part of all conversations at your startup: about products to build, people to hire, what price to charge — it should all involve AI.- The difference between Lean Startup and Lean AI.- Common mistakes that early AI companies make, like spending too much on marketing and not enough on sales.- The impacts of AI on hiring and the differences between a data PM and an ordinary PM.- What you can do tomorrow to get started building an AI-first company.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

James Currier (@JamesCurrier), partner at NFX, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck Angels event. They discuss:- Why founders are more authentic at the accelerator stage than at the seed stage.- Why San Francisco will remain the centre of tech in the future, just as New York and LA have remained the centre of banking and movie-making, respectively.- James’s thesis that founders in consumer social need to be a really special type of person — someone great at the analytical side of things as well as at language and psychology.- Why there will always be plenty more marketplaces to be created, but why he’s skeptical about B2B marketplaces and fitness marketplaces.- How they think about investments and make decisions at NFX.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

John Katzman (@johnkatzman), CEO of Noodle, joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- John’s theory that tech has had less of an impact on education than people thought it would because it’s been grafted on rather than causing a rethinking of how education is delivered.- Why the “fundamentalist capitalists” were wrong about markets solving the problems with education.- His thoughts on income share agreements.- Why any degree should always involve active learning throughout a person’s life.- The fact that he thinks post-COVID no less than 50% of the grad school experience will remain online and will progress towards being completely virtual.- His requests for innovation in the 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 www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Pete Flint (@peteflint), partner at NFX, joins Erik on this episode. It was recorded as part of an On Deck Angels event. They discuss:- Pete’s journey from Trulia to investor.- Why over time he became less focused on the idea and strategy of a team and more on the team itself and its ability to execute.- Why it’s a mistake to have a portfolio of growth channels, and why instead a company should be world-class at one channel.- His information diet.- The two phases of PropTech and the problems worth solving today.- Why when it comes to content, frequency beats quality.- The new wave of marketplaces and why creating a UX that’s 5-10X is a great way to attract supply.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Delian Asparouhov (@zebulgar) of Varda and Founders Fund, and Chris Power (@2112Power), founder and CEO of Hadrian, join Erik on this episode to discuss:- What they're working on and how they're bringing tech to industrial manufacturing.- How Chris navigated the idea maze with Hadrian, a company with aims to build space and defense components 2X faster.- The three types of space companies: satellite operators, launch operators, and supply chain companies. - Where they would be investing in space today.- Their requests for startups, including a "Dell for satellites."- The challenges of low-frequency iteration cycles.- The aim to create software that provides "an API for the supply chain."- Why it's important to build full-stack solutions in low NPS industries.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Mercedes Bent (@mercebent), partner at Lightspeed, joins Erik and co-host Anne Dwane to discuss:- What Mercedes and the EdTech space in general learned from General Assembly, a company ahead of its time.- Her market map of EdTech and why she says it should perhaps be called LearnTech rather than EdTech.- The future of community and social-driven learning, including why peer-to-peer learning is so effective.- Her thoughts on corporations as credentializers and why she hasn’t been optimistic in the past about credentialling moving away from universities.- Mercedes, Anne, and Erik’s requests for startups in the space, including a TikTok-like community for career development, a ubiquitous child care company, and a talent marketplace that builds its own supply.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) co-founder of Tiny, was interviewed by Andrew Barry of On Deck at a special event. They discussed:- His start as a designer and how great product and design became the common thread that runs through the businesses he tries to buy.- How to think about building a moat around you when you’re an individual versus a brand.- What he means when he says he “tries to buy businesses that are like New Zealand — in the middle of nowhere, quietly successful, and away from nuclear war.”- How he analyzes businesses and the diligence that he does on them.- How to think about customer acquisition when you don’t have a big budget.- His advice for first-time founders.- Why he’s excited about the podcasting 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 www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Richard Vedder, author of Restoring The Promise: Higher Education in America, joins Erik to discuss:- The origins of the myth that higher education is the key to career success.- The unintended consequences of student loans, including the fact that colleges raised tuition dramatically in response to the increase in borrowing.- The key pieces of government regulation that impacted higher education and why the GI Bill led to an explosion in the number of universities.- Where he agrees and disagrees with Bryan Caplan and Peter Thiel.- The history and evolution of colleges in the US.- The fact that the earnings gap between college and non-college educated workers is not due to what a student has learned but rather that they have demonstrated the determination to get in to college in the first place.- Why colleges have been so resilient.- What he would do if he was starting a new university from scratch today.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Kelly Hook (@KellyHook), program director of the On Deck Customer Success program, joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- How she got into customer success.- How the field of customer success got its start, just 25 years ago.- Common misconceptions about the field.- Why you need to have empathy, a collaborative spirit, and data analysis skills to be successful.- What the On Deck Customer Success program will look like and who it is for.- How customer success professionals can grow in their careers and how the field is evolving.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup