Adam Smith, every mention

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every year anyone Harry Stebbings 28Nick Frosst 2Mike Maples 2David Cahn 2Alain de Botton 2Tobi Lütke 1Spencer Kimball 1Ryan Petersen 1Rory O'Driscoll 1Davis Smith 1

Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where Adam Smith comes up

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Why Now is the Time for the App Layer | Why Startups Should be TokenMaxxing | Mike Mignano, USV · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jul 6, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 31:54 Harry Stebbings Um, and it's just like fundamentally to Adam Smith's invisible hand, kind of the market solves itself.

OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Open-Source | Token Maxing, AI Hangovers & The Coming ROI Reckoning · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jun 13, 2026 · 1 mention

Shopify CEO on How AI is a Scapegoat for Mass Layoffs & Trump Derangement Syndrome in Canada · 20VC with Harry Stebbings May 4, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 37:12 Tobi Lütke Um, in, I am a fan of Friedrich List, who is a Prussian, long before James Hunt and Niki Lauda's rivalry, it was, um, Adam Smith, Lasse Faire, and Friedrich List and the Prussian school of, um, uh, uh, like, uh, economics.

General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Sep 22, 2025 · 1 mention

Cohere Founder, Nick Frosst: How To Compete with OpenAI & Anthropic, and Sam Altman’s AI Disservice · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Sep 1, 2025 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 50:50 Harry Stebbings No, that, like, Adam Smith's invisible hand would suggest that it is just definitively less valuable that you went and got, like, more potatoes, which meant more chips for someone that didn't probably need more chips in a grill that was a…
  • ▶ 51:53 Nick Frosst After we detoured it to Adam Smith in the original head. 2 times in the scene

Why Apple Needs a Management Overhaul & Why Google is Catching Up with Hyperscalers · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jul 31, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 51:12 Harry Stebbings Market says that, you know, Adam Smith's invisible hand, and you're seeing that now with Zuck hiring with an unlimited budget, making B to B hiring, to Jason's point, the biggest problem in startups.

Scott Galloway on Billionaire Happiness, Money & Self-Worth | Why We Should Drink More & Not WFH · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jul 7, 2025 · 1 mention

OpenAI, SBF & Perplexity: What VCs Know That You Don’t · 20VC with Harry Stebbings May 15, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 7:06 Rory O'Driscoll You know, you look at some companies in the last two years, because they've just found, I mean, it's at some zoom out level, it's, you know, Adam Smith giving a signal to everyone.

Benchmark vs a16z: Why Stage Specific Firms Win · 20VC with Harry Stebbings May 8, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 43:37 Harry Stebbings To what he's done is it's not just like Adam Smith's invisible hand, which is one of the biggest shortages in labor markets today.

Carvana CEO & Co-Founder, Ernest Garcia: Building a $50B Company, Losing 99% and Coming Back · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Apr 7, 2025 · 4 mentions

  • ▶ 47:24 Harry Stebbings I, I often think about Adam Smith and the Adam Smith's invisible hand theory and kind of markets kind of self-regulate and correct in a very natural and authentic way. 4 times in the scene

Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jan 13, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 1:04:55 Harry Stebbings I'm, I'm getting more and more intrigued by Chinese cars and Chinese car subsidies, and I just find, I'm, I'm a massive believer in Adam Smith's invisible hand.

Dan Gill, CPO @Carvana: The Most Wild Story in Public Markets | E1243 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jan 8, 2025 · 1 mention

Mike Maples: Three Frameworks to Evaluate Startups and Founders | E1242 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jan 6, 2025 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 1:12:20 Mike Maples So, what my dad helped me realize, so, you know, in, um, well, another Brit, uh, Adam Smith, uh, did you ever read The Wealth of Nations? 2 times in the scene

Alain De Botton: Why Status is Making You Miserable & Why Parents Want Their Kids to Fail · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Nov 18, 2024 · 2 mentions

Daniel Khachab: "We Are in the Middle of a Cold War for AI Talent" | E1220 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Oct 28, 2024 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 19:06 Harry Stebbings I'm a believer in Adam Smith's invisible hand, you know, where you have a shortage of 50 K, you see salary increases for the kindergarten providers, and suddenly that 50 K goes down to 10 K.

Alexis Ohanian: The Full P&L Breakdown of the World's Most Valuable Women's Sports Team | E1187 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Aug 7, 2024 · 1 mention

David Cahn: Why Servers, Steel and Power Are the Pillars Powering the Future of AI | E1186 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Aug 5, 2024 · 4 mentions

  • ▶ 45:10 Harry Stebbings Because I'm a believer in, you know, Adam Smith's invisible hand, um, and capital will flow to kind of the best opportunities. 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 46:09 David Cahn And so I think Adam Smith is just sort of deeply understood human psychology. 2 times in the scene

Nicolai Tangen: Managing the Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund in the World | E1122 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Mar 4, 2024 · 2 mentions

Davis Smith: From Selling $6M of Pool Tables to Scaling Cotopaxi to $150M in Revenues | E1095 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Dec 15, 2023 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 3:57 Davis Smith Like it was like the invisible hand that you read about in Adam Smith of supply and demand.

Ryan Petersen: Why Velocity not Speed is Most Important in Company Building | E1081 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Nov 13, 2023 · 1 mention

Hadi Partovi: How I Became an Advisor to Mark Zuckerberg; Lessons from Steve Ballmer | 20VC #961 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Dec 16, 2022 · 1 mention

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston: How to Pick a Co-Founder; Steve Jobs' Attempt to Buy Dropbox | 20VC #938 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Oct 18, 2022 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 1:37 Harry Stebbings Adam, before the show, and he told me that the YC story is the ultimate story of hustle, and that I had to discuss it. 2 times in the scene

20VC: Bill Gurley and Howard Marks: What Happened In 2020? What Can We Expect Looking Forward to 2021? Jan 4, 2021 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 28:40 Bill Gurley And, you know, we didn't make this up like Adam Smith did a long, long time ago.

20VC: Steve Blank on Why The Startup Ecosystem is Partially A Ponzi Scheme, 3 Things That Determine Startup Survival in a COVID World & Facebook: Platform vs Publisher and Where Does Their Responsibility Lie? Jul 20, 2020 · 1 mention

20VC: Why Founders Must Use VCs as a Barometer, How to Make Distributed Teams Work Successfully & The Biggest Mistake People Make Early In Their Career with Dylan Serota, Founder @ Terminal Aug 17, 2018 · 1 mention

20VC: Why Virtually All Companies Hire The Wrong Way, Why EdTech Is The Most Brutal Market & How To Scale Your Sales Team for Engineering Founders with Mike Sliagadze, Founder & CEO @ Top Hat Mar 16, 2018 · 1 mention

20VC: Michael Dearing on 5 Key Principles He Uses To Assess Startup Founders, Why Benevolent Dictatorship Is A Beautiful Thing & Why Markets Are Better Capital Allocators Than CEOs Oct 9, 2017 · 1 mention

20VC: How Investors Can Get Into The Best Deals & Why Founders First Point Of Contact Should Be With The Investment Decision-Maker with Spencer Kimball, Founder & CEO @ Cockroach Labs Apr 14, 2017 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 21:37 Spencer Kimball But, uh, you know, Edward Gibbon, the original author, was convinced actually by Adam Smith to write it in English as opposed to French, which was, uh, very perceptive.

20VC: Betaworks' John Borthwick on Why The VC Model Is So Inefficient, Why Venture Fund Cycles Are Too Short & Why Frontier Tech Could Only Have Been Disappointing Over The Last Year Mar 6, 2017 · 2 mentions

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