Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 5 · Cm 3 4.10
Q they have of you changes, I find, they, I always find they want something from you now. There's always a reason why they want the dinner, and, and it changes so many of your relationships. Have you found that, and how do you think about retaining purity of relationship when you know that a lot of people actually now want something from you? We're really going into the therapist advice.
A I mean, what I would say is, um, you, you know, you mentioned a few people at the start of the show, um, you know, Bob or Rich or others who've been, you know, Fialco like brothers for 20 years. I mean, I can't do anything for them. I can't give them anything. Um, you know, that they don't already have or have for themselves. My buddies from high school will be the first to call me up and call me out on something. Hey, I saw you on CNBC. You look like an idiot. Fix your hair, do this, do that. So I think it's about the choice of the people that you surround yourself with. I don't have a lot of people in life who I feel like are hangers on looking for something, perhaps because I just don't do that. Right. I don't have the. 400 foot yacht in San Tropez. So maybe I, you know, Like hanging out with me as eating a cheeseburger at Bucks and sitting in my backyard around a fire, and maybe the people who would be more inclined to hang out with, you know, uh, you know, hangers on aren't as intrigued by that. But maybe I'll leave you with this because I do think it's related to it, but not, not something you asked specifically. But a lot of my friends say, Brad, you know, you kind of are living your life at warp speed. Um, you know, you're trying to pack all this in, like, what's, what's this all about? Um, you know, and I mentioned I lost my dad when I was young. I lost my best friend …
AI assessment note: “I think it's about the choice of the people that you surround yourself with.”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.00
Q How do you know when you're wrong versus a blip? And how do you communicate that to the founders? It's something that I'm still very weak on.
A Can't necessarily use all the specific names, but I would say this, the reality is we made this pre-revenue investment in Snowflake. And I remember Mike called me maybe six months after we made the investment. And he said, Hey, we're not hitting the milestones we need to hit to get the next round of investing. Okay. But we need, so, so let's just put in a little bit more money, kind of an interim round. And, you know, because we'll get there and we talk through the reasons why, et cetera. And it was very clear to us that what was going on in the business, focused on recruiting, dealing with a bunch of customers, et cetera, had no outcome on the big bet. So that was a very easy decision. I mean, that, that conversation lasted a minute. Yes. We'll put more money in the business. You know, let's go. I would say, you know, we're an investor right now. Listen, there's been a massive dislocation in the world, and there's a bunch of really bad stuff that occurred last year, right? And a bunch of valuations that are totally not supportable. We have a software company, you know, where, where people, where they misplanned by 70%, right? An incredible group of investors around the table. But this particular group, right, the lack of truth telling About what's really going on, confronting the truth, right? I mean, I think that's so important, and having the courage. I'm not being a good fr…
AI assessment note: “I'm not being a good friend to the founder if I'm blowing smoke”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.00
Q Product, additional products provide additional revenue, more money. You have essentialism as a core strain of your mindset in life. You also have the, the childhood that you mentioned earlier. How do you think about all of these combining to your, your relationship to money today? Uh, what is your relationship to money stagey thing?
A Wow. This is, this is deep. Um, and I've done a lot of reflection on this. Um, If you would have told me I have, was going to have what I have, let's say when I was 20, and then you would have said, describe to me the house you're going to live in, the car you're going to drive, the life that you're going to live, I would have described to you a life totally different than the life I'm living, ok? From as early as I can remember, sixth grade, I was like, I have to make a million dollars by the time I'm 30. I mean, it was a dragon in my life because it destroyed our lives. Right. It, it was like when my dad went broke, destroyed his health, his marriage, like it was, you know, so when you grow up in that, like that is a real dragon. That's a beast you have to slay. Um, and you know, fortunately because Fiocco and Cutler gave me a shot, I, I, I was able with NLG to slay that beast right at 30. Right? And, um, shortly thereafter, Bajal Samaya and I, Bajal's now running Lightspeed, we, we co-founded, uh, my second company, or our second company together, called OpenList, and we sold that, you know, another little base hit, double, and, and I'll tell you, when I had a few million bucks, I was, like, good to go. Like, I had slayed the dragon, um, because I didn't come from a life of accoutrement. Remember, when I started Altimeter, I started with less than five million bucks. My, I c…
AI assessment note: “I slayed the dragon around money. My life and priorities totally shifted”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.00
Q they have of you changes, I find, they, I always find they want something from you now. There's always a reason why they want the dinner, and, and it changes so many of your relationships. Have you found that, and how do you think about retaining purity of relationship when you know that a lot of people actually now want something from you? We're really going into the therapist advice.
A I mean, what I would say is, um, you, you know, you mentioned a few people at the start of the show, um, you know, Bob or Rich or others who've been, you know, Fialco like brothers for 20 years. I mean, I can't do anything for them. I can't give them anything. Um, you know, that they don't already have or have for themselves. My buddies from high school will be the first to call me up and call me out on something. Hey, I saw you on CNBC. You look like an idiot. Fix your hair, do this, do that. So I think it's about the choice of the people that you surround yourself with. I don't have a lot of people in life who I feel like are hangers on looking for something, perhaps because I just don't do that. Right. I don't have the. 400 foot yacht in San Tropez. So maybe I, you know, Like hanging out with me as eating a cheeseburger at Bucks and sitting in my backyard around a fire, and maybe the people who would be more inclined to hang out with, you know, uh, you know, hangers on aren't as intrigued by that. But maybe I'll leave you with this because I do think it's related to it, but not, not something you asked specifically. But a lot of my friends say, Brad, you know, you kind of are living your life at warp speed. Um, you know, you're trying to pack all this in, like, what's, what's this all about? Um, you know, and I mentioned I lost my dad when I was young. I lost my best friend …
AI assessment note: “I think it's about the choice of the people that you surround yourself with.”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.00
Q Are SPACs done? How do you evaluate the next few years for SPACs?
A Um, listen, I don't think SPACs need to exist in the world. Um, they're a mechanism by which companies come public. Um, they have forced more innovation, innovation in the traditional bank IPO. They have forced more innovation in the direct list market. And what I really care about, what I'm trying to solve for is making sure that entrepreneurs and founders of iconic businesses have a fair and easy step into the public markets. It shouldn't be so Byzantine. And we want to be partners to them because remember, some of the greatest venture returns in the history of venture capital occurred in the public markets. Booking.com price line from one billion to a hundred billion. Go through the list. Those are venture returns in plain sight.
AI assessment note: “I don't think SPACs need to exist in the world.”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.85
Q So we have this, um, uh, medic who's scared of blood, uh, turned lawyer. Um, how does that lead to bossing the financial world and founding Altimeter, Brad?
A Yeah, I, I, I, I know. I never connected the dots. Well, I mean, so I'm in rural Indiana. I'm growing up. My dad's growing broke. So I start reading a bunch of biographies Um, to try to understand the world, really. Um, I come across Buffett Munger. This is probably, um, middle school, early high school. Um, now I'm, I'm, I don't want to give this impression that I didn't have fun. I mean, I was partying. I was playing sports. I was doing all these things, but I would show up at school early. Um, and I started, you know, on graph paper, like charting stocks. Because I was absolutely in, you know, enthralled with this idea that people who kind of looked like me, Buffett was in Omaha, right, and, and seemed to live a kind of normal life like the life I lived, I would really want to understand these markets and these things called stocks and, and, and how companies work, perhaps in a way to help explain to me why it didn't work for my dad. Um, and so I, you know, like fast forward Right. Go to law school because I said, uh, you know, I had to get that insurance policy. Um, I actually did a stint in politics, thought I was going to run for office. That's a whole nother vector of trying to live a life of purpose and have impact on the world. But I realized I was poor, went back to business school, um, in law school in 1995. Right. I had gathered all of my friends around this compute…
AI assessment note: “I would really want to understand these markets and these things called stocks”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.85
Q money. How do you think about your own ego and ego management? It's so easy, you know, you're top of the industry. Everyone will praise you. Everyone will tell you how brilliant you are. You have Saudi LPs wanting to give you a billion dollars. You think you're freaking great, naturally. It's a human response. How do you think about ego management, and how would you advise me on that?
A First, um, the number of people in life who surround themselves with sycophantic others, uh, who are their yes people. Right tell them what they want to hear afraid of speaking truth to them. Um, like, it's almost everybody at a certain level. Right, because you can afford to do that. You can fire the people who say mean things to you and. Or disagreeable things to you and you surround yourself with people who all agree with you. Um, listen, I, it starts with, I have three siblings and an 86 year old mother. And we have a culture in our family of speaking truth. So, you know, my sister, um, calls me fancy pants because I don't come back and visit her enough. Right. Um, you know, so there's a lot of, you know, siblings, dear friendships. Right. And, you know, you talk to, uh, some folks, you know, I, I, I know Lexi Reese, um, who's a dear friend. I mean, I get out of line on something or I, you know, I'm going to hear from Lexi. Right. Um, and she's going to remind me of my priorities. And so having friends in your life. Who remind you of those priorities, um, and then children. Right. My kids, the things that you think are important, your kids probably won't. And, you know, and I have kids now, um, I do, we do a service, a family service trip every year, uh, uh, with give power, an incredible organization that uses solar micro grids to light up schools and health clinics around…
AI assessment note: “having friends in your life. Who remind you of those priorities”
Redirected raw tape
D 3 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 3.70
Q Are SPACs done? How do you evaluate the next few years for SPACs?
A Um, listen, I don't think SPACs need to exist in the world. Um, they're a mechanism by which companies come public. Um, they have forced more innovation, innovation in the traditional bank IPO. They have forced more innovation in the direct list market. And what I really care about, what I'm trying to solve for is making sure that entrepreneurs and founders of iconic businesses have a fair and easy step into the public markets. It shouldn't be so Byzantine. And we want to be partners to them because remember, some of the greatest venture returns in the history of venture capital occurred in the public markets. Booking.com price line from one billion to a hundred billion. Go through the list. Those are venture returns in plain sight.
AI assessment note: “And what I really care about, what I'm trying to solve for is”
Redirected raw tape
D 2 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.55
Q Unbelievable. Uh, listen, I want to start with some context. So talk to me. We see Altimeters today, the incredible institution that you've built. But just in terms of some context, what was the founding aha for you with Altimeter, and how did that come to be in the first place?
A The question is, how far in the Wayback Machine do we want to go? Um, because I really think it, it, it, my, my thinking on this in terms of why I wanted to be an investor started in, in, in childhood. I mean, I grew up in Indiana. I was a poor kid. My, my dad was an engineer, um, kind of got forced into entrepreneurship. He worked, he was running a factory in Indiana, and, Um, an acquirer came along. He promised the men they wouldn't get laid off. Of course, the acquirer in 1978 lays everybody off. So my dad heroically tries to hire all these men and compete and, um, mortgages the house, ends up going, uh, bankrupt, never declares bankruptcy, um, refuses to, works his whole life to pay all that money back to the banks who had loaned him the money. And, you know, I, I was coming of age. I was, this was third grade. Through probably sixth or seventh grade. Um, and it was really, it was tragic. It was devastating in our family. You know, times were tough. Um, we had hostages in Iran. Um, we had double digit interest rates and inflation. And so that was my childhood, like seeing kind of us lose the house and, and this guy who was a real hero to me, seeing him struggle.
AI assessment note: “my thinking on this in terms of why I wanted to be an investor started”
Answered raw tape
D 3 · C 3 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.25
Q How do you know when you're wrong versus a blip? And how do you communicate that to the founders? It's something that I'm still very weak on.
A Can't necessarily use all the specific names, but I would say this, the reality is we made this pre-revenue investment in Snowflake. And I remember Mike called me maybe six months after we made the investment. And he said, Hey, we're not hitting the milestones we need to hit to get the next round of investing. Okay. But we need, so, so let's just put in a little bit more money, kind of an interim round. And, you know, because we'll get there and we talk through the reasons why, et cetera. And it was very clear to us that what was going on in the business, focused on recruiting, dealing with a bunch of customers, et cetera, had no outcome on the big bet. So that was a very easy decision. I mean, that, that conversation lasted a minute. Yes. We'll put more money in the business. You know, let's go. I would say, you know, we're an investor right now. Listen, there's been a massive dislocation in the world, and there's a bunch of really bad stuff that occurred last year, right? And a bunch of valuations that are totally not supportable. We have a software company, you know, where, where people, where they misplanned by 70%, right? An incredible group of investors around the table. But this particular group, right, the lack of truth telling About what's really going on, confronting the truth, right? I mean, I think that's so important, and having the courage. I'm not being a good fr…
AI assessment note: “had no outcome on the big bet. So that was a very easy decision.”
Redirected raw tape
D 2 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.25
Q Can I ask, what's been the biggest hiring mistakes you've made? I've made mistakes around logos. They worked at X firm before. They must be brilliant. In terms of hiring mistakes over the years, are there any that stand out to you?
A Well, rather than focus on individual people, what, what, what I'll talk about is structure. Um, there are a lot of ways to make money in this business. There are a lot of ways to lose money in this business. I think you have to be very clear about what is your North Star? What, who are you? What is your strategy? How do you differentiate and then build an organization that reflects that strategy, right? So for me, I want to be an analyst. I want to sit at the head of the table. I want to be chief thinker. Um, you know, I'm not some CEO who has MDs reporting to me, who have VPs reporting to them, who have associates, who have analysts reporting to them. That structure to me is hell. I would want nothing to do with that. I don't want to spend a day of my life working in that structure. We have an incredibly flat organization. We have, you know, 13 or 14 analysts. We all call ourselves analysts. Right? Where we study. That's what we do. We study, we think, we try to find things that are consistent with that thinking. Um, and so I would say that during the period of COVID, We, because we were all virtual, we had a little bit more layering because it was just harder organizationally, and that was a huge liability for us. I didn't like it, um, and we've since said everybody has to be back in the office, um, and we, you know, got rid of the layers because the layers don't work. At th…
AI assessment note: “rather than focus on individual people, what, what, what I'll talk about is structure.”
Redirected raw tape
D 2 · C 4 · P 3 · Cm 3 3.00
Q Can I ask, what's been the biggest hiring mistakes you've made? I've made mistakes around logos. They worked at X firm before. They must be brilliant. In terms of hiring mistakes over the years, are there any that stand out to you?
A Well, rather than focus on individual people, what, what, what I'll talk about is structure. Um, there are a lot of ways to make money in this business. There are a lot of ways to lose money in this business. I think you have to be very clear about what is your North Star? What, who are you? What is your strategy? How do you differentiate and then build an organization that reflects that strategy, right? So for me, I want to be an analyst. I want to sit at the head of the table. I want to be chief thinker. Um, you know, I'm not some CEO who has MDs reporting to me, who have VPs reporting to them, who have associates, who have analysts reporting to them. That structure to me is hell. I would want nothing to do with that. I don't want to spend a day of my life working in that structure. We have an incredibly flat organization. We have, you know, 13 or 14 analysts. We all call ourselves analysts. Right? Where we study. That's what we do. We study, we think, we try to find things that are consistent with that thinking. Um, and so I would say that during the period of COVID, We, because we were all virtual, we had a little bit more layering because it was just harder organizationally, and that was a huge liability for us. I didn't like it, um, and we've since said everybody has to be back in the office, um, and we, you know, got rid of the layers because the layers don't work. At th…
AI assessment note: “rather than focus on individual people, what, what, what I'll talk about is structure.”
Partly raw tape
D 2 · C 4 · P 2 · Cm 3 2.75
Q question to you is, I spoke to Sonali before the show, and she asked a brilliant question. She said, ask Brad, with that element of like, we all bluntly took on a more risk, uh, forward mind over the last 18 months, what are some of the biggest or most risky mistakes that you made over the last 18 months that you have learned from, that maybe you haven't shared?
A Yeah, I, I mean, listen, I think, you know, so our cultural North Star at Altimeter is essentialism, right? It's kind of an operating roadmap for me in life. You know, think what, what, what, what minimalism is to Johnny Ive, right? Essentialism is to life design and business design for us. So the art of doing less, better. And everybody in our firm would tell you that that's what our cultural North Star is. They'll tell you how we practice it, both in terms of how we schedule meetings, how we spend our days, um, the investments that we make. And so for a firm that prides itself on that, um, there's no doubt over the course of the last 24 months. Where we're all working remotely, where there's a lot of FOMO, where the cost of capital is really low, we did more than we should have, right? And I think most folks would raise their hand if they're being intellectually honest and say that that's the case. To me, the practice of essentialism is kind of like my practice of yoga that I've been doing for over 20 years, right? It is, it is not just a statement you put on the top of your whiteboard. Right. But it's something that you aspire to every single day, right? Is this a creative to who we are as humans? Is this a creative to who we are as a firm? Is this a creative to my intellectual understanding? And if it's not, we shouldn't be doing it.
AI assessment note: “we did more than we should have, right?”
Redirected raw tape
D 2 · C 4 · P 2 · Cm 2 2.60
Q question to you is, I spoke to Sonali before the show, and she asked a brilliant question. She said, ask Brad, with that element of like, we all bluntly took on a more risk, uh, forward mind over the last 18 months, what are some of the biggest or most risky mistakes that you made over the last 18 months that you have learned from, that maybe you haven't shared?
A Yeah, I, I mean, listen, I think, you know, so our cultural North Star at Altimeter is essentialism, right? It's kind of an operating roadmap for me in life. You know, think what, what, what, what minimalism is to Johnny Ive, right? Essentialism is to life design and business design for us. So the art of doing less, better. And everybody in our firm would tell you that that's what our cultural North Star is. They'll tell you how we practice it, both in terms of how we schedule meetings, how we spend our days, um, the investments that we make. And so for a firm that prides itself on that, um, there's no doubt over the course of the last 24 months. Where we're all working remotely, where there's a lot of FOMO, where the cost of capital is really low, we did more than we should have, right? And I think most folks would raise their hand if they're being intellectually honest and say that that's the case. To me, the practice of essentialism is kind of like my practice of yoga that I've been doing for over 20 years, right? It is, it is not just a statement you put on the top of your whiteboard. Right. But it's something that you aspire to every single day, right? Is this a creative to who we are as humans? Is this a creative to who we are as a firm? Is this a creative to my intellectual understanding? And if it's not, we shouldn't be doing it.
AI assessment note: “we did more than we should have, right? And I think most folks would raise their hand”
