The Exchanges

Q What would you say to people who say that you're exclusionary in the work culture and that parents couldn't do what you want?

A I mean, we have plenty of parents that work at Corgi, so, um, life's about trade-offs and sacrifices. Um, I think Corgi is a great place to work if you want a sense of community and comradery with the people you work with, if you want to have friends in the workplace, the social life attached to your, to your workplace, if you want your work to be additive to your life as opposed to separate. Um, and that applies whether you're married, whether you have kids, don't have kids. Some of our best people have, have, uh, you know, a lot of children. But if you, if you want to, you know, clock in and then just check out of, of, of work, then you, respectfully, there's infinite other jobs you can get, and that's okay. Um, you know, Corgi's not for everyone.

AI assessment note: “we have plenty of parents that work at Corgi”

Q And I was like, that seems eerily similar to Corgi's role. And I was like, maybe it is. Talk to me. You have 24 seven Corgi cafe. Why? You're an insurance company.

A Yeah. So, um, when we rented out our building in San Francisco, uh, we, we needed to get signage on the side of the building and it was zoned or something. So when we got, um, our primary floor, um, we were forced to take over the retail space and it was like this empty barbershop. It was like really dungy. Like, uh, you know, I'd been out of business for probably a couple of years. And, uh, so we, we moved in and, you know, everything was fine. And, um, you know, we have the sign on the side of the building. Great. Um, but I'd walk in every day, and I'd see this, like, empty barbershop, and it would just piss me off, because, like, I'm paying for that, but, like, there's nothing in it. Like, it's a waste of, you know, it's a waste of everything. Um, and, um, at the same time, a huge complaint I have with San Francisco is that everything closes really early. Like, it's, it's a, it's a big problem, especially in the financial district where offices, and there's a lot of really great startups that want to, like, push themselves hard, but you cannot find a cafe. You can't even find a place to eat past, like, you know, Six, seven PM most days. Like things just are, it's a ridiculous situation. Clearly, most restaurants don't have a growth mindset. And like the other issue that I think we wanted to address is that for people that are serious about technology, about building things, …

AI assessment note: “we were forced to take over the retail space and it was like this empty barbershop”

Q So I think changing one's mind is important. What have you changed your mind on in the last 12 months?

A There's a lot I've changed my mind on. Um, you, you know, I, I, I think I've, I've grown to value experience a lot more. Um, in, in, in the past, um, you know, I've, I've probably made certain statements around, uh, you know, boomers being slow and bad or, or, or, you know, like, I, I've, I've definitely, uh, you know, probably undervalued, um, people that have been doing something for a long time. Um, because a lot of times there's like these like little nuances or edge cases that, um, when you do something for a long time, you, you pick up and maybe you're not as fast or as efficient or as, as, you know, able to use the latest tools, but there's an extraordinary amount of knowledge that Uh, lives in, in, in kind of the older generations, especially the retiring ones. And I think it's a big problem, uh, in that there's, there's trillions of dollars to make getting that knowledge out and putting it inside of, um, inside of computers that can think and talk. Um, and, uh, you know, I, I, I don't think I viewed those problems in, in, in that lens. Uh, you know, I, I think I just considered, uh, you know, old people using fax machines moving at two miles per hour. Uh, to be like, you know, something uniformly bad, but now I see that there's value in their knowledge.

AI assessment note: “I think I've, I've grown to value experience a lot more.”

Q What would you say to people who say that you're exclusionary in the work culture and that parents couldn't do what you want?

A I mean, we have plenty of parents that work at Corgi, so, um, life's about trade-offs and sacrifices. Um, I think Corgi is a great place to work if you want a sense of community and comradery with the people you work with, if you want to have friends in the workplace, the social life attached to your, to your workplace, if you want your work to be additive to your life as opposed to separate. Um, and that applies whether you're married, whether you have kids, don't have kids. Some of our best people have, have, uh, you know, a lot of children. But if you, if you want to, you know, clock in and then just check out of, of, of work, then you, respectfully, there's infinite other jobs you can get, and that's okay. Um, you know, Corgi's not for everyone.

AI assessment note: “we have plenty of parents that work at Corgi, so, um, life's about trade-offs”

Q And I was like, that seems eerily similar to Corgi's role. And I was like, maybe it is. Talk to me. You have 24 seven Corgi cafe. Why? You're an insurance company.

A Yeah. So, um, when we rented out our building in San Francisco, uh, we, we needed to get signage on the side of the building and it was zoned or something. So when we got, um, our primary floor, um, we were forced to take over the retail space and it was like this empty barbershop. It was like really dungy. Like, uh, you know, I'd been out of business for probably a couple of years. And, uh, so we, we moved in and, you know, everything was fine. And, um, you know, we have the sign on the side of the building. Great. Um, but I'd walk in every day, and I'd see this, like, empty barbershop, and it would just piss me off, because, like, I'm paying for that, but, like, there's nothing in it. Like, it's a waste of, you know, it's a waste of everything. Um, and, um, at the same time, a huge complaint I have with San Francisco is that everything closes really early. Like, it's, it's a, it's a big problem, especially in the financial district where offices, and there's a lot of really great startups that want to, like, push themselves hard, but you cannot find a cafe. You can't even find a place to eat past, like, you know, Six, seven PM most days. Like things just are, it's a ridiculous situation. Clearly, most restaurants don't have a growth mindset. And like the other issue that I think we wanted to address is that for people that are serious about technology, about building things, …

AI assessment note: “we were forced to take over the retail space”

Q So I think changing one's mind is important. What have you changed your mind on in the last 12 months?

A There's a lot I've changed my mind on. Um, you, you know, I, I, I think I've, I've grown to value experience a lot more. Um, in, in, in the past, um, you know, I've, I've probably made certain statements around, uh, you know, boomers being slow and bad or, or, or, you know, like, I, I've, I've definitely, uh, you know, probably undervalued, um, people that have been doing something for a long time. Um, because a lot of times there's like these like little nuances or edge cases that, um, when you do something for a long time, you, you pick up and maybe you're not as fast or as efficient or as, as, you know, able to use the latest tools, but there's an extraordinary amount of knowledge that Uh, lives in, in, in kind of the older generations, especially the retiring ones. And I think it's a big problem, uh, in that there's, there's trillions of dollars to make getting that knowledge out and putting it inside of, um, inside of computers that can think and talk. Um, and, uh, you know, I, I, I don't think I viewed those problems in, in, in that lens. Uh, you know, I, I think I just considered, uh, you know, old people using fax machines moving at two miles per hour. Uh, to be like, you know, something uniformly bad, but now I see that there's value in their knowledge.

AI assessment note: “I've grown to value experience a lot more.”

Q Would you blame VCs for the dramatic increase we've seen in fraud, especially around ARR? You know, we put so much emphasis on zero to a hundred million in X amount of time.

A Yeah, I mean, I, I mean, I, I think Like a lot of the issues with fraud we've seen are downstream of like credentialism or that quest for like legitimacy in a lot of ways. Um, you know, I'm, I'm not gonna speak about specific frauds, but I'm sure some come to mind that kind of check those boxes. I, I think VCs are, are partially responsible, but, um, you know, as a venture investor, after you invest in a company, there's very little you can do. So if the management is unscrupulous, is, is, you know, is, uh, is gonna be scamming people or their product doesn't actually work or whatever, Then I don't think you're really responsible for that management team, um, you know, committing fraud. Um, I think on the extreme you have, like, if you go back in time a couple of years, a lot of the crypto investors would encourage, uh, company founders to take on quite a lot of personal liability, including criminal liability in many cases. Um, and, you know, basically they'd be like arbitraging that and like pumping the, the tokens or whatever. Um, and you know, that was in hindsight, I guess that was the wrong type of tokens to work on. Um, but you know, and I think in those cases, probably venture investors bear more responsibility, but like, I think that people blaming like, you know, YC or whatever for, for, for, uh, some of their companies being frauds, um, is probably not like direction…

AI assessment note: “I think VCs are, are partially responsible, but”

Q Would you blame VCs for the dramatic increase we've seen in fraud, especially around ARR? You know, we put so much emphasis on zero to a hundred million in X amount of time.

A Yeah, I mean, I, I mean, I, I think Like a lot of the issues with fraud we've seen are downstream of like credentialism or that quest for like legitimacy in a lot of ways. Um, you know, I'm, I'm not gonna speak about specific frauds, but I'm sure some come to mind that kind of check those boxes. I, I think VCs are, are partially responsible, but, um, you know, as a venture investor, after you invest in a company, there's very little you can do. So if the management is unscrupulous, is, is, you know, is, uh, is gonna be scamming people or their product doesn't actually work or whatever, Then I don't think you're really responsible for that management team, um, you know, committing fraud. Um, I think on the extreme you have, like, if you go back in time a couple of years, a lot of the crypto investors would encourage, uh, company founders to take on quite a lot of personal liability, including criminal liability in many cases. Um, and, you know, basically they'd be like arbitraging that and like pumping the, the tokens or whatever. Um, and you know, that was in hindsight, I guess that was the wrong type of tokens to work on. Um, but you know, and I think in those cases, probably venture investors bear more responsibility, but like, I think that people blaming like, you know, YC or whatever for, for, for, uh, some of their companies being frauds, um, is probably not like direction…

AI assessment note: “I think VCs are, are partially responsible, but”

Q Can you help me understand why that is and how you thought through that as a decision?

A If you're solving the most important problems, or if you want to, like, dream big and, like, scale up your ambition, Like, like let's presuppose that, that, um, you want to do something big and not small, whatever you can get done in, in, in five days, I promise you, you'll get more done in six and seven and so on and so forth. And, um, and I think that like, if you're doing a startup and you're serious about it and you want to win, you want to do the biggest possible things, you want a sense of community and camaraderie and, and have, you know, brothers and sisters in arms with the people you're working With, then, um, you know, you should go all out. You shouldn't do the, you know, half-assing it. Five days, why not four or three or two or one, right? Like you can, you know, I, I think you should just, if you're doing something, you should do it properly.

AI assessment note: “whatever you can get done in five days, I promise you, you'll get more done in six and seven”

Q I'm often struck with great CEOs. What is it that motivates you? Is it the fear of losing, or is it the thrill of winning?

A I think you can't be afraid of losses. Um, losses are like beautiful because, um, you know, you can have asymmetric upside with winning. So I think you, you have to love winning, um, and you have to love the victories. Um, and, um, yeah, I think, I think Jeff Bezos, he, he said something a number of years ago that has always really stuck with me, um, in that, um, he, he gave it as a baseball analogy, I guess, very American, but, um, you know, in baseball, Um, there's four bases, and you can score a maximum of, or there's three bases in, in the home plate, but you can score a maximum of four runs when, when you're at bat. Um, so if, if you go up to bat, and every single time you swing, you try to, like, you know, hit the ball out of the park, that's a losing strategy in baseball a lot of the time, because the upside is capped. You know, you have, you have maximum of four runs, but your, your probability of striking out of, of scoring nothing is, is quite high. Um, in business, it doesn't quite work like that because instead of four runs resulting from a home run, a home run might result in an actually infinite upside. Um, it might result in something like AWS popping out of nowhere. Um, so, um, I, I really think like seeking asymmetric upside or, or, or infinite upside, uncapped upside with cap downside is the core of business and taking a lot of shots on goal. And if you look a…

AI assessment note: “you have to love winning, um, and you have to love the victories.”

Q There's a brilliant, um, commencement speech by Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas or University of Houston. Um, and he says, you know, study success and the importance of lessons from success. If I were to then flip it and say, what success have you studied and what do you learn from it? What would you say that is?

A I think that you need to look at the greats and the greats are, you know, oftentimes outside of, of the context of startups. Like, you know, people like, you know, obviously there's, there's obvious like famous startup founders, but I think that, um, you know, looking at everyone from Alexander the great to Napoleon to, you know, so on and so forth is also very informative. Um, because if, if you want to like change the world, if you want to do something important, And you don't want to just be like, I'm a medic copy of everyone else, or you want to be class president or something, that's fine. But if you want to actually like do something big, then, um, then I think that being a student of the greats is great. And, um, you know, the important thing I think is, is probably not copying them. Like you should have your own style, but, um, but being a student of history is probably a pretty positive thing.

AI assessment note: “looking at everyone from Alexander the great to Napoleon to, you know, so on”

Q What are your lessons on paying people? So what I've learned, for example, is that when people ask for more money, they tend to be very good. When they ask for more title, they tend to be very bad. Any lessons on salaries, benchmarking, comp?

A I think low cash comp is something good, um, generally speaking. I think that, like, Who ends up doing extremely well? Like if people are doing well, you need to just like give them more like equity, especially, and make it so that like if they're doing a very simple return on investment calculation, that the highest EV thing they can do is like work in their, their current role. And if you can't provide that upside, like there's no reason for them to like continue like working super hard and they should Be doing something else, whether that's working for someone else or starting their own thing or, or whatever. I think separate from kind of the comp and the, the simple UV calculation is that you need to actually be like solving big problems. And if you're not solving big problems, then, um, no matter how much you pay people, you're not going to retain them if they're actually good. You know, I think you can probably split like with any, any organization, uh, the team into three, you can have people that are like really good. Um, people that are like, you know, kind of fungible and like mediocre, and then people that are bad. And I think getting rid of the bad very quickly is, is important, even if it makes a lot of noise.

AI assessment note: “I think low cash comp is something good, um, generally speaking.”

Q What is your answer to that? If it's not the money, we were chatting earlier, your sacrifice is unwavering to this business. We'll get onto more of it. What is the reason if it's not money?

A I want to build, um, the most important company in the world. Um, I want to, you know, win. I admire the greats. I very much want to join them. I think that as people living in this like time and circumstance, you know, we're subject to the world historical conditions in which we're in. If we were alive, um, you know, 200 years ago, we'd probably be generals, like fighting some sort of wars or something. And that would be very simple. The winning would just mean, Uh, you know, killing your enemies. And unfortunately you can't do that, um, anymore. Um, so I think that the next best thing and, and, and where we're at now is that, um, you can actually in a positive some way, like make a, a really big difference in the world. So I want us to always be solving the hardest problems possible. And, uh, I want to win. I want to add value.

AI assessment note: “I want to build, um, the most important company in the world.”

Q You can buy OpenAI or Anthropic today, both at the same price, 900. Which one do you choose?

A Yeah, I'm going to get in trouble for this probably, but Um, the, I guess the disclaimer is, um, this might be a stated preference versus a, a revealed preference. Um, given that we spend maybe like 400,000 dollars per month on, on Anthropic and zero dollars on open AI at the moment. Um, but I think that like spiritually, like open AI is, um, is, is I, I guess a little more pure, um, because they kind of created, you know, this idea of like a AI lab as a company, um, dating all the way back to YC research. And, um, you know, Anthropic is a result of, you know, employees that didn't like the management or the direction. There were complaints about profit and ethics and all this other stuff. And, um, and, you know, the, the EA movement and all of that. And, um, you know, I, I think when you're like, when your origins are, are that, um, impure, it's, it's a little hard to, to, you know, to, to overtake, uh, to overtake the king. And, uh, you know, right now, um, Anthropic, frankly speaking, has been out executing OpenAI. Their product's much better. Um, you know, we, we, we use the best product in, in every category, at least from a, from an enterprise or like workflow automation perspective, um, Anthropic's better. So OpenAI needs to lock in.

AI assessment note: “this might be a stated preference versus a, a revealed preference.”

Q What is your answer to that? If it's not the money, we were chatting earlier, your sacrifice is unwavering to this business. We'll get onto more of it. What is the reason if it's not money?

A I want to build, um, the most important company in the world. Um, I want to, you know, win. I admire the greats. I very much want to join them. I think that as people living in this like time and circumstance, you know, we're subject to the world historical conditions in which we're in. If we were alive, um, you know, 200 years ago, we'd probably be generals, like fighting some sort of wars or something. And that would be very simple. The winning would just mean, Uh, you know, killing your enemies. And unfortunately you can't do that, um, anymore. Um, so I think that the next best thing and, and, and where we're at now is that, um, you can actually in a positive some way, like make a, a really big difference in the world. So I want us to always be solving the hardest problems possible. And, uh, I want to win. I want to add value.

AI assessment note: “I want to build, um, the most important company in the world.”

Q Can you help me understand why that is and how you thought through that as a decision?

A If you're solving the most important problems, or if you want to, like, dream big and, like, scale up your ambition, Like, like let's presuppose that, that, um, you want to do something big and not small, whatever you can get done in, in, in five days, I promise you, you'll get more done in six and seven and so on and so forth. And, um, and I think that like, if you're doing a startup and you're serious about it and you want to win, you want to do the biggest possible things, you want a sense of community and camaraderie and, and have, you know, brothers and sisters in arms with the people you're working With, then, um, you know, you should go all out. You shouldn't do the, you know, half-assing it. Five days, why not four or three or two or one, right? Like you can, you know, I, I think you should just, if you're doing something, you should do it properly.

AI assessment note: “whatever you can get done in, in, in five days, I promise you, you'll get more done in six and seven”

Q Dude, how does that go down in hiring? Like, I would love to be able to do that. And you could say, Harry, you could do that.

A You can just say it and say, why? Because we want to build the biggest thing ever. And if you want to build the biggest thing ever, You need to win. And if you want to win, then actually it's something that I think attracts the right type of person and absolutely repels the wrong type of person. Because particularly for young people, I think there's a lot of, you know, people that want to dream big. They want to do something big with their lives and important with their lives. And if you want to do something important with your lives, you're going to do it a lot and you're going to win. And, uh, if you want to be a winner, if you want to be a killer, then, um, you know, sure you, you can, you can, you know, do that for 30 minutes a day. Um, but I, I think doing it all the time is better.

AI assessment note: “attracts the right type of person and absolutely repels the wrong type of person”

Q You can buy OpenAI or Anthropic today, both at the same price, 900. Which one do you choose?

A Yeah, I'm going to get in trouble for this probably, but Um, the, I guess the disclaimer is, um, this might be a stated preference versus a, a revealed preference. Um, given that we spend maybe like 400,000 dollars per month on, on Anthropic and zero dollars on open AI at the moment. Um, but I think that like spiritually, like open AI is, um, is, is I, I guess a little more pure, um, because they kind of created, you know, this idea of like a AI lab as a company, um, dating all the way back to YC research. And, um, you know, Anthropic is a result of, you know, employees that didn't like the management or the direction. There were complaints about profit and ethics and all this other stuff. And, um, and, you know, the, the EA movement and all of that. And, um, you know, I, I think when you're like, when your origins are, are that, um, impure, it's, it's a little hard to, to, you know, to, to overtake, uh, to overtake the king. And, uh, you know, right now, um, Anthropic, frankly speaking, has been out executing OpenAI. Their product's much better. Um, you know, we, we, we use the best product in, in every category, at least from a, from an enterprise or like workflow automation perspective, um, Anthropic's better. So OpenAI needs to lock in.

AI assessment note: “this might be a stated preference versus a, a revealed preference”

Q Ok, talk to me about that. Why did you decide to have a chef seven days a week, and why do you not now?

A Yeah, so, um, I, I, I loved our chef. I thought she was really great. Um, I think that just like ordering food is a little more, um, like logistically, uh, easy. Um, I, I think having food in the office is actually important and, um, because otherwise people like lose a lot of time, like going out and like getting food and like coming back is just very inefficient. And, you know, people need to think about like where they're going to buy the food and it's just, you know, extra like cognitive load. You know, you're, you're, you're spending more time like doing that than you are doing something that's, that's high leverage. Um, You know, I, I think I, I really dislike the culture of like pampering everyone or like taking care of them as if you're, you're their parents. I think Google is like the worst of that.

AI assessment note: “ordering food is a little more, um, like logistically, uh, easy”

Q Why has no one else been able to do it?

A So naturally there, there's, there's roles, I think that, that creep in, you know, you get the, like a lawyer and accountant are not going to work in the same way that, um, you know, a software engineer might. Um, and that's just a fact of life. So, okay. So if they don't want to work quite as hard, then you just need to hire more of them for the same work output, which is okay. Um, it's just like a, like a return on investment calculation. The only reason I can think of it is, is Um, you know, there, there's some point in which you need to take the, the off ramp of, of being super hardcore, and you need to accept maybe lower growth, but less volatility. I personally, at least at the current stage I'm at, um, don't mind volatility is something that I think is, can produce alpha in a lot of ways.

AI assessment note: “there's some point in which you need to take the, the off ramp”

Q What is no one talking about that you're spending more and more time thinking about?

A To me, there's good companies and there's, and there's, you know, everyone else. And, um, I think the number of good companies is very small and a good company wants to win is like world historic will be talked about in like a hundred years. Those companies, you know, there's just not many of them because people don't want to win. They don't want to put in the work. They don't want to, you know, and that's okay. Like it's okay to be average and part of the mediocre masses or whatever, that's all right. Um, but I think that the, the kind of, uh, cultural, um, you know, uh, or internal, um, kind of character of the companies that are good companies, um, is something that's not appreciated enough. Like from a, from a, You know, a, a, a metaphysical level, there's a really big difference between Andrel and like Anthropic, right? Those are like super different, uh, companies. And, um, I think, I think both of those could be good companies. Um, but I, I don't think people really understand, um, the philosophy behind, um, the management teams that they're investing in.

AI assessment note: “I don't think people really understand the philosophy behind the management teams”

Q If I give you unlimited money, What would you do that you're not doing today? So for example, I'd be on the side of an F-One car. I would be Opening Japan.

A I mean, if, if you, if you had unlimited money, I think you'd have, uh, you know, bigger things to do than, than be on the side of an F one car. Um, right. But, um, I mean, there, there's a lot of things I'd, I'd love to do. Um, like I think within the context of Corgi, um, like every single, like super, super regulated, like financial institution type where right now it's like run on like fax machines and with like boomers, like we'd like to like, You know, have those not waste people's time and charge less fees and, you know, make everything a little more protected and a little more efficient, a little more profitable. Um, I think outside of that context, um, like I'm a, I'm a techno optimist. I, I believe very strongly in the power of technology to make the world a better place across a wide variety of like industry sectors. Corgi is a, a bet mostly on like the most regulated sectors, but Um, I think that there's very few problems that technology can't solve. And, um, and, and probably there's, you know, a lot of areas that are exciting, like in medicine and mental health. Um, I think, and, and, you know, there's, there's crises in a lot of like concurrent areas where I think technology can make things a lot better.

AI assessment note: “within the context of Corgi, um, like every single, like super, super regulated”

Q What in a work trial impresses you most versus turns you off most? Because it is tough in a two-day trial to have much impact on onboarding and whatever.

A Yeah, I mean, the soft skills matter, I think, more than the hard skills for me. Because if someone really wants it, if, if they're like all in, And if they want to like do the maximum, the maximally hard thing, the ambitious thing, uh, with their lives and they actually want to go all in, then, um, you normally can find a place for, for, for someone like that. And it might not be exactly what they, you know, are applying for, what they, they, they, they think they're going to be doing. Um, but I, I, I don't know. I, I think you should just solve, solve hard problems. You should do hard things and you can kind of tell if someone's into that or if they're into checking in and checking out.

AI assessment note: “the soft skills matter, I think, more than the hard skills for me.”

Q There's a brilliant, um, commencement speech by Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas or University of Houston. Um, and he says, you know, study success and the importance of lessons from success. If I were to then flip it and say, what success have you studied and what do you learn from it? What would you say that is?

A I think that you need to look at the greats and the greats are, you know, oftentimes outside of, of the context of startups. Like, you know, people like, you know, obviously there's, there's obvious like famous startup founders, but I think that, um, you know, looking at everyone from Alexander the great to Napoleon to, you know, so on and so forth is also very informative. Um, because if, if you want to like change the world, if you want to do something important, And you don't want to just be like, I'm a medic copy of everyone else, or you want to be class president or something, that's fine. But if you want to actually like do something big, then, um, then I think that being a student of the greats is great. And, um, you know, the important thing I think is, is probably not copying them. Like you should have your own style, but, um, but being a student of history is probably a pretty positive thing.

AI assessment note: “looking at everyone from Alexander the great to Napoleon... the important thing is probably not copying them”

Q What is no one talking about that you're spending more and more time thinking about?

A To me, there's good companies and there's, and there's, you know, everyone else. And, um, I think the number of good companies is very small and a good company wants to win is like world historic will be talked about in like a hundred years. Those companies, you know, there's just not many of them because people don't want to win. They don't want to put in the work. They don't want to, you know, and that's okay. Like it's okay to be average and part of the mediocre masses or whatever, that's all right. Um, but I think that the, the kind of, uh, cultural, um, you know, uh, or internal, um, kind of character of the companies that are good companies, um, is something that's not appreciated enough. Like from a, from a, You know, a, a, a metaphysical level, there's a really big difference between Andrel and like Anthropic, right? Those are like super different, uh, companies. And, um, I think, I think both of those could be good companies. Um, but I, I don't think people really understand, um, the philosophy behind, um, the management teams that they're investing in.

AI assessment note: “character of the companies that are good companies, um, is something that's not appreciated enough”

Q Ok, talk to me about that. Why did you decide to have a chef seven days a week, and why do you not now?

A Yeah, so, um, I, I, I loved our chef. I thought she was really great. Um, I think that just like ordering food is a little more, um, like logistically, uh, easy. Um, I, I think having food in the office is actually important and, um, because otherwise people like lose a lot of time, like going out and like getting food and like coming back is just very inefficient. And, you know, people need to think about like where they're going to buy the food and it's just, you know, extra like cognitive load. You know, you're, you're, you're spending more time like doing that than you are doing something that's, that's high leverage. Um, You know, I, I think I, I really dislike the culture of like pampering everyone or like taking care of them as if you're, you're their parents. I think Google is like the worst of that.

AI assessment note: “ordering food is a little more, um, like logistically, uh, easy.”

Q Final thing for you, what are you most excited for when you look forward to the next 10 years? What are you like, this I can't wait for?

A You know, it's, it's a little hard to say because if you, if you ask that 10 years ago, um, the technology that people were really excited about didn't exist yet, right? Um, it was only late 20 22 that people actually started getting, uh, with ChatGPT 3.5 that large language models were obviously very important and very exciting. I think like within the next 10 years, technology will solve a lot of, a lot of problems. Perhaps it'll create some too, but I think it'll solve a lot more than it creates. And I think that there's certain areas where venture investing hasn't worked before, where, um, where there could be like category defining, um, outcomes and where there could be, um, you know, new, uh, kind of industries where, where smart people are actually interested in going into, um, like biology is one that comes to mind. Um, and, um, I just really strongly believe that, um, you know, we're gonna probably see more like chat GPT moments, um, You know, maybe, maybe a couple years from now that, uh, that will really shake things up.

AI assessment note: “we're gonna probably see more like chat GPT moments”

Q What are your lessons on paying people? So what I've learned, for example, is that when people ask for more money, they tend to be very good. When they ask for more title, they tend to be very bad. Any lessons on salaries, benchmarking, comp?

A I think low cash comp is something good, um, generally speaking. I think that, like, Who ends up doing extremely well? Like if people are doing well, you need to just like give them more like equity, especially, and make it so that like if they're doing a very simple return on investment calculation, that the highest EV thing they can do is like work in their, their current role. And if you can't provide that upside, like there's no reason for them to like continue like working super hard and they should Be doing something else, whether that's working for someone else or starting their own thing or, or whatever. I think separate from kind of the comp and the, the simple UV calculation is that you need to actually be like solving big problems. And if you're not solving big problems, then, um, no matter how much you pay people, you're not going to retain them if they're actually good. You know, I think you can probably split like with any, any organization, uh, the team into three, you can have people that are like really good. Um, people that are like, you know, kind of fungible and like mediocre, and then people that are bad. And I think getting rid of the bad very quickly is, is important, even if it makes a lot of noise.

AI assessment note: “I think low cash comp is something good”

Q What role do we not have today that you think we will have and be very commonplace in five years time?

A I don't know if it's like a role in particular, but I think that, um, that actually AI makes sales and marketing much more important, um, than, than it was in the past. And, uh, in, in the past, I think if you had a, like a really rock solid, like super hardcore engineering and product team, you could come out with something that would just like blow everyone away. It'd be faster. It'd be better. Um, now you can make something faster and better. And, um, you know, if you don't have people to sell it or to market it or to tell people that it exists, um, it's not really worth the whole lot. And, um, I think the, the like organic network effects around, um, particularly B to B product, uh, launches, um, just don't really exist in the same way that they used to.

AI assessment note: “I don't know if it's like a role in particular, but I think”

Q Dude, how does that go down in hiring? Like, I would love to be able to do that. And you could say, Harry, you could do that.

A You can just say it and say, why? Because we want to build the biggest thing ever. And if you want to build the biggest thing ever, You need to win. And if you want to win, then actually it's something that I think attracts the right type of person and absolutely repels the wrong type of person. Because particularly for young people, I think there's a lot of, you know, people that want to dream big. They want to do something big with their lives and important with their lives. And if you want to do something important with your lives, you're going to do it a lot and you're going to win. And, uh, if you want to be a winner, if you want to be a killer, then, um, you know, sure you, you can, you can, you know, do that for 30 minutes a day. Um, but I, I think doing it all the time is better.

AI assessment note: “it attracts the right type of person and absolutely repels the wrong type of person”