The Exchanges

Q And so how do you recruit such amazing partners if at other firms, because they don't have these resources, maybe they can get higher salaries or, um, you know, there's certain perks of being at one of those firms. How do you think about recruiting the best talent?

A Yeah, well, I think that, um, you know, people here, it's actually helpful that we kind of pay lower salaries to me because We get people who are on mission, uh, and you know, like there's a lot that goes into that. Um, you know, like there's a, for example, there's this kind of thing in venture capital that a lot of venture capital will say, well, spend all your time with your winners. Um, like we don't believe in that at all. Now, like if you look at a spreadsheet, that's the exact right thing, right? Like because the, the, whatever, three winners are going to produce all the returns. Um, but the way we look at it is, you know, several, one, We're not so confident that we know who the winners are for a long time. Um, the other thing is that, you know, we kind of have the philosophy is like, we knew the job was dangerous when we took it. If we're gonna, if you're gonna take us as your partner, we're gonna be there till the bitter end. And like, that's, you know, having been very close to the bitter end myself, um, from time to time, like you really do need kind of support or at least somebody to talk to when you're in that situation. Because our, you know, just from a competitive standpoint, our whole idea is that we sell on reputation. Um, that's fundamentally important to our competitive advantage is to have the best reputation. So all those things kind of cause us to behave…

AI assessment note: “helpful that we kind of pay lower salaries to me because We get people who are on mission”

Q nuances of how to approach the solution. And it sounds like we don't actually have A specific solution in mind. What we're really saying is it really depends on what you're optimizing for as a founder. So what are some of the broader principles and mindsets that we should then bring to this discussion if you are a founder trying to figure out the right way to go about this?

A Different companies are different. And so you have to start with, okay, what do I want? And then what does what I do incent Everybody who's applying for a job. Everybody who has a job. And then, you know, whether or not they should leave that job. And then who do I want to own the company at the end of the day? I mean, I don't know what the best answer is. And it's different, you know, depending on, you know, your ability to raise cash and other things as well. So, you know, it really probably needs to not be one size fits all. I think that if every company had a different scheme, You do get into a weird thing for potential employees and recruiting, so I think we might do a disservice to the industry by doing that, but there might need to be, say, four or five standard flavors depending on, you know, how you think about your company, what kinds of employees you have, and we already do have very big differences in, in that if you're a consumer internet company like WhatsApp, that's going to be very different than if you're like a very complex hardware company like Tesla. Like, your, your ownership in Tesla as an employee is just going to be a different thing than it is going to be in WhatsApp.

AI assessment note: “you have to start with, okay, what do I want?”

Q Say more about that. How do you guys compliment each other or say more about the, what they were getting at?

A So, so like there was kind of like Netscape and loud cloud. Right. And, um, I think that You know, with Netscape, you know, Mark started that company. He's 22 years old, um, or 21 to 22 years old. And so he's like literally a kid. So like he had some things in his reputation for one, he was like actually a little kid, uh, which, you know, like you grow up, you know, like I, the shit that I couldn't do when I was 22, I can do now, um, and so forth. So there was some of that in there. And then there was some of the same thing on me, like, you know, loud cloud got into like, Absolutely horrible trouble. We burned through like a stupid amount of cash and this and that and the other. And so, you know, there, there were definitely negative things, but it was interesting because both companies had very good outcomes. And so I think how the legend went was somehow, you know, between us, we could figure it out. Uh, no, I don't know if the criticisms were right. Maybe they were, and I don't know if the, uh, solution was correct, but it, but it was just, Kind of a fun thing that they had got so deep into our backgrounds that they would like insist that that be in the LPA.

AI assessment note: “how the legend went was somehow, you know, between us, we could figure it out”

Q Why don't you share some of the tenets behind that idea and how you came to it?

A Yeah, so actually, it's interesting, um, it, it's a really weird adjustment going from, you know, I mean, I spent my whole career in old media, or dealing with old media, and now we're in new media. You know, in the history of the firm, we've been, the, the one thing that we really, really, really, really defended against was basically leaked results, and, uh, The reason, and it goes back to in the pretty early days of the firm, uh, the New York Times got a leak of our results, and they, they were very, I mean, we were like a young firm, so most of the funds were like a year old. Um, and, you know, venture capital firms don't have high returns in the first year, because like nothing happens in the first year. It's not like a stock market type thing. And so, you know, the, They miss, or maybe it's the Wall Street Journal, one of the two, but they misinterpreted the results, um, you know, so they kind of said, well, the early funds were good, because those had enough years to get, kind of, returns in them, but, like, fund three was terrible, and, like, dah, dah, dah, dah, and so forth. And there was no, um, you know, because old media was still powerful, it was very hard to combat it. You know, we put out statements, and this and that, and the other, and blog posts, but explaining, like, why they were wrong. Um, but it didn't land, and it was such a, like, uh, inside the firm, it…

AI assessment note: “in the pretty early days of the firm, uh, the New York Times got a leak”