May 30, 2022 · 37m · allin
#AIS: Pear VC’s Mar Hershenson on making successful founders
Mar Hershenson · 19m spoken Chamath Palihapitiya · 4m spoken David Friedberg · 3m spoken Jason Calacanis · 3m spoken David Sacks · 1m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
At the All-In Summit, Pear VC Founding Managing Partner Mar Hershenson demonstrates how targeted mentorship, high-density peer networks, and structured programs can systematically develop successful entrepreneurs and empower female founders.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 38.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 2.3 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 0.7 The hosts pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 18:54 Mar banterly deflects Jason's long summary
Mar playfully calls out Jason for delivering a long summary instead of a question, joking that he should deliver the keynote next time.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 18:24 Chamath cuts off Jason's long statementChamath directly interrupts Jason's extended commentary to ask if he actually has a question so the rest of the panel can participate.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 30:29 Mar details forcing failure through rapid 10x sales challengesMar educates the panel on her pedagogical technique of assigning students impossible 10x sales deadlines in one week to desensitize them to failure.
The host holds their own ▶ 27:35 Friedberg analyzes Google's risk-averse cultureFriedberg demonstrates deep domain knowledge of organizational dynamics, contrasting PayPal's grit with Google's failure to cultivate risk-tolerant founders.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Examining Born Founders versus Natural Talent | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Monologue segment where Mar Hershenson delivers her opening keynote address examining innate founder traits versus nurture. Host scores are zero as hosts are offstage. | |
| Stanford University and Peer Networks as Entrepreneurship Machines | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Monologue segment analyzing Stanford University as a founder machine. Host scores remain zero. | |
| Analyzing High-Density Startup Mafias from PayPal to Rappi | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Monologue segment breaking down high-density startup networks like PayPal and Rappi. Host scores remain zero. | |
| Accelerating Female Founders Through Targeted Peer Networks | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Monologue segment sharing data from her female founder cohort experiment. Host scores remain zero. | |
| Founder Guidance, Early Intervention, and Keynote Conclusion | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Monologue concluding her keynote with practical guidance on reading, coaching, and gifted programs for founders. Host scores remain zero. | |
| Panel Discussion on Representation, Scalability, and Selection | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | The panel takes the stage. Chamath cuts off Jason's lengthy monologue to ask a direct question, and Mar playfully points out Jason summarized her talk for her. | |
| Evaluating Media Coverage of Founders and Gender Double Standards | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Hosts discuss media double standards and sensationalism toward female tech founders. Mar humorously sharpens the distinction regarding gendered labels in boardrooms. | |
| Comparing PayPal Friction Culture Against Tech Giant Comfort | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | David Sacks and David Friedberg detail how high-friction environments at PayPal built resilience compared to soft corporate environments like Google. | |
| Developing Resilience, Forcing Challenges, and Teaching Founder Sales | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Mar explains how she forces student founders to experience rapid failure by setting impossible 10x sales goals. Chamath playfully corrects Friedberg's use of the word penultimate. |
Statements from this episode (15)
Hershenson: Pear VC portfolio companies are worth over $100 billion combined
“I've worked for the last decade with hundred plus startups. They're worth over a hundred billion dollars”
Hershenson: 42% of surveyed entrepreneurs started a business as children
“So researchers at Northeastern surveyed a hundred, hundreds of entrepreneurs, and they counted that 42% of them had started a business as a kid.”
Hershenson: Repeat founders account for 59% of top unicorn startups
“And while there are 37% of founders, the repeat founders in companies today, 59% repeat founders are in the top unicorns.”
Hershenson: 10% of unicorn startups have founders who attended Stanford
“10% of unicorns have founders that attended Stanford.”
Hershenson: 40% of All-In Summit speakers attended Stanford
“In the All In Summit, I actually went through all the LinkedIns, 40% of the speakers attended Stanford”
Hershenson: Former Rappi employees have founded over 100 new startups
“There's been a hundred plus companies created by Rappi employees. It's crazy. Even, almost 50 in Colombia.”
Hershenson: Only 2% of all companies have all-female founding teams
“Two percent of all companies have an all-female founder team.”
Hershenson: CEOs in Pear VC's top 10% portfolio are reading machines
“I have actually gone and looked at our top 10% of our portfolio, and there's one thing those CEOs have in common. They are reading machines.”
Hershenson: Assertive women in boardrooms are labeled 'bitches' rather than 'assholes'
“I'm board meetings. I look, you know, I'm not an asshole. I'm a bitch, right? That's the summary of the situation.”
Calacanis: Hit pieces on female founders get ten times more clicks
“If you go after a female founder, you're going to get 10 times as many clicks.”
Hershenson: Former Google employees have a surprisingly low founder success rate
“And actually, I think the rate of success of people that came out of founder of Google, relatively speaking, is not that high.”
Sacks: Pre-IPO PayPal employees created more unicorns than all Google alumni
“There are more unicorns founded by ex-PayPal people than ex-Google people, even though at sort of the PayPal mafia, if you define it as the pre-IPO group of people who worked at PayPal, there were only a couple of hundred in the Bay Area, whereas Google had li…”
Chamath: Facebook Growth Circle ran thousands of failed experiments weekly
“At Facebook we created, I created this thing called Growth Circle. We used to run thousands of experiments a week, and we used to have folks present every week, and it was just three hours of monotonous failure, right?”