The Exchanges

Q What is the mission of the venture fund? What, what, what stage are you going to do? You and I started as angel investors together and

A Yeah, so we focus on early stage seed checks, first check-in, and, you know, this, this fund, um, is our fourth fund. We institutionalized more. In the beginning, it was high net worth individuals, and then now we're, you know, going to kind of what Shamath was speaking about earlier, is aligning what we do with our higher purpose, and so now we're helping, you know, institutions help people go to school, solving cancer, and things like that, so every day that we get up in the morning, You know, we're, we're aligning what we do. Our mission is to chase the magically weird. We're looking for alpha in things. When everybody is consensus investing and they're doing the same thing and talking about the same things, we're thinking six to eight years in the future. You know, when our fund three, we invested in a company in the chip space and, you know, we were thinking ahead about what's going to power AI and crypto. And now that everybody's, you know, investing in The application layer. We're going into the next thing, which is like, what is that going to enable and what's coming down the road and looking for founders that are thinking differently that most other of my peers would look at it and say, that's crazy. I don't want to put any money into that. So that's, that's what we focus on.

AI assessment note: “we focus on early stage seed checks, first check-in”

Q Judiciary Committee explaining how the FBI and Biden administration have pressured Facebook into censoring posts about COVID and Hunter Biden. You'll also remember that Zuckerberg has over three billion members to his platform. And had no problem banning Trump from the platform after January sixth. A lot to talk about in this topic, Cyan. What's your general take of Zuck going MAGA? How do you interpret his change of heart?

A I actually think deep down inside he always has been, you know, I, I go back to the beginning days of Facebook and when there was social networks that were competing with Back at the time was my space. The only political party you could be was Republican or Democrat. And then along came Facebook and he added this third option called libertarian. And I, I would like to go to the way back machine at some point and find his profile because his profile said he was a libertarian. So when he started Facebook, you know, that that's where he leaned. So I think he's always been a free speech person. I think he's always, this has been deep in his heart. I think what happened was he had enormous success. They grew very large and he had to become neutral. Or he thought he did. And so I think what we're seeing with Zuck right now with his change in his, um, you know, even how he appears with a gold chain and how he's dressing and everything that he's doing is him going back to his roots to be more authentic. Cause I think he hasn't been authentic for a long time. And, and that was a big critique that people had of him. You know, they were just like, when he talks, he's like a robot. And I think what we're seeing is him coming out of his shell and I don't know if fighting helped it or what helped it, but you know, I, I do think it's the best thing to do and all the platforms need to do it an…

AI assessment note: “I actually think deep down inside he always has been”

Q I know I'm being a bit facetious here. I understand this is very strategic, this one, but I'm just thinking the next domino, I would like to get Cuba, maybe Portugal. I don't know who, 80% of people. Sian, what do you think? In the country want to join? Join.

A It's very strategic. If you look at the Panama Canal, I believe either end is operated and controlled by China. We are at war with China, whether we like to admit it or not, in my opinion, and so this is very strategic. He has a very strange way of communicating, as you pointed out, but I think it's brilliant, and I actually think we should add to that. I've always thought that we should open up and add more states And extend that invitation, you know, to Taiwan. I would, might be controversial to even say India. But I do think that, uh, that we, there's a lot of countries out there and people who really, really resonate with what it means to be an American and the freedoms that come with our subscription fees of this country. And so, um, I do think that it would be great for us to expand and, you know, I don't know what he's thinking or how he always got behind the scenes who motivated him to do it, but I'm, I really think it's a great idea.

AI assessment note: “I've always thought that we should open up and add more states”

Q I think it's the bottoming out of the Democratic Party. That moment will be looked at as the bottom. Cyan, any thoughts?

A I think it's incredibly lowbrow. I agree with Chamath, and I think it's just so distasteful for, you know, a public official to do something like that in, especially for an American company. And it, you know, if you hear the people cheering in the background, it's obvious that there's a base that supports this, and that frightens me even more, because he's saying these things because his constituent, his constituents believe it. And, you know, a politician says these things because they think it's going to motivate them To vote for them in the future. And that really frightens me, you know, that we are riling people up, um, to cheer on the destruction of American company and possibly go out and burn cars. You know, I think.

AI assessment note: “I think it's incredibly lowbrow. I agree with Chamath”

Q Okay, so we're, we're in a breaking news environment, so we'll see what the truth winds up being here. But Cyan, I think the point remains the same here, which is, is prioritization and what we focus on out of whack in California?

A Oh, without a doubt. I think diversity is good unless that's all you have. And I'll just simplify it like that. But, and I think it's very sad that somebody could be very qualified and be in a position. And we now have to question whether or not they were hired because of DEI and Then it comes down to prioritization. Like, when you're dealing with a organization like a fire department, whose main job is to protect the public and put out fires and save people, any amount of time, as we know, is a valuable, precious resource that's being spent trying to roll out these programs or You know, it goes beyond just who you hire. It's even the, the thought police of how you think, you know, it's so pervasive within an organization that you, you are, you die from the bureaucracy of it. And if anything went wrong with DEI, it was that they didn't have their, their eye on the prize of, of fighting fires. And instead, you know, they're focusing on something that truly doesn't matter. So you can be as diverse as you want to be and not be able to put out a fire. And then it just really doesn't matter. Right. Because you're not training people. You're not spending money on things that matter. You're not having the discussions that matter, and that's where I think that does fall apart, and it, it has a place there, but, you know, I go back to what Chamath said, though, you know, it really comes…

AI assessment note: “Oh, without a doubt. I think diversity is good unless that's all you have.”

Q people to simulate. Which net-net, at the end of the day, I think Freeburg puts them on second, would put autonomy partners on second or third base in terms of creating technology by incorporating it into the chips and into their stack. So Cyan, what, what do you think of these, uh, announcements and some of the other ones he made? I know you were excited to talk about this.

A Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about it because I think I've been trying to figure out how they justify their valuation over the long run. And, you know, I'm not a public market person, but I am fascinated with NVIDIA and, uh, you know, their cloud GPU business is definitely a majority of, uh, their revenue. So I think A lot, a lot of what we're seeing is them trying to grow into that and trying to expand in case, you know, the music stopped. Now, I don't actually think the music's gonna stop. You know, it, it's insane to me. We haven't even barely touched what AI is going to do and change and all of the various things that are going to come from it. And, you know, the early adopters cannot use Claude without getting shut down because of scaling issues. And I don't think those are artificially created based on the type of investing I'm doing. And, um, so I'm very bullish on NVIDIA. It is interesting. It's an interesting thing to go consumer. And, you know, the thing that really What hit me was the fact that he kind of declared Tesla one of the most valuable companies in the world in the long run. It's interesting that he got behind Toyota, but at the same time, you know, I don't think of a, there's one single car company out there that has the kind of data that full self drive has and Tesla has. Um, so if they enter the robo taxi market, I actually think they should buy Uber.…

AI assessment note: “I've been trying to figure out how they justify their valuation over the long run.”

Q have gone absolutely parabolic in California because of regulations, you're talking about fourteen million dollars in income to build a seven million dollar house, and maybe you're just better off Selling the lot for a million dollars and letting it be somebody else's problem going forward and just taking the two or three or four million dollar loss. Who should pay for, on a go forward basis, underwriting these homes?

A Yeah. I mean, a lot of these people paid for, I was reading stories of 30 some odd years into insurance thinking that, you know, their house wouldn't burn down, and then of course it gets canceled two weeks before their house burns down, and then the one time they need it, they don't have it. And part of this is, I mean, a huge part of it is, ah, what Friedberg was talking about are the regulators, and so the free market solution is the only solution. If you look at, I have an investment in a company called Kin Insurance, and they specialize in direct to consumer Insurance for areas that are plagued with natural disasters. So their number one state out of the 11 that they serve is Florida, followed by Texas, which, you know, has tornadoes and things like that. And how they're able to get into these places and do insurance is the pricing is according to, you know, the construction of your home and all of these various things, and also weather models and using data science, things that are not allowed in California, if you can believe it or not. So you're not allowed to use a weather model To price in, you know, your decision making for insurance in the state. And that just doesn't make a lot of sense. You know, you should be rewarded if you put the resources and time into your home to, to make it a weatherproof, uh, fireproof, fireproof. I mean, you know, even earthquake resista…

AI assessment note: “the free market solution is the only solution. If you look at”

Q perfect positioning, and it's not personal. It's just, hey, we're a rich enough country that people should get health care. Why shouldn't people have health care in the modern world? Why can't these rich people who are donating tens of millions of dollars to Trump just pay some more taxes and make sure poor people have basic health care? Cyan, your thoughts? And then let's get back to the docket.

A Well, I disagree with all those points, obviously, but sure, they could run on them. Uh, they have tried. They've, they've definitely said we're gonna have, you know, health care for all. You know, selling the American dream of home ownership I actually think is flawed. In many ways. We're putting people into debt, and for things they can't afford, and they get screwed, and so I, I just actually think, uh, they need to find a unifying, figure out who their moderates are, and there's also politically homeless people. We didn't include them. You know, there's these people who are just like, well, I can't vote right, and I'm not left either anymore, so we've got to bridge this divide somehow, and they've got to figure out the messaging, but I don't think going back to what They used to do is going to work, because they promised universal healthcare, and it hasn't happened, and they had plenty of opportunity to do so.

AI assessment note: “I disagree with all those points, obviously, but sure, they could run on them.”