Founders Fund

24 statements across 17 episodes · 10 bullish · 6 bearish · 6 people on the record · first statement Oct 14, 2024 by Jordi Hays · said 164 times in 73 episodes since 2024 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by John Coogan (88), Jordi Hays (20), Delian Asparouhov (11), Shaun Maguire (3), Keith Rabois (3), Bridget Harris (2), Alex Karp (2), Trae Stephens (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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2026 35 mentions in 19 episodes 2 per episode
2025 59 mentions in 32 episodes 2 per episode
2024 70 mentions in 22 episodes 3 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Founders Fund, oldest first

Oct 14, 2024 negative
Opinion
Hays: The Founders Fund-style startup hype reel format is dead
“See, this is the same format, though, as the original Founders Fund Hype Reel, which we copied Yeah., that capital Yeah., and then a bunch of other people, and now it's in the zeitgeist, and now the format's dead.”
Jordi Hays Oct 14, 2024 ▶ 55:05 Zuck Just Killed the Apple Vision Pro (ep2)
Nov 3, 2024
Insight
Coogan: Tech firms benefit from manufacturing public enemies to stay underdogs
“You always want to be the underdog, and so even if you have to pay someone to talk trash about you, it's totally worth it.”
John Coogan Nov 3, 2024 ▶ 23:00 The Secret Billionaire Party (ep6)
Nov 19, 2024 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Hays: The 'forward deployed GP' venture model will become widespread
“I expect forward deployed GPs to come back, right? Because like it needs to, I mean, Founders Fund basically already does this. [1535] John Coogan: I mean, it exists. [1536] John Coogan: Yeah. [1536] John Coogan: Trey is that. [1538] Jordy Hays: And Delian. …”
Jordi Hays Nov 19, 2024 ▶ 25:27 Who's Getting Rich Off Ozempic? (e12)
Nov 30, 2024 negative
Insight
Hays: Non-top five VCs must win deals on partner likability
“I'm like short any VC that doesn't understand that they're in the likability game, because if you're not one of the Holy Trinity or a top five firm, you have this sort of adverse selection problem where all the best founders want to work with a select group of…”
Jordi Hays Nov 30, 2024 ▶ 1:43:34 Taylor Lorenz Trades Teams (ep16)
Dec 2, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Coogan: Bridgit Mendler's Northwood Space Is Funded by Founders Fund
“Building a Northwood space communications hard tech company funded by Delian at Founders Fund”
John Coogan Dec 2, 2024 ▶ 1:54:58 How BILLIONAIRES dress for XMAS (ep17)
Dec 11, 2024 neutral
Assertion Contradicted
Coogan: Brian Singerman is not raising his own fund
“Brian Singerman is not raising his own fund.”
John Coogan Dec 11, 2024 ▶ 1:17:24 How we became the fastest growing podcast (ep20)
Dec 11, 2024 neutral
Assertion Supported
Hays: Founders Fund Generally Avoids Taking Board Seats
“This is why founders fund doesn't take board seats. Generally doesn't.”
Jordi Hays Dec 11, 2024 ▶ 2:33:02 How we became the fastest growing podcast (ep20)
Dec 11, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund invest $10M Series A in Lava
“Coastal Ventures, led by none other than Keith Raboi, has teamed up with Founders Fund to throw a ten million dollar Series A pass to Lava, a Bitcoin lending platform out of New York.”
John Coogan Dec 11, 2024 ▶ 4:13 How we became the fastest growing podcast (ep20)
Dec 14, 2024 positive
Insight
Coogan: Founders Fund Exclusively Underwrites Potential Trillion-Dollar Monopolies
“The Founders Fund Teal model is, Very, very narrowly selected for monopoly power, power law outcomes. Can this be a trillion dollar company?”
John Coogan Dec 14, 2024 ▶ 52:59 Surviving a VC Holiday Party (ep22)
Jan 9, 2025 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Hays: Anduril raised its seed round at around $97M post-money
“The Andrew Seed Round was done at like, 97 post or something like that.”
Jordi Hays Jan 9, 2025 ▶ 1:47:25 Can This Man Save Los Angeles? (Rick Caruso)
Mar 5, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
Rabois: Ramp was a non-standard investment for Founders Fund
“When I was working at founders fund at the time, There's a very non-standard Founders Fund investment in many, many ways. The most acute one being, if you have all these vendors that are doing well, what's the monopoly story?”
Keith Rabois Mar 5, 2025 ▶ 8:55 "Work at an outstanding organization first" - Keith Rabois Advice on Starting Companies
Mar 6, 2025 negative
Opinion
Harris: Most AI crypto projects are copy-paste AI with a token
“Most of the AI crypto projects we had seen had been just like not really interesting. It was more like copy paste from existing AI companies, and then they would like slap a token on top. So it would be like character AI with a token, like Langchain, but with …”
Bridget Harris Mar 6, 2025 ▶ 2:00 Bridget Harris breaks down the Prime Intellect deal and the broader sentiment in crypto today.
Mar 6, 2025 bearish
Disclosure
Harris: Founders Fund has paused new deals amid high crypto valuations
“The sentiment isn't amazing, but I would say prices on new deals that we've been seeing have been, like, asymmetrically high. Like, we, the last deal we did was Prime Intellect, and that was in, I want to say October or November. So we haven't done, like, a ne…”
Bridget Harris Mar 6, 2025 ▶ 11:23 Bridget Harris breaks down the Prime Intellect deal and the broader sentiment in crypto today.
Mar 6, 2025
Disclosure
Harris: Founders Fund received roughly 50 stablecoin pitches post-Bridge deal
“I think after the bridge acquisition, we genuinely got like. Probably, like, 50 stable coin pitches. Like, it was legitimately, like, insane.”
Bridget Harris Mar 6, 2025 ▶ 16:29 Bridget Harris breaks down the Prime Intellect deal and the broader sentiment in crypto today.
Mar 6, 2025 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Harris: Regulatory risk drove many Founders Fund DeFi founders out of US
“DeFi founders had it the worst. I think the past four years, like, many of our founders just fully moved out of the United States because the risk was just, like, You know, way too high.”
Bridget Harris Mar 6, 2025 ▶ 13:20 Bridget Harris breaks down the Prime Intellect deal and the broader sentiment in crypto today.
Mar 7, 2025 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Coogan: Spotify's early memo predicted 2025 user metrics within 10%
“They're like in the investment memo, it's like in 20, 25, we'll have three hundred million DAUs and they got it within like 10% or something. It was like a 20 year projection and they nailed it.”
John Coogan Mar 7, 2025 ▶ 21:49 "I Invest in People" – David Senra Talks Ramp, His Favorite Founders, and the Pursuit of Greatness.
Mar 15, 2025
Disclosure
Founders Fund requires production usage before writing concentrated GovTech checks
“Now, what that means for founders fund, practically speaking, and gov tech is that we tend to want to write more concentrated checks. Once you see production usage of the technology working because it demonstrates that the founder has figured out how to get th…”
Trae Stephens Mar 15, 2025 ▶ 5:13 Trae Stephens talks Flock Safety, Anduril, and American Dynamism.
Mar 24, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Founders Fund Deploying $36M First Check Into European Defense Startup
“The thing that I will say though, is at least the biggest check that I've ever, you know, sort of led is like a net new, you know, portfolio company investment. So not just like follow ons, obviously we like we've deployed mega checks in a ramp, but that was a…”
Delian Asparouhov Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 13:14 Delian Asparouhov on Stranded Astronauts, NASA in Crisis, and Corporate Espionage.
Mar 24, 2025 bearish
Opinion
Asparouhov: Europe Has Few Highly Competent Defense Tech Founders
“There aren't a ton of like super competent players. And so, you know, I wouldn't say that like the quality of what we get, you know, sort of inbound at least at founders fund is, you know, something, you know, super high in Europe.”
Delian Asparouhov Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 13:04 Delian Asparouhov on Stranded Astronauts, NASA in Crisis, and Corporate Espionage.
Apr 26, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Asparouhov: Portfolio company Sword Health is valued at $4 billion
“We have this mutual portfolio company, you know, sort of Sword Health that has gotten really deep. They're now like, you know, four billion dollar company.”
Delian Asparouhov Apr 26, 2025 ▶ 11:16 How Tech Can Save America | Delian Asparouhov on TBPN
Dec 12, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Coogan: Founders Fund's SpaceX bet may become greatest VC investment ever
“Well, we should read through some of the history about Founders Fund's investment in SpaceX, because it might be one of the greatest, it might be, it might become the greatest venture capital investment of all time.”
John Coogan Dec 12, 2025 ▶ 13:19 Disney Partners with OpenAI, Breaking Down SpaceX’s IPO Plans, Oracle Slips | Diet TBPN
Dec 12, 2025 bullish
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Hays: Founders Fund's SpaceX stake will reach around $150B
“Again, it's still, like, gonna be a hundred and fifty-ish billion dollar position.”
Jordi Hays Dec 12, 2025 ▶ 14:46 Disney Partners with OpenAI, Breaking Down SpaceX’s IPO Plans, Oracle Slips | Diet TBPN
Apr 2, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Founders Fund's first deal post-ChatGPT was OpenAI's late 2022 round
“When I joined Founders Fund the very first deal that I saw in motion at Founders Fund was the post ChatGPT round in OpenAI in late twenty-twenty-two, early twenty-twenty-three.”
John Coogan Apr 2, 2026 ▶ 8:04 OpenAI Acquires TBPN
May 21, 2026 bullish
Assertion Supported
Coogan: Founders Fund and Valor to make $60B+ on SpaceX IPO
“Founders Fund and Valor are set to make more than sixty billion in gains on the SpaceX IPO. Sequoia, more than twenty billion.”
John Coogan May 21, 2026 ▶ 23:04 Google I/O: Day 1 Reactions, Goldman to Lead SpaceX IPO | Diet TBPN
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