YouSaid · the spoken record

Andrew Taggart

lines on the record: 64
first: 2025-06-24
most recent: 2025-06-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Like, hey, let me help you out with this or do that. And so it's been probably one of the strangely better things that has ever happened to me, but also I've never seen a functional relationship in my life, which is probably why I'm still single.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love my mom, she's still around. She's an amazing woman. And I had a really tough upbringing they fought relentlessly. Insane fights. That's probably why I painted so much. I just didn't want to leave my room and interact and get in the mix of all that. And my dad passed away in the middle of the divorce. It was like a really dark period. And to the point of what I just said, and it was like, I had a lot of friends that came to my side and supported me then. And more than anything, I think as you get older, you kind of distort memories. And now when I look back on things, I had this completely different perspective now than I did when I was a 13-year-old about like who my dad was and how he treated my mom and how she treated him and how my relationship was with him or him with my sister after that moment it was just kind of like I had my family but I'm really on my own to be my own man and it's a weird experience not having grown up at all with anyone to be like dad look at this or like am I doing this right or the dad”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think about fundamentally what it means. She was probably like in her 60s, and this woman's obviously advised and taught whatever home room to hundreds and hundreds of kids. I'm not even probably the first kid she's had this experience with. I'm so grateful that she said that.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That comes with it to like motivate you through life in a really positive way, or you'll just become a total fuck up and everything will be derailed and you'll go on to accomplish nothing. And obviously as a six-year-old, you're like, what? You're like, ladies, like 8, 15 in the morning. You know, like I'm going through some shit, but it actually did really stick with me in a lot of ways from that moment forward as I thought about the different decisions I made in my life, whether consequential or consequential, had this thing in the back of my mind which path is this leading me towards and really like motivated me to like get my shit together and become like a good human and a really good student and push myself. So Ironically, I think it's funny when someone can offer new advice like that. And I think maybe too often in today's day and age, we both are offering advice like this all the time. People just don't listen anymore. You kind of like acknowledge it, but you don't really.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People aren't that kind to me, at least in the ways that I've heard other people, I think through these things. I mean, obviously ordinary friends and people in my life, but I guess if I had to like, I was trying to think of like a clever way to answer this because funny enough, I think it was an unkind thing. I had this homeroom advisor in sixth grade named Mrs. Park. I think she liked me, but I think she also understood that I was at this really interesting crossroads in my life. My dad had just passed away 12 years old, super young, impressionable age as a young boy. I had a lot of friends, but I was also not like a banging student by any stretch. And she was just like very clearly, I mean, she was like, this is like the most important moment in your life. And you were like probably not even recognize it till it's too late, either in a positive or good way. But she's like, you are fully at a crossroads right now. One path will lead you down a road of success where you use this experience and pain and everything.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's so funny. First of all, obviously, know that this is your final question. And I thought about this on my red eye flight here for like so long. I was like, nobody's done any kind shit for me. I was like, I was like, I don't want to single out anyone that significantly.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doug has got as good as pedigree and bob as anyone to like tackle this problem. It was just like the timelines were like, and then in seven years we'll be able to test the first one. And you're like seven years, we'll test it. And you're like, all right, let's do it. You know what I mean? And now they're absolutely crushing it. Obviously, like Monday morning quarterbacking it, but it was funny when you look at those things and you're just like, we could have called Blake and Chad and had deep conversations with our friends that have experience in this space and they all would have probably been like, don't fucking do this.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Imagine that world. And I feel like I'm probably a little bit more like this in terms of my angel portfolio stuff where I'm just like, fuck it, let's do it. We invested in this company Radiant in nuclear when we were talking to them over there on the first call and it was like. But if they do this and we didn't do it To be really pissed off, and a lot of it's like that sort of stuff, even though it sounds really stupid. I mean”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Kids play closer for me. And I'm like, oh, I can't. That's so lame. So I was like, I'm going to learn Panout. So I took two hour lessons of piano, five days a week, and I still do to this day now. The purpose was to be like, I can't claim to be a musician if I'm not, I can't play our music. Ridiculous. So I figured that. But in the process of practicing learning, it opened up a whole understanding of how to communicate my ideas to Drew or whatever as we're discussing music. And it really enabled me to be a much more critical, thoughtful musician in general. But I totally agree with Drew because at the end of the day where there is like an ignorance, this bliss thing to a lot of this where it's like you can talk yourself out of any situation. Part of the investor's role is to be like how many miracles am I comfortable with for me to back this? Is five miracles too much or is it two or one for things to go right? And you have to like look at it through that lens.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I'm just like, they made me wrong. And I feel like I'm constantly asking stupid questions. And honestly, I really am grateful to a lot of the people we've had a chance to get to work with and interact with because we approached this space with a lot of respect and everyone's, I think, hopefully acknowledges that now. There is no dumb questions. I'm always explain this to me like a golden retriever. It's kind of something I say a lot as we've gone deeper into space and obviously like engineering is a huge part of any tech platform. And I was like, I kind of want to like try to learn how to code a little bit because I want to have at least a semblance of not just respect, but understanding of when I'm discussing these things, the different processes and stuff. And then now vibe coding and cursor and things like that exist. And you're like, okay, so I don't need to learn coding anymore. And now it's back to taste, which I feel like I'm pretty good at, but it's an interesting process, even in music. I play guitar going up, didn't carry on very long. And I remember like a few years into our career and I was like, what if I have a kid one day?”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I feel like I was thinking, well, George was talking about that and in Venture, I was Googling words like tan on my. Month of call. I was like, I don't know.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's been really interesting. And also, like, we have a team of people now that are extraordinary and everyone has their own identity and perspective on how they want to invest and evaluate things. And I feel like my job has always been to try to wheel them in, like how we're trying to treat the chain smokers now. Dumbing it down, keeping it more simple than confusing because it's so hard to get wrapped up in the minutiae of everything. And I've talked myself out of really good deals for that reason.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Part of the puzzle where you're like, well, I'm creating my IRR, looks pretty solid right now. And it's like, what's your DPI? That's really the question you need to be asking yourselves. And we're all chasing that game of who is our customer? Is it founders or is it our LPs? The answer is both, obviously, but you walk this tightrope where you're trying to decide where you think you should be putting the most time in. For us, when we started, we were writing 25, 50k checks into companies. That was all we could get. And it was about proving ourselves and building a reputation. A lot of those companies are doing really well. It was like squeezing into a really important, hot round with great investors and great founders. And now that we're looking for bigger allocation, we're still having success, but it's a different conversation now where you can't just be like, yeah, we're going to put”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really exciting as an investor. We're testing a hypothesis right now, but where we think the future is going. And this guy has the right pedigree. We have some solid people around the cap table with us. But the momentum to get this ball moving is going to be a lot harder than the other company, which is just, hey, Sequoia invested, someone is going to do that A. Even if it's just for no reason. I think that's what you have to learn through experience is how do you see through all the noise and bullshit of hype versus reality versus zero periods. And we've really seen a lot in the last six years and it really changed my perspective on when you want to throw yourself into something and when something's not real adventure. Because I think there's so many stages of, oh my God, we got our company marked up to series A. We must be really good. They're so much further for this company before you see any liquidity or success. It's interesting how you don't want to get caught up in that.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, our specific individuals within those funds, more so than the brand of the fund itself. And for us, you kind of just know when there's really interesting, exciting founder, there's like a nysteria around them in a lot of ways. I think there's that part of investing, which I find myself reverting back to. I think some people might call like a signal investor, but at the same time, I think it's just this pattern where it's like the space, the founder, the team, the investors, the perspective of where they came from before and the problem they're solving now. And you're just like, I don't know if they're going to be successful, but this has all of the ingredients of a company we should be investing into. And then there's the founders where you're like, I'm going out in the woods on my own a little bit here. I don't think this idea is so radically weird that no one else is going to be interested in this, but there's going to be a lot more alchemy than science initially. And those ones are kind of like the company I just brought up New On before I think.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they're totally right. Yeah, if we're lucky. The funny thing is, if anything, I feel like I've reverted back to where I think we're the strongest investor. Our goal at Mantis is to be at the sixth man on every championship team. I want to work with the best investors who are investing in the best founders, and I want to absorb the things that both those parties are doing to understand how to make better decisions and build a better firm. And that doesn't mean we're not contrarian thinkers and we're certainly not followers, but information is so readily available everywhere right now. You do see the best companies generally gravitating towards a specific group of investors that have been winning for a long time now.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the practice of investing, like from ownership and stage, the discipline that goes into making the cents make dollars.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of what we love and think is a great indie song that should get remixed because it wasn't like always this is the number one. Sometimes it was the 15th song, but we were like, this song is sick. And we need to remix this song. And I think that intentionality is super important. You really want to find someone that has that experience, knows exactly what they need to solve for, but you really have to be careful to make sure that that person, like, what did they do before they worked at this company? Where do they come from? Do they have a self-starter mentality? What have they done? Do they just go and work here for a long time, a while? What did you do before this that makes me believe that you're going to be able to fuck shit up when it gets hard? Keep rethinking things. Keep having the tenacity that gets you through the hurdles that we see.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very long road of getting kicked in the nuts a lot, and you kind of have to just love it so much that you almost enjoy the misery of those moments and know that it's just part of the process ultimately going through this with a company of ours right now that's doing a really terrific job. They just signed their first big enterprise customer. They've spent the last four months building out integration. And I really like admire how this is a guy that would 100% he's going to bring BYOs, bring your own cloud to like the forefront. This is his life's mission. I think he's built like a really compelling platform. He has a really compelling enterprise customer, but he's spent his team have been like, what do you need? What is not working? How do we make this perfect? We really want to learn through this experience with you as our first enterprise user how to make this successful versus being like, who else wants this? And he's really being intentional the same with us where it was, let's just keep doing a million remixes. We would listen to these songs and be like, does this meet the requirements?”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“New music. And I also threw parties everywhere here in New York City for like six, seven, eight years. So I also understood how to fill a room. I understood as a club owner, you don't give a shit about what the DJ's playing. You just want your club to be filled making money. So we understood the business side of how to be successful as the chain smoker is within a venue on what was important to them. And so we really had all of these pieces understanding the same way that sometimes advantageous to invest in a founder is a specialist from that field. Hey, I was working at Salesforce. This is a problem that I always had. And now I'm starting that company. And I think it's a problem that a lot of other people have. And I've experienced it firsthand and I know the solution that I need to build. I think that really resonates with me versus the opportunistic AI's hot right now. I'm just going to build an AI company or something like that. And I think you might have short term success. But as anyone who's been successful tells you, it's a”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I feel like Alex Ford at Redpoint said this to me in a really simple way, which is just invest in people that are going to do this idea no matter what. Even if it fails, they're going to start it again from a different angle. I think then the question becomes, is this a step function better or is this something that can potentially reshape the way that an economy or business or software or platform or service is used, Union Square Ventures does a really good job of how they think about investing at the edge of ideas and then those ideas hopefully become more central? And then the TAM question answers itself because if you figure that out, it's going to be humongous. That obsession is really important to us. And even like going back to the anecdotes just now, like we weren't just like dance music's big. We were like obsessed with dance music. I mean, I was downloading off blogs before we even learned to produce with Drew hundreds of songs a day that I would just like put in a folder because I just loved discovering.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How bad do you want this? Sometimes, like this stuff, people think you just put a hit song out of it, it becomes a hit, but I think all the things we talk to you about today are all those little pieces that you don't see people doing or once it's successful and you try to like trace back to how it started. You're like, oh, well, they just put it out and the whole thing worked. And it's like, no, you can't look at this shit retroactively. There's a grind story behind everybody. People grind to product market fits. Like sometimes they just stumble on it and they make it and it goes and it works forever. But usually like I'm sure if you talk to any like long lasting successful CEO or founder, there's been moments where they're like, fuck my strategy is not working anymore and I have to go back to like eating, making phone calls, begging people with finessing relationships to like get myself through the next hurtle.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You go to Oakland and you do that there and then you go to San Francisco and do San Francisco at night and then you go do your shows and the next day you fly to Chicago and you do the same type of thing. And you get a couple extra spins for those things and you got everyone kind of like rooting for you. I think that's the kind of grit that we want to see with our founders is like, do you have the tenacity?”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Versus Alex being the guy who made the song sending you the song is a song that you're already posting about so it's relevance. It's a dance remix, which is the most trendy new sound of the time. So he gave people a lot of reason to, and then he wrote this really fucking funny email that everyone related to. And within three emails, they felt like they had a personal connection with us, which they did. And I think within the first year of our career, we went from zero to 30 number ones on Hype Machine. That took us out of DJing at Pink Elephant and Great Times 2012 Club scene in New York, but we're doing colleges here and there, and that kind of was our first step. And eventually that process of building up distribution channel with all of these blogs transferred into then we started putting out original music and we had to do it with radio. You do a show in San Francisco. Okay, well, you got to drive to San Jose that morning and any DJ that wants to talk to you from every station, you'd go and like form a relationship with them and then.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mentioned we're remixing Rihanna, Lady Gaga, whatever was on the pop radio at that time. And we were like, well, we love indie music and we grew up on indie music and hardcore music and all this stuff that doesn't really have a presence in the dance world. These songs are already trending. Alex would go into basically find contact information for every artist that was on this chart and send them a hilarious personalized email. We would get a response. And in the beginning, we were just taking what we could get. No one really to respond to us. Give me the stems. I would do this remix. And then he would go into the back end of Hype Machine. He would find every writer that wrote for every blog that Hype Machine scraped music from. And he would send them a hilarious personalized email. What we realized is all of these kids were just college kids that wanted to be closer to music and here they're getting these blanket press releases that are just generic. No one reads them, whatever coming from a label, not even like attached to a personal email.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. My boss was like, Your what? He was like, don't do that. You can come back. This doesn't work out You know, I appreciate it, but didn't want to go back. But I think that was a big part of it. I think for us, we spent a lot of time trying different things. I think that iterative process, but also being really honest about it. I remember making some song that sounded very much like an Ovichi tonally song. And we were like, this is fire. But then we were like, Is it though? Because it's just Cavici, but not Avici.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We just really scrappy. I quit my day job. He moved down from Maine and lived on his ex-girlfriend's couch, which is probably really uncomfortable. We're just like, this is it. We have to put all of our eggs in this basket. That will hopefully push us to work that extra few hours every day and stuff. Yeah, it was just.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Oh, so we're all kind of not happy, really, or stressed about stuff. And it's nice to see that. I think that's probably why founders, I feel like Inventure, there's that trope Laura motif that's just like founders love founders and most venture capitalists are they love venture capitalists that were founders of some sort because you understand Process and struggle a bit more than someone who hasn't gone through that journey.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You felt like you were a small chapter and will probably be a really long, successful career for him. But it was like we're a big feature of that the same way that Cold Play is for us or Halsey is for us and we are for them And I think that's a really interesting way to build a career. Also, give you fresh perspective about how you're approaching your process and your music. Similarly, you sit down and you're like, Mid, everything must be great for you. And it's like, you sit down with an artist, dude, I'm stressed the fuck out. Like I'm upset about this. And you're like, well, it looks amazing.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How other people approach are even the team from a promotional standpoint? Like, how are you selling this record? Or what tricks do you have up your sleeves? Or who are the directors that you like to work with for music videos? It's exciting. Like Zurb, the song addicted, that was his second big song.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, like, what is there to lose here, really? We do like this top line. If we can produce it in a way that feels interesting and connects back to us, I think that's where in the past and the few times we've done it. People are like, I love this song. And you're like, what does it mean to you? And you're like, you know, it sucks. And you're like, it doesn't mean anything. You know what I mean? Like we didn't write this. And that's why I think we're really not drawn to that type of thing because we really want to be able to tell people why this song is important, has meaning and purpose. And it does have meaning purpose to someone. But yeah, it was like a fun one to make. And then getting to finally get to play it. I think we played it at Ilsun Meek for the first time. And he has like a whole vibe. I'm sure if you've seen him online, like he's looks like he's living in 2080 stylistically and he's done some incredibly big shows. I think he's like one of those other than Anita, like the most.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like we got that top line, it was fairly stripped back from him, and we were like, this is cool because you don't write, you listen to it and you're like, I like it. The fact that we didn't write it kind of adds this level of friction. But you kind of put it to the side because music is very subjective in terms of how you're feeling in that moment, that day. Are you frustrated? Are you in a rush? And I think we played it a couple of times for different friends of ours. And everyone was like, this is sick. And you're like, I know. You know what I mean? And you're kind of like. And we love him, and obviously, he's a massive artist, especially in Brazil, which is like a really important mark to us. And like you look at these things being like, well, this is a guy we get along great with, has a tremendous fan base.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Being comfortable losing is a weird one. No one wants to lose, but I think it's a power law game. You build a career off of a couple of huge songs, hopefully. And then there's lots of other great music, but only very few artists like a Drake will just constantly deliver Smash songs for 10, 15 years, or Bruno Mars, probably the most notable one from a percentage basis. You have to learn from each song and iterate and grow and feel comfortable with that. And it's like Venture is very much the same thing. You're going to hopefully back a couple of extraordinary companies, but most of your companies won't go on to be super successful. And you can't think you're a terrible investor. Each of those opportunities paved the way for hopefully more future success comes.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Much as it was like a hill we were gonna have to climb, the bar was clearly low, so it was like maybe we don't have to do that much to be that much better, but it was also like a market opportunity. It was like, wait a minute, people think we're going to be fucking useless and that this is based on a lot of other people that have come before us in their experience with them. If we do this right, it's a lot of white space for us to be unique and different. That's the kind of product market fit that we found in our music early on and that I think gave us the confidence to start mantis and take it really seriously.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Investor means is an extension of what made us good in Chainsmoker. And it gave me a lot of confidence that we were right to get into this space. But I think fighting the preconceived conceptions and rightfully so, a lot of them about being a celebrity investors, and I've told this before, but it's like on fund announce day, it wasn't a positive vibe, you know, like people weren't like, finally chain smokers or it was the opposite. People were not stoked about it at all. To me, we saw that as”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just want to start, and I think a big part of anything is just start doing it. That to me is probably one of the things that sets us apart and makes our partnership so unique is that we push each other into these areas that you're like, maybe on your own, you'd be like, I don't know where to begin, so I'm not going to begin. And that's the cold start problem, obviously is the hardest part of any process. But I think with us, we're very comfortable putting ourselves in those uncomfortable situations, but also because of how we interact with people and the relationships we've had. We're just listeners, you know, and we spent the better part of those three years doing 10 hours of calls a day with any investor or founder that would speak to us and just asking questions and like learning through their experiences, mistakes they made, or the things we should think about. And a lot of it began to contradict each other by the end of it. But there were definitely some patterns and things there. And I think through those conversations, we were like, wait a minute, this does feel like an extension of what being a”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Kind of reminds me of being your assembly in middle school, high school, where every now and again they would bring in a professional. They would speak about their career to the audience for like an hour. And you'd be like, that guy actually did this shit. This is really interesting and exciting to me to learn from versus like offense like a teacher that's just like, here's my perspective on something that happened or a career. Inventory, you get to sit down for half an hour, an hour, hopefully many, many times with like a founder that's like, I've studied this space, I've lived and breathed this business, and I'm going to tell you everything about it right now. For someone like me, that's the coolest thing to spend five or six hours a day learning from an experienced person in a technologically exciting area. Obviously, the evolution of Mantis is like changed. I don't want to say change dramatically, just evolved a lot. I mean, I remember on our first partner call, they were like, so how much are we going to raise? And someone was like, 100 million. And I was like, is that a lot? Kind of feels like a lot.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a few good ones. And we've made some decisions, but there's a whole world of opportunity investing out there into really exciting companies. And I remember doing the Uber series. Thought I was in early. I think I've made like $6,000 on this investment. But at the time, I was like, this is the coolest company ever. It's actually changed my life and my friends' lives. I want to find more stuff like this versus another beverage company or something like that. We were very lucky with Poppy and Poppy to its credit reinvented what the soda category looked like and will probably look like in the future. That was a really nice blend of technology and forward thinking and messaging. And then as it relates to marketing and distribution, whereas I think a lot of like CPG is just distribution and kind of marketing.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A lot of times we were really drawn to that entrepreneurial spirit. We're go getters. We worked 247. There's something that we could do now. We're going to do it now, not five days from now as we begin to connect with these founders. And I remember getting your first quarterly updates. I remember responding to one and I was like, I could help you with that. And they were like, nobody responds to these. And I was like, what? And then it was like these little ways that we were able to like make a real difference in these companies. And then to Drew's point, the people like Brian Chesky and Steve Huffman and the Kahn brothers were like, why are you investing in fucking water companies?”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Naturally entertainer athletes have these platforms that people are drawn to for different reasons. And I think when it relates to investing, you're seeing a lot of CPG social creator economy type stuff. And initially for us, that was like cool. I remember my business manager, Josh, was like, basically you invest and you just hopefully make a bunch of passive income. Oh, how sick is that? You know what I mean? He also prefaces like, you probably will lose your money. But you could. Which we did.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, great. And so I think the problem with that, though, was that we became the CEOs of Chain Smokers. And I think this relates to probably a lot of successful founders' journeys. I was talking to the founder of the company who's crushing it right now. He was like, all I do is HR. He's like, I don't build shit anymore. All I do is hire people and it fucking sucks. And I was like, kind of know what you're going through. We're on so many calls about internal politics. I think we're actually making really solid strides to fix that, to go back to being chain smokers instead of the CEOs of the chain smokers.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but what separated us differentiated us early on, and Kanchrew's point is what we're trying to turn back the hands of time now is that like we did run chain where it's like a business as much as we obviously care so deeply about the music and the creative aspect of it, but it was also like this is a really unique opportunity that we want to make sure we're taking full advantage of and whether that was doing too many things, playing too many shows or whatever, really control the business. I mean, either there is not a credit card statement that I have not gone through line by line still to this day, week by week. There's not a production budget that I haven't seen for a single show the way that we organized our team. It set us up for success in a lot of ways. I mean, COVID for some artists was pretty devastating, whereas for us, we were like,”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When we raised money for our funds, I get asked that question a lot. And I always say that Chainsburgers are the sun in our solar system because it's like everything circles around that. And if it's a really strong sun, it shines more light and creates more abundance and opportunity across mantis and whatever company and other things. Whereas like, I don't know if a strong mantis. You know what I mean? But”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think if you study people and study relationships, that's kind of all it is. We're all just interacting with each other. And that's fundamentally what business is. It's fundamentally what relationships are. And so if you can like put yourself in a position where people enjoy being around you and feels seen when you're with them, I think that's amazing. And it's something we definitely struggle with as you get busier too. I'm taking calls in like August right now and it kills my soul to be like, I would love to speak to you in September. It's just getting older and shit.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Super interesting and exciting to me. And I think we feed off of that experience that we give people like Drew said. And we play Vegas hundreds and hundreds of times. And people are like, how are you still doing this? And it's like, because every weekend, there's like a new group of people coming experiencing this for the first time. And they're so excited. And you sometimes forget how lucky you are to be in that position. And also the kindness that people showed us in the past from like radio stations that supported us early on when they didn't need to. Life is so long. And I think if you take a second to listen, I've had this interest, I think Chuang fan, I'm hoping pronouncing his name right, posted this interesting blog post from this wedding photographer who's been like shooting weddings for 30 years or something. It was like 21 insights that she's noticed about bride and grooms and different people that attend weddings and the personalities that they have. Some of them felt a bit over the top, but like a lot of them were like, that's super interesting observation.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, like you should obviously do this. Like, everyone would totally vote, you're friends with everybody. And I feel like that was such an interesting experience in life. There wasn't like we don't talk to that person because they're like this. Because it's like I always felt plenty of times I wasn't cool or whatever. And it meant so much to me when someone like came out of their way to make you feel acknowledged or comfortable in something. And I felt like if you could continue to challenge myself to like be that person in all sorts of different scenarios. And it wasn't like with this long-term goal that's like Billy Madison when he's like calls Cushemi and he apologizes and then Steve Bushemi saves him later. No, and he's like, thank God I called that guy. It's not like that sort of thing where you're like, one day this guy's going to put money in my fund. It's more like it doesn't matter if you're the CEO or an SDR, like a huge company or whatever. It's like just come and be a part of world and like if you bring great energy like that.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was, like I said earlier, not most popular kid in high school, but not the worst either. But I think that's like my whole attitude was I was just friends with everybody, nice person, varsity basketball team I'd hung out with to like the art kids later and ironically was school president and I never thought that was never like a goal”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That other piece of the puzzle is what we're trying to figure out now. It's like, how do we show people we really care about this music without looking like some Gen Z on TikTok doing stupid videos that work for some people, but it isn't us. A lot of it comes down to language, how you present yourself. And I think same thing for like companies and product market fit. What is the story you're telling? Why should people care? How are you sharing it with the world? And if you don't care about it, then why would anyone else?”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally. I was a feeling that I felt like I was being chased also by people's expectation of what they thought how things were going to end up. Growing up in New York too, you like a lot of people grow on to be super successful much faster. Sometimes you're like, oh my God, half my friends have jobs at great banks now. And I'm a night life promoter. Also, like in high school, I mean, I wasn't like a loser in high school, but I definitely wasn't like the super popular kid. No offense to my friends listening. Some of y'all peaked in ninth grade, and I'm just glad that wasn't me.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Forces you to live and fear your whole life or something that allows you to be successful. So it's tough for me because the itch, it was just like our survival thing or like proving people wrong more than I just want to do things. I stopped painting when I was like 15 or something wasn't like a sad day for me. I'm moving on. Yeah, I'm out of pain. Like I just don't really want to do this anymore. It's more of a mentality thing of how you like search.”
2025-06-24 · Invest Like the Best · The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source