YouSaid · the spoken record

Craig Shapiro

lines on the record
48
first
2016-11-14
most recent
2016-11-14
sittings or episodes
1
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podcast

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  1. “Tell me because if it's shitty, it's eventually going to smell. And you can only polish that for so long. So hiding it, you know, treating us with white gloves or treating me with white gloves is not going to work. I want you to make a pledge that when something doesn't go right, I want to be the first to know about it. And I think that was an incredibly, that was maybe the best gift because it gave me then permission, frankly, to be totally transparent about not just the ups, which is what you want to share with your investors, right? You want to tell them, gosh, you know, this company is doing fantastically well and we're on track to create really positive returns. But in reality, there's ups and downs. And so having the permission to kind of share the downs and the insecurities that come along with it, I think is probably...”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, I think outside of the just very tangible way of trusting me with their capital, I think supporting us through challenging times, right? So one of our investors told me early on, actually prior to him investing, said, Craig, I'm going to make an investment in you with one condition. I said, okay, what's that? He said, don't shine the turd. And I said, what does that even mean? And he said, if something, can I use bad language? Oh, yeah. If something shitty happens, I'm a grown up. I've been there, done it, I've been successful in business. I know how”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I do think the job of venture capitalists is to serve entrepreneurs. And so first and foremost, and I think if you do that well, you can generate fantastic returns for your investors. And there's countless examples of that along the way, of the 70 plus investments we've made where we've just had the opportunity to work with some incredible entrepreneurs. But I think that initial, that first page of our book that we're writing is the one that jumps out.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Interesting. Well, gosh, I think maybe the day that we got started, you know, my background, as I mentioned previously, I'd never managed other people's money and don't have a traditional background in finance. And so we were kind of the venture fund that was despite the odds, kind of the scrappy underdog and just the day that we closed our first fund, which was actually in November of 2010. So we're coming up on our six-year anniversary, you know, felt like just a huge milestone. It's so just that feeling of complete and utter gratitude that anyone would kind of trust me and us to Have a shot at this. I think outweighs almost anything else I can think of. I mean,”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “People talk a lot about being introverted versus extroverted and what are the things that kind of re-energize you or recharge your battery versus what are the things that are extractive. I think that's the key to finding what I think of as meditation or what are the things that are going to enable you to kind of recharge your battery. And that's going to be different.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yeah, you know, I got into it, I think, you know, kind of two ways. One actually is my wife, and I think she's encouraged me to read about it and learn about it. And she's accountable. And so that element, you know, I think it's so different for each of us. I think that there's a number of new mobile apps that headspace and others that are kind of creating a framework for people to find time to meditate and providing some kind of instructions. There are some kind of universal elements to it, such as breathing. But I find that it really is different for everyone. What's meditative for me is probably different from others. And so it's learning kind of how to listen to yourself and what kind of”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Run giving kind of my brain a chance to just decompress and think about how we're doing as a business and as a team and where are the things that I want to achieve on a personal level as well as our group that that kind of that opportunity to just slow down and breathe and think is so important so I think it's you know the two things that I find you know critical almost on a daily basis is making sure that there's some time for exercise and meditation in whatever form kind of works for you but those those two are the ones that immediately come to mind”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, I would say, so exercise is the first thing that comes to mind. I just fundamentally, I'm a believer in kind of strong body, strong mind. And so whether it's push-ups or it's a simple jog or walk in the park or it's a really rigorous workout routine, I try to find time to exercise every single day. I just think it's critical to mental health and every other facet of life. And I would say more recently kind of meditation. And that's a word that I think for a period of time, I thought, you know, I don't even know what that means. And ironically, where I first kind of felt the benefits of it was during exercise. And so going for”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “And start to take market share. And that's changing the dynamics of that industry. So that's a category we're really interested in. We've invested pretty heavily in it. Ripple foods invested in good eggs, invested in simply gum, invested in Hampton Creek foods and a whole host of others. And even on the retail side, invested in sweet green, which is a kind of a salad chain. We invested in blue bottle coffee. So kind of interested in this kind of next generation consumer product good or retail business. And so that's one of the categories that we're most interested in.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Where it's, gosh, I mean, there's so many crave jerky plum organics, you know, you name it. If you're able to show the right amount of traction and kind of consumer mindshare, you become a very attractive acquisition target to these large organizations. And we're seeing the size of those acquisitions increase, right? So most recently, Dollar Shave Club was acquired for a billion dollars by Unilever.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “authentic brands and products, which consumers are demanding. We talked a little bit about milk earlier. It's a space that is so large. I mean, a CBG space is just orders of magnitude larger than even the technology space. And it's growing. And so every single category within CBG from fashion, hygiene, food, beverage, et cetera, is going through a large change. And you're seeing that the big monolithic organizations are having a hard time growing. And so they're using kind of investing as well as mergers and acquisitions to kind of fuel their growth. And whether it's brands like Honest T, which Coca-Cola ended up acquiring,”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “And we ultimately arrived at where are the areas that we're most passionate about that we think have the greatest opportunities. And that's how we arrived at those categories. So that's kind of a small baby step in collaborative funds evolution. The category that I would probably speak to first is consumer. And by consumer, really talking about consumer product goods and retail. And so we've just seen a big shift in the CPG space over the last several years that I think we're still at the very kind of early stages of, we're at the onset of this tidal wave, which is a shift from the kind of mega corporation, industrialized, produced goods to smaller, more independent.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Yeah, yeah. So the categories, kind of maybe two things. One is the categories was essentially an evolution of collaborative funds thesis, right? So we talked a bunch about this intersection of for-profit and for good. But since starting the fund roughly six years ago, the world has evolved and just kind of that very broad lens of that intersection felt almost too broad because more and more I think businesses are mission driven and kind of articulating their values. And so it was no longer kind of a small subset of startups, but almost every startup we're seeing these days really, really kind of touts that as being a key element. So it's like, well, shoot, how do we make our filter a little bit tighter?”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Another investor named David Shen, who was an early Yahoo employee, an angel investor, showed me Uber at their seed round. And ironically, I had written a business plan for a car sharing business years earlier. And the round was closing relatively quickly, and I hadn't met the founders yet. And so I told David, you know, thanks, but no thanks. But yeah, that's certainly from a financial perspective that's turned into an interesting business. But missed a lot. I mean, have been fortunate to see so many businesses early on that it's almost hard and painful to dredge those things up. But you learn from those, right? So we then became an early investor in Lyft and have been a big supporter of theirs. So, yeah, that one's probably the one that's a heavy.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “So, I almost think finding the things that kind of energize you that may not be popular. Like if what we're talking about in today's investment world is the sharing economy or on-demand economy or fintech or fill in the blank, like I would almost force yourself to try and think about what are the things that really interest you that aren't there and to like and push you into that territory. I think that's if I was starting a new business today, I would really be thinking a lot about kind of what could I be the best at that isn't necessarily like the sun hasn't shined on it yet.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yeah, you know, one thing that comes to mind is most people that I've had the opportunity to either meet or learn from or even read about who have been massively successful share one characteristic, which is they pursued something and became great at it before it was mainstream. And so one piece of advice I would give people or folks is kind of what is that passion point that you have that's not necessarily popular or hot. Like once McKinsey writes a report about it, I don't know if it's too late, but You know, I think it's your opportunity set is actually somewhat smaller. It's kind of, it's the folks that”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Exactly. They didn't talk about this part. The hard part in the McKinsey study, it only talked about the upside. But it's the folks that came in that kind of talk about The personal struggle, I've had an allergy or family member, and I just looked at the options of what was out there and nothing really great existed. And I just, I've decided to make this my mission. Oh, and by the way, there's a couple of studies who kind of talk about this as being growing market. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. Doesn't matter to me. And so the negative screen there is really kind of like, what is the driving force? Because that tends to really play a key role during the down periods, during the difficult periods of a startup.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Yeah, and therefore they come in, they have all the right statistics. It's compounding at x-ray. It's growing. It's underserved in the US. There's no other competitors that are doing it. But guess what? They're not really doing it for the right reason. The genesis behind the business was born out of something that was opportunistic. And startups are just hard. I mean, I've yet to invest in a startup business that hasn't gone through some struggles. And it's during those difficult periods where that really matters because the people that got into it opportunistically are the first to give up, right? They're the first to say, gosh, this was really...”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Yeah, yeah, actually, so the thing that immediately comes to mind when asking that is kind of the origin of the idea or the business. And the negative screen for me is when it doesn't come from kind of a pain point. And so oftentimes we'll meet with entrepreneurs that have read about this emerging market in a recent McKinsey study or some other kind of industry publication. And they see, gosh, the on-demand economy is today a $7 billion market and set to explode to a $24 billion market. And so they think, what could I do in the...”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “It doesn't taste good, it doesn't work. And so that is in its clearest sense. If you drink the milk and it just tastes better, then it's that Tesla example. It's like even if you want to be using less water and less resource and more environmentally friendly and more sustainable, if it doesn't pass the villain test, forget it. Because the market size for people that are willing to be sacrificial to do the right thing, there is a market that exists there, by the way, but it's very small. who kind of wanted to do the right thing, but not at the sacrifice of what's better for them, their self-interest, is massive and growing”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Environmentally, just hands down. It also happens to be better nutritionally, right? So it's got more protein than almond milk or the other kind of nut-based milks. And so it checks a lot of boxes in terms of better for the world, uses less resources, it's higher in nutritional value. And at scale, it can even be less expensive. And so checks a lot of boxes. But guess what?”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Yes, that's right. Oh, really? Yeah. So I think food is a very interesting one because it's universal and it's consumable and it's something that everybody can relate to. So Ripple has a number of benefits. If you go back to those kind of different buckets and you think about like, well, how does Ripple Foods better for the world they're using peat protein to create a dairy alternative, a milk alternative? So Ripple uses a fraction of the water and resources that dairy milk uses and even more so in addition to using significantly less water resources than a lot of the other dairy free milk alternatives, so almond milk, cashew milk, other milk alternatives. It just is less resource intensive. So it's just better.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “To a project to get nothing, no tangible reward. So you're telling me you're going to give money to an entrepreneur who's creating an independent film or a new product, but yet you get no equity in that product. You get no financial benefit. It's just you're kind of like contributing to it. That seems crazy. And in fact, not only did it work, I mean, they've now over $2 billion has gone on Kickstarter. And so it's been raised on Kickstarter. So it clearly scratches an itch both from what's best for me as an individual kind of enabling me to achieve my potential. But also this broader community of feeling like they're contributing and lifting somebody up. Another that I think Is very different from Kickstarter a more recent investment is in a food company called Ripple Foods.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “We were one of the earliest investors in Kickstarter, so it was probably around 2010. And just the idea that, again, kind of stepping back to this kind of collective effort, it was so clear that having multiple stakeholders lift up kind of creative projects was just a wonderful way to transform that. And prior to Kickstarter, something like the National Endowment of the Arts and applying for a grant was really the sole means of trying to accomplish that or asking friends and family. And with Kickstarter, it kind of opened things up in a way that I remember when Kickstarter was first getting started subsequent to our investment, even some of our own investors were saying, who in the right mind would give money?”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “I like that Yeah, you know I think there's a couple that immediately popped to mind. I think Kickstarter is one where selfishly people need capital for their creative projects.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of finding that balance. And I don't know if that's helpful, but that's really how we evaluate startups is around kind of that tension.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “That's just not what we do at Collaborative Fund. Whereas if somebody comes in and they are at the other end of the spectrum, right, like look at this sweater, it's so beautiful the way that it sits on your shoulders and it makes you look proud and sexy and, you know, but you ask them about it.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Is at that intersection, and you can see it and the returns from that. And so that's what we really look for is like, is this too heavily skewed towards one of those ends of the spectrum? So if we have an entrepreneur that comes in and they're talking about they're creating a product that, gosh, is this going to make the world a better place? And this sweatshirt is, you know, it's made with cotton that is fair trade and all of the kind of better for the world metrics. But I look at the sweatshirt and think I wouldn't be caught dead in that thing. I'd be embarrassed to wear it. Then it doesn't work as much as my heart would want to support it.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Set of feelings and emotions. Like you feel good about that decision, you feel like you're a part of a community that kind of cares about the world. And so those two inherently, unfortunately, are at odds until an entrepreneur like Elon Musk comes along and creates something like Tesla, which kind of allows for both of those emotions to exist, right? Tesla is every bit as fast, beautiful, the industrial design is world class, but it's also electric. And so it allows you to kind of scratch the itch of feeling dominant and bold and sexy, but also caring about what goes on in the world and about your community. And I think that's where the transformative kind of business is are going to be born.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Relates to investing, if not done well, it can really impair returns. That's right because we're human beings and by nature we're self-interested. And so finding the balance between what's best for me and what's best for the world is really where we like to evaluate startups. So there's a couple of examples that I give that kind of illustrate this tension. One might be in the transportation space, right? So you've got the Ford Mustang or Ferrari. So it kind of scratches that itch of sexy, bold, fast. You step into that car and you feel like the whole aura changes. I mean, it just is so dominant, right? But you have the Toyota Prius. And stepping into a Prius gives you a different.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Yeah, so I guess maybe starting out, we kind of focus in or around the seed stage. And so we're not so dogmatic that we won't look at things that are slightly. I enjoy most and that I think is somewhat unique to collaborative fund goes back to that original investment thesis around kind of this intersection between kind of what is best for me and what's best for the world. And I think that that's a really, that tension can be transformative. And I do credit some of this to Ben Goldhirsch from Good Magazine. He shared with me a term called the Villain Test, which I just, I hold dear. I love, which is, you know, this notion of doing good and what's best for the world is something that I think a lot of people are engaging with. It's a sensibility that has emerged a lot over the last decade. But I think as it relates,”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “So I look at our investments today and knowing when to kind of focus on your unit economics and how to build a budget and where to cut burn and how to build a team that's aligned around spending and all of the kind of core financial metrics is critical. But also knowing when to kind of invest in the business ahead of where your balance sheet can and knowing how to utilize outside capital is also very important. And so those two experiences were super valuable kind of to the experience that I had today. And I would layer on just the ethos and the kind of the sensibility behind Good Magazine and certainly Ben and Casey and Max and the whole team there, just the thinking. Was inspirational to some of the stuff that we're doing at Collaborative Fund.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Yeah, I think the experience there was informative and useful on a number of levels. And ironically very complimentary to the experience at the mobile business. So without kind of boring you with the details, the mobile business was bootstrapped. We didn't raise much outside capital. And so we kind of had to figure out a business model that allowed us to keep the lights on and grow our business organically, whereas Good Magazine was started by a guy named Ben Gold Hirsch. And Ben's father founded Inc. magazine. And so Ben had resources to actually invest in the business. And we were able to kind of grow without bootstrapping the business and having the experience of both of those efforts, I think, was very valuable.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “At the end of 2005, and then subsequent to that, I worked at a media company called Good Magazine. And Good Magazine is an organization that celebrates individuals, businesses, and nonprofits that are pushing the world forward. And actually, the”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Yeah, it was a startup called Proteus, and we were building applications very, very early on in the mobile ecosystem. And so you can imagine kind of text-based marketing. Some of the things that we did were voting on live television. So during sports programs, who do you think is going to be the MVP? And even during awards shows and those types of things, obviously American Idol kind of blew that hole in a large way in the US. And that business, we ended up partnering with HBO and doing kind of as their exclusive mobile partner. So we built games for sex in the city and sopranos and ringtones and the like. And that business ended up getting acquired.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “The street that he grew up on. Very common. Yeah. And I think that's there's something really, I love that, but I think you miss the element of that beacon, right? So nobody's saying, you know what, Ridgecrest, that's something I want to get behind. But I think collaborative fun is kind of a stake in the ground that says, you know, we believe that essentially collective action and resources are going to be a competitive edge in the for-profit kind of venture world. And I think that's a way of life. That's a kind of a thesis on where things are going and is just attractive. And not just to the sources of capital, but frankly, the same holds true for Entrepreneurs, as well as partners and media, and you name it. It's like it's a very, your brand is, we take that very seriously.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “And so let's use Scott Hyperman, founder of Meetup. I think even though our relationship wasn't super close, I think he saw what we were trying to do and just believed in it. I think the underlying mission served as a wonderful beacon, if you will, or a magnet to attract the type of people who could be value added in the efforts that we're pursuing. And I think that's really important because I look at so many financial managers and they choose either their own name, right? So it's Smith& Associates, or they choose just kind of an innocuous ridge crest, you know, mountain summit partners that really, I heard I was with some hedge fund managers, one of them was telling me he chose the name of his firm based on”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “There's two things I think are important there. One is prior to doing collaborative fund, I was an entrepreneur. And so through business, I was able to build relationships with some of these folks, which I just had the kind of good fortune of bumping into them, doing deals with them, working together with them. In some cases, working on opposing sides, but building a mutual respect. And so I think not coming ironically, not coming”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Of engineering wants to start his or her own business. And so we have this ever-expanding pool of talent that just continuously kind of refreshes itself. So that's how we find the bulk of our investment opportunities.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “A really rich source of deal flow because oftentimes their time and energy is spent a bit at a later stage, right? So they're deploying larger amounts of capital into more established businesses. The stuff that's really messy just getting started out of a garage somewhere, they may not have the time to evaluate every single one of those opportunities. And so collaborative fund actually serves as a wonderful kind of almost like an outsource for a lot of that early stage deal flow. The second, and frankly this has become an even richer source as the fund has aged a bit is our actual portfolio. So we've now invested in over 50 companies and those companies themselves spawn companies when one of the co-founders decides it's time to move on and start selling new or the VP.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “In collaborative fund, folks like Chuck Templeton, who founded Open Table, or Scott Heiferman, who founded Meetup, Ron Gonin, who founded Recycle Bank, Chad Hurley, who founded YouTube, and folks like these individuals that see a lot of deal flow themselves. So in the case of Ron Gonan, subsequent to Recycle Bank, he became the recycling czar under Mayor Bloomberg. And so really any startup that is in the kind of waste management, recycling kind of sandbox looks to Ron as somebody who really knows the space is well connected. And so a lot of times he's seeing deal flow that he's not able to parse or evaluate himself and in some cases we'll share that with us. And so our limited partners are”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “In the US, the kind of entrepreneurial spirit and just new business creation has been, I think, a driving force of our economy. And so lo and behold, if you get it right, if you're able to invest in some businesses very early on in their evolution, it can pay tremendous rewards. So the risk reward profile is interesting, but also just the tenor of how you raise that capital is interesting. For us, we have several sources of deal flow. Like how do we find stuff? One is just kind of, you know, I like to think somewhat unique to who collaborative fund is. And this goes back to our roots. And so in selecting kind of who our limited partners are, who our investors are, they're actually a great source of deal flow. So we have a number of entrepreneurs who have invested”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “You know, venture is interesting in that it's the only asset class that I'm aware of where the underlying assets don't yet exist. So when you're going out to raise a venture fund, it's a very strange kind of mental exercise because you're convincing people to invest in things that don't yet exist in most cases. And I think that's just factually different than investing in public equities or bonds or that you may have an opinion as to whether commodities are going to go up or down. But one thing is for sure, they exist. And this is a strange exercise to go out and kind of convince people to invest in a fund for things that don't yet exist. But if you look historically, that's kind of worked out in some cases. And particularly in”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “Which does micro loans, I think if you look at how that organization is run, it would almost surprise you. It was started by a former PayPal employee and a Stanford business student. And it's run almost like a for-profit business in a lot of ways. If you're sitting in their boardroom, I think you would be surprised it may look and smell different than what you would imagine of a nonprofit. And I think the same holds true in some public organizations or for-profit organizations. So my hunch is not having ever attended a Starbucks board meeting. But I think Howard Schultz does talk about what Starbucks' role is, both in the community as well as kind of a global citizen. And so I think the world has kind of shifted in this direction that it's not kind of as black and white as the Red Cross or Coca-Cola.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “You know, it's funny because I feel as though the world World kind of bifurcated those two things. You kind of had organizations that were really focused on doing good in the world. They were mostly nonprofit organizations, you might imagine something like the Red Cross. And it fit on one end of the spectrum. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, you had organizations whose sole purpose was to generate as best financial returns as possible for their shareholders, something like Coca-Cola. And it was very clear and distinct. And I feel like culturally the world has kind of migrated somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum. When you look at, I think, the leading organizations today, they fall somewhere in between those two. And so if you look at there's a nonprofit called Kiva.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Entrepreneurs. And I think about that often. I don't want to belabor the point, but I do feel like that background and your roots are both a metaphor but also literal translation of what we're growing here and that seed blossomed into, I think in my case, a wonderful family. And I'm hoping that with collaborative fund, we're able to kind of build a similar organization using some of the same principles and values.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “In so many ways. I mean, it's just incredible to have thought about all of the challenges that he faced. And in talking to him before he passed, one of the things that I feel like he passed down to myself and to the rest of our family was just the belief in kind of working together that you can't go it alone. And that was part of the thinking behind collaborative bond was kind of supporting people who are just getting started, who against all odds were trying to do something positive and helping them and capital is, in essence, it is the most universal kind of resource, certainly not the only and maybe not even the most important, but it's universally needed when starting a business. And so that kind of inspired me as kind of a mechanism for support.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Yeah, well, you know, my grandfather was an immigrant to the United States. He came over from Russia in the luggage section of a boat. You know, one of these stories where he came in into Ellis Island, lived in the Lower East Side at a very young age, never had a formal education beyond elementary school and started out with a push cart, you know, selling fruit and produce on a cart. And somehow made his way down to Washington, D.C. got married and raised my father and his two brothers above a small grocery store. And that story of just kind of lifting himself up by his bootstraps and creating a life for him and his wife and my father and his two brothers is kind of the American dream in its truest form. And it just inspired me.”

    2016-11-14 · Invest Like the Best · Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World - [Invest Like the Best, EP.11] · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source