YouSaid · the spoken record

Kamal Ravikant

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24
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2015-10-07
most recent
2015-10-07
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1
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podcast

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  1. “Of course. I don't invest my own money. The story, like I lost all my money in my last company. I was in a blew up and I was in serious credit card debt and everything. And I've been able to change my life around. And it's amazing where I am now than where I was just like, you know, three, four years ago. But if it's someone else's money, there's a whole level of responsibility. It's just like taking money when you're building a company. I feel the same way. It's not your money. You don't go around throwing crazy parties and wasting money. It's not your money. You took money from someone, so now your job is to actually allocate it to the best possible use for building the company.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I don't think legally should be able to invest in that because it's not my money. It's other people who trust it. I really feel very strong about it. These people trusted me with their money. And that's a hell of a trust. And so my job is to say, you know, it's weird. As an entrepreneur, my job was to say yes to everything and figure it out, right? My job as a VC that this is the weird thing is to say no to everything and to find that occasional yes. It's really weird. Let me tell you, I still haven't gotten used to it.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Yes and no, it depends on the company. There's one that I'm going to invest in that I think is the guy who actually came up with social impact. Brian Sergitz, look him up. He's amazing. And I'm going to hopefully let me invest. But this is one that I think can also generate very healthy returns. You know, I've seen what he's building and it's got the, it's social impact, but it's got the best, you know, great simple business model. It's already got like big players lined up. So you can do. If you want venture money, you have to, in the end, you know, convince people that this is going to return significant capital. If you want to do just purely social good, then I think go to nonprofit route. You know, it's really that simple. Or go to angels who really care about that space. Don't go to BC's. You know, angels are doing their own money. Go to people who care about that space. They want to be a part of it. And if they lose their money, it's okay because they were actually got to help something that they care about.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Dash had taken advantage of the people who can help and it's in a space I'm very interested in, it's a space I think that really needs to evolve. None of the players in there actually have done a real evolution in a long time. And the ones who've tried, you know, they've kind of like hit snags. So I think there's a lot of room there. And I think this is an investment that could do. Also, but fundamentally, I think it's investment that could do very well. Because, you know, I can't invest in things I just like. I have a producer responsibility to my LPs that, you know, fundamentally it's to return a significant amount of money on the capital invest in the fund. So people send me a lot of social stuff, socially good stuff all the time, and I'm a fan of it, but I can't invest in it because it's not a real, it won't generate real venture returns.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “My most recent investment was a company called Bolt. And normally, funny enough, it was an uncapped note I never signed on do uncapped notes to some principal alone. But the founders are damn sharp, and it's a bet they're doing something in payments, and payments is something that's always bugged me. It's something that it's a company I would have started. It's a problem I would have wanted I wanted to solve. And they're smart, they have the talent, and I was actually, you know, I was they going by the smart, they raised enough money just another small investor in there, but they wanted to make sure that I could add value to them. So they actually, as I interviewed them, they interviewed me, right? And then they've already set up the meetings for us to talk and do, where can I help? I was impressed. So if they're doing it with me,”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Tech is, you know, like we say, software is the world, and what Power Software is venture capital money. And he is literally transforming that industry with Angelist. I'm so in awe of what he and his team have done and are doing. I'm just in complete awe.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Honestly, another one, Mike, but I wasn't going to say that because my personal bias, but really my brother Naval Ravikan, and I've seen him, the vision he had for helping truly democratizing venture capital and putting the hands in the power of the entrepreneur. You know, angelists looking back now seems a no-brainer, but that vision started like a very long time ago. And it took that long to actually put the steps to build it. That level of passion to just put power in the hands of the entrepreneurs. And fundamentally, what he's done with Angelists, him and his team, is changed an industry that is literally changing the world.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Definitely not a politician. I'm very inspired by, I don't know how good a leader Elon Musk is, but I'm very inspired by him. He's a true innovator and big thinker and executor. And he put his own money on the line multiple times. It's very inspiring”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I'll tell you a book that have the biggest effect on me, right? There was the alchemist. Obviously, we've all read that. There's a little prince. There's ferviled arms by Hemingway that just showed me the devastating power of real writing The great work of your life as Stephen Cope and then Stephen Presville's work about the work art and turning proper”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “No, it fits your passion. You grew up in the water bottle industry and your dad, you know, you lived around water bottles and that's what you want to do. You think that everyone should have access to water bottles on demand. Please do it. You're the person. Everybody else? No.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Is that what keeps you up at night, like water bottle delivery? There's somebody out there doesn't, that's the person who needs to be building it, not you.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Well, you know, usually I want to understand their product. I want to understand their team why do they have this person in team? What's their burn rate? Why is the burn rate like this? How are they going to distribute? Like the basics question and basics on building a business online because a lot of people are just very wide-eyed, starry-eyed, and they don't understand the actual, you know, oh yeah, we'll just build it with ads on it or we'll just, you know, we'll just charge subscription fee. All that simple stuff's been done. You know, it's how they industry involved. It's simple stuff. People make a ton of money in the beginning. Then it becomes complicators. Everyone's doing it, right? Then the next simple stuff. The next simple stuff. You got to be ahead of the curve. I think the only best things are build something simple that you keeps you up at night that eventually other people want that solves a problem, that fundamentally solves a problem. Because I see a lot of people try to solve a problem that's really not a problem.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I've been in long enough that I unfortunate that I have friends, we all share deals with each other. And you sort of know when you meet people because I've been doing this, not the VC part, but the entrepreneurship part long enough, I can just ask someone questions about their company and how they're building and know exactly what they're doing and if this is a real one or not. You know, like I met a”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “There's a lot of people are talking versus the doors are usually not at the meetups. Doers are not at a lot of the conferences. They're home coding. Those are the guys I want to meet. I want to meet the guys who've never been to one conference, but I just want to see what he built.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Well, it's interesting, right? Because in some ways it's becoming more like Hollywood. It's running a startup is very sexy. There's nothing sexy about it, honestly. It's work. If you're doing a real, like the real entrepreneurs, everyone I've known who's succeeded, especially people who succeeded multiple times, there was nothing sexy about what they're doing. You know, you watch their weekends, you wash their time, they're just sitting in front of the computer working, right? And like this whole Helen, you know, like these shitty apartments, whatever, there's none of that showing brava where they had pools and models and all that. I wish we did, but we didn't. It's like you meet all these people who come in and everybody wants to do a startup and everybody's got an idea. And I think it's good, but it's also”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yeah, I mean, and also, but like he would go in and say, okay, what do you need? You know, the CEO would tell him, and he would actually say, Okay, I can help with this, that, that, and then he would deliver. That's all it is. Ultimately, anyone who puts money in your company, you should look at them as an advisor who's incentivized now because their money's in it.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “They're doing actual work for the entrepreneurs. That's the real value add, right? So people like Rick and Tim Ferris and obviously Naval and And it's like the up and coming crop through. Through Angelus. Nikhil Kaligati and I'm huge fans of these guys.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And I Rick was so valued it put me to shame. I was in awe. I was like, dude, I wish I'd had you as an advisor to my company when I was building it. I had no idea, right? Those are the guys you want. Rick was just wasn't just like, I think you should do that. Rick was like, okay, I'm talking on this person. I'm going to make that deal happen for him. Doing this, do that. It's”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Jessica Kenneth lead Jacobs, you know, all these guys who were all entrepreneurs, right? Build stuff and now like through Angelus are basically running one-off funds. I would take their money over a lot of VCs any day in a heartbeat. Because I'm actually okay, so Rick Marini, right? He was a CEO of Tickle in the dot-com boom. He sold it for, he built it A really legitimate hard work built, they sold it for 100 million, start another company, branch out that exited recently. He and our investors in Luxe Valley, and I went to a meeting with him and the CEO.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Like Vast VC in New York is my favorite here. And then outside of here, like just in San Francisco, in the Bay, in Silicon Valley, like just the Angels. Well, no, there's ones like Kent Goleman. He was actually a board observer at my last company. He was such a value add. He went off and started his own fund. There's all these one partner fund starting, you know, where they're like, really one guy, they got to make a name for themselves, their real value add, you know, and then just like the Angela syndicates. I've heard Tim Ferris, he really helps his companies. The syndicates Tim Ferris, Rickini.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “If I'm qualified to answer, but I'll give you because I'm a new VC, you know, and I'm a very non-traditional VC. I run a small fund. My fund is doing, I'm going to raise a bigger fund, but still keep it small and running like a cheap entrepreneur, right? I think the future is actually the angelist and angels and VCs. I think the, it's actually the smaller funds are the ones who are doing really well. You know, like I'm going to know I'm in New York right now. I'm going to know the up-and-coming stars here and they're all young guys, 20s, 30s. They're on the street. I mean, I say street, I mean metaphorically, you know, they know all the entrepreneurs, they're working with them, they're helping with them, they're hanging out with them versus the old days when you just had to go to Sandhill Road and basically get on your hands and knees, right? I think that's Newgard. And I really love it.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Fundamentally, it's about giving the entrepreneur the power. The entrepreneur is the one who loses big because they're going all in on one thing for their life, right? For three, five years of their life. If you see you're just another company in their portfolio, right?”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Doing their own, like, we're going to help you recruiting and do this. We're going to do that. They didn't do anything before. They just got in your way.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “It's just because we all have, you know, if you talk to the old school people, everyone's got a history of being screwed over IVCs. You know, the VCs were the only game in town, and he just spent six months in Sandhill Road. And then the terms they wrote were atrocious, you know, and there were all these stories of VC's firing CEOs, like, what guy hasn't built a company has the right to fire a CEO? You know, or like doing things that screwed people over, screwed CEOs over, screwed founding teams over with the VCs made the money, but the founding teams did. That was more the norm than not, right? So now with things like Angelists, you have, they are competing for talent now, which is great. You know, that's what a free market should be. I think the entrepreneur is the one who needs to have the power. The entrepreneur is the one who creates the value, not the VCs. You know, fundamentally, no matter how, you're still the dumb money guy, right? And you're just another one of the dumb money guys. And you should actually, so now, like people are trying to be more value add and even using the word value add and the VC firms.”

    2015-10-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 077: Part 2: Kamal Ravikant: The Future Of Venture Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source