The Peel with Turner Novak

Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeelAlan Feld is the Founder and Managing Partner of Vintage Investment Partners. Vintage is one of the largest fund of funds in the world, managing over $4 billion across what is mostly investments into other venture funds, plus some secondary and direct startup investments at the growth stage. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 03:53 What is Vintage 05:40 Why VCs adding value can waste a founder’s time 09:01 VC, where the asset chooses the investor 10:14 Fund size is the enemy of returns in VC 14:57 What people get wrong about FoFs 16:01 The value FoFs bring to LPs 17:11 Why entrepreneurs drive VC returns 17:55 Vintage’s unique FoF model 19:05 Does replacing the founders with an outside CEO work? 21:39 Starting Vintage after the Dot Com Crash in 2002 23:41 Buying secondaries at 70-80% discounts 25:13 Biggest mistakes when buying secondaries 26:18 Research around what makes the best entrepreneurs 31:09 Lessons from six downturns 34:41 Comparisons between 2002 and 2022 37:07 Advice for raising your first VC fund 41:16 The importance of differentiation 45:57 Sustainable ways to differentiate 49:05 What Vintage looks for in new fund investments 49:57 Advice for scaling a VC firm 53:47 Succession planning 57:50 What Alan’s doing post-Vintage Vintage Investment Partners: https://www.vintage-ip.com/ Where to find Alan: Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanf_feld LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-feld-1744389/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Anu Sharma is the Co-founder and CEO of Millie, building a better care system from the inside out. Our conversation covers the existing maternal health system, how Millie is reinventing it, and how to succeed building a healthcare company. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (03:16) Problems in US maternity care (13:21) Why insurance reimbursement drives healthcare (16:11) How bundled care unlocks personalization (18:48) From fiction writer to 20 years in healthcare (24:22) Why consumers don’t act like consumers in healthcare (26:09) The reason scale matters (27:43) Bundled payments and new care design (32:16) What make Millie unique (35:58) Importance of picking regional markets in healthcare (37:08) The two paths for insurance reimbursement (41:08) Why distribution is the product in healthcare (44:25) Opportunities in cash pay care (48:28) How Anu fundraised without a product (51:06) The future of in-person, hybrid, and virtual healthcare (52:56) Building maternity clinics for $150k Check out Millie: https://www.millieclinic.com/ Where to find Anu: Twitter: https://twitter.com/anu_anusharma1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anu-sharma-b169b12 Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Aaron Levie is a co-founder and the CEO of Box. This conversation covers opportunities in AI, the early days of Box, and lessons Aaron's learned on his founder journey. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (03:11) Why ChatGPT was an iPhone moment (04:37) Advice for large companies incorporating AI (11:16) Why AI will add jobs, not steal them (16:13) How AI is supercharging Box’s products (19:03) AI agents: the $1 trillion opportunity (25:27)Estimating size of new markets(29:58) Starting Box with high school friends (33:18) Living out of their first office (34:52) Why early investors passed on Box (37:24) Pivoting from consumer to B2B (39:53) How Box got its first customers (41:57) Should founders talk to Associates at VC firms? (43:26) How Mamoon at Kleiner saved Box at its Series B (46:25) Turning down an acquisition before IPO (50:51) Why Box’s IPO was so hard (54:11) Fending off an activist investor during COVID Check out Box: https://www.box.com/ Where to find Aaron: Twitter: https://twitter.com/levie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boxaaron/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Warp: Don’t let payroll and compliance hold your startup back: visit https://joinwarp.com/peel to get started and receive a $1,000 gift card when you first run payroll. Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Elad Gil is the founder of Color Genomics and Mixer Labs, which he sold to Twitter, and an early investor in iconic companies like Airbnb and Stripe, plus upstarts like Perplexity and Anduril. This is a wide ranging conversation that covers education, AI, and advice for building a startup. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (03:46) Building cool monuments (09:12) Fixing education (16:38) Why AI is underhyped (19:02) Four trends to watch in AI (19:55) Why there aren’t large biotech companies (23:21) The current state of Elad Gill (24:32) How he incubates companies (26:32) Contemplating AI-driven buyouts (27:29) His investing strategy, from early to late stage (36:57) Why he remained solo for so long (40:19) How to get conviction in unpopular investments (42:53) What made Steve Jobs a good communicator (44:00) The importance of ambition and leadership (46:28) Why Elad puts so much weight in the market (47:45) The evolution of Google’s business model (49:17) How to monetize consumer products (50:06) Analyzing a potential startup market (51:23) How successful products eventually become distribution companies (56:30) Non-obvious startup advice (59:54) When its OK to give up (01:02:20) Advice on raising your first round (01:03:21) Picking board members (01:04:45) How to hire your first three employees (01:06:48) Avoiding bad hires (01:08:39) The importance of speed of execution (01:12:36) Why he’s adding to his team (01:14:31) Gardening Referenced: Elad’s Blog: https://blog.eladgil.com/ Elad’s Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@NoPriorsPodcast/ Elad’s Book: https://growth.eladgil.com/ Where to find Elad: Twitter: https://twitter.com/eladgil LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil Elad’s Website: https://eladgil.com/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

This episode is brought to you by Warp. Don’t let payroll and compliance hold your startup back: visit https://joinwarp.com/peel to get started and receive a $1000 gift card when you first run payroll. Celine Halioua is the founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech company developing medicine to help dogs live longer and healthier lives. And dogs are just the start - Celine thinks Loyal could one day do the same for humans. She takes us inside what it’s like to build a biotech company from scratch. We talk through how Loyal’s longevity drugs work, the process of getting FDA approval, her biggest mistakes as a founder, how to approach building in a new market, lessons learned failing to raise her Series B, why rate of growth is all that matters in hiring, and almost not starting the company in the first place. Timestamps: (00:00) Preview (03:30) How a longevity drug works (06:08) Predictions around longevity (08:26) Why Celine cares so much about not failing (12:05) Differences between biotech and software startups (14:15) Sizing a new market (16:53) Why biotech startups are more dilutive early on (20:22) Getting FDA approval (22:57) Why its hard to prove longevity drugs actually work (24:48) The reason Loyal started with dogs (25:27) How Loyal’s drug slows aging (33:42) Working on longevity to increase free will (34:25) Culture shock at Oxford and dropping out of her PhD (37:22) What makes Josh Koppelman a good VC (39:44) Celine’s two biggest mistakes as a founder (42:39) Why rate of growth is the best indicator of success but the hardest to predict (45:33) Self awareness & how being a CEO is both fun and miserable (48:11) How Laura Deming convinced her to start Loyal (50:18) Finding the science behind Loyal (54:21) Deciding it was the right path to start a company (56:30) Lessons from failing to raise a Series B initially (1:02:18) Why Silicon Valley can build 10x more deep tech startups (1:04:05) Doing big things that improve the world (1:04:50) What Celine looks for in startups Where to find Celine: Twitter: https://twitter.com/celinehalioua LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celinehh/ Celine's Website: https://www.celinehh.com/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Rahul Sonwalkar is the founder and CEO of Julius, an AI data scientist. He takes us inside his epic “Ligma Johnson” prank where he pretended to be fired from Twitter the day Elon acquired the company. He then goes inside his journey of building Julius, sharing lessons learned along the way and his vision for the product. Timestamps: (00:00) Preview (04:16) The "Ligma Johnson" prank (09:02) Meeting Elon (13:10) Doing hackathons in college (14:30) Scraping emails from Hacker News to get internships (16:25) Using Twitter to learn and meet people (22:26) Lessons from his first failed startup (26:19) Taking too long to quit Big Tech & his failed startup idea in trucking (32:12) Convincing Guillermo Rauch to invest with speed of execution (34:48) How to avoid analysis paralysis (36:15) Building Julius, the AI data scientist (39:25) How COO of a hot tub company uses Julius (40:40) Professor embracing AI, using Julius to teach his class (42:47) Iterating on early versions of the product (44:42) PMF is as much about the market as the product (45:08) Building dozens of ChatGPT plugins to acquire Julius’ first users (45:41) Using dev API keys and missing the first paying customers (49:22) Talking to hundreds of early customers (50:10) Why customers love when you ship new features every week (52:14) The power of Julius’ small team (54:38) Why Rahul gives his number to customers (57:47) How to avoid idea backlogs (59:27) Why Julius tests so many models (01:01:44) Why it feels great when people love your product (01:03:43) AI will write more code than humans (01:06:33) Giving an AI a computer (01:11:05) What happens to all the AI startups? (01:12:36) Why you have to Ride the Tiger (01:16:43) How NVIDIA beat 89 other graphics card startups (01:20:14) Building a moat as a startup (01:22:50) Rahul’s favorite AI companies (01:25:11) Why Julius’ changes UI components based on the use case (01:27:42) Benefits of lifting (01:29:54) Why Rahul loves SF (01:31:38) The early days of Microsoft Referenced: https://julius.ai/ Guillermo’s tweet: https://x.com/rauchg/status/1773168477957919055 Where to find Rahul: Twitter: https://twitter.com/0interestrates LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulsonwalkar23 Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Bill Shufelt is the Founder and CEO of Athletic Brewing, the craft brewer that created the non-alcohol beer market in the US. Bill takes us inside the early days of starting the company, including realizing there was an opportunity to make non-alcoholic beer, finding a co-founder, struggling to find early investors, building multiple breweries, and getting into Whole Foods before launching. Our conversation is a case study on creating a new market - I hope you enjoy. Timestamps: (00:00) Preview (04:10) Becoming the #1 beer in Whole Foods(05:54) The history of non-alcoholic beer(10:41) Why an outsider had to create this new category(15:34) Health benefits of avoiding alcohol(17:51) Turner tries the beer(22:49) Bill’s wife pushing him to start Athletic Brewing(26:38) Writing a 96 page white paper on non-alcoholic beer(28:42) Quitting his job to start six months of research and networking(30:21) Meeting the perfect co-founder after 100’s of meetings(32:34) Putting his life savings into a warehouse and brewing equipment(33:04) The importance of setting company values early on(34:23) Brewing the first beer in Gatorade jugs(36:16) Selling the first bottles to retailers(37:42) Explosive growth in 2019(39:39) Why new products and D2C helped them scale so fast(40:39) Using TikTok to sell-out new product launches in 30 seconds(42:00) The value of doing early customer service himself(44:45) Getting to 61% market share in non-alcoholic beer(46:10) Struggling to raise the first angel round(48:34) Using consistent investor updates to easily raise the Seed, Series A, and Series B(50:47) Transitioning to institutional capital for its Series C(52:33) Betting on a new category to expand market size(55:44) Information access is enabling healthier consumer behavior(58:11) Bill’s early strategy for marketing the product(1:01:43) The importance of over communicating with your investors(1:03:44) Why retailers like Athletic Brewing’s unique omni channel approach(1:06:16) How building its own breweries and supply chain enabled its unique strategy and better margins at scale(1:09:04) Getting into Whole Foods before launching(1:11:31) Doing unscaleable things over and over again(1:13:50) Why entrepreneurship is a long game(1:14:22) Most of Athletic’s new products come from the team Check out Athletic Brewing: https://athleticbrewing.com/ Where to find Bill: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-shufelt-650059138 Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Dane Atkinson is the Founder and CEO of Odeko, the all-in-one operations partner for local businesses. Dane has spent his entire career helping small businesses. This episode is a masterclass on selling to SMBs. He shares all his lessons learned as a founder, and how Odeko survived zero revenue during COVID and hit $150 million in revenue two years later. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (03:33) The magic formula to sell to SMBs (04:06) Why every small business starts as a dream (21:57) The reasons you shouldn’t listen to customers (25:16) Lessons running Squarespace for four years (27:12) Why simplicity is better for SMBs (28:58) How Squarespace ran the very first podcast ads (35:35) Lessons messing up his second company (37:46) How to demote an employee (50:29) Coming up with the idea for Odecco (52:05) Why VCs screw their portfolio companies (55:16) How to navigate pivots with your board (01:04:27) Growing revenue from zero to $100m+ in two years (01:12:10) Advice for first-time founders (01:14:18) How Dane would re-design the food system (01:15:39) Why our food is so bad for our health (01:16:17) How Odeko empowers local makers Check out Odeko: https://odeko.com/ Where to find Dane: Twitter: https://twitter.com/daneatkinson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daneatkinson Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Josh Miller is CEO and co-founder of The Browser Company, which is building a new internet browser. He explains why effective hiring requires caring a lot and trusting your taste and why Arc Search, a default mobile browser, could be The Browser Company’s next act. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00:00) Intro (00:02:35) Working for Obama (00:03:55) Giving up 8-figures in Meta stock (00:08:19) Barack Obama’s favorite web browser (00:09:02) Why Arc released a mobile browser (00:10:03) How Josh met Josh Kushner (00:11:26) Becoming an EIR at Thrive Capital (00:12:09) How The Browser Company got started (00:15:51) Why they named it The Browser Company (00:18:49) Pivoting to consumer when COVID hit (00:20:37) Leaving Thrive to join as a Co-founder in February 2020 (00:21:05) Why COVID made browsers relevant (00:22:42) How to hire a great team (00:25:02) Hiring Josh Lee to edit their videos (00:26:52) The biggest difference between Josh as a first-time and second-time founder (00:28:46) Learning to delegate (00:34:03) Why Thrive gave up double-digit equity back to the founders (00:40:18) Launching (00:40:52) Why build a web browser (00:42:17) This history of browsers (00:43:36) Why they’ve gotten worse over time (00:50:26) The reasons people use Arc (00:53:23) How Arc will make money (00:56:45) Why Arc’s existential question is getting people to care about their browser (00:59:47) The story behind Arc Search (01:00:45) Arc’s potential growth flywheel (01:09:17) Why Arc bet big on building in public on YouTube (01:10:16) The publisher backlash to Arc Search (01:11:33) Why praising your team publicly is so important (01:13:39) How Josh hired Nate Parrott More on The Browser Company: https://thebrowser.company/ https://arc.net/https:// www.youtube.com/c/TheBrowserCompany Where to find Josh: Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-miller-b31259106 Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Subscribe to my newsletter The Split for new episodes emailed every week: https://www.thespl.it/ Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Peter Walker is Head of Insights at Carta and writes a newsletter called “The Data Minute”, a weekly newsletter highlighting data from over 43,000 private tech companies that use Carta’s platform to manage their cap table. He gives us into a deep dive on VC valuation trends, the fundraising landscape, and startup strategies. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:50) Valuation trends in 2023 (08:10) Why Seed valuations went up over the past two years (12:27) AI startups are getting higher valuations (17:40) Why Biotech might be the next big bubble (19:15) Boston as the 2nd largest VC ecosystem (21:15) How SAFE’s work (24:06) The impending SAFE reckoning (26:13) Why startups don’t pay dividends (28:31) Downrounds were 2x more common in 2023 (32:11) Almost half of all 2023 Series As were extensions (35:34) Is there really a lot of dry powder? (40:43) The emerging manager fundraising landscape (48:19) Exit environment (51:45) Why pre-Series B is the most common acquisition stage (52:47) Liquidation preference & why an acquisition at Seed might make a founder more money than at a Series B (55:59) Compensation market data (56:38) Why the number of total startup employees shrank in 2023 (57:38) Why startup employees aren’t exercising their options (1:00:57) Health of the secondary markets (1:04:51) Most co-founder splits aren’t 50/50 (1:06:47) Why you should always vest co-founder equity (1:09:30) 2023 record year for startup shutdowns (1:17:19) Will other startup ecosystems ever catch Silicon Valley? Links: Carta’s Q4 ‘23 Private Market Report: https://carta.com/blog/state-of-private-markets-q4-2023/ Peter’s Newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/ Where to find Peter: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterJ_Walker LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjameswalker/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Subscribe to my newsletter The Split for new episodes emailed every week: https://www.thespl.it/ Chris Bakke has founded and sold three companies for between $25-100 million to Zillow, Indeed, and most recently Twitter / X. He shares how he convinced Elon to buy his company, what it's like working for Elon, exactly how the Twitter algorithm works, and all his meme making secrets. — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:52) Inside Twitter’s acquisition of Laskie(05:38) Why Twitter / X works so well for recruiting(08:11) A sneak peek at upcoming Premium features(13:58) How the X algorithm works(20:48) Why “dwell time” is the most important metric(24:07) What it’s like reporting to Elon(27:40) Elon’s crazy ability to context-switch(29:16) Why you should consider selling your company for $25-100 million(35:39) The reasons large M&A deals are so rare(42:07) Surviving inside Big Tech as a founder(46:23) Chris's philosophy on company building(51:23) Why “Time in Market” is so underrated(53:44) YC’s “sandwich incident”(55:44) How to use memes for marketing(58:55) Chris’ 100+ page Google Slide meme library(1:01:46) His top three favorite meme templates(1:03:48) His favorite proprietary trade secret at X(1:05:03) Turning down jobs at Coinbase and WhatsApp — — — — Twitter jobs: https://twitter.com/jobs — — — — Where to find Chris Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisJBakke LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bakk3/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Subscribe to my newsletter The Split for new episodes emailed every week: https://www.thespl.it/ Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Mike is currently a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Before Lightspeed, he spent five years building Anchor, which he sold to Spotify in 2020, and then led Spotify’s podcast, video, and live products for three years. It's probably safe to assume every podcast you listen to uses Mike’s product, and we go way back to the very beginning and talk through how the team at Anchor pulled it all off.Mike also shares his frameworks of “Doing the Dumb Thing” and "Super Goals," which are high-stakes, focusing goals with a clear and urgent time frame, open-ended method of achievement, and a single measure of success. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (4:22) Why AI makes consumer investing interesting again (8:05) Podcasting in the early 2010’s (14:03) The benefits and drawbacks of RSS (21:50) Building v1 “Instagram for audio” (25:53) Advice for building a close-knit community (29:28) Raising their first small round (31:38) Inside their splashy launch at SXSW (39:17) Why the first product failed, but allowed them to raise money to build Anchor (45:26) What makes a good product founder (47:39) Re-launching v2 a year later (53:51) What is a Super Goal (56:32) Finding Product Market Fit with months of runway left (59:02) Getting to a million podcast creators (01:02:09) Launching the first podcast ad network (01:04:10) Why anchor started sponsoring its own ad network (01:08:13) Spotify’s acquisition of Anchor (01:14:22) How Spotify won in podcast market share (01:16:34) Why the future of podcasts is video Referenced: Mike’s Podcast “Generative Now”: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXW6zY9x-gk1oPyjZ_qBCDEYKTbPpGa8S Mike’s blog posts: https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-standards-innovation-paradox https://mignano.substack.com/p/the-power-of-supergoals https://mignano.substack.com/p/startups-vs-incumbents-the-battle https://mignano.substack.com/p/all-podcast-roads-lead-to-video Where to find Mike: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mignano LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mignano Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Eric Newcomer is the founder of Newcomer, a publication he launched in October of 2020 to cover the business of startups and venture capital. He had just left Bloomberg after nearly six years, and was previously the first employee at The Information. — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:46) The current state of media (05:59) Anchoring his 4th grade newscast (07:21) Becoming the 1st employee at The Information (09:34) How reporters get stories (21:12) The moment he quit Bloomberg to start Newcomer (26:02) Why he writes for VC insiders (32:19) The VC top fund survey (34:01) The Founders Choice VC leaderboard (35:51) Why leaked documents grow his newsletter the fastest (39:45) When Eric knew Newcomer was going to work (43:31) How events become Newcomers most profitable business (51:56) Why Eric invested in Substack (57:42) Why its harder to cover tech’s downturn than boom times (59:10) How to pitch a story to a reporter (01:02:59) Why the internet incentivizes negative media coverage (01:06:06) Advice for starting a media company (01:10:33) Why media works so well to sell adjacent products (01:12:55) Newcomer Banking Summit (01:14:27) The $1.3B acquisition that happened at his first conference (01:20:05) New products Eric’s thinking about — — — — Referenced: Newcomer Passes $1m in Revenue: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/04/substack-writer-eric-newcomer-says-his-revenue-surpassed-1m-in-2023 Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/ Mike Solana’s Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/ Mentioned Newcomer Articles: VC Survey: https://www.newcomer.co/p/sequoia-founders-fund-usv-elad-gil Founder's Choice: https://www.newcomer.co/p/founders-choice-vc-rankings-revealed Paywalled Bill Gurley Interview: https://www.newcomer.co/p/above-the-crowd SBF’s Leaked FTX Email: https://www.newcomer.co/p/exclusive-read-sam-bankman-frieds Eric’s first article on Sequoia: https://www.newcomer.co/p/sequoias-political-paradox — — — — Where to find Eric: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricNewcomer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericpnewcomer/ Newsletter: https://www.twitter.com/newcomer Email: newcomer@newcomer.co Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Siqi Chen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Runway, the modern and intuitive way to model, plan, and align your business for everyone on your team. Or, in Siqi’s words, “revolutionizing the $80 trillion business industry”. A few months ago, Runway’s new website went viral across the internet. Siqi takes us inside how that happened. He’s no stranger to going viral, having previously built multiple companies that went from zero to millions of users within weeks, including the fastest growing product ever before ChatGPT took the crown in late 2022. — — — — Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM. It’s powerful, flexible and easily configures to the unique way your startup runs, whatever your go-to-market motion. The next era deserves a better CRM. Join OpenAI, Replicate, ElevenLabs and more at ⁠https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel⁠ — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro(02:00) Sponsor: Attio (02:59) How Siqi goes viral (06:13) Why conversion doesn’t always matter (11:23) How to make B2B software more fun (14:31) Working on the Curiosity and Spirit rovers at NASA (16:50) Re-designing at the entire codebase and product at his first startup job (21:13) Earning the nickname “FB Millz” making a million dollars building Facebook games (25:11) Selling to Zynga and building the fastest growing product before ChatGPT (28:36) Building a game with 90% Day 1 retention (30:09) Being played by Kim Kardashian, Jack Dorsey, and shut down by Tim Cook (32:10) Almost getting fired building a growth team at Postmates (35:04) Building Sandbox VR: “escape rooms in VR” (40:35) Meeting Kanye (44:38) Getting the idea for Runway when COVID hit (47:32) Why spreadsheets run every business (54:40) Disrupting the $80 trillion business industry (57:55) Making formulas 50x easier than Excel (01:02:32) Why Runway’s building a painkiller (01:06:32) How to fundraise (01:08:32) Why the first question from an investor is the reason they won’t invest (01:11:28) How to tell a company’s story (01:15:23) The three layers of a story (01:17:28) The importance of positioning in storytelling (01:18:56) Runway’s flexible remote work strategy (01:21:34) Why their hiring strategy changed over time (01:22:39) Siqi’s single interview question & the three traits he looks for when hiring (01:26:10) Unlearning consumer to learn B2B (01:30:26) Navigating the first three years of no customers (01:31:45) What surprised Dylan Field the most about building Figma — — — — Referenced: Runway’s website: https://runway.com/ Reform Collective Design Agency: https://www.reformcollective.com/ Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ SandboxVR: https://sandboxvr.com/ Lulu Cheng’s Android Playbook: https://www.piratewires.com/p/anduril-comms-strategy-early-days — — — — Where to find Siqi: Twitter: https://twitter.com/blader LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Shrav Mehta is the Founder and CEO of Secureframe, which empowers businesses to build trust with customers by automating information security and compliance. Shrav started the company in 2019 after being an early employee at Scale, Pilot, Lob, and Hired, and has since raised from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Backend Capital, Soma Capital, and Banana Capital. Shrav takes us inside how Secureframe’s automating the compliance market, lessons learned on recruiting and scaling teams, and his contrarian take on finding product market fit. — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (2:10) Automating the $80 billion compliance market (15:49) Learning to program building Android apps (22:50) Joining Lob, Hired, and Scale early (27:25) Joining Pilot to learn marketing and growth (33:31) Shrav’s secret discount furniture supplier (35:04) Finishing three years of college in one year (39:06) Getting 30-40 customers before starting Secureframe (44:24) Non-intuitive fundraising advice from pre-product to IPO (50:08) Why the IPO isn't the ultimate goal (54:40) How Shrav approaches hiring (58:04) Tactics for effective reference checks (1:01:01) Why warm intros are so helpful (1:02:32) How to send good cold emails (1:05:31) Why you should not use LinkedIn “open to work” (1:06:54) Lessons learned scaling teams (1:13:45) Why finding PMF is a 24/7 job and never ends — — — — Referenced: Secureframe: https://secureframe.com/ Lob: https://www.lob.com/ Hired: https://hired.com/ Scale: https://scale.com/ Zapier’s Secrets to PMF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJMjuYt9jEc What it took to raise a Series A in 2023: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/seed-to-series-a-funding-2023-jones-kruze — — — — Where to find Shrav: Twitter: https://twitter.com/shravvmehtaa/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/shravmehta/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/turnernovak/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Kevin Espiritu is the founder and CEO of Epic Gardening, which is, by multiple measures, one of the largest brands in gardening on the planet.What started in 2013 as a blog has since evolved into a gardening empire spanning YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, 4,500 gardening stores, and three gardening books. Epic raised a $17.5m Series A from The Chernin Group in 2021, and according to external sources did $27 million in revenue in 2022. — — — — Brought to you by Attio, the next generation of CRM. It’s powerful, flexible and easily configures to the unique way your startup runs, whatever your go-to-market motion. The next era deserves a better CRM. Join OpenAI, Replicate, ElevenLabs and more at https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel — — — — Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:03) Sponsor: Attio (05:09) A deep dive on the history of YouTube (12:04) The YouTube algorithm and meta game (40:17) Using Reddit to drive initial blog traffic (46:56) How creator-led businesses have negative CAC (47:12) Why creator businesses must be very small or very large (49:38) How YouTube is changing today (50:00) Acquiring a gardening blog for $1k from an Indian VC (52:43) His process for doing acquisitions (53:38) Launching his first product (57:54) His biggest mistakes launching new products (58:30) Buying his own warehouse (59:04) Non-intuitive ways a product can influence your cost structure (1:03:00) Kevin’s approach to hiring (1:04:40) Why he raised a Series A as a YouTube creator (1:05:27) How to approach investing in AI (1:19:53) Why Kevin wrote three books (1:23:26) Why more people will grow food at home (1:25:20) How he approaches celebrity partnerships — — — — Referenced: Epic Homesteading: Your Guide to Self-Sufficiency on a Modern, High-Tech, Backyard Homestead https://www.amazon.com/Epic-Homesteading-Self-Sufficiency-High-Tech-Homestead/dp/0760383766 MrBeast https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast MrBeast's Feastables https://feastables.com/ Logan Paul x KSI PRIME https://drinkprime.com/ MatPat of @GameTheory https://www.youtube.com/channelUCo_IB5145EVNcf8hw1Kku7w Michelle Phan https://www.youtube.com/user/michellephan Ipsy: https://www.ipsy.com/ by Michelle Phan Matthew Beem https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_J_SntqJh5eXw66d5hJxA The Chernin Group https://tcg.co/ — — — — Where to find Kevin / Epic Gardening Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinEspiritu YouTube 1: https://www.youtube.com/user/kevinmespiritu YouTube 2: https://www.youtube.com/@epicgardening Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Kirsten Green is the founder of Forerunner Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on understanding the mindset of the modern consumer. Kirsten started Forerunner in 2010, and was an early investor in companies like Faire, Chime, Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, Hims, Glossier, Jet, Bonobos, HotelTonight, and The Farmer’s Dog. This episode takes us behind the scenes of Kirsten’s two decade journey building Forerunner from scratch. She talks about her biggest mistakes, wins, and lessons learned along the way. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:50) Doing market research at the mall  (08:00) Her journey from public markets to venture (18:30) Lessons from her first investment going to $0 (28:51) How she raised her first $5m angel fund (31:11) Transitioning to a $41.7m institutional fund (43:20) Why she almost didn’t invest in Dollar Shave Club (sold for $1.1 billion) (51:05) How Forerunner thinks about fund size (57:05) How she led Faire’s Series A with a small fund (58:46) How Kirsten builds relationships with LPs (01:02:10) Is consumer investing dead? (01:15:00) Her unfair advantage as an investor Where to find Kirsten Twitter: https://twitter.com/kirstenagreen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstengreen Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/

Craig Fuller is the Founder and CEO of FreightWaves, a media company and data provider for the global supply chain. He’s also the CEO of Flying Media Group, which he founded in 2021 to acquire Flying Magazine, the largest US-based print magazine for the aviation industry. This conversation is split into three parts: a crash course on logistics and supply chains, how to build and run a media company, and finally all things print magazines. Topics discussed include: (00:00) Intro (02:39) Why logistics is the most important industry no one talks about (04:23) The rise of deglobalization (11:07) How Colombia benefits from US manufacturing (14:52) Why Craig’s watching US onshoring and Mexican nearshoring (18:18) How the supply chain function is changing (28:59) The US labor availability problem (32:40) Why AI will never fully replace humans in media (34:56) The early days of FreightWaves (41:04) Predicting recessions months before it shows up in data (48:51) Why logistics is the best barometer of the global economy (52:44) Taking 12+ months to raise FreightWaves first venture round (59:24) Surviving COVID with only two months of runway (01:05:20) How FreightWaves accidentally became a media business (01:08:15) Why the best startups make low risk, high upside decisions (01:13:27) Why media business are the arbitrage opportunity this decade (01:15:55) Getting 200%+ IRR’s buying print magazines, starting with flying (01:17:50) Building his own airport and flying community (01:30:16) Almost failing to turnaround his first magazine acquisition (01:39:06) His non-intuitive lessons from building media businesses (01:43:39) Craig’s favorite media businesses (01:48:50) How to build a brand in media Referenced: https://www.freightwaves.com/ https://www.flyingmag.com/ Where to find Craig: Twitter: https://twitter.com/FreightAlley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/incab Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc Want to sponsor the show? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

Danielle Cohen-Shohet is the CEO and Founder of GlossGenius, the all-in-one booking, payments and POS solution that helps beauty and wellness professionals drive bookings and grow their business. Danielle started the company in 2016 and has since grown it to a $510 million valuation. This is while taking a disciplined approach to fundraising, raising roughly $70 million throughout the life of the company. — Topics include: A crash course on the $160 billion beauty, health, and wellness market How the industry's shifting to time-based billing and upfront payments Why GlossGenius spends so much time on customer experience Surviving a 90% drop in revenue during COVID Why she credits talking to and listening to customers to GlossGenius success A look inside each funding round, and why Danielle kept them small How she learned to delegate as the company scaled Why the big picture is often made of little details Danielle’s secret for running a capital efficient business GlossGenius’ Hiring and Interviewing Manual Why most companies aren’t good at hiring Danielle’s favorite interview questions — Where to find Danielle: Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/dcohenshohet LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dcohenshohet — Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc — Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io —For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

Cristina Junqueira is the co-founder of Nubank, the largest neobank in Latin America – and in the world – with more than 80 million customers. She is also the second self-made female billionaire in Brazil. Cristina and her co-founders David Vélez and Edward Wible launched Nubank in 2013, essentially building the fintech category in a market where it was nonexistent, and went on to release a no-fee credit card, app, and other banking products across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Cristina takes us through the rise of Nubank, from the scrappiest days building in a house in Sao Paulo to being backed by investors like Sequoia, Founders Fund, DST, TCV, Tiger Global, and Warren Buffett, and then on to their IPO in December 2021. We also touch on the impact of Nubank’s distinctive brand choices, how they navigated government regulations that nearly shut them down, and how they were able to spend $0 on marketing throughout most of their history. — — — — TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Preview(02:38) Fintech and the preconditions for disrupting financial services in LatAm(05:38) Educating investors on the opportunity for fintech in LatAm(07:35) The scale of unbanked and underbanked populations in Brazil, Mexico, and other countries; and why expanding access to these products increases NuBank's market share(08:21) Expanding the pie and just how profitable banks can be in LatAm(15:37) Starting NuBank and the lessons Cristina learned from incumbent banks(18:11) The biggest hurdle to starting NuBank(19:33) Navigating Nubank’s first product from inception to successful credit card(21:08) Spending $0 CAC in an industry with hugely expensive marketing pushes(22:32) $0 on marketing and scrappy ethics(26:40) The crazy circumstances around Nubank’s Series A fundraise(36:54) Cristina’s reflections on the IPO in December 2021 (39:31) How Nubank navigates a changing macro environment(40:40) The importance of Nubank’s distinctive brand(42:57) Surviving an existential threat from Brazil’s government(46:28) Scaling from a small scrappy team to a multinational global publicly traded company(49:02) Personal growth and maintaining strong co-founder relationships Referenced: Nubank: ⁠https://nubank.com.br/en/ Nubank's IPO mints Cristina as a billionaire: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2021/12/09/ Where to find Cristina: Twitter: https://twitter.com/junqueira_cris LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crisjunqueira/ Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc