Village Global's Venture Stories

Haseeb Qureshi (@hosseeb), managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, joins Erik for an episode of our Web3 series. Takeaways:- This bear market is driven by macro factors rather than endogenous ones. - It turns out crypto is in fact correlated with other assets, largely because in 2020 institutions started buying crypto.- Projects searching for yield in a yield-starved environment drove growth in crypto. That may change with rising interest rates.- Adoption will drive the next chapter of crypto. Gaming and NFTs will lead the way.- Sometimes boring, stable governance is best. ETH has that today. It’s like Manhattan — it’s old and kind of pricey, but it’s the most important place that things are happening today.- Governments could ban Bitcoin, but they haven’t, likely because it’s not actually all that threatening to them.- Blockchains are like cities. They each have their own unique and vibrant cultures.- More decentralization is not always better in practice.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

- The narrative that China can do no wrong and why Noah says it is out of date at this point.- The long-term headwinds that China is facing, including demographic changes, resource limitations, and real estate challenges.- Why America should raise tariffs on anything made in China where it would be strategically important for those goods to be made somewhere else.- The state of real estate in China, including the fact that China’s economy is 30% real estate (double the percentage in the US) and that cities in China are sprawling and more akin to Chicago than Tokyo or Seoul.- Xi Jinping’s performance to date, why he’s “picking losers” in the Chinese stock market to try to bolster certain industries, and why the Zero COVID push is about Xi trying to appear strong.- The fact that China could be moderately competent and could still take over the world because of its sheer size.- Noah’s book recommendations for people who want to learn more about China.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Kyle Samani (@kylesamani), co-founder and managing partner at Multicoin Capital, joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- How crypto enables people to coordinate and set up things in the physical world, as with the Helium project.- The shift in Ethereum over the last 24 months and why he says they need to re-think their product development process and shift away from its prior ideological underpinnings to get to a billion users.- Why he thinks that Ethereum is no longer dominant and is long-term bearish on it.- Why consumer social will be the future of Web3 apps in the near future.- Why transactional marketplaces like Uber don’t work well in crypto form.- His thoughts on how NFTs evolve and why he says it doesn’t make sense to have horizontal marketplaces like OpenSea.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Jacob Helberg (@jacobhelberg), foreign policy expert and author of The Wires of War, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon to discuss:- Why he says peace through trade was the biggest foreign policy miscalculation in US history.- How US companies have approached operating in China and why Jacob would advise them to proactively work to decouple themselves from the Chinese market.- Why Jacob would prefer that American laws change to restrict Chinese investments in US companies.- Why the Belt and Road Initiative has come to be seen as a debt trap.- What keeps him optimistic and what ordinary Americans can do if they are concerned about China.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Tyler Cowen (@tylercowen) is an economist, professor, and best-selling author. His latest book, Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World, written with co-author Daniel Gross, is available now. Tyler discusses how to discover undervalued talent, the importance of stamina, the best interview questions, peer ratings, late bloomers, and more.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Geoff Lewis (@GeoffLewisOrg), founder at Bedrock, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon to discuss:- His thoughts on the markets and the advice he has for founders operating in a market like this one.- What is driving financial nihilism and how it has changed society.- Why he’s only investing in founders where their company is their life’s work.- Bedrock’s investments in hardware and companies making things in the physical world.- The perils of politics replacing religion as our mechanism for forming community.- The crisis of meaning in society.- The institutionalization of venture capital over the last decade and why he’s an advocate of going back to basics with small teams making fewer high conviction investments.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Bilal Zuberi (@bznotes), partner at Lux Capital, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon to discuss:- Bilal’s investing thesis of finding companies building solutions to interesting problems that impact a lot of people.- Why he’s investing in space and defense companies.- What keeps him up at night and how his investments are working on those areas.- Why he’s optimistic about unifying America.- How to solve the problem of different people having different sets of facts.- Whether there will be a reckoning for American firms that have invested in Chinese companies.- His advice to founders building in complex markets and working with the government.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Hemant Taneja (@htaneja), managing partner at General Catalyst and author of Intended Consequences, joins Anne Dwane and Village Global’s newest partner, Prateek Alsi, to discuss:- What responsible innovation is and how tech can do good in the world using the framework.- How founders should think about responsible innovation at the earliest stages of a company.- The importance of thinking from first principles. - Lessons from the creation process of the companies Hemant has been involved in.- A better alternative to “move fast and break things.”- Which areas he excited about investing in, including healthcare and India.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Laura Crabtree (@llcrabbie), founder and CEO of Epsilon3, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon on this episode to discuss:- What she accomplished during her time at SpaceX and her journey to starting Epsilon3. - Whether the biggest contribution of SpaceX to the industry will be all the amazing people leaving to start their own space companies.- How to get into the space industry if you don’t already have a background in it.- Why a company like Epsilon3 hasn’t been built before.- The importance of being vulnerable as a founder.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Jimmy Soni (@jimmyasoni), author of The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley, joins Ben Casnocha on this episode to discuss:- How diversity and variety of backgrounds and opinions helped PayPal become successful.- The fact that PayPal’s leading product was not solving a problem that they had set out to solve, but rather a problem they discovered along the way.- The importance of sitting with your customers and really understanding their perspective and their problems.- What he learned about Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, and David Sacks.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Joshua Steinman (@JoshuaSteinman), founder and CEO of Galvanick, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon to discuss:- The history of cybersecurity at big industrial companies and how he is building “Splunk for industrial systems” to solve that problem.- His time at the National Security Council, what motivated him to work in government, and his work creating an “embassy in Silicon Valley.”- Why, with internet-connected devices, we’ve traded predictable downtime for unpredictable downtime. He gives the example of a Cadbury plant that was completely shut down by malware.- The different types of cyber attacks, the evolution of war over time, and how to “defend forward” by disabling malware before it shows up on systems.- The concept of “unrestricted warfare” and the fact that the Chinese government thinks about war as a continuous process across many dimensions while the US typically thinks of war on only one dimension.- Information operations and how they have affected public opinion in the US on various topics.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Alex Iskold, co-founder and managing partner at 2048 Ventures and creator of 1kproject.org, joins Anne Dwane and Lucas Bagno on this episode to discuss:- What he is doing with 1kproject.org to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.- How he and a team of volunteers are empowering families in the US to send $1,000 directly to the bank card of a Ukrainian family.- How they use tech to vet applications to make sure the most deserving families receive funds.- What the money that is sent to Ukrainian families is typically used for.- The impact of the war on the startup ecosystem in Ukraine.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Martin Gurri (@mgurri), author of The Revolt of the Public, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon to discuss:- The genesis of the thesis about the revolt of the public while Martin was working at the CIA analyzing communications as social media and blogging began to take off.- The challenges to authority that the free flow of information has presented and why those societies that allow for open communication have been winning.- The internet’s reactionary moment and whether there will be a “revolt of the revolt.”- Why he says that China is “the 20th century gone digital” and why he thinks that will not last.- His belief that democracy will survive and why he thinks that the “psychotic conditions” in American society will not last.- Why elites need to have humility about their ability to solve problems in society.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Chris Power (@2112Power), founder and CEO of Hadrian, joins Lucas Bagno and Ian Cinnamon to discuss:- Why manufacturing is key to a strong position in the world order. - The changes in the landscape that have enabled a company like Hadrian to be possible now, where it wasn’t five years ago. - What Chris would do if he was running the United States to win the new space race.- How to change the culture in the US so that more serious people can work on serious problems.- Why it’s easier than you think to get involved in deep tech.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Chris Power (@2112Power), founder and CEO of Hadrian, Katherine Boyle (@KTmBoyle), partner at a16z, and Josh Wolfe (@wolfejosh), co-founder and managing partner at Lux Capital, join Anne Dwane and Erik Torenberg on this episode to discuss:- How Hadrian is abstracting the supply chain for space, aerospace, and defense manufacturing, and how it is analogous to AWS and Twilio in the software world.- Why Chris is the right person to tackle this problem. He wants to do this for geopolitical and moral reasons and also has the ability to get into the weeds on a micro level.- How tech can help people move into higher-skill jobs and how it can increase the total number of jobs in a given field.- How COVID has made people realize that the world is no longer post-nation state nor post-borders.- Which policy changes the US government can make to advance its position in the world, technologically and otherwise.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup