I've been reading Albert Wenger's blog for around a decade, so I was excited to read his book The World After Capital. The premise is rather bold: we are exiting the Industrial Age in which the key scarcity was capital and entering a new epoch, one Albert calls the Knowledge Age, in which the key scarcity is attention. In previous transitions (i.e. Forager > Agrarian > Industrial) things were not smooth (e.g. lots of violence, death, tumult, etc.), and Albert proposes that our transition to the Knowledge Age need not follow suit. In order to do so we must invest in three types of freedoms for everyone: economic, informational, and psychological.
I've been reading Albert Wenger's blog for around a decade, so I was excited to read his book The World After Capital. The premise is rather bold: we are exiting the Industrial Age in which the key scarcity was capital and entering a new epoch, one Albert calls the Knowledge Age, in which the key scarcity is attention. In previous transitions (i.e. Forager > Agrarian > Industrial) things were not smooth (e.g. lots of violence, death, tumult, etc.), and Albert proposes that our transition to the Knowledge Age need not follow suit. In order to do so we must invest in three types of freedoms for everyone: economic, informational, and psychological.
if you want to quickly get a sense for the major themes.
There were a lot of things that stood out to me. For one, Albert is rather audacious in his proclamations and I like that. This is a book about how to exit the Industrial Age by following a high-level roadmap for how we should evolve as a global society - that's an undertaking that requires a certain level of confidence and a broad set of knowledge to do well. Several topics that I suggest digging into:
We are terrible at allocating our attention. We need to do a better job at this, but the Industrial Age Job Loop will be difficult to escape.
The Knowledge Loop is an extraordinarily powerful concept. It should inspire everyone to share more. This has given me immense appreciation for the blogs I've read that have impacted the course of my entrepreneurial career like Albert's, Fred Wilson's (USV in general), and Chris Dixon.
If you're a fan of UBI, Albert goes to great lengths to demonstrate how this is the cornerstone of economic freedom. I'd have liked to see him talk about other concepts here, too, such as the federal job guarantee espoused by MMT advocates.
Albert's words on Privacy as something that is "fundamentally incompatible with technological progress" will likely push you way out of your comfort zone. That’s good.
For me personally, one of the big takeaways is how venture capital can be an entrepreneurial tool for systemic change. While reading the book you'll notice that there are plenty of references made to portfolio companies. At first glance, it may seem like a plug and that perhaps some of the themes are shaped around the USV portfolio. However, if you've followed the history of USV and the knowledge the partners at the firm have disseminated, you'll know that the inverse is true: the portfolio follows the themes and theses. To me, this is such a powerful concept.
As an entrepreneur, I've spent my entire professional career focusing on solving one problem at a time. It's a lot of fun and unbelievably rewarding when you get to help people. One thing you have is control: ultimately, you are responsible for success and/or failure. As a VC you relinquish that control to the entrepreneur, but if you are thoughtful enough you are able to support many different problem-solving threads that can tie together to create thematic change across the world, perhaps even by strengthening economic, informational, and psychological freedom as the catalyst to a peaceful transition to a new era. This is not to say this is what VC is broadly - I think 99% of firms and investors are not this and simply focus on investing in good businesses/entrepreneurs in their areas of expertise to generate returns - but it is what it can be, and that can be world-changing.
The first conversation I hosted with Keith Rabois and Frank Rotman received such positive feedback that we decided to do a back-to-back follow-on (see what I did there?).
Frank and Keith cover a lot of ground in this one, and there are plenty of topics that I think are particularly relevant to anyone who participates in the VC / entrepreneur ecosystem. I continue to learn from these two and have already found myself referencing their knowledge in my day-to-day conversations.
Give it a listen if you want to know what they think about:
How the future of the VC industry will play out
Banks entering the M&A landscape and the implications for investors and entrepreneurs
How investors reference for their portfolio companies that are "middle of the pack" during diligence
Why "Oh Shit!" board meetings are becoming more commonplace
The unbundling of capital and advice and how to win as a VC
And a lot more!
While the last conversation stuck to one theme (i.e. the valuation environment and its driving factors), we weaved around a lot of different areas that I think most investors and entrepreneurs will appreciate.
if you want to quickly get a sense for the major themes.
There were a lot of things that stood out to me. For one, Albert is rather audacious in his proclamations and I like that. This is a book about how to exit the Industrial Age by following a high-level roadmap for how we should evolve as a global society - that's an undertaking that requires a certain level of confidence and a broad set of knowledge to do well. Several topics that I suggest digging into:
We are terrible at allocating our attention. We need to do a better job at this, but the Industrial Age Job Loop will be difficult to escape.
The Knowledge Loop is an extraordinarily powerful concept. It should inspire everyone to share more. This has given me immense appreciation for the blogs I've read that have impacted the course of my entrepreneurial career like Albert's, Fred Wilson's (USV in general), and Chris Dixon.
If you're a fan of UBI, Albert goes to great lengths to demonstrate how this is the cornerstone of economic freedom. I'd have liked to see him talk about other concepts here, too, such as the federal job guarantee espoused by MMT advocates.
Albert's words on Privacy as something that is "fundamentally incompatible with technological progress" will likely push you way out of your comfort zone. That’s good.
For me personally, one of the big takeaways is how venture capital can be an entrepreneurial tool for systemic change. While reading the book you'll notice that there are plenty of references made to portfolio companies. At first glance, it may seem like a plug and that perhaps some of the themes are shaped around the USV portfolio. However, if you've followed the history of USV and the knowledge the partners at the firm have disseminated, you'll know that the inverse is true: the portfolio follows the themes and theses. To me, this is such a powerful concept.
As an entrepreneur, I've spent my entire professional career focusing on solving one problem at a time. It's a lot of fun and unbelievably rewarding when you get to help people. One thing you have is control: ultimately, you are responsible for success and/or failure. As a VC you relinquish that control to the entrepreneur, but if you are thoughtful enough you are able to support many different problem-solving threads that can tie together to create thematic change across the world, perhaps even by strengthening economic, informational, and psychological freedom as the catalyst to a peaceful transition to a new era. This is not to say this is what VC is broadly - I think 99% of firms and investors are not this and simply focus on investing in good businesses/entrepreneurs in their areas of expertise to generate returns - but it is what it can be, and that can be world-changing.
The first conversation I hosted with Keith Rabois and Frank Rotman received such positive feedback that we decided to do a back-to-back follow-on (see what I did there?).
Frank and Keith cover a lot of ground in this one, and there are plenty of topics that I think are particularly relevant to anyone who participates in the VC / entrepreneur ecosystem. I continue to learn from these two and have already found myself referencing their knowledge in my day-to-day conversations.
Give it a listen if you want to know what they think about:
How the future of the VC industry will play out
Banks entering the M&A landscape and the implications for investors and entrepreneurs
How investors reference for their portfolio companies that are "middle of the pack" during diligence
Why "Oh Shit!" board meetings are becoming more commonplace
The unbundling of capital and advice and how to win as a VC
And a lot more!
While the last conversation stuck to one theme (i.e. the valuation environment and its driving factors), we weaved around a lot of different areas that I think most investors and entrepreneurs will appreciate.
For the better part of the past decade, I've thought the valuations of startups have been astronomically high and divorced from reality and fundamentals. I've come around to the fact that it is what it is and there are a lot of reasons why this is the case (i.e. the distribution of outcomes has meaningfully changed with many more large winners today than a decade ago, we are still in the early innings of the unstoppable secular trend of technology changing every industry, there's tons of capital - lots of dumb money - sloshing around in private markets, and blah blah blah...).
When I saw Keith and Frank talk about how they and their firms were adapting to this, I was intrigued. They're two of the smartest investors and people I know. I've worked with Frank for many years (he was a Fundera board member) and I've known Keith since he joined Khosla Ventures where his partner, David Weiden, backed my previous two companies GroupMe and Fundera. I wanted to hear their thoughts in more detail and thought others would likely enjoy learning from them, too.
I don't have a podcast, but maybe I will one day. It's fun to learn from exceptional people, it's one of the things that brings me great joy in life. One of the hardest things about doing interviews like this is to get out of the way and talk as little as possible. I have great respect for people who are able to do this. I hope you get as much out of this interview as I did.
For the better part of the past decade, I've thought the valuations of startups have been astronomically high and divorced from reality and fundamentals. I've come around to the fact that it is what it is and there are a lot of reasons why this is the case (i.e. the distribution of outcomes has meaningfully changed with many more large winners today than a decade ago, we are still in the early innings of the unstoppable secular trend of technology changing every industry, there's tons of capital - lots of dumb money - sloshing around in private markets, and blah blah blah...).
When I saw Keith and Frank talk about how they and their firms were adapting to this, I was intrigued. They're two of the smartest investors and people I know. I've worked with Frank for many years (he was a Fundera board member) and I've known Keith since he joined Khosla Ventures where his partner, David Weiden, backed my previous two companies GroupMe and Fundera. I wanted to hear their thoughts in more detail and thought others would likely enjoy learning from them, too.
I don't have a podcast, but maybe I will one day. It's fun to learn from exceptional people, it's one of the things that brings me great joy in life. One of the hardest things about doing interviews like this is to get out of the way and talk as little as possible. I have great respect for people who are able to do this. I hope you get as much out of this interview as I did.
