Today we're joined by Elad Gil, an accomplished investor and founder, who shares his insights on the idea maze and solo capitalism. He discusses the significance of market changes and shifts in technology in identifying viable business opportunities. In addition, Gil shares his viewpoints on sectors like AI, crypto, and EdTech. If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/turpentine We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's...

Today we're joined by Howard Morgan to dive into his illustrious career in venture. He discusses the firms he helped start, Renaissance Technologies, Idealab, First Round Capital, and now at B Capital. Morgan also highlights the importance of global investing and the challenges it presents. They also discuss frontier areas including genomics, bioinformatics, longevity, and space technology. Morgan reflects on lessons learned and mistakes made throughout his career and offers advice for...

Today we're joined by Logan Bartlett of Redpoint to dive into Redpoint's approach to venture, trends and predictions for the VC ecosystem, and a breakdown of the strategies and craft of the asset class's most consequential players. Cloud Infrastructure for all your needs: do more and spend less with Oracle. Take a free test drive of OCI at https://oracle.com/turpentine --- SPONSOR: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a single platform for your infrastructure, database, application...

Today we're joined by Kareem of Thrive Capital for one of the most extensive conversations we've had on the show—we cover the core insight that drove Thrive to invest in late-stage companies like Stripe and Slack, how they approach thinking about fund size and timing, the benefits of a concentrated portfolio, and more. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time...

This week's episode of Turpentine VC features Benchmark GPs Sarah Tavel and Eric Vishria. We discuss ideas that are central to Benchmark's beliefs in firm-building, including why platform teams exist to help the general partners more so than founders themselves. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like...

Erik is joined by Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia Capital for over 13 years, and investor in Airbnb, Doordash, Houzz, and more legendary Silicon Valley companies. We dive into the unique ways which Sequoia operates as a firm in this episode: why they don't actually track A-U-M, why they launched the Sequoia Capital Fund, the decision-making behind creating Sequoia Arc, and more. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out:...

On episode eleven of Turpentine VC, Ann Miura-Ko—co-founding partner at Floodgate—sits down with Erik Torenberg to dive deep into the core fundamentals of VC partners talk about behind close doors, including how to identify inflection points to give you an edge when starting a fund, muscles Floodgate has built in the -1 to 0 space, the true opportunities in AI, and more. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out:...

Trae Stephens, General Partner at Founders Fund, joins Erik Torenberg to chat through how the firm's focus on independent thinking and debate culture, and counterintuitive lack of true process, has been key in helping them build an enduring fund. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic,...

Sam Lessin, General Partner at Slow Ventures, and Seth Rosenberg, General Partner at Greylock, debate what the effects of AI on incumbents and the next wave of AI-first products will look like. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and...

Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures joins Erik on episode 8 of Turpentine VC to talk about his contrarian and opinionated view of how seed funds should operate, and how that's allowed him to generate 10x fund returns. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads,...

This week, Erik is joined by Mike Maples, Jr, co-founder of Floodgate, a storied seed firm that's invested in Lyft, Okta, Twitch, and Twitter, to name a few unicorn portcos. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more. It’s your...

10 years after their initial launch, Susa is relaunching the firm with a new vision and strategy, which Susa General Partner, Chad Byers, tells us about in this episode of Turpentine VC. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: https://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more. It’s...

Hemant Taneja is the CEO of General Catalyst, and runs the firm like a true business: defining its mission and values, approaching the product from a problem-solving perspective, and more. If you’re looking to improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, check out: http://synaptic.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more....

This week Erik is joined by Sam Lessin, General Partner at the early-stage VC firm Slow Ventures, essayist, and former VP of Product at Facebook. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine --- SPONSORS: Carta is the world’s largest venture fund administrator. Carta’s software-based approach takes fund administration out of the spreadsheet and into 2023 and beyond with powerful solutions and intuitive interfaces, all on one...

In episode three of Turpentine VC, Aydin Senkut and Erik Torenberg examine the generalist approach to VC that Felicis pioneered, and discuss why that approach allows you to generate more hits, why virtually all of Felicis’ investments are narrative-driven, and the secret ingredients that have steered the firm to repeat success over the past decade. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine Join our free newsletter to get Erik's...

This week on Turpentine VC, Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins join Erik to discuss how they’ve seized the torch and helped drive the next chapter of the firm’s iconic history. We go into the nitty-gritty KP’s strategies behind decision-making, fund size, recruiting talent, and more. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine RELATED SHOWS: If you like Turpentine VC, check out our show The Limited Partner with David...

Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and one of the most influential venture capitalists of the last decade, joins Erik for the inaugural episode of Turpentine VC. They shed light on how Ben thinks about the business of building a16z and where the firm — and the future — is going. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine   RELATED SHOWS: If you like Turpentine VC, check out our show The Limited Partner with...

On Turpentine VC, host and venture capitalist Erik Torenberg delves deep into the art and science of building successful venture firms through conversations with the world’s best investors and operators. Hear about insider strategies on decision-making, investment theses, and building firms for the long term—from the ground-level, VC to VC. Guests in season 1 include Ben Horowitz of a16z, Mamood Hamid and Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins, and Alfred Lin of Sequoia. RECOMMENDED PODCAST: The HR...