SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, it's Friday Variety Show. We're doing 5 for 5 news and we're keeping it tight today because we're recording a little late and we're just trying to practice some discipline. So up on deck today, we're going to talk about Amazon's Q1 earnings, Apple's Q1 earnings, technically their fiscal Q2, and the interesting pieces of news that drove both of their stock off of varying sized cliffs. Also, apparently China's leadership is going to slow down implementation of the tech regulations that were slowing down its gigantic industry. So that seems like a positive development for tech entrepreneurs in China. SPEAKER_01: Airbnb is doubling down on its nomad workforce in a very intentional way. So we're going to give you the rundown on Brian Chesky's tweets about that. And Snap just expanded its hardware lineup with a super adorable thick cut French toast drone. And then, of course, it wouldn't be Friday without OK Boomer. We've got Landon Campbell from Inside. All that is coming up right now. SPEAKER_02: This Week in Startups is brought to you by Gun.io. The simplest way for anyone to hire world-class developers, expertly vetted for you by senior engineers. Get $250 off your first hire at Gun.io slash twist. OurCrowd. OurCrowd helps you invest early in pre-IPO companies alongside professional VCs. If you're interested in investing, you can join OurCrowd for free at O-U-R-C-R-O-W-D dot com slash twist. And Thorn. Thorn empowers people to take control of their long-term well-being with a proactive science-based approach to health. Through a variety of at-home tests, Thorn teaches you about what your body needs and provides the right, high-quality, certified nutritional supplements for you. To get started and take 10% off your first order, head to thorn.com slash you slash twist. SPEAKER_05: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Friday's show. It's 5 for 5 for Fridays, where we do five minutes on five important stories. What's up first, Molly? SPEAKER_00: And we are sticking with our five minutes today. Damn it. Earnings, earnings, earnings. I don't know if you saw that big cliff that Amazon stock fell off of yesterday, but that was a tall one. That was a half-dome-sized cliff. Amazon reported Q1 2022 results. Net revenue was $116.4 billion, up 7% year-over-year. Decent growth, but not hyper-growth. Operating income was $3.7 billion. That was down 58.4% year-over-year. Net loss was $3.8 billion compared with net income of $8.1 billion last year. Now, the big reason for this, and as we said when we looked at the last earnings, is that that net loss was driven by the fact that they had to report a $7.6 billion loss on the Rivian investment. This is the Rivian cliff that we're seeing here. David Friedberg: Live by the gun, die by the gun. Live by the sword, die by the sword. I said Rivian was absurdly overvalued. The market eventually agreed. I said Amazon should have sold their entire stake as quick as possible, but that would probably not be allowed. They probably had a lockup. And so here they are, a giant markdown, I guess. I don't know if it's technically a loss because they didn't put that money in, but they had to mark down the value of that investment. This happened to Uber. SPEAKER_16: This happens countless times. You have some investment that goes supernova, and then it comes back down to earth. I wonder if there was any drop-off in the core delivery business because I know the AWS business SPEAKER_17: is still a juggernaut. Am I correct? Boo-ming. Booming. SPEAKER_00: In fact, so much so that there was a tweet from Anshu Sharma saying they need to add a tracking stock on AWS as a standalone business unit, maybe even a full spin out and holding company. The two businesses are just very disparate. There was one analysis that suggested that if you take out the AWS earnings that every other part of Amazon's business, namely, you know, that giant retail operation is effectively zero. Chamath Palihapitiya: Yes. Which is bonkers. I think they run the e-commerce business for scale, and they are still in this model of, David Friedberg: let's just break even on it. Let's keep building out this infrastructure because it is still very early days for commerce. If you were to look at, put e-commerce aside, Amazon's total, you know, market share in commerce is very low. In e-commerce in the United States, it's growing significantly, SPEAKER_16: but they want to be a global player, and it requires this massive logistics. It requires them to have trucks David Friedberg: driving around, planes, warehouses. SPEAKER_28: It really is like maybe the third or fourth inning in that business. Yeah. Even 20 years or so into that business. David Friedberg: Then you look at the AWS business, man. SPEAKER_16: It's a juggernaut. It's high margin. They're the leader. You know, the profits accrue to the leader, and it's just a different style of business. I could see them being under massive pressure to spin AWS out without the founder, Jeff Bezos, running the company. There could be increasing pressure on this, but it's still a juggernaut of a business, and so is the commerce business. There's nothing that says they couldn't keep increasing the price of the commerce business, lose some growth, but have more margin. But why would you do that if Amazon Web Services prints money? I think their strategy is perfect. I agree. The stock market will take care of itself over time. Company's not going anywhere. Company's only going to get bigger. Couldn't agree more. Buy the tip, but that's not investment advice. Yeah, well, I mean, I would, if you're owning Amazon, I would be seriously not looking at quarter by quarter. I would be looking year over year, David Friedberg: looking at each year, looking at their market share, and looking at the year over year growth. If you look at it that way and you start looking at it in a decade, you know, arc, I think this is the kind of company that there's no world in which AWS is not the leader in 10 years, in my mind, and Amazon delivery and e-commerce is not delighting people massively. There's no instance, finishing my sentence, SPEAKER_16: in which the e-commerce business is also not thriving massively. Any closing thoughts before we go to our next story? No, not at all. SPEAKER_00: Couldn't agree with you more. Stay in that one. Who's next? All right. And then we got some Apple earnings. I don't even think we're going to need a full five minutes for this one. It's just a very interesting story of decent returns, as usual with Apple, total revenue up 9%, $97.2 billion. What? Net income is $25 billion. Wait a second. They're going to cross $100 billion. SPEAKER_39: I mean, you have bonkers. I mean, they probably will, like next quarter. Yeah. Right? Like it's insane. I wonder if they did that. David Friedberg: I wonder if they crossed that last quarter because of the holiday bump. Who knows? But I mean, wow. I wonder. SPEAKER_00: $97 billion. And you know how I'm always saying, like, they only care about selling iPhones and then Apple fanboys get all mad at me. Yes. Here's why they only care about selling iPhones. Because the iPhone revenue was $50 billion of their $97 billion total. Jason Calacanis: Oofah. That's an oofah. $50 billion. The Mac, $10.4 billion. Services, $19.8 billion. I mean, that's impressive. Is impressive. That's a big turnaround for that services business. SPEAKER_42: That service business is growing. Yum, yum. David Friedberg: The services for people who don't know the App Store, iCloud, music, news, SPEAKER_44: arcade, TV, Apple TV. Yeah, not sure. SPEAKER_00: But like, I feel like the story that slipped under the rug completely was the part where Apple started bundling that all into one subscription, which is absolute genius. I got this pop-up one day that was like, hey, you're spending like $28 on various subscriptions, but if you make it $29, you get everything. I'm like, SPEAKER_48: what's the name of that? Apple One or something? David Friedberg: What's the Apple bundle called? I don't even know. They're so bad. Air bundle match plus. It's called Apple One Price Six Services, and I have the family plan of it. So Apple One gets you music, TV, arcade, which is pretty great with kids. Apple Fitness, which I'm never going to use, SPEAKER_11: but I guess there's some videos and some It does have good Aisha Curry. She's got this arm workout that don't make you want to kill her. It's just so beautiful. SPEAKER_52: Shout out Aisha. I know. She's got a bunch of videos on there. I love them. partner of my guy, Steph Curry. Your bestie. I'm the famous dad by Game 5. My bestie. Apple, not my bestie, but we know each other. Apple News and iCloud. And I got that SPEAKER_16: two terabyte iCloud. And what I love about Apple One, I think everybody should get it. I predicted this on CNBC years ago, is like the family plan. David Friedberg: So I have it as a family plan and I have the Premiere with two terabytes and it costs me 30 bucks a month, 360, but I have five people on it. So divide 360 by five, SPEAKER_18: it's pretty damn reasonable. It's like 60 bucks a year or something. I'm such a dumb dumb that I'm paying for Premiere and didn't even know SPEAKER_00: like my kid could be on it. Okay. I got to get my kid together. Dumb it. Good to know. Good to know. But the other thing that's interesting about the Apple earnings that has the stock down almost 2% as of midday Friday is that Apple didn't really give very much guidance. They're doing this fun new thing that's very Apple-esque where they're like, oh, it is. I want to talk about it. Jason Calacanis: So they didn't give a lot of guidance which has investors freaked and for like the fourth quarter in a row, SPEAKER_00: they brought up supply chain issues. And so all these analysts are like, wow, if Apple is having this much recurring supply chain issue, maybe it really is a problem. David Friedberg: So pretty amazing when you think about this tremendous performance and the PE ratio of 26. So Microsoft was 30. I think Google was 20 and Facebook met a 12.5 as we look at these price earning ratios. So pretty fully valued but a juggernaut of a business. And I think, you know, it's like one of these companies that again, in 10 years, can you picture a world in which Apple is not doesn't play a wider, bigger part in our lives. SPEAKER_16: And when I look at it, I can't imagine Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or Apple not playing a bigger role in our lives. I could absolutely see Facebook playing a much less role in our lives. So I always look at that. SPEAKER_52: And that to me is always my guiding principle. Yep, 100%. Amazon PE 59. Yeah, I think that's what happens when you don't try to make money, you know, and you try to build the top line when you just make investors wait, SPEAKER_11: which is what Amazon has always done. Works like a charm. Be patient or go buy the stock. Yep. SPEAKER_73: Hiring software engineers can take a really long time. Don't I know it. Sometimes it takes months, but gun.io is going to change that for you right now. They're a developer hiring platform. They're super focused and here's what makes them different. Their candidates are expertly vetted and then they're matched to your company by a team of senior engineers, not by an algorithm or just a recruiter. Gun.io developers have eight plus years of experience building products and they're comfortable working directly with founders and executive teams. 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Well, so speaking of China impacts, because that is indeed SPEAKER_00: what is constraining the iPhone production, apparently, on to our next story, China's leadership has realized that if you shoot yourself SPEAKER_77: in the foot, you get a bad limp. Yeah, you're not going to run a marathon SPEAKER_78: when you shoot both your feet. In this case, SPEAKER_11: shooting the feet means what? SPEAKER_00: In this case, shooting the feet means hamstringing its own tech industry with all of this intense regulation. So China's leadership has now decided, according to a report from the South China Morning Post, to slow down implementation of things like regulations that limit the amount of time that people can spend on internet apps. Apparently, the Chinese Politburo acknowledged the war in Ukraine and its intense COVID shutdowns and said, hmm, this could be a problem for our economy. And the South China Morning Post notes that a symposium involving Chinese big tech has been scheduled for next week to assure business leaders on the new direction, which is more policy support to reach the country's 5.5% growth target. Jason Calacanis: So they're easing up. They're backing off the tech industry. SPEAKER_83: All right. So one of two things is going to happen here. They're going to get all the tech leaders together and they're all going to be taken to jail. SPEAKER_85: And this is a total setup. SPEAKER_83: Or I laugh Chamath Palihapitiya: because it's actually quite plausible. Yeah. Or now they're realizing that, holy cow, David Friedberg: embracing capitalism and, you know, their perverted free market where they're torturing people and have slave labor and don't let people read books. And if they do buy or read a book, they're not supposed to. They go to re-education camps and lose 20 pounds on their spa menu and diet and torture. I'm being slightly facetious here, but, you know, it's pretty serious stuff. And that maybe Jack Ma building huge companies is good for everybody. And the reason that they had one of the greatest runs in taking people out of poverty and increasing the standard of living was because of capitalism and they're like, you know, half of a, you know, giant bear hug of capitalism. And then they decided, well, gosh, these entrepreneurs are too popular and they're not as popular and they're not as popular as Winnie the Pooh. So now, you know, Xi Jinping doesn't feel as popular or loved. SPEAKER_90: Is that who you mean? David Friedberg: Yeah, that's what I mean. That's the kind of joke that they make about him because he looks like Winnie the Pooh. Oh, he does kind of. Yeah, it's cute. It's a charming nickname. But anyway, so maybe Jack Ma will come down from his mansion in Hong Kong SPEAKER_92: and start going back to work and give up the oil painting to save the economy. But I mean, it's so dumb. They had, they were making so much money taking these companies public. The Chinese government was in on all these. They had this money printing machine and then they were like, no, the, SPEAKER_16: it has too much power. Too many tall poppies, too much popularity. And now they're like, oh, you know what's going to happen is SPEAKER_92: we gave people a taste. We gave people a taste SPEAKER_95: and then we took it away. And entrepreneurs started leaving. SPEAKER_46: Capitalism works. Investors started leaving and then when that was combined SPEAKER_00: with the zero COVID policy, it's like the economy ground to a complete halt. But one other thing that's super interesting about this is the Chinese government realizing the power of the infrastructure that's been created. So they plan to repurpose some of that infrastructure like Meituan, which runs one of China's biggest food delivery services to get food to people SPEAKER_11: during the zero COVID lockdowns. All right. David Friedberg: Well, I think this is in a way good news. The fact that China, you know, our big rival and a threat to the freedom of humanity, the, you know, big existential threat I think humanity has is their expansion. You know, once you allow capitalism SPEAKER_16: and freedom, you are going to learn a hard lesson. You cannot take it away from people. People want more freedom. And so you keep giving them this taste and then you try to roll it back. You do it at your peril. And I think what they're realizing is, you know, they could have a civil war inside that country. You know, it's not out of the realm of possibility that there could be another Tiananmen Square protest. And listen, I know that was squashed. There could be more Hong Kong protests. I know that was squashed. But eventually, squashing your own people is maybe not as effective a technique as maybe just giving them a little more freedom. SPEAKER_00: So. Yep. It's an interesting development. All right. You only get to stay here for one more story. What are we doing here? I choose for us, Airbnb. I trust you to choose well. This is such an interesting story that we've been talking about for so long. So, Airbnb is doubling down on the Nomad workforce, which is, you know, totally reasonable as the company that enabled the Nomad workforce during the pandemic. It's kind of on brand. Almost, almost belatedly when you think about it that way, Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky, tweeted the following yesterday, Thursday. Today, we're announcing that Airbnb employees can live and work anywhere. Our design for working at Airbnb has five key features. One, you can work from home or the office, whatever works best for you. You can move anywhere in the company and your compensation will not change. That's a big one. You have the flexibility to live and work in 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location. And then he says, we will meet up regularly for team gatherings. Most employees will connect in person every quarter for about a week at a time and some more frequently. Love that plan. And then he says, to pull this off, we'll operate off of a multi-year roadmap with two major product releases a year, which will keep us working Jason Calacanis: in a highly coordinated way. This last part is the one I find so interesting. SPEAKER_07: Yeah, so working, why do you find it super interesting? SPEAKER_00: I just think that the idea of actually altering your business strategy around your remote workforce in such an intentional way is so freaking smart because it's an actual adaptation to this big change instead of like, everything will work just exactly how it has been, but you'll be at your house. Like, no. SPEAKER_44: So there's a lot to unpack here. Obviously, David Friedberg: you pointed out right at the start that they are the enabler of this nomad culture and they are also the beneficiaries. So if they don't dog food this, then who's going to? And he does mention in his tweets to him that he sees this as a competitive advantage for getting talent. I happen to agree with that as well. And the other thing that's really significant here is the belief that coming together four times a year is critically important. SPEAKER_16: And so I have taken the same approach. I have now telling people at my remote companies inside and launch, be prepared to be somewhere five days, four or five days, four times a year. And if you would like the freedom and response, the freedom of being a work from home person, you have to have the responsibility of doing this. That means if you have kids or spouses or other responsibilities in the world, okay, you're going to need to have nannies or travel plans or talk to your spouse about the fact I get to be home 48 weeks a year, but there will be four weeks a year where I will be traveling. Are we cool with that as a give and take between employers and employees? And I think it's actually going to be good for employees because the one thing that's missing right now is mentorship, esprit de corps, you know, the camaraderie. And so while I, you know, I do think it's going to put some people out, listen, you have a kid, I have kids, we've got to be away from our kids four times a year, four or five days. It's a bummer, but it's also kind of delightful that we get to be home and drive them to school, pick them up. If somebody gets sick, you can go to school and pick up your kids. Maybe you get to have a coffee break with them from three to four o'clock and, you know, just life is better for most people. It's wonderful. And it's great SPEAKER_121: to be in a hotel room away from them. SPEAKER_119: And it's also good to get those five days where you're like, SPEAKER_121: oh, crisp sheets SPEAKER_124: and no kids waking me up and jumping on my head. SPEAKER_123: But no one needs me right now. No dog, no human. Like, great, great. Love this. And you're like, hey, spouse, take care of this. Hey. No, I think it's so smart. I think it's, SPEAKER_00: and I just, I love the intentionality of this. Yes. Like, we've designed our workflow in this way. This is the plan for keeping that connection. Like, it's just such a, this is a real leadership SPEAKER_11: kind of Twitter memo here. I like it. Conversely, there is a lot SPEAKER_16: of abuse going on. Um, and the extent of the abuse, uh, is unknown, but there are lots of people talking on the social networks about people taking two and three jobs at tech companies and working outside jobs and not doing work. And I think we're going to see that, uh, David Friedberg: result in some, uh, reactions. I think one of the reactions, I'm curious your thoughts on this because I've been pitched on it at start, a startup ideas or heard it is people having some amount uh, like with their work computer, if they're going to work from home knowing their status online and what they're doing. Now, this is big brother but if people are going to be writing code or doing sales calls, like sales people have their sales calls tracked, right? So, you know, this sales person did six calls today. This person did no calls today. SPEAKER_16: Well, with developers, I think we're going to see or other people, writers, et cetera, uh, people are abusing it to the extent that we're going to see tracking software on laptops. Many people probably have it on there already. Call centers have it on there already where it's like, we need to know your keyboard is active. We don't need to necessarily know every keystroke, but we need to know what apps you're in for what number of hours a day and what work you're doing. I think if people are abusing this, it's going to result in that kind of reaction and people just need to be aware of it, which is to say, don't abuse the privilege or else people are going to start activating tracking software and there are people doing it and if you're working at a big company, do not do anything on your corporate computer is my best advice. That is not business. Like literally have another laptop on your desk where you're doing your shopping or doing your stuff because well within your employer's rights. We don't do this. I wouldn't do it. It's not my bag. I have other management techniques to do this kind David Friedberg: of stuff like looking at your work product but I would not do anything on a work computer that is not actual work. It's just best advice because if you're at Google or Apple or Amazon I bet you with your work issued laptop there might be some monitoring going on and it will be increasing 100% SPEAKER_35: What do you think of that because people aren't talking Jason Calacanis: about this 100% agree I mean I think you should choose your company SPEAKER_00: wisely because some companies are going to abuse that privilege also the simple fact is like we have all worked at companies where there was a slacker and we were all picking up SPEAKER_73: investment in Sotero according to the deal memo Sotero has developed a patented new approach to data protection this new technique eliminates the gaps of traditional methods by securing any data asset whether it's on premises or in the cloud and according to the deal memo Sotero is trusted by crowd analyzes many of these companies and then they select the ones with the greatest growth potential and they bring them to you they SPEAKER_05: okay last story is yours Molly I'll see everybody on Sunday and then Monday again for big Monday great weekend SPEAKER_139: thank you bye bye bye bye SPEAKER_05: bye bye bye never gets SPEAKER_00: old all right last story Jason has a big name meeting right now so I'm going to do this one by myself snap has just expanded its hardware lineup with a drone obviously it has a camera and it snap launched its first flying drone they call it pocket size but I think that's only if you're rocking the cargo shorts in a 90s revival kind of way it's a little more like purse or murse sized but it operates without a controller I'm assuming you use your phone to control it it's available in the US and France already and we SPEAKER_149: it's a pocket size free flying sidekick for adventures big and small everything you need to capture the spontaneity and fun of the moment from new perspectives is right in the palm of your hand with the simple tap of a button Pixie takes flight and SPEAKER_00: it's following him it's following him down the hallway and then oh pretty good camera quality SPEAKER_149: preset flight paths Pixie floats orbits and follows wherever you lead Pixie is ready to fly at a moment's notice there are no controllers there's no complex setup simply set a flight path and let Pixie take it from there floating above you as it captures photos and videos SPEAKER_46: floating above you with a terrifying whine and then it just landed in his hand and SPEAKER_155: it SPEAKER_00: but he's a little bit awkward I'm not gonna lie this thing is awesome and it is perfectly in line with snaps aesthetic you can't say they don't have an aesthetic it's like bright yellow Rachel producer Rachel said she thought it looked like a McDonald's Happy Meal toy which it kind of does but honestly this as like a content creation tool is fantastic snap said it's the social network that evidently all the kids actually are using even though I most everybody in my cohort is like wait you still use snap but or people still use snap but they do and I can completely see this being a gigantic hit for all those like annoying beach influencers I mean I don't want to buzz around me while I'm at the beach but I know it's going to and I we'll be back here Monday for what I'm sure will be some god awful dump of news because it never stops that's why we're here for you see you then and it would not be a Friday show without everybody's favorite segment OK Boomer Rachel reporting we're just we're just having girl talk right now just you and me hanging out talking about OK Boomer who do you have awesome on SPEAKER_158: the show I have a very familiar name this week Landon Campbell from inside if you guys don't know who Landon is I'm very surprised he's probably the other notable Gen Z that works for Jason other than Prash Landon also other than SPEAKER_160: Rachel other SPEAKER_158: than me as a local podcast called in their 20s and I talked to him a little bit about his podcasting journey and then at the end he gave some really awesome tangible information for people that are interested in starting their own podcasts like things going down to the basics like what microphone that he thinks would be cool everything like that and then we did talk a little bit about what it's like working for Jason I SPEAKER_00: an angel investor already at the hustle fund SPEAKER_158: yes he is he does talk about how he started investing and kind of the correlation between working in media and then also becoming an investor long-term plans and things like that SPEAKER_00: fascinating all right cool thanks again for another great interview Rachel Landon Campbell from our very own what do we call them sister company inside inside yep awesome SPEAKER_170: okay SPEAKER_173: boomer SPEAKER_171: I understood the assignment thank SPEAKER_173: you so much Landon Campbell for coming on this segment of okay boomer I assume that everybody listening to this podcast already knows who you are because SPEAKER_174: you also work for Jason I actually think that you're probably a bigger Gen Z working for Jason than I am I definitely think you so if for some reason if you're living under a rock Landon is the host of in their twenties which is an awesome podcast where he gets to speak to successful people about their twenties there is an episode with Jason which is kind of cool he is also an executive at inside which is another thing that Jason does he leads events at inside dot com and he hosts the weekly venturing in VC podcast and then with all your spare time you do angel investing with the hustle fund SPEAKER_177: yes yeah that's better description than I would have given I you know everybody's always like you're so busy you're so busy but I think there's so much synergy between the things I SPEAKER_183: yeah so when I look at the SPEAKER_177: podcaster's landscape I feel like there's kind of two routes you can take and I know a lot of people that you of launching it I always saw a lot of potential in the audio podcasting space to not just share stories but also you know get me in the room with a lot of these interesting people whom I would have never dreamt of being able to speak with but then even further than that I and has opened up a lot of unique opportunities so if not for the podcast like I wouldn't have this cool job with Jason I SPEAKER_174: working for somebody who has done just that he's done so much in media and it has definitely helped him have quite awesome investments along with him just being a very smart person he's killed it in SPEAKER_177: the interview was really focused on how he really grinded and did the work in his 20s starting from nothing and really building such a strong network he really I believe the word he used was he networks at a preternatural level so he was just so hungry to meet so many great people in his 20s knowing that meeting this person could lead to bigger and greater opportunities but specifically his journey professionally I really enjoy working for him because I'm a big believer that in order to become successful you need to see success you need to see people who invest in you know and obviously everybody knows the jacal story but a lot of these awesome companies that he had an opportunity to invest in so we see you know the Harry Stebbings SPEAKER_192: listen if you're a high performing founder or operator or human you need SPEAKER_01: to make sure you take care of your health and your wellness a founder is one of the most stressful jobs you can have you're taking care of a business all the employees around you and it can take a huge toll on your physical health and that is where Thorne can help Thorne is a health and tech company that offers at home tests that can actually identify where you need the most care everything from a gut test that analyzes your gut microbiome there's also a stress test that measures your stress hormone fluctuations and these tests help get rid of guesswork around good health they provide personalized steps for how to exercise and what supplements you should take I hear you right now saying you think you don't have you SPEAKER_200: definitely SPEAKER_182: I I love personally as well the entire I guess you'd call it a business model of doing something SPEAKER_184: with media networking journalism something like that and then branching that into a fund I think that really really improving on the skills that Jason is just really really good at because you know being able to work under somebody that was the first in this space is super duper cool but for investing you aren't investing at launch you are investing over at the SPEAKER_177: for about a month and along with that I do work with another VC called BVCC the Black Venture Capital Consortium amazing yeah that's kind of how I started to learn more about the venture landscape and I've been able to invest alongside them but yeah no it's just I think that again the correlation between VC and media some people are starting to understand it you know we see the big firms like A16Z they're hiring in-house you know they're really investing a lot in their media that they put out a lot of the small to mid size funds you know maybe a lot of them aren't hiring in-house media but they're outsourcing a lot so I just feel like we're just scratching the surface for people really understanding how correlated the two are SPEAKER_200: yeah 100% so how I guess did you how SPEAKER_174: were you able to unlock investing positions how were you able to leverage that to people and be like listen just because I'm not somebody with this traditional finance background coming from podcasting I'm still worth value like how were you able to pitch that to people to allow you to have these SPEAKER_206: awesome opportunities of SPEAKER_183: course yeah so something that I SPEAKER_177: really try and showcase on my show both shows my VC focus show and even in their 20s because I really want it for for so long there was like specific you need to do these steps in order to get into VC so it's really my mission through storytelling to share stories of people whom broke into VC you know maybe they were athletes first or maybe they were journalists first or maybe they were actors and they found a unique way to get into the VC space so bottom line like that's something that I'm really working hard to showcase on my show but yeah to specifically answer your question I think that the biggest thing that we need to really increase is access to information so I enjoy following a lot of great people on Twitter that are sharing their own personal experiences information resources that they used to get into this space because again in order to become successful you need to see success you need or this industry and without that with it being so gate kept for so long people want to know how to break in so I'm really trying my best to share my experiences daily weekly my conversations with VCs different perspectives of you know very famous investors in order just to give people the tools they need to succeed SPEAKER_182: awesome so your show is a lot like you said there's these really famous investors do you have any recommendations for content that people can consume that deals with people that are just starting off SPEAKER_174: in their venture career or maybe people that aren't as far along that are more so I think like for example sometimes it's really difficult for me to see somebody that is absolutely just killing in their career they're a lot older they're different stage of life than resources that SPEAKER_210: feel a little bit more tangible and a little bit earlier on in their career anything like that SPEAKER_211: of course yeah so I'll even say that I love sharing different perspectives SPEAKER_177: because I agree that if you just follow this one person and if a lot of stuff you want to accomplish and take in you want to speak with different people you know take in different content of individuals who are just getting into VC people who have been in the industry for a while I think all might say traditional background you know to get into venture capital but she knew that you know she was at a disadvantage at the beginning starting at the lowest point of the totem pole so she had to build her own network she had to really try and find ways to also build her own community because she knew in day one that she wanted to be able to positively impact the lives of other young people getting into VC so hearing her journey about not only taking on the responsibilities of we are HIPAA which I mean that would keep you pretty busy investing professionally but also finding time to develop a strong community in Gen Z VC to help the SPEAKER_174: incredible investor she was just a nice person she was on episode 1330 of OK Boomer so skip to the end of the episode if people are interested in talking to her also another person that was just amazing was on a segment with Jason yep and she was in the latest whole segment that they do talks about like up and coming angel investors and Paige is SPEAKER_173: just again just one of those people where hearing her talk I'm like you are so wise I cannot believe you're my SPEAKER_174: age for people who don't know Paige is another Gen Z VC she also wrote a children's book she actually is a partner created her own VC and her book is called Seed to Harvest along with her podcast so definitely check that out I'll plug her as well she's killing it another person that is absolutely phenomenal at listening to and following on Twitter just to see how to break into VC is Nicole Di Tomaso I believe is her last name she's from Harlem Capitol Harlem Capitol rocks Nicole rocks and it's super awesome being able to see people our age killing it like it's so so cool and one trap I like Paige like Megan Loyst SPEAKER_184: because just being able to see the path along the way is just as important as you know being headstrong for that end goal SPEAKER_183: it's crucial SPEAKER_177: and that's something I really realized day one that you know yes I wanted to have these successful people on my show but I went to flip the script and talk about their 20s because that's a time when they didn't necessarily have things figured out and yeah really I agree with you 100% Rachel it's difficult to like see Elon's like okay obviously he's killing it doing amazing things but how did he get there I want to hear times of uncertainty especially since we're dealing with a lot of uncertainty with the pandemic so I think it's a fun time talking about the 20s SPEAKER_174: yeah it is and in their 20s it's such a cool podcast what made you the want to start a podcast with it's obviously probably been really difficult to get these types of guests on I can't even imagine what your outbound and rejection cycle was like because you had some amazing guests but I SPEAKER_173: do I want to be the biggest the SPEAKER_229: best podcast like this and get these stellar guests was that the goal SPEAKER_177: so yes one of my friends just asked me work you know people who I had worked with in college professors that I had you know people who were influential to me and that's another thing that like and I because I interview influential people it doesn't have to be necessarily just a billionaire is like I've always interviewed influential people to me so people who have made an impact in my life a few of my favorite episodes are like the people first so you know we had our audience identified we had the strategies that we put in place to get there with these you know more local interviews and keep going from there but again like you got to prioritize the early days focusing being consistent as you know Rachel is super important in building not just a podcast but any form of content because people need to see SPEAKER_232: the foundation they need to believe that you believe in what you're building especially if you want to get these people on SPEAKER_182: totally I consistency is so important and I think that's a big thing that people SPEAKER_174: don't talk about a lot in the I would consider this like even like it's the creative industry you know what I mean podcasting is still like a creative thing that people are doing and consistency I find is totally overlooked like there's this one point during the pandemic where I reached out to one person every single day for for 100 days not necessarily just for my podcast but I was like man I need to I realized like I just graduated I was living home with my parents and I was like man I'm not meeting like anybody in this adult world like if you don't actually put yourself out there you're not going to find anybody and it wasn't until then months into having my first podcast might have even been a year at that point that I get guests that were like I consider big enough that become better at consistency because I think that's a huge barrier SPEAKER_177: yes I will say first off make sure that you have a pipeline of content content can be very overwhelming very stressful and I felt very unorganized a few weeks where I have other conflicts come up or other responsibilities and I don't have time to build content content takes time you can't just throw it together so I mentioned having a editing things that may not be posted for a few weeks and I am glad that I do because I have free time in the future to focus on other things or other responsibilities so that's been something since day one I started this with my best Michael and we on day one I believe it was March we said we were going to watch a podcast but we didn't end up making it public until June because within those months in between we were just having interviews we were building social content and making sure that we had things ready to go so don't overwhelm yourself just try and have things in the back burner ready to go I recognize I know people that post this day versus this week and it's a little random and for an audience it can be difficult to understand when an episode is coming out that simple we do every Monday at a time we were doing every Monday and Wednesday and I SPEAKER_182: the SPEAKER_174: next question I get after what is it like working for Jason all the time when people find out that I work with Jason is how do you start a podcast I always tell people some things that I absolutely love Descript for editing has been my lifesaver banking episodes has been a lifesaver having people that I know could be consistent guests for example if I do run out I will always have something in my brain being like this normally that's a friend and I'm like you know what this person always has some really good things to share with my SPEAKER_177: launching and he kind of like gave his 10 steps to launching one and I think audio quality like prioritize getting a good mic early I waited a while and this is actually my friends that I'm using now who I SPEAKER_206: so I always do internal recordings like on quick time SPEAKER_173: and things like that I'm like oh Riverside you know what that seems a lot easier and do you think Jason I think had a poll out recently and most people in that poll I SPEAKER_174: believe said they listen to podcasts on YouTube do you think that SPEAKER_177: people in the space have been going crazy about you know from the audience perspective most people are streaming their podcast from YouTube so not the Spotify not the Apple I mean well they are but the top numbers are YouTube I personally believe it's important to diversify so we're on every platform I do like put extra emphasis on the audio platforms just because I enjoy editing the audio and I enjoy I agree I mean you should at least have you know a presence on every platform and I even go a step further like really learn if you want to be in the space be fully in get to know the audio space because there's you know a lot of opportunities to distribute on different platforms and at least you know have a presence on these unique platforms as well SPEAKER_182: totally Landon and I were for the audience to know Landon and I literally had a SPEAKER_174: phone call one or two weeks ago about how cool Twitter spaces was like we literally were just geeking out over Twitter spaces being like this is kind of crazy how much of an audience you get with Twitter spaces because it is so freaking hard to grow a podcast anybody can make I have good audio quality but actually growing that audience and building that community around podcasting it's not as sexy as YouTubing but I think that podcasting has a lot better longevity in my than a lot of other platforms so podcasting definitely a form of expression that's here to stay for me do you have any advice this is my last question I promise what is your advice on building community in podcasting SPEAKER_250: that's a great question so of course being on these different platforms I think is super important but you know SPEAKER_177: adding on to your point that you just mentioned like I am very bullish on the longevity of building a podcast and again like I'll say it for the third time it can get you it can be a vehicle to get you into so many other opportunities but you just got to stick with it there's a famous stat out there that 90% of podcasters quit after episode three I agree Rachel it's not easy it's not easy building an audience organically it's not easy you know looking for sponsors as well people think that like you know if they're only receiving X amount of listeners and downloads per episode that you know the show sucks but you gotta like just stick with it it maybe took like 50 episodes for my audience to really start to understand okay so this is what he's trying to do so that was 50 full weeks and but it was okay it was a worthy investment because again it's such a powerful medium but as for building community I think using Twitter is something that I use often like just literally asking people who I know are you know heavy listeners of my show with left ratings and you know really vibe with the content I'm putting out just asking for constructive criticism of how we can make it better guests suggestions those are ways to like build community on a simple level of course like you can build an actual you know discord or slack a more intelligent community but I think that starting out just being able to listen to your audience take feedback take suggestions you know read comments on socials everywhere I mean that can go a long way and that's how I've made my show better not from me from the community giving their suggestions SPEAKER_174: yeah that's awesome thank you so much for coming on I think these are really tangible things that are going to help people that are interested in starting their own podcast I think a lot of our listeners obviously are have been listening to Jason forever we're over 1400 episodes in and Jason has a big name for himself obviously so does Molly Wood who is our other wonderful co-host I think we didn't get to mention her on here but plug in Molly Wood she's phenomenal of course and they already had a brand before coming to podcasting so I really think that this is good information to share with people that are just starting out in the space and I think it's important to share that podcasting isn't dead people can still start and get big trust us it's phenomenal and I got my job I got my job through podcasting I guess now that I think about it if I didn't have my podcast I wouldn't have SPEAKER_242: this job so you know what you're right open source awesome Linda thank you so much for coming on SPEAKER_177: Rachel thank you so much my honor thank you SPEAKER_242: where can people find you SPEAKER_177: you can follow me at Landon20s that's L-A-N-D-O-N 2-0-S on Instagram Twitter Landon Campbell on LinkedIn and of course in their 20s and Venturing in BC are my other two shows SPEAKER_242: phenomenal thanks Landon SPEAKER_177: see ya SPEAKER_255: hey everyone producer Nick here I want to tell you about the SaaS syndicate if you're a founder of a SaaS company with a product and market our investment team wants to talk to you head over to thesyndicate.com slash SaaS S-A-A-S to apply to raise from the SaaS syndicate and you can join Jason's syndicate of over 9,000 accredited investors at thesyndicate.com SPEAKER_258: producer Justin here know a cool startup check out openscouting.com where anyone can refer a startup to our investment team here at launch even if you don't know the founder if you're the first to flag a company for us and we decide to invest you'll get 5k in cash or 10% of our carry SPEAKER_260: hey everybody producer Rachel here are you an early stage startup that has product and market some traction and are looking to raise at least $500,000 apply today to remote demo day for your chance to pitch to over 9,000 investors in Jason's syndicate submit your application at remotedemoday.com our next event is on April 27th SPEAKER_255: and if you want to learn how to invest in startups from the world's greatest angel investor and no we're not talking about Chris Saka then head to angel.university to apply the 4-hour workshop costs $300 and all proceeds are donated to charity to date we've donated over $175,000 to various charities and you can see the full list at angel.university slash charity we've made a lot of