Podcasts are having their moment today, given the outsized role they had in the US 2024 Presidential election. It is impressive how some of the larger ones, such as the Joe Rogan Experience, have emerged as counterweights to mainstream media. While podcasts have hit the cultural zeitgeist and have broken into the mainstream, they have always had an outsized influence In our own little (well, no longer little) tech + startups + venture world.
A key reason for that is that podcasts are likely the least frictionless way for tacit information or tradecraft to be made more explicit in the tech world, given the opportunity costs of time for a founder or VC. Hence they offer the highest information bang for the time buck as far as the tech + startup world goes (see my old piece ‘Why Podcasts Matter’). Kinda like how biographies / autobiographies are to the world of non-fiction.
As I became aware of the advantage podcasts offered, I reformatted my information diet to prioritise podcasts, consuming it mostly in the form of transcripts (Apple Podcasts’ autogeneration of transcripts has been a gamechanger of late). I reduced my consumption of articles and newsletters, unsubscribing from most newsletters, or autoarchiving them, barring a handful of paid subscriptions (Lenny, Generalist, Newcomer etc.) I described it once to an acquaintance as the equivalent of an information keto diet, eschewing information carbs (articles, twitter) in favour of proteins (podcasts) and fats (books)!
Here is the list of podcasts I consumed and enjoyed, in 2024. Not all the podcasts are those released in 2024 (though most are).
And I would love to hear from you on what your fave podcast episodes were (not necessarily from this list)! Would love to expand my podcast palate.
1/ Acquired – Hermes
Link to podcast + transcript.
Excellent episode, where the hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal dig deep into the Hermes history as well as their manufacturing process, with lots of fun facts sprinkled across such as how they never openly reveal their highest-selling and most prestigious products, the Birkin and Kelly bags. Overall an excellent episode to listen to, and one of the many that have come on luxury brands such as on Ferrari, Rolex and Patek (these three in Colossus’ Business Breakdowns; the Rolex one in particular was v good). Common to all is that you cant just walk into a store and walk out with a purchase. Often the one you want will not be available or you will be told the ones in stores was reserved for a specific buyer. Purchase of choice products like the Birkin is subject to you building a track record or purchase history over time and spending lots of money on what you really don’t need before you get to buy what you want:)
2/ Turpentine VC – Sarah Tavel + Eric Vishria, Benchmark
Link to podcast. Link to transcript (organised by me).
Benchmark is such an interesting firm, given the strategic choices they made around the equal partnership, and working without any support (no analysts / associates, just an occasional Principal, and no platform team). In this episode, there are interesting discussions of the implications of these choices and tradeoffs. The bad is that this can mean insufficient coverage (not enough cold bodies to email) or support to founder, but the good is that it is a forcing function to focus on what is truly important, which is direct time to the founder on key inflection points, and build greater and better context about the business which informs future decisions. There is also an interesting section on how they think about future Partners and recruit them. Benchmark is a one of a kind firm. It is very unlikely there will be too many more like it, so it is unlikely any of their strategic choices will fit those of other firms, but it is fascinating to see the entire set of choices and tradeoffs, and how they make for a firm like them, and the implications of these choices.
3/ Colossus | Invest Like the Best – Gavin Baker, Atreides
Link to podcast + transcript. Excerpts from the podcast that I found interesting here.
This was an astounding episode. Gavin Baker is clearly amongst the most knowledgeable tech analyst and observers out there, and this episode is an excellent one to get his perspectives on the AI landscape.
The section on how the explains that GPU advances alone are not enough to understand the power of a data centre was riveting. What matters he says is MFU of the GPU, where MFU = model FLOPS utilization. He then teases apart MFU into MAMMF (maximum achievable matrix multiplication flops, or software on chipset efficiency) x SFU (system FLOPS efficiency, essentially networking, storage, and memory efficiency). His key thesis is that the networking tech and improvements havent kept pace with GPU improvements and are rate limiting GPU advances from being utilised. A large segment is his perspectives on AI, which I can’t say I understood it entirely, but it gives you a drone level view which is extremely useful. There is other interesting stuff as well such as the segment on how Elon, Jensen Huang, work – only on the most important problems, and like to hear bad news first. Jensen: “I have no fixed schedule. I have no standing meetings. I just find out what is the most important problem at the company, and I go, and I sit my desk out in that area, and I pull the best resources to work on that problem, and I love it.”
4 / Lenny’s Podcast – Eli Schwartz, SEO guru
Link to podcast + transcript.
Long episode at nearly 2 hours, but worth a watch for any founder / operator wrestling with SEO or content. Eli Schwartz is one of the foremost thinkers in the SEO space today, author of the book ‘Product-Led SEO’ and advisor to Zapier, Tinder, LinkedIn etc. He speaks to Lenny on a wide range of topics related to SEO.
2 key themes in the podcast that stood out to me:
- Eli covers how AI / LLMs will impact search / SEO. Effectively the top of the funnel will now be owned by Google and LLMs – so content like 20 best beach hotels in Southern Europe will now either get aggregated into AI Overviews (top hit on Google Search) or within LLMs with occasional citations, and your site will get pushed further downward. Hence the best SEO content will move midfunnel and have content that is helpful to drive conversions. This is how SEO should have been from the beginning but because it is hard to measure conversion, and harder with SEO, and relatively easier to show rankings impact, SEO got positioned as Top of Funnel.
- The other metapoint that Eli makes is around whether you need SEO at all. Not everyone has to do SEO he says. It is best used in contexts where the customer is aware of the problem, uses specific keywords or language to understand the problem or look for a solution, and this behaviour arises naturally in the user / customer journey of addressing the problem. User Journeys is a term which comes frequently in the podcast episode, and effectively Eli is saying that if searching for content is not helpful for the user in solving the problem / and not relevant for you in driving conversion, then you don’t need SEO. Too many companies default to doing SEO because yi have raised money and you need to spend on SEO. This is wrong he says. It is expensive when you add up all of the cost of creating the content and hiring the experts. You need to consider the ROI of the investment actively like you do with Paid Marketing, but not enough companies do that he says. In his perspective, most sales-led / top-down SaaS motions can eschew their investments in SEO. It is more relevant for PLG motions like Zapier, Notion etc.
5/ 20VC – Alain de Botton
Link to episode page. Link to my notes + highlights of the episode.
I thought this was an exceptional episode. Alain De Botton is an intriguing guest for a tech podcast, but I am glad Harry did it and was able to pull it off. I read Alain De Botton’s romantic novels when I was in my 20s and enjoyed them hugely. Later he evolved into a (pop) philosopher of a kind and I kind of lost touch with his writing. I am now tempted to dip into his philosophical writing given this episode. What stands out here is his insight into the psychology of parenting, the parent-child dynamics, and the psychology of the workplace. That one line (see first para in the ‘Advice to parents’ section in my notes page linked above) where he encourages you to praise or esteem your child for what they are vs for what they did, and you will thus give them psychological armour for adulthood, was the biggest takeaway of the episode for me.
6/ AI + I – Matt Cynamon, USV
Link to podcast and transcript. Link to my notes / highlights.
One of the more interesting podcast interviews I have consumed in the past months / year. Matt Cynamon the ‘Head of Library Sciences’ at Union Square Ventures comes on the AI + I podcast with Dan Shipper to talk about all the cool AI stuff they are cooking up at Union Square Ventures (USV). You may have seen the OH (overheard) on the USV Librarian account @usvlibrarian on Twitter. That was built by him. Over 70 mins he takes us through the GenAI stuff they are building at USV, detailing cool tools such as The Librarian (a querying too for all the 15k articles they have written at USV), OH or Overheard (Meeting Notes) and The Dream Machine (v trippy video tool to create AI images to sync with conversation topics).
Am sure some other VC funds have some of these built (Yohei Nakajima comes to mind), but USV is of course one of the giants of venture. Impressed with the suite of tools that USV has built out, and grateful that they and Matt have been more public about it. An interesting point that stood out to me from the episode was Matt’s posit that the cost of creating good storytelling is dropping, and that there is a ton of content getting created that is not getting captured and AI can help you capture and make that content in a ready to consumer format.
7/ Dwarkesh Podcast – Daniel Yergin
Link to podcast + transcript. Excerpts from the podcast that I found interesting here.
Daniel Yergin is an oil / energy expert and author of ‘The Prize’, which is an acclaimed history of oil (and as Dwarkesh says, a parallel history of the 20th century too). I haven’t read the book yet. It is there in my bookshelf somewhere waiting to be read. For now this podcast will do. This is a riveting episode with so many interesting threads and themes. Dwarkesh’s range is incredible – from AI to Oil to Geopolitics and History (do check out his episode with military historian Sarah Paine). He is also able to see parallels between different contexts, like w Kerosene and early AI models, which is fascinating.
For 50 years after oil was discovered its primary use was as Kerosene for lighting. When Edison invented the lightbulb there was a view that Rockefeller’s Standard Oil would go out of business. It was only when the motor car was invented and became popular that gasoline became the primary use of oil. (“In the 19th century gasoline was a waste product. It went for like three cents a gallon.”) Interesting to see if there are parallels w AI, asks Dwarkesh. He says “Currently what we’re using these models for is research and chat and whatever. That’s like the kerosene. What would the equivalent of billions of vehicles look like for AI?”
8/ Ideas of India – Karthik Muralidharan
Link to podcast + transcript.
Enjoyable and interesting episode where Shruti Rajagopalan interviews Karthik Muralidaran, author of the book ‘Accelerating India’s Development’, a prescriptive book where he writes on how specific interventions around improving the quality of expenditure in areas such as healthcare, education can yield dramatically improved outcomes. I am presently reading the book (it is a big one at 800+ pages!). The podcast episode gives you a sense of the contents though. The core message of the book is that too much rhetoric is devoted to what the government should do, while remarkable little is around how it should do it, and that matters because thinking about the how, and interventions around these can generate very high returns for the investment undertaken. I found the discussion on centralisation vs fiscal federalism in the context of India and US respectively utterly interesting. The other interesting theme was around government pay (high) and recruitment (too few) in India and how that limits state capacity. During the course of the podcast, Karthik Muralidharan shares this deeply thought-through ideas such as the Practicum and Empanelment, and interventions around local hiring, as well as hiring a second anganwadi worker etc. A good read / listen for those with an interest in public policy and statecraft, and India, or all of these.
9/ Turpentine VC – Chris Paik, Pace Capital
Link to podcast.
Surprisingly good podcast episode. I encountered Chris Paik first on a Invest Like the Best podcast which was interesting as well, and then again recently when his post ‘The End of Software’ went viral. He is an interesting thinker as you will see from the highlights of this episode. A few points which stood out –
- On Thrive Capital, his previous employer, he mentions how they were always ‘playing offence’, given they were based in NYC, and no one from the Valley had to visit NYC. You were default on a plane.
- Pace Capital’s unfair advantage lies in being early. That is the only way they can compete with the multistage funds. If there is a deck, it is too late, is their internal motto per Chris.
- Bullish on local inference, and applications take advantage of that. Apple has a huge advantage per his thesis. Buy Apple! as he says sometimes the obvious trade is the clever trade (like FAANG and Bitcoin)
- Minimum viable infrastructure is an interesting mental model. There is a minimum technology format or bandwidth needed for a media or software product, like text for twitter, 3G for uber / snapchat, 4G/5G/video for tiktok etc. It explains why Instagram succeeded Twitter, and Snapchat succeeded Instagram, and TikTok succeeded Snapchat. The flow is usually in one direction. The reason we havent had a new consumer co in the past decade is because bandwidth has topped out. Interesting theory and he proposes Livestreaming as a potential new format (suggests Whatnot as a likely winner). Some of this thinking also appears in the Invest Like The Best podcast I mentioned.
- Don’t miss out his cute parable of the Three Brothers and why local inference (and Apple) has a huge advantage).
10 / Lenny’s Podcast – Mike Maples, Jr.
Link to podcast + transcript. Excerpts from the podcast that I found interesting here.
I have always enjoyed Mike Maples’s podcasts. He is a differentiated thinker, and backed by a terrific track record. These days Mike has been on a podcast tour, as he is promoting his book Pattern Breakers, which is about the success patterns or themes underlying successful startups. The title comes from his quote that “The way a startup wins is they deny the premise of the rules and propose something completely different. They radically break the pattern and can’t be compared to anything which came before.” The book’s basically broken up into two parts, how to come up with an idea and then the actions you need to get right to move forward an idea. In this podcast with Lenny, he covers the key themes of the book. It is worth a listen / read. I particularly enjoyed this riff on how startups can storytell better, especially in the context of their fundraising pitch.
11/ Colossus | Invest Like the Best – Nick Kokonas, Tock + Alinea Restaurant Group
Link to podcast + transcript.
One of the best podcast episodes I ‘read’ this year. It is not new, but after it was referred in the 2023 Colossus annual wrap as one of their best episodes, i decided to give it a go. Any one who is a restaurateur (esp offering mid to high priced food) or in strategy will enjoy and learn from this podcast. One of my big learnings from it was on how to figure out your revenue sources (essentially all of the experience touchpoints that customers may be willing to pay, or pay differential prices for) and make that visible to your org. Time-based pricing, and having the courage to go all-out on that, then using advance bookings / getting your customers to pay you early, and leveraging the float to buy in advance at lower prices from your vendors, so as to price the menu lower, and be competitively advantaged, were other learnings as well.
12/ Lenny’s Podcast – Carole Robin, Stanford GSB, ‘Touchy Feely’
Link to podcast + transcript.
I really enjoyed this interview with Stanford Professor Carole Robin who teaches an ultrapopular course ‘Interpersonal Dynamics’ popularly known as ‘Touchy Feely’ with the objective of helping people build strong relationships, because as she says “people do business with people, not ideas or products”! The conversation covers topics such as why vulnerability is central to strong leadership (why should someone follow you?), how to progressively and safely be more vulnerable in a relationship, the three realities underpinning any interpersonal interaction, why feedback is never negative, and why feedback is central to every relationship, but advice can hinder relationships.
I found three concepts especially useful – first the part about anger being a secondary emotion covering up for fear or hurt, was a very interesting one. Second, on the leader’s job being to ensure that the best answer is found and not necessarily by him or her, and creating a culture and environment where everyone is empowered to come up with the best answer. Thirdly, and finally, that behind every behaviour is a choice, and there is a belief and underlying mental model underprinning that choice and behaviour. We need to unlock the belief / mental model driving the choices really.
13 / Colossus | Invest Like The Best – Lulu Meservey, Rostra
Link to podcast + transcript. Excerpts from the podcast that I found interesting here.
Lulu Cheng Meservey is the founder of Rostra, the ‘PR’ firm du jour, and the high priestess of the ‘go direct’ movement, where founders are encouraged to front the message about their co to the world, instead of relying on internal or external PR teams to front their point of view. I first came across Lulu on Twitter when Dwarkesh Patel thanked her for connecting him to Daniel Yergin (resulting in a wonderful podcast episode). Hmm, I said who is this? And then I read her site (rostra.co) and her message for why founders should go direct, and I was impressed. So when this episode with Patrick O’Shaughnessy was released, I knew I had to check it out.
The episode is a great introduction to Lulu’s and Rostra’s philosophy of going direct. She covers
- Why founders should go direct – no transmission loss in messaging, all the tools of going direct are there, many have good distribution reach through their social followers etc.
- What the key elements of going direct are – loved the line on communication being a vector and not a scalar, as in, it is important to have a communication direction or objective attached to each message
- Why founders should write a manifesto whilst going direct and the contents of the manifesto
- The specific publication matters less than the right journalist for sharing the message with. Individuals >> Institutions (similar to how founders sometimes select a great Partner a Tier2 fund over a so so Partner at a Tier1 fund)
- How a good PR firm can help you ‘read the room’ (more on this below)
- Crisis PR, and why CEOs should apologise less, and do wartime scenario exercises
14/ Lenny’s Podcast – Dalton Caldwell, YCombinator
Link to podcast + transcript.
Dalton Caldwell is an exfounder and YC Partner. His podcast is an enjoyable interesting one covering a lot of frameworks such as how to think about pivots and when to pivot (has anecotes of Retool, Brex, Segment pivots), tarpit ideas (which look good but ultimately are doomed to fail, like serendpitious meeting apps) and the importance of talking to customers, and driving customer validation for the idea / product. Every month he says the founder should review the previous month’s calendar and see if at least 20-30% of the time has been spent in in-person meetings with potential customers. There is also a fun anecdote of the ‘Collision Install’, where Patrick Collison of Stripe would do the installation himself, to ensure the onboarding happened:)
15/ Colossus | Business Breakdowns – Saurabh Mukherjea on Bajaj Finance
Link to podcast + transcript.
This episode on Bajaj Finance where Matt Reustle interviews Saurabh Mukherjea of Marcellus Investments is an exceptional one. Worth a listen / read even if you are not in fintech, if only to understand what an incredibly tight biz model Bajaj Finance has built. The market share numbers (Bajaj Finance accounts for a sixth of India’s non bank lending) and growth numbers (50% Profit After Tax CAGR over 16 years( are mind blowing, resulting in a $50b market cap and a 1,000x increase in share price over the past 16 years. Whoa!
They say there are 4 elements to a lending business – cost of capital, cost of acquiring customer, quality of underwriting, and ability to collect. You need to great at at least two of these and ok at the others (cant be bad) to run a profitable lending biz. Bajaj Finance is that rare lender, who is great at all four elements, from what I understand from the podcast.
The segment on the data advantage they have, was mind-blowing. I heard once that Bajaj Finance is Salesforce’s 2nd biggest account globally. I couldn’t believe it then, but now after reading about it here, I do, and can understand why.
***
Others I liked as well but couldn’t accommodate as this was getting too long (!): Tyler Cowen talking to children’s book author and John Donne biographer Katherine Rundell, Tim Ferriss with astute people reader Graham Duncan, McKinsey interviewing incoming Disney + Reliance JV CEO Uday Shankar, David Senra of Founders Podcast on retired investor Nick Sleep’s letters, Venture Unlocked with Ben Sun of Primary VC, Lenny’s Podcast with strategy guru Roger Martin, and storytelling expert Matthew Dicks.