In the 18th episode, Co-Founder of Rippling Parker Conrad discusses his personal history, building a company, being forced out of Zenefits and the founder/VC relationship. Plus Zach Weinberg returns to co-host and discuss Sequoia’s leaked deck, what the current crisis actually is, more Twitter fights and crypto litigation.
(00:08) Welcome Zach Weinberg
(00:55) Andreessen Horowitz/Flow Carbon
(10:41) Crypto Litigation Risk
(16:27) Venture vs. Hedge Funds
(22:25) Sequoia’s Leaked Deck
(27:04) Different Kind of Crisis
(28:20) Tech Companies Had It Easy
(30:21) Uber vs. Lyft
(34:16) Down Rounds
(40:27) High Valuation Doesn’t Mean Good Employment
(45:31) 2008 Work Force
(49:50) Parker Conrad Intro
(50:13) Working on Harvard’s Crimson
(52:45) Left School for a Little Rock Newspaper
(55:13) Cancer Diagnosis
(57:16) Starting SigFig
(58:52) Raising Money Pre-2013
(1:05:29) Challenges in Automating
(1:08:36) The Public Narrative
(1:10:36) Forced Out of Zenefits
(1:19:50) VC’s Role in Narrative
(1:22:59) What Do Founders Want From VCs?
(1:25:46) Do VCs Increase Success?
(1:30:09) Discussing Rippling
(1:38:16) Building a Compound Company
(1:46:56) Hiring People With a Chip On Their Shoulder
(1:49:02) Most Important Job of a CEO
(1:51:05) Raised the Next Round
(1:54:47) Determining the Valuation
(1:58:09) San Francisco
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Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
Links:
Sequoia’s Leaked Deck - https://fortune.com/2022/05/25/sequoia-capital-slide-dek-warning-to-founders-downturn/
Zack’s Twitter Battle - https://twitter.com/zachweinberg/status/1527107650911186944?s=20&t=DN_FdiP-WW6rDwmHNkJPTA
Parker Conrad Discussing Chip on Their Shoulder - https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/18/parker-conrad-i-like-working-with-people-who-have-a-chip-on-their-shoulder/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAqlH6GlRJ8EA-ptL8cD-XPUGeoXNRqKe9l_Qegi--qyyHZQrMTJ8bwlg47vSJ9rkc2eaJlUKyMvb3wA-Rw2PjFYJl5gUwZfO0WPMLF-tRT_lVDYq_uoEnC29d6L45AlVFRTnPJqbCPEJM0_ICBeqES_kZ8t5gUQkVg7BwMKsGs7
Chesa Boudin and San Francisco - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/chesa-boudin-recall-san-francisco-crime/629907/
Andreessen Horowitz/Flow Carbon - https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2022/05/25/a16z-crypto-record-4th-fund-doubles-down-on-web3-amid-market-crash/?sh=7f704b7f34ff
VCs Driving Down Valuation Narrative - https://twitter.com/bgurley/status/1528535418076995584