20VC: Farfetch Founder, José Neves on Zen Buddhism and Its Impact on Leadership Mentality, Why Head vs Heart is Not the Right Way To Think About Decision-Making & How To Work Through Self-Doubt and Identity as a CEO
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
José Neves is the Founder, CEO & Chairman @ Farfetch, the #1 destination for high-end fashion offering the world's Greatest Selection of Luxury. Now a public company, José has raised over $1.7Bn with Farfetch from some of the biggest names including Alibaba, Richemont, JD.com, Index Ventures and DST to name a few. Prior to Farfetch, José has been involved in the fashion start-up world since the mid-1990s when he launched footwear business SWEAR. José later founded SIX London, a fashion licensing and wholesale company selling to 600 retailers worldwide. Finally, in 2001 José opened the renowned boutique bstore, which won the British Fashion Award for Retailer of the Year in 2006.
In Today’s Episode with José Neves You Will Learn:
1.) How José made his way from creating footwear brands in the days of the Spice Girls and cyberpunk to changing the fashion industry itself with Farfetch?
2.) Why does Zen Buddhism resonate with José in such a profound way? How does his adoption of it impact his style of leadership today? How does José deal with the loneliness of being a CEO? What does José mean when he says the most successful leaders, "know how to fall and how to get up"? How has José responded to his greatest failures?
3.) How does José think about decision-making today? What are the biggest misconceptions people have with regards to effective decision-making? Why is head vs heart the wrong way to think about decision-making? How does José adopt a sense of emotional detachment when making decisions? What works? What does not work?
4.) How does José evaluate his relationship to money today? In what ways has it changed over time? What does José believe that others do not believe when it comes to risk and risk management? How does José balance the demands of Wall St and investors with the knowledge that everything is inherently uncertain?
5.) Does José ever feel self-doubt? How does he manage it? In what ways does he advise earlier stage founders to grapple with their own self-doubt? How does José think about tying one's own identity to their company? Why is this so dangerous?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with José Neves
José’s Favourite Book: The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, I just love doing the show today, a very real |
| 0:04.3 | conversation about what truly great leadership means. And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome |
| 0:08.8 | Jose Nevers, founder, CEO and chairman at Farfetch, the number one destination for high-end |
| 0:14.2 | fashion, offering the world's greatest selection of luxury. Now a public company, Jose has raised |
| 0:19.2 | over $1.7 billion with Farfetch from some of the biggest |
| 0:22.5 | names including Ali Barbar, Richemore JD.com, Index Ventures and DST to name a few. Prior to Farfetch, |
| 0:29.9 | Jose has been involved in the fashion startup world since the mid-1990s when he launched footwear |
| 0:34.6 | business swear. Jose later founded Six London, a fashion licensing and wholesale |
| 0:39.2 | company selling to 600 retailers worldwide. And finally in 2001, Jose opened the renowned |
| 0:45.1 | boutique B store, which won the British Fashion Award for Retailer of the Year in 2006. |
| 0:50.4 | And I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Danny Reimer at Index, Frederick Corrett |
| 0:54.1 | Felix and John Kamerluddin for some amazing questions suggestions today. |
| 0:58.0 | I really did so appreciate that. |
| 1:00.0 | But before we dive into the show today, I have to say I just love using Angel List Fund |
| 1:03.9 | admin platform to manage my investments. |
| 1:06.1 | The team at Angel List takes care of all my back office needs so that I can focus on working |
| 1:10.4 | with great founders. |
| 1:11.6 | Leading fund managers have made over 10,000 investments into 6,000 startups via Angel List, all online |
| 1:17.5 | and all in one place. And with the recently announced rolling funds, you can easily find |
| 1:21.8 | and invest in these top fund managers on angellist.com forward slash rolling. And speaking of the |
| 1:27.1 | incredible platform that is |
| 1:28.3 | AngelList on the business side there, on the personal side, harness is the next generation |
... |
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