20VC: Founding Legendary Entertainment and Creating Batman, The Hangover and 300, The Importance of Luck vs Skill in Success, How Relationships to Money Change & Why Velocity is the Most Important Factor in Company Building Success with Thomas Tull
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Thomas Tull is a leading entrepreneur and investor as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tulco, LLC. he has made notable investments in the likes of FIGS, Colossal, IL MAKIAGE, Pinterest, Zoox and Oculus Rift. Previously, Tull was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Legendary Entertainment, the film company that produced blockbusters including The Dark Knight trilogy, 300 and The Hangover franchise. Outside of his investment work, Thomas is a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, Yellowstone Forever, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. If that was not enough, Tull is also part of the ownership group of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the six-time Super Bowl champions.
In Today’s Episode with Thomas Tull You Will Learn:
1.) From Laundromats to Legendary Entertainment:
- How did Thomas first make his way into the world of business starting with laundromats?
- How did growing up without money impact Thomas' early mindset?
- What advice does Thomas give to young people today on starting their own business?
2.) Thomas Tull: The Investor:
- How does Thomas approach risk today? Where is the boundary of acceptable vs unacceptable risk?
- How does Thomas assess his own relationship to money? How has it changed over time?
- How does Thomas protect himself from people and occasions where one is being used for their money or status?
- To what extent does Thomas believe success is luck vs skill?
3.) Legendary Entertainment:
- How did Thomas make his way into the movie business with the founding of Legendary Entertainment?
- How did Thomas first meet Chris Nolan? What did the early days of making Batman Begins look like?
- What were some of the most memorable times from making 300 with Gerard Butler?
- What were some of the most challenging elements of scaling Legendary? With the benefit of hindsight, is there anything that Thomas would do differently?
4.) The Macro:
- Why does Thomas believe public markets are the least rational they have ever been?
- From geo politics to climate change, what is Thomas most worried about today in the world?
- What does Thomas believe we should focus on as positives moving forward? What should we be excited about?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Thomas Tull
Thomas' Favourite Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Thomas' Most Recent Investment: Colossal
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back. This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and wow, today's show is so cool to do for me. |
| 0:05.4 | Don't get me wrong, I love having VCs on the show, but this guest today's background is insane. |
| 0:10.0 | So Thomas Tull is a leading entrepreneur and investor as the founder, chairman and CEO of Tullco LLC. |
| 0:15.8 | He's made notable investments in the lights of figs, colossal, ill-macheage, Pinterest, Zooks and Oculus Rift. |
| 0:21.9 | Previously, Tull was the founder, CEO and chairman of legendary entertainment, |
| 0:26.1 | the film company that produced blockbusters, including some of my absolute favour, |
| 0:30.3 | is check this out, the Dark Night Trilogy, 300 and the Hangover franchise. |
| 0:34.7 | Outside of his investment work, Thomas is a trustee of Carnegie Mellon, Yellowstone |
| 0:38.6 | Forever, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and also the Smithsonian Institution. If that |
| 0:44.0 | wasn't also enough, Thomas is also part of the ownership group of the Pittsburgh Steelers, |
| 0:48.2 | the six-time Super Bowl champions. And I want to say a huge thank you to Leor Avedar at Lobb for the |
| 0:53.1 | kind intro today. This show would not have been possible without you, Leor Avedar at Lobb for the kind intro today. |
| 0:56.2 | This show would not have been possible without you, Leor. |
| 0:57.4 | So appreciate that. |
| 1:03.1 | But before we dive into the show today, if you are a venture capitalist or corporate strategist, I want to tell you about Teegas. |
| 1:13.0 | Teegas is the only company in the world that aggregates qualitative information on private companies from Seed to pre-IPO. With Teegas, you can access other VCs and founders' expert call transcripts from previous rounds to help source fast-growing companies, |
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| 1:39.2 | out why the majority of top venture funds are using Teegas on a daily basis. Head over to |
| 1:43.9 | teagas.co forward slash growth |
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