20VC: Keith Rabois and Mike Shebat on Creating an Olympian Mindset to Work Ethic, Why First-Time Founders are Better Than Serial Entrepreneurs, Why Remote Work Does Not Work, Why the Best Founders Always Start in their Teens & Why Companies are Cults?
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keith Rabois is a General Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the world's best venture funds with a portfolio including the likes of Facebook, SpaceX, Anduril, Tesla and many more. For the last 23 years straight, Keith has either invested in or founded a $BN company. Keith is also the Co-Founder and CEO @ Openstore, the company that will buy or run your Shopify business.
Mike Shebat is the Founder and CEO @ Traba, the company providing industrial staffing when and where you need it. To date, Mike has raised $49M with Traba from some of the best including Founders Fund, General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
1. What it Takes to Build a Great:
- Why does Mike expect everyone to work in office 12 hours per day, 4 days per week?
- At what point does an extra hour of work not lead to more output?
- What are the expectations in terms of emails, out of office, the weekends?
- Keith, from the 23 BN companies you have worked with, is this insane work ethic aligned to all of them? Which had it? What did not?
- What core components of PayPal's work ethic made it so strong? What does Keith mean when he says Linkedin could and should have been 5x bigger?
2. The Hiring Process for the Swat Team:
- What does the hiring process look like for this type of work environment?
- What are the signs that someone is really aligned to it vs faking it for the interview process?
- What have been Keith's biggest lessons on both compensation and title in the hiring process?
- Why does Keith believe that culture is like concrete? What are the biggest mistakes he has made on culture and what would he have done differently?
3. First-Time Founders, Innate Entrepreneurs & Europe's Failing:
- Does Keith agree the best founders always show signs of early entrepreneurship in their teens?
- Why does Keith prefer first-time founders to serial entrepreneurs? Why are they better?
- Why does Keith believe that Europe has not created a $100BN company since 1990?
4. Remote Work, Network Effects and Baseball:
- Why does Keith believe being great in venture is like baseball?
- Why does Keith and Founders Fund not invest in remote teams? How does he explain Gitlab?
- Why does Keith believe Airbnb has the best network effect he has ever seen?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think, first of all, in technology, the opportunity cost in your 20s is very high. If you look at a lot of people who have been most of the foundations of their career are in their 20s. Most of the best people I've ever worked with in my career were actually interns. I think first-time founders are actually better. Every company that's successful is like a cult, and every cult that works is unique. We at Founders Fund have pretty much put a line in the sand that we won't invest in remote companies. It's very obvious why it doesn't work. I am so excited for this show today. As you heard in that intro, this episode has more bangers than a Taylor Swift concert. Joining us in the hot seat today is Keith Rabeau, General Partner at Founders Fund, one of the best venture firms of the last decade. |
| 0:37.7 | And then joining him is one of his latest investments, Mike Shabbat, found and CEO at Traba. |
| 0:43.1 | It's an incredible discussion. |
| 0:44.7 | I really like to innovate on formats. |
| 0:46.7 | So obviously we do roundtables. |
| 0:48.3 | I'd love to hear your thoughts on this style of show. |
| 0:50.6 | You can let me know on Twitter at Harry Stebbings, but it is incredible. |
| 0:54.0 | So let me know what you think and would love to hear your thoughts. |
| 0:56.5 | But before we move into the show today, did you know that every 20 VC episode you listen to is recorded with Riverside? |
| 1:03.8 | Riverside is insanely good. Like, I would pay $1,000 per month for Riverside. It's that good. Why? Well, first off, ease. Your guests do not need |
| 1:13.2 | an account. One click and they're in the recording room with you. It is fantastic, especially for |
| 1:18.0 | high-profile guests. Second, they record your video and audio track separately and in the |
| 1:23.1 | background, so they're not only higher quality, but the guest does not need to record their end and then |
| 1:28.0 | send after, which is a total nightmare. But for me, honestly, what I love so much is how much thought |
| 1:33.0 | they put into the product. Like when the internet quality is low, they will disable the video |
| 1:37.4 | for the cool, but for the recording, it works seamlessly, it records perfectly. It's so thoughtfully |
| 1:43.1 | done and it makes such a difference. |
| 1:44.9 | Use my coupon code, 20 VC, that's 20 VC, and get a 15% discount. It is the tool I could |
| 1:51.5 | not run my business without. Again, you can check it out at riverside.fm and use my code 20VC, |
| 1:57.6 | that's 20 VC. And speaking of game changes for businesses, as a VCI come across many |
| 2:03.3 | businesses that have potential and offer a great product or service, but they run into issues. And |
| 2:08.6 | that's why I love the team at a rising ventures. They're a holding company that acquires tech |
... |
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