20VC: Lessons from Alfred Lin and Ron Conway | Why the World Does Not Want Your Startup To Exist and How the Best Founders Fight It | How To Build Moats and Defensibility Against Large Incumbents with Tarek Mansour, Founder & CEO @ Kalshi
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tarek Mansour is the Founder and CEO @ Kalshi, the first regulated exchange where you can trade directly on the outcome of events. Tarek has raised funding from some of the best including Alfred Lin @ Sequoia, Ali Partovi @ Neo, Ron Conway, Charles Schwab and Henry Kravis. Before founding Kalshi, Tarek worked at the likes of Citadel, Palantir and Goldman Sachs, in various different roles.
In Today's Episode with Tarek Mansour We Discuss:
1.) Entry into Startups:
- How did Tarek make his way from a nerdy kid in Lebanon to having his first startup funded by Sequoia and billionaires likes Charles Schwab and Henry Kravis?
- How did his mother's continuous desire for excellence change Tarek's mindset?
- What are the biggest lessons that Tarek took from his mother's strict parenting and how did he apply them to how he manages the team at Kalshi today?
2.) What it Takes to Succeed:
- Why does Tarek believe that the world does not want your startup to exist?
- In that case, what are the core traits that founders need to fight this headwind?
- Does Tarek believe in work-life balance? What are some of the struggles of this?
- Does Tarek believe you should work on your weaknesses or double down on your strengths?
3.) Building the Team:
- Does Tarek believe that naivete is a strength or a weakness? At what point does it change between being a strength to being a weakness?
- Does Tarek prefer to hire more senior experienced people or younger hustlers with more energy?
- What have been the single biggest hiring mistakes that Tarek has made? How has it changed his approach to team building?
- What is the one single trait that if Tarek sees, he will not hire?
- How does Tarek make the interview process both fun but different and challenging?
- Where do so many founders make mistakes in how they construct the hiring process?
4.) Tarek Mansour: AMA:
- What have been the single biggest lessons from working with Ron Conway and Alfred Lin?
- What are some of Tarek's biggest insecurities in leadership today?
- What does Tarek know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time with Kalshi?
- What would Tarek most like to change about the world of startups?
Items Mentioned in Today's Show:
Tarek's Favourite Book: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today I'm joined by a friend and a phenomenal founder in the form of Tariq Mansour. |
| 0:06.2 | Now, this is a fantastic discussion between two friends. |
| 0:09.1 | It's a lot more conversational and natural than most of our shows. |
| 0:12.0 | But Tarrick, for Context, is the founder and CEO at Kalshi, the first regulated exchange, where you can trade directly on the outcome of events. Tarik has raised funding from some of the best, including Alfred Lynn at Sequoia, Ali Portovia at |
| 0:24.6 | Neo, Ron Conway, Charles Schwab and Henry Kraviss, to name a few. |
| 0:28.3 | Before founding Kalshi, Tarrick worked at the likes of Citadel, Palantir and Goldman Sachs in |
| 0:32.7 | various different roles, and I want to say huge thank you to Alex at Deal and Ali Pottovy for some amazing question |
| 0:38.2 | suggestions today. They really did help me put this schedule in place. But before we dive into |
| 0:42.4 | the show today, I want to talk about an incredible tool that I use every single day, Notion. Now, |
| 0:47.0 | I am the worst for having 50 tabs open and constantly hopping between an endless array of tools. |
| 0:52.4 | Do you feel me? Are you with me? Well, then Notion came into my life providing one tool to do it all with everything from seamless |
| 0:58.5 | project management to easily organizing 20 VC's company information. A fascinating stand on |
| 1:03.6 | Notion usage, more than 70% of companies who start using Notion, stop using two plus other |
| 1:09.4 | tools. And so Notion can even save you money, given how many other tools it can displace. |
| 1:13.9 | Notion has a worldwide network of millions of users, creating templates, tutorials, and new |
| 1:19.1 | inspiration. |
| 1:19.9 | The product's getting better and better every single day, and you always have the support |
| 1:23.6 | you need. |
| 1:24.2 | Learn more and get started for free at notion. |
| 1:26.1 | So, take the first step toward an |
| 1:28.4 | organized happy team today again at notion. So. And speaking of foundational infrastructure like |
| 1:33.7 | Notion there, AngelList has been a key partner for me in managing my investments. I just love |
... |
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