#212 Alfred Lin: How to Think (and Work) Like a World-Class Investor
The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish
Farnam Street
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 January 2025
⏱️ 134 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alfred Lin shares strategies for navigating startup challenges, building resilient teams, and creating long-lasting value. Lin explores lessons from companies like Zappos, Airbnb, DoorDash, and Amazon, offering actionable insights on topics like hiring for potential, managing crises, and fostering innovative cultures. Learn how first-principles thinking, customer focus, and disciplined growth can transform challenges into opportunities, even in the face of unprecedented disruptions.
Lin is a partner at Sequoia Capital. He represents Sequoia on boards like Airbnb and DoorDash. From January 2005 to December 2010, he served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer of Zappos. He has a Bachelors in Applied Mathematics from Harvard and a Masters in Statistics from Stanford.
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(00:00) Intro
(03:20) Personal Journey: From Taiwan to Entrepreneur
(04:51) School Days: Lessons in Creativity and Discipline
(06:21) Infinite Games: Shaping Life's Philosophy
(08:12) Core Values and Life Principles
(10:09) Work-Life Balance and Family Insights
(12:13) Inputs vs Outputs: Daily Routines and Priorities
(13:56) First Order Issues: Problem Solving in Business
(18:46) Early Career: From LinkExchange to Zappos
(44:01) Facing the 9/11 Crisis
(44:24) Building a Profitable Company
(44:50) Creative Financing Strategies
(45:55) Customer Service Focus
(48:53) Handling High Return Rates
(53:31) Zappos' Unique Culture
(55:47) Holacracy Management System
(56:53) Maintaining Growth and Culture
(58:37) Avoiding Complacency
(01:10:21) Crucible Moments
(01:13:28) First Principles Thinking
(01:14:17) Navigating the Pandemic
(01:27:37) The Essence of Company Values
(01:28:04) Pros and Cons of Remote Work
(01:29:52) Building Company Culture in a Hybrid World
(01:33:11) Investment Strategies in Changing Markets
(01:37:37) The AI Revolution and Its Future
(02:01:56) Balancing Standardization and Customization
(02:04:44) Working Backwards vs. Forwards
(02:10:53) Defining Success: The Importance of Process
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the things that we talk about at Sequo is you can't just be better. You have to be |
| 0:04.1 | different too. Whether you want to be conventional or contrarian, you have to be right. If you're |
| 0:08.8 | right and conventional, it's probably a less interesting solution, but if you're right and |
| 0:15.2 | contrarian, you probably won't be able to make a lot more money because nobody's going after that opportunity. |
| 0:24.6 | I often find that it's interesting. |
| 0:26.7 | There are people who just want to be contrarian, |
| 0:28.5 | but if you're contrarian wrong, that's not a great situation. |
| 0:32.1 | I try to put things in these two-by-two matrices of right and wrong |
| 0:36.4 | and conventional and contrarian. |
| 0:44.3 | Welcome to the Knowledge Project. |
| 0:46.3 | I'm your host, Shane Parrish. |
| 0:48.3 | In a world where knowledge is power, this podcast is your toolkit for mastering the best |
| 0:52.6 | what other people have already figured out. |
| 0:54.4 | Today's episode will transform how you think about building and scaling transformative |
| 0:59.6 | companies. My guest is Alfred Lynn, one of Silicon Valley's most successful operators |
| 1:05.2 | turned investors. After meeting Tony Heisch at Stanford over a pizza arbitrage scheme, |
| 1:10.9 | Elfort went on to help build and sell link exchange to Microsoft. |
| 1:14.5 | Then scaled Zappos from startup to its $1.2 billion acquisition by Amazon as the CEO |
| 1:21.6 | and CFO. |
| 1:22.9 | Now he's one of tech's most influential people. |
| 1:25.9 | Like a lot of outliers, Lynn struggled in school, |
| 1:28.9 | preferring to hack solutions together than follow instructions. Sound familiar? That changed with |
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