Andy Rachleff on SVB, how to evaluate VCs, market pull indicators, Wealthfront, and more | E1699
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2023
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Wealthfront Chairman and Co-Founder Andy Rachleff joins Jason for an incredible interview! They start the show by discussing the SVB situation before breaking down different tech mini-crashes throughout Silicon Valley history (2:28). Then, they break down Wealthfront’s business and how to know if a business has market pull (40:49). They finish up the show by covering a range of topics, from AI to stock-based comp (1:13:45).
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show
(2:28) SVB situation
(9:26) The FDIC’s $250K limit
(13:27) MasterClass - Get 15% off an annual membership at https://masterclass.com/startups
(14:49) The bank run
(16:17) The SVB ecosystem
(22:20) Merge - Integrate up to 5 customers for free today at https://merge.dev/twist
(23:45) Cycle changes
(36:15) How to judge a VC
(39:27) Issuu - Get 50% off when you go to https://issuu.com/podcast and use promo code twist
(40:49) Wealthfront’s operation
(48:58) Reactions to the market
(55:00) Modern analysis and stock buybacks
(1:01:24 ) Caring about profitability
(1:02:06) Attaining market pull
(1:13:45) Andy’s thoughts on AI
(1:16:31) The makeup of a great entrepreneur
(1:18:50) Stock-based compensation
(1:25:06) How we avoided inflation
FOLLOW Andy: https://twitter.com/arachleff
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody, welcome back. We have an amazing interview today. That's right. |
| 0:03.8 | Another member of the Twist Five Timers Club. We're going to get jackets made. Twist with a |
| 0:08.2 | five on it. Twist with a 10 on it. And we're going to start sending these jackets to these elite |
| 0:13.2 | guests who you have demanded. I have back on this program every single year. You know, we got |
| 0:21.3 | Sluteman in that group. We've got so many amazing individuals in that group now. |
| 0:26.3 | And I told the producers, listen, I want more in-depth interviews on this podcast. I would do a lot |
| 0:31.0 | of news. But you keep telling me, where's the interviews with the investors and the founders? |
| 0:35.6 | You want more of those? I'm going to give you more of those. Well, today we're joined by Andy |
| 0:39.6 | Rackliffe. He is the chairman and co-founder of Wealthfront. Fifth time on the show. He co-founded |
| 0:45.5 | benchmark. He's been through it all. He's been investing in companies and been in the technology |
| 0:50.8 | industry since the 80s. I started the 90s. He's got a lot more information than I do. He's my |
| 0:56.7 | big brother. He's a mentor to me. We go over what just happened in the banking system SVB. We go |
| 1:02.1 | how to judge a VC. How Wealthfront is doing. Stock-based compensation early indicators of market |
| 1:07.4 | pull for consumers and enterprise startups because he came up with the term product market fit. |
| 1:12.6 | And he teaches the course on product market fit at Stanford's business school. So this is your |
| 1:17.8 | Stanford MBA right here right now. So much more. It's going to be a great show. I need you to stick |
| 1:22.9 | with us. This week in startups is brought to you by Masterclass. Learn from the world's best minds. |
| 1:31.4 | Anytime, anywhere and at your own pace. Get 15% off an annual membership to Masterclass |
| 1:40.0 | at masterclass.com slash startups. Merge. Let your developers get back to their core product. |
| 1:48.6 | Merge is a single API to add hundreds of integrations to your app. |
| 1:53.4 | Integrate up to five customers for free today at merge.dev slash twist. And |
| 2:00.4 | issue is the all-in-one platform for creating and distributing beautiful digital content. |
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