ANGEL: Laurie Yoler on investing early in Tesla, strategic partnerships, and her VC career | E1701
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2023
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Molly is joined by Laurie Yoler as they dive into her early experiences in VC before discussing how she became the first investor in Tesla (1:45). Next, Laurie talks about her time at Qualcomm and Playground then they wrap with a discussion about AI and how Laurie’s investments were impacted by the pandemic (30:31).
(0:00) Jason kicks off the show
(1:45) Arriving in Venture
(7:36) Laurie’s first investments
(13:39) LinkedIn Jobs - Go to https://linkedIn.com/angel and post your first job for free.
(14:49) Investing in Tesla
(21:21) Prenuvo - Get $300 off at http://prenuvo.com/twist
(22:51) Raising money for a car company
(26:22) Finding strategic partners
(30:31) Laurie’s time at Qualcomm and autonomous vehicles
(37:11) Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub - Apply in 5 minutes for six figures in discounts at http://aka.ms/thisweekinstartups
(38:42) Joining Playground
(41:29) Leaf Logistics
(45:44) Benefitting from the pandemic
(48:54) Investing in AI
FOLLOW Laurie: https://twitter.com/laurieyoler
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Okay, we're back today with another episode of Angel. |
| 0:03.5 | This is episode nine of 10, |
| 0:05.1 | and this series has been absolutely amazing. |
| 0:07.4 | Today, Molly interviews Lori Yoler of PlaygroundVC. |
| 0:11.2 | Lori has been working in startups in venture capital since 1993, |
| 0:15.1 | and she was actually a founding board member investor in Tesla. |
| 0:18.7 | It's an awesome interview and a quick announcement. |
| 0:21.4 | This will be Molly's final interview sadly here |
| 0:23.6 | on this week in startup. |
| 0:24.4 | She's decided to move on from the show, |
| 0:26.5 | pursue some other ventures. |
| 0:27.8 | Can we wish her well? |
| 0:29.0 | She was such an amazing teammate, |
| 0:30.6 | and it was awesome to have her on here for just over a year. |
| 0:33.4 | Go follow Molly, she's Molly Wood on Twitter, M-O-L-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D, |
| 0:37.9 | to see what she does next. |
| 0:39.4 | We're really excited for her future, |
| 0:41.0 | and it's going to be a great episode. |
| 0:43.5 | Stick with us. |
| 0:44.8 | This week in startups is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. |
| 0:48.9 | A business is only as strong as its people, |
| 0:51.5 | and every hire matters. |
... |
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