Michael Ovitz - Knowledge Is Power - [Invest Like the Best, EP.359]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Technology, Business, Investing

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2024

⏱️ 109 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest today is Michael Ovitz. Michael is the legendary talent agent and co-founder of CAA, or Creative Artists Agency. Michael started CAA in 1975 and over the next twenty years, he built it into the world’s most formidable talent agency, changing Hollywood forever. The list of stars he’s worked with is endless, from Meryl Streep to Steven Spielberg and David Letterman. Since leaving CAA, he has become an investor and adviser to many prominent firms, most notably Andreessen Horowitz, and Michael’s work ethic is unmatched. Please enjoy this great discussion with Michael Ovitz. Listen to Founders Podcast For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can’t be matched. For a limited time, as a listener, you can trial Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Show Introduction (00:03:25) First Question, Michael Crichton's Impact (00:04:14) The Art of Storytelling and Creativity (00:07:20) Michael Crighton’s Writer's Block (00:09:53) The Birth of Jurassic Park (00:12:42) The Importance of Pacing in Storytelling (00:17:43) Positional Power and Influence (00:20:04) Knowledge is Power (00:22:10) The Role of Agents in the Business World (00:36:18) The Importance of Momentum in Business (00:42:35) Branding and Image (00:45:44) The Art of Spotting Talent (00:46:20) The Role of Persistence (00:51:25) Investing in People (01:00:30) Building Mystique (01:06:30) The Importance of Relationships (01:10:39) The Role of Art in the Entertainment Industry (01:17:04) Telling the Truth to Clients (01:25:28) Winning the Coca-Cola account (01:42:18) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Done for Michael

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Teagis, the modern research platform for leading investors.
0:04.6	Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust.
0:08.4	At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks,
0:11.1	Teagis customers pay only what an expert charges with zero markups. additional expert conduct a full hour call, Tagus offers the ability to schedule 30 minute meetings, an offer you won't find anywhere else.
0:26.0	And they don't stop there, with white glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures,
0:31.0	including a dedicated 50-plus person analyst team that vets every
0:35.4	called transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection.
0:39.2	As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can be matched.
0:46.0	For a limited time as a listener you can trial TIGAS for free by visiting TIGAS.co.
0:52.0	I'm endlessly fascinated by people who are doing their life's work and David Senra gets about
0:56.6	as close as you can in his crafting of the Founders Podcast.
1:00.4	Each week David gives you ideas you can use in your work revealed by the life stories of history's greatest entrepreneurs.
1:06.0	He connects the legacies of the likes of Kobe Bryant to Estay Lauder to Winston Churchill and the list goes on.
1:11.0	He recently put out a new favorite episode on Anna
1:14.5	Winter. Founders Podcast will undoubtedly light a spark of ambition and aid all of us in our
1:19.8	quest towards our life's work. David isn't stopping anytime soon.
1:24.0	In fact, if you ask him, he's just begun.
1:26.0	I'm proud that Founders is part of the Colossus Network
1:29.0	and you can find a link to this treasure trove in the show notes. Hello and welcome everyone.
1:36.7	I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this isn't Best Like the Best.
1:39.9	This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help
1:44.8	you better invest both your time and your money.
	...

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