Welcome to OK Computer. I am Dan Nathan. I am here with Ann Bordetski. She returns to OK Computer. She is a partner at N-EA. Welcome to our new studios here at Current in New York City. I'm so glad to be here in person. This place is amazing. It's pretty cool, right? Yes. All right. So here's the deal. Last time you came on the pod,

I think it was late last year, we talked about a lot of things that I wanted to talk about.

I kind of peppered you with a bunch of questions, and I was like really actually happy to get a

bit of pushback. You had a couple unpopular opinions you thought as somebody who was a former

operator in the Valley at some very innovative companies, Uber, Twitter, rival. And now a VC

starting, back in 2021, you started your career at NEA? Yep, that's right. Two years end.

Started at the peak. What is it? You got in right there as crypto, as spec, as like unprofitable

tech IPOs. They were just overtaking the financial world you

was like I'm going to VC you know the funny thing about crossing over during the peak going from

the company building side you didn't know it was the peak yeah we thought it would go on forever you know

wishful thinking there but as a former operator when I first went over to the Ventricide,

it was kind of wild. I mean, I found myself in so many situations meeting with founders

and just, you know, internal conversations about companies. I'm like, how does this hold up?

Like, how does anyone justify these valuations? I mean, they're just bonkers. They're not rooted in real

numbers, right? And everyone played the game and the ecosystem participated in this up and up and up

market. And so none of us are immune to that. But I think the last couple years are just a really

important lesson. And like, first of all, trust your instincts. The fundamentals

really matter in company building. I think now we're being reminded of that in a really painful

way in 2023 of like, yeah, startups are hard. It should be hard to raise your next round.

Like passing through that crucible moment helps drive discipline in companies, helps founders really clarify

their business models and the choices they're making around product and go to market. And

the hardship is actually part of how we help entrepreneurs kind of craft and hone and polish

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