Geoff Lewis
Partner at Founders Fund
Discussion
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
Hi – I’m Geoff Lewis, Partner at Founders Fund. I’ve led investments in dozens of companies and some of our more well know investments at Founders Fund include Facebook, Airbnb, SpaceX, Spotify, Lyft, Stripe and StemCentRx. I’m also a 2x entrepreneur myself. Excited to be here – ask me anything!
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Jonathan Hursh
@jonathanhursh · Founder @ Utopia
I've deeply admired how Peter Thiel and Founders Fund views the world and how it changes. For years I've seen this group as the most progressive out there. Yet now with Peter's recent high profile choices, there is dissonance for me. How can progressive and regressive be a part of the same organism? Or is there no dissonance? Or is it just the messiness of being human and there are no clear answers.
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@jonathanhursh Yeah, being human is messy. And part of being an engaged intelligent curious person is surrounding oneself with other people who have different viewpoints, and not silencing them but rather seeking to at least understand why they feel the way they do. On this specific issue, I have a different view and have been very vocal about it - I am very strongly against Trump. For me the answer is clear: For me personally, there is no rationalization or justification that would enable me to support Trump in any way. I respect that for other people the answer can cut the other way or be unclear. And for me, occasionally being on a different page from folks in my orbit is far superior to the alternative (surrounding myself entirely with others who think exactly like me and agree with me on every single issue.)
Jonathan Hursh
@jonathanhursh · Founder @ Utopia
@justglew Appreciate the human candid response!
Jack Smith
@_jacksmith · Serial Entrepreneur & Startup Adviser
Peter Theil is well known to be interested in longevity and does some abstract experiments in pursuit of this (such as supplementing HGH). I also understand that Founders Fund offers employees some 'office perks' related to health/longevity.
Do you personally undertake any experiments related to improving health/longevity? Have any proven to be successful?
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@_jacksmith We have healthy snacks in the office - thats about as far as the Founders Fund office perks related to longevity go :)
Hey Geoff! Thanks for joining us! What qualities/skills have you seen to be most useful when it comes to analysts and associates at VC funds, and Founders Fund in particular?
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@nivo0o0 #1 by a mile at Founders Fund is being proactive. Just proactively doing things and taking initiative without direction / having confidence and high conviction is critical. Another important attribute is not needing a lot of validation from others - some people do need this and it's totally fine, but that's not our culture at Founders Fund
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@nivo0o0 e.g. the validation we get is doing awesome work, not pats on the back
Paul Sondhi
@paulsondhi · Student
Hey Geoff, thanks for doing this! As a college student, I'm curious to know: would you recommend working at a startup directly after school?
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@paulsondhi Hey Paul! It is really startup-dependent. If you join the wrong startup you'll learn the wrong lessons and your career will start off on the wrong track. If you join the right startup, it's by far the best move / biggest career arbitrage play out of college. Happy to chat offline if there are specific startups you are considering. Generally I recommend anyone straight out of college joins a startup that for sure has product market fit and at least 2 years of runway in the bank
Paul Sondhi
@paulsondhi · Student
@justglew Hey Geoff, I would appreciate the chance to chat specifics offline! I find that there's little to no resources online for non-engineers looking to work at a startup. Just followed you on twitter :)
Tristan Pollock
@writerpollock · EIR/Venture Partner @ 500 Startups
How did you build and transport the incredibly large Founders Fund front door?
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@writerpollock this question FTW. No idea and I take zero credit slash blame =)
Gabriel
@pi4n0m4n · CTO, Reylabs Inc
Using a new approach to coding, I made a platform that enables individuals to innovate faster I'm in the process of turning it into a generator of niche ERP systems. That's my way of turning a technology into a business. Do you think something this technical would do better in an open-source business model?
Gabriel
@pi4n0m4n · CTO, Reylabs Inc
Open-source won't get free labor but otherwise it will have a strong business component
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@pi4n0m4n Would need to drill down further to give business model advice. def happy to talk offline.
Timur Zhiyentayev
@tima_zhi · Cofounder of Drizzle
Geoff, out of curiosity, how is an investment decision made within FF? Majority vote? Did anything change in FF's Manifesto? Thanks.
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@tima_zhi It depends on the size of the investment. For larger investments (e.g. when we invested over $100Million to lead Airbnb's Series C in 2012) - It's consensus-driven, everyone weighs in and it needs to be unanimous. For smaller investments, if one or a few people are strongly in favor we can do it. The biggest difference vs. us and other firms is Non-partners can lead investments (our Principals and associate can and do lead investments so pitching them is never a waste of time.)
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@tima_zhi our manifesto has not changed and we still believe it! Do think we will get flying cars quite soon, although autonomous is far more important :)
Timur Zhiyentayev
@tima_zhi · Cofounder of Drizzle
@justglew Wow, that's amazing that Principals and Associates can make decisions.
Samuel N. Njoki
@sam_njugunah · Head of business mlinzi.co.ke
Hello am from Kenya and we working on a beta version of an escrow service that is tailored to the kenyan market.My question is do you invest in Africa startups ? If not why?
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@sam_njugunah Haven't invested in Africa yet, would absolutely be open to doing it. I think Kenyan market alone would probably be too small of an addressable market for us. Would the same product work in other adjacent african markets eg. Ethiopia?
Samuel N. Njoki
@sam_njugunah · Head of business mlinzi.co.ke
@justglew we have growing online market places in Africa but no buyer/seller confidence and that is what we are essentially working on . What advice could you give to budding entrepreneurs such as me ?
[deleted user]
@deleted_user
Hello Geoff,
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to ask you anything.
Question: With terrorist attacks happening almost on daily basis, we do not see a lot of new start ups with technologies aimed to prevent them. Is this area not profitable enough to attract entrepreneurs?
Thank you
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@victorpolyushko You are right. While there's tons of cyber security stuff (in fact it's so competitive that I think sectorally it's a bad area for investment), but there's been very little innovation on security and anti-terrorism in the world of atoms. I guess one of the reasons why is that it would be really unfashionable to start a weapons/terrorism defense related company
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Geoff Lewis
@justglew · Partner, Founders Fund
@victorpolyushko If you start a company in this area I'd love to talk!