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Hi, I'm Eric Newcomer. 
And I am Madeline Rinbarger. 

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And this is the newcomer 
podcast. 

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Each week, Eric and I discuss 
the VC deals and the drama that 

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went down. 
Let's do it. 

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Here we go. 
Let's dive in. 

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You You took a long weekend. 
Was this part of your American 

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concert tour? 
Yes, this is this is part of the

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the Madeline's American concert 
tour. 

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I was in I was in Denver to see 
Charlie XCX and Troy on the 

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sweat tour and then made it to 
the Sabrina Carpenter Short and 

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sweet tour this past weekend on 
the East Coast. 

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So, you know, wow, you never. 
In in the zeitgeist, which which

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did you prefer? 
Oh, great question. 

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They're very different. 
I feel like the the the Charlie 

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show, Charlie and Troy Sivan 
easily hire energy. 

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It was, you know, just it was 
they sold out an arena tour. 

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It was huge. 
It's. 

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Like a party based, it's a. 
Party it's it's and it's all 

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dance music. 
So you're just you're up the 

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whole time just dancing. 
And then Sabrina obviously very 

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dancy as well, pop music, but 
you know, you get some slow 

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songs, you get some kind of 
typical you get the flashlights 

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out, you got a wave, you know, 
to the ballads, but and she's an

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edible vocalist. 
I I was really blown away. 

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So you know. 
We're both like pop pop girlies,

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I guess, because I I've seen 
Taylor Swift in Stockholm and 

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Boston. 
So I'm I'm more specifically a 

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Taylor Swift fan, but. 
Yeah, Eric is our resident 

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Swifty on the pod. 
But how? 

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Wait, so you went to the Era's 
tour twice? 

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Yes, yeah. 
Which date? 

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Which date was better? 
Boston was like a nightmare. 

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We made a last minute decision 
to arrive and we hit traffic and

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it was. 
No stuff over. 

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Nightmares. 
So Stockholm, we were like, we'd

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been in Paris for a couple weeks
working abroad and then yeah, 

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that was great. 
So definitely Stockholm was we 

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also like spent all day waiting 
in line and we're like the 

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second row. 
Basically, that's amazing, yeah.

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It's great so. 
Cool. 

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Yeah. 
So you got to go international 

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for your concert tours? 
Yeah. 

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I know, yeah. 
Anyway, we this is going to be a

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fun episode overall because it's
a lot of talking about 

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ourselves. 
So we get to reflect on 

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Newcomers 4 year anniversary. 
It's true. 

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This is This week marks the four
year anniversary of the 

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newsletter. 
Yeah, you've been here for one 

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year of it. 
Just about just shy. 

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Yeah, I think when I joined, we 
were around, you know, just over

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1,000,000 in revenue and now 
we've more than doubled that. 

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Congratulations. 
Yeah, yeah. 

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Congrats to all of us. 
Yeah, I, I sort of announced 

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somewhat impulsively on stage at
a media conference called the 

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Amo Summit that we'd hit. 
We're on track to hit $2,000,000

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in revenue this year. 
We're going to cross that 

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between revenue we've already 
recorded and the committed 

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contracts we have for Cerebral 
Valley. 

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So very exciting. 
And we're gonna post post new 

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job openings and yeah. 
Stay tuned. 

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It's crazy. 
You know, I'm always in denial 

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that Newcomer is a company, even
though it's like, oh, we have 

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many, several employees this 
time and lots, if you start 

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counting up all the people who, 
you know, work for us in some 

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capacity is getting bigger and 
bigger. 

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Certifiably company. 
I mean, the moment we moved to 

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Slack, you know that that felt. 
More a real I know, a sad day. 

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But also exciting day. 
I mean, yeah, I'm, I'm curious. 

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I mean, we've, I know we've 
talked about it a bit, but what 

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is what's the story behind 
founding newcomer? 

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I mean, when did you make the 
decision to to leave and go 

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independent? 
Yeah, so I, I launched it in 

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October 2020 during the pandemic
and covered startups and venture

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capital. 
And here I see finally a trend 

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that applies to me, right Sub 
stacks, you know, coming up, 

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it's an opportunity to start 
your own business. 

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So that was really exciting to 
me. 

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I think I launched like I can't,
it was right around the New York

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Times trend story. 
So I was either right before, 

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right on top of Yeah, I think 
you were. 

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I was ahead. 
You were ahead of the curve. 

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Please give. 
Yourself some credit. 

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And the other piece of it was 
that, you know, when I left the 

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information, the two places I 
was thinking about going were 

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Gawker and Bloomberg, you know, 
Valley Wag. 

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And, you know, I went with 
Bloomberg and, you know, it was 

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just like a pretty conservative 
direction. 

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And I definitely wanted, well, 
not to be like, mean and snarky,

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like Valley Wag. 
I wanted, you know, some of the,

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like, voicey, sort of first 
person writing, you know, I'd 

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really come up through 
traditional newspaper 

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internships and wanted some, you
know, more bloggy, I guess, type

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experience. 
And I was very jealous of, you 

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know, Ben Smith's column in The 
New York Times at the time where

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he was really doing great 
reporting but writing with his 

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perspective. 
And that's really what I tried 

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to emulate when I started 
Newcomer. 

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How do you feel like the media 
environment's changed since 

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starting Newcomer? 
I mean, I feel like this sort of

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voicy perspective is much more 
popular and you were a 

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trendsetter in this, but how has
it changed? 

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What have you seen? 
Yeah, I mean, I clearly, you 

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know, well, you know, big 
advocate of the collision 

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between the influencer and the 
journalist and journalists are 

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clearly realizing that they have
to compete with influencers. 

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I think, you know, even at 
Bloomberg, after I left, Mark 

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Gurman, their Apple reporter has
been allowed to have a much 

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freer reign to sort of give his 
own personal opinions about 

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devices and everything. 
So even sort of my old employer 

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I think has chilled out a little
bit. 

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It seems like our. 
Competition is not as much, you 

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know, other publications 
themselves as it is also, you 

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know, like TikTok and 
personalities and hosts on these

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kind of social platforms too. 
Right. 

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I mean, tech Twitter and yeah, 
yeah, exactly. 

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It's not clear that if they're 
not reading, you know, I think a

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lot of our readers are fit us 
into what, I don't know, reading

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pirate wires and cobbling 
together information from 

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Andreessen Horowitz podcasts and
sort of a mix of alternative 

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media. 
Leaving an established 

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publication, I mean, even, you 
know, nowadays, but especially 

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four years ago, was a pretty big
risk in the media world. 

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I mean, what made you want to 
take that leap? 

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Well, yeah, literally the day I 
had to tell my editor that I was

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quitting, I like, chickened out 
on the first call and my now 

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wife had to be like, do it, you 
know? 

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So, I mean, at least you can 
always be like, oh, I need a 

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better plan. 
I haven't decided what day I'm 

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going to launch, you know, 
whatever. 

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I mean, my my, you know, wife 
and friends were extremely 

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supportive. 
So I think that helps. 

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I mean, I do credit sub stack 
for making it sort of much 

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easier to see a path to doing 
this thing. 

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They did not offer me the pro 
program. 

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They offered me like a tiny 
advance that I thought wasn't 

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worth it. 
So, so, yeah, I mean, it was 

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just sort of felt like I wanted 
to take the leap. 

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I do think it helped that it was
the pandemic. 

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So the cult of the workplace 
was, you know, much diminished. 

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You're not going in to an 
office. 

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And I was really hungry just to 
write for our audience, you 

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know, and to write directly for 
startups and VCs. 

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I mean, I always, I think often 
about covering the Zenefits saga

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where Parker Conrad was ousted 
and just how like, you know, I 

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sort of wanted to write the 
counter narrative to the zenfit 

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story. 
But as a reporter for a big 

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outlet, you know, you sort of 
have to write, I don't know, the

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1st order story. 
Anyway. 

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I, I, and I had like, you know, 
I, I wrote my unauthorized 

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story, The Unauthorized History 
of Andreessen Horowitz. 

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Or some I forgot. 
What I Yeah, the. 

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Unauthorized history. 
Of Andrews and Horowitz, yeah. 

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You know, I, I had these pieces 
sort of that I was hungry to 

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write that I felt like, you 
know, Bloomberg doesn't love 

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like the sort of media self 
absorption, which obviously I 

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lean into here. 
And so, yeah, I felt free to do 

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the meta story. 
And, you know, it was just 

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exciting. 
And I felt like, you know, I'd 

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be able to get another job if it
all blew up in flames. 

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You know, we talked about, you 
know, influencer journalism and 

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the rise of this trend, right? 
But it seems like, you know, 

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there's this kind of fascinating
thing going on in the media 

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environment where the the very 
biggest are succeeding, like New

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York Times size publications and
then the very smallest seem to 

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be succeeding. 
You know, there's there's us, 

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there's platformer, you know, 
Taylor Lorenz just launched her 

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own sub stack user mag. 
But then there's kind of the the

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messy middle right where that 
seems to be where the biggest 

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fallout in the media industry 
has been coming from. 

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And I'm curious, just how have 
you been thinking about that? 

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As you know, we am I. 
Growing the same mistake many 

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companies have made before. 
I think it's a great question. 

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To me, the issue with a lot of 
companies is they lose sight of 

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who their customer is. 
When I launched, you know, one 

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of the refrains I always has, I 
don't want to explain who like 

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Bill Gurley is anymore. 
You know, it just felt like 

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every Bloomberg article, there 
would be sort of a sort of 

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parenthetical phrase, you know, 
early Uber, investor, whatever. 

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When I was a Business Insider, 
it was always like we had to 

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write out LP parentheses. 
Limited partner, which does. 

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This, you know yeah, exactly 
exactly that so I we wonder we 

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want to write for the insider 
and I have absolutely no 

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intention of moving away from 
that. 

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Really what I'm saying is the 
customer that I saw when I 

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launched we still like are under
penetrated in that market and 

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then there's much more we can do
to serve them with events or 

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whatever. 
So it's less like, oh, now that 

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I have a foothold with one 
audience, I'm going to go go go 

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to a broader audience. 
I think that would be a big 

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mistake. 
Like I think what I want to do 

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is have every VCV obsessed with 
newcomer and subscribed and 

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have, you know, great stories 
that they care about an event 

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that they can go to. 
And then I don't know, maybe 

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someday data or something else, 
but I'm extremely focused on the

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same customers. 
I think there's obviously an 

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opportunity to continue 
monetizing them. 

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And I think the mistake would be
if I drifted to a broader 

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audience and started chasing 
clicks or something like that, 

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that that would then end up 
hurting me with my, my core 

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audience. 
And so I think what a lot of 

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these publications do is they 
lose sight, You know, they just,

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they get big enough that they're
like, oh, we need to go after 

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more people. 
And I, I would not want to get 

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so big that I would ever think, 
oh, start up founders and 

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venture capitalists aren't 
enough for us. 

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And so I think as long as 
there's plenty, plenty of money 

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and attention to to be gobbled 
up in that area, then we can 

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hire more people. 
Knowing your customer always a 

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good strategy. 
I mean, I know it's the Amazon 

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customer obsession, you know, 
customer obsession. 

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And I think the thing I've 
continued to learn is like, 

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actually, you know, what good 
reporters do is they talk to 

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their sources. 
They're in our, you know, our 

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sources are our customers. 
So I'm talking to our customers.

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That means that, you know, I can
get them to speak at events or 

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sponsor events. 
And, you know, it's relationship

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building and understanding the 
world we inhabit. 

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And so I think those things are 
actually much more symbiotic 

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than, you know, I didn't go to 
journalism school. 

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I knew I wanted to be a 
journalist, but then my 

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perception of journalism school 
would be like, ah, separate, you

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know, the business and the media
arm. 

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And I think what we've 
discovered is that as long as 

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you're sort of honest and 
transparent, you know, and 

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thinking about your customer, 
both in your coverage decisions 

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and how you monetize makes makes
a lot of sense. 

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And so we're going to continue 
to lean into that. 

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I, I got into reporting because,
you know, I want to learn a lot 

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about the world. 
It's sort of like fast way to 

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sort of insist that people 
answer your questions. 

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I think one thing that sort of 
surprised me is that building a 

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business is sort of another way 
of learning about how the world 

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works because you're sort of 
like, oh, why do business, 

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especially when you cover 
business, you're like, oh, why 

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do business people do XY and Z? 
And, and so, yeah, it's fun. 

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It's fun to learn about the 
world this way too. 

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And you know, I want to keep 
doing doing both. 

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What do you see for the next 
year going forward with 

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Newcomer? 
First and foremost, you know our

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North Star will always be great 
writing and reporting in the 

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newsletter. 
I do think that is sort of the 

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heart of everything we do. 
And I think part of that is 

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hiring another reporter who can 
help us get scoops and keep 

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things fresh. 
And then, yeah, I think for the 

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business, it's really a matter 
of, you know, we have two great 

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Cerebral Valley events. 
We had a banking summit in March

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that was good, but not great. 
I'd say. 

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I I think good in terms of who 
we got there. 

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But we didn't have as much of a 
story for sponsors, which is I'm

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learning to build an events 
business. 

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It's like sponsors are a big 
customer. 

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And so I think we'll find two 
more sort of anchor events that 

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that really sort of resonate in 
Silicon Valley. 

254
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And I think that will be a big 
piece of their business. 

255
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And there's lots, you know, I, 
you know. 

256
00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:26,040
Yeah, yeah, I was. 
Going to. 

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Say I mean. 
Do you have any? 

258
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Do you have any topics that 
you're thinking about for those?

259
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Summits. 
Oh, yeah. 

260
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Well, and I won't be able to 
weigh in. 

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I mean, we surveyed subscribers.
I mean we're, we're thinking 

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fintech is making a comeback and
given we did banking, there's 

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definitely a logic there. 
We're considering Frontier to 

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wrap in sort of defense and 
space and some of those 

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companies I have toyed with a 
VCLP focused event, but that has

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a little bit, you know like I 
feel like a Frontier event or 

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Fintech has a similar story for 
AI, whereas VCLP is sort of a 

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different strategy. 
So I'm trying to get my head 

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around whether that will make 
sense or not. 

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So we did our first event, the 
first Rupal Valley we planned in

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six weeks. 
So we're definitely willing to 

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sort of, I don't know, blitz 
these things once we have a 

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great idea, but trying to do a 
little bit more big company, big

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company, you know, big company 
trying to do a little bit more 

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planning. 
But so yeah, we're thinking 

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about it and would love, love 
input from anybody. 

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If there's there are things 
where you think there's a real 

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gap in the market right now. 
You've started the newsletter, 

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it the kind of the the 
beginnings of the boom times of 

280
00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:40,520
venture capital. 
So what you how has it changed 

281
00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:42,600
over the last four years? 
What have you? 

282
00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:46,080
What have you seen? 
Yeah, who who knew that the 

283
00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,840
pandemic would turn out to be 
like this. 

284
00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:51,440
Great. 
The best period for start of 

285
00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:53,840
investing lots of manic 
behaviors. 

286
00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,880
So that was super enjoyable to 
cover. 

287
00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:01,040
You know, now we've had a couple
years seemingly of a downturn, 

288
00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:05,200
of course, that's been covered 
up by these big AI rounds. 

289
00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:09,360
I'd say. 
I mean, the boom is fun to write

290
00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:11,920
about because there are deals to
cover. 

291
00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,600
Like if you think about getting 
scoops, it's like things 

292
00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:16,920
happening is easier than things 
scoops. 

293
00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:19,080
Left and I. 
Mean to cover and scoop a. 

294
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,840
Day, You know, every time 
there's a new deal that closes 

295
00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:23,160
you. 
Can and you know, I, I wrote 

296
00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:26,160
like a bear case on Rivian and 
like, it's fun. 

297
00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,840
You can still be sort of 
skeptical of things even in the 

298
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,240
boom times. 
You know, now we have the sort 

299
00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,280
of tale of two worlds or what do
we keep calling it? 

300
00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,480
It's the best of times in AI and
the worst of times everywhere 

301
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,280
else. 
And so that's that's sort of 

302
00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:44,640
created this mix mix storyline 
of the moment. 

303
00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:50,240
I mean, you just got to, I 
guess, move away from reflecting

304
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:55,400
on the glory that is newcomer. 
You got some data on the venture

305
00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:56,320
market today. 
What? 

306
00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:58,880
Yeah. 
How would you describe where we 

307
00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:00,040
are today? 
Yeah. 

308
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:03,320
We mean we're really seeing a 
consolidation around, I would 

309
00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:07,360
say the the mega funds, you 
know, the Lightspeed A16Z index 

310
00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:11,120
being able to still raise even 
though they're sometimes cutting

311
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:13,680
their targets back, but other 
times meeting them, but raising 

312
00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:15,240
these multi billion dollar 
funds. 

313
00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,000
And then for everyone else, it's
kind of a different world. 

314
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,840
And the same goes in the startup
world, right? 

315
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:24,720
Like you see Anthropic Ilya's 
safe super intelligence raise a 

316
00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,320
billion dollar round and then 
you see startups shutting down 

317
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,440
or quietly, you know, merging, 
if they can possibly find an 

318
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:35,560
exit at all. 
So it's really what I think is 

319
00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,920
the most fascinating point that 
we found in the data last week 

320
00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:42,760
was the number of unique venture
investors in US startups has 

321
00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,800
fallen just really dramatically 
since the boom times. 

322
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:47,760
Obviously there were a ton of 
these tourist investors that 

323
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:50,280
came in, people, you know, got 
excited, thought they could 

324
00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:53,200
start their own fund, did start 
their fund, but then, you know, 

325
00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,200
have failed to raise a fund too.
And it's, we've seen this 

326
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,320
consolidation of funding to 
really just come from the big 

327
00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:04,200
firms and then kind of everyone 
else is sort of left out in the 

328
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,480
lurch unless you have a super, 
you know, specific value add or 

329
00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,280
you can really market yourself 
as doing something different. 

330
00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:13,520
But the bar for that is just 
getting higher and higher like a

331
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:15,000
lot of these. 
Merchants yeah, we put the chart

332
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,440
in our Friday newsletter. 
We'll probably include it with 

333
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:22,119
this podcast post, but it is 
quite dramatic to watch the fall

334
00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:28,000
off and a little a little sad. 
I mean, it's it would I I liked 

335
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,080
all the new managers and like, 
you know, there's always some of

336
00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,000
the best funds are early funds 
of new promising VCs. 

337
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,960
But we've clearly the downturn 
is sort of enabled this pivot 

338
00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:42,600
to, I don't know, venture 
capital becoming a lot more like

339
00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:46,200
private equity and big firms 
ruling the day. 

340
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:50,520
And so, yeah, it's been good 
news for Andreessen Horowitz and

341
00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:55,600
Lightspeed and a few others, and
not good for the anonymous 

342
00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:59,160
manager who isn't gonna raise 
their second or third fund. 

343
00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:01,480
Yeah. 
I mean, obviously we did get to 

344
00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:04,040
touch on some positives, a 
couple notable exceptions. 

345
00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:06,880
You know, a Crew Capital 
announced that they closed 700 

346
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:08,640
million in new funding last 
week. 

347
00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:12,800
And then also last week a friend
of the pod, Harry Stabbings 

348
00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:17,840
closed, you know, his third fund
at 400 million to invest in 

349
00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:21,200
early stage startups and you 
know, everywhere, but also 

350
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:22,840
especially in Europe since he's 
based there. 

351
00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,440
Really exciting, got to catch up
with him about that. 

352
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:30,160
And he's, you know, also doing, 
he's leaning into his podcaster 

353
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:33,680
angle and his media company as a
cell to LP's about access around

354
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:35,880
deals that he has which. 
Is we're not doing that right 

355
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:37,000
now. 
We're not doing that. 

356
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,200
I, I have no judgement anymore. 
I feel like I used to. 

357
00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:44,080
There was a day where I would 
have been such a purist, but we 

358
00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,160
are very focused on the media 
business events. 

359
00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,960
Yeah, I, I stirred on LinkedIn 
that I'd done like 2 sort of, 

360
00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:56,400
I've done 3 investments sub 
Stack, which obviously I talked 

361
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,560
about in the newsletter was 
effectively marketing for sub 

362
00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:01,600
Stack. 
I invested in Volley who I Co 

363
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,480
Cerebral Valley with. 
So they're like a part of, you 

364
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:08,040
know, and then protege, my 
friend Bobby Samuels. 

365
00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:10,600
But it was like, that was just 
sort of like the friend who, if 

366
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,120
they ever served a company, I 
wanted to. 

367
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,760
Your friend, your friend that if
you know whatever you'll do, 

368
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:17,920
I'll back you. 
I got you. 

369
00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:19,760
Yeah, exactly. 
You know, I feel like that 

370
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:22,680
anyway. 
I don't, I, I want, I just want 

371
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,520
to be transparent, but it's just
inevitable. 

372
00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,120
I feel like the savvy person, 
you know, you hear? 

373
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:32,200
Oh, Sir, Harry Stephens is doing
this big fun that that is, 

374
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,520
that's not sort of on our minds 
at the moment. 

375
00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,840
Yeah, stay tuned or not for 
that, but they're. 

376
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:41,560
Like Eric's whims? 
No. 

377
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:46,200
See. 
Why do you think he was able to 

378
00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:47,720
raise now? 
I mean, honestly, it doesn't 

379
00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:50,240
feel like the. 
Yeah, it doesn't feel like this 

380
00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:52,440
season, I guess, for new funds 
anyway. 

381
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,040
I mean, this is his third fund 
going to 400 million. 

382
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:57,640
But yeah. 
What was your take on why 

383
00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,480
Harry's sort of succeeded where 
others have failed? 

384
00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:03,520
Truly, I think I mean, the 
biggest thing without a doubt is

385
00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:07,400
I'm sure the podcast is just an 
incredible asset for, you know, 

386
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,080
meeting talent, meeting 
founders, meeting investors and 

387
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,640
just, you know, as you meet 
people, you get clued into the 

388
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:17,400
network and you get kind of a, 
an advantage on what deals you 

389
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,520
should be tracking if you're, 
you know, talking to these 

390
00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:21,680
people all the time and building
these networks. 

391
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,640
But then he's now at this point 
raised a third fund. 

392
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,040
The biggest Cliff, I feel like 
for emerging managers is going 

393
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:31,400
from fund one to fund 2. 
So if you can pass that, you're 

394
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:34,320
that's certainly a positive 
signal. 

395
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:36,480
And also in his first fund, he's
got these. 

396
00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:41,760
Uncomfortable then you're too 
big to fail and your IPS are 

397
00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,160
like, oh, not this fun. 
You know, it's the classic like 

398
00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,640
we we pulled out and we didn't 
hit excels fund where they had 

399
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:50,040
Facebook. 
So we can never pull out again. 

400
00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:53,080
And we'll just, and then and 
then you become General Catalyst

401
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:54,360
and you buy a hospital. 
So. 

402
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:56,440
That's. 
That's the journey. 

403
00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:01,000
But he no, I think he, he 
really, you know, has some track

404
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:02,680
record. 
He's invested in some, you know,

405
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:07,200
promising companies, including 
11X and the AI startup, you 

406
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:09,560
know, really bullish on having 
an advantage in the European 

407
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,840
market and especially at the 
early stage there, there's a lot

408
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:15,080
of good AI talent coming out of 
there, which he's, you know, 

409
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,640
clued into. 
So I think that I think that, 

410
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:21,520
you know, focus having a media 
product as a selling point to 

411
00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:23,560
differentiate yourself is really
important. 

412
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,960
And now he's also, you know, 
starting this scout fund. 

413
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:31,400
Additional additionally from the
400 million main fund where 

414
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:35,960
investors are all, you know, VPS
or, you know, chief officers of 

415
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,280
some kind in other startups 
that, you know, can pull their 

416
00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:42,680
network and they get they get to
keep all of the carry on their 

417
00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:45,000
investments. 
He, you know, can just use it as

418
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,200
an incredible funnel. 
You know, if the scouts make a 

419
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,400
deal that you like, you can 
follow on and invest in bigger 

420
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:53,680
check, you know, so it's it's 
pretty savvy, you know, for deal

421
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,680
flow to, you know, finding 
deals. 

422
00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:59,160
He's he's certainly thinking 
about venture differently than a

423
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,680
lot of people, which is 
appealing. 

424
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,640
All right, well, let's the our 
the bread and butter. 

425
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:10,920
Let's wrap up with what what was
the most notable recent deal for

426
00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:12,520
you? 
Start us off. 

427
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:16,360
For sure, one deal I noticed 
last week that came to the top 

428
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:20,360
of the list was X energy nuclear
reactor and energy company. 

429
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:24,760
They raised a $500 million round
led by Amazon's climate pledge 

430
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,120
fund. 
And then Ken Griffin was also on

431
00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:29,040
the cap table, among some other 
strategics. 

432
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:32,560
You know, people are just 
looking for energy, energy 

433
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:37,200
resources to power AI moment 
right now the the AI wave is 

434
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:41,080
going to take a lot of power. 
So seems like people are making 

435
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:43,920
the bets on nuclear now. 
Yeah, mine's, mine's another one

436
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:45,960
on theme where investors are 
excited. 

437
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,920
Right now we've got Path 
Robotics raised $100 million 

438
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:54,560
from Matter Venture Partners and
Drive Capital, also Tiger 

439
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,120
Global, an investor. 
It's interesting to see them 

440
00:22:57,120 --> 00:22:58,200
back. 
They're. 

441
00:22:58,360 --> 00:23:02,080
Not leading and and basis set 
another firm, a new firm that 

442
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,080
we're tracking. 
So we've got sort of old and 

443
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:09,040
new, Yeah. 
But I think, you know, nuclear 

444
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:13,040
robotics, two big themes in the 
world of generative AI and will 

445
00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:14,720
be interesting to see where they
go. 

446
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:16,440
Cool. 
Well, that's this week's 

447
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:17,720
episode. 
Thanks for listening to the 

448
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:19,600
Newcomer Podcast. 
See you next week.