Gokul Rajaram: preference

Transcript context

…For somebody that's thinking about getting into angel investing, other than having capital and fighting capital, what advice would you give folks? See, the number one thing you need is, I think, besides number one thing is capital, number zero thing. Now, one thing is then you need to have deal flow, as they call it, or companies that you're meeting with and deciding. And then you need to know how to pick these companies. So you need to meet companies, you need to know how to pick them. And then, you know, as an angel, it's generally easy. So I think you need to figure out how to get deal flow. And there are three ways to get deal flow of companies. One, you build your own brand. Like you can be like Lenny, who's built an incredible brand. None of us can be like Lenny, but you can try to, we can all publish. The reality is I used to tell every single person, you can build your brand on the internet. You can build your brand, there's social media channels, there's so many channels and You have the person here who can teach the masterclass and that. You can build your brand. And just by doing that, you'll get people coming to you. Second, you have a lot of anyone in technology has other people they know who are angel investors. So just tell them, hey, I'd love to help companies. If you're investing in a company, please let me know. And the more people you tell, the more likely it is they'll remember you. And every time you meet them, reinforce that. And third, investors. If you do know venture capitalists or investors, many of them are looking to bring on There's typically a round when they lead a company's round, there's typically an allocation for angels. But for all of those, the first and most important thing is you need to understand how are you going to add value to these companies? What is your differentiation? What do you stand for? Why should a company take your money? The best companies have much more than, as Lenny and I both know, the rounds are oversubscribed. It is hard enough to get even $1 into the round, let alone $100,000 or $5,000. Why would they take your money? And so that's the thing you have to really figure out. What is your unique differentiation? What do you bring to these companies that no one else can? And I know that's hard. That's painful to figure out. But that is the introspection each of us needs to do. And that's the way you do that is by just sharing your non-obvious insights. And don't just like basically just write things. That's why I think writing is so powerful because it shows the world. My rule of thumb is when they do a search for you on Google, if your LinkedIn profile is the first thing that comes up, you've probably done something wrong. What should come up is an article you wrote, is a tweet you published, is someone mentioning you on something else, etc. Because that's when clicking on it, they know what you stand for by that content, about you, by you, etc. Yes, Mike Moritz can get away with LinkedIn. because no one needs to know what he has done. But for the rest of us, we need to build a brand, what we stand for. And it'll change over time. y you, etc. Yes, Mike Moritz can get away with LinkedIn. because no one needs to know what he has done. But for the rest of us, we need to build a brand, what we stand for. And it'll change over time. I used to basically believe I should just think about product development, how to lead product teams, engineering teams. But over the last five years, since I've led broader teams, I now share stuff which is much broader than that. And so what I stand for and what value I add has changed and evolved and hopefully increased over time. The same will happen. But you've got to take ownership of your brand on the internet. No one else can. No one else can. It's not your company. You've got to transcend the companies you work for. If your identity is XYZ, worker drone at ABC company, that's not enough. You've got to be XYZ, expert in A or whatever that A is. Even if it's a niche thing, that's okay. Every company leads, so many companies come to me, I want a payments expert, you know, and then I'll find someone who's a payments expert for them because they're trying to build a fintech practice or something. So be an expert in payments if that's what you know. Write about non-obvious insights on payments. Doesn't need to be a functional discipline like Denny and I do in product or something. Can be a Domain, risk, payments, crypto. Think about crypto, right? The people who got into crypto and I just read a post by this guy, Richard Chen. He graduated from Stanford. I don't know him, but I read an incredible post. He runs this fund called One Confirmation, which is a top fund. He graduated from undergrad four years ago. That's all he did. I mean, he was head of Stanford blockchain. He wrote, he writes amazing stuff. He's built a brand for himself. Kudos to him. 25 years old, probably. Never met the guy, but... I was like, oh, this guy knows what he's doing. What's his LinkedIn? Oh, my God. He's never worked at a company. It's basically been out of school for four years. But he's got the insights.…

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