Matthew Ball: evaluation

Transcript context

…Your earlier career as a firefighter — how has it shaped how you analyze media, gaming, and the metaverse? There’s a unity to it all, right? I suppose the best and closest answer would be, look, I did firefighting because I believed that I was going to spend most of my life in an office. I’ve been fortunate that that isn’t true, but I love the outdoors, and I was excited to preserve that time. At the same time, despite that real shared interest in the outdoors, I had very little in common with my colleagues there. I have watched so many episodes of Cops and an old MTV show called Yo Momma, where people met on rooftops in New York City and did rap battles that were really yo momma jokes. That was legitimately horror to fit in. I would say, when you’re spending 16, 20 hours in a forward operating base, sitting out in the woods, sleeping in a tent — we didn’t have cell phones, and you’re just there for two weeks — learning how to work, get along with, and trust those you have very little in common with is an enduring skill universally applicable. Now that you’re doing so much venture capital, what are you learning about talent? You have discussions with people making pitches to you. Obviously, you want them to be smart, hardworking, know their areas, but what about talent is underrated? What do you look for that’s maybe different than everyone else — what they look for?…

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