This Week in Startups - $AMZN & $AAPL earnings, Snap's drone, China softens on tech, AirBnB goes nomad + Landon from Inside | E1447

Episode Date: April 30, 2022

First, we cover 5 news stories: Amazon Q1 earnings (02:01), Apple's fiscal Q2 earnings (06:33), China's new tune for tech (12:06), AirBnB's long-term remote commitment (16:55) and Snap's new Pixy camera drone (24:48).  Then Producer Rachel interviews Landon Campbell of inTheir20s and inside.com about investing, landing big guests like Steve Wozniak for his podcast and what he's learned about how great people spent their 20s (29:47). (00:00) Molly introduces today’s 5-for-5 Friday news stories (02:01) Amazon Q1 Earnings (06:33) Apple Q1 Earnings (10:48) Gun.io - Get $250 off your first developer hire at https://Gun.io/twist! (12:06) China Eases Tech Regs (16:55) AirBnB Goes Remote (23:42) Ourcrowd - Check out the deal of the week at https://ourcrowd.com/twist (24:48) Snap’s Pixy Drone (28:19) Producer Rachel introduces this week's OK Boomer (29:47) OK Boomer: Producer Rachel interviews Landon Campbell of inTheir20s and inside.com (34:28) Thorne - Personalized, scientific wellness. Go to https://Thorne.com/u/TWIST (35:44) Producer Rachel and Landon on investing FOLLOW Landon: https://twitter.com/landon20s FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Hey, everybody, it's Friday Variety Show. We're doing 5 for 5 news and we're keeping it tight today because we're recording a little late and we're just trying to practice some discipline. So up on deck today, we're going to talk about Amazon's Q1 earnings, Apple's Q1 earnings, technically their fiscal Q2 and the interesting pieces of news that drove both of their stock off of varying sized cliffs. Also, apparently China's leadership is going to slow down implementation of the tech regulations that we're slowing down its gigantic industry.

So that seems like a positive development for tech entrepreneurs in China. Airbnb is doubling down on its nomad workforce in a very intentional way. So we're going to give you the rundown on Brian Chesky's tweets about that. And Snap just expanded its hardware lineup with a super adorable thick cut French toast drone. And then, of course, it wouldn't be Friday without OK, Boomer. We've got Landon Campbell from inside. All that is coming up. Right now.

This week in startups is brought to you by gun.io, the simplest way for anyone to hire world-class developers, expertly vetted for you by senior engineers. Get $250 off your first hire at gun.io slash twist. Our Crowd Our Crowd helps you invest early in pre-IPO companies alongside professional VCs. If you're interested in investing,

you can join Our Crowd for, free at O-U-R-C-R-O-D.com slash twist. And Thorn. Thorne empowers people to take control of their long-term well-being with a proactive, science-based approach to health. Through a variety of at-home tests, Thorne teaches you about what your body needs and provides the right high-quality certified nutritional supplements for you. To get started and take 10% off your first order, head to Thorne,

dot com slash you slash twist. Hey everybody. Welcome to Friday show. It's five for five for Fridays where we do five minutes on five important stories. What's up first, Molly? And we are sticking with our five minutes today. Damn it. We're going to do it.

Earnings, earnings, earnings. I don't know if you saw that big cliff that Amazon stock fell off of yesterday, but that was a tall one. That was a half dome size cliff. Amazon reported Q1, 2022 results net revenue was $116.4 billion up seven percent. over year. Decent growth, but not hypergrowth. Operating income was $3.7 billion that was down 58.4% year over year. Net loss was $3.8 billion compared with net income of $8.1 billion last year.

Now, the big reason for this, and as we said when we looked at the last earnings, is that that net loss was driven by the fact that they had to report a $7.6 billion loss on the Rivian investment. This is the Rivian cliff. that we're seeing here. Live by the gun, die by the gun. Live by the sword. Die by the sword.

I said Rivian was absurdly overvalued. The market eventually agreed. I said Amazon should have sold their entire stake as quick as possible, but that would probably not be allowed. They probably had a lockup. And so here they are a giant markdown, I guess. I don't know if it's technically a loss because they didn't put that money in, but they had to mark down the value of that investment.

This happened to Uber. this happens countless times. You have some investment that goes supernova and then it comes back down to Earth. I wonder if there was any drop-off in the core delivery business because I know the AWS business is still a juggernaut. Am I correct? Booming.

Booming. In fact, so much so that there was a tweet from Anshu Sharma saying they need to add a tracking stock on AWS as a standalone business unit, maybe even a full spin-out and holding company. The two businesses are just very disparate. There was one analysis that suggested that if you take out the AWS earnings, that every other part of Amazon's business, namely, you know, that giant retail operation, is effectively zero.

Yes. I think they run the e-commerce business for scale, and they are still in this model of, let's just break even on it, let's keep building out this infrastructure because it is still very early days for commerce. If you were to look at, put e-commerce aside, Amazon's total market share in commerce is very low. In e-commerce in the United States, it's growing significantly. But they want to be a global player and it requires this massive logistics.

It requires them to have trucks driving around planes, warehouses. It really is like maybe the third or fourth ending in that business. Even 20 years or so into that business. Then you look at the AWS business, man, it's a juggernaut, it's high margin, they're the leader, you know, the profits accrue to the leader. And it's just a different style business. I could see them being under master pressure to spin AWS out without the founder, Jeff Bezos, running the company. There could be increasing pressure on this, but it's still a juggernaut of a business. and so is the commerce business.

There's nothing that says they couldn't keep increasing the price of the commerce business, lose some growth but have more margin. But why would you do that if Amazon Web Services prints money? I think their strategy is perfect. I agree. The stock market will take care of itself over time. Companies not going anywhere. Company's only going to get bigger.

Couldn't agree more. You should be looking. But that's not investment advice. Yeah, well, I mean, I would, if you're owning Amazon, I would be seriously not looking at quarter by quarter. I would be looking year over year, looking at each year, looking at their market share, and looking at the year over year growth. If you look at it that way and you start looking at it in a decade, you know, arc,

I think this is the kind of company that there's no world in which AWS is not the leader in 10 years, in my mind, and Amazon delivery and e-commerce is not delighting people massively. there's no instance, finishing my sentence, in which the e-commerce business is also not thriving massively. Any closing thoughts before we go to our next story? No, not at all. Couldn't agree with you more. Stay in that one.

Who's next? All right. And then we got some Apple earnings. I don't even think we're going to need a full five minutes for this one. It's just a very interesting story of decent returns, as usual, with Apple. Total revenue up 9% 97.2 billion dollars. Net income is $25 billion. Wait a second.

They were going to cross 100 billion. I mean, they probably will. Like next quarter. Right? Like, it's in. I wonder if they did that. I wonder if they crossed that last quarter because of the holiday bump. Who knows?

But I mean, wow. I wonder. I'm a phone. And you know how I'm always saying like they only care about selling iPhones and then Apple fan boys get all mad at me? Yes. Here's why they only care about selling iPhones because the iPhone revenue was $50 billion of their 97 billion total.

Ufa. That's an Ufa. 50 billion. The Mac, 10.4 billion services $19.8 billion. I mean, that's impressive. Is impressive. That's a big turnaround for that services business. That service business is growing.

Yum, yum, yum. The services for people who don't know, the app store, high cloud, music, news, arcade, TV, Apple TV. Yeah, not sure. But like, I feel like the story that slipped under the rug completely was the part where Apple started bundling that all. into one subscription, which is absolute genius. I got this pop-up one day that was like, hey, you're spending like $28 on various subscriptions, but if you make it 29, you get everything. I'm like, what's the name of that, Apple One or something?

What's the Apple Bundle called? I don't even know. They're so bad. Air Bundle Macs Plus. It's called Apple One Price, Six Services. And I have the family plan of it. So Apple One gets your music, TV, arcade, which is pretty great with kids. Apple Fitness, which I'm never going to use.

But I guess there's some videos and some... It does have good Ayesha Curry. She's got this arm workout that don't make you want to kill her. It's just so me. It's brutal. Shout out Ayesha. I know. She's got a bunch of videos on there.

I love him. Partner of my guy, Steph Curry. Your best. My bestie. Apple, not my bestie, but we know each other. Apple News and I cloud. And I got that two terabyte I cloud. And what I love about Apple One, I think everybody should get it.

I predicted this on CNBC. years ago is like the family plan. So I have it as a family plan and I have the Premiere with two terabytes and it costs me 30 bucks a month, 360, but I have five people on it. So divide 360 by five. It's pretty damn reasonable. It's like 60 bucks a year or something.

See, I'm such a dumb dumb that I'm paying for Premiere and didn't even know like my kid could be on it. Okay. I gotta get my kid. Dumb it. Good to know, good to know. But the other thing that's interesting about the app earnings that has the stock down almost 2%

as of midday Friday is that Apple didn't really give very much guidance. They're doing this fun new thing that's very Apple-esque where they're like, oh, it is, I want to talk about it. So they didn't give a lot of guidance,

which has investors freaked. And for like the fourth quarter in a row, they brought up supply chain issues. And so all these analysts are like, wow, if Apple is having this much recurring supply chain issue, maybe it really is a problem. Pretty amazing when you think about

this tremendous performance. and the PE ratio 26. So Microsoft was 30. I think Google was 20 and Facebook meta 12.5 as we look at these price earning ratios. So pretty fully valued, but a juggernaut of a business. And I think, you know, it's like one of these companies that, again, in 10 years, can you picture a world in which Apple is not, doesn't play a wider, bigger part in our lives. And when I look at it, I can't imagine Amazon, Microsoft, Google,

or Apple not playing a bigger role in our lives, I could absolutely see Facebook playing a much less role in our lives. So I always look at that. That to me is always my guiding principle. Yep, 100%. Amazon P.E. 59? Yeah, I think that's what happens when you don't try to make money. Right.

You know, and you try to build the top line. When you just make investors wait, which is what Amazon has always done. Works like a charm. Yeah, be patient or don't buy the stuff. Yeah. Hiring software engineers can take a really long time, don't I know it? Sometimes it takes months, but gun.io is going to change that for you right now. They're a developer hiring platform.

They're super focused, and here's what makes them different. Their candidates are expertly vetted, and then they're matched to your company by a team of senior engineers, not by an algorithm or just a recruiter. Gun.io developers have eight plus years of experience, building products, and they're comfortable working directly with founders and examines. executive teams. They're going to get your candidates as quickly as 48 hours. Think about that. And the average time to hire is only two weeks. 90% of the candidates are U.S.-based. And they have a network of vetted international candidates as well if you're looking to hire from other markets. There are

two ways you can use gun.io. Number one, you can work with a freelancer and enjoy gun.i.o's ongoing support services. They'll handle the billing and swap out talent for free at any time. Or you can hire a remote developer directly from the gun. I.O. Network for half the typical recruiters fee. So here's your call to action. Gun.io is the easiest way for startups to find and hire world-class developers. And you're going to get $250 off your first hire at gun.io slash TWIST. Well, so speaking of China impacts, because that is indeed what is constraining the iPhone

production. Apparently, on to our next story, China's leadership has realized that if you shoot yourself in the foot, you get a bad limp. Yeah, you're not going to run a marathon when you shoot both your feet. In this case, shooting the feet means what? In this case, shooting the feet means hamstringing its own tech industry with all of this intense regulation. So China's leadership has now decided, according to a report from the South China Morning

Post, to slow down implementation of things like regulations that limit the amount of time that people can spend on internet apps. apparently the Chinese Politburo acknowledged the war in Ukraine and its intense COVID shutdowns and said, hmm, this could be a problem for our economy. And the South China Morning Post notes that a symposium involving Chinese big tech has been scheduled for next week to assure business leaders on the new direction, which is more policy support to reach the country's 5.5% growth targets. So they're easing up. They're backing off the tech industry. All right.

So one of two things is going to happen here. They're going to get all the tech leaders together and they're all going to be taken to jail. And this is a total setup. Or I laugh because it's actually quite plausible. Yeah. Or now they're realizing that holy cow, embracing capitalism and, you know, they're perverted free market where they're torturing people and have slave labor and don't let people read books.

And if they do buy or read a book, they're not supposed to. They go to re-education camps and lose 20 pounds on their spa menu and diet and torture. I'm being slightly facetious here, but, you know, it's pretty serious stuff. And that maybe Jack Ma building huge companies is good for everybody. And the reason that they had one of the greatest runs in taking people out of poverty and increasing the standard of living was because of capitalism. And they're like, you know, half of a, you know, giant bear hug of capitalism. And then they decided, well, gosh, these entrepreneurs are too popular and they're not as popular as Winnie the Pooh.

So now, you know, Xi Jinping doesn't feel as popular or love. Is that who you mean? Yeah, that's what I mean. That's the kind of joke that they make about him because he looks like winning the bill. Oh, he does kind of. Yeah, it's cute. It's a charming nickname.

But anyway, so maybe Jack Ma will come down from his mansion in Hong Kong and start going back to work and give up the oil painting to save the economy. But, I mean, it's so dumb. They were making so much money taking these companies public. The Chinese government was in on. all these. They had this money printing machine and then they were like, no, the it has too much power.

Too many tall poppies, too much popularity and now they're like, oh, you know what's going to happen is? We gave people a taste. We gave people a taste and then we took it away. And entrepreneurs started leaving. Investors started leaving and then when that was combined with the zero COVID policy, it's like the economy ground

to a complete halt. But one other thing that's super interesting about this is the Chinese government realizing the power of the infrastructure that's been created. So they plan to repurpose some of that infrastructure like May-Tuan, which runs one of China's biggest food delivery services. Yes. To get food to people during the zero COVID lockdowns.

All right. Well, I think this is in a way good news. The fact that China, you know, our big rival and a threat to the freedom of humanity, the, you know, big existential threat I think humanity has. their expansion. You know, once you allow capitalism and freedom, you are going to learn a hard lesson. You cannot take it away from people.

People want more freedom. And so you keep giving them this taste. And then you try to roll it back. You do it at your peril. And I think what they're realizing is, you know, they can have a civil war inside that country. You know, it's not out of the realm of possibility that there could be another Tiananmen Square protest.

And listen, I know that was squashed. There could be more Hong Kong protests. I know that was squashed. But eventually, squashing your own people is maybe not as effective a technique as maybe just giving them a little more freedom. Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting development. All right.

You only get to stay here for one more story. What are we doing here? I choose for us Airbnb. I trust you to choose well. This is such an interesting story that we've been talking about for so long. So, Airbnb is doubling down on the nomad workforce, which is, you know, totally reasonable. As the company that enabled the nomad workforce during the pandemic, it's kind of on brand. Almost belatedly when you think about it that way, Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky, tweeted the following yesterday, Thursday.

Today, we're announcing that Airbnb employees can live and work anywhere. Our design for working at Airbnb has five key features. One, you can work from home or the office, whatever works best for you. You can move anywhere in the company and your compensation will not change. That's a big one. You have the flexibility to live and work in 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location. And then he says, we will meet up regularly for team gatherings. Most employees will connect in person every quarter for about a week at a time and some more frequently.

Love that plan. And then he says, to pull this off, we'll operate off of a multi-year roadmap with two major product releases a year, which will keep us working in a highly coordinated way. Last part is the one I find so interesting. Yeah. So working, why do you find it super interesting? I just think that the idea of actually altering your business strategy around your remote workforce in such an intentional way is so freaking smart because it's an actual adaptation

to this big change instead of like, everything will work just exactly how it has been, but you'll be at your house. So there's a lot to unpack here. Obviously, you pointed out right at the start that they are the enabler of this nomad culture and they are also the beneficiary. So if they don't dog food this, then who's going to? And he does mention in his tweets to him that he sees this as a competitive advantage for getting talent. I happen to agree with that as well. And the other thing that's really significant here is the belief that coming together four times a year is critically important. And so I have taken

in the same approach. I have now telling people that my remote companies inside and launch, be prepared to be somewhere five days, four or five days, four times a year. And if you would like the freedom and respond, the freedom of being a work from home person, you have to have the responsibility of doing this.

That means if you have kids or spouses or other responsibilities in the world, okay, you're going to need to have nannies or travel plans or talk to your spouse about the fact I get to be home. 48 weeks a year, but there will be four weeks a year where I will be traveling.

Are we cool with that as a give and take between employers and employees? And I think it's actually going to be good for employees because the one thing that's missing right now

is mentorship, espried a corpse, you know, the camaraderie. And so while, you know, I do think it's going to put some people out.

Listen, you have a kid, I have kids, got to be away from our kids, four times a year, four or five days. It's a bummer, but it's also kind of delightful that we get to be home and drive them to school, pick them up.

If somebody gets sick, you can go to school and pick up your kids. Maybe you get to have a coffee break with them from three to four o'clock and, you know, just life is better for most people. It's wonderful. And it's great to be in a hotel room away from them. And it's also good to get those five days where you're like, oh, crisp sheets had no kids waking me up and jumping on my head. But no one needs me right now, no dog, no human?

Like, great, great, love this. You know, like, hey, spouse, take care of this. I think it's so smart. I think it's, and I just, I love the intentionality of this. Like, we've designed our workflow in this way. This is the plan for keeping that connection. Like, it's just such a, this is a real leadership kind of Twitter memo here. I like it.

Conversely, there is a lot of abuse going on. And the extent of the abuse is unknown, but there are lots of people talking on the social networks about people taking two and three jobs at tech companies and working outside jobs and not doing work. And I think we're going to see that result in some reactions. I think one of their reactions, I'm curious your thoughts on this because I've been pitched on and at startup ideas or heard it is people having some amount of like with their work computer, if they're going to work from home, knowing their status online and what they're

doing. Now, this is big brother. But if people are going to be writing code or doing sales calls, like salespeople have their sales calls tracked, right? So you know, this salesperson did six calls today. This person did no calls today. Well, with developers, I think we're going to see, or other people, riders, etc., people are abusing it to the extent that we're going to see tracking software on laptops. Many people probably have it on there already. Call centers have it on there already where it's like, we need to know your keyboard's active. We don't need to necessarily know every keystroke, but we need to know what apps you're in for what number of hours a day and what work you're doing. I think if people are abusing this, it's going to result in that kind of reaction

and people just need to be aware of it, which is to say, don't abuse the privilege, you know, or else people are going to start activating tracking software and there are people doing it already. And I think that's really like, it kind of sucks that somebody does this and abuses it and then the other nine people in the company have to, you know, suffer for it. And if you're working at a big company, do not do anything on your corporate computer

is my best advice. That is not business. Like literally have another laptop on your desk where you're doing your shopping or doing your stuff because well within your employer's rights, we don't do this. I wouldn't do it. It's not my bag.

I have other management. techniques to do this kind of stuff, like looking at your actual work product. But I would not do anything on a work computer that is not actual work. It's just best advice. Because if you're at Google or Apple or Amazon, I bet you with your work issued laptop, there might be some monitoring going on and it will be increasing. What do you think of that? Because people aren't talking about this. 100% agree. I mean, I think you should choose your comfort. company wisely. Yeah.

Because some companies are going to abuse that privilege also. Exactly. The simple fact is, like, we have all worked at companies where there was a slacker and we were all picking up for that slacker. So this isn't that much different. But there will be different enforcement mechanisms and some will inevitably cross the line. It's time for another Our Crowd deal of the week.

Right now, you can join Our Crowd's investment in Soterro. According to the deal memo, Sotero has developed a patented new approach to data protection. This new technique eliminates the gaps of traditional methods by securing any data asset, whether it's on-premises or in the cloud. And according to the deal memo, Soterro is trusted by one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. You can invest in Sotero at R-Crow.com slash twist today. And all over the world, companies like Sotero are innovating and driving returns for investors. Our Crowd analyzes many of these companies,

and then they select the ones with the greatest growth potential, and they bring them to you. They invest from personalized medicine to robotics to cybersecurity where companies spend $150 billion annually. Our crowd identifies innovators so you can invest when growth potential is greatest, and that's early. If you're an accredited investor, you can join Our Crowd for free at O-U-R-C-O-W-D.com slash Twist and review the current deal. So that's OurCrow.com slash Twist to sign up for free. Okay, last story is yours, Molly. I'll see everybody on Sunday and then Monday again for Big Monday. Great week,

months. Thank you. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Never gets old. All right, last story. Jason has a big name meeting right now, so I'm going to do this one by myself. Snap has just expanded its hardware lineup with a drone. Obviously, it has a camera in it.

Snap launch. Its first flying drone camera called Pixie. It's available in the United States and France for $230. It's, they call it pocket size, but I think that's only if you're rocking the cargo shorts It's in a 90s revival kind of way. It's a little more like purse or merse sized. But it operates without a controller. I'm assuming you use your phone to control it.

It's available in the U.S. and France already. And we have this 75 second video from CEO Evan Spiegel where we're going to let him describe it. Hopefully you'll be able to hear it. And if you're watching the stream, you'll be able to see it as well. World's friendliest flying camera. It's a pocket-sized free flying sidekick for adventures big and small. Everything you need to capture the spontaneity and fun of the moment from new perspectives is right in the palm of your hand. With the simple tap of a button, Pixie takes flight and joins you on your journey.

Boop, he's tapping the button in case you don't see this. I mean, it is really small. It looks like a piece of toast. Like a fat, like the kind of toast that people in San Francisco line up for. There it goes. It's following him. It's following him down the hallway. And then, oh, pretty good.

For preset flight paths, Pixie floats, orbits, and follows wherever you lead. Pixie is ready to fly at a moment's notice. There are no controllers, there's no complex setup. Simply set a flight path and let Pixie take it from there. Floating above you as it captures photos and videos. Floating above you with a terrifying whine. And then it just landed at his hand! And it knows when and where to return, landing gently in the palm of your hand.

Did we all know that Evan Spiegel was that awkward? I don't know why I didn't know that about him, but he's a little bit awkward. I'm not going to lie, this thing is awesome. And it is perfectly in line with Snap's aesthetic. You can't say they don't have an aesthetic. It's like bright yellow. Producer Rachel said she thought it looked like a McDonald's happy meal toy, which it kind of does. but honestly, this as like a content creation tool is fantastic.

Snap said it's going to continue to invest in its AR glasses as well. They're just staying in the game when it comes to hardware and the social network that evidently all the kids actually are using, even though I most everybody in my cohort is like, wait, you still use snap, but people still use snap, but they do. And I could completely see this being a gigantic hit for, all those like annoying beach influencers. I mean, I don't want to buzzing around me while I'm at the beach, but I know it's going to. And I kind of want to get one.

And that's it. That is five for five Friday, everybody. We made it happen. I hope you have a great weekend. We'll be back here Monday for what I'm sure will be some god awful dump of news because it never stops. That's why we're here for you. See you then.

And it would not be a Friday show without everybody's favorite segment. OK Boomer. Rachel reporting. We're just having girl talk right now, just you and me hanging out talking about OK Boomer. Who do you have? Awesome. On the show, I have a very familiar name this week. Landon Campbell from inside. If you guys don't know who Landon is, I'm very surprised. He's probably the other notable Gen Z that works for Jason other than Fresh. Landon also other than Rachel. Other than me as well. Landon has a radical podcast called In Their 20s and I talked to him a little bit about his podcasting journey. And then at the end, he gave some really awesome tangible information for people that are

interested in starting their own podcasts, like things going down to the basics, like what microphone that he thinks would be cool, everything like that. And then we did talk a little bit about what it's like working for Jason. I think you guys should listen to the show to hear what we say. Oh, really? I mean, it's just us here. All good stuff. All good stuff. Yeah. That's hilarious. And he also, by the way, like in case you want to have an older person, imposter syndrome is in his 20s and an angel investor already at the hustle fund? Yes, he is. He does talk about how he started investing and kind of the correlation between working in media and then also becoming an investor long-term plans and things like that.

Fascinating. All right. Cool. Thanks again for another great interview, Rachel, Landon Campbell, from our very own, what do we call them, sister company inside? Inside. Yep. Awesome. Okay, Boomer. I understood the assignment. Thank you so much. Landon Campbell for coming on this segment of OK Boomer. I assume that everybody listening to this podcast already knows who you are because you also work for Jason. I actually think that you're probably a bigger Gen Z working for Jason than I am. I definitely think you're killing it in the podcast space.

Well, I appreciate that, Rachel. Very excited to be on the show. This is going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So if for some reason, if you're living under a rock, Landon is the host of In Their 20s, which is an awesome podcast where he gets to speak to successful people about their 20s. There is an episode with Jason, which is kind of cool. He is also an executive inside, which is another thing that Jason does.

He leads events at inside.com, and he hosts the weekly venturing in VC podcasts. And then with all your spare time, you do angel investing with the hustle fund. Yes, yeah, that's a better description than I would have given. Everybody's always like, you're so busy, you're so busy, but I think there's so much synergy between the things I do and I love what I do. So it doesn't really feel like I'm that busy ever. I guess that leads into a good first question. How has working in the podcasting space prepared you for an investing position? Of course. Yeah. So when I look at the podcasters landscape, I feel like there's kind of two routes you can take. And I know a lot of people that,

you know, are on the first. They're enjoying the podcast just for fun. They launch the show with friends. You know, they talk about sports or other fun things. I know a lot of people that intentionally created shows, you know, to really run these as businesses. So they wanted these podcasts be used as vehicles to get them into other industries, spaces. And for me, you know, in their 20s has always been that since day one of launching it. I always saw a lot of potential in the audio podcasting space to not just share stories, but also, you know, get me in the room with a lot of these interesting people whom I would have never dreamt of being able to speak with. But then even further than that. I mean, my podcast has served as an awesome resource for deal flow. I've been able to

have so many young founders on my show to really learn more about their companies, ask the questions that, you know, you can kind of equate to due diligence when investing and has opened up a lot of, you know, unique opportunities. So if not for the podcast, like, I wouldn't have this cool job with Jason. I wouldn't have, you know, opportunities to invest. So it's been a wonderful vehicle to, you know, really get me into some cool new industries and sectors. Yeah. Who would have thought that having a podcast that does well helps with deal flow? Never would have heard that before, right?

Yeah, yeah. So Jason says all the time that he loves hiring young people. We are to the young people that he has hired. What is it like working for somebody who has done just that? He's done so much in media. And it has definitely helped him have quite awesome investments along with him just being a very smart person. He's killed it in that space. How has it been learning under Jason?

Of course, yeah. So I had Jason, I'll back up a little bit. I had JSON in their 20s, episode 40. That episode did a lot for me, you know, personally and professionally. I know Jason has that famous line and it's even, you know, in the background of, you know, whenever we see him on camera, do the work. The interview was really focused on how he really grinded and did the work in his 20s. Starting from nothing and really building such a strong network.

He really, I believe the word, he used. use was a, he networks at a preternatural level. Um, so he was just so hungry to meet so many great people in his 20s, knowing that, you know, meeting this person, meeting that person could lead to bigger and greater opportunities. But specifically, um, you know, his journey, um, professionally, it's, I really enjoy working for him because I'm a big believer that in order to become successful, you need to see success. You need to see people whom have done something, um, similar to that, you know, that you're really interested in. And Jason was the OG and, you know, really, going from journalists with Silicon Alley Reporter to letting that be a vehicle to, you know,

open up other opportunities, as we just mentioned. He met so many other founders. He met so many great people, built relationships and trust through his media company, which then allowed him to invest in, you know, and obviously everybody knows the J-Cal story, but a lot of these awesome companies that he had an opportunity to invest in. So we see, you know, the Harry Stebbings of today, the Hackey McCormick's, you know, us, you know, really using the J-Call story, but a lot of these awesome companies that he had an opportunity to invest in. So we see, you know, you know, really using these podcasts to get into bigger and greater opportunities. But if you think back, Jason was kind of the OG. The first form.

Totally. Yep. Yeah, yeah. He saw the patterns between media and capital allocation. So it's, yeah, it's a gift to be able to work for him. Listen, if you're a high performing founder or operator or human, you need to make sure you take care of your health and your wellness. A founder is one of the most stressful jobs you can have.

You're taking care of a business, all the employees around you, and it can take a huge toll on your physical health. And that is where Thorne can help. Thorne is a health and tech company that offers at-home tests that can actually identify where you need the most care. Everything from a gut test that analyzes your gut microbiome. There's also a stress test that measures your stress hormone fluctuations. And these tests help get rid of guesswork around good health. They provide personalized steps for how to eat, how to exercise, and what supplements you should take. I hear you right now saying you think you don't have time for this,

but you need to make time for this. Thorne also has a range of multivitamins and supplements that you can subscribe to. Again, this is personalized health and wellness and Thorne is totally vertically integrated, so you're not dealing with anyone in the middle. To get started and take 10% off your first order, head to thorn.com slash you. That's the letter you slash twist. That's thorne.com slash twist. to save 10%. Definitely. I love personally as well the entire,

I guess you'd call it a business model of doing something with media, networking, journalism, something like that, and then branching that into a fund. I think that is something that I would totally do in the future. We just did over on the This Week in Startups arm and Landon Works on the inside arm,

which like I said before is something, it's just a different part of the many things that Jason does. We had our like 2021 year in review, right? And they're like, What's your five-year plan? And I'm like, huh, thinking about it. It's a tough question. World domination is number one.

But number two, you know, is just like really improving on the skills that Jason is just really, really good at because, you know, being able to work under somebody that was the first in this space is super duper cool. But for investing, you aren't investing at launch. You are investing over at the hustle fund. So what is the hustle fund? Yeah. So the hustle fund is, and through the podcast, I met the founders, Eric and Elizabeth.

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, again, another perfect example. Yeah, but we focus on a pre-seed SaaS products, and I'm a part of their Angel Squad cohort. So I get to invest alongside them, bring in deal flow as well, because of course, you know, I have a lot of deal flow coming my way through the shows that I have. So it's a great opportunity for me to just build my network and be able to invest alongside. You know, I really respected firm. And yeah, I've been with them now for, I think it's a month.

I've obviously known Eric. I had him on my show first last summer. That's awesome. Working with them in the cohort for about a month. And then along with that, I do work with another VC called BVCC, the Black Venture Capital Consortium. Amazing. Yeah, that's kind of how I started to learn more about the venture landscape.

And I've been able to invest alongside them. But yeah, no, it's just, I think that the, again, you know, it's just, I think that the, again, the correlation between VC and media, some people are starting to understand it. You know, we see the big firms like A16 and Z. They're hiring in-house. You know, they're really investing a lot in their media that they put out. A lot of the small to mid-sized funds, you know, maybe a lot of them aren't hiring in-house media, but they're outsourcing a lot. So I just feel like we're just scratching the surface for people really understanding how correlated the two are.

Yeah, 100%. So how, I guess, did you, were, How were you able to unlock investing positions? How are we able to leverage that to people and be like, listen, just because I'm not somebody necessarily with this traditional finance background coming from podcasting, I'm still worth value? Like, how were you able to pitch that to people to allow you to have these, like, awesome opportunities? Of course.

Yeah. So something that I really try and showcase on my show, both shows, my VC focus show and even in their 20s, because, you know, I really want it to be known through my brand that I am very interested in VC. I am investing. I just want to show people that there's no traditional way to break into VC anymore. You know, you don't have to do the typical, you know, IB background and, you know, sometimes, you know, operating. Like there's, I feel like for so long there's, like, specific, you need to do these steps in order to get into VC. So it's really my mission through storytelling, to share stories of people who broke into VC, you know, maybe they were athletes first, or maybe

they were journalists first, or maybe they were actors and they found, unique way to get into the VC space. So bottom line, like, that's something that I'm really working hard to showcase on my show. But yeah, to specifically answer your question, I think that the biggest thing that we need to really increase is access to information. So I enjoy, you know, following a lot of great people on Twitter that are sharing their own personal experiences, information, resources that they used to get into this space. Because again, in order to become successful, you need to see success. You need to really see these. unique playbooks, you need to see what people did to enter this unique space or this industry.

And without that, with it being so gate kept for so long, people want to know how to break in. So I'm really trying my best to share my experiences, daily, weekly, my conversations with VCs, different perspectives of, you know, very famous investors in order just to give people the tools they need to succeed. Awesome. So your show is a lot, like you said, there's like these really, famous investors, do you have any recommendations for content that people can consume that deals with people that are just starting off in their venture career or maybe people that aren't as far long that are more. So I think, like, for example, sometimes it's really difficult for me

to see somebody that is absolutely just killing it in their career. They're a lot older, they're a different stage of life than me. And me being like, yeah, this is like a replicable thing I can do because it feels so distant. Do you know anybody or have any, resources that are that feel a little bit more tangible and like a little bit earlier on in their career anything like that of course yeah so i'll even say that like i love sharing different perspectives because i agree that like you know if you just kind of follow this one person um you know and if a lot of there's stuff that you want to accomplish and they're already doing it it's very out of line out of scope then you know you might be a little um you know you might be under more pressure

So I really agree, like you want to diversify the information that you take in. You want to speak with different people, you know, take in different content of individuals who are just getting into VC, people who have been in the industry for a while. I think all of it really helps. But specifically, like an interview that I think everybody should I listen to is my interview with Megan Loist, founder of Gen ZVC. Yeah, she is also, she works for Lear Hippo, an associate there. And what I love about Megan is, you know,

Yes, she did do what some might say traditional background, you know, to get into venture capital. But she knew that, you know, she was at disadvantaged at the beginning, you know, starting at the lowest point of the totem pole. So she had to build her own network. She had to really try and find ways to also build her own community because she knew in day one that she wanted to be able to positively impact the lives of other young people getting into VC. So hearing her journey about not only taking on the responsibilities of Lear HIPA, which, I mean, that would keep you pretty busy. I mean, investing professionally, but also finding time to develop a strong community in Gen ZVC to help the younger future capital allocators. I think that for sure is a great interview that everybody should check out.

Yeah, I really like her. She is such a great person to interview. Like, she has such good energy. Like, along with being like an incredible investor, she's just a nice person. She was on episode 1330 of OK Boomer. skip to the end of the episode. I love it. Yeah, people are interested in talking.

Also, another person that was just amazing was on a second with Jason. Yep. And she was in the latest whole segment that they do. Talks about like up-and-coming angel investors. And Paige is just, again, just one of those people where hearing her talk, I'm like, you're so wise. I cannot believe you're my age. for people who don't know, Paige is another Gen Z VC. She also wrote a children's book.

She actually is a partner, created her own VC, and her book is called Sea to Harvest, along with her podcast. So definitely check that out. I'll plug her as well. She's killing it. Another person that is absolutely phenomenal at listening to and following on Twitter, just to see how to break into VC is Nicole D. Tamaso, I believe, is her last name. She's from Harlem Capital, Harlem Capital Rocks, Nicole Rocks.

and it's super awesome being able to see people our age killing it. Like it's so, so cool. And one trap I think people do a lot early on is they only see successful people and the end goal. And they don't see like along the way, the along the way path. So I think it's really good mentioning people like Paige, like Megan Lois, because just being able to see the path along the way is just as important as, you know, being headstrong for that end goal. It's crucial. And that's something I really realized day one that, you know, yes, I wanted to have these successful people on my show.

But I went to flip the script and talk about their 20s because that's a time when they didn't necessarily have things figured out. And yeah, really, I agree with you 100% Rachel. It's difficult to like see Elon's like, okay, obviously he's killing and doing amazing things. But how did he get there? Like, I want to hear of times of uncertainty, especially since we're dealing with a lot of uncertainty with the pandemic. So, yeah, I think it's a fun time talking about the 20s. Yeah, it is. And in their 20s, it's such a cool podcast. What made you the want to start a podcast with, it's obviously probably been really difficult to get these types of guests on. I can't even imagine what your outbound and rejection cycle was like, because you've had some amazing guests. But I was like, dang, like, it must have been really difficult to get some of these people. What made you want to start this podcast with, you've had like Steve Wozniak on? Like, that's kind of crazy. Like, was that where you like, oh, man, I want to, I want to do. I want to be like the biggest, the best podcast like this and get these stellar guests.

Like, was that the goal? So, yes. One of my friends just asked me this like a few months ago. Day one, like I knew. I didn't know specifically who I'd be getting on. But I knew like I wanted to obviously be speaking with the top of the top. But to anybody starting anything, doesn't have to be a podcast. Like be humble enough to realize you're not going to have these people day one, day two.

Hell, I mean, you know, for the first few weeks and months sometimes. So I started with people in my network. You know, people who I had worked with in college, professors that I had, you know, people whom were influential to me. And that's another thing that, like, because I interview influential people, it doesn't have to be necessarily just a billionaire. It's like, I've always interviewed influential people to me. So people who have made it impacted my life.

A few of my favorite episodes are like the early, early ones with professors that I've had and having an opportunity to reflect with them. But, you know, you focus on solving a small problem for a small group of people. first. So, you know, we had our audience identified. We had the strategies that we put in place to get there with these, you know, more local interviews. And we just continued to build a foundation. And I wish I could share some of the people that I've been rejected from because those ones, like, also feel good. Like, oh, I got to know from this person. That's sick. But, you know, we just kept building, kept building. And then we were able to get the Ev Williams and, you know,

the J-Cowls. And now that we have that fuel, we can get, you know, the David Sachs and Steve Wozniaks of the world and, you know, keep going from there. But again, like, you got to prioritize the early days, you know, focusing, being consistent. As you know, Rachel is super important in building not just a podcast, but any form of content. Because people need to see the foundation. They need to believe that you believe in what you're building, especially if you want to get these people on. Totally. Consistency is so important. And I think that's a big thing that people don't talk about a lot in the, I would consider this, like, even like, it's the creative industry. straight, you know what I mean? Podcasting is still a creative thing that people are doing.

And consistency I find is totally overlooked. Like, there was this one point during the pandemic where I've reached out to one person every single day for 100 days. Not necessarily just for my podcast, but I was like, man, I need to, I realized like I just graduated. I was letting home to my parents. And I was like, man, I'm not meeting like anybody in this adult world. Like, if you don't actually put yourself out there, you're not going to find anybody. And it wasn't until then months into having my first podcast.

It might have even been a year at that point that I get guests that were, like, I consider big enough that they had their own presence so they could share the episode and that episode would do better from just me sharing it. Like, it wasn't just at that point, people in my college community listening. And I think that, like, consistency just is so, so important.

Do you have any advice for people that are trying to create a project like this to become better at consistency? Because I think that's a huge barrier. Yes. I will say first off, make sure that you have a pipeline of content. Content can be very overwhelming, very stressful. And I felt very unorganized a few weeks where like, you know,

I have other conflicts come up or like other responsibilities and I don't have time to build content. Content takes time. You can't just throw it together. So I, you know, mentioned having like a drive of, I like to keep three to four interviews just ready to go at any time. And I use my free time, you know, editing things that like may not be posted for a few weeks. And I'm glad that I do because then I have, you know, free time in the future to kind of focus on other things or other responsibilities. So that's been something since day one. Like we, and I say we, like I started this with my best friend Michael.

And we like on day one, you know, I believe it was March. We said we're going to watch a podcast. But we didn't end up making it public till like June because within those months in between, we were just having interviews. We were building social content and making sure that we had things ready to go. So don't overwhelm yourself, just like try and have things in the back burner ready to go. I think that's super helpful with consistency. It doesn't have to be every Monday, but you do need to find a frequency that works for you. But more importantly, one that your audience can recognize.

I know people that post, you know, this day versus this week. And it's a little random. And, you know, for an audience, it can be difficult to just understand, you know, when an episode's coming out. That's simple. So, yeah, we do every Monday. At a time, we were doing every Monday and Wednesday. and I thought that the audience was a little confused. So we stopped doing that.

So it's not that you have to like do extra. I just think that you need to find a day that works for you to be consistent. Totally. So I guess this gives a good time to ask like technical questions because I don't know about you, but this like the next question I get after what is it like working for Jason all the time when people find out that I work with Jason is how do you start a podcast? I always tell people like some things that I absolutely love, Descript for editing. has like been my lifesaver.

Banking episodes has been a lifesaver. Having people that I know could be like consistent guess. For example, if like I do run out, I'll always have something in my brain being like this. Normally that's like a friend. And I'm like, you know what? This person always has some really good things to share with my community. Is there any other technical things that you would, technical pieces of advice that you would share with people that want to start a podcast

that may just not be super evident, like, yeah, buy a microphone? Yeah, of course. I think audio quality is super, super important. I know Jason tweeted that, like, around when I was launching, and he kind of, like, gave his 10 steps, like, to launching one. And I think audio quality, like, prioritize getting a good mic early. I waited a while. Same.

And this is actually my friends that I'm using now, who I started with. So, you know, I wish I got one way sooner, but I just think I was so focused on, like, building the content and kind of putting that out there. But, I mean, audio quality, you got to prioritize. As for programs, Audacity for editing, Riverside, that FM recently raised. I haven't used them yet. And now I'm like, oh, man, I use Anchor.

So I always do internal recordings, like on QuickTime and things like that. And I'm like, oh, Riverside, you know what? That seems a lot easier. Ed, do you think, Jason, I think had a poll out recently. And most people in that poll, I believe, said they were at the time when I checked the poll, at least, said they listen a podcast on YouTube. Do you think that it is needed to have your podcast on YouTube? Or do you think that that is a step, people can step?

So, yes, I think that that's a crazy statistic that a lot of people in this face have been going crazy about, you know, from the audience perspective, most people are streaming their podcast from YouTube. So not the Spotify is, not the apples. I mean, well, they are, but the top numbers are YouTube. I personally believe it's important to diversify. So we're on every platform. I do like put extra emphasis on the audio platforms just because I enjoy, you know, editing the audio and like, you know, I enjoy like the audience we've built, you know, on the Spotify's and Apples.

And it is difficult, you know, to build something on YouTube. But I agree. I mean, you should at least have, you know, a presence on every platform. And I'd even go a step further, like really learn. If you want to be in the space, be fully in it. So that goes to like even using the call-ins and the social audios and live podcasting. apps, Twitter spaces. Yeah.

Because, you know, I've, I've acquired different, you know, listeners from unique platforms. You know, I would have never interviewed David Sachs, for example, as a guest if I was not on Colin. So I think that if you want to be a podcaster, like, really get to know the audio space because there's, you know, a lot of opportunities to distribute on different platforms and at least, you know, have a presence on these unique platforms as well. Totally. Landon and I were, for the audience to know,

Landon and I literally had a phone call one or two weeks ago about how cool Twitter spaces was. Like, we literally were just geeking out over Twitter spaces, being like, this is kind of crazy. How much of an audience you get with Twitter spaces because it is so freaking hard to grow a podcast. Anybody can make, I really genuinely think anybody can start a podcast, like as long as you, like you said, have good audio quality,

but actually growing that audience and building that community around podcasting, It's not as sexy as YouTubeing, but I think that podcasting has a lot better longevity in my opinion than a lot of other platforms. So podcasting definitely a form of expression that's here to stay for me. Do you have any advice? This is my last question, I promise. What is your advice on building community in podcasting? That's a great question.

So, of course, being on these different platforms, I think is super important. But, you know, adding on to your point that you just mentioned, like I am very bullish. on the longevity of building a podcast. And again, like, I'll say it for the third time. It can get you, it can be a vehicle to get you into so many other opportunities. But you just got to stick with it. There's a famous stat out there that 90% of podcasters quit after episode three. I agree, Rachel.

It's not easy. It's not easy building an audience organically. It's not easy, you know, looking for sponsors as well. People think that, like, you know, if they're only receiving X amount of listeners and downloads for episode that, you know, the show sucks. But you got to, like, just stick with it. It maybe took like 50 episodes for my audience to really start to understand, okay, so this is what he's trying to do.

So that was 50 full weeks. But it was okay. It was a worthy investment because, again, it's such a powerful medium. But as for building community, I think using Twitter is something that I use often, like just literally asking people who I know are, you know, heavy listeners of my show with left ratings and, you know, really vibe with the content. putting out, just asking for constructive criticism of how we can make it better, guests, suggestions. Those are ways to build community on a simple level. Of course, like, you can build

an actual, you know, Discord or Slack, a more intelligent community. But I think that starting out, just being able to listen to your audience, take feedback, take suggestions, you know, read comments on socials everywhere. I mean, that can go a long way. And that's how I've made my show better, not from me, from the community giving their suggestions. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. I think these are really tangible things that are going to help people that are interested in starting their own podcast. I think a lot of our listeners, obviously are, have been listening to Jason forever. We're over 1,400 episodes in, and Jason has a big name for himself. Obviously, so does Molly Wood, who is our other wonderful co-host. I think we didn't get to mention her

on here, but plug in Molly Wood. She's phenomenal. Of course. And they already had a brand before coming to podcasting. So I really think that this is good information to share with people that are just starting out in the space. And I think it's important to share that podcasting isn't dead. People can still start and get big. Trust us. It's phenomenal.

And I got my job through podcasting, I guess. And I think about it. I find out my podcast. I wouldn't have this job. So you know what? You're right. Open source. Awesome.

Linda. Thank you so much for coming on. Rachel, thank you so much. My honor. Thank you. Where can people find you? You can follow me at Landon 20s. That's L-A-N-D-O-N-20S on Instagram, Twitter, Landon Campbell on LinkedIn, and of course in their 20s and venturing in VC are my other two shows.

Phenomenal. Thanks, Landon. See you. Hey, everyone. Producer Nick here. I want to tell you about the SaaS Syndicate. If you're a founder of a SaaS company with a product and market, our investment team wants to talk to you. Head over to the syndicate.com slash SaaS-S-A-A-A-S to apply to raise from the SaaS syndic. and you can join Jason Syndicate of over 9,000 accredited investors at the syndicate.com. Producer Justin here, know a cool startup? Check out openscouting.com, where anyone can refer a startup to our investment team here at launch. Even if you don't know the founder, if you're the first to flag a company for us and we decide to invest,

you'll get 5K in cash or 10% of our carry. Hey, everybody, producer Rachel here. Are you an early stage startup that has product and market, some traction, and are looking to raise at least $500,000. Apply today to Remote Demo Day for your chance to pitch to over 9,000 investors in Jason's syndicate. Submit your application at Remote Demoday.com. Our next event is on April 27th. And if you want to learn how to invest in startups from the world's greatest angel investor,

and no, we're not talking about Chris Saka, then head to Angel.combe to apply. The four-hour workshop costs $300 and all proceeds are donated to charity. To date, we've donated over $175,000 to various charities, and you can see the full list at angel.university slash charity.