Brian Singerman: How I Became a Partner at Founders Fund, Why We Put $400M into Anduril | 20VC

Brian Singerman is a Partner @ Founders Fund, one of the best-performing funds of the last two decades. Among their portfolio, they have the likes of Airbnb, Facebook, Stripe, Anduril, and many more generational-defining companies. As for Brian, he has led investments in the likes of Affirm, Oscar Health, Wish, Asana, Oculus, and Postmates to name a few. Brian also sits on the board or is an observer to The Long Term Stock Exchange, Solugen, Cloud9, Modern Health, and of course, Anduril. Prior to Founders Fund, Brian spent a very successful 4 years as an engineer and executive at Google.
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Timestamps:
0:00 How Brian got into the world of venture
1:16 Do you agree with the buy low and sell high principle?
2:55 Does early stage venture need to worry about Macro economics?
4:30 Company valuations and funding prospects
6:48 Did you deploy too fast in 2020-2021?
7:56 Lessons from the last few years
11:18 How do you advise your founders today?
13:22 How much does market matter?
15:24 Are winners obvious early?
16:07 Reserves and cross fund investing
17:31 What gets easier and what’s get harder?
21:58 What makes Founders Fund special?
26:20 Do boards add value?
27:23 How to plan strategy with a founder
28:45 What have you been wrong?
31:22 Advice to fund managers
36:55 How to backchannel when hiring
39:04 How to advise young investors
41:11 Most successful investment ever
42:15 Dollar to fame ratio
43:06 Biggest personal strength and weakness
44:02 Did becoming a father impact your mindset?
45:10 Best board member you’ve worked with
47:07 What makes Anduril so good?
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In Today’s Episode with Brian Singerman We Discuss:
1.) From Google to Befriending Sean Parker to Founders Fund:
How Brian’s friendship with Sean Parker led to his joining Founders Fund over 15 years ago?
What does Brian believe makes Founders Fund such a unique fund?
What does Brian know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture?
2.) The Landscape Today: Where Are We Now?
Why does Brian believe there is a huge price mismatch between private vs public companies?
How does this impact the pace with which Founders Fund invest? Why does Brian not feel any pressure to invest in this environment?
What are the 10 hypergrowth companies that Brian is looking to invest in today?
What advice does Brian give to young investors today who are concerned at their first market correction and questioning if they are actually any good at this?
3.) Brian Singerman: The Investor:
How does Brian reflect on his own investing style? What is he world-class at? What is he bad at?
Why does Brian think boards are a waste of time? What is better than a board?
Why does Brian not ever think about reserves? How does Brian answer LPs concerns when they cite them on the topic of cross-fund investing?
What does Brian believe is the secret to venture capital? What elements make those at Founders Fund thrive? What characteristics make those that do not work out, fail?
4.) Founders Fund: The Firm:
How does Founders Fund structure and optimize its decision-making process today?
How does Founders Fund approach the hiring process for all new team members? What one question do they need to be able to clearly answer with all team members joining?
How do Founders Fund approach the reference checking process for all new hires? What questions do they find most revealing of the true talent of the candidate?
What are the single biggest hiring mistakes Brian has made? What did he learn from them?
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[@dylanjardon]

so good. more from founders fund 🙏

[@samuelpfisterer1659]

FF is just the dream VC❤

[@seanfranklin3555]

Immediately excited to see FF interview. Keep them coming Harry! I think I’m down 5lbs from watching 20VC on the treadmill 😂

[@andrestorres7343]

how would you know someone is the best in the world at something?

[@stevenyambok278]

Some humility would go well with that confidence. There's an "ME" in "team", but you ain't kobe bro

[@zbdsgvb]

June 2023 - 3 or 4