What does it take to be a gravitational force
of talents? What do you need? What- what does
that team need to have? Well, A, they need to
be able to go up there and not put out a
bunch of technobabble and put up equations as
to how they have the best technology on earth
and be, you know, over self confidence about
it, but they have to be able to tell a story
and not just excite a top engineer, but
excites someone who's a layperson.
What are we looking at right now that others
aren't looking at and it's it's- Sorry to
disappoint but, right now pretty much all the
crazy stuff, now that frontier tech is a
buzzword is being talked about- so, quantum
computing and
CRISPR and gene editing and autonomous cars
and and personal airplanes
and you know, vertical takeoff and landing
electric, autonomous jets and like so. So
everything right now is being pursued and
being funded. And so, I would say that what
excites me isn't quite the the buzzwords so
to say, but people who have spent time either
on the demand side or on the supply side of a
certain industry or pain points that have a
unique perspective that, hey, like, I tried
to buy this product. And this product doesn't
exist because the technology is not good
enough, or nobody's bothering to build it.
And I believe that if this product existed, I
could go after these customers because I was
one of those customers, or somebody who was
on the sales side, somebody who was selling
something, and customers wanted something
different, something better and the
technology didn't exist. So somebody having
that very, very unique perspective and
preferrably
I believe there being a technology that would
enable that is something that excites me a
lot more than fitting within the vertical of
a buzzword, if that makes sense, in areas
that I feel like as if I'm advantaged our
mobility broadly. So I've led our investments
in autonomous cars, and technologies, sensors
and semiconductors out enable autonomous
cars. So those are areas that I've done a lot
of work in, in robotics and automation. So
there is probably dozens of companies that
are making robotic arms that do that do pick
and place, but few of them have really
understood pain points, whether it's
logistics, whether it's in warehousing,
whether it's in factories and automation, as
to what problem specifically needs to be
solved into the question that was asked
earlier as to what niche can expand into a
broader market. They haven't quite been able
to position themselves properly just yet. So
the company that has the right technology,
knowing where to put it that can help
then expand into the broader market is
something that excites me a lot, but broadly
broadly, mobility, automation, human machine
interfaces. So we've been typing on these
Qwerty keyboards for the past, you know, 80
years, 90 years, how is that going to evolve?
That's an area that I find interesting. And
we recently invested in control labs, which
was announced a couple months ago has been
acquired by Facebook. So that would be one
example. But other examples as to how we
would better interface with machines is
another area that I'm passionate about. But
again, it really goes back to the problem
statement that's articulated by a founding
team having very, very clear having a clear
vision as to what the problem is and how to
penetrate and then how to expand from there.
Other questions?
Question here.
Okay, so question is, what are the top three
kind of
criteria that we use to to make investments.
One is I look for people that are magnets of
talent, a founding team, it could be one
person, it could be two people, three people,
a team that can attract amazing people. And
the reason for that is because if you can
attract amazing people, then you will be able
to punch above your weight. And by punching
above your weight, it is going to be very
easy for you to raise money, if you can show
that you can do with five people and $100,000
what a team of 50 people need with a million
dollars or $2 million, then it would be
extremely straightforward for you to raise
money from high quality people. And then
again, if you have that ability to attract
then you will use that to attract even more
amazing people. And that will create this
virtuous cycle.
So what I'm looking for is the kernel of that
virtuous cycle, which traditionally has led
to amazing companies. So then to your
question, what does it take to be a
gravitational force of talents? What do you
need? What does that team meet to have? Well,
a need to tell a great story. They need to be
able to go up there and not put out a bunch
of technobabble and put up equations as to
how they have the best technology on earth,
and be
you know, over self confidence about it, but
they have to be able to tell a story. And not
just excite a top engineer, but excites
someone who's a lay person who would bring
the non engineering skill sets to the table.
So tell a story that's gonna get everybody
excited as to how this is going to be the
basis for an amazing product, how this
product has a near term application that can
grow into something massive.
And then
be able to tell the story to attract- again,
investors and attract customers. Hey, here's
why you should take a risk on this. Here's
why you should invest in adopting this.
Here's why you should be partnering with me.
So we should be doing this together. So
telling the story, and being able to
articulate that vision and articulate how
this can be a massive company. So massive, I
would say, gravitational force for talents,
being able to tell an amazing, amazing story,
and then showing confidence that they can
build an amazing organization.
Does that answer your question?
Oh, how much time do you guys have I don't
think I have time and 15 minutes and 27
seconds to go over all the things that
there's always for more reasons. That's not
the right way to look at something because if
you spend enough time, you will come up with
reasons not to invest in something and
What I tell my partners is that listen, if
anybody is negative towards this opportunity,
then they have luck and probabilities on
their side, because there's always a greater
chance that a company will fail. So if you
bring up reasons not to invest in a company
and choose not to invest in a company in a
startup company, then you're probably right.
There is an 80% chance 90% chance that you're
right.
And so, you can come up with a bunch of
reasons why not to do something, oh, this
founder can can be hothead at times and lose
their temper sometimes This technology
requires it may infringe on somebody else's
patents and somebody else may end up coming
after them. Or there's a reason why this
technology and that technology may not work
or regulation may not work in their favor. If
you look at every single company that's a you
know, multi hundred billion dollar company
today. They faced multiple
existential threats over their lifetimes
whether it was a lot- right now Mar
 Zuckerberg is facing Congress. There's al
 kinds of challenges that face companies a
 every stage. But so long as you believe i
 the team, and you believe in the team'
 ability to share a vision and you believe i
 a team's ability to attract amazing people
 like everybody in this room, that it make
 you feel more comfortable that if th
 technology doesn't work, or if regulation i
 imposed against it, or if the incumbents tr
 to sue them, or if the market takes 
 nosedive, and there's a depression that thi
 company will end up finding a way to figur
 it out. This is gonna have t
