Working on podcasts @scicomm
Los Angeles, CA
Joined April 2013
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Ian Mackey retweeted
Live event this coming Wednesday Oct 28th at the Masonic in San Francisco.
Tickets at Hubermanlab.com/events
Hope to see you there!
(And no, I’m not driving while recording in this short video.)
David is fanatical about podcasting. It was evident from the first time I had dinner with him and @R_Mohr in Malibu a few years back.
This is how David keeps winning:
Senra = [(Curiosity × Obsession × Repetition)^Time / (Distraction + Dilution)] × Love of the Craft
Hard to compete with someone who's truly all-in on their craft.
What a wild ride and we're just getting started.
I started this podcast a year ago. It’s been the best year of my life.
Thanks to everyone for watching and to every guest for the incredible conversations 🫡
In order by appearance:
Daniel Ek
Michael Dell
Brad Jacobs
Todd Graves
Michael Ovitz
James Dyson
Patrick O’Shaughnessy
John Mackey
Tobi Lutke
Jimmy Iovine
Jason Fried
Brian Armstrong
Marc Andreessen
Eric Jorgenson
Tony Xu
Evan Spiegel
David Baszucki
Adam Foroughi
Dana White
Strauss Zelnick
Rick Rubin
Ivanka Trump
Gustav Söderström
Ed Catmull
Steve Stoute
Scott Wu
Jonathan Ross
Eric Glyman
Jeff Zalaznick
DHH
Micky Malka
Lulu Meservey
Travis Kalanick
Sam Altman
Torsten Reil
Doug Leone
Zach Dell
Mati Staniszewski
Luca Ferrari
Peter Rahal
Ronnie Fieg
41 down, many many thousands to go…
All the books mentioned in this awesome episode
davidsenra.com/books?guest=d…
My conversation with @dougleone, partner at @sequoia.
0:00 How to Dominate for Decades
3:17 Turning Fear Into a Tailwind
5:40 Immigrant Drive, Hard Work & the Beach Club
12:19 Simplifying Life & Choosing Discomfort
14:37 The Homeless Sequoia Partner With No Plan B
16:49 Stepping Down, Coming Back & Starting Over
20:04 Why AI Is Different From Every Previous Technology Shift
22:13 Doug's Three Investment Heuristics
23:52 The Cost of Selling Great Companies Too Early
25:39 Helping Founders Turn Products Into Businesses
28:28 David Vélez, Nubank & the Psychology of Founder Support
32:25 Why Founders Must Remain the Soul of the Company
36:13 Torturing Yourself Into Greatness
39:57 Don Valentine, Succession & the Sequoia School of Hard Knocks
44:28 Staying Grounded & Developing a Sniffer for People
47:46 Hypercompetitive With a Heart of Gold
50:13 Fred Luddy, Israeli Founders & Radical Directness
52:28 Trust Is the Accelerant of Business
59:57 Starting From Zero & Hunting for the Next Great Founder
1:05:59 Architect Your Board Like Your Product
1:10:24 Truth, Disagreement & the Art of Difficult Feedback
1:13:43 Humanity, Introversion & the Value of Relationships
1:18:18 What Doug Learned From Michael Moritz
Includes paid partnerships.
Ian Mackey retweeted
so @davidsenra has been cleverly positioning lately:
- the pairing of apex founders. his list has always been strong, but @travisk and @sama back-to-back was a gargantuan signal that the center of gravity has officially moved into his room. strong non-verbal statement of motion and fast-growing narrative power.
- counter-positioning the interviewer seat. by now, we're all primed to hate traditional reporters armed with these "gotcha" questions. his whole vibe is the opposite: reverent, earnest and tuned to the headspace of a human in founder mode. This marks his room as the safest place in the industry a founder can go to be understood.
- sunday drops to dominate the news cycle. ppl have more free time to listen on sundays, and the clips just FLOOD the monday morning news cycle. this forces other pods to get stuck in the pileup. his team is building a super strong distribution edge.
- the inspiring, elevated look. epic production quality in a field of gross zoom-call pods. establishes a different league that lazy podcasters can never attain.
it's about the company you keep, in the order you keep it.
My conversation with Sam Altman (@sama), co-founder & CEO of @OpenAI.
0:00 Tobi Lütke, AI-Native Companies & Why Adoption Moves Slowly
5:45 Sam's Own Resistance to AI & the Missing iPhone Moment
10:00 Models, Compute, Power Laws & Non-Consensus Talent
18:37 From AI-Obsessed Kid to Founder, Investor & Back Again
23:19 Impossible Problems, Scientific Discovery & Human Connection
30:16 AI's Two Biggest Risks: Loss of Control & Centralized Power
33:09 Iterative Deployment, AI Safety & Learning From Reality
40:27 Why People Fear AI & the Coming Small-Business Boom
46:13 Context, Memory & the Next Way We Will Work With AI
49:17 OpenAI's Platform Strategy & Killing Good Ideas
53:20 Peter Thiel, Paul Graham & the Value of Nonlinear Thinkers
1:00:42 How Y Combinator Changed Startups & Shaped OpenAI
1:04:03 Learning More From Success & the Power of Repetition
1:09:45 Building OpenAI Without Customers, a Product or a Playbook
1:15:57 Letters to His Son & Preserving the Story
Includes paid partnerships.
Now live for each of the episodes and a full directory here: davidsenra.com/books
“Every business or product exists to serve customers. This is priority number one.” — David Senra
“The one who serves the customer best gets all the customers.”
.@travisk on becoming a monopoly by being "so competitive" versus "anti-competitive":
“Sometimes the monopoly emerges because the company is so competitive. Sometimes the monopoly emerges because the company is anti-competitive. They’re different.”
“Our motto was the one who serves the customer best gets all the customers.”
“At Uber, we never got a regulation passed that would hurt a competitor. We never would do that. That's not how we rolled.”
“We never donated to a campaign ever to try to get something passed.”
“You wanted to win because you built the best service.”
See you there!
We're coming to NYC in September!
Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, Sept. 17.
Get your tickets here: hubermanlab.com/events
These live events are always a blast. Andrew does an audience Q&A for the majority of the night.
@hubermanlab // @RadioCity
Great wisdom from Lulu in this episode.
Had the pleasure of meeting her during our recording in New York. Yes, she’s super bright, but also incredibly kind and sweet.
Lulu (@lulumeservey) is the best in the world at what she does.
She’s the go-to comms strategist for Silicon Valley and many of the top founders in tech trust her.
She’s an advocate for going direct, has built a singular career and shares everything she’s learned.
0:00 From China to America
2:08 Learning to Read the Room
6:18 Building a Movement
7:30 Learning Comms by Doing
10:50 Anduril as an Insurgent
15:07 The Power of a Manifesto
18:47 Go Direct
26:45 Conviction Over Charisma
31:30 Why Rostra Exists
33:23 How AI Leaders Lose Trust
40:40 Tell a Better Story
47:55 Do Things That Can't Be Faked
50:55 The Return to Beauty
57:11 Originality Over Templates
1:04:02 Do What Only You Can Do
1:07:14 The Jetsons Rule
1:10:41 Trust Yourself
1:12:29 Why Humans Crave Stories
Includes paid partnerships.
Ian Mackey retweeted
Jealousy never built a company, invented a product, wrote a book, or solved a problem. It only watches people who did.
Ian Mackey retweeted
.@mickymalka is the founder of @RibbitCapital — the firm behind Revolut, Robinhood, Nubank, Coinbase, and more.
He bought his first share of Berkshire Hathaway when he was 13, in Venezuela, with money he borrowed from his grandfather.
His grandfather charged him interest.
He started his first company at 17. In his mid-20s, he put every dollar he had into launching a bank in Brazil for the 50 million Brazilians nobody else would serve.
Micky is a quiet killer. Respected by the elite of the elite.
When I asked @patrick_oshag how he’d describe Micky to someone who didn’t know him, he said: “He’s a mfing moneymaker.”
Micky hates labels. The only label he wants is on his tombstone: “He was a rebel.”
0:00 Why Micky Malka Refuses to Be Labeled
3:00 Writing Your Way to Conviction
5:41 Buying Berkshire at 13 and Learning Buffett's Operating System
11:48 Token Factories, AI Bankers, and the Future of Money
18:38 The Infinite Game: Why It's Better to Be Behind
22:09 Gen Z Founders and the Chaordic Company
29:00 Why Young Founders Want to Build Atoms, Not Just Bits
34:29 Bringing Beauty and Taste Back to Technology
36:56 Revolut, Founder DNA, and Earning Deep Trust
45:54 Building OnePay With Walmart
50:53 From Lemon Bank to OnePay: A 20-Year Idea
56:00 Compounding Trust and Protecting Your Reputation
1:00:30 Node and the Rebel Case for Digital Art
1:07:34 What It Means to Live as a Rebel
1:10:50 Why Ribbit Is Built Like a Startup
1:14:41 Charlie Munger and the Power of Time
Includes paid partnerships.
Ian Mackey retweeted
Indulgent, and lovely interview. Especially enjoyed Jeff’s takes on hospitality and making a great thing you already love. Hospitality seems to understand small rituals very well.
I think about this in the context of video production and the folks that join us on Cheeky Pint. Much as it matters the frame of shot, or the set design, it matters equally how you greet the guest when they arrive. Offering them a snack, a drink, a place to think before the interview. People will remember how they were welcomed. Video production can be beautiful, non-extractive and kind in this way. Don’t skimp on the “small” stuff.
Jeff Zalaznick is co-founder of Major Food Group — the company behind Carbone, ZZ's, Torrisi, The Grill, The Pool, and dozens of the best restaurants in the world.
He's started 77 restaurants and bars, and 76 are still open and profitable.
We recorded this inside The Pool, one of the most historic restaurants in America.
Jeff has been obsessed with restaurants since he was a kid, and that obsession runs through everything he's built.
0:00 Seventy-Seven Restaurants, Seventy-Six Still Winning
3:16 The First American Menu Written In English
4:14 JFK's Cream Of Asparagus
9:49 Fifty Years Of Smoke, Forty Million To Restore
13:42 One Text: "Four Seasons?"
16:17 Always Bet On Who Wants It Most
19:13 Kill Lunch To Own Dinner
24:00 The Only Thing That Matters Is If They Come Back
29:37 Going Viral Isn't The Same As Being Good
36:36 Watching Cooking Shows Instead Of Cartoons
41:47 The Men At The Top Were Miserable
43:21 Walking Into The Mandarin To Beg For Any Job
49:40 A Front-Row Seat To His Hero
53:06 Belief Comes Before Ability
55:35 Burning The Boats
57:31 Marry The Chef, Don't Hire Him
59:25 The Best Version Of Something You Already Love
1:03:56 The Hail Mary Call At Ten O'Clock
1:08:29 "A Piacere" — Whatever You Want
1:13:24 The Broken Neon Sign That Became An Icon
1:18:17 Go With Whatever Feels Natural
1:22:27 A Ten-Dollar Jar Of The Restaurant
1:24:15 Your Mediocrity Is My Opportunity
1:27:34 Netflix With A Restaurant
1:32:11 The Club Where The Food Comes First
1:37:07 Miami Was New Year's Eve Every Night
1:40:45 Carbone Miami In 100 Days
1:46:08 The Greatest Beach Club In America
Includes paid partnerships.
83.7 VDOT 😮
Savage!!
New world record for the mile. 3:42.66.
Amazing that the previous mile record (3:43.13) stood for 27 years.
Commentary was A+. Highly recommend watching the full race. xitter.cf/Marcus70672192/status/…
Ian Mackey retweeted
I once thought the best way to hire was to simply get someone from a top college. The higher ranked, the better.
I’m more and more convinced that looking for evidence of excellence, like @eglyman describes, is a better filter. Academic excellence could be part of this, but more importantly have they created something awesome in the particular area or even a tangential area? Proof of work.
Other than @hubermanlab I can’t tell you the academic background of anyone I work with at @scicomm. They have exceptional drive and make things that are awesome. That’s what matters.
And funny enough, I’m lucky enough to now work with @davidsenra by virtue of this same process. I DM’ed him almost exactly 4 years ago after listening to hours of @FoundersPodcast. It was so good I had to reach out. It was still behind a paywall in those days! Evidence of excellence. Proof of work.
The two things Ramp Cofounder @eglyman looks for when hiring:
1. Evidence of a spike
2. Exceptional drive
“ There’s a whole community of people at Ramp we found because when they were 15 years old, they were playing like 80-100 hours a week on Minecraft.”
“I'm less interested in: what is on the resume. I'm far more interested in proof of work. Often I'm really looking for signs of that.”
“You can find that by searching: where is the work?”
“So part of our hiring process is trying to look for people who are very active on GitHub.”
“We're trying to meet people who were leaders in different bizarre fringe communities.”
A classic example of what Eric is describing is the electronic medical record system. Just ask any clinician.
These systems require armies of people to maintain and pull clinicians away from the very thing they’re meant to do: provide excellent care.
.@tobi removed all the Norman doors from Shopify’s offices because he couldn’t have excellent people surrounded by bad design.
Ramp Cofounder @eglyman says he learned the same lesson by studying Breville toasters:
“ If you care about design, you should buy a Breville toaster.”
“ One of the big problems in a lot of B2B software is: it starts out clean and elegant. There's a bunch of businesses who love the product and they start serving more customers and have more requirements and more ideas.”
“Before you know it, you end up with these disasters of B2B softwares which require a PhD to learn how to use.”
“ If you were to go ask people, ‘What do you want in a toaster or in a microwave?’ They might say I like toast but sometimes I want to reheat pizza. I should have a ‘reheat frozen pizza’ mode. Or maybe you're cooking stuff and want it to be more like an oven, or you want to make popcorn and it's a toaster/microwave and all these things.”
“Before you know it, you end up with these toasters filled with buttons and buttons and knobs and dials.”
“That is literally asking customers what they want and building exactly that.”
“ if you watch people toast things, what they actually do falls into two categories: you hit start and either you've undercooked the toast and need to put it back in, or you've overdone it and have to start over.”
“If you look at the [Breville] there are only a few buttons. One of the four buttons is called ‘A Bit More.’”
“ No one would ask you for ‘A Bit More.’ They just want the perfect level of toast and it's hard to know that, so they built that in.”
Ian Mackey retweeted
Great @Fortune piece on @davidsenra today.
Years ago, David kept texting me and @karimatiyeh to back a podcast with fewer than 1,000 listeners. "Trust me on this one." We did. That podcast became @tbpn. It sold to OpenAI this April and along the way did more for @tryramp's profile than any ad money could buy.
What the piece gets right about David and mostly leaves between the lines: he's read 415 biographies of the people who got it right and he turned that discipline into a place the rest of us go to study. @FoundersPodcast isn't a podcast so much as a school for builders. It's why the founders I asked didn't describe it, they revered it. When you've studied the greats that obsessively, you can tell the sublime from the merely great — and you'll bet everything on the difference before the rest of us can see it at all.
David earned that audience one obsessed listener at a time. Summarizing a book a week, alone in a room, scraping by for years before anyone was listening. The fame didn't change him. Neither did the money: he turned down $50M+ buyout offers to keep Founders his, and he takes no equity in the bets he sends others. For David, great work itself is always the point.
The lesson I keep relearning from him: when you find talent like that, don't hedge. Back them completely. The returns aren't linear.
Nothing better than watching a friend succeed. Grateful to be in business with him too — Founders Podcast, the new show, whatever comes next.
