Welcome to @elad, a multi-time founder and a prolific angel investor.
You can learn more about him here: eladgil.com
He’s kindly agreed to do an AMA. Reply with your questions. :)
- gm @elad what motivates you?👋 a few drivers depending on part of life. For work, my primary driver is I view technology as fundamentally a positive motive force for humanity (in terms of quality of life, health, economics, opportunity etc) and I want to be involved with important technologies and technology companies and trends
- Best investment ever?Depends on the dimension. Is it: -Biggest impact? -Best return? -Most fun to work on? -Other?
When angel investing, what do you think of founders with multiple projects (doing decently ok) at once?Usually it collapses onto a single project if it is something really working, unless they are already successful and add something new (see Elon Musk, or Brian at Coinbase). Usually founding something good is incredibly intense and if it really works at scale it will consume all your efforts for the first few years- Hey @elad! Compare and contrast the traits that make for a good founder in crypto vs outside of cryptoI think the most important thing about being an early stage founder is choosing the right thing to work on. If you chose the wrong thing, it doesn't matter how good you are at everything else. This is why you see terrible founders build big companies. See e.g. https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html
- Hi @elad Thank you for doing this! What are the common misconceptions about consumer apps?Often people spend too much time on raw growth, and not enough time on retention. A leaky bucket kills all
Welcome, @elad. The founder of a company you're invested in asks you for advise on every important step they make. If it a good or a bad sign for you?Depends on the size of increments. If you need to call your investors every day you are probably not the top n% of founders
Thank you for the AMA @elad! Is it possible to decouple the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions from the startup ecosystem?In some sense it is, unless you need large amounts of capital. For example Microsoft, Apple, etc. were all founded in one of the worst inflation and rate environments in US history, and they did fine....- Investors tend to be reasonably skeptical, and extremely novel ideas can be hard to vet. When encountering a moonshot project with extremely cutting edge research that requires deep specialization to understand, what do you look for to overcome the skepticism gap?1. Is there a clear tech/science path forward and 1 or 2 key issues to overcome (versus 20) 2. Are they hiring really well 3. Are they shipping increments / proof points fast or run like academia?
What health tech do you wish exist and is just on the cusp of feasibility?Anti-aging drugs for specific indications - e.g. muscle aging. See e.g. https://www.lifespan.io/news/bioage-announces-positive-results-against-muscle-atrophy/ In parallel AI "physician assistants" are coming and they will be the biggest drivers of global health equity of the last few decades
What is the crypto industry as a whole doing wrong right now? What is it doing right?Doing right: focus on core infra, key uses cases in DeFi, adoption of zk in various useful ways Doing wrong: too much emphasis on infra for its own sake, cool tech versus useful products
10 years from now, is touchscreen interface still dominant or did another computer interface like VR/AR/Spatial take the lead?I think we are moving to an agentic world where a lot of UI moves into agents that represents different units of organization and interact in the background on your behalf One could imagine government agencies, companies, people, etc all represented by agents with specific tasks/goals interacting programmatically- Hey @elad! What do you think are the most interesting trends in crypto?Stolen from @dwr.eth L2s seem to be working which means people are able to build apps that abstract away complexity
- What recommendations can you give for early-stage startups on how to deal with advisors?0. Clearly define expectations on both side 1. Put them on a vest + 2x a year check in if still useful 2. Call them when you need them, or for specific tasks or projects 3. Let them go if not useful (unless they were super useful before, in which case they earned their equity)
- Will we see widespread adoption of non-invasive, read-only brain computer interfaces within the next 10 years, or is this an area perceived as too risky, resulting in slow progression?Being able to read a brain means you can write/act no? E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AARVY-3oDRQ https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-neuralink-start-human-trials-brain-implant-2023-09-19/
- thank you for doing this @elad! if you were to live abroad, which city would it be and why?So many great cities! Non-exhaustive: -Paris / London. Great cities + exciting AI scene -Tel Aviv. Great city + lots of security and AI -NY. Great city + amazing crypto scene, AI -Tokyo. Amazing city + amazing anime & manga -Rio. Amazing city + try something new -Lagos. Try new Top 3 are mix of lifestyle and tech
@elad if you were starting a company in crypto today, would you ideate top-down or tinker around to build “toy” projects?It depends on what I am building (consumer vs infra vs DeFi etc...) I have long wanted a new identity layer, maybe via soulbound / non-transferrable NFTs + a block explorer / crypto linkedin....
What is your approach to evaluating startups to advise or invest in? Any recommendations to learn/strengthen this? (Resources, frameworks, models, education, etc)It depends on stage Early stage -Does anyone care about product? -How good/big/avail is market? -Are founders any good? -Could it be good business (if non crypto) Later stage -Lots of metrics -Good business & market? Usually there is one thing you need to take a leap on https://blog.eladgil.com/p/startups-miracles
@elad you've had the same pfp for years now, why Son Goku?I was going to do Uchiha Itachi but he looks too upset/grim all the time (see below). I like Son Goku's happy yet driven demeanor and unwillingess to give up
Hey @elad! Have immense respect for how you operate as an angel investor. 2 questions: 1/ What would you say are 2-3 things that have helped you the most to pick winning companies at the earliest stages? 2/ If you had to identify the top 2-3 traits in the strongest founders you’ve backed, what would they be? 🙏1/ Product market matters more then founders (I say this as a two time founder myself!). So what are you building for whom, and do they care? 2/ Smart, driven, ethical and need at least 1 person who is great at selling (employees to join, customers, funding) and >=1 who can build technically.- Is there anything from "The High Growth Handbook" that you think is just wrong now? Anything you think is extra right today? Anything you think is missing?Lots missing. I am working on an early stage book now. Any title suggestions? Right now it is "Early Stage Companion (ESC)" but open to other names?
- If you could put your operator hat back on and work at any startup right now, which would it be?Sooooo many exciting things in AI (OAI, Mistral, Pika, Perplexity, Harvey etc etc etc) Some of the more science projecty things around training models to do math and physics seem really fun (unclear on business outcome, but exciting to do)
- Advice for young people today looking to pursue a career in technology?-Move to a major tech center / cluster (SF, NY, London, etc) -Join the most important company in a big area if you can -Join for any role - get into the main company vs optimize for role -Seek great networks, worry less about comp early in career See also: https://blog.eladgil.com/p/career-decisions
- @elad how did you discover generative art? Any thoughts on the art use-case around NFTs?I came across a bunch of early GAN papers and just though it was such an exciting shift!!! Originally was going to set up an AI art gallery in 2019 in SF and then COVID hit. Still wish I had done it.
Over a year ago, you predicted many startups dying at the end of 2023 and into 2024, which (unfortunately) is turning out to be true What do you think happens from here, given the implicit fed pivot yesterday?Interest rates likely to drop advance of election, this is predictable Should b 4 types of cos -New cos. Will be fine, follow normal startup arc -2021 vintage unicorns a. Will die in next two years (1/3 to 1/2?) b. Will survive, but highest market cap will ever see is now (1/3?) c. Will grow out of it (rest of them)- Hi @elad thanks for doing this! What does a founder need to be effective in the different company phases of Pre-Seed > Seed > Series A, B, etc. > pre-IPO > post IPO?Early -Hire few people -Get some customers -Raise bit of money Mid -Think of co as "2nd product" & build/roadmap it -Hire execs -Scale customers & employees Public -Run a business -Think about capital efficiency & allocation -Conquer the world
- @elad what is the biggest misconception that even smart AI founders tend to have today?Things that are important for AI products: -Ship fast & iterate -No GPU before product/market fit (in most cases, not all) -Build for a specific user or customer The misconceptions tend to be the opposite of these
@elad hey! What motivates and drive you most?See answer above in thread- What do you think about investing in a DAO vs a SAFE / corp?New forms of governance always exciting but also bear risk (see OpenAI board) If using DAO just need to make sure the benefits of DAO are helpful to overall mission/approach and therefore superior structure for specific use case / project
- Hi @elad! What/who do you believe makes a good advisor?-Focus on context, not generic advice, although sometimes generic is correct -Focus on what people are really asking, versus words they are saying. Uncomfortable topics in particular tend to get avoided and you need to ease these out into the open -Cut to the most important thing, not all the ancillary
- How do you prioritize your time?Focused on the future!
Are you bullish on blockchain-tech for groups of people? Not DAOs. Just normal groups handling money and voting without intermediaries.This could be really powerful for some things Eg would love public blockchain to track NGO donations Where does the money from a UN agency, non profit etc actually go? Which wallets and parties? Seems like great way to cut down on lost funds, misallocations etc- @elad What book are you reading right now? What book(s) that you highly recommend, that has been life changing for you?Have oddly been reading a lot of LitRPG and Wuxia lately
Hey @elad For consumer apps retention is super crucial - but I also wonder about long term sustainability What do you think about web3 native consumer apps monetisation opportunities? Do you think take a similar path like web2 with ads, brand collabs? Or is it achievable via digital asset sales like nfts, tokens?Both can work For consumer products, monetization tends to be an outgrowth or feature of the product itself. What you do on the product = how you monetize it For example, all the add formats follow content formats on social (promoted pins, tweets etc). For marketplaces it is cut of transaction as that is main goal
@elad You have been such a successful investor as a "solo investor." how do you avoid the temptation of becoming a "firm" versus an individual. Also, hi!Hi @ommalik!! I think many firms are individual-driven & basically solos dressed up as institutions (many growth funds and hedge funds like this) Some solos are increasingly firms I am non religious on this and just want to be involved with great founders & cos & tech- @elad what have you learned recently in crypto that surprised you the most?Not new (e.g. I invested in Starkware seed in 2017 or whenever it was), but every time I think of zk it continues to feel magical
- Sup @elad Vanilla or chocolate?Affogato Shout out to Tagomi team!
People talk a lot about having hobbies, or things you pursue outside work. Do you see these kinds of traits in the best founders you’ve worked with?Depends on how they hobby :) If they are leaving once a month in middle of day to do week long yoga teacher training they tend not to do well with co If they are doing yoga every morning at 6am before work, it tends to work great- hey @elad thanks a lot for taking your time. have already read a lot of interesting things. are you an advocate of remote work? or is it important that companies demand more office presence again?Depends on size and stage of company, and role In general, early stage / new product teams tends to do better in person and if I started a company today I would mandate ~5 days a week in person, with some flexibility for outstanding people and just daily life
- @elad what commonly accepted belief in crypto do you think is completely wrong?Maybe too much building of infra for infra's sake in some cases?
- @elad can you recall a specific instance where a rejection or challenge in fundraising led to a positive pivot / unforeseen opportunity?I think this happened with Pandora, which had ~20 firms or something pass on them, until Greylock suggested they add ads
- gm @elad iirc you were pretty early at Twitter. Why do you think Twitter never became as big as Facebook?monolithic code base = hard to ship everything broke hiring practices = delay in hiring certain types of engineers mis execution = missed opportunities Some good things too (passionate users, message bus for internet etc) which makes missed opportunities unfortunate
What's your outlook on San Francisco? What's one thing you'd change about SF to make it better?Much of public policy. SF is hurting as a city due to incredibly bad policy choices. See how it cleaned up for APEC etc.... It can be salvaged in less then a year if done right
How do I get warps?In weaving, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns through which the weft is woven. If you're interested in weaving, are you asking about how to set up the warp on a loom?- @elad which books have you found so valuable / impactful that you've revisited them multiple times?For business, maybe Andy Grove books? For literature, I like Wind Up Bird Chronicle although hard to get through first 50 pages
are you a fan of podcasts? wonder if you have any thoughts on the intersection of ai/voice/podcasts.Seems like an exciting area. Also having mixed voices for audio books (e.g. different parts by AI voice actors) Future is very exciting
