rational vc Cyrus Yari and Iman Olya
-
- Business
Every episode we explore a Lindy book, and find ideas you can use in business and life. rationalvc.com. Learn from history's greatest intellectuals, investors, scientists, and founders. “Rationality is not just something you do so that you can make more money, it is a binding principle. Rationality is a really good idea. You must avoid the nonsense that is conventional in one’s own time. It requires developing systems of thought that improve your batting average over time… And in my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time – none, zero.”—Charlie Munger
-
#051 - The Black Swan: Nassim Taleb (Incerto Series)
Every podcast episode we explore a Lindy book, and find ideas you can use in business and life. Join 3,000+ curious minds and avid readers by subscribing @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version of episode click here.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro / chit-chat
(09:26) Structure of the show
(10:36) What is a Black Swan?
(19:34) Human blindness to Black Swans
(01:02:45) Mediocristan vs Extremistan
(01:30:45) Bell Curve / Gaussian fraud
(01:37:18) Why the Midwit meme is wrong
(01:47:27) Leveraging Black Swans
(01:58:34) Chapter overviews
(02:19:16) Chapter 19 deep dive
(02:27:58) Favourite quotes / our lives
(02:37:09) Fat Tony
(02:43:33) 10 Principles for Black Swan robustness
(02:48:54) Amor Fati
-
Our website (all essays and podcasts): rationalvc.com
Our investment fund: rational.fund
Cyrus' Twitter: x.com/CyrusYari
Iman's Twitter: x.com/iman_olya
-
Links mentioned in the episode below:
Iman Tweet on daily routines of creatives:
https://twitter.com/iman_olya/status/1764721995743121415
Table 1 - Extremistan vs Mediocristan:
https://capitalideasonline.com/wordpress/mediocristan-vs-extremistan/
Vizi Andrei:
https://twitter.com/viziandrei
Cyrus being interviewed on the Brick by Brick podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/54RvagfMSIWNtVwAe2193a?si=1cb28db259814326
Cyrus essay on Angel Investing (incl. Barbell Investing):
https://www.rationalvc.com/articles/angel
Cyrus essay on Tech Markets are Irrational:
https://www.rationalvc.com/articles/irrational
Jack Raines FU Money ZeroHedge essay:
https://www.youngmoney.co/p/fck-money
WhosAria Bars of Wisdom newsletter:
https://www.barsofwisdom.com
Fat Tony's Community:
https://fattonys.net/
-
Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational or entertainment purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s).
#Lindy #knowledge #books -
#050 - Fooled by Randomness: Nassim Taleb (Incerto Series)
Every podcast episode we explore a Lindy book, and find ideas you can use in business and life. Join 3,000+ curious minds and avid readers @ rationalvc.com to get free access to essays and exclusive content. For the video version of episode click here.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro / chit-chat
(20:11) Randomness & Luck
(24:46) Monte Carlo Simulation
(31:09) Ergodicity
(31:39) Hindsight Bias
(38:00) Survivorship Bias
(39:50) Asymmetric Bets / John & Nero
(49:53) Skewness & Asymmetry
(57:19) Pascal's Wager
(1:00:53) Induction & Chaos Theory
(1:03:22) Chapter 11
(1:08:45) System-1 vs System-2 Thinking
(1:10:03) Satisficing
(1:20:08) Normative vs Positive Thinking
(1:25:52) Signal vs Noise
(1:28:20) Heuristics
(1:33:45) Final Part of Book (Part 3's Importance)
(1:44:41) Favourite Quotes / Our Lives
(2:06:11) Final Thoughts
-
Our website (all essays and podcasts): rationalvc.com
Our investment fund: rational.fund
Cyrus' Twitter: x.com/CyrusYari
Iman's Twitter: x.com/iman_olya
-
Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational or entertainment purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s).
#Lindy #knowledge #books -
#049 - The Podcast Is Pivoting And Rebranding!
** Apologies for the audio quality, it's been a while! New audio set-up. The audio will be significantly better from the next episode. In this transitionary episode we discuss our pivot, after 49 episodes our podcast is continuing, albeit in a much different direction, and rebranding. From the next episode (ep. 50 it will be in the new format and all changes will be reflected then). We discuss all the changes (and our view on the podcasting space) in this short transitionary episode.
Video version of episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2L49pYXx8g
"the rational letter" - For free you can join 3,000+ seasoned investors, founders, scientists, engineers, and erudites read the same email summary of our learnings from a Lindy book and use the ideas in their work and life. Curated and emailed once a month. Nothing else. Sign up for it here: https://rationalvc.com
Our investment fund: https://rational.fund
Cyrus' Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyrusYari
Iman's Twitter: https://twitter.com/iman_olya
00:00 Intro Banter
04:18 Explaining the Pivot / Rebrand, Plus Views on Podcasting Space
26:07 Outro
-
Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational or entertainment purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s).
#podcast #knowledge #books -
#048 - Jim O'Shaughnessy (OSV.LLC): Becoming a More Nuanced Thinker
Jim O'Shaughnessy is one of the greatest thinkers of our time. A curious mind, Wall Street legend, Venture Capitalist (OSV.llc), best-selling author, previously founder of OSAM (sold to Franklin Templeton), podcaster (infinite loops), father, grandfather, and the list goes on. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/W-t1v-u-iAg
Jim's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jposhaughnessy O'Shaughnessy Ventures: https://www.osv.llc
Jim's Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/7yAAsaj77q3jQLbX8NAQ7J?si=950606434743485f
00:00 Teaser
01:05 Intro
03:30 The Great Reshuffle / investment in Odin
11:01 O'Shaughnessy Ventures
19:53 What Jim looks for in startups
26:21 Autonomy and accountability in portfolio companies
33:37 Psychological biases & improving decision-making
40:20 Meme culture and human nature
53:07 Wealth creation
1:04:25 What's driving Jim?
1:08:47 Message from Jim
-
Get in touch with us:
Our website (all essays and podcasts): https://rationalvc.com
Our investment fund: https://rational.fund
Cyrus' Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyrusYari
Iman's Twitter: https://twitter.com/iman_olya
-
Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational or entertainment purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s). No copyright infringement intended.
#venturecapital #investing #startup -
#047 - Jonny Blausten: Sprout CEO, democratising venture capital, from consulting to running startups, content creation and future of VC
Jonny is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sprout: an investment platform curating access to Venture Capital deals for private investors. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/wXWu552WyVE
Jonny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-blausten-b5178141/?originalSubdomain=uk
Jonny's personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/JBlausten
Jonny's GunnerPunner Twitter: https://twitter.com/gunnerpunner
Sprout website: https://www.viasprout.com/
00:00 Teaser
01:18 Intros
04:19 Jonny's background
05:50 Jonny's early startups
12:32 Jonny's parents & real estate
16:02 Corporate life is charlatanism?
33:26 Sprout intro
36:39 Sprout in depth - the problem of access to the best deals
44:33 Sprout's vision and competition
48:37 UK vs US investors
52:06 Sprout community & education
57:42 VC fund access for retail investors
1:03:13 Sprout's 10 T's (assessing VC funds)
1:10:13 Why do VC funds fail and biases
1:17:19 Sprout's monetisation
1:20:52 Future for Sprout
1:25:25 Why is VC hard?
1:28:50 VCs are charlatans?
1:33:50 VC fund skillset diversification
1:45:24 Future of VC & solo GPs
1:54:35 Content creation & side hustles
2:06:48 Jonny's values & principles
2:15:22 Ending thoughts
-
Get in touch with us:
Our website (all essays and podcasts): https://rationalvc.com
Our investment fund: https://rational.fund
Cyrus' Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyrusYari
Iman's Twitter: https://twitter.com/iman_olya
-
Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational or entertainment purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s). No copyright infringement intended.
#sprout #JonnyBlausten #VentureCapital -
#046 - Ben Awad: Becoming the Internet's Most Impactful Programmer
Ben Awad is a YouTuber, software engineer, and the founder of VoidPet.com. He has 500k YouTube subscribers, 800k TikTok followers, and is known for his legendary coding tutorials and humorous and authentic videos. We discussed numerous topics. Check the timestamps below for topics and enjoy the audio, or you can watch the video over on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/BKhV-kPavnk
Ben's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bawad
Ben's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benawad
Ben's Twitter: https://twitter.com/benawad
Ben's startup: https://voidpet.com/
Ben's GitHub: https://github.com/benawad
Ben's Discord: https://discord.gg/benawad
Ben's programmer outfit: https://youtube.com/shorts/-P418Qerexs?feature=share
00:00 Teaser
00:40 Intro (Guest & Co-host)
03:40 Ben's first line of code
06:00 Turning down FAANG and Leetcode
11:33 Layoffs / Finding jobs
13:15 Skin in the game
13:58 Interviews are broken
16:44 Advice to technical content creators
22:05 Being authentic online
27:57 Coding on Twitch vs YouTube
30:10 Why you should create on TikTok
33:25 Hating Android development / Loving React
36:00 Tech stack
38:18 GitHub Copilot
39:35 Tech stack again
40:39 Deno
42:30 The AI discussion
44:10 VoidPet (Ben's startup)
49:40 Rejected by YC / fundraise vs bootstrap
56:29 Career advice to newbies
1:00:09 Ben's drip
1:01:42 Saffron App
1:04:29 Ben's mentors
1:06:25 Wrap up
-
Get in touch with us:
Our website (all essays and podcasts): https://rationalvc.com
Our investment fund: https://rational.fund
Cyrus' Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyrusYari
Parsa's Twitter: https://twitter.com/pzrsaa
Parsa's website: https://parsam.io
Iman's Twitter: https://twitter.com/iman_olya
-
Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational or entertainment purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s). No copyright infringement intended.
#benawad #coding #programmer