Brick by Brick Ollie Allen Fox
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- Business
Uncovering the foundations to start build your empire in your 20s. I'm on a mission to inspire people to take their dreams from zero to one. This is a library of conversations with outliers who have found success in their domains. My hope is to shine a light on the mindset of high performers who make a positive difference to the world.
The podcast is based around entrepreneurship but it touches on sport, art, design, technology, psychedelics, philosophy, self development, sales, business skills & everything in between.
Podcast hosted by Ollie Allen Fox ( @ollieallenfox ), founder of WEBOAF
theoafproject.substack.com
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021 Molly O'Shea: Growing the Sourcery.vc Newsletter to 6k Subscribers
Molly O’Shea is an investor & founder of Sourcery.vc. A weekly newsletter on top weekly VC deals & tech signals. After posting top quality content for 4 years, whilst working at a variety of VC firms, Molly has built an audience of 6,000 people from the industry.
In this conversation we talked about:
00:59 Sourcery.vc
03:29 Consistency and discipline in content creation
05:41 Networking and building connections through content
12:16 Molly's personal background and journey into venture capital
18:18 Taking a multi-disciplinary to life
20:06 Whats the difference between those who are active in online communities and those who aren't?
23:24 Being a pirate
27:31 The hidden challenges of a 9-5
29:56 Alcohol
31:17 Go outside
35:42 Standing out in the age of AI
45:43 Content Advertising
55:56 Where does Molly get her information?
57:08 Morgan Housel Same As Ever
Subscribe to Sourcery.vc
Molly’s Twitter
Ollie’s Twitter
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoafproject.substack.com -
020 Cyrus Yari: Finding your life's work, avoiding F30u30 & Lindy Ideas
Cyrus is General Partner at rational.fund. He podcasts and writes at rationalvc.com. He is currently working as a Software Engineer at Tesla.
He has co-invested alongside Founders Fund, Jim O'Shaughnessy, YC, a16z, Sam Altman et al. The podcast has reached the top 25 charts on several occasions, and the essays have 3,000+ subscribers.
Previously, Cyrus operated my own indie startups (some failed, 2 sold) or worked in VC-backed startups (and advised several).
Prior to that he was part of a founding team for Silicon Valley Bank in London after university where he managed a $200MM portfolio in his early 20s.
Interests: reading (preferably Lindy), podcasting, writing, polymathy, learning new skills, indie hacking, asymmetric bets, lifestyle design, sovereignty, mentoring ambitious immigrants, barbell training, martial arts, flâneuring the oldest inhabited cities, architecture, hiking, meditating, and Achaemenid history.
Timestamps:
00:29 Cyrus's Background
08:08 Cyrus's Values
12:11 Escaping corporate
13:28 Leveraging code, media & capital
18:35 Self teaching software then joining Tesla
21:03 Making Small Bets
27:51 What is Lindy knowledge and why will it change your life
34:07 Is code or media a better form of leverage?
46:57 The Mayfair music scene
48:59 Should you optimise for work rate or exploration?
01:01:27 Why people should be bored more
01:04:29 Will AI eat software devs?
01:14:04 What it takes to be a top performing CEO / Founder
01:18:03 The problem with 30 under 30 & other status games
01:21:07 Don't build SaaS
01:24:03 How to get people more interested in quality content
01:35:50 The story of David Senra & Chris Williamson
01:40:48 Starting your life's work before having financial runway
01:46:22 Lifestyle design
01:49:40 Do people have a tendency to over prepare?
01:54:06 Is Charlie Munger right to be anti-crypto?
Cyrus Yari:
https://cyrusyari.com/
Ollie Allen Fox:
https://www.weboaf.com/
https://twitter.com/ollieallenfox
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoafproject.substack.com -
019 Alex Leiman, 23 Year Old Makes $190k / Month With AI Dating Assistant App
Alex Leiman is the Co-Founder of Plug AI. An AI dating app that got 1.5M downloads in 4.5 months thanks to a genius TikTok campaign. It's now making $190k / month and the business is for sale for $3.5M. Alex is 23.
His last business (SexyCakes - a college delivery service) did $700k in revenue whilst he was at college.
My goal with this podcast is to meet a billionaire to find out how they operate. I believe I have just met one, 15 years before his bank account catches up.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:36 How Wingman grew from 0 to 1.2M Downloads in less than 3 months
06:15 Experimenting to find viral content ideas
08:15 How to find content creators to collab with on TikTok
10:21 Does TikTok marketing work for any business?
11:51 Using Superwall to test paywall strategy
15:55 Teaching the art of Rizz
18:13 How to build an iOS app that integrates with AI
20:25 Using custom instructions on ChatGPT
23:20 What will successful entrepreneurs look like in 15 years?
25:53 Why the name change from rizz gpt to wingman
29:14 AGI coming in 5 years?
36:22 Selling $700k worth of pancakes in college
44:47 How hard it is applying for jobs
47:30 Living in america
49:20 What will be a safe career when AI takes over?
56:16 How to find a viral tik tok idea}
Ollie ( https://linktr.ee/ollieallenfox )
Alex ( https://twitter.com/old_man_alex )
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoafproject.substack.com -
018 Mike Annunziata: Building the best seed stage venture capital firm on the planet (Also Capital)
Mike Annunziata is the Founding Partner of Also Capital, the Co-Founder of Farther Farms & a board member of Varda Space.
In this episode, Ollie & Mike talk about:
Mike's fund, Also Capital
Deep tech industry trends
How to find great deep tech founders
The founding story of Varda Space
The founding story of Farther Farms
How to master deep tech branding
Timestamps:
00:34 Mike's Background
04:16 Varda Space Founding Story
07:14 Storytelling for Founders
09:47 How do VC's find investment opportunities in Deep Tech?
13:56 How to launch a startup?
17:42 Farther Farms origin story
20:04 The steps to grow Farther Farms from Seed to Series B
22:17 Mike's lessons from his early times as an entrepreneur
24:03 Should you stay in a stable career or start a company?
25:21 Mike's approach to deep tech investing
31:32 Having fun and playing to win
33:58 The importance of getting on that flight
36:47 How the best founders lead their teams?
41:44 The biggest challenge of founding Farther Farms
43:42 The importance of aligning leaders with organisational culture
46:44 The difference between a seed stage founder, a growth stage founder & a public company CEO
48:34 How to pick good board members
50:32 How to guide founders as a board member
53:15 Who are board members typically?
54:11 Branding for deep tech companies
57:31 How to attract the best team to your deep tech startup?
59:18 Exciting frontier technologies arriving in the future
01:03:50 The Also Capital Flywheel
01:06:17 What does being a Father teach you about life?
Mike [Twitter]
Ollie [Twitter, WEBOAF]
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoafproject.substack.com -
017 Yuriy Blokhin, Founding a Tech Startup With A Novel Business Model
Yuriy Blokhin is the Founder / CEO of Homecoming, a startup building tools and technologies to support the essential work of coaches and therapists.
Yuriy has consulted a therapy chatbot company for acquisition by Airbnb.
He is a founding member of the Heroic Hearts Project, offering educational, financial & counseling services to veterans with PTSD seeking access to ayahuasca and other psychedelic therapies.
He studied mathematical physics at college before dropping out to start working at Kik as the first employee, which grew to 300m registered users.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
01:18 Overcoming treatment resistant depression with psychedelics
07:19 What is consciousness?
11:12 What does homecoming do?
14:56 How to find a business idea
17:48 Should you follow your passion?
21:08 Is it possible to plan life?
24:42 Why you need a mentor
29:55 What is your life purpose?
35:09 What does a seed stage CEO do?
39:26 Homecoming go to market strategy
40:39 Finding product market fit
47:05 Does homecoming have a viral loop?
49:16 Adding discovery layers to apps second instead of first
56:05 Is SEO a good marketing strategy?
57:15 How to choose a great board of directors including the co-founder of Substack
01:01:02 The leading driver of burnout in startup Founders
Yuriy:
https://www.homecoming.health/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuriyblokhin/
Ollie:
https://weboaf.com/
https://twitter.com/ollieallenfox
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoafproject.substack.com -
016 Hector Mason, Top 10 Lessons From Meeting Unicorn Founders & The Future Of Data Driven Seed Investing
Hector Mason is General Partner at Episode 1 Ventures, where he invests in pre-seed and seed stage companies using data driven insights. Often sourcing deals before founders have even left their job.
He supplements his work at Episode 1 as Co-Founder of Focal, a virtual demo day matching top seed companies with the best investors in the world.
As a self proclaimed productivity freak, he has also finds time to be the Co-Host of Riding Unicorns. A podcast focused on venture capital and growth startups where Hector has met many unicorn founders.
We talked about:
00:45 The new gold standard for demo days
04:41 How did you find the idea for Focal?
06:24 How do VC's find competitive advantage in the future?
10:05 Using Data & Tech in VC
18:55 Small teams doing the work of huge teams
22:03 What character traits define unicorn founders?
26:17 How hard do Founders really work?
29:20 Unicorn founders and wellness
30:29 The importance of self intuition
34:22 Hectors lifestyle as a VC, founder & podcast host
41:05 Becoming a Homing Missile to Money
44:45 How Hector became a general partner at 28
48:58 The Power of Curiosity
52:11 Pre-seed investing is a human business
57:03 Your most proud behaviour?
01:00:39 Content Strategy
Hector [Linked In]
Ollie [Twitter, WEBOAF]
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theoafproject.substack.com