Best Of Tech & Startups Best Of Tech & Startups

Most of you know Chamath Palihapitiya as one of the most prominent and progressive venture capitalists working today. But before forming Social Capital, Chamath was an early employee at a startup we've already covered, WinAmp; was the head of AOL's Instant Messenger product; and of course, was an early employee at Facebook.

Yuval Noah Harari’s first book, “Sapiens,” was an international sensation. The Israeli historian’s mind-bending tour through the trump of Homo sapiens is a favorite of, among others, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barack Obama. His new book, Homo Deus, is about what comes next for humanity — and the threat our own intelligence and creative capacity poses to our future. And it, too, is fantastically interesting. I’ve wanted to talk to Harari since reading Sapiens. I’ve had one big question about him: what kind of mind creates a book like that? And now I know. A clear one.

Before he turned 40, Nolan Bushnell founded two brands that permanently shaped the way Americans amuse themselves: the iconic video game system Atari, and the frenetic family restaurant Chuck E. Cheese's.

Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff, professors at Harvard Business School, spell out an overlooked career path: buying a business and running it as CEO. Purchasing a small company lets you become your own boss and reap financial rewards without the risks of founding a start-up. Still, there are things you need to know. Ruback and Yudkoff are the authors of the “HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business.”

This must be my year because I've said this a few times but this definitely one of my strongest keynotes to-date. Not only is it a massive talk but it's followed by a super strong Q&A. In this episode, I discuss the beauty of entrepreneurship, the dangers of down-playing social media, my biggest failures to-date, and why a real practitioner isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Thanks to everyone who showed me love in Dublin !

I did this interview because I wanted to know happens when one of the most successful venture capitalists becomes a startup founder.

Andy Rachleff is the founder of Benchmark Capital, whose investments include Uber, Snap, eBay, and Juniper Networks.

More recently, he founded Wealthfront, the automated investment firm. It invests your money with minimal amount of work from you. Then it monitors your portfolio daily to look for opportunities to rebalance or harvest tax losses.

Mixergy listeners can get their first $15K managed for free when they sign up at wealthfront.com/mixergy.