The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator

Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge
  • 4.8 (35)
  • INVESTING
The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator

The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast hosts the most candid, vulnerable conversations about building companies with the world’s best operators and investors.

  1. Building Lattice & Alt Capital: Jack Altman On Investing & Operating

    OCT 1

    Building Lattice & Alt Capital: Jack Altman On Investing & Operating

    "Joining a company as early as possible, right after achieving product-market fit, offers the greatest career advantage." – Jack Altman Jack Altman epitomizes the true "Investor-Operator." As the co-founder and former CEO of the multi-billion-dollar startup Lattice, and now a full-time investor with his $150 million venture fund, Alt Capital, Jack has successfully navigated both sides of the entrepreneurial journey. It’s clear he excels in every aspect, and we were thrilled to have him on the show. In this episode, we delve into Jack’s career trajectory, from his early days in tech to how he gained the insight to launch Lattice. Jack shares the invaluable lessons he’s learned from building and scaling Lattice to a Series F company, and how those experiences have shaped his approach to investing. Here’s a breakdown of what we covered: 1:20 – How Jack got into tech and landed at a fast-growing startup 5:30 – Joining an early-stage company vs. starting your own: which provides better learning? 11:30 – The launch of Lattice and pivoting to achieve product-market fit (PMF) 14:14 – How to recognize when you’ve found PMF 19:20 – Best practices for scaling companies: “If your product won’t be used 10 years from now, you’ll never build a lasting, valuable SaaS business.” 21:15 – Jack’s early fundraising mistakes and what he’d do differently 24:30 – The top three traits every founder needs 30:15 – Transitioning to investing: "My hobby is other startups" 39:20 – How being a founder prepares you to be an investor 42:40 – How to become a Level 6 investor (Link to Tweet) 46:20 – Why point solutions won’t cut it—compound startups will generate the biggest returns 51:45 – Investing in AI and the rise of ‘killer apps’ 58:54 – Investment strategies: should you aim to create returns by incubating or seed funding? 1:04:00 – Recap with Tyler & Sterling For more on Alt Capital, visit altcap.com. Check out Jack’s hierarchy of investors on X (formerly Twitter). Discover more insights from Investor-Operators on the IO Podcast: YouTube: @IO-Podcast X: @IO__podcast TikTok: @io_podcast

    1h 10m
  2. Leading a16z's Growth Fund: David George On Investing Now and In the Future | Ep 13, IO Podcast

    SEP 9

    Leading a16z's Growth Fund: David George On Investing Now and In the Future | Ep 13, IO Podcast

    In this episode, Tyler Hogge & Sterling Snow sit down with David George, General Partner at a16z, where he leads the growth investing practice. Since joining in 2019, David has been at the forefront of investments in companies like Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Robinhood and Instacart. Prior to a16z, David was at General Atlantic, where he invested in iconic brands like Airbnb, Opendoor, Slack, Crowdstrike, and Uber. David shares his unique insights into growth investing and his predictions for the future. Chapters: 01:15 David's Path to Venture 05:30 What Makes Andreessen Horowitz Different 10:30 What He Looks For When Making Growth Investments 21:15 Focus On Inputs Not Outputs 29:30 How They Source Investments 35:10 "On TAM, Ignore the Research Reports". Here's What To Look For Instead 44:30 What It Takes To Go Public: The Three Things A Company Needs 48:56 Where AI Is Going And How He's Investing 1:01:23 Episode Takeaways Connect With David & a16z https://x.com/DavidGeorge83 https://a16z.com/growth/

    1h 4m
  3. Emergency Episode of the I/O - Building Utah with Redo CEO Sterling Snow

    AUG 20

    Emergency Episode of the I/O - Building Utah with Redo CEO Sterling Snow

    Current Investor and Divvy's Former CRO Sterling Snow is jumping back into an operating role, this time as CEO of Redo, a fast growing customer experience platform. Sterling shares how Redo's founder Taylor Brown approached him to take on the job and how together they're building a company everyone in Utah can root for. Chapters: 01:03 Why The Investor Operator Podcast Was Started 03:45 How Sterling Started Talking With The Founding Team At Redo 05:12 Why Redo May Be The Next Divvy 09:41 What Is Redo & How It's Going 16:30 Why You Should Join Redo 23:30 Join An Excellent Startup For Faster Career Growth

    27 min
  4. Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify COO & Former YC Founder | Episode 12

    JUL 10

    Here's Why Shopify Will Be A 100 Year Company | Kaz Nejatian, Shopify COO & Former YC Founder | Episode 12

    How far would you travel for a good conversation? For hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow it was a no brainer to fly 2000 miles to talk with Kaz Nejatian, the COO of Shopify in their Toronto HQ. Kaz is a fascinating mind in tech and an unconventional thinker shaping the the product culture of Shopify. He shares his story of growing up in Iran, experiencing the Iran-Iraq war, and eventually immigrating to Canada at age 12. In Canada, Kaz gets even deeper into his fascination with computers and goes onto found a YC company, run a product line at Meta and now acts as the COO and Product Evangelist at multi-billion dollar company Shopify. Tyler and Sterling find out why Shopify employees have no meetings, how big tech companies are doing product wrong, and why Shopify's unique culture will create a 100 year company that just keeps getting bigger. Chapters: 01:50 - Kaz's Childhood in Iran and Fleeing to Canada 06:49 - Hot Takes on Current Protests on College Campuses 07:55 - Early Exposure To Computers and Path To Tech 11:17 - The Best Product Managers Are Weird People 13:30 - "I Cannot Take An Average Person And Train Them To Be A PM" 21:25 - How Shopify Is Different Than Other Big Companies 31:00 - How Kaz Killed Meetings At Shopify 37:30 - Write Code And Talk To Users, Do That Over And Over Again 43:39 - Why Getting Married Will Be Your Best Career Accelerant 50:00 - Wrap Up questions 57:25 - Tyler & Sterling's Recap _________________________ Connect With Kaz https://x.com/canadakaz Kaz@shopify.com Connect With Tyler & Sterling https://x.com/thogge https://x.com/sterlingmsnow Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly) https://x.com/IO__podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609 https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

    1h 7m
  5. He Started A Business That Sold For $2.5 Billion. Here's What He Learned | Blake Murray, Divvy CEO | I/O Pod Episode 11

    JUN 4

    He Started A Business That Sold For $2.5 Billion. Here's What He Learned | Blake Murray, Divvy CEO | I/O Pod Episode 11

    When Blake Murray came up with the idea of Divvy, it was because he had a problem: he couldn’t get real-time data on the financial health of his business. So in 2016, Blake set out to find a solution and realized there was none. Blake spent the next several years building what would become one of the fastest-growing startups in history—a platform combining expense management software and a corporate card to help businesses of all sizes manage their finances. Blake, along with Tyler and Sterling—Divvy’s SVP and CRO—break down why this startup was such a remarkable success: a world-class team, a world-class product and a performance culture that pushed Divvy and it’s people to the top.   Chapters:  01:38 - How Blake Knew Divvy Would Be A Big Idea 07:17 - The Insight: No Real-Time Financial Information For Businesses 09:20 - The Idea: Blake Lands A 7-Figure Deal With Only A Deck 14:15 - Sell, Design, Build: How Divvy Built First Then Sold To Solve GTM 24:30 - Hire Like-Minded People Instead of People Who’ve Done It (Culture vs Acumen) 37:00 - ’Nobody’s Coming, It’s Up To Us’. How To Do More With Less 42:27 - Founder Advice: Have A Short Memory  43:45 - Founder Advice: Build A Performance Culture  49:52 - Work-Life Balance Myth: Big Sacrifices Are Required for Asymmetric Upside 59:00 - Investor Advice: Founders Want Investors Who Will Be Loyal To Them 1:04:45 - Tyler and Sterling’s Recap _________________________ Connect With Blake https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-murray-79655665 https://x.com/blakemur Connect With Tyler & Sterling https://x.com/thogge https://x.com/sterlingmsnow Follow The I/O Podcast (New Episodes Monthly)  https://x.com/IO__podcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-investor-operator-io-podcast/id1678642609 https://open.spotify.com/show/0J92LTLgpHe8C0CzEaCBDG

    1h 10m
  6. NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He Did It | Ep. 10 I/O Podcast

    MAY 7

    NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He Did It | Ep. 10 I/O Podcast

    Scott Sandell, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at NEA is truly one of the great venture capitalists of our generation. With nearly three decades at NEA he leads the field with a track record of dozens of successful investments including unicorns like Salesforce, Plaid, Workday, Robinhood, Cloudflare and Tableau. How has he done it? Scott shares his investment philosophy influenced by other greats like Dick Kramlich and John Doerr: understand an individual's life story, decision-making process, and future goals as key in making successful investment choices. Chapters: 00:02:17 What Are The Characteristics Of Unicorn Founders? 00:10:16 "I Look For Passion-Driven Missionaries" 00:16:05 Building Tableau's Success: Lessons in Slow, Purposeful Growth 00:27:13 Make Your Investors Your Partners. Navigating Board Relationships 00:40:55 The Era of Decreasing LP Commitments 00:52:39 Tyler and Sterlings Recap Connect with Scott and NEA Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottdsandell YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTU3mQDqk3QyB4WeDQwZ1YQ Connect with IO Pod Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/ This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners https://pelionvp.com/

    55 min
  7. The Kings of Fintech | How NerdWallet's Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot Are Funding The Next Generation | Ep. 9

    APR 10

    The Kings of Fintech | How NerdWallet's Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot Are Funding The Next Generation | Ep. 9

    There may be no better pair of fintech investors than Better Tomorrow Ventures Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot. After successful exits in the industry -- Jake as the co-founder of NerdWallet, one of the OG consumer fintech companies, and Sheel with FeeFighter and Innovative Auctions, Jake and Sheel saw a gap in the market and started a fund to help fintech companies at the earliest stages. And they've already had some big wins, counting Ramp and Unit as Portcos. Jake and Sheel joined us on the pod to tell us how they built their previous companies and talked to the future of fintech and the the trends they're seeing across the industry. We cover the pandemic-induced surge in fintech interest and how their big bet is on embeddable fintech, where financial services are seamlessly integrated into non-financial platforms. Chapters: 00:00:35 Tyler & Sterling's Intro 00:07:05 Starting NerdWallet during the 2008 Financial Crisis 00:12:34 How Jake Gamed Google SEO To Grow NerdWallet 00:19:08 How Better Tomorrow Ventures Started 00:24:17 Early Support from Andreessen Horowitz for Fund 00:30:08 Fintech Investment Opportunities During The Pandemic 00:37:38 Embedded Fintech Is The Future 00:45:52 The Durbin Amendment & Changing Bank Profit Pools 00:55:47 Jake And Sheel's Nominees for Best Operators & Investors Connect with Jake And Sheel Twitter (Sheel): https://twitter.com/pitdesi Twitter (Jake): https://twitter.com/iamjakestream Website: https://www.btv.vc/ Learn More About The Mint https://www.themint.vc/ Connect with IO Pod Twitter: https://twitter.com/IO__podcast Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@io_podcast YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayuY0VO95kQTUXJvh9T0oQ Website: https://www.investoroperator.io/ This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Venture Partners https://pelionvp.com/ #StartupLife #StartupMentality

    57 min
  8. How Mercury's CEO Immad Akhund Changed the Startup Banking Experience And Got Into Investing || Ep. 8 IO Pod

    MAR 13

    How Mercury's CEO Immad Akhund Changed the Startup Banking Experience And Got Into Investing || Ep. 8 IO Pod

    Immad Akhund had the idea for Mercury years before they started. In fact, he'd launched 3 other startups and been through YCombinator twice before even starting initial validation on what would become the beloved neobank of startups everywhere. And opinions were mixed. Immad himself recognized the need for a simpler and more efficient banking service while while operating Heyzap his previous company. But when he shared the concept with other startups, not everyone grasped its potential. Today, Mercury dominates in the neobank industry. Immad walks hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow through the early days of Mercury, shares advice on how to operate and his strategies on investing. Chapters: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:56 Immad's Entrepreneurial Journey - Previous Companies & Learnings 00:08:27 What Does Mercury Do? 00:11:24 How He Launched Mercury 00:14:35 The Neo Bank Industry and Launch Timing 00:21:50 The SVB Fallout & How That Led To Big Growth For Mercury 00:32:50 Operating Advice: The Six-Year Vesting Plan 00:43:35 Immad's Hot Takes & Predictions: AI Is a Hype Cycle 00:57:17 Rapid Fire & Wrap-up Things to Check Out: Immad's Memo - How to Not Be A Bottleneck as a CEO Immad's Podcast - Curiosity Podcast Immad's Advice on Operating - @immad on X ___________________ This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by Pelion Connect on X Follow on Tiktok Hear Other Episodes on Our Website

    59 min
See All (15)

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
35 Ratings

About

The Investor + Operator (IO) Podcast hosts the most candid, vulnerable conversations about building companies with the world’s best operators and investors.

Information

  • Creator
    Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 Sterling Snow and Tyler Hogge
  • Show Website
    The IO Podcast: Investor + Operator

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