"Upstream" with Erik Torenberg Turpentine

Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and one of the most influential venture capitalists of the last decade, sits down with Erik for Turpentine VC. They shed light on how Ben thinks about firm-building and where the future is going. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/upstream
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Subscribe to Turpentine VC to hear upcoming episodes with top VC minds: Alfred Lin of Sequoia, Elad Gil, and partners at Benchmark: https://www.podpage.com/turpentinevc/
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Join our free newsletter to get Erik's top 3 insights from each episode every week:
https://turpentinevc.substack.com/
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SPONSORS: MERCURY | VANTA | NETSUITE

Looking to give your startup a competitive edge? Meet Mercury: https://mercury.com/
Mercury is banking for ambitious companies—a modern partner that can provide you with the tools and resources you need to turn your startup into the best version of itself. It’s software built to help you scale, with safety and stability, when you need to — whether you're a team of two, or a team of 1,000. Join more than 100,000 startups on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC.
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Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/upstream
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NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream and download your own customized KPI checklist.
--
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world's leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000
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TIMESTAMPS:
(01:00) Episode Preview
(03:55) Ben on what allows the legendary VC firms to be great for multi-decades
(05:05) a16z’s unique product-first, investor-second approach
(06:20) YC as a16z’s closest spiritual analog
(09:40) Ben on why venture firms should stay private
(11:40) How a16z scaled their fund sizes to market opportunities
(12:40) Why a16z chose to go bigger than Benchmark or USV on fund size
(14:20) “Spreadsheet” VCs vs. people-first VCs
(16:00) a16z’s customer-focused strategy
(17:28) The firm’s unique approach to governance
(17:50) Sponsor: Mercury, Vanta
(19:55) Shared economics and centralized control
(21:20) Ben’s view on the future of venture
(24:00) How Ben thinks about riding trends like AI, crypto, etc.
(27:00) a16z’s AI strategy
(32:00) Will a16z expand into multi-asset firms like BlackRock?
(33:00) How a16z thinks about their LPs differently from other firms
(35:28) Sponsor: NetSuite
(38:00) Peacetime vs. Wartime VCs
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LINKS:
Why Software Is Eating the World: https://a16z.com/why-software-is-eating-the-world/
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X / TWITTER:
@bhorowitz (Ben)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@TurpentineVC

Erik Torenberg sits down with Jon Askonas to look at the impact of disruptive technology in important areas like the media, religion, culture, and politics. Jon is an assistant professor of politics at Catholic University, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation and a writer for publications like The New Atlantis and Compact. We are proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/upstream
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SPONSORS: MERCURY | VANTA | NETSUITE

Looking to give your startup a competitive edge? Meet Mercury: https://mercury.com/
Mercury is banking for ambitious companies—a modern partner that can provide you with the tools and resources you need to turn your startup into the best version of itself. It’s software built to help you scale, with safety and stability, when you need to — whether you're a team of two, or a team of 1,000. Join more than 100,000 startups on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC.
--
Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/upstream
--
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream and download your own customized KPI checklist.
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SELECT LINKS
- End of Consensus Reality https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/what-happened-to-consensus-reality
- Reality is Just a Game Now
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/reality-is-just-a-game-now
- Why Conservatism Failed, Compact Magazine  https://compactmag.com/article/why-conservatism-failed
- Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, Underground Empire https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250840554/undergroundempire
- Foundation for American Innovation: https://www.thefai.org/
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TIMESTAMPS:
(01:00) Episode Preview
(03:00) Jon’s thesis: The end of consensus reality
(04:20) What people have underestimated and overestimated since the 70s
(06:00) What comes after the nation state?
(07:00) The role of military technology in the next era
(09:45) What inputs are most important in determining a country’s dominance
(11:00) Countering Bali’s theory of the decline of the US dollar
(13:00) What has happened to our consensus reality? 
(16:49) Sponsors: Mercury, Vanta, and NetSuite
(18:50) Social Media is a red herring. The internet itself was the disruptor
(21:30) Why solving the problems of social media won’t return the world to sanity
(26:20) Fragmentation is a good thing
(29:25) 2nd order effects of AI
(30:30) E/acc vs EA 
(32:50) Creating a religion out of AI
(40:00) The problem with conservatives and technology
(46:25) Conservatives ignoring the culture
(52:00) Future of the right?
(57:00) How do we make sense of a world where we can’t determine a fact?
(59:10) Believing science, experts, and Sam Harris
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X/ TWITTER:
Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg
Jon’s Twitter: @JonAskonas
Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod

Balaji Srinivasan joins Erik Torenberg and Moment of Zen co-host Dan Romero to share his new theory of the Tribal Lens, why cognitive territories will gain increasingly more power than land-defined territories, why the US is no longer a beacon in the world, and Balaji strategy to fix San Francisco. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen
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SPONSORS: MERCURY | VANTA | NETSUITE
Looking to give your startup a competitive edge? Meet Mercury: https://mercury.com/
Mercury is banking for ambitious companies—a modern partner that can provide you with the tools and resources you need to turn your startup into the best version of itself. It’s software built to help you scale, with safety and stability, when you need to — whether you're a team of two, or a team of 1,000. Join more than 100,000 startups on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC.
--
Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/zen
--
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream and download your own customized KPI checklist.
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SELECT LINKS * For more shownotes directly to your inbox, subscribe to the Moment of Zen Substack: https://momentofzen.substack.com/

Jacob Siegel and Liel Leibovitz, Tablet Magazine - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/end-american-aid-israel


Not Too Long Ago Americans Didn't Care About Taiwan - https://x.com/balajis/status/1657852505425063936?s=46


US Secretary admits Chinese shipyard has more capacity - https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1678299275703484418?s=46


Louis-Vincent Gave, Making Sense of the China Meltdown Story: https://research.gavekal.com/article/making-sense-of-the-china-meltdown-story/



Beautifultrouble.org - Balaji refers to this as the degrowth handbook

Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State Conference in Amsterdam: https://lu.ma/tnsconf



TIMESTAMPS:
(00:30) Episode Preview
(09:55) Cloud Cartography: If you don't control the cognitive territory. you don't control the lands
(14:44) Sponsors: Mercury, NetSuite
(18:30) Why people don't take the internet seriously?
(23:00) The US is not a nation state
(25:10) A civilization state
(26:00) Why Americans should learn about India's history / India and the US are converging
(33:25) Why a civil war doesn't seem realistic to people now
(40:00) Where else should a talented person move?
(41:20) Asia is the new global center,
(48:20) Internet first, not America first
(01:03:25) Software vs. Hardware
(01:05:25) Elon and the Grey Strategy
(01:17:15) Israel is looking away from the US for partners
(01:20:25) The Tribal lens integrates both domestic and foreign politics
(01:21:25) Will blue always win?
(01:24:25) Making sense of the China meltdown story
(01:36:15How to fix San Francisco
(01:51:25) Irrationality is an advantage
(02:06:25) Dan and Erik debrief
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X / Twitter
@balajis (Balaji)
@dwr (Dan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@MOZ_Podcast

In this episode of Upstream, Emad Mostaque, founder of Stability AI, and Sam Lessin, GP of Slow Ventures and former VP Product at Facebook, discuss how paradigm shifting AI will be for different sectors of the global economy, whether startups or incumbents have the edge, and whether AI is actually a good investment for Venture Capital. Topics covered in this debate span: the attention and information economy, SaaS markets, how AI-created entertainment will impact society and our relationships, porn, and AI disruption of highly-regulated industries. Erik Torenberg and The Cognitive Revolution AI podcast host Nathan Labenz serve as moderators, asking questions towards the end. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen
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If you are interested to hear more of Sam Lessin’s unorthodox views on venture bets, head over to Turpentine VC and listen to a longer, even spicier conversation with him released this week:
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SPONSORS: MERCURY | VANTA | NETSUITE
Looking to give your startup a competitive edge? Meet Mercury: https://mercury.com/
Mercury is banking for ambitious companies—a modern partner that can provide you with the tools and resources you need to turn your startup into the best version of itself. It’s software built to help you scale, with safety and stability, when you need to — whether you're a team of two, or a team of 1,000. Join more than 100,000 startups on Mercury, the powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC.
--
Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/zen
--
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream and download your own customized KPI checklist.
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X / Twitter
@EMostaque (Emad)
@Lessin (Sam)
@CogRev_Podcast
@labenz (Nathan)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
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TOPICS DISCUSSED:
(01:00) Episode Preview
(03:20) AI as an extender rather than a deck shuffler
(07:45) Is AI a disruptive or sustaining innovation? 
(09:13) What is intelligence?
(11:47) The attention and information economy
(16:43) Storytelling, the stock market, and the economy
(18:13) Sponsors: Mercury, Vanta, NetSuite
(25:30) Startups vs incumbents
(27:40) Disrupting highly-regulated industries
(28:47) AI in education: an AI tutor for every child
(31:40) AI as StackOverflow 2.0 for engineers
(33:45) Regulatory Arbitrage
(36:20) The oracle problem
(38:00) Apple as the weakest live player in AI
(42:15) AI in communities and the future of social media
(43:00) Replika on Valentine’s Day and AI-generated porn
(50:10) How does the market for inference shape up? Inference vs. cloud
(52:30) What are the most likely incumbents to be disrupted?
(53:25) Will big tech continue to opensource? 
(55:30) Birth rate in US in the future given AI
(57:00) Can any AI leader sustain high gross margins in the future?
(58:00) Stability’s business model

Erik Torenberg sits down with Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican presidential candidate rapidly rising in the polls. Vivek recorded this interview with us in late march. Given the attention from his performance at the first GOP debate this week, we decided to re-run it. We go deeper on many of the soundbites that have been popping up this summer, including his ideas about the culture war, affirmative action, and climate science. We also cover his ambitious transformation from Silicon Valley founder to political candidate, and discuss his radical policy proposals. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen
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RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world’s leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000
--
SPONSOR:
Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/zen
--
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream and download your own customized KPI checklist.
--
X/TWITTER:
Erik's Twitter: @eriktorenberg
Vivek's Twitter: @VivekGRamaswamy
Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod
Erik's Substack: eriktorenberg.substack.com
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TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Episode Preview
(03:03) When Vivek set his sights on running for president
(09:02) Vivek’s presidential platform: Affirmative action, Climate, Fed, Drug crisis 
(15:35) Sponsors: Vanta, NetSuite
(16:36) Where Vivek overlaps/differs with Silicon Valley: free speech, DEI, SVB
(24:19) How Vivek conceptualizes a meritocracy
(30:25) How to remove politics from corporations
(41:00) Silicon Valley should empathize more with the rest of the country?
(42:24) Cultural otherness
(55:06) Defining “woke”
(56:22) What’s it like to run a presidential campaign

Samuel Hammond is a Canadian-born, DC-based senior economist for the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank focused on bridging the cultures of Silicon Valley and DC. His research focuses on innovation and the institutional impact of disruptive technologies. He is an unconventional thinker and writer (Substack: https://www.secondbest.ca/) who participates in nuanced dialogue with different thinkers across economics, tech, policy, and philosophy. In this conversation we discuss Sam’s views on AI, mental models for his worldview, polarization, and how political influence really works. We're proudly sponsored by Vanta. Get $1000 off Vanta with https://www.vanta.com/zen
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SPONSORS: VANTA | NETSUITE
Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With Vanta, you can save up to 400 hours and 85% of costs. Vanta scales with your business, helping you successfully enter new markets, land bigger deals, and earn customer loyalty. Bonus? Upstream listeners get $1000 off Vanta. Just go to https://www.vanta.com/zen
--
NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/upstream and download your own customized KPI checklist.
--
RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world’s leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000
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LINKS:
thefai.org
https://www.secondbest.ca/
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X/ TWITTER:
@hamandcheese
@joinfai
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@upstream__pod
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TIMESTAMPS
(01:00) Episode Preview
(03:00) How Sam characterizes his worldview
(07:25) The great founder theory
(11:47) Between AI safety concerns and e/acc beliefs, here does Samuel fall on AI?
(15:24) What would Sam say to libertarians?
(16:00) Sponsor: NetSuite
(18:11) What can we learn from Mormonism about AI risks and regulations
?(21:19) AI is leveling the playing field
(25:00) Instead of libertarian, AI is communitarian
(27:10) Lessons of Mormonism for adapting to technological revolutions
(30:00) Do right or left beliefs qualify as a religion, with their own institutions?
(40:57) Humanism, grey goo, and why waste is good
(44:40) Mental model for government dysfunction
(48:09) The think tank ecosystem and how influence really works in DC?
(50:53) Samuel’s interesting disagreements with: Balaji Srinivasan, Robin Hanson, Tyler Cowen, Bryan Caplan
(52:27) What’s the best argument for pluralism?
(52:48) Ezra Klein and Chris Caldwell actually make the same argument about polarization