Brick by Brick

Ollie Allen Fox

A podcast for the mission driven. Hosted by Ollie Allen Fox ( @ollieallenfox ) Founder of WEBOAF Design Studio

  1. 020 Cyrus Yari: Finding your life's work, avoiding F30u30 & Lindy Ideas

    02/11/2024

    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

    2h 10m
  2. 019 Alex Leiman, 23 Year Old Makes $190k / Month With AI Dating Assistant App

    01/19/2024

    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

    1h 23m
  3. 018 Mike Annunziata: Building the best seed stage venture capital firm on the planet (Also Capital)

    12/07/2023

    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

    1h 9m
  4. 017 Yuriy Blokhin, Founding a Tech Startup With A Novel Business Model

    11/12/2023

    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

    1h 7m
  5. 016 Hector Mason, Top 10 Lessons From Meeting Unicorn Founders & The Future Of Data Driven Seed Investing

    09/19/2023

    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

    1h 6m

About

A podcast for the mission driven. Hosted by Ollie Allen Fox ( @ollieallenfox ) Founder of WEBOAF Design Studio