Smart Friends

Eric Jorgenson
  • 4.9 (108)
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Smart Friends

Casual conversations with founders, technologists, investors, and artists about building a brighter future, together. Welcome to our digital living room.  With science, technology and entrepreneurship we can *continue* to create unfathomable leaps in quality of life. We show you how to find, apply, build, and invest in technologies to change your life and the world.  When we have smart friends, we do smart things. When we do smart things, we save the world.  No matter who, where, or when you are – now you have smart friends, too.  Outside this podcast, I’m the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji. Connect at ejorgenson.com  Laugh and learn with people like Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant, Andrew Wilkinson, Austen Allred, David Senra, Josh Storrs Hall, Ashley Rindsberg, Zach Pettet, Bret Kugelmass, Omar ElNaggar, Grace Guo, Brett Kopf, Max Olson, Chris Williamson, Shane Mac, Tim Hwang, David Perell, Jason Hitchcock, Natalia Karayaneva, Sebastian Marshall, Taylor Pearson, Mitchell Baldridge and more. Join conversations with my partners in early-stage tech investing, Bo Fishback and Al Doan. Our Rolling Fun Episodes cover our investments and escapades as angel investors and startup helpers. We invest in startups creating the *next* industrial revolution. Learn more at rolling.fun “Surround yourself with people who remind you more of your future than of your past.”

  1. Paul Millerd: Profits in Publishing, Why Self-Publish, How Authors Make Big Money

    OCT 29

    Paul Millerd: Profits in Publishing, Why Self-Publish, How Authors Make Big Money

    Links: Scribe Media Paul’s website The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd Good Work by Paul Millerd Paul on X Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:15) - Introducing Paul, and the early days of the publishing industry. (00:06:48) - The earliest days of publishing, distribution of profit, and printing methods. (00:17:46) - The 2014 E-book collusion (00:20:27) - The self-publishing surge, the $4.99 sweet spot, and where authors can optimize. (00:24:47)- The history of paperbacks (00:37:28) - Book deals and agents (00:48:15) - The India market, publisher problems, and compounding disinterest. (01:06:06) - The future of publishing To support this podcast:  >> Explore writing or publishing your book with Scribe: Scribemedia.com >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!  Here’s what we explored in the episode: We dive deep into the quirky history of the publishing industry, tracing it all the way back to the 1400s. In the 19th century, authors could increase their earnings by co-investing in fixed costs, like print plates and bookbinding. Traditional Publishing has always seen hardcovers as “the real books” and sought to protect them and their profits.  Trade paperback was published only after a successful hardcover, with those rights often sold separately.  Self-publishing changed the game for authors, with Amazon enabling print-on-demand and much higher royalty percentages. If you are an author signing with a traditional publisher, realize YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER–book retailers are their customers. Lots of authors who earned big money retained their rights. Stephen King retained his paperback rights an early successful book. After the hardcover version succeeded, he sold those rights for $400,000 Harper Lee made significant earnings from To Kill a Mockingbird by retaining movie adaptation rights. Tom Clancy held on to his film and international rights. This later became highly lucrative as his popularity grew and more of his books got adaptations. Traditional Publishers often prioritize prestige, tradition, and their profits – which doesn’t always align with author’s goals.  Indie authors can now disregard tradition and experiment with pricing strategies to maximize reach, revenue, and their own personal results.    Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship   There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant   You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.     Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

    1h 38m
  2. The Next Industrial Revolution w/ J. Storrs Hall [Replay]

    OCT 2

    The Next Industrial Revolution w/ J. Storrs Hall [Replay]

    This is a replay of episode 34 of this podcast. Links:  Josh’s Bio - Autogeny.org Where is my flying car? By J. Storrs Hall Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper The Martian by Andy Weir Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Beyond AI by J. Storrs Hall Nanofuture: What’s Next For Nanotechnology by J. Storrs Hall   Other Episode You’ll Like: Solocast #3: Nuclear, Nanotech, and the next Industrial Revolution (Book Recap: “Where is my Flying Car?”) Massive Opportunities w/in Design & User Interface with Cliff Kuang   To support this costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners  >> Name-your-price subscription monthly, annual, or one-time: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa  >> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson >> Get in touch about sponsoring this podcast by replying to an email or DMing me on Twitter.

    1h 38m
  3. Solocast #3: Nuclear, Nanotech, and the next Industrial Revolution [Replay]

    SEP 17

    Solocast #3: Nuclear, Nanotech, and the next Industrial Revolution [Replay]

    This episode is a replay of episode 22 of this podcast. Links:  Eric’s Blog Eric’s blog post on digital scarcity Eric’s Blog post on The Cost of Trust Technological revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez Topics: (0:08) - Introducing the Web3 discussion (4:13) - What is the Blockchain? (6:06) - Lowering transaction costs across Web1, Web2 & Web3 (9:46) - Creating cheap, digital scarcity (12:12) - Why does the blockchain matter? Trust & Decentralization (18:50) - What happens when blockchains are deployed? Digital and Physical impacts. (26:26) - Technological Revolutions & Financial Capital by Carlotta Perez (28:23) - DAO: Distributed Autonomous Organization (30:51) - Predictions: The biggest networks will be bigger than the biggest companies (39:03) - Wrap Up: What do you have to do? (42:02) - Web3 is supposed to be fun!

    54 min
  4. Andrew Wilkinson: De-risking Leverage, Investing vs. Operating, and the Best Part About Business [Replay]

    AUG 21

    Andrew Wilkinson: De-risking Leverage, Investing vs. Operating, and the Best Part About Business [Replay]

    [This is a replay of episode #002] Andrew Wilkinson is the co-founder of Tiny, a venture capital firm that has helped to build over 25 profitable internet businesses over the last 15 years. He got his start founding MetaLab, one of the world’s top design agencies. He has gone from working out of his apartment a little over a decade ago, to today overseeing a group of companies with over 300 employees and tens of millions in revenue. To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!

    1h 7m
  5. David Senra + Mitchell Baldridge #5: David’s Private Conference, Writing Books, and Building Networks

    JUL 30

    David Senra + Mitchell Baldridge #5: David’s Private Conference, Writing Books, and Building Networks

    Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:24) - Recapping FoundersOnly Conference (00:36:36) - Helping others first (00:44:32) - Baldridge updates & the power of working hard (01:03:46) - How do you want to spend your time? (01:10:38) - Great book recs, Scribe, and the knowledge gap (01:44:38) - Unethical founders (02:00:56) - Optimizing for usefulness Links: Founders Podcast Mitchell Baldridge on X Get in touch with Mitchell David Senra on X Perplexity AI Books: Hard Drive by James Wallace So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport Born Standing Up by Steve Martin Jerry Seinfeld in GQ Zero to One by Peter Thiel To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!  Important quotes from David Senra and Mitchell Baldridge: "People don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. And so like we could write a book on this two-hour or whatever long conversation we've had and every single person's going to have a different perspective." — David Senra "I'm here to be the best in the world at what I'm doing. And then you get around other people like that. Like we just talked about Mike Ovitz. You think he was optimizing for days on the golf course?" — David Senra “I wake up every day more obsessed to the point where, like, if this continues, we're going to have to be concerned about me. And what I love is I'm really trying to go after it.” — David Senra "Books don't have to make money to make you money." — Mitchell Baldridge "Mute the world and build your own world and it's like part of building your own world you don't want to start from zero like a feral child in the middle of the woods." — Mitchell Baldridge

    2h 20m
  6. Alex Komoroske: Systems Thinking, Builders vs Gardeners, and Working In Large Organizations

    JUL 18

    Alex Komoroske: Systems Thinking, Builders vs Gardeners, and Working In Large Organizations

    Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:52) - The Gardener of Systems (00:07:43) - Builders vs. Gardeners (00:11:09) - Who are the best farmers of miracles? (00:16:52) - How did you become a “systems” person? (00:23:45) - What does Systems Thinking look like for you? (00:53:09) - Alex’s Slime Mold deck (00:55:12) - The iterative, adjacent possible (00:59:53) - Alex’s experience at Google (01:03:12) - AI uses and potentials (01:17:54) - Book recommendations Links: Alex’s website Alex on X Alex on LinkedIn Emergence by Steven Johnson The Systems Bible by John Gall The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!  Important quotes from Alex Komoroske: "I think that to really wrestle with systems you have to let go and just dance with the system." — Alex Komoroske "I like the word gardening because it underlines that you are not in control of this system. You are influencing it." — Alex Komoroske "The builder gets immediately to work, but the gardener understands that other things can be alive." — Alex Komoroske "Technology should be about helping people create and use hand-tuned tools to extend their agency in collaborative ways." — Alex Komoroske "If people who are very unlike each other all find it interesting or intriguing, that's a good sign that it will spread out to be a very large audience." — Alex Komoroske

    1h 21m
  7. The Alliance of Entrepreneurs and Scientists with Arkady Kulik of RPV

    JUN 26

    The Alliance of Entrepreneurs and Scientists with Arkady Kulik of RPV

    Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:43) - Russian interpretations of friendship (00:09:28) - Thoughts on the state of society and its rate of technological adoption (00:13:22) - Creating alliances between entrepreneurs, capitalists, and scientists (00:17:17) - Rick Rubin on Creativity in Investing (00:20:55) - Does Taste exist in the world of VC? (00:26:06) - Becoming a better Communicator (00:40:59) - What archetypes do you see in the folks you work with? (00:44:18) - Arkady’s background and career (01:00:34) - Arkady’s thesis and technical due diligence for rpv (01:11:26) - Companies Arkady is excited about (01:16:55) - What important problems are you not seeing pursued? (01:21:11) - How can people get in touch with you? Links: Arkady on LinkedIn Rpv Venture Fund Specialist by Robert Sheckley The Creative Act by Rick Rubin To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!  Important quotes from Arkady Kulik: "Good communication is essential to avoid conflicts and build better relationships, both personally and professionally." — Arkady Kulik "Aligning visions with founders is critical. It’s not just about the business, it’s about shared values and missions." — Arkady Kulik "The alliance between entrepreneurs and scientists is the key to unlocking humanity's transition to an advanced civilization." — Arkady Kulik "Technology is the only source of never-ending growth. Our ability to reshape what we have with a small amount of resources into something fantastic is a never-ending source of creativity." — Arkady Kulik "People who are not true to themselves and lie to themselves are not founder material. The people who don’t lie to themselves and know what they are trying to do are the ones who can actually get there." — Arkady Kulik

    1h 25m
  8. Flywheel Masterclass, Flying Planes, and Building For Creators with Nathan Barry of Convertkit

    JUN 4

    Flywheel Masterclass, Flying Planes, and Building For Creators with Nathan Barry of Convertkit

    Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:05:10) - The decision to live in Idaho (00:08:21) - Nathan’s flying hobby (00:15:09) - Building Flywheels (00:46:07) - Incentive compensation and giving people ownership (01:06:39) - Inflection points in building ConverKit (01:14:16) - How to work on a ton of things (01:23:15) - What are the rules of thumb you use the most in life? Links: Nathan Barry on X ConvertKit Nathan’s website Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson Good to Great by Jim Collins Small Giants by Bo Burlingham To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners!  Important quotes from Nathan Barry on building audience, wealth, and startups: "If I look back at all the good things that have happened in my career in the last 3 years, they all come from writing. One little habit of writing 1,000 words a day revolutionized my career." — Nathan Barry "ATTENTION IS THE MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE" — Nathan Barry "When you start writing you don’t have to worry about crafting perfect prose. Instead you just need to focus on teaching useful skills." — Nathan Barry Making money is a skill—like playing the drums or piano—that you can get better at over time.  I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time and play a concerto. The same is true for making money.  This is why most first companies fail. — Nathan Barry, Ladders of Wealth Creation

    1h 31m
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About

Casual conversations with founders, technologists, investors, and artists about building a brighter future, together. Welcome to our digital living room.  With science, technology and entrepreneurship we can *continue* to create unfathomable leaps in quality of life. We show you how to find, apply, build, and invest in technologies to change your life and the world.  When we have smart friends, we do smart things. When we do smart things, we save the world.  No matter who, where, or when you are – now you have smart friends, too.  Outside this podcast, I’m the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji. Connect at ejorgenson.com  Laugh and learn with people like Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant, Andrew Wilkinson, Austen Allred, David Senra, Josh Storrs Hall, Ashley Rindsberg, Zach Pettet, Bret Kugelmass, Omar ElNaggar, Grace Guo, Brett Kopf, Max Olson, Chris Williamson, Shane Mac, Tim Hwang, David Perell, Jason Hitchcock, Natalia Karayaneva, Sebastian Marshall, Taylor Pearson, Mitchell Baldridge and more. Join conversations with my partners in early-stage tech investing, Bo Fishback and Al Doan. Our Rolling Fun Episodes cover our investments and escapades as angel investors and startup helpers. We invest in startups creating the *next* industrial revolution. Learn more at rolling.fun “Surround yourself with people who remind you more of your future than of your past.”

Information

  • Creator
    Eric Jorgenson
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    91
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Eric Jorgenson, Magrathea Inc.
  • Show Website
    Smart Friends

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