Invest Like The Best
Episode 223 Identifying Legendary Start-ups
Invest Like The Best

Episode 223: Identifying Legendary Start-ups

Invest Like The Best

Episode 223

Identifying Legendary Start-ups

Josh Buckley is the founder of Buckley Ventures and the CEO of Product Hunt. We cover why video game companies can give a glimpse of the future of business, how Josh views businesses as a set of systems, and the key attributes he looks for in startups when investing.

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[00:03:56] - [First question] - His start as an entrepreneur in online game

[00:05:09] - His parent's reaction to selling his first company at fifteen

[00:05:57] - Starting a second video game company 

[00:07:40] - The video game industry, being ahead of the curve in performance marketing, distribution, and operations

[00:08:49] - Notable two year lag between gaming innovation and other consumer sectors

[00:10:50] - What is happening today in gaming that may be a glimpse into the future

[00:12:41] - Key elements for creating a great gaming experience

[00:15:29] - Building a meta-game on top of the game itself to maximize engagement

[00:17:23] - Monetizing free to play games through in-game purchases

[00:20:25] - The most portable idea from fifteen years in gaming that can be applied to business

[00:22:02] - A future shift towards usage-based pricing models

[00:23:03] - His overall investment philosophy and strategy

[00:26:45] - Example of small a market with a high growth rate

[00:27:38] - Key elements of system elements and design when evaluating a business

[00:31:07] - What a flywheel looks like and investing in one such as Next Health 

[00:33:24] - Working core actions versus giving credit ones that aren’t yet working but may drive desirable outcomes

[00:34:13] - Why don’t more investing firms have a flywheel?

[00:39:04] - Product Hunt as a standalone business and part of a self-reinforcing ecosystem

[00:40:17] - Emerging systems and ecosystem edges in the digital landscape

[00:42:17] - Potential barriers for crypto becoming widely adopted in a variety of ways

[00:44:29] - New frontiers and platform shifts like crypto that may unlock new doors for companies

[00:45:13] - Which person has rewired his brain in his lifetime the most

[00:47:13] - Weirdness around Stripe and Plaid when he first encountered them

[00:48:37] - Meta-games people in the industry are playing or should be playing

[00:51:25] - Controversial ideas around the business world today at large 

[00:54:01] - Implications of shifting primarily towards a digital world

[00:54:14] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Identifying Legendary Start-ups

Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Josh Buckley. Josh is the founder of Buckley Ventures and the new CEO of Product Hunt. He's invested in many breakout companies like Rippling, Lattice, Boom Supersonic, and Relativity Space. In our conversation, we cover how video game companies are at the forefront of new business models. What current companies can learn from video game companies, Josh's investment philosophy, and the three things he looks for when identifying the next category-defining startup. Josh's long experience operating his video game business, Mino Games, gives him such an interesting perspective as an investor and I enjoyed exploring that with him. Please enjoy my conversation with Josh Buckley.

Josh's Entrepreneurial Journey

Patrick
Josh, been looking forward to doing this since we first met at a dinner two years ago. Crazy to believe how long it's been since then. We're going to have sort of a three-part conversation here because I think you're building one of the more interesting, what I'll call modern investment platforms. It touches a lot of my favorite themes including this first chapter of the story, which is your story as an entrepreneur. You started a business very, very young in life. I'd love you to tell us that story, what you were building, why you were building there.

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