Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
I am drawn to a group of investors that I call practitioner philosophers. These are people who have gotten their hands dirty in their respective fields, but despite being doers, they still often sit back and ponder the big questions. My guest this week is one such practitioner philosopher, New York City-based venture capitalist Jerry Neumann. I came across Jerry's essays a year ago. And he is on a very short list of writers whose work I read without fail and almost always more than once. You can think about this conversation on business investing and venture capital as a big funnel, we start very broadly discussing where we might be in a large 70-year economic cycle. We then break down the so-called power law, which seems to govern venture capital returns and business outcomes, then we get even more specific discussing Jerry's process for evaluating early-stage companies and the particulars of what might make a good venture capitalist. I say might, because as Jerry explains often, nothing is certain and luck may always play a huge role. I just love this conversation.
It is the type that without the podcast as an excuse, would be a very odd and intense one if I were just meeting Jerry, for the first time. You'll find no small talk or even medium talk here. This is a meaty discussion with one of the smartest and most straightforward people I've come across. Let's dive in.