Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
My guest this week is Keith Rabois. Keith is currently an investment partner at Khosla Ventures but has a story and diverse background as an investor, entrepreneur, and executive. He's worked in senior positions at PayPal, LinkedIn, and Square, has led investments in companies like Stripe, YouTube, Palantir, and Airbnb, and started the company Opendoor, which aims to transform the process of selling a home through technology. One fun fact about Keith is that he may have the most impressive list of bosses that I've ever seen, which we discuss during the episode. We cover a lot but one thing we kept returning to is business strategy. Keith's frameworks for gaining and building strategic advantage helped me clarify my thinking on the topic. And his examples of contrarian thinking will hopefully make you question some commonly held beliefs, please enjoy our conversation.
Patrick
I thought we would begin with a really interesting Paul Graham quote that you referenced as a succinct summation of your investing and entrepreneurial strategy. Paul Graham said, "If your technology is better, but potential customers are too set in their ways to switch, use it yourself and compete with them." So maybe using Opendoor or something like that as an example, talk about why you think that's a good summation of your history?