Invest Like The Best
Episode 112 Building Picks and Shovels
Invest Like The Best

Episode 112: Building Picks and Shovels

Invest Like The Best

Episode 112

Building Picks and Shovels

Hunter Walk is the cofounder of the venture capital firm Homebrew. We cover the lessons he learned during his time at Google and YouTube, the current investments that Homebrew is interested in, and the major trends he has seen over the course of his first 3 funds.

[00:01:24] – (First Question) – Background on Second Life and what role Hunter had there

[00:06:10] – The virtual currency system at use in Second Life

[00:09:51]– Measuring how people behaved in this virtual world

[00:12:21] – How closely is the Second Life world mimicking real life

[00:15:13] – The market for platforms that lets people take on creative ventures

[00:17:58] – Investments that interest Homebrew

[00:20:21] – Lessons learned while working at YouTube

[00:28:34] – The idea behind Homebrew

[00:33:44] – How to best describe good problems to solve for

[00:36:10] – The Shadow economy and investing in companies operating there

[00:42:17] – Monetization of attention

[00:42:26] – List of categories they invest in

[00:47:22] – His interest in fintech companies

[00:47:41] – Savneet Singh Podcast Episode

[00:54:03] – Major trends of change he’s observed over his first three funds

[01:04:13] – What is there take on the state of returns for VC’s

[01:09:52] – What is the most common way that founders need help and what advice is more helpful

[01:14:35] – Kindest thing anyone has done for Hunter

Building Picks and Shovels

Patrick
My guest this week is Hunter Walk, the co-founder of Homebrew, a unique venture capital firm. Hunter is a tool-builder, having spent his career before venture at companies like Google and YouTube. The topic of our conversation is the intersection of creative expression, technology, human behavior and problem-solving. We discussed his time at the company behind the video game Second Life, building tools for creators at YouTube and why a very hands-on style of early stage venture investing represents an interesting use of his skillset at this stage of his career. Please enjoy my conversation with Hunter Walk.

Second Life Overview

Patrick
Sounds like from reading by your background that you were the co-founder or very early at the company behind the game Second Life. Talk about that company and that game. We're going to talk about YouTube, too. This whole idea of people's digital presence is really interesting to me right now. The rise of Esports and all these things is one component of that that I've been thinking about. Talk about what Second Life is for those that might not know what it is and what role you played there.

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