Joys of Compounding
Episode 3 Lessons in Venturing Differently
Joys of Compounding

Episode 3: Lessons in Venturing Differently

Lessons in Venturing Differently

Ho Nam is the co-founder of Altos Ventures. We cover how his values and early life experiences have shaped his investing style, why he seeks out founders who are like hedgehogs instead of foxes, and what he's learned from backing 200+ companies while exuding patience & kindness.

(00:02:19) - (First question) - Ho’s early life and formation leading up to Altos Ventures

(00:09:00) - How seeing his parents at work shaped his career and investing perspectives

(00:12:53) - Developing a habit of hard work before finding the thing you love

(00:17:53) - The inter-title organisms and what drew him to Harvey Mudd

(00:22:56) - Working on a summer project with Henry Singleton; The Outsiders

(00:24:06) - Early career experiences that shaped the kind of investor he is today

(00:37:10) - Why getting into Stanford was yet another “sliding door” moment 

(00:40:54) - The decision he took that lead to founding Altos and becoming an entrepreneur

(00:45:42) - Whether or not their initial mission aligned with what Altos eventually became

(00:55:54) - How critical points of differentiation came together and where the courage came to double down on them 

(01:01:40) - An overview of the hedgehog concept 

(01:07:29) - How to adhere to the hedgehog concept in light of so much noise today writ large

(01:11:40) - What makes an Altos investment and where it starts

(01:25:32) - How he works with entrepreneurs and helps them along the way 

(01:34:24) - The importance of conviction rather than convention 

(01:40:12) - Reflections on what he hopes to get out of the rest of his life

Lessons in Venturing Differently

Introduction

Rick
Our guest today is Ho Nam, co-founder of Altos Ventures. In this episode, we unpack Ho's origin story and the values that shaped him most as a person and investor. We then turn to Altos itself. As the numbers go, Altos is one of the greatest venture capital firms of the last quarter century. And in order to discover learnings that all of us can apply and benefit from, we double-click on the culture and various investing frameworks behind their extraordinary success.

As you'll soon hear, the short answer is they got there by thinking and acting very differently than the pack. In fact, while they never set out to be iconoclasts, Altos has emerged as one of the most elite venture investors by breaking almost all of the traditional VC rules, by backing hedgehogs rather than foxes, by focusing relentlessly on capital efficiency, by investing at all stages of a company, and by displaying an unusual dose of kindness and patience along the way.

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