I like to call myself the founding member of SBC. um you know I kind of started SBC because I wanted to start a company and I um wanted to surround myself by smart people who were like challenging me and like pushing me to find the right idea. Um I also wanted to make sure I didn't make the mistake of folding before I even got started and usually good things take a really long time.
I didn't want to be sitting in my home on my couch um being depressed every day, not being able to figure out, thinking about billion-dollar ideas because they don't exist. Um but I wanted to surround myself with people who were iterating, you know, in the same ways that I was.
that journey which we call the squiggle here at SPC um is one that I didn't want to do alone.
um Dropbox is just really stressful. It's a stressful experience. You know I think that um one of the things we famously say at South Park nowadays is that in order to join South Park uh you have to be unemployed.
you know, you can't like you know which is actually not obvious why that should be the case. you know, you should be able to explore and ideulate and think about things kind of like part-time, perhaps nights and weekends, right? It's actually not an unreasonable point of view to do that. But what we have found is that if you're the kind of individual who's deeply driven and you know kind of like you know likes kind of like winning and kind of doing a good job at things then it is unlikely that you actually have the time and the space to think about great things while you're consumed with the company.
chances are even after you leave uh what has you know what is perhaps like an intense journey you will need some time to defrag. you'll need some time to collect your thoughts and to get yourself to the point where you can start feeling creative and generative again.
one of my favorite books recently about um about starting companies is actually by Rick Rubin. I don't know if you guys have read the creative act. Um Rick Rubin is a legendary music producer, right? Like he has worked with some of the most amazing artists of our generation across a bunch of different genres.
when you read his book, he says that the act of a music producer is to be able to draw out the artist's story, their personal story, the story they're trying to tell through their art. In this case, often music, and then figure out a way to basically craft that story in a way that is the most authentic form of like that story that the artist can then tell the world.
for me I think of my job as a VC is like I'm and you know I'm trying to draw like what is the story that is coming from the founder that they are trying to channel through their product their company and when we can draw it out and get it to the point where it's compelling and authentic then I think magic can happen right
at SPC, one of the things we talk about a lot is that we're not just trying to build we're not just trying to build like a standard vanilla venture capital firm.
we're trying to provide a kind of like an environment that allows you know we're trying to do something a little different in terms of like providing an environment for founders to explore to ideulate
and that can be uncomfortable because we're trying to kind of in some ways shake up an industry that hasn't seen a ton of change like venture capital
I would say my biggest delta is actually emphasis on market. Um and I never thought I'd say this until 2022 and like you know the first language model and chat GPT was launched
you don't know what the market is going to look like. I mean, this is the first time in a very
it's a lot less important.
for the first time in maybe decades, um, we have no idea what the market is going to look like. We have no idea how consumer behavior is going to be changed.
my emphasis on market and I've had to unlearn. um my emphasis on market and I've had to tell my team members that too many times like there's no point in looking at the market right now
like you know how is he thinking about the future like where does he see the world go 5 years from now like can you build conviction
What's the most important trait for you when you talk to a founder or a member?
If a founder is able to go deep on a subject matter that they're really passionate about, they're really not afraid of learning. you should have the confidence that you're going to croc something down the road even if new things are launching. The second one is they're not afraid of putting in the effort or the hard work. And then the last one, they're really passionate. I think micromanaging has a negative connotation. I think of it as being in the trenches with the people that I'm working with. I like the details.
It is so hard to be a founder. On a good day, you will kind of like wake up feeling great. By lunchtime, you're like, "This is not going to work." by evening you'll be like yes I closed a higher or and that roller coaster is so intense and it doesn't get any less intense. So I think that the only way you can deal with it is if you are just kind of resilient.
One of the things that's quite unique about Ruchi and I think our team members here will also attest to this is that you're very comfortable creating situations I would say of constructive conflict. we're not kind of afraid to in some ways make it a little uncomfortable in order to try to get to perhaps like you know the right answer or the truth
I think all of us and particularly well maybe New York less than San Francisco but I think in San Francisco part of the issue is everybody's a nice nice person we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings right like you don't want to kind of say the thing that's on your It's kind of like the classic, you know, the New Yorker will say to your face and San Francisco, you know, in California will say behind your back, right?
the thing that gets me super super excited is if a founder is able to go deep on a subject matter that they're really passionate about.
not superficial about it, not handwavy about it, not a weird top- down market analysis, but like you know they've really like done the work
they're really not afraid of learning. Um, and and that's really important. Like you should be able to constantly learn.
they're not afraid of putting in the effort or the hard work. Um and learning actually takes a lot of work.
they're really passionate. Um it's really difficult to go allin on something if you're not passionate.
We always talked about resilience kind of being important but I think now that we have um been doing this for a while it it's I think that the delta in its importance is even more
it is so hard to be a founder right like you get on a good day like if you you will kind of like wake up feeling great by lunchtime you're like this is not going to work by evening you'll be like yes I closed a higher or yeah And that roller coaster is so intense.
This is like it doesn't get any less intense as you get more because the question is always oh when I get to that next level of scale like you know it'll be better if I hire but to your point if you if you're doing things right you will just shift the goalposts.
resiliency is different than um what's the term I'm looking for that you kind of almost wall yourself away you have to allow yourself to feel the emotions because that's how you kind of like really care like both the ups and the downs but not get super affected by either either side, right?