The Unusual Signs of a Billion Dollar Company with Elad Gil & James Currier

Can your company be a Billion-dollar business? When we look inside the early days of companies like Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart & Square, what are the patterns that may shed light on how great Founders beat incredible odds?

In this episode of the NFX podcast, Elad Gil — one of the world's top angel investors in an astonishing number of Billion-dollar companies (Airbnb, Airtable, Anduril, Brex, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Gitlab, Gusto, Instacart, Opendoor, PagerDuty, Pinterest, Samsara, Square, Stripe, & Wish) and cofounder of ColorGenomics— joins NFX partner James Currier to unearth what makes certain Founders and teams exponentially better.

Together they examine the counterintuitive -- and often contrarian -- patterns that he has observed in many of the world’s best known Billion-dollar companies and their decision frameworks along the way.

[George-Aguilar]

It’s a super amazing information. It’s just the audio is so terrible. It’s difficult to listen to.

[christopherarmstrong]

15:30 Only the paranoid survive, founder to CEO transitions.

[abigailmyers]

I'd never heard of the cascading miracle, and now I'm realizing that my business plan falls into that category. I have a completely proprietary product, but my "cascading miracle" starts in a familiar industry with proven results (in a prior business attempt) before raising the funds to essentially create the test market. It's hard to stay vague enough in a comment that my idea stays a secret. I'm just wondering if there are exceptions to that statement? My idea truly hasn't been done before, but my initial "generation" of products exists in a small market, and can easily be scaled into other markets. Would it be better just to start them as two seperate companies? This episode is leaving me with so many thought-provoking questions- thank you!!

[charleneterrell]

If I wasn't held back, my business would have scaled a long time ago.

[newrenewableenergycontrol]

Having no definitive decision maker is equivalent to sleeping on rail road tracks! You will do fine ... until a train shows up!

[newrenewableenergycontrol]

Is wizardry innate or learned? I vote learned!

[newrenewableenergycontrol]

About 17 minutes in, and I have to stop because my mind keeps disconnecting to wrangle with previous points. Love stories are a fast read, science requires thought, study, and compilation of detail! To quote a physics professor of mine. "Details details all the time details!" Details like, 'breath stupid'!
I have an unusual point of view. I am first a scientist. I am second a potential investor. I am third in my first day of a many semester education course in large corporation building. I heard once that the second most dangerous thing for any company is growth too fast for the company that results in straws that break the camels back. So much to do and so little time! Camel calisthenics is my mission now! ... with a side of marketing for investors!🤣😎👍 Now, back to work!

[newrenewableenergycontrol]

I wonder if that old clan based face to face trait can withstand the telecommunications stress. Or will as humans do, they morph into a different creature. Do we need to smell the sweat of another to work focused together? Maybe grandpa did. Maybe Dad did. Maybe you and I do. But future people? I think digital communication will become as comfortable for our progeny as driving a car is to us now! My Grandpa hated and feared cars! But I hate being without one and literally fell in love with being mobile at speed! Then some knuckle head said, "Gee, I wonder if that could fly!" See how it works? Our strongest human trait, communications. And now we can communicate live world wide! It will become part of who and what the human animal is! My future is so bright, I gotta wear shades!😎😎😎