Invest Like The Best #204: Sam Hinkie — Find Your People
I over index towards people who understand the limits to their own knowledge and say, "I know this cold, but there's a whole nother level out there that I'm not at [yet].” [4:40]
One of the things I want to do is compound trust with a relatively small set of people over a long period of time. [27:22]
People are really a power law and the best ones can change everything. [40:24]
How Sam thought about going into venture capital.
Could you design a world in which you can spend nearly all of your time with amazing people?
Where you could get leverage by seeing around the bend?
A world where patience and temperament are rewarded?
[46:27]
I think in decades by nature. [47:00]
I don't mind being alone in my opinion for a very long time. [47:00]
I'm trying to compound wisdom and trust. I'm trying to figure out life better and trying to figure out business better because I'm deeply curious about it. [48:00]
I like being dependable for my tribe. It is intoxicating. [49:00]
I don’t have any need to run an organization with 10,000 employees. [49:00]
We have so many things to do. Let's focus on the thing we're amazing at and spend all of our time on the thing that we're wildly good at. Let’s trade our money for time. [57:00]
The name 87 capital (Sam’s firm) is from Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. One candidate wins by 87 votes and gets the presidency. The other candidate lost by 87 votes but effectively wins back his life’s work and his family. [1:04:32]
A lot of what I talk to founders about is that we're looking for winners— and that's not just who won. So much of it depends on what you're counting. [1:05:00]
My firm is uniquely me. Something I want to spend decades on. [1:05:00]
Shape your language in a way other people can hear it. Thats half of what I talk to founders about: How to build the API to another person’s brain. It doesn’t matter what you say— it matters what they hear. [1:06:01]
Robert Caro profiled two men (Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson) who were without many advantages. And to get all the way to the top you probably have to sacrifice everything to the effort. The meta lesson is if you are not willing to pay that price presume someone else will. [1:08:40]
If you want something like the presidency (or being a billionaire) you should presume there is someone out there who will devote all of their time, money, relationships, sense of ethics—everything— in sacrifice of that one goal. Of course that person would win that race. [1:10:00]
Full podcast here: Invest Like The Best #204: Sam Hinkie — Find Your People
Learn from founders who came before you. Every week I read a biography of a founder and tell you what I learned on Founders podcast.
—David