Tim Ferriss

November 28, 2024

Cyan Banister — From Homeless and Broke to Top Angel Investor (Uber, SpaceX, and 100+ More) (#780)

“My life has only been improved by taking myself out of the decision-making process, because I am the hindrance.”
— Cyan Banister

Cyan Banister (@cyantist) is a general partner at Long Journey Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on early and new investments. Cyan was an early investor in Uber, SpaceX, DeepMind, Flexport, and Affirm and has invested in more than 100 companies. Prior to that, she was at Founders Fund, a top-tier fund in San Francisco. Subscribe to Cyan’s Substack at uglyduckling.substack.com.

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Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the episode on YouTube here. The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#780: Cyan Banister — From Homeless and Broke to Top Angel Investor (Uber, SpaceX, and 100+ More)

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Want to hear another podcast episode with a world-class investor? Have a listen to my most recent conversation with Oaktree Capital Management’s co-founder Howard Marks, in which we discussed navigating unprecedented uncertainties, crowded versus uncrowded opportunities, the state of the American economy, finding higher-signal sources of information, and much more.

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Cyan Banister:

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SHOW NOTES

[00:06:16] Early life and education as a white minority on a Navajo reservation.
[00:11:18] Strained family dynamics and a cycle of neglect.
[00:18:20] The intervention of Officer Pratt and becoming a ward of the state at 15.
[00:22:46] Crusty punk survival strategies and life on the streets.
[00:32:02] The positive influence of Cyan’s “second” mother.
[00:34:17] Crass, Chris Collins, and computers.
[00:38:03] An unorthodox path to angel investment beginning with Uber.
[00:48:13] Niantic/Pokemon GO.
[00:56:27] How stalking Garrett Langley led to a Flock Security investment.
[01:00:07] GameCrush, activist investors, and lessons learned.
[01:07:00] Sales lessons from the street.
[01:10:08] A mindful approach to questioning narratives.
[01:15:35] The pre-OnlyFans story of Zivity.
[01:24:44] Views on sex and relationships.
[01:28:47] Magic glasses, esoteric rabbit holes, and rolling the dice.
[01:44:02] How Aleister Crowley and Bill Murray paved a path to ex-atheism.
[02:02:21] Cyan’s billboard.
[02:04:41] Enduring a stroke and its aftermath.
[02:08:31] Meditation, throat-singing, and philosophy.
[02:17:50] The Boston spiritual experience and duck boat baptism.
[02:40:53] A book in the works, the Ugly Duckling Substack, and parting thoughts.

MORE CYAN BANISTER QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I’ve always felt like an outsider no matter where I am, and I think that’s been wonderful and incredible for my career. You can certainly look at that and have kind of a victim mindset about it, but I took the opposite path, which was this is what makes me special, that I don’t fit in wherever I am.”

— Cyan Banister

“Once you’re homeless, you can never be un-homeless. It’s really strange. Every time I walk around at a conference or anything, I see all the waste. I see, if I were a homeless person, I could come and I could have this, no matter where I’m at.”

— Cyan Banister

“You have to face something very ugly, which is yourself. You have to look inside and see who and what you really are, and then you have to love yourself even when you don’t like what you see.”

— Cyan Banister

“When people used to say practice self-love, I thought it meant go eat bonbons and go see a good movie and smoke a joint. That was self-love. But it wasn’t getting me anywhere, and I was like, ‘This whole self-love thing is jive. It’s just not working out.’ But I didn’t realize that self-love is learning how to give yourself unconditional love. And the best way I’ve learned how to give yourself unconditional love is imagine yourself as a ball of light and then take that ball of light and visualize it outside of your body and cradle it like it’s a baby. Now, when you look at that baby, would you hurt that baby?”

— Cyan Banister

“My purpose is very simple, which is to spread joy, to lift other people up around me, and to do my best in my own way to end poverty. Now, I’m not responsible for ending poverty. I think we’re all responsible.”

— Cyan Banister

“When you start realizing Oh, I’m in a school, and all of these hard knocks in life are just lessons, you think about them very differently.”

— Cyan Banister

“We’re just a hair away from being crazy, every one of us.”

— Cyan Banister

“We apply a lot of our own perception to everything that everyone says around us. We make up stories that are fiction, and a lot of what people suffer with today are these stories, these narratives that we tell ourselves and one another, and I’ve just always felt like that something that someone said right now, it’s not a hard no. You know when you hear a hard no. I know the difference between an objection and I just have a rebuttal for it versus a hard no. And until it’s a hard no, there’s wiggle room to get something done. And so I’ve just always felt this, and it’s interesting that you ho[m]ed in on it, but it’s definitely been a guiding principle in my life, which is don’t give up. Just try different approaches. Maybe you didn’t ask the right way, or maybe you didn’t give the right incentives, or maybe it was Monday and they’re in a bad mood.”

— Cyan Banister

“My life has only been improved by taking myself out of the decision-making process, because I am the hindrance.”

— Cyan Banister

“We’re all in Earth school, and we inhabit human bodies, but we’re nothing but an energy force inside of them. And that life force does not dissipate, and it doesn’t go nowhere. It goes somewhere.”

— Cyan Banister

“You’re just sleepwalking through life. And the moment you take the reins and you become the narrator of your own story, and sometimes the captain, then that’s when it’s a transformational change.”

— Cyan Banister

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Mel

1 year ago

Loved this interview. Thank you both for putting this together! Finished it this afternoon and was reading book reviews in the WSJ – in an article title “The Call of the Climb” there is this quote “In the tradition of the gentleman adventurer, Aleister Crowley insisted in 1902 on bringing several large vellum-bound volumes of poetry up the slopes of K2. “I would rather bear physical starvation,” he said, “than intellectual starvation.””- prior to this podcast I would not have known who Aleister Crowley was – but now I do!

Jo Winchester

1 year ago

Gosh Tim, this episode was exactly what I needed to hear. I so appreciate all your guests, but as a queer neurodivergent woman, I have not always felt connected to the way your guests live in the world, but certainly many of Cyan’s reflections resonated. Would love more guests with this gender and sexuality expression please!
Can I recommend to you and Cyan the Australian play The Rivers of China, which has Gurdjieff as a character – which was where I first was introduced to his work and philosophy at the age of 17.
The story of how Cyan had come up with the name of their substack ‘Ugly Duckling’ had me crying like a baby. Certainly I have felt that I did not belong, until I found my Swans, which has only been in my mid 40s. Better late then never! Thanks for bringing Cyan into my world!

vince

1 year ago

Cyan is the dice woman: those interested in the topic (including Tim) should read the 1971 novel “The Dice Man” by Luke Rhinehart. He takes it to a whole other level!

Brenden

1 year ago

Reply to vince

This is what I came here to say. Spot on Vince. Tim, I challenge you to read the first chapter and put it down.

Extrapolating that ‘dice theory’ and holding it up to the candles of modern marketing and AI practices. We get precious few moments to do something different. Given that growth occurs outside of your comfort zone, every opportunity to extend yourself is an opportunity.

As Cyan mentioned throughout the podcast being receptive to art as a source of learning is majestic.

Look at our goals if we never stood in the
Cold we wouldn’t evolve

-Hilltop Hoods, I Love It.

Great podcast Tim and Cyan.

Char Rogg

1 year ago

I was genuinely surprised and delighted to hear Gurdjieff’s teachings discussed on the Tim Ferriss show. As someone who has studied his work for years, I had always viewed his philosophy as existing in a separate sphere from the tech and entrepreneurship world. However, listening to Cyan’s perspective on how she’s integrated these teachings into her life gave me valuable new insights into their universal applicability. While we may have different viewpoints on various topics, finding this unexpected common ground in our appreciation of Gurdjieff’s work was illuminating. It reminded me that profound connections can exist even among people with divergent worldviews. Thank you, Tim, for consistently bringing on guests who challenge and expand our perspectives. This is why I’ve remained such a loyal listener over the years.

Justin

1 year ago

As a photographer, Zivity really gave me a place to learn,network, and grow. I’ll forever be grateful to Cyan for the opportunity.

Clare B

1 year ago

I thoroughly enjoyed this wide ranging interview with yourself and Cyan. Thank you so much for sharing with us all.

I am absolutely going to buy myself a mini dice to wear. Such a great idea. I can only imagine the places it will take me.

Shaun Johnson

1 year ago

I loved this episode. I commented about it on YouTube, but I would love to know what company in SF sells the dice necklace that she showed on the podcast.

Her tenacity through everything she went through growing up to ultimately turn it all around to become a stellar person was incredible to follow along with — I couldn’t press pause on the pod. I would love to hear more about the in-between portion of her life as the podcast jumped from her being 15 and homeless to being an angel investor. I am not sure if that is something that will be part of her book or not, but I think her story deserves the big screen treatment. Just wonderful.

Thank you, Tim and Cyan!

Susan

1 year ago

Great episode, Cyan’s life story would be a great movie. Her resilience and innate grit to persevere are truly inspiring. Really insightful side bar topics of minimum wage, not what’s expected and really great points. Would like to understand more how a judge could be so uncaring. Her life really exposes societal gaps where young innocent people can get lost and overlooked by the “system “. Thank fully kindhearted people stepped in to keep her somewhat safe.

Chris

1 year ago

“The Boston spiritual experience” is one of the most delightful, funny, uplifting pieces of storytelling I’ve heard in a long time! Loved loved loved it thanks Cyan for telling it like it is… keep up the good work TIM FERRIS!

Donaldo

1 year ago

Great episode! Did I miss how she went from homeless to investor? Seems like we missed a big part of her story.

Judy P

11 months ago

“Do you know me?” is a memorable quote from this interview. She is really something. Enjoyed every last minute. Thanks for another informative, interesting and entertaining podcast. I think you have found your purpose in life.