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Tim Ferriss

Bill Gurley — Investing in the AI Era, 10 Days in China, and Important Life Lessons from Bob Dylan, Jerry Seinfeld, MrBeast, and More (#840)

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Bill Gurley (X: @bgurley) is a general partner at Benchmark, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Over his venture career, he has invested in and served on the boards of such companies as Nextdoor, OpenTable, Stitch Fix, Uber, and Zillow. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Florida and then his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. For more than two decades, Bill has written about technology and other subjects on his popular blog Above the Crowd and on his social media accounts.

His new book is Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Thrive in a Career You Actually Love.

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  • Momentous high-quality creatine for cognitive and muscular support
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Bill Gurley — Investing in The AI Era, 10 Days in China, and Important Life Lessons from Bob Dylan, Jerry Seinfeld, MrBeast, and More

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Transcripts

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

  • Connect with Bill Gurley:

Twitter | LinkedIn

Bill Gurley’s Past Podcast Appearances

Books

Relevant Media

People

Companies, Organizations, & Places

Technologies, Tools, & Products

Concepts & Terms

TIMESTAMPS

  • [00:00:00] Start.
  • [00:01:43] The book that gave Jerry Seinfeld permission to pursue comedy and inspired Runnin’ Down a Dream.
  • [00:03:59] AI bubble or not?
  • [00:06:33] Circular deals and SPV chaos.
  • [00:12:01] Angel investing in the AI era.
  • [00:14:32] Why you should be the most AI-enabled version of yourself, regardless of field.
  • [00:20:47] China deep dive: Ten days, six cities, high-speed trains, and a Xiaomi SU7 factory tour.
  • [00:22:43] Communism misconceptions.
  • [00:25:40] Lei Jun: The Steve Jobs of China.
  • [00:29:17] Jack Ma, ByteDance’s invisible CEO, and the risks of prominence in China.
  • [00:32:11] America vs. China (Lawyers vs. engineers).
  • [00:41:01] Keys for US competitiveness.
  • [00:43:47] Bill is bullish on these countries.
  • [00:47:30] Matthew McConaughey’s “Don’t half ass it” moment.
  • [00:49:45] Runnin’ Down a Dream thesis: Helping people pursue X instead of A, B, or C.
  • [00:51:03] The 80,000-hour question.
  • [00:52:47] The self-learning test.
  • [00:56:58] Bob Dylan as music expeditionary.
  • [01:00:27] Go to the epicenter where the action is.
  • [01:10:56] Danny Meyer’s pivot.
  • [01:13:30] Working for free.
  • [01:19:37] Never too late: Tito Beveridge started Tito’s Vodka at 40.
  • [01:21:51] AI sanity checks.
  • [01:25:59] AI-proof bets.
  • [01:29:13] Sam Hinkie’s Moneyball moment.
  • [01:32:37] Competitive strategy, avoiding false failures, and regret minimalization.
  • [01:43:46] Purpose, Progress, and Prosperity — the P3 Policy Institute.
  • [01:47:18] Regulatory capture explained.
  • [01:51:55] Why the IPO market is broken.
  • [02:01:52] Stablecoins putting Visa and Mastercard on notice.
  • [02:03:40] Hopes for Runnin’ Down a Dream and parting thoughts.

BILL GURLEY QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“I don’t care what field you’re in, you should be playing with this stuff. It has the potential to impact your role in your career, and the best way to protect against any risk of your career being obfuscated or eliminated from AI is to be the most AI-enabled version of yourself you can possibly be.”
— Bill Gurley

“Most people end up working 80,000 hours in their life. It’s a third of your life. Why do something you don’t like? There’s Gallup poll data on career engagement, and 59% of people say they’re not engaged at work.”
— Bill Gurley

“And I have this test for whether or not you’re actually truly passionate about what you’re trying to do, which is do you self-learn on your own time? Would you not watch Breaking Bad and read about this field and be energized by that activity?”
— Bill Gurley

“People think that a lot of success stories, they attribute it to luck, but there’s that famous saying: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” And when you’re in the epicenter, both your preparation and your opportunity go up 10X. And so your ability to just have that lucky moment where you get brought into something is so much higher.”
— Bill Gurley

“I think there’s only two tests, and one is trust. There are people in this world who view everything as a zero-sum game and they will elbow you out the first chance they can get. And so those shouldn’t be your peers. Those people you should quickly push to the side. Trust and then this shared interest in learning.”
— Bill Gurley

“I think that using open source as a defensive tool instead of an offensive tool is one of the most sophisticated corporate strategies a company can possibly do. It’s very hard to do because it goes against all of your instincts.”
— Bill Gurley

This episode is brought to you by Momentous high-quality creatine! I’ve long benefitted from creatine for athletic and gym performance, and now I’m increasing my daily intake to enjoy the cognitive benefits as well. A pilot study in Alzheimer’s patients demonstrated that supplementing can increase brain creatine levels in just 8 weeks, improving measures of memory, reasoning, and attention. And a double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that creatine can restore aspects of memory and attention within hours in adults who are sleep deprived. I use Momentous Creatine made with Creapure®, which is sourced from Germany and has the strictest lab standards to ensure it’s at least 99.9% pure. And try Momentous’s Creatine Chews—clean chewable tablets with 1 gram of Creapure® creatine per chew—and their whey protein isolate and magnesium threonate, all of which meet their same, exacting standards. Check out Momentous for yourself and get 35% off your first subscription order with code TIM at LiveMomentous.com/Tim. 

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This episode is brought to you by Our Place’s Titanium Always Pan® Pro! Many nonstick pans can release harmful “forever chemicals”—PFAS—into your food, your home, and, ultimately, your body. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to major health issues like gut microbiome disruption, testosterone dysregulation, and more, which have been correlated to chronic disease in the long term. This is why I use the Titanium Always Pan Pro from today’s sponsor, Our Place.  It’s the first nonstick pan with zero coating. This means zero “forever chemicals” and durability that will last a lifetime. Visit FromOurPlace.com/Tim and use code SAVE10TIM at checkout for 10% off your entire order. With a 100-day, risk-free trial, free shipping, and free returns, there’s zero risk in test-driving a great upgrade to your kitchen.

Want to hear more from the legendary investor (Uber, Zillow, OpenTable, and more)? Listen to my first conversation with Bill Gurley, in which we discussed investing rules and finding outliers, insights from Jeff Bezos and Howard Marks, must-read books for understanding business, open-source strategies as competitive weapons, why the minute you set a very hard rule you might be setting yourself up for a mistake, regulatory capture, and much more.

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Vishal
Vishal
14 days ago

This was a really great episode. I’ve learned a lot by listening to Bill Gurley over the years and think he’s one of the best “VC guys” out there.
I fully agree you have to “play with AI”in whatever field you’re working in and look forward to his book as I find myself in a turning point in my own career.

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