Mark Haney: Yes, this is Mark Haney's show on a mission
Mark Haney: to ignite the entrepreneurial revolution
Mark Haney: right here in the hometown.
Mark Haney: We love, and we do that by building the
Mark Haney: Backyard Advantage, the most connected
Mark Haney: community in the world for local
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs, and it's based around a
Mark Haney: culture of love, but it's soon going to be
Mark Haney: driven by artificial intelligence in many
Mark Haney: ways.
Mark Haney: And today on the show I have my partners in
Mark Haney: the Growth Factory, rick Spencer, who has
Mark Haney: today on the show.
Mark Haney: I have my partners in the growth factory,
Mark Haney: rick Spencer, who has been on the show
Mark Haney: before, and our newest partner, ali Makani,
Mark Haney: and these guys, well, I'm going to have
Mark Haney: them give a little bit of their background,
Mark Haney: but I'm going to set up the show.
Mark Haney: I think today's show is going to be
Mark Haney: interesting because these two gentlemen are
Mark Haney: brilliant.
Mark Haney: They both come from a tech background, but
Mark Haney: they're also right at the heart of venture
Mark Haney: capital as well, as we build out the growth
Mark Haney: factory.
Mark Haney: So it's an interesting concept to think
Mark Haney: about the overarching economy, where we are
Mark Haney: at as a country and all the different
Mark Haney: things that we are facing, and then where
Mark Haney: is technology and artificial intelligence
Mark Haney: and the amount of productivity that that
Mark Haney: technology brings, and it's the
Mark Haney: intersection for where venture capital fits
Mark Haney: in driving a lot of these solutions.
Mark Haney: So we're going to talk about those three
Mark Haney: subjects today, but before we get into it
Mark Haney: too deep, maybe I'll have Rick why don't
Mark Haney: you introduce yourself?
Mark Haney: And then we'll go to Ali and give you a
Mark Haney: little bit of your backgrounds and then
Mark Haney: I'll sort of try to lead this conversation.
Rick Spencer: Great.
Rick Spencer: Well, it's been a while since I've been on
Rick Spencer: the pod, Excited to be back.
Rick Spencer: As you know, we've been building the
Rick Spencer: backyard and approaching nearly 70
Rick Spencer: companies in the portfolio, seeing exits,
Rick Spencer: seeing great progress, and now we're
Rick Spencer: thinking about our next fund, fund 2.
Rick Spencer: We launched our first fund three and a half
Rick Spencer: years ago.
Rick Spencer: We launched the growth factory.
Rick Spencer: We created it from scratch and it really
Rick Spencer: was about how to build that community, how
Rick Spencer: to bring capital together in this region,
Rick Spencer: and you know, as you mentioned now, this
Rick Spencer: intersection of timing with technology, as
Rick Spencer: well as the culture and the community that
Rick Spencer: we built, really exciting.
Rick Spencer: And so, you know, as the managing partner
Rick Spencer: of the fund, I get to work with these
Rick Spencer: amazing founders day in and day out, and
Rick Spencer: from the beginning, we always said, look,
Rick Spencer: we can't predict the future.
Rick Spencer: The founders predict the future and we have
Rick Spencer: to bet on those founders.
Rick Spencer: And that is proving true, not only prior to
Rick Spencer: this AI boom, but in this AI boom.
Rick Spencer: We're betting on the right founders.
Rick Spencer: They're building the future and to be part
Rick Spencer: of that future is incredibly exciting.
Rick Spencer: And to bring on new partners that can help
Rick Spencer: us see the vision of not only how do we
Rick Spencer: choose those partners, but how do we think
Rick Spencer: as a firm, how do we change ourselves for
Rick Spencer: the future.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I'm thrilled and I'm pumped and I'm
Rick Spencer: ready to do it.
Mark Haney: Super excited about it.
Mark Haney: So, ali, why don't we have you do your
Mark Haney: background a little bit, and then we'll
Mark Haney: sort of incorporate the three of us into
Mark Haney: this conversation?
Ali Mackani: Well, thank you for having me.
Ali Mackani: It's awesome to be here.
Ali Mackani: I think this is my first actual podcast.
Mark Haney: Oh, let's break you in.
Ali Mackani: There you go.
Ali Mackani: I try not to make too many mistakes or too
Ali Mackani: many predictions.
Ali Mackani: That may not be true down the line, but
Ali Mackani: it's great to be here.
Ali Mackani: I think it's an exciting time in regards to
Ali Mackani: entrepreneurs building and venture
Ali Mackani: investing.
Ali Mackani: So I've been on the other side for a long
Ali Mackani: time as an entrepreneur.
Ali Mackani: I have now six startups that I've been
Ali Mackani: involved in, fortunate enough to go through
Ali Mackani: that experience of up and down of building
Ali Mackani: a company, growing it, learning failing.
Ali Mackani: Up and down of building a company, growing
Ali Mackani: it, learning, failing.
Ali Mackani: But as I reflect back on the companies that
Ali Mackani: I've built in the past and think about how
Ali Mackani: AI could have really changed the trajectory
Ali Mackani: of those companies or how we could have
Ali Mackani: solved problems that we could only do now
Ali Mackani: because of the solutions that are available,
Ali Mackani: and not only, it's a great reflection to go
Ali Mackani: back and think about it.
Ali Mackani: But then you think about what if we could
Ali Mackani: do that?
Ali Mackani: How do we do that?
Ali Mackani: Why would we do it?
Ali Mackani: And I think it's an exciting time to look
Ali Mackani: at how do we invest, how do we be smarter
Ali Mackani: in the investment process?
Ali Mackani: But then, once we do invest, how do we
Ali Mackani: ensure that we're seeing around the corner?
Ali Mackani: How do we see the white space that allows
Ali Mackani: us to help our founders, our builders, to
Ali Mackani: build.
Mark Haney: And you know what the art of investment
Mark Haney: comes with art of pivot.
Mark Haney: How fast can they pivot to get closer to
Mark Haney: what eventually be the product that they
Mark Haney: find the market for it?
Mark Haney: So it's exciting times and I'm proud to be
Mark Haney: part of this team and excited about what
Mark Haney: we're going to build, moving forward as far
Mark Haney: as Fund2 goes.
Mark Haney: So thank you for having me, well welcome,
Mark Haney: and I'm going to set up the conversation
Mark Haney: with my overarching thesis about
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs being the heroes of the
Mark Haney: American economy.
Mark Haney: They solve the world's biggest problems,
Mark Haney: they create opportunity and they figure out
Mark Haney: a way to change the world and they take a
Mark Haney: lot of risk, and so I really have
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs up there on a pedestal as
Mark Haney: somebody that I look up to and I'm really
Mark Haney: inspired to be around entrepreneurs.
Mark Haney: But a lot of that is because of really what
Mark Haney: they're doing for the world and our country
Mark Haney: specifically, and I watch a lot of these TV
Mark Haney: shows around the economy CNBC and there's a
Mark Haney: lot of noise out there and there's so many
Mark Haney: moving parts to what's happening in our
Mark Haney: economy now that it's easy to be frightened.
Mark Haney: Right, you have talk about tariffs, you've
Mark Haney: got inflation and interest rates going up,
Mark Haney: you've got wars, geopolitical unrest,
Mark Haney: people are worried about the strength of
Mark Haney: the consumer.
Mark Haney: And now there's this big, beautiful bill
Mark Haney: that may or may not pass and, you know, are
Mark Haney: the Trump tax cuts going to stay in place,
Mark Haney: and many, many more moving parts to what
Mark Haney: might trigger different things that are
Mark Haney: happening in the economy.
Mark Haney: But I think the overarching issue that the
Mark Haney: US faces is this debt that we're in.
Mark Haney: We have $36 trillion in debt and growing
Mark Haney: $36 trillion plus, and we're adding a
Mark Haney: couple trillion to that every year in
Mark Haney: deficit spending, and it doesn't look like
Mark Haney: we're going to get that under control with
Mark Haney: this new bill.
Mark Haney: And so what are we going to do?
Mark Haney: Like we're going to get that under control
Mark Haney: with this new bill, and so what are we
Mark Haney: going to do?
Mark Haney: We're going to continue to print some money
Mark Haney: and see interest rates tick up is what a
Mark Haney: lot of people predict, and nobody knows the
Mark Haney: future for sure.
Mark Haney: But when I say that entrepreneurs are the
Mark Haney: heroes of the American economy, one of the
Mark Haney: things that they do is they build better
Mark Haney: mousetraps and they drive efficiency.
Mark Haney: So, as we think about you know how we're
Mark Haney: going to, you know, raise more money with
Mark Haney: the federal government through taxes.
Mark Haney: If we're going to keep taxes low, it means
Mark Haney: we're going to have more profits at the
Mark Haney: corporate level and you know, overall we
Mark Haney: have to drive more profits so that we pay a
Mark Haney: little bit more in tax and we can make up
Mark Haney: and maybe get this spending issues under
Mark Haney: control and basically grow our way out of
Mark Haney: this situation that we've got ourselves
Mark Haney: into.
Mark Haney: To get you guys' perspective on that issue,
Mark Haney: am I overstating the possibilities of what
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship is going to be able to do
Mark Haney: for our country?
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I mean I'm going to set this up for
Rick Spencer: Ali a little bit, because he's been
Rick Spencer: thinking deeply about, you know, this idea
Rick Spencer: of venture science and you're exactly right
Rick Spencer: with you know, historically, entrepreneurs
Rick Spencer: being the heroes of the American economy
Rick Spencer: and they will be in the future as well.
Rick Spencer: I think when you talk about, like a better
Rick Spencer: mousetrap, some of that derivative thinking,
Rick Spencer: I think where we're at now and it is easy
Rick Spencer: to get distracted with all the noise of
Rick Spencer: things that are, you know, incrementally
Rick Spencer: changing the economy and, you know, not
Rick Spencer: having the impact that you know AI and
Rick Spencer: technology has the potential to have and so
Rick Spencer: when I think about it, I think, like this
Rick Spencer: moment in time, we're building a new future.
Rick Spencer: It's not derivative thinking, right, and
Rick Spencer: these entrepreneurs have to be trained and
Rick Spencer: have the tools to build that new future,
Rick Spencer: which is not just capital, right, it can't
Rick Spencer: just be the same as before.
Rick Spencer: And I think about this personally a lot too,
Rick Spencer: because I think about my daughter's 14 and
Rick Spencer: I talked she just turned 14 and I say I
Rick Spencer: don't know if you're ever gonna have a
Rick Spencer: driver's license, I don't know if you'll
Rick Spencer: have to have one, right like when that
Rick Spencer: conversation hasn't happened before.
Rick Spencer: Right like I don't know.
Rick Spencer: And your daughter's 14 yeah, she's just
Rick Spencer: yeah, just turned 14.
Mark Haney: I mean, yeah, in four years you know how
Mark Haney: many years before she's got a self-driving
Mark Haney: car In two years maybe we say why do you
Mark Haney: need a driver's license?
Rick Spencer: Don't worry about it, I don't know, right,
Rick Spencer: right, but we've never had that
Rick Spencer: conversation.
Rick Spencer: Right, when I talk about where are we going
Rick Spencer: to need and the things that we think about,
Rick Spencer: I think about her learning experience Will
Rick Spencer: you have teachers or will you be have your
Rick Spencer: own teacher?
Rick Spencer: That is AI that learns you and teaches you.
Rick Spencer: Right, we have not had these conversations
Rick Spencer: before and I share that just because it's
Rick Spencer: easy to tell those personal stories.
Rick Spencer: And then I think about the founders, who
Rick Spencer: we're investing into, who we want to invest
Rick Spencer: into the things that we want to build.
Rick Spencer: And we're not just building more companies,
Rick Spencer: we're building the future, and I think that
Rick Spencer: requires more of a system science
Rick Spencer: methodology that still takes that grit and
Rick Spencer: that passion, that courage, but is not just
Rick Spencer: capital and let's get lucky, right, there
Rick Spencer: is this mashup of building that future.
Rick Spencer: To me, that are these foundation of tools,
Rick Spencer: this foundation of community and this
Rick Spencer: timing that creates that future.
Rick Spencer: And so maybe, ali, you want to share a
Rick Spencer: little bit about how we've been thinking
Rick Spencer: about that and how that helps today.
Rick Spencer: And then, maybe, in five years, what does
Rick Spencer: that look like for entrepreneurs?
Ali Mackani: Yeah, I mean it's kind of interesting
Ali Mackani: listening to the way you explain your
Ali Mackani: daughter's potential for the future, right,
Ali Mackani: and that's you know.
Ali Mackani: You think back or you know when we were 14,
Ali Mackani: like if, imagine you know I was my first
Ali Mackani: year in the United States, or not, like,
Ali Mackani: imagine when you were 14 and what you were
Ali Mackani: doing, right.
Mark Haney: I was driving by the way.
Ali Mackani: That's right, that's right so and and
Ali Mackani: imagine the progress that we lived over the
Ali Mackani: last you know, 35, 40 years, right, and how
Ali Mackani: the last five years have accelerated the
Ali Mackani: change.
Ali Mackani: The multiplier in change has been amazing
Ali Mackani: and I could only imagine what the next five
Ali Mackani: years is gonna look like.
Ali Mackani: You know, you talk about not needing a
Ali Mackani: driver's license.
Ali Mackani: You know I'm going well, she's gonna fly to
Ali Mackani: go to her first day at college in a
Ali Mackani: personal flying vehicle.
Ali Mackani: That's a reality in five years, when she's
Ali Mackani: ready to college, she has that option,
Ali Mackani: right.
Ali Mackani: So when we think about venture and how do
Ali Mackani: we empower these heroes, as you mentioned,
Ali Mackani: as entrepreneurs, they need better tools.
Ali Mackani: We need better tools, which means that we
Ali Mackani: have to be more deliberate on how we source
Ali Mackani: and then, beyond sourcing, how do we
Ali Mackani: actually validate and how do we create
Ali Mackani: opportunities for these entrepreneurs to be
Ali Mackani: able to move faster than the change in
Ali Mackani: technology?
Ali Mackani: Because the multiplier is really hard right
Ali Mackani: now to keep up.
Ali Mackani: So if we decide to invest in something and
Ali Mackani: we predict that in 12 months is gonna do
Ali Mackani: this, we're wrong because the change is
Ali Mackani: faster than what we can predict and in
Ali Mackani: order for us to meet the demand and the
Ali Mackani: change in the industry and support our
Ali Mackani: entrepreneurs, we believe you know that we
Ali Mackani: have to take a different approach.
Ali Mackani: So what is the approach?
Ali Mackani: The first approach is we really have to be
Ali Mackani: testing it differently.
Ali Mackani: We should validate it differently and we
Ali Mackani: should be ready to pivot much faster.
Ali Mackani: And our entrepreneurs need to have that
Ali Mackani: type of a system around them as builders to
Ali Mackani: be able to test, remove the bias and only
Ali Mackani: move forward when you actually have
Ali Mackani: indicators, the signals that are true
Ali Mackani: signals, not gut feel right.
Ali Mackani: So I've been on both sides of this now and
Ali Mackani: as entrepreneurs, we kind of get into this
Ali Mackani: mode of if I just have three more months or
Ali Mackani: if I have one more million, right, but I
Ali Mackani: think on the investor side we're more on.
Ali Mackani: Do I like this founder?
Ali Mackani: Do we think the team is good?
Ali Mackani: You know, I think those are all great and
Ali Mackani: it has worked for the last 30, 40 years.
Ali Mackani: I think things need to change and that's
Ali Mackani: where the venture science as a playbook
Ali Mackani: should become a way for us to at least do a
Ali Mackani: better job of identifying what the problem
Ali Mackani: is, how are we going to solve it and how
Ali Mackani: we're going to truly measure it.
Ali Mackani: So that's kind of the framework of the
Ali Mackani: venture science that I think will allow us
Ali Mackani: to do a much better job, much faster job
Ali Mackani: and hopefully because of that that we are
Ali Mackani: returning a much higher return to our
Ali Mackani: investors, right?
Ali Mackani: So that's kind of how I think about the
Ali Mackani: venture.
Mark Haney: Science will play in a role in what we're
Mark Haney: going to do in the future so, of course,
Mark Haney: venture capital, like every industry, is
Mark Haney: going to be utilizing AI and using
Mark Haney: technology to get better and do it better.
Mark Haney: So let's dive into that in a second.
Mark Haney: But what industries are going to be, I'd
Mark Haney: say, the first adopters?
Mark Haney: You talked a little bit about education,
Mark Haney: transportation.
Mark Haney: Where else are we seeing AI adopted more
Mark Haney: early?
Mark Haney: Because I know we're investing into these
Mark Haney: companies at the startup level and I can
Mark Haney: tell you that I haven't even Googled
Mark Haney: anything in months.
Mark Haney: It's been.
Mark Haney: You know I'm, I'm using uh, you know I'm
Mark Haney: using the chat, gpt or something else.
Mark Haney: So which industries are getting disrupted
Mark Haney: and where do we want to, I guess, be
Mark Haney: focused?
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I think disruption is the key word,
Rick Spencer: right?
Rick Spencer: So I think every industry needs to have an
Rick Spencer: AI strategy.
Rick Spencer: You know, if they don't, they're going to
Rick Spencer: get beat by their competition, right?
Rick Spencer: So it's not optional anymore, it's
Rick Spencer: necessary the ones that can truly be
Rick Spencer: disrupted.
Rick Spencer: We still don't know that yet, but you know
Rick Spencer: some of the early things we see when it
Rick Spencer: comes to life sciences, and you know new
Rick Spencer: medicine for the future, right, like?
Rick Spencer: We have a company called Symphony in our
Rick Spencer: portfolio that's looking to take all this
Rick Spencer: virus data and predict future vaccines,
Rick Spencer: right?
Rick Spencer: So you think about that.
Rick Spencer: That's been reactive Vaccines, the flu
Rick Spencer: vaccine, for example.
Rick Spencer: They wait, they see what the predominant
Rick Spencer: strand is, they develop that.
Rick Spencer: And why do you get one every year?
Rick Spencer: It's because it changes, right.
Rick Spencer: It modifies, it mutates, and so what if you
Rick Spencer: could have a vaccine developing for where
Rick Spencer: you see that the virus is going?
Rick Spencer: So you have the vaccine ready for two years
Rick Spencer: out and as soon as that mutation happens,
Rick Spencer: it's ready, it's in, it's in in.
Rick Spencer: You know inventory if there's a
Rick Spencer: distribution plan, all those things I mean
Rick Spencer: that fundamental change you know would be
Rick Spencer: massive for the economy for the health for
Rick Spencer: the prosperity of the US and I think
Rick Spencer: similarly with even just health care in
Rick Spencer: general.
Rick Spencer: Right, like.
Rick Spencer: Will you have a doctor in the future?
Rick Spencer: Right, will you go to a doctor's?
Rick Spencer: Like.
Rick Spencer: Will you have a doctor in the future?
Rick Spencer: Right, will you go to a doctor's office or
Rick Spencer: will you have your own personal assistant
Rick Spencer: in your pocket and you ask them questions.
Rick Spencer: The tests come to your house.
Rick Spencer: You never go to a doctor's office again.
Rick Spencer: Right, like.
Rick Spencer: Never before have we thought that is
Rick Spencer: possible right.
Rick Spencer: And so some of that is technology, some of
Rick Spencer: that is the disruption of the standard way
Rick Spencer: that businesses work Healthcare is a great
Rick Spencer: example of we have so much infrastructure
Rick Spencer: around medical billing and insurance and
Rick Spencer: all these things, and so that is one of the
Rick Spencer: things I think about, which is which of
Rick Spencer: these industries will drag down the
Rick Spencer: innovation because of the infrastructure
Rick Spencer: and the thinking that they have and the
Rick Spencer: mental model that requires a change okay um,
Rick Spencer: and that same with you can look at military
Rick Spencer: right, like so many.
Rick Spencer: So I don't know what you think, ali, but I
Rick Spencer: always think about, like, where are these
Rick Spencer: industry?
Rick Spencer: You know there's both, I think, a maturity,
Rick Spencer: but also who's going to disrupt, right,
Rick Spencer: like you?
Rick Spencer: Look at Elon Musk, right, and how many
Rick Spencer: things you know.
Rick Spencer: Whether you like him or you're not, you
Rick Spencer: don't, right, like the disruption he has
Rick Spencer: introduced.
Rick Spencer: Spacex is a great example, right, a
Rick Spencer: historically slow, bureaucratic aerospace
Rick Spencer: industry that was mainly government driven,
Rick Spencer: and now the government is relying on his
Rick Spencer: spaceships to manage the international
Rick Spencer: space station.
Rick Spencer: Right?
Rick Spencer: If you would have asked someone at nasa 30
Rick Spencer: years ago, do you think a private company
Rick Spencer: can come in and build a spaceship in a way
Rick Spencer: that's reliable and that we would use to
Rick Spencer: operate our in-house?
Rick Spencer: Everyone would have said no, no way, never
Rick Spencer: gonna happen.
Rick Spencer: Right?
Rick Spencer: So you know that's.
Rick Spencer: A big part of it is that you either have a
Rick Spencer: disruptor that you know has the ability to
Rick Spencer: change an industry, um, or you have
Rick Spencer: industries that are maturing and are more
Rick Spencer: ready for change okay, wally, you want to
Rick Spencer: comment?
Ali Mackani: I would say that I mean, we don't know how
Ali Mackani: AI is gonna change.
Ali Mackani: I think there's a lot of opinions and we
Ali Mackani: see it.
Ali Mackani: We have now, in just less than 18 months,
Ali Mackani: for most people, their vocabulary has
Ali Mackani: changed.
Ali Mackani: How we conduct our family business around,
Ali Mackani: ai has changed.
Ali Mackani: You know how AI has changed how we manage
Ali Mackani: our family dealings.
Ali Mackani: So I think we're in a kind of a time
Ali Mackani: capsule that it's going to be interesting
Ali Mackani: to look back.
Ali Mackani: And you know, for me, the sad part about
Ali Mackani: this is well, the great part is I'm living
Ali Mackani: in it, right?
Ali Mackani: The sad part is that will I be here 50
Ali Mackani: years from now to reflect back, to go?
Ali Mackani: We were in that time, right?
Ali Mackani: So I think that we are in a crossroad of
Ali Mackani: technology impacting humanity like no other
Ali Mackani: technology change in the history of
Ali Mackani: humanity, right?
Ali Mackani: So I believe that we will see significant
Ali Mackani: changes when we're thinking about
Ali Mackani: productivity.
Ali Mackani: I believe AI will change how we experience
Ali Mackani: things.
Ali Mackani: You mentioned it.
Ali Mackani: I haven't Googled in, you know, but I'm
Ali Mackani: like AI is going to make you do things that
Ali Mackani: you're like, oh my God, what do you mean?
Ali Mackani: I don't have to do that anymore, right?
Ali Mackani: So I think it's really going to change how
Ali Mackani: we operate.
Ali Mackani: So I can't tell you this is the industry or
Ali Mackani: this is how it's going to really change,
Ali Mackani: because it's going to change everything.
Ali Mackani: I imagine how we watch TV in a few years is
Ali Mackani: going to be changed.
Ali Mackani: We're not going to be bound to a screen
Ali Mackani: anymore, because AI is going to enable us
Ali Mackani: to have experiences in ways that we could
Ali Mackani: only imagine or we thought in movies that
Ali Mackani: those would never be a reality in our time
Ali Mackani: frame.
Ali Mackani: So we're going to see a lot of change and
Ali Mackani: we just have to be open to it and
Ali Mackani: experience, experiment and experience it,
Ali Mackani: experience, experiment and experience it.
Mark Haney: I feel like we're seeing like centuries of,
Mark Haney: or about to see centuries of technological
Mark Haney: improvement in decades.
Mark Haney: Right, it's just happening so fast.
Mark Haney: Just an incredible.
Mark Haney: I'm excited to be alive right now and
Mark Haney: excited to be, I guess, at the heartbeat of
Mark Haney: where a lot of this stuff is happening, be
Mark Haney: around these startups and around the
Mark Haney: technology.
Mark Haney: As a non-tech guy, it's really interesting
Mark Haney: to be up close and personal with a lot of
Mark Haney: these companies, but one of the things that
Mark Haney: we're seeing in real time with a lot of
Mark Haney: companies is people are using AI to augment
Mark Haney: their workforce.
Mark Haney: I haven't seen it really replacing a lot of
Mark Haney: jobs yet or eliminating a lot of jobs, even
Mark Haney: though there's a lot of people that fear
Mark Haney: that that's coming.
Mark Haney: But how would you envision companies
Mark Haney: becoming more productive because they have
Mark Haney: AI agents or AI agents managing AI agents
Mark Haney: and swarms of agents really driving things
Mark Haney: that really maybe changing the way we do a
Mark Haney: call center or changed?
Mark Haney: I heard Amazon is spending $200 billion on
Mark Haney: AI for their logistics and factories, so
Mark Haney: it's like wow, the investment is coming at
Mark Haney: the big company level and a lot of these
Mark Haney: small companies are at the heart of the
Mark Haney: innovation.
Mark Haney: Yeah.
Rick Spencer: We have a company, our portfolio, called
Rick Spencer: Hulu, and so they deploy AI agents to do
Rick Spencer: mundane, repeatable tasks, and this is, you
Rick Spencer: know, one of the core things that their
Rick Spencer: customers reveal.
Rick Spencer: So, like they're having a lot of progress
Rick Spencer: with banks and you know, banks are
Rick Spencer: notorious for not being innovative right,
Rick Spencer: there's a lot of just moving around paper
Rick Spencer: and moving around data, not actually
Rick Spencer: driving value, and so you think of a bank
Rick Spencer: that wants to have better relationships
Rick Spencer: with their clients.
Rick Spencer: They want to know their clients more, they
Rick Spencer: want to have used data and have better
Rick Spencer: intelligence.
Rick Spencer: So now you can take that person who 50% of
Rick Spencer: their job is just emailing PDFs and
Rick Spencer: tracking PDFs right.
Rick Spencer: Like that exists, and if you can change
Rick Spencer: that to an AI agent and that person, now
Rick Spencer: you can say call the customer and figure
Rick Spencer: out their pain points, go, research this
Rick Spencer: and use that data to inform our customers
Rick Spencer: so they can build better businesses, right?
Rick Spencer: So that's a very simple example of a bank
Rick Spencer: that can improve their deposits the same
Rick Spencer: personnel, but their business changes.
Rick Spencer: They improve their deposits, they have
Rick Spencer: longer relationships with their customers.
Rick Spencer: Right, I mean meaningful change applying AI.
Rick Spencer: And I think those are the examples where
Rick Spencer: it's everyone.
Rick Spencer: Most people worry about oh, if that task is
Rick Spencer: eliminated, that person is eliminated, and
Rick Spencer: not about what does that person learn to do
Rick Spencer: next?
Rick Spencer: Right, we stop and say this is going away.
Rick Spencer: We don't say and what do they do next?
Rick Spencer: And that's where we have to be thinking,
Rick Spencer: not only as companies responding to AI, but
Rick Spencer: as entrepreneurs what do we do next?
Rick Spencer: What do we do next?
Rick Spencer: And so that's why I think we have to, even
Rick Spencer: with entrepreneurs, get them to think
Rick Spencer: differently, because traditionally,
Rick Spencer: entrepreneurs have been saying, oh, I found
Rick Spencer: a problem, let me build a solution, but is
Rick Spencer: that solution?
Rick Spencer: You know, ai is moving so quickly, we don't
Rick Spencer: know if that solution is gonna be viable in
Rick Spencer: three months, six months, nine months, and
Rick Spencer: so you know that's a really, I think,
Rick Spencer: important mindset, not only for companies
Rick Spencer: but for entrepreneurs.
Ali Mackani: I would say venture has to change how it
Ali Mackani: thinks as well.
Ali Mackani: If we're seeing founders and startups
Ali Mackani: accelerate how they built and we demand
Ali Mackani: them to go faster because AI right.
Ali Mackani: If we think about the narrative of how AI
Ali Mackani: has played in a venture role, we're putting
Ali Mackani: these pressure on our founders that says,
Ali Mackani: oh, two founders and AI should build a
Ali Mackani: billion dollar company in 12 months.
Ali Mackani: So if that's the kind of North Star that
Ali Mackani: we're setting up for what the future AI and
Ali Mackani: startups going to be, how is venture
Ali Mackani: thinking about keeping up with that venture?
Ali Mackani: Thinking about keeping up with that?
Ali Mackani: Right?
Ali Mackani: How's venture looking at AI to say how am I
Ali Mackani: going to run my business?
Ali Mackani: Not investment, yeah, we have to invest in
Ali Mackani: it, but how do we run our business, the
Ali Mackani: business of venture, the principal
Ali Mackani: operating system of venture that AI allows
Ali Mackani: us to accelerate.
Ali Mackani: When founders now building product using
Ali Mackani: these vibe coding systems and AI driven
Ali Mackani: solution, how are we going to do the
Ali Mackani: diligence on that?
Ali Mackani: How is venture going to come up with
Ali Mackani: solutions?
Ali Mackani: To start thinking about AI-built solution
Ali Mackani: and validation of that?
Ali Mackani: Not only should, but how can it change the
Ali Mackani: trajectory of our success by having it at
Ali Mackani: the fabric level of our operation?
Ali Mackani: Right, and that's how I think about AI will
Ali Mackani: impacting us, enabling our entrepreneurs
Ali Mackani: moving forward.
Mark Haney: Interesting.
Mark Haney: So, as I think about us, we're building the
Mark Haney: backyard advantage right the most connected
Mark Haney: community in the world centered around this
Mark Haney: culture of love.
Mark Haney: I talk about it all the time, but a lot of
Mark Haney: that is engineering wins.
Mark Haney: So we make helpful connections, meaningful
Mark Haney: connections, to drive positive outcomes.
Mark Haney: We help people get to third base a lot.
Mark Haney: You, rick both of you do a tremendous job
Mark Haney: of bringing people together to solve
Mark Haney: problems through introductions.
Mark Haney: So now my question of us is how do we use
Mark Haney: AI and technology to be a force multiplier
Mark Haney: for this tribe that we built?
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I think it goes back to some of the
Rick Spencer: things I was saying about preparing the
Rick Spencer: entrepreneurs, right, and so one of the
Rick Spencer: things that we do well with this
Rick Spencer: engineering of wins is, you know, it's not
Rick Spencer: just, oh, let me email this person and
Rick Spencer: connect them.
Rick Spencer: It's no having a conversation with the
Rick Spencer: founder saying, let me educate you on who
Rick Spencer: this person is, let me give you the
Rick Spencer: questions that you need to ask.
Rick Spencer: Let's talk about your objectives, right,
Rick Spencer: and so there's a lot the way that we do it.
Rick Spencer: There's a lot more that goes into just, you
Rick Spencer: know, giving someone a business card, right,
Rick Spencer: and AI will only help us do that more where
Rick Spencer: we can say, look, you know, these are the
Rick Spencer: prompts.
Rick Spencer: You need to go, use our engine.
Rick Spencer: You need to create the report that you're
Rick Spencer: gonna use for that meeting.
Rick Spencer: You're going to need to set up your
Rick Spencer: objectives, right.
Rick Spencer: I mean, this is like where it changes
Rick Spencer: everything is that it's that you're going
Rick Spencer: to use for that meeting.
Rick Spencer: You're going to need to set up your
Rick Spencer: objectives, right.
Rick Spencer: I mean, this is like where it changes
Rick Spencer: everything is that it's not cold calling,
Rick Spencer: where you're like, hey, let me just keep
Rick Spencer: dialing and hopefully I get lucky right,
Rick Spencer: and yeah, I have a script, but a lot of
Rick Spencer: this is did I catch this person in the
Rick Spencer: right mood?
Rick Spencer: You know all those things.
Rick Spencer: It's like no, the level of planning and
Rick Spencer: preparedness that you can have.
Rick Spencer: I mean, think of like an athlete, right?
Rick Spencer: I mean now athletics has changed so much
Rick Spencer: with the data that you have and how
Rick Spencer: athletes prepare, entrepreneurs have to
Rick Spencer: prepare the same way, and so, as we think
Rick Spencer: about our future and what we're building,
Rick Spencer: it's like how do we educate the
Rick Spencer: entrepreneurs, prepare the entrepreneurs
Rick Spencer: and give the entrepreneurs the best chance
Rick Spencer: of succeeding?
Rick Spencer: And when we talk about de-risking in
Rick Spencer: venture, yeah, how do we reduce that risk?
Rick Spencer: Where it's like, oh, don't just call on.
Rick Spencer: You know SMUD, you know you need to be
Rick Spencer: prepared for that meeting and this is how
Rick Spencer: you prepare, yeah, and not only for the
Rick Spencer: first meeting, but every you know
Rick Spencer: subsequent meeting and and and getting the
Rick Spencer: contract right.
Rick Spencer: Every you know subsequent meeting and
Rick Spencer: getting the contract right and you know,
Rick Spencer: using the right way to deploy, right, like
Rick Spencer: the whole plan.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I think about you.
Mark Haney: The word data has come up a couple of times
Mark Haney: already in this conversation.
Mark Haney: I think you talked about it with the
Mark Haney: vaccine company, you talked about it with
Mark Haney: you know just now, and I think about these
Mark Haney: pockets of data that are, I guess,
Mark Haney: proprietary in nature.
Mark Haney: And then there's obviously the data that's
Mark Haney: out there, that's available to everybody.
Mark Haney: But identifying those pockets of data that
Mark Haney: we have unique access to or somebody has
Mark Haney: unique access to, and how to bring that
Mark Haney: together for a solution, solution yeah, I
Mark Haney: mean, I think you're hitting the nail right
Mark Haney: on the head is that it's about that data,
Mark Haney: that information, right?
Ali Mackani: So when we think about how are we going to
Ali Mackani: leverage AI as part of our operation, we
Ali Mackani: think about it you know, we call it
Ali Mackani: VentureOS and it's about how we
Ali Mackani: systematically understand every interaction.
Ali Mackani: To me, every interaction is a data, and how
Ali Mackani: do we capture that, how do we analyze it,
Ali Mackani: how do we create the patterns out of it and
Ali Mackani: how do we make it part of our decision
Ali Mackani: making?
Ali Mackani: I think, when you think about venture and
Ali Mackani: as you put it, Rick, how are we going to
Ali Mackani: prepare our founders to take advantage of
Ali Mackani: every opportunity and it's not just a
Ali Mackani: business card, but it is a plan we have to
Ali Mackani: have a system that allows to do that.
Ali Mackani: We're not talking about AI as a tool.
Ali Mackani: We're not talking about uploading a deck in
Ali Mackani: ChatGTP and say what should I do with this?
Ali Mackani: Right?
Ali Mackani: We're talking about that the fabric of
Ali Mackani: understanding data from not only the
Ali Mackani: ingestion part of it, but the extraction,
Ali Mackani: to be able to have the truth of the matter
Ali Mackani: that you it's in front of you that you need
Ali Mackani: to make a decision, right?
Ali Mackani: I think, in a traditional way of venture.
Ali Mackani: We rely on CRMs and Excel spreadsheets and
Ali Mackani: the general partner's memory and their past
Ali Mackani: success right.
Ali Mackani: I think, as we're accelerating, we need to
Ali Mackani: augment all that with data, which is facts,
Ali Mackani: truth, predictions, modeling and be able to
Ali Mackani: understand the opportunities much faster
Ali Mackani: and at a much greater depth and levels.
Ali Mackani: And that's where our philosophy around how
Ali Mackani: do we run our business on AI and how do we
Ali Mackani: have an OS that helps us to ensure that not
Ali Mackani: only we understand the opportunities that's
Ali Mackani: in front of us and the growth trajectory
Ali Mackani: that it could have, but all the other
Ali Mackani: things that we decided to pass on?
Ali Mackani: Where are they now?
Ali Mackani: Why did we pass on them?
Ali Mackani: How do we learn from that?
Ali Mackani: So next time we're trying to invest, we had
Ali Mackani: good enough loopback feed from our
Ali Mackani: activities, our investments, our founders,
Ali Mackani: their pivots, their opportunities to learn
Ali Mackani: faster and better in how we do our job next
Ali Mackani: time that there is a deck in front of us
Ali Mackani: that we have to evaluate.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, and I think that just kind of
Rick Spencer: continuing on the data theme, two things is
Rick Spencer: moving.
Rick Spencer: You know we need awareness and education,
Rick Spencer: which the data can help with.
Rick Spencer: But then there's the preparation, right.
Rick Spencer: So imagine, you know, one of our portfolio
Rick Spencer: companies is preparing for a big pitch to
Rick Spencer: Google and they've got their plan and their
Rick Spencer: ideas and we said, hey, we've created a
Rick Spencer: simulation for you.
Rick Spencer: Now, you don't just like the athlete thing,
Rick Spencer: you don't just show up to the game and you
Rick Spencer: don't have any reps, right, they've, we've,
Rick Spencer: we've created a scenario and they're
Rick Spencer: actually going to practice three scenarios.
Rick Spencer: And so now they go into that meeting with
Rick Spencer: Google and they're prepared.
Rick Spencer: They're not just educated and aware, but
Rick Spencer: they've actually pitched the AI model three
Rick Spencer: different ways, based on three scenarios,
Rick Spencer: and they've learned from that.
Rick Spencer: And so now, going into that meeting,
Rick Spencer: they're ready, right, more ready than they
Rick Spencer: would be.
Rick Spencer: And so, moving from awareness, education to
Rick Spencer: preparedness, and then to Ali's point, the
Rick Spencer: other thing, specifically with data and
Rick Spencer: venture, is all this IP right.
Rick Spencer: Venture is very much you know invest or
Rick Spencer: pass, and when you pass, you know, it just
Rick Spencer: kind of goes away.
Rick Spencer: Right, we're not tracking those things,
Rick Spencer: we're not thinking about those things,
Rick Spencer: right.
Rick Spencer: But what if we said you know, oh hey, we're
Rick Spencer: looking at this company and or we invested
Rick Spencer: in this company and they need to go to the
Rick Spencer: next level.
Rick Spencer: Didn't we hear it?
Rick Spencer: We try to do that as humans now and connect
Rick Spencer: the dots.
Rick Spencer: Didn't we hear about a company like this?
Rick Spencer: Could we do this, could we do that?
Rick Spencer: But what if it gave us the game plan?
Rick Spencer: and said hey, this is your portfolio
Rick Spencer: company.
Rick Spencer: They need to get here.
Rick Spencer: You, three years ago, saw this company and
Rick Spencer: you also saw this founder.
Rick Spencer: And if you got that founder and that IP and
Rick Spencer: you applied it to this company, here's your
Rick Spencer: projected return.
Rick Spencer: Right Now we're talking a whole different
Rick Spencer: level.
Ali Mackani: That's right, yeah, and I'll just add that
Ali Mackani: I think it should.
Ali Mackani: If it's not already a demand, it will be a
Ali Mackani: demand of our LPs that how are we thinking
Ali Mackani: about, you know, quicker return, higher
Ali Mackani: returns, right?
Ali Mackani: I mean, there's no you know, mystery in
Ali Mackani: that the last 10 years has been, you know,
Ali Mackani: a kind of a challenging venture time in
Ali Mackani: regards to exits and returns, and that
Ali Mackani: demand will be upon the VC industry to go.
Ali Mackani: How can we, you know, move faster and how
Ali Mackani: do we return better to our LPs?
Ali Mackani: And I think the understanding of all the
Ali Mackani: touch points, understanding of all the
Ali Mackani: touch points, which, to me, that's every
Ali Mackani: piece of data, every piece of information
Ali Mackani: that comes across our desk has to be
Ali Mackani: understood, has to be evaluated, has to
Ali Mackani: have the relationships built that we could
Ali Mackani: reference it on quickly.
Ali Mackani: And this is not about replacing, you know,
Ali Mackani: a general partner or an associate, an
Ali Mackani: associate.
Ali Mackani: No, it's actually about the productivity
Ali Mackani: and ability to make better decisions faster.
Ali Mackani: Right today, you're probably dealing with
Ali Mackani: 30 to 60 days of, you know, venture
Ali Mackani: evaluating and deciding if they're going to
Ali Mackani: invest in a particular startup.
Ali Mackani: I find that to be a little bit ridiculous
Ali Mackani: in the day and age that we live in, right?
Ali Mackani: So how do we bring that in?
Ali Mackani: How do you turn that into a?
Ali Mackani: I'm not suggesting instant, but how do you
Ali Mackani: make that so you are moving forward faster
Ali Mackani: because our world is moving faster?
Ali Mackani: And that's how I believe understanding of
Ali Mackani: data and managing data and running it as an
Ali Mackani: operating system that helps us run our
Ali Mackani: company from a principles level will allow
Ali Mackani: us to become a leader inside of the venture
Ali Mackani: ecosystem.
Mark Haney: I think about the relationships that we've
Mark Haney: built with, obviously, our investors.
Mark Haney: We've got a hundred plus investors, but we
Mark Haney: have all these other partners and many
Mark Haney: within the venture capital industry who all
Mark Haney: have portfolio companies.
Mark Haney: So the relationships that we've built so
Mark Haney: far and we're just getting started they
Mark Haney: extend beyond the ones that are in the top
Mark Haney: of our mind.
Mark Haney: They extended venture capital firms,
Mark Haney: portfolio companies and so on.
Mark Haney: So the relationships go deep and I try to
Mark Haney: imagine how to utilize that data in order
Mark Haney: to engineer wins better, make better
Mark Haney: decisions and really build better companies.
Mark Haney: So it's really interesting and I also think
Mark Haney: about the companies that we invest into.
Mark Haney: Many times we see a technical visionary and
Mark Haney: maybe a technical co-founder or somebody
Mark Haney: who's more of a product market person and a
Mark Haney: technical person and maybe a financial
Mark Haney: person is kind of the founding team.
Mark Haney: It makes me wonder and I think about the
Mark Haney: example that comes to mind.
Mark Haney: Is Apple right?
Mark Haney: They started with Steve Jobs and Steve
Mark Haney: Wozniak.
Mark Haney: One is a technical visionary, one is the
Mark Haney: technical co-founder right, and so will
Mark Haney: companies be built in our near future that
Mark Haney: don't need Steve Wozniak, they just need
Mark Haney: Steve Jobs, and I am a fan of Steve.
Ali Mackani: Wozniak, by the way for a very technical
Ali Mackani: founder to leverage tools and technology,
Ali Mackani: AI driven, to be able to build a company
Ali Mackani: that achieves the highest level of success.
Ali Mackani: I think that's the same as us saying there
Ali Mackani: will be a unicorn inside of 100 companies
Ali Mackani: that we invest in, but there will be others
Ali Mackani: who's going to do things a little bit
Ali Mackani: different, right?
Ali Mackani: So, yes, there will be that.
Ali Mackani: I think that the writing is on the wall
Ali Mackani: that the AI is going to.
Ali Mackani: Ai is going to enable a single founder who
Ali Mackani: is very technical I think it's actually
Ali Mackani: going to be a lot more of non-technical
Ali Mackani: founders liberated to be able to do things
Ali Mackani: that they never thought they can, and I
Ali Mackani: think that's, to me, is the exciting part,
Ali Mackani: right?
Ali Mackani: You know I geek out with.
Ali Mackani: You know, Farzad, our CTO, you know working
Ali Mackani: on different things, but we're techie guys.
Ali Mackani: But then I see a couple of people that are
Ali Mackani: part of my group that are not technical,
Ali Mackani: are becoming technicals.
Ali Mackani: I have designers that are now saying, oh,
Ali Mackani: I've built my own product when before they
Ali Mackani: just designed and they needed an
Ali Mackani: engineering team to help them.
Ali Mackani: I think AI is going to actually empower
Ali Mackani: non-technical people to do a lot of
Ali Mackani: technical innovation, and that's the
Ali Mackani: exciting part about how this could become
Ali Mackani: an interesting path forward.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I actually I don't disagree with that
Rick Spencer: and I look at it a little bit differently
Rick Spencer: of, like you know, we know the Apple story
Rick Spencer: because it's a huge success, right, but for
Rick Spencer: every Apple, there's a thousand Steve
Rick Spencer: Wozniaks that just haven't met their Steve
Rick Spencer: Jobs.
Rick Spencer: Right, and they've got a brilliant idea and
Rick Spencer: they could do something incredibly
Rick Spencer: disruptive, but they don't have that person
Rick Spencer: that can tell the story, set the vision,
Rick Spencer: close the deal.
Rick Spencer: And so when I think about AI and I think
Rick Spencer: about the thousand Steve Wozniak acts that
Rick Spencer: we don't know because they never met Steve
Rick Spencer: Jobs, I think that's where AI can now help
Rick Spencer: those people get to the next level and
Rick Spencer: there's the acceleration of innovation that
Rick Spencer: can happen with that now, because you don't
Rick Spencer: hear about those people, because they're in
Rick Spencer: their garage tinkering and geeking out with
Rick Spencer: their engineer friends and they don't have
Rick Spencer: the skill set, the drive, the vision to
Rick Spencer: take their innovation and break it through.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Mark Haney: So I want can you elaborate on that a
Mark Haney: little bit?
Mark Haney: So you're seeing the tech, the Steve
Mark Haney: Wozniak of the world Not that there's,
Mark Haney: they're everywhere but there's a lot of
Mark Haney: technical people in there that are out
Mark Haney: there that are brilliant and have great
Mark Haney: ideas.
Mark Haney: Are you saying they're going to be able to
Mark Haney: build the companies without the technical
Mark Haney: visionary, or they're going to use AI to
Mark Haney: build the companies without the technical
Mark Haney: visionary, or they're going to use ai to
Mark Haney: find the visionary?
Rick Spencer: that can both sell.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I think they'll be able to get more
Rick Spencer: progress than they would using ai, because
Rick Spencer: they can put it and say, like I, I need
Rick Spencer: help telling the story right.
Rick Spencer: Like I can explain the technical roadmap, I
Rick Spencer: can explain the architecture, I can geek
Rick Spencer: out all day long, I don't know how to tell
Rick Spencer: a story.
Rick Spencer: Um, not only do I not always tell a story,
Rick Spencer: I'm scared of telling stories, right, and
Rick Spencer: so now they can get AI to help them tell
Rick Spencer: the story.
Rick Spencer: They could practice with AI right, and so
Rick Spencer: now they have more chance of sharing their
Rick Spencer: technology innovation with the world.
Rick Spencer: Could they also find someone?
Rick Spencer: Yes, they could say look, you know, let me.
Rick Spencer: I want my AI model to interview 10 people,
Rick Spencer: right, and now I'm not out there kind of
Rick Spencer: randomly dating folks.
Rick Spencer: I'm focused on the things that are going to
Rick Spencer: fit, the things that I need.
Rick Spencer: So all of that can help and all of those
Rick Spencer: are.
Rick Spencer: Again, we don't have the data to know how
Rick Spencer: many Steve Wozniaks had ideas better than
Rick Spencer: Apple, but they never had Steve Jobs, and
Rick Spencer: so that potential it gets me really excited,
Rick Spencer: because you know that acceleration of
Rick Spencer: innovation can happen with these use cases.
Mark Haney: So we're hyping this up pretty big on this
Mark Haney: show because it's our.
Mark Haney: It's not our job to hype it up, but it's
Mark Haney: our.
Mark Haney: We get hyped up about it because we're
Mark Haney: right in the middle of you know, I know
Mark Haney: we're at the beginning of the first inning
Mark Haney: and it's exciting.
Mark Haney: You think it's overhyped right now.
Mark Haney: You think AI and technology are people
Mark Haney: overhyping it, or where is it overhyped and
Mark Haney: who's missing the boat?
Ali Mackani: Honestly, I don't think it's overhyped.
Ali Mackani: I think the part that is overhyped and I
Ali Mackani: may be wrong is what AI is going to do as
Ali Mackani: far as taking away jobs.
Ali Mackani: I think that is a little overhyped is
Ali Mackani: outlining from how it's going to change our
Ali Mackani: lives, how it's going to improve our
Ali Mackani: ability to experience and reach the goals
Ali Mackani: that we want to have and even solve
Ali Mackani: problems that we never thought could be
Ali Mackani: solvable Cure cancer that we never thought
Ali Mackani: it could be cured, right.
Ali Mackani: But I think the overhyped part to me is how
Ali Mackani: many people are fixated on it's going to
Ali Mackani: take out our jobs.
Ali Mackani: I think we look at how technology has
Ali Mackani: changed humanity and our requirement to
Ali Mackani: scale up over the last hundred years.
Ali Mackani: It just moves us to a different level of
Ali Mackani: set of scales that we need to have, and I
Ali Mackani: believe AI will allow every skilled worker
Ali Mackani: to be able to accelerate, achieve and live
Ali Mackani: a better life because AI helped them to be
Ali Mackani: more productive.
Ali Mackani: That I wish more people talked about that
Ali Mackani: and hyped that opportunity up, because
Ali Mackani: that's how.
Ali Mackani: I see it, you know, I feel like I'm a
Ali Mackani: pretty capable person when it comes to
Ali Mackani: doing the things that I do on a daily basis.
Ali Mackani: I think that I'm a better person because AI
Ali Mackani: is there to help me.
Ali Mackani: It's not replacing me, it's helping me.
Ali Mackani: I'm able to do more, I'm able to be more
Ali Mackani: educated, I be more informed, and I believe
Ali Mackani: that is going to be the factor that's going
Ali Mackani: to increase productivity.
Ali Mackani: And it's more underhyped than I wish it was
Ali Mackani: overhyped.
Ali Mackani: You know that more people hyped that
Ali Mackani: opportunity versus AI being hyped itself.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, I would say two things.
Rick Spencer: I would agree with the fear.
Rick Spencer: You know that.
Rick Spencer: So people are consumed with the fear and
Rick Spencer: not seeing.
Rick Spencer: Look, I have 99.9% confidence that AI is
Rick Spencer: going to drive innovation we've never seen
Rick Spencer: before.
Rick Spencer: Now we don't know exactly how, we can't
Rick Spencer: predict the future, but we know that
Rick Spencer: everything is in place to drive innovation
Rick Spencer: that we have not seen before and to
Rick Spencer: literally shape the future of our world.
Rick Spencer: So I have ultimate confidence in that, and
Rick Spencer: I think, again, we talk about, you know,
Rick Spencer: typical kind of human mindset we're fearful,
Rick Spencer: fear, uncertainties and doubts, so we let
Rick Spencer: that consume us versus saying what's next,
Rick Spencer: what does the future look like?
Rick Spencer: Let's dream a little bit, right, and so I
Rick Spencer: think that's a humanity mind shift that's
Rick Spencer: going to need to take place to truly unlock
Rick Spencer: the innovation opportunity.
Rick Spencer: I think on the venture side, we have to
Rick Spencer: change our mindset too, because for so long,
Rick Spencer: venture has been about you know you set a
Rick Spencer: thesis, you have a prediction and you're
Rick Spencer: kind of married to that.
Rick Spencer: I don't think the future of venture is who
Rick Spencer: has the best prediction skills.
Rick Spencer: I think the future of venture is who's the
Rick Spencer: most agile.
Rick Spencer: And that is a big shift right when you say
Rick Spencer: you know, I can't arbitrarily say we're
Rick Spencer: going to invest in these kind of companies
Rick Spencer: with these kind of check sizes and these
Rick Spencer: kind of stages.
Rick Spencer: You know, I think you're going to have to
Rick Spencer: use this data to say look in this month,
Rick Spencer: based on our pipeline and the markets and
Rick Spencer: all of these data points, this month, this
Rick Spencer: is the best investment we can make.
Rick Spencer: Next month may be different.
Rick Spencer: And if we can't move that quickly, we don't
Rick Spencer: have the data to move that quickly, we
Rick Spencer: don't have the mindset to move that quickly,
Rick Spencer: we don't have the systems to move that
Rick Spencer: quickly.
Rick Spencer: That's where I think there will be a new
Rick Spencer: class of leaders in venture and the rest
Rick Spencer: will either have to learn and adapt or will
Rick Spencer: become obsolete.
Mark Haney: All right, I'm going to bring this back as
Mark Haney: we wrap up A couple more questions or a
Mark Haney: couple more, I guess, topics.
Mark Haney: If you will, I'm going to bring it back to
Mark Haney: where I started.
Mark Haney: You know we're all really patriotic people,
Mark Haney: we love our country and it's it's talked
Mark Haney: about a lot that there's this AI arms race
Mark Haney: out there and in the U?
Mark Haney: S is doing really well in some areas and
Mark Haney: probably the leader it's some of this
Mark Haney: cutting edge stuff, but there's competition.
Mark Haney: It's happening all over the world and so I
Mark Haney: think about, like this race that is out
Mark Haney: there, seems to be out there from a
Mark Haney: national security standpoint, from a
Mark Haney: economic security standpoint, which is
Mark Haney: national security, and what are we doing to
Mark Haney: position our youth to help drive this over
Mark Haney: the long haul?
Mark Haney: So that you know there's going to.
Mark Haney: You talked about your 14 year old daughter.
Mark Haney: It's going to be her age and even younger
Mark Haney: that really drive a lot of these shifts
Mark Haney: over the coming, you know, five, 10 years.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, this is becoming a topic in our
Rick Spencer: community where we're testing this concept
Rick Spencer: of something called legacy lab.
Rick Spencer: So we're just in the initial stages of
Rick Spencer: building something that empowers the youth
Rick Spencer: to take control of their future right, and
Rick Spencer: yeah, I mean from our investors to our
Rick Spencer: community partners.
Rick Spencer: So many people are concerned that how is
Rick Spencer: education preparing them for the future?
Rick Spencer: Is it preparing them for the future?
Mark Haney: Schools may be a little bit slower in
Mark Haney: adopting some of this stuff because of the
Mark Haney: bureaucracy and a lot of reasons.
Mark Haney: The future Is it preparing them for the
Mark Haney: future Right?
Mark Haney: Schools may be a little bit slower in
Mark Haney: adopting some of this stuff because of the
Mark Haney: bureaucracy and a lot of reasons.
Mark Haney: But you got to.
Mark Haney: As a parent, you got to take matters into
Mark Haney: your own hands.
Rick Spencer: Right and I think you know there's.
Rick Spencer: So there's the intersection of education,
Rick Spencer: government.
Rick Spencer: What is government's influence?
Rick Spencer: Many people in this country feel, oh, I
Rick Spencer: need to wait till the government tells me
Rick Spencer: what to do.
Rick Spencer: And those people are smart and responsible
Rick Spencer: and so I'll let them lead me Right.
Rick Spencer: Is that the right mindset to have for
Rick Spencer: building the future we want?
Rick Spencer: I mean, you know, you look at China and
Rick Spencer: they're all rowing in the same direction
Rick Spencer: because of their structure, and I'm not
Rick Spencer: saying we moved to that structure, but
Rick Spencer: they're rowing in the same direction and
Rick Spencer: they're moving pretty quick, saying we
Rick Spencer: moved to that structure but they're growing
Rick Spencer: in the same direction and they're moving
Rick Spencer: pretty quick, Right.
Rick Spencer: And so you know how do we empower the youth
Rick Spencer: to to push past?
Rick Spencer: You know, oh, I got to wait for someone to
Rick Spencer: tell me what to do.
Rick Spencer: I have to wait for that.
Rick Spencer: And that goes back to the entrepreneurial
Rick Spencer: story, right Of how do we teach them that
Rick Spencer: entrepreneurial skills can save their
Rick Spencer: future.
Rick Spencer: And I think that's the big mindset for the
Rick Spencer: youth is they're scared, they don't know
Rick Spencer: why they should be hopeful in some cases
Rick Spencer: and they're just confused in many cases.
Rick Spencer: And that we could talk about all the
Rick Spencer: reasons why.
Rick Spencer: But you take that fear, confusion and lack
Rick Spencer: of hope.
Rick Spencer: That's dangerous for our future.
Rick Spencer: And so you know, this is something that
Rick Spencer: excites me, not only because the you know
Rick Spencer: connection with with my daughter and my
Rick Spencer: niece and nephews and friends and family,
Rick Spencer: um, but you, you started with like where
Rick Spencer: are we going?
Rick Spencer: Where's this economy going?
Rick Spencer: Where's the society going?
Rick Spencer: I mean, this is like an existential
Rick Spencer: question that we have to, you know, because
Rick Spencer: we're going to be part of it, but we're not
Rick Spencer: going to, we're not going to build the
Rick Spencer: future, that's right.
Rick Spencer: Right, we're just helping get it started
Rick Spencer: and you know the people are going to build
Rick Spencer: a future your grandkids, your kids, my
Rick Spencer: daughter, Right.
Rick Spencer: And so if we're not preparing them for that
Rick Spencer: opportunity, what does that say about us?
Ali Mackani: Yeah, yeah, I love that, and you know I
Ali Mackani: listen to this podcast called Acquired.
Ali Mackani: I'm not sure if you guys have listened to
Ali Mackani: it, but highly recommend it.
Ali Mackani: They go back and, you know, replay and
Ali Mackani: educate you on a journey of some of the
Ali Mackani: most well-known companies you know over the
Ali Mackani: last few hundred years.
Ali Mackani: Right, the one that, as you were, you know,
Ali Mackani: sharing this opportunity of our kids and
Ali Mackani: our next generation is what's going to
Ali Mackani: build.
Ali Mackani: So one of the episodes that I was listening
Ali Mackani: to is about Hermes, the fashion company.
Ali Mackani: They're now in their eighth generation of
Ali Mackani: family-ran business.
Ali Mackani: When was the last time you heard that
Ali Mackani: someone's kids are taking over their
Ali Mackani: company's business?
Ali Mackani: It's becoming less and less right.
Ali Mackani: So I believe that everything else needs to
Ali Mackani: happen.
Ali Mackani: Yeah, education needs to be better, faster,
Ali Mackani: at a greater level, with more discipline.
Ali Mackani: That takes time and I think I go back to
Ali Mackani: you started by talking about entrepreneurs
Ali Mackani: are the heroes of this country and could
Ali Mackani: really change the trajectory.
Ali Mackani: I believe we, as both entrepreneurs and
Ali Mackani: investors, we should encourage our founders
Ali Mackani: to involve their kids in their business and
Ali Mackani: we should encourage them to have them be
Ali Mackani: part of their build, the building of their
Ali Mackani: companies, because there's nothing better
Ali Mackani: than actual hands-on experience and, you
Ali Mackani: know, watching and watching an 80-year-old
Ali Mackani: kid today and the language that they use,
Ali Mackani: the vocabulary that they use it's so
Ali Mackani: different and we need to close the gap.
Ali Mackani: Do we bring our experiences closer to our
Ali Mackani: kids, to our grandkids and the future?
Ali Mackani: And having them be involved in our venture
Ali Mackani: building is the way for us to move
Ali Mackani: entrepreneurship.
Ali Mackani: So the Legacy Lab, as you mentioned I think
Ali Mackani: it's a fantastic vision for how we could
Ali Mackani: educate, but we should encourage more.
Ali Mackani: We should encourage our founders to get
Ali Mackani: their kids and families involved.
Ali Mackani: We should actually incentivize them to say
Ali Mackani: do you have a teenager that is doing part
Ali Mackani: of your job?
Ali Mackani: Maybe we do a grant, maybe we write a check
Ali Mackani: for them to go get you know for college
Ali Mackani: education.
Ali Mackani: That's what we could do to really
Ali Mackani: accelerate the passing of the
Ali Mackani: entrepreneurship to the next generation of
Ali Mackani: entrepreneurs.
Rick Spencer: Yeah, we need Haneyville to not only be a
Rick Spencer: beacon of family, but a beacon of
Rick Spencer: entrepreneurship.
Rick Spencer: Ooh, I love it.
Mark Haney: I love it, okay, so I guess I'll just ask
Mark Haney: you any closing thoughts, or I guess I'll
Mark Haney: just ask you any closing thoughts or
Mark Haney: predictions, any bold predictions about the
Mark Haney: future, whether it be three, five, 10 years
Mark Haney: out.
Mark Haney: Any, any bold predictions or any closing
Mark Haney: thoughts.
Rick Spencer: Well, I'm not going to.
Rick Spencer: I'll maybe issue a challenge, and I think
Rick Spencer: it's for us and the community that we're
Rick Spencer: building which is holding true to the
Rick Spencer: values.
Rick Spencer: So I think you know you talk a lot about,
Rick Spencer: uh, values, mark of, of commitment, of
Rick Spencer: character, you know of, you know the things
Rick Spencer: that it takes to succeed in this life.
Rick Spencer: I think it's easy, um, to get so focused on
Rick Spencer: technology and innovation and lose touch
Rick Spencer: with those, and that is, you know, it's not
Rick Spencer: a prediction, it's a concern of mine of
Rick Spencer: that we lose touch with the values and that
Rick Spencer: we go off the rails.
Rick Spencer: And so I think we have to, as much as
Rick Spencer: people get excited about this conversation
Rick Spencer: and what we're building and how we're
Rick Spencer: helping and the growth of you know,
Rick Spencer: companies and the financial success, we
Rick Spencer: have to say, it starts with the values.
Rick Spencer: And if we lose sight of those values, even
Rick Spencer: if we see the most amazing innovation in
Rick Spencer: the world, what do we really accomplish?
Rick Spencer: And so, as our chief dreamer, as our chief
Rick Spencer: evangelistist, I would just challenge you
Rick Spencer: to make sure that those values stay true to
Rick Spencer: us and that we never stop talking about
Rick Spencer: them thank you.
Ali Mackani: I've learned not to make predictions
Ali Mackani: anymore, but I think that how we experience
Ali Mackani: things in life is going to completely
Ali Mackani: change.
Ali Mackani: I think AI is going to allow us, as humans,
Ali Mackani: to experience not only technology, but
Ali Mackani: experience life differently.
Ali Mackani: We could get to places much quicker,
Ali Mackani: physically or through technology.
Ali Mackani: We could experience things faster than
Ali Mackani: Amazon same-day delivery.
Ali Mackani: We take a lot of that stuff for granted.
Ali Mackani: I just think that the next five years or so,
Ali Mackani: the on-demand experience is gonna be so
Ali Mackani: different and I'm I'm fearful of it, but at
Ali Mackani: the same time, I'm really excited about it.
Ali Mackani: Right to be able to walk in into a fully
Ali Mackani: immersive experience and be able to live it,
Ali Mackani: touch it, feel it.
Ali Mackani: I'm excited about that and that's what I
Ali Mackani: would say that five years from now we're
Ali Mackani: gonna have, we're gonna live in a fully
Ali Mackani: immersive experiences powered by AI, and we
Ali Mackani: will experience humans and things in ways
Ali Mackani: that we've never had before.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I love it.
Mark Haney: I'll reiterate my bold prediction, and I
Mark Haney: haven't really talked about this a lot.
Mark Haney: I've never talked about it other than with
Mark Haney: you guys, but this idea that we're gonna
Mark Haney: print more money as Americans feels almost
Mark Haney: inevitable at this point.
Mark Haney: But I wear a shirt a lot of times that says
Mark Haney: everything is figureoutable and I believe
Mark Haney: that entrepreneurship and innovation
Mark Haney: whether it be big companies, small
Mark Haney: companies, startups they're going to figure
Mark Haney: out a way to drive enough productivity to
Mark Haney: outgrow the wasteful spending that we are
Mark Haney: doing as a society, and everything's going
Mark Haney: to be okay because entrepreneurs are on the
Mark Haney: way.
Ali Mackani: Couldn't agree with it anymore.
Mark Haney: Amen.
Ali Mackani: Amen.