“there's no reason if that's in the public domain, they shouldn't be able to have access to it in a beautiful accessible way. And some of the stuff you can find online, but it's it's not for consumption. >> I go to these websites, obviously I'm obsessed. I read more than almost anybody else. So I go to these websites, too, and the format's terrible. This is >> they'll scan pages of a book in and upload it into the universe. But this is like a product that's meant for a consumer. We're calling it we haven't launched yet, but we're we're about to launch with the first 10,000 works and we're going to learn a lot and people will give us feedback um on each of the translations. But imagine now meditations will be translated in to most of the world spoken languages. So we're covering like 95% of all languages spoken and available for free if you have internet access. So, we're democratizing access to this incredible knowledge. We're calling it uh Alexandria. But that's just a really fun project. And and that came out of a conversation that I had with a lot where I'm like, "What are you most excited about that's not being done?" And he told me, he's like, "There are so many unbelievable works by the greatest thinkers humanity has ever produced that just still aren't accessible, and that doesn't need to be true." So, I've been helping him realize uh this dream of of >> anything I can do to help on that project. Obviously, you know, it's like close to my heart, I would definitely, you know, volunteer if you need any help. I've been translating using AI for the last few years trying to translate books that are not in English to make episodes of Founders on them. >> And the translations are getting so much better. So, I think you guys are perfectly timed >> because I was doing this a few years ago and I remember I translated one, I think it was from German. I remember the one line was supposed to be like, "This happened 15 years ago." And the translation was so bad. It's like this happened three 5year periods ago. >> Yeah. >> Like that's a funny way to say 15. >> 5 years ago we couldn't have done this well. >> But now um the large language models are so good. Um and generative AI is really allowing us to do it affordably with high fidelity. The voices are amazing. So 11 Labs is helping. >> Have you have you spent time with Matt? >> I have. Yeah. He's amazing. >> So he's helping us with the audio. um books that will accompany each of these. >> But it's amazing and and and we are really like working deep into some obscure languages where people really they don't have access. They they have internet. They won't have a library. They probably won't have a bookstore. rural communities, but also for students. You know, right now, if you want to read Plato's Republic, you know, you go and pay a publisher $35 for something that's in the public domain that every six months they generate a new copy of and slap on a new piece of artwork on the cover and and students go and they pay for it. So, so this to me is just a fun way to to give back, to share some of the books obviously that have so profoundly influenced me, but to create a holding place for some of this really important information produced by humanity. >> And these are huge forms of leverage for future generations that like there's going to be all these positive things that come out of this that you and Elad possibly could not possibly predict. We're having fun even like the first you know it's really hard to like choose a thousand books and so people will say well you missed this and of course we did um so so even the exercise of like what are the most meaningful books for us what should we translate next how big is the scale of the project like you know how many >> the answer to that question is as big as you want it to be like there's no limit you're not it's not a physical library physical space that you're restrained to a thousand or 2,000 or even 10,000 books but what I was saying is like the reason I think these kind of things are very important I also think podcasting plays a role in this too is I'm reading Kelly Johnson who's the the most famous and most successful uh aircraft designer in history. And in his autobiography he says the the the most one of the most important things that ever happened to him was the Andrew Carnegie had the biggest impact on his life and he never met Andrew Carnegie because Kelly Johnson grew up in exactly what you're describing very poor rural community. Yeah. >> There's no he doesn't have electricity for God's sake because doesn't have access to anything else. And this was when Carnegie was building all these free libraries and putting them all over the United States in these tiny communities. And Kelly would just go there and he would just live in the library. And he's like, "I read every single thing about aviation. I read fiction. I read all these things that that impacted me and I used in my career many decades in the future." And I think you're going to hear a ton of examples like that when you guys do this project as well. you know, how do we take this wealth of knowledge and make sure that kids all over the world and adults are able to have the same experience he did? You know, be able to learn from the amazing people who came before, even if you don't have direct mentors in your life that can expand your thinking and inspire you. Do >> you know who didn't have a direct mentor? >> Who? >> Elon Musk. I remember watching this interview with him that this guy Kevin Rose did back in 2012. And Kevin was try trying to figure it's like they're in Tesla's factory. That's where the the interview's happening. And Kevin's like, "What the hell?" Like, "You come from South Africa, you go to Canada, then you go from Canada to the Bay Area. You didn't have any money." He's like, "How did you learn business? Did you have mentors?" And Elon said something that changed my life because then I started reading biographies. He goes, "No, I didn't have a lot of mentors. I looked for mentors and historical context. So, I thought biographies and autobiographies were helpful." >> And I was like, "Huh, maybe I should start reading more autobiographies and biographies." mentors in historical context. >> There are very few people I look at and I say I want deeply want to emulate every aspect of their life. >> Probably nobody. >> Probably nobody. >> Yeah. >> You know, Jared's pretty close. For me, why I say that is because there are some people who I think are brilliant in business, right? They're true visionaries and their private life is a wreck. So, are they still brilliant or are they stupid? Like, if you're that smart, how do you now figure out like how to create sort of a stable life for yourself? And that like, you know, is good for the soul, good for the heart. You know, thank goodness they're doing what they're doing. Um, it's a great gift to humanity, but like I wouldn't want to emulate that because I want to raise my children. >> Exactly. [laughter] >> And I think that work is more important than that work. So or you'll have people um you know on the it's all across the spectrum but there are very few people I say wow like in every aspect of their life their priorities feel calibrated >> and they're doing well not flawless because perfection is not possible but but they're doing well and and why I say Jared is he's really you know he can be going through the most intense experience and like the kids don't feel it like He's deeply present wherever he is and whatever he's doing. He's not always physically present. Um, but he's always available emotionally, uh, telephonically. He'll drop anything he's doing. Like, he somehow has the ability to always be in the right place regardless of of what he's juggling. And that's true for his partners as well. He's a very long-term thinker in that he's, you know, he's outcome oriented. So, he's highly pragmatic and solutionoriented, but that doesn't mean he's transactional. He builds deep friendships. And you notice actually, you've seen you have one with him and um and you've seen him with others that are truly built on trust. And that's because he's more of a giver than a taker. And over time that ends up benefiting him in all sorts of incredible ways, but that's like ancillary. You know, he doesn't come at it from a place of thinking well over the long term, just who he is. And he's very comfortable with himself. He's just very comfortable being exactly who he is and and very like non-performative. So, I learned so much from him all the time. Although, given the fact that I know he's going to listen to this, I'm going to have to um going to have to pull back. Can we edit this whole section out? I'm going to have created a monster. But that's the thing. He won't like No, he really has like almost no ego. It's to the point where like I'm incredulous by it. Like I'll get upset about things for him and he like doesn't care if like if somebody criticizes him and he doesn't know that person, it just doesn't affect him. It doesn't mean that he won't like say, "Okay, well, that's warranted and like recalibrate, but it's just not going to, you know, he he cares about the opinions of those he loves." >> Well, we don't have to edit it because I, as you just said, I spent a lot of time with him, too, and he talks about you the same way. >> And it's legitimate when he doesn't think I'm going to go back and obviously tell you or anything like that. And we've had a lot of dinners talking about this. Um, so you, >> by the way, key to life, right? Marry the right person. >> Yeah, for sure. marry someone who sees you as put you up on a pedestal and sees you as >> I don't think I've ever >> in a way that I he sees me in a way that like I aspire to see myself. >> This is very rare where you two have like this is actually really beautiful what you just said about him cuz I was sitting there thinking as you were speaking uh it's like very few people would describe you know their spouse as you know almost perfect in their eyes for lack of a better word like that's actually incredible. So there's two things that we mentioned that I want to come back to I think are super important and I'm super curious about. So we mentioned you mentioned essentialism. >> Yeah. >> And you mentioned opportunity cost. >> You have essentially in front of you unlimited opportunities on who you can spend time with and what you work on. How do you make this decision? Is this intuition? Is this just energy? Is this vibes? Like when you're deciding, hey, I want to meet this founder. I may invest in in with them >> or I may want to partner with somebody in this project like Planet Harvest in the profit domain or nonprofit domain like you did with Elad. >> How are you making this decision? >> Well, I think first you have to be receptive to the inputs all around you. I I joke with my partner, I'm like, I've I'm a farmer. Like, who would have thought, [laughter] right? like and you know and I'm investing in tech companies and helping build these amazing businesses that are so beyond what I would have ever imagined myself doing. Even even the scope and scale and ambition of Sesan this incredible project will have hotels and resorts and wellness all of it is it's almost daunting in it >> apartment for me >> obviously well community is like at the heart of I think how people want to live right um so I I'm thinking a lot about how to create great community for families for connection because I think that's like the currency like attention like getting somebody's attention keeping it and creating an enabling environment for exactly that. But anyway, um but I think for me it's it's I always just try to be receptive to conversations with others and like what sparks something in me and then I go deep. So my daughter will joke with me, I mean I have like a hundred ideas a week and I start to go into them and she's like, "What? You didn't do that?" And I got all excited about and what about this and what about that? But I'm like, "No, no, no. That's my process." I explore a lot of things and then I go deeper and deeper. I do a tremendous amount of reading. So any challenge I'm about to take on, I become like a PhD in that subject. >> Um, so with the with the Seaison Project, I'm reading all the best Albanian writers and I'm trying to understand the country through their eyes. Um, that's smart. >> And fiction, non-fiction, all of it. and you immerse yourself in sort of the experience, the lived experience of um these great observers of of the truth and then you get closer to it, right? Um you can't just like impose yourself upon a country or culture. You have to understand it um first to do it um [clears throat] in a beautiful and delicate and and and meaningful way. But that's that's the approach I take to everything. So I I listen to a lot of people. I try to surround myself with people that help facilitate growth in in different areas. I ask them a lot of questions. I actually tell my kids um they they laugh at me in addition to what we were saying before about reading all the time and and like being interested in the world around you. I always tell them that only boring people get bored. Like there's too much to learn. But I also tell them in the context of uh of this all the time that you never learn anything while you're talking. You only learn when you're listening and when you're observing. So I really try to surround myself with people who are going to sort of open channels for me um and help me grow. Um and and sometimes that's in a very intimate way. People who are really like just in touch with themselves and who can help me be a better mother, a better wife, better human being. And other times it's great business leaders. But how do you decide who to let in? Like what is what kind of person do they have to be? >> First and foremost, like a kind person. Like life's too short. Like there are a lot of successful but I'm just not interested. Like the worst thing in the world is when you partner with somebody who's not a good person. There is no contract in the world that will protect you from a bad partner. >> That's a Buffet amonger. They say contra, but I would do a handshake with a good person over like the most ironclad um you know, white shoe law firm created contract any day of the week. So, I'm just at a point in my life where I want to do good important things. I want to be an additive force in the world. I want to be surrounded by people who are like kind, good people who I admire and who I can learn from. And there are so many of them. So the choice will never be for me to partner with sort of the opposite of that. So I try and find good people. I try and find people who can help me grow, who I can learn from. Then I dive deep into the subject matter um through reading, through podcasts. Like I listen to a ton of podcasts. Yours being my favorite obviously. Obviously. >> Thank you. >> On on a ver variety of of different people and subjects. And then you have to get going. Like a a mistake a lot of people make is they get so excited about the idea, they keep on like ruminating on the idea, they keep on pitching the idea, they don't get to the point of actually like doing it. And you learn a lot just in the early phases of bringing something to market like that motion can completely reorient your business, right? because you receive feedback around like for example Planet Harvest. We were creating demand for something that there was no demand for. I mean even the farmers weren't even taking this produce out of the field because there was no market for it. So we had to create a market. So we had to speak with the consumers and find out what would they pay for it and what would they get from it. They'd get the story of the small farmers they were supporting. they would get diversified supply chain in terms of what was going into their product. They'd get the same caliber of product and but we had to go and explain to them and then we had to hear from them like what was that worth to them. >> I think it's really important to get that message out there. There's there's one of my favorite books um it's called uh the banana king I think Sam Murray or no the fish ate the whale. >> I heard your Sam Murray I forgot the subtitle but it's about this biography of Samur. We're working with Chaita Banana now um which is like the large and and helping them think about their excess and and utilizing it and I shared that episode >> but he did something very similar where there's a line in that book where you know they were he started in the bananas obviously uh and they were just throwing them away because they would rot in like two days and they couldn't sell them in the next two days and so he basically there's a line in the book that I'm that I thought of when I hear you talk about Plane Harvest like he saw opportunity where others saw nothing. >> Yeah. And I think just being perceptive of the world around you. There's unlimited opportunity around us that people are just jumping, skipping over or ignoring. And in your case, you said that, you know, they just did it this way because it's the way it's always been done. So if you just go into a new situation with fresh eyes and you're like, why? Why? Just keep asking why, you'll eventually get to, you know, well, that's just cuz how it's always been done. >> 100%. And like that's the best answer in the world because that means like there's ready for >> disnation. And I think that's what's so cool about um doing the the early stage investing that I'm doing like obviously um Affinity does later stage investing but some of the earlier stage it's really about you have to be a good listener. You sit down with a founder and they don't have the track record. In some cases they haven't even begun to execute their business plan, right? They haven't commercialized it and some cases they have. In some cases they haven't. either way, they're in the earliest innings of their company. So, you're listening what's the idea and what's the jockey like? Like you're you're trying to understand does the person have what it takes to build this thing, this concept, this product. Will they be in it for the long run? Do they have the um flexibility, the mentality, the perseverance, the grit, the vision, the leadership skills, all of these traits um that you have to have or have the humility to know you don't have and supplement by hiring the right people, right? So, it's an assessment of the human being sitting across from you and also of the idea that hasn't yet been proven. And in some cases, the more audacious, the better is I'm not interested really investing in like boring things. I like investing in things that have the ability to be transformational. So these often tend to be big ideas um often tend to be unproven ideas and you have to be a good listener because you don't have a lot of data to support what they're doing yet. And so I I think especially in the venture space, you have to have a lot of humility and you have to be um very interested in in people and ideas. >> And I think you're perfectly suited as your personality to be a champion for these new but fragile ideas. the reoccurring theme in all these biographies that I've read, the 400 plus biographies of fish entrepreneurs I've read, it's just like new ideas are so fragile and it's so easy to kill an idea prematurely and to not let it grow and you just have to give it room and time for it to grow just like a human being just like I think Jeff Bezos uses the idea uh the analogy of like an acorn turning into an oak tree. It does not happen in a week, doesn't happen in a year. It's going to be a multiple year pro uh process that we have to understand that going into it. And you may end up at a place that's very different from where you started. You mentioned Jeff like he was selling books, right? So that's where it becomes it's the idea and then it's the founder and what will that idea morph into very rarely is it a straight path. Most often it's something completely beyond the original aspiration. Toby, I heard him on your show. But you know these so there's a certain sort of neurological flexibility you know that >> that these founders have that they can be so passionate about something yet pivot into something else they're equally passionate about that becomes the ultimate manifestation of that original acorn >> and I think your life what you've shared with us so far in this conversation is a perfect example of that [clears throat] because you've done that in your second act as well. I'm honored to call you a friend. Thank you very much, for taking the time. This was absolutely perfect. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please remember to subscribe wherever you're listening and leave a review. And make sure you listen to my other podcast, founders, for almost a decade. I've obsessively read over 400 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs searching for ideas that you can use in your work. Most of the guests you hear on this show first found me through founders.”
Jane Eyre on David Senra
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