{"podcast":{"title":"Smart Friends","slug":"smart-friends-2136135","podcast_index_feed_id":2136135,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/SOMC8581176390","website_url":"https://www.ejorgenson.com/podcast/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/fae742a2-db05-11ec-a787-5b6fc0a4f209/image/ad94dd4d3d8679e0de87602a070d58f9.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Eric Jorgenson","episode_count":123,"summary":"Casual conversations with founders, technologists, investors, and artists about building a brighter future, together. Welcome to our digital living room. With science, technology and entrepreneurship we can *continue* to create unfathomable leaps in quality of life. We show you how to find, apply, build, and invest in technologies to change your life and the world. When we have smart friends, we do smart things. When we do smart things, we save the world. No matter who, where, or when you are – now you have smart friends, too. Outside this podcast, I’m the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji. Connect at ejorgenson.com Laugh and learn with people like Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant, Andrew Wilkinson, Austen Allred, David Senra, Josh Storrs Hall, Ashley Rindsberg, Zach Pettet, Bret Kugelmass, Omar ElNaggar, Grace Guo, Brett Kopf, Max Olson, Chris Williamson, Shane Mac, Tim Hwang, David Perell, Jason Hitchcock, Natalia Karayaneva, Sebastian Marshall, Taylor Pearson, Mitchell Baldridge and more. Join conversations with my partners in early-stage tech investing, Bo Fishback and Al Doan. Our Rolling Fun Episodes cover our investments and escapades as…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-friends-2136135"},"episode":{"title":"#090 Building a Venture Firm From Zero to One, and AI-driven VC Thesis Research [Arkady Kulik #2]","slug":"090-building-a-venture-firm-from-zero-to-one-and-ai-driven-vc-thesis-research-arkady-kulik-2","published_at":"2025-07-08T13:56:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-friends-2136135/090-building-a-venture-firm-from-zero-to-one-and-ai-driven-vc-thesis-research-arkady-kulik-2","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-friends-2136135","url":"https://www.ejorgenson.com/podcast","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/SOMC2242681890.mp3?updated=1751983298","summary":"Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:19) - Entering the VC space (00:08:38) - Pilot-fund theories (00:12:50) - Risk tracking (00:19:56) - Finding LP alignment (00:22:39) - Arkady’s fund thesis (00:47:12) - Creating the index of solutions to problems (00:57:18) - The TAM for VC in 2025 (01:00:29) - How founders can increase the odds of being funded by Arkady (01:03:36) - False signals in VC Links: Arkady on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arkady-kulik/ Arkady on X - https://x.com/arkady_kulik Rpv.global - https://rpv.global/ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! We discuss: How speaking the language of scientists helps Arkady build real trust with founders. The AI tournament model he uses to identify 300 hidden human needs. Focusing on problems first, then funding an index of possible solutions. What he looks for in both founders and LPs. Why honesty beats hype every time. Why DPI is the only VC metric that actually matters. Quotes from David: “You don’t prove your worth as a VC until you return capital to your LPs. DPI is the only metric that matters.” “The VC game is full of false positives—in evaluating companies and in how LPs evaluate VCs.” “The best thing an investor can do is give a quick yes; the next best is a qui…","meta_description":"Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:19) - Entering the VC space (00:08:38) - Pilot-fund theories (00:12:50) - Risk tracking (00:19:56) - Finding LP alignmen…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4213,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/smart-friends-2136135/episodes/090-building-a-venture-firm-from-zero-to-one-and-ai-driven-vc-thesis-research-arkady-kulik-2/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/smart-friends-2136135/090-building-a-venture-firm-from-zero-to-one-and-ai-driven-vc-thesis-research-arkady-kulik-2.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}