Elad Gil | Acting on Conviction, Future of AI, Biotech, Ambition, Speed, Non-Obvious Startup Advice

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Elad Gil is the founder of Color Genomics and Mixer Labs, which he sold to Twitter, and an early investor in iconic companies like Airbnb and Stripe, plus upstarts like Perplexity and Anduril.
This is a wide ranging conversation that covers ambition, education, AI, and a broad range of advice for anyone building or investing in startups.
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(03:46) Building cool monuments
(09:12) Fixing education
(16:38) Why AI is underhyped
(19:02) Four trends to watch in AI
(19:55) Why there aren’t large biotech companies
(23:21) The current state of Elad Gill
(24:33) How he incubates companies
(26:32) Contemplating AI-driven buyouts
(27:29) His investing strategy, from early to late stage
(36:57) Why he remained solo for so long
(40:19) Getting conviction in unpopular investments
(42:53) What made Steve Jobs a good communicator
(44:00) The importance of ambition and leadership
(46:29) Why Elad puts so much weight in the market
(47:45) The evolution of Google’s business model
(49:17) How to monetize consumer products
(50:06) Analyzing a potential startup market
(51:24) How successful products eventually become distribution companies
(56:30) Non-obvious startup advice
(59:54) When its OK to give up
(01:02:20) Advice on raising your first round
(01:03:21) Picking board members
(01:04:45) How to hire your first three employees
(01:06:48) Avoiding bad hires
(01:08:39) The importance of speed of execution
(01:12:36) Why he’s adding to his team
(01:14:31) Gardening
Referenced:
Elad’s Blog: blog.eladgil.com/
Elad’s Podcast: ‪@NoPriorsPodcast‬
Elad’s Book: growth.eladgil.com/
Where to find Elad:
Twitter: / eladgil
LinkedIn: / eladgil
Elad's Website: eladgil.com/
Where to find Turner:
Twitter: / turnernovak
LinkedIn: / turnernovak
Newsletter: www.thespl.it/

[@ergo4422]

there's already a team trying to build more monuments, and they're also trying to organize the next World's Fair. it's such a cool idea

[@ThePeelPod]

Yes! I met him a few years ago. Very cool idea.

[@shraybans]

Elad is a wealth of knowledge for startups - love his mini venture studio approach

[@ThePeelPod]

Yes super interesting strategy

[@vidythatte4771]

i always listen to these episodes in the background when im late night coding. this was a great episode.

[@ThePeelPod]

Thanks Vidy! Means a lot coming from you 🙏

[@michael-jelly]

@vidythatte4771 yooo i'm doing that right now aha. 3.13am

[@ThePeelPod]

@@michael-jelly 🤣🤣♥♥

[@eldinrostom7225]

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1275">21:15</a> I can think of at least 5 biopharma companies above $100B market cap??? Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Merck, Abbvie, AZ Yes some of them were founded in the 80s, but biopharma is huge and only getting bigger....

[@ThePeelPod]

You're right! Totally should have pushed back on that

[@SelfishGene2]

While most investors are a bit of airheads who repeat vacuous truisms, Elad is clearly one of the smartest investors and his brain has the largest amount of non trivial things hiding inside of it

[@ThePeelPod]

Agreed! This is why I don’t have many VCs on the show 😂