Andy Rachleff - Building Something People Want to Buy - [Invest Like the Best, EP.42]

Published: June 20, 2017, 11 a.m.

b"My guest this week is Andy Rachleff, who is the CEO of the automated investing platform Wealthfront. Andy was also a co-founder and long-time partner at Benchmark capital--one of the most interesting and successful venture capital firms in the world.\\n We spend most of our conversation discussing venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. Andy coined the now ubiquitous term \\u201cproduct/market fit,\\u201d and has great insight into how investors and entrepreneurs should think about business. In that vein, we discuss both what we refer to as the value hypothesis: building a product or service that customers love, and the growth hypothesis: scaling that product or service to a large market.\\n We finish our conversation by talking about Andy and his teams mission at Wealthfront, and this conversation is perfectly timed, as Wealthfront just released a new feature that allows investors to buy factor portfolios, similar to Smart Beta ETFs.\\n Above all, I\\u2019ll remember Andy\\u2019s advice to \\u201cput the gun in the other person\\u2019s hand,\\u201d a strategy that we explore in the middle of our talk.\\n \\xa0\\n For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/andy\\n For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.\\n Sign up for the book club, where you\\u2019ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.\\n Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag\\n \\xa0\\n Books Referenced\\n The Four Steps to the Epiphany\\n The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses\\n Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune\\n Diffusion of Innovations\\n Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers\\n \\xa0\\n Show Notes\\n 2:36 \\u2013 (First question) \\u2013 The partnership setup and how they came to be 5 equal partners\\n 7:57 \\u2013 Why benchmark would not take on the chairman role in companies they invested in\\n 9:28 \\u2013 What made John Doerr the greatest capitalist investor ever\\n 11:59 \\u2013 Looking at the venture process and what made it an attractive investment for Benchmark, using eBay as an example.\\n 18:06 \\u2013 If you are willing to help other people, without an expectation of return, it can create other opportunities\\n 20:08 \\u2013 Andy is asked to explain the idea of Product Market Fit, a term that he coined\\n 22:18 \\u2013 How does one go about finding a Product Market Fit\\n \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 23:05 \\u2013 The Four Steps to the Epiphany\\n \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 23:19 \\u2013 The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses\\n 25:55 \\u2013 What are the components of the Growth hypothesis\\n 26:51 \\u2013 Why you can learn more professionally from success vs failure\\n 28:13 \\u2013 What it\\u2019s like to shift from venture capitalist to operator/CEO\\n 30:24 \\u2013 The rate at which technology gets adopted and what will help Wealthfront\\n \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 30:53 \\u2013 Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune\\n \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 31:26 \\u2013 Diffusion of Innovations\\n \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 31:38 \\u2013 Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers\\n 32:38 \\u2013 What does it look like to innovate on top of current platforms\\n 41:07 \\u2013 Will platforms like Wealthfront help to democratize access to private markets\\n 44:23 \\u2013 Kindest thing anyone has done for Andy\\n \\xa0\\n \\xa0\\n Learn More\\n For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.\\xa0\\n Sign up for the book club, where you\\u2019ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub\\n Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag"