 |
Beginner's MindAuthor: Christian Soschner
Blueprints for Builders and InvestorsHosted by Christian SoschnerFrom pre-seed to post-IPO, every companyespecially in deep tech, biotech, AI, and climate techlives or dies by the frameworks it follows.On Beginners Mind, Christian Soschner uncovers the leadership principles behind the worlds most impactful companiesthrough deep-dive interviews, strategic book reviews, and patterns drawn from historys greatest business, military, and political minds.With over 250 interviews, panels, and livestreams, the show ranks in the Top 10% globallyand is recognized as the #1 deep tech podcast. With 35 years across M&A, company building, board roles, business schools, ultrarunning, and martial arts, Christian brings a rare lens:What it really takes to turn breakthrough science into businesshow to grow it, lead it, and shape the world around it. Expect each episode to deliver:Founder & Investor Blueprints: How breakthrough technologies scale from lab to IPOHistorical & Biographical Frameworks: Timeless playbooks from the world's great buildersLeadership & Communication Mastery: Tools to inspire, persuade, and lead at scaleWhether you're building the next biotech success, investing in AI, or leading a climate tech company through hypergrowththis podcast gives you the edge.Listen in. Apply what matters. Build companies that last. Join the newsletter & community: https://lsg2g.substack.com/ Language: en-us Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Spark 20: Alex Dang | Everyone Agrees? Think Again. How Venture Capitalists Decide
Episode 19
Sunday, 1 November, 2026
Invest in the wrong startup and you lose one times your money. Miss the next Google and you lose ten thousand times. Most boards are built to avoid the first mistake.Venture capitalists play by different rules. They back the team before the market, read full agreement in the room as a warning sign, place small bets, double down on the ones that work and kill the rest. Then they give the winners five to seven years.Alex Dang led products at Amazon and at Amazon Web Services and was a partner at McKinsey in Silicon Valley. Together with Stanford professor Ilya Strebulaev he wrote The Venture Mindset, built on twenty years of research into how venture capitalists decide.This Spark 20 is the short version of a two-hour conversation. Alex explains the jockey and the horse, the arithmetic of a fund where 16 or 17 of 20 bets go to zero, why the boss should speak last, how part of the book was written in Vienna, how Prime Now started in a single New York zip code, why he kept the press releases of failed projects in his office at Amazon, and how to run your own life like a portfolio.The full conversation is EP 152: Alex Dang, Billion-Dollar BetsWHAT YOU WILL LEARNWhy venture capitalists back the team before the marketHow the arithmetic of a fund turns missing Google into the biggest riskWhy full consensus in a meeting is a warning sign, and who should speak firstHow to double down or quit inside a company, from Prime Now to the CEO’s favorite projectWhy innovation needs five to seven years, and how to place small bets in your own lifeBEST QUOTES(00:05:21) “Home runs matter. Strikeouts do not.”(00:08:10) “If you invest in the wrong company, you will miss one X. But if you miss Google, you may miss 10,000 X.”(00:10:29) “If everyone in the room agrees that this is the company to make a bet on, then something might be wrong with the company.”(00:15:22) “You double down or quit.”(00:22:40) “If your leadership expects to generate the first revenue or even profit next quarter, most likely you will either be disappointed or it is not innovative enough.”TIMESTAMPS(00:00:00) Intro: one times the money, or ten thousand times(00:01:20) Management built for a predictable world, the jockey and the horse(00:05:02) The arithmetic of a venture fund: 20 bets, one outlier(00:08:33) Conviction over consensus, and why the boss speaks last(00:12:11) Vienna, von Mises and von Neumann’s poker(00:15:33) Prime Now: one zip code first, then scale, and kill the zombies(00:17:30) Who stops the CEO’s favorite project(00:20:22) Patience: a horizon of five to seven years(00:24:19) Run your own life like a portfolio(00:26:53) Closing thoughtsAlex Dang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadingchange/ The Venture Mindset: https://link.amazon/B01eVzQadFollow Beginner’s Mind for long-form conversations on leadership, capital, technology, and the people building what comes next.Ranked in the global top 10% of all podcasts, named #1 Deep Tech Podcast in 2025, and #8 Deep Tech Podcast in 2026Send us Fan MailSupport the showJoin the Podcast Newsletter: LinkYour Next Move: Link
