Bill Gurley
Guest on All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Guest on Mick Unplugged · Guest on Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin · Guest on My First Million
Bill Gurley is a veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist and former general partner at Benchmark, where he led investments in major technology companies including Uber. He is known for his deep expertise in tech markets, business models, and investing, and currently co-hosts the BG2Pod podcast while serving on the board of the Santa Fe Institute.
Products they talk about
A Random Walk Down Wall Street👍 Recommends
…giving investment advice to retail investors and general portfolio strategy
“I've spent my life as a venture capitalist, not as a LP. So, I mean, I've generally every time someone asks me for investment advice, I ask them if they've read a random walk down Wall Street by Burton McHale. And if you haven't like go read that and then let's have a conversation.”
on Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Designing Your Life👍 Recommends
…discussing career exploration exercises from Designing Your Life
“Well, I mentioned the one that Tito had used. Um, the, the team that wrote Designing Your Life has, has one that they say is most popular, which is, is battle carding. So like come up with three to five potential career paths, not just one and let your brain roll around in them for a while.”
on My First Million
One Up on Wall Street👍 Recommends
…testing career interest through part-time stock trading inspired by Peter Lynch book
“And, like, when I was an engineer and before I went to Wall Street, it turns out I had read Peter Lentz's one up on Wall Street. I was trading stocks in my spare time. So, unconsciously I was testing that in this field that I would eventually go towards.”
on My First Million
Range👍 Recommends
…exploring how breadth of knowledge helps people innovate and reach the top of fields
“Well, I think what Keith's work, um, highlighted was that some of the people that are able to reach the top of their field are able to draw on mental models from much, from a variety of different places and where a hyper specialist. And, and David Epstein's book range is all about this specialist versus broad thing. Like that's the, really the, the whole point of the book.”
on My First Million
Strength to Strength👍 Recommends
…inspiration for writing about career impact in later life stages
“I read this great book by Arthur Brooks called Strength to Strength, where he gives advice to people at that precise station in life. And he does a great job of making clear that in this window you want to have as much impact as you can possibly have.”
on Mick Unplugged
Strength to Strength👍 Recommends
…explaining his inspiration for writing a book about careers and giving back
“So first of all, one of the things that allowed me to focus on this book, and people have asked me why I wrote a book about careers, why didn't I write a book about VCs or investing or tech or any of those things? And once I decided to hang up my boots from venture investing and started thinking about what I do with my life from here forward, I read this great book by Arthur Brooks, From Strength to Strength, which is really targeted writing for people where I am.”
on Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
The Coddling of the American Mind💬 Mentioned
…discussing how structured childhoods limit exploration and experimentation
“There's actually a chapter in Jonathan Haidt's book, Coddling of the American Mind called The Decline of Play, where we've just, we've, we, it's harder, I think, for a child to explore and try on different ideas, um, because they're caught up in this game to try and get into college.”
on My First Million
The Power of Regrets👍 Recommends
…comparing survey findings about regrets of inaction versus action
“There's a great book by Daniel Pink called The Power of Regrets, and he has a somewhat similar survey data of longitudinal through people's lives. And as you get older, your regrets of inaction start to really weigh on you and ruminate in your brain.”
on My First Million