Episode 03 - The Founder Mentality: Risk, Growth, and Building Ventures with Paul Capriolo - EIR Live

Episode Transcript
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Ilya Tabakh (00:02):
Welcome to EIR Live, the podcast where the
entrepreneurial spirit shinesthrough stories and insights
from entrepreneurs in residencefrom across the ecosystem. I'm
your host, Ilya Tabakh, joinedby my co host, Terrance Orr.
Each episode, we dive into theunique journeys of innovators
and disruptors, from the firstsparks of inspiration to the

(00:22):
challenges and triumphs alongthe way. This podcast is for the
self starters, for venturecreators, for the translators
who can connect the dots.Whether you're aspiring to be an
EIR, have been in the game for awhile, or work with an EIR, EIR
Live offers you a front row seatto the highs and lows of the
innovation journey.
Our conversations are filledwith actionable advice, deep

(00:45):
dives into stories of EIRs thatare redefining the role, and
live q and a sessions, alldesigned to engage, inform, and
inspire. Tune in, join theconversation, and let's explore
what it takes to turn ideas intoreality, and connect your
expertise to accelerateorganizations who aspire to
build the future. Welcome to EIRLive, where entrepreneurs speak,

(01:07):
we listen, and communities grow.

Terrance Orr (01:11):
Man, that was an incredible episode with Paul.
Just a ton of knowledge that heshared. I mean, everything from,
you know, looking at a startup,you know, as a risk reduction
factory, how you manage thoserisks and how you prioritize
them. Thinking about the futureof company building and how AI
is gonna play a role in that.Being a comp sci major and

(01:32):
graduate, getting his first exitout of college when he didn't
know much as an entrepreneur,all the things that people
experience in in this journey,but from a different lens.
And really, for me, thehighlight of the episode was
hearing Paul talk aboutimpacting others, through his
role as entrepreneur inresidence at the University of
Maryland. And that's why he'sbeen doing it now for nearly a

(01:55):
decade and landing hisopportunity, at a venture
studio, not even knowing that hecould. And he raised his hand to
do it. And I just think there'ssomething very, very impactful
about that. And lastly, I'llsave that for the guests
actually to listen to.
And I'm gonna pass it over toyou because there's something
else impactful that he said, butI but I want them to listen to

(02:15):
the episode to get it.

What what was cool to me about it is, he said a lot
of impactful things. We got ajust a great opportunity to dig
in a lot of topics that I thinkare important and in some cases,
maybe aren't as emphasized as itshould be. But I think for me,
Paul opened up pretty early withproject into the world what you
wanted to be, and I think he's agreat example of somebody living
the things that he preaches. AndI think that that is too rare in

(02:39):
the world that we live in today.So it's exciting to see folks be
well principled and know whythey're doing the things that
they're doing.
So I'm excited to hop into thisone.

Looking forward to hopping in. Let's do it. Paul,
I'm incredibly excited today tohave you on the podcast. Ilya
and I, we've been lookingforward to, you know, getting
you on the podcast. We are gladyou said yes.
Thank you. We, we appreciateyour time today.

Paul Capriolo (03:08):
Glad to do it.

And I've gotten the privilege to know Paul, over
the last few years and some ofthe work he's, he's been doing,
inside of, you know, the venturestudio that he's supporting
right now. And, you know, I was,felt very privileged to do a
project with Paul, and a venturewith him, when he first got into
the studio and learned way morefrom him than he would have ever

(03:32):
learned from me. So, I feelhonored to have him on the
podcast today to talk aboutsomething that I'm very
passionate about, something thatIlya is very passionate about
and that's, you know,entrepreneur led and built
companies and finding peoplewho've been in residence in an
organization, whatever thatorganization might be, and to
talk about their journey, theirbackground, the war stories, and

(03:54):
things that make them battletested, right, in this world and
in this mysterious role that wecall an entrepreneur in
residence. But enough enoughabout those things, Paul, I
would never be able to do yourbackground justice. So I love it
if you can kick it off andintroduce yourself to the
audience, please.

Totally. Terrance and Ilya, thanks for having me.
This is a super fun opportunity,and I love talking
entrepreneurship. So a littlebit about me, I live in Lewis,
Delaware. It's called SlowerLower Delaware.
I have 4 kids and a goldenretriever, live by the beach.
It's awesome. It swells duringthe summer, and it has quiet off
seasons. And, you know,personally, self growth is my

(04:34):
north star. So everything I do,I think, starts with me, and I
project who I am to the world.
So and and I especially saw thatonce I started having kids, just
the a reflection of yourself andan opportunity to accelerate
your self growth. My backgroundis in computer science. I went
to Maryland undergrad inCarnegie Mellon for my masters.

(04:55):
And I caught theentrepreneurship bug from really
the beginning of my life. Sostarting businesses as early as
grade school and then started myfirst formal company in grad
school with a couple of computerscience friends and really never
looked back.
So I think what attracted me toentrepreneurship was the ability
to bet on myself and control myown destiny and maximize the

(05:15):
value that I could create andand really just make sure that I
was doing what I loved. And, thefirst company I started, I had
we had no business background.We didn't know what the heck we
were doing. We just wanted tobuild cool products that we
thought, you know, people wouldlike. And we quickly got punched
in the face, you know, a lotthere.

(05:36):
And then, you know, throughfailures and learnings and
lessons, I've gone on to just tostart 2 successful companies, 1
in the the gaming space, thesocial gaming space, and 1 in
the advertising space. And sincethen, I've joined my friend's
company as a director of growthat an ecommerce SaaS company. I
was there for 4 years runningmarketing and sales and customer

(05:59):
success and and support andthings like that. And most
recently, for the last 2 years,I've been a venture principal at
Portfolio T. It's a super funjob at at a venture studio where
I get to work with generally,like, really deep tech startups
to help take them from 0 to 1.
So it's me and a small team offolks that generally act as

(06:20):
cofounders to maybe a smallventure team of a CEO and a
couple other, founders. And wehelp them find the problem and
the pain and the solution thatsolves the that pain and
ultimately help define thebusiness around, around the
solution. And I've got I've I'vehad the privilege to work on
ventures from food science,which I worked on with you,

(06:43):
Terrance. Super fun. And, Ilearned a lot from you as well.
Thank you. And, satellite basedearth earth observation,
blockchain KYC, and mostrecently, just wrapping up a
gene therapy venture. So myfirst foray into nanomedicine.
So I I love I love that 0 to 1,and I I really love maximizing
the value I can create, forthese ventures, and and that's

(07:05):
the sandbox I love to play in.

Thank you so much, Paul, for for introducing
yourself because, you know, thisguy is really good at 0 to 1,
guys. You know? I and and he'sreally good at motivating teams,
and, he's not an a hole whilehe's doing it. He's also, you
know, I think that's importantfor somebody to be able to
motivate teams or not, you know,can also, you know, motivate
people and be a good human atthe same time. And Paul, I think
you exemplify that, you know,better than a lot of people that

(07:29):
I know.
And, Ilya, anything that you youwanted to follow-up on on his
background?

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, I I I always
am fascinated by, you know,kinda the difference between
actually leading the ventureversus sort of helping others.
I'm curious if you can kindatalk through the difference, on
kind of sitting next to afounding team and kinda working
with them as as opposed to beingkinda proper founder.

(07:54):
Is it is it is it thatdifferent, or is it, pretty
similar? Or how what's kind ofbeen your experience? It
depends, obviously.

But what it really depends on is is the
founders that you get to workwith. And some founders, they
they, you know, they trust you.You can build trust. You can
build a great relationship.They're looking for advice.
And and, really, you do feellike a founder. Others try and
keep you at arm's length. Theyhave a a challenge kind of
bringing bringing you in to tothe inner circle and just like

(08:23):
you're an unknown quantity. Andand then I think it can be a
challenge to help them see, youknow, your side and and what you
think the right actions are. Butultimately, it comes down to,
like, can you get on the sameside of the table as them or
not?
And if if I don't haveconviction in what I'm working
on, then and I can't articulateit properly or where I think the

(08:45):
the venture should go, thenmaybe I shouldn't be on that
same side of the table. So ifthe founders push back, the more
they push back, then the morechallenge it is and the more
opportunity it is for me toclarify my thinking. And,
ultimately, I'd say do evenbetter by them sometimes.

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, it's it's,
you know, sort of that role asan EIR in a corporate setting.
I'm kinda more of a spiritualleader than kind of the hard
line leader.
And so that's that's taken alittle bit of a kinda different
approach. And, you know, it's,I'm very much like you where I
like if things are going on, Ilike to jump in in the trenches,

(09:21):
really sort of understand whatwe're doing, and then kinda
figure out how I can kinda helpcarry some water. And it's just
it's interesting to sort of seeas you kinda play different,
types of EIR roles, how how thatkind of evolves over time. So I
appreciate kind of the that thatinsight there.

Yeah. And and and you mentioned spirituality.
Like, that being being open andbeing vulnerable and connecting
with these founders on a deeplevel, like, underneath the
business, like, who who they areand, like, why are they even
building this business? Of allthe things that they could be
doing with their time and theirlives and their their careers.
Like, why are they here?
And and how can you getpassionate about that problem

(09:59):
too? Right? And and the more youcommit to them, the more that
they commit to you.

It's interesting because naturally, I wanna ask
you about, you know, some somechallenges that you face in in
working with those foundingteams. Right? Usually we see,
you know, there's always an anissue or something, right?
Sometimes on the ground floor ofwith a founding team or with a
new venture team or with thefolks that you you're just sort
of doing this tango. You'regetting to know each other and

(10:25):
building building this newcompany.
And eventually, you you you runor you don't run and you figure
out, you know, different things.Could you could you talk a
little bit about some of thechallenges that you've
experienced as an EIR workingwithin the Venture Studio, you
know, helping to take thesethings from 0 to 1, but knowing
that there's gonna be a foundingteam that will eventually come
along the journey for you, andand take it to the next level

(10:48):
while you go off and build thenext great company. Can Can you
talk about some of thechallenges that that you face in
doing

that? Yeah. The question highlights the need to
not just help them answer thequestions, but help them build
the muscles where they cananswer the questions in the
future, right, that haven't comeup yet. And I think the biggest
one of the biggest challenges ishelping founders understand that
their assumptions and theirknowledge, unless they've they
had the the proof that it it's arisk. It's a risk to their

(11:16):
business.
And a lot of a lot of founderscan be very confident in, their
their understanding of themarket and the customer and and
the product. And and that's howI was when I started founding
companies too. It's it's verycustomer research, customer
development light, and justconviction focused. And I see
that with a lot of first timefounders, especially if they're
coming if they're buildingsomething in an industry they

(11:38):
have experience with. So thefirst muscle to build that is
important for the entirety ofthe venture is being close to
the customer and understandingand being able to intellectually
understand what's what's anassumption versus what do I have
conviction about and and anddata to support.
So that is probably the bigfirst tension point. And then

(12:01):
there's this there's this, kindof initial period with ventures
where I'm onboarding with theteam, and we need to really
understand the company,understand the the market,
understand, the the space, thedomain. And the founders needs
to be to be willing to explainthings and let us challenge
them. And normally, they're notgetting challenged at this

(12:21):
really deep level. Right?
Like, imagine, like, a 10 houropen ended interview where
you're just like, you're at somepoint, you're getting so deep
and you're asking questions thatno one's ever asked. And some of
the times they can beuncomfortable, even though you
try and frame them in reallygentle ways. But it's like, they
have to be okay with you pokingholes in their business. And,

(12:41):
and then that's an opportunityto say, okay. Well, this might
be a risk.
This might be something we needto work on. But they need to be
willing to engage and bevulnerable enough to to indulge
in those conversations.Sometimes you get folks like,
why do you need to know this?Like, there's someone else on
the team is working on that.Like, let's just focus on let's
let's try and put you in a boxas a venture builder or venture
team.
When really, especially at theearly stages, you need to be

(13:02):
able to look across theecosystem, look across the
company and the functions, andand that's how you add the most
value. So they need to bewilling and able to articulate
really everything about theirbusiness. So those are probably
the the two biggest challengesthat, that will create value for
them far beyond my engagementwith the venture.

Just to quickly double click on that. I work
with a lot of climate techfounders, and so a lot of them
have, you know, sort of deeptechnical backgrounds. And I
found, you know, as as a trainedengineer myself that typically
kind of engineers or othertechnical, folks, tend to kinda
have high confidence and and inmany cases, have spent, you

(13:42):
know, a nontrivial part of theircareer kinda being the expert.
And I think, actually, your twopoints are pretty well related
to each other. It's like beingclose to the customer and then
also sort of being open and sortof continuing to have a living
model of what you're doing endto end is really sort of almost

(14:02):
an indication of, you know, arethey interested in what reality
is telling them about the thingthat they're working on?
Right? And and whether that'sdirectly from the clients or,
you know, sort of, businessmodel and everything else, that
that humility thing. And,especially, like, thinking about
who who on the team is providingkind of different types of

(14:23):
insights are are kind of somethings that I found. But that
just like when you were talkingabout, you know, openness to
what clients are saying and thensort of letting go a little bit
of your expert status or atleast backing it up with very
deep evidences is reallyimportant. I found that in in
kind of my work as well.

I'm glad you brought up technical founders
because they're one of the otherchallenges with with technical
founders is sometimes they wannaput themselves in just like the
tech sandbox. Right? Like, I Ido the tech. Like, you go do the
customer discovery. I'll buildit, or I'll do, you know and and
that's not really the foundermentality, especially if they're
coming out of, like, academia.
Like, I work with a lot of PhDs,and and sometimes they just

(15:02):
wanna you know, I wanna stick tothe science. I wanna stick to
the the tech or the AI orwhatever it is. And things like
customer discovery, things likefinancial modeling or putting
together a a pitch, raisingmoney, like, these are so
foreign and uncomfortable atfirst that you you wanna try and
keep them from retreating andand pull them in, and and that's

(15:22):
that's gonna just pay so muchdividends for them if you can
get them to open up to theseother these other functions that
are just incredibly valuable andand critical to the business's
success.

I just wanna add on to to a few things that you
and Ilya said because there's afew different things that I like
to pull out these little themessometimes fall. So you'll see me
do that throughout our our chattoday. You mentioned the word
risk. You you mentioned thewords poking holes in in the
business, and you mentioned thewords founder mentality. Those
things stick out to me a lot asyou were explaining the

(15:55):
different things because talkabout I think there's something
to be said about somebody cometo the table with the
credibility to be able to pokeholes in a business.
Right? Because you've had to,like, walk that journey in some
capacity before to see somethingand to go, well, how would this
work? How's that gonna work? Howare you gonna do that? And and
it comes from a place of warwounds that you've already felt,

(16:16):
you know, and landmines thatyou've already stepped on, and
you're actually trying to helpthe founder avoid those
landmines by asking thequestions to get them to think
about it far in advance beforethey get an investor across the
table from them.
Right? That's gonna actually askthose same questions. The other
thing that you brought up wasrisk. Right? And effectively,
you know, I look at startups asas a risk management exercise,

(16:39):
right, in a risk reductionfactory, if you can if you can
go about it that way.
And but lastly, I want you totouch on the thing that you
talked about last, which is thefounder mentality. What would
Paul describe as the foundermentality?

I would say the the founder mentality is the
embodiment of theentrepreneurial spirit. And what
I mean by that is that someonean entrepreneur is passionate,
and they believe in they'remission driven, and they believe
in that they have a uniqueopportunity to make an impact on

(17:12):
on the world that creates achange that they wanna see in
the world. And I think reallyit's that's why entrepreneurs
are admired in our society isbecause they're willing to take
a risk on something that theybelieve in at the expense of
their time and their talent andtheir treasure. And, yeah,
there's an upside and peoplereally admire, if you look at,
like, all the entrepreneurs inthe world, I'd say the ones that

(17:35):
are most admired are the onesthat are are most mission driven
That can say, like, I'm doingthis because I wanna see this
change in the world. And you canagree with that change or not as
as a consumer or an individual,and you can vote with your
dollars.
But ultimately, if you can ifyou can be mission driven and
bet on yourself, like, that'sthat's what I think it's all
about.

Fair enough.

I do wanna talk about risk, though, because
that's that's

that's something that's been on my

mind a lot lately.

Oh, absolutely. Because I I know you're you're
you're you're working onsomething potentially that that
may be too early to talk about.But, you know, if you wanna talk
about, you know, sort of, thethings you're working on around
risk and and and assessing riskand building.

Just because you mentioned, that startups are
risk reduction factories, and II strongly believe that. And I I
strongly believe thatentrepreneurs are not really
risk takers. They're riskreducers. And, Peter Drucker has
a quote that says something likeall profit is derived from risk.

(18:35):
So the way I've been thinkingabout venture building really at
any stage, at least at theearliest stages of venture is
it's truly just an exercise inprioritizing risk.
And there's all these, there'sall these methodologies that
exist. And we use one at ourventure studio and every venture
studio has kind of their own andevery, you know, there's lean
startup and there's all thesethings. Right? And I think they

(18:57):
all do a pretty good job atapproximating risk. There's, you
know, like, what problem are yousolving?
Who, you know, who matters most?What matters most? What's the
business? Like, these are allreally important questions that
approximate a risk, but it's notalways true that every venture
needs to follow the same linearkind of risk derisking process.

(19:20):
Right?
It might be that maybe the thethe demand is obvious or more
obvious, or you have moreconviction about it. So really
it's, can I adhere to a certainregulation or is this tech even
possible? Is it right? Is iteven possible to to build and
create? Can I access the data Ineed?
So I've tried to simplify how Ithink about venture building and
methodology into just a verysimple heuristic of how can we

(19:44):
identify and prioritize the toprisks for the venture, and then
how can we take each risk andcreatively come up with the
lightest touch way to derisk orcreate learnings that will help
us understand the risk better,potentially derisk it,
potentially create find outthere there's more risks under
the surface that we weren'taware of. And really, that's, I

(20:06):
think, the the simplest form ofventure building methodology
that I've been working on. I'mworking on I call it risk
weighted venture building. It'sprobably not a new concept. A
lot of people do this.
And even we do, like, risk andassumptions workshops here, but
not till later in the venture.Now I I I think that this should
be, 1st and foremost, whereventures start is what are the
biggest risks. If you focus onon that, then the the goal of

(20:30):
your actions becomes, how canyou maximally address the risk
with the minimum resources? Andthen if if that's if that's
true, then what a great venturebuilder is, is someone that both
can identify and prioritizerisks and also creatively come
up with ways to de risk them andthen take actions. When I
started and a lot of the theentrepreneurs that I mentor,

(20:54):
they they like to hide or runfrom risk.
You know, it's like especiallythe technical ones, back to what
Ilya was talking about earlier.You know, they wanna they wanna,
like, build their thing, andthey don't wanna talk to anyone.
They don't want anyone to saythat their baby's ugly. But
running at the risk is probablythe most valuable. It's I'm I
strongly believe actually is isthe most valuable thing that you
can do as a venture builder.

(21:15):
And the more that within youlike, something within you says,
like, avoid this or hide fromthis or do work on something
else like that that, like, innercritic, the stronger it means
that you need to run at it.Right? You need to say, okay.
Well, why am I nervous aboutthis? There's something that,
like, within me that is anassumption where I'm actually

(21:37):
not confident about this eventhough, you know, my picture, my
projection is is otherwise.
And that is a fantasticheuristic as to what you should
be working on as a venturebuilder.

You know, if I had any advice for my past self,
that probably would be in in thevery short list of, you know, if
something's making you nervousor, you know, is you the it's
kinda your gut's telling yousomething's wrong here. That's
the thing that should beprioritized. That that took a
while, and I'm glad, you know,it's it's awesome to hear, you
know, other folks have made thatrealization as well. I guess if

(22:09):
you had kind of other you know,you've had quite a varied
experience at this point fromkinda different perspectives.
What other kind of advice wouldyou, you know, if you had the
poll time machine, would you go,kinda give to a a younger poll?
And is there kinda, a couplethings that you would share?

Maybe to not answer your question first. When
I when I started, I was toonaive to know, like, how hard it
was. And I didn't have anythingto lose other than my time for
embedding on myself. So I was ina good a good spot. And also
that naivete, like, really droveme.
I felt like I could do anything.And, certainly, I I found that
wasn't true. But but I wouldn'tI wouldn't tell my my prior self

(22:50):
anything that would, I'd say,you know, not basically, like,
extinguish that naivete, like,that overconfidence in myself.
Like, that I think was the thingthat allowed me to jump off the
cliff into entrepreneurship. Soso I would I would do anything
to to retain that.
But a few a few things that Iwould change that I would tell

(23:12):
myself is definitely 1, Ilya,that you mentioned is, like, run
at the risks. And if somethingfeels unsettling, like, listen
to yourself, like, what are younervous about and how can you
address that first and foremost?Right? The more you don't wanna
do it, the more it should beyour priority. It's kinda how
I'd simply phrase that.
Other things are just staying asclose to the customer, like we
like we mentioned. It'ssomething that I shied away from

(23:34):
early. I was a tech founder. Iwanted to just code and build
products and and apps and thingsand didn't wanna talk to
customers because I said, oh,it's like me. Like, I I would
like this so everyone else wouldlike this.
I'm like everyone else. And andthat's just I mean, coming out
of my mouth now, it soundsridiculous. You know? And and
another thing that that I woulddefinitely tell myself is be

(23:54):
mission driven. And when Istarted, it was you know, I
wanted to build things that werecool that that I thought could
make money, but it was there wasno mission.
There was no real, like, vision.There was no impact I wanted to
make on the world. These wereventures in advertising and
social gaming, which, you know,there's lots of opportunity
there to create efficiencies andconnect with tons of users and

(24:16):
gamers and and help brands grow.But I didn't have, like, a a
real mission behind it. I wasdoing it because it was I was
opportunistic, and I wanted tobuild cool things and and make
and make a big company.
You know, I wanted to be a asuccessful entrepreneur. But as
I look back on it, you know, Iwould want to be really, like,
focused top down. Like, what ismy vision? What is my mission?

(24:37):
What is the impact I wanna makeon the world?
And then tell my tell my pastself to align everyone I hire
with that, like, mission tometrics that I think was
pioneered by SpaceX. Like, Iadmire that very much. So So how
does how can everyone in in theorg understand how they are
contributing to the mission andwhy their role is so important?
As opposed to, you know, when II was awful at hiring when I

(25:00):
first started. And I would Iwould try and convince folks to
come work for me.
Like, oh, it's fun. Like, therethere's pizza and ping pong
tables and whatever it is, like,the perks. Right? Oh, we don't
you know, we we we really valuework life balance. And and and
ultimately, like, I I ended uphiring a lot of folks that
really didn't wanna work hardand they didn't really believe
in what we were doing.

(25:21):
And they were because I pitchedit like that. Like, that was my
fault. Right? And I didn't setthe expectations and the culture
properly. And over time, I said,hey, like, the the more I I
frame this as a challenge, themore I'm gonna attract people
that really want a challenge.
The more I'm gonna attractpeople that you know, the more I
frame it as a mission, the moreI'm gonna get people to align
with the mission and and believein the mission and and think

(25:42):
about the mission and andoperate at a higher level and
build a great culture around themission. So it's right. It's
it's, like, it's it's it'sreally those those are some of
the the big things. One otherthing that comes to mind is I
used to be very reactive. Like,always on email, always on
Slack, like, responding in,like, a minute to someone, like,

(26:02):
just always thinking that, like,activity translated to value in
a sense where really I'vecompletely shifted to be way
more proactive where I'mthinking about what are the what
are the most important things towork on or what are the biggest
risks of the business, which arethe most important things to
work on ultimately.
And then filling in thosereactive filling in the other

(26:22):
time with the reactive stuff. Soreally, like, defining my day as
opposed to letting everyonedefine my day for me.

This is very interesting. I I like hearing
you talk about this topicbecause I I can hear a boost of
energy, coming as you talk aboutmission to metrics and being,
mission driven. And and it andit speaks to sort of, you know,
how how people wanna try todeploy that impact, that scale,
right, in in whatever they'redoing. And it it really also
speaks to, you know,entrepreneurs and residents or

(26:52):
builders in general. Paul talkeda lot about he used the term
venture builder earlier for forour listeners.
Right? Some people will useventure builder, EIR, in
different words, you know,interchangeably. So so you you
will hear, you know, himreferred to venture builder,
EIR. But this is the point ofthe podcast for you to learn
about this role, thisterminology, and and the

(27:12):
different things that matter.But let's talk about building
things that matter, Paul, andhow that drives you.
So, you know you know, talk tome about I don't wanna layer
questions, but talk to me aboutthe first time you heard about
this mysterious role of aentrepreneur in residence. I
believe it's when you got yourfirst opportunity at University
of Maryland. And and then talkabout how the next time you you

(27:36):
had an opportunity that came upat the Venture Studio to become
an entrepreneur in residence,how those roles were different
based off of your residence. Buttalk about how you actually got
the opportunities first, if ifyou wouldn't mind sharing that
with the audience.

Yeah. Sure. As I as one of my ventures was
becoming a success, I wasinvited to be an entrepreneur in
residence at University ofMaryland. And I've been there
now for almost 10 years,advising students and alumni and
faculty on their businesses. Andand that could be, like, a 30
minute, like, drop in advisingsession on a Friday afternoon,

(28:11):
or it could be doing a lecture,product market fit or financial
modeling and and everything inbetween.
And it's great to buildrelationships with these
entrepreneurs. And what I loved,I did it initially, and I still
do it, to give back to up andcoming entrepreneurs. And it
felt like it was just thebiggest way for me to make a

(28:34):
positive impact. And right, youcan donate to your alumni
organizations and this and that.But I thought, you know, if I
can spend 30 minutes with a newentrepreneur and help them avoid
some of the mistakes that I madeor help them think through
problems that I didn't thinkthrough properly, I could save
them years of their life.
I could save them 1,000,000 ofdollars. Right? This is, like,
in 30 minutes or an hour. Like,this is huge impact that I can

(28:57):
make. And that's what reallyattracted me to it.
And then I just fell in lovewith the I fell in love with the
impact, and and I could see thereflection of my impact in in
the businesses that I wasadvising. And this and assuming
that the students arepassionate, they're not always
as passionate. Not everyentrepreneur is as passionate as
as as the other. But the onesthat really, like that were

(29:19):
mission driven, that believed inin in what they were working on
and and had a real, like, strongreason not to just, like, I
wanna make some money. Thosewere the ones that I loved
working with the most.
And because they wouldn't giveup when it got hard. And they
would, you know, they wouldsmash through the wall or they'd
find a workaround. And as I waswinding down, getting to, like,
how I got this this job atPortfolio T or this role. As I

(29:44):
was winding down my, my role asa director of growth at, at my
friend's, Y Combinator SaaScompany, I was looking to
continue being an EIR inacademia. I actually didn't know
that EIRs existed in the privatesetting.
So I was looking at you know, Istarted to reach out to these

(30:04):
different schools. You know, MITwas hiring an EIR and others and
say, okay, I I would love to dothis more, you know, full time.
And then I just started comingacross these things called
Venture Studios. And, and I waslike, oh my goodness, I can do
this, with with real resources,with entrepreneurs that are more

(30:25):
mature, farther farther alongthat have, you know, bigger
ideas than, say, like, a collegestudent. They're kind of
thinking more, like, locally andand within their sandbox.
And this is exactly what I wannado. I get to focus on the 0 to
1. So I I reached out to toPortfolio t, and I said, like,
hey. I'm I've been in the EIR. Ilove being in the EIR.

(30:46):
Like, how does it work at aventure studio? Like, what is
and, and it like, one thing ledto another. And that was about 2
years ago, and I've I've workedon 4 successful ventures, and
and I'm now a a ventureprincipal here. So it was it was
really natural. What I well, thebiggest differences to to your
other question, Terrance, is Iwould say, you know, the

(31:06):
methodology.
There's a there's a methodology.There's a process. It's just so
much more professional. Right?There's real resources behind
it.
There's a network, a networkthat you can tap in more easily
too. You have more budget fortools and teams and things like
that. In the academic setting,you know, it's it's just like a

(31:27):
smaller game, candidly, with,you know, entrepreneurs that
aren't as mature and, andresources that are more
restricted, in in the academicsetting. So it's just getting
it's like the big leagues, in myopinion. So both are are super
valuable and and critical, and II love doing both.
I can never work on, forinstance, like, a gene therapy

(31:48):
startup in my EIR academic roleor right? And but but now I get
to. And, and just being able to,like, learn about new industries
and and new technology, and newecosystems that you can't learn
through academia was was a hasbeen a really a big joy in being

(32:09):
at a venture studio.

It's probably obvious to the 3 of us or or
maybe not. But the this, youknow, I I really strongly
believe that EIRs need a sort ofhave had entrepreneurial
experience. And then, also,through that entrepreneurial
experience, they build a lot ofsort of muscle memory and and
recognition of differentbehaviors and things like that.

(32:32):
And you just talked through, youknow, a handful. You know, we
can probably spend 25, 30minutes highlighting why a lot
of the things that you said wereimportant, you know, kind of
that mission driven part, youknow, kind of being open and
humble, as well as, you know,the fact that you had done a few
ventures.
You knew, you know, in yourexperience, what worked, what
didn't work, had seen a bunch ofdeals. You know? And and I see a

(32:55):
lot of, like, first timeentrepreneurs and first time
kind of folks that are doingsomething, not realize that the
folks that they're working with,you know, have a whole kinda
deep body of experience. And sowhen they say something and
they're used to being theexpert, you know, they're not
used to sort of having a a a areally kind of strong,

(33:17):
conversational partner to to toreally dig into some of these
topics with. So I just wannakinda highlight that for, know,
some of the folks that arelistening in that, you know,
when when you see and have beeninvolved in a lot of different
things, you know, the therethere is some stories and some
other things that that give yousome added perspective.
And, honestly, like, once yousee enough deals, you sort of

(33:39):
say, hey. Is this a fast movingthing? What's the market look
like? Do they have the team? Youknow, there's all kinds of
things where you're roughlysizing this up to see, does it,
you know, is it a bread slice, abread box, or a bread band kinda
thing, and and have someexperience.
So I just really wanted to notnot gloss over a lot of the

(33:59):
stuff you were talking aboutthere, Paul, because I think
that that's the, you know, partof the reason why I really like
to see experienced entrepreneursgoing into entrepreneur in
residence roles. And andpartially because a lot of that
kind of tacit knowledge, becomesreally important. So thanks for
letting me jump in there,Terrance, but I just wanted to
kinda highlight that because Ithink it's really critical.

Of course, man. You jump in whenever you want,
my friend. The, the other thingthat I wanna layer on top of
exactly what Ilya just said wasthere's this trend that we see,
and you'll see it with ourguests, and our guests don't
know each other yet. When theylisten to each other podcast,
they'll see this trend. Thistrend of entrepreneurs and
residents raising their hand,you know, for for their their

(34:40):
first or their second EIR role.
Like, nobody reached out to toto to Paul for the 1 he he I I
reached out to them. Right? Andand and I said x, y, and z. We
had another guest on thepodcast, Paul, that said the
exact same thing almost. Right?
You know, that they that theysaw this thing, and they they
reached out and sort of it ledto, right, an EIR gig. I think

(35:03):
the other thing that I wannahighlight for people is that you
could be a Paul. You could be anexperienced entrepreneur and
have built the company, havewalked the path before. Right?
You understand and have respectfor the entrepreneurial journey
and process and still not knowthat there's EIR roles in these
sort of settings, right, andstill not know that a venture

(35:24):
studio exists.
I was one of those people too.So I I just wanna make sure that
folks know that every singleday, right, I hear from serial
entrepreneurs on on LinkedIn whodon't have a clue what the EIR
is or how to get their first EIRgig. They just know they want
one for whatever reason. Right?And but it's still very foreign,

(35:45):
even if you've done this before,right, in in multiple different
ways.
And I think the last thing that,I I wanna highlight that Paul
said is he talked about thestudio having a methodology.
Right? This this process ofcompany building. You know,
before I actually joined sort ofthe venture studio world, right,
and joined the venture builder,I I wasn't convinced yet that

(36:08):
company building could becodified, right, and that there
was actually a methodology whereyou can take companies from 0 to
1. And if you follow that andyou you test the risk and you go
after it and you test yourassumptions and your hypotheses,
that you could actually land onsomething that was valuable.
Right? So a little bit morenaive at the time. But when I
got into the venture studioworld, you learn very quickly

(36:29):
that the playbook equals, youknow, usually the outcomes, you
know, sort of thing. But youhave to know when it deviate
away from the playbook. And andthat's when, you know, the the
journey of working in the Wowand doing this on your own prior
to being in a venture studio orwhatever your residence might be
is incredibly valuable.
Right? And you saw Paul try tosit up a little bit. He's like,

(36:52):
know when to deviate, from thefrom that playbook. Mhmm. And
and, Paul, Paul, it looks likeyou wanna comment a little bit
on on knowing when to pivot andand getting away from the
playbook.

Totally. You have to be able to hold these
methodologies loosely. And it'snot just about following a
process. Like, anyone can followa process. It's about
understanding what parts of theprocess are important and when.
And say and understanding thatyour mileage may vary based on
who what venture team you'reworking with, what the ecosystem

(37:23):
or the industry is, how faralong they are. There's all
these these variables. And andthat's why I kind of like to
simplify it to, like, just reprioritized risk, like a risk
weighted process, because thenit's really it's it's it's such
it's so high level that maybe itit is customer discovery that
you should be doing. Maybe it'ssomething in tech. Maybe it's

(37:44):
understanding markets orregulations or doing competitive
diligence.
And and it just allows you tohold these things really kind of
loosely and and think highlevel. I think the hidden secret
of venture building and venturestudios is the methodology only
gets you so far, and then itreally becomes about the people.
Working together, how do youwork with the founders? How do
you do you act as a cofounder?And that's something that I try

(38:05):
and instill in in myself and theteam and and even share with the
ventures we work with.
Like, I am going to act as acofounder, and I'm gonna be just
as passionate about this as youare. And that's not part of the
methodology. Right? It's like,you know, do your customer
discovery, do your prototypetesting and solution testing and
storyboarding and things likethat. Like, you need to be able
to pick the right tool for thejob, but you need to understand

(38:27):
what the job is in order to pickthe right tool.

No. I I I think that's super critical.

Yeah. Just just listening to the discussion.
It's such a people sport, andthey're so, like it's just,
like, when people there's alwaysthis conversation for me when
people ask what's it like beingan entrepreneur. Right? And, you
know, why doesn't everybody doit?
Why do you wanna do it? Youknow, may may maybe there's a

(38:53):
question in here as well, butjust to kinda set it up a little
bit. When an entrepreneur says,you know, that thing I was
working on, we hit this issue,and that was, like, the hardest
thing I ever had to do. Youknow? Like, when we're talking
about it in, you know, adiscussion like this, it's like,
oh, that that seems like it washard.
You know? Maybe they had to workan extra 80 hours, you know, or
whatever. And it's like, that'syou know? I'm sure they learned

(39:13):
really something interestingfrom that. To, like, the
entrepreneur, it's like, youknow, maybe I had to fire some
people or maybe my, you know,biggest customer said that, hey.
We gotta put a pause on, youknow, kind of this transaction
that's really important to yourpayroll or a lot of these other
things. And so just like it it'sreally hard to effectively
communicate for me kind of thepeople and what does it actually

(39:37):
mean doing something new. Right?Like like, really new as as an
entrepreneur. And so it's it'sjust interesting.
You know, I hear little littlefacets of that as we're kinda
talking through the I'm gonna bea cofounder. Because for a first
time founder, they may not fullyrealize how hard it's about to
get. Right? They may they maynot know, like, what they've
gotten themselves into, and yousay, hey. I'm gonna be a

(39:59):
cofounder.
It's like, hey. Paul seems likea nice guy. He's gonna be really
supportive. Right? But but thenwhen the firefight really
starts, they're they they didn'trealize kind of the thing that
you were signing up for.
Jokes on them. You know, maybethe question that say again?

Joke's on them. Yeah. I know. They think I'm
just gonna be

a cheerleader? No. Yeah. Right. It's it's
definitely a a story that keepson giving.
But I guess if if I had aquestion in there, you know, I
get asked quite a bit why, youknow, why be an EIR versus just
do the entrepreneur thing? Youknow? And and and and since you
made actually, all 3 of us havemade the transition in our
lives, I think it's kindainteresting to kinda talk about

(40:37):
that a little bit, you know,kind of the difference between
just the e versus the EIR. Youknow, kinda what are your
thoughts there, Paul?

That's a a challenge for for me kind of
constantly to to think throughthat question. I'm always
keeping my ear to the ground,like, you know, is there
something that I really wannastart? Is well, like, what is
next for for me? And even when Ijoined this venture studio,
kinda when I joined, it's like,hey. You know, when you go start
your next thing, like, that'scool.
Like, we're we're gonna be herefor for that period of time, and

(41:07):
and that was really a supportiveand incredible thing, to say.
So, you know, I I think what Ilove about being in the EIR that
isn't just the e, theentrepreneur, is that I get to
work in a more specific sandbox,0 to 1. There's parts of when
companies get mature that Idon't love. Like, there's a lot
of actions that founders andCEOs and executives need to take

(41:31):
that aren't don't really feellike you're pushing the business
forward. You know, you're morelike you're just like shuffling
things around, dealing withpeople, issues, and it just like
it gets it gets muddy.
And the most the mo the biggestthe biggest value you can add or
really another way to say it is,the biggest risks you can reduce
are at the beginning of theventure. Right? Like, are we

(41:52):
building something that anybodywants? Like, who who are we
building it for? What are webuilding?
What's the market? What's thebusiness? Like, these are these
are such foundational questions.So you can make, in my opinion,
you can make the biggest impactin a venture in the earliest
stages of the venture versus,like, what feature should we
build next? What market shouldwe go after next?
Like, what color should thebutton be? Like, those are

(42:14):
important questions at times,but, ultimately, I think a lot
of the impact has already beenmade by then. So I get to just
work in this kind of focusedarea of venture building, this
more 0 to 1. And I get to workacross industries and learn
things I've never never neverknew before, like, you know,
satellite earth observation orfood science and, or or

(42:36):
nanomedicine. Like, I wouldnever start a venture in any of
these fields because I don'tknow them.
I I wouldn't even have an ideain the industry. Right? So it's
it's just like a a completelynew experience, a new type of
learning, and you just get to torun at these, like, problems
that you would never get to runas run at, if you were if you're

(42:57):
doing it yourself. But, youknow, to go back to what I was
saying earlier, I'm I think EIRsare always thinking about, you
know, being an entrepreneuragain. And you never lose that
that fire or that mindset.
And that's so important inventure building as an EIR too,
to not lose that. But also it's,I guess, a risk in some sense to

(43:18):
the venture studios that employthe EIRs, because they're always
so entrepreneurial. Right. But Ithink that's, that's well
understood in the industry.

No. I think that's fair. I think that's that's
that's really fair, Paul. Andit's it's very interesting
because, you know, this questionof, do you take, an opportunity
as a EIR in a venture studioversus doing it outside? You
know, some some of the reasonswhy I I why I wanted to do it in
a venture studio was that, youknow, entrepreneurship is a team

(43:46):
sport.
Right? And I got a chance tolearn from other EIRs as well,
you know, in in the venturestudio. And frankly, people who
might be potentially mycofounders in the future some
years down the road that I hadthe privilege to meet through
the venture studio. And I don'tknow that, you know, we would
have just ended up in the sameplace, in the same room at some
point in our in our lives if wehadn't met through the through

(44:07):
the Venture Studio. Right?
And I think, you know, it'ssomething to be said about,
having a place or residencewhere entrepreneurs can hang out
and tinker with new and createnew ideas until they no longer
wanna tinker no more in thatresidence. And then they wanna
spin out and start their ownthing. I think the the other
thing is around translating ofof experiences. Right? You

(44:30):
talked about background ingaming.
Right? You have a degree in CS.Right? You went to Carnegie
Mellon for something aroundentertainment technology. Right?
I mean, your background is sodifferent. It didn't have
anything to do with aerospace orspace or working with CPG or
food, you know, but somehow youadapt it. Right? And you

(44:53):
translated lessons that you gotfrom other areas into the
venture studio even if it wasn'tdirectly related, you know. And
this is one of Ilya's favoritetopics, so I still list under on
this one, which is around, youknow, tell us about how having
those different experiences indifferent spaces, how that
translated into your residenceat the at the Venture Studio,

(45:18):
and how you how you just broughtsome of those learnings and
things in that maybe would havebeen foreign to you had you not
done this in a while, prior tocoming into the Venture Studio.

Happy to address that. And I I love that you
said, Terrance, you get to workwith other entrepreneurs. Being
an entrepreneur can be verylonely. There's not a lot of
folks to connect with, likemaybe advisors and board
members. Maybe there's otherentrepreneur groups out there.
But when you get to work withother EIRs in a venture studio,
you you learn so you teach eachother so much so quickly. And

(45:49):
just before I I dive into youryour exact question, if I
started a business today versusthe last business I started,
which was maybe like 5 or 6years ago, I think I could do
like a 10 x better job or givemyself like a 100 x better
chance of success because of allI've learned so much in the last
2 years. And I think partly,like, getting to your question,

(46:10):
like, working across theseindustries helps you level up,
helps you see things at a higherlevel as opposed to just being
stuck in kind of your lane. Andthat is that's that's been
completely instrumental.

Oh, that's awesome. I'm I'm gonna hand it
over to Ilya now because I cantell. He he has the look on his
face that he has a question thathe's gonna ask you as to

You know, that's the thing I love about all these
conversations is the, you know,first of all, shared experience.
2nd of all, you know, becauseyou've seen so many different
things, there's probably ideasand things like that. Maybe
maybe a question that we bothlike to ask and, you know, has
gotten us some prettyinteresting responses Is now now

(46:51):
that you've, you know, kind ofplayed the EIR role in a couple
different places, you know,you've had some opportunities to
sort of be in in kinda differentstops on the EIR journey, if you
will. Where do you see kind ofthe role evolving, I guess, part
1? And then is there kind of adream EIR role in there

(47:12):
somewhere?
Or at least what are the, youknow, kind of facets of a dream
EIR role, if you have one. Thatthat's always kind of a fun fun
one to kinda throw out there andsee what people see.

I think there's a commonality between how I would
address both of those things,which is AI. Like, it's
something that I've been reallypassionate about. Like, where do
I see the EIR role heading? It'sbasically, like, heavily
involves AI. And, like, today, Iuse AI in in literally
everything I do from, you know,what questions should I ask a

(47:45):
customer based on what I wannalearn or how can I synthesize
these interviews?
How can I build a stakeholdermap or do competitive analysis
or even, you know, help me withthe talk track on this slide or,
like, how do I convey themessage better? It's just I it's
always open. I always have, youknow, chat GPT or whatever the
right tool is, And it's it'shelped me level up. So I can

(48:05):
think more, again, more highlevel. And I can and I so I
think the future of EIR is isreally, like, as AI matures and
this latest release from Chad orOpenAI is is wild.
It's like PhD levelintelligence. If you can break
down a venture into aprioritized set of risks, then

(48:26):
you can create you can use AI tocreate, well, 1, help you define
the risks, but 2, help youcreatively understand how to
address those risks. And then itcan be a blend of humans and
agents that are ultimatelyaddressing those risks. Right?
Agents can go off and doresearch.
You can communicate yourlearnings back to the agents.
The agents can communicate theirlearnings back to you. And it
can be I I think, you know, youneed less people to do more and

(48:49):
move faster. Like, I've nevermoved faster in venture
building. Like, today, I use AIto do things that just like last
year would have taken me a weekto do.
I can do them in an hour. Imean, that's huge multiplier.
Right? And especially in inthese early stages of ventures
where you're measuring things inminutes. Right?
Like, what did you do today?What did you do in the last 30
minutes? And then for my for me,like, the dream role to to get

(49:12):
to the second part of thequestion is to be on the
forefront of AI and withinventure building and understand,
like, how can we ultimately getas close to we can as, like,
hey. Build the venture. Hey, AI.
Go build, like, a a greatventure with this mission. Or,
like, here's my mission. And andso, like, tell like, let's point
together and and work as as, youknow, human and and computer

(49:35):
pair to execute on the mission.And then, personally, like, I
like the idea of of gettingreally far without having to to
spend a lot of time, you know,worrying about building the team
and hiring and and a lot of theperipheral things. You know, Sam
Sam Altman said something, like,a month or 2 ago that he thinks
that there could be a$1,000,000,000 one person

(49:55):
company, which is a a huge,like, b hag.
But, like, I I think that, youknow, there's there's shades of
truth in that. And I wanna bepart of the group that's
thinking through, like, how doesthat actually come to come to be
realized? And what does venturebuilding need to look like for
that to even have a possibilityof being true?

So so we're we're nominating Paul as the first
conductor of the agents, people,you know, symphony, as an EIR. I
love it. I think that's a greatand I've actually noticed myself
that, you know, the way thatI've explained, what I can do is
I'm effectively a team of 20 or30 when when I'm sort of going

(50:39):
to prototype and think aboutsome of these things now with
with some of these tools andagents. And it's it's it's, you
know, crazy. And and there's,you know, there's new things
every day.
I don't know if you guys havechecked out, notebook l l m from
Google, but they have thisawesome feature that essentially
creates, like, a deep divepodcast. So you can put, like,

(50:59):
you know, really really bighairy report out there or or
like your business plan, oldschool. You know? Let's say the
business school at whatever saidyou need to write a business
plan. You actually wrote abusiness plan, but you don't
know how to explain it toanybody.
You put it in this thing, click,the and it's crazy, like, you
know, because because that's awhole different skill set. And

(51:20):
and a lot of these things areavailable and knowing about, you
know, when you need the timpanito play versus when it's French
horn time, you know, tobastardize this analogy a little
bit. It it's it's powerful. SoI'm I'm completely completely on
board with that that view, Paul.

I wanna actually, you know, give the people a
little bit more, Paul, becausethis is a this is a pretty fun
question, for me to ask you,because I I've I've had the
privilege to work with youbefore, but it doesn't mean I
know everything about you. And,you know, one of the things that
I'd love to, explore with youand the podcast today is for you

(51:54):
to share something with us thatwe cannot find on your LinkedIn
or on your resume, that peoplejust wouldn't know about you.
You know, what is one of thosethings that Paul is into that's
just not on your LinkedIn, noton your resume, but you're it's
your thing. You're into it.

The first thing that comes to mind is
meditation.

Okay. Yeah.

I don't know if this is the access that you are
looking for.

That works for me.

I think I mentioned earlier that, you
know, self growth is is kind ofmy north star. And I feel like,
you know, minute for minute, thethe the way I've grown the most
is is through meditation. And itand to put it, like, kind of
simply the how we are withinourselves, you know, like the
phrase, like, happiness startswith you and and these kind of

(52:41):
other, you know, cliches. Like,however you hold yourself kinda
within yourself is is what youproject into the world. Right?
So the better that I can I canbe, the more, calm and stable
and and and loving and all thesethings within myself, that's
going to ultimately be make me abetter CEO and a better father

(53:02):
and a better manager and abetter friend and a better, you
know, parent or child or orwhatever? That's a a practice
that that is is really importantto my life and has really, I'd
say, made me a much betterentrepreneur than almost
anything.

That's incredible, man. I really appreciate you
sharing that because I thinkoftentimes, you know,
entrepreneurs would deprioritize their own sort of,
you know, mental health and, youknow, interreflection of, you
know, the things that they'regoing through, for the sake of
building a new company. Right?And, you know, when it's all

(53:37):
said and done, you need to behealthy to build a new company.
You need to be stable.
Right? You need to be able tocontrol all the pieces and, you
know, being able to meditate.This is something you shared
with me a long time ago, and nowit's coming back to me. But, you
know, I I I think that that'simportant. I think more founders
going through coaching and thosethings are also equally, as as

(53:58):
important because those thingscontribute towards you building
a everlasting company, becausepeople build companies, period.
Right? And you need to be healthhealthy to be able to do that,
in every regard. So I think it'sa really important tip, to share
with people.

I agree that a lot of entrepreneurs will, and I
was too, like I didn't, I onlyworked on the business like a
100 hours a week when I started,it was like sleep, eat, and work
on the business. And and onceonce you build once an
entrepreneur, maybe this is justfor me, like, sees the
connection between, like, oh,well, like, healthy mind and
healthy body actually helps thebusiness. Once you see that

(54:37):
connection, then it'd be thenit's so much easier to to build
a practice around it.

I I think you actually talked about it
earlier, Paul. It's the youknow, you used to think of
things as activity meansoutcome. Right? And and I think
it's, like, 4 things likemindfulness as well as just, am
I focusing on the right things?As well as am I able to be sort
of in the moment to have theconversation I need to have?

(55:02):
You know? At the end of the day,minimizing risk is important,
but also startups happen throughyou know, you can, in hindsight,
can normally go back and say,hey. There's 6 conversations,
you know, or or or 10 moments inthe history of the company that
were really crucial. And andreally thinking about what
skills do you need to sort of bethere and maximize that

(55:25):
opportunity. I think, you know,from my experience, that's where
I've kind of learned things likeyou gotta be in the right place.
And if you're sort of burnt out,you're gonna burn your team out
and all these other things ismaybe some of those other latent
things that we were talkingabout when you when you start
saying, you know, that's thosewere some of the hardest things
I worked on. So may maybe tojust kinda draw that point a

(55:47):
little bit more. You know?Because I because I think that
we've already kinda talked aboutit, but it's just to put a finer
finer point that it's not justabout the amount of emails
you're able to answer. It's canyou sort of, you know, win at
the the 6 or 10 or 15 things youreally need to when it's time.

Really well said. And and, you know, as as a CEO
or, you know, when you getfrustrated, when things start to
go wrong, if you wear that stuffon your sleeve, like that
trickles down to everybody andyou start to affect the culture
and you start to and and folkslose their motivation or and and
they they key off of you. Right?And right. It's and it's the
same with, you know, in familylife and and all walks of life,

(56:26):
really.
So it it it's, like, starts withthe man in the mirror.

Fair enough. This has been awesome, man. I wish I
could talk to you for anotherhour.

It's been a lot of fun.

I I I am curious before we let you go, because
you've been a great gift to us,and and our and our audience.
What are you working on rightnow, and how can the EIR,
network help you?

Well, I'm I'm doing a lot. So how can the EIR
network help me? The I would sayif any if this has peaked
anyone's interest, whether it'srisk weighted venture building
or AI or you're you've got acompany and and you're looking
to have, you know, a mentorshipconversation, and build a
relationship with someone that'skinda been there before, reach

(57:16):
out. Like, I'm I love I lovemeeting new entrepreneurs. I
love making impact, and I'malways looking to collaborate
with passionate folks and andespecially if they're mission
driven.
So if you if you found thisinteresting and you wanna
continue the conversation withme, LinkedIn is the easiest
place to find me, and then wecan take it off offline from
there.

Yo. Yeah. Anything anything you wanna dive into
before we let them go?

No. I love it. I mean, the answer is yes, but we
don't have enough time already

to That's right.

A few extra minutes. But yeah. I mean, just
the for for me, you know, I hopewe can kinda continue to have
conversations like this,because, you know, we're kinda
teasing out different parts of,you know, in in in this chat,
generally, you know, we we wetalked about what makes kind of
an effective entrepreneur,period. Right? And then how can

(58:06):
you sort of translate some ofthose insights to the in
residence part?
We didn't really pull apart thedifference between academic and
sort of venture studio so much,but that's a theme that we've
been pulling on. And it's justawesome for, you know, I started
as of, like, a entrepreneur at acorporate in January of 2020.
And I'm like, I, you know, I Ithink I know what to do. But in

(58:28):
conversations like this withother entrepreneurs, I just I'm
really happy that we have achance to, really connect and
learn from each other. And andI'm just, you know, excited
that, this journey where, youknow, I connected with Terrance
and he was already talking tofolks.
You know, Paul knows other EIRs,and I'm just excited to kinda
connect the dots and then, youknow, help help Paul with, some

(58:50):
of the things that he's workingon, and then just kinda continue
to to give back and build thatmomentum. So lots of questions,
but we'll have to leave it fornext then.

That's right. We'll leave you with some
suspense. And, you know, whoknows? Maybe we can get Paul
back for a part 2 in the future.

That'll be a lot of fun. I love talking
entrepreneurship. I could cheeryour ear off all day. So happy
to do it, and and thanks againfor having me. This was a lot of
fun.

No. Thanks for joining us, man.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of EIR Live.
We hope you found today'sconversation enlightening and
inspiring as we journey throughthe highs and lows of
entrepreneurship with ourincredible guests. Be sure to
join us next time for morestories, strategies, and
insights on the entrepreneurialfront line. Subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform onYouTube and share the

(59:33):
inspiration with your network.Do you have a EIR in mind
that'll make a great guest?
Drop us a line. Engage with usand fellow listeners in the EIR
live LinkedIn group and join theconversation. Plus, get your
questions ready for our LinkedInlive sessions following future
episodes. Your insights help usshape our journey. Let's co
create and innovate together.

(59:55):
Until then, let's keepinnovating, striving, and
exploring ways to make our markon the world. I'm Terrance Orr
alongside my co host, IlyaTabakh, and we're signing off.
Let's keep building, everyone.

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Episode 03 - The Founder Mentality: Risk, Growth, and Building Ventures with Paul Capriolo

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 03 - The Founder Mentality: Risk, Growth, and Building Ventures with Paul Capriolo