Inside the Venture Capital Mindset

Ilya Strebulaev, a professor of finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Alex Dang, MS ’14, a tech executive and innovation advisor, didn’t write their book, The Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth, for venture capitalists. “We wrote it for people who are located far away from Silicon Valley, thousands of miles away, and for people whose day-to-day professional job has nothing to do with Silicon Valley, with technology, with startups,” Strebulaev says on a new episode of the If/Then podcast. “Our world is changing very fast, and the future [will] require a very different type of decision-making.” For example: Instead of trying to avoid failure, VCs succeed by making numerous bets, ensuring that a few big successes can cover the many losses. “‘Home runs matter; strikeouts don’t’ is the first, and I would say foundational, principle of the venture mindset,” Strebulaev explains. Strebulaev also discusses why VCs look for ideas “outside the four walls” and why they bet on teams before ideas. In a volatile world, he recommends all leaders add the venture mindset to their toolbox. “I believe that many — not just small businesses, but many large companies — will be displaced, and soon, unless their leaders realize that they need to change their paradigm, how they think,” Strebulaev says. “This is where the venture mindset is particularly helpful.” Have concepts from one aspect of your life influenced another? Share your story with us at ifthenpod@stanford.edu. Related Content: Ilya A. Strebulaev faculty profile The Venture Mindset Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:19 Meet Ilya Strebulaev and the Venture Mindset 05:35 Why “Home Runs Matter, Strikeouts Don’t” 10:04 Finding Ideas Outside the Four Walls 12:02 AI, Competition, and Human Connection 14:22 The Power of Saying No 16:35 Decision-Making and the Cost of Missed Opportunities 18:03 Why the Team Comes Before the Idea 20:43 Is Venture Capital Always Good for the World? 22:37 Conclusion See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.