How I Built a Twitter Audience of 500K+ in 18 Months | Sahil Bloom Full Interview

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (beeping) Three, two, one,…

   1. HSHarry Stebbings0:00

      (beeping) Three, two, one, zero. You have now arrived at your destination. Sahil, this is such a joy to do. I've been so looking forward to this one. You know, honestly, Twitter threads annoy the shit out of me most of the time-

   2. SBSahil Bloom0:16

      (laughs)

   3. HSHarry Stebbings0:16

      ... and then yours come along, and they're so good. I'm like pissed that they didn't come from me.

   4. SBSahil Bloom0:21

      (laughs)

   5. HSHarry Stebbings0:22

      But anyway, thank you so much for joining me today, Sahil. (laughs)

   6. SBSahil Bloom0:25

      Well, I'm happy to be here. And Twitter threads annoy me sometimes too, so it's okay. I'm with you.

   7. HSHarry Stebbings0:30

      Oh, man. I love it.

   8. SBSahil Bloom0:31

      (laughs)

   9. HSHarry Stebbings0:31

      Normally it's such a formal intro. (laughs) That was a very casual one. But I wanna start with, really, like 2018, you didn't have Twitter. You only started in 2019. So, you know, respectfully, who the hell are you and, and where did you come from? (laughs)

   10. SBSahil Bloom0:46

       I ask myself that a lot, actually, by the way, and it's actually 2020. I didn't start sharing things on Twitter until May of 2020. I had like a few hundred followers at the time, and it was basically just COVID had happened. I mean, I, I grew up on the East Coast, ended up out in California, played baseball. You can like see that on my Twitter profile now. I gave up a Grand Slam on national television. Um, I went into finance. I took a job at a private equity fund. I was like doing the very traditional path, um, in mainstream finance, where I was doing like LBOs and doing the whole dance around that. But I always knew that I really wanted to work on early stage growth stuff. I wanted to think about the future rather than thinking about the past. And so I, um, I just didn't know what that transition was gonna be, right? Like, you're kind of on this momentum building path within finance, and I didn't know what it was gonna be. COVID hit. All of a sudden, I wasn't working 90, 100 hours a week. I wasn't traveling four days a week like I was before, and that was kind of my jumping off point to go try something new. And what it ended up being was building, right? I was writing around all of these topics.

   11. HSHarry Stebbings1:48

       Uh, man, I wanna ask, like I think there's a, a load of people who are in your situation in terms of being in very secure financial positions in financial services, in more traditional finance roles, who wanna make the move. With the benefit of hindsight that you have, I guess, what advice would you-

   12. SBSahil Bloom2:05

       Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just following, uh, your energy around these topics. And I don't say that in like a, you know, fluffy way. Like, it sounds really woo-woo and fluffy to say, you know, "Follow your dreams, follow your energy," and I really don't mean it that way. The way... What I mean is, um, I, I've written about this concept of your zone of genius. Like, there are things where you know that you are playing your game around a, around a given arena, um, versus playing someone else's. And in the traditional finance world for me personally, I was good at it, I was fine, I could've continued progressing, but it wasn't my game. I was never gonna be the best at it. I was never gonna really be exceptional, because it was playing by someone else's rules around something. And so my biggest advice that I give to young people is figure out what you have a chance to truly be exceptional at, because that is always gonna be what you have the most energy around, what you're willing to put your head down and really grind around is going to be that thing. So if you have the luxury of thinking about it, which not everyone does, and so if you do, take advantage of it and go find what that thing is that you can really accelerate around.

   13. HSHarry Stebbings3:07

       But I, I, I do wanna ask, you know, when you look back at kind of the early Twitter days, what did you learn about what worked versus what didn't work? Both on audience growth and on kind of content type and style.

   14. SBSahil Bloom3:19

       I think the biggest rule and like the golden rule I always had around this was that, uh, you need to create value for people and then you'll receive value in return. And I, I think it's a golden rule for life. But with Twitter, that was what I found from the early days was if I was creating content that created value for people, then I received value in the form of their attention in this case. And so people are following you. I didn't... I wasn't, uh, going out with the goal of follower growth. I was going out with the goal of creating value knowing that that would lead to people gifting me with their attention. And so I found personally that the way I created value was around things that were more evergreen in nature. Creating content that, um, you know, wasn't news. It wasn't like breaking this, breaking that. It was just creating content that sat out there, that someone could come back to years from now and it would still be really good and still be quality. And that was what I focused on. It was just like build this repository, build this base, and not everything's gonna go viral, but that's okay. Just keep putting out things consistently, and that's always been my skill set in life has been I'm not gonna be the flashiest, I'm not gonna be the sexiest, I'm not gonna be, you know, the fastest person on the field, whatever it is. It was just I'm never gonna quit and I'm just gonna keep pounding my head into that wall until it breaks through.

   15. HSHarry Stebbings4:33

       Did you see inflection points in, in your content and in audience growth?

   16. SBSahil Bloom4:39

       Yeah. I mean, scale is undefeated, right? So as you get bigger, it gets easier to grow. Um, point blank. I mean, full stop, right? The, the first 100,000 took, I don't know, eight, nine months, and then I think I've grown 100,000 in the last 45 days or 50 days. Um, so it definitely accelerates as you go, just 'cause you're on a bigger base. Um, the inflection points from an actual content perspective were more just around reps. You just are getting much better. I always think that if you look six months in the past at anything you're doing, like for you, if you go listen to episodes you've done six months ago, you should almost cringe at how shitty you were at this, uh, when you go look at that, because that's how you know that you're improving and that you're getting better at your craft. And that's how I always felt about my writing personally was like I wanna cringe when I go look at something that I did six months ago.

   17. HSHarry Stebbings5:25

       No, I, I, I totally agree. I mean, I think six months ago I was probably a respectable, uh, podcaster, and now I'm just a reprobate. (laughs)

   18. SBSahil Bloom5:32

       (laughs)

   19. HSHarry Stebbings5:32

       Um, but yeah. I mean, sure. That's great. Um, I, I do wanna, you know, start on, you know, bluntly some pretty exciting news. Um, so I hear you have some news for us today, Sahil. What news do you have for us and what's the announcement?

   20. SBSahil Bloom5:45

       Yeah. Well, I'm excited to, to have the opportunity to do it here 'cause it feels very fitting, but, um, I'll be announcing my first, uh, venture fund. It's called SRB Ventures, SRB are my initials, Sahil Reddy Blume. Uh, a $10 million, uh, debut fund anchored by some amazing people and with participation from a bunch of people that I really, um, really, really admire and have learned a lot from. So I'm super excited to be kicking this off and, and announcing the closing of that fund.

   21. HSHarry Stebbings6:14

       Man, I'm so thrilled that you're doing it here, really. Honestly, it means a lot to me. Can I ask, how did you come up with the fund size? Why did you choose 10, and how are you thinking through your portfolio construction, check size, deployment? What are the thoughts there?

   22. SBSahil Bloom6:26

       Yeah. So I originally thought I would raise five. Um, part of that was my own, you know how this works, like my own imposter syndrome, self-limiting, um, mindset around these things, where I was like, "Shit, no one's going to give me more than, you know, a few million bucks." And if, I'm gonna go out, try to raise five, but if I can only raise two, that's okay, and I'll just do that. And, um, I think it was, like in two days, it was over five, and, uh, basically then (laughs) what happened was I realized that if I had over 99 LPs, I had to keep it under 10 legally, um, and I offered it to a bunch of my friends and family, because I- I'm a huge believer in, like, bringing people along for the ride, and a lot of my friends wanted to learn more about the things I was doing. So quickly, the LP base grew past 99, and I had to keep it under 10, so then that was, like, the actual limiting cap on, uh, on going out and doing it. In terms of fund construction, um, it's going to be largely stage agnostic, um, but it'll probably concentrate around pre-seed, seed stuff. In this environment, you know, if there are slam dunk ... You and I have talked about this. If there are slam dunk, risk-adjusted opportunities that are Series B, I'm not gonna pass up an opportunity to go and participate in something like that. It'll just have to be, you know, a bigger allocation, bigger check size into things like that.

   23. HSHarry Stebbings7:35

       How do you think the biggest challenge, which, uh, often is the case for ..........................., you know, a- a lot of the microfunds, which is kind of bucketed into kind of the angel world, and actually not really angels, and the 25K checks are hard to make work. How are you thinking on the discipline you'll have around check size, and like will you do 25 and 50K checks?

   24. SBSahil Bloom7:57

       50 will be the smallest I would do. Um, I, I, you know, I think everything will probably fall into the 50 to 250 range, um, with, you know, 250 coming at probably Series B type rounds and smaller checks into earlier, higher risk things. Um, but I think 50 will end up being the smallest that I will do. The benefit of being small, which you and I have also talked about, is that it's not hard to get into a deal with a small check. If you can show some amount of value, then the trade for the founder is for this tiny amount of dilution, is this person going to deliver that value for me? And with what we have, with a platform and the ability to go use this megaphone for these companies, that's a very easy trade to make at 100,000 or at a 200,000 allocation. It might be a very different trade at a, a million dollar allocation or a $500,000 allocation, which is part of the reason that I think being small, for me, with an initial fund, is actually an advantage, um, to getting into the best things.

   25. HSHarry Stebbings8:53

       No, I, listen, I totally agree. How do you think about managing found- sorry, I'm (laughs) kind of using this as an advice session. How do you think about y- managing founder expectations, 'cause both of us have these big microfunds. How do you think about managing founder expectations when it comes to what you are and aren't willing to distribute and promote?

   26. SBSahil Bloom9:13

       Yeah, it's a great question. I got that, I got asked that by a lot of the thoughtful LPs, um, you know, that I had discussions with, was like, "You know, if you invest in 50 companies, are they all gonna be hitting you up? Are you just gonna be having to tweet about the companies all the time?" I think it tends to be, um, 80/20 in terms of, like, you know, v- very few of the companies will actually take you up on all of the different things you can do for them. And if you're able to deliver something comprehensive to a handful, that is really valuable for them, and then for the rest, it's kind of fundraising announcements or like big feature announcements or big things that happen, and you're amplifying those stories. It ends up working out, where you're not spending all of your time just sitting around kind of tweeting or newslettering or podcasting about these, about these different companies. But I think the big inflection points tend to be around big announcements, right? Like the other day, there was an example, um, one of the companies, one of the first investments out of the fund is this business, Wander. Um, QED and Redpoint were leading the Series A. Very cool short-term rental, vertically integrated, um, platform, and I did this video to announce it. Packy and I were kind of both doing, like, an announcement for, for the investment in, in the, uh, in the company, and Packy did a thread. Like, we had, we had agreed we were gonna do threads, and Packy was like, "Shit, I don't wanna do a thread. I'm not a thread guy." Did a thread, and then I kind of head faked him, and I did a video. And he was (laughs) he was like annoyed and giving me shit for it. But I did this video, and I put it out. It was very easy to go and pull together, and it did 50,000 views in 24 hours, on Twitter, and that is just like ... I, I, you know, what I invested in the company relative to that very quick value delivery from doing something like that is insane, the leverage that you can get on it. And so that was a very quick example to me of like there is something to this that is just different. We did a Twitter spaces with the founder and had several hundred people on very quickly. It's just all of a sudden, you generate this massive momentum that drives real clicks. And it, when you think about it in the advertising world, the amount of money they would spend to get 50,000 impressions on something like that, um, to get the millions of impressions that the Tw- that the tweet did, it's ... I mean, it's really, really impressive, I think.

   27. HSHarry Stebbings11:19

       Uh, it absolutely is. I actually, I, I really liked it, and I actually (laughs) watched it and thought, "Well, fuck, I should do the same thing." Um, uh, (laughs) and I realized I can't be arsed. Um, (laughs) uh, but, uh, I, I do want to ask you now, it, it takes me to something that you said before, which is the traditional VC model is dead/slash dying, just to put the caveat of slash dying. Um, why are the traditional middle tier VCs going to get their lunch eaten, my friend?

   28. SBSahil Bloom11:45

       Yeah, I think what you're seeing is a barbell that has form- formed or forming within the VC landscape. And on one end, you have the Sequoias, Benchmarks, Andreessens, you know, the like... and even Tiger, I think, now, Coatue, who have developed this name brand and this cachet and this real winning edge that I think exists around that and continues to be self, you know, self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating, where when they come into a round, everyone's like, "Oh, shit. I'm not going to invest in the competitor." Uh, the competitors all get scared, there's a ton of money behind one player, et cetera. That will continue to exist, I believe. Um, and then on the other end of this barbell, I think you have people like us, um, people like Josh Buckley, people like us, people like Packy, um, like Shrug, people who have some very clear value lever that they can deliver to companies with... uh, and in your case, now you're big, but with smaller checks. Now, you- you're kind of pushing towards this other end of the spectrum. That's a whole different story, um, where you're gonna become one of those guys on the other end of the barbell, so kudos to you. I'm gonna stay over on the other end, where you can get into any deal and you can drive material value with some specific lever, whether it's like a fund that gets raised because they're an amazing performance marketing guy, like Nick Sharma with Sharma Brands. Um, amazing with performance marketing growth, et cetera. Or if it's someone like me, where I have a platform and I can go help you get access to all of these customers, uh, that exist out in my pool of people that are following me that have gifted me with their attention. Those are the two ends of the spectrum that I think work. The middle of this, of this landscape that exists here is going to be challenged, and I think what it leads to is maybe not the death of the middle. It's gonna be a survival of the fittest, though, where they have to and will be forced to figure out what their true value proposition is, because the capital as a value proposition is completely dead.

   29. HSHarry Stebbings13:35

       I, I totally agree with you there. I think what you see is a lot of firms suddenly having this awakening to the power of content and hiring the heads of content and really kind of digging in on what we do, and I, I always kind of (laughs) shake my head and think, "What are you doing?" Um, how do you feel when you see this kind of awakening of venture firms to the power of content and their resources behind it?

   30. SBSahil Bloom14:00

       Well, I think it's interesting because we didn't build... (clears throat) We didn't build this audience... Like I never built an audience as a venture investor, right? My, my audience is not a bunch of other venture capital firms or venture associates. My audience is a bunch of real people that are looking to learn, grow, explore things, et cetera, um, and in my opinion, that's much more powerful because that audience is real customers of whatever it is that these companies that I'm investing in or selling versus venture firms who, you know, their associates are told, "Hey, go out and build an audience," and their audience ends up being a bunch of other venture associates who are all liking each other's things and, and sharing it. And that's, that's tough, right? 'Cause then they're... you're tweeting something out and you're sharing about a company and the only people that are seeing it are a bunch of other people within your little ecosystem. Um, so I think they are gonna run into challenges around that, and it's gonna n- it's gonna require real defining for them to figure out what is our, you know, core value proposition of this content? Is it just so that we can tell our founders

2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. …

   1. SBSahil Bloom15:00

      that we have, you know, a content arm and we're sharing? Or is there a real reason for being, um, you know, real insights that are being driven through it? I think Andreessen is probably the best example of a firm who has done this well, wh- you know, they created Future, which is almost like a standalone media entity-

   2. HSHarry Stebbings15:14

      Yeah.

   3. SBSahil Bloom15:14

      ... and they're trying to really, um, think thoughtfully about having that as a, as a real media platform, but it's gonna be hard for a lot of these guys to do it and do it well.

   4. HSHarry Stebbings15:23

      Uh, so I, I totally agree with you. I, I, I think my kind of phrasing would be the traditional venture isn't dying, but we're going to see a reduction in their power and influence. And what I mean by that is the days where they could take 15% are gone.

   5. SBSahil Bloom15:37

      Mm-hmm.

   6. HSHarry Stebbings15:37

      It will be a new generation where they take 7.5%, bluntly, alongside people like me and you taking 7.5%. Now, me and you bring distribution, we bring content, we bring brand, we bring a lot of resources that they don't, but then they also... they do bring great stuff too. It can be structuring of companies, it can be scaling between phases, hiring the execs, where me and you also don't have the time, because we're also building content companies.

   7. SBSahil Bloom16:06

      Yeah.

   8. HSHarry Stebbings16:07

      So, do you see what I mean? I think we're gonna see them-

   9. SBSahil Bloom16:08

      I do see what you mean. I guess I would-

   10. HSHarry Stebbings16:10

       ... blend.

   11. SBSahil Bloom16:10

       I guess I would re-characterize what, what I was saying as I don't think it is dying. I think the venture landscape is, I think, becoming increasingly distributed. Um, you know, it had, it had been very centralized for a long time, then you had the proliferation of other firms that grew, a lot of them from the lineage of the handful of original firms, um, and I think all of a sudden, we're at this unique tipping point in time where suddenly it has become so distributed and the capital is flowing in- into a bunch of different people's hands, and you're gonna have a very cool kind of laboratory of like, "Does this work over the next 10, 15 years? We're gonna find out. Do we deliver exceptional returns like we think we are? Is our media, uh, angle going to actually accelerate the trajectories of these companies, going to actually accelerate their ability to raise and create competitive moats around their industries? Um, we're gonna find out." But I do think you're seeing this dis- uh, distrib- distribution that is now happening. We're moving away from the centralized VC model and the capital is flowing into a lot of different hands.

   12. HSHarry Stebbings17:14

       Sahil, tell me, I, I know you a little bit. I don't buy that you want to stay small and play your collaborative game. You're gonna wanna go bigger and you're gonna wanna write bigger checks and lead rounds. I know you, you're like me. That's why we get on. Um, like, what is the actual plans?

   13. SBSahil Bloom17:31

       (laughs) I'm gonna stay small and I'm gonna continue to write small checks. Um, closely held plans, man. I, um, I, I don't have some grand strategy right now, to be totally honest. I, um, I'm a... I, I like to push. I, I... Th- that's my wiring. With everything that I do, I like to put my head down, I like to push, and that's how I'm always gonna be. I don't necessarily think that that means going bigger. I, I personally think of what's...... you know, what, what's kind of being built right now is, like, I don't know, like a less quirky Tim Ferriss with an investment fund, is, like, what I'm kind of going for as, as a vibe. And I think, um, you know, that doesn't necessarily require me raising bigger and bigger funds. Um, there's plenty of ways to make money that I think don't involve going out and raising $50 million. Um, what I ultimately want to do is drive exceptional returns for my investors, and I want to invest in the best companies in the world, and I want to be a part of, uh, putting capital behind companies that change the world, and hopefully change the world for the better. And I think that as a capital allocator, that's an amazing goal and an amazing vision. Does that mean I'm gonna go out and raise, you know, $50, $100 million funds? I don't know. I would- I'd be surprised if I did, but you never know.

   14. HSHarry Stebbings18:45

       Can I ask, I explained to Gregg Isenberg, your podcast co-host, and Kat, um, at Athletic Greens before the show, um, and they both mentioned your insane work ethic. They said it was unparalleled. Um, again, (laughs) why I think we get on. Um, but, like, what actually drives you? Like, why, why do you work so hard?

   15. SBSahil Bloom19:06

       I've never really been able to figure out what my internal engine is around things. I, you know, I grew up, um, my mom is a first-generation immigrant gr- she grew up in India. Uh, my dad is white Jewish from the Bronx, and, um, his family, uh, didn't accept when he wanted to marry my mom. I never really met anyone on my dad's side of the family, which was just kind of a crazy set of circumstances. Um, but I grew up in a, in a household that was, like, very hardworking. My dad's a professor. I've never seen anyone work like my dad. I mean, to this day, I've never seen anyone put his head down and grind on things like my dad. And it wasn't blue-collar work, he was a, he was a professor um, but just so driven to learn and grow. And I always kind of just developed this, like, chip on my shoulder, um, thinking I wasn't the smartest. Like, I found ways to motivate myself, um, that I was, like, a fraud or an imposter all the time.

   16. HSHarry Stebbings20:02

       Yeah.

   17. SBSahil Bloom20:02

       And that, you know, you asked a question about insecurities, like, my biggest insecurity is that, uh, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Excuse my language. (laughs) Like-

   18. HSHarry Stebbings20:10

       Yeah.

   19. SBSahil Bloom20:10

       ... that is my biggest insecurity in life, is I'm constantly, um, fighting this urge of, like, "Who am I? What am I doing?" And I need to work really hard to continue to prove myself at every stage of what I'm doing along the way. Um, I think it's Josh Wolf that always says, "Chips on shoulders, create chips in- put chips in pockets." Um, and I really believe that. And I don't know why I have this chip on my shoulder, but I had it in baseball because I just knew I wasn't that good. I was on a team at Stanford that was, everyone was much better than me, and I had to find a way to compete, and, y- and for me, that was just being relentless. I was just gonna over and over again, like, you could hit a home run, I was just gonna keep throwing, and I was just gonna keep coming at you over and over and over again. And that mentality, for me, has played out in my career, it's played out, you know, in relationships, in being there for people, I hope, um, and really in everything I do, and I plan to keep it going in d- you know, this next phase of my life.

   20. HSHarry Stebbings21:05

       Do you find you get highs and lows? I find, you know, I, I mean, I consider us both founders of media businesses, you know? The highs for me are very high, the lows are very low, and I think the thing that people forget is the speed between moving from one to the other is very fast. Mornings could be super high and evenings could be super low. Do you find the same or are you relatively even-keel?

   21. SBSahil Bloom21:28

       I'm pretty even-keel, and the reason I'm even-keel is from lessons learned on the baseball field. Um, because what I learned playing baseball was every time I got high, I'd get punched in the f- mouth. I was about to curse. Um, I'd get punched in the mouth, and every time I'd get too low, I would hold myself back from performing. And so what I learned was, um, I had to be even-keel in order to perform at a high level consistently. Uh, and I think it plays out in everything in life, and it's a great lesson that's learned on the sports field that, like, never get too low, because you're literally always one pitch away from getting out of any situation. Never get too high, 'cause you're also always one pitch away from being just kicked in the nuts. Um, and that has allowed me, I think, to play out this, like, much more even-keel. If something's going well, great, it's going well. Feel happy, pat yourself on the back, sure, but just, like, know that you're one moment away from just getting punched in the mouth.

   22. HSHarry Stebbings22:23

       (laughs) That's a great title for any episode.

   23. SBSahil Bloom22:27

       (laughs)

   24. HSHarry Stebbings22:27

       "One Moment Away From Getting Punched In The Mouth." Happy Monday! Uh ...

   25. SBSahil Bloom22:30

       (laughs)

   26. HSHarry Stebbings22:31

       (laughs) Uh, listen, I, I, I want to ask you, now, I think, you know, um, luck plays an important role in a lot of journeys, but then also not as important as some people suggest. Can I ask, you said before that luck is misunderstood and can be engineered of sorts. How do you think about this? And I guess, can you provide some examples?

   27. SBSahil Bloom22:52

       Yeah, I always had this concept, I think I first read it from Tim Brown, who was the CEO of IDEO at the time, um, of, like, engineered serendipity, that you can kind of engineer your own luck. Um, and I've thought about it a lot, and I'm actually working on a piece I'm gonna write about kind of how to get lucky. But I think in general luck is misunderstood, in that a lot of what we perceive as luck is just the macro result of thousands of micro actions. And what I mean by that is, you're doing something consistently that led to you getting lucky, and then you say, "Oh, I got lucky, this thing happened, this break went my way," but really, it was that you were doing something that led to that situation. An example of that in my own life, um, is I used to get up super early to go to the gym. When I first started my career, uh, I wanted to be in the office by 6:30 AM, be at my desk first, 'cause for some reason, in my mind, that mattered. I think it's kinda stupid in hindsight, but that mattered to me. And so I'd get up at 3:45, I'd, uh, do some work, I'd get to the gym at 5:00 AM on the dot, and I'd work out every single morning, five days a week. And at that time, this is at Equinox in Palo Alto, um, where I was, (laughs) where I was working out, um, there was maybe five or six people that would show up, like, that were crazy enough to show up at the gym every morning at that time.... at the time, this is like 2014, one of them was Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. He was new CEO at the time. He wasn't super famous yet. Um, and I spent six months basically, um, chatting with him every single morning just by virtue of the fact that I was one of the five other people, not because I was impressive or, like, because, you know, anyone there was, like, particularly ch- it was just, I was there. And so it was a situation that, um, I was putting myself in because I was driven around wanting to work hard and show up. That then led to what has become one of the most important mentor relationships in my life. He's become an amazing mentor, he's a backer of mine, um, has taught me a lot, and I didn't enji- like, that, that wasn't a situation where it was true luck. It was luck that was created by the fact that I was showing up day in, day out, with no intentions of having some, you know, some end to it. It was just the natural, uh, byproduct of actions on my end.

   28. HSHarry Stebbings25:09

       Can I ask, you know, I was with a mentor of mine the other day and I was debating a tough decision, and he, he said something very similar. He said to me, "You're never wrong to do the right thing." And it really just framed how I thought about this decision and a lot of decisions, and probably is one of the most meaningful things that he's said to me. Um, when you think about your relationship with Tim, h- what are the biggest lessons or takeaways you think you have from that relationship?

   29. SBSahil Bloom25:34

       I think he is one of the most principled and value-driven people I've ever met. Um, and I admire that deeply because I think there are very few people in the world that are that way, who are so deeply connected with what their principles and values are, um, that they're able to let them guide every decision. And th- and sometimes it looks like, uh, you aren't in, in a short term decision you're making, but really, the long-term view that you're taking around it is connected to what your principles and values are. And I've always really admired that about him, um, you know, both publicly and privately, the things that he does, the actions he takes, um, the friendships that he cultivates, um, the loyalty he has for friends and people who have been there with him. Um, I think that that is probably what I've taken away. And that's not necessarily something he has said explicitly to me. It's from watching and observing someone, you know, over a period of time, um, that I just truly, truly admire about him.

   30. HSHarry Stebbings26:32

       Yep. No, listen, I, I love that and I, I love that story also. Fuck me, I would not be getting up at 3:45 AM.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   If it doesn't hit…

   1. SBSahil Bloom30:00

      because it connected with them on some emotional level, which I also think is great. Um, so it just depends. I, you know, it depends on, on, um, you know, on the situation, on how I'm feeling. Sometimes I like writing things about broad life principles 'cause it helps me clarify my own thinking on those topics. Or if I've been feeling down or up and I'm trying to kind of like change my own mood, writing is my process for doing that. I just happen to share that writing publicly after doing it.

   2. HSHarry Stebbings30:23

      If it doesn't hit and you see it doesn't hit, me and you are both, uh, smart and analytical when it comes to Twitter. Like, if you see it doesn't hit, do you take it down? I do. I have my rule of like seven likes within the first minute, minimum.

   3. SBSahil Bloom30:37

      ... seven likes within the first minute. Mine would be like seven likes within the first second. No, no, no. Uh-

   4. HSHarry Stebbings30:43

      (laughs)

   5. SBSahil Bloom30:43

      ... (laughs) just kidding. Just kidding

   6. NANarrator30:44

      (laughs)

   7. SBSahil Bloom30:44

      ... here, uh, no. I, um, I never delete threads. Uh, the, the one exception to that would be if, like, if I thought I didn't think something through comprehensively and somebody calls me out on it, and it, and they're right, then I would say like, "Okay, I actually don't think there's a benefit to having something out there that I didn't think through well enough." But normally, I will make sure that I'm gonna be really proud of posting something before I post it. Individual tweets, now and then I'll delete, if I just don't think it's like hitting or if it's particularly interesting to be out there. Um, but with threads, I don't know that I've ever, ever deleted a thread.

   8. HSHarry Stebbings31:18

      Do you get tha-

   9. SBSahil Bloom31:19

      Julian, our friend, deletes threads all the time. Like I've seen him delete things that have 20,000 likes because he doesn't like, you know, two or three responses that he gets to it, which I think is like insane, but he's done that.

   10. HSHarry Stebbings31:30

       Do you ever get down from the responses? When someone responds negatively to mine, even though I don't know them, I, and they've... never met them before, it does impact me actually. I do... I get a little bit hurt.

   11. SBSahil Bloom31:40

       Yeah. Negativity bias is a real thing. I don't know if that's the right term for it, it's what I call it, which is, you know, I can post a thread (clears throat) and I'll be looking through the responses, and there'll be a hundred positive responses, and then one guy says something negative, some anonymous account says something really mean or negative, and that's the only thing you can think about, and suddenly you're like down and you're feeling it. Um, so yeah, absolutely. I mean, all the time. I've posted things that I thought were really thoughtful. I, you know, I posted this thing, this is a good example of it, when, when I found out I was gonna be a dad, um, I was feeling very introspective as a result of that and, you know, my whole life changed in an instant knowing that, and, um, I wrote this thread about like principles that I wanted to kind of teach my child to live by. And it was really just my process of being introspective around the type of father I want to be, the type of child I want to raise, and, um, I got like an amazing response, tons of people shared it, it was incredible. But there was like a sm- you know, maybe 2%, 3% of people that really took offense to me, um, thinking I could like mold my child, and I don't know why honestly. It was just... it was in good na- it was good natured, but they were really angry about it. And I got a bunch of angry messages and responses to it, and I was pretty down about that, um, because I was really happy about what I had written and I thought it was very thoughtful and introspective, um, and I remember feeling pretty down for a day about that because I, I just didn't think it was, it was mapped to like what my intentions were going into that.

   12. HSHarry Stebbings33:04

       Can I ask you a bit of a weird one? I, I, I actually didn't know about the, uh, incoming child, which is so exciting. Can I ask you a bit of a weird one? Which is like me and you are both very ambitious. We both work our asses off. I'm worried now that... Yeah, I have a wonderful girlfriend... I'm very worried now that like normal life, girlfriends, kids, just the wonderful things that happen in life will make me mediocre because actually I'm grinding all weekend and when I see other GP's on Instagram skiing, I'm like, "Ha, I'm working and you're skiing." Do you worry that with normality and wife and child, which is wonderful, but you, you lose the work and you become more mediocre? Respectfully.

   13. SBSahil Bloom33:48

       You know, I think the one thing I've really changed my mind on from my days in private equity to now has been how I define hard work. Um, like I used to think of hard work in a very absolute sense where it meant I had to be working 100 hours a week. I had to be waking up at 3:45, showing up to the office at 6:30, the last one in the office, um, you know, sleeping four hours a night, like sleep when I'm dead type guy. That was me. Um, and I learned that from baseball and that was like how I got through and survived actually baseball wise. Um, but I've changed my mind on that because now I really do believe that as a creative, um, which is at the core a lot of what you and I do-

   14. HSHarry Stebbings34:27

       Sure.

   15. SBSahil Bloom34:27

       ... you have to, um, take care of your full self in order to optimize creative work. And if you're trying to do inspired creative work, which investing is creative work by the way, you need to think creatively around things and around ideas and support people, um, you have to be able to take care of your full self. And for me personally, part of taking care of my full self is being able to go for a walk with my wife in the morning and, you know, spend time with my child, you know, coach my child's little league team someday. Um, I think that is part of taking care of my full self in a way that I didn't agree that it was before.

   16. HSHarry Stebbings35:02

       Can I ask two things? How do you define high performance, number one?

   17. SBSahil Bloom35:08

       Oof. How do I define high performance? I think it's totally individual. Um, I think it completely depends on the person. For me personally, um, high performance means I am, uh, accelerating in the output, um, and quality of that output, and it has to be better than it was a month ago, much better than it was two months ago, um, both in the quantity and the quality of it.

   18. HSHarry Stebbings35:33

       You mentioned your wife there. Uh, bluntly, I'm, I'm fascinated to hear your thoughts on this one. How do you think about what makes the most successful personal romantic re- relationships?

   19. SBSahil Bloom35:43

       (laughs) Oh man. Um-

   20. HSHarry Stebbings35:46

       What... I'm, I'm soppy. I... beyond the bullshit.

   21. SBSahil Bloom35:49

       Yeah. No, I think-

   22. HSHarry Stebbings35:49

       I, I love love. (laughs)

   23. SBSahil Bloom35:51

       Yeah. What makes the most successful? So I mean, I think like open, open trust, um, and being able to communicate, and honestly being able to realize that most of your life is doing nothing with that person. Like I think when you first start dating somebody there's this honeymoon period and everything is so magical and, um, you're doing things and out on dates every night and traveling and most of life is like sitting on the couch, um, you know, doing nothing, hanging out, uh, having a drink at night by yourselves, and you have to love that person in those moments just as much if not more than in the crazy amazing romantic moments because it's very easy to love someone in those crazy romantic amazing moments. It's much more interesting when you've found someone that you just absolutely love doing nothing with. Um, to me that was when I knew that I, I w- was ready to get married was because I realized I had found the person who I was happy to do nothing with.

   24. HSHarry Stebbings36:53

       Do you believe in love at first sight?

   25. SBSahil Bloom36:55

       No.

   26. HSHarry Stebbings36:57

       Why?

   27. SBSahil Bloom36:58

       I think you need to have a connection with someone emotionally and intellectually, um, in order to truly be in love. I, I don't, I think love at first sight is like this superficial thing that got created for movies, um, and it, I just don't think it's real.

   28. HSHarry Stebbings37:12

       I didn't know. Me and Olivier Amato on Peloton. I, I felt it. (laughs)

   29. SBSahil Bloom37:17

       (laughs)

   30. HSHarry Stebbings37:17

       Uh, uh, final one. Do you believe that there's, like, one person out there for everyone?
4. 45:00 – 45:59

   Listen, Sahil, this has…

   1. SBSahil Bloom45:00

      a few reasons. You know, visionary type founder who I think is exceptional. Um, it's a big swing idea and if it works, it's gonna be so damn cool. Um, and I think it's probably low probability that it works like most things in the early stage. But if it does, it's going to be transformative and completely change the way that a lot of people work and play.

   2. HSHarry Stebbings45:19

      Listen, Sahil, this has been so much fun. As I said, um, rare that I move to, "Do You Believe in Love at First Sight?" But, uh-

   3. SBSahil Bloom45:25

      (laughs) .

   4. HSHarry Stebbings45:25

      ... always a sign of a good discussion. So thank you so much, man, and this has been great.

   5. SBSahil Bloom45:29

      This was a blast. You're the man. Thank you.

Episode duration: 45:58