Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour: How to Build Moats Against Incumbents; How to Hire Engineers | 20VC #931

Tarek Mansour is the Founder and CEO @ Kalshi, the first regulated exchange where you can trade directly on the outcome of events. Tarek has raised funding from some of the best including Alfred Lin @ Sequoia, Ali Partovi @ Neo, Ron Conway, Charles Schwab and Henry Kravis. Before founding Kalshi, Tarek worked at the likes of Citadel, Palantir and Goldman Sachs, in various different roles. ------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:36 The founding of Kalshi 3:23 What are you running from and towards? 5:03 Leading and parenting 6:13 Work-life balance 10:35 How has your style of work changed? 14:20 Is naivety a superpower? 16:10 How do you hire? 18:19 Terrible hiring mistakes? 19:48 How long do you give someone before letting them go? 21:25 Biggest insecurity in leadership 24:24 How are you so good at hiring engineers? 28:15 Why is B2B SaaS is a ponzi scheme 31:22 What would you like to change about venture? 33:55 Where do founders go wrong when fundraising? 38:37 How much money have you raised? 41:37 Biggest learnings from the people you work with? 44:25 What’s your favorite book and why? 44:45 Biggest strength and weakness 45:20 Hardest element of role with Kalshi today 46:25 If you could be CEO of any other company 47:47 What angel investors have been most helpful? 48:13 What do you wish you knew when you started? 49:28 What would you like to change about the world of startups? 51:08 Where do you see Kalshi in 5 years? ------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Tarek Mansour We Discuss: 1.) Entry into Startups: How did Tarek make his way from a nerdy kid in Lebanon to having his first startup funded by Sequoia and billionaires likes Charles Schwab and Henry Kravis? How did his mother’s continuous desire for excellence change Tarek’s mindset? What are the biggest lessons that Tarek took from his mother’s strict parenting and how did he apply them to how he manages the team at Kalshi today? 2.) What it Takes to Succeed: Why does Tarek believe that the world does not want your startup to exist? In that case, what are the core traits that founders need to fight this headwind? Does Tarek believe in work-life balance? What are some of the struggles of this? Does Tarek believe you should work on your weaknesses or double down on your strengths? 3.) Building the Team: Does Tarek believe that naivete is a strength or a weakness? At what point does it change between being a strength to being a weakness? Does Tarek prefer to hire more senior experienced people or younger hustlers with more energy? What have been the single biggest hiring mistakes that Tarek has made? How has it changed his approach to team building? What is the one single trait that if Tarek sees, he will not hire? How does Tarek make the interview process both fun but different and challenging? Where do so many founders make mistakes in how they construct the hiring process? 4.) Tarek Mansour: AMA: What have been the single biggest lessons from working with Ron Conway and Alfred Lin? What are some of Tarek’s biggest insecurities in leadership today? What does Tarek know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time with Kalshi? What would Tarek most like to change about the world of startups? ------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/tarek-mansour/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Tarek Mansour on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mansourtarek_ ------------------------------------- #Kalshi #TarekMansour #Predictionmarkets #Predictionmarket #founderadvice #founderstory #HarryStebbings #20VC