Andrew Chen — Growth Secrets from Uber, Exploring the Metaverse, Startup Investing, and More

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 1, 2021

Duration

1h 59m

Channel

Tim Ferriss

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Andrew Chen — Metaverse, Metrics, and Meerkats | Brought to you by 80,000 Hours free career advice for high impact and doing good in the world (http://80000hours.org/tim),  Wealthfront automated investing (http://wealthfront.com/tim), and Helix Sleep premium mattresses (http://helixsleep.com/tim). Show notes: https://tim.blog/2021/11/30/andrew-chen/ Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he invests in consumer technology, including social, marketplace, entertainment, and gaming experiences. Today, Andrew serves on the boards of All Day Kitchens, Clubhouse, Envoy, Hipcamp, Maven, Reforge, Sandbox VR, Singularity 6, Sleeper, Snackpass, and Substack. Andrew is a prolific writer and leading voice on mobile, metrics, and user growth. For the past decade, he’s covered the topic on AndrewChen.com. He is the author of The Cold Start Problem, a book exploring how new startups are launched. He is also a board member and instructor at Reforge, which offers selective, growth-focused programs for experienced professionals in marketing, product, data, and engineering. Intro [00:00] My Life in Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins [00:14] On sharing an office with Geoffrey Moore in Silicon Valley back in 2007 [06:55] Who is Sean Ellis? [09:09] How writing led to Andrew's first meeting with Marc Andreessen [12:17] How to adapt to newfound attention [16:12] How does Andrew decide what to write about and how long a piece should be? [20:40] Andrew's book The Cold Start Problem [22:48] Lessons learned from consulting during the early days of Uber [34:04] The Twitch origin story [38:37] How a truly innovative company can create the market that perpetuates its existence [47:01] Roblox and the future of gaming [51:41] Predictions about the metaverse [58:29] Decentralized warlocks, open-source ecosystems, and real-world upheavals driven by digital demands [1:05:38] What questions does Andrew ask entrepreneurs in order to gauge how they think about growth? [1:09:47] How does Andrew suggest startups, companies, or people go about picking the right metrics? [1:14:27] Common mistakes Andrew sees founders making when they’re trying to improve a startup’s growth [1:19:25] The part of the interview where Andrew talks about meerkats and sardines [1:24:05] The network effects of work in cities where people are choosing to live — and leave — these days [1:29:39] The startup investment trend Andrew is following keenly [1:36:21] Thoughts on the current climate of the creator economy[1:42:57] What is Reforge? [1:55:03] Parting thoughts [1:58:22]] Please enjoy! SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1dSzTkW LINK TO ALL SHOW TRANSCRIPTS: https://tim.blog/2018/09/20/all-transcripts-from-the-tim-ferriss-show/ About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 500 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Tim Ferriss

  host

  Author and podcaster, host of The Tim Ferriss Show.

• Andrew Chen

  guest

  Startup investor and growth expert, known for work on network effects and growth (Reforge; author of The Cold Start Problem).

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Tim Ferriss, featuring Tim Ferriss and Andrew Chen, Andrew Chen — Growth Secrets from Uber, Exploring the Metaverse, Startup Investing, and More explores Andrew Chen on network effects, growth loops, metaverse, and metrics Andrew Chen explains how classic advertising lessons (like coupons and content marketing) map to modern growth and adoption problems in startups.

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