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From Google’s First PM to Backing 50 Unicorns — The 10X Principle | Felicis, Aydin Senkut

EO21:47Added Aug 31, 2026

From Google's first product manager to founding Felicis Ventures, Aydin Senkut shares his journey of turning obstacles into opportunities. At Google, he embr...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Don't Let People Put You in the Box

  2. 00:00There were maybe six or seven things in
  3. 00:02my life where I was in a very difficult
  4. 00:04situation and I was having a very tough
  5. 00:06time and what I did then uh led me to
  6. 00:09being here today. I think as human
  7. 00:11beings whenever there's a setback
  8. 00:13whenever there is tough time there's
  9. 00:15almost like two things we can do either
  10. 00:16we can accept the setback we can say
  11. 00:19okay this is terrible but then what we
  12. 00:21do after really matters right and so I
  13. 00:23think the most important thing is like
  14. 00:24to suspend this belief and I think it's
  15. 00:26really important because one of the
  16. 00:27things that I tell people is that I am
  17. 00:30really sitting here almost in every
  18. 00:32critical part of my life people tried to
  19. 00:35put me in a box and that was not the box
  20. 00:37I wanted right like they're like oh like
  21. 00:39you're going to stay in Turkey, you're
  22. 00:40never going to get out of it. Then I
  23. 00:42come to the US and like, oh, like,
  24. 00:43you're only in this university and not
  25. 00:44the best university. Then I go there and
  26. 00:46they're like, you're not engineer and
  27. 00:48you won't work at a tech company. Then I
  28. 00:49come to a tech company, it's like, well,
  29. 00:51you haven't been trained for this.
  30. 00:52You'll never do it. And I do it and it's
  31. 00:54like, well, you were not a VP and you
  32. 00:56won't do this. And then I come to
  33. 00:57venture capital, it's like, you can
  34. 00:58never do venture capital because you've
  35. 01:00never done venture capital. So I think
  36. 01:02this is just one example of like a
  37. 01:04setback and disappointment. Like as
  38. 01:06founders, like they're going to tell you
  39. 01:07it's never going to work. This idea is
  40. 01:09horrible. it's not going to happen. And
  41. 01:10I think at that point what you need to
  42. 01:12do is like set everything aside and burn
  43. 01:15the bridges and say the only way is just
  44. 01:17basically like do whatever it takes.
  45. 01:19Come up with a different idea like go
  46. 01:20back. Is there some other way it could
  47. 01:22be done? And that literally is the
  48. 01:24difference between being successful and
  49. 01:26making it or essentially you let other
  50. 01:28people put you in a box, right? And like
  51. 01:30the nice thing about it is a much harder
  52. 01:32and it's big effort but it means that
  53. 01:34you control your destiny, right? Like
  54. 01:36yes, it might be horrible. It might be
  55. 01:38even more difficult and nobody's
  56. 01:39believing you or depressed, but just
  57. 01:41remember that that doesn't mean that
  58. 01:43somebody is taking charge of your
  59. 01:45destiny. You still have control of your
  60. 01:47destiny. And what you do with that
  61. 01:49matters and that's why I like to say all
  62. 01:51that setback, all that difficulty, I see
  63. 01:53it as jet fuel. So put that jet fuel
  64. 01:55back in the jet and like get into the
  65. 01:57rocket and try to uh try to get to where
  66. 02:00you're trying to go.
  67. 02:02[Music]
  68. 02:06Hi, thank you for having me. My name is
  69. 02:08Iden Senkut. I'm the founder and

  70. Introducing Aydin and Felicis

  71. 02:10managing partner of Felicis, early stage
  72. 02:13venture firm with a global mandate. We
  73. 02:15are also very proud that so far from the
  74. 02:18companies that we've invested early,
  75. 02:20more than 45 of them have already
  76. 02:22crossed and exceeded a billion dollars
  77. 02:23in valuation, 100 exits. especially
  78. 02:27proud that in a little less than 14
  79. 02:29years. Our portfolio, we already have 17
  80. 02:32IPOs, some notable portfolio companies
  81. 02:35include companies that have gone public
  82. 02:36and achieved a very high valuation like
  83. 02:39Shopify and then some of the largest
  84. 02:41private companies including Canva in
  85. 02:43Australia, Notion uh in the US. I
  86. 02:46believe notion was also already on the
  87. 02:47EO channel. And then some other really
  88. 02:49exciting companies uh some especially
  89. 02:51focus on AI like Runway and then also
  90. 02:54some other interesting companies like
  91. 02:55one of our labs which is in defense and

  92. The 10X Principle

  93. 03:09AI. So before I started Felicia's
  94. 03:12Ventures I was Google's first product
  95. 03:14manager. When I started at Google, one
  96. 03:16of the most interesting and brilliant
  97. 03:18things we did is to launch Gmail. I
  98. 03:20think Gmail was extremely important to
  99. 03:22us and it really helped Google scale.
  100. 03:24Google was just beginning to monetize.
  101. 03:27Believe it or not, we did not have ads
  102. 03:29yet and Larry and Sergey were vehemently
  103. 03:31against ads because they did not think
  104. 03:34yet how we could incorporate ads in a
  105. 03:37very quality way into our search
  106. 03:38results. that came while I was at Google
  107. 03:40and a huge breakthrough where we decided
  108. 03:42that the way to make ads as relevant was
  109. 03:45to basically measure and rank them by
  110. 03:47click-through rate because then we could
  111. 03:48have confidence that as users indicate
  112. 03:50which ads are most helpful to them the
  113. 03:52ads could be as interesting and useful
  114. 03:54as the search results. I I would say
  115. 03:57there are three main lessons. One is and
  116. 04:00this is something that I especially
  117. 04:01learned from Larry but he was very
  118. 04:03adamant and he always really cared about
  119. 04:05focusing on a very few things. I used to
  120. 04:08joke that his favorite word was no. Uh I
  121. 04:10think 90% of the time he just said no
  122. 04:12and then very few times he said yes. But
  123. 04:14when he said yes, you knew that that was
  124. 04:16something that mattered and everybody
  125. 04:18rallied around and try to make that
  126. 04:20possible whatever it was he was asking.
  127. 04:22The other thing that Larry did that I
  128. 04:24think was very interesting is he always
  129. 04:26asked for very uncomfortable, very
  130. 04:29difficult goals. I think that the other
  131. 04:31message from that was you cannot build a
  132. 04:33truly great company if you're only
  133. 04:35striving for a 10% or 20% improvement.
  134. 04:38We did something interesting at Google
  135. 04:39where we essentially had a very healthy
  136. 04:42disrespect of status quo and what we did
  137. 04:45is often times we tried to find the
  138. 04:46world's smartest people gave them
  139. 04:48challenges whether they had an
  140. 04:50experience or knowledge in this area or
  141. 04:52not and just told them to do it. So a
  142. 04:54good example of that I used to bike with
  143. 04:56the lead engineer in the ads serving
  144. 04:58team and interestingly that engineer was
  145. 05:00not specialized in ad serving at all.
  146. 05:02One day Sergey went to him and said,
  147. 05:03"Oh, we decided that we're going to
  148. 05:05build an ad server. Chad," his name was
  149. 05:07Chad, "you're very smart. Pick five more
  150. 05:09engineers. You have about 6 months. And
  151. 05:11in 6 months, I want to make sure that we
  152. 05:13have a functioning ad server." And they
  153. 05:15did it. And I joke, they did it because
  154. 05:17they had no idea what they were getting
  155. 05:19into. And so they just made it happen.
  156. 05:21And if this wasn't in any other large
  157. 05:22company, they would have asked for
  158. 05:24hundreds of engineers and probably said
  159. 05:26it would take them a couple years to
  160. 05:27build something like that.
  161. 05:29So, one of the rules or principles that
  162. 05:31stuck with me from my days at Google is
  163. 05:33the 10X principle. Meaning that if you
  164. 05:35want to be really great at something
  165. 05:37like if you have a startup, even in an
  166. 05:39investment firm, whatever it is that
  167. 05:40you're doing, if you're working at a
  168. 05:42company, starting a company, scaling a
  169. 05:44company, it is very important that
  170. 05:45whatever is you do has to be 10 times
  171. 05:48better, 10 times cheaper or 10 times
  172. 05:50faster, maybe ideally all three than the
  173. 05:53competition, than the existing
  174. 05:54solutions. this uh give me a sense of
  175. 05:57the philosophy of your own mind. I mean
  176. 05:59you have this idea of 10x I mean you you
  177. 06:02don't simply want uh to go in some small
  178. 06:07measurable arena of
  179. 06:09progress. Yeah. I think you know many of
  180. 06:12the things we just talked about are like
  181. 06:13that where they're really non you I
  182. 06:16almost use the economic concept of
  183. 06:18additionality. Yeah. Which means that
  184. 06:20you're doing something that wouldn't
  185. 06:23happen unless you're actually doing it.
  186. 06:25And um I think the more you can do
  187. 06:28things like that, the bigger impact you
  188. 06:29have.
  189. 06:31And you know that's about doing things
  190. 06:34that are you know people might not think
  191. 06:36are possible. And I've been amazed the
  192. 06:39more I learn about technology the more I
  193. 06:42realize I don't know. And that's because
  194. 06:44this technological
  195. 06:45horizon the thing that you can see to do
  196. 06:48next. The more you learn about
  197. 06:51technology the more you learn what's
  198. 06:53possible. you learn that the balloons
  199. 06:55are possible because there's some
  200. 06:57material that will work for them. So the
  201. 06:5910x principle can also apply to the
  202. 07:02markets that you decide to go after. I
  203. 07:04think one of the things that we really
  204. 07:05care when we're making investment
  205. 07:07decisions, the number one thing is that
  206. 07:09we try to find markets that are poised
  207. 07:11for great growth. The markets can be
  208. 07:13either very large or can potentially
  209. 07:16become very large, especially if there
  210. 07:18is great growth, if there is a critical
  211. 07:20product. And one of the things that we
  212. 07:21like to think most of our most
  213. 07:23successful companies have a very broad
  214. 07:25customer base. For instance, if you look
  215. 07:26at Shopify powering commerce, I mean
  216. 07:29commerce basically applies to almost
  217. 07:30every business in the world. Adan with
  218. 07:32payments. Any business if they want to
  219. 07:34create revenues, they have to have
  220. 07:36payments or some of our other companies
  221. 07:38like recursion or cancer. I mean at the
  222. 07:40end of the day there are certain
  223. 07:42illnesses and diseases in the world that
  224. 07:44unfortunately at some point might affect
  225. 07:46either ourselves or our family members
  226. 07:48or our friends. So, we love companies
  227. 07:50that are doing something not just
  228. 07:51important, but something that's
  229. 07:52potentially applicable to almost
  230. 07:54anywhere in the world. We can see this
  231. 07:55as the extension of the 10X principle
  232. 07:57because the larger the market, the
  233. 07:59higher the potential for a company to be
  234. 08:00successful. But one of the other things
  235. 08:02that we really pay great attention to is
  236. 08:04that the companies are doing something
  237. 08:06that is so revolutionary, so incredible
  238. 08:09that the impact coincides with the 10x
  239. 08:11principle. It's that 10x better, 10x
  240. 08:13faster, 10x cheaper. We tell our team
  241. 08:15over and over again is look for that
  242. 08:17either that the company can do it or the
  243. 08:20company has an idea and the potential to
  244. 08:21do

  245. Market Always Wins

  246. 08:27it. We really start with the market and
  247. 08:30one of the reasons for that is I call it
  248. 08:32is almost like a Newtonian law in
  249. 08:34startups is that when anything else goes
  250. 08:36against markets the markets win. So you
  251. 08:38have to be in the right market and you
  252. 08:40also roughly have to get the timing
  253. 08:41right. So I think one of the ways that
  254. 08:43we try to make our decisions better and
  255. 08:46use mental you know conserve mental
  256. 08:48power we are very selective in the
  257. 08:49markets that we go after and once we
  258. 08:51choose that I feel it's one of the most
  259. 08:53important parts of the decision then the
  260. 08:55secret is can you identify the founders
  261. 08:57that can really scale I obviously am not
  262. 08:59going to lie to you founders are
  263. 09:00extremely important and the next most
  264. 09:02important thing in our decision process
  265. 09:04is essentially understanding founders
  266. 09:06understanding people and this is an
  267. 09:08important point because not only do we
  268. 09:10have and this is the reason why the
  269. 09:11teams Diversity is really important, but
  270. 09:13one of the things that I don't think
  271. 09:14people appreciate it in my background is
  272. 09:17the fact that I spend a lot of time in
  273. 09:19sales. Spend a lot of time trying to
  274. 09:21understand people. And everybody thinks
  275. 09:23venture capital is finance. It's all
  276. 09:24about the numbers, but everybody's good
  277. 09:26at numbers in venture capital. What is
  278. 09:28more difficult and more rare is being
  279. 09:30able to understand people and being able
  280. 09:32to relate to people. So, I feel like
  281. 09:34that was my superpower that really
  282. 09:36helped me be a great investor. And we
  283. 09:38actually went even beyond that. And one
  284. 09:40of our operating part amazing operating
  285. 09:41partner we brought on uh Michelle Delra
  286. 09:44who joined us from stripe and she also
  287. 09:45worked at stripe octa data bricks each
  288. 09:48one of these companies were 10 billion
  289. 09:50plus in value and she specializes in you
  290. 09:52know people and like recruiting and
  291. 09:54interviewing people. So, we actually
  292. 09:56like have her often join our investment
  293. 09:58meetings when we're evaluating founding
  294. 10:00teams because we want her to also look
  295. 10:02at the founding team and say what she
  296. 10:03thinks of the team and if she thinks
  297. 10:05that their culture or their ideas or
  298. 10:07something about them gives us confidence
  299. 10:08that they're going to build a truly
  300. 10:10great and enduring company. And it's
  301. 10:11again something that we do that's very
  302. 10:13different and unique where people that
  303. 10:15have these different strengths and not
  304. 10:17necessarily part of the investment team
  305. 10:19are leveraged before we actually make an
  306. 10:21investment decision.
  307. 10:23I mean, I can pick some some examples.
  308. 10:25Look, I think one of the most impressive
  309. 10:27ones is Shopify. Shopify was another
  310. 10:29incredible concept. You know, Toby,
  311. 10:31who's the founder of Shopify with his
  312. 10:33two co-founders, actually he wanted to
  313. 10:35do a snowboard store and realized that
  314. 10:37there were no no great tools available
  315. 10:39to do that. And then he basically
  316. 10:41decided that actually a better idea was
  317. 10:43to start a software company. He was
  318. 10:45clearly very good at that. But he had
  319. 10:46some really unique insights. One,
  320. 10:48Shopify underpriced the product to make
  321. 10:50it available. Shopify I think always
  322. 10:53undercharged for the product because
  323. 10:54they thought hey if people are getting
  324. 10:56value and those businesses are scaling
  325. 10:58they can grow with those businesses. I
  326. 10:59think Toby also made some really great
  327. 11:01decisions. I will mention couple for
  328. 11:03instance from very early on even though
  329. 11:05Shopify was very easy to use. People
  330. 11:07were still finding Shopify and using it
  331. 11:10through agencies and other channels. So
  332. 11:12they went to the channel and agencies
  333. 11:13said look we're not going to give you a
  334. 11:15one-time fee. If somebody is using
  335. 11:16Shopify through you and they continue
  336. 11:19using it through you, you're going to
  337. 11:20get lifetime commissions. So,
  338. 11:22underpricing the product, fantastic
  339. 11:24product, treating the channel really
  340. 11:25well and being very creative of giving
  341. 11:26them lifetime commissions. I think the
  342. 11:28other aspect of it, similar to what I
  343. 11:30experienced at Google, Toby realized
  344. 11:32what were the most important product
  345. 11:34aspects. So, for instance, when Shopify
  346. 11:36launched payments, it was at a perfect
  347. 11:38time and it really contributed the
  348. 11:40company's stratospheric growth. So
  349. 11:42again, the idea that hey, listen, if you
  350. 11:44want to scale a business, there's going
  351. 11:45to be a few really important decisions
  352. 11:46and it's important to get it right. The
  353. 11:48last nuance, this by the way happened
  354. 11:50both at Google and Shopify, but both
  355. 11:52Google and Shopify had very good
  356. 11:54internal uh data, real-time data on how
  357. 11:56the business ran. And for instance, like
  358. 11:58early on Google when we were even like
  359. 12:0050 people, we had internal dashboards
  360. 12:02that I could see anything from which
  361. 12:04servers are up to how many cues are
  362. 12:06being served around the world and how
  363. 12:07our customers doing. Every aspect of the
  364. 12:09business is available. the information
  365. 12:11on it was available in real time. I
  366. 12:13think Shopify built something like that
  367. 12:14internally as well. I always like to use
  368. 12:16the example of F1 is one of my favorite
  369. 12:18sports and one of the things that's
  370. 12:20special about it is it's a sport where
  371. 12:21everything is measured in 1/1,000 of a
  372. 12:23second and the success is often
  373. 12:25determined by very very tiny like minute
  374. 12:28differences and they can do that because
  375. 12:30they measure every aspect of everything
  376. 12:32that's happening. One of the biggest
  377. 12:33things that I learned for startups is
  378. 12:35that yes, you might want to be
  379. 12:37successful, but the only way to do that
  380. 12:39if you know what to measure and you're
  381. 12:40measuring it in a very comprehensive way
  382. 12:43because that then allows you to realize
  383. 12:45that

  384. The DNA of Exceptional Founders

  385. 12:50performance. I think there are many
  386. 12:52factors. We will talk about personal
  387. 12:54elements of founders but I will
  388. 12:56reiterate I think being in the right
  389. 12:58market is very important. So if you
  390. 12:59choose the wrong market is very
  391. 13:01difficult to be successful if not
  392. 13:02impossible. So no matter what happens I
  393. 13:04think finding the right market and
  394. 13:06ideally getting the timing mostly right
  395. 13:07is very important. After that I think
  396. 13:09there are certain elements. Number one
  397. 13:11whoever is the founder you need to be
  398. 13:13very focused. I think early on because
  399. 13:14you have very few people the tendency is
  400. 13:16well the only way I can feel successful
  401. 13:19and great as a CEO is if I'm doing like
  402. 13:2150 things. But the reality is there are
  403. 13:23very few things that truly is going to
  404. 13:25make a difference in the company. and
  405. 13:26doing 50 things or 20 things, it means
  406. 13:28that you're not going to do each one of
  407. 13:30them extremely well. But success in the
  408. 13:32beginning means you have to be focused.
  409. 13:34You have very limited resources.
  410. 13:35Understand one or two things that matter
  411. 13:37and absolutely do the best job in those
  412. 13:39things. The only way you can do that is
  413. 13:41if you're able to focus on them and do a
  414. 13:43great job. One important thing is uh
  415. 13:45just consistency and you know staying at
  416. 13:48it like I'll give you an example like
  417. 13:49one of the tough things as a startup
  418. 13:51speed is your biggest friend. You can do
  419. 13:53many things with a small team but
  420. 13:55because the team is really small in the
  421. 13:57beginning probably the progress will not
  422. 13:59be super big. There will be like small
  423. 14:00things but what we forget is small
  424. 14:02things can compound to something very
  425. 14:04big. And then the other thing that I
  426. 14:05will say I think everybody thinks that
  427. 14:07great companies succeed in a straight
  428. 14:09line and they never succeed in a
  429. 14:10straight line. So I think one of the
  430. 14:12hardest things to do as a founder is
  431. 14:14essentially like take setback, take
  432. 14:17disappointment, take no, take skeptics
  433. 14:19and then keep going, right? like you
  434. 14:21have to like be at it. And to me like
  435. 14:23what I always like to say is um people
  436. 14:25that underestimate me or my team any
  437. 14:28type of rejection any type of setback or
  438. 14:31disappointment I call it jet fuel like
  439. 14:33it makes you angry you know it makes you
  440. 14:35upset creates this feeling it's like no
  441. 14:37like we deserve better honestly how you
  442. 14:39feel doesn't matter but what does matter
  443. 14:40is to take that mental energy and then
  444. 14:43say okay you know what I'm going to take
  445. 14:44that and make things better I'm going to
  446. 14:46do try one more time I'm going to try a
  447. 14:48different way and that's what it takes
  448. 14:50and sometimes it might be 10 times 20
  449. 14:52times 30 times until you get to the
  450. 14:54first time where it's a yes or it works
  451. 14:57or your first customer. But it's very
  452. 14:59important that you stay at it and you
  453. 15:00don't give up. I think the second thing
  454. 15:03we kind of touched on it but how
  455. 15:05important it is to find a way to measure
  456. 15:07success. Let's say that we have a
  457. 15:08vision. We you know we want to be very
  458. 15:10successful. Well like for instance if
  459. 15:12you want to be a great successful
  460. 15:14investment firm you need to have you
  461. 15:16know density of success from a 100
  462. 15:18investments you make. How many of them
  463. 15:19are exited? how many of them become
  464. 15:21successful companies. These are very
  465. 15:23black and white numbers. If we say we
  466. 15:24have a global strategy, one of the
  467. 15:26things that I'm very proud of any stage
  468. 15:28that we worked at, any sector we looked
  469. 15:30at, any country we invested in, pretty
  470. 15:32much every single area of our strategy,
  471. 15:34we have a success. We have an IPO or an
  472. 15:36exit. And so that basically makes it
  473. 15:38very black and white. And when you can
  474. 15:39measure things that specifically, it
  475. 15:41really does help like optimize and you
  476. 15:43know like make the business successful.
  477. 15:45Um that's I think like super important
  478. 15:46as well. I think the last aspect of it
  479. 15:49is combination storytelling, combination
  480. 15:51charm. Let me explain. I think one of
  481. 15:53the most important jobs of a founder,
  482. 15:55especially a CEO, is you have to be able
  483. 15:57to get customers. You have to be able to
  484. 15:59hire people. You have to be able to keep
  485. 16:01scaling the company even when times are
  486. 16:03hard. A lot of times that means that you
  487. 16:05have to be a great storyteller because
  488. 16:07let's be honest, if you're buying
  489. 16:08something today, you're not buying
  490. 16:10something just because of the product
  491. 16:12and some future, but there is something
  492. 16:13about that brand that appeals to you.
  493. 16:15It's the same thing when we're joining
  494. 16:16companies is that yes, you know, maybe
  495. 16:18at the end it's a job, but the company's
  496. 16:20culture and the company's vibe really
  497. 16:22matters. How charismatic the leader is
  498. 16:24matters. And so that's very important.
  499. 16:25And I think something that I found in
  500. 16:27founders and it is unfortunately not
  501. 16:29negotiable. Like you either have to have
  502. 16:31yourself or like maybe a co-founder
  503. 16:33who's very good at storytelling, who's
  504. 16:35very charismatic so that it allows you
  505. 16:37to hire amazing people. And part of it
  506. 16:39is also the mission. The more ambitious
  507. 16:40the mission of the company, obviously
  508. 16:42the more people will get excited about
  509. 16:44it. And that comes again back to the 10X
  510. 16:46principle is that a lot of times ideas
  511. 16:48are ideas but some ideas are more
  512. 16:50powerful and more scary than others. So
  513. 16:53the bigger the idea and the bigger the
  514. 16:55impact I think then even though it might
  515. 16:57be difficult it's going to inspire
  516. 16:59people and it's going to motivate them
  517. 17:00to do something that's really hard
  518. 17:02because at the end of the day we want
  519. 17:03our lives to have purpose and the best
  520. 17:04way to do that is if you're pursuing a
  521. 17:06very challenging problem. I think I was
  522. 17:09a horrible storyteller and how do I know
  523. 17:11that? When I first tried to start
  524. 17:14Felicis, I had, I think, at least 40
  525. 17:16nos. It was very disappointing because I
  526. 17:18thought I was telling a great story and
  527. 17:20I was very proud of my idea and I was
  528. 17:22very excited about what we're going to
  529. 17:24build. And honestly, the main strategy
  530. 17:27has always been the same. But what I
  531. 17:29realized is that what I was trying to
  532. 17:31talk about and what people were hearing
  533. 17:33were not always the same. What I also
  534. 17:34started appreciating is that it wasn't
  535. 17:37just important what I was telling but I
  536. 17:39needed to understand what people cared
  537. 17:41about on the other side. And so for me a
  538. 17:44lot of it came down to just practice. I
  539. 17:46think I shared with my team but when we
  540. 17:47got our first check I think the version
  541. 17:49of our deck was like 107 which means
  542. 17:51that we had 107 revisions to the deck
  543. 17:53that the message was the same. The
  544. 17:55strategy was the same but we like
  545. 17:57iterated 107 times to tell the story 107
  546. 18:00ways until the first person said yes. I
  547. 18:02think the second thing is you have to be
  548. 18:04a great student of people. I think a lot
  549. 18:06of times we get so excited about the
  550. 18:08ideas as founders. All we can think
  551. 18:10about is what we love and what we are
  552. 18:12going to do and why we think this is
  553. 18:14going to be successful. We don't think
  554. 18:15as much about the other people. And so
  555. 18:17part of being a great storyteller is
  556. 18:19know your audience. And in order to know
  557. 18:21your audience, you need to really
  558. 18:22understand them. Who are they? Where did
  559. 18:23they come from? What do they like? Where
  560. 18:25did they go to school? How how were they
  561. 18:27brought up? And I think that matters
  562. 18:28because it feels like the last 10% of
  563. 18:31the details are maybe the 90% of the
  564. 18:33value. But most people do the first 90%
  565. 18:36but then they don't want to put the
  566. 18:37effort into the last 10%. And the last
  567. 18:40small details can make a very big

  568. Why Investment is More than Just a Numbers Game

  569. 18:47difference. One of the things that I'm
  570. 18:49really proud of investment is a tough
  571. 18:51business because what we do is
  572. 18:53essentially like we're writing checks
  573. 18:54but the thing that we're doing is not
  574. 18:56something you can touch. like you can't
  575. 18:57touch this table and say look we are
  576. 18:59carpenters and we make great tables. The
  577. 19:01thing that really means the world to us
  578. 19:03is twofold. One, we feel that as our
  579. 19:06portfolio globally becomes larger, it's
  580. 19:08becoming more and more clear to us that
  581. 19:10every minute, every hour of the day,
  582. 19:12somebody in the world is interfacing,
  583. 19:14interacting with the Felic's portfolio
  584. 19:16company and hopefully in a good way,
  585. 19:17right? Whether it's one of our, you
  586. 19:19know, biotech companies like curing a
  587. 19:21rare disease or cancer, diagnosing a
  588. 19:23disease, it's one of our other companies
  589. 19:24like Shopify helping somebody uh become
  590. 19:27an entrepreneur or at the end, you know,
  591. 19:28help process payments. uh or one of our
  592. 19:31you know creativity company like Canva
  593. 19:33maybe it's a kid at school and you know
  594. 19:34they want to create something and the
  595. 19:36first tool they use is Canva and that's
  596. 19:38a very fantastic feeling that the way
  597. 19:40that the world is today the way it's
  598. 19:42going to be in the future and as the
  599. 19:44future gets created it's Felissa's
  600. 19:46companies that are taking the lead to
  601. 19:47create that future and that's an
  602. 19:49incredible feeling and then I think the
  603. 19:50same is true uh about our limited
  604. 19:53partners so the people that invest in
  605. 19:54our funds basically they're all like
  606. 19:56endowments they are health systems uh
  607. 19:59their organizations that have kind of a
  608. 20:00charitable cause or mission. Uh and some
  609. 20:02of our other foundations or families
  610. 20:04that we work with are working on freedom
  611. 20:06of speech or you know they have like
  612. 20:08great charitable causes like saving the
  613. 20:09oceans and all of that. So what we feel
  614. 20:11great is that we are not just about
  615. 20:13financial returns but the impact of that
  616. 20:15is going to be making the world a better
  617. 20:17place. Partly true with our companies
  618. 20:19but also partly through our limited
  619. 20:20partners and our
  620. 20:22investors. I really would like to see
  621. 20:25technology play a bigger role in peace
  622. 20:27whatever that may be. I mean, look, I I
  623. 20:29think I also want technology to make us
  624. 20:32happier because one of the things that
  625. 20:33I'm seeing that stresses me out. I have
  626. 20:36two kids, teenagers, and I see how much
  627. 20:39technology is pervasive in their life.
  628. 20:41But I am also seeing maybe compared to
  629. 20:43my generation. This generation has a lot
  630. 20:45more in terms of technology and wealth,
  631. 20:47but they're more stressed and they have
  632. 20:49more mental issues than I've ever seen.
  633. 20:51I think it's very important that we have
  634. 20:53to take ownership and responsibility.
  635. 20:55the world is not just about the impact
  636. 20:57that technology can have and the wealth
  637. 20:58that it can create, but if it's making
  638. 21:01us more depressed and less happy, I feel
  639. 21:03like then we we lost the point. We
  640. 21:05missed the point. So to me, my dream and
  641. 21:08my hope would be that not only does
  642. 21:10technology keep advancing, which it
  643. 21:11will, will create more value, which it
  644. 21:13will, but it also has a positive impact
  645. 21:16on humanity. I'm not just saying like
  646. 21:18cleaning up the oceans or whatever, but
  647. 21:20we as people hopefully like my kids
  648. 21:23generation can say, "Oh, like we are a
  649. 21:25little bit happier and we're little bit
  650. 21:27less stressed uh than my generation."
  651. 21:30Uh, and that would be a great dream. If
  652. 21:31technology can achieve that, I feel like
  653. 21:33we're going to be in a much better
  654. 21:34place.
From Google’s First PM to Backing 50 Unicorns — The 10X Principle | Felicis, Aydin Senkut — Transcriptly