"You put all your eggs in one basket and you watch that basket. That's how great people make lots of money." - 8VC's Joe Lonsdale
Takeaways:
- Joe started his investment journey through angel investing, primarily in talented individuals he had worked with at Palantir. He advocates for backing the smart and talented people around you. Better to have a small loss than to miss out on a huge win.
- He discussed the complexities and risks associated with macro investing. He shared insights into his approach to identifying systemic mispricings in the market, and emphasized the difficulty of pursuing this as a strategy.
- He discussed the importance of having a strong foundational knowledge in finance and economics, mentioning specific books and economic theories that influenced his understanding and strategies in investing. He described the reading he had done as equivalent to a CFA Program.
- While ideologically supportive of crypto, he is hesitant or cautious given the volatility in the face of changing monetary policies and the lack of a natural bottom for prices.
- He advocates for diversification across various asset classes, including stocks, liquid assets, and alternatives. He suggests a significant portion of one's net worth should be in alternatives, provided one has adequate liquidity.
Bio:
Joe Lonsdale is the managing partner at 8VC, a US-based venture capital firm which manages $5 billion in committed capital. He was an early institutional investor in many notable companies including Wish, Oculus (acq.Facebook), Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH), Oscar (NYSE: OSCR), Illumio, Anduril,, Flexport, Joby Aviation, and Orca Bio. Joe has been on the Forbes 100 Midas List since 2016 and was the youngest member included in 2016 and 2017.
Before focusing on institutional investing, Joe co-founded Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) a global software company known for its work in defense and other industries. After Palantir, he founded and remains as Chairman of both Addepar, which has over $2.5 trillion managed on its wealth management technology platform, and OpenGov, which provides software for over 2,000 municipalities and state agencies. More recently, he is also a co-founder of Affinity, Epirus, Esper, Swiftscale Bio, Resilience Bio. Joe began his career as an early executive at Clarium Capital and also worked with PayPal while he attended Stanford.
