245. Backing from Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Gates; Lessons from Reid Hoffman; and Building a Network-centric Venture Firm (Ben Casnocha)

Ben Casnocha of Village Global joins Nick to discuss Backing from Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Gates; Lessons from Reid Hoffman; and Building a Network-centric Venture Firm. In this episode, we cover: - How have things changed for the firm since the pandemic broke? - You've raised from some very big names in tech -- Zuckerberg, Hoffman, Gates, Bezos, Greene, Blakely and many more.  How exactly did the formation of Village and fundraise from these notable tech leaders come together? - Village has a unique approach to sourcing...  Tell us about the scout network? - Decision making process, architecture when doing deals at this pace and volume? - Many firms talk about their founder networks and Slack Groups.  But often if you ask founders, the density and connectivity of those networks are lacking.  What is it about your broad founder community that succeeds where others don't? - Worked with Reid Hoffman for two years... what were some of the key lessons from that experience w/ Reid? - YC is in full swing right now... many investors I've chatted with this week are a bit dizzy with the number of companies they're meeting with.  Do you invest in companies coming out of YC? - What do you think the future holds for accelerators like YC? - How do you determine when to make an exception on a deal?  We all have rules, check-size, valuation range, etc... how  do you know when to go off-thesis? - What are your thoughts on the future of Valley-based investing vs. investing outside the Valley? - Thoughts on all these large, multi-stage firms investing at seed and pre-seed? - Capital Supply and concentration is at new levels in the Bay Area... especially for seed investors.  While it's reasonable that more great companies will be built with the tools and opportunities available, this all won't end well.  I've seen pricing spike and aggressive tactics changing from investors to get access to deal.  What are you observing and how do you think it plays out?