I want to hop back to the investing. I

mean, you've you've had a lot of hits.

Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, it goes on and on

and on. I mean, I don't know how many

IPOs and so on that you've had. I mean,

the gazillion. Let's talk about one. So,

you put in, tell me if I'm getting this

right, 35 million at a 5 billion

valuation into Anthropic. This is a

company that's been in the news a lot. I

think the last round is what? 965

billion, something like that. Are those

numbers roughly accurate?

>> Yes.

>> Okay. So, that's pretty nice multiple so

far. You know, we'll see

how things go. How did that

Anthropic deal happen?

>> Well, it starts a little before

the day that OpenAI came out, which was

on my dad's birthday, ChatGPT.

It was life-changing.

And I You remember those moments. And

again, I go back to music. I remember

when I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit by

Nirvana. I pulled over the car and I

went, "What is this?" And when ChatGPT

came out,

that was a what is this moment for me.

And if you saw me

anytime after ChatGPT came out, I would

have harassed you to show you ChatGPT.

There's no one every artist, every

actor, everyone I walked around and met,

I like, "Check this out. Check this out.

Check this out." And

I was obsessed. And I called Ashton and

I said, "Ashton, this is it. OpenAI,

we're doing OpenAI. This is the greatest

thing I've ever seen. We have to do it.

Have to do it. Have to do it." And so,

that was our first

this is the one we're going to go after.

But then, when we first started

investing, Ashton and I, it was when the

iPhone and the App Store were happening.

And so, for the first time ever,

you can scale companies like never

before.

And I think anyone would have done well

at that time. We were like lucky people

that came in at the right time and were

looking at the right time and started

our fund at that very moment, which is

crazy. And so, we had this incredible

success because of that. I saw it again.

Back to pattern recognition.

If you fast forward, we're we're still

using Uber and Airbnb and Spotify. We're

still using those things from that time

period. And we felt that this is it.

These foundational AI models

in 10 or 15 years will be how we plug

into

all these things.

So,

we really felt like we had a 3-month

window. We told people, "We have a

3-month window." Now, it came out

November 30th, uh 2022.

So,

there's not much you can do. This people

are going away. This this Christmas time

break, blah blah. But as soon as January

came, we went out there and told people,

"This is the vision. We're going to do a

foundational AI model fund." I got it.

LPs. Meaning Yeah, raise money.

>> Yeah.

>> Raise money and create this fund, which

is which was a crazy idea at the time.

>> Now, had you already confirmed that

you'd be able to get allocations or you

just had complete confidence?

>> Ashton spoke to Sam. We were able to get

OpenAI. What happened was is I'm very

close to Marc Benioff.

And Salesforce Ventures,

people don't really understand how

smart they are. They don't get

They don't get all the press on They are

one of the best investors in the world.

There's two guys there, John Somorjai

and Paul Drews, who were when I was

doing my research, cuz now I'm on the

I'm on the lookout. What should I know

about an AI? Once I find out about

something, I just lock in.

So, and I and I and I want to know

everything about it. And I I was as I

was doing my research,

I was finding out that they were going

to do Anthropic. And they were very

bullish about it. And I found out from a

friend that works with like a job hunter

kind of

people who help find jobs for people.

>> Oh, like head hunters.

>> Head hunters. That everyone's going to

this company called Anthropic, you know?

Like people are really going to this

Anthropic place and they're not going

anywhere else. I'm like, "Wow, okay. I I

I need to pay attention." So, I I asked

Paul and John connect me with with this

founder,

Dario. So, they connect me with Dario

and Neerav. They come here in this room

and that's where we made the deal to

invest in in Anthropic.

So, we did a bunch of other companies in

that foundational AI fund. It was a

3-month window. So, it was before a

bunch of other things that have come out

since. But we we set ourselves up for

exactly what we did. This is going to be

within 3 months. We're going to deploy

80% of the money in the next 3 months.

And that's what That's what we did and

that's over 3 years ago.

>> How did you know the window was going to

be so narrow? I imagine

Did you get any pushback from LPs when

you said we're going to deploy 80% of

this in 3 months?

>> Well, we didn't have There was no LPs.

Meaning, we just It was That was the

pitch.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> So, it wasn't like we It wasn't like we

raised money

Yeah, it wasn't like we raised money and

then told them the pitch. It was like,

"Here is the pitch.

>> Here's what we're going to do.

>> There is a window of opportunity here.

We think this is the future and

that was it."

>> They opted in.

>> Yeah, opt in or opt out. We didn't know

what we were going to raise. It's just

whatever came up is what it was going to

be.

>> So, I was trying to pull from memory,

but looks like

Sound

at this point is at 86 exits and 26

IPOs. That's insane. I mean, that is

>> It's been fun.

>> [laughter]

>> You have

>> [snorts]

>> seemingly different batteries,

certainly. I mean, you've got good

batteries.

What does the next

5 years do you think look like for you?

I mean, it it Is it more of this type of

investing? What do you see? Is it

switching gears entirely and looking at

the prism through a totally different

way? I mean, what is

What is next for Guy?

>> I feel like

going back to the core, really

honing in that antenna for

the greatest talent in the world,

the greatest ideas in the world.

This is an incredible time where

people can scale up a company

in in the quickest ways and I'm excited

about the potential of what's to come.

I've already identified three things I

want to do today.

So, [snorts]

I can only imagine what's to come, but

it's just really just I don't I'm okay

doing a version of what I've been doing,

which is

identify great talent and help them help

them in every which way that I can and

pick the teams that you want to

back.

So, I I I'm I'm feeling pretty good

about that.

Just continuing on this

best-in-class talent idea.

The hard part is

for a lot of people is the access.

So,

we're very lucky. We have access and we

also do the job. We We have more than

enough

proof of

people that come through when you work

with them. And we're a different kind of

investor on the cap table.

We're not in the valley. We're here in

Hollywood. And we bring a different

dynamic, different, you know, obviously

narrative is something that I that I'm

very focused on. Marketing is something

I've been doing since I was a a teen.

And so, you know, marketing strategy,

media, partnerships, narrative,

storytelling,

hey, if you want someone like that on

your cap table, it might be interesting

to you. And hopefully I can be helpful.

And that's what I

need to find that dynamic of a company

that I'm in love with and hopefully the

founder believes that having me would be

a great

advantage to them.

>> Mhm.

A lot of founders listen to this

podcast. Is there any Are there any

particular things that's

have your interest right now or types of

companies, types of founders, anything

that you'd like to

sort of make

clear to people who are

listening or otherwise. Also, where can

people learn

more about what you're up to? Like is is

there anywhere that you would point them

in particular?

>> I'm a generalist.

>> Mhm.

>> I don't I don't care. That particular AI

fund was very specific. And we may have

thematic funds from time to time. If an

idea comes and you go, "You know what?

I've got an idea. It's going to be built

around this one idea." But usually I'm a

generalist. I really like I just like

talented people. And in regards to

sharing,

you know, where can they find out what

I'm up to?

I'm not really This is it.

>> Yeah, this is it.

>> You know, as you know, this is my first

podcast.

>> Yeah.

>> And depending on this goes, could be my

last.

If it goes well, maybe one more. But I

I'm I'm not out there

Everything is is has been fine without

doing

that.

>> Yep.

>> You know, people either find us word of

mouth through friends or I find them.

It's okay. It all works out. I'm not out

there, you know, yelling, "Hey, find me

1-800 whatever." Or it's like it'll

it'll work itself out. The right people

will find each other.