Alex Kolicich from 8VC

Alex Kolicich is a Founding Partner of 8VC.

At 8VC, they partner with elite founders to build transformational technologies that create long-term economic and societal value.

They are investors who never stopped being engineers, operators, policymakers, philosophers, and entrepreneurs. They are equally fervent realists and optimists, with an irreverence for convention and a reverence for wisdom.

8VC has invested in Flexport, Anduril, Asana, Blend, Deliverr, Ramp, Palantir, OpenGov, Vercel, Waabi and much more.

Takeaways

• Going to UWaterloo and why the co-op program teaches grads to ship code and get things done.
• The startup culture at Waterloo prepares students for the world of technology and startups.
• Working at Google.
• Joining Clarium and Mithril (Peter Thiel's investment firms).
• Top learnings from working with Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale.
• Learnings from helping scale Palantir.
• Alex's learning curve in VC and not knowing what a Series A was initially.
• The founding of 8VC and what makes it unique in the VC space.
• 8VC's incubation program focuses on areas that require specialized knowledge, gatekeeper connections, and significant capital.
• Building relationships with industry experts and forward-facing corporations is crucial for success.
• Idea versus execution.
• Focus on areas like biotech and defense tech, which require substantial capital to start and scale.
• Alex's work with C100 and how we can improve Canada's tech ecosystem.

Chapters

00:00 The Hardworking Culture and Startup Mentality at the University of Waterloo

06:19 Lessons Learned from Google and Palantir/Clarion: Infrastructure, Resources, and Perseverance

09:01 Building a Successful Company: Aptitude, Perseverance, and Not Giving Up

12:45 From Early Exposure to Venture to Founding 8VC: Being Opportunistic and Optimizing Opportunities

23:42 Incubation at 8VC: Deeply Understanding the Customer and the Space

28:20 Investing in What Should Exist

30:16 Building Relationships with Industry Experts

33:43 The Balance Between Idea and Execution

38:17 The State of the Canadian Tech Ecosystem

43:42 Excitement for AI and Biotech

52:07 Managing Stress and Balancing Life

54:24 Understanding the Impact of Technological Progress

Keywords

University of Waterloo, engineering, co-op program, startup culture, Google, Palantir, Clarion, small startup environment, infrastructure, resources, fear of failure, building a successful company, aptitude, perseverance, not giving up, venture capital, Mithril Capital, 8VC, value add, first principles thinking, incubation, customer understanding, space disruption, investing, building companies, incubation program, specialized knowledge, gatekeeper connections, capital requirements, Canadian tech ecosystem, Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Formation 8, Anduril