EP 34: Interview w/ Oculus & Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey + Jon Sakoda Predicts Record VC Investments

In the 34th episode, Palmer Luckey discusses founding Oculus VR, the controversy that got him fired from Facebook, and having to fight lies in the media. Plus his current success with Anduril and what the job of a CEO really entails. Decibel’s Jon Sakoda also makes an appearance to talk about his prediction of record VC investments and the revival of startup funding in the coming years.

(0:00) Intro

(1:02) Welcome Jon Sakoda

(6:13) Jon’s charts

(14:49) Internet Bubble

(20:34) Public vs private market valuations

(32:58) Other takeaways and predictions

(35:45) Welcome Palmer Luckey

(36:21) Journalism school

(39:10) The Oculus story

(41:41) Choosing VR over personal issues

(45:26) Donating to pro-Trump group

(50:44) Game studios “not” working with Oculus

(57:19) Facebook leadership’s intent

(1:05:29) The takeaway from Facebook controversy

(1:12:16) Founding Oculus

(1:15:11) Following talents vs passion

(1:22:33) Selling Oculus

(1:27:17) Founding Anduril

(1:40:54) What Anduril does

(1:46:40) Knowing a little about a lot

(1:50:18) Morality in war

(1:53:42) Building technology before war occurs

(1:57:15) Going to Ukraine

(2:00:51) Being a CEO

(2:05:21) An executive’s actual job

(2:07:51) Wrap up

 

Show Notes:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/opening-floodgates-290-billion-venture-capital-reserve-jon-sakoda/

https://twitter.com/jonsakoda/status/1572269690810159105?s=21&t=FLkGcKd2el-h38sX9AMsaw

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Hyn4FWHSNRrWJeddi0BMEQIMlmXy2SNj50T8jJcrKbw/edit#slide=id.g1273c4d3e67_15_0

 

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson
 

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About the Show

A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

 

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About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.

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