Playing With Unicorns
Playing with unicorns is a new weekly show on startups, entrepreneurship, and venture capital.
I cover everything I learned as an entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist during the last 22 years, focusing on everything I wished I knew when I first got started as a tech entrepreneur.
- Update frequency
- every 16 days
- Average duration
- 64 minutes
- Episodes
- 50
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
#50 Venture Market Trends
The venture market is in flux. AI is booming while the rest of venture is in the dumps. Venture capital as an asset class is evolving and retrenching. Fewer deals are happening at higher prices. New …
#49 Dan Park and the Incredible Comeback Story of Clutch
Clutch has had an incredible ride. As the “Carvana of Canada” it was a highflier in 2021. It had a brush with death in 2023 and effected an incredible turnaround. They are now once again on a tear. D…
#48 Ask Me Anything
I had not done an Ask Me Anything session in over a year which led to many questions on a wide variety of topics: macro, marketplaces, AI, fundraising, wealth management, education, island shopping,…
#47 Marketplace Trends
Given that I have been building and investing in marketplaces for 26 years you might think that everything that needed to be built has already been built, but nothing could be further from the truth.…
#46 FJ Labs’ AI Thesis
While AI investing continues to reach new highs, we have been contrarian. Given how non-consensus we are, I wanted to share our thoughts and perspective.
In this episode, I cover:
- The general state…
#45 Ask Me Anything
I had not done an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session in over a year which led to many questions on a wide variety of topics: AI, augmented reality, crypto, macro and much more.
Here are the key questions …
#44 Unlocking Productivity: Streamlining Your Days for Passion and Purpose
People often ask me how I manage to accomplish so much while leading such a rich, passionate life as illustrated by my 2023 year in review. In this episode I share all my secrets. I will cover everyt…
#43 Julio Vasconcellos and the state of Latin American tech
I had the pleasure of receiving Julio Vasconcellos on the show. Julio is the Founder and Managing Partner of Atlantico, a leading early-stage venture fund in Latin America. It was Julio's role as the…
#42 Kevin Ryan, Unicorn Builder
I had the pleasure of being joined by my good friend Kevin Ryan. He’s often been called the “Godfather of NYC tech.” Kevin is one of the leading internet entrepreneurs and investors in New York. He i…
Episode 41: Ask Me Anything
It had been over a year since we did the last Ask Me Anything (AMA) so the time had come. As requested by the audience, my son François joined us for the first part of the show. He was his usual epic…
#40 Oskar Hartmann: Unicorn Accumulator
This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with my good friend Oskar Hartmann. He’s had the most incredible unicorn experience:
- He was part of 10% of all German unicorns
- Made a $300M mistake on Ozon
- …
#39: Simpl and the Indian Fintech Ecosystem
On this week’s episode I had the pleasure of welcoming Nitya Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Simpl, to conclude our mini-series on the Indian tech scene. We had a fascinating conversation on the state …
#38 The Indian Tech Ecosystem & FJ Labs’ Thesis in the region
This week we are covering the state of the Indian tech ecosystem. We are joined by Luke Skertich, senior associate at FJ Labs, who is leading the charge with our Indian investments.
In this episode, …
#37 Building India's 76th Unicorn & the Indian car market at large
In this episode, we cover:
- Niraj’s path to creating Spinny, including creating two much less successful startups right out of college
- The differences between the US & Indian car markets
- Spinny’s uni…
#36 Building a Web3 Unicorn with Lorien Gabel (Figment)
Lorien Gabel is the Co-Founder of Figment Network. He holds an LLB from Toronto’s Osgoode Hall Law School and is a member in good standing with the Ontario Bar.
In 1994, at the age of 24, 6 months in…
#35 Thoughts on the market
#33 From VC to Web2 to Crypto with Mark Lurie
Mark Lurie is the CEO and co-founder of Shipyard Software. Shipyard Software builds decentralized exchanges (DEX) for specific types of trades, traders, and instruments, starting with Clipper, a DEX …
#32 Building a shipping unicorn with Laura Behrens Wu, Co-Founder & CEO of Shippo
Laura Behrens Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo is an API-first company focused on building shipping for 21st-century e-commerce.
Top takeaways
- Build something that’s a pain killer, not…
#31 From Start-up to Grown-up with Alisa Cohn
Alisa Cohn (@AlisaCohn) is a prominent startup coach who has advised founders and executives at Venmo, Etsy, DraftKings, The Wirecutter, Mack Weldon, and Bloomberg. She’s one-time startup CFO, strate…