Acquired
Special: Ho Nam from Altos Ventures — A Different Approach to VC
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Show Notes
What do you get when you combine Berkshire Hathaway's approach with early-stage venture capital? Altos Ventures. We're joined by Altos's wonderful Ho Nam to discuss their highly unusual approach to VC, which has resulted in them becoming significant shareholders in great companies like Roblox, Coupang, Woowa Brothers and Krafton (makers of PUBG). This episode is an absolute must-listen for anyone in our industry — Ho is one of the best and most under-the-radar thinkers in Silicon Valley, and has many lessons to offer us all!
Sponsors:
WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
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Topics covered:
Altos's 13-year+ journey with Roblox, and how they deployed over $400m into the company out of an $86m fund
Altos's heritage in Jack McDonald's Investments class at Stanford GSB, and the influence of Jack, Phil Fisher and Warren & Charlie
How Altos successfully "value invests" in venture capital, and reconciling cashflow potential with growth
"Good fundraisers" vs. "bad fundraisers" and correlation with returns
Altos's unique fund structure and how they're architected to stay with companies longer than a typical venture capital firm
Ho's Twitter presence and how (and why) he went from de minimus followers to one of the top FinTwit accounts in a few months
Links:
Ho's amazing Twitter presence: https://twitter.com/honam
Ho's "Foxes and Hedgehogs" post: https://altos.vc/blog/foxes-and-hedgehogs
Ho's "How do you know?" post: https://altos.vc/blog/howdoyouknow
Ho's "Venture Lotto" post: https://www.altos.vc/blog/venture-lotto
Sam Walton's Made in America: https://www.amazon.com/Sam-Walton-Made-America/dp/0553562835
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