Special: Ho Nam from Altos Ventures — A Different Approach to VC

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!

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Sponsors:

• Thanks to MITIMCo for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. They are truly some of the best and most well-known investors in the LP community, and their investment performance supports MIT's cutting-edge research, and world-class education. If you or someone you know is starting a fund or recently launched, or if you are interested in learning about the MITIMCo team, get in touch with them at: http://bit.ly/acquiredmitimco , and tell them that you heard about MITIMCo on Acquired.
• Thank you as well to Masterworks and to Perkins Coie. You can learn more about them at:
  • http://bit.ly/acquiredmasterworks (use code “Acquired” to skip the waitlist)
  • http://bit.ly/acquiredperkins

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