Antonio Gracias's guest appearances

Antonio Gracias

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

OwlTail

This talk was recorded LIVE at the All-In Summit in Miami and included slides. To watch on YouTube, check out our All-In Summit playlist: https://bit.ly/aisytplaylist 0:00 Antonio Gracias joins to talk: Tesla's early days, investing in Elon, macroeconomic outlook, ROIC, importance of energy independence, future of manufacturing, financial-ization of the P&amp;L &amp; more 22:35 Q: How has the poker game influenced your decision making in business and life? 29:33 Q: What was the scariest step of becoming a first-time fund manager? 32:34 Q: Crypto market unwinding &amp; how it relates to the money supply 35:57 Q: Current pre-seed / seed valuations &amp; metrics 38:58 Q: When investing in early-stage SaaS companies, how to find outliers? 42:11 Q: What would you do if dropped in the middle of Kansas at age 25 with no resources? 44:46 Q: Where will the next disruptions in industrial automation come from &amp; how will the US hit economies of scale in semiconductor manufacturing 47:02 Q: Any plans for All-In Media? 50:02 Q: US strategy in the Russia/Ukraine War 54:19 Q: How have your first impressions changed as you've matured in your career, and whose first impressions have stood out to you the most? 58:29 Q: Are you interested in crypto micropayments? 1:00:55 Q: Biggest mistakes of your career that you've learned the most from? 1:09:54 Q: What impact could tech have on political discourse? What does a viable path forward look like? 1:15:36 Q: Are remote / distributed startup systems viable coming out of the pandemic? 1:19:41 Q: Advice for non-technical people trying to get into the startup world? 1:24:44 Q: Thoughts on the potential consumer credit crisis? 1:26:17 Lightning round: What problem do you most want to solve right now? All-In consortium? Can SMBs democratize their own labor supply? How to get more investors interested in hardware? Will this be a relatively short recession? Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect

This talk was recorded LIVE at the All-In Summit in Miami and included slides. To watch on YouTube, check out our All-In Summit playlist: <a href="https://bit.ly/aisytplaylist" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/aisytplaylist</a> 0:00 Antonio Gracias joins to talk: Tesla's early days, investing in Elon, macroeconomic outlook, ROIC, importance of energy independence, future of manufacturing, financial-ization of the P&amp;L &amp; more 22:35 Q: How has the poker game influenced your decision making in business and life? 29:33 Q: What was the scariest step of becoming a first-time fund manager? 32:34 Q: Crypto market unwinding &amp; how it relates to the money supply 35:57 Q: Current pre-seed / seed valuations &amp; metrics 38:58 Q: When investing in early-stage SaaS companies, how to find outliers? 42:11 Q: What would you do if dropped in the middle of Kansas at age 25 with no resources? 44:46 Q: Where will the next disruptions in industrial automation come from &amp; how will the US hit economies of scale in semiconductor manufacturing 47:02 Q: Any plans for All-In Media? 50:02 Q: US strategy in the Russia/Ukraine War 54:19 Q: How have your first impressions changed as you've matured in your career, and whose first impressions have stood out to you the most? 58:29 Q: Are you interested in crypto micropayments? 1:00:55 Q: Biggest mistakes of your career that you've learned the most from? 1:09:54 Q: What impact could tech have on political discourse? What does a viable path forward look like? 1:15:36 Q: Are remote / distributed startup systems viable coming out of the pandemic? 1:19:41 Q: Advice for non-technical people trying to get into the startup world? 1:24:44 Q: Thoughts on the potential consumer credit crisis? 1:26:17 Lightning round: What problem do you most want to solve right now? All-In consortium? Can SMBs democratize their own labor supply? How to get more investors interested in hardware? Will this be a relatively short recession? Follow the besties: <a href="https://twitter.com/chamath" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/chamath</a> <a href="https://linktr.ee/calacanis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://linktr.ee/calacanis</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidSacks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/DavidSacks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/friedberg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/friedberg</a> Follow the pod: <a href="https://twitter.com/theallinpod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/theallinpod</a> <a href="https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast</a> Intro Music Credit: <a href="https://rb.gy/tppkzl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://rb.gy/tppkzl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg</a> Intro Video Credit: <a href="https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect</a>

#AIS: Bestie AMA with Valor's Antonio Gracias

My guest today is Antonio Gracias, founder, CIO, and CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Antonio is perhaps best known for his role at Tesla, as the earliest institutional investor and Director from 2007 to 2021. But he has deep operating and investing experience, having first acquired and managed a number of manufacturing and technology companies during his 20s. And it was during those formative years that Antonio and his team developed the skills that led to Valor, which provides operational expertise to the high growth private companies they invest in. Our conversation is a deep exploration of the drivers behind Antonio and Valor’s success. We dive into his concept of pro-entropic investing, what he learned as a 25-year-old running a manufacturing business, and trust me when I say, you don't want to miss his answer to the kindest thing ever. Please enjoy this great conversation with Antonio Gracias. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page  here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Canalyst.  Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at  canalyst.com/Patrick.  ----- This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include  Tobi Lutke,  Kevin Systrom,  Mike Krieger,  John Collison,  Kat Cole,  Marc Andreessen,  Matthew Ball,  Bill Gurley,  Anu Hariharan,  Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:02:51] - [First question] - Defining what a pro-entropic company is[00:07:26] - Understanding external forces of chaos and why they’ll continue to increase[00:11:32] - What he’s learned about identifying and investing in pro-entropic companies[00:13:43] - Investing with entropy in mind can be a bet on unchanging aspects of human nature[00:15:08] - Defining durability in contrast with resiliency and entropy[00:18:53] - Coming from a traditional background and the origin of Valor[00:22:05] - The theory of constraints and why it’s so powerful;  The Goal[00:26:32] - Transitioning into a private equity structure and Valor’s 2001-2005 era[00:42:02] - Decision making bias and combating bias effectively in practice [00:44:30] - Where security and control figures into his thinking[00:45:45] - Identity in relation to ego; the tools he uses to combat identity related decisions[00:49:04] - Lessons learned from the Japanese language versus Western languages[00:53:07] - Questions he returns to when he’s getting to know a company[00:56:16] - An episode of operational deployment that most stands out in memory[00:58:54] - Key concepts that most stick with him from working alongside Elon Musk[01:01:32] - Why there aren’t more Musk’s or Bezos’ in the world[01:04:20] - Ensuring Valor invests in the best companies going forward[01:06:06] - How to pass the torch of what Valor is to others when his time is done[01:08:25] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

My guest today is Antonio Gracias, founder, CIO, and CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Antonio is perhaps best known for his role at Tesla, as the earliest institutional investor and Director from 2007 to 2021. But he has deep operating and investing experience, having first acquired and managed a number of manufacturing and technology companies during his 20s. And it was during those formative years that Antonio and his team developed the skills that led to Valor, which provides operational expertise to the high growth private companies they invest in. Our conversation is a deep exploration of the drivers behind Antonio and Valor’s success. We dive into his concept of pro-entropic investing, what he learned as a 25-year-old running a manufacturing business, and trust me when I say, you don't want to miss his answer to the kindest thing ever. Please enjoy this great conversation with Antonio Gracias. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page <a href="https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/71060298/gracias-pro-entropic-investing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> here</a>. ----- This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. <a href="https://canalyst.com/patrick/?utm_source=iltb_show_notes&amp;utm_medium=sponsored_content&amp;utm_campaign=Invest%20Like%20The%20Best&amp;utm_term=apr_2022&amp;utm_content=apr_2022" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Canalyst</a> is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at <a href="https://canalyst.com/patrick/?utm_source=iltb_show_notes&amp;utm_medium=sponsored_content&amp;utm_campaign=Invest%20Like%20The%20Best&amp;utm_term=apr_2022&amp;utm_content=apr_2022" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> canalyst.com/Patrick</a>.  ----- This episode is brought to you by <a href="http://lemon.io/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lemon.io</a>. The team at <a href="http://Lemon.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lemon.io</a> has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and <a href="http://Lemon.io" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lemon.io</a> offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out <a href="https://lemon.io/patrick/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">lemon.io/patrick</a> to learn more. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit <a href="https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">joincolossus.com/episodes</a>.  Past guests include <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/64592621/lutke-building-a-modern-business?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Tobi Lutke</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/60313963/krieger-how-to-build-a-great-product?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Kevin Systrom</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/60313963/krieger-how-to-build-a-great-product?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Mike Krieger</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/34646260/collison-growing-the-internet-economy?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> John Collison</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/15230717/cole-how-to-operate-lessons-in-brand-distribution-and-leadership?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Kat Cole</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/58516750/andreessen-making-the-future?tab=blocks" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Marc Andreessen</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/69430337/ball-the-future-of-media-movies-the-metaverse-and-more?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Matthew Ball</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/12224182/gurley-all-things-business-and-investing?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Bill Gurley</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/99792081/hariharan-lessons-in-growth-investing?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Anu Hariharan</a>, <a href="https://joincolossus.com/episodes/91241527/thompson-platforms-ecosystems-and-aggregators?tab=transcript" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Ben Thompson</a>, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up <a href="https://www.joincolossus.com/newsletter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Follow us on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/patrick_oshag" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@patrick_oshag</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/JoinColossus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@JoinColossus</a> Show Notes[00:02:51] - [First question] - Defining what a pro-entropic company is[00:07:26] - Understanding external forces of chaos and why they’ll continue to increase[00:11:32] - What he’s learned about identifying and investing in pro-entropic companies[00:13:43] - Investing with entropy in mind can be a bet on unchanging aspects of human nature[00:15:08] - Defining durability in contrast with resiliency and entropy[00:18:53] - Coming from a traditional background and the origin of Valor[00:22:05] - The theory of constraints and why it’s so powerful; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951'" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> The Goal</a>[00:26:32] - Transitioning into a private equity structure and Valor’s 2001-2005 era[00:42:02] - Decision making bias and combating bias effectively in practice [00:44:30] - Where security and control figures into his thinking[00:45:45] - Identity in relation to ego; the tools he uses to combat identity related decisions[00:49:04] - Lessons learned from the Japanese language versus Western languages[00:53:07] - Questions he returns to when he’s getting to know a company[00:56:16] - An episode of operational deployment that most stands out in memory[00:58:54] - Key concepts that most stick with him from working alongside Elon Musk[01:01:32] - Why there aren’t more Musk’s or Bezos’ in the world[01:04:20] - Ensuring Valor invests in the best companies going forward[01:06:06] - How to pass the torch of what Valor is to others when his time is done[01:08:25] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him