New Trends With Friends Episode: Shoveling Shit & Building Empires: The Cheat Codes to Startup Success

Good morning everyone,

In this episode of Trends with Friends, Michael Parekh, Phil Pearlman and I are joined by Mike and Kass Lazerow to dive into the storytelling in business, AI’s impact on growth, and the hard truths of entrepreneurship. They have a book out they wrote together about their start-up life full of their cheat codes and stories (I am in a few) called ‘Shoveling Shit’. It is a great read and a great gift for anyone in your portfolio or family member doing the founder thing. I was Mike and Kass’s first investor back in 2007 - we share some funny stories - as they started Buddy Media, which was acquired by Salesforce for $800 million.

We also discuss Google’s ‘rare asset’ theme and their ‘most interesting chart lf the week’ status (earnings looked good to me, but the stock is down big this morning), Palantir’s explosive growth, and why Liquid Death is changing the game in consumer branding.

🚀 Check out the charts here 

JUMP TO THE GOOD STUFF:

(0:00) Introduction and Guest Introductions

(3:02) The Journey of Mike and Cass Lazerow

(5:17) Entrepreneurship and the Era of AI

(8:29) Palantir's Market Position and Trends

(14:11) Google: The Most Interesting Chart

(19:37) Google's Role in AI and Digital Advertising

(24:26) Investor Insights and Future Predictions

(28:55) Android's High-End Opportunity

(30:36) The AI Battle: Google vs. Apple

(33:25) Introducing 'Shoveling Shit': A New Book

(34:45) Cheat Codes for Entrepreneurs

(36:34) The Importance of Company Culture

(39:27) Focus: The Key to Success

(41:51) The Dynamics of a Husband-Wife Team

(44:55) Overcoming Rejection in Business

(49:19) Book Launch and Final Thoughts

(50:04) The Journey of Writing a Book

(54:53) Entrepreneurship and the Importance of Control

(56:01) Qualities of Successful Founders

(1:00:01) Market Insights and Rare Assets

(1:05:16) The Importance of Movement and Creativity

(1:06:31) Innovative Companies and Marketing Strategies