(First Ones) Josh Wolfe Of Lux Capital

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On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco.

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Josh Wolfe, what was the first computer you ever remember using?

First computer I ever had was a Commodore 64, floppy drives, uh, and then after that I think it was an Amiga 2000 HD. With the little 3.5-inch floppy disks.

What was the first program that you fell in love with? It could be a game, it could be a comp— a programming language or whatever, but what was the thing that was like, oh, this computing stuff is for me?

First programming was Logo that I fell in love with, with the turtle, and you had turtle graphics for the Commodore 64, but I much preferred the games. And we used to have these floppy disks, you'd cut out the little corner of them so that you made sure that they couldn't get erased. And I had, uh, International Karate, uh, that was always a lot of fun. Um, Zork, Zork, which was like the first text-based role-playing game. Impossible Mission, Spy Hunter. Yeah, those were awesome.

That sort of steps on my question in terms of the, the first game that you fell in love with. It was where you were, uh, sounds like a computer gamer before like a Nintendo or whatever gamer.

Yeah, my gaming experience definitely started on the Commodore 64. Uh, again, International Karate, Zork, Impossible Mission, Spy Hunter. Yeah, I love those action role-playing games. Then consoles would come later.

What was your first console?

Hands down, my favorite— everybody else had Super Nintendo or a regular Nintendo, which was cool, but I fell in love with Sega Genesis.

What was the game on Sega Genesis? Were you one of those people that was like, that Mario's too stodgy. I can't think of his name, the blue guy. He's cooler. He's faster. This is hip.

Sonic. You know, I wasn't into Sonic. I loved the camaraderie and we used to beat the heck out of each other playing Madden and NHL and the early basketball games. But I mean, it was like, literally, I have a friend Jared. He'd win. I knew all these tricks on how to get off the line on Madden and he'd just like nail me. So I had all these bruises from, but that was like real life, no virtual reality. We were just nailing, railing on each other. Yeah, that was awesome. Sega Genesis. All the sports games in the early '90s.

Yeah, it's funny. If you actually do the research on it, it, like, Sega kind of broke through with all of those EA and sports games. Like, that was their sort of, their wedge into the market.

It was John Madden to me. Like, if it's in the game, it's in the game. You know, it was just, yeah, it was awesome.

Do you remember the first time you ever went online?

Yes, CompuServe in the early '90s. And that, I had bod-banded. Which was the thing that would attach to my 2400 baud modem, 56K. And that sound of that, you know, it was like harmony. Love that.

You don't happen to remember your CompuServe? Because it was a string of numbers, but that's probably impossible to remember all this time later.

No, I can't remember that, but I can remember that Mike Tyson's Punch-Out was 0073735963. I can't remember people's phone numbers, but I can remember the code to get to Tyson, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out on Nintendo.

Similar question, and please don't dox yourself if you're still using something similar, but do you— was there a screen name or like a user login that you used to use that was kind of fun back in the day?

For CompuServe, I can't remember. Um, I think all my logins and usernames have been Wolf Josh. I think everything has been what it is on Twitter. And, uh, yeah, Wolf Josh, last name first. Unoriginal. I wish I had like Cookie Cupcakes 444 or something like that, but no. Just Wolf Josh.

Yeah, that's a— that's a— sometimes people have amazing answers to that question. But, um, also for this one, like, some people the answer is, oh, I had a GeoCities page or whatever. But, uh, did you have a, uh, a home page? What was your first time in terms of like, this is— this is Josh, hello world, this is me on the internet?

Yeah, that was, uh, probably freshman year Cornell. So this was early '90s, '95. And it was GeoCities. Um, and man, I remember like the wavy HTML backgrounds. I think those were the thing, and the horrific fonts and the flashing under construction signs. Um, yeah, that, that brings me back. Those were terrible.

What would you post to your GeoCities page? Like, was it, you know, music, sport? What, what was, what was the thing that you were posting?

It was favorites. I would post favorite links. So Music, music bands, um, uh, sports stuff. Yeah, uh, I mean, everything, like, all these portals were about, like, news and weather, and they all sucked, but the personal pages were cool. Uh, first cell phone, uh, Motorola StarTAC, black flip phone. And, uh, my antenna, I used to, like, fidget with it. I'm a fidgeter. I fidget with the back of remote controls. I fidget with everything. And, uh, that antenna was just hanging by a thread.

Uh, first movie you saw in a theater?

Um, my mother tells me it was Star Wars, but I was too young to remember. But WarGames I do remember, and Return of the Jedi, so Star Wars 3.

How about, uh, first record or album that you bought with your own money?

Um, I think it was Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine. I remember the first CD we got was Billy Joel's Stormfront, but the first one I bought for myself was Nine Inch Nails.

Is Stormfront the one that has We Didn't Start the Fire on it?

Yes.

Yeah. First concert?

I'm embarrassed, but it was Young MC who sang Bust a Move, and he was opening for Milli Vanilli.

That's, that's a great answer.

True story.

Uh, okay, getting into sort of career stuff, but let's do, um, first car.

Um, we grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up in Brooklyn, and my mom used to have Honda Accords, and they got stolen every time we went to the library in downtown Brooklyn. It was like a thing. Um, my grandmother helped me buy a Ford Explorer in junior year of college. And, uh, yeah, that was my first car.

Do you— you don't happen to know what year that Ford Explorer was?

'96, '94, '94, '95, '96, something like that.

Because what I'll do is I'll overlay the pictures of the models and stuff like that.

I think, I think it was, it was a Hunter Green, dark green, uh, '94 Explorer.

First job, and I am looking for paper route, Blockbuster Video, whatever, not the first real, real job.

Uh, first job was shoveling snow, uh, busboy at a catering hall in Coney Island, Brooklyn. And the first job I got fired from, uh, the only job I've ever gotten fired from, I was delivering flyers in Coney Island. We lived in these large apartment buildings there in the projects, and there were 23 stories and 8 apartments on a floor. And I was delivering all these flyers for a local restaurant called Tasty Delights. And then after the first few days, I realized I'm getting $25 for every few hundred flyers that I deliver. But what if I just put them at the elevator or in the laundry room and I stopped delivering them door-to-door? The guy called me in, he's like, are you delivering them? I'm like, yeah. He's like, I'm not getting any calls. And he fired me that day. It's the only other job I ever got fired from.

I might need to add that as a question. First job ever got fired from. Um, for you, this is sort of you specific, um, first investment. And now some people have answered this with a stock, which is fun sometimes too. You know, I bought Disney stock at with, with money from my grandfather at age 10, or if you want to go with like the first actual like startup you invested in, whatever's more interesting.

Uh, first investment I ever made, uh, I took my bar mitzvah money and I put it into a guy. I was working in a science lab and he was a scientist, but he was making money trading futures and options. And he gave me a hot tip and I put it into Iomega, which made the Zip Drives back in the day. It went, I think I had $2,000. It went to like $8,000 or $10,000. I thought I was rich. It's more money than I'd ever seen in my life. And then fraud came out and it basically went to zero. And I learned a very valuable lesson very quickly, and it made me pretty cynical about most management teams.

Um, if it's interesting, you can pass if you want, but, uh, first, uh, startup or company you invested in?

First startup we really formally invested in was a company called Nanosys, started by a guy Larry Bach, who was an amazing venture investor. And, uh, we learned how to start newcos from Larry. He passed away, but he would become a partner at Lux, and he had synthesized all of the work that was coming out of all the different universities into one company called Nanosys, and we funded that.

If I asked you to name the most important mentor for you in your career, uh, who would that person be?

Bill Conway. Bill is the founder of the Carlyle Group, and, uh, just, you know, we always like to say at Lux that we believe before others understand. He just that feeling of somebody believing in you, uh, was just immense. And to this day, still an immense force and mentor that we want to make proud and we forever appreciate. He put Lux in business.

Uh, about 3 more. Um, and these are kind of you specific also. Do you remember the first time in your career— I know you were on Wall Street previous and various places— where you're like, I'm successful, or I'm, I, I'm go— I can do this? The first, like, career win, let's call it.

Uh, there was a feeling I generally had about an ability to like read voraciously, synthesize a lot of information and communicate it, and sort of take advantage of the arbitrage that people didn't fully understand. But it's a more idiosyncratic personal thing, and it goes to like just the relationship I really didn't have with my own father growing up. But there was a moment when somebody— my father and I had spoken, and we don't talk that often— and he said, somebody was in my office and said, are you Josh Wolfe's father? And that to me was this very salient symbolic moment that suddenly like he was known as being my father as opposed to like, I don't know, that was just a very important moment in my life.

Excellent answer. Um, what is the first either lesson or first thing that you look for in a founder when you invest in them? Like, I, I kind of don't know how to phrase it, but what's the one key aspect of a successful entrepreneur that you look for?

By far the number one thing I look for in an entrepreneur is chips on shoulders. I always like to say that chips on shoulders put chips in pockets. And it's this idea that somebody's got something to prove. And it could be that they were from a broken home. They had, um, they were the minority in a mostly white neighborhood. They, they had a learning disability. They had a lisp. They, whatever it was, they had a physical disability. They have a chip on their shoulder and they want to prove everybody else wrong with that idea of I'll show them. And that is a perennial fire that you will never put out. It doesn't matter how much money people make, how much fame they get. That idea of like, I have something to prove is one of the great forces that when you harness that entrepreneurial energy and put money and belief behind it, man, You can't stop it.

Final one, um, this is favorite gadget of all time. Now, not the best gadget— your current computer is the best computer you've ever had, you know, the current car is the best car— but the gadget where it was like you have the most nostalgia for it, maybe it was your Walkman, whatever it was, it's the gadget like that you, you love and you, you think of with fondness.

You know, um, to my wife's chagrin, I still think of it with fondness. And if I may, I have it in my office. Oh sure, my Technics 1200s, 30 years old, they still work. And, uh, absolutely love my turntables. So, um, they, they are just a feat of engineering that I don't think people make products like that. They could last 30 years. It's amazing.

So wait, those are the original ones that you that you bought, that you learned to like DJ or something on?

Yeah, like hip-hop records and DJing parties in college. And yeah, it goes back to 1995.

What makes that particular model special or different to you?

It's deeply technical and engineering, but it's also analog. There's all these gears and motors, and I've never had to have this thing repaired, maintained. It just— it was made with just incredible Japanese-style precision. And I don't know, I just admire it. I admire the devices themselves. I admire how they were reworked to serve this subculture, which became hip-hop. I admire that you can just produce music from it. So, and yeah, these damn things still work. It's just absolutely amazing. 1200s techniques.

Edit point right there. We're done. Beautiful. Great answers.

You had a bunch of other cool questions you didn't ask.

Which ones do you want? Like your favorite book, science fiction?

Uh, Sanasemi sent, um, yeah, first celebrity crush, entrepreneurial.

I'll do that. Hey, I'm afraid to do that one. You want to do that one?

Oh no, I'm happy. Oh, first celebrity crush, first poster in your childhood. Here, these are the ones I had. Okay, first poster, childhood bedroom, first R-rated movie, favorite book, favorite sci-fi.

All right, let's do them all. Let's do them all if you got the time. Let's do it.

Yeah, I'm good.

All right, first celebrity crush, hands down Alyssa Milano. Uh, what did you see? Well, that would have been, um, uh, Who's the Boss, right?

Yeah, early. But, but, um, I had a friend who had this poster, and I'm still friends with him, but she was just showing a little bit of midriff, a little bit of belly button, and I must have been, I don't know, 10, 11, 12, whatever it was, and I was like, I need that poster. But yeah, Alyssa Milano.

What was your— if I said, if I was in your 12-year-old bedroom or whatever, what's the poster that was— that had pride of place in your, in your bedroom?

One was heavy metal related. One was girl related. I used to love Spin magazine and I ripped out this incredible ad. I still remember vividly of Claudia Schiffer in a Guess jeans ad. And so that was out there. It was this black and white classy, but she was just so beautiful. And then juxtaposed right next to that is this red and black motif, which is two colors that I love. They even embody today in Luxe. Of the Undertow Tool album, this weird red rib cage thing. But yeah, it was like the sexiness of Claudie Shiver and the dark, enigmatic metal of Tool in Undertow.

By the way, I am now paying attention to what's behind you. And I see ThunderCats. I see G.I. Joe.

Yes, this is the nostalgia of my— I got A-Team. I got one of my first handheld OG Nintendo. Donkey Kong. Um, my Game Boy. Uh, yeah, I got, I got all my old gadgets. Voltron.

Voltron. Okay, here's one for you. Uh, real heads will know this one. Lion Voltron or Space Voltron?

Space.

Me too. Yeah, that was the cooler toy, and instead for Christmas my parents got me the lion one. Um, okay, uh, you want to do, uh, first R-rated movie?

First R-rated movie was Aliens, the, the sequel. Sigourney Weaver. And I to this day love the H.R. Giger dark art. Like, that just, that had a big impression on me.

Uh, what's your science fiction? Star Trek, Star Wars, give me what's your, what's your, your most, uh, you're most passionate about science fiction series or whatever.

Um, it's a weird one. I even named my son after it, but, um, it was called Photon, uh, and it was a book that I was reading. My parents had a custody battle and I was living with my dad, and I found like fantasy and an escape in this novel. It was basically like the West Coast version of laser tag, um, or like the prequel to Ender's Game kind of thing, uh, the Prelude to Ender's Game. But I would say the series that I actually love the most, that I think is brilliant and a little bit more contemporary, is Why the Last Man. By Brian K. Vaughan. I think that's brilliant.

I, I gotta look that one up. Uh, do you have a favorite book of all time?

Tie between Consilience by E.O. Wilson and How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker.

Uh, comic book series, X-Men, Spider-Man, what's, what's your jam?

Uh, Y: The Last Man would be in that genre of graphic novels. Um, I love anything Not in the Marvel/DC universe, that was more like Alan Moore, so a little bit more like literary, um, Swamp Thing and Watchmen, uh, but if I had to pick one, it's Batman and like the darker Batman.

Uh, what else is on that list that I didn't hit that you like? Uh, favorite record, album, you did first concert, um, because I keep changing it up every time I, I talk to different people, but, um Yeah, I mean, different personalities have, uh, if we hit them all, then we're good.

You got book, uh, series, yeah, favorite album.

Um, okay, let me give you one that, again, this would be you specific. If I were someone that wanted to either go into tech or start a company, what's the one book that you would want me to read?

Oh, um, I would actually think that this is a little bit universal, but I would want you to be more polymathic and either Poor Charlie's Almanac or From Darwin to Munger, which is all about the mental models because I think technology can change. So I would, I would pick those two and then probably more philosophical, some of the Kevin Kelly books. So Out of Order, which is behind me somewhere, What Technology Wants, things that sort of transcend specific moments of technology time and can sort of point to the directional arrows of where technology is going.

All right, one more, and this is me fishing a little bit because everyone would probably say Steve Jobs or whatever, but entrepreneurial idol.

Um, I mean, I happen to love, and I happened to see him last night, but Jeff Bezos, just because he's got such a positivity, and I think his relationship with the truth is far better than, say, Elon's. And his ability, which people don't appreciate, they raised virtually no money in their IPO. And their ability to compound and generate cash and capital is truly like the essence of a great entrepreneur that can do more than anybody thinks possible with less than anybody thinks possible. Elon's amazing, maybe the greatest capital raiser of all time, but Jeff as an actual entrepreneur, I think is just like, you know, unbeatable.

Um, Oh shit, I just had another one that I thought would be good for you, but, um, I mentioned record.

I mentioned we were talking tech books, Kevin Kelly, Charlie Munger, Jeff Bezos, great entrepreneur, not Steve Jobs.

Oh, uh, yeah, I got one. It's hip-hop related, but I don't know where to go with this, like your favorite hip-hop artist, or you can give me your favorite musical artist of all time. I'm tempted to do like a Biggie versus, you know, uh, Jay-Z or Nas or, you know, whatever, but, um I, I, uh, I love both hip-hop and metal.

So, um, Life of Agony, which has an album called River Runs Red, which, you know, I grew up going to their shows at Lemore's in Brooklyn. Um, I love Tool. Probably Lateralus is my favorite album there. I think it's just sophisticated. It's not radio friendly, but like dark, sophisticated. And then hip-hop, I love Black Moon. There's an album called Enter the Stage, and I think every song on that I know every word to. And, uh, My 8-year-old son is fluent in almost every Tupac lyric, uh, and he's just dying to let me let him watch, which my wife won't, my favorite hip-hop movie of all time, which was Juice.

All right, this is the very last one, and, uh, this is older than both of us, but it's a, it's a good sort of Coke versus Pepsi thing. Um, if you had to pick Elvis, Beatles, Stones, or Dylan, where would you go?

You know, it's interesting. Beatles or Stones. So I'm going to cut off the other two because I wasn't big into Elvis and I wasn't big into Dylan, which I know is like heresy. I saw the Stones live on Copacabana Beach with friends. It was the first time I'd ever seen them live. I know a bunch of their songs, but was like, not super into them. But the energy, and given that these guys were probably 130 years old at the time, was just like absolutely insane. So I admire that. Beatles, on the one hand, like, I've seen all these things, you know, like, Kirby Jackson Johnson's Everything's a Remix, and you see all these things and how they stole or whatever. But I love that Apple documentary from 2 years ago where they showed how they're making these songs and how raw it was and how unplanned in some of these cases. And then the weird thing that actually turned me onto the Beatles probably a decade plus ago was seeing Beatles Love, the Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas. And I was like, holy shit, this is amazing. So that's probably my favorite Beatles album is the I think it's called Ones or something like that. It's the soundtrack basically that they remixed. And then my favorite song of that is Eleanor Rigby.