Creating the mindset and Making Moonshots | Rahul Rana | Driven by doing

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Driven by Doing. Today we have Rahul Rana from New Jersey. Rahul, welcome to the show Driven by Doing.

Thank you for having me.

So Rahul, you had such an amazing background and such an— such a career so far. Like, you worked for a lot of different companies doing internships, and you just recently launched your book, Making Moonshots. So we are going to definitely learn more about your story. and your book and why you have written it and how you wanted to inspire others and what are the key insights that you wanted to share with people with your book. So let's begin with your story. So where are you originally from and where are you today? And let's get started from there.

Yeah, of course. Thank you. So, um, basically, you know, my journey starts as a kid. Um, my entire life my dad has worked at Bell Labs, right? So, you know, anyone in tech and sort of science world, they— I'm sure they know Bell Labs are very innovative, all the breakthrough inventions and innovations that sort of came out of the labs in the past century. So, I mean, as a kid, I'd go to all the labs, right? I'd see all the Nobel Prizes and their inventions and stuff. They have a museum and everything, all the labs, and just become super obsessed with all these really science sort of technology, deep tech, and R&D heavy sort of projects. And super, super excited about all those things early on. And then funny enough, I got to high school and I totally blocked off all my curiosity for science and tech. I fell into the business crowd, right? The finance crowd, you know, started developing strengths and, you know, passion for that. But then, you know, I got to college and I realized like, I don't know if I want to just do pure finance, right? I really do want to, you know, do something that I actually am truly passionate about. And, you know, I thought about it and I realized like, all right, like what I grew up on, right? Science, tech and whatnot. If I could sort of, you know, combine that with finance, I think that would be this perfect sort of career path. And so, you know, through my research and everything, and I started getting involved in stuff and, you know, I just realized like deep tech venture capital and, you know, deep tech startups and whatnot, entrepreneurship, like that was exactly what I wanted to be in, right? These are the companies that are really, really, you know, not only advancing, you know, science and technology, but also humanity itself, right? They're solving big, you know, bold problems that, you know, some of the most grand challenges that we face as a species, right? Everything from poverty to food scarcity to going to space and curing cancer and everything in between. So again, super, super sort of excited to solve all these things. And I realized like, all right, like, you know, how do I get started on this? Right? It's this cool goal that I have, but I really wanna do something like literal, you know, something tangible about it. I really wanna put my passion into action, right? Into, you know, put my energy channel into something that's productive.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, I thought about it. I wasn't ready to start a company. Not ready to, you know, again, get into the venture capital industry. So I was like, all right, the next best thing I could do, but also one of the boldest things I could do in the moment, is to write a book. So sort of my second semester of my freshman year of college, I'm currently a sophomore, so second year, but my first year in college, I just decided to write this book. And originally it was, by no means was I an expert on deep tech and moonshots and whatever it may be, But I use this book as a way to first become an expert and then also to really, really improve my writing craft. And I sort of had this dual mandate, right? Again, become an expert, write a really, really good book in terms of quality. And so for all of 2020, basically I started in January 2020, so exactly a year ago, I was writing this book, took advantage of the time being at home because of COVID For the last 10 months I was at home, took advantage of all the time I had there, right? 13, 14, 15-hour days just putting, you know, tons and tons of research into it, right?

I think there's a lot of experience that you had right from childhood which definitely have helped you to get to writing a book, right? So yeah, you covered like, hey, uh, like your dad has worked at Bell Labs, which definitely kind of like gave you that early exposure to really see things that most people might not have access to at that early stage, right?

Yeah.

And then you, you are curious and you wanted to learn more and see what technology can actually help people with. And when you get to college, you took advantage of getting into business side of things, learning about business, which again,

Yeah.

Seems like you got more curious and then you suddenly coming to college, you wanted to have that different skillset to add on top of what you already have in high school, right?

Yeah.

And now you're already doing it. While you, while you're doing it, you also mentioned that you wanted to become an expert in this area, right? There are a lot of things that you covered which actually pointed it to you in, in this direction. For a lot of students who are still in college might be wondering like, hey, like, what is that thing that I wanted to do? And most people, even out of graduating might not know, right? Do you think like all this experience, like really helped you to kind of focus on the technology piece of it, the business aspect of it? And you also mentioned like you, you started a company as well. So tell us a little bit more about like how this whole experience played a role in writing your own book to really learn as well as share with others what you're learning?

Yeah, yeah, of course. To clarify, I didn't start a company. I worked at a bunch of them. Basically what I was saying is like, I was no— by no means was an expert before writing the book, and sort of, you know, I wrote the book to become an expert, and then, you know, hopefully I can now, you know, found as many sort of moonshot companies as possible. So yeah, no, to your point, It was a lot of different things that sort of helped me get to the position I was in. So obviously to start, as you mentioned, my dad working at Bell Labs, all this influence sort of early on had sort of that background. High school, I learned all things business, startups and finance and whatever, maybe all things non-technical. And then actually, so I worked at 2 companies so far. So actually in terms of all my work experience, so I worked at my congressman, my local representative. I worked for him in terms of public policy and everything. I worked at an AI startup. I worked at a nanotech startup. The nanotech one I would consider to be a moonshot company. And I also worked at 2 different venture capital firms, and then now I'm at my 3rd at Lux Capital. So basically, all these different things, right? You have a little bit of public policy, right? A little startups and business, and you have some you know, startup, sort of, you know, science everywhere, nanotech and quantum science and that whole thing, and AI as well. Also, I had a lot of experience with, in regards to the things I was studying at school, right? So I'm a finance major and also studying astrophysics. So again, all these different things, it just, you know, sort of the culmination of all them, you know, led to my book. But honestly, the most sort of impactful thing in terms of, you know, preparing, right, experiences that sort of, you know, led me to this thing honestly just doing my own research, right? I'd read, you know, hours upon hours just, you know, scouring the internet, right? Looking at all these really cool startups, right? Moonshot companies are the ones that are really, really doing some good in the world. You know, I, I was really wondering like, how can we make more of these people? You know, how can we make more of these founders? How can we inspire more people to, you know, solve these really big things and do these, you know, really bold things that again progress, you know, science, technology, and humanity itself? So, yeah, there's all these things. So yeah.

For many people who are thinking about writing a book, first of all, the first obstacle or the thing that comes to my mind is like, hey, am I good enough? Am

I,

am I good enough? The next one is, hey, am I really an expert in this area? But you took the other approach. Hey, like, let me become an expert by actually researching in this area. And walk us through that process. Like, what went through the whole year to actually learn about this area and kind of like explore? Like, how did you explore this area more?

Yeah.

what kind of people that you had interactions with or talked with, and especially in the venture capital area, so that people listening to this can understand the process that you went through to write this book?

Yeah, of course. So, so there's a couple things. First, first, probably the most sort of impactful things in terms of the research I did, and, you know, getting stories was I did so many, so many interviews. So I think I did around like, you know, 90 to 100 interviews of, you know, all sorts of deep tech VCs, lots of deep tech founders, operators, people in academia, and someone in government as well. So it was really, really cool getting all these diverse perspectives. But what allowed me to do is that I took all these interviews and asked them very, very broad questions and also really specific ones, all these different things. I was very intentional about it. And I really developed the structure of my book based on all the conversations I had. well as all the content that I read and took in and all the profiles of said companies and said founders. And taking all that in, I actually let the outline of my book just form itself. I saw what are the recurring ideas I see across all these different mediums of information. And once I had this loose structure, I was like, okay, now I know what's the underlying similarities, what works for most people, what has a lot of evidence of working in terms of Making Moonshot Companies, right? That's the title of my book, obviously, right? Again, and, you know, in terms of my book, right, I started with, you know, mindset and sort of philosophies, right? Intangible things about the person who starts a moonshot company, and then the strategy and the ecosystem, right? The more tangible things. And so, you know, all these different, you know, pieces of content that I would read and all these different interviews, like, they all, you know, everyone had the little, like, sprinkles of knowledge and stories across all those 4 different categories. And, you know, I did extra research, right? Just like formed it all together, made it sound good, right? I obviously focused on my writing craft and yeah, at the end of the day, like that's how I sort of, you know, went about the research process. It was, if I were to recommend anything, it would be, you know, drastically improve, you know, and be really intentional with the content intake, right? You know, following the right people on social media, right? Reading the right blogs, right? Reading the right articles, you know, reading, you know, again, right resources and as well as, you know, talking to the right people, right? Surrounding yourself with people who are constantly thinking about this, right? Being able to bounce ideas, all having all these experiences. And at the end of the day, the culmination of all that can lead to something really good.

So if I ask you, what is the biggest aha moment that you had while talking to all these people? Hey, like,

yeah,

he was thinking this way, but I saw this new thing across all the different people that I talked to. Are there any like incidents like that during your research?

Yeah, I would say the biggest sort of aha moment was, you know, so a lot of people, right, among all sort of, you know, 90 to 100 people I spoke to, one thing I always asked was, you know, of the people that they know who have founded moonshot companies, or if they were founders, like in regards to them or their team or whoever it may be, I really, I always made it a point to ask, you know, what are some of the qualities that they see, right? The mindsets and philosophies that I mentioned before. And what I realized, like, you know, after so many, so many interviews, everyone was saying the same things. Everyone was saying, right, they're, they're, they're, they're, you know, they're bold, they're, they're, you know, they're optimistic, but they're a little bit pessimistic, right? They're, they're, they're intellectually honest with themselves, right? They're, they, they're sort of hyper-fluent, right? They have this relentless curiosity, right? They, they're, they're, they're, again, bold, ambitious, they dream big, all these different, you know, radically create— I call it radical creativity. Um, you know, all these different aspects of their, of their mindset and everything. And I realized like, okay, like all these people have the same qualities. And again, like I realized there's no other sort of content out there that really sort of profiled all these founders. And there's no one sort of piece of literature that defined what these founders are like, right? How can someone actually develop those qualities and so forth? So again, I just ran with that, right? I mean, that's why I wrote my book, right? I took that idea, put my own spin on it, and I wrote all the stories and everything and all the examples and stuff. I sort of profiled what a moonshot founder is in regards to what I've seen in terms of research and whatnot and in real life. And that was honestly like, yeah, that was like the biggest thing because what I realized is just like everyone was saying the same things over and over again, but there was no like one sort of central location or one central medium that actually said that out loud and in public and was published or whatever. So again, I just wanted to be the one to do that.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing that insight, Rahul. for entrepreneurs who are listening to this, right, like a lot of times when you're thinking about, first of all, building a company, the most difficult thing. Yeah. Now we're talking about not just building about any company, but making moonshots, right? Like, there is a lot of difference between just

building a

company and thinking like really, really big, right? What would you tell entrepreneurs who are even just slightly thinking about, hey, like, I wanted to build something big and to really make a change or make a difference in the world. What would you tell people who had the just slightest idea to make a difference in the world? What are the steps that they need to take to keep on dreaming big? Because yes, we might have that fire like for a day or a month or a year, but to keep that going for several years, because it is going to take a lot more time than we actually think. That is entrepreneurship. To be able to create that mindset, like we need to believe in the idea, in us so much, right? Like what do you tell entrepreneurs who are listening to this, who are dreaming big and wanting to make those moonshots?

Yeah, of course, of course. So, you know, first thing I would say to them is, first of all, we need more people like them, right? So, you know, I really do appreciate that, you know, someone's stepping up to pursue such a company. and whatnot. So first, you know, I'd say that, but, you know, most importantly, what I would say is like, all right, like it's a long journey, right? You have to be thinking, you know, 10, 15, 20 years in advance, right? That's how long into the future that, you know, these founders are thinking of. And, you know, basically what, you know, how I think about it is just like, all right, like they have to have this, you know, bold, you know, this huge vision in terms of, you know, the long-term goals, but every single short-term and medium-term goal should be actually very realistic. In fact, it should be, you know, incredibly realistic. And, and, and not only that, it should be extremely clear, right? They should have this, this, this insane level of clarity in terms of their vision that, you know, they, they know what they gotta do, right? They know, they know how they're gonna get to it, right? They take all these steps and they really take advantage of compounding, right? Compounding over time, whether it's knowledge, experience, right? Working with a, you know, a good team, whatever it may be, just like take advantage of compounding and exponential progress. And, you know, once you get on, on that curve, you'll see by, you know, 5, 10 years' time, you will be on your way to actually, you know, making the moonshot, right? Like the thing that you thought was just so seemingly impossible, right? The really, really lofty goal that, you know, 5, 10 years ago you thought was impossible. So that's one thing I would say is just like having that extreme, extreme clarity of vision, as well as, you know, again, keeping yourself motivated, right? Like, and just like, you know, taking advantage of, you know, timescale, right? compounding, right? Exponential progress, all these different terms, they all mean the same thing at the end of the day, right? Just like, you know, taking advantage and doing things, you know, just like that. And again, with time it'll come. And then, you know, again, and that's obviously the basis of everything. Obviously, you know, you gotta, you know, do all the actual technical and operational stuff, right, in terms of the research and the commercialization process. But nonetheless, like, to get started, that's what I would say, right? Once they could figure that out, then they can get started, right? Hire the right team, right? have this sort of this amazing sort of culture in which it's okay to fail, right? It's okay to make mistakes, but even that, even considering that, like, you're still on your way to making a moonshot. And again, getting comfortable with uncertainty and all these different qualities and aspects of getting even started, right? This is even prior to actually running the company. All these different things, you have to make all these considerations, right? What are the second-order effects of this company and the idea? Like, you know, what happens if a million people use this product or a million people, you know, use this technology or science? Or again, like what happens to people's livelihoods? You know, who is left out in terms of when, you know, society, you know, makes, you know, said advancement or progress or whatever it may be. Again, being, you know, extremely wise and extremely intentional about all the things that you do going forward, like that's how you get started in terms of making the moonshot. And then obviously after that, right? all the business stuff, all the science stuff, all technologies, like that all comes in. And again, I'm not one to speak on how to actually start a startup, but in terms of getting ready for that process, that's one thing that I hope to convey in my book.

So one thing that you stressed a lot just by talking about making moonshots is the mindset and just surrounding yourself with those positive people and the positive—

Yeah.

Because it is very hard to have those kinds of goals for a long period of time. And people give up, like, I mean, like, we know what percentage of startups actually make it up to like 5 years. And a lot of times, a lot of questions and struggles, and just creating that team takes a lot of time and effort. And failing is something that we need to get accustomed to. Because if we fail, okay, the next day, every day is a great opportunity to start over again. to keep, keep going and keep doing it for a long period of time takes a lot of strong mindset, right? So one thing that I kind of learned from my own experience talking with a lot of entrepreneurs, Rahul, it's that, that mindset, what they would be creating while working on this big idea or the big dream, is not just going to help them just build this company. But even though, let's imagine students who are listening to this and thinking of, hey, like, it's, it's kind of very difficult from a situation where I am in, but the mindset they would be able to create by just thinking through and going through that process is actually going to help them even if they actually go and work for an employer. So tell us a little bit more about creating that mindset.

Yeah, I mean, there's, there's, there's so many things you could do. You know, one thing I say is that, like, you know, there's no, you know, concrete sort of framework or mindset that, you know, Oh, all moonshot founders have to have this or whatever. Again, everyone's different. What works for some won't work for all. But nonetheless, some of the core sort of similarities that I've seen at least, right, among most founders, I mean, there's so many things, right? Like I mentioned, right, again, the obvious ones, right, being ambitious, being bold, dreaming big, all those stuff, but also being very, very wise, right? Being very childish, but also very rooted and grounded in reality, right? Having these differing sort of almost opposing sort of qualities and finding harmony in between them, right? What I mean by that is being really, really optimistic, but also pessimistic, right? Being really, really passionate, but also dispassionate. Being extremely, extremely childish, right? Like thinking everything's fantasy, but also being, again, rooted in reality, right? You know what works, what doesn't, right? Being super liberal with your time and your energy and everything, but also being very conservative with it. And all these differing aspects. I realized a lot of these moonshot founders, they have these seemingly opposing qualities to themselves. And I was just wondering, why is that? But again, I just think that that is where their creativity strikes. That's where they really set themselves apart from others. So it's all about— And in terms of how do you get that mindset, right? I mean, there's so many things, right? Again, improving your content intake, right? surrounding yourself with, you know, like-minded people and, you know, people who are trying to, you know, solve these big problems. And again, whatever it may be, just like surround yourself with the right people, right? Um, obviously the famous quote says, you know, you're the average of the 5 people you spend most time with, right? Same, same sort of concept, right? Um, you know, and, you know, and counter to that, actually, you know, purposely surrounding yourself with people who have different viewpoints and, and, you know, having different perspectives and, you know, allowing people to bounce those off on each other and, you know, all the sort of cross-collaboration that comes with that. I mean, again, I can go on and on. There's just so many different things I could say. At the end of the day, it's just putting yourself in the right sort of environment, right? Having the right attitude, having the right environment, and sort of having those right sort of incentives, right? To get yourself sort of intrinsically motivated to go on this really, really tough project. So once you have all those things, right? Then I think the sort of the mindset and everything, that's what really sort of solidifies it. And then hopefully you can take it forward 5, 10 years in advance. Yeah.

And you also touched upon the importance of storytelling, right? Like even for entrepreneurs, like let's talk about storytelling and like, because there's a lot of people involved. It's not just the founder, right? Like in order to really put their vision and speak their mind to other people, they need storytelling. Like how important it is for people to make those moonshots, the storytelling piece of it.

Yeah, of course. So for this, I have a, there's a couple of stories that I touch on, right? I can give you the most obvious sort of example, right? The Apollo missions, right? The first moonshot, right? The project where the term moonshot actually was popularized, right? Going to the moon in the '60s, right? So what made that, the Apollo missions, you know, so incredibly, you know, what made it actually happen, right? But I, and you know, how impactful it was and, you know, how big it was, it was just because, you know, JFK, right? President John F. Kennedy, like he really mobilized the general public, right? He mobilized the government. and scientists, and the general public, and the people with capital, and everyone just to support his mission, support his mission to go to the moon. NASA's and America's mission to go to the moon, and to do this for science, for technology, and so forth. Again, the way he did that was just storytelling. He had to mobilize an entire crowd of people. He had to evangelize going to the moon and whatnot, whatever it may be. Again, that's how these sort of, you know, these mega-scale sort of projects happen, right? You do need all this, you know, all this sort of attention and resources and support from, you know, government, right? Education, you know, private funding, right? VC, right? You know, universities, startups, people themselves, or the general public experts, like you need everyone, right? And so the way to do that, right? Storytelling, right? Storytelling not only brings, you know, obviously your capital or whatever you need, but it also brings, you know, talent, right? You need talent. You need, you know, actually, you know, people to, help you sort of realize this mission, right? You need support, right? In terms of maybe you have— there's other companies that could be your customers, right? Obviously these are companies at the end of the day, they need to sell a product or they have to make revenue, right? So whether even getting customers, right, or having, serving other people or whatever it may be, just like whatever, any of the parties that are sort of impacted by whatever thing you want to do, like you got to convince them to actually, give up their time, give up their money or whatever it may be to support your cause. And again, at the end of the day, that's how people storytell. And one sort of interesting story is that, maybe you know, if you don't know, but Theranos, the Theranos, the big biotech fraud that happened maybe 5, 6 years ago. Yeah. Elizabeth Holmes, her entire life, honestly, she was just this master, master storyteller. I mean, she was able to get hundreds of millions in funding and all these employees and media attention and everything. She became a celebrity, and it was all a fraud, right? It was all fake. But nonetheless, she got that all through storytelling, where she convinced everyone. She inspired them. She was on major TED Talks and all these big-time media and public events and whatever it may be. Again, she mobilized the crowd, right? She got people on her side. She got capital to come. She got talent to come. She got all this attention. And, you know, at the end of the day, like she did all that without having, you know, an actual product, right? Without actually making tangible sort of, you know, progress. And again, obviously it was a fraud in the end, but nonetheless, like she was a good master storyteller and that's how she got that position.

Thanks for sharing those 2 stories. Very impactful. Like you took the example of JFK and like mobilizing the whole team. And also on the other side, the Theranos, like we have all seen like how these 2 stories differentiate themselves, like, you know, with the storytelling. Like, you either can go in a positive way and you can also misuse it sometimes. Yeah. There is always this balance that, like, you always need to pick and choose. And thanks for sharing those 2 great stories, Rahul. And now coming back to your story, now you're still in— so you're going to the business school at Rutgers Business School, and now you're taking finance and astrophysics. And Where do you see yourself next after business school? What do you want to do next?

Yeah, yeah, of course. So, um, obviously I do want to finish my— I have 2 or more years left in my undergrad, so I want to just get, you know, my undergraduate degree. But, you know, after that, um, or, you know, even in the process of getting there and also after, like, I definitely want to be in the deep tech venture capital space. I absolutely love it. It's something I'm super, super passionate about, and exactly what, you know, one of the main topics of my book. So I wanted to stay in the deep tech space, right? Not only, but there's a specific sort of type of firm or group of people I want to work with. I really want to work with people who not only venture invest, but also venture build, right? A firm that really incubates companies in-house and also invests in them, and also supports them and whatever it may be. So just the way I think about it, it's just like, why solve one problem when you could solve multiple ones, right? I just want to make all these moonshots, right? Solve all these big problems, right? So many out there. I mean, like, again, every— everyone knows there's so many problems to be solved in the world. Like, we just need the people to do so. So again, that's how I think about it, right? I just want to be in a position where I could, again, not only invest in them, but also build them and build multiple ones. And, and so, you know, whether that— where that takes me, I'm not sure, right? If it's— I don't know, some people said, you know, some people told me to start a research park, right? You know, another like, you know, Bell Labs or Xerox PARC type thing. Some people were telling me to start a venture capital firm. You know, some people say, you know, just found a company myself. Like, I'm not opposed to all that. Like, I'm completely, you know, I'm super excited to do all those 3 things. So I don't know what, I don't know where my life will take me. Like, I'll see when, you know, when I graduate and what happens, but, you know, in the meantime, yeah, I just, again, I want to fulfill my life's goal, right, of making multiple moonshots. So, yeah.

That's awesome. And thanks for sharing that vision. And you also work with a lot of venture capital firms. Like, let's Yeah. Let's talk about your experience working already with these venture capital firms and maybe like some insights around what they're looking for when startups come to venture capital firms in order to like share their vision. Like tell us a little bit more about the venture capital firms and how they work, especially startups who are looking for raising capital.

Yeah, yeah, of course. So, you know, for a lot of the sort of the startups that have these bold visions and everything, obviously, you know, they need to get funding to get started and, you know, to for the operations, everything. So, right, that's why they come to the VC firm. So, you know, I mean, I'm at Lux Capital, right? They are a deep tech, one of the best deep tech VC firms in the world. So it was really, really cool, right? I got the opportunity because of my book, actually. I interviewed the managing partner. He ended up hiring me. So it was really cool. Absolute dream job. And it lives up to all my expectations. It's super, super cool learning, you know, so much stuff. You know, all these science-heavy startups, they come to me or they pitch me, like I help them. whatever it may be, right? So it's just been an amazing thing. And one thing I like to say is that there's a few VC firms out there that I really do believe are really, again, changing the scope of science, technology, and humanity itself, right? I always say those 3 things. But there's a lot of VC firms out there, again, they take money from rich institutions, right? They make the rich richer. It's just like they're investing in things that are incremental progress. that don't really do any net positive on society. Maybe they're a great business, right? Maybe they make revenue and whatever it may be, but like, I really want to be investing and building and helping and working with the startups that are actually solving some of the hardest problems in the world, right? Again, I can name so many of them, right? Everything from poverty, homelessness, food, and whatever it may be, to climate change, to, I mean, going to space and all things in the ocean and robotics and AI and all these different things, right? frontier technologies and sciences. I really do believe like the firms that really focus on the companies that actually solve these big problems, these most, you know, these very pressing problems, like those are the VC firms that will make it in the future. Those are the ones that are gonna be really, really successful going forward. I do think, I do believe that, you know, sort of the age of these, you know, note-taking apps, right, these sort of, you know, very sort of incremental companies, like I do think it's getting heavily commoditized and it's sort of gonna be a thing of the past, like now going forward, right? We need, you know, companies that actually, again, solve big problems, right, have this, this, this solid societal impact, and also make money, right? Things that actually, you know, help individual people, right? You know, education or mentorship, whatever it may be, just all these different things. That's what I want to be investing in. I think that's where venture is going. So, you know, considering that, right, and, and to your next question, what can startups do to get VC funding? I'll say one thing, like the, the most important thing in terms of, you know, getting funding is the, just the people that are running these companies, right, the founders. Like the team itself is so incredibly important, right? You could have a bad idea, but if you have a good team, like they could sell that product, right? It doesn't go vice versa though, that said. And again, when you're trying to get venture funding, it's, again, it's inherently super early stage, right? You're, you know, maybe you just started your company, maybe you have, you know, very few employees. Some of the times you don't even have revenue, you don't have a product at the end of the day, but again, you're trying to raise this money so you can sort of, you know, make progress in your business or whatever it may be. So The best sort of indicator if you will make money, right? And the best indicator for VCs is just the team, right? Do they, you know, do they have that synergy, right? Are they productive, right? Are they, you know, the only people in the world that can solve this problem and make this product and, you know, differentiate themselves and, you know, really, really, you know, gain market share and, you know, wedge their way into, you know, whatever success that they need to be. Like most of venture capital, they're betting on the founders and that's it. And that's the most important thing in terms of, you know, if a startup wants funding, they should really consider that.

Thanks for sharing, like, how venture capital looks at the whole startup ecosystem. And now, again, going back to your story, like, you also mentioned a lot of times about mentoring, right? Like,

yeah,

talk about, like, how mentorship helped you to kind of, like, lay it all together, whatever you have achieved so far.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, the first sort of the biggest sort of, you know, mentor I had was my parents, right? And specifically my dad, again, Bell Labs and everything, right? So he and my mom got me started on all things, you know, entrepreneurship and science tech and everything. But I would say, you know, in terms of my— some of the really most impactful mentors, so I had one mentor. And when I think about this, I could think of, you know, 2 to 3 people. So my first mentor, right, my— he was actually my piano teacher back in middle school and high school. He— all right, so for reference, I played piano internationally, right, a couple times in Carnegie Hall. I went to Canada, Germany, Belgium. We were invited all over the world. And my piano teacher, not only did he, you know, he trained me and, you know, taught me to become this really, you know, I was proud of the sort of the skills I had and the progress I made. So he made me this pianist, but also he really made me a good person, right? He taught me about, you know, actually pursuing your passions, right? He taught me about, you know, about happiness and success and all these life skills that honestly I never would have known without him. And again, all his mentorship, all his sort of, you know, his wise sort of advice, it was truly life-changing, right? So that was one thing, right? And he was really the one who brought me around the world, literally around the world to play piano. So I don't know, all the experiences I had, all the, you know, the good times, right? All the times that, you know, I was working really hard and, you know, my work ethic honestly started with piano, and again, it was all attributed to him. My second mentor was the mentor who brought me on the book process, right? Obviously incredibly, incredibly impactful to my life. You know, it was my freshman year, my first year of college, and I met this— my mentor on LinkedIn, actually, of all places. And, you know, I struck up a conversation with him, and he just said, hey, like, you know, he likes to mentor people, right, in writing books, right? He sets them up with the publisher. You know, get them started on the process. And I was like, hey, like, and, you know, obviously he does it for professionals, right? Experts and whomever it may be. So I was like, I asked him, okay, like, I absolutely love deep tech. I love moonshots. Like, can I, you know, can you take a chance on me? Just take a chance on me. Like, I will, I will, you know, I will sort of, you know, return the favor. Like, I will, you know, make the most of it. He, you know, thank God that he did it. And, you know, the rest is history, right? I wrote my book, right? It's a, you know, really, really proud of the book and everything. And now I'm here, right? I'm talking to you. So Again, he was the one who really brought me along on the book process, taught me everything that there is, set me up with the right people, and the rest is history. So those are probably the 2 biggest mentors in my life. Obviously, where I work, I work at Lux Capital. All the people at Lux Capital, they're great. They teach me so much. All the people I meet on Twitter and stuff, all these people older than me, they teach me everything. So again, I have so many different mentors, but I would say terms of like the 2, the maybe 2 or 3 biggest ones is obviously, you know, my parents, but then also my piano teacher and the guy who brought me along in the book process.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing about your mentors and how they made an impact in your life and career as well. And what are your favorite books that you read most of the time? Yeah,

yeah, of course. So I, my absolute favorite book, I actually have it right next to me. It's called Letting Go. It's called Letting Go by Richard Dawkins. Just an amazing, amazing book. Basically, you know, it's again, literally about letting go, you know, your emotions, right? All, whatever emotion you're feeling, right? In terms of negative emotions, like it's just, you know, the process and the pathway to actually surrendering those and whatnot. And I can't tell you, there's so many, so many times just like, I felt some emotion, right? I was angry, I was sad or whatever it may be. And I read this book and it just helped. It just like, it literally like, it just like helped right in the moment. reading the literal words. And especially on the book writing process, right? I was so burnt out, right? It was definitely, it was a hard, hard journey. And again, I just read that book and it got me, you know, put my mind right, right? I collected myself and continued to write. So it's just one of those books that, you know, is really, really practical advice and really clear advice to actually, you know, have a clear mind and again, control your emotions and whatnot. So yeah.

That's amazing. Letting go. So definitely looking forward to learning more about that book as well. And thank you so much for being on the show. And are there any other final thoughts for our audience?

Yeah. I mean, look, let's go make some moonshots, right? Like I want everyone to pursue these bold, these bold companies, right? Really solve all the, you know, whatever problems that we have in the world. Like to anyone in the audience, like if they want to pursue one, if they want, if they need help, like feel free to reach out to me. I'm here to help everyone. It's out of the goodness of my heart. Like I just want to help as many people as possible, you know, pursue these companies. Right. Or maybe they want to, you know, get connected to a company, existing company, by all means, like I'll help them as much as possible. So yeah, that's what I would say. Right. Obviously also read my book. Hope everyone enjoys my book. But yeah, if I were to say anything, it's just like, let's go make some moonshots. Like I really want to see a lot of people do that. And hopefully I could have inspired them to do so.

Absolutely. I'm sure like a lot of people are going to get a lot of great insights from your Making Moonshots. And I'm sure you're going to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. That's what exactly you are trying to do,

to

read and like make some moonshots. Thanks again for being onto the show. I'm going to definitely put all your links in the description to kind of have access to those books and resources that you talked about. And all the very best to you. And this is going to be just your first book. There are a lot of books that we are looking forward to having in the future.

Yeah.

to really inspire people and make a difference in this world. Thanks again, Naraho.

Thank you for having me. Yeah.