42: Phin Barnes, General Partner at First Round Capital

There's a lot of noise in the venture ecosystem today on differentiation. When I think of a venture firm that defines differentiation, I think of First Round Capital. This week I chatted with Phin Barnes, General Partner at First Round, on a whole host of topics. Phin brings a unique operating background to the table - he spent six years helping to scale AND 1 Basketball from $15 million to over $225 million in revenue. - and has scaled this experience to a number of fantastic companies. In this conversation we discussed:  - Intentionality and why the best Founders have it (specifically he referenced Notion, Modern Fertility, Steady, Clearbit) - Initially working for free for First Round Capital with no intent to ever become a Partner - The importance of moving slow and challenging the cult of speed - Success being found in moments of discontinuity vs. continuity - Compensation for judgement vs. time - Tech enabled businesses vs. pure play software businesses (e.g. Peloton, WeWork) - Pattern recognition as a code for intellectual laziness  - Measuring learning on a "per dollar" basis - Why diversity isn't talked about enough and how he wants to change that