There was never any competition, and now there is. Also, there was never supposed to be a guy like me with a couple billion dollars. That’s just not supposed to happen. Because that’s the last thing they want, is some loudmouthed kid with a lot of money who frankly is gonna build whatever he wants to build and enough, I’m not saying I have a lot, but enough, credibility to get enough critical people to get it past that existential product market-fit phase, which we are.
And then what happens is, all these investors who otherwise, they were not sure I was a cultural fit for, I wasn’t sure they were a cultural fit for, they all capitulate.
What’s the quote? It’s like, it was a Billy Beane quote, like, “We’re not hiring these guys for how they fill out their jeans, we’re hiring them for a bunch of statistical things.” I think now [the gut instinct] is more of a physiological bias of men.
There is just a need to act with bravado, especially when you have power. I think men treat power very differently, frankly, than women do. I think men have a very hierarchical way in which they impose power, so it’s hard power. I think they love the bravado of that idea of, “Oh, my gut told me.”
I do believe that your limbic system is very powerful. But the idea that they just knew it at the time — come on, it sounds cute. Nobody knew.