Sam Hinkie - Find Your People - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]

What It Covers

Sam Hinkie discusses his transition from NBA executive to venture capitalist, emphasizing deep research on founders through digital breadcrumbs, building trust through long-term relationships, and applying sports talent evaluation principles to startup investing.

Key Questions Answered

• •Digital Breadcrumbs Research: Hinkie researches founders by reading their old blog posts, GitHub repositories, Medium highlights, YouTube videos spanning years, and even interviews with their parents to understand thinking evolution and depth of expertise over time rather than relying on pitch meetings.
• •Interview Depth Testing: Rather than scripted questions, drill down on topics candidates care about until reaching the limit of their knowledge. This reveals how people learn and think versus what they know. The best candidates acknowledge expertise boundaries and distinguish between 70th percentile versus 95th percentile knowledge.
• •Trust Compounding Strategy: Build fewer, deeper relationships with hundreds not thousands of people over decades. Tell people things not in your own interest. Do things in others' best interest unconditionally. This creates a network that sends valuable insights daily and provides leverage when making decisions or recruiting talent.
• •Hiring Tournament Structure: Eli Witus sent Hinkie three exceptional blog posts within weeks, each forwarded by multiple people. Hinkie hired him based on public work demonstrating expertise before meeting. Run tournaments where candidates demonstrate actual work quality, not interview performance, making the best talent the top seed from day one.
• •API-First Business Philosophy: Outsource everything except your single area of edge. Companies should focus resources on one to three competitive advantages maximum while using specialized vendors for payments, communications, and infrastructure. A ten-person engineering team building payments infrastructure wastes time competing against Stripe's dedicated experts.