Episode Highlights:How Did Brett Brewer's Early Real Estate Ventures Shape His Entrepreneurial JourneyThe difficulty of raising pre-seed financing, the role of accelerators and incubators, and the process of raising $300,000 for the business.The impact of the dotcom crash on e-commerce businesses and the shift to casual game development.The launch of Myspace, and the initial user engagement strategy.Brett's role in scaling Ad Knowledge, its rapid growth, and eventual sale to TPG and other private equity firms.The founding of CrossCut Ventures, and the evolution of its investment focus.The challenges of recruiting talent to LA, the evolution of the LA tech ecosystem, and CrossCut's role in connecting and supporting the community.The difficulties and challenges faced by venture capitalists.The significance of technology in education and the need to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots in accessing educational resources.Brett Brewer's investment philosophy and insights into private versus public markets, influenced by Annie Duke's book "Thinking in Bets.”Tweetable Quotes:“Be the straw that serves to drink.” — Kurt“So that starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy when you have that many smart people controlling that much capital living in the actual market.” —Brett“Understanding the best use of your time and how to be productive is a real challenge and ends up being the downfall of some VCs.” —Brett“Politics and infighting is the death of a startup.”—Brett“If you're gonna have an environment where people don't trust each other- where they can't give each other candid feedback, they will fail.”—Brett“And I think there's something really magical about being honest.—”Kurt“Culture isn't just values, it's the actual way ideas get put into practice. It's the behavior.”—Kurt“So it's more important than ever that as a society, we realize that we do have a moral imperative to invest in and believe in and educate all kids and give them a chance.” —Brett“Every individual and every company has a certain set of advantages. You have to take full advantage of them to greatly increase your chances of being successful.” —Brett“It's comforting when you realize there are just lots of things out of your control and the less time you spend worrying about them, the better off you'll be.”—Brett“You have to do something extraordinary and the only way you're gonna do something extraordinary is by actually doing some action.”—BrettLinks Mentioned:Kurt’s TwitterKurt’s InstagramKurt’s LinkedInBrett BrewerCrosscut VenturesAber WhitcombAdam GoldenbergBrian GarrettJosh BermanPeter TomasuloRoss LevinsohnScott NolanThomas AndersonAllianceAmazonEdVoiceFableticsFedexFoundersfundIGNLAtechMicrosoftMySpaceNews CorpNVIDIAReal World Asset GroupSoftBankSpaceXStealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in AmericaThe Wall Street JournalTPG

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