<p>Nikhil Basu Trivedi and Mike Smith are the Co-founders of Footwork where they invest up to $15 million in Seed and Series A rounds. This is the first time they&#39;ve ever sat down to record a conversation together on video.</p><p><br></p><p>We talk about starting the firm in 2020, their secret sauce for working with founders, lessons investing in Canva’s Seed round, scaling Stitch Fix from $0 to $1B revenue in five years with $17m in capital, why AI will enable a new wave of entrepreneurship, and how public company boards are discussing AI today.</p><p><br></p><p>Thank you to Tony Staehelin, Andrew Riesen, and Hunter Walk for helping brainstorming topics for the conversation.</p><p><br></p><p>Thank you to Flex for supporting this episode.</p><p><br></p><p>Sign-up for Flex Elite with code TURNER, get $1,000: https://form.typeform.com/to/Rx9rTjFz</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>(0:24) Starting Footwork from a tweet in 2021</p><p>(3:11) Difference between startup and public company boards</p><p>(4:52) 20-40% of board meetings are now about AI</p><p>(7:48) How Footwork’s investing in AI today</p><p>(10:37) AI will enable millions of new entrepreneurs</p><p>(15:04) 37 questions to ask when starting a VC firm</p><p>(17:40) Importance of differences</p><p>(23:08) The pace of VC is faster than operating</p><p>(26:26) Footwork’s secret sauce (2x board seats, 1-pager)</p><p>(31:59) Investors should talk to and help employees</p><p>(37:05) Building an equal-carry partnership</p><p>(39:33) How Footwork makes decisions</p><p>(43:21) Navigating short-termism and politics in VC firms</p><p>(51:18) “You’re only as good as your next investment”</p><p>(53:30) Characteristics of great founders</p><p>(58:13) Canva’s Seed pitch in 2014</p><p>(1:02:54) Joining Stitch Fix as 4th employee</p><p>(1:06:40) Scaling Stitch Fix $0 to $1B revenue in five years with $17m in capital</p><p>(1:16:48) Raising from Bill Gurley after a failed Series A</p><p>(1:19:40) Footwork’s office near YC</p><p>(1:22:10) Opportunities in consumer health</p><p>(1:25:20) Using flash mobs to win deals</p><p>(1:26:15) Dad life</p><p><br></p><p>Referenced</p><p>Footwork: https://www.footwork.vc/</p><p>Anything: https://www.anything.com/</p><p>Table22: https://www.table22.com/</p><p>Canva: https://www.canva.com/</p><p>Stitch Fix: https://www.stitchfix.com/</p><p>Honeydew: https://www.honeydew.com/</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Mike</p><p>Twitter: https://x.com/msmith492</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcsmith1</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Nikhil</p><p>Twitter: https://x.com/nbt</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilbt</p><p>Substack: https://nbt.substack.com/</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Turner</p><p>Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/</p>