Elad Gil on Conviction, AI, Biotech, Ambition, Speed of Execution, and Non-Obvious Startup Advice

The Peel with Turner Novak

Warp: Don’t let payroll and compliance hold your startup back: visit https://joinwarp.com/peel to get started and receive a $1,000 gift card when you first run payroll. Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Elad Gil is the founder of Color Genomics and Mixer Labs, which he sold to Twitter, and an early investor in iconic companies like Airbnb and Stripe, plus upstarts like Perplexity and Anduril. This is a wide ranging conversation that covers education, AI, and advice for building a startup. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (03:46) Building cool monuments (09:12) Fixing education (16:38) Why AI is underhyped (19:02) Four trends to watch in AI (19:55) Why there aren’t large biotech companies (23:21) The current state of Elad Gill (24:32) How he incubates companies (26:32) Contemplating AI-driven buyouts (27:29) His investing strategy, from early to late stage (36:57) Why he remained solo for so long (40:19) How to get conviction in unpopular investments (42:53) What made Steve Jobs a good communicator (44:00) The importance of ambition and leadership (46:28) Why Elad puts so much weight in the market (47:45) The evolution of Google’s business model (49:17) How to monetize consumer products (50:06) Analyzing a potential startup market (51:23) How successful products eventually become distribution companies (56:30) Non-obvious startup advice (59:54) When its OK to give up (01:02:20) Advice on raising your first round (01:03:21) Picking board members (01:04:45) How to hire your first three employees (01:06:48) Avoiding bad hires (01:08:39) The importance of speed of execution (01:12:36) Why he’s adding to his team (01:14:31) Gardening Referenced: Elad’s Blog: https://blog.eladgil.com/ Elad’s Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@NoPriorsPodcast/ Elad’s Book: https://growth.eladgil.com/ Where to find Elad: Twitter: https://twitter.com/eladgil LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil Elad’s Website: https://eladgil.com/ Where to find Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/ Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/