Smash Notes
Jeff Morris Jr.
Episodes
Notes
Paradox Podcast · Jeff Morris Jr. — Investing in a post-COVID19 future
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Why Does Family Matter So Much to Jeff Morris Jr.?
Jeff Morris Jr. grew up as one of eight children. He says the siblings are very different, including different politics and different personalities, and that they still respect and love each other. For him, family is the reason he goes to work. They are the people who know the whole arc of his life and who respect his decisions the most. He ties that to an essay he wrote while he was in Japan, Headline versus Reality, which Kyle Tibbitts says was largely about family. He also calls this period a chance to reconnect with family, and he talks about having been born into a different generation from some of the people around him.
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What's the Best Piece of Advise Jeff Has Received
Jeff tells a story from an interview he did with Ron Johnson who Steve Jobs hired to create their retail experience that culminates in a lesson about the importance of remembering everyone's name.
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A Topic Jeff Rarely Get's to Talk About – Mental Health
Jeff talks about the importance of mental health in his own life and how every one, especially founders, should see a therapist or a coach on a regular basis because building a company is one of the hardest challenges in the world.
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Why Did Jeff Morris Jr. Leave Tinder to Invest Full Time?
Jeff Morris Jr. tells the Paradox Podcast that doing two things well is impossible. Before he invested full time he was VP of product at Tinder, and he was also writing angel-syndicate checks. He says that combination was a useful way to start learning investing, and that it could not last. He had to choose between operating and being an investor. Staying on the product track would have cost him the years it takes to get good at investing, which he treats as the work he actually wants. He made the leap knowing he would miss parts of building product.
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What Are Jeff's Top Product Lessons
Jeff talks about the importance of choose a category that is important enough to consumers they will pay for it. He also talks about the importance of having a role within a company that is close to revenue so you have a scoreboard to track.
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How Is Jeff Doing Personally in the Middle of This Pandemic
Sad for the world but spending a lot of time with family which is amazing. Also can't remember the last time the entire world pulled together to fight against a common enemy, which is inspiring. Lots of paradoxes.
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The Process of Becoming an Angel Investor
Jeff talks about how he started angel investing back in 2013, building his confidence to start investing larger checks more frequently and his recent decision to become a full-time investor through his fund, ChapterOne, at the beginning of this year.
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What Startup Themes Did Jeff Morris See After the Pandemic?
Jeff Morris Jr. says some of these trends were already moving and the pandemic will speed them up. He puts jobs first. He says about three million people had become unemployed, and he asks how they earn again sooner. Reskilling is a theme he has cared about for a long time. He points to Lambda School and to versions of that model for other fields. He also expects more health-care marketplaces. Many places, he says, have watched the health system struggle, and the United States has had a nursing shortage for years. The crisis, in his view, opened problems that new companies will now be started to solve.
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How Jeff Started His Tech Career in... Kansas City
Despite being from the San Francisco Bay Area and applying to join Uber, Twitter and Airbnb early (first 15, 150 and 50 employees respectively), Jeff got rejected from all three and had to move to Kansas City in 24 hours to take his first tech job.
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Jeff Shares a Story From Childhood That Changed His Life
How a high school teacher who told Jeff he thought he was talented enough to become a professional writer set Jeff on a course to study screenwriting in college and a more creative career path by joining the tech industry and eventually becoming an investor.