In episode 36 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we present the second episode of the Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems.

Continuing the format from previous episode, they discuss few hidden gems of thought-provoking information where each speaker would identify three items to discuss, one item that made them learn something, one item that made them think and one item that made them laugh.

The episode is full of interesting ideas, current entrepreneurship trends and humour. So hopefully, you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we did producing.

References

Chapters:

(01:00) Gerrit introduction

(03:38) Something that made Dries learn – impression management and its effect on likelihood of getting funded

(05:07) Treating pitching to investors as a sales process

(07:43) Should you frame your venture in a “disruptive” way?

(08:24) Gerrit’s perspective on “disruptive” ideas

(09:30) The narrative around “disruptive” storytelling and effects on funding

(12:10) Empirical evidence behind the hypothesis and its implications

(14:31) Reflexivity bias’s effect on research

(15:58) Modifying your vision based on the investor

(17:32) Something that made Gerrit learn – Major impacts of Ukraine war on the world and risks of famine and hunger for over a billion people all over the world

(24:55) Changing opinions around nuclear energy due to the war

(26:17) Genetically modified food – a controversial topic and changing opinions due to the war

(27:35) The subjectivity of science research

(31:20) Something that made Dries think – The CEO beauty premium

(33:00) Founder’s attractiveness and its effect on perceived leadership qualities

(34:37) Why attractive CEOs can raise more funding?

(39:07) Possible reflexivity bias in research and fixing the loophole

(40:11) The curious case of top athletes being highly attractive people

(42:28) Possible explanation for investors favouring more attractive founders

(44:01) Implications for future founders from the research

(46:26) Something that made Gerrit think – the topic of Blitzscaling

(53:00) The critical side of blitzscaling

(56:06) Public opinion towards “winner takes all” and monopolies

(59:08) The booming VC funding

(60:35) Possible consolidation of quick commerce

(61:04) The Web3 funding boom

(62:28) Something that made Dries laugh

(65:18) The content creators’ economics

(68:20) Gerrit’s take on Web3 and something that made Gerrit laugh

(75:00) The other side of Web3 ecosystem

(76:50) The current geopolitical scenario and its implications on blockchain technology

(81:25) Gerrit outro