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Brianne Kimmel
Brianne Kimmel

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Podcast: Leo Polovets, software engineer turned VC, on early stage engineering & personal moats.

Great episode on company moats and Leo's transition from operating to early stage investing.

Some takeaways:

  • Technology and teams are typically not defensible: tech can easily be copied and your competitors can ultimately hire more people or find ways to work harder than you. Leo shares what makes companies defensible today and how early engineers typically build less complex products, but play a fast-paced, customer-facing role.

  • Personal growth is hard to see when it's happening, so it's important to keep going. People won't remember one blog post, but they'll remember a dozen. In music, people will 'like a song,' but it takes time to recognize an artist and become a fan of their work.

  • Leo talks about 'covering a larger surface area for luck,' which he describes as meeting as many people as possible and find ways to be as helpful as possible before expecting anything in return.

Listen here: https://anchor.fm/square-one-conversations-with-the-best-in-business/episodes/E33-Leo-Polovets--General-Partner-at-Susa-Ventures-e2tq62

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