Adrian Stone ( @SmallTimeVC ) is an angel investor & entrepreneur, who’s done immense work in the Melbourne Startup scene. A self-declared small time VC, he’s well known for running one of Australia’s earliest accelerators ( AngelCube ), and voicing an array of opinions over Twitter. Adrian now spends most of his time on unique investments & finance, slowly working on a great little publication called Seven.
This guy is a lot of fun to talk to, always dropping something interesting when it comes to general entrepreneurship, and grinding it out in the business world.
We covered a wide-ranging array of topics including:
- His first job at Tandy and becoming an entrepreneur
- Indirectly instilling an entrepreneurial spirit
- Thoughts on the future of electric cars
- How he picks his angel investments
- Lessons learnt being in venture capital
- Something he believes in, that others may not
Listen to the episode
SHOW NOTES:
- Bio from first job at Tandy to becoming an entrepreneur & investor {04:52}
- How to work an earnout {17:34}
- How Y Combinator inspired Angelcube, and the link to Inspire 9 {27:04}
- On indirectly instilling an entrepreneurial spirit as a father {37:50}
- On indirectly or directly learning from his parents, that he still carries today {43:27}
- Commentary on events like Brexit and President Trump {50:34}
- On the value of a Tesla as a luxury car {01:00:28}
- Thoughts on the future of electric and autonomous cars {01:06:38}
- How he picks his angel investments {01:18:22}
- Advice for those wanting to get into angel investing and his background on Investors Org {01:22:28}
- Lessons learnt being in venture capital {01:28:43}
- Recommended/go-to books for gifting {01:31:10}
- Morning rituals {01:36:07}
- Amazing purchases under $200 {01:40:32}
- Something he believes in, that others may not {01:42:04}
- How he defines success and finding direction in career choice, without worrying about money {01:45:07}
Links:
- Connect with Adrian: Twitter, Medium & Office Hours
- Vape Nation: H3H3 Meme
- David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)
- Ruby on Rails Org
- Nathan Sampimon
- Adrian’s pitch to interstate startups to relocate
- Adam Stone
- Speedlancer
- 500 Startups
- Centenarian Letter from the Royals
- Anders Army
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
- Tesla Ludicrous Mode Reactions
- Brian Roemmele, On Quora
- Bloomberg New Energy Finance
- Uber Philadelphia Self-Driving Experiment (Wired)
- The E Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowtiz
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason
- The Fermi Paradox – Wait But Why
- Seven – Adrian’s Personal Finance Publication on Medium