I want to hop back to the investing. I mean, you've you've had a lot of hits. Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, it goes on and on and on. I mean, I don't know how many IPOs and so on that you've had. I mean, the gazillion. Let's talk about one. So, you put in, tell me if I'm getting this right, 35 million at a 5 billion valuation into Anthropic. This is a company that's been in the news a lot. I think the last round is what? 965 billion, something like that. Are those numbers roughly accurate? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that's pretty nice multiple so far. You know, we'll see how things go. How did that Anthropic deal happen? >> Well, it starts a little before the day that OpenAI came out, which was on my dad's birthday, ChatGPT. It was life-changing. And I You remember those moments. And again, I go back to music. I remember when I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. I pulled over the car and I
[00:01:00] went, "What is this?" And when ChatGPT came out, that was a what is this moment for me. And if you saw me anytime after ChatGPT came out, I would have harassed you to show you ChatGPT. There's no one every artist, every actor, everyone I walked around and met, I like, "Check this out. Check this out. Check this out." And I was obsessed. And I called Ashton and I said, "Ashton, this is it. OpenAI, we're doing OpenAI. This is the greatest thing I've ever seen. We have to do it. Have to do it. Have to do it." And so, that was our first this is the one we're going to go after. But then, when we first started investing, Ashton and I, it was when the iPhone and the App Store were happening. And so, for the first time ever, you can scale companies like never before. And I think anyone would have done well at that time. We were like lucky people that came in at the right time and were
[00:02:01] looking at the right time and started our fund at that very moment, which is crazy. And so, we had this incredible success because of that. I saw it again. Back to pattern recognition. If you fast forward, we're we're still using Uber and Airbnb and Spotify. We're still using those things from that time period. And we felt that this is it. These foundational AI models in 10 or 15 years will be how we plug into all these things. So, we really felt like we had a 3-month window. We told people, "We have a 3-month window." Now, it came out November 30th, uh 2022. So, there's not much you can do. This people are going away. This this Christmas time break, blah blah. But as soon as January came, we went out there and told people, "This is the vision. We're going to do a foundational AI model fund." I got it. LPs. Meaning Yeah, raise money. >> Yeah. >> Raise money and create this fund, which
[00:03:01] is which was a crazy idea at the time. >> Now, had you already confirmed that you'd be able to get allocations or you just had complete confidence? >> Ashton spoke to Sam. We were able to get OpenAI. What happened was is I'm very close to Marc Benioff. And Salesforce Ventures, people don't really understand how smart they are. They don't get They don't get all the press on They are one of the best investors in the world. There's two guys there, John Somorjai and Paul Drews, who were when I was doing my research, cuz now I'm on the I'm on the lookout. What should I know about an AI? Once I find out about something, I just lock in. So, and I and I and I want to know everything about it. And I I was as I was doing my research, I was finding out that they were going to do Anthropic. And they were very bullish about it. And I found out from a friend that works with like a job hunter kind of people who help find jobs for people. >> Oh, like head hunters. >> Head hunters. That everyone's going to
[00:04:02] this company called Anthropic, you know? Like people are really going to this Anthropic place and they're not going anywhere else. I'm like, "Wow, okay. I I I need to pay attention." So, I I asked Paul and John connect me with with this founder, Dario. So, they connect me with Dario and Neerav. They come here in this room and that's where we made the deal to invest in in Anthropic. So, we did a bunch of other companies in that foundational AI fund. It was a 3-month window. So, it was before a bunch of other things that have come out since. But we we set ourselves up for exactly what we did. This is going to be within 3 months. We're going to deploy 80% of the money in the next 3 months. And that's what That's what we did and that's over 3 years ago. >> How did you know the window was going to be so narrow? I imagine Did you get any pushback from LPs when you said we're going to deploy 80% of this in 3 months? >> Well, we didn't have There was no LPs. Meaning, we just It was That was the pitch.
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Yeah, yeah. >> So, it wasn't like we It wasn't like we raised money Yeah, it wasn't like we raised money and then told them the pitch. It was like, "Here is the pitch. >> Here's what we're going to do. >> There is a window of opportunity here. We think this is the future and that was it." >> They opted in. >> Yeah, opt in or opt out. We didn't know what we were going to raise. It's just whatever came up is what it was going to be. >> So, I was trying to pull from memory, but looks like Sound at this point is at 86 exits and 26 IPOs. That's insane. I mean, that is >> It's been fun. >> [laughter] >> You have >> [snorts] >> seemingly different batteries, certainly. I mean, you've got good batteries. What does the next 5 years do you think look like for you? I mean, it it Is it more of this type of investing? What do you see? Is it switching gears entirely and looking at the prism through a totally different way? I mean, what is What is next for Guy? >> I feel like going back to the core, really
[00:06:01] honing in that antenna for the greatest talent in the world, the greatest ideas in the world. This is an incredible time where people can scale up a company in in the quickest ways and I'm excited about the potential of what's to come. I've already identified three things I want to do today. So, [snorts] I can only imagine what's to come, but it's just really just I don't I'm okay doing a version of what I've been doing, which is identify great talent and help them help them in every which way that I can and pick the teams that you want to back. So, I I I'm I'm feeling pretty good about that. Just continuing on this best-in-class talent idea. The hard part is for a lot of people is the access. So, we're very lucky. We have access and we also do the job. We We have more than
[00:07:03] enough proof of people that come through when you work with them. And we're a different kind of investor on the cap table. We're not in the valley. We're here in Hollywood. And we bring a different dynamic, different, you know, obviously narrative is something that I that I'm very focused on. Marketing is something I've been doing since I was a a teen. And so, you know, marketing strategy, media, partnerships, narrative, storytelling, hey, if you want someone like that on your cap table, it might be interesting to you. And hopefully I can be helpful. And that's what I need to find that dynamic of a company that I'm in love with and hopefully the founder believes that having me would be a great advantage to them. >> Mhm. A lot of founders listen to this podcast. Is there any Are there any particular things that's have your interest right now or types of companies, types of founders, anything that you'd like to
[00:08:00] sort of make clear to people who are listening or otherwise. Also, where can people learn more about what you're up to? Like is is there anywhere that you would point them in particular? >> I'm a generalist. >> Mhm. >> I don't I don't care. That particular AI fund was very specific. And we may have thematic funds from time to time. If an idea comes and you go, "You know what? I've got an idea. It's going to be built around this one idea." But usually I'm a generalist. I really like I just like talented people. And in regards to sharing, you know, where can they find out what I'm up to? I'm not really This is it. >> Yeah, this is it. >> You know, as you know, this is my first podcast. >> Yeah. >> And depending on this goes, could be my last. If it goes well, maybe one more. But I I'm I'm not out there Everything is is has been fine without doing that. >> Yep. >> You know, people either find us word of mouth through friends or I find them. It's okay. It all works out. I'm not out there, you know, yelling, "Hey, find me 1-800 whatever." Or it's like it'll
[00:09:02] it'll work itself out. The right people will find each other.