Cyan Banister (@cyantist) is a common accomplice at Lengthy Journey Ventures, an early-stage enterprise capital agency centered on early and new investments. Cyan was an early investor in Uber, SpaceX, DeepMind, Flexport, and Affirm and has invested in additional than 100 firms. Previous to that, she was at Founders Fund, a top-tier fund in San Francisco. Subscribe to Cyan’s Substack at uglyduckling.substack.com.
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#780: Cyan Banister — From Homeless and Broke to Prime Angel Investor (Uber, SpaceX, and 100+ Extra)
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SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Join with Cyan Banister:
- The Ugly Duckling by Cyan Banister | Substack
- Early Stage Investing for the Lengthy-Time period | Lengthy Journey Ventures
- What Occurred to the Future? | Founders Fund
- Cyan: The Enlightenment of an Iconoclast | Cloud Valley
- Navajo Nation | Go to Arizona
- Flagstaff | Go to Arizona
- Science and Expertise on a Mission | Lawrence Livermore Nationwide Laboratory
- I Swear to Inform the Fact, the Complete Fact and Nothing however the Fact. So Assist Me God. | The Ugly Duckling
- Glad Tastes Good | Dairy Queen
- What’s a Ward of the State in Arizona? | JacksonWhite Legislation
- Joyriding with the Gutter Punks | The Ugly Duckling
- Finest Meals for When You’re Homeless and Can’t Cook dinner? | r/Mealprep
- Trying to find Household and Residence with Cuddles | The Ugly Duckling
- Commune Life | The Ugly Duckling
- Hitchhiking with Jesus | The Ugly Duckling
- The Battle of Intentions and Beliefs | Spencer Chang
- Money for Style | Buffalo Trade
- The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac | Amazon
- Crass | Tough Commerce Publishing
- Eastside Information: An Oral Historical past of Tempe’s Legendary Document Retailer | Phoenix New Occasions
- Web Relay Chat (IRC) | Wikipedia
- The UNIX System | UNIX.org
- Circumstances | Harvard Enterprise Publishing Schooling
- The Story of Uber | Investopedia
- Take a Have a look at Uber’s First Pitch Deck from 2008 | Vox
- New York’s Yellow Taxi Medallion Disaster, Defined | Documented
- The Profession of Uber’s First Worker and CEO Was Launched by One Tweet | Enterprise Insider
- About | The Foyer Convention
- Pink Swoosh | Wikipedia
- Open Angel Discussion board | Wikipedia
- A Brief Historical past of Napster | Lifewire
- Behind the 12-Yr-Outdated Wii Sports activities Hoax That Briefly Fooled the Web | Ars Technica
- Pokémon GO | Niantic, Inc.
- A Worldwide Territory Management AR Sport | Ingress
- PokéStop | Pokémon GO Wiki
- Construct, Lead, Make investments | AngelList
- Water with True Fruit Taste | Trace Water
- Ai-First Service. Catered To People. | Zendesk
- Security for Each Scenario | Flock Security
- GameCrush | Wikipedia
- Interactive Livestreaming | Twitch
- MySpace — What Went Mistaken: ‘The Web site Was a Large Spaghetti-Ball Mess’ | The Guardian
- Activist Investor: Definition, Position, Greatest Gamers | Investopedia
- Icahn: The Stressed Billionaire | Prime Video
- This Sport Present App Was an In a single day Sensation, and Crashed Simply as Quick | CNN Enterprise
- Sport of Thrones | HBO
- Sport of Thrones: Do Lannisters At all times Pay Their Money owed? | Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Trade
- Selling Options for Future Generations | Greenpeace Worldwide
- Be Not Afraid | Hereticon
- Reworking Protection Capabilities with Superior Expertise | Anduril
- “Any Sufficiently Superior Expertise Is Indistinguishable from Magic.” | CCCB LAB
- Chatham Home Rule | Chatham Home Worldwide Affairs Assume Tank
- Why Did OnlyFans Work When Zivity Did Not? A Thread. | Cyan Banister, Twitter
- Normal Magic | Wikipedia
- Normal Magic (Documentary) | Prime Video
- Tony Fadell — On Constructing the iPod, iPhone, Nest, and a Lifetime of Curiosity | The Tim Ferriss Present #403
- Collectable Classic Playboys | Elizabeth’s Bookshop
- SuicideGirls | Wikipedia
- Cyan Banister: Adults Solely Startups Deserve Respect Too | Forbes
- I Did It, with a Boy. | The Ugly Duckling
- The Taj Mahal Story | Taj Mahal
- The Magic Glasses by Frank Harris | Amazon
- My Life & Loves by Frank Harris | Amazon
- Completely different Forms of Plaid: A Information to Plaid Sample Names | Howdy Stitching
- When Polka Dots Sign Each Optimism and Disquiet | The New York Occasions
- A Cube Experiment | Cyan Banister, Twitter
- Determination Fatigue | The Determination Lab
- Open to the Public 365 Days a Yr! | Pioneertown
- The World’s Biggest Roleplaying Sport | Dungeons & Dragons
- Penn Jillette on Magic, Dropping 100+ Kilos, and Weaponizing Kindness | The Tim Ferriss Present #405
- Random by Penn Jillette | Amazon
- The Phantasm of Free Will | Sam Harris
- 7-in-1 Spinner DND Cube Set | Amazon
- The Cult of Crowley | Tidal Journal
- What’s Magic? Aleister Crowley Explains | Faena
- Magick in Idea and Follow by Aleister Crowley | Amazon
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman | Amazon
- Unusual Lifetime of Ivan Osokin by P.D. Ouspensky | Amazon
- Groundhog Day | Prime Video
- Caddyshack | Prime Video
- What About Bob? | Prime Video
- The Man Who Knew Too Little | Prime Video
- Damaged Flowers | Prime Video
- The Razor’s Edge | Prime Video
- The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham | Amazon
- Ghostbusters II | Prime Video
- The Invoice Murray Tales: Life Classes Discovered From a Legendary Man | Prime Video
- The Invoice Murray Tales: Life Classes Discovered From a Legendary Man | Gravitas Ventures
- It Simply Doesn’t Matter (Clip) | The Invoice Murray Tales
- What Precisely Is a Kundalini Awakening? | Yoga Journal
- American Magnificence | Prime Video
- What Is Dural Venous Sinus Thrombosis (DVST)? | Healthline
- Richard Schwartz — IFS, Psychedelic Experiences with out Medication, and Discovering Interior Peace for Our Many Components | The Tim Ferriss Present #492
- Tibetan Monks Throat-Singing | Wilderness Movies India
- Telluride Bluegrass Competition | Planet Bluegrass
- Meditation, Mindset, and Mastery | The Tim Ferriss Present #201
- Parable of the Horse, Carriage, and Driver | The Church of Aware Concord
- Everlasting Recurrence: What Did Nietzsche Actually Imply? | Philosophy Break
- The Insufferable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera | Amazon
- Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson by G.I. Gurdjieff | Amazon
- Frosted Toasted Oat Cereal & Marshmallows | Fortunate Charms
- Boston Celtics | NBA
- Golden State Warriors | NBA
- In The Air Tonight (Official Music Video) | Phil Collins
- Boston’s Finest Sightseeing Tour | Boston Duck Excursions
- The Most Ribbetting Structure in Boston | Common Hub
SHOW NOTES
- [00:06:16] Adolescence and schooling as a white minority on a Navajo reservation.
- [00:11:18] Strained household dynamics and a cycle of neglect.
- [00:18:20] The intervention of Officer Pratt and turning into a ward of the state at 15.
- [00:22:46] Crusty punk survival methods and life on the streets.
- [00:32:02] The optimistic affect of Cyan’s “second” mom.
- [00:34:17] Crass, Chris Collins, and computer systems.
- [00:38:03] An unorthodox path to angel funding starting with Uber.
- [00:48:13] Niantic/Pokemon GO.
- [00:56:27] How stalking Garrett Langley led to a Flock Safety funding.
- [01:00:07] GameCrush, activist traders, and classes realized.
- [01:07:00] Gross sales classes from the road.
- [01:10:08] A conscious strategy to questioning narratives.
- [01:15:35] The pre-OnlyFans story of Zivity.
- [01:24:44] Views on intercourse and relationships.
- [01:28:47] Magic glasses, esoteric rabbit holes, and rolling the cube.
- [01:44:02] How Aleister Crowley and Invoice Murray paved a path to ex-atheism.
- [02:02:21] Cyan’s billboard.
- [02:04:41] Enduring a stroke and its aftermath.
- [02:08:31] Meditation, throat-singing, and philosophy.
- [02:17:50] The Boston non secular expertise and duck boat baptism.
- [02:40:53] A guide within the works, the Ugly Duckling Substack, and parting ideas.
MORE CYAN BANISTER QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“I’ve all the time felt like an outsider regardless of the place I’m, and I believe that’s been fantastic and unimaginable for my profession. You may definitely have a look at that and have sort of a sufferer mindset about it, however I took the alternative path, which was, that is what makes me particular, is that I don’t slot in wherever I’m.”
— Cyan Banister
“When you’re homeless, you’ll be able to by no means be un-homeless. It’s actually unusual. Each time I stroll round at a convention or something, I see all of the waste. I see, if I have been a homeless individual, I might come and I might have this, regardless of the place I’m at.”
— Cyan Banister
“You must face one thing very ugly, which is your self. You must look inside and see who and what you actually are, after which you need to love your self even once you don’t like what you see.”
— Cyan Banister
“When individuals used to say observe self-love, I assumed it meant go eat bonbons and go see a superb film and smoke a joint. That was self-love. However it wasn’t getting me anyplace, and I used to be like, ‘This complete self-love factor is jive. It’s simply not understanding.’ However I didn’t notice that self-love is studying methods to give your self unconditional love. And the easiest way I’ve realized methods to give your self unconditional love is think about your self as a ball of sunshine, after which take that ball of sunshine and visualize it outdoors of your physique and cradle it prefer it’s a child. Now, once you have a look at that child, would you damage that child?”
— Cyan Banister
“We apply loads of our personal notion to the whole lot that everybody says round us. We make up tales which are fiction, and loads of what individuals undergo with immediately are these tales, these narratives that we inform ourselves and each other.”
— Cyan Banister
“My objective could be very easy, which is to unfold pleasure, to carry different individuals up round me, and to do my greatest in my very own solution to finish poverty. Now, I’m not liable for ending poverty. I believe we’re all accountable.”
— Cyan Banister
“Once you begin realizing, ‘Oh, I’m in a faculty, and all of those arduous knocks in life are simply classes,’ you consider them very otherwise.”
— Cyan Banister
“We’re only a hair away from being loopy, each one among us.”
— Cyan Banister
“We apply loads of our personal notion to the whole lot that everybody says round us. We make up tales which are fiction, and loads of what individuals undergo with immediately are these tales, these narratives that we inform ourselves and each other, and I’ve simply all the time felt like that one thing that somebody mentioned proper now, it’s not a tough no. You recognize once you hear a tough no. I do know the distinction between an objection and I simply have a rebuttal for it versus a tough no, and till it’s a tough no, there’s wiggle room to get one thing executed. And so I’ve simply all the time felt this, and it’s attention-grabbing that you just ho[m]ed in on it, but it surely’s undoubtedly been a tenet in my life, which is don’t hand over. Simply attempt totally different approaches. Perhaps you didn’t ask the best means, or possibly you didn’t give the best incentives, or possibly it was Monday and so they’re in a foul temper.”
— Cyan Banister
“My life has solely been improved by taking myself out of the choice making course of, as a result of I’m the hindrance.”
— Cyan Banister
“We’re all in Earth faculty, and we inhabit human our bodies, however we’re nothing however an power power within them. And that life power doesn’t dissipate, and it doesn’t go nowhere. It goes someplace.”
— Cyan Banister
“You’re simply sleepwalking via life. And the second you are taking the reins and also you grow to be the narrator of your individual story, and generally the captain, then that’s when it’s a transformational change.”
— Cyan Banister
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