Antonio Gracias - Pro-Entropic Investing - [Invest Like the Best, EP. 271]

My guest today is Antonio Gracias, founder, CIO, and CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Antonio is perhaps best known for his role at Tesla, as the earliest institutional investor and Director from 2007 to 2021. But he has deep operating and investing experience, having first acquired and managed a number of manufacturing and technology companies during his 20s. And it was during those formative years that Antonio and his team developed the skills that led to Valor, which provides operational expertise to the high growth private companies they invest in.

Our conversation is a deep exploration of the drivers behind Antonio and Valor’s success. We dive into his concept of pro-entropic investing, what he learned as a 25-year-old running a manufacturing business, and trust me when I say, you don't want to miss his answer to the kindest thing ever. Please enjoy this great conversation with Antonio Gracias.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Show Notes

[00:02:51] - [First question] - Defining what a pro-entropic company is

[00:07:26] - Understanding external forces of chaos and why they’ll continue to increase

[00:11:32] - What he’s learned about identifying and investing in pro-entropic companies

[00:13:43] - Investing with entropy in mind can be a bet on unchanging aspects of human nature

[00:15:08] - Defining durability in contrast with resiliency and entropy

[00:18:53] - Coming from a traditional background and the origin of Valor

[00:22:05] - The theory of constraints and why it’s so powerful; The Goal

[00:26:32] - Transitioning into a private equity structure and Valor’s 2001-2005 era

[00:42:02] - Decision making bias and combating bias effectively in practice 

[00:44:30] - Where security and control figures into his thinking

[00:45:45] - Identity in relation to ego; the tools he uses to combat identity related decisions

[00:49:04] - Lessons learned from the Japanese language versus Western languages

[00:53:07] - Questions he returns to when he’s getting to know a company

[00:56:16] - An episode of operational deployment that most stands out in memory

[00:58:54] - Key concepts that most stick with him from working alongside Elon Musk

[01:01:32] - Why there aren’t more Musk’s or Bezos’ in the world

[01:04:20] - Ensuring Valor invests in the best companies going forward

[01:06:06] - How to pass the torch of what Valor is to others when his time is done

[01:08:25] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him