Hunter Walk – Building Picks and Shovels - [Invest Like the Best, EP.112]

My guest this week is Hunter Walk, the co-founder of Homebrew, a unique venture capital firm. Hunter is a tool builder, having spent his career before venture at companies like Google and YouTube. The topic of our conversation is the intersection of creative expression, technology, human behavior, and problem solving. 

We discuss his time at the company behind the video game Second Life, building tools for creators at YouTube, and why a very hands-on style of early stage venture investing represents an interesting use of his skillset at this stage of his career. 

Please enjoy my conversation with Hunter Walk.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Show Notes

1:24 - (First Question) – Background on Second Life and what role Hunter had there

6:10 – The virtual currency system at use in Second Life

9:51 – Measuring how people behaved in this virtual world

12:21 – How closely is the Second Life world mimicking real life

15:13 – The market for platforms that lets people take on creative ventures

17:58 – Investments that interest Homebrew

20:21 – Lessons learned while working at YouTube

28:34 – The idea behind Homebrew

33:44 – How to best describe good problems to solve for

36:10 – The Shadow economy and investing in companies operating there

42:17 – Monetization of attention

47:22 – His interest in fintech companies

54:03 – Major trends of change he’s observed over his first three funds

1:04:13 – What is there take on the state of returns for VC’s

1:09:52 – What is the most common way that founders need help and what advice is more helpful

1:14:35 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Hunter

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag