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E11: Katherine Boyle on Building Companies, Families, and Careers

Erik Torenberg sits down with Katherine Boyle, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz where she invests in companies that promote American dynamism. Erik and Katherine discuss the private sector versus the public sector, the American dream in conflict with the rise of therapeutic culture, and how to reinstill a love of public service.

If you enjoyed this podcast you can head over to watch Katherine's recent Moment of Zen episode where she talks about founder mentality, Twitter, SpaceX, and more (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMDl3JhRGdk&t=1s)

RECOMMENDED SHOWS:
Moment of Zen: @MomentofZenPodcast
The Cognitive Revolution: @CognitiveRevolutionPodcast

TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Episode preview
(02:21) What is American Dynamism?
(04:49) How should VC’s view China?
(07:03) We aren’t seeing China as an ally anymore
(09:19) Private vs public sector
(12:23) Why the public sector won’t build the next SpaceX
(15:35) Sponsors: Secureframe | Marketerhire
(19:00) Tradeoffs with privatization
(25:20) How to reinstill a love for public service
(30:02) Where Katherine differs from Balaji Srinivasan
(32:39) What can we learn from China
(34:13) Building is a political philosophy
(34:56) Katherine’s family background
(37:47) America is where you can escape your past
(39:29) We are a nation of families moreso than individuals
(41:40) What Katherine learned from being an au pair
(43:48) The rise of therapeutic culture
(49:38) What to do about struggling men
(58:32) The problems of delaying adulthood
(1:06:42) The problems of optionality
(1:10:07) How religion informs her work and life

TWITTER:
Katherine’s Twitter: @KTmBoyle
A16z’s Twitter: @a16z
Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg
Upstream : @upstream__pod

LINKS:
American Dynamism: https://a16z.com/american-dynamism/

SPONSORS:
Please support our sponsors: Secureframe | Mercury

- Secureframe: https://secureframe.com/
Secureframe is the leading all-in-one platform for security and privacy compliance. Get SOC-2 audit ready in weeks, not months. I believe in Secureframe so much that I invested in it, and I recommend it to all my portfolio companies. Sign up for a free demo and mention UPSTREAM during your demo to get 20% off your first year. Secureframe has just released Secureframe Trust, a new product that lets you showcase your organization's security posture to build customer trust.

- Mercury: https://mercury.com/
Now more than ever, startup founders need a safe place to put their cash. Mercury protects your money and also provides the streamlined user experience that great founders expect through partner banks and their sweep networks. Mercury offers up to $5 million in FDIC insurance, which is 20 times the per-bank limit. They also make it easy to invest any cash above the FDIC-insured amount in a money market fund, a hundred thousand startups trust Mercury with their finances. I've been a happy Mercury customer and have found their team incredibly helpful and responsive.

Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC