A conversation with Turner Novak

"The Web3 to AI pipeline does exist"

Ever wish you could read the texts between techs biggest personalities?

Me too. While most tech media is busy summarizing headlines, I’m more interested in the conversations behind them.

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Forward to a friend. Or your ex co-founder who told you reading newsletters was a waste of time.

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This week I’m sharing a conversation with my friend, Turner Novak.

Turner is the founder of Banana Capital and also host of The Peel.

He’s probably one of the only investors to have ever successfully raised multiple funds out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We share a common interest in the art of making the internet laugh (our wives cringe) and got connected through Twitter a few years back.

Turner’s a rare breed. He navigated his way into venture from small-town Michigan, sold his house for an internship, and raised two funds from top-tier LPs.

Amongst the memes and frequent sh*tposts, Turner holds a wealth of knowledge on capital allocation as an early stage GP and how founders should navigate the early stages of company building & capital raising.

Here’s our convo. Lighthearted but packed with nuggets for founders and capital allocators alike.

What’s the most absurd pivot that you’ve seen work out?

CoreWeave is a $20B public AI company that started out as “Atlantic Crypto” back in 2017. Ten out of ten execution.

What’s the craziest idea you ever got pitched on? / If you had to work at one of your port co’s, which one would it be?

I’m not an investor, but Chainguard is hiring for a ton of roles. If Turner can’t work there, maybe you can.

What do you look for when you're meeting founders for the first time?

Asking yourself, “would I want to work for this founder?” if you’re investing in a company is definitely a unique lens. I’m stealing this and making it my own investment thesis now. Thanks, Turner.

What’s the worst first hire that a company can make?

My take: Hiring a generalist marketer, and expecting them to own 7 or 8 facets of marketing.

I've seen too many startups hire a "growth person" who ends up doing a mediocre job across every channel.

Startups don’t need a generalist that can run half baked Facebook campaigns.

What they often need is a specialist who can solve for one key distribution channel and outsource the rest.

What's a question that founders should ask their investors that they don't?

1. “Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.” - Steve Jobs Wife Charlie Munger

2. Who knew Laurene Powell was a fan of emerging solo GPs from Grand Rapids Michigan, investing in LATAM consumer tech, sharing wisdom like:

What was your first investment ever?

Toast for Mexico.

Sounds like a Rocket Internet PortCo.

What’s your software stack like?

This was refreshing after chatting with a VC who uses 4 different content scheduling tools for Twitter alone.

What do you think about the future of content and media?

Not a shameless plug for Turner’s podcast and newsletter ‘The Peel’

Shameless plug for looping in the episode I was on last year.

On a similar topic…

I’ve spent a good amount of time over the last few months recruiting and onboarding some of the best writers in the world to join Napa.

Founder-led content marketing drove millions in ARR each year to my last company, and we’re now helping startups, agencies, and VCs do the same.

If you want to figure out social as a channel this year, contact us here or grab time with Kevin on our team and he’ll loop me in.

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That’s the full thread.

Let me know what you thought about this new format we’re trying out and who I should ‘cold call iMessage next! (paying good $$ for Paul Graham's phone #).

Shoot me a reply or comment below!

Until next week.

- Chris