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David Senra✓

@davidsenra

Conversations with the greatest living founders.

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  1. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Nik Storonsky is one of the most hardcore and competitive founders I’ve ever talked to. He’s the founder of Revolut, a $115 billion company, and wants to be the number one bank in 100 countries. When someone asked Nik if he was coming for Jamie Dimon's lunch, he said “I’m coming for his dinner.” “We want to dominate, otherwise what’s the point?” He removed every VC from his board, and when one investor pushed him too far, he started his own fund to compete with them. Nik has a lot of ideas on talent, product design, marketing, constraints, and what makes founder-led companies special. This is a fascinating conversation about competition, speed, and building a machine-like company. 0:00 Coming for Jamie Dimon's dinner 2:04 Building the #1 bank in 100 countries 6:12 Why founders beat professional CEOs 8:45 Revolut's biggest mistake 12:47 Why legacy banks can't innovate 17:20 Running a company like a machine 20:28 Funding winners and cutting losers like a trader 23:31 How AI is changing Revolut's team structure 25:23 50 direct reports and spreading innovation fast 29:59 Hiring self-guided missiles 33:31 Too much money makes founders weaker 37:38 What Europe's constraints taught Revolut 41:08 Why VCs are like football cheerleaders 49:28 Starting a fund to compete with VCs 54:28 From zero marketing to buying Europe's airports 1:00:21 Funding moonshots like a global tech company 1:03:58 Building an unstoppable machine Includes paid partnerships.
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  2. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci says it all started when he went to Bombardier to buy $300M worth of Challengers, and they offered to sell him Flexjet instead. “I went to buy planes, and they sold me Flexjet.” But the $180M acquisition came with a ~$1B aircraft order, including $600M worth of Globals he had no idea how to pay for. “We’ll figure out how to pay for those airplanes later. I gotta get Flexjet in here.” Then Bombardier discovered it couldn't sell him the Globals because of its contract with NetJets. “Whoa—$600 million I didn't have to worry about. Of course, I went, ‘Oh, that sucks.’” “Two years later, we do the Gulfstream. And part of that deal, we get exclusivity, so now we're the only people that can operate Gulfstreams.”
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  3. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    85% of all the private jets in the world are in America 🇺🇸 “People always ask me: ‘What's your strategy for Asia?’ Don't need one.”
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  4. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Posts @davidsenra
    A lot of great stories from building businesses in private aviation for 5 decades in this one!
    David Senra @davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci is the founder of Flexjet, a private jet company with 365 jets, billions in revenue (and growing fast), and more Gulfstreams than the U.S. government. He bought his first aviation company for $27,500: "I didn't buy the company to be an entrepreneur. I bought it so I could still have a job." When he was forced to sell his company, he called it the worst day of his life. Six years later, at the bottom of the financial crisis, he bought the company back. This was a fun conversation about extreme customer service, why money can be more dangerous than sex, the benefits of being an inch wide but a mile deep, how to talk to your kids about wealth, and building a life tailor-made for you. 0:00 Kenn’s son had never flown commercial 2:34 Giving your kids their wealth while you’re alive 7:03 Charlie Munger: “You give them the money” 15:57 The rule his kids made to avoid jealousy 25:36 Buying a failed charter company for $27,500 35:05 Turned down by every bank until Buffett bought NetJets 39:33 $100 million in sales in 3 months 41:36 Why he hates mergers 42:58 Losing his company: the worst day of his life 52:15 Buying his company back in the financial crisis 56:08 The $600 million problem that led to Gulfstream 1:03:01 Father Hesburgh’s 3 rules for a life of significance 1:05:47 Why he gave away everything he owned 1:09:57 Why any employee can comp a $300,000 trip Includes paid partnerships.
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  5. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci is the founder of Flexjet, a private jet company with 365 jets, billions in revenue (and growing fast), and more Gulfstreams than the U.S. government. He bought his first aviation company for $27,500: "I didn't buy the company to be an entrepreneur. I bought it so I could still have a job." When he was forced to sell his company, he called it the worst day of his life. Six years later, at the bottom of the financial crisis, he bought the company back. This was a fun conversation about extreme customer service, why money can be more dangerous than sex, the benefits of being an inch wide but a mile deep, how to talk to your kids about wealth, and building a life tailor-made for you. 0:00 Kenn’s son had never flown commercial 2:34 Giving your kids their wealth while you’re alive 7:03 Charlie Munger: “You give them the money” 15:57 The rule his kids made to avoid jealousy 25:36 Buying a failed charter company for $27,500 35:05 Turned down by every bank until Buffett bought NetJets 39:33 $100 million in sales in 3 months 41:36 Why he hates mergers 42:58 Losing his company: the worst day of his life 52:15 Buying his company back in the financial crisis 56:08 The $600 million problem that led to Gulfstream 1:03:01 Father Hesburgh’s 3 rules for a life of significance 1:05:47 Why he gave away everything he owned 1:09:57 Why any employee can comp a $300,000 trip Includes paid partnerships.
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  6. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    David Senra
    RT @jrichlive: Fun listen. Great example of an individual with a deep passion following his instincts, taking enormous risk, and building something incredible. “I had no idea how I was going to pay for the Globals!”
    David Senra @davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci is the founder of Flexjet, a private jet company with 365 jets, billions in revenue (and growing fast), and more Gulfstreams than the U.S. government. He bought his first aviation company for $27,500: "I didn't buy the company to be an entrepreneur. I bought it so I could still have a job." When he was forced to sell his company, he called it the worst day of his life. Six years later, at the bottom of the financial crisis, he bought the company back. This was a fun conversation about extreme customer service, why money can be more dangerous than sex, the benefits of being an inch wide but a mile deep, how to talk to your kids about wealth, and building a life tailor-made for you. 0:00 Kenn’s son had never flown commercial 2:34 Giving your kids their wealth while you’re alive 7:03 Charlie Munger: “You give them the money” 15:57 The rule his kids made to avoid jealousy 25:36 Buying a failed charter company for $27,500 35:05 Turned down by every bank until Buffett bought NetJets 39:33 $100 million in sales in 3 months 41:36 Why he hates mergers 42:58 Losing his company: the worst day of his life 52:15 Buying his company back in the financial crisis 56:08 The $600 million problem that led to Gulfstream 1:03:01 Father Hesburgh’s 3 rules for a life of significance 1:05:47 Why he gave away everything he owned 1:09:57 Why any employee can comp a $300,000 trip Includes paid partnerships.
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  7. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci’s 5 rules for life: 1. Be passionate about what you do, compassionate about how you do it. 2. Memories are worth whatever they cost to create. 3. Friendship is a one-way street. It’s only what you do for your friends, it’s not what they do for you. 4. Don’t miss the best 5 days of your life. You never know when they’re going to be, so wake up every day with the idea that, “What a wonderful day this could be”. 5. There’s no downside in doing something good for somebody you don’t like.
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    David Senra @davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci is the founder of Flexjet, a private jet company with 365 jets, billions in revenue (and growing fast), and more Gulfstreams than the U.S. government. He bought his first aviation company for $27,500: "I didn't buy the company to be an entrepreneur. I bought it so I could still have a job." When he was forced to sell his company, he called it the worst day of his life. Six years later, at the bottom of the financial crisis, he bought the company back. This was a fun conversation about extreme customer service, why money can be more dangerous than sex, the benefits of being an inch wide but a mile deep, how to talk to your kids about wealth, and building a life tailor-made for you. 0:00 Kenn’s son had never flown commercial 2:34 Giving your kids their wealth while you’re alive 7:03 Charlie Munger: “You give them the money” 15:57 The rule his kids made to avoid jealousy 25:36 Buying a failed charter company for $27,500 35:05 Turned down by every bank until Buffett bought NetJets 39:33 $100 million in sales in 3 months 41:36 Why he hates mergers 42:58 Losing his company: the worst day of his life 52:15 Buying his company back in the financial crisis 56:08 The $600 million problem that led to Gulfstream 1:03:01 Father Hesburgh’s 3 rules for a life of significance 1:05:47 Why he gave away everything he owned 1:09:57 Why any employee can comp a $300,000 trip Includes paid partnerships.
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  8. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci shares the story of how Warren Buffett saved his company without even knowing it: In 1996, Ricci needed $30-40M to launch a fractional private jet ownership business using pre-owned aircraft. He pitched 35-40 banks over the next year. Almost all turned him down. Then in July 1998, Warren Buffett announced the acquisition of NetJets for ~$725M. Banks that previously wouldn't finance Ricci's business suddenly wanted in. “Well, if Warren’s doing it, Kenn had a good idea.” That summer, he secured nearly $300M in debt financing from institutions including Bombardier Capital, Boeing Capital, and Fleet Bank. By October 13, 1998, his fleet was operational.
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    David Senra @davidsenra
    Kenn Ricci is the founder of Flexjet, a private jet company with 365 jets, billions in revenue (and growing fast), and more Gulfstreams than the U.S. government. He bought his first aviation company for $27,500: "I didn't buy the company to be an entrepreneur. I bought it so I could still have a job." When he was forced to sell his company, he called it the worst day of his life. Six years later, at the bottom of the financial crisis, he bought the company back. This was a fun conversation about extreme customer service, why money can be more dangerous than sex, the benefits of being an inch wide but a mile deep, how to talk to your kids about wealth, and building a life tailor-made for you. 0:00 Kenn’s son had never flown commercial 2:34 Giving your kids their wealth while you’re alive 7:03 Charlie Munger: “You give them the money” 15:57 The rule his kids made to avoid jealousy 25:36 Buying a failed charter company for $27,500 35:05 Turned down by every bank until Buffett bought NetJets 39:33 $100 million in sales in 3 months 41:36 Why he hates mergers 42:58 Losing his company: the worst day of his life 52:15 Buying his company back in the financial crisis 56:08 The $600 million problem that led to Gulfstream 1:03:01 Father Hesburgh’s 3 rules for a life of significance 1:05:47 Why he gave away everything he owned 1:09:57 Why any employee can comp a $300,000 trip Includes paid partnerships.
    44638.2K
  9. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky says building in highly-regulated environments like Europe make you so battle-hardened that you become hard to compete against: “In Europe, everything is extremely capped and regulated compared to the US.” “Plus very tough employment laws in many countries. In the US it’s very easy. It's employment at will. In Europe it is not like that. So you need to be very careful how you hire, who you hire.” “So all this together actually produces an environment which is not very profitable, and very difficult to build a company. Then even in that environment, we succeeded.” “We succeeded because we spend a lot of time and energy and brainpower to optimize on every single problem.” “This difficult environment in Europe actually taught us how to build a business in a very competitive landscape.”
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  10. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    David Senra
    RT @niran7: Based. Not many founders/CEOs have the balls to do brand marketing. Most just live in a perpetual cycle of performance ads. @NStoronsky on @davidsenra’s podcast. “If you’re a digital bank, you don’t have branches. People don’t see you physically, so they trust you less by definition compared to HSBC, Lloyds, JP Morgan Chase." "So how do you build trust? In performance marketing you pay per impression, and there are a lot of spaces in the physical world you can buy that also produce impressions, at a much cheaper price. We bought almost 50% of all airports in Europe. Simple math. How many times a year people travel, how many times they’re in the airport, how many impressions we produce, how much it costs us. There is arbitrage to performance marketing.”
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  13. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Jeff Bezos said you need to pour gasoline on promising sparks. Nik Storonsky says this is exactly how he makes bets on new products at Revolut: “We know that our top 10 bets, they grow 10-20% month on month.” “If we see that a bet is historically in the bottom 25% of all the bets, we simply sunset it.” “We instill discipline when we're running businesses which are not growing very fast. And then bets which are growing very fast, we're doubling down.
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    111923822.3K
  14. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky says most VCs are like cheerleaders trying to play on the field: “These people basically think that because of them, the company was created because they gave money, and that they are entitled to a large part of its success.” “My advice to entrepreneurs would be: even if you raise money from VCs, pay a lot of attention to shareholder agreement.” “Ensure that they’re purely financial players, with no voting rights and no seat at the table in decision-making.” “If something goes wrong, you effectively have cheerleaders who look at the match, and then try to play the match instead of professional players. That’s always a disaster.”
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    132129825.4K
  15. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Posts @davidsenra
    Full episode is on X (and everywhere else)
    David Senra @davidsenra
    Nik Storonsky is one of the most hardcore and competitive founders I’ve ever talked to. He’s the founder of Revolut, a $115 billion company, and wants to be the number one bank in 100 countries. When someone asked Nik if he was coming for Jamie Dimon's lunch, he said “I’m coming for his dinner.” “We want to dominate, otherwise what’s the point?” He removed every VC from his board, and when one investor pushed him too far, he started his own fund to compete with them. Nik has a lot of ideas on talent, product design, marketing, constraints, and what makes founder-led companies special. This is a fascinating conversation about competition, speed, and building a machine-like company. 0:00 Coming for Jamie Dimon's dinner 2:04 Building the #1 bank in 100 countries 6:12 Why founders beat professional CEOs 8:45 Revolut's biggest mistake 12:47 Why legacy banks can't innovate 17:20 Running a company like a machine 20:28 Funding winners and cutting losers like a trader 23:31 How AI is changing Revolut's team structure 25:23 50 direct reports and spreading innovation fast 29:59 Hiring self-guided missiles 33:31 Too much money makes founders weaker 37:38 What Europe's constraints taught Revolut 41:08 Why VCs are like football cheerleaders 49:28 Starting a fund to compete with VCs 54:28 From zero marketing to buying Europe's airports 1:00:21 Funding moonshots like a global tech company 1:03:58 Building an unstoppable machine Includes paid partnerships.
    1131.9K
  16. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky says the best employees are like “self-guided missiles.” “You don’t even need to tell them what the goal is. They self-identify the goal, and then they reach it.” “Average people, you tell them the goal, and then you need to spend weekly iterations with them. So you spend management time. That’s what I don’t want.” “The best executives are very tough.” “Likable is never the goal for executives. The goal is always to achieve the goal with the minimal number of resources spent.”
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    414962149.3K
  17. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    David Senra
    RT @davidsenra: Revolut founder Nik Storonsky says one of his investors tried forcing him to fire his best person: “He was forcing me to fire my best person, because he was too hardcore.” “Of course I didn’t fire him. I said no.” “Pretty early on I realized that quite a few VCs, they are not very operational, and they can be actually dangerous for the company if they have enough power. So every single investment round, we just remove VCs.” “Now I don't have any VCs on the board. I think that's the best. You always need to have operators rather than VCs on the board, people who actually build business and who know how to do things.”
    David Senra @davidsenra
    Nik Storonsky is one of the most hardcore and competitive founders I’ve ever talked to. He’s the founder of Revolut, a $115 billion company, and wants to be the number one bank in 100 countries. When someone asked Nik if he was coming for Jamie Dimon's lunch, he said “I’m coming for his dinner.” “We want to dominate, otherwise what’s the point?” He removed every VC from his board, and when one investor pushed him too far, he started his own fund to compete with them. Nik has a lot of ideas on talent, product design, marketing, constraints, and what makes founder-led companies special. This is a fascinating conversation about competition, speed, and building a machine-like company. 0:00 Coming for Jamie Dimon's dinner 2:04 Building the #1 bank in 100 countries 6:12 Why founders beat professional CEOs 8:45 Revolut's biggest mistake 12:47 Why legacy banks can't innovate 17:20 Running a company like a machine 20:28 Funding winners and cutting losers like a trader 23:31 How AI is changing Revolut's team structure 25:23 50 direct reports and spreading innovation fast 29:59 Hiring self-guided missiles 33:31 Too much money makes founders weaker 37:38 What Europe's constraints taught Revolut 41:08 Why VCs are like football cheerleaders 49:28 Starting a fund to compete with VCs 54:28 From zero marketing to buying Europe's airports 1:00:21 Funding moonshots like a global tech company 1:03:58 Building an unstoppable machine Includes paid partnerships.
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  18. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky says easy money makes soft founders: “A lot of founders think money is free, which it almost is in California because you can raise so much money at ridiculous valuations and then just spend.” “There is a different culture of trying to solve problems with money rather than with your brains.”
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    1854621131K
  19. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Posts @davidsenra
    You’ll find a lot more of Nik’s ideas on company building in the full episode
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  20. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Posts @davidsenra
    The full episode is extreme:
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  21. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky: “The US is not that competitive. Europe is even less competitive.” “China is competitive.” “China is 9/9/6. Even if you are good in Europe, or in the US, how can you out-compete the people who work 9:00 to 9:00, six days a week?” “I started in a co-working space with 140 companies. Within 5 years, only 3 companies survived. They all worked on the weekends.” “Within 10 years, only 2 companies survived out of 140.” “Working weekends is a must if you want to survive. Purely statistically.”
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  22. David Senra✓@davidsenra
    Posts @davidsenra
    Nik is unapologetically extreme and has a lot of counterintuitive insights in the full episode:
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