Brian Singerman: "If SpaceX Didn't Work, Founders Fund Wouldn't Exist"

**Brian Singerman** (0:00)
If SpaceX didn't work, Founders Fund would not exist. We bet our careers, essentially, on SpaceX. Venture Capital, to me, has put the most money in to the best companies possible at the best price possible. 98% plus of my decision was based on the strength of the founder. Do I believe that they would just crush at what they are doing? Do I believe that they are the best in the world at something novel? When I did get to meet Elon and learn more about SpaceX, it was extremely clear that there was nobody else like him on the planet who could actually pull something like SpaceX off. There's never been anybody like that in the history of business.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:42)
Brian Singerman, welcome to Sourcery.

**Brian Singerman** (0:44)
Thanks, thanks for having me.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:45)
Thanks for having us nowhere no one can ever know about.

**Brian Singerman** (0:49)
No, this is, we are in my studio, in my house.

**Molly O'Shea** (0:55)
It's a bit of nominative determinism, Singerman.

**Brian Singerman** (0:58)
I mean, I don't know about that. I think that was a made up name from Ellis Island back several generations ago.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:06)
So how do you explain all of your music?

**Brian Singerman** (1:08)
Oh, right, there's no other explanation for making music other than having a musical name.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:12)
It must have come from there.

**Brian Singerman** (1:13)
Must have.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:14)
When did the music?

**Brian Singerman** (1:15)
So basically I was invented at Ellis Island.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:17)
Yeah, right. I mean, did you walk through there yourself?

**Brian Singerman** (1:21)
We were talking about how old I am, and I'm not that old, Molly. I'm not a hundred and something.

**Molly O'Shea** (1:32)
We're off to a really good start. So most people know you from Founders Fund. Bit of a legend there. I know.
So Grace from Vanderbilt, she invited me out to one of their conferences that they were doing, I think it was like in the fall or winter or something like that, and she was like, hey, we'd love for you to come. You could interview Brian Singerman on stage. Are you interested in that? I was like, hell yeah. Then I think turns out I had to be in some foreign country.

**Brian Singerman** (2:01)
You're a woman of the world, Molly.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:02)
I'm so sorry. But here we are today in your music factory.

**Brian Singerman** (2:07)
Music studio, but sure.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:09)
So I want to talk about, I mean, this is like the most crazy time ever. And most of the companies that are headlining are ones that you were an early investor in. So I want to talk through those from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, etc.
But before we do that, I got some amazing questions from Max Levchin.

**Brian Singerman** (2:28)
Oh boy.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:29)
I don't think you're ready for these.

**Brian Singerman** (2:30)
I really am not. Anything that Max is going to bring up, I'm really not ready for, but I'll do my best.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:35)
They're very good.

**Brian Singerman** (2:36)
I will get him back though.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:38)
I mean, so we're going to get into all the investing stuff, so stay tuned. But to start, you ready?

**Brian Singerman** (2:44)
Ready.

**Molly O'Shea** (2:46)
When and how did you get into tabletop gaming?

**Brian Singerman** (2:49)
Oh, that's a great one. I've been in a tabletop gaming forever. I mean, I'm a gamer. That's what I do. That's like drives my investment strategy and drives everything else. Like I am a strategy gamer. I love it. It's what I love.
I got into gaming, tabletop gaming, I was playing just video gaming, probably like age six, seven. And I would go to these kind of like local meetups near my house where people were playing anything from Monopoly to a choir to, you know, any of the old games. And I just got really super into it.

**Molly O'Shea** (3:19)
What are your favorites?

**Brian Singerman** (3:20)
I mean, I've been competitive, like, you know, nation competitive, global competitive in a couple of different games. I don't know if I'd call it love or if I just get kind of obsessed with one of these games at a time.
I was like the Settlers of Catan US. Champion, but this is in like 1995, 96 before anybody was playing, right? Before anybody had ever even heard of the game. It was the first year the game came out. I was probably was world top 10 at a game called Ascension. And I was definitely top 10 in a game called Terraforming Mars, a game called Kalus. But, you know, I suck at poker though.