Micky Malka, Founder of Ribbit Capital

**David Senra** (0:02)
Thanks for doing this, Micky.

**Micky Malka** (0:03)
David, it's a pleasure to be here with you.

**David Senra** (0:05)
There's so many times in our previous conversations where I'm listening to you speak, and I'm like, shit, Micky really does think and act a lot, very similar to a lot of history-based entrepreneurs that I read all these biographies about for Founders Podcast.
And one thing that I think you have in common with them and that you said before to me is that you hate being labeled.
Can you say more about that?

**Micky Malka** (0:25)
I think it's a way of always growing up in Venezuela and in all my life, you never had people being labeled. I never learned what that was about. And every time somebody tried to put me on a label, I fought really hard to get out of it. From, hey, are you tall, so you must be playing good at basketball? And my first answer is no, I suck at basketball. Just trying to get myself out of any particular label, all the way to, are you an investor, are you an entrepreneur? And I said, what about if I'm both? What about if I'm not any? Why do I need a label?
And the more you walk through life, allowing things to have label, the more difficult life is, because then you cannot see through it. You just see what you've been told to see.
So I think it's part of my rebel cause to never accept labels.

**David Senra** (1:15)
Yeah, I think if you're labeled, it means you're kind of conforming to like an existing mold. And I think the great founders, they're inherently non-conformist.

**Micky Malka** (1:23)
Yes, and you have to be non-conformist, because the world can always be better. So why accept whatever is there today?

**David Senra** (1:29)
So when you just said, hey, are you an entrepreneur, are you an investor? Maybe I'm both, maybe I'm neither. Like today, how do you view yourself?

**Micky Malka** (1:36)
So I describe myself as an entrepreneur at heart, an investor by design.
Such a general line that allows me to do anything, right? Some days I can wake up and be an entrepreneur, some days I can be an investor, some day I can be both, some day I can be something completely different. But at heart means that it comes from a place from inside, that if I change my heart, I can just change it. And by design means that if I learn and I keep learning how to do something, I can only get better at it. So I just allow myself to keep learning.

**David Senra** (2:04)
So there's really no, like you are completely fluid, you don't really, I put it like a label on yourself.

**Micky Malka** (2:09)
Correct. I don't. I try and I avoid it. The only label I want to get in life is that people say, I'm a great friend, I'm a great partner and I'm a good father.
And if I can get that label, that label I would love to have. The other ones, I don't care.

**David Senra** (2:27)
I'm always interested in how people think about their own perception of their work, because I just had this great conversation with Rick Rubin. And I had to interrupt him one time because he's like, yeah, I kind of think of myself as a researcher.
And I'm like, what? Because people are like, music producer and now he's a podcaster, and he's a consigliere, he's like some of the top artists in the world. He's just like, all day I'm just finding what I'm intensely curious about and just researching that as far as I can.

**Micky Malka** (2:52)
And I think that's what it takes, and that's what entrepreneurs do every day, and that's what a great investor does every day. But you don't get labeled like that, but yes, I will agree with you.

**David Senra** (3:00)
Question, I went to your website, I've read a bunch of these like, what do you call them? They're not even manifestos, are they essays?

**Micky Malka** (3:07)
They're essays.

**David Senra** (3:08)
Okay, so I'm very curious, you've only done a handful.

**Micky Malka** (3:11)
Yes.

**David Senra** (3:12)
I'm very curious like how your writing shapes, not only your thinking, but also what you wanna build through Ribbit.

**Micky Malka** (3:20)
Writing is everything, because we can sit here and talk about ideas for hours, but if you're not willing to put them in writing, you will never learn what truly they are, how deep they are. And what I find is typically those essays that you read, they start by being probably 20 pages long, but I can actually get a napkin and explain to you each one in a napkin. And if I can do that, if anybody can explain anything complex to you in a napkin, it means that they have studied enough that they know how to articulate it.