Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Josh Kushner - Concentration and Conviction

·1 hr 3 min·5 clips

Stan Druckenmiller told Josh Kushner, 'that's always the right decision—you just better fucking pick right.'

Josh Kushner founded Thrive Capital in 2012 and has grown it to approximately $50 billion under management with a deliberately small investment team. Patrick O'Shaughnessy, host of Invest Like the Best, conducts this second conversation after a Colossus cover story on Kushner and Thrive generated significant attention. The firm is distinguished by its extreme concentration in companies it backs and its deep operational involvement with founders. Kushner explains that Thrive's culture rejects both external criticism and external praise equally, taking inspiration from Marcus Aurelius's concept of being the same man in both good times and bad. The firm looks for employees who share the same traits it looks for in founders: self-awareness, humility, drive, and independent thought. Kushner recounts the Instagram investment in 2011, when Thrive put $12 million into a $500 million valuation and doubled the capital in days after Facebook acquired it; John Winkelried then called Kushner and told him never believe your own bullshit. The GitHub story reveals how Thrive owned approximately 10% of the company after buying shares others did not want at a moment of perceived internal crisis. Kushner discusses leading a $1.8 billion investment in Stripe at a $50 billion valuation — a 50% discount to the prior round — while others fixated on near-term margin metrics instead of long-term internet commerce growth. A call to Stan Druckenmiller at a moment of doubt produced the defining piece of advice: that is always the right decision, you just better pick right. Kushner describes his first exposure to ChatGPT at one or two in the morning, showing it to his wife Carly, and his conviction that OpenAI had the unique combination of talent density, compute access, and distribution potential to win the AI race. The episode also covers how Thrive created the Isomorphic Labs investment out of DeepMind by working closely with Demis Hassabis following AlphaFold. Kushner frames Thrive's mission using the Medici analogy: we are not DaVinci, we are Medici, explaining that the firm exists to enable great founders rather than to be the heroes itself. Tone throughout is reflective and philosophical, with Kushner willing to share personal stories including his grandmother's Holocaust survival as a source of his drive. The conversation is intended for investors, founders, and entrepreneurs interested in venture capital, conviction-based investing, and firm-building philosophy.

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