Smart Friends

Hosted by Eric Jorgenson

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124

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Casual conversations with founders, technologists, investors, and artists about building a brighter future, together. Welcome to our digital living room. With science, technology and entrepreneurship we can *continue* to create unfathomable leaps in quality of life. We show you how to find, apply, build, and invest in technologies to change your life and the world. When we have smart friends, we do smart things. When we do smart things, we save the world. No matter who, where, or when you are – now you have smart friends, too. Outside this podcast, I’m the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji. Connect at ejorgenson.com Laugh and learn with people like Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant, Andrew Wilkinson, Austen Allred, David Senra, Josh Storrs Hall, Ashley Rindsberg, Zach Pettet, Bret Kugelmass, Omar ElNaggar, Grace Guo, Brett Kopf, Max Olson, Chris Williamson, Shane Mac, Tim Hwang, David Perell, Jason Hitchcock, Natalia Karayaneva, Sebastian Marshall, Taylor Pearson, Mitchell Baldridge and more. Join conversations with my partners in early-stage tech investing, Bo Fishback and Al Doan. Our Rolling Fun Episodes cover our investments and escapades as angel investors and startup helpers. We invest in startups creating the *next* industrial revolution. Learn more at rolling.fun “Surround yourself with people who remind you more of your future than of your past.”

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60 recent

June 16, 20261 hr 14 min

#105 Inside the Underground Meme Marketing World: Jason Levin of Memelord

Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:34) - The most effective meme and the midwit curve (00:08:11) - Memes as memetic warfare and communication (00:10:04) - Jason's internet kid origin story (00:13:09) - Building MemeLord and AI agents for memes (00:16:47) - Working with B2B and boring companies (00:17:50) - The arbitrage in funny B2B marketing (00:21:38) - Running multiple meme accounts for distribution (00:25:01) - Owning the distribution with owned pages (00:27:30) - The coming robot meme wave (00:28:59) - The truth about astroturfed virality (00:36:06) - Stop hosting dinners (00:39:04) - The most entertaining outcome is most likely (00:42:15) - The $10k protest in France (00:44:23) - Word of mouth and marketing books (00:46:14) - Build worlds around your company (00:48:34) - Raising capital and leveling up as a founder (00:52:12) - Delegation and leverage as you scale (00:59:56) - Dealing with hit pieces and cancel culture (01:03:15) - Heroes and influences (01:06:00) - Where to follow and closing Links: Eric Jorgenson LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson Twitter / X — https://x.com/EricJorgenson Website — https://www.ejorgenson.com/ Jason on X - https://x.com/iamjasonlevin Jason on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamjasonlevin/ MemeLord - https://www.memelord.com/ Memes Make Millions by Jason Levin - https://iamjasonlevin.gumroad.com/l/memes To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Book of Elon: https://www.elonmuskbook.org/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

June 2, 20261 hr 11 min

#104 The Elite Private High School Where Students Earn A Million Dollars: [Nat Eliason of Founder School (via Alpha)]

Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:27) - Nat joins Alpha School to launch Founder School (00:04:11) - The million-dollar business guarantee (00:04:44) - Why no program like this exists yet (00:09:09) - How AI tutors compress academics into three hours (00:13:00) - Teenagers are capable of real work (00:15:27) - The Alpha School platform and expansion model (00:25:35) - Founder School's September 2026 launch (00:29:21) - Reproducing Stanford's entrepreneurial advantages (00:38:00) - Year one curriculum: sales first (00:48:28) - Building expertise and avoiding hustle culture (00:53:42) - The institutional skin in the game (00:56:22) - Who's applying and the $150K tuition (01:01:04) - Ten-year vision: 10,000 students across ten campuses (01:08:04) - How to learn more and get involved Links: Eric Jorgenson LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson Twitter / X — https://x.com/EricJorgenson Website — https://www.ejorgenson.com/ Nat Eliason LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateliason/ Twitter / X — https://twitter.com/nateliason Website — https://www.nateliason.com/ Alpha School — https://alpha.school/ Founder School — https://founders.school To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

May 19, 20262 hr 8 min

#103 How to Destroy Bad Ideas Without Killing Relationships [The Dionysus Program with Sean Devine]

Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:23) - Reading the forward to Sean’s new book (00:09:30) - What problem were you experiencing that sparked these ideas? (00:12:30) - Sean’s early arrival to AI (00:23:15) - Identity (00:27:55) - Defining Apollo and Dionysus (00:34:47) - Understanding and uncertainty (00:38:26) - Tools to deal with uncertainty (00:50:27) - Tools for metabolism (01:03:25) - Ritual time and run time (01:11:30) - Building trust to have hard conversations (01:13:40) - The key pillars of the Dionysus Program (01:37:09) - Applying this thinking across organizations and life (01:45:28) - Applying Apollo/Dionysus to investing (01:57:10) - Observing the learning rate of an organization (02:03:08) - Closing thoughts Links: The Dionysus Program - https://www.dionysusprogram.com/ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

May 5, 20261 hr 19 min

#102 The Next Renaissance, AI Reality vs Hype, and a Movement of Hope with Zack Kass

Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:40) - Being the “tech for middle America” translator (00:06:00) - Who are your heroes? (00:13:40) - Zack’s unique approach to AI (00:57:35) - The market for identity transformation (01:11:08) - Writing the next renaissance (01:15:31) - Using AI in the writing process (01:18:25) - Final thoughts Links: The Next Renaissance by Zack Kass - https://a.co/d/07VwLrg4 Zack’s website - https://www.zackkass.com/ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.

April 7, 20261 hr 35 min

The Book of Elon - Part 4

Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 1 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

April 7, 20261 hr 44 min

The Book of Elon - Part 3

Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 3 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

April 7, 20261 hr 10 min

The Book of Elon - Part 2

Welcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 2 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.

April 7, 20261 hr 6 min

The Book of Elon - Part 1

March 24, 20268 min

The Book of Elon launches today

The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success is now available! “All of Elon Musk’s Most Useful Ideas, In His Own Words.” I’ve invested five years of effort and tens of thousands of dollars into making this book as useful as possible for you. Order the book now on Amazon: Kindle: https://amzn.to/4uEf0pO Paperback: https://amzn.to/47avSuh Hardcover: https://amzn.to/4by5VWL Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Book-of-Elon-Audiobook/B0G3B4SJPQ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend

February 24, 20263 hr 35 min

My Conversation with Naval Megasode

It's been five years since the Almanack of Naval Ravikant was published. I spent the day with Naval expanding on key ideas from the book. We recorded hours of that conversation to share with you. You can purchase the new expanded edition with nearly 4 hours of new material on Audible here: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant-Audiobook/B0FBCP1JWJ Chapters: 00:00 - Building Wealth 37:49 - Building Judgement 01:12:30 - Learning Happiness 02:15:17 - Saving Yourself 02:50:17 - Philosophy To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend