Neil Mehta

I consider Bomb's development of Coupang and the development of GreenOaks that I've had is they're intertwined. I mean, it was one of the first investments we made and I joined the board pretty quickly and it was a seed investment. GreenOaks is probably best known for its growth investments.

I consider Bomb's development of Coupang and the development of GreenOaks that I've had is they're intertwined. I mean, it was one of the first investments we made and I joined the board pretty quickly and it was a seed investment. GreenOaks is probably best known for its growth investments.

We'd like to lead growth rounds in companies that we think will be a meaningful part of the S&P 500 over time. When we invested in Coupang, Green Oaks barely existed. When I was telling Bon that it was Green Oaks, he's like, I've never heard of Green Oaks. And he's like, don't worry, nobody's heard of Green Oaks. This is what you're hearing about for the first time, and I just made it up.

We'd like to lead growth rounds in companies that we think will be a meaningful part of the S&P 500 over time. When we invested in Coupang, Green Oaks barely existed. When I was telling Bon that it was Green Oaks, he's like, I've never heard of Green Oaks. And he's like, don't worry, nobody's heard of Green Oaks. This is what you're hearing about for the first time, and I just made it up.

And he was kind enough to bring us in as an investor. And it's hard to start anywhere but the founder, which is in this case, Bon. And Bon, I would say there's a bunch, it's a lot of the tenants we look for in any great founder, Bon possessed right away. It starts with focus.

And he was kind enough to bring us in as an investor. And it's hard to start anywhere but the founder, which is in this case, Bon. And Bon, I would say there's a bunch, it's a lot of the tenants we look for in any great founder, Bon possessed right away. It starts with focus.

Baum had this unique ability early on to identify what was the most important thing in the company and focus all his time on that at the exclusion of everything else. Wouldn't it be unusual if you looked at Baum's calendar on a Sunday night? Everything the next week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it would just be blocked out with one single thing he was trying to accomplish.

Baum had this unique ability early on to identify what was the most important thing in the company and focus all his time on that at the exclusion of everything else. Wouldn't it be unusual if you looked at Baum's calendar on a Sunday night? Everything the next week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it would just be blocked out with one single thing he was trying to accomplish.

If it was negotiating cost of goods sold in the diapers division in mid-2014, there'd just be two weeks blocked out to just do that for six hours a day. And he would just assemble a team and go deep on that and let everything else burn if needed. Yeah. That kind of focus is just extremely unusual. People like to say they're focused. They don't really understand what focus means.

If it was negotiating cost of goods sold in the diapers division in mid-2014, there'd just be two weeks blocked out to just do that for six hours a day. And he would just assemble a team and go deep on that and let everything else burn if needed. Yeah. That kind of focus is just extremely unusual. People like to say they're focused. They don't really understand what focus means.

Focus means saying no to everything else, everything else at the cost of doing what the single most important thing is. There's two parts to that. It's the ability to prioritize what is most important, not you have to practice it. To be able to intuitively grok what is most valuable and most important.

Focus means saying no to everything else, everything else at the cost of doing what the single most important thing is. There's two parts to that. It's the ability to prioritize what is most important, not you have to practice it. To be able to intuitively grok what is most valuable and most important.

And then the ability to maniacally do that at the cost of everything else is an intestinal fortitude that just not a lot of people have. Second, just the ambition. There was a lot of clarity reasonably early on that by building this 1P capability, BOM could build the best e-commerce experience in the world. Not the best in Korea, not the best in Asia, the best in the world.

And then the ability to maniacally do that at the cost of everything else is an intestinal fortitude that just not a lot of people have. Second, just the ambition. There was a lot of clarity reasonably early on that by building this 1P capability, BOM could build the best e-commerce experience in the world. Not the best in Korea, not the best in Asia, the best in the world.

Better than Amazon, better than anywhere else on earth. He has done that today. But at the time, that didn't just ring hollow. There's a lot of people that say that. You meet founders all the time that have very lofty ambitions, but there's a credible aggression to it that you're sort of able to validate along the way. I've never met a founder that doesn't want to climb the tallest mountain.

Better than Amazon, better than anywhere else on earth. He has done that today. But at the time, that didn't just ring hollow. There's a lot of people that say that. You meet founders all the time that have very lofty ambitions, but there's a credible aggression to it that you're sort of able to validate along the way. I've never met a founder that doesn't want to climb the tallest mountain.

Of course, I want to climb the mountain. It's the ability to demonstrate that they've mapped out their route. They've shown you how they're going to ration materials. They're going to show you what trade-offs they might have to make along the way. They'll tell you how they built the team to make sure they get there. They'll tell you the steps of what's going to happen along the way.

Of course, I want to climb the mountain. It's the ability to demonstrate that they've mapped out their route. They've shown you how they're going to ration materials. They're going to show you what trade-offs they might have to make along the way. They'll tell you how they built the team to make sure they get there. They'll tell you the steps of what's going to happen along the way.

They've maybe even tried a few paths and come back and said, okay, now I'm going to go this way. There's a credible aggression to it that I think is unique to just pure aggression. Many of the rounds we led in the company were a result of... Baum attacking this mountain. The building of Coupang was over 10, 15 years to where it is today. And there's beds in every delivery camp.

They've maybe even tried a few paths and come back and said, okay, now I'm going to go this way. There's a credible aggression to it that I think is unique to just pure aggression. Many of the rounds we led in the company were a result of... Baum attacking this mountain. The building of Coupang was over 10, 15 years to where it is today. And there's beds in every delivery camp.