Neil Mehta

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.

Baum was sleeping on the floor. I mean, there are points where I talked to Baum more than most anybody else in my life. I mean, Benny and my wife. Oh, yeah, still to this day. I still talk to him a tremendous amount. Back then, I don't think there was an hour a day where I hadn't talked to him. 2 a.m. in the morning, 3 a.m. in the morning, 4 a.m. in the morning, 3 p.m. in the afternoon, 10 a.m.

Baum was sleeping on the floor. I mean, there are points where I talked to Baum more than most anybody else in my life. I mean, Benny and my wife. Oh, yeah, still to this day. I still talk to him a tremendous amount. Back then, I don't think there was an hour a day where I hadn't talked to him. 2 a.m. in the morning, 3 a.m. in the morning, 4 a.m. in the morning, 3 p.m. in the afternoon, 10 a.m.

in the morning. His cycle times were 24 hours. There were points of enormous exhaustion for him and the team.

in the morning. His cycle times were 24 hours. There were points of enormous exhaustion for him and the team.

I have a controversial statement, which is I don't think there are many truly amazing founders that are building bad businesses. I've maybe read it to one or two, but they figure it out pretty quickly. I think that truly remarkable founders think in terms of jaw-dropping customer experiences. They think in terms of competitive moats. They think in terms of scale, getting to large TAMs.

I have a controversial statement, which is I don't think there are many truly amazing founders that are building bad businesses. I've maybe read it to one or two, but they figure it out pretty quickly. I think that truly remarkable founders think in terms of jaw-dropping customer experiences. They think in terms of competitive moats. They think in terms of scale, getting to large TAMs.

So every once in a while, I run into a founder that hasn't figured that all out yet, but usually they're very young and the learning curve is very steep. It always starts with founders for us.

So every once in a while, I run into a founder that hasn't figured that all out yet, but usually they're very young and the learning curve is very steep. It always starts with founders for us.