Jun 10, 2026 · 51 min · 20 segments
An interview with Theo Baker on his new book "How to Rule the World" Get Early Access on Substackhttps://sgcarney.substack.com/Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/gz2fFkj6MwJoin this channel to get…
Theo BakerGuest
Scott CarneyHost
Uh, you know, I got this book only, like, four days ago, and I'm like, I had to devour it 'cause I knew we were gonna chat, and there's just so much great material in it, and I've been a, a, a watchdog at Stanford for a long time, um, you know, worried about the VC pipeline.
And then, um, you know, I, I interviewed Elizabeth Bik a little bit earl- like, you know, a year or so ago, and, uh, and I've always wanted to dig in more, and then I found your book.
[chuckles] The first place I wanna start is, you know, can you describe for me the Stanford inside of Stanford?
Well, I think it's important to understand that Stanford is less a school than it is a business, right? This is a place that has a budget higher than 116 countries.
They are how you're going to extract a reward for having, uh, you know, created this incredible ecosystem.
You will get kicked back, uh, you know, the amount of money that you invest in them, you know, 10 or 1,000 times fold, uh, you know, when they create the next trillion-dollar companies, right? Both of the most valuable companies in the world right now, Alphabet and Nvidia, uh, were founded by Stanford alumni, grew out of this university.
Um, and so the logical end result of that, that logic, right? The, the, the logical end result of believing that students are a monetizable commodity is what is known as the Stanford inside Stanford.
And the Stanford inside Stanford is the group of, you know, the few dozen students who are tapped on the shoulder and identified very early on as the next trillion-dollar startup founders.
And for them, there's a complete parallel reality where they are foisted with excess and access.
It's like, what the hell are you funding? Uh, and at some point, you were actually tapped on the shoulder, and I think it was, it was an early investigation into could, uh, Theo become the next billion-dollar startup person.
What was it like to be, to be, to, to negotiate that elitism and to see the beginnings of that journey?
You know, I came into Stanford thinking I was going to be a computer science kid.
Uh, you know, I got this book only, like, four days ago, and I'm like, I had to devour it 'cause I knew we were gonna chat, and there's just so much great material in it, and I've been a, a, a watchdog at Stanford for a long time, um, you know, worried about the VC pipeline.
And then, um, you know, I, I interviewed Elizabeth Bik a little bit earl- like, you know, a year or so ago, and, uh, and I've always wanted to dig in more, and then I found your book.
[chuckles] The first place I wanna start is, you know, can you describe for me the Stanford inside of Stanford?
Well, I think it's important to understand that Stanford is less a school than it is a business, right? This is a place that has a budget higher than 116 countries.
They are how you're going to extract a reward for having, uh, you know, created this incredible ecosystem.
You will get kicked back, uh, you know, the amount of money that you invest in them, you know, 10 or 1,000 times fold, uh, you know, when they create the next trillion-dollar companies, right? Both of the most valuable companies in the world right now, Alphabet and Nvidia, uh, were founded by Stanford alumni, grew out of this university.
Um, and so the logical end result of that, that logic, right? The, the, the logical end result of believing that students are a monetizable commodity is what is known as the Stanford inside Stanford.
And the Stanford inside Stanford is the group of, you know, the few dozen students who are tapped on the shoulder and identified very early on as the next trillion-dollar startup founders.
And for them, there's a complete parallel reality where they are foisted with excess and access.
It's like, what the hell are you funding? Uh, and at some point, you were actually tapped on the shoulder, and I think it was, it was an early investigation into could, uh, Theo become the next billion-dollar startup person.
What was it like to be, to be, to, to negotiate that elitism and to see the beginnings of that journey?
You know, I came into Stanford thinking I was going to be a computer science kid.
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