The Last Advantage: Human Judgment in an AI World Jeff Burningham Interview Episode #DCLXV The Doctor of Digital™ G. Mick Smith, PhD

You know, you've started, scaled, invested in dozens of companies across real estate, venture and technology.

When did you first start noticing that the real difference wasn't just execution, but how people think about when the stakes are high?

Yeah, I think it's all about people.

As a venture investor, as a team builder, I actually played football and basketball growing up, all growing up through high school, played a little bit in college.

And as an entrepreneur, it's all about the team.

In fact, like you said, I've invested in hundreds of technology startups here in the state of Utah and around the country.

And the number one thing that you're always looking for as a venture investor is the team.

It's about the team.

And sometimes I say to founders, unlike the stock prospectuses, which we get, which say that past success is no indication of future performance or whatever.

I think oftentimes the best indicator of future performance within individuals is their past performance, what they've done.

Obviously, we can change and grow and transform.

That's happening rapidly here in the age of AI.

But someone who's established a set of habits and patterns that can lead to success is someone I like to invest in.

And let me just say, one of the rules we have as well is not to invest in solo founders.

So people that were just doing it alone, because this is a hard road.

Existence, life is hard alone and so are startups.

It's hard to build something by yourself.

Very interesting to go back to the sports and early in life because I had the good fortune of doing that and knowing how to win and lose and lose gracefully.

These are really valuable lessons and it's definitely a team effort because you can't do anything without a team.

Very insightful.

Before the $5 billion real estate platform and venture portfolio, what first pulled you into building and investing?

Yeah.

I understood as an undergrad in college, my senior year, that entrepreneurship, at least for me, but I think for most people, is an accelerated path of learning and growth.

So that's what pulled me in, is it felt like learning on the fly it felt like an accelerated path of learning growth and transformation and that's that's what i've always been interested in even as a 20-something i'm now a 49 year old 40-something uh that sounds better than 49 um you know like i'm always been interested in transformation the last book written by a human is all about how humanity should I hope and will transform in the age of AI.

So that's been a through that's been a thread in my life that is always been true and that's the reason at a high level that's why i decided to be an entrepreneur rather than the other thing i was looking at was strategy consulting so my senior year at byu i was flying around the country interviewing with like bain and mckenzie and i had a startup a technology startup on the side this is 19 no this is sorry in the year 2000 And so, yeah, you know, that entrepreneurship has been an accelerated path of learning and growth for me.