Jake & JZ

We wrote a new book!!! It’s called Click and it’s all about the Foundation Sprint, our new 2-day method for kicking off big projects!We are SUPER excited to share it with you all, and this week’s episode is a deep dive into the process of writing the book and how it fits into our investing strategy.Learn more about the book at theclickbook.comOn episode 13 of Jake & JZ, w

ANNOUNCEMENT: We are hosting a live online event to introduce the Foundation Sprint!! Join us for an early look at our new sprint method and a cool surprise!On the podcast: Character Labs is BACK, so this week we’re sharing a What-Why-How-style deep dive on the program. If you want to hear our best ideas and tactics for starting new projects, OR if you’re just curious about Cha

We discuss three essential books that help us break through uncertainty and focus on the most important work. If you want to get better at designing products and building companies, we think you should read:Getting Real by 37signals, for how to get real about what mattersGood Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt, for how to give your business an unfair advantageDeep Work by Cal

Jake gets a bit vulnerable and talks about Perfection Anxiety, which he’s struggled with since childhood. If you ever feel stuck, or worry your work won’t be good enough, be sure to check out this episode — we share a BUNCH of concrete tactics for overcoming Perfection Anxiety and getting started.On episode 10 of Jake & JZ, we also talked about:How to run two sprints in o

This episode is about our SINGLE BEST technique for avoiding distraction every day. In part two of our mini series on Make Time, Jake describes the Distraction-Free iPhone — which he started doing 10 years ago!! If you’re looking for a simple, powerful way to block distraction (ESPECIALLY after episode 8’s discussion of the Highlight Method), be sure to tune in.On episode 9 o

How do you make time for what matters? In this episode, we share a simple habit called The Highlight Method, inspired by the Design Sprint, that we both use to focus our efforts on the most important activities every day. Have a question for us? Send it to [email protected] week on episode 8 of Jake & JZ, we talked about:When it makes sense to use LLMs for writingBeing sec

This might be our most tactical episode ever. If you’re starting something new, check it out! Not to brag, but it’s FULL of proven tactics for making big decisions about new projects.This week we also answered our very first audience question. Thanks 1sam1216! Have a question for us? Send it to [email protected] episode 7 of Jake & JZ, we talked about:Our Name Sprint pro

A special chance to meet Eli, the third founder of Character, and learn about the inner workings of venture capital. This week on episode 6 of Jake & JZ we talked about:How Jake got to ride in the very first Waymo (when it was just a prototype on the Google campus)Jake’s rollercoaster of emotion meeting EliEli’s winding path to VC (it led through Botswana!), his famously go

This week on episode 5, we talked about:The music you listened to between ages 12 and 20 (and how it’s the best, no matter how old you are)Revisiting the music video for Cannonball by The BreedersSpeaking at a Stanford BioDesign class led by the founder of Cala Health (we ran a sprint with them in 2016!)Lightning Demos, a quick way to gather inspiration for new solutions and a ke

This week on episode 4, we talked about:Jake's train stationA disappointing dialog at the end of Diablo 3What’s so incredibly great about hoodiesTeddy Ruxpin, the original edtech product for kidsCuriosity Labs, a Character portfolio company building educational AI companions for kidsThe founding story of YouTube KidsGetting new product ideas from real-world customer behaviorTwo d