Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Venture Capitalist, James Currier: Mastering Network Effects to Scale Your Startup | E102
Tue, 06 May 2025
James Currier was born an entrepreneur. Before turning 18, he had launched 18 businesses. After years in corporate jobs, he fully embraced his entrepreneurial calling. He co-founded Tickle, one of the internet’s first successful user-generated platforms, which grew to 150 million users before being acquired by Monster.com for $110 million. Now, as a founding partner at NFX, he invests in high-growth startups leveraging network effects. In this episode, James joins Ilana to discuss the power of network effects in scaling businesses, the key traits of great founders, and how to spot technology windows for timely investments. James Currier is a five-time founder, angel investor in DoorDash, Lyft, and Patreon, and a founding partner at NFX, an early-stage venture capital firm. He is an expert in building high-growth companies that leverage network effects. In this episode, Ilana and James will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (00:27) Embracing Entrepreneurship from a Young Age (04:35) From Corporate Jobs to Building His First Startup (08:45) Navigating Rejections and the Dot-Com Crash (12:24) Understanding Viral vs. Network Effects (19:12) The Reality of Running Multiple Startups (21:26) Why Attempting to Fix Healthcare Was a Mistake (27:10) Building NFX into a Leading Venture Firm (31:58) Balancing Optimism and Risk in Investing (35:16) The Key Traits that Make a Great Founder (37:45) What It Takes to Be a Successful Entrepreneur (40:33) The Role of Technology Windows in Startup Success James Currier is a five-time founder, angel investor in DoorDash, Lyft, and Patreon, and a founding partner at NFX, an early-stage venture capital firm. He co-founded Tickle, one of the internet’s first successful user-generated companies, which was acquired by Monster.com. James also co-founded Wonderhill (merged with Kabam), IronPearl (acquired by PayPal), and Jiff (merged with Castlight). He is an expert in building high-growth companies that leverage network effects. Connect with James: James’s Website: nfx.com James’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamescurrier Resources Mentioned: NFX Article, Viral Effects Are Not Network Effects: https://www.nfx.com/post/viral-effects-vs-network-effects NFX Article, Technology Windows: The Unseen Force Driving Your Startup: https://www.nfx.com/post/technology-windows NFX Article, How “Venture Capital 3.0” Impacts Founders in the AI Age: https://www.nfx.com/post/venture-capital-3 Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training
Chapter 1: How did James Currier embrace entrepreneurship from a young age?
I was really an entrepreneur from the time I was born. When I was six, I started selling worms, and then I was selling seeds, and then I was selling shellfish, and then I started a T-shirt company, and I started a boxer short company. I started 18 companies before I was 18. I was struggling between the fear of having no money and the fear of living a boring life.
Don't become an entrepreneur if one, you haven't been an entrepreneur since you were six or 12, and it's just part of your DNA. Or you have an idea in your head that you can't not do.
What do you think makes a really good founder? And if somebody is like debating, should I be an entrepreneur? Should I not be? What would you tell them?
Here's my advice to your crowd.
Chapter 2: What lessons did James learn from navigating rejections during the dot-com crash?
I am so excited about this episode because I've been following James Currier for a while now. So James Currier is a five-time founder and angel investor in DoorDash, Lyft, Patron, and a founding partner of NFX. NFX stands for Network Effects, one of the most active venture capital in the U.S. focused on seed and pre-seed startups. James, I'm really excited about this conversation.
Thank you for having me.
Let's take you back in time. Let's rewind. You studied in Princeton, in Harvard, and I'm sure a lot of people in that area took the traditional path, consulting, finance, all the accolades. Why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?
In a way, I didn't decide. When I was six, I started selling worms. And then I was selling seeds. And then I was selling shellfish. And then I started a t-shirt company. And I started a boxer short company. I started 18 companies before I was 18. It was a way of making money. My dad was an entrepreneur. My mom was a music teacher. We lived out in New Hampshire.
Chapter 3: What are viral effects and network effects in startups?
If I wanted money, I needed to start businesses. And so... I did that. And then when I was in college, I started the loft agency and I took a year off and started a company and then went back and finished up at Princeton and whatnot. So I was really an entrepreneur from the time I was born. I grew up in a place where you had to be an entrepreneur sort of in rural New Hampshire.
And so it was chosen for me. What was sad was that at Princeton, they didn't have anyone to slap me in the face and say, dude, you're an entrepreneur. Get out to California, get out to San Francisco where the entrepreneurs are. Took me 10 years from graduating from college to actually getting out here and realizing, ah, these are my people. This is where I was supposed to be the whole time.
And I just hadn't known. And so right after school, I went into the normal path. I applied for an associate position at GTE, which was now part of Verizon. It was a 180,000 person company with a big headquarters in Stanford, Connecticut. And I traveled up there with my little coat and tie on the train and got a job and They gave me six different jobs over three years.
So I learned all about the corporation and all the people. And then I was just like, this is not for me. And a friend of mine had reminded me that my dream had been to go to Asia and So, yeah, he called me up one day. He had just gotten back. And I was like, I went to my boss. I'm like, I got to go to Asia. So I sailed. I took a sailboat and I sailed to Tahiti.
And then I flew on to Asia and I got a job at Star TV because they had, anyway, they were doing technology and media and whatnot. Then I got fired from there and I went to Beijing and I was studying Mandarin. And then I got misdiagnosed for the heart disease and sent home.
24. 24?
Wow. Okay. So first of all, are you afraid at any point or you're just eating the dream?
I think what was happening was, this might be interesting to your audience, which is I was struggling between the fear of having no money and the fear of living a boring life. And I was grinding up toward the realization that I was more scared of living a boring life than I was of not having any money or anything to eat.
That's incredible. And that's exactly our audience, by the way. Every single listener here is right now getting an aha moment.
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Chapter 4: What key traits make a great founder according to James?
We're going to consume media about us.
That's brilliant. And that's really early on.
That was like 98, 99, yeah.
So you had this idea, you're jumping all in, you decide that you're going despite fear, despite money, despite it all. Was there fear? Like, am I crazy?
No, I had been at a venture firm, so I had seen how you fund these things. And I had seen many people take this leap and live this life. And I had interviewed hundreds and hundreds of founders who were living this life. So for me, I was already acclimated to the cold water.
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Chapter 5: How do technology windows impact startup success?
Chapter 6: What mistakes did James encounter while attempting to fix healthcare?
That's the thing. I felt like I want to live an amazing life and I'm willing to die for that. So when I got back to Boston, I went and took a job at a venture capital firm. And then I learned all about venture capital and how that all works. I was smiling and dialing, trying to sell money for battery ventures.
And then they came to my room and said, here's your recommendation to Harvard Business School. Go to Harvard Business School. They had all been to Harvard Business School. So I applied. I got in because they said I should. And I had done all the things. And then I got in and I went to that. But that, again, wasn't quite the thing. Again, this was the normal track. This was safety.
This was the fear that I grew up with of not having enough to eat. And by the time I was done with HBS, I felt like I had turned over enough rocks. I knew that I could always get a job for $60,000 somewhere because I had this HBS degree. And then I had to decide, do I go back into venture capital or do I become a startup founder?
And this guy named Mike Zack at CRV, Charles River Ventures, he said to me, I'm listening to you here at dinner. It's our sixth meeting. We're ready to make you an offer, but I can see that you need to be an entrepreneur and you need to go do that. You'll be a better venture capitalist later once you've done that.
And he was the one who finally slapped me in the face and said, dude, you're an entrepreneur. I was 31 at the time. And so that's when I started my first startup. And then we almost went out of business twice.
Wait, wait. So let's go there. Let's go there. So he gives you this like aha moment and you're saying, OK, maybe this is what I need to do. But between that and actually knowing what to start is a very different story.
Right. So here's the thing. Here's my advice to your crowd is don't become an entrepreneur. If one, you haven't been an entrepreneur since you were six or 12, and it's just part of your DNA, or you have an idea in your head that you can't not do. And both things were true for me at that time. I had been a little entrepreneur since I was six and I had an idea I couldn't not do it. I couldn't sleep.
I was so excited about it. I was having visions about it. It filled my soul. And so I had to do it. And Mike Zak thankfully saw that. And he said to me, you need to go do this.
And I'll tap into that. And I want the listeners to listen in because don't go there just because you think it's easier than finding a job. Go there because it's a passion. Entrepreneurship, as far as I'm concerned, James, correct me if I'm wrong, it's always going to be hard. But if it's your passion, it's going to be the thing that you have to do.
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Chapter 7: What insights does James share about balancing optimism and risk in investing?
Chapter 8: How did James Currier build NFX into a leading venture firm?
Right. So here's the thing. Here's my advice to your crowd is don't become an entrepreneur. If one, you haven't been an entrepreneur since you were six or 12, and it's just part of your DNA, or you have an idea in your head that you can't not do. And both things were true for me at that time. I had been a little entrepreneur since I was six and I had an idea I couldn't not do it. I couldn't sleep.
I was so excited about it. I was having visions about it. It filled my soul. And so I had to do it. And Mike Zak thankfully saw that. And he said to me, you need to go do this.
And I'll tap into that. And I want the listeners to listen in because don't go there just because you think it's easier than finding a job. Go there because it's a passion. Entrepreneurship, as far as I'm concerned, James, correct me if I'm wrong, it's always going to be hard. But if it's your passion, it's going to be the thing that you have to do.
That's exactly right. Especially if you're going to raise venture capital, which most companies shouldn't. But if you are, it's a prison. You have to exit that company and give the investors their money back. You're just in the prison. You've got a sentence until you exit.
He's a different kind of prison. Yeah. Yeah.
But it's very tough. And there are many, many nights where you're just not sleeping and you're totally suffering and you have to remind yourself, I chose this. And my wife would remind me and I would remind me. And it was still very, very hard that, look, I chose this. I chose this. I chose it because it's very painful.
So let's go there for a second, James, because I agree with you a thousand percent. With Leap Academy, I decided not to raise capital and not to have the prison. But I still want to go there for a second. So you have this idea. It's keeping you up at night. You're like, oh, my God, is that tickle that you need to start? So you know that you need to create it.
The basic idea was that the internet was going to be about us and our friends, not about Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, because all the other media technologies were for one to many. Radio, one broadcast, 100,000 listeners. Television, same thing. Magazine, same thing. The internet was the first media technology that was many to many. And so I realized it's going to be about us.
We're going to consume media about us.
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