Evan Buhler of Talok Capital: Creativity, Consciousness, Culture, and AI for Human Flourishing
18VC Podcast · Episode 17 · July 28, 2026
Guests: Evan Buhler
Source: https://www.18-vc.com/podcast/evan-buhler-talok

Host: Good morning. Good afternoon and good evening to our audiences. We are just so happy to have Evan Buller with us today. He's the GP and founder of Tele Capital and early stage we see that invests in the intersection of creativity, consciousness, and culture. And he's also a practicing lawyer, startup lawyer at the same time.

Evan Buhler: I stopped actually practicing today. Okay. Right now. Oh. No, I'm not joking. Okay. I'm going to remove from my LinkedIn right now. We're not removed. I'm going to yeah you're right that right now it says till present yeah click and I say end current position wait I don't know how do I do not currently working in the role I end 2026 month July done

Host: so you're done with the practicing I just finished practicing oh oh you're official now I'm a officially. Okay. Okay. That's cool. Okay. Well, it's the first time it's got announced, right? And it's right in our episode. Live quit. Like quit. Rage quit. All right. Let's go, Philip. Yeah. And I think we already talked to like 10 to 20-ish busy founders and busy people during different coffee chats and episodes. But like, I think all of them are talking about exits, talking about returns, talking about scaling. But I think your arguments are. quite different that you're the first people we met who talked about like human-centric leases and you're talking about that we should focusing on some different problems not only how do you scale how do you get a lot of returns but also how humanity can play a role in this mass moving fast-moving AI era and it's quite a different figure that we met and that's why we're so very excited to have you here oh thank you one of its kind I would say yeah actually though I will say

Evan Buhler: there are more funds like this they have maybe a different style maybe a slightly different thesis but I'm definitely not the only one but I agree it's a financial industry and so it's very rare to it's easy to in a finance industry just think about finance it's easy in the movie industry to just think about movie or in the food business to just think about food but I think the best results in life and in business and anything usually come when you're thinking holistically not single-mindedly on just one element of

Host: your business that's definitely what brings you to your thesis maybe and can you just share a little bit about your journey you start as a JD then you work in big laws and then you quit you're doing start your own startups and you raise your own fund you can just briefly walk us through your journey and why did you end up in doing venture yeah where you want me to start in law school maybe yeah just go quickly yeah okay

Evan Buhler: first year of law school first week of law school notoriously terrible everybody thinks like they're going to die the first week you have so much information your brain starts to explode and I I had like one evening where I was like man I don't know if I can do this but lucky for me that my sisters I have old two older sisters and two older half-brothers and so four people older sibling one younger brother and three of my older siblings are lawyers so I thought look if they can do it I do it I can I can pass that pretty pressure huh yeah yeah so first I think I can pass and then once you realize you can pass you think you think okay like this is a competition and I like competition so then I think can I be great at this and I'm pretty good at writing and language that's what I've been good at my whole life so I thought yeah I can probably actually be maybe even number one at this class so then I I start working toward that really hard like let me see if everyone else no offense was kind of not not not everyone else many people in my law school didn't want to be number one some of them were weak-minded some of them wanted to be number one but they didn't want to work some of them just wanted a job some of them wanted to be an amazing lawyer like I didn't I didn't want to be an amazing lawyer and they knew what they had to do to get there and they didn't need to be number one I kind of just wanted to be number one like for no reason no because of like job prospects and things but so after probably a month I'm like oh I think I can do be like top percent but then there's an emptiness right like so what who cares and I started thinking about career and I'm like I'm learning about law and I'm like this is so interesting but I don't want to be a lawyer And I've always been pretty rebellious, so I felt like, and my parents were very supportive of or open, you can do what you want. So I started researching, maybe Google, what do you do with a law degree if you don't want to be a lawyer? What can you do in technology and law? And then I find venture capital, but specifically I knew what venture capital was, but specifically I knew what venture capital was, but I did. not really appreciate how many great legal minds were also venture capitalists. So the list is like Peter Thiel, Chris Saka, Keith Rabeoy, Reed Hoffman has a legal education. Ted Wang from Fenwick and West, lawyer. So I look at that list, they're all men, they're all legal education. They didn't practice law. Ted Wang practiced for a long time. The rest of them, Chris Saka practiced, I think, seven years at Fenwick. The other guy, you know, Peter Thiel and Keith R. Boy, I think they practiced for like two years. So I'm like, okay, maybe it, they seem really smart. I don't know if I'm that smart, but maybe I could do it. So then, you know, I put it in the back of my head. I go through my journey, experimenting, seeing, okay, Obama worked at this firm. Sidley Austin, let me try that. Didn't really like it. I quit after a year. And then I went to work for this judge for free. It was kind of a difficult time for me because I had a girlfriend that I loved dearly and really wanted to be a man for it. And when you're not making money, you don't feel like a man. But it was a, but that judge is amazing. And I got to work. on opioids, trial mass opioids, some very interesting things. And it's funny, I'm a big talker. And so I tweeted something or put on LinkedIn something when I was working for the judge. And they were like, you need to take this down. It was about venture capital. They said, you need to take this down. I said, that doesn't really make any sense, but okay. And then I knew I can't work for the government. And it was very slow there. So when I'm working for this judge, Judge Breyer, I got a job offer for my dream law firm, Fenwick and West. And I was sitting with that girlfriend that I had at dinner when I got that call. And it felt like, man, my life, this is a life goal. Before that, I really didn't have many goals. I was kind of a confused child. I was kind of spoiled growing up, and I didn't have to work that hard to get things. So then when I became, after law school, that law school was the first time. You really have to work hard, or you'll fail. And so anyways, I worked really hard to get to Fenwick, and I got that offer, and I felt really good. But the first week of, first month of the job, I realized, this is not what I want. Like, I went to Fenwick because Chris Saka worked at Fenwick, and I knew, okay, like, let me just copy him and see, he must be special. And it was special, but I think part of my story is everywhere I went I didn't fit in. Like, I fit in mostly, like 80%, but maybe not the 20%. And that was very hard for me emotionally. Not financially, not, not, not even really mentally, more like maybe emotionally, spiritually, like not fully fit in and not knowing why.

Host: Even at 20% of not being able to fit in could make you feel so frustrated in an emotional way.

Evan Buhler: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, also because people are all other people don't understand. They're like, wait, what is that 20%? Some people like are like, are like, like, are like, like, like, cool, cool 20%. I don't understand, but cool. But a lot of people are like, I need to define the 20%. Right. And I think probably the truth is that none of us, we all are 80%. Like, even now in venture capital, I think I'm like, I think I like 30% fit in and 70% stand out. The percentage is getting worse. Well, that's the thing is if you, do you want to fit in or do you want to stand out. And there's nothing wrong with standing out, but I think people don't like it. People are nervous to stand out, nervous to be themselves. Other people will tell you, you're bad, you're wrong. You're not like me, so you're wrong. They won't say it, but they'll look at you and they'll turn away or they'll say it behind your back. And that's, you know, something to accept about life. But so yeah, so basically I quit in 2023 Fenwick after about two years. As Philip said, I started a company that failed. I worked at Angelus briefly. They offered me a job. I felt like it was not right, but I took it anyways because I was scared. Turns out I was right. It was not right. I was fired. I kind of like got myself fired, but not on purpose.

Host: Um, that's a longer story. Um, um, oh, they lost an employee, but here we go. There's a rising star in venture capital industry. Well, I'm very grateful for them. I mean, Angelist has a lot of, uh,

Evan Buhler: they like to bring founders in. It's a pretty interesting style. They bring entrepreneurial people in, so you know you're going to lose them. I mean, well, they're founders, so, so for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, not all of them, but I mean, I mean, any, uh, business. is like a world pool, but also like, uh, it's like an ecosystem. And sometimes people leave that ecosystem. But Angel, yeah, Angelus was good. It was what I needed at the time, and I learned a lot. And, um, and then right after I left, yeah, that's when I started. And I'm happy to, yeah, that's, yeah, it was a series of, uh, unfortunate events of quitting and firing and, and, yeah.

Host: And I do remember, um, like, there's a saying that lawyers, being a lawyer, maybe you need to be very cautious about the different risk. We want to avoid some of the risk in these papers or things like that. And maybe it's a little bit more conservative. It's the overall impression on the industry, right? But like being an, uh, investor, VC investor, maybe it requires you to be bold and take on some risk, uh, like, and even searching for some risk. actively. So how do you balance on that? And I also do remember that, uh, you previous mentioned you tried to unlearn the law, uh, things. Well, what, what,

Evan Buhler: no, no, I'm learning the law. Unlearn. There's a difference between the law and the legal profession. Ah, okay. So unlearn some bad habits from the profession, but not the law. Okay. Yeah, you don't want

Host: to unlearn the law. Yeah, you can't really, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

Evan Buhler: It's very hard to unlearn the law.

Host: Okay. Yeah. That's true. Yeah, just share a little bit about, like, how do you handle this difference and how do you unlearn the legal profession?

Evan Buhler: That's a great question. Yeah, lawyers are definitely known for being conservative. And they're also known for being, like, what, rich? They're known for being asshole. They're known for being conflict seeking. They're known for, they're known for. for being in a suit. A lot of things. And I was lucky at law school that I had one professor in particular that stands out. His name's Mark Rosenbaum. He's an older guy now, but when he was a younger man, he was a impact litigator in Los Angeles. And he would, like, sue the government to kind of like, you know, change homelessness politics. and things like that with his friends. Constitutional law. So, he had a relationship with our school, and I took one of his classes, and his class was so weird. I kind of didn't like the class. Like, he just talked about his cases and, like, asked us questions. That's all he, it was no real curriculum, just, like, asking questions. But he made us think, and it was weird. It made me uncomfortable. like because you're not learning anything specific, it's more just practice. And, but he inspired me to start a club called the Creative Lawyers Club, which actually, like, fell apart because the other people had different visions and then everyone's so busy, and so probably my fault. There's definitely, I, I've definitely started things in life and then later stopped them. And I think from the outside looking in that, like, quitting a job, people are like, you're a quitter, right? When you start a club and you quit, I think people think you're a quitter. You can't, don't keep your word. But, I mean, have you ever quit something?

Host: Well, I kind of quit playing sexophone. I've been playing sexophone when I was young and been doing that for five, six years, and I quit. Because the stress first study, you just hyken up, so.

Evan Buhler: Well, that's, you know. That's interesting because you can always play again, right?

Host: That's true, yeah.

Evan Buhler: So, but, I mean, you quick because of the stress.

Host: Yeah, right.

Evan Buhler: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, I think it's totally valid, like, you know, there's a lot of these billionaire tech guys that, okay, they had a wife for, like, 30 years. And then they both decided, like, this doesn't work. We're quitting together. Or sometimes one quits the other.

Host: It's becoming a disaster, then.

Evan Buhler: But, but, you can't see. stop, like, the saxophone can't stop you from quitting. And if the saxophone wants to quit, I don't know, you know, like, if your employer wants to quit, you can't stop them. So, I mean, you can try, but you can't, if that's what they want, you cannot control them.

Host: No, I get you. Yeah.

Evan Buhler: So, so, so, so, I think I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I think, so, so, so, I think I, I, I, I think I, I never really fit in. I never wanted to be a lawyer. So in some ways, it was easy. And I, I, I profession work for what it was. Peter Thiel said about big law. He said, it's a really strange place. On the outside, looking in, everybody wants to get in. On the inside, looking out, everybody wants to get out. And I read that before I started it. And I said, this is he right? And then I was like, I went in, and I'm like, Peter Thiel's right. Shocker, Peter Thiel's right. So, so for me, it didn't feel that bad. I mean, look, Silicon Valley law is sort of the most relaxed law because they told me at Sid Lee Austin, they said, you can wear a hoodie here because Mark Zuckerberg wears a hoodie, and that's our client, so you can wear a hoodie. I'm like, this is great. I would like to work here. I don't want to go to court and wear a suit. I don't, I think suits are beautiful. I have a jacket here today, but I don't want you to tell me what to wear. Why, like, this doesn't, this is not fair. I agree to wear clothes. Now, beyond that, I'll wear whatever I want. And if you don't want to work with me because of what I wear, I think you're, I think you're bad at business. So I don't, I think there's some really good things about the legal profession in law. I think conflict, not, I think being scared of conflict, you cannot get what you want in life if you do not like conflict. Like, yeah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, grow to like it because you see that beautiful things emerge from conflict. On the other hand, not everything needs to be a fight. Not everything is win or lose. Sometimes it's win, win, win. So that's the main thing is like zero-sum thinking, and then also being too strict about the rules is another thing, like that is toxic because the rules change. So this doesn't make sense. And the third thing is skepticism. That's really important. Lawyers are trained to be like skeptical, negative, almost like a doctor, because a doctor is trying to say what you don't have. And a lawyer, you know, you see so many arguments and most of them are bad. But in startups, one of the most important things is being optimistic and believing. And so it's very hard for lawyers to do this. And then, as you said, or one of the other things in law is to, in startups is to say, what are, what is the status quo? How do I, how do I, how do I break it? Yeah. And that's the opposite of what a lawyer asks. The lawyer asks, what is the status quo? How did you break it? Oh, yeah, right. Okay. And then what, what's the first thing I said was, oh, yeah, conflict. I think in startups, you're like, no, fear and lawyers also know fear, but it's different. Okay. The thing about law that you have to understand is in law, there's a principal and there's an agent. Um, who's the, who's more lawyer of you? Who's more business? Who's more lawyer? It's not a right answer. I can be more business. Okay. Okay. Okay. So then, um, the, the, the business person is the, the, the, principal. And the lawyer is the agent. Okay. So actually, it's interesting that the book is smaller because basically you make, you have an agenda, you pay him, he represents you. And there's a code and there's rules and ethics and all this, but you're the business person, he's the lawyer. He doesn't get to tell you strategy. He, you tell him strategy, he tells you the rules. That's how you work. So in some ways, it feels like he's a lawyer. He doesn't get to tell you strategy. He tells you the rules. That's how you work. So in some ways, it he has a smaller, uh, role. And this is frustrating when you watch a business person make bad decisions in business. You sit in a boardroom and they're talking about they don't, the venture capitalists. I sat in these boardrooms and heard of venture capitalists say stupid things about marketing. He's distracted. He doesn't even care. He's probably on many boards. He's giving them bad advice. And then sometimes I would say, you know, I have some marketing advice. Why don't you listen to me. Or I just actually just spoke. It's probably recorded somewhere. You know, and that's like that little book, they don't want, that's not your job. They don't pay you to do that. I did it for free. But I think, you know, lawyers are very good at talking and speaking up, but to be told to like play a role that's behind the scenes and only do that. things when you're asked to. It's like how America treats women. Like some, you know, 70 years ago, it was like, you're in the kitchen. And then when I ask you to do something, then you'll do something. Otherwise, you don't talk. I mean, this is not, what if they have a good idea? What if, yeah, I mean, it just, it, it, anyways, so, so, yeah. I think we just, I think we just, I think

Host: we point of your investment thesis, I would say. You think so? Yeah. And what does it exactly mean to be sitting in the intersection of creativity, consciousness, and culture? And can give us a more specific examples of, for example, one of your portfolio companies? How does that align with your vision in this fund? That's sort of embodied these three pillars. Yeah, I'll try to give one for each quickly.

Evan Buhler: So it's a catchphrase. Like, you know, there's many ways to talk about the fund. We're dedicated, you know, mostly to human flourishing. We don't want to have technology at the expense of humanity. We think they can both exist together and be happy. So I think, yeah, one of the most human things is to be creative, to be an artist, to express yourself. So probably the most, um, one of the more common things is to be creative, to be an artist to express yourself. Um, so probably the most, um, One of the more creative companies that we invest in is a company started by Ryan and Tony. Tony's left left the company, but Ryan continues running and it's agentic advertising. So the premise is that all business people are creative, but some lack the tools to, they don't understand how to advertise, they don't understand all the numbers. So give them technology and advertising. extract the way the technical and watch them be creative and watch them make money. So that's creativity. Consciousness. The idea here is that technology, humans are different than other animals because we have a higher consciousness. Other animals have consciousness. It's just a different consciousness. Maybe not even lower, but definitely different. And if you take away consciousness or you lower it, we almost reverse evolution. You don't want, you want the opposite, I think. So an example of consciousness, I'll use an example of, it's called Abacore. Abacore makes an AI native operating system for accountants. And think about what do accountants use today for their operating system?

Host: There's nothing built for them.

Evan Buhler: There's some individual tools. Microsoft, they use Microsoft. Microsoft. Microsoft, is a great company. In fact, our speaker today is from Microsoft. Great company. But it's old and it's built for everyone. So, you know, something that's built for you is probably better than something built for everyone. So, for example, like a suit that's tailored specifically for you, it's going to make you look better or something, right? Versus a shirt, not universally, but yes. And so the idea here is that in, in white-collar work, we don't necessarily want to eliminate all the jobs. I think this is a bad idea. It's a mistake. It's not even, it's like a faulty premise. You want a lawyer. You just want a lawyer with superpowers. But you want a human lawyer, not a robot lawyer. And we can talk about that another time. And so you want a human accountant. And you want them to do their true accounting work. So make software do the robot, work and the human do the accountant work and do it with AI and do it custom. It's not something that Claude really should be doing. It's not something that Microsoft really should be doing. They make software for everyone. They don't really make software for accountants. Now, they can try, but that's just, that's my theory. So then that's consciousness and third culture. So you can have life, you can have health, you can have Everything you want in the world, if you don't have a community, if you don't have values, if you don't have the connective fabric, what's the point? And today, we had a lot of technology innovation in the past 20 years. It made us more efficient, it made us more productive, but it really did damage our culture. Now, it's not to one, you can't blame one company or person. It's all, we all did this, I think, to get us, all of humanity, I actually think. But, and maybe a little too much focus on profit, maybe a little too much focus on efficiency. Because, look, dinner with your family, you don't think, let's be efficient. You just, you think, like, let's have a slow dinner, actually. Same with a woman. You want to slow dance. Not, I mean, fast dance can be fun for sure. But when you're married, usually you have a slow dance. so there's one company we invested in called lore and basically what they say is everyone's a fan of something like in pop culture what are you a fan of in Sherlock Holmes oh i love Sherlock Holmes yeah i like anime with Sherlock Holmes so Sherlock Holmes was a so Sherlock Holmes was a do you know that his the current Conan Doyle the author yeah how did he start writing do you know dad i actually didn't know so he was a doctor and he moved uh like me a lawyer doctor oh and he moved not to san francisco but he moved to the countryside in england and he had no work really not enough he is bored like well i guess i'll write and so he started writing sherlock holmes as like you know cereal so not um not a not a not a full book he would write um um like stories right i think cases yeah basically cases like little yeah little ones and uh oh this is

Host: DVD and music CD and um yeah little ones this must be the most interactive

Evan Buhler: episode of rich shot yet um and and then he he gradually published them in magazines and such but um i know that because i researched it i might have read a sure in a it in a Sherlock Holmes book but it's but all of this knowledge about Sherlock Holmes is spread across the internet is spread everywhere yeah you can't act like you could watch a youtube video so knowledge about me or you it's in different YouTube videos and so this uh company uses AI to bring that all together into one interface that you can research and and the idea is again like people denigrate uh or look down on pop culture oh like there was an old uh when i was a kid jessica simpson she's like uh kind of like kim kardashian like famous beautiful woman that everyone wants to view it and people i mean people are jealous right but but but but people say like it's not interesting you think people are not interesting a celebrity if you dive into their life it's so interesting now apply that to anime now apply that to marvel now apply that to an athlete and just everything and yeah um that's pop culture we invested in another company that's more uh religious and and spiritual philosophical uh education and culture the culture of the west and the east so you need both like it's not enough to say we read about the dalai lama right you also want to read I don't know this story called the royal duty you also want to read these novels you want to learn about frogs like quote you brought those books these were here these are my books the frog books my book uh you want to learn about humanity wants to learn and look life is this is the thing about a robot a robot doesn't care what it learns a robot is not a robot is the is the agent and you're the principal just like a robot is a robot is the is the agent and you're the principal just like a robot is a robot is like the lawyer. The way we treat lawyers today is how we should treat robots. And that's why I hated being a lawyer and that's why I quit because

Host: Do you feel like you were treating like a robot? I was. It's by some people. And it's easy

Evan Buhler: to do that when people are behind a screen. And nowadays we treat people on social media

Host: like their robots. Like Oh yeah. So many rage baiting. But anyway, I'd like to ask, since you were talking about a full-up company, I mean, your theme is to invest in a company that more so augment people's capability and put them in the center of the space rather than replacing and wiping it out completely. But in your portfolio investing, you know, X-A-I and Philson's more so, which to my eyes, they kind of seem like they do want to take the human out of the loop. How do you think about balancing that portfolio and your thesis? Good question. I think that human-centric does a lot.

Evan Buhler: means no robot or no agent. So, and if you're an investor, you want to be involved with these companies. You don't want to sit on the sideline. But XAI is beautiful. I mean, I use GROC and GROC works for me. I don't work for GROC. So I think that's the answer.

Host: And I think there's one specific way you're being, your host, you're being evaluating the founders in my eyes. You've been hosting this reading the room event. You're hosting, visiting the Asian Art Museum events with the founders, and you give them like a check for whoever physically interprets the arts the best. And what are you trying to, I don't know, are you trying to identify something that's maybe typically you don't identify from a talk in a maybe a pitch room from this kind of experience? How are you evaluating these founders differently? What are you looking at?

Evan Buhler: Yeah, hopefully you can get some photo. imagery and video from the event tonight.

Host: Yeah, for sure. Oh, for sure. Oh, well.

Evan Buhler: And, um, so my friend is asking for the address. Um, yeah, um, what am I evaluating? Yeah, I'm evaluating a people. Like, it's so easy to fake character. It's so easy to fake your work. You can lie on a resume. You can say anything. What? Now, you can do. You can do. You can, you can can pick up trash on the street. We can both do it. And to you, it's with your whole heart and with me it's not. That's possible. But when you're in an environment like a museum or when we spend enough time together, the character is revealed. The work, everything is revealed. That's why I like the residency and the new like HF0, these models. Because that's their thesis is you cannot hide here. You're going to we're going to understand more about you because the technology is one thing. There's other people who can build this technology. Who are you? Like, because you're the one running the company for 10 years or not, but, but like, it's sort of, tonight we're talking about design and technology. I don't care what technology you have. If you are not, if the designer is not good, failure. It's like a sport, like, there's this famous movie called Any Given Sunday. It's a famous, like, football, American football movie. It's really cool. I mean, if you like American football, definitely watch. But it's also, like, stylish. It's in Miami. It's very cool. It's old. It's older, but it has this unique cinematic style. Hello.

Host: Yeah. Okay, yeah. Just a quick stop. Yeah, sorry. Let's, uh, yeah, let's, uh, finish shortly. I mean, this could be a different style of episode where we can, like, clip in the, yeah, we can clip in the, you know, what we, we will be filmed during the event, right? So now the back room is open, so you guys can use it. Yeah. Um, I have to be at an event in 10 minutes. Who's going to put the room back together. I'll do everything. I'll be here, yeah. Okay, so let me just show you, I can also share the digital one, but I put some of the furniture out. I didn't have time to do it all because I'm working on a different project right now. But these are photos of how to put the space back together. Oh, there's instruction. That's cool. Yeah, yeah. Just like, because like you guys are community partner because you're getting space for free, so that means you don't pay for staffing, which means that's why I'm not staying. Well, that's why our, my boss doesn't let me stay for free events. I have to go to the main events. Yeah, part of the partnership. So, but because I'm responsible for making sure there's responsible people in the space, I have to make sure like we are clean, the building.

Evan Buhler: We got it.

Host: No drugs, no alcohol. Yeah, I don't do that. For sure.

Evan Buhler: There's no alcohol. Okay, all right, cool.

Host: Or drugs. And then, like, just make sure the space is clean.

Evan Buhler: You already gave me one of these. Okay. But they're not, I got it. They're not going to do it.

Host: Okay, perfect. So just need to make sure this is back together. And then do you have any IT needs before I leave?

Evan Buhler: Yeah, let's wrap up and then let's talk. Okay, okay.

Host: We'll meet you in there, I guess, okay? You can ask you. Yeah. Go ahead. Do you have anything left for the one, the previous question? What was the previous question? What was the previous question?

Evan Buhler: Let's talk about the Dalai Lama. What was your question?

Host: Oh, yeah, yeah. Let me just go on to the maybe last one before we wrap up. Basically, just go back to your personal side of the story. besides being an attorney, besides of being an investor, how would you describe yourself other than his two words? It's a cliche question, but

Evan Buhler: No, that's a difficult question. I would describe myself as a fun guy that No, that's like a Kauai Leonard reference, another reference. I was talking about any given Sunday. Any given Sunday, go watch the movie. I would say, okay, how would I describe myself? I'm definitely not. nerdy. I definitely am quirky. I mean, I think other people have described me and then I said, no, that's wrong or that's right. So how have people describe me? People have described me as an asshole. I don't think I'm an asshole, but you can, if you want to call me that, fine. People have described me as funny. I think I'm funny.

Host: That's very much true.

Evan Buhler: Not for everyone. Not for everyone. Not at all times. People have described me as brave. I don't think it's that true, actually. So, but yeah, I mean, I think I'm a pretty normal person, actually. I think I'm very passionate. It's very a defining quality. And I tried to become compassionate. That's why I like Dalai Lama is very big into compassion. And my motivation, people have asked me what in what's the question, like, almost like, yeah, what inspires you, what motivates you? And my motivation is to, in part to reduce the suffering of others and myself. I mean, I am very sensitive, and I've always been very sensitive. And I wanted that to change, like, I think, for a long time. And I actually just, I think I know now, like it won't change. you, there's some things about you that you won't change. Like, asshole is a label or, you know, like, loud is, it's context, right? But there's some things inside, like, you're not loud inside. No one's an asshole inside. But some people are very sensitive. And actually, I learned this year that I, from a doctor, that I have ADHD. And with ADHD, you can often get this other syndrome. which is like highly sensitive disorder. So when you, when I tell you, like, you don't get this job, you might feel like, I don't care. For me, I have a different sensory experience inside. And I didn't know that my whole life, and I'm still learning about it. But yeah, I would say sensitive, passionate, and generous. I mean, another way to answer this question, though, is what do you want to be known for? Because you can change these things. Yes. And I want. to be known as sensitive, I want to be known as passionate, but I want to be known as generous. There are other things that I care about and I strive for, but I really do care about those three. And yeah, I think it's a, I acknowledge that I'm straight, white, male, American.

Host: I have literally all the good things. Right.

Evan Buhler: I grew up, my dad was a doctor, he made money. I didn't have to think about where the next meal is coming from. I lived in a gated community. It was safe. I went to a good school where I had, like, private education. So I have so much privilege, and I think when you are given privilege, it is like Spider-Man. Like, great power comes great responsibility. The idea is not, hey, take this privilege and make all the money and keep it for yourself. This is not my parents. That's not what they wanted. My dad wanted me to be educated because he was very poor. He grew up very poor. And his path to freedom was education. So he wanted me to be free. And I am free. But I choose to work and to to work for myself and for my family and for other people and my portfolio companies and my friends. You'll meet tonight some of my friends that I'm working with. And I think that, you know, like, I'm very, I'm also very intense, but I think that I'm literally like crying now. um we have some books here we don't have there's a book an amazing book this is the end but there's an amazing book called war and peace it's a Russian

Host: book more at peace war and peace oh war and peace oh i mean yeah have you read it i was when i was like five six six well five six years old that's a kind of books that were totally read at five years old back in china yeah but i couldn't i couldn't yeah chinese are yeah there's a couple there's a list like world classic and chinese classic book they were recommended to read i think it's probably too heavy but anyways um abccd

Evan Buhler: w where is w is pretty far to the end it is almost the end okay so war i don't like war i mean i mean sometimes you have to go to war right like there's a draft but if you could choose nobody wants war um i don't think i can find it actually ward i can't find it okay we'll use my phone so this is my last point which is i i used to think um i was really like tough or like maybe i just like i like sports i like hitting people you know yeah i when i was a kid i really

Host: liked hitting people you mean like physical physical violence in football yeah yeah i mean well

Evan Buhler: there's rules that's true but yeah i like hitting people and i was i was mad when i was a kid we got to go soon um i was mad when i was a kid so let's ask what do you want claude you want claude you want yeah yes everybody likes claude hey claude hope you're well what um what is the definition of war and what is the definition of peace and can you have one without the other it it sort of reminds me of the concept of yin and yang i was going to say that and uh i i want i'm trying to make a point about how some people are maybe born with a warrior spirit and some people are born with maybe a more peaceful spirit and i'm trying to understand this concept a little better if you could tell me about this in three paragraphs i have to go soon i would really appreciate it thank you i need to be more

Host: polite to agent next time starting with hope it's well it's good practice it is it is it is

Evan Buhler: actually war at its core oh this is like a rap poetic it's long paragraphs okay war at its core is organized conflict the deliberate use of force or struggle groups to resolve incompatible aims, whether over territory resources, ideology, or survival. Peace is usually defined in two ways, negatively as the mere absence of war, and positively as a state of harmony, justice, and cooperation, where the causes of conflict have been genuinely addressed. The distinction matters because not fighting and being at peace are not the same thing. Ceasefire is not harmony, and a quiet person is not necessarily peaceful. Yin and Yang is an old idea. Heraclitus called war, the father of all things, meaning that tension and opposition are what generates change and definition. We only know peace because we know its absence. The way light is meaning only meaningful in the darkness or against darkness. In the Taoist view, the two forces don't merely oppose each other. Each contains the seed of the other. A lasting peace requires the capacity for war. And every war is ultimately fought in the name of some imagined peace. So conceptually, no. You cannot have one without the other, at least not in a way, human who recognize your values. So I think, you know, the last point I want to make is when I was growing up, I was a fighter when I was playing sports. I was not violent, but I was just aggressive. Aggressive. And then I got older and I thought, you know, maybe I, I want to, like, not, I want to change that. I don't, I want to be, like, a lover. But I think the truth is, like, I'm a little bit of both. Depends on what you'd say to me. So, yeah.

Host: Why not? You could be both aggressive and a lover at the same time. I don't find it. Yeah. Why is that not a thing?

Evan Buhler: Yeah, but the point is, like, you switch modes, or the point I'm trying to make is, like, no, you're right. You're totally right. But also, sometimes sometimes. you're in like fighter mode right you know when Mike Tyson is in the ring oh you don't

Host: definitely you don't want to miss something yeah you don't want to mess with him but but

Evan Buhler: but Justin Bieber they used to think he was soft but that guy he's really not that soft you could look up some interviews with Justin Bieber he sings like what is his what is what is their songs like uh

Host: despacito right I don't think that's his song no I don't think that's not his song right

Evan Buhler: anyways but Justin Bieber voice of an angel but if you mess with him I mean he becomes a warrior this is everyone everyone has the capacity so I think that to answer your question I am shaped by my environment and I choose my environment so I choose sometimes to be in chaos and sometimes to be at peace and I'm inside I'm at peace either way sometimes I feel some internal conflict maybe not conflict I feel passion yeah that like sometimes my energy is here sometimes it's here but I'm comfortable in all environment thank you so much Evan