Build The Stanford Mindset | Eshwar Prasad | Part 6

This episode isn't about elite schools. It's about what they actually manufacture - and whether you can build the same output without the institution.

In Part 6 of this conversation, Eshwar - solo founder building AI products - makes the case that Stanford and MIT produce outsized founders not because of curriculum, but because of energy. Every person in those buildings believes they're going to build the next trillion-dollar company. That collective belief eliminates fear and doubt. That's the product.

From there, the conversation moves into territory most podcasts don't touch: how AI agents living on blockchain are restructuring capital formation, why the 9-to-5 economy is ending faster than most people have processed, and why concentrated asymmetric bets outperform diversification when you're early and long-horizon.

He also shares what he's currently building - Exmplr, a clinical research agent - and the three books that have shaped how he thinks, including one he says you can only really access when you're spiritually ready for it.

This isn't hype. It's a structural read on where the edges are moving.

In this episode: 

• What Elite Schools Are Really Selling
• How To Replicate That Mindset Without The Credential
• Why The Information Edge Is Gone And What Matters Instead
• How Autonomous Agents On Blockchain Are Changing Who Can Raise Capital
• Why Eshwar Runs Concentrated Positions Instead Of Diversifying
• What He's Building Right Now And How He's Thinking About The Agentic Market
• Three Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Chief Milestones is a series for operators, founders, and decision-makers navigating real constraints - in business, capital, and the life built around both.

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Transcript

The Stanford Mindset Explained

Eshwar 0:00

You could just emulate M MIT or Stanford just by having that mindset of you know dreaming big, thinking big, and telling yourself that you're the best version of yourself, and there's nobody out there that can compete with you. Not all the people that go to Stanford start up and up starting a big company, right? There's some so many people that that struggle, like like most of us. But I think uh the takeaway from I take from that is how do we make sure that we give uh our kids the same frame of mind, even though they don't go there. So yeah, I think it's it's a common uh platform for everybody to to to have some level of trust because they've they've graduated from that college, right? It gives them instant recognition and it can instant um validation, right? Um, okay, do I invest in this person? Okay, he's an MIT or he's a Stanford, then you know the chances of me, because you wouldn't be there unless you have certain things or achieve certain things or achieved certain marks or whatever it is, like grades or whatever. Um and then the vibe around you, the mindset around you around it, because you have all these kids that are aspirational, so there's a positive amount of vibes that are there in that college, in that university, everywhere else. Everybody is thinking of starting a trillion dollar company. So the energy that you have from those colleges is off the charts. Um because you have the same vibe, but nobody is thinking negatively in that college, I would think, right? In those prestigious institutions. Everybody's thinking like, okay, I'm gonna be the next CEO, this, that, I'm gonna found the next. So it's just that elite uh creation of this elite um most like they're being surrounded by like-minded people who do similar things, similar things in life, and then you have this breeding uh place where there's no negative no aspect of negativity. Uh yeah, maybe have negativity somewhere else, but as far as starting companies and stuff like that, everybody thinks that they are the best out there, the best version of themselves, and they can outcompete. So I think that's why these colleges do work. Like I'm I'm kind of talking it in a in a in a spiritual aspect of it, as to why people from Stanford are why do they end up doing well? Most of the people that end up doing well are from those colleges is because by default they have developed this internal, you know, uh ability to think big and aim big. And and uh they say, like, okay, um, aim big, think big, uh and then uh and then they have no fear and doubt that they can do it. And they have they know that they can raise money like that. So I think that's a beautiful combination to have. Um and however it does it, however, however they're able to achieve that, whether that is right or wrong, if you put all of that aside, if you can take anything from that, you could just emulate an MIT or a Stanford just by having that mindset of you know, dreaming big, thinking big, and telling yourself that you're the best version of yourself and there's nobody out there that can compete with you, right? You can have the same mindset, but they have obvious advantages maybe because they're rich people, and there's like a as long as the yeah, there is like a mechanism for them to be able to talk to any VC company, for example, because their dad's friend is this, that, whatever. They have obvious network advantages.

Reshma Vadlamudi 3:41

Yes.

AI Will Rewrite Schooling

Eshwar 3:41

Uh, but I think uh, and then you have also look at people that not all the people that go to Stanford startup end up starting up big companies, right? There's some so many people that that struggle like like most of us, uh, that probably have other aspects of it, maybe they're addicted to something else or whatever, right? I mean, it's it's uh you know it's it's different. Um but I think uh the takeaway from my take from that is how do we make sure that we give uh our kids the same frames frame of mind, even though they don't go go there, right? Go to their college, right? So I think I think that that place has a there's a big vibe of of a trilli billion trillion dollar companies. And you you be associate yourself, you go there, you you you know, just it's just it's just a huge energy boost that you get from just being associated with self, going there and studying there. I don't think there's any difference between uh a normal college was this college, it's just that it's the the the levels of energies are are are hyped up in such a way that the moment you associate yourself, you have you completely eliminate your fear and doubt. And that's why most people are successful that way. So in this AI world, um, I think uh the way education is going to be completely transformed. Uh, you know, I've been looking at a school. Um, I was talking reading about this school in Austin, I think they've in in Brownsville, I think it's Alpha School. So they have like a school where uh the your only academics academics is only two hours. So, and then it is self. Uh it's they have a software that makes that knows where you are and it just builds on top of it. Yeah, I think the AI, I think uh Alpha School. Um so the only two hours that they they actually dedicate to academics rest of the time is uh you know, people management skills, investing, finance, finances, economy, all these life life skills, right? I think that's a that's how I see like the foundation of schooling is going to change because you don't need to remember all the stuff out there, you don't need to be good at math. Um, you don't need to call yourself like you know, you know, you're able to because at the end of the day, college becomes this place where whoever remembers the most or whoever is able to just retain most information uh eventually ends up winning. Uh but in the in the AI world, you don't you don't need to retain information.

Reshma Vadlamudi 6:18

The skills that you need are totally different.

Eshwar 6:21

Exactly. So so um people that have the hunger and uh you know, because when the information is everything is available to you, you become lazy, right? When information is not available, you go out, you seek out. There's there's a there is a you know curiosity in which you seek information out, and because the information is not available for anybody, you feel like okay, I'm the only one getting this information. So you feel like you're motivated to find it because you want to be the first one to find it, but the information edge is gone. So everybody has the same edge, everybody has the same information. Um and and become over dependent on AI as much as possible. Um, so in that context, um, you know, like you you would have to change and adapt to things differently, and it's not the schooling is not going to be the same anymore, it shouldn't be, right? Um you should be able to read about literature, uh, you know, you know, and then be able to read about macroeconomy, uh, economy, about crypto, uh, about decentralized finance, about you know, um, you know, it can you can be like, you know, as and you could probably read about uh your body and become a doctor for yourself, understand uh the human anatomy, uh, you know, all these all these, you know, mitochondria, whatever the the words are there, like you know, then they want to be able to learn that and then understand your body like a doctor, um, understand uh finance like an economist, you know, understand uh business and books like an accountant. Um and I think you need to have all the above skill sets for to be really good at this in this economy. So I think the way you kind of deviate yourself, like I'm gonna computer science graduate, I'm a I'm a I'm a science graduate, I'm a chemistry graduate. So I think those boundaries will erase themselves. And I think whoever has the ability and will to learn about anything, they can they can learn about that. And then and then they don't even have to retain it. Um and then

Reshma Vadlamudi 8:28

they just should know how to use the information that they have, like, and what can they do with it.

Work Changes And Investing Matters

Tokens And Autonomous Agent Investing

Eshwar 8:35

Yeah, I mean, to a certain point, like you know, there's not going to be anything that you that you would need to do anyways, right? I mean, eventually if AGI is true, everything that is already figured out is probably figured out by uh NAI already, right? There's nothing really that you could actually try to think something new, right? I'm talking about 30, 40 years now, uh you know, like 30 years after 30 years. Um so I think that's I think that's important for us to think inwards and look inwards and be in our means and just try to work about work on our minds and brains and heart coherence. Um and then and then I think everybody has to be an investor. Uh uh if somebody is not investing, they're gonna be left behind. Uh, understand that nine to five is not gonna be available. You'd have to create like yourself, create your own content, you know, pro dope some podcasts, or or um the the economy is gonna be so different in the next 10 years uh that you probably will let go of the 40-hour a week job and you probably have to get supplemented income with 10 hours of doing different things, yeah. Four four different things of 10 hours and and and active and do passive income because we are going to be very passive in the future. Um it's all about identifying passive income streams right now. We need to think of those things, right? If I want to, uh, you can now invest in agents, uh, by the way. So uh so find those secular trends um uh and then invest in those those those you know those because they will make money, they because they don't sleep, they're 24 by 7, they will work for you or they'll they'll work for somebody else. And if you find those different agents right now and find them uh and then invest in them, and then that that agents will then make money and then you make a little bit of money because because these agents are um um are on the on live on the blockchain and they're not controlled by anybody, they're autonomous agents. If you buy um a token of that agent, you become an owner. You can buy 10% of it, 20% of it, how much ever you want. So there are some asymmetric opportunities right now because all the crypto that got sold off in the last three, four months has been very brutal. So there are like really good projects that you can invest in now. You can think about you cannot you're not talking about investing, you know, you know, $100,000 or something. You invest $500, $200, $300, you know. Uh uh, you know, these become these these might have an opportunity to become whatever, right? So so so in so investing in the agents, investing in those secular trends, investing in the protocols. Uh, you know, like Solana is one of the protocols that will uh I'm I'm I'm I'm thinking will do really well in this microtransaction environment. Uh and everything that we do is an APA call scenario. Um so so I think uh I think people need to look at investing uh into these things. And yeah, I mean I know like uh real estate is is an investment that is done pretty well. Um but I but I think I think there are better opportunities if you if you're if you want to take risk. And don't think like you know, just you invest something, you did not go up tomorrow, you sell it. Think of take a five to ten year view when you're investing. Uh and um and if you have a conviction, you know, I would say like just invest, you know, like there's like a diversifying divers diversity, diversification portfolio. But I think what I have done well is being very very concentrated in in one or two positions. It's really helped me. Uh, because when you really concentrate yourself in one or two positions, then you probably are putting all eggs in one or two baskets, and you'll be more careful, you'll be more um thorough and thoughtful. Read about the company or that project or whatever. Because when you're investing all your money into one or two companies, the way you look at the investment is totally different than you're investing 100 there, 100 there, and you're probably doing it in 50 or 100 different positions, right? Uh then things might be different, right? I mean, um your portfolio uh the growth trajectory is less, right? Especially when somebody is young, I think they should be very, very concentrated and um take concentrated asymmetric bets. Um is is what I think uh people should do, and not be reckless or anything, just have a 10-year time frame and invest in secular trends, protocols, agents, um, you know, anything around AI. I think you can build a product, you can build a product now. Anybody can build a product right now, and you can ship um and uh and uh and launch an agent in this agent, you know, there are there are multiple agentic um um crypto launch pads that you can you know have a nice white paper and explain your idea and then put it out there, and people are willing to put $100, $200, $300 on your project, and then you're able to probably raise a million or two million um like it's nothing, right? That's available to you. You don't really need to go to a VC or anything like that. I know you know like the Agentich market has probably gone down a little bit, uh, but I think you've seen a uh a preview of what's to come. Um, especially if you are around in January of 2025, agentich market was going crazy, right? Um and I think that is that is gonna come back. I think I think there are a lot of opportunities that you can that you can invest in in in the agentic space, uh blockchain space. Um I think um I think you know you you'd not you'd not be good, you you'll be good at investing in real estate because that's something that is always going to be there. People need homes. Um but I I feel like if you want an asymmetric bet, I think it's important for you to invest in these secular trends and take these pot out shots at at these at these at these uh asymmetric opportunities is where I'm looking at, right? So I just uh I just I'm not I'm very bored of investing in real estate and um and I feel like there are better opportunities at this time. Um, where you can where you can invest in these things and get outsized returns without taking margin. So I got really bit by margin in 2022, so um I lost a lot of money. Um so I never take margin. So I try to find assets uh that naturally give margin uh without having margin, you know. Um uh where the upside is uh is uh is um you know a couple of hundred, three hundred, four hundred percent, the downside is hundred percent. Um but uh but as long as you understand that protocol and see how it is useful for people, uh then the chances of it going to zero are gonna be less, and then the chances of it going thousand, thousand, ten thousand percent is high. Um you you more more often or not you you take those bets and and and stay on them for for a longer period of time, right? And then eventually you will make so much money. That's why I said like this is probably gonna be the next five, ten years is gonna be a transition of transfer of wealth from old money to new money. So old money, I mean real estate and all these other aspects of it, right? I mean, people that are really old that don't understand crypto, whatever they're multi-millionaires and billionaires and trillionaires that are out there. So all that money has to go somewhere. And the recipients of that new money is gonna be people that want to that are willing to take risk, willing to take take big bets on on these, uh, on these these things, right? Now you know, like with a we with an email example we spoke, how agents can help. And if that agent can make money for itself and it can be an autonomous body, it doesn't need to be a uh, you know, you know, it doesn't need to be a corporate, it doesn't need to have an corporate structure, right? It it can live on a blockchain and you can have a value of that specific agent as a token, and boom, you invested a mark in a company now, but it's an AI agent, right? Just like how you would invest in Apple, you'd invest in an agent uh because the the founder or whoever has a 10% stake and they set it in motion, and they, you know, and then you could buy in stake and then you can help build it because it's all open source. So more nice good people come and then they can, you know, you know, take a position in that particular agent and then they make it more better. And you can contribute to it, and then you can, you know, you can you can create it, make it better, and then uh and then you don't need a company, you don't need to list your company in a stock market, pay, pay, I think like for you to actually list your company in in uh Nasdaq or an NYSC, I think the the cost is about I think about three to four million dollars just to just the fees. Right? Um you don't need all that now. You have an ability to just completely off-ramp into into a different world where there is no you know boundaries, you know, there's no you need to be an accredited investor or whatnot, you know, uh, to be able to invest. Anybody from India to you know Asia, anybody can invest in your project, it's just open and everything is open. Uh and as long as you can build something, I think there is a way for people to back you, right? It not it's not about it's not gonna be a million dollars from a from a uh from a VC, it's probably gonna be $10,000, $20 from 10,000 investors. It's gonna make up a million. You're gonna get that a million million. And it didn't cost you, it cost it, it probably costed you $2 in gas fees to make that transaction work and raise a million dollars today.

Reshma Vadlamudi 18:39

Yeah.

Eshwar 18:40

So if that's the world that we're going in, I don't think uh companies are gonna exist anymore. It's just gonna be the agents that will mimic a company. And by the virtue of you holding the token, because there's no because it collects fees or whatever it does, it gets passed on to the to the token holders in a very uh open way. Uh right now, if you want to invest in a company, you have a CEO that takes some millions and millions of dollars, you have you know real estate, you have so many expenses that then the shareholders get the last bit of it, whatever is left over. Uh, but in a in an agentic world and blockchain, you don't you don't necessarily do that, right? Everything is open on chain, nobody has any special interest, nobody's running it, nobody's doing anything. Um, it's just this transparent way of of of owning something that is gonna change uh let's change the way how we invest. So now you have uh a million in agents uh that to choose from and to invest. So now you have um now you have your work cut out to become an investor. So everybody uh should be in in the cusp of you know reviewing these agents, investing in those agents right now is is how you become super rich in the future.

Reshma Vadlamudi 20:00

Wow, okay. So what are you currently investing in?

Crypto Conviction And Book Picks

Eshwar 20:05

Um so I so right now it is easy to create agents. So I'm working on not really investing in agents per se, to build an agent for myself. So especially this project that I'm working on called Exemplar, which is which is going to be your clinical research agent. So anybody that wants to do clinical research, they can use my agent to do certain things for them. They can help create a report, they can conduct certain analysis about a specific drug or whatever, right? Um so I'm looking at building my own agent and then making it available for other people to invest in that agent, and then and then we are able to use that agent to help people that like researchers or companies that want to um do certain things, uh the agent should be able to do that for them, right? Whatever it is, right? Um so we can probably look at looking look at building multiple agents that all work in in a unison to help solve some real world problems, is what I'm thinking at. Um, but again, all these agents are made possible by uh the protocols themselves. Yeah, you can build agents, but the protocols are the ones that are actually fueling them. So I think Solana is is one example. Um Virtuals is another company, I mean another another protocol that is an agentic framework. Um so I think like you know, between um between Ethereum base and uh and Solana, I think um, I think you'd not go wrong with with selecting those protocols. So namely, like if like if blue chip's a blue chip is going to be Solana, it's pretty obvious. Uh, you know, the markets will go down, they sell off, you know, 50, 80 percent. It's very normal in crypto. Um it's important for you to just put money. Money and forget it and then look at it after 10 years. If you can maintain that, if you can create that patience, I think you'll do pretty well with any of these tokens that you want to invest in. Again, no financial advice, but that's how I'm looking at uh looking at uh you know positioning myself. Um and also I think we have an intersection of companies getting into crypto. Like I've seen, like, you know, I mean I'm a big huge proponent of crypto, all my wealth is in is in is in crypto, right? So every dollar I make is going back to crypto. So that's how strong of a willing person that I am. So I'm looking at things like, you know, like you know, unusual things like MicroStrategy, which is uh which is which is doing uh you know financial jiu-jitsu uh trying to borrow money at zero and buying Bitcoin like crazy. I think they're just going short on dollar and going long on Bitcoin in a very big way with a lot of leverage, much like I'm not sharing information or anything like that. Um you can follow me on LinkedIn, I think e Prasad7. Uh um and um uh X handle is SHBTC, that's E S H B T C.

Reshma Vadlamudi 23:12

Okay. And what's number one book that changed your life?

Eshwar 23:19

Um changed your life. I think it's still changing me at this time. I think uh a book called Reality Transurfing, um which is my favorite read right now. I think I've been reading that for seven, eight months. It's a huge book, and it has so much uh information and um the way when every time you read it, I think it's it just touches you differently. Um but it's just about life and how to think about life.

Reshma Vadlamudi 23:50

What is it?

Eshwar 23:50

Reality uh reality transurf transurfing. So it's it's a com it's uh it's from a Russian author called uh Vlad Zelen.

Reshma Vadlamudi 23:59

Okay.

Eshwar 24:00

Um again, it talks about all the spiritual aspects of uh what we've already discussed. Okay, so I think that's the book that I'm really liking now.

Reshma Vadlamudi 24:11

Um and three books you recommend every entrepreneur should read.

Eshwar 24:16

Uh I think every entrepreneur should read uh the autobiography of yogi. Um you will only be you'll only be able to see through it and sit through it once you're spiritually there. Otherwise, it's you can't you can't read that book.

Reshma Vadlamudi 24:32

Um I finished reading it. Yeah. Yeah.

Eshwar 24:35

Yeah. Because if you normally, if you're just looking at to read a book, to read a book, yes, it you would you would think that it's not connected to business or anything like that. It just it seems like some stories being told by some stories about somebody else, how you met and everything else. But there's so much wisdom and um wisdom, uh you know, everything that you can connect to it is an inside there that you'll only appreciate if you're if it's spiritually there. That's something uh I mean I don't read books, books, I listen to books. So I've never really read books, read books. You know, like Audible is my go go to where I'm driving or when I'm just you know walking or exercising. That's how that's where I listen to these books. Um so that's that's one book that I recommend by de facto default uh to anybody. Um and uh I'm I really recommend um reality transurfing.

Reshma Vadlamudi 25:32

Um and what's the third one?

Eshwar 25:35

Third one, um I really loved uh um um David Deutsch um Reality Um Fabric of Reality. I think that's that's that's one book that I read. There's some business books that I that I that I that I read as well, but um but I think the most important thing is mindset. I think the the more you work on your mindset, I think the best that is better for you. Um so