Kevin Ryan

Ryan says New York is booming, with many people moving from Europe to start companies there.

“I see so many people moving from Europe, coming to New York, starting up companies”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:20:37

Ryan says he pursues an idea if his intellectual 'business crush' on it persists for about two weeks, without building a business model.

“And if that sticks with me for like two weeks, I generally do it”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 39:43

Ryan says he has avoided e-commerce since Gilt because he views the problem as already solved.

“I can get anything delivered to my house in like 27 seconds. I can return it. It's inexpensive. So I don't know how to do better”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 21:44

Ryan argues for a more equitable tax system in which the wealthy pay 30% and for reducing the budget deficit.

“We're going to have to end up having a more equitable tax system where the wealthy pay 30% taxes, which they don't right now”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:16:34

Ryan worries about income inequality and argues the U.S. is unprepared for job losses from AI.

“We can debate the time. We're going to lose jobs to AI. And I don't think we're in a good position to help people have successful lives”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:16:06

Ryan says robot massage is a solvable problem that is largely solved already.

“It is a solvable problem, and we're probably 70% of the way there to solving it”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:10:22

Ryan predicts robots will see their biggest opportunity in single-use factory applications rather than varied tasks like restaurants.

“So single use is the best way, and factories are the best way for that. So that's going to be colossal in every single factory”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:09:13

Ryan says cost is the main barrier to psychedelic therapy and he wants to show group therapy works as well.

“One of the biggest challenges we have, it's too expensive. And one of the things I am interested in is trying to show that group therapy works as well”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:02:57

Ryan argues methylone has advantages over MDMA, including being safe to dose weekly in trials.

“you can take meth alone once a week in our trials. You actually can't take MDMA once a week”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 55:43

Ryan says AlleyCorp prefers small funds focused on returns rather than management fees.

“VC funds are typically 2% and 20% on the upside. Big funds focus on the 2%. We focus on the 20%”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 45:57

Ryan says small funds like AlleyCorp should sell about a third of a position in later rounds four or five years in.

“we think it's a good idea for a smaller fund like us in rounds four or five years in to sell a third of our position”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 44:06

Ryan recounts that in 2003 his team foresaw video serving costs falling below ad revenue but failed to start a YouTube-like company.

“we looked at the trend and thought, you know, by 2005, 2006, they're going to cross. And we should have started YouTube, and we didn't”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 14:12

Ryan argues that building an important company takes about ten years, so founders must bet on long-term trends.

“First of all, 10 years is important because to build an important company, unfortunately, you can't do it in two or three years”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 4:46

Ryan argues the U.S. should admit one to two million highly skilled immigrants while not allowing unlimited border crossings.

“And we shouldn't take 100 million of them, but we should take a million of them. Two million of them”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:18:43

Ryan attributes MongoDB's decade-long path to IPO partly to having no revenue for its first three and a half years.

“Because, first of all, we didn't have any revenue for three and a half years”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:13:31

Ryan says sexual assault is the leading source of PTSD, which is why Transcend's trials were 60% women.

“The number one source is sexual assault. And that's why our trials were actually 60% women”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:00:35

Ryan says Transcend's initial shareholders' foundation will give $20 million to psychedelic-related causes within nine months.

“so we will be giving 20 million dollars in the next nine months to causes linked to psychedelics”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 1:00:05

Ryan says the high cost of FDA approval is why psychedelic development needed a for-profit company rather than philanthropy alone.

“it takes roughly $200 to $250 million to get one compound through the FDA process”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 53:37

Ryan credits the Trump administration with advancing nuclear energy and psychedelics despite otherwise not being a fan.

“I'm not always the biggest fan of the Trump administration, but on psychedelics and nuclear, I think they're right on both”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 42:55

Ryan says Business Insider deliberately never did marketing, betting on quality content to reach 100 million uniques.

“Our strategy was, we're never going to do marketing. So by the way, you've never seen an ad for Business Insider”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 35:03

Ryan claims DoubleClick, if still independent, would be worth $100 billion.

“DoubleClick today, as an independent company, would be worth $100 billion”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 27:49

Ryan says he pushed Gilt's board to sell because the business was declining, ultimately getting $250 million.

“I said, we have a falling knife here. And so we went out and we only got $250 million”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #884: How to Spot 10-Year Trends and Build Billion-Dollar Companies — Kevin Ryan of DoubleClick, MongoDB, Business Insider, and Many More (Sep 24, 2026) · Listen from 21:11