Ed Baker is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive, currently serving as the CEO and Founder of AnyQuestion, an AI powered knowledge sharing platform. Prior to this, he played an instrumental role as the Vice President of Product & Growth at Uber and prior to that he sold a company to Facebook where he joined the team as the Head of International Growth. Ed currently sits on the boards of both WHOOP and Form, and his extensive experience in product management, growth strategies, and consumer technology has made him a sought-after thought leader in the tech industry.
I use my calendar to put in my non-negotiables like a morning workout and dinnertime/bedtime with the family, and everything else in between is work. I also try to keep weekends for family time and maybe get a longer workout in one of those mornings. Transcript: "Hey maju, great question when I'm still trying to perfect but I can share a few things. I've learned over the past decade of trying to balance all of these things. First of all, I just use my calendar to put in the non-negotiables and so for me that includes a workout each morning. Most of the time I try to get that done first thing before all the emails start coming in and the work day starts and The other non-negotiable for me is dinnertime and bedtime with the family. I just don't schedule any meetings during those times unless I truly need to make an exception. So those are kind of the bookends for me, the work out in the morning and the family time in the evening. And then everything else in between is, is work. So that's that's the main thing. I'm doing this. These days, I also try to keep weekends as much as possible to family time and maybe get a longer workout in one of those mornings. Thanks for the question."
My mentors have been people from my first startup's Advisory Board, such as Stan Chudnovsky, Joe Greenstein, Alex Rampell, Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith. Additionally, Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed, our company counsel Ted Wang, Javier Olivan from Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick from Uber have all been mentors for me. I have learned a lot from each of them about being an entrepreneur, founding a company, growing a company, finding product market fit, fundraising, and the ups and downs of running a business. Transcript: "So who are my mentors and how have they helped me? Well, when I think about the world of startups, some of my earliest mentors were the people that were on the advisory board of my very first startup, Friendly. These people are all still very close friends of mine, and I learned a lot from each of them, especially when it comes to being an entrepreneur, founding a company, growing a company, finding product market fit, and fundraising, and all of the ups and downs that come with being an entrepreneur. The people on my advisory board included Stan Chudnovsky, Joe Greenstein, Alex Rampell, Greg Tseng, and Johan Schleyer-Smith, just to name a few. We also had some great investors at the time who were mentors of mine, including Jeremy Liu at Lightspeed, who was our lead investor. And then even our company counsel, Ted Wang, was a mentor of mine back when I was doing that first startup. So those are some of the people that come to mind from the early days. And there have been a number along the way since then. You know, at Facebook, my boss, Javier Olivan, was a great mentor. I also, of course, learned a lot from his boss, Mark Zuckerberg, just from watching how he ran what I think is one of the most successful companies in the world. And then at Uber, my boss, Travis Kalanick, also one of the best entrepreneurs I've ever known. I learned a whole lot from working with him and for him for about four years."
When training for a marathon, I gradually increase my mileage, do one long run per week, one tempo run per week and one track workout per week. Transcript: "So therefore things I do. Any time I start training for a marathon starting about four months before the race. The first is gradually build up mileage, start very low. If you haven't been running at all, maybe do less than 10 miles in your first week and every week add something like 10% or no more than 20% per week. So that's the first thing. The second thing is do one long run per week. I would usually do them on the weekends and just go slow. Don't worry at all about Pace. Just just have it be long and every week have it be a little bit longer than the week before. The third thing is do one tempo run per week. Temple Run is where you're running at. Basically close to your goal, race Pace, or maybe even a little bit faster. I'd say start out with a shorter tempo. Run, you know, maybe like as short as two miles or no more than four miles where you going quite hard for that distance. And then, every every week go a little bit further in your temple, run to the point, whereby the as you're getting close to that Marathon. You're going up to like a 12-mile Temple Run. And then finally, the fourth thing is do one track workout per week and And that's just that could be anything from like 400 meter repeats, you know, something like 16 by four hundred or thousand meter repeats or 800 meter repeats. Basically, just something that's getting you some speed on the track. Those are the four things. I do anytime. I'm training for a marathon."
My favorite home gym equipment includes a bike trainer, Woodway treadmill, rowing machine and Vasa swim erg. Transcript: "Hey hon, my favorite home gym equipment is first of all a bike trainer using Swift. I have a few different bike trainers. This one's a portable one actually, but there's also the the kicker which I like to use for strength endurance workouts. Then I have this Woodway treadmill would ways are great. I feel like they're the closest thing to running outside. And then you can't forget about the To rowing machine. Feel like I can get a better workout with that than just about anything else and a given amount of time. Oh, and one more I have this Vasa swim urgh so you can kind of lie down on it and and swim in place. So those are those are the pieces of cardio equipment that I use the most frequently."
Launching mountain biking and swimming on the platform, with plans to expand into other sports, art, music, chess, poker, gaming, etc. Let me know if you have any other suggestions. Transcript: "Hey, Tommy. I'm excited to launch a bunch of other verticals on this platform. I think the next ones are likely going to launch our mountain biking and swimming, but then we're going to continue to do a bunch of sports after that. I'm also excited to do things like cooking art music and also get some of the top chess players. Poker players Gamers, you name it. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. Thanks. X."
I think the best purchase under $100 that positively impacted my life is an electric toothbrush and a heart rate monitor. Transcript: "Best purchase under $100 that is positively impacted my life. I think that would be a couple of things come to mind electric toothbrush. That's a pretty important thing and that was under $100 and my heart rate, monitors and other one that I use almost every day. In fact, that would probably be the number one now that I think about it. Is there anything else? Maybe a pair of shoes."