PUBLIC VIEWPOINTS

Tarek Mansour

Interview participant ·

1 interviews · 3 viewpoints · 1 topics

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Translations are for reading; original excerpts remain the evidence.

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Attributed viewpoints, ordered by interview date. A snapshot of these conversations, not a definitive statement of someone’s beliefs.

Building companies

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Different leaders handle different areas of the company

Tarek Mansour describes Allan’s role as covering scientific aspects of marketing and spending with a focus on return on investment.

Supporting evidence

Original excerpt

And then the rest is like—so the person that leads our brand or leads doesn’t have any direct reports.
Kalshi’s Tarek Mansour vs. the Federal Government
Context

Not, like, ahead in any way. I could not. I mean, we have a CMO, Allan. He’s incredible. So Allan takes care of all the scientific pieces, very good at spending money to basically—with high ROI. They’re just sort of flying around country and doing cool stuff. And he ran a Twitter account before. You know the inverse Cramer?

Start time comes from the supplied transcript. Playback alignment is awaiting review.

Open the episode and seek to 39:13.

Regulatory delays complicated Kalshi’s election-market plans

Tarek Mansour recounts repeated delays while Kalshi sought approval for an election market, despite explaining its position to the regulator.

Supporting evidence

Original excerpt

Started talking to government saying we want to do this, it’s very important, here’s why it’s gonna work, it’s gonna be the most accurate gauge, and here’s how it’s legal—which it is.
Kalshi’s Tarek Mansour vs. the Federal Government
Context

And we started engaging about the election market before we even launched to the general public in the end of ‘21. And they’re like, okay, fine, we’ll work with you, you know, whatever. Month after month they wouldn’t give it to us, they wouldn’t give it to us. I had bet all the company on the election market for ‘22, the ‘22 midterms. That was what we were aiming towards. The board is ready for it, et cetera. And they keep delaying, delaying, delaying up until they pushed it after the midterms. So they pocket vetoed it. They didn’t say no, they just managed to politely delay us enough that it didn’t happen. So that was heartbreaking. You know, it’s been like—so we started in 2018, we finally got to 2021, finally excited about launching.

Start time comes from the supplied transcript. Playback alignment is awaiting review.

Open the episode and seek to 41:44.

Good decisions can still face unfavorable outcomes

Tarek Mansour uses poker players as an analogy for accepting variance: a player can believe a hand is good, lose, and still maintain the same approach.

Supporting evidence

Original excerpt

But the key learning with that, what’s interesting is it’s a little bit like poker, the best poker players, they know when they’re playing a good hand and they’re okay with the variance.
Kalshi’s Tarek Mansour vs. the Federal Government
Context

No, I think, but people lost confidence. It’s like, we should pivot, and it’s the wrong strategy, wrong strategy, wrong execution, all of that. We’re not doing a good job, basically. It’s on us. And it’s fine. You should hold the founders accountable. They can lose a lot, but they’ll stick to their game. And then they know that over time the variance is gonna come back and with enough plays they’re gonna win over time. And you’ll see with Elon, you’ll see with some of these founders that can take these extreme risks as long as they know their expected outcome and they can intake the variance over time.

Start time comes from the supplied transcript. Playback alignment is awaiting review.

Open the episode and seek to 44:21.

Statements by interview date1

Statements are ordered by the original interview publication date; differences in wording do not establish a change of position.