Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast (general)

Homebrew is one of the great venture firm names.  It hearkens back to the 1970s era computer hobbyist group that included people like Steve Jobs.  Hunter Walk and Satya Patel are the partners who founded and built Homebrew (the venture capital firm).

Nevertheless, if you say “Hunter and Satya” in Silicon Valley, people will know exactly who you are talking about. 

Hunter Walk came to homebrew with experience as a product leader at YouTube and Google.  Meanwhile, Satya Patel's background was as a seasoned investor at Battery Ventures and product leader at Twitter.

In this episode we discuss the power of partnerships in Silicon Valley.  In particular we talk about the power of the 2 -person partnership (see also:  Andreessen Horowitz), why the alchemy has to be right, and why some don’t make it.

We also discuss the evolution of Homebrew from a firm backed by outside capital (from Limited Partners or “LPs”) to one in which the two founders deploy their own capital.

Finally, we cover Hunter and Satya’s newest fund:  Screendoor.  Screendoor has a mission of supporting underrepresented General Partners of emerging venture capital funds by providing capital, access and mentorship.

Homebrew https://homebrew.co/

Screendoor https://www.screendoor.co/

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:19pm EDT

Nolan Bushnell’s career is extraordinary.  Nolan has ignited two entertainment revolutions: first with Atari, birthing the video game industry through classics like Pong, and later with Chuck E. Cheese, merging pizza and arcade games for family fun. A serial entrepreneur, he's founded over 20 companies, venturing into robotics, personal computers, and beyond, forever changing the landscape of leisure and inspiration.

Nolan has turned his thoughts to the state of education in the US and has teamed up with Dr. Leah Hanes to form ExoDexa, a developer of educational games that seek to ‘gamify’ education.  Together, they’ve published a book “Shaping the Future of Education” outlining their ideas.

Dr. Leah Hanes is a force to be reckoned with as well.  Dr. Hanes has been a champion for STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) for years, leading the Two Bit Circus Foundation since 2013 and using her expertise to advocate for a more engaging and future-proof approach to learning. 

In this episode Nolan and Dr. Hanes discuss the current state of education, and ways to transform the rate at which kids learn by 10X or even 20X.

 

Exodexa:                      https://www.exodexa.com/

 

Nolan Bushnell:           https://twitter.com/NolanBushnell

 

Dr. Leah Hanes:           https://twitter.com/LeahHanes

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Category:general -- posted at: 7:25pm EDT

Richard Socher is a visionary computer scientist, entrepreneur, and AI researcher who has dedicated his career to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in AI. With a Ph.D. from Stanford University, Richard's groundbreaking work in deep learning, neural networks, and NLP has paved the way for remarkable advances in AI applications.

It may seem like everyone is an AI expert these days:  Richard Socher really is.  Richarrd is founder of the AI-focused venture firm AIX, and founder of the AI-powered search engine You.com.

He is the former Chief Scientist at Salesforce and founder of the groundbreaking MetaMind AI startup (which was acquired by Salesforce).  In short, when it comes to AI, Richard is the real deal.

In this episode, we delve into Richard's insights on the latest AI trends, ethical considerations in AI development, the future of human-AI collaboration, and much more.

Whether you’re new to AI – or have been investing in it for 10 years -- Richard's engaging discussions and visionary ideas will captivate and inspire you.

You.com

AIX Ventures

8-Bit Capital

Something Ventured Podcast

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:02pm EDT

What are the odds that 4 friends can start a VC firm, and still be firing on all cylinders years later?  Hadley Harris, one of Eniac Ventures’ 4 co-founders has the answer.

Before co-founding Eniac, Hadley was as a developer and engineering team lead at Pegasystems, and later took on roles as a product manager at Microsoft and strategist at Samsung.

His time at Microsoft and Samsung taught Hadley one thing:  Big companies were not for him.

So, Hadley joined a couple of talented AI founders out of MIT at Vlingo where he ran a several aspects of the business across product, strategy, and marketing until it was sold to Nuance for $225M. He rolled his experience building a successful startup into Thumb, where as CBO he helped the real-time recommendation app reach user engagement levels second only to Facebook before being acquired.

In this episode we discuss how he co-founded and built Eniac, and what he is seeing when it comes to the recently hot trend of investing in Artificial intelligence.  Last, but not least, we discuss how to pronounce “Eniac”.

Hadley on X

Eniac on X

Eniac Ventures

8-Bit Capital

Something Ventured

 

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Category:general -- posted at: 5:35pm EDT

Samir Kaji is the founder behind Allocate, a pioneering platform in the venture capital space. Samir has established himself as a key connector between venture capital firms and the “LPs” (Limited Partners) who invest in them.  He is building Allocate to leverage his experience into a platform.

After observing inefficiencies in the venture capital market – between venture firms and the LPs that fund them – he was inspired to create Allocate.  Allocate is described as “a game-changing solution that empowers venture capital firms to streamline allocation processes, optimize portfolios, and make data-driven decisions.”   

Samir's position in the industry gives him a unique perspective.  In this episode he parses what he sees from his vantage point, as the VC market undergoes upheaval at the same time one of the most exciting technologies (“AI”) in 20 years emerges.

He also gives us a post-mortem on the turmoil that rocked SVB and First Republic Bank.  Here he brings unique insight, given his years spent in venture banking working at SVB and First Republic Bank where he closely worked with and advised over 700 venture capital and private equity firms. .
Samir is also an active writer on venture capital and is the host of a top venture podcast Venture Unlocked.

Join us in exploring Samir Kaji's journey and the transformative impact he hopes to have with Allocate on the world of venture capital.

https://www.allocate.co/

https://twitter.com/samirkaji

https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:43pm EDT

Darian Shirazi is a general partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI fund. Gradient Ventures invests in companies that are “developing AI technologies that have the potential to make a significant impact on the world”.

Darian is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded and served as CEO of Radius, a leading customer data platform, for over 7 years. Under his leadership, the company grew to over 100 employees, raised over $100 million in venture capital, and served dozens of Fortune 500 customers.

Darian is also an early investor in many successful companies, including Lyft, Udemy, Carbon Health, and Palantir. At Gradient, he has invested in  Seed and Series A rounds in prominent companies such as Mural, SecureFrame, Chili Piper, Writer, Stairwell, Gigs, FlutterFlow, and Oura.

He started his career working at Facebook as a Software Engineer reporting to Mark Zuckerberg.

In this episode we discuss his path to becoming an investor in Gradient.  We also dive into the topic of the moment: Investing in artificial intelligence (“AI”).  A lot of people believe AI is a more significant technology evolution than the internet.  Many people believe AI is just a lot of hype. Some believe AI is a threat to our existence. 

We unpack what Darian sees from his unique vantage point at Gradient about how to think about and invest in companies driven by AI.  We discuss what is real, what is probably hype, and what you should be most excited about.

Something Ventured

Gradient Ventures

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:26pm EDT

Anthony Soohoo is a Venture Advisor at AI Fund.  It is a role he took on after building a company (Dot & Bo) that was acquired.  He went from buidling his own company to becoming a leader at -- Walmart.  .

In fact, Anthony became the head of Wal-Mart’s Home Division.  It’s the largest US retailer for home goods, and one of six business units at Wal-Mart.  Anthony discusses what it’s like going from a startup to operating at the scale of, essentially, a Fortune 500 CEO.

Anthony also begins the “AI Series” – where we start discussing what is happening as AI technology begins to emerge.  Anthony advises “AI Fund”, a venture studio that works with entrepreneurs to bring their AI companies to market.

A note on the “AI Series”:  A lot of people have expressed interest in the emergence of AI as a technological force driving the next wave of innovation.  Many believe it is significant as the emergence of the Internet or mobile phones.   So I’m beginning a series within Something Ventured where I talk to people who are experts in the field, and can bring insight as to what is happening, what to understand and what to look forward to as AI starts to…eat the world.

AI Fund https://www.aifund.ai/

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 6:43pm EDT

Nnamdi Okike is rapidly becoming a prominent figure in the venture capital industry. He is the co-founder of 645 Ventures, along with his partner Aaron Holiday. Recently, 645 Ventures successfully raised its fourth fund, of about $350 million.

Nnamdi's background includes an education at Harvard, membership on the prestigious NVCA board (with former Something Ventured Guest Charles Hudson serving as the chair), and time at Insight Partners. 

We discuss Nnamdi's path to finding a partner and establishing 645 Ventures. He shares why he left Insight to start his own fund, how he determined Aaron was the right partner, and the challenges they faced while raising funds from Limited Partners ("LPs").

Nnamdi also discusses how he applied his experience at Insight to 645 Ventures, their decision-making process for investments, and his perspective on the current state of the venture market.

We conclude with a moment on how he manages to be a Boston sports fan living and working in…New York.

Something Ventured:  https://somethingventured.us/

645 Ventures:  https://645ventures.com/ 

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:23pm EDT

David Z. Morris is part of the Coindesk reporting team that was critical in bringing to light the (apparently) massive fraud at FTX, the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.  FTX Trading Ltd., commonly known as FTX, abruptly collapsed in 2022, after having grown to become the world’s third largest crypto exchange with over a million users. 

While still unfolding, the FTX story so far has more layers, complexities and characters than a spy novel. David provides a thoughtful, nuanced explanation of what is known so far.

We discuss what happened at FTX, how the events unfolded, and what Bankman-Fried’s role was in the multi-billion dollar collapse. 

David Z. Morris is CoinDesk's Chief Insights Columnist. He has written about crypto since 2013 for outlets including Fortune, Slate, and Aeon. He is the author of "Bitcoin is Magic," an introduction to Bitcoin's social dynamics. He is a former academic sociologist of technology with a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Iowa. He holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and small amounts of other crypto assets.

 

David Z. Morris https://www.coindesk.com/author/david-z-morris/

Something Ventured Podcast. https://somethingventured.us/ 

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Category:general -- posted at: 7:15pm EDT

It is not a stretch to call Elad Gil one of Silicon Valley’s best investors.  In a world where one big hit can make a venture capitalists’ career, Elad has invested in…Well, here’s a partial list Airbnb, Airtable, Anduril, Brex, Checkr, Coinbase, Deel, Figma, Flexport, Gitlab, Gusto, Instacart, Notion, Opendoor, PagerDuty, Pinterest, Retool, Rippling, Samsara, Square, Stripe, TripActions, Wish.

It seems almost impossible.  But there it is. 

Elad’s career includes working at Google, founding a company acquired by Twitter, and founding Color Genomics (you probably heard about them during the COVID response).

He is also author of the book High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People.

In this wide-ranging discussion, Elad shares his thoughts on everything from building companies to crypto, AI, and more.

 

Elad’s home page:      https://eladgil.com/

Elad on Twitter:          https://twitter.com/eladgil

Something Ventured: https://somethingventured.us/ 

 

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:36pm EDT

There are a few – very few –non-traditional paths into venture capital.  Adrian Fenty may have one of the most unusual ones.  Adrian was the Mayor of Washington D.C., winning that post at the age of 35 (making him Washington D.C.’s youngest mayor ever).

In this episode we discuss his path to becoming mayor of a major city and his refreshing style for governing in that office.  But being mayor of a major US city was just the beginning.

Adrian became a special advisor to the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, where he had the chance to observe its founders in action.

Today, Adrian is a Managing Director of the venture firm he founded, MaC Venture Capital.

https://macventurecapital.com/

www.somethingventured.com

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Category:general -- posted at: 1:17pm EDT

Michelle Tandler is an entrepreneur – she founded  “Growth Path”, a provider of audio courses for professional development.  Her goal is to teach soft skills and management at scale.  She previously worked at tech firms Thumbtack and Yammer, as well as the venture capital firm Trinity.

In this episode we discuss her entrepreneurial journey, in which she gives us a pretty candid look at the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur.

Michelle has also become a (fairly popular) voice of reason concerning the state of affairs in San Francisco.  She regularly poses thoughtful questions about various policies while generally shedding light on the byzantine corners of San Francisco politics.  Here, she shares her thoughts on a range of issues, providing thoughtful solutions, and frank explanations of various head-spinning policies.

Substack https://substack.com/profile/1329960-michelle-tandler

Twitter https://twitter.com/michelletandler

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 6:50pm EDT

Max Chafkin is the author of “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power”.  Max is a technology reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.  “The Contrarian” isn’t just about Thiel.  It’s about that, too, of course -- from PayPal to his Facebook investment to his failed hedge fund, etc.  But it’s also about “Silicon Valley’s political coming-of-age”, as the New York Times describes it.

We discuss how Peter Thiel came to wealth, and the many controversies surrounding him.  We also discuss the calculations that led him to back Donald Trump’s presidency, and ultimately take a role in Trump’s transition campaign.

Max Chafkin on Twitter

Something Ventured

The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power

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Category:general -- posted at: 7:48pm EDT

Howard Morgan is one of those few – very few – people who have built multiple game-changing firms.  He is co-founder of Renaissance Technologies (sometimes known as “RenTec”).  While a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he divined the opportunity to apply emerging computer technologies to investing.

The resulting firm – Renaissance Technologies -- is one of the most famous, and successful, hedge funds.  It pioneered systematic trading using quantitative models derived from mathematical models.  It famously hires people who are incredibly smart – but don’t have previous investing experience.

While some might consider that enough of a career for one lifetime – Howard went on to co-found First Round Capital with Josh Koppelman.  First Round is one of the most respected seed venture capital firms, with investments in firms like Notion, Roblox, Uber, and Square.

At last Howard is ready to retire….wait no.  No, Howard is now the chairman of B Capital, the global investment firm founded by Eduardo Saverin.

In this episode we discuss how this remarkable journey unfolded, and what he sees for the future.

B Capital Partners https://www.bcapgroup.com/

Renaissance Technologies https://www.rentec.com

First Round Capital https://firstround.com/

Something Ventured Podcast https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 5:31pm EDT

Jenny Lefcourt is a partner at Freestyle Capital, a seed stage venture firm overseeing $450 million in seed investments. Jenny dropped out of her Stanford MBA program – before that was cool -- to co-found online wedding registry startup WeddingChannel.com (with classmate, Jessica Herrin)

After The Knot acquired WeddingChannel.com, Jenny started another company – Bella Pictures – also subsequently acquired.  Today she is a partner at Freestyle Capital, and was recently named one of Barron’s “100 Women Shaping the World of U.S. Finance”.

In this conversation we discuss her path through these entrepreneurial experiences to becoming a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and co-founder of All Raise. She shares what it’s like to join and then become partner of a venture firm that already has a couple high-profile partners; why she thinks entrepreneurs make great VCs, and the role of All Raise in Silicon Valley.

Freestyle Capital https://five.libsyn.com/episodes/add

Something Ventured Podcast https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 7:27pm EDT

I talk to a lot of founders and CEOs in Silicon Valley.  They started telling me “you know, I couldn’t have done it without…” When I heard that multiple times, I just had to meet the guy they were talking about – Joe Hudson.

Turns out, Joe Hudson is a sought after executive coach and creator of The Art of Accomplishment, an online learning platform for personal development.  And get this – he quit his job as a venture capitalist to become a coach.

Yep -- as a venture capitalist Joe found that the most rewarding aspect, and the part he was most successful at, was the mentorship and coaching of the leadership of his portfolio companies. This insight moved him to his present role as a coach, business consultant and teacher.  He now coaches 12 CEOs and leaders in prominent companies and runs transformative programs for both individuals and businesses. He is says he is practicing a craft that makes big, lasting, and overwhelmingly positive impacts on the lives of people in his programs and in the companies he works with.

In this episode we discuss his journey, why he only coaches 12 people a year – and how you can participate (since you’re not one of those 12 people!) (Hint:  Go to https://artofaccomplishment.com/connection/ and use code “VENTURED”)

The Art of Accomplishment. https://artofaccomplishment.com/

Something Ventured Podcast https://artofaccomplishment.com/

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Category:general -- posted at: 1:21pm EDT

Eliot Brown, with Maureen Farrell, is co-author of “The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion”.  As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal he became intrigued by the messianic founder who had raised billions of dollars, and developed a cult-like following at his startup WeWork.

“In little more than a decade, Neumann transformed himself from a struggling baby clothes salesman into the charismatic, hard-partying CEO of a company worth $47 billion - on paper. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Israeli transplant looked the part of a messianic truth teller. Investors swooned, and billions poured in.

Soon, however, WeWork was burning through cash faster than Neumann could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, he scoured the globe for more capital. Then, as WeWork readied a Hail Mary IPO, it all fell apart. Nearly $40 billion of value vaporized in one of corporate America’s most spectacular meltdowns.”

In this episode Eliot Brown shares what he learned studying WeWork and it’s larger-than-life founder.

Something Ventured Podcast

Eliot Brown

The Cult of We

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Category:general -- posted at: 5:51pm EDT

Brad Feld’s latest book (with David Jilk) is “Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche (A Book for Disruptors)”. Those familiar with Brad’s “Feld Thoughts” blog, will find the unexpected title – unsurprising.

While reading Nietzsche (um, yes) Brad noted that his favorite personality was a “free spirit: An obsessed individual with a vision of the future and the will to make it so, a rebel who creates the future with childlike enthusiasm.”  That, thought Brad, sounded a lot like…an entrepreneur.

The book is “a modern Art of War, connecting the dots to our high-tech business environment”.

Each short chapter takes a quote from Nietzsche and applies it to an area of entrepreneurship.

Brad Feld has been a famous venture capitalist for a long time.  He has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. He currently runs Foundry group, which he co-founded. Before that Brad co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars.

Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs “Feld Thoughts” and “Venture Deals”.

https://somethingventured.us/

https://feld.com/

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Category:general -- posted at: 1:10pm EDT

Auren Hoffman is one of the most connected people in Silicon Valley.  In a place where the currency of the land is connections – Auren is near the top of the heap.

Auren is a Founder and CEO -- He founded SafeGraph in 2016, and previously founded LiveRamp, which is now public (NYSE: RAMP) – a leading data platform.

Auren is also an investor – he has invested in more than 120 active technology companies.

Auren went to UC Berkeley a B.S.E. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley.

But perhaps most importantly – Auren shares his wisdom:  Often in napkin sketches, shared on Twitter.  In this podcast we discuss Auren’s journey, his wisdom and his view from his unique perch in Silicon Valley.

Auren on Twitter https://twitter.com/auren

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/ 

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Category:general -- posted at: 6:10pm EDT

In Silicon Valley enormous wealth and huge need sit side by side.  The gap is bridged in large part by an important organization – Silicon Valley Community Foundation (“SVCF”).  SVCF manages more than $10 billion.  In this episode Nicole Taylor, SVCF’s CEO, tells us where the money comes from, where it goes, and the practical issues of giving to support Black Lives Matter.

Since taking the helm at SVCF, Nicole has led the organization to renew its focus on the many challenges facing residents of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties – two of the largest counties in Silicon Valley.

In April 2020, Nicole was invited by San José Mayor Sam Liccardo to be among the five co-chairs of the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable. This group was formed to  address how Silicon Valley will adapt and thrive in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the early months of pandemic response, SVCF raised over $50 million for funds to meet the needs of individuals, families, nonprofit organizations, small businesses and education systems across 10 counties in the Bay Area.

 

Before joining SVCF, Nicole served as vice president of the ASU Foundation, and as dean of Students at Arizona State University. Prior to her time at ASU, Nicole was the associate vice provost of student affairs.  She has also served as dean of community engagement and diversity at Stanford University.

In this episode we discuss what SVCF does, how the increase in Bay Area wealth has impacted it.  We also discuss the practical giving aspects related to solving problems highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement.

SVCF https://www.siliconvalleycf.org/

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 7:03pm EDT

Avi Loeb is author of the book “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth”.  It’s a story you can hardly believe, once you hear it.  But here it is -- the story of the day in 2017 when telescopes around the world started tracking an object in our solar system.  It was moving in such a way that scientists around the world came to the same, startling conclusion:  It was an extraterrestrial spaceship. 

Avi Loeb is a professor of the Harvard Astronomy Department.  He is also a member of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (which is a collaboration of Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 

Professor Loeb received a PhD in plasma physics at age 24 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1986) and was subsequently a long-term member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1988-1993), where he started to work in theoretical astrophysics. In 1993 he moved to Harvard University where he was tenured three years later.  He is now the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science and former chair of the department.

He also holds a visiting professorship at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a Sackler Senior Professorship by special appointment in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University.

Loeb has authored nearly 700 research articles and 4 books.

Avi Loeb:  https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/people/avi-loeb

Something Ventured:  https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 2:16pm EDT

Big Vape is a nicotine-high of a book:  An intense ride-along with the story of the rise of Juul.  The story begins innocently – a couple guys don’t want to quit smoking, but also do not want to suffer the ill effects of cigarettes.  They start Juul, and its rise – the massive wealth created, the social phenomenon, and the arrival of Big Tobacco -- are the touchpoints of Jamie Ducharme’s book “Big Vape:  The Incendiary Rise of Juul”.

Jamie Ducharme is a staff writer at TIME magazine, where she covers health and science. (Right now, that means she’s writing almost exclusively about COVID-19.) Her work has won awards from the New York Press Club, the Deadline Club, and the Newswomen’s Club of New York. Previously, she was the health editor at Boston magazine.

Jamie Ducharme’s first book, Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul, was published by Henry Holt on May 25, 2021. It’s a deep-dive into the e-cigarette company Juul Labs and an exploration of the complicated search for an alternative to cigarettes.

https://www.jamieducharme.com/

https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 5:52pm EDT

Ryan and his dad are one of only two father/son NFL players to both win Superbowl rings.  Today Ryan a venture capitalist at the firm he founded,  Next Play Capital.  His many co-investments include Hippo, ByteDance (TikTok), Flexport, Hims, Impossible Foods, Peloton, (IPO), and Rubrik among others.

We’ve covered a lot of paths to becoming a VC on Something Ventured, but none has run through the NFL!

In this episode we discuss the football roots of the name “Next Play”, and why there were historically so few Black people in venture capital, among many other topics.  We finish with an amazing thought from Ryan on how someone might be supportive of diversity in Silicon Valley – one of the most thoughtful and poignant I’ve heard.

Next Play Capital https://www.nextplaycapital.com/

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

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Category:general -- posted at: 4:05pm EDT

Ali Tamaseb pulls the curtain back on the myths about billion-dollar startups – and he does it with data.  That’s not surprising for a guy who is a partner at DCVC, the multi-billion dollar venture firm focused on deep tech.

Ali is a scientist turned engineer who works on a broad spectrum of areas ranging from computational health/bio to cybersecurity. More specifically, Ali identifies early-stage highly technical and defensible startups in diagnostics tools, neuro-technology, precision medicine, synthetic bio and bio-logic, disruptive healthcare models, financial technologies, alternative data, next-generation computing, cryptography and blockchain.

“Super Founders” analyzes 65 factors to determine what differentiates billion-dollar companies.  Interviewees in the book include:

  • Arie Belldegrun - Co-founder, Allogene, Kite Pharma: Founded Two Billion-Dollar Startups While a University Professor
  • Nat Turner - Co-founder, Flatiron Health: Founded a Billion-Dollar Startup With No Industry Experience
  • Max Mullen - Co-founder, Instacart: Founded a Massively Successful Business in The Second Try
  • Neha Narkhede - Co-founder, Confluent: Built a Billion-Dollar Startup Initially Originated at a Large Tech Company
  • Tony Fadell - Co-founder, Nest – Inventor of the iPod: Built Highly Differentiated Products That Generated Billion Dollar Outcomes
  • Rachel Carlson - Co-founder, Guild Education: Built a Billion-Dollar Startup Outside Traditional Tech Hubs
  • Max Levchin - Co-founder, PayPal and Affirm: Did Both Market Creation and Market Expansion
  • Mario Schlosser - Co-founder, Oscar Health: Founded a Billion-Dollar Startup With Perfect Market Timing
  • Eric Yuan - Founder, Zoom: Founded a Billion-Dollar Startup That Won Against Fierce Competitors
  • Tom Preston-Werner - Co-founder, GitHub: Bootstrapped a 7.5 Billion-Dollar Company For Over Four Years
  • Michelle Zatlyn - Co-founder, Cloudflare: Founded a Billion-Dollar Startup In the Depth of the Financial Recession
  • Elad Gil - Angel Investor: Invested in Over 20 Unicorns Including Coinbase, Stripe, Gusto, Square, Wish
  • Keith Rabois - General Partner, Founders Fund: Invested in YouTube, LinkedIn, Palantir, Yelp, Lyft
  • Alfred Lin - Partner, Sequoia Capital: Invested in iconic companies like Airbnb, Houzz, DoorDash, Zipline
  • Peter Thiel - Co-founder Palantir, PayPal: Invested in Facebook, SpaceX, Stripe, Spotify, Asana, TransferWise

DCVC:  www.dcvc.com

Something Ventured:  www.somethingventured.com

Direct download: Ali_Tamaseb_May_2021_to_Upload__-_51821_3.29_PM.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:35pm EDT

Suneel Gupta is author of the book “Backable: The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance”.  Backable tells Suneel’s journey from first-time entrepreneur to being named “The New Face of Innovation” by the New York Stock Exchange. Suneel’s ideas have been adopted by firms like Greylock and Google Ventures, and he served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has personally backed startups including Impossible Foods, AirBnB, 23&Me, Calm, and SpaceX.

Also -- In 2018, Suneel ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. Before running for Congress, Suneel co-founded and served as CEO of RISE, a mobile health company that partnered with Michelle Obama to lower the cost of quality care for thousands of patients. Just two years after launch, One Medical acquired RISE.


If that wasn’t enough: Suneel is also a lawyer and filmmaker. Yup. He started his career in the Clinton White House where he served as a speechwriter, learning from West Wing staffers like Michael McCurry and Rahm Emanuel. A few years later, he was asked to co-author the national platform for the Democratic Party.

Suneel produced the Kahani Movement, an interactive film project about the first generation of Indian-Americans, which debuted at South by Southwest with his brother, Dr. Sanjay Gupta (CNN). He also worked for the president of Sony Pictures Television when the studio was investing in new creative concepts like Breaking Bad.

And then there’s…happiness. Suneel is the co-founder at Gross National Happiness Center of America in partnership with the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Something Ventured

Backable

Direct download: 159_Suneel_Gupta_--to_upload_5521_12.13_PM.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:06pm EDT

David Bohnett founded GeoCities in the 1990s, well before the internet attained its current ubiquity.  GeoCities became publicly traded on NASDAQ and was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. in 1999. In a 2007 article, the Wall Street Journal described it as a Facebook prototype and noted, “Back then, entries were known as home pages, not profiles. But the basic, expressive elements of today’s Facebook and competitor MySpace … were all right there.”

David found himself wealthy with the ability to do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life.

He became a philanthropist and social activist.

In addition to serving as Chair of the David Bohnett Foundation, he is the Chairman of the Executive Committee on the Board of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Vice Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Trustee of the Brookings Institution, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the University of Southern California (USC).

Since 1999, the David Bohnett Foundation has focused on several funding areas: The Fund for Los Angeles, supporting a broad spectrum of arts, educational and civic programs including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LACMA and CicLAvia; LGBTQ-related causes; graduate school leadership programs at the University of Michigan, UCLA, NYU and Harvard; voting rights and registration initiatives; supporting research and public policies to reduce the toll of firearm violence; and animal research and rights.

Grants totaling over $115 million to date have supported the work of a wide range of organizations including the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, The Wildlife Alliance, the ACLU Foundation, Equality California, and the David Bohnett Gay & Lesbian Leadership Fellows program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The David Bohnett CyberCenters are another major undertaking — currently at over 60 LGBTQ centers nationwide, they offer business, educational, research, and recreational opportunities to the local gay and lesbian community via access to the Internet.

 

David Bohnett Foundation.  http://www.bohnettfoundation.org/

 

Something Ventured  https://somethingventured.us/ 

Direct download: David_Bohnett_To_Upload_-_41321_2.13_PM.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:24pm EDT

Kara Nortman is a Managing Partner of venture firm Upfront. Upfront famously hosts the “Upfront Summit” – a hard-to-describe, but massive confab of celebrities, entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders held in Los Angeles.


Kara is a founding member of All Raise – you’ve heard about All Raise a number of times on Something Ventured. She’s also an owner – along with Natalie Portman and Serena Williams – of LA’s women’s soccer team Angel City Football Club (“Angel City FC”).
As co-Managing partner of Upfront, she is one of the first women promoted to a leadership role at a major venture capital firm.

EPISODE QUOTES:


On Being Asked to Join Natalie Portman and Serena Williams as Co-owner of Angel City FC Soccer Team


“It is probably the craziest story of my life and one that I have a great amount of gratitude for. I think it's made me realize that butterfly effects do happen. But you can't force them. When you get the pocket of energy in from a butterfly flapping, you have to follow it. And that’s what happened with the soccer team.”


On Choosing People You Want to Work with for the Long Term


“You should pick people you want to look at in your cap table and you want to see show up on your cell phone late at night and you enjoy spending time with and whose bar mitzvahs and weddings you might want to go to.”


On Being a Great Board Member


“One of my venture capital mentors said to me at one point in time, ‘You have three daughters. You are going to learn more from raising your daughters around how to be a good board member than you are going to learn from any board.’ And I think about that a lot. It's role modeling, right? Treating people the way you want to be treated.”


Twitter: https://twitter.com/karanortman 

Upfront: https://upfront.com/ 

Something Ventured:  https://somethingventured.us/ 

Direct download: Kara_Nortman_Edited_to_Upload_-_31621_10.57_AM.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:25pm EDT

In their new book “WORKING BACKWARDS: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon” (St. Martin’s Press, February 9, 2021.) Bill Carr and Colin Bryar share Amazon’s secrets.   They had a front row seat for most of Amazon's history, and they are sharing what they learned in their new book.

Not only is Amazon one of the most valuable companies in the world, it has succeeded across a stunning array of categories from web services to movies.  So it’s hyperbolic, but possible to make the case that this is the most important business book….ever.

“Like being in the room with Jeff Bezos”

Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.

 

The authors you’ll spend some time with on this episode:

 

Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.  

 

Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding —  and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.

Working Backwards

https://workingbackwards.com/

Something Ventured

https://somethingventured.us/

Direct download: Working_Backwards_Edited_-_21921_10.00_AM.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:10pm EDT

Amy Nauiokas is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anthemis, a leading digital financial services investment firm.  Anthemis manages nearly $1 billion.  Amy is also Founder and Chair of Archer Gray, a media production and content company.

Straightforward for a venture capitalist, right?  Except maybe for the TV/Movie company she also runs.  But wait – she’s also a liberal arts major who joined the Peace Corps out of college.  In this episode we discuss how she made her way from the Peace Corps to leading one of the biggest fintech venture capital firms.

We also talk about the early 80s women in finance who she views as pioneers truly worth paying homage to, and whose issues she contrasts to those faced by women in today’s finance/venture world.

EPISODE QUOTES

On the Diversity of Anthemis and Its Investments

“We brought together people of very eclectic, different and diverse backgrounds to form this platform. And now we're 50 people around the world and we're working out of three physical offices and probably about 10 virtual offices. And we're north of 50 percent female. Sixty five percent of the decision-makers at the firm are women. We have, I think, about 40 percent people of color and and 12 percent LGBTQ. Twenty five percent of our portfolio is led by women. Twenty percent of our portfolio is led by someone who is Black or a person of color.”

On Sand Hill Road

 “We’re realizing it's a lot of the same people with the same backgrounds, with the same capital base sitting in the same office on Sand Hill Road, which isn't even in San Francisco, it’s in the Valley. Entrepreneurs elsewhere don’t realize these guys aren't leaving their desks, let alone going to Oakland to meet a company or going to San Francisco to meet a company.”

 

On How to Support Women and People of Color

“Shut up, listen and make some space. I honestly think that's the main thing. Imagine that anybody who isn't you is thinking about it all the time. Every single part of every single day, I think about my identity and what it means to my existence. I think we have a responsibility as allies to any community to take the time to be quiet and to listen and see what we might be able to learn in that very quiet moment when we let other voices be heard.”

Anthemis Group: https://www.anthemis.com/

Something Ventured:  https://somethingventured.us/

Direct download: Amy_Nauiokas_t--_To_Upload_-_12921_3.09_PM.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:42pm EDT

Vern Howard’s story is remarkable.  Vern was a math prodigy who left high school early, when he tested into Virginia Commonwealth University to study Computer Science and Math.  He paid his way through school by teaching math and serving as a janitor on campus.

He went on to sell men’s suits, which taught him the art of selling.  After joining Capital One – whose signing bonus he used to rebuild an Alpha Romeo – he built Capital One’s first mobile banking application.  He also built out the Application Security Team at Capital One before, naturally, becoming a securities trader.

Hang on, we’re not done yet.  He became an entrepreneur.  He sent a book to Steve Case’s partner at Revolution and….well, listen to find out what happens!

Episode Quotes

On Getting Started as an Entrepreneur

“So two people I met accelerated everything. Ted Leonsis kind of introduced me to this network of people. Mike Lincoln over at Cooley was like, “Yeah, everyone is raving about you. You didn't go to an Ivy League school, you're not from this background. But you’re just  going into all these office and people are saying: Who's this kid? Vern, right.” So they got me started and did our legal work for free, util we got funded.”

On Why Employers are So Focused on “Top Colleges”

“So I think it's a two pronged problem. One is, these are businesses, right? So there's budget, and once you start talking about like numbers and budgets you start looking at ROI. And every recruiter says, OK, great. If we spend one hundred thousand dollars to go to thirty one schools this season, what's the ROI now? If we go to Stanford or we go to Michigan, we kind of know what we get there,  because some of our current engineers went to school there. So we know their level of output is XYZ, as far as coding goes.

But if we take a risk and go with something we've haven't done before, like going to Sweetbriar College, which is an all-women's college in Virginia, (the founder of TaskRabbit went there). We may want to take a risk, by going there. We might spend fifty thousand dollars and have no ROI to show. So the best play, much like VC culture, is we go to Stanford, we get 3 students --great.

But what happens is the competition, right? If your brand isn't as big as you think it is as a company, your recruiting line is nonexistent. Everyone went over to the Robinhood line.”

On Black Founders Being “Over-Mentored”

One thing I see amongst the Black founder community is a ton of mentors. And I think Black founders are over-mentored and under-funded. I don't know who coined that term, but a ton of people DO want to mentor. That's funny. I have people fill my inbox from the top VC's in the nation and just say, hey, Vern, let me be your mentor. And, you know, I'm always greatly appreciative, I like the advice.  But I’d also like to get funded”

Hallo:  https://www.hallothere.com/

Something Ventured:    https://somethingventured.us/

 

Direct download: Vern_Howard_2__Edited_To_Upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:36pm EDT

An episode in which I thank each of the 2020 guests.  A podcast first (probably).  I briefly recall – fondly – a bit of each of the 2020 episodes. Is it interesting?  I think so.  Can I do it in one take?  Turns out, yes.  Enjoy, and thank you for listening.


Marco Zappacosta, Thumbtack Founder

Keller Fitzsimmons, “Lost in Startuplandia” Author

Jeff Macpherson, Tiki Bar TV Creator

Brianne Kimmel, worklife Founder

Paul-Henri Ferrand, Brex COO

Matt Hulett, Rosetta Stone CEO

Mike Stutz, Television Producer

Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle Senior Political Writer

Kaiser Kuo, Sinica Podcast Host

Eric Tarczynski, Contrary Capital Founder

Somesh Dash, IVP General Partner

Monique Woodard, Cake Ventures Founder

Michael Ellison, Codepath Founder

Promise Phelon, The Growth Warrior Founder

Scott Simpson, Comedian – Cheaper than Therapy Founder

Parker Conrad, Rippling Founder

Brad Feld, Foundry Group Founder

Domm Holland, Fast Founder

Garrett Smallwood, Wag Labs CEO

Deena Shakir, Lux Capital Partner

Rob Chesnut, AirBnB General Counsel

William Davidow, Mohr Davidow Founder

Trae Vassallo, Defy.vc Founder

Sarah Leary, Nextdoor Co-founder

Jaclyn Hester, Foundry Group Partner

Hooman Radfar, Collective Founder

Jeff John Roberts, “Kings of Crypto” Author

Stacey Bishop, Scale Venture Partners

Direct download: 2020_Thank_You-Cast_Extravaganza_3.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:48pm EDT

Stacey Bishop is a partner at Scale Venture Partners where she invests in “business applications driving the Intelligent Connected World”. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of companies like Abstract, Airspace, Demandbase, Extole, Lever, and Textio.

Stacey is a founding member of All Raise – an organization frequently mentioned on Something Ventured. She is also an advisor to The University Growth Fund

Stacey got her MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from The University of Michigan.

In this episode we discuss her path to becoming a partner at a prominent Silicon Valley firm, and the role All Raise played in accelerating her career.

Notable quotes from this episode:

 

On the Early Days of “All Raise”

“Before All Raise, women in venture, we just put our heads down, did our job -- just focused on trying to get ahead and do the right thing. And I think the most eye-opening thing – when All Raise started, it changed the dynamic. It suddenly brought all the women together. And even though we had all been kind of working side by side, we weren't really -- there were so few of us but there was little getting together. Now there's this whole network. And so I think it's changed the industry.”

 

On Hedge Funds Moving Into Venture Capital

“Hedge funds have certainly been there later stage. Mostly because private companies are going public much later. So in order for them to get the returns they need, they started coming into the private markets. So they had been showing up at the late stage. But now we're seeing them much earlier. That’s probably been the biggest change and that's been over the last several years.”

 

On Valuation Trends of Tech Companies

“We just had (another) billion dollar exit: Most people haven't even heard of the company. But, if you had a five or six billion-dollar exit, everybody would have known about it. Snowflake went public last week…it was under the radar, but Snowflake was the biggest venture exit of all time.”

 

On The Future of Meetings

“In meetings ‘before’, somebody had to get in the car and drive to go see you and take all that time. So out of respect, you don't want to not spend the time with them. So you spend a full hour or more. Even if it’s just an introductory meeting you feel this obligation. I don’t know how much in-person meetings will drop, but there will be a whole subset of meetings that can be done remotely.”

 

Stacey on Twitter https://twitter.com/StaceyCurry

 

Scale Venture Partners on Twitter https://twitter.com/ScaleVP

 

Scale Venture Partners https://www.scalevp.com

 

Something Ventured Podcast       https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 152_Stacey_Bishop_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 8:10pm EDT

In 2013, Fortune’s Jeff Roberts visited "Satoshi Square" in New York.  It was the name of the location where a group of crypto anarchists and Wall Street traders bought and sold Bitcoin in the open air. Since that day, Jeff became fascinated with Bitcoin and new forms of money. That fascination led him to write the new book “Kings of Crypto:  One Startup's Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street”.

Said Fortune Senior Writer Robert Hackett:

"'Kings of Crypto' tells the story of a ragtag band of rebels who saw the future of finance before anyone else and who wrenched the revolution into their orbit. Reading this book is like using a stethoscope to open the vault containing the cryptocurrency industry's origins. Click, click, click—and a wealth of secrets spills out. Learn what made Coinbase, one of the most improbably successful Silicon Valley startups, hit it big—and what makes its founding 'Vulcan Swiss bankers' tick. As long as Satoshi Nakamoto's identity remains secret, this is the closest you’ll come to understanding the rise of crypto—and where it's all headed.”

In this episode, Jeff John Roberts discusses his fascination with cryptocurrency, the rise of Coinbase, and the potentially world altering-ascendance of Bitcoin.

https://jeffjohnroberts.com

Twitter  @jeffjohnroberts.

“Kings of Crypto” https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Crypto-Startups-Cryptocurrency-Silicon/dp/1647820189

https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: Jeff_Roberts.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:05pm EDT

Hooman Radfar is co-founder and CEO of Collective, an online back-office platform designed for freelancers, consultants and other ‘businesses-of-one’. He is also a Venture Partner at Expa, a San Francisco-based start-up venture firm and studio where he was a founding partner (along with Uber Co-Founder Garrett Camp). Previously, he was co-founder and CEO of AddThis.  AddThis was acquired by Oracle in 2016.

Recently, Hooman took the somewhat rare step of leaving a perfectly good venture capital job to start a company. In this episode, he describes why the idea he is pursuing felt so compelling he had to make the move.  He also discusses his path to building and selling a company, as well as his immigrant parent’s path to the US.

 

On How Startups Emerge from their Initial State

There's this murky period prior to figuring things out which people tend to write out of history. Where you're kind of trying to find out what's now called ‘product market fit’. Instagram went through it with Brbn, Twitter went through it with Odeo. You know, you get a group together, you create a chemistry, you start working on projects, and maybe that project works or it doesn't work. But it takes that initial leap to get that precipitate and go.”

 

On the Time People Mocked Websites that Were “Collecting Eyeballs”

‘I think the way to express it in modern terms is that when you have a flywheel with effectively a cost of acquisition of zero, it's uncommon. And I think now people realize how hard that is and how valuable it is because they know the distribution has value, that data has value. There are a LOT of monetization models:  premium, ad-supported, data-supported.”

On Why He Started Collective

“There are ‘businesses of one”:  Freelancers, consultants and whatnot. It’s the largest set of entrepreneurs in the country. And ultimately, if you believe in the next ten years, it could be fifty percent of the workforce. Not just the largest set of entrepreneurs, but the largest part of the workforce. And that's all I've been doing my whole career. And I said, wow, this is amazing. It looks like a straight line in hindsight.”

Hooman Radfar on Twitter  https://twitter.com/hoomanradfar

Collective https://www.collective.com

Something Ventured

Hooman Radfar is co-founder and CEO of Collective, an online back-office platform designed for freelancers, consultants and other ‘businesses-of-one’. He is also a Venture Partner at Expa, a San Francisco-based start-up venture firm and studio where he was a founding partner (along with Uber Co-Founder Garrett Camp). Previously, he was co-founder and CEO of AddThis.  AddThis was acquired by Oracle in 2016.

Recently, Hooman took the somewhat rare step of leaving a perfectly good venture capital job to start a company. In this episode, he describes why the idea he is pursuing felt so compelling he had to make the move.  He also discusses his path to building and selling a company, as well as his immigrant parent’s path to the US.

 

On How Startups Emerge from their Initial State

There's this murky period prior to figuring things out which people tend to write out of history. Where you're kind of trying to find out what's now called ‘product market fit’. Instagram went through it with Brbn, Twitter went through it with Odeo. You know, you get a group together, you create a chemistry, you start working on projects, and maybe that project works or it doesn't work. But it takes that initial leap to get that precipitate and go.”

 

On the Time People Mocked Websites that Were “Collecting Eyeballs”

 

‘I think the way to express it in modern terms is that when you have a flywheel with effectively a cost of acquisition of zero, it's uncommon. And I think now people realize how hard that is and how valuable it is because they know the distribution has value, that data has value. There are a LOT of monetization models:  premium, ad-supported, data-supported.”

On Why He Started Collective

“There are ‘businesses of one':  Freelancers, consultants and whatnot. It’s the largest set of entrepreneurs in the country. And ultimately, if you believe in the next ten years, it could be fifty percent of the workforce. Not just the largest set of entrepreneurs, but the largest part of the workforce. And that's all I've been doing my whole career. And I said, wow, this is amazing. It looks like a straight line in hindsight.”

Hooman Radfar on Twitter  https://twitter.com/hoomanradfar

Collective https://www.collective.com

Hooman Radfar is co-founder and CEO of Collective, an online back-office platform designed for freelancers, consultants and other ‘businesses-of-one’. He is also a Venture Partner at Expa, a San Francisco-based start-up venture firm and studio where he was a founding partner (along with Uber Co-Founder Garrett Camp). Previously, he was co-founder and CEO of AddThis.  AddThis was acquired by Oracle in 2016.

Recently, Hooman took the somewhat rare step of leaving a perfectly good venture capital job to start a company. In this episode, he describes why the idea he is pursuing felt so compelling he had to make the move.  He also discusses his path to building and selling a company, as well as his immigrant parent’s path to the US.

 

On How Startups Emerge from their Initial State

There's this murky period prior to figuring things out which people tend to write out of history. Where you're kind of trying to find out what's now called ‘product market fit’. Instagram went through it with Brbn, Twitter went through it with Odeo. You know, you get a group together, you create a chemistry, you start working on projects, and maybe that project works or it doesn't work. But it takes that initial leap to get that precipitate and go.”

 

On the Time People Mocked Websites that Were “Collecting Eyeballs”

 

‘I think the way to express it in modern terms is that when you have a flywheel with effectively a cost of acquisition of zero, it's uncommon. And I think now people realize how hard that is and how valuable it is because they know the distribution has value, that data has value. There are a LOT of monetization models:  premium, ad-supported, data-supported.”

On Why He Started Collective

“There are ‘businesses of one”:  Freelancers, consultants and whatnot. It’s the largest set of entrepreneurs in the country. And ultimately, if you believe in the next ten years, it could be fifty percent of the workforce. Not just the largest set of entrepreneurs, but the largest part of the workforce. And that's all I've been doing my whole career. And I said, wow, this is amazing. It looks like a straight line in hindsight.”

Hooman Radfar on Twitter  https://twitter.com/hoomanradfar

Collective https://www.collective.com

Something Ventured  https://somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: Hooman_Radfar.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:26pm EDT

Fabrice Grinda is a wildly successful entrepreneur and investor.  In this episode he recounts in detail 4 stories that any entrepreneur – any person, really – will find fascinating.

The first is the story of building one of Europe’s first marketplaces before eBay got there – and what happens when you turn down $100 million for your company.

The second is the story of Zingy, and what it’s like to grind without capital and miss payroll 27 times, before ultimately succeeding.

Third, Fabrice talks about building OLX, the global trading platform, after Craig Newmark refused his offer to fix Craigslist.  Learn what happens when OLX and its competitor go to war and spend billions on – TV advertising.

Finally, Fabrice offers his considered view of the future:  On how climate change is being addressed through technology, and how COVID has affected startups that will ultimately change the world.

https://fabricegrinda.com

https://fjlabs.com

https://somethingventured.us

 

 

Direct download: Fabrice_Grinda_2020.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:48pm EDT

Jaclyn Hester has just become a Partner at Foundry Group.  So first, “Congratulations, Jaclyn”.

Jaclyn joined Foundry Group – the Boulder-based tech company and venture fund investor -- after a few years at big law firms.  As a lawyer, she worked on everything from startup formation and financing to large M&A processes.

During graduate school at CU Boulder, she caught the entrepreneurship bug and immersed herself in the local startup community, serving as the Executive Director of Startup Colorado. She has also built a startup with her husband, Anders.   Their family’s bootstrapped tour and activity software company was successfully acquired in 2018 by Booking.com. She becomes a partner Foundry just as it raises its first Foundry Group Next (“FG Next”) fund. 

Episode Quotes:

On Her Path from Lawyer to Entrepreneur

“I always had a feeling that there was something more interesting about the businesses themselves than about the legal aspect. I think for me, it felt like being the attorney was just a way to be connected to the business. And I enjoyed going to law school. It was an incredible education.  But I must have known that I liked the businesses, maybe, better.“

 

On the Purpose of the FG Next Fund

“It is important to remember that the pools of capital at the institutional level -- so the pension funds, the endowments -- these are multi billions of dollars.  Venture capital is just a teeny tiny thumbnail inside of their private asset or private equity asset class, which itself is one a bunch of other asset classes that they invest in. And so it's probably among the riskiest highest reward of the things that they invest in. But it's a really small piece. So if you think about, a 10, 20, 30 billion dollar pool of capital spending time on making 1 to 10 million dollar investments in a venture capital fund -- just doesn't make sense.”

 

On COVID-19’s Impact on Companies

“We’ve always believed that you can build great, great companies anywhere and that the talent is not concentrated in the Bay Area. That trend is accelerating with more openness to remote work. Not having to have everyone in the same place means that people are thinking about talent differently.”

 

Foundry Group

https://foundrygroup.com

 

Jaclyn on Twitter
@jfreester

 

Something Ventured

https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 148_Jaclyn_Hester_September_2020.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:21pm EDT

There are only so many iconic social networks in the world – and Nextdoor is one of them.  While perhaps not as fast-growing as Facebook or even LinkedIn, Nextdoor has steadily become the hub for neighborhoods around the world.

Sarah Leary founded Nextdoor, along with Nirav Tolia, Prakash Janakiraman, and David Wiesen.

In this episode, Sarah tells the story of getting Nextdoor off the ground.  She talks about the painstaking work they did to figure out how to build a healthy community around a neighborhood, before they were ready to scale.

We talk about the impact COVID-19 had on Nextdoor communities, and how and why she decided to become a venture capitalist at Unusual Ventures.

Notable Episode Quotes

On Starting Her Career at Microsoft

“I joined Microsoft at really a golden time:  The early 90s.  I was on the product team that launched the first version of Microsoft Office, and that was an all-star team. It was a time when Microsoft was just taking off and went from being this software company that some people had heard of to a household name. I was fortunate enough to, for example, be on stage where we launched Office ninety five with Bill Gates and Jay Leno.  We were writing the script as we went along and that was an amazing learning curve.”

On the “Pivot” from Fanbase to Nextdoor

“If you don't get the seeds of a community right in the beginning, it becomes very difficult to fix it. And after about six months, we actually offered to give the money back to Bill Gurley, who was the lead investor in Fanbase. He said, ‘That's the easy way out. I'll give you three months to work on some new ideas. It doesn't have to be directly related to Fanbase. But why don't you guys take another crack at it?’ That was hard. It was very hard to step back and say.  ‘This isn't working and confess to each other that we didn't think it was going to be the next ESPN’, but I'm so glad that we did.”

 

On the Earliest Days of Nextdoor

“The idea of Nextdoor changed pretty dramatically in those early stages before we ever wrote a line of code. And thankfully, it's probably saved us from years of going down the wrong path and frankly, probably losing faith in what it was that we were trying to. The prototype was actually launched in the Bay Area and with one neighborhood in Menlo Park, and it worked. People wanted to talk to their neighbors, but we were very cautious and said, OK, that's not enough. Let's try some other ones. In Seattle, Washington, we had one in upstate rural New York. We had one outside of Washington, D.C., and one in Tennessee. And we just started to see how people were using the platform. And that gave us the confidence after we did about five of those to say, ‘OK, this is the winning idea and we're going to double down on it’.”

 

Unusual Ventures:  https://www.unusual.vc

Something Ventured:  www.somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 147_Sarah_Leary_of_Nextdoor.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:28pm EDT

Trae Vassallo is co-founder and partner at Defy, a venture capital firm she built with Neil Sequeira.  She was previously a general partner at Kleiner Perkins.

Trae made her way to Silicon Valley from…rural Minnesota.  As a girl, Trae fell in love with coding – on an Apple II.  She went, sight unseen, to Stanford University, where she studied mechanical and electrical engineering.  After a stint at design firm IDEO, she co-founded and led product at Good Technologies.

In this episode we discuss Trae’s path to Kleiner Perkins, and her experiences being one of relatively few female venture capital partners in Silicon Valley. She contrasts the treatment of women in Silicon Valley before, and after, Ellen Pao’s lawsuit (Check out Episode 101).  We discuss why she struck out on her own rather than staying at Kleiner, and how she and her partner came together to form Defy.

Finally, Trae discusses a health scare that led to her discovery of integrative medicine and lifelong quest for healthy living.

EPISODE QUOTES

On Her Early Experience with Computers

“It was like third or fourth grade where I have vivid recollections of seeing Oregon Trail (a video game), playing that game, and then learning how to build simple graphics programs. And that really was a spark for me:  That, you can logically build a sequence of steps and then have it go execute. And that kind of problem solving to me was incredibly exciting. And so that was the spark that made me realize I'm a problem solver, I'm a creative.”

On Palm Pilot and Women Leaders

“I was fortunate to get on the engineering team that worked on the Palm V. And through that, I got to work with Donna Dubinsky (Palm’s CEO) and Jeff Hawkins (Palm’s Founder). And this was when they were justgetting started and they had this runaway kind of success. That was my first exposure to a startup into what it meant to be an entrepreneur and frankly, a female CEO, a woman CEO who is just amazing at her job. And so I thought, OK, I love this engineering thing, but I want to do what she's doing.”

 

On Integrative Medicine


“When I left Kleiner, one of my top goals was” I'm going to get my health back.  I want to feel better than ever. I started reading up and looking at less conventional options, because I literally had been to Mayo and Cedars and Stanford and UCSF and nothing. Nothing, nothing. And I finally found this whole world of integrative medicine, which I'm now a huge fan of. The thesis behind it is really about root cause analysis instead of giving you a drug to alleviate the symptom of that issue.  Rathere, we're going to figure out why you have that issue to begin with and get to the root cause and solve that problem so we don't have to cover up your symptom.”

Defy:  https://defy.vc

Something Ventured: https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 146_Trae_Vassallo.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 8:06pm EDT

William Davidow is a Silicon Valley pioneer, former Intel VP, and renowned venture capitalist.  He is author of the new book, with tech journalist Michael Malone, THE AUTONOMOUS REVOLUTION: Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines (Berrett-Koehler, February 18, 2020).  It’s a provocative look at how to safeguard humanity from our autonomous future and how to harness its benefits.

According to Davidow and Malone, for the third time in the history of humanity civilization is undergoing phase change.  The first was the Agricultural Revolution, the second the Industrial Revolution, and we are now in the midst of the Autonomous Revolution.

Some ideas discussed:

  • How to adapt society to our new era and transform our relationship with intelligent machines the authors propose in the new book

  • Creating tiered personal information “safety deposit boxes” over which users would have complete control to protect internet privacy;
  • Imposing a tax on sending emails, time spent on social networks, and gaming;
  • Programs that automatically block phone use while we’re driving;
  • Regulation that puts limits on Artificial Intelligence;
  • Proactive investment in the infrastructure of the future to offset inevitable job loss.

 

More on William Davidow: 

William Davidow is a Silicon Valley pioneer who ran the microprocessor division at Intel at the dawn of the chip revolution and was later senior vice president of marketing and sales. Prior to Intel Corp., Bill worked in various managerial positions at Hewlett Packard and General Electric. He cofounded Mohr Davidow Ventures, one of the Valley's premier venture capital firms, in 1985. Bill serves on the boards of California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy. He is the author of three books and the coauthor of two, including The Virtual Corporation, which sold more than 100,000 copies.

 

Episode Exerpts:

On the Evolution of Technology Innovation

“When I was at Intel, you know, we used to get up and feel like we were putting on our Superman shirts and going out and changing the world. And what we were doing was automating existing processes: In other words, we made a stoplight run better or we made a typewriter into a word processor.

But if you looked at it, there was still a factory or there was still a stoplight. We didn't change the structure of things. And what is different today is that our technologies are changing the social and economic structure of things.”

The Problem of Virtual Worlds like Facebook

“We have real problem that people are choosing to live in a virtual world. It turns out that you evolved in a physical world, YOU controlled the physical world. A tree was not created to be firewood. You managed the world and made the tree firewood.   The physical world had no purpose and you were running the physical world. But when you go to a virtual world, a virtual world DOES have a purpose. And the purpose of the virtual world is to control your behavior. you you're down to two senses, both of which are impaired. “

On the Accelerating Pace of Job Destruction

We keep finding new work for people to do, so we keep creating opportunities, I think today the challenge is that we may not be able to create the opportunities fast enough. I mean, these technologies have such broad impact. Netflix put Blockbuster Video out of business, when Blockbuster Video had nine thousand stores and 60,000 employees. And Netflix, I think, had one thousand employees. And those are the kinds of things will continue to happen. It’s going to turn everything upside down. I believe in a free market, but free markets have their flaws. They do not allocate wealth based on social contribution, they allocate wealth based on your ability to make money. In the future we may be living in a society where we're going to have to find ways to compensate people based on their social contribution as opposed to whether they're just a great high speed trader. “

Kent Lindstrom (host):          https://kentlindstrom.com

William Davidow:                  https://www.davidow.com

Something Ventured:           https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 145_William_Davidow.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:51pm EDT

Rob Chesnut is an advisor to Airbnb, where he was previously Chief Ethics Officer and general counsel.  His recently released book is Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead An Ethical Revolution.

Rob started his career as a federal prosecutor, but decided he could do more good in the world by working for companies like eBay and Chegg.

Eventually joining Airbnb, he helped Brian Chesky navigate issues such as racial discrimination by Airbnb hosts.  He also helped Airbnb create a culture of “Intentional Integrity”.

In this episode we discuss Rob’s journey to and through Silicon Valley, and his experience creating ethical cultures those companies.  We also discuss what happened to Airbnb when the COVID crisis hit.

Hear what Brian Chesky said as Airbnb was faced with lawsuits over discrimination by its hosts

Rob Chesnut Episode Excerpts

On leaving the role of federal prosecutor to work for tech companies:

“After a while, it's a real negative. It has a negative aspect to it.  You're putting young people in jail for long periods of time, and you feel like you're not contributing in a positive, proactive way to society.”

 “On the Future of Travel”

“I don't think that the pandemic is going to push people to stay in their homes forever. I think that people are going to travel. But what I think we're going to see is that there's a maybe a different type of travel. One thing that there's a trend, I think, that may come out of the pandemic, which is really going to help Airbnb and that is ‘work anywhere’. So if you can work and do your job from literally anywhere that has Internet access, that suddenly frees you to go places and do things 52 weeks a year that you might otherwise have only been able to do three weeks a year.”

 

On Intentional Integrity

“I think that integrity is a word that people are often uncomfortable talking about because it gets to people's morals, their purpose, maybe even their religion. And so leaders are uncomfortable talking about it and what they do is outsource it to lawyers and it becomes compliance. There's a difference, though, between compliance and integrity. So the point of the title is we have to get over the discomfort, we have to have the conversation. And if we want integrity to be part of our company, we can't just assume that it's going to happen, that we're just going to hire good people and that it's going to happen. We have to make an intentional effort to weave it into our culture. And so the point of that title, is a call for getting through that discomfort and taking affirmative steps to make it part of what you do in business.”

 

Intentional Integrity

www.intentionalintegrity.com

 

Rob Chesnut

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robchesnut/

 

Something Ventured

https://somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 144_Rob_Chestnut_of_AirBnB.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:51pm EDT

Deena Shakir is a partner at Lux Capital, a venture capital firm that manages more than $2 billion.  She is particularly interested in entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies enabling human and environmental health, access, and productivity.

While her immediate background before joining Lux sounds familiar – she was a partner at GV (previously “Google Ventures”) – her path before that is a bit more unusual.  As a journalist, Deena once hosted the pilot episode of a bilingual Arabic-English TV news series modeled after 60 Minutes. 

Deena was also a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010.

She is the first-generation daughter of immigrants from Iraq and speaks fluent Arabic and French.

In this episode, we discuss a range of topics, from her experiences as an Arab-American to her path from Washington to Silicon Valley.  We also discuss the impact COVID is having on the venture business, and families like hers.  Also covered:  The unique craziness of online parenting groups.

EPISODE EXERPTS

On Education

“Education, is an area I’m passionate about, where I've made investments like that in a company called Mos. Mos is using artificial intelligence to make the process of searching for financial aid easier. Clearly, there were already platforms for you to search for scholarships. However, they've made that much more sophisticated, and the process is so much easier now. And this was meaningful for me personally because that was a process I went through. I paid for college by myself, patching together all these scholarships. And now that is something that is changing the lives of students on a daily basis.”

On Women in Venture Capital

“ In terms of women in venture, I think we've obviously we've come a long way, particularly in the last three years. I joined the venture world maybe three months before that moment, if you want to call it that, where everybody realized this was an actual problem.  It was in the summer, I think, of 2017 when a lot of this came to light. I think we still have a very long way to go. Some of the solutions may have potentially created additional problems around tokenism, for example, around cliques around  certain folks or groups taking up all the oxygen in the room, et cetera. But that being said, I've seen some really great progress.”

On Software

“When it comes to software specifically, the democratizing piece of it is what gets me really excited. I get really excited about technology that streamlines analog industries -- that allows people to do things more quickly -- whether that means grassroots organizing or whether it means accounting.”

On the Impact of the 9/11 Attacks

“Being in high school, a teenager, during 9/11 -- being a Muslim and Iraqi American, that was a really pivotal moment for me. It was the first time where I felt like these two parts of my identity that really always felt like they were fluid and just part of who I am -- all of a sudden it seems like they weren’t to some people.  That really was troubling for me.”

Deena on Twitter       https://twitter.com/deenashakir

Lux Capital                             https://luxcapital.com

Something Ventured           https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 143_Deena_Shakir.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:36pm EDT

Deena Shakir is a partner at Lux Capital, a venture capital firm that manages more than $2 billion.  She is particularly interested in entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies enabling human and environmental health, access, and productivity.

While her immediate background before joining Lux sounds familiar – she was a partner at GV (previously “Google Ventures”) – her path before that is a bit more unusual.  As a journalist, Deena once hosted the pilot episode of a bilingual Arabic-English TV news series modeled after 60 Minutes. 

Deena was also a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama’s first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010.

She is the first-generation daughter of immigrants from Iraq and speaks fluent Arabic and French.

In this episode, we discuss a range of topics, from her experiences as an Arab-American to her path from Washington to Silicon Valley.  We also discuss the impact COVID is having on the venture business, and families like hers.  Also covered:  The unique craziness of online parenting groups.

EPISODE EXERPTS

On Education

“Education, is an area I’m passionate about, where I've made investments like that in a company called Mos. Mos is using artificial intelligence to make the process of searching for financial aid easier. Clearly, there were already platforms for you to search for scholarships. However, they've made that much more sophisticated, and the process is so much easier now. And this was meaningful for me personally because that was a process I went through. I paid for college by myself, patching together all these scholarships. And now that is something that is changing the lives of students on a daily basis.”

On Women in Venture Capital

“ In terms of women in venture, I think we've obviously we've come a long way, particularly in the last three years. I joined the venture world maybe three months before that moment, if you want to call it that, where everybody realized this was an actual problem.  It was in the summer, I think, of 2017 when a lot of this came to light. I think we still have a very long way to go. Some of the solutions may have potentially created additional problems around tokenism, for example, around cliques around  certain folks or groups taking up all the oxygen in the room, et cetera. But that being said, I've seen some really great progress.”

On Software

“When it comes to software specifically, the democratizing piece of it is what gets me really excited. I get really excited about technology that streamlines analog industries -- that allows people to do things more quickly -- whether that means grassroots organizing or whether it means accounting.”

On the Impact of the 9/11 Attacks

“Being in high school, a teenager, during 9/11 -- being a Muslim and Iraqi American, that was a really pivotal moment for me. It was the first time where I felt like these two parts of my identity that really always felt like they were fluid and just part of who I am -- all of a sudden it seems like they weren’t to some people.  That really was troubling for me.”

Deena on Twitter       https://twitter.com/deenashakir

Lux Capital                             https://luxcapital.com

Something Ventured           https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 143_Deena_Shakir.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:36pm EDT

Garrett Smallwood was recently promoted to CEO of Wag Labs, the popular on-demand dog-walking service backed by venture firms from Freestyle Capital to Softbank.

New York Times said of the company “"Most dog owners should consider installing Wag on their phones just to have as a backup option. It is the best-designed and most efficient app for summoning a dog walker with some or no advance notice."

Garrett previously founded Finrise, a startup that Wag acquired.

In this episode, find out what happened to the market for walking dogs and checking in on pets when COVID-19 led to widespread lockdowns.  It’s not as obvious as you might think.

We also discuss what happened to Wag’s employees -- and how they responded  -- when COVID forced them out of the office. 

Finally, we answer the question,  "Is there a market for cat walking?"

Wag’s investors also include:

  • Tuesday Capital
  • Structure Capital
  • Social Leverage
  • Slow Ventures
  • RRE Ventures
  • Ludlow Ventures
  • Haystack
  • Greylock
  • General Catalyst
  • Sherpa Capital

https://wagwalking.com

https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 142_Garrett_Smallwood_Wag_CEO.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:49pm EDT

Fast.co has raised over $20 million from firms like Kleiner, Index and Stripe.  It bills itself as the world’s fastest checkout – one click, no passwords.  A fascinating but typical story, such as it is, in Silicon Valley. 

But then there’s this: Domm didn’t go to Stanford.  He isn’t even from the US. He’s from Australia, where his first business was…a towing company.  A more than $50 million business.

His co-founder is a woman.  He met her on Twitter.

So in this episode – find out how Domm made his way from Australia to Silicon Valley, and how he used his status as a Twitter power user to build his business.  Also learn what it’s like when your rocket ship startup is hit by a global pandemic.

Fast  https://www.fast.co

Something Ventured  https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: 141_Domm_Holland.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:51pm EDT

What makes communities of startups thrive, and how have they been impacted by the recession, COVID-19, and the remote work trend?

Brad Feld addresses these questions in this episode and in his new book “THE STARTUP COMMUNITY WAY: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” and the second edition of his book “STARTUP COMMUNITIES: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City.”

You may know Brad as the legendary investor who co-founded the Foundry Group, and who has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Brad previously co-founded Techstars, and was an early investor in Harmonix, Zynga, MakerBot, and Fitbit. He writes the widely followed Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures.

EPISODE EXERPTS

On the Chemistry of Silicon Valley

“Today’s Silicon Valley, if it started from scratch, could not create Silicon Valley.”

 

On Initial Conditions of Startup Communities

“The punch line is that you don't have a deterministic outcome. When you have a child, raising a child is a complex system. You can't say that when the child is twenty-four years old, these are the things that child will be doing and will have done and how they will be living. All of the interaction effects over time in the moment affect what happens in the evolution of that child. Same thing with the startup community.”

 

On Racism in Startups and Venture Firms

“There is no question that empirically the number of non-white, black and brown voices and black and brown founders' is a very low single digit percentage of the (startup and venture) population. And if you add in women into that mix and say black or brown women, that's an even smaller percentage of the population. And so then the question is in now, what do you do? Its a complex system so you can't just say, ‘OK, here are the new rules and this is what's going to happen’.   Rather you've got to have participation of ALL of the different actors that have influence and ability in order to change things.”

 

On the Effect of COVID-19 on the Importance of Place for Startups

“Startup communities are complex systems that go through phase changes. In February, if you had said to anyone: “In three months, ninety nine percent of office workers around the world will be working from their houses.” That person would have said, you're crazy, that'll never happen. It can't happen. The technology won't support it. People won't tolerate it. Not possible. But lo and behold, that's what happened. And it works OK. We understand that place still has a lot of importance, especially around startup communities. However, the notion of connecting places together and building things that have a virtual component or that have a bigger geographic spread is also important.”

https://somethingventured.us 

https://foundrygroup.com

https://feld.com

 

Direct download: 140_Brad_Feld.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:11pm EDT

Parker Conrad lists himself as “customer support” at Rippling, but he is its co-founder and CEO.  He previously founded Zenefits.  In this episode he traces his journey from a journalist at Harvard, to founder and CEO of a company that has raised over $50 million.

Episode Highlights:

The specific thing he likes about sales
“I really liked sales. I enjoyed it. But I liked it in a very specific way:  I enjoyed selling something that I had built. I didn't want anyone else explaining why it was great or what was so awesome about it, because they were going to screw it up somehow. They were not going to get it right when they were talking to people and telling them what's great about this. I wanted to build the thing that I was selling.”

His fundraising ‘trick’
“Just find a way to be the Twitter guys (a fast growing company at the time which VCs were throwing money at) That was really the answer. And I think that that's actually the right answer for most entrepreneurs.  Most of the “tactics” around fundraising don't really matter. They're such a rounding error. The important thing is to build a business that's so compelling that they can't afford to ignore you. And then all the other rules go out the window. And then it's like very easy to raise. And if you can't build something that is that compelling, then God help you.”

Why he’s motivated to build an HR management company
"I am an unusually resentful of the sort of busy work, administrative work. It’s why I was so resentful of having to of fax in insurance applications at my first company. If you can connect all of those underlying system and you can automate that and make it really seamless, that all disappears. And so in this sort of perverse way I really get excited about stomping that out for customers, because I'm the primary user of our product.".

https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 139_Parker_Conrad_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 1:00pm EDT

Scott Simpson worked on digital books at Amazon, then podcasting at Apple.  Thus, a key guy on two technologies that revolutionized the “long tail” of content.  And then…he left to start a standup comedy show.  “Cheaper Than Therapy”,  housed in San Francisco’s Shelton Theater, presents about 6 standup comedy shows a week, almost always sold out. 

Then Covid hit Cheaper Than Therapy and standup comedy everywhere.  In this episode we discuss Scott’s path from tech to comedy, and the affects of Covid on the future of comedy.  We discuss how well jerry-rigged alternatives to standup comedy are working, as well as the dire state of performance businesses in general.

 

Scott’s podcast:  California King https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/california-king/id1506058005

Cheaper Than Therapy
https://cttcomedy.com

Scott on Twitter:

@scottsimpson

 

 

Direct download: 138_scott_simpson_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:39pm EDT

“As an entrepreneur, tech CEO and venture capitalist who is also a woman of color, I am well aware of the challenges most entrepreneurs face when it comes to raising capital.” 

So Promise Phelon summarizes with typical grace what she has learned in an amazing career.  Her book, “The Way of the Growth Warrior” – well you can’t get it yet.  You can pre-order it in the link below.  In the meantime, you can hear her story in this episode.

Promise Phelon started that career at BEA Systems, where she became Head of Product Marketing.  While a Black woman running marketing at BEA in the 1990s might be its own story, it was just her beginning...

The Growth Warrior https://thegrowthwarrior.com

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us

Direct download: Promise_Phelon_2020.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:19pm EDT

“Most Black computer science students think Silicon Valley companies are racist.”  If you didn’t know this already – you should really sit down and listen to this episode.

No one educates more Black students in computer science than Codepath.  Codepath is the non-profit co-founded by Michael Ellison to eliminate educational inequity in technical careers.  Every year Codepath teaches hundreds of college students the skills they need to get jobs at companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

In this episode, Michael shares his stark assessment of how Silicon Valley treats Black engineers, including CS students who may have not gone to a ‘top’ school.  He discusses the toll both Covid and the recent events like the George Floyd killing have taken on Black students.

Michael shares what Silicon Valley leaders – venture capitalists and companies alike – can do to empower Black engineering students who seek jobs, or seek to start companies in Silicon Valley.

https://codepath.org

https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 136_Codepath_Michael_Ellison_2020.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:45pm EDT

Monique Woodard is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.  She is one of the very rare Black, female General partners in venture capital.  Previously on Something Ventured we explored Monique’s unique path to becoming a venture capitalist, and what she invests in.

As events drove the Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) movement to accelerate worldwide, Monique was gracious enough to come back and share her thoughts.

She discusses what she believes is the state of the BLM movement in general, and Silicon Valley’s dismal record on supporting Black investors and entrepreneurs in particular. She offers pure, unvarnished advice about what Silicon Valley can do – actually do – to begin fixing its problem.

www.monique.vc

www.somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 135_monique_woodard_is_not_doing_fine.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:50pm EDT

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Not every podcast includes a Langston Hughes quote.  Not every venture capitalist is Somesh Dash.  Somesh is a partner at the venture capital firm IVP.  IVP is one of the largest, most established venture firms in Silicon Valley.  From his post there, Somesh has seen several cycles of Silicon Valley’s ups and downs.

In this episode, we contemplate recent events:  Racial issues converging with US 2020 presidential politics and a country on edge from Covid. Looking to the leadership example of Ailene Lee and All Rise, we contemplate what more Silicon Valley might do to be supportive of black Americans.  Not just the few (too few) black VCs and Founders in Silicon Valley, but All black Americans.

We turn to the long arc of investing in Silicon Valley – from the early days of IVP, the dot com crash, the 2008 financial crisis, the last 10 years and – the great unknown that is next. 

We finish with how VCs have reacted to Covid, and what is REALLY going to happen with ‘working from home”. Finally – we end on a positive note, with the poem that begins this introduction.

Direct download: 134_somesh_dash.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:48pm EDT

(Note:  This episode was recorded before the Covid crisis. It includes a brief introduction with Eric Tarczynski to update the status of his fund and college investing, post Covid.)

Eric Tarczynski is the founder of Contrary, a venture capital firm focused on investing in college students starting companies.  In this episode, Eric discusses how he built a network of college entrepreneurs, and how he created a venture fund focused on investing in college students.  We discuss the unique benefits and risks of investing in young founders, many with no work experience, as well as the lessons from famous college founder – Mark Zuckerberg. 

Colleges Contrary includes in its network are:  Boston College, Boston University, BYU, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgia Tech, Harvard, NYU, Northeastern, Ohio State, Penn State, Princeton, Rice, Stanford, Texas A&M, Tufts, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, University of Chicago, UC Boulder, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, University of MIchigan, Notre Dame, Penn, USC, University of Texas, Virginia, Vanderbilt, University of Washington, Yale, and Waterloo.

www.contrarycap.com

www.somethingentured.us

 

 

Contrary Capital: www.contrarycap.com

 

Direct download: 133_Eric_Tarczynski_College.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05pm EDT

Raj Kapoor contracted Covid in mid-March.  He and his family are recovered and well. But Raj is taking aim at shortening the path to a post-Covid world.  He partnered with Clara Health to create www.worldwithoutcovid.org.  The site let’s people register to help researchers worldwide accelerate their race to find better testing, treatments, and vaccines.

Raj has been a venture capitalist (Mayfield) and a entrepreneur (SnapFish).  He is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Lyft. 

In this episode we discuss Raj’s journey from contracting to recovering from Covid.  We also discuss the path to finding a treatment, and the why’s and how’s of California’s lockdown.  We also discuss (Caifornia Governor) Gavin Newsom’s “6 Criteria for lifting quarantine”, and the current state of the US Presidential race.

We turn to Lyft, and the future of transportation (the original topic of this episode):   How Lyft is faring during the Covid crisis, how will change cities, and how Lyft affect climate change.

Finally, we briefly discuss the effect Covid might ultimately have on the music industry.

World Without Covid:  www.worldwithoutcovid.org

Clara Health:  www.clarahealth.com

Lyft:  www.lyft.com

Something Ventured:  www.somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 132_Raj_Kapoor_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:59pm EDT

In the midst of the Covid crisis, how should Silicon Valley think about China?  Kaiser Kuo is founder and host of the Sinica podcast, and has been a longtime journalist and tech executive in China. Few people know more about the intricacies of China’s politics and their interaction with technology companies.

In this episode we discuss China’s responsibility for Covid, and compare its response times to those of the US.  We discuss how the US should think about China going forward as a new world order emerges.  Also, as this crisis passes what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

Finally, Kaiser discusses how we’ve flip flopped on how we view technology and other governments.  Is technology a tool of revolution? (Arab Spring) or of control (WeChat contact tracking apps).

Sinica Podcast:  https://supchina.com/series/sinica/

Something Ventured:  www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 131_kaiser_kuo_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:56pm EDT

Joe Garofoli is the Senior Political Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and host of the “It’s All Political” podcasts.  He recently broke the story of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which ultimately led to the resignation of the Acting Secretary of the Navy. 

In this episode we discuss the political implications of the COVID outbreak, and how Donald Trump is (not) doing in managing the crisis.  We discuss the next moves for candidate Joe Biden and now-former candidate Bernie Sanders.

Also discussed is the performance of California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and how their styles differ.

Finally we discuss the implications for the California economy, and Silicon Valley in particular.

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/tools/podcasts/

www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 130_Joe_Garofoli_Covid_.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:11pm EDT

Mike Stutz is a Hollywood producer, director and writer.  He’s worked across genres, and recently has focused on reality TV (Animal Planet, Discovery Network, etc.)

In this episode, Mike discusses the impact of COVID-19 on Hollywood:  How it affects writers, producers and even standup comics.

We also discuss: What happened when Mike decided to leave Los Angeles for Arkansas and political protest when you can’t gather.

Finally – we end on a positive note (really!) about how to address depression and suicide when everyone is isolated.

Mike on Twitter:  @suicideblows

Mike on Instagram:  @resistanceclown

Mike’s Fairytale video:  https://vimeo.com/400062533

Something Ventured website:  www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 129_Mike_Stutz_COVID_Hits_Hollywood.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 1:01pm EDT

(Note this episode was recorded before the current Coronavirus crisis)

Matt Hulett is President of Rosetta Stone – one of the largest language learning companies in the world.  Long known for its striking yellow boxes of CDs (those CDs are now a thing of the past, BTW), Rosetta helps people learn almost any language from any mobile device or computer, at their own pace.

Matt came to Rosetta Stone after stints at Expedia, Atom Entertainment and RealNetworks. Where he worked for famous internet execs like Rob Glaser and Barry Diller.

In this episode we discuss Matt’s early interaction with computers (including his experiences with Telnet and Sun workstations!).  We discuss his path to becoming a public company CEO, and the difference in running turnarounds, startups and big brands.

We also discuss no less than the state of literary education in the US and how Lexia Learning helps kids learn to read.  Matt shares a few of his leadership lessons, and discusses how he keeps Rosetta stone out of the tricky politics of language into which people try to pull him.

www.rosettastone.com

www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 128_Matt_Hulett_Rosetta_Stone_President.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:56pm EDT

Paul-Henri Ferrand is the Chief Operating Officer of Brex. Brex, the corporate card that accelerates entrepreneurs and scaling businesses, is founded by Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, two engineers who previously founded Pagar.me, a Brazil payment processing company. Brex has raised $315M in equity and $510M in debt, and is backed by the co-founders of PayPal (Max Levchin and Peter Thiel), Y Combinator, Ribbit Capital, Greenoaks Capital, DST Global, IVP, and Carl Pascarella (former CEO of Visa).

Before becoming COO of Brex, Paul-Henri was President, Global Customer Operations for Google Cloud, and before that President of Dell US.

In this episode, Paul-Henri discusses why he moved from leading an enormous public company, to helping execute at a startup.  He contrasts the cultures of the various companies – Dell, Google and Brex,  and discusses what it means to “consumerize finance”.  We also discuss why immigrants (Paul-Henri is an immigrant to the US, as are with both founders of Brex) find the US so appealing, and appear to be behind some of the great Silicon Valley companies.  Finally, we discuss the importance of culture and leadership lessons learned at Dell, Google and now Brex.

Brex www.brex.com

Something Ventured www.somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 127_Paul-Henri_Ferrand.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:16pm EDT

Brianne Kimmel is a newly minted venture capitalist.  She didn’t join a venture fund: She started her own. Her fund ⁠— Work Life Ventures ⁠— invests in new technologies and services for your work life.   

Work today has a whole new meaning: it's social w/ Slack, flexible w/ Zoom and approachable through low-code and no-code tools for anyone with an idea to build something.   Brianne's recent investments range from enterprise software (i.e. developer productivity tools) to creator tools that help anyone launch their own course, jewelry line or creative business. 

Brianne has been an angel investor on evenings and weekends, had a YC company, and scaled Zendesk from a single product to multi-product platform. 

She started her career building influencer programs for Nikon, then scaled into Head of Social Media at Expedia — in Sydney, Hong Kong and Silicon Valley. 

But Brianne’s path to Silicon Valley wasn’t obvious.  She started out in northeast Ohio, started attended Kent State while she was in high school and started her career in Australia.  

Not the typical path for a Silicon Valley Venture capitalist.  Nevertheless…here she is.

In this podcast we cover a range of topics and ideas. We discuss why she started her own firm, rather than joining an established VC.   We have some fun with the emergence of ‘celebrity angels”, and take a more serious look at the future of distributed workforces.

She also surprises me – as it always happens – with what it’s like to be a high profile woman in the tech industry.  She honestly shares what it’s like to get unwanted attention at, for example, conferences where, sometimes, security is called.  

Please enjoy this episode with...Brianne Kimmel.

Work Life Ventures

http://briannekimmel.com/work-life-venture-fund-i/

 

Something Ventured Podcast

www.somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 126_Brianne_kimmel.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:04pm EDT

Do you know why we download podcasts, but stream video?  This is the podcast that tells the story. Jeff Macpherson is founder of AR/VR training company Motive.io.  But before that – he created and acted in “Tiki Bar TV”. If you don’t know what that is, you can -- and should -- find it at TikiBarTV.com.  Tiki Bar TV was at the red-hot center of the early video wars – which were at one point a knife-fight between Apple and YouTube. “Tiki Bar TV” caught the eye of Steve Jobs, and ended up being featured in one of Jobs’ famous onstage product unveilings.

In this episode we talk about the arc of video on the Internet, what it’s like getting the call that Steve Jobs wants to include you in his presentation, and what it’s like to collaborate with Tosca Musk, Lala and Johnny Johnny.  We also discuss how web series have changed, and early BBS culture.

www.motive.io

www.somethingventured.us

@drtiki on Twitter

Direct download: 125_Scott_Mcpherson_Dr._Tiki.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:07pm EDT

In honor of Keller's recent warmly received recent talk at Jackson Square ventures -- here she is again!

-----

Keller Fitzsimmons is the author of Lost in Startuplandia: Wayfinding for the Weary Entrepreneur.  She gives lie to the idea that entrepreneurship is a thrilling, lucrative adventure.  All is great, of course, until things go horribly wrong. “As crisis after crisis hits, even the most seasoned founder can get disoriented. Whether you're in the throes of business woes or just getting into the game, E. Keller Fitzsimmons has written a field guide outlining the terrain to help you avoid getting Lost in Startuplandia.”

Keller is a serial tech entrepreneur, artist, and mother of two. She is the cofounder of Custom Reality Services, a virtual reality production company whose first two projects, Across the Line (2016) and Ashe '68 (2019), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Keller is the recipient of the Silvertip PwC Entrepreneurship Award and Speech Technology's Luminary Award.

Her work has been published by Network Computing, InformationWeek, and Inc. An active angel investor, she serves on the technology committee for BELLE USA, a venture fund that invests in women-led startups. Originally trained as a classical archaeologist, Keller holds a master's degree from Harvard University.

In this podcast Keller discusses a wide range of topics, including losing her ability to read (before becoming a best selling author).  She discusses the surprising prevalance of anxiety, depression and suicide in Silicon Valley.

Lost in Startuplandia
https://www.lostinstartuplandia.com

Direct download: 109_E._Keller_Fitzsimmons.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:01pm EDT

Marco Zappacosta is a co-Founder & CEO of Thumbtack, a startup that lets people find local professionals for “pretty much anything”.  Thumbtack has raised over $400 million and is valued at well over $1 billion.  Investors include Sequoia Capital, Cyan Banister, Jason Calcanis and brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi.  Marco has been recognized by Forbes as top “30 under 30” entrepreneur, and Thumbtack is recognized as one of Fortune's "Great Place to Work".
 
In this episode, Marco discusses how he built Thumbtack, and what it’s like to transition from overseeing a small team, to hundreds of people.  He talks about how Thumbtack is succeeding where others failed – getting liquidity in local services
 
We also discuss how Thumbtack enables local ‘entrepreneurs’ to build their business on its platform, and find a market for their traditional or unique service.  Finally we cover what structural changes are needed in the US economy to enable ‘gig’ workers, and why he’s been interested in the state of Social Security since college.
 
 
Direct download: 123_Marcos_Zappacosta.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:35pm EDT

Chris Douvos has a rare job.  There are very few venture capitalists in the world.  There’s an even more scarce job, however:  Several ‘fund-of-funds” exist that provide capital to venture capital firms, and a path into venture capital for large institutions that want to invest in Silicon Valley.  Chris Douvos’ Ahoy Capital is one of those funds.

In this wide-ranging discussion, Chris tells us how he made his way up and through a history major to his current profession.  We talk about what Chris has seen from his unique perch in Silicon Valley:  What has changed, what he sees in the future.  Chris explains how he became an early investor in superstar venture firms like First Round and DCVC, and why he didn’t invest in the equally successful Baseline Ventures.

Also quoted are Walt Whitman, and at least one Greek Philosopher  If you don’t know Chris – meet him on this episode!

Ahoy Capital

https://www.ahoycap.com

 

Something Ventured

https://somethingventured.us 

 

 

Direct download: 122_Chris_Douvos_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:58pm EDT

Mike Maples, Jr. is Founder and General Partner of Floodgate, a seed investing firm that has made early investments in companies like Twitter, Demandforce and Lyft.  He was #12 on the 2018 “Midas List” of top venture capitalists. The seed investing trend he identified has become, literally, an entire category of investors.  He is also the host of his own podcast – Starting Greatness.

In this episode of Something Ventured we talk about Mike’s path to Silicon Valley, the investing opportunity he saw here, and how it has changed over time.  He explains terms like ‘earned secret’ and “thunder lizard”, and the overarching importance of “why now”.

If you’d like to get to know Mike Maples, Jr. – don’t miss this episode, and listen to his new podcast – Starting Greatness.

Starting Greatness podcast https://medium.com/starting-greatness

Floodgate https://floodgate.com

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 121_Mike_Maples_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:08pm EDT

David Hornik is a partner at August Capital. He is also the much-loved creator and executive producer of “The Lobby”.  In preparing for this podcast, a number of people expressed sincere affection for David, The Lobby, and the relationships it has fostered.  In this episode David explains what the Lobby is, and where the idea came from. 

In addition to The Lobby, David started (with his colleagues) the first venture capital blog, VentureBlog, and the first venture capital podcast, VentureCast. He has been honored by Forbes Magazine as a member of its Midas List of top Venture Capitalists.

As a venture capitalist, David over the last 20 years has worked closely with technology companies to help them grow and prosper. David joined August Capital in 2000 to invest in a broad range of software companies. Since that time, he has invested in dozens of companies across the software spectrum, including a number of enterprise software and SaaS (e.g, Splunk, Fastly, GitLab), consumer services (e.g., Evite, Ebates, Drop), and financial technology companies (e.g., WePay, Bill.com, PayNearMe).

In this podcast we discuss everything from his investments in Broadway musicals, to the state of venture capital, to the issues faced by the LGBTQ community in Silicon Valley.  Warning – this podcast includes singing!

August Capital https://www.augustcap.com

The Lobby https://www.thelobbyconference.com/the-lobby

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 120_david_hornik_edited_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:12pm EDT

Ryan Petersen founded Flexport to make the world a more connected and better place.  He wanted to “fix the user experience in global trade”.  It’s been quite a success so far.  To date – the company has raised $1.3  billion, and Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator, told Bloomberg News, "There will be more international trade because of Flexport and international trade is a very big thing for there to be more of".  

Before starting Flexport, Ryan was co-founder and CEO of ImportGenius.com, a data-as-a-service business for global shipping. He holds a degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Columbia University.

In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover Ryan's path to becoming an entrepreneur and why he thought international trade needing shaking up.  He talks about the early days of Flexport, building a strong excutive team to compliment his strenghts and how his role as a CEO and the company have scaled through each stage of growth.  Also discussed are the current trade wars’ effect on shipping and businesses, as well as the unique perspective they have as the trusted shipper for thousands of companies.

www.flexport.com

www.somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 118_Ryan_Peterson.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:25pm EDT

Josh Felser co-founded and sold two companies -- Spinner and Grouper – for a combined value of nearly $400 million.  Then, he and his partner, Dave Samuel, started one of Silicon Valley’s most successful seed venture funds – Freestyle.   Freestyle has backed companies like Airtable, Intercom, BetterUp, Patreon and Wag.

In this wide-ranging discussion, Josh talks about building Spinner and the nail-biting moment an acquirer asked him “what’s your number”.  We also cover Josh’s rebuttal to Kent’s previous episode on Burning Man, and how Josh first met California’s governor, Gavin Newsom.   Other topics include mental health in Silicon Valley, and how to support women and people of color in Silicon Valley.  Also included is some music advice for podcaster Harry Stebbings.

Freestyle http://freestyle.vc

Burning Man https://burningman.org

Rush https://www.rush.com/band/

Direct download: josh_felser_2019_3.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:38pm EDT

Dan Scheinman is one of the best investors – and nicest people – you may not have heard of…yet.  But you should know him, because he has become a force in Silicon Valley. 

After running Corporate Development at Cisco, Dan became an investor.  Investing his own capital, he has backed from the earliest stages firms like Zoom, Arista, SentinalOne and CyCognito.  These companies are now collectively worth tens of billions of dollars.

We briefly discuss the passing of Sequoia Capital Founder and Cisco Board Chairman Don Valentine and his legacy.  We talk about the ups and downs at Cisco – which at various times has been the most valuable company in the world.  Dan talks about how to find true outliers in tech companies, and what it means to be truly ‘contrarian’.  We discuss ageism in Silicon Valley, and why investing in women, people of color and those over 35 is an investing advantage. 

Dan tells the story of how he became the first investor in video conferencing company Zoom – which is now valued at nearly $20 billion.

Finally, we discuss what to do when enormous wealth finds you, and why venture capitalists think both math and their jobs are hard.

Zoom:  www.zoom.us

Dan can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dscheinm 

Direct download: 116_Dan_Scheinman_edited.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

You know her right?  The woman who started two venture funds and a wealth management firm?  You don’t?  Meet Ba Minuzzi.  Ba was born in Brazil, where she started a fashion business in her teens.  That soon gave way to a real estate business, and then the venue changed to Miami.  In Miami, she realized she wanted to start a venture fund – and that Silicon Valley was the place to do it.  Today she is founder of Babel (an early stage healthtech venture fund), Ausum (a blockchain fund) and  UMANA (a wealth management firm for tech self-mades, conscious celebrities and athletes).  She is the first Latina to start a Silicon Valley venture fund.

In this episode, we discuss her path to Silicon Valley, why she started not one, not two, but three funds.  She also responds to recent episodes that poked a bit of fun at Burning Man.

Babel Ventures
https://www.babel.ventures

Ausum Ventures
https://www.ausum.vc

UMANA
https://www.umana.vc

Direct download: 115_Ba_Minuzzi_compressed.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:28pm EDT

Jerry Colonna is the author of Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, and cofounder of Reboot – a coaching company, which he started along with Ali Schultz, Khalid Halim, and Dan Put. 

Before building a successful coaching firm – Jerry was a “Prince of New York” – he co-founded the VC firm Flatiron partners and then ran JP Morgan Partners’.  But walked away from it all at the age of 38, wracked with depression.  Today he’s a bestselling author, Buddhist, and a sought after coach for the most influential people in business and beyond.

 In this podcast we discuss some fascinating parts of Internet history that you may have forgotten – including the first internet newspaper.  We speak about the legacy of “Coach” Bill Campbell and how Jerry found himself as a coach to some of the most powerful and famous executives in the world.  We also track his harrowing path through depression and suicidal thoughts to a fulfilled life, in which he is transforming the lives of others.

Reboot
https://www.reboot.io

Something Ventured
https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: 114_jerry_colonna_.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:21pm EDT

Maha is a partner at Canaan Partners, one of Silicon Valley's largest and most successful venture firms.  She spots technology trends early and partners closely with her companies to drive growth and exits. Maha focuses on e-commerce and enterprise / cloud, and was one of the first investors to recognize the potential of social gaming. She represented Canaan as the first institutional investor in The RealReal – which recently went public.

Maha is a founding member of All Raise, an organization with the mission to “accelerate the success of female funders and founders”. She is also a trustee for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Before becoming a venture capitalist, Maha was an executive at Qwest Communications and studied Economics and Sociology at Stanford, and Economics at MIT.

In this podcast Maha shares her journey to becoming a venture capitalist.  She discusses the changes she’s seen in the venture industry and what does – and doesn’t – excite her today.  We also talk about the evolving path for women in Silicon Valley, and what an ally of women can do to be helpful.

Canaan Partners
www.canaan.com

All Raise
www.allraise.org

The RealReal
www.threrealreal.com

Direct download: 113_Maha_Ibrahim.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 1:19pm EDT

Esther Wojcicki is a journalist and educator.  She founded and runs the Palo Alto High School Media Arts Center, which engages over 600 students directly in media such as magazines, newspapers, radio, television and photography. 

She wrote the book “How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results”.  Her qualifications?  Her three daughters, Susan, Anne and Janet are the CEO of Youtube, Founder and CEO of 23 and Me, and a professor of medicine at UCSF.

In this podcast, we discuss her path through the male dominated world of journalism, to becoming a teacher and founding the Media Arts Center.  She relates how she raised her children to be particularly independent, and discusses the rise of ‘helicopter parents’ --  parents who sometimes hover over their children even as they go to college. 

We also discuss the evolution and state of journalism from typeset newspapers, to the massive changes brought on by the Internet, Facebook, YouTube and Google.

How to Raise Successful People
https://raisesuccessfulpeople.com

Media Arts Center
http://www.palymac.org/

Direct download: 112_Esther_Wojcicki.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:17pm EDT

It's the time of  year when Silicon Valley decamps to a party in the desert known as Burning Man.  Grown adults, with children and jobs spend multiple weeks preparing, burning, then decompressing.

In this replay episode, we take a light-hearted look at Burning Man as seen from Silicon Valley.  We review the history of the event, which began at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.  We also cover a dark period in Burning Man's early history.

Michael White is a recovering Silicon Valley attorney.  I'm a venture capitalist.  Neither of has been to Burning Man.  Well, that's not going to stop us.  We watched a movie about Burning Man!  

The movie we refer to in this episode is "Spark:  A Burning Man Story" from 2013.

www.somethingventured.us

 

 

 

Direct download: 89_Burning_Man_Replay_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 1:27pm EDT

In honor of Kelly's recent, well-received talk at Jackson Square Ventures, and the ongoing interest in mental health issues in Silicon Valley -- here she is again!

------

Keller Fitzsimmons is the author of Lost in Startuplandia: Wayfinding for the Weary Entrepreneur. She gives lie to the idea that entrepreneurship is a thrilling, lucrative adventure. All is great, of course, until things go horribly wrong. “As crisis after crisis hits, even the most seasoned founder can get disoriented. Whether you're in the throes of business woes or just getting into the game, E. Keller Fitzsimmons has written a field guide outlining the terrain to help you avoid getting Lost in Startuplandia.”

Keller is a serial tech entrepreneur, artist, and mother of two. She is the cofounder of Custom Reality Services, a virtual reality production company whose first two projects, Across the Line (2016) and Ashe '68 (2019), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Keller is the recipient of the Silvertip PwC Entrepreneurship Award and Speech Technology's Luminary Award.

Her work has been published by Network Computing, InformationWeek, and Inc. An active angel investor, she serves on the technology committee for BELLE USA, a venture fund that invests in women-led startups. Originally trained as a classical archaeologist, Keller holds a master's degree from Harvard University.

In this podcast Keller discusses a wide range of topics, including losing her ability to read (before becoming a best selling author). She discusses the surprising prevalance of anxiety, depression and suicide in Silicon Valley.

Lost in Startuplandia
https://www.lostinstartuplandia.com 

Something Ventured
www.somethingventured.us

 

 

Direct download: 109_E._Keller_Fitzsimmons.m4a.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:21pm EDT

After attending the University of Illinois, Chris Michel began his career as a Naval Flight Officer, flying aboard P-3 Orion “sub-hunters”. 

Today, he is a photographer, chronicling Silicon Valley and the World.  His photography has taken him from the edge of space, to the North and South Poles and everything in between.  Chris’s path from the Navy to photographer was not a straight line, and in this podcast you’ll hear his story. 

In this wide-ranging discussion we talk about how Chris made it from the Navy to Harvard business school, where he met his  business partner (and future podcast guest) Anne Dwane.  Also covered are his path to founding two Silicon Valley companies, and his struggle to guide them through difficult times. 

Finally, we discuss Chris’s advice on how to think about structuring a career and a life.

https://www.christophermichel.com

In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the headlines, as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.

https://somethingventured.us

 

Direct download: 106_chris_michel_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:21pm EDT

 

Julian Guthrie is a journalist-turned-author, covering such topics as Larry Ellison’s quest for the America’s Cup, and the new age of private space exploration. She gravitates to tales of underdogs and innovation, and her latest book is no exception.

Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime” is the story of four women: Magdalena Yesil, Mary Jane Elmore, Theresia Gouw, and Sonja Hoel Perkins. Each of these rose – against the well-known odds of Silicon Valley – to the top of the game. 

Well before “me too” these four women juggled work and family, overcame unequal pay, and faced the sexist attitudes prevalent in male-dominated Silicon Valley. Nevertheless, they rose to rewrite the rules of an entire industry.

Each story is amazing on its own. Magdalena Yesil, came from Turkey with $43 to her name, and would go on to help Marc Benioff build Salesforce. 

Mary Jane Elmore went from the cornfields of Indiana to Silicon Valley and landed at the storied venture capital firm IVP - where she was one of the first women in the U.S. to make partner at a venture firm.

Theresia Gouw, Asian American from a working-class town, ultimately helped venture firm Accel Partners invest in firms like Google, Facebook, Imperva, Forescout, and Trulia. 

Sonja Hoel Perkins, a Southerner, became one of the first women investing partners at white-glove Menlo Ventures, and invested in McAfee, Hotmail, Acme Packet, and F5 Networks. 

In this wide ranging conversation, Julian shares her experience in writing this book, and previous books including “How to Make a Spaceship,” with a foreword by Richard Branson and an afterword by Stephen Hawking, and “The Billionaire and the Mechanic,” about Larry Ellison. We also discuss the current state of sexism in Silicon Valley, her predictions for the future, and the in-the-works adaptation of her book for television.

www.somethingventured.us

www.julianguthriesf.com 

Direct download: 105_Juian_Guthrie_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:42pm EDT

 Charles is the founder and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s hot seed stage venture firms. He was previously at Uncork, the storied seed venture firm founded by Jeff Clavier. Precursor is a classic seed stage venture firm investing in founders they believe in.

 Before becoming a venture capitalist, Charles cofounded Bionic Panda Games, and held senior business development roles at Serious Business and Gaia Interactive.

 Also – he went to Stanford. Twice.

In this episode we discuss a range of issues including what it’s like to be a black VC in a mostly white industry, how he made his way to venture, what it’s like working at Q-Tel, and why he left a hugely successful VC to start his own.

 

www.uncorkcapital.com

www.precursorvc.com

www.somethingventured.us

Direct download: 104_charles_hudson_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Welcome to Episode 100! Yep, we’ve made it to 100. And for this one…Pete Alcorn stops by the podcast as he bucket-lists his way around the world. He has run, among other things – ebooks at Amazon (just before they cared about it) and podcasting at Apple. Also at Apple, he oversaw iBooks in Europe and education content discovery everywhere. Pete was also Kent’s first partner in the startup world, building a company (that still exists today) called “NetRead”. Oh, and we also went to high school together in La Jolla California.

 

In this wide-ranging episode we cover: the future of edtech, the corporate path vs. the startup path, whether Pete agrees with Po Bronson, and the future of the planet. Thanks for making it to 100. Enjoy!

www.somethingventured.us

www.netread.com

 

Direct download: 100_Pete_Alcorn_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:50pm EDT

Eric Lagier co-founded and is a general partner of ByFounders, a 100 million Euro venture firm focused on Nordic and Baltic startups. As you grab your map to find where the Nordics and Baltics actually are, think about this: Since 2013, 41 startups built in Europe are now worth more than a billion dollars. (These are known as “Unicorns”, a term coined by Ailene Lee of Cowboy Ventures). Even more extraordinary is the fact that 10 of those 41 are from the Nordics. So an area comprising of 4% of Europe’s population has generated 25% of Europe’s Unicorns. This includes companies like Unity, Spotify, Just Eat, Sitecore, Klarna, Zendesk and Tradeshift among others. 

 

Yes, a lot of numbers! Join us as Kent and Eric talk about why such huge outcomes occur in Nordic countries, and what cultural differences define the Nordics vs. the U.S.  Learn who is behind ByFounders, how the fund came together and more. 

 

https://somethingventured.us 

 

Links:

ByFounders

https://byfounders.vc 

Direct download: 99_Eric_Lagier_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:55pm EDT

Jay Adelson is the cofounder or CEO of Equinix, Revision3 and Digg. From a career that has taken him from building the first data centers to creating a wildly growing news aggregator, Jay has truly unique insight into Silicon Valley. In this conversation Jay traces his path from working at a temp agency to building the largest data center in the world.

Nerd out with us as we discuss how you obtained a URL before the Internet even had a governing body – and before the web existed; the battle over whether the Internet should ever be commercial; and the kind of technologies you can only invent when you are the core of the Internet.

Also discussed – should you be CEO of two companies? Why didn’t Revision3 become Youtube? Why was it called Revision3? Did Reddit replace Digg? What did Youtube get wrong, and Twitter get right?

Oh, and play more pinball!

https://somethingventured.us 

Direct download: jay_adelson_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00pm EDT

Best selling author Po Bronson has written deeply, often hilariously, about Silicon Valley and its effects on the world.  After founding San Francisco’s Writers Grotto, he wrote such books as The Nudist on the Late Shift, Bombardiers, and What Should I Do With My life?.  Today, he’s a venture capitalist at IndieBio – the Life Sciences accelerator.  

In this episode, Po discusses why 2019 feels like 1994, and what happens when daytime and nighttime conversations converge in Silicon Valley.  We also cover income inequality – the idea of ‘Basic Universal Equity”, and the futures of sports, medicine and…libraries.  But that’s just the beginning – stay tuned to hear what happens when climate change, biotech and automation converge.  And the big finish: whether our species will survive.

www.somethingventured.us 

In the Something Ventured podcast Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.

Direct download: 97_Po_Bronson_2019_to_upload.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:55am EDT

Monique Woodard fell into venture capital.  Or...wait.  Actually, no.  Monique grew up in rural Florida.  Starting with an Atari game system and moving to a Commodore computer, she learned to write computer code This, in a place where coding was far from the norm, and computer class required a drive into town.  She eventually became a venture capitalist, investing in such companies as: Blavity, Court Buddy, Silvernest, and Mented Cosmetics.

In this podcast we discuss Monique’s journey from the farms of rural Northern Florida to Miami’s music scene, to Silicon Valley.  We discuss how she established herself as an entrepreneur, and founded the organization Black Founders, eventually becoming a venture capitalist.  We cover a wide range of topics, including her demographic investment thesis, and why it should not be conflated with ‘diversity initiatives’.

www.somethingventured.us

In the Something Ventured podcast Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.

Direct download: 96_Monique_Woodard.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 8:01pm EDT

Alan Eagle is Director of Executive Communications at Google.  He is the coauthor of Trillion Dollar Coach, a book he co-wrote with Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt and Google’s former SVP Jonathan Rosenberg. Trillion Dollar Coach tells the story of Bill Campbell – a football coach who became an executive at Apple, and then one of the most beloved coaches to a “who’s who” of Silicon Valley.

Among those coached by Bill Campbell are Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, Sundar Pichai at Google; Steve Jobs at Apple; Brad Smith at Intuit; John Donahoe at eBay; and Marissa Mayer at Yahoo.

In this podcast, Alan discusses what made Bill Campbell so special. How did a football coach become beloved in Silicon Valley? Why is Bill Campbell called a ‘trillion dollar coach”? Finally, Alan discusses and what lessons we can take from Bill today: How to run a meeting, the meaning of leadership…and the power of love.

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In the Something Ventured Podcast (https://somethingventured.us)  Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond

Direct download: 95_alan_eagle_2019_compressed.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:29pm EDT

James Currier is a partner at NFX a venture firm he co-founded with partners Gigi Levy-Weiss and Pete Flint, and advisor Stan Chudnovsky. As an investor, he has funded companies before or alongside firms like Sequoia, Greylock, CRV, A16z, First Round, Mayfield, Shasta, and GGV. He's also a four-time serial entrepreneur with unique expertise in network effects businesses (his firm has identified 13 different network effects models https://www.nfx.com/post/network-effects-manual )

 

James is also deeply understands the ebbs and flows of Silicon Valley: Its technology, its trends, its tribes. In this episode James and Kent cover myriad topics – including James’ perspectives on why Silicon Valley works, who should (and shouldn’t) come to Silicon Valley, and whether or not Silicon Valley has lost its soul.

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In the Something Ventured Podcast (https://somethingventured.us) Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people changing the way we view the world online…and beyond.

 

Direct download: 94_James_Currier_.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:33pm EDT

Miyoko Schinner is the founder and CEO of Miyoko’s – a vegan creamery that is leading the way to a dairy-free future. 

She an award-winning celebrity chef, restauranteur, cookbook author, and TV host. She brought all these experiences to bear as she founded and built Miyoko’s from a small storefront to over 100 employees distributing vegan cheese around the country. Miyoko’s has raised venture capital from firms like Obvious (Ev William’s venture firm) and Stray Dog capital.

In this conversation Miyoko and Kent discuss her entrepreneurial journey from delivering bread in a backpack in Tokyo, to founding and building one of the fastest growing venture-backed food production companies in America.

 

Direct download: 93_Miyoko_Schinner.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 6:09pm EDT

Whether you call it "Gen Z" or "Post Millenial" -- Carter Cohen is one of them, embedded and here to tell you about the world as he sees it.

Carter is the kind of guy who makes you feel bad about what you were doing in college. He's a biochemistry major at Georgetown, speaks 3 languages, studies electrochemistry and...well he's a member of Gen Z, also called "post millennial".

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kent and Carter discuss the myths and realities about how Gen Z uses technology, what they expect from the future of work and....much more.

Direct download: 92_carter_cohen_2019.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:03pm EDT

Ryan Bethencourt is  the CEO of Wild Earth, a biotech startup developing meatless dog food.  Its investors include Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, and  Felicis Ventures.  He is a Partner at Babel Ventures and Investor/Advisor to over 80 biotech startups. He also co-founded the Biotech accelerator Indiebio.

We discuss why meatless pet food isn't as crazy as it sounds, the idea that animal-free meat is coming way faster than you think, and the decision between being a VC or an entrepreneur.  We also discuss the path from legalizing marijuana to legalizing psychedelics.

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom takes a look behind the scenes in Silicon Valley as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online..and beyond.

Direct download: 91_Ryan_Bethancourt.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

You may think you know about diversity in Silicon Valley, but you may not have heard it this straight up and candid before. Michael Ellison is African American and grew up poor as far from Silicon Valley as possible. Here he discusses how he made his unlikely way to Silicon Valley to become CEO of Codepath.org.  Codepath is the the hugely influential engineering training organization working with Silicon Valley’s tech giants, and universities across the country. We discuss problems with diversity programs, income inequality and racism on the road to Silicon Valley. A bonus : what you should really think of the movie Black Panther.

Direct download: 90_Michael_Ellison_October_2018.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 5:46pm EDT

Rick Marini is the founder of Protocol Ventures -- a cryptocurrency fund-of-funds, which is rapidly becoming a dominant force in the emerging cryptocurrency space.  Previously, Rick has been an entrepreneur building and selling multiple companies, including early social network Tickle and professional networking site Branchout.  Along the way, he has been a prolific angel investor, investing early in companies like Snapchat.  For these efforts, Rick was recently named one of the Top 50 Angel Investors by Forbes.

In our wide ranging conversation, we cover various trends in Silicon Valley, and dig in on cryptocurrency.  We discuss the value of a 'fund-of-funds" for an emerging asset class like cryptocurrency, the brief history of cryptocurrency, why crypto is such a huge deal and a lot more.  We also answer the question:  "Is Rick Marini Satoshi"?

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley Insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the scenes in Silicon Valley as he goes behind the scenes with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.

Direct download: 87_Rick_Marini_of_Protocol_Ventures_Part_1_of_2.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Nick Heyman was an early (like, #8) employee at Facebook. He is now a founder and Managing Partner of DynoVC, a venture firm focused on the transportation industry.

Nick believes the transportation market is undergoing the most radical change since inception.  In this podcast we discuss a range of topics from self-driving cards, autonomous vehicles, the future of trucks, scooters and more!

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the scenes in Silicon Valley as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online, and beyond.

 

 

Direct download: 86_nick_heyman_automotive.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 1:53pm EDT

Jim Scheinman, founder of Maven Ventures, has built Maven and achieved successful exits and investments such as Chariot, Cruise and Zoom.us.

Immediately prior to founding Maven Ventures, Jim was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Charles River Ventures (CRV), a leading venture firm where he helped source, vet, and advise their consumer portfolio companies.

Jim had an early seat at the emergence of social networking, first as an executive at Friendster, and then as an executive at Bebo (which was founded by Michael and Xochi Birch).  

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley Insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the scenes, as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online....and beyond.

 

Direct download: jim_scheinman_84_FULL_episode.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:13pm EDT

Jim Scheinman has been an entrepreneur and startup executive.  He is also the founder of Maven Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's seed investment firms, which counts among its investments Cruise (acquired by GM for over $1 billion), Chariot (acquired by Ford) and Zoom (which has raised over $100 million from firms including Sequoia Capital).

Jim discusses a variety of topics, including the state of entrepreneurship, the nearly billion dollar exit of Bebo to AOL, and the implications of self-driving technology (both as an investment and for society).

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the world online and beyond.

Direct download: 82_Jim_Scheinman_1_of_2.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:01pm EDT

2017 was quite a year when it came to the consequences of sexual harassment in Silicon Valley.  For the first time in memory, jobs were lost, careers were ended, and venture firms ceased to exist after women came forward and told their experiences of harassment.

In this episode, Kent takes a look back to memorialize 8 stories in 2017 where the consequences of sexual harassment reverberated.

We start with the earlier story of Ellen Pao and her lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, and Susan Fowler's blog post about harassment at Uber.  The groundwork laid by these two may have contributed to the flood of revelations that made 2017 so extraordinary.

Uber, 500 Startups, Ignition, Binary Capital and more -- they are all here.  Along with 2 stories to wind up the podcast of 2 of the most ridiculous public utterances we heard in 2017.

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley Insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online and beyond.

Direct download: 81_sexual_harrassment_2017_tick_tock_--_edited.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:50pm EDT

Marketing guru and teacher Neil Cohen sits down with Kent to reflect -- in this age of cryptocurrency -- on the meaning of tech bubbles.  A fun, lighthearted look at 20 years of craziness in Silicon Valley.

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines, as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.

Direct download: 80_Neil_Cohen_2018_2_of_2.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 9:22pm EDT

Marketing guru and university professor Neil Cohen sits down with Kent for a lighthearted ramble through a series of Tech Bubbles.  From early commerce (Pets.com!) to Segway all the way up to Cryptocurrency, we have fun reviewing some of the most interesting internet phenomena of the past couple decades.

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines, as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online and beyond.

Direct download: 79_Neil_Cohen_Internet_Bubbles.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:35pm EDT

Producer, Director, Writer and all-around Hollywood guy Mike Stutz has figured out how to hack the media. His protest group — The Useful Idiots — has figured out a unique way to get their message across, as only a group of creative types could. The Useful Idiots includes TV, film, theater, dance, and other creative people with a common cause. In this episode learn how Mike and his colleagues get the cameras’ attention, and get a progressive message out to the masses.

 

Direct download: 77_stutz_hacking_media_1_of_2.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:12pm EDT

Jonathan Abrams is CEO of Nuzzel, co-founder of Founders Den, and founder of Socializr.  He sits on the board of Girls in Tech, and has invested in over 50 startups.  But before all that...he founded Friendster.  Recently, Gimlet Media's "Startup" podcast covered Friendster.  Here Jonathan shares his thoughts on how THAT podcast went.  

Direct download: 76_Jonathan_Abrams_2_of_2.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:30pm EDT

Jonathan Abrams is a busy guy.  He has two kids.  He co-founded The Founders Den, an entrepreneurial center in San Francisco,  He founded, built and sold Sociializr.  He's invested in nearly 50 startups, many of which have grown enormously, some beyond a billion dollars in valuation.  He founded Nuzzel, and is currently its CEO.  Nuzzel has become the largest aggregator of business, media and tech news in the world.

But before all that, Jonathan founded Friendster and started the social networking industry.  Recently the Gimlet podcast "Startup" did two episodes about Friendster.  In THIS podcast, Jonathan talks about what they got right, wrong -- and what they missed.

Direct download: 75_Jonathan_abrams_1_of_2.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:18pm EDT

Marcus Dantus is CEO of Startup Mexico.  Startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital -- it's all happening and growing in Mexico.  Marcus discusses the unique opportunities and challenges facing entrepreneurs and investors in Mexico.  He also provides the point of view of Mexicans on the election of Donald Trump, and Mexico's path forward.

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In the Something Venture podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the headlines, as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online and beyond.

Direct download: 74_Marcus_Dantus.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:52pm EDT

Sharon Goldstein is Executive-in-Resience at XSeed Capital (xseedcap.com), and recently CMO of Shiphawk and Pixlee.  She also sits on the board of Hebrew Free Loan of San Francisco, which she discusses.  She walks us through her path from Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech through Northwestern University to becoming a Silicon Valley EIR.  We also spend time discussing women in Silicon Valley, which of course takes us to...Uber.  Don't worry, we get past it!

 

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.  Twitter:  @kentlind

Direct download: 73_Sharon_Goldstein.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT