154 Vern Howard: Hallo's CEO is NOT Your Deliveryman
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Release Date: 01/11/2021
Kobie Fuller: Upfront Ventures Partner’s High-Speed Sprint from Track Star to Venture Capital Powerhouse
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Kobie Fuller is a partner at Upfront Ventures. He came to the firm after investing at Accel and leading marketing efforts at EVOLVE, the large global fashion ecommerce platform. Highlights from our conversation. -- we covered a lot of ground, so this is just a small part: Kobie’s Athletic Background and Vision for Track and Field: Kobie, a former track and field athlete who competed in the 400m and 200m, believes the sport deserves greater mainstream attention due to its purity and universal accessibility. He discusses a new professional track...
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David Anderman: Space (Investing) is Big. Really Big. From Lucasfilm’s Star Wars to SpaceX to…The Final Frontier
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
David Anderman is co-founder and General Partner of Stellar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage space technology startups. He spent 16 years at Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the Star Wars franchise. As Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, he notably negotiated Lucasfilm’s $4 billion sale to Disney in 2012. Moving from imagined space to real space: David became General Counsel at SpaceX, where he played a key role in landmark projects like the launch of Starlink and the first private human spaceflight to the International Space Station. David is also founder of...
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Cyan Banister: The Future is Cool Again / Falling in Love with Technology / A Brush with Star Wars
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures is truly one of the most successful and interesting early stage venture investors. And by ‘successful investor’, I mean “invested early in Uber and SpaceX” kind of successful. She overcame a challenging childhood that included periods of homelessness (a surprisingly uplifting story, covered deeply in Tim Ferriss’ interview with Cyan). Here we discuss Cyan’s journey from these early struggles to becoming a prominent figure in . Along the way she learns to program computers, and co-founds Zivity – an early social networking site one might...
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Roger Ehrenberg: From IA Ventures to Eberg Capital – A Top Silicon Valley Investor Turns to Sports
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Roger Ehrenberg's career spans three remarkable acts, each of which would be impressive on its own. He founded IA Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm, in 2010. IA Ventures invested in numerous successful startups, including Datadog, Digital Ocean, The Trade Desk, and Wise. His work with IA Ventures has earned him recognition as a three-time winner of the “Midas Award” – the coveted ranking of venture capitalists by Forbes. Before founding IA Ventures, Roger spent 17 years on Wall Street at Citibank and Deutsche Bank, specializing in derivatives and quantitative...
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Mark Scianna: From Palantir Engineer to Venture Capitalist / Inside Palantir’s Early Days / VC Discovers Defense Tech
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Mark Scianna, the founder of venture firm "Forward Deployed," which targets sectors like Defense, Energy, and A.I., was spotlighted as a 'top emerging manager' in 2022. Starting his journey as an engineer and an early investor at Palantir, Scianna offers an insider's perspective in this episode, unraveling the enigma of Palantir's inception and meteoric rise. Scianna delves into what makes Palantir so unique, shedding light on how its unconventional management style has been a cornerstone of its success. He doesn't shy away from the intense realities of being 'forward deployed'—a term that...
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Winter Mead: How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund (and more!), From Coolwater Capital’s Founder
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Winter Mead is the author of How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide on Fundraising and Understanding Limited Partners. He is also founder of Coolwater Capital, a new model that helps launch, build, and scale emerging fund managers While there are a lot of investors (known in the parlance as “LPs”), and certainly a lot of funds – the set of people who sit at the intersection of these two is much smaller. So Winter has an unusual perspective and point of view to share. Winter shares his journey from Harvard and Hall Capital to Sapphire Ventures and ultimately to...
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Max Altman and Ben Braverman: Returning to Tradition with Saga Ventures
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Max Altman and Ben Braverman were both pretty close to Silicon Valley royalty before they started Saga Ventures. Max had built Alt Capital with his brothers Sam and Jack. Ben had helped Ryan Peterson build Flexport as its Chief Revenue Officer. Recently, they came together with a third partner (Thomson Nguyen, who does not appear in this episode) to form Saga Ventures. In this episode, Max and Ben talk about building their new fund, discussing its structure, goals, and the nature of VC partnerships. We continue with a look at the Silicon Valley Ecosystem: There is a...
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Alexis Gay: Silicon Valley’s Favorite Comedian Makes her “Unprofessional” Debut
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
If you don’t already know about Alexis Gay, you’re about to. Alexis is the creator and star of her solo comedy show, “Unprofessional”. Recently, her show was a hit at the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she's now touring the show for audiences across the United States. Alexis previously worked in the tech industry running Business Operations and Creator Partnerships at Patreon. Outside of work, she started creating videos featuring dead-on takes on tech culture -- and everyday life. These soon went viral, racking up more than 24 million views...
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Adeyemi Ajao: A Founder Turned VC on Building Base10 Partners, and the Abundance Mindset
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
In this episode of Something Ventured, I talk to Adeyemi “Ade” Ajao, co-founder of Base10 Partners, one of the largest Black-led venture capital firms in the world. Ade shares his journey from growing up in Nigeria and Spain to building multiple successful companies, including Tuenti, which was sold to Telefonica. He also discusses his transition into venture capital, his mission to empower underrepresented founders, and the impact of Base10’s Advancement Initiative, which partners with top universities to support a diverse new generation of entrepreneurs. Other topics include: ...
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Ignition Partners' Nick Sturiale: Reflections on a Life in Venture
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
Nick Sturiale reflects on a career working in venture capital, in which he invested early in companies such as Splunk, Bill.com, and Reputation.com. Nick shares insights from his extensive career, which spans roles at Ignition Partners, Icon Ventures, Seven Rosen Funds, and the Carlyle Group, among others. He reflects on the evolution of the venture capital landscape, the challenges of finding product-market fit, and the critical role of timing and luck in a startup's success. Nick also delves into the complexities of being a CEO as a company grows, discussing the shift from being a hands-on...
info_outlineVern 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/