Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

Startup insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the established veterans and up-and-comers who are shaping the way we view the world online and beyond. Topics include technology trends, startups, Silicon Valley politics, women in silicon valley and more. Learn the histories of each guest and be enlightened by their area of expertise. New episode released each Tuesday at Noon, Pacific Time.

Homebrew’s Hunter Walk and Satya Patel: The Power of a Partnership 03/15/2024

Atari’s founder Nolan Bushnell and Dr. Leah Hanes Have a (Better) Plan for Educating America 12/23/2023

Richard Socher: Exploring AI with the Visionary AI Scientist, Entrepreneur and Investor 10/10/2023

Hadley Harris: Building Eniac Ventures with 3 Friends / Investing in AI 09/15/2023

Samir Kaji: Building Allocate; The State of the Venture Market; Banking Meltdown (SVB/FRB) Post-mortem 09/06/2023

Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI Fund): Unleashing AI's Investment Potential 08/21/2023

Anthony Soohoo: Bringing the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Walmart 07/24/2023

Nnamdi Okike on Building 645 Ventures, Bias in Fundraising, and Being a Boston Sports Fan in New York 06/07/2023

Coindesk’s David Z. Morris: The Wild Story of FTX and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried 01/06/2023

Elad Gil: “A Startup is An Act of Desperation” and Other Wisdom from one of Silicon Valley's Best Investors 12/14/2022

Adrian Fenty: From Mayor of Washington DC to…Venture Capitalist 10/26/2022

Michelle Tandler: An Entrepreneur’s “Growth Path”, and “What’s the Matter with San Francisco?” 08/11/2022

Max Chafkin on Peter Thiel: “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power” 06/17/2022

Howard Morgan: From RenTec to First Round Capital, and Beyond 04/15/2022

Jenny Lefcourt: Freestyle Capital Partner’s Path from Entrepreneur to VC 03/21/2022

Joe Hudson: The Man Behind Silicon Valley’s Unicorn CEOs 01/17/2022

Eliot Brown on the Crazy Life and Wild Times of We Work Founder Adam Neumann 10/27/2021

Brad Feld: “Friedrich Nietzsche is the Patron Philosopher of Today’s Entrepreneurs” 09/15/2021

165 Auren Hoffman -- Silicon Valley's Hyper-connected Founder, CEO and Investor Shares his Wisdom 08/18/2021

164 Nicole Taylor: Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s CEO On Giving in Silicon Valley; Responding to Black Lives Matter 07/30/2021

163 Avi Loeb -- Extraterrestrials in our Solar System: What Happened in October of 2017? 06/25/2021

162 Jamie Ducharme on her Book “Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul” 06/18/2021

161 Ryan Nece of Next Play Capital: From the NFL to Venture Capitalist 06/03/2021

160 Ali Tamaseb – “Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion Dollar Startups” 05/18/2021

160 Ali Tamaseb – “Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion Dollar Startups” 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: Something Ventured: /episode/index/show/somethingventured/id/19155497

159 Suneel Gupta on The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance 05/05/2021

158 David Bohnett -- GeoCities Founder Turned Philanthropist and Social Activist 04/13/2021

158 David Bohnett -- GeoCities Founder Turned Philanthropist and Social Activist 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. Something Ventured /episode/index/show/somethingventured/id/18714536

157 Kara Nortman: Upfront Venture’s co-Managing Partner on Becoming a Leader of a Major VC Firm, and Co-owner of Angel City FC 03/16/2021

156: Is “Working Backwards” the Most Important Business Book Ever? Lessons from Amazon 02/19/2021

156: Is “Working Backwards” the Most Important Business Book Ever? Lessons from Amazon 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 Something Ventured /episode/index/show/somethingventured/id/18016532

155 Amy Nauiokas: The CEO of Anthemis Group’s Journey from the Peace Corps to Managing Nearly $1 Billion 01/29/2021

155 Amy Nauiokas: The CEO of Anthemis Group’s Journey from the Peace Corps to Managing Nearly $1 Billion 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: Something Ventured: /episode/index/show/somethingventured/id/17745506

154 Vern Howard: Hallo's CEO is NOT Your Deliveryman 01/11/2021

154 Vern Howard: Hallo's CEO is NOT Your Deliveryman 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: Something Ventured: /episode/index/show/somethingventured/id/17504615

Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

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