Chris Yeh, Investor and Co-Author of Blitzscaling, on his Personal and Professional Life Journey EP102

Chris Yeh is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, investor, father, and author. As a venture capitalist, Chris is a partner at Blitzscaling Ventures, a fund directing investments to the fastest-growing startups. As an author, Chris is best known for The Alliance with co-authors Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha (this was a NY-Times best seller), and for Blitzscaling co-authored with Reid Hoffman (which was one of Amazon’s top 20 business and leadership books of 2018).

In this interview, we talk about:

- Chris's early life - being a child prodigy and starting his Stanford undergrad education at 15

- Chris's early professional career working at D.E. Shaw and meeting his wife in Boston

- Going to Harvard Business School for his MBA

- Chris's business journey after his MBA - including starting his own venture TargetFirst and being the CEO of Ustream

- Chris's writing and author journey and becoming a NYT Bestselling Author

- Chris's venture capital journey including be a founding partner at Blitzscaling Ventures

Chris's Socials:

Website: https://chrisyeh.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisyeh?lang=en

Grateful Living Info:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo0LHtRJJNJBUYIceg27w

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttttmbWfVqAhWh4Jhi

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1503185956

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4

Medium: https://gratefulliving4.medium.com/

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro

0:53 Chris’s childhood background

3:05 You were a young child prodigy in terms of your intellectual ability, where do you think that came from?

9:55 Do you think you were able to emotionally develop despite starting at Stanford at 15?

13:40 Any advice on making the most of your college experience?

20:44 Any advice on choosing your first job out of college?

24:40 What made you go to Harvard Business School?

27:40 Were you intimidated by people at Stanford or HBS?

29:45 Any advice on making the most of the MBA experience?

31:30 Talk about your start-up Target First

34:23 Any advice on the fundraising process for an entrepreneur?

38:07 Thoughts on mental health for entrepreneurs

41:29 Can you talk about Porthos Consulting?

46:12 How did you manage your personal life despite being career driven?

50:05 How did fatherhood change you?

52:44 Did you lose professional drive after becoming a father?

1:00:43 What was AthenaWorks?

1:03:26 PB works

1:05:19 Experience at UStream

1:06:46 Writing the Book Alliance with Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

1:08:36 Advice on job searches

1:10:30 Thoughts on Great Resignation

1:11:10 How did you guys think of co-writing?

1:15:20 How was the co-writing execution?

1:17:16 What does it mean to you to be a NYT bestselling author?

1:18:30 Takeaways from Blitzscaling book

1:20:21 Can you talk about the concept of growing into other markets?

1:21:54 How do you know the right metrics?

1:23:54 How do you maintain culture while growing fast?

1:25:43 Can you talk about Blitzscaling Ventures?

1:28:13 Advice to entrepreneurs on pitching investors?

1:30:28 What’s motivating you?

1:33:30 Speaking career advice?

1:37:08 Anything else you want to leave on?

1:40:00 Any regrets?