Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast artwork

Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

185 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 days ago - ★★★★★ - 27 ratings

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.

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Episodes

Homebrew’s Hunter Walk and Satya Patel: The Power of a Partnership

March 15, 2024 18:19 - 56 minutes - 87 MB

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 ...

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

December 23, 2023 00:25 - 46 minutes - 75.2 MB

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...

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

October 10, 2023 18:02 - 47 minutes - 74.9 MB

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 ...

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

September 15, 2023 21:35 - 45 minutes - 70 MB

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 foun...

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

September 06, 2023 18:43 - 48 minutes - 22.8 MB

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 solut...

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

August 21, 2023 18:26 - 45 minutes - 69.1 MB

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 F...

Anthony Soohoo:  Bringing the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Walmart

July 24, 2023 22:43 - 51 minutes - 82 MB

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 begin...

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

June 07, 2023 18:23 - 45 minutes - 76.1 MB

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 ...

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

January 06, 2023 00:15 - 45 minutes - 67.6 MB

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 explan...

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

December 14, 2022 19:36 - 50 minutes - 77.7 MB

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, found...

Adrian Fenty: From Mayor of Washington DC to…Venture Capitalist

October 26, 2022 17:17 - 42 minutes - 39 MB

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 A...

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

August 11, 2022 22:50 - 1 hour - 101 MB

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 reaso...

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

June 17, 2022 23:48 - 42 minutes - 68.4 MB

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.  W...

Howard Morgan: From RenTec to First Round Capital, and Beyond

April 15, 2022 21:31 - 38 minutes - 62.7 MB

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 mode...

Jenny Lefcourt: Freestyle Capital Partner’s Path from Entrepreneur to VC

March 21, 2022 23:27 - 54 minutes - 88.1 MB

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...

Joe Hudson: The Man Behind Silicon Valley’s Unicorn CEOs

January 17, 2022 18:21 - 44 minutes - 70.5 MB

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...

Eliot Brown on the Crazy Life and Wild Times of We Work Founder Adam Neumann

October 27, 2021 21:51 - 47 minutes - 76.7 MB

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 h...

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

September 15, 2021 17:10 - 56 minutes - 99.6 MB

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. T...

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

August 18, 2021 22:10 - 39 minutes - 67.7 MB

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 Researc...

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

July 30, 2021 23:03 - 42 minutes - 64.2 MB

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 reside...

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

June 25, 2021 18:16 - 46 minutes - 79.1 MB

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...

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

June 18, 2021 21:52 - 35 minutes - 53.1 MB

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...

161 Ryan Nece of Next Play Capital: From the NFL to Venture Capitalist

June 03, 2021 20:05 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MB

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 wer...

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

May 18, 2021 22:35 - 38 minutes - 63.6 MB

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 me...

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

May 05, 2021 21:06 - 37 minutes - 61.5 MB

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 Sp...

158 David Bohnett -- GeoCities Founder Turned Philanthropist and Social Activist

April 13, 2021 21:24 - 45 minutes - 69.7 MB

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 wh...

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

March 16, 2021 18:25 - 35 minutes - 65.9 MB

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-Manag...

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

February 19, 2021 21:10 - 39 minutes - 66.5 MB

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 c...

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

January 29, 2021 23:42 - 39 minutes - 74.5 MB

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 ...

154 Vern Howard: Hallo's CEO is NOT Your Deliveryman

January 11, 2021 19:36 - 40 minutes - 79.2 MB

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 th...

153 -- 2020 Thank You-cast Extravaganza!

December 30, 2020 22:48 - 23 minutes - 22.1 MB

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 S...

152 Stacey Bishop of Scale Venture Partners On Ascending the Venture Ladder and the Rise of "All Raise"

December 10, 2020 01:10 - 33 minutes - 31.6 MB

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 Univer...

151 Fortune’s Jeff John Roberts on “Kings of Crypto” and the Rise of Coinbase

November 18, 2020 19:05 - 40 minutes - 38.1 MB

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 Crypt...

150 Hooman Radfar: The Rise of the ‘Business-of-One’

November 05, 2020 23:26 - 43 minutes - 40.9 MB

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 cap...

149 Fabrice Grinda: 4 Incredible Stories from the OLX and FJ Labs Co-Founder

October 29, 2020 22:48 - 1 hour - 57.6 MB

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, Fabri...

148 Jaclyn Hester: Foundry Group’s New Partner!

October 07, 2020 21:21 - 55 minutes - 51.7 MB

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 Startu...

147 Sarah Leary: Nextdoor’s Co-founder Becomes a VC

September 29, 2020 23:28 - 52 minutes - 49.2 MB

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 ar...

146     Trae Vassallo:  Defying Gravity in Silicon Valley

September 18, 2020 00:06 - 51 minutes - 48.3 MB

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 ...

145 William Davidow: “Civilization is Going Through Its Third Phase Change”

September 10, 2020 23:51 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MB

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 p...

144 Rob Chesnut: Airbnb’s Former Chief Ethics Officer on Intentional Integrity

September 03, 2020 22:51 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MB

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...

143 Deena Shakir of Lux Capital on her Amazing Journey, The Post-COVID Future

August 26, 2020 20:36 - 48 minutes - 45.4 MB

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-E...

143 Deena Shakir of Lux Capital on her Amazing Journey, The Post-COVID Future

August 26, 2020 20:36

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-E...

142 Wag's CEO Garrett Smallwood on Pets in the Time of COVID-19

August 18, 2020 19:49 - 36 minutes - 34.4 MB

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 o...

141 Domm Holland:  The Fast CEO on Guiding a Rocket Ship Through a Pandemic

August 11, 2020 18:51 - 29 minutes - 27.6 MB

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...

140 Brad Feld: Thoughts on Startup Communities in a Post-COVID-19 World

August 06, 2020 21:11 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MB

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 inv...

139 Parker Conrad: Rippling's CEO on His Entrepreneurial Journey

July 28, 2020 17:00 - 53 minutes - 49.6 MB

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...

138 Scott Simpson: From Amazon to Apple to Comedy -- A Comedian’s Take on the Future of Comedy

July 08, 2020 19:39 - 51 minutes - 48.2 MB

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...

137 Promise Phelon: A Growth Warrior’s Trajectory from BEA to CEO to Venture Capitalist

June 24, 2020 22:19 - 50 minutes - 46.9 MB

“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, wh...

136 Codepath’s Michael Ellison: How Black CS Students View Silicon Valley / The Daily Reality For a Black Man in San Francisco

June 18, 2020 23:45 - 26 minutes - 24.7 MB

“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....

135 VC Monique Woodard is NOT "Doing Fine"

June 11, 2020 22:50 - 37 minutes - 34.9 MB

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...

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