Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast
185 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 27 ratingsStartup 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
134 IVP’s Somesh Dash: In Divisive Times, Is Silicon Valley Doing Enough?
June 01, 2020 22:48 - 57 minutes - 53.8 MBHold 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 202...
133 Eric Tarczynski of Contrary Capital: College – The Definitive Episode on Investing in Startup Founders in College
May 27, 2020 16:05 - 1 hour - 56.1 MB(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 ben...
132 Lyft's Raj Kapoor: World Without Covid
April 16, 2020 16:59 - 30 minutes - 28 MBRaj 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 thi...
131 Covid-19, China and Silicon Valley with Kaiser Kuo
April 14, 2020 18:56 - 39 minutes - 37.2 MBIn 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 w...
130 Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Hits Politics, California and Silicon Valley
April 09, 2020 19:11 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBJoe 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. A...
129 Mike Stutz: COVID Hits Hollywood
March 28, 2020 17:01 - 1 hour - 61.7 MBMike 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 d...
128: Matt Hulett: Rosetta Stone’s President Connects the World Through Language Learning
March 24, 2020 22:56 - 45 minutes - 42.4 MB(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 int...
127 Paul-Henri Ferrand: Brex’s COO on Why Immigrants Build Great Companies and How Brex is Transforming Finance
March 09, 2020 23:16 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBPaul-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 ...
126 Brianne Kimmel: A Venture Capitalist Makes Work More Human
March 04, 2020 20:04 - 55 minutes - 51.6 MBBrianne 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 tha...
125 Jeff Macpherson: Tiki Bar TV's Dr. Tiki Explains Why We Stream Video But Download Podcasts
February 24, 2020 23:07 - 1 hour - 63.1 MBDo 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...
124 REPLAY Keller Fitzsimmons -- Startuplandia author on Mental Health in Silicon Valley
February 12, 2020 21:01 - 42 minutes - 39.5 MBIn 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 get...
123 Marco Zappacosta: Thumbtack’s CEO on Building a Billion Dollar Company and Helping People “Get the Job Done”
February 05, 2020 00:35 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBMarco 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...
122 Chris Douvos: Ahoy Capital’s Founder is One-of-a-Kind
December 19, 2019 00:58 - 57 minutes - 53.8 MBChris 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...
121 Mike Maples:, Jr: A Master Seed Investor Shares his Wisdom
December 10, 2019 23:08 - 49 minutes - 45.9 MBMike 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 opportunit...
#120 David Hornik: "The Lobby" Creator and Ringmaster
December 03, 2019 22:12 - 50 minutes - 47.3 MBDavid 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, VentureC...
#119 Joe Garofoli: San Francisco Chronicle Senior Political Writer Takes Us Inside Politics
November 26, 2019 01:12 - 46 minutes - 43.7 MBJoe Garofoli is the Senior Political Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is also host of the San Francisco Chronicle podcast “It’s All Political”. Guests on “It’s All Political” recently have included California Governor Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a “Who’s Who” of Democratic presidential hopefuls. Very few people have Joe Garofoli’s unique perch – here in San Francisco in the heart of Silicon Valley – to view California and National politics through the lens of ...
#118 Ryan Petersen: How Flexport is Transforming Shipping to Create a Better World
November 19, 2019 23:25 - 40 minutes - 37.9 MBRyan 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....
#117 Josh Felser: A Freestylin' Conversation with Josh
November 12, 2019 22:38 - 1 hour - 59 MBJosh 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 K...
#116 Dan Scheinman: Zoom’s First Investor on Finding Outliers, Ageism and More
November 05, 2019 01:00 - 48 minutes - 45.3 MBDan 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 ...
#115 Ba Minuzzi: First Latina to Starta a Silicon Valley Venture Fund
October 28, 2019 20:28 - 50 minutes - 47 MBYou 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 UMA...
#114 Jerry Colonna: Break your Heart and Keep it Open
October 07, 2019 22:21 - 46 minutes - 43 MBJerry 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...
#113 Maha Ibrahim: Canaan Partner, The RealReal Investor, All Raise Member
September 24, 2019 17:19 - 51 minutes - 48.1 MBMaha 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 organiza...
#112 Esther Wojcicki: How to Raise Successful People
September 17, 2019 18:17 - 42 minutes - 39.9 MBEsther 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, ...
#111 REPLAY: Silicon Valley goes to Burning Man
September 05, 2019 17:27 - 42 minutes - 39.6 MBIt'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. ...
#110 Alison McCauley: Falling down the Blockchain Rabbit Hole (and why you should too)
August 26, 2019 22:05 - 55 minutes - 52 MBAlison McCauley is the Best Selling Author of Unblocked: How Blockchain will Change your Business and What to Do About It. Why does blockchain matter? Alison points out that disruption is no longer a moment in time. It's a continual state. How do you understand the new opportunity? Set priorities in a complex and ever-shifting landscape? Prepare for what’s ahead? Alison helps you navigate the human side of digital acceleration. In this episode we discuss the moment Alison came to be blow...
#109 E. Keller Fitzsimmons: The Darkness in Silicon Valley – Anxiety, Depression and Suicide in Startuplandia
August 20, 2019 21:21 - 42 minutes - 39.5 MBKeller 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 L...
#124 REPLAY E. Keller Fitzsimmons: The Darkness in Silicon Valley – Anxiety, Depression and Suicide in Startuplandia
August 20, 2019 21:21 - 42 minutes - 38.9 MBIn 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....
#108: Adriana Gascoigne: Tech Lady Boss - How to Startup Disrupt and Thrive as a Female Founder
August 12, 2019 22:42 - 46 minutes - 43.2 MBAdriana is the Founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that empowers women in the tech industry across the globe. Before founding Girls in Tech, Adriana served in executive roles at Ogilvy & Mather, Interpublic Group of Companies, Social Gaming Network (SGN), and SecondMarket. She has been named one of the 20 most influential Latinos in Technology by CNET, among other awards. She is author of the book Tech Boss Lady: How to Startup, Disrupt and Thriv...
#107 Anne Dwane: From Startup to Public Company To VC -- Her Journey
July 31, 2019 21:10 - 44 minutes - 41.5 MBAnne Dwane is co-founder and partner of Village Global, the venture firm backed by an impressive and diverse group of investors that includes: Jeff Bezos, Sara Blakely, Reid Hoffman, Magic Johnson, Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg, Diane Green, Judy Estrin, and Ken Chennault. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Anne was a tech company co-founder, a private company CEO, and public company executive. She built Military.com with previous podcast guest Chris Michel, and was CEO of Zinch before...
#106 Chris Michel’s Extraordinary Path and Wise Life Advice
July 22, 2019 21:21 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBAfter 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 ...
#105 Julian Guthrie: Taking on Silicon Valley’s Male Culture with Alpha Girls
July 15, 2019 22:42 - 45 minutes - 42 MBJulian 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...
#104 Charles Hudson – Charles Builds a Venture Fund
July 08, 2019 16:00 - 52 minutes - 49.1 MBCharles 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. ...
#103: Michael Tchong on 8 Ubertrends Crashing into our Future
June 18, 2019 23:46 - 42 minutes - 39.5 MBMichael Tchong has been called "the most influential trend-spotter in America". He is a top-rated innovation speaker, adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, trend forecaster and author of “Ubertrends — How Trends And Innovation Are Transforming Our Future.” He heads up incubator Ubercool Innovation and is the founder of four disruptive startups, including MacWEEK, Atelier Systems, CyberAtlas and ICONOCAST, all riding early market waves. In this podcast we discuss “Ubertrends...
#102: Scott Kupor: Secrets of Sand Hill Road
June 04, 2019 00:07 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBScott Kupor is the managing partner of famed venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm with more than $7 billion of assets under management that sits at the beating heart of Sand Hill Road. Sand Hill road is, of course, the physical center of the venture capital industry – the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world. So...Scott is at the center, of the center of the global venture capital industry. In his new book -- Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and H...
#101 Ellen Pao: Ellen Changes the Game
May 28, 2019 21:28 - 46 minutes - 43.7 MBEllen Pao is CEO of Project Include and author of the book Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change. Her book looks at power in the tech world – and why so few women and people of color hold it. She famously sued an elite venture capital firm for sexism, and in doing so set off a national conversation. As CEO of Reddit, she waged one of the first highly visible battles against Internet trolls – a topic which has since exploded as big tech companies come under heavier scrutiny. ...
#100: Pete Alcorn -- Democratizing Publishing
May 20, 2019 21:50 - 56 minutes - 52.9 MBWelcome 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 schoo...
#99 Eric Lagier: The Nordic Unicorn Factory
May 13, 2019 23:55 - 40 minutes - 37.6 MBEric 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% o...
#98 Jay Adelson: Jay Builds the Internet
May 06, 2019 21:00 - 1 hour - 58.3 MBJay 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 battl...
#97 Po Bronson -- The Future According to Po
April 30, 2019 04:55 - 48 minutes - 45.4 MBBest 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 Valle...
#96 Monique Woodard, Venture Capitalist
April 23, 2019 00:01 - 47 minutes - 44 MBMonique 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...
#95 Alan Eagle on Bill Campbell, "Trillion Dollar Coach"
April 15, 2019 21:29 - 26 minutes - 24.9 MBAlan 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 Goo...
#94: James Currier -- The Soul of Silicon Valley
April 11, 2019 19:33 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBJames 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 ...
#93 Miyoko Schinner's Entrepreneurial Journey
February 26, 2019 23:09 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBMiyoko 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 conv...
#92 Carter Cohen -- Gen Z Up Close
February 07, 2019 19:03 - 57 minutes - 53.9 MBWhether 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 technolo...
#91 Ryan Bethencourt -- Wild Earth Founder on Meatless Dog Food and More
November 27, 2018 17:00 - 54 minutes - 50.9 MBRyan 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 ...
#90 Codepath's Michael Ellison -- Racism, poverty and Silicon Valley
October 09, 2018 21:46 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBYou 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 dive...
#89 -- Silicon Valley Goes to Burning Man
August 22, 2018 00:36 - 42 minutes - 39.6 MBIn this replay episode, Kent Lindstrom and Michael White have a bit of fun at the expense of Burning Man. Burning Man is the the, um, art fest in the desert to which half of Silicon Valley decamps each year. We discuss the history of Burning Man, what might make people go to Burning Man, and the myriad benefits of hanging out in San Francisco while everyone else is away. --- In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the scenes as he sits ...
#88 Rick Marini of Protocol Ventures 2 of 2
August 14, 2018 16:00 - 28 minutes - 26.8 MBRick 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...
#87 Rick Marini of Protocol Ventures 1 of 2
August 07, 2018 16:00 - 28 minutes - 26.7 MBRick 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...
#86 The Future of Transport with Nick Heyman
July 17, 2018 17:53 - 1 hour - 56.3 MBNick 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! -- In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the s...