Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

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...

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...

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 lay...

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...

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...

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 a...

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...

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...

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...

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 qui...

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 sale...

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 fu...

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 comp...

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...

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 ex...

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...

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 N...

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...

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 & B...

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 com...

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 W...

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 a...

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 joi...

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 a...

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, w...