Something Ventured - Silicon Valley Podcast

Latest Episodes:

137 Promise Phelon: A Growth Warrior's Trajectory from BEA to CEO to Venture Capitalist Jun 24, 2020

Show notes

"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, where she became Head of Product Marketing. While a Black woman running marketing at BEA in the 1990s might be its own story, it was just her beginning...

The Growth Warrior https://thegrowthwarrior.com

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us

136 Codepath's Michael Ellison: How Black CS Students View Silicon Valley / The Daily Reality For a Black Man in San Francisco Jun 18, 2020

Show notes

"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.

In this episode, Michael shares his stark assessment of how Silicon Valley treats Black engineers, including CS students who may have not gone to a 'top' school. He discusses the toll both Covid and the recent events like the George Floyd killing have taken on Black students.

Michael shares what Silicon Valley leaders – venture capitalists and companies alike – can do to empower Black engineering students who seek jobs, or seek to start companies in Silicon Valley.

https://codepath.org

https://somethingventured.us

135 VC Monique Woodard is NOT "Doing Fine" Jun 11, 2020

Show notes

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 Silicon Valley's dismal record on supporting Black investors and entrepreneurs in particular. She offers pure, unvarnished advice about what Silicon Valley can do – actually do – to begin fixing its problem.

www.monique.vc

www.somethingventured.us

134 IVP's Somesh Dash: In Divisive Times, Is Silicon Valley Doing Enough? Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

Hold 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 2020 presidential politics and a country on edge from Covid. Looking to the leadership example of Ailene Lee and All Rise, we contemplate what more Silicon Valley might do to be supportive of black Americans. Not just the few (too few) black VCs and Founders in Silicon Valley, but All black Americans.

We turn to the long arc of investing in Silicon Valley – from the early days of IVP, the dot com crash, the 2008 financial crisis, the last 10 years and – the great unknown that is next.

We finish with how VCs have reacted to Covid, and what is REALLY going to happen with 'working from home". Finally – we end on a positive note, with the poem that begins this introduction.

132 Lyft's Raj Kapoor: World Without Covid Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Raj 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 this episode we discuss Raj's journey from contracting to recovering from Covid. We also discuss the path to finding a treatment, and the why's and how's of California's lockdown. We also discuss (Caifornia Governor) Gavin Newsom's "6 Criteria for lifting quarantine", and the current state of the US Presidential race.

We turn to Lyft, and the future of transportation (the original topic of this episode): How Lyft is faring during the Covid crisis, how will change cities, and how Lyft affect climate change.

Finally, we briefly discuss the effect Covid might ultimately have on the music industry.

Lyft: www.lyft.com

Something Ventured: www.somethingventured.us

131 Covid-19, China and Silicon Valley with Kaiser Kuo Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

In 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 world order emerges. Also, as this crisis passes what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again?

Finally, Kaiser discusses how we've flip flopped on how we view technology and other governments. Is technology a tool of revolution? (Arab Spring) or of control (WeChat contact tracking apps).

Sinica Podcast: https://supchina.com/series/sinica/

Something Ventured: www.somethingventured.us

130 Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Hits Politics, California and Silicon Valley Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Joe 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.

Also discussed is the performance of California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and how their styles differ.

Finally we discuss the implications for the California economy, and Silicon Valley in particular.

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/tools/podcasts/

www.somethingventured.us

129 Mike Stutz: COVID Hits Hollywood Mar 28, 2020

Show notes

Mike 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 depression and suicide when everyone is isolated.

Mike on Twitter: @suicideblows

Mike on Instagram: @resistanceclown

Mike's Fairytale video: https://vimeo.com/400062533

Something Ventured website: www.somethingventured.us

128: Matt Hulett: Rosetta Stone's President Connects the World Through Language Learning Mar 24, 2020

Show notes

(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 internet execs like Rob Glaser and Barry Diller.

In this episode we discuss Matt's early interaction with computers (including his experiences with Telnet and Sun workstations!). We discuss his path to becoming a public company CEO, and the difference in running turnarounds, startups and big brands.

We also discuss no less than the state of literary education in the US and how Lexia Learning helps kids learn to read. Matt shares a few of his leadership lessons, and discusses how he keeps Rosetta stone out of the tricky politics of language into which people try to pull him.

www.rosettastone.com

www.somethingventured.us

127 Paul-Henri Ferrand: Brex's COO on Why Immigrants Build Great Companies and How Brex is Transforming Finance Mar 09, 2020

Show notes

Paul-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 CEO of Visa).

Before becoming COO of Brex, Paul-Henri was President, Global Customer Operations for Google Cloud, and before that President of Dell US.

In this episode, Paul-Henri discusses why he moved from leading an enormous public company, to helping execute at a startup. He contrasts the cultures of the various companies – Dell, Google and Brex, and discusses what it means to "consumerize finance". We also discuss why immigrants (Paul-Henri is an immigrant to the US, as are with both founders of Brex) find the US so appealing, and appear to be behind some of the great Silicon Valley companies. Finally, we discuss the importance of culture and leadership lessons learned at Dell, Google and now Brex.

Brex www.brex.com

Something Ventured www.somethingventured.us

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