Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Kobie Fuller is a partner at Upfront Ventures.   He came to the firm after investing at Accel and leading marketing efforts at EVOLVE, the large global fashion ecommerce platform.

Highlights from our conversation. -- we covered a lot of ground, so this is just a small part:

       Kobie’s Athletic Background and Vision for Track and Field: Kobie, a former track and field athlete who competed in the 400m and 200m, believes the sport deserves greater mainstream attention due to its purity and universal accessibility. He discusses a new professional track league, Grand Slam Track, started by Olympian Michael Johnson, aimed at elevating the sport’s profile, potentially rivaling soccer’s popularity.

2     Journey into Venture Capital: Kobie’s entry into venture capital was sparked during the dot-com boom when he co-founded a soccer portal in college. Exposure to VCs visiting his startup led him to pursue a career in VC, despite initial rejections. His persistence, including sending physical letters to Boston VCs, eventually landed him a role at Insight Partners.

     Decision to Pass on Oculus: We’ve all done it!  At a career crossroads, Kobie chose not to join Oculus as CMO, opting instead for a VC role at Accel. He later invested in Oculus. He remains optimistic about AR/VR’s future, noting improved devices like the Oculus Quest, though he notes it’s not his primary investment focus.

  Advocacy for Black Founders: Kobie addresses the underrepresentation of Black founders in tech, emphasizing the need for more diverse capital allocators and intentional outreach beyond traditional networks. He founded Valence, a platform to connect Black professionals, which grew to 30,000 members, highlighting his continued commitment to fostering inclusivity in the startup ecosystem.

   AI’s Transformative Potential in Venture Capital: Kobie is bullish on AI, particularly its ability to augment human capabilities in enterprise software. He cies examples like portfolio company 1Up, which reduces RFP completion from weeks to minutes. He contrasts this with concerns about AI’s potential to erode human connection, as illustrated by a great story about an essay his son wrote.  

dUpfront Ventures

  8-Bit Capital

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David Anderman is co-founder and General Partner of Stellar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage space technology startups.

He spent 16 years at Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the Star Wars franchise. As Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, he notably negotiated Lucasfilm’s $4 billion sale to Disney in 2012.

Moving from imagined space to real space:  David became General Counsel at SpaceX, where he played a key role in landmark projects like the launch of Starlink and the first private human spaceflight to the International Space Station.

David is also founder of Red Rock Media Group, which is the media company for humanity's expansion into the cosmos.

This episode covers a lot of ground (well, space):

      -  What it’s like to work for George Lucas

-  What it’s like to work for Elon Musk (and what motivates him)

-  The media rights to SpaceX’s journey to Mars (‘Big Brother’ in space?)

- Timeline for humans on Mars

- How space has been opened up to entrepreneurs and investors who support them

Stellar Ventures

Something Ventured

Eric Paley is a General Partner at Founder Collective, one of the great seed-stage venture capital brands - and one of the relatively few venture firms led by startup founders. As the name suggests, Founder Collective is a "founder stage" venture capital fund that focuses on providing the first professional round of capital to “entrepreneurs with compelling business concepts”. Eric himself also founded several companies before becoming a VC.  Founder Collective's investments include:  Coupang, Cruise, Kaggle, Pill Pak, The Trade Desk, Uber and Venmo. 

In this episode we discuss the importance of Founder-led VC firms, and the evolution of seed VC firms - which barely existed when he started, and now number in the hundreds.We also discuss:

·      * Why the unique name "Collective"

·      * Fuzzy VC math

·      * VC 'revisionist history"     

·      *  What's next for Founder Collective

Please subscribe to Something Ventured!

Eric Paley on X (Twitter) 

Founder Collective

Something Ventured

8-Bit Capital

James 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 is also deeply understands the ebbs and flows of Silicon Valley: Its technology, its trends, its tribes. In this episode James and Kent cover myriad topics – including James’ perspectives on why Silicon Valley works, who should (and shouldn’t) come to Silicon Valley, and whether or not Silicon Valley has lost its soul.

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In the Something Ventured Podcast (https://somethingventured.us) Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people changing the way we view the world online…and beyond.

Miyoko 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 conversation Miyoko and Kent discuss her entrepreneurial journey from delivering bread in a backpack in Tokyo, to founding and building one of the fastest growing venture-backed food production companies in America.

Whether 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 technology, what they expect from the future of work and....much more.

Ryan 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 also discuss the path from legalizing marijuana to legalizing psychedelics.

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom takes a look behind the scenes in Silicon Valley as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online..and beyond.

You 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 diversity programs, income inequality and racism on the road to Silicon Valley. A bonus : what you should really think of the movie Black Panther.

In 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.

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the scenes as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online....and beyond.

Rick 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 Investors by Forbes.

In our wide ranging conversation, we cover various trends in Silicon Valley, and dig in on cryptocurrency.  We discuss the value of a 'fund-of-funds" for an emerging asset class like cryptocurrency, the brief history of cryptocurrency, why crypto is such a huge deal and a lot more.  We also answer the question:  "Is Rick Marini Satoshi"?

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley Insider Kent Lindstrom goes behind the scenes in Silicon Valley as he goes behind the scenes with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.