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

  Something Ventured Podcast

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.

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.

Nick 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!

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom goes 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.

Joe Garofoli is the Senior Political Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and host of their "It's All Political" podcast.  Joe gives us his take on all things, um, political in Silicon Valley, California and beyond.

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

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 was as a seasoned investor at Battery Ventures and product leader at Twitter.

In this episode we discuss the power of partnerships in Silicon Valley.  In particular we talk about the power of the 2 -person partnership (see also:  Andreessen Horowitz), why the alchemy has to be right, and why some don’t make it.

We also discuss the evolution of Homebrew from a firm backed by outside capital (from Limited Partners or “LPs”) to one in which the two founders deploy their own capital.

Finally, we cover Hunter and Satya’s newest fund:  Screendoor.  Screendoor has a mission of supporting underrepresented General Partners of emerging venture capital funds by providing capital, access and mentorship.

Homebrew https://homebrew.co/

Screendoor https://www.screendoor.co/

Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

Jim Scheinman, founder of Maven Ventures, has built Maven and achieved successful exits and investments such as Chariot, Cruise and Zoom.us.

Immediately prior to founding Maven Ventures, Jim was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Charles River Ventures (CRV), a leading venture firm where he helped source, vet, and advise their consumer portfolio companies.

Jim had an early seat at the emergence of social networking, first as an executive at Friendster, and then as an executive at Bebo (which was founded by Michael and Xochi Birch).  

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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.

The second part of my conversation with Jim Scheinman ---  

Jim has been an entrepreneur and startup executive.  He is also the founder of Maven Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's seed investment firms, which counts among its investments Cruise (acquired by GM for over $1 billion), Chariot (acquired by Ford) and Zoom (which has raised over $100 million from firms including Sequoia Capital).

Jim discusses a variety of topics, including the state of entrepreneurship, the nearly billion dollar exit of Bebo to AOL, and the implications of self-driving technology (both as an investment and for society).

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the world online and beyond.

Jim Scheinman has been an entrepreneur and startup executive.  He is also the founder of Maven Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's seed investment firms, which counts among its investments Cruise (acquired by GM for over $1 billion), Chariot (acquired by Ford) and Zoom (which has raised over $100 million from firms including Sequoia Capital).

Jim discusses a variety of topics, including the state of entrepreneurship, the nearly billion dollar exit of Bebo to AOL, and the implications of self-driving technology (both as an investment and for society).

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the world online and beyond.

2017 was quite a year when it came to the consequences of sexual harassment in Silicon Valley.  For the first time in memory, jobs were lost, careers were ended, and venture firms ceased to exist after women came forward and told their experiences of harassment.

In this episode, Kent takes a look back to memorialize 8 stories in 2017 where the consequences of sexual harassment reverberated.

We start with the earlier story of Ellen Pao and her lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins, and Susan Fowler's blog post about harassment at Uber.  The groundwork laid by these two may have contributed to the flood of revelations that made 2017 so extraordinary.

Uber, 500 Startups, Ignition, Binary Capital and more -- they are all here.  Along with 2 stories to wind up the podcast of 2 of the most ridiculous public utterances we heard in 2017.

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

Marketing guru and teacher Neil Cohen sits down with Kent to reflect -- in this age of cryptocurrency -- on the meaning of tech bubbles.  A fun, lighthearted look at 20 years of craziness in Silicon Valley.

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

Marketing guru and university professor Neil Cohen sits down with Kent for a lighthearted ramble through a series of Tech Bubbles.  From early commerce (Pets.com!) to Segway all the way up to Cryptocurrency, we have fun reviewing some of the most interesting internet phenomena of the past couple decades.

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

Producer, Director, Writer and all-around Hollywood guy Mike Stutz has figured out how to hack the media. His protest group -- The Useful Idiots -- has figured out a way to get their message across, as only a group of creative types could.  The Useful Idiots include TV, film, theater dance and other creative people.  This episode is part 2 of Kent's conversation with Mike Stutz i which we learn how Mike and his colleagues get the cameras' attention, and get their message out to the masses.

Producer, Director, Writer and all-around Hollywood guy Mike Stutz has figured out how to hack the media. His protest group — The Useful Idiots — has figured out a unique way to get their message across, as only a group of creative types could. The Useful Idiots includes TV, film, theater, dance, and other creative people with a common cause. In this episode learn how Mike and his colleagues get the cameras’ attention, and get a progressive message out to the masses.

Jonathan Abrams is CEO of Nuzzel, co-founder of Founders Den, and founder of Socializr.  He sits on the board of Girls in Tech, and has invested in over 50 startups.  But before all that...he founded Friendster.  Recently, Gimlet Media's "Startup" podcast covered Friendster.  Here Jonathan shares his thoughts on how THAT podcast went.  

Jonathan Abrams is a busy guy.  He has two kids.  He co-founded The Founders Den, an entrepreneurial center in San Francisco,  He founded, built and sold Sociializr.  He's invested in nearly 50 startups, many of which have grown enormously, some beyond a billion dollars in valuation.  He founded Nuzzel, and is currently its CEO.  Nuzzel has become the largest aggregator of business, media and tech news in the world.

But before all that, Jonathan founded Friendster and started the social networking industry.  Recently the Gimlet podcast "Startup" did two episodes about Friendster.  In THIS podcast, Jonathan talks about what they got right, wrong -- and what they missed.

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 teamed up with Dr. Leah Hanes to form ExoDexa, a developer of educational games that seek to ‘gamify’ education.  Together, they’ve published a book “Shaping the Future of Education” outlining their ideas.

Dr. Leah Hanes is a force to be reckoned with as well.  Dr. Hanes has been a champion for STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) for years, leading the Two Bit Circus Foundation since 2013 and using her expertise to advocate for a more engaging and future-proof approach to learning. 

In this episode Nolan and Dr. Hanes discuss the current state of education, and ways to transform the rate at which kids learn by 10X or even 20X.

Exodexa:                      https://www.exodexa.com/

Nolan Bushnell:           https://twitter.com/NolanBushnell

Dr. Leah Hanes:           https://twitter.com/LeahHanes

Marcus Dantus is CEO of Startup Mexico.  Startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital -- it's all happening and growing in Mexico.  Marcus discusses the unique opportunities and challenges facing entrepreneurs and investors in Mexico.  He also provides the point of view of Mexicans on the election of Donald Trump, and Mexico's path forward.

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

Sharon Goldstein is Executive-in-Resience at XSeed Capital (xseedcap.com), and recently CMO of Shiphawk and Pixlee.  She also sits on the board of Hebrew Free Loan of San Francisco, which she discusses.  She walks us through her path from Industrial Engineering at Georgia Tech through Northwestern University to becoming a Silicon Valley EIR.  We also spend time discussing women in Silicon Valley, which of course takes us to...Uber.  Don't worry, we get past it!

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In the Something Ventured podcast, Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.  Twitter:  @kentlind

Victor Echevarria (OK, YOU try pronouncing it) made the bold leap from Harvard Business School to Silicon Valley.  As founder of Frenting and team member at TaskRabbit, he was early to the sharing economy.  Victor explains the differences in the success factors behind sharing economy companies that disappeared and those that are now successful like AirBnB, Uber and Lyft.  Victor transitioned into healthcare, founding Remedy Labs.  Healthcare represents a huge portion of the US economy and affects everyone, but is rarely at the top of the list when Silicon Valley entrepreneurs look for businesses to transform.  Victor explains why and much more.

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

Carter Cohen is the future.  In 1991 Douglas Copeland published the book "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture", and we've worked our way down the alphabet ever since.  In this podcast, Kent discusses technology -- and the future -- from the perspective of a 17-year old on his way to college.  Is Snapchat the future?  Or Facebook messenger?  Listen to learn this, and more.  Oh, and you'll probably feel better about the future too!

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

In this second part of Kent's conversation with Neil Cohen, the discussion continues about which marketing trends everyone should keep an eye on for 2017.  Personalization, video, Snapchatting and more.  Neil Cohen is a sales strategy and marketing consultant, Lecturer at San Francisco State University, advisor to Startup Chile and Parallel18. And -- San Francisco Giants Fan.

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

In honor of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to the US, we talk to Lylan Masterman about Canada Venture Capital and Startups.  Lylan is an investor with White Star Capital which invests across the Atlantic.  Canadian tech -- turns out it's a much bigger topic than one might imagine.  After a botched podcast opening (he did work at aQuantive and went to Kellogg, not so much Merrill Lynch).  The VC ecosystem in Waterloo, Toronto, Montreal etc. are discussed.  Trends in VC and startups there, successful Canadian companies, and more.  Also discussed are the impacts of changing immigration dynamics on tech talent in Canada.

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In the Something Ventured podcast Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are changing the way we view the world online and beyond.

Neil Cohen is one of our most engaging energetic guests.  Here is his take on marketing trends for 2017 across several categories, his take on branding masters like Red Bull and more.  Neil is a marketing veteran, professor at San Francisco State.  And a San Francisco Giants fan.  

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

Antonio Garcia Martinez, best-selling author of Chaos Monkeys (his New York times bestselling Facebook tell-all).

If you haven't heard Antonio yet, enjoy his take on Silicon Valley, politics, Libertarianism -- and more.

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

Best selling author (Chaos Monkeys) Antonio Garcia Martinez is back.  If you haven't had the pleasure yet, you are in for something special.  After discussing his book the first time around, we realized he is one of the most thoughtful, original and provocative thinkers on the topic of politics.  In particular, his take on the relationship of Silicon Valley, and it's wealth, to politics -- is fascinating.  Part 1 of 2, enjoy.  Follow Antonio on Facebook or Twitter @antoniogm.

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

Welcome back -- to fan favorite Mike Stutz part 2.  Mike Stutz is a Television Producer, movie director (Don't Change the Subject) just to name a few talents  Here is part 2 of his insightful take on the interaction of television, fake news, and TV's changing role in politics.  Also mentioned are US presidents named Jackson.

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

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 AI-powered search engine You.com.

He is the former Chief Scientist at Salesforce and founder of the groundbreaking MetaMind AI startup (which was acquired by Salesforce).  In short, when it comes to AI, Richard is the real deal.

In this episode, we delve into Richard's insights on the latest AI trends, ethical considerations in AI development, the future of human-AI collaboration, and much more.

Whether you’re new to AI – or have been investing in it for 10 years -- Richard's engaging discussions and visionary ideas will captivate and inspire you.

You.com

AIX Ventures

8-Bit Capital

Something Ventured Podcast

Mike Stutz  is a reality TV show producer.  Credits include "Shinesty" on MTV; "Loaded" on CNBC, and "Santa Sent me to the ER" on TLC.  He is also producer, writer and director of the feature film "Don't Change the Subject".  In this episode, Mike returns to talk about reality TV, politics....and Andrew Jackson/Johnson.

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

Sarah Marie is an entrepreneur, executive and co-founder of Spec.fm podcast network and its CEO.  After a break last week for the US election (spoiler alert, it did not go as expected) we return to more positive territory.  Sarah continues her conversation about the path to Silicon Valley (which in her case did not involve Harvard or Stanford), the struggle to build a path in Silicon Valley, and the early success of her Spec podcast network.

Something Ventured Election Special with Joe Garofoli, Senior Political writer for the SF chronicle.  We cover the national election -- why everyone missed the rise of Trump, and what people are feeling in Pittsburgh.  Also covered are California ballot measures (marijuana legalization in particular).  We finish with a discussion of Bay Area measures, and San Francisco housing in particular.

Sarah Marie is co-founder and CEO of the fast-growing podcast network Spec Network (Spec.fm).  Sarah's entrepreneurial journey brought her to Silicon Valley from Minnesota, and involved an early stint at a bakery.  This is not your "Stanford/Facebook/XYZ VC" -- it's far more interesting.  

Spec Network has become a leading design and developer podcast network, with podcasts such as "Design Details", "Immutable" and "Runtime", among others.

Also discussed are the sometime challenges of navigating the streets of San Francisco -- and PC Games.  

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

Chaos Monkeys' author Antonio Garcia-Martinez -- part 2 of 2.  In which he discusses Y-combinator, the inner workings of Facebook and much more.  Particularly interesting -- what happened when some (but not all) people at Facebook realized they were rich?  

The book Chaos Monkeys (on iTunes here https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/chaos-monkeys/id1071356667?mt=11)  was recently described by Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times as:

"Incisive.... The most fun business book I have read this year.... Clearly there will be people who hate this book — which is probably one of the things that makes it such a great read.”

Antonio Garcia-Martinez' "Chaos Monkeys" (Harper) was an instant New York Times bestseller.  Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times said  "Incisive -- the most fun business book I've read this year.  Clearly there will be people who hate this book -- which is probably one of the things that make it such a great read".

In this episode, Antonio covers a range of Silicon Valley topics - including some heroics from Y-combinator's Sam Altman.  Sam has since been in the news for supporting Donald Trump supporter and Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel.

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

We pre-empt podcasts planned with Antonio Garcia Martinez and Sarah Marie of Spec Network, because Donald Trump made us.  (don't worry -- we'll get to Antonio and Sarah Marie shortly)  Without repeating the things Mr. Trump said about sexual assault and sexual harassment -- we're reminded that sexism, in all of its forms, is wrong.  In this previously aired, but always timely podcast, Rachel Fairbanks covers a theme that has come up many times on Something Ventured:  harassment and assault in Silicon Valley are more prevalent than many think.  Hey, this ain't Harry Stebbings 20 Minute VC!

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

Donald Trump would hate this podcast.  The story of an immigrant from China.  Ben Cheung built an AI company (pay attention, Westworld fans).  He discussed it in a previous podcast, when we talked about the struggle of the entrepreneur.  Just a few months after that, Microsoft came calling and bought his company.  Ben discusses the process of being approached and negotiating with Microsoft after Microsoft exec Qui Lu took an interest in Genee.  He also talks about what it's like working at Microsoft and -- for a Silicon Valley podcast -- has positive things to say about Microsoft! (Take that, TWIT).

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

In this replay, we revisit our interview with Benjamin Cheung, the entrepreneur behind Genee.  This provides a glimpse of the entrepreneur at work -- a fascinating exploration now that we know the outcome:  He eventually sells his company to Microsoft!

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

Every year Silicon Valley marches off to the desert for several days of....well, probably NSFW activity.  For those who remain -- Silicon Valley becomes a place where parking is easy, and there is a seat at the bar.

In this podcast, Kent and Michael White discuss the history of  Burning Man.

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

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 founders out of MIT at Vlingo where he ran a several aspects of the business across product, strategy, and marketing until it was sold to Nuance for $225M. He rolled his experience building a successful startup into Thumb, where as CBO he helped the real-time recommendation app reach user engagement levels second only to Facebook before being acquired.

In this episode we discuss how he co-founded and built Eniac, and what he is seeing when it comes to the recently hot trend of investing in Artificial intelligence.  Last, but not least, we discuss how to pronounce “Eniac”.

Hadley on X

Eniac on X

Eniac Ventures

8-Bit Capital

Something Ventured

Part 2 of Kent's conversation with Peter Berger -- CEO of Contact IQ and former Director of Strategic Development at Tagged.  Peter is also the organizer of the Silicon Valley Semantic Technology Group.

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

Peter Berger is the CEO of Contact IQ.  He's an entrepreneur who was formerly the Director of Strategic Development at Tagged.  He is the Organizer of the Silicon Valley Semantic Technology Group, which has over 1000 members.  His path to being CEO of Contact IQ -- well, it probably wasn't what you imagine, and it's certainly more interesting.  In this discussion we cover a range of issues in Silicon Valley, and Peter's path to his current success.

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

After explaining April 15th and #42 to enough people, I decided to make it into a quick podcast.  Racism being a frequent topic of this podcast, Michael White joins us to explain the significance of April 15th and the #42.  On April 14, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American player (since the 1880s) to play professional baseball in the "Major" leagues.  Also discussed are the Negro leagues, and the 5 best baseball movies of all time.

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