Something Ventured Posts

Monique 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 the farms of rural of Northern Florida to Miami’s music scene, to Silicon Valley.  We discuss how she established herself as an entrepreneur, and founded the organization Black Founders, eventually becoming a venture capitalist.  We cover a wide range of topics, including her demographic investment thesis, and why it should not be conflated with ‘diversity initiatives’.

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Alan 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 Google; Steve Jobs at Apple; Brad Smith at Intuit; John Donahoe at eBay; and Marissa Mayer at Yahoo.

In this podcast, Alan discusses what made Bill Campbell so special.  How did a football coach become beloved in Silicon Valley?  Why is Bill Campbell called a ‘trillion dollar coach”? Finally, Alan discusses and what lessons we can take from Bill today:  How to run a meeting, the meaning of leadership…and the power of love.

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.

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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. He has 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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Miyoko Schinner is the founder and CEO of Miyoko’s – a vegan creamery that is leading the way to a dairy-free future. She is 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.

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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 (at least), 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.

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Ryan is the Founder/CEO of Wild Earth (backed by Felicis Ventures and Peter Thiel).  He is a Partner at Babel ventures and Investor/Advisor to over 80 biotech startups. He aims, through his work, is to positively impact the lives of 7+ billion people and billions of animals through applied biotechnology.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kent and Ryan discuss the case for Vegan dog food, the emergence of lab-grown foods, the creation of a biotech incubator, the future of psychedelics and more!

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Michael is the founder and CEO of Codepath.org a nonprofit increasing the number of high performing,underrepresented software engineers at scale. At over 30 schools, CodePath.org supplements university curriculum with courses co-developed with top technology companies

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kent and Michael discuss racism and poverty on the road to Silicon Valley, Also, discussed are flaws in the Black Panther motion picture.

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Rick is the managing partner of Protocol Ventures, a fund-of-funds in the crypto asset class. He is a founder of two of the fastest growing social networks — Tickle and Branchout, Advisor to Founders Den, and Angel investor in more than 50 companies.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kent and Rick discuss what’s real and what’s not in the world of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin maximalism, vs. the opportunity of new coins, and much more.

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Sarah Marie is the CEO and Founder of Spec.FM. She made her way to Silicon Valley from Minnesota, by way of a stint working a bakery.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kent and Sarah discuss the non-traditional path to Silicon Valley, being a woman in the male-dominated tech-world, and more!

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Nick is Founder of DynoVC, a venture capital fund focused on transportation technology. Nick was also one of the first ten employees at Facebook, overseeing the social network’s operations.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Kent and Nick discuss the future of transportation — from scooters to self driving trucks. Also discussed are the social implications of displacing people who drive for a living, the bicycle/alt transport battles and more!

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