All Posts: ‘Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed’
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Matt Cohler
by Scott Edward Walker on May 10th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Matt Cohler, a General Partner at Benchmark Capital and an impressive entrepreneur and investor. Matt previously served as the VP of Product Management at Facebook (where he was the seventh employee) and Vice President and General Manager at LinkedIn (where he was a member of the founding team).
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Phil Libin
by Scott Edward Walker on May 3rd, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Phil Libin, co-founder and CEO of Evernote, and a bright and engaging entrepreneur.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: David Hornik
by Scott Edward Walker on April 19th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present David Hornik, a partner at August Capital and indeed a very smart investor. (Incidentally, David’s portfolio company, Splunk, just went public today.)
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Jack Dorsey
by Scott Edward Walker on April 12th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Jack Dorsey, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Twitter and Co-founder and CEO of Square, and indeed an extraordinary entrepreneur.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Steve Ballmer
by Scott Edward Walker on March 29th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Steve Balmer, the CEO of Microsoft and an impressive, energetic leader.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Jeff Clavier
by Scott Edward Walker on March 21st, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Jeff Clavier, the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, and a smart, savvy investor.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Reid Hoffman
by Scott Edward Walker on March 14th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we post a short video presentation or interview of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics to help entrepreneurs succeed. This week, we again present Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, a partner at Greylock and a brilliant entrepreneur.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Mark Pincus
by Scott Edward Walker on February 15th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Mark Pincus, the founder and CEO of Zynga and a brilliant entrepreneur.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Mark Zuckerberg (Words of Wisdom)
by Scott Edward Walker on February 3rd, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics to help entrepreneurs succeed.
This week, in celebration of the filing of Facebook’s S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, we again present Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and indeed an amazing, inspirational entrepreneur.
Below is five-minute highlight video of Mark and some of his “words of wisdom.” I have also set forth below a copy of the letter he wrote to potential investors as part of the registration statement. It is an extraordinary document, chock full of golden nuggets for entrepreneurs (particularly in “The Hacker Way” section).
I hope you enjoy them both. Many thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Richard Branson
by Scott Edward Walker on January 27th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.
In this interesting, four-minute clip, Richard shares a few solid insights for founders, including the importance of (i) being a great listener and motivator; (ii) understanding the “thin dividing line” between success and failure; and (iii) effective delegation.
I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Elon Musk
by Scott Edward Walker on January 20th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Elon Musk, a brilliant entrepreneur and the co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Bing Gordon
by Scott Edward Walker on January 11th, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Bing Gordon, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, the Chief Creative Officer at Electronic Arts from 1998 to 2008, and a very smart investor.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Sean Parker
by Scott Edward Walker on December 21st, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Sean Parker, a brilliant entrepreneur and visionary; the co-founder of Napster and Plaxo; and the former President of Facebook.
In this interesting, four-minute video, Sean shares some solid advice with a couple of Indian entrepreneurs, including the importance of:
- building “a complete team around what you’re doing”;
- not being “stingy” with equity grants;
- convincing investors and others that “you’re not crazy and can pull this off”; and
- following Steve Jobs’s advice: “I’m succeeding because I have a great team.”
I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Steve Jobs
by Scott Edward Walker on December 9th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Steve Jobs, arguably the greatest entrepreneur who ever lived. Indeed, I just finished reading his biography by Walter Isaacson (which I highly recommend for all entrepreneurs), and I found this old video to share with you. I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Phil Libin
by Scott Edward Walker on November 23rd, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Phil Libin, co-founder and CEO of Evernote, and a very intelligent and engaging entrepreneur.
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Brad Feld
by Scott Edward Walker on November 16th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Brad Feld, the managing director at Foundry Group, and a very smart investor (and indeed impressive guy).
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Paige Craig
by Scott Edward Walker on November 10th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Paige Craig, the founder and CEO of BetterWorks and a very impressive entrepreneur and angel investor.
In this interesting, five-minute clip (courtesy of Business Insider), Paige discusses the importance of:
- execution and “[getting] shit done”
- recruiting people “around passion, not money”
- hiring great people and rewarding them
- “an intense focus on problem-solving” and
- delivering on what you say you’ll do
I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Joe Gebbia
by Scott Edward Walker on October 14th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Joe Gebbia, the Co-Founder of AirBnB.
In this very interesting 20-minute video, Joe discusses the history of AirBnB and how it was created and scaled; it’s an amazing, inspirational story. You should also check out this extraordinary email exchange between Paul Graham (the Co-Founder of Y Combinator) and uber-VC Fred Wilson with respect to a possible investment in AirBnB. Many thanks, Scott
A Tribute to Steve Jobs (via Steve Wozniak)
by Scott Edward Walker on October 6th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: We mourn the passing of Steve Jobs by sharing this brief video of Steve Wozniak (his good friend and Apple co-founder). Naturally, the video doesn’t work with IE. (more…)
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Reid Hoffman
by Scott Edward Walker on September 25th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we post a short video presentation or interview of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.
This week, we again present Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, a partner at Greylock and a brilliant entrepreneur (courtesy of The Wall Street Journal). In this interesting clip, Reid provides five solid tips for startups:
- focus on “network intelligence”
- understand doing “flexible persistence”
- always aim big
- pay attention to the “real dynamics of competition”
- define your unique strategy
I hope you enjoy it. Thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Kevin Systrom
by Scott Edward Walker on July 22nd, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Kevin Systrom, the co-founder and CEO of Instagram.
In this interesting, three-minute clip (courtesy of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner), Kevin provides some outstanding advice with regard to raising capital, including the importance of:
• seeking out the people you want to work with;
• optimizing for people, not for valuation; and
• finding investors as if you’re hiring part of your team.
Kevin also discusses the importance of bringing a prototype to a pitch meeting (as opposed to a deck), which is indeed solid advice. I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Sean Parker
by Scott Edward Walker on July 6th, 2011To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Sean Parker, a brilliant entrepreneur and visionary; the co-founder of Napster and Plaxo; and the former President of Facebook.