On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Heidi Roizen
- Eric Boduch
- Gregory Ho
We asked guests to discuss the most visionary founder that they’ve worked with and what makes them so special.
The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area.
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Transcribed with AI:
0:19
Welcome back to TFR on today’s special segment, we ask guests to discuss the most visionary founder that they’ve worked with and what makes them so special. Here’s the segment called visionary founders.
0:36
On today’s special segment, we have Heidi Roizen of threshold ventures. Heidi who is one of the most visionary or inspiring founders you’ve worked with, and what makes them unique?
0:47
Oh, gosh, that’s a really that’s a really interesting question, because I’ve worked with a I’ve worked with a lot of founders, and I’ve worked across a lot of different companies, and I know this is going to sound like a cop out, it’s really hard to pick one and say, Well, that one’s more visionary than anyone else. I mean, I could argue, for example, you know, I’m still on the board of planet, Planet Labs, and I work with Will, Marshall and Robbie Shingler over there, two of the two of the founders that will is a CEO, and the idea that they had about taking, you know, basically, what was the equivalent of iPhone technology, putting it in satellites, and building the largest satellite network and visual, you know, Earth, Earth observation satellite network in human history, like, that’s pretty big, and that’s pretty bold, and the kind of things that they’re doing now with that network, and the kind of work that we’re doing, including, frankly, in in defense and intelligence, is is it makes you feel really good about what you’re doing. It makes you feel really good about about the contribution you can make and hopefully changing the course of Humanity in ways that I think should be very important to us as human beings and also as a nation. So I think, I think they’re really incredible. I think, you know, some of the most amazing entrepreneurs I’ve worked with are not necessarily the founders. I’m Aisha Evans at zoox, who came into zoox and and, you know, came in and is working with co founder Jesse Levinson. Zoox was acquired by Amazon. She’s still there. I was acquired now four years ago. God Time flies. Aisha is a force of nature. She is amazing. She, you know, she, she had seven, 8000 people at Intel, and took a chance on zoox and came there at autonomous vehicle space. She is the most like you want to talk about a person who knows how to work a board, Aisha Evans knows how to work a board, right? I mean, whether it’s calling me up and saying, all right, explain this to me. Or hey, you got to talk to this other board member. Or who do you know over there that I can get into or even, hey, Heidi, I’m really mad at you about something. I’m mad at something you just did in the board meeting. I want to talk to you about it. I loved working with Aisha. I loved working with Aisha. And we were really going through the ups and downs of zoox and the ultimate acquisition by Amazon during the very beginning of COVID. We were, you know, we’ve spent a lot of time in trenches together. And I’m just, I’m you should have her on your show sometime, too. She’s just an amazing, amazing person. And now you know, one of the top people at Amazon and zoox is, I believe, as far as I can see, still one of the top companies pursuing auto, fully autonomous vehicles,
3:33
amazing.
3:40
On today’s special segment, we have Eric bodak of Pendo rev cast in 24 and up, Eric, if you had to choose one visionary founder or leader that has inspired you most, who is it and what about their leadership approach resonates most with you?
3:55
Wow. You know, this is a hard question, because I could answer this in so many different ways, and I actually, I know you sent this question to me in advance, so I should have an answer, and I totally didn’t pick a person prior to right now. And there’s a lot of different people I could pick for a lot of different reasons. I’m going to pick Satya over at Microsoft, because I’ve been a huge fan of his, just because he took an organization that wasn’t necessarily really SaaS, and drove them to SaaS, and he, he has presided over just a huge, I guess era is a good word of growth for Microsoft, and I always feel and on top of that, he’s turned Microsoft from a company that I think people thought of as uncool to a company that’s cool again, which is pretty powerful too. I’ve done great things for their stock, you know. And I and seems to be there in and around the important technology decisions, right? Like their early investment in AI, he just, he seems like the guy, you know, if I had to pick one of the, you know, for that reason, I’m gonna pick him right now. And there’s lots of other people I’m sure I could pick, but I’m always. A big fan of what Satya has done for Microsoft.
5:08
On today’s special segment, we have Gregory ho of Spring Mountain Capital, Greg who is one of the most visionary or inspiring founders you’ve worked with, and what makes them unique. You
5:18
know, I guess I have to go back to the beginning. So when I showed up at McKinsey and Company, there was a fellow there named Marvin Bauer, and and Marvin took over the reins when, when James McKinsey left the firm to take on and become CEO of Marshall Fields, way back in the 20th and so he left it to Marvin. And Marvin was the one who really, I think, brought McKinsey into its preeminence and and I was fortunate enough to have an office right next to him. And Marvin sort of wanted people from business school, but with values. He accepted me because I was the first lawyer at McKinsey and Company McKinsey had not I was a first in house counsel. So Marvin, who was a lawyer himself, Marvin was a Harvard Law School guy and and he put in the principles of client client relationships versus business principles. So Marvin would wander into my office make sure that I was always on the right track mentally. Very inspirational. Took a concern. Wanted to make sure that I was integrated into his view of the world, and among pieces of advice he gave me, even at when I took on the reins of Chief Financial Officer at McKinsey, he said, Listen, I never wanted to use the term business, right? Fact, when Marvin was elected to be one of Forbes 50 greatest businessmen in America, he turned down the honor. He said, but I’m not a businessman, right? I have a client consulting business, right? Not businessman. So he never wanted that. He’s Marvin in terms of everything said, Greg, do the right thing, and everything else will follow. That’s been my guiding light. You gotta do the right thing, and everything else will follow. Right now that’s assuming that that money is not everything in your life. That is advice you should follow. But if money is everything in your life, that’s not necessarily the right thing, but if you’re guiding light, and that’s the most influential which time and again, and all the mentors I had from McKinsey were multiple. Had that particular principle. Second person was one which goes to teams, which is John Katzenbach, who wrote the book on on teams, the wisdom of teams. And he was very instrumental in terms of understanding team dynamics, team leadership and and help me think through many of the attributes I have been so as you see this, this is it’s all. It’s about people. Really, it’s about people, get people who are talent motivated. I go with that before the thing right?
8:10
That will conclude this installment of investor stories. If you’re enjoying the program and would like to see it continue, take a moment and leave a five star review in iTunes. Okay, that will wrap things up for today until next time over. Prepare, choose carefully and invest confidently. Thanks for joining me.
