YouSaid · the spoken record

Kent Godfrey

lines on the record
19
first
2015-01-19
most recent
2015-01-19
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Oh, I think anything's possible, but I think that's unlikely. And I think even more important is VCs invested all stages of companies from very, very early to very, very late. And I think it is important that you have operating experience at whatever stage or stage is you're investing in. I don't think having just pure startup experience helps a whole lot when you're trying to invest in a pre-IPO company that's already doing half a billion in revenue and has a market cap in the private sector or in the private valuation of $10 billion. It's just that I think for people who've worked in large private companies and have been with them through the IPO process to be joining an early stage VC and expect to bring operating value to a seed stage startup is not relevant either.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, I mean, obviously it enables me to give 20%. My time to each one of five, which I think is enough to really get to know the team well enough, get to know the business well enough, the industry they're in, to be able to really bring value at an operating level”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Yeah, and we, you know, at pond, we do four or five companies per partner, so we're not in that more traditional sandhill road mode of 10 to 15 companies per partner where you're not really dug in very deeply on any of those companies.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I think the most enjoyable part is being able to do this with multiple companies simultaneously. It just doesn't get boring. You know, I think as exciting as companies like Andrew Media and Frictionless were, when you're sort of focused 100% on one thing for, in my case, five years each time, you know, you just kind of yearn for something else always.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I would say just, you know, how frustrating that feeling can be as a VC not, you know, being able to just jump in there and do it and tell people what to do. You know, as a CEO, that's just so much more efficient. As a board member, investor representative, where you have to watch the CEO and the organization make mistakes and know that that's part of the learning process. It can just be very painful.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yes. Now in some instances, and live rail being a great example of that, that's a company that we sold out of our portfolio about six months ago to Facebook. With the permission of the CEO or at the request of the CEO in numerous instances here, I would get directly involved with some specific issue where my skill set and my time availability lent themselves properly to being the best way to sort these issues out.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yeah, and containing your own frustration and your own kind of instincts to just do it, because that's what CEOs do. They just go fix problems constantly.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, that one's really easy. That's what I call the line between nose in and fingers out. When you're a CEO, your nose is in and your fingers are in and you're just all over everything. When you flip the table and you become the VC and a board member and a representative of the money you've invested, your fingers really need to stay out. Your nose is in you're constantly smelling for things that don't smell right and you're letting the CEO know that your sense is that this or that is not really going in the right direction. But you really need to stop at that point and you can't really stick your fingers in there like you're so tempted to just kind of nudge the CEO aside for a time being and go fix those things.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Yeah, it's really funny, actually. The first company I ever worked for when I graduated undergrad was a company called Varian Associates down in Palo Alto. And Steve Jobs' mother was the office admin in our department. And when she retired, the department had a lunch for her, and Steve came along. And this was 1983. So it was kind of the first time Steve Jobs was becoming God, if you will, to the entrepreneurial world. And so it was that opportunity that I had to just sit with him and just, you know, talk entrepreneurial shop for a little while.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “I think, and I had an opportunity in the early 80s to spend quite a bit of time with Steve Jobs, coincidentally. Wow. And one time we spent a solid hour talking about Naevte, not about craziness, but Naevette and how important that ingredient is to successful CEOs achieving outlier performance. And I totally believe him in that regard that if he really knew everything there was to know about the path you were embarking on, most, if not all, would never do it.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Well, I'll tell you what we look for. It's actually interesting. You know, you sent me a quote of the day here as sort of the preface to this conversation, being the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Yeah, because I think the issue you have here, most of these entrepreneurs, CEOs who are likely to achieve these outlier performances come with big egos. And that is an important ingredient, but it's one that the really successful CEOs are capable of kind of checking at the door. When it's necessary and listening to people who have important things to say to you and really absorbing those things and practicing and learning from them.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Yeah, I think the main thing is building mentorship relationships with a handful of people that have been there, done that. And just, you know, being willing to listen to them and learn from them.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I think there's a gene that some people have and some people don't, but I think that that's the starting place. And I think the CEOs that achieve outlier performance are the ones who have the gene and develop that gene and really build these instincts and learn every step of the way.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I think it really comes down to trusting your instincts. You have instincts and you, above everyone else in the company, kind of represent the collective wisdom of the company and knowledge of the company. So you're the most informed overall. And in the best position to have accurate and reliable gut instincts about these important decisions. And I think you really need to get to a place where you trust those instincts and you don't hesitate.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yes, but the win part of it changes constantly because so much of what drives the timing decision on the wind part is out of your control. And you can do the best you can at trying to predict the future and trying to come up with a sense for how these things are going to impact that timing decision. But at the end of the day, it is out of your control and you've got to be in a position to react to things as they change”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “No, I would say, you know, in impact, the most challenging aspect of being the CEO is figuring out timing of important decisions. It's, I think most CEOs can figure out what the right thing to do is in every important instance, but figuring out when to do that and developing an instinct for that timing I think is the most important thing that a CEO needs to be good at.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Yeah, exactly, exactly. I mean, as a CEO, you know, you deal with all sorts of things. You're basically the chief problem solver, and that's from solving why the toilets in the bathroom are always clogging to when is the right time to sell the company. And everything in between”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Yeah, I think, well, as you probably know, my background is entrepreneurship all the way through from the early 80s till present and 20 years of doing on the company side. And then after 10 years of being the CEO at two different companies, I really decided I wanted to focus on the things I really did well and be able to apply them to multiple companies simultaneously rather than a single company. So in a nutshell, I'd say that was my driving motivation.”

    2015-01-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source