YouSaid · the spoken record

Quincy Smith

lines on the record: 120
first: 2017-03-13
most recent: 2017-03-13
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

“between San Francisco and LA. Right, that's right. He was going to try to blog, try to help. And New York obviously factors in London, everybody, but the difference between programming with the keyboards like we do up here and programming with the couches and the offices that they do down there.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They really laser focus on the product and really don't buy anything at all. So if you looked at an investment bank or stock chart of Time Warner or Comcast, you'd see if things are under pressure, they think, well, what else can we buy to get our fiefdom bigger? How do we expand things? Whereas in tech companies, actually that's the time when they don't buy things. That's when they really focus on what is going on in the product. But if they wake up the next morning, their stock's out in tear, they're like, hey, maybe the market's trying to reward us trying to tell us to do something. More importantly, inside the culture of entrepreneurs, when one zigzags the other zags, inside of a media company, that's less the case. If Iger's doing something, more likely that the other, sorry, yes, Bob Eger's doing something, more likely that the other moguls will follow suit in terms of what he's doing than have a differing opinion just because there's too much risk around it. Right. But both businesses are really fun to work with and more fun than ever. And they're quite a few of us that think about this is sort of, I think Ross Levinson calls it the 344.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm in charge of this, Pissy, so you might By definition, media companies, which is where I spend a lot of time with a client base over there and why I ultimately went over to CBS, media companies job is really to be defense isn't the right word, but it's to be up there and smart about the assets they have. When things get tough in media, they tend to consolidate. Get bigger. When things get tough in technology,”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So let's talk about that. So, that's the beginning of I get your segue to media versus tech. I have some other things to talk about, but let's know what.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Inside of Alan? We did a lot of work with a lot of companies on the internet space. More importantly, I think for that, Alan doesn't like to talk about itself very much. Even then, we have to be sensitive. I just had a great experience there. But I did. I worked on some stuff involving AOL. I worked on some stuff with Google, all with other partners over there. It was a good experience. I helped it. I like to build it.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I never really left it. I always thought about these things in terms of transactions and I like thinking about it that way. And I like, frankly, I'm not smart enough to have my own ideas. So the best thing I can do is go around two options. Either I could be like you and write about them.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The Barksdale group was about a, let's see, we did, we ended up profitable, meaning we did return money, but not much in a time that was very difficult. And I would say there were a lot of professionals around us, and I don't think we were as professional. But now you've got Danny Reimer out there at Index, who's proven that you can be a venture capitalist. And obviously Jim's doing most of his time now giving back to the world, Mayo Clinic and still on the board of FedEx and Time Warner. And then there's Peter, who's...”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like all good bankers who think they're good investors, it's a problem because you are kind of like a Labrador and you love everything. So the question is when should you stop loving it? And I can't help myself. We love every pitch that comes in and every entrepreneur with a dream. So the hardest part about investing, I'm always told, is, you know, when to come out, not when to go in. So I'm not a good investor by any stretch.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bunches of people. But as a learning experience, it was absolutely perfect for what it was doing. And I was incredibly proud. We actually sold a company to Mozilla the other day, which was super fun because you get to work with some of those guys again. Right.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. They all went elsewhere and did. It's very much like General Magic or some other companies that do that. They went elsewhere to succeed. Mike McHugh was there. Whole bunches of people were there.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Microsoft is ruthless and with unlimited resources. Yahoo was there doing incredibly well on certain things and we were getting good advice and good counsel from a lot of people. But I don't look back on it as a failure by any stretch. I look back at it on all the other things that it could have been for sure. And I think a lot of people do. I think the most important thing Netscape had going for it, which is what a lot of these winners have it, is a great team. And that team has been with the Valley for quite some time. Yeah, and they all went elsewhere.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it absolutely certainly helped set up a good thing for people to expose themselves and get introductory introduction to the internet and from that thanks to you.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it closed a 10. And so I'd say overall, Jim Barksdale always reminds us all in his own non-arrogant way that we made money for any shareholder who had been with us from the get-go, including the IPO. Sure. But that wasn't the goal.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know, I know legendary. Well, as you may know, companies are not run like Excel spreadsheets. We were in three different businesses at any given time, and we went through a lot of transition period with some really good team. I actually view it as a victory in the end. And I really credit the team that it was with. This was in the day of pooling and purchase accounting. So you had this deal where the Great America Online, Jim Bankoff, but obviously Steve and Bob and all those guys. So signed on the deal, I think we announced it at a $4 billion market cap.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the reason I do that is because I think you become a better banker because you know what the CFO says to the CEO across the table. Real allure is why in the world would you go back to banking after you've spent time with the company actually building”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“120% to make sure that this is a good time, it's hard. It's super hard. And I would say that's probably a lot of reasons to why bankers who go to companies almost never go back to banking. Now, I've done that twice.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But so I was going there. The second meeting I took was with another person who should be unnamed inside of the Morgan Stanley Halls. And I said, I'm thinking about going to a company. And the guy responded and said, you know, you're not going to be as challenged. And I find that very interesting as somebody who spent time in both a service organization and the companies, companies where you work hard because you own everything all day. And it's on you to dig it out and it's on you to make something work. So at best, you wake up with sort of saying 65% of my day, I think I got it figured out, but I got to fight like hell for the next.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was the 90s, the mid 90s. It was the mid 90s. Netscape was already public, so it had started to do some things. And how can you resist the allure of Jim and Jim and Mark and Peter and Mike Omer at the time?”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was, you know, it's worth a conversation for all the entrepreneurs out there, which I am not. The object was a slightly schizophrenic job. It was both investor relations and corporate development, which meant you get to talk to Wall Street, but not really tell them about what you're up to. And I loved it. I love the team. I love the growth. We can get into that all you want. But when I decided that I wanted to do it, it was reasonably unheard of. Right, it was. I chew Morgan Stanley. And to great credit of Frank Quatron, he was who I was working for at the time. He was delighted that I got out the offer and more importantly said, take your two weeks leave now, to which I said, Frank, was I really that bad? You don't need me anymore. And he said, no, you're going to go over there and you're going to do a lot of deals and you're going to pay us a lot of fees, which is exactly what you did, Frank.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Already starting from a low bar. So came out of Morgan Stanley and was harpooned by Jim Barksdale or Peter Curry to go over and work at Netscape at Wood.”
2017-03-13 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Quincy Smith, partner, Code Advisors · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT