Chris and I sit on stage during the fireside chat.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with legendary investor, author, and entrepreneur Chris Yeh for a discussion on all things technology. Not only is Chris world famous for co-authoring Blitzscaling with Reid Hoffman, he has spent 20 years investing in and building technology companies. Several of his investments such as UserTesting.com have grown to be 9-figure companies. Even more, the night before our conversation he was in the finale of a national game show, Mental Samurai, which was watched by more than 1.5 million people.
We discussed everything from how to blitzscale non-profits to how he decided which job to take leaving college. While the full video will be available on YouTube soon, I wanted to share a few of my key learnings from the discussion.
Blitzscaling is not always the answer
Often times the idea of growing fast at the expense of profitability can be great, resulting in billion dollar companies. Airbnb, Uber, and various other world-famous companies have risen to prominence using this strategy. Even more, in Silicon Valley, it can feel like the only way to grow a business.
On the flip side, doing it without respect for your context, the environment you want to change, blitzscaling can not only hurt growth for your company but for the broader market as a whole. For example, the scooter market in SF grew so quickly the city stepped in and stopped growth, ultimately capping the market size. Subsequently, cities around the US have outpaced SF in last-mile transit since the change.
In various other businesses, blitzscaling can blind the team from profitability, sometimes indefinitely. By this point, businesses often find it impossible to become profitable (such as Uber). Ultimately, the process of blitzscaling a new business can lead to incredible success but done incorrectly can lead to horrific outcomes.
Raising money is hard
Living in Silicon Valley, the overwhelming feeling is that you just need an idea and a few friends to raise a $1M+ seed round. This accurate reminder from Chris that raising money for any idea is incredibly hard, is a beautiful reminder that funding should never be taken for granted.
Beyond this, following the ‘glorified’ path of maxing out 30 credit cards to stay afloat is never a good idea. We romanticize it when it works out while easily forgetting the times when it goes wrong.
Focus on building relationships with interesting people
One of the most important things Chris stressed a number of times was the importance of building strong relationships with your peers, especially the ones you respect and are doing interesting things. Chris mentioned that when he is stuck making a life decision, he lives by a simple rule:
“Go where you can work with interesting people on interesting problems”.
This simple mantra has guided his decision making over the years leading him to seemingly random, yet powerful experiences. Many of the most pivotal moments in his career were a result of this guiding force.
Innovation happens everywhere, though it may look very different
Chris talked about traveling around the world and seeing the various flavors of innovation. We discussed how it can be incredibly hard to understand without living there and how simply listening to users in these markets can make all the difference.
I believe this is an incredibly important message for everyone in Silicon Valley. We live in a bubble. We live in a city where people accept new technology with open arms. We live in a city where one out of every 11,600 people is a billionaire and significantly more are millionaires. Yet we live in a very sheltered part of the world. Innovation happens everywhere and adapts to the context it starts in. I believe we, silicon valley, can do a better job at recognizing the unique cultures of innovation around the world.
Life happens in unexpected ways
A day before our chat, Chris was features in the finale of a national TV show, Mental Samurai hosted by Rob Lowe. I asked him about how he came to be on the show and the story was wild.
Several years ago, Chris sent in an application for a different TV show. Ultimately, the producers decided not to continue with the show and shut it down before recording any episodes. Flash forward 3 years while Chris is on a worldwide book tour for Blitzscaling, he got a call from a producer. This producer had seen Chris’ first interview and thought he would be great for a new show, which would ultimately become Mental Samurai.
This reminds me that life is incredibly unexpected. No matter how much you try, you cannot plan life. You can only have an openness to new ideas wake up every day with a passion for doing epic shit.
Overall, Chris has an electric personality. We were lucky to have him as a guest and his lessons will ring in my head for some time.
Our next fireside chat is on June 12th with Azella Perryman, the Caviar National Catering Operations Lead at Square and Sagar Sanghvi, VP Finance & Strategy at Instacart. They’re both incredibly passionate, driven people who are driving change to one of the most rusty industries. You can register here and I hope to see you there!