American Dream Factory (ADF)

In this episode of The American Dream Factory, Nick Smoot interviews Steve Case. He is the visionary behind  and the world changing company, America Online. Steve kindly joined some off the  community from across the United States for an online live Q and A. In this conversation we discuss how to be a visionary, building companies, mentorship, self talk, and life purpose.

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About Steve: 

Steve Case is one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life.

He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, a Washington, D.C.- based investment firm he co-founded in 2005, where he partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build significant “built to last” new businesses. The mission is to establish Revolution as the premier firm outside of Silicon Valley.

Steve’s entrepreneurial career began in 1985 when he co-founded America Online (AOL). Under Steve’s leadership, AOL became the world’s largest and most valuable Internet company, driving the worldwide adoption of a medium that has transformed business and society. AOL was the first Internet company to go public and among the best performing stocks of the 1990s, delivering an 11,616% return to shareholders. Steve also ensured that AOL led the industry on issues such as making the Internet a safe place for children, bridging the “digital divide” and investing in online philanthropy.

At its peak, nearly half of Internet users in the United States used AOL. In 2000, Steve negotiated the largest merger in business history, bringing together AOL and Time Warner in a transaction that gave AOL shareholders a majority stake in the combined company. To facilitate the merger, Steve agreed to step down as CEO when the merger closed.

Steve’s passion for helping entrepreneurs remains his driving force. He was the founding chair of the Startup America Partnership—an effort launched at the White House to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. He is also a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, was the founding co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship and a member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness where he chaired the subcommittee on entrepreneurship. Steve is a leading voice in shaping government policy on issues related to entrepreneurship, working across the aisle to advance public policies that expand access to capital and talent.

In 2010, Steve and his wife, Jean Case, joined The Giving Pledge and publicly reaffirmed their commitment to give away the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Steve was born and raised in Hawaii and retains active ties to his home state, but has lived in the Washington, D.C. area for more than 25 years.

About Nick: 

Nick Smoot is the founder of Aesop Industries; a family of 4 companies focused on human flourishing by developing entrepreneurial and startup communities. Smoot developed a method for growing the startup tech scene in overlooked America while connecting large venture capitalists, national labs, and publicly traded corporations to the small market innovations. This led him to develop a multiple programs and tools for surfacing high value innovation in small town markets. Most important it built a stronger and healthier community alongside the stronger economy. 

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