Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Greg Gretsch: On Founder and Investor Trends from Silicon Valley.


Listen Later

(0:00) Intro.

(1:17) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(2:03) Start of interview.

(3:08) Greg's "origin story." 

(6:53) From the University of Georgia to Apple in Cuppertino.

(10:50) The start of his entrepreneurial journey in 1992 with his first company.

(13:03) The boom and bust cyclical nature of Silicon Valley. "[M]y father used to say that the stock market has predicted nine of the last three recessions. And, you know, I think in Silicon Valley, the investor and entrepreneurial class has predicted nine of the last three technology waves."

(17:24) His first foray with startup boards. The role and influence of Don Lucas, and Bob Frick (former CFO of BoA), on his board.

(21:49) On the shifting power dynamics in founder-investor relationships (ascendance of "founder ethos").

(29:02) On the differences between private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC). "Control investors"

(31:29) His experience as a director of public companies: Responsys, acquired by Oracle (2013), and Upwork (IPO in 2018).

(34:57) On equity comp (stock options and RSUs)  in tech companies. *Reference to BG2 podcast episode.

(47:35) IPOs, private markets and secondary markets. *You can check out my newsletter #52 on this topic.

(54:24) On his investment in Cornershop (acquired by Uber) and Latin America market.

(1:00:58) On AI as the next technology platform shift.

(1:03:50)  Books that have greatly influenced his life: 

  1. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller,  by Ron Chernow (1998)
  2. Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011)
  3. Black Boy, by Richard Wright (1945)

(1:05:36) His mentors.

(1:07:00) Quotes that he thinks of often or lives her life by: "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

(1:07:47) An unusual habit or absurd thing that he loves.

(1:08:28) The living person he most admires.

Greg Gretsch is a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Jackson Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in software businesses.

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ 

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/

__

Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Boardroom Governance with Evan EpsteinBy Evan Epstein

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

42 ratings


More shows like Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

View all
Economist Podcasts by The Economist

Economist Podcasts

4,182 Listeners

Exchanges by Goldman Sachs

Exchanges

976 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

536 Listeners

WSJ What’s News by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ What’s News

4,358 Listeners

The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

392 Listeners

WSJ Tech News Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Tech News Briefing

1,643 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,102 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

181 Listeners

M&A Science by Kison Patel

M&A Science

135 Listeners

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

798 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,989 Listeners

Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

Inside the Strategy Room

169 Listeners

The Journal. by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

The Journal.

6,072 Listeners

All Things Sustainable by S&P Global

All Things Sustainable

63 Listeners

The Markets by Goldman Sachs

The Markets

75 Listeners