1. Start of Interview [1:51]
2. How is a16z dealing with COVID-19, plus its new Talent & Opportunity Fund [2:31]
3. Scott's professional background [3:48]
4. The shift from traditional VC firm to Registered Investment Advisor (to pursue investment opportunities beyond traditional equity, such as crypto) [6:00]
5. The governance chapters of his book The Secrets of Sand Hill Road. Distinctions between public and private venture-backed boards [12:11]:
   1. The contrast in board composition in the private and public board context [12:38]
   2. Dual fiduciary duties owed by VC directors [13:48]
   3. "Common controlled" boards vs "preferred controlled" boards [14:50]
6. Andreessen Horowitz' different approach to support its portfolio CEOs post-investment (institutionalizing the network) [17:03]
7. Number of boards seats held by VC investors (and why it's different to public boards) [20:33]
8. Scott's take on dual-class shares, and distinctions in the private and public company context [25:13]
9. Scott's take on tenure-voting ("rethinking what's fair in corporate governance") [29:10]
10. Why a16z invested in the Long Term Stock Exchange [32:35]
11. Scott's recommendations to boards of venture-backed companies in down-rounds and M&A [36:09]
12. Trends of independent directors in venture-backed companies [40:00]
13. The rise of private markets in the tech financing ecosystem [42:46]
14. The new governance challenges of late stage private companies [44:20]
15. The Purpose of the Corporation and the Governance of Cryptonetworks [47:06]
16. Two of his favorite books: "The Lost Lawyer" by Anthony Kronman, and "The Master of the Senate: the Years of Lyndon Johnson" by Robert Caro [54:06]
17. His mentors: Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz. Early (informal mentor): Armin Weinberg [55:38]
18. His favorite quote “In the long run, we are all dead” by John Maynard Keynes. [57:13]

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 180 and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $12 billion.

Scott is chairman of the board of Genesys Works; cofounder and co-director of the Stanford Venture Capital Director’s College; Executive in Residence at Haas School of Business and Boalt School of Law; and a Lecturer at Stanford Law School. He is vice-chair of the investment committee of St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Hospital and also serves as a member of the investment committees for Stanford Medical Center, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Lick Wilmerding High School.

Scott served as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (2017-2018). He is the author of the national bestselling book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin.

___

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

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