a16z Live

Robert Smith on Unfettered Conversations with A and Z

May 13, 2021

01:07:04

Creator website

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

How Did Robert Smith's Company Evolve Over the Years?

04:06

I Think It's an Important Part of Who We Are as Business Leaders

02:43

The Highest Leverage Points in Philanthropy

02:45

Introduction

2min

Soffer Company's Work Over the Last 20 Years Has Really Changed

3min

The Life of Seran Diputy

3min

The Most Persistent Engineer Ever

2min

The Coolest Project I Worked on Was an Operational Amplifier

2min

Chemical Engineering

3min

What's Your Favorite Food Growing Up?

3min

The Importance of O True Media in Investing

5min

What's the Idea Behind Vista Te Granston?

3min

10.

The Third Phase of Where Vista Is Right

2min

11.

Those Are the Businesses That Should Liberate Free Cash Flows

2min

12.

How Did Robert Smith's Company Evolve Over the Years?

4min

13.

The Joy of Managing People

3min

14.

Is There a Difference Between a Blue Chip and a White Chip?

2min

15.

Do You Think the Personality Tests in Business Are More Common?

3min

16.

Are You Interested in Sales Training?

2min

17.

You've Got a Quantitative Approach to Hiring

2min

18.

What's Your Bigest Goals for the Next 10 Years?

3min

19.

Philanthropy and Community Leadership

2min

20.

Music Is Important, You It's Important to Be

2min

21.

The Highest Leverage Points in Philanthropy

3min

22.

I Think It's an Important Part of Who We Are as Business Leaders

3min

23.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution Is Here, Right?

3min

24.

The Morehouse Gift, You Know?

2min

25.

Carnegie Philanthropy

2min

26.

The Giving Pledge

2min

27.

A, a Tank.

19sec

Robert's foundational experiences growing up [3:03]
His introduction to computers, how he got an internship at Bell Labs, and what he learned there [6:38]
Why he studied chemical engineering [13:15]
Working at Kraft and engineering macaroni and cheese [15:08]
Why he moved to investing [18:12]
How he realized that it made sense to do buyouts in enterprise software [23:19]
Creating a common playbook for running enterprise software companies [30:45]
How does he think about retaining vs replacing founders [34:54]
Vista's approach to evaluating talent and getting people in the right roles [37:02]
Robert's next ambition [46:10]
His philosophy of philanthropy [49:15]
Why he paid off the student debt for Morehouse College Class of 2019 [1:00]

For our upcoming schedule of Clubhouse conversations, follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse or visit a16z.com/clubhouse.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

a16z Live

Robert Smith on Unfettered Conversations with A and Z

How Did Robert Smith's Company Evolve Over the Years?

I Think It's an Important Part of Who We Are as Business Leaders

The Highest Leverage Points in Philanthropy

Get the Snipdpodcast app

AI-poweredpodcast player

Discoverhighlights

Save anymoment

Share& Export

AI-poweredpodcast player

Discoverhighlights

Get the Snipd
podcast app

AI-powered
podcast player

Discover
highlights

Save any
moment

Share
& Export

AI-powered
podcast player

Discover
highlights