

NEA's Scott Sandell May Have The Most IPOs Of All Time. Here's How He Did It | Ep. 10 I/O Podcast
21 snips May 7, 2024
Guest Scott Sandell, NEA's Executive Chairman, shares his investment philosophy, emphasizing understanding founders' life stories and future goals. Topics include characteristics of unicorn founders, passion-driven missionaries, purposeful growth at Tableau, navigating board relationships, and the era of decreasing LP commitments.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Exceptional Founders
- Look for exceptional founders when investing.
- Founders must be capable of going the distance and ideally possess a strong ownership mentality.
Data Domain Founding
- Scott Sandell gave Frank Slootman his first CEO job at Data Domain.
- Kai Lee, a Princeton professor, co-founded Data Domain but didn't want to be CEO.
Founder Self-Belief
- Founders need complete self-belief, which can hinder their ability to recognize when they're no longer the right CEO.
- External perspectives are sometimes necessary for founders to realize this.