Tom and Vivek have come full circle: in this episode they’re talking about closed session board meetings in The {Closed} Session. They discuss their experience in board meetings - even some tense ones - as serial founders and how they approach board meetings today as both co-founders and seed investors of the companies coming out of the super{set} startup studio.
What does a startup’s board do? Who is on the board? What happens at a quarterly board meeting? What should the board meeting deck look like? How does the conversation change as a company grows from the seed stage to the later stage? How do you get the most out of your board? What is a “closed session” anyways?
As serial founders, we’ve seen a lot of board meetings.Tom has even been in board meetings where the board has referred to him in the third person, in reference to how great his replacement was going to be! Not a great time (side note: Tom narrowly avoided dismissal - nobody else was crazy enough to take the job of CEO).
A board isn’t a thing to be managed, but it also isn’t an opportunity to be “your authentic self.” Founders must thread the needle and effuse optimism while also seeing things as they truly are. Speak plainly - don’t treat your board like mushrooms and only feed them in the dark.
At super{set}, we build trust with our CEOs and co-founders to a degree not typically seen on company boards. We’re intentional about when we put on our hats as fiduciaries, and when we take them off to put on our hats as friends. We aim to show up with the context and calm that only comes from being operators and founders who have been in the same shoes as our leadership teams.
Transcript
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Closed Session, How to Get Paid in Silicon Valley, with your host, Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya.
Vivek Vaidya: Well hello and welcome to Episode 8 of the Closed Session. I’m Vivek Vaidya, and with me is Tom Chavez.
Tom Chavez: Hello, everybody. It's good to be back.
Vivek Vaidya: All right, so last episode we talked about investors, VCs, seed stage investing, series A investing, et cetera.
Tom Chavez: And we played a clip from Spinal Tap. Which for me was that was the high point, for me.
Vivek Vaidya: Was that the high point?
Tom Chavez: Yeah. That's the best bit.
Vivek Vaidya: I thought the high point was you restraining yourself and not doing your author voice when you were talking about articles.
Tom Chavez: That's true. That's true. I did self-regulate there as well. I am really just a paragon of self regulation, if you think about it.
Vivek Vaidya: Mm-hm, I know. What's changed, Tom?
Tom Chavez: I don't know. I mean, I'm just older, wiser now.
Vivek Vaidya: Okay. One of those two things is true.
Tom Chavez: Well, that's just mean, you're just being mean now.
Vivek Vaidya: I know, I know. All right, so in this episode, I thought... Tom, we haven't done this in a while, but I thought I could interview you. Because you have quite a lot of experience dealing with boards, both as a CEO as well as being a board member too. So building on our episode about the investors, let's talk about boards. And before we get into that-
Tom Chavez: I'm a little nervous though that you're going to interview me now.
Vivek Vaidya: Why?
Tom Chavez: Because I want you to just ask super easy questions.
Vivek Vaidya: I will ask you very easy questions. I'll start with the easiest one of all, which is why is the title of our podcast The Closed Session?
Tom Chavez: Yes, there's a karmic circularity to it, the question and you ask it. The closed session is the part where you kick all of the management team members out of the board meeting, and it's just typically the CEO, the co-founders and just the board members talking about all the serious insight stuff.
So we thought it would be cool to actually call the podcast, you see because we're talking about all the inside stuff, call the podcast The Closed Session. But now we're actually going to be talking about closed sessions, it all makes sense.
Vivek Vaidya: We're talking about the closed session in The Closed Session. What a meta thing, Tom.
Tom Chavez: This is so meta. Mind blown.
Vivek Vaidya: So you've told a story to me many times, but do you play golf, Tom?
Tom Chavez: I do not play golf. I do not play golf.
Vivek Vaidya: I think you should be, no?
Tom Chavez: You would think.
Vivek Vaidya: Given that you spend so much time with people who play golf and give money to entrepreneurs, no?
Tom Chavez: So I know the one that you're harking back to was... And we were actually in a closed session at Rapt.
Vivek Vaidya: There you go.
Tom Chavez: And we were struggling with why sales weren't ka-chunking along the way they should have, which is like 80% of the topic that's taken up in any board meeting and closed session.
And so I was just getting the shit kicked out of me by all of the board members, because we're doing enterprise sales and it's a high level sales, we're selling to executives. And I was getting beaten up because somebody said, "Well do you play golf?" And they said, "Well, because that's where all the deals get done. You got to be on the golf course." And I don't, I said, "Well, I don't play golf."
And it was just like a gauntlet, I'm just kidding, everybody's taking a turn whomping on me. And God bless Howard Charney, like a little bright ray shown from the heavens. And Howard came down and in his perfect Long Island drawl says, "Don't listen to them. I hate golf. I hate golf, Tom, don't listen to them. Screw that. If you don't want to play golf, you don't have to play golf." And it was such a beautiful moment and, boy, I sure needed it. It was a beautiful moment. Thank you Howard for the allyship in that moment.
It was also one of those moments where I had to sort of start to learn how to manage my board, because I should not have been in that position in the first place. And we're going to talk about that here as we go, is how do you set the table? How do you show up with some level of presence and deliberation? If you're the CEO it's your board meeting, it's not their board meeting it's your board meeting.
And so for me at that moment, it was the beginning of this transition I knew I needed to make to being il capitano. I needed to show up with a sense of agency and ownership in my body language, in my words. I couldn't be so cowed. And so let's talk about that more as we go.
Vivek Vaidya: So actually that's a great segue to this question of, what does the board do? And to your point about you're the il capitano, is the board the boss of you as the CEO? Or the board works for you? How does that relationship work, Tom?
Tom Chavez: Yeah. And it is a paradox wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a piece of bacon. Because if you're running a company and you 're the CEO, you have to have that sense of agency and ownership I mentioned, but you also have to subscribe to board governance.
I remember when my kids were little, and they're at that point in school when they're talking about, "What does your dad do?" And, "Oh, my dad's a fireman," or, "My dad's a policeman." I remember Julian being so, "Well, my dad's a CEO," and the other kid's like, "What is that?" And then they get right into, "Well, who's your dad's boss?" So it's a natural question to proceed to from there.
And so I remember telling my kids at the dinner table like, "Oh no, no, no. It's way worse than my boss, I got four bosses and they're really mean." So the point is, board governance, you have to think of them as very consequential. Are they your bosses? I don't know, maybe that's a device I was.
And so the paradox here is that you have to be very attentive to their priorities, you have to learn how to work with them. We see a lot of CEOs who think, "Yeah, screw, screw it. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I don't like that board member anymore."
You don't get the choice to opt out of a particular board member or boards in general. If you're of that mind, you shouldn't be on the job.
So boards, and I remember Howard Charney said this many years ago and of course he's right, one of the central functions, maybe the two central functions of the board, is to ensure good governance. And then beyond that really to just hire or fire the CEO. I remember Howard said that.
And here we are many years later and in similar spots, you and I, like, "He's right." Because good boards, they have to be activist, they have to... In our last episode we talked about what good investors do in terms of asking good questions at just the right moment. But they're not il capitano, they don't have the wheel, nor should they. And they overreach if they do, so.
Vivek Vaidya: So who is on the board then? Investors, obviously. Are all investors on the board?
Tom Chavez: No, is the short answer. So as these rounds come to fruition, typically there's a lead investor who puts the term sheet on the table, that fund that investor. It's common for them to have a board seat. Now, in the last several years you've had the co-2's and tigers of the world just phoning in money and actually not taking a board seat and not wanting a board seat. Which has been an interesting kind of distortion, in my view, that we're probably getting past now.
But let's also just note, there are many other investors who will participate in the financing who whose slots or allocations are kind of suggested in that term sheet. They don't necessarily get board seats. And in many cases they'll have what's called a board observer right, so they don't have the fiduciary responsibilities and control of a board vote in a formal way, but they're allowed to participate in all of the board member in all of the board meetings.
That's good for them and the funds that they represent, basically just in terms of keeping an eye on their investment. And it's frequently not noted, but it's hugely valuable for them just to have the learning benefits of sitting in in these board meetings and seeing how different companies are unfolding. That arms them with a lot of precious context to inform their other kinds of investment decisions.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. And sometimes the founders can use that observer seat strategically to their advantage as well. Because if they want another perspective, which yeah, they're an investor for sure, but if they don't have a voting right, if they have a trusted relationship with this observer then they could use that to their advantage too.
Tom Chavez: And we're seeing that in a couple places in super{set}, right? Where the board observer in at least one or two companies I'm thinking of, they add a useful perspective, they're trusted by the management team. And so that's a very, very good thing. But no, not every person who writes a check and participates in the financing has a God-given right to a board seat.
Vivek Vaidya: Correct. And then sometimes there are board members who are not investors as well.
Tom Chavez: Yeah, let's talk about that. So you want a diversity of opinion as you're growing your company. And also just as a matter of good governance, you want to have non-institutional board members. What we mean is people, luminaries, savvy operators who have context and domain experience, they can add a useful point of view to the board members but they're not representing one of the funds.
So that's a very common and, in our view, necessary device. Because it sometimes happens that entrepreneurs can be overtaken by just the concerns and priorities of financial investors. To your earlier point about adding balance and a diversity of opinion, in sticky moments an operator representing the, quote, common equity of the company can take a very useful position that isn't...
Because venture capitalists almost never will stand on one against the other, they flock together. And I'm not pointing to anything necessarily nefarious, it's predictable and fairly obvious in fact that they do that. But entrepreneurs need balance.
And to your other point about therapy sessions, and from the last episode, and conversations that you have with the operators, it's useful to have an operator who's not just a money guy.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. Checks and balances are useful in all parts of life.
Tom Chavez: That's right.
Vivek Vaidya: So at what stage do you establish a board? At Krux we had a board right after our seeding, it was very useful to us having Mike and Howard on our board, right?
Tom Chavez: Absolutely.
Vivek Vaidya: So is that always the case? When should entrepreneurs think about establishing a board?
Tom Chavez: I mean, I think you and I both subscribe to the school of thought that if you have somebody who's smart, who you trust, who can be really useful as soon as possible.
And it's fascinating to me because we've had a situation, as you know, in the case where entrepreneur just doesn't subscribe to the concept of board governance, doesn't actually care, isn't really convinced that anybody's going to teach or tell him anything that he doesn't already know. Well, you're on the path to perdition, right? So it's not about control, it's just about the lack of perspective that grounds the entrepreneur and the management team and points them in a more useful direction.
So no, I think as early as possible, and we were lucky to do that at Krux. We want to be those kinds of partners in arms at super{set}. We want to show up the, quote, board meetings we tell our teams, "Don't over prepare. Don't spend hours and hours crunching through PowerPoint. Let this be dialogue." And this isn't an adversarial thing where you show up and try to zing them with a gotcha question, we're actually just talking about the guts of the business and what are the issues and what are the problems and how we're going to solve them.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. Because what we're doing at super{set} is different from what we did at Krux, right?
Tom Chavez: That's right. You want to speak to that a little bit?
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. So super{set} is the only investor in the seed round in the companies that we start, and there is no official board of directors at that point. What there is, to your point, is regular dialogue amongst us co-founders. Where super{set} we show up with two hats. One is the super{set} as your investor board hat and the second is the co-founder hat.
And the way we kind of straddle both those lines is just using this non-adversarial, non-gotcha question asking approach, where we are we identifying issues, and charting out the roadmap for what needs to be done, and working with our co-founders in doing all those things.
Tom Chavez: That's right. And you and I, I would hope, are getting better at that, right? There has to be that base level of trust, that we've talked about in the prior episode and here again.
Now, it's easy to critique. Criticism is cheap, craftsmanship is forever. So when we're engaged in those kinds of conversations, you and I, we want to make sure that the people we're talking to are at ease and that they understand that we're in it to win it, we're not just taking pot shots for the sake of taking pot shots.
We also like to say, you and I, that, "Hey, listen man, we're no good to you if we're just honey coating and telling you things that you want to hear." By the way, some entrepreneurs want that. "Enough about me, how do you think I look?" No, no, no, if you're in the hot seat authentically you need to get hard advice that maybe doesn't cohere with your own sense of what's going on on the ground or what you're doing or...
It's a humbling, hard job. And with love, we hope, or some level of compassion and been there done that we'll share this perspective but we also find you can't honey coat it, you got to speak plainly.
Vivek Vaidya: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So moving on, so you have the board, what happens at a board meeting?
Tom Chavez: Yeah. Let's talk about this, because... And I know that there are lots of different schools of thought. One of our investors loves to tease me incessantly about what a crazy person I am about starting board meetings on time and sticking to an agenda. I guess there are other approaches out there where people just sort of have loosey goosey board meetings and they take up different topics. And if it's working for you, great, but we have defined a board method over time that really just works.
So let's talk about the dos and don'ts here for a little bit. So the first thing is have an agenda with a tick tock, not a social media an actual... like, "From 3:15 to 3:30 we're going to talk about X. And then..." Now, of course you'll veer off that a little bit, but the point is to give the count and give the board a sense of, "Here's what we're going to talk about."
Back to my earlier vignette, once you have an agenda it's your meeting. You're il capitano, the comandante, you're calling what's going to be discussed at the board meeting.
Now, people might not like it, and you might get feedback, "Well, I feel like we're talking too much about product and we're not really engaging in revenue conversations." You tell them, "Okay, great." That's good feedback, you need to act on that for the next board meeting. But first thing is have an agenda, show up on time, deputize your management team.
Oh this is another thing, I think there are some CEOs, I've actually talked to a couple, who like to have board meetings just them with the board. I think that's nuts. First, what's the point of having this board of very important people if not to also help you motivate your team and remind them that very important people wrote very large checks and have a right to their expectation that something good come of it, right? It's also great training ground for executives, you have to learn how to show up at these big meetings with the big moves.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. Actually to your point about enrolling the exec team, that's one of the things that I really appreciated, even going back all the way to Rapt. I didn't attend a lot of board meetings at Rapt, but the few that I did, and then all the ones that I attended at Krux, almost every one of them I came out... Even when the meetings were tough, I came out of those meetings feeling energized about the business.
And there are times when you get berated for missing quarters and not shipping product, or some customer churns, those things do happen. But as long as you have trust with your board and you are able to have the dialogue that we were able to have with our board, you almost always come out of those meetings energized.
So there's really, in our mind, there is no substitute for not having your exec team at these board meetings. In fact, we've also encouraged sometimes people who are not on the executive management team to attend these board meetings and give presentations and whatnot, because it makes them feel a lot better and have more conviction.
Tom Chavez: Enrolled and accountable.
Vivek Vaidya: Exactly, exactly.
Tom Chavez: Yeah. No, I mean, it's... We talk a lot about the stress performance parabola in our shop, so on the X axis you have stress, on the y axis you have performance, it's an upside down parabola. A little more stress gets you to the top of your performance curve. And board meetings are, I think, a good way to create that focus, that kind of intensity.
I'm glad to hear you say that at Rapt and Krux, because it's good training for executives to understand, "No, no, no, these board members don't spend 18 hours a day wallowing in your little patch." So how do you distill the essence of what's going on into simple, actionable terms that convey the state of the business and what you're doing to fix it?
That is a great skill and a lot of people spend a lot of time... I mean, hey man, I sucked at that 25 years ago when I started, you've gotten insanely better. I mean, it's not something you just show up... I mean, some people I guess are innately good at it, but I've never seen it. You got to just practice it.
Vivek Vaidya: You do. And then on a related point to that is, along with the agenda, you need to have a very organized board presentation that you send in advance, at least 24 hours if not more, to your board. And creating that, to your point about the board doesn't spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wallowing in your business, creating that board deck... And it's funny, we have a board meeting on Thursday.
Tom Chavez: Yeah. Don't screw it up.
Vivek Vaidya: So just going through that process also is great learning actually.
Tom Chavez: And that's the other... Let's not lose that. Because sometimes people say, "Oh, I got to go and pull out this idiotic board deck for these dummies." It's great for you. One of those board decks forces you now to be specific in concrete about what's really going on with this? What is the state of this thing? And have we made any progress? Or have we just chased butterflies and gotten in our pickup truck and driven around in tiny little circles for the last six weeks?
So the board meeting with the executive team enrolled... By the way, not every executive team member has to come to every single board meeting. That also happens sometimes, people start to feel marginalized. "And why am I not...?" I'm like, "It depends on the topic." Sometimes you and I, we're going to go deep, deep, deep on product. Sometimes we're just going deep, deep, deep on customers and revenue.
And so board attendance will shift a little bit depending on the topics at hand. And there are many more other topics that we take up. So executive team members needn't to be too nerved up if there are certain meetings where we ask them to lay back. Because you also don't want to have 25 hangers on in a board meeting. That gets weird. We're also just trying to tackle key questions.
Now, let's talk about dos and don'ts. Early on, and I think we've talked about this in other contexts, as a puppy I felt like, "Okay, you have all these brainiacs and wealthy VCs in a room. Let me bear my soul and ask them for help." Big mistake. Big mistake, in my view. And that's when a prominent VC took me aside and said, "Listen, you seem to have this wrong. We don't craft, you're the craftsman, you're the doer. We're critiquers."
And so when you're framing one of these board decks, yes, frame a key strategic topic. And I'm not saying you need to just be silly about it and already know the answer. Like, "I'm asking the board rhetorical question, but I already have the answer in my head and I just want to get a harumph out of you, and you, and you," that's silly. But you can't have Mondo Beyondo, "Who invented liquid soap and why?" kinds of questions with board members. You got to focus it down in an actionable way.
And it's the job of the CEO and the founders to frame those questions tightly. Because if you don't have tethers and hooks and constraints, you are chasing butterflies. You know what I mean? So you could ask those questions, but don't do what I did in that several meetings, we were like, "Hey, I'm just thinking about this thing. And wouldn't it be cool...?" Don't do that ever with a board. Huge mistake.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. The, "Wouldn't it be cool," questions where you're exploring and evaluating options and exploring alternatives, that doesn't work well at all in board meetings.
Tom Chavez: That's right.
Vivek Vaidya: It's more like, "We need to make this decision, here are the possible things we can do. Here are the pros and cons, we're going to talk about these things. Please come with your thoughts organized so we can have productive dialogue."
Tom Chavez: That's right. And if you already made the decision, don't carry on a pageant where you pretend to elicit input for a decision you've already made. Just show your work and your reasoning. I think that really enrages boards, I think you and I have been in a couple conversations where like...
Okay, I have this friend Dave, who every time you talk to him he's mostly made up his mind on one thing and then he talks to you for 25 minutes and pretends to get your input. "Well, I'm wondering about the Ford 150 versus the..." And then, well, it turns out he already bought a Ford 150, so why are we talking about this?
So another don't. Look, building a company is hard. And I know sometimes, especially in 2022, and this is one of those moments where I'm going to sound really old AF, we're all supposed to show our authentic selves and our vulnerabilities. I think showing up at a board meeting and mashing your teeth and ringing your hands about everything that's going wrong and, "Oh my God, I don't know if we're going to make it," that is the worst thing ever. And I've gotten some vignettes lately secondhand.
Vivek Vaidya: Me too.
Tom Chavez: From, I guess, younger CEOs, maybe it's a generational thing where it's all under the banner of authenticity showing how nerved up they are. I just think it's a terrible idea.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. I mean, it goes along with that whole thing about treating your board. And, in these few cases where people were sharing anecdotes with me, it was on the heels of our earlier episode where we talked about VC's critique and we craft. Because going to board members for advice on, "Oh yeah, I'm struggling with this, and we didn't hit our revenue numbers, and what do you think we should do?" That just doesn't work well. Or it didn't work well in these one or two cases-
Tom Chavez: It never does. I mean, I guess maybe there are some cases, but in our experience you should avoid that like a plague.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah.
Tom Chavez: Now, some of this stuff we're talking about sounds like managing up or... Oh, that's also one key thing, and there are different schools of thought here too. Where it happened in a recent board meeting where the management team is evincing a lot of optimism about their prospects. And in the closed session another board member said, "It just feels like people are a little too shiny. And it's okay to speak plainly about the things that aren't perfect."
It flashed me back to a moment in one of the closed sessions years ago when I was getting jammed up and somebody's really getting heated with me and saying, Chavez, you're just too optimistic. You're too optimistic, you're not seeing things as they are." I was so proud of myself, because I had the presence of mind to say in that moment, "Guys, without my optimism I'd be merely just 162 pounds of hype." So thank God for optimism.
And so the challenge here is that if you're in it to win it, you got to stay optimistic, but you also have to see things as they really are. And so we talk about not showing weakness and mashing your teeth and being nervous at a board meeting. It's still really important, and this is a piece of what we're going to be talking about at our Thursday board meeting, "Here's going on that ain't right. This thing is just not perfect, it is not what it needs to be. And here's what we're doing to..." Say it.
Vivek Vaidya: Fix it.
Tom Chavez: There you go. So you got to fix it. And so that's the balance, is to speak plainly. Because I do know a lot of people... One person I spoke to many years ago, I know this is a terrible thing to say about him, this was his frame for managing his board, "Boards are like mushrooms. Keep him in the dark and feed him shit."
Vivek Vaidya: Oh boy.
Tom Chavez: Terrible, right?
Vivek Vaidya: Oh boy.
Tom Chavez: Really terrible. We're not of that. And there are a lot of people, I think, who play hide the ball with their boards. We're big proponents of, "If it's not perfect stay optimistic and show how you're fixing it. But speak plainly also about what you're doing."
Vivek Vaidya: Because ultimately it goes back to building trust, isn't it? How do you build trust if you are treating your board members like mushrooms.
Tom Chavez: That's right.
Vivek Vaidya: You'll never speak plainly with them, you'll never be able to discuss the business in a way that you need to to get the most value out of your board.
Tom Chavez: Right. By the way, it's also just a bad strategy because VCs are not stupid, they've been doing it for a while. They can smell BS.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. So you've been through a lot of board meetings. What were some of board meetings which were tough?
Tom Chavez: Oh my goodness, so many. So many slow motion train wrecks, how to choose? One immediately comes to mind, this is many years ago when the company was wobbling, I was missing my marks. And I do like to point out just if there's anything more humiliating than being at the table when you're being discussed in the third person, and everybody is carrying on about how magnificent and smart and good looking your successor is going to be, dude, that's pretty rough. I had one of those board meetings.
And look, as we've said, pain is instructive. It was motivational. I don't think the board needed to do that and get as sort of ad hominem and mean as they did in that moment. But again, it helped me develop some thick skin and teach me more about the things that I needed to start to get right.
You and I have missed quarters. If you're in this game, you're going to miss a quarter, you're going to miss several quarters. You take your comeuppance, you take the feedback. When you got a turd on the table, don't try to persuade anybody that it's actually a beautiful golden nugget when it's a turd. As we've been saying, "Just call it, say it like it is." There've been many of those kinds of board meetings.
I think the higher stakes board meetings, when we've talked about, for example in the last project, I guess there were, what, four inbounds where at various moments people wanted to come and buy the company. Having those kinds of high stakes strategic discussions with smart people around the board, those were noteworthy. We learned a lot.
And so, look, I mean, every board meeting has its own little rough and tumble. There's not a pattern to it necessarily. I think now that we know what we're doing, and because we're sticking to the kind of structures and habits that we're talking about here in this podcast, it's working better. You don't get bush whacked, because you're actually running your board meeting.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. So speaking of the journey and the evolution of the company, I'm assuming the board meetings evolve as the company grows and evolves too. So what's the difference between a board meeting at a seed stage company versus when that seed stage company becomes a series A or series B? How does that change?
Tom Chavez: Well, the early stage conversations are heavily existential. Like is the company actually going to exist once it gets through this zero to one phase? So they're higher stakes, very suspenseful. Can we get just these products, these customers to combine and generate this amount of revenue such that we don't die?
The later stage conversations are candidly a lot easier, because if you have something that's kind of sort of working... And, I mean, there will always be wobbles and there will always be problems. But once you're sort of in the air those kinds of next stage decisions at board meetings center much more on how much resourcing, how much capital are you going to need to go and take which beaches and storm which countries and expand and grow? If you're in a crouch and weight and you're just hanging on, those are obviously depleting. But if you're grow...
I mean, look, it's been said and it's true, revenue cures all evils. At the last project when, boy, whatever those last two years... Remember last two or three years our CRO would show up at every board meeting and he had a perfect trailing graph of ACV month over month. And it was just up into the right, up into the right, up into the right. Well, you could almost just close the board meeting at that point. Just show the [inaudible 00:32:11], "Bye, everybody. We're good." And again, we still had problems there, you were there. But they weren't so white knuckle, you know what I mean? They weren't so daunting.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. Because revenue doesn't fix all ills, but it sure serves as panacea for a lot of them.
Tom Chavez: That's right. That's right.
Vivek Vaidya: So how has our prior experience with boards informed what we do at super{set}?
Tom Chavez: Yeah. Look, I think, as we've said, we want to ally with the management teams and the CEOs very closely. I think it's safe to say that because of that trust and because of the connection we have, especially in the zero to one phase but even beyond, that those teams are depending on us for more detailed kinds of input than they're probably seeking from other board members. I hope that that's the case. I think that's mostly the case as we think about all the companies we have in motion now. Wouldn't you agree?
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah, I completely agree. I think it's amazing that we've been able to build this trust with our co-founders and CEOs in that they treat us as board members, but they also treat us as operators. And because of the trust that we've built, we kind of just depend on each other to take our respective hats off at the right moments to really help them solve problems.
Tom Chavez: Right. And that's something you and I do a lot, with each other but also with these other management team members. We'll say, "Hey, listen, I'm taking off my fiduciary board hat and I'm putting on my friend hat. Can we talk like that now?" And we're very intentional about taking on and off different hats.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. And I think it's worked reasonably well so far for us at super{set}. And, your point about enrolling all sorts of leaders and founders in this journey, it's helped us a lot.
Tom Chavez: And I think, look, we have some scar tissue. We've blown millions of dollars stupidly, we've made bad decisions, we've had botched product launches, we've missed quarters, it's all the things that we've been talking about. And so I think what that arms us with is a certain amount of context and calm that we can bring.
There was a recent board me meeting you were at, "Okay, the company's wobbling a little bit this way." It's okay. When we meted out, you and I talked it out, we were like, "My God, there's a lot of good facts here."
And it strikes me that many times venture investors... I was perplexed like, "Really, is this proportionate?" Some of the dog piling and the [inaudible 00:34:55] that was going on, "Is this really proportionate to the circumstances on the ground?" Maybe that's me being an optimist again, but I think any rational informed observer would say, "No, this is pretty good. I mean, there's a lot of good things going on here."
And so unlike other VCs, I do think that we can show up, again with that context and calm, which actually gets us more of what we want. Because if the management teams don't lose conviction, if you don't clip their wings and bonk them in the head too many times, but keep them moving like a courageous race horse who believes that he's going to win the race, that's the psychology of it. That's what we're trying to cultivate at every turn.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. And I think that's where the benefits of our model kind of come to light, where because we are in the middle of it being operators ourselves and we've helped build these companies from the ground up, we're much closer and much more aware of possibilities as operators than investor board members are.
Tom Chavez: That's right.
Vivek Vaidya: So we can be optimists and we can see the potential, the long-term potential of the businesses we are helping build ourselves.
Tom Chavez: Right. Now, look, the asterisk in seven point font that we should include here just for completeness is we're talking about the cases where you and I have been enrolled.
Vivek Vaidya: Yes, true. True.
Tom Chavez: And there are places where we're not enrolled for whatever reasons, people want to do their own thing or go their own course. That's okay too. We're referencing all of the cases here where we're allowed to...
And again, as we've said in other places about the investors who drive us crazy by saying that they did it, we're helpers. We're boosters, helpers, cheerleaders, advisors, father confessors, whatever. The teams are doing the job.
Vivek Vaidya: Are doing all the work.
Tom Chavez: But hopefully we're showing up in the places where we need to and being helpful when they need us.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. And to your point about places where it didn't work, I think we've learned a lot of lessons from that and that has informed our model of building companies at super{set} now.
Tom Chavez: That's right.
Vivek Vaidya: Wow. We covered a lot of ground there, Tom.
Tom Chavez: We sure did. Time for a beer.
Vivek Vaidya: And thank you for sharing your stories. Even though I've heard them so many times, it's always fun to hear them again.
Tom Chavez: It was a quasi interview.
Vivek Vaidya: It was a quasi interview. Okay, sure. Sure.
Tom Chavez: You asked all sorts of questions, but then you jumped in. And that's what usually happens, you and I.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. But you know what we didn't do? We didn't do a totally unpaid promotion in this episode.
Tom Chavez: Okay. Well, one of our prior podcasts, I think with Dane, we did it at the end, so let's do a quick one here. We're going to close out with a word for our sponsor who's not paying us a nickel, he's getting all of this boosting for free.
Vivek Vaidya: That's right. So Tom, we've gone back to the office now, we're in the office two, three days a week. And we rely on this company to feed us every day, right? Winnie uses this company's services to order lunch, and lunch gets delivered. Delicious lunches get delivered from a lot of different types of places all over San Francisco.
Tom Chavez: With great variety.
Vivek Vaidya: With great variety. Great variety.
Tom Chavez: And custom, you get to choose exactly-
Vivek Vaidya: Correct.
Tom Chavez: You get to choose your own adventure.
Vivek Vaidya: Correct. Correct.
Tom Chavez: Who are you talking about?
Vivek Vaidya: I'm talking about DoorDash.
Tom Chavez: Yeah, big ups to DoorDash.
Vivek Vaidya: Yeah. So good.
Tom Chavez: Actually, I got to tell you, they've gotten the [inaudible 00:38:23], the web experience when we all order, that's kind of like, "Okay." It's where you have a bulk order, you get your vegetable thingmajig.
Vivek Vaidya: Sometimes chicken,
Tom Chavez: Occasionally on chicken, depending on your crazy mood. I get whatever I need, everybody gets what they want and it shows up on time. Big props to DoorDash. Keep getting it done, yo.
Vivek Vaidya: Yep. Keep getting it done. And with that, we'll call a wrap for this episode. We'll see you in the next one shortly.
Tom Chavez: Thanks everybody.
Vivek Vaidya: Thank you.
Tom Chavez: Bye-bye.
Music: (Upbeat electronic music.)
In the first episode of The Closed Session, meet Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya, serial entrepreneurs and podcast hosts.
read moreIn the second episode of The Closed Session, Tom and Vivek discuss the framework for starting your own company from scratch, and the three dimensions that should be taken into account.
read moreYou’ve decided to launch a business, but before you hurtle blindly into the breach, you need a bulletproof plan and a perfect pitch deck to persuade your co-founders, investors, partners, and employees to follow you into the unknown.
read moreIn this episode of The Closed Session, Tom and Vivek talk about dilution, methods, mindset, benchmarks and best practices for raising investment capital for a new tech startup.
read moreNow that you've written the business plan and raised money, it's time to recruit your early team. In this episode, Tom and Vivek cover the do's and dont's of building a high-output team - who to hire, how to build chemistry and throughput, how to think about talent when your company is a toddler versus when it's an adolescent.
read moreWelcome to Season 2 of The Closed Session! In this first episode of 2020, Tom and Vivek talk about the five companies super{set} launched in 2019 and the lessons they’re learning as they go.
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Tom and Vivek talk about inclusion and reflect on their personal experiences as brown guys in tech. Inclusion feels like a moral imperative, but does it really make for stronger, better companies? Are there unintended consequences of acting on good intentions to 'fix' an inclusion problem at a company? Why is tech so lacking in diversity, and what can we do to get it right?
read moreThe drums are beating for Big Tech, and for good reason. In this episode, Tom and Vivek break it all down and explain why you need to watch your wallet, or at least raise your antenna, whenever Google or Facebook say they're making a new product decision "to protect user privacy." Exactly how do their product decisions erode competitive markets and our own data dignity? Recorded at the tail end of 2020 before all of the post-election events unfolded, this episode explains exactly how the major platforms abuse data, why you should care, and what we can do to fix it.
read moreWe are living in a time of extraordinary concern about the negative consequences of online platforms and social media. We worry about the damage interactive technologies cause to society; about the impact to our mental health; and about the way that these platforms and their practices play to our most destructive impulses. Too often, the experiences we have online serve only to polarize, divide, and amplify the worst of human nature.
read moreWith vaccines on the horizon, the idea of getting back to the workplace doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. In this episode of The Closed Session, Tom and Vivek discuss what it's been like working from home, their likes, dislikes, and lessons learned. What pandemic habits are here to stay, and what pre-pandemic routines are likely to re-emerge? Between the 'back-to-workers' and the 'work-from-homers,' Tom and Vivek wonder whether a middle course is within reach.
read moreHarpal Sandhu, a Silicon Valley veteran and friend of super{set}, joins Vivek and Tom and explains what the excitement about SPAC's is all about. How did we get from IPO's to SPAC's? What's a PIPE? And why does the $10 price show up? In this episode you'll understand why entrepreneurs might prefer a SPAC and how they navigate its possibilities and pitfalls with investors.
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This post was written by Habu software engineer, Martín Vargas-Vega, as part of our new #PassTheMic series.
read moreThis post was written by Ketch Developer Advocate, Ryan Overton, as part of our #PassTheMic series.
read moreThis post was written by Ketch Sales Director, Sheridan Rice, as part of our #PassTheMic series.
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The super{set} studio model for early-stage venture It is still early days for the startup studio model. We know this because at super{set} we still get questions from experienced operators and investors. One investor that we’ve known for years recently asked us: “you have a fund — aren’t you just a venture capital firm with a different label?”
read moreWhere do the ideas come from? How do we build companies from scratch at super{set}?
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This post was written by MarkovML Co-Founder, Lindsey Meyl, as part of our #PassTheMic series.
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Coming up with new company ideas is easy: we take the day off, go to the park, and let the thoughts arrive like butterflies. Maybe we grab a coconut from that guy for a little buzz. While this describes a pleasant day in San Francisco, it couldn’t be further from the truth of what we do at super{set}. If only we could pull great ideas out of thin air. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.
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The wheel. Electricity. The automobile. These are technologies that had a disproportionate impact on the merits of their first practical use-case; but beyond that, because they enabled so much in terms of subsequent innovation, economic historians call them “general-purpose technologies” or GPTs...
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In our last post, we discussed how data is the new general-purpose technology and that is why at super{set} we form data-driven companies from scratch. But new technologies are a promise, not a sudden phase change.
read moreWhen a VC decides to invest in a company, they write up a document called the “Investment Memo” to convince their partners that the decision is sound. This document is a thorough analysis of the startup...
read moreWhat does it mean to be a super{set} co-founder and who do we look for? Why is the Head of Product the first co-founder we bring on board?
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Has someone looking to make a key hire ever told you that they are after “coachability”? Take a look at the Google ngram for “coachability” — off like a rocket ship since the Dot Com bubble, and it’s not even a real word! Coaching is everywhere in Silicon Valley...
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At super{set}, we stand side-by-side and pick up the shovel with our co-founders. Our first outside co-founder at a super{set} company is usually a Head of Product. Let’s unpack each portion of that title....
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Pankaj Rajan, co-founder at MarkovML, describes his Big Tech and startup experience and his journey to starting a company at super{set}.
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The decision to start a company – or to join an early stage one – is an act of the gut. On good days, I see it as a quasi-spiritual commitment. On bad days, I see it as sheer irrationality. Whichever it is, you’ll be happier if you acknowledge and calmly accept the lunacy of it all...
read moreTom and Vivek describe how building the best product is like planning the perfect heist: just like Danny Ocean, spend the time upfront to blueprint and stage, get into the casino with the insertion product, then drill into the safe and make your escape with the perfect product roadmap.
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Tom and Vivek discuss what the very first customers of a startup must look and act like, the staging and sequencing of setting up a sales operation with a feedback loop to product, and end with special guest Matt Kilmartin, CEO of Habu and former Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of Krux, for his advice on effective entrepreneurial selling.
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Reflections after a summer as an engineering intern at super{set}
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Gal Vered of Checksum explains his rationale for leaving Google to co-found a super{set} company.
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The era of easy money - or at least, easy returns for VCs - is over. Tom Chavez is calling for VCs to show up in-person at August board meetings, get off the sidelines, and start adding real value and hands-on support for founders.
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Tom and Vivek describe what the ideal CEO looks like in the early stage, why great product people aren’t necessarily going to make great CEOs, and what the division of labor looks like between the CEO and the rest of the early team. They then bring on special guest Dane E. Holmes from super{set} company Eskalera to hear about his decision to join a super{set} company and his lessons for early-stage leadership.
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o11y - What is it? Why is it important? What are the tools you need? More importantly - how can you adopt an observability mindset? Habu Software Architect Siddharth Sharma reports from his session at super{summit} 2022.
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Othmane Rifki, Principal Applied Scientist at super{set} company Spectrum Labs, reports from the session he led at super{summit} 2022: "When Inference Meets Engineering." Using super{set} companies as examples, Othmane reveals the 3 ways that data science can benefit from engineering workflows to deliver business value.
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Head of Infrastructure at Ketch, and Kapstan Advisor, Anton Winter explains a few of the infrastructure and DevOps headaches he encounters every day.
read moreTom and Vivek jump on the pod for a special bonus episode to call BULLSHIT on VCs, CEOs, the “categorical shit,” and more. So strap yourselves in because the takes are HOT.
read more
The Move Accelerates the Rapidly Growing Startup Studio’s Mission to Lead the Next Generation of AI and Data-Driven Market Innovation and Success
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Announcing Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) as super{set}’s Chief Commercial Officer: jsd tells us in his own words why he's joining super{set}
read moreTom and Vivek describe the lessons learned from fundraising at Rapt in 1999 - the height of the first internet bubble - through their experience at Krux - amid the most recent tech bubble. After sharing war stories, they describe how super{set} melds funding with hands-on entrepreneurship to set the soil conditions for long-term success.
read moreTom and Vivek have come full circle: in this episode they’re talking about closed session board meetings in The {Closed} Session. They discuss their experience in board meetings - even some tense ones - as serial founders and how they approach board meetings today as both co-founders and seed investors of the companies coming out of the super{set} startup studio.
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Arthur Patterson, founder of venture capital firm Accel, sits down for a fireside chat with super{set} founding partner Tom Chavez as part of our biweekly super{set} Community Call. Arthur and Tom cover venture investing, company-building, and even some personal stories from their history together.
read moreArthur Patterson, the founder of venture capital firm Accel, sits down for a fireside chat with super{set} founding partner Tom Chavez as part of our biweekly super{set} Community Call.
read more
This month we pass the mic to Sagar Gaur, Software Engineer at super{set} MLOps company MarkovML, who shares with us his tips for working within a global startup with teams in San Francisco and Bengaluru, India
read more
Arthur Patterson, legendary VC and founder of Accel Partners, sits down with Tom Chavez to discuss insights into company building. Tom and Vivek review the tape on the latest episode of The {Closed} Session.
read more
Chris Fellowes, super{set} interned turned full time employee at super{set} portfolio company Kapstan, gives his 7 recommendations for how to turn an internship into a job at a startup.
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Kicking off the fourth season of the {Closed} Session podcast with a great topic and guest: Frida Polli, CEO and co-founder of pymetrics, which was recently acquired by Harver, joins us to talk about the critical role that technology and specifically AI and neuroscience can play in eliminating bias in hiring and beyond.
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Obsessive intensity. Pack animal nature. Homegrown hero vibes. Unyielding grit. A chip on the shoulder. That's who we look for to join exceptional teams.
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Go-to-market has entered a new operating environment. Enter: RevOps. We dig into the next solution space for super{set}, analyzing the paradigm shift in GTM and the data challenges a new class of company must solve.
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We are delighted to share our new episode of the {Closed} Session podcast with guest Alyssa Hutnik. Alyssa looms large in the privacy world, and she’s been thinking deeply about the intersections of data, technology and the law for nearly two decades. She’s also the Chief Privacy and Data Security Architect at Ketch, a super{set} company, as well as a lawyer. Hope you enjoy the episode!
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Tom writes a nuanced take on the TikTok controversy and outlines ethical data principles that will restore people’s sense of trust and offer them true control over how and when they grant permission for use of their data.
read more
super{set} startup studio portfolio company’s seed funding round was led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from Ulu Ventures Raise will enable boombox.io to accelerate product development on the way to becoming the winning creator platform for musicians globally
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On the heels of boombox.io's $7M seed fundraise led by Forerunner, Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya sit down with boombox co-founders India Lossman and Max Mathieu for a special episode straight from super{summit} 2023 in New Orleans!
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super{set} founding general partner Tom Chavez wasn’t always set on a life of engineering and entrepreneurship – music was his first love. For a time, he was determined to make a career out of it. With boombox.io, Tom has combined the best of both worlds into a product that inspires and delights both the engineer and the musician.
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Vivek gives us the rundown on what the hive is buzzing about after super{summit} 2023: how to 'horizontally scale' yourself.
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Alex Kantrowitz, journalist and author of Big Technology, joins Tom and Vivek in the studio to discuss his road to journalism, ad tech, and the business and ethical considerations of generative AI.
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Discover how Habu, a trailblazer in data clean room technology, utilizes strategic partnerships with giants like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS to expand its market reach and foster the potential of an emerging category. Learn from CEO Matt Kilmartin's insights on how collaboration is the secret sauce that brings innovation to life.
read more
MIT Professor Rama Ramakrishnan joins Vivek on the pod to delve into the evolution of Generative AI and ChatGPT, as well as his own journey as an entrepreneur turned business school professor.
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Discover how lessons from law enforcement shape a thriving tech career. Ketch Sr. Business Development Representative Brenda Flores shares a bold career pivot in our latest "Pass the Mic" story.
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Does it matter where you go to college? Should the SAT be abolished? Do you have to have a degree in computer science to work in tech? What are the differences between higher education in the US and in India? Why did Tom and Vivek ban Harvard and Stanford degrees from working at their first company?
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What does ‘AI alignment mean? Can philosophy help make AI less biased? How does reinforcement learning influence AI's unpredictability? How does AI's ‘frame problem’ affect its ability to understand objects? What role does human feedback play in machine learning and AI fine-tuning?
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Creator of the XBox and serial entrepreneur Seamus Blackley joined Tom Chavez on stage at the 2023 super{summit} in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a free-ranging conversation covering the intersection of creativity and technology, recovering back from setbacks to reach new heights, and a pragmatic reflection on the role of fear and regret in entrepreneurship.
read more
Want to grow your product organically? This blog post breaks down understanding costs, setting up starter plans, and pricing premium features using MarkovML as an example. Learn how to engage new users and encourage upgrades, enhancing user experience and fueling growth through actionable insights.
read more
In an interview with Ketch co-founder Max Anderson, the focus is on data privacy laws and AI's role. Anderson discusses the global privacy landscape, highlighting Ketch's approach to helping businesses navigate regulations. The conversation also emphasizes data dignity and Ketch's unique role in the AI revolution.
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Is AI our salvation or is it going to kill us all? Tom and Vivek roam widely on others’ takes about artificial intelligence, adding their insight and experience to the mix. Along the way they consider Descartes, Ray Kurzweil, Salt Bae, Marc Andreessen among others. If you are looking for a down to earth conversation that tempers the extremes at either end of the debate, this is the one you’ve been waiting for.
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super{set} Technical Lead and resident front-end engineering expert Sagar Jhobalia recaps lessons from participating in multiple product and team build-outs in our startup studio. Based on a decade of experience, Sagar emphasizes the importance of assembling the right engineering team, setting expectations, and strategically planning MVPs for early wins in the fast-paced startup environment.
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Are you a launcher, or a finisher? The balance of conviction, a guiding vision, and the right team to execute it all make the difference between entrepreneurial success and failure. Tom Chavez delves into his journey as a first-time CEO and the invaluable guidance he received from a key mentor.
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Vivek Vaidya recaps his conversation with AI researcher and author of "The Alignment Problem" Brian Christian at the 2023 super{summit}.
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What's the price you put on personal growth? In his most recent note to founders, super{set} Founding General Partner Vivek Vaidya outlines 7 points of advice for startup interviews and negotiations. Vivek explains his compensation philosophy and the balance between cash and the investment in personal and career growth a startup can bring. Here’s the mindset you need to reach your zenith at a startup.
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Are we walking a tightrope with AI, jeopardizing humanity's ethical core? Is AI more than just algorithms, acting as a mirror to our moral values? And when machine learning grapples with ethical dilemmas, who ultimately bears the responsibility? Harvard's Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, James Mickens, joins Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya on "The {Closed} Session."
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In a conversation with boombox's co-founder India Lossman, the discussion pivots to the art of fostering customer collaboration in music creation. Lossman unveils how artist-driven feedback shapes boombox's innovative platform, with a glimpse into AI's empowering potential. Understand the synergy between technology and user insights as they redefine the independent music landscape.
read more
ActiveFence, the leading technology solution for Trust and Safety intelligence, management and content moderation, today announced its successful acquisition of Spectrum Labs, a pioneer in text-based Contextual AI Content Moderation.
read more
Do you get an uneasy feeling anytime you get added to a customer call? Do you ever struggle to respond to a frustrated customer? Peter Wang, Product lead at Ketch, discusses how customer feedback can help drive product development, and how engineers can use customer insights to create better products. Learn best practices for collecting and interpreting customer feedback.
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Tom Chavez, writing in TechCrunch, calls for new approaches to the problems of Ethical AI: "We have to build a more responsible future where companies are trusted stewards of people’s data and where AI-driven innovation is synonymous with good. In the past, legal teams carried the water on issues like privacy, but the brightest among them recognize they can’t solve problems of ethical data use in the age of AI by themselves."
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Justin Davis and Josh Newman, Co-founders of Spectrum Labs (acquired) launch Nurdle to get AI into production faster, cheaper & easier.
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The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio every episode. Up first: Gal Vered is co-founder and Head of Product at Checksum (checksum.ai), end to end test automation leveraging AI to test every corner of your app.
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Ever find yourself scratching your head about product management decisions? Join India Lossman, co-founder of boombox.io, as she unpacks the product mindset for engineers. Unravel the art of synergy between PMs and engineers and delve into strategies to enhance collaboration and craft products that users will adore.
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Co-founder of Headlamp Health, Andrew Marshak, describes the frustratingly ambiguous state of mental health diagnoses - and the path forward for making mental health a precision science.
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How is AI steering the future of marketing strategy? With the convergence of AI and marketing tactics, Rex Briggs paints a compelling picture of what's possible: AI agents that revolutionize user interactions, and generative techniques that craft persuasive content. Drawing from his deep expertise in marketing measurement, Rex joins Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya to explore the cutting-edge of AI-driven marketing strategies. Listen for insights on harnessing AI's potential in modern marketing.
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Writing in the Huffington Post: "My Mom Sent Me And My 4 Siblings To Harvard. Here's The 1 Thing I Tell People About Success."
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Running cloud platforms efficiently while keeping them secure can be challenging. In this blog post, learn how two of super{set}’s portfolio companies, MarkovML and Kapstan, are leveraging tools like KEDA for event-driven scale and Boundary for access management to remove friction for developers. Get insights into real-world use cases about optimizing resource usage and security without compromising productivity.
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Sandeep Bhandari, Former Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Risk Officer at buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Affirm, joins Vivek Vaidya, Founding General Partner of super{set}, in conversation.
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The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio every episode. Up now: Andrew Marshak is Co-founder and Head of Product at Headlamp Health (Headlamp.com), a healthtech company bringing greater precision to mental health care.
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From unpacking Google search patterns to understanding the philosophical underpinnings of big data, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz offers a unique lens. As the NYT Best-selling author of “Everybody Lies” and a renowned data scientist, he delves into the ways data mirrors societal nuances and the vast implications for tech and its intertwining with everyday life.
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It's still early for the startup studio asset class - and we hear misconceptions about the studio model every day, ranging from the basic confusion of accelerators versus studios to downright incorrect assumptions on our deep commitment to the build-out of every company. Read Tom Chavez' latest in Forbes.
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Like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, the fiercest competitors can sometimes become friends. Omar Tawakol is a prime example. As the founder and CEO of BlueKai, he went head-to-head with Tom, Vivek, and the 'Krux mafia' for dominance in the Data Management Platform arena. A serial entrepreneur with roots in New York and Egypt, Omar eventually steered BlueKai to a successful acquisition by Oracle before creating Voicea, which Cisco acquired. Today, he's pioneering a new venture called Rembrand (rembrand.com), which innovates in product placement through generative fusion AI.
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The {Closed} Session Spotlight Series showcases a different co-founder from the super{set} portfolio in every episode. Today's guest is Lindsey Meyl, Co-founder at RevAmp (rev-amp.ai), a "Datadog for RevOps" platform that offers observability across the revenue engine, monitoring performance, flagging when something is amiss, and determining the root cause of how to fix it.
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Read Vivek Vaidya's latest in CDO Magazine and learn why in this new AI landscape, those who harness the potential of proprietary data and foster a culture of collaboration will lead the way—those who don't risk obsolescence.
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Headlamp Health co-founder Andrew Marshak writes in the MedCity News that "We need to take inspiration from the progress in oncology over the last few decades and challenge ourselves to adapt its successful playbook to mental illness. It’s time for precision psychiatry."
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Everyone’s talking about AI - so The Ethical Tech Project decided to listen. Joining forces with programmatic privacy and data+AI governance platform Ketch, The Ethical Tech Project surveyed a representative sample of 2,500 U.S. consumers and asked them about AI, the companies leveraging AI, and their sentiment and expectations around AI and privacy. On the latest episode of The {Closed} Session, get an inside look at the survey results in a deep-dive conversation with the team at The Ethical Tech Project.
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Pankaj Rajan, co-founder of MarkovML, joins super{set} Chief Commercial Officer Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to discuss the role of data in gaining a competitive advantage in the AI revolution. Learn the difference between optimizing models and optimizing data in machine learning applications, and why effective collaboration will make or break the next-gen AI applications being created in businesses.
read moreHas someone looking to make a key hire ever told you that they are after “coachability”? Take a look at the Google ngram for “coachability” — off like a rocket ship since the Dot Com bubble, and it’s not even a real word! Coaching is everywhere in Silicon Valley...
read moreWant to grow your product organically? This blog post breaks down understanding costs, setting up starter plans, and pricing premium features using MarkovML as an example. Learn how to engage new users and encourage upgrades, enhancing user experience and fueling growth through actionable insights.
read more
Startup studio super{set} has a fresh exit under its belt with the sale of marketing company Habu to LiveRamp for $200 million in January. Now, super{set} is adding another $90 million to its coffers as it doubles down on its strategy of building enterprise startups.
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Why should a tech exec care about profit and loss? Aren’t our jobs to make the product great, and someone else can figure out how to make the numbers add up? That was my attitude for a long time until I finally appreciated the significance of gross margins for SaaS businesses during the early part of my tenure as the CTO of Krux.
read moresuper{set} startup studio portfolio company’s seed funding round was led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from Ulu Ventures Raise will enable boombox.io to accelerate product development on the way to becoming the winning creator platform for musicians globally
read moreIn an interview with Ketch co-founder Max Anderson, the focus is on data privacy laws and AI's role. Anderson discusses the global privacy landscape, highlighting Ketch's approach to helping businesses navigate regulations. The conversation also emphasizes data dignity and Ketch's unique role in the AI revolution.
read moreThis month we pass the mic to Sagar Gaur, Software Engineer at super{set} MLOps company MarkovML, who shares with us his tips for working within a global startup with teams in San Francisco and Bengaluru, India
read moreGal Vered of Checksum explains his rationale for leaving Google to co-found a super{set} company.
read moreVivek gives us the rundown on what the hive is buzzing about after super{summit} 2023: how to 'horizontally scale' yourself.
read moreArthur Patterson, founder of venture capital firm Accel, sits down for a fireside chat with super{set} founding partner Tom Chavez as part of our biweekly super{set} Community Call. Arthur and Tom cover venture investing, company-building, and even some personal stories from their history together.
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Jeremy Klein is a general partner at super{set}. Jeremy helped build super{set} from day one alongside Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya, designing super{set}’s structure, recruiting co-founders, and laying the plans for a scalable buildout. super{set} recently announced the closing of its $90 million Fund II. He sat down with Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to provide insights into the strategic timing and vision behind launching Fund II, his professional journey from a legal expert to an integral part of super{set}'s fabric, and how his unique background and approach have been instrumental in building super{set} and recruiting top-tier co-founders.
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How are immigrants like entrepreneurs? Peter Wang of Ketch arrived in the U.S. at age 7 with two suitcases and a box. Read his story in the latest "Pass The Mic."
read moreRead Vivek Vaidya's latest in CDO Magazine and learn why in this new AI landscape, those who harness the potential of proprietary data and foster a culture of collaboration will lead the way—those who don't risk obsolescence.
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Harshil Vyas joined the super{set} Hive (i.e., portfolio companies community) in March 2023 as Co-Founder of Kapstan and employee number one in India. We jumped on a Zoom recently to talk about accelerated timelines, globally distributed workforces, and what is unique about the super{set} model.
read moreThis post was written by Ketch Developer Advocate, Ryan Overton, as part of our #PassTheMic series.
read moreHeadlamp Health co-founder Andrew Marshak writes in the MedCity News that "We need to take inspiration from the progress in oncology over the last few decades and challenge ourselves to adapt its successful playbook to mental illness. It’s time for precision psychiatry."
read moreSandeep Bhandari, Former Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Risk Officer at buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Affirm, joins Vivek Vaidya, Founding General Partner of super{set}, in conversation.
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Off the heels of super{set}'s first exit - the acquisition of data collaboration company Habu by LiveRamp for $200 Million - Tom Chavez writes how the super{set} approach to collaboration in company building leads to successful outcomes.
read moreThis post was written by Habu software engineer, Martín Vargas-Vega, as part of our new #PassTheMic series.
read moreGo-to-market has entered a new operating environment. Enter: RevOps. We dig into the next solution space for super{set}, analyzing the paradigm shift in GTM and the data challenges a new class of company must solve.
read moreReflections after a summer as an engineering intern at super{set}
read morePankaj Rajan, co-founder of MarkovML, joins super{set} Chief Commercial Officer Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to discuss the role of data in gaining a competitive advantage in the AI revolution. Learn the difference between optimizing models and optimizing data in machine learning applications, and why effective collaboration will make or break the next-gen AI applications being created in businesses.
read moreChris Fellowes, super{set} interned turned full time employee at super{set} portfolio company Kapstan, gives his 7 recommendations for how to turn an internship into a job at a startup.
read moreCo-founder of Headlamp Health, Andrew Marshak, describes the frustratingly ambiguous state of mental health diagnoses - and the path forward for making mental health a precision science.
read moreWhen a VC decides to invest in a company, they write up a document called the “Investment Memo” to convince their partners that the decision is sound. This document is a thorough analysis of the startup...
read moreo11y - What is it? Why is it important? What are the tools you need? More importantly - how can you adopt an observability mindset? Habu Software Architect Siddharth Sharma reports from his session at super{summit} 2022.
read moresuper{set} Technical Lead and resident front-end engineering expert Sagar Jhobalia recaps lessons from participating in multiple product and team build-outs in our startup studio. Based on a decade of experience, Sagar emphasizes the importance of assembling the right engineering team, setting expectations, and strategically planning MVPs for early wins in the fast-paced startup environment.
read moreAnnouncing Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) as super{set}’s Chief Commercial Officer: jsd tells us in his own words why he's joining super{set}
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Tom Chavez writes in The Information that "OpenAI’s board needs a data ethicist, a philosopher of mind, a neuroscientist, a computer scientist with interdisciplinary expertise and a political strategist."
read moreDo you get an uneasy feeling anytime you get added to a customer call? Do you ever struggle to respond to a frustrated customer? Peter Wang, Product lead at Ketch, discusses how customer feedback can help drive product development, and how engineers can use customer insights to create better products. Learn best practices for collecting and interpreting customer feedback.
read moreObsessive intensity. Pack animal nature. Homegrown hero vibes. Unyielding grit. A chip on the shoulder. That's who we look for to join exceptional teams.
read moreDiscover how Habu, a trailblazer in data clean room technology, utilizes strategic partnerships with giants like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS to expand its market reach and foster the potential of an emerging category. Learn from CEO Matt Kilmartin's insights on how collaboration is the secret sauce that brings innovation to life.
read moreOthmane Rifki, Principal Applied Scientist at super{set} company Spectrum Labs, reports from the session he led at super{summit} 2022: "When Inference Meets Engineering." Using super{set} companies as examples, Othmane reveals the 3 ways that data science can benefit from engineering workflows to deliver business value.
read moreThe super{set} studio model for early-stage venture It is still early days for the startup studio model. We know this because at super{set} we still get questions from experienced operators and investors. One investor that we’ve known for years recently asked us: “you have a fund — aren’t you just a venture capital firm with a different label?”
read moreHead of Infrastructure at Ketch, and Kapstan Advisor, Anton Winter explains a few of the infrastructure and DevOps headaches he encounters every day.
read moreIt's still early for the startup studio asset class - and we hear misconceptions about the studio model every day, ranging from the basic confusion of accelerators versus studios to downright incorrect assumptions on our deep commitment to the build-out of every company. Read Tom Chavez' latest in Forbes.
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Read coverage in the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle of super{set}'s recent move to the flagship 140 New Montgomery building in downtown SF, next to SFMOMA.
read moreJustin Davis and Josh Newman, Co-founders of Spectrum Labs (acquired) launch Nurdle to get AI into production faster, cheaper & easier.
read moreWe are living in a time of extraordinary concern about the negative consequences of online platforms and social media. We worry about the damage interactive technologies cause to society; about the impact to our mental health; and about the way that these platforms and their practices play to our most destructive impulses. Too often, the experiences we have online serve only to polarize, divide, and amplify the worst of human nature.
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Gal Vered is co-founder and Head of Product at Checksum (checksum.ai), an innovative company that provides end-to-end test automation that leverages AI to test every corner of an app. He sat down with Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to discuss the exciting problem that Checksum is solving with AI and what Gal likes best about working in super{set}'s startup studio model.
read moreThe era of easy money - or at least, easy returns for VCs - is over. Tom Chavez is calling for VCs to show up in-person at August board meetings, get off the sidelines, and start adding real value and hands-on support for founders.
read moreThis post was written by MarkovML Co-Founder, Lindsey Meyl, as part of our #PassTheMic series.
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Announcing super{set} Fund II
read moreThe wheel. Electricity. The automobile. These are technologies that had a disproportionate impact on the merits of their first practical use-case; but beyond that, because they enabled so much in terms of subsequent innovation, economic historians call them “general-purpose technologies” or GPTs...
read moreCreator of the XBox and serial entrepreneur Seamus Blackley joined Tom Chavez on stage at the 2023 super{summit} in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a free-ranging conversation covering the intersection of creativity and technology, recovering back from setbacks to reach new heights, and a pragmatic reflection on the role of fear and regret in entrepreneurship.
read moreDiscover how lessons from law enforcement shape a thriving tech career. Ketch Sr. Business Development Representative Brenda Flores shares a bold career pivot in our latest "Pass the Mic" story.
read moresuper{set} founding general partner Tom Chavez wasn’t always set on a life of engineering and entrepreneurship – music was his first love. For a time, he was determined to make a career out of it. With boombox.io, Tom has combined the best of both worlds into a product that inspires and delights both the engineer and the musician.
read moreThe Move Accelerates the Rapidly Growing Startup Studio’s Mission to Lead the Next Generation of AI and Data-Driven Market Innovation and Success
read moreThe decision to start a company – or to join an early stage one – is an act of the gut. On good days, I see it as a quasi-spiritual commitment. On bad days, I see it as sheer irrationality. Whichever it is, you’ll be happier if you acknowledge and calmly accept the lunacy of it all...
read moreThis post was written by Ketch Sales Director, Sheridan Rice, as part of our #PassTheMic series.
read moreEver find yourself scratching your head about product management decisions? Join India Lossman, co-founder of boombox.io, as she unpacks the product mindset for engineers. Unravel the art of synergy between PMs and engineers and delve into strategies to enhance collaboration and craft products that users will adore.
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LiveRamp Enters Into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Habu, Reinforcing super{set}'s Unique Company Building Model of Founding, Funding, and Scaling Data+AI Businesses
read moreWhat's the price you put on personal growth? In his most recent note to founders, super{set} Founding General Partner Vivek Vaidya outlines 7 points of advice for startup interviews and negotiations. Vivek explains his compensation philosophy and the balance between cash and the investment in personal and career growth a startup can bring. Here’s the mindset you need to reach your zenith at a startup.
read moreRunning cloud platforms efficiently while keeping them secure can be challenging. In this blog post, learn how two of super{set}’s portfolio companies, MarkovML and Kapstan, are leveraging tools like KEDA for event-driven scale and Boundary for access management to remove friction for developers. Get insights into real-world use cases about optimizing resource usage and security without compromising productivity.
read moreActiveFence, the leading technology solution for Trust and Safety intelligence, management and content moderation, today announced its successful acquisition of Spectrum Labs, a pioneer in text-based Contextual AI Content Moderation.
read moreAt super{set}, we stand side-by-side and pick up the shovel with our co-founders. Our first outside co-founder at a super{set} company is usually a Head of Product. Let’s unpack each portion of that title....
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The prettifying and securing of downtown San Francisco, where super{set} is headquartered, should be the norm - not just for special state visits from the world's dictators. Here are 3 things the city of San Francisco should be doing all year round to make the city better to live, work, and invest in. Read Tom Chavez' latest in Forbes.
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Vivek Vaidya writes that America needs more H-1B workers. Common sense reforms to the program will even the playing field for startups, not Big Tech, to bring innovative talent to American's shores.
read moreAre you a launcher, or a finisher? The balance of conviction, a guiding vision, and the right team to execute it all make the difference between entrepreneurial success and failure. Tom Chavez delves into his journey as a first-time CEO and the invaluable guidance he received from a key mentor.
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Tom Chavez joins the "Decoding AI for Marketing" podcast published by MMA Global and hosted by well-respected international marketing & AI experts Greg Stuart (CEO, Author, Investor, Speaker) and Rex Briggs (Founder/CEO, Inventor, Author, Speaker).
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Ted Flanagan, Chief Customer Officer at super{set}-founded Habu, sat down with Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) to provide insights into how Habu's strategies in customer experience set it apart in the data collaboration market. Learn how customer experience strategies helped Habu land a $200 million after being acquired by LiveRamp in January 2024.
read moreVivek Vaidya recaps his conversation with AI researcher and author of "The Alignment Problem" Brian Christian at the 2023 super{summit}.
read moreTom Chavez, writing in TechCrunch, calls for new approaches to the problems of Ethical AI: "We have to build a more responsible future where companies are trusted stewards of people’s data and where AI-driven innovation is synonymous with good. In the past, legal teams carried the water on issues like privacy, but the brightest among them recognize they can’t solve problems of ethical data use in the age of AI by themselves."
read moreIn our last post, we discussed how data is the new general-purpose technology and that is why at super{set} we form data-driven companies from scratch. But new technologies are a promise, not a sudden phase change.
read moreTom writes a nuanced take on the TikTok controversy and outlines ethical data principles that will restore people’s sense of trust and offer them true control over how and when they grant permission for use of their data.
read moreWriting in the Huffington Post: "My Mom Sent Me And My 4 Siblings To Harvard. Here's The 1 Thing I Tell People About Success."
read morePankaj Rajan, co-founder at MarkovML, describes his Big Tech and startup experience and his journey to starting a company at super{set}.
read moreIn a conversation with boombox's co-founder India Lossman, the discussion pivots to the art of fostering customer collaboration in music creation. Lossman unveils how artist-driven feedback shapes boombox's innovative platform, with a glimpse into AI's empowering potential. Understand the synergy between technology and user insights as they redefine the independent music landscape.
read moreComing up with new company ideas is easy: we take the day off, go to the park, and let the thoughts arrive like butterflies. Maybe we grab a coconut from that guy for a little buzz. While this describes a pleasant day in San Francisco, it couldn’t be further from the truth of what we do at super{set}. If only we could pull great ideas out of thin air. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.
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