My firstminute: Recent Episodes
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My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders, world's top founders and investors, sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
A very special edition of My firstminute with a sparkling double act: Sequoia investor extraordinaire, Roelof Botha, known for his investments into Instagram, YouTube, MongoDB, Unity, Eventbrite, Square, 23andMe, Bird, Evernote, BridgeBio and many more; alongside Grammy Award-winning musician, producer, and two-time entrepreneur, Ben Lovett.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Tuesday 14th July 2020, we hosted a special edition of “my firstminute” with Pam Kostka (CEO of All Raise) in conversation with Julia Collins (Co-founder & CEO of Planet FWD, Co-founder of Zume Pizza).
Pam is the CEO of All Raise whose mission is to amplify female voices, accelerate their success, and create a tech culture where women are leading, shaping, and funding the future.
Joining Pam is Julia is the founder of Planet FWD, the regenerative food company focussed on reversing global warming through sustainable food production. Previously, Julia co-founded Zume Pizza, helping the SoftBank-backed robotics company raise $423 million before she stepped down in 2018.
During the session, they covered everything from their experiences of founding, funding and building VC-backed startups as well as discussing the importance of what needs to happen now to meaningfully increase diversity in the founder-funder ecosystem.
Both of our guests are exceptional leaders with a passion for diversity and inclusion in the tech / VC space, making for an insightful and inspiring conversation!
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Tuesday 3rd June 2020, we hosted investor extraordinaire Peter Fenton.
Peter became a General Partner at Benchmark a little more than a decade ago after graduating from Stanford, part of the famous class of 1994 (which included the likes of Brian Acton, the founder of WhatsApp, and David Sacks, the C.E.O. of Zenefits). Peter was an early investor in Twitter, back when it had 25 employees and sat on the board until 2017.
Peter's current investments include EngineYard, Lithium, New Relic, Pentaho, Polyvore, Terracotta, Yelp and Zendesk. He also sits on a number of boards including Yelp, Docker, Zuora and many more.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Friday 5th June 2020, Steve Crossan, Venture Partner at firstminute capital, hosted Jess Lee, Partner at Sequoia Capital and former CEO at Polyvore.
Over her illustrious career, Jess has spent time working as Product Manager at Google, as CEO at Polyvore, and most recently as Partner at Sequoia Capital, where she became the youngest partner as well as the firm's first female Partner in the United States. Steve spent time exploring the many aspects of Jess' journey, her focus on consumer and community, and her outlook for the future of venture and startups.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Friday 29th May 2020, Camilla Mazzolini, Investor at firstminute capital, hosted a special edition of “my firstminute” with Rio Ferdinand (Former England and Manchester United Captain) in conversation with Michael Acton Smith OBE (Co-founder & CEO of Calm).
This episode's discussion ranged in focus, starting with Rio's journey from West Ham's youth team to playing professionally for Manchester United and as part of England's World Cup squads, leading on to his life and career post-football and his current interest in technology and investment. This was complimented by the exploration of Michael Acton Smith's journey in Founding Firebox.com, Mind Candy and most recently Calm ($1bn private valuation). Two exceptional leaders with a passion for health and technology, making for an insightful and inspiring conversation!
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Monday 4th May 2020, we hosted a special My firstminute session with David Helgason and Bing Gordon.
We covered everything from the earliest days of their careers, as founder and CEO of Unity Technologies for David and Chief Creative Officer at EA for Bing, to how they now enjoy helping and backing founders. David is a founding Partner at Nordics Makers, a group of ten top Nordic angels, and also has his private vehicle, Foobar.vc. As for Bing, he joined Kleiner Perkins in 2008 and serves as Chief Product Officer for the firm. He also leads Kleiner Perkins' sFund, the investment initiative to fund and build applications and services that deliver on the promise of the social web.
David Helgason's bio:
I'm a technologist, founder of a wonderful technology company, non-exec director to others, and a restless entrepreneur with a passion for creating feedback loops between innovation and teams and products, applying new and old business models to changing industries, and pushing people to do the very best they can do.
My background is in programming, an assortment of university dabbling, creating companies, and helping entrepreneurs. I served as CEO of Unity Technologies since co-founding it in 2003 and until October 2014, with an unflinching vision to democratize game development, and to develop technology and business models for the next phase of the games industry. We've done well thus far.
Bing Gordon's bio:
Bing Gordon joined Kleiner Perkins in 2008 and serves as Chief Product Officer for the firm.
Bing also leads Kleiner Perkins' sFund, the investment initiative to fund and build applications and services that deliver on the promise of the social web.
The sFund, launched in 2010 with strategic partners Amazon.com, Facebook, Zynga, Comcast, Liberty Media and Allen & Co., has made 16 investments to date, including four seeds. Bing serves on the board of directors of Amazon, N3twork, Zazzle and Zynga.
He was also a founding director at Katango (acquired by Google 2011), ngmoco (acquired by DeNA 2010) and Audible (acquired by Amazon in 2008). Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Bing had been a long-time executive at Electronic Arts, beginning with EA’s founding in 1982 with initial funding from Kleiner Perkins.
He was chief creative officer at EA from 1998 to 2008 and previously headed EA marketing and product development. Bing drove EA’s branding strategy with EA Sports, developed EA’s pricing strategy for package goods and online games, created EA’s studio organization, and contributed to the design and marketing of many EA franchises, including John Madden Football, The Sims, Sim City, Need for Speed, Tiger Woods Golf, Club Pogo and Command and Conquer.
Bing was awarded the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and he held the game industry's first endowed chair in game design at The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
He earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University and his B.A. degree from Yale University, where he serves on the President’s Council.
Bing's favorite games of all time are World of Warcraft, the Sims, Diablo, Pogo, Civilization, Columns, Freecell, Farmville and Cityville.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Tuesday 2nd June 2020, Spencer Crawley, Co-founder and General Partner at firstminute capital, hosted Jeff Immelt for a new edition of myfirstminute.
Jeff Immelt is the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric, which he stepped down from in 2017 after 16 years. Jeff was the 9th Chairman of GE, and has been named one of the "World's Best CEOs" three times by Barron's, and GE has been named "America's Most Admired Company" by Fortune magazine and one of "The World's Most Respected Companies" in polls by Barron's and Financial Times.
He now serves as a Venture Partner with our friends at NEA, sitting on the boards of several healthcare companies.
Spencer spoke with Jeff about the earliest days of his career, his leadership lessons from running a company of General Electric's magnitude, and his views on healthcare, the pandemic and US/China relations. Spencer also explored the challenges that Jeff faced as a leader, and how he now supports the next generation of entrepreneurs, operators and investors.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Thursday 16th April 2020, we hosted Ross Mason (MuleSoft Co-founder, Dig Ventures Managing Partner) and covered everything from scaling MuleSoft in a recession through to being bought by Salesforce for $6.5bn, to how we use the Coronavirus to come out stronger, to how to go about fundraising in times like this, to how to knowing who is essential in your team, to how do Enterprise SaaS customers respond to a crisis like this.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Thursday 30th April 2020, Lina Wenner, Principal at firstminute capital, hosted Riccardo Zacconi, Co-founder of King and Sweet Capital, and delved into Riccardo's depth of experience in running King during a major financial downturn, and explored how he now enjoys helping and backing founders.
Riccardo Zacconi's biography:
Riccardo was a co-founder of King and continues to serve as company Chairman, having served as CEO from 2003 until 2019.
Riccardo grew up in Italy, worked in management consulting at LEK and BCG before transitioning into tech at the start of the dotcom boom. In 1999, Riccardo joined Swedish online startup Spray to build its business in Germany. After the sale of Spray to Lycos Europe he moved to the UK as an Entrepreneur in Residence for Benchmark Capital. In 2002 Riccardo joined uk online dating startup uDate as VP of European sales and marketing. After the sale of uDate to IAC/Match.com, Riccardo co-founded King in March 2003 and was its CEO from the start, overseeing the company's rapid growth in the global mobile gaming sector to over 500 million monthly players, the company's IPO on NYSE and its $6bn sale to Activision Blizzard in 2016.
In December 2016 Riccardo was knighted by the Italian President with the title of Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. Riccardo is also the founder of the PTEN Research Foundation for rare genetic diseases.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Friday 26th June 2020, Clara Lindh Bergendorff hosted Niraj Shah, Co-founder, Co-Chairman & CEO of Wayfair.
Wayfair has been one of the global success stories of 2020, with its share price rocketing from $27 to $211 since March, and a market cap now exceeding $20bn.
Niraj co-founded the company with Steve Conine back in 2002 and the pair rapidly grew the business to become one of the largest online destinations for home furnishings, housewares, home improvement goods and more, generating $9.5 billion in net revenue for the twelve months ended March 31, 2020.
During the session, Clara explored the many aspects of Niraj's journey as well as his outlook on the future of commerce, contrarian ideas, COVID tailwinds, how to make marketplace economics work while serving a less than affluent demographic, e-com defensibility and the role of private label brands, and finally, why a US company should or shouldn’t expand internationally.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Thursday 7th May 2020, we hosted former Formula 1 Champion and Founder of GreenTech Festival, Nico Rosberg.
Nico Rosberg became Formula 1 World Champion in 2016 with Mercedes AMG Petronas and has since embarked on a career as a sustainability entrepreneur and investor in green technologies.
Nico Rosberg's drive as an entrepreneur is fuelled by the will to drive positive change for society and mankind. He pursues this approach not only in his business activities, but also as an ambassador for sustainable change in mobility through technological innovation. Rosberg has invested in numerous successful start-ups such as Lilium, Volocopter, What3Words, Tier and Lyft. He is also an investor and shareholder of the all-electric racing series Formula E. Rosberg is also a co-owner of the German vehicle technology company TRE GmbH, one of the leading companies in the field of chassis development.
In 2019, Nico co-founded the GREENTECH Festival, a global platform for innovative and pioneering green technologies, which attracted almost 40,000 visitors at its premiere.
Nico remains linked to Formula One through his commentary for the German TV channels SKY & RTL, his Rosberg Racing young driver’s academy and his engineering company TRE. He continues his work as an ambassador for many outstanding brands such as Rolex, Deutsche Bahn, Kempinski Hotels and Heineken.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Wednesday 20th May 2020, we hosted Matt Mullenweg, Founder & CEO Automattic ($3bn private valuation; makers of WordPress and Tumblr).
During the session, Sam Endacott, Investor at firstminute capital, covered Matt's journey of founding and growing Automattic, including the story behind developing WordPress, the Open Source software used by over 31% of the web. Sam also explored Matt's depth of experience in operating during a financial crises as well as his outlook on a post-lockdown world.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Monday 18th May 2020, we hosted Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S4 Capital and Founder of WPP. Sir Martin Sorrell remained its CEO for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company.
Sir Martin Sorrell shared stories about his earliest business days and how he overcame some of his toughest challenges, as well as how he sees the future and how he now enjoys supporting the next generation.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Wednesday 27th May 2020, we hosted Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder & Chairman at Eventbrite.
During the session, Kevin and Spencer Crawley, Co-founder and General Partner at firstminute capital, discussed the high and low points Kevin experienced with founding and growing Eventbrite and Xoom. They also covered his transition into the world of investing, the key criteria that he looks for as part of his investment process, and the advice he is currently employing with his own team and portfolio companies. Some of Kevin's early/seed investments include: Airbnb (Seed, Series A), Uber (Series B), Pinterest (Seed, Series A), and PayPal (Seed).
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Tuesday 30th June 2020, we hostedJeremy Zimmer, the Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of UTA. One of the industry’s leading agents for decades, he has been instrumental in establishing UTA as one of the world’s pre-eminent talent agencies with a reputation for its artist-first focus and oversees more than 1,200 agents, executives and employees globally.
After rising through the ranks as a talent agent, Zimmer co-founded UTA in 1991 and was named CEO in 2012. Since then, he’s led the company’s remarkable evolution into one of the world’s leading talent and entertainment companies through a series of ambitious acquisitions and expansions across news, speakers, content creation, music, esports, digital talent and sports spaces.
From fabled Hollywood family to super-agent to multi- hyphenate entertainment leader, Zimmer has helped guide the careers of some of the most influential names in entertainment today and personally represents artists such as Bryan Cranston, Chance the Rapper, DJ Khaled, Chelsea Handler, Kevin Hart, Anthony Hopkins, Don Cheadle, Tyra Banks, Ryan Seacrest, Noah Baumbach, Brian Robbins, and YG.
During the session, we explored everything from how Jeremy got started in his career, to his leadership advice in times of crisis, to his passion for the Arts, to his views on the future of media, entertainment and more.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Thursday 28th May 2020, Tommy Stadlen, Venture Partner at firstminute capital, interviewed Jennifer Fleiss, an entrepreneur who has founded and scaled two digitally native businesses from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack.
Together, they explored the earliest days of Jenny's career, starting out in the financial services, the subsequent journey which resulted in co-founding her businesses as well as her time spent with Torch Capital, a brand-focused venture fund, where she advises early stage companies.
Jenny Fleiss' bio:
Jenny Fleiss is an entrepreneur who has founding and scaled two digitally native businesses from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack.
Jetblack is the first portfolio company within Walmart’s technology incubator, disrupting traditional ecommerce with a personal shopping service over text message and voice. Previously, Jenny co-founded Rent the Runway, a business that has transformed the retail industry by making designer clothing rentals a convenient and accessible luxury experience for millions of women. During her time at Rent the Runway, Jenny wore many different hats, serving as President, Head of Logistics, and Head of Business Development. Jenny remains a Rent the Runway board member and adviser, a board member of Shutterfly and Jetblack, and an adviser to and investor in various businesses, many with female founders. She is Co-founder of the RTR Foundation, and guest lecturer at various universities and professional forums.
Jenny has been honoured with numerous recognition's including Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”; Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” and “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs”; and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.”
She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated Cum Laude from Yale University.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Monday 12th May 2020, Spencer Crawley, Co-founder and General Partner at firstminute capital, interviewed Dr Hermann Hauser, Co-founder of ARM ($31bn acquisition by Softbank), Co-founder Amadeus Capital, Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.
Dr Hermann Hauser is a science-based innovator and serial entrepreneur who has successfully developed and financed over 100 high-tech companies whilst offering inspiration and mentorship to the next generation of entrepreneurs.
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Wednesday 6th May 2020, Camilla Mazzolini, Investor at firstminute capital, hosted session to cover all things marketplace with three Unicorn founders turned investors: Cristina Fonseca (Talkdesk [$1bn private valuation] and Venture Partner at Indico Capital Partners), Fabrice Grinda (Co-founder & Co-CEO OLX [acquired by Naspers], Founding Partner FJ Labs), and Paul Forster (Co-founder & former CEO Indeed.com [$1bn acquisition by Recruit]).
My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.
On Thursday 14th May 2020, we hosted a special edition of “My firstminute” with Sir Clive Woodward, England's 2003 Rugby World Cup Winning Head Coach and Team GB Director of Sport, London 2012
Sir Clive is an icon of British sport. He pioneered elite performance culture and ‘marginal gains’ well ahead of his time. Drawing on his considerable commercial experience, Sir Clive has spent decades transferring successful leadership approaches between business and sport.
In conversation with technology founder and firstminute capital LP Tommy Stadlen, Sir Clive described his journey to World Cup glory, which began with no office, no phone, no management team and a losing culture. Tommy covered the lessons Sir Clive has learned applying high performance principles to football, Olympic sport and startups. And we also heard how a master planner has approached lockdown.
On Friday 15th May 2020, we hosted Spencer Rascoff, Co-founder & former CEO Zillow, Board Advisor at Tripadvisor, Co-founder & Executive Chairman of dot.LA, Co-founder Hotwire.com and Co-author of the New York Times' bestseller "Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate".
Clara Lindh Bergendorff, Investor at firstminute capital, dived into Spencer's career as investor, entrepreneur and company leader who has co-founded two businesses that became household names, Zillow ($8bn market cap) and Hotwire.com ($663m acquisition by IAC). Early this year, he also launched, dot.LA, a media and journalism company dedicated to covering and bringing together L.A.’s startup world.