Oct 27, 2014
This episode features Steve Blank and George Zachary. Steve Blank has had a 33- year career as a successful businessman, conservationist and teacher. As a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steve was part of/or founded eight venture-backed companies. Four of his eight startup companies went public. After he retired, he started new careers in conservation, public service, and teaching. After retiring, Steve moved from being an entrepreneur to teaching entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program. Steve wrote a book (actually his class text) about building early stage companies: Four Steps to the Epiphany. He followed it in 2012 with his next book; The Startup Owners Manual. In 2007 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Steve to serve on the California Coastal Commission, the public body which regulates land use and public access on the California coast.
George Zachary, a partner at Charles River Ventures and early investor in companies like Yammer, Shutterfly, Jambool, Udacity and others. He joined CRV in 2004 with 20+ years of operating and investing experience in computing and consumer technology. George's focus is on building consumer internet and infrastructure companies. Previously, he was a general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV).
Prior to MDV, George led the Nintendo 64 development business at Silicon Graphics, managed sales and marketing for virtual reality pioneer VPL Research, and served as a product marketer at CATS Software. George earned a joint BS from MIT and MIT Sloan School of Business (1987).
Listen as two Silicon Valley legends interview each other at Startup Grind 2013.