Podcast appearances and mentions of steve vassallo

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Best podcasts about steve vassallo

Latest podcast episodes about steve vassallo

Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different™
396 You Need a Dream, Not a Deck: Zero Billion Dollar Markets with Steve Vassallo

Christopher Lochhead Follow Your Different™

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2025 61:52


On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a dialogue with Steve Vassallo, a General Partner at Foundation Capital, to celebrate the firm's 30th anniversary and explore the evolution of venture capital (VC) in Silicon Valley. We discuss the shift of many traditional VC firms from early-stage investments to a more asset management-oriented approach. Steve Vassallo talks about the importance of maintaining a craft-oriented, personalized approach to VC, focusing on product excellence and effective distribution. He also highlights the current trends in AI and blockchain, urging founders to prioritize innovation and core product differentiation in a rapidly changing market. With nearly 18 years at Foundation Capital, Steve shares his unique insights into the changing landscape of venture capital, the importance of maintaining a craft-oriented approach, and the challenges faced by early-stage founders. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go. Celebrating 30 Years of Foundation Capital Foundation Capital recently marked its 30th anniversary, a significant milestone in its journey. The firm has launched its 11th fund, a $600 million vehicle aimed at supporting extraordinary founders at the earliest stages of their ventures, particularly in the enterprise sector. Steve Vassallo adds that more than half of their investments focus on early-stage companies, including seed and Series A rounds, with a strong emphasis on technology, particularly in fintech and crypto. Steve Vassallo on the Changing VC Landscape Christopher and Steve Vassallo then discuss the evolution of VC firms, noting that many traditional firms have transformed into asset managers rather than remaining true venture capitalists. Steve points out that the percentage of capital raised by these firms for early-stage investments has dwindled significantly. He estimates that only about 20% of the capital raised by these larger firms is allocated to early-stage investments, with the majority directed towards growth-stage companies. In contrast, Foundation Capital dedicates approximately 70-80% of their recent fund to backing founders at the inception of their ideas. Steve humorously refers to these early-stage entrepreneurs as "pre-founders" or "pre-criminals," highlighting the raw potential and creativity that often characterize this stage of entrepreneurship. The Craft of Venture Capital Their conversation then moves to the notion that venture capital is fundamentally a craft business rather than a scalable factory-like operation. Christopher likens the venture capital process to crafting custom surfboards, where the quality and personal touch of the creator matter significantly. He argues that the best results come from a deep, personalized partnership with founders, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Reflecting on his own background in product design, Steve Vassallo adds that he initially believed that the best product would always win in the market. However, he quickly learned that effective distribution often trumps product quality. This realization was humbling for him, as he recognized the critical role that marketing and sales play in a product's success. He stresses that when extraordinary products are paired with exceptional distribution channels, remarkable outcomes can occur. To hear more from Steve Vassallo and the future of Venture Capital, download and listen to this episode. Bio ​Steve Vassallo is a General Partner at Foundation Capital, where he invests at the intersection of design, technology, and business. Since joining the firm in 2007, he has led investments in transformative companies such as Stripe, Sunrun, Cerebras Systems, and Solana. Steve co-leads Foundation's crypto practice and is known for backing product-first founders tackling consequential problems ...

Sand Hill Road
Why does Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital choose to invest early?

Sand Hill Road

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2025 29:00


Steve Vassallo, a general partner at Foundation Capital, has been known to invest at the intersection of design, technology, and business, but at a very early stage. He said much of it has to do with hearing the lessons of his "helicopter mom," the late Helen Guillette Vassallo, a well-known business professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sand Hill Road Host Scott McGrew spoke with Vassallo, a former project lead engineer at IDEO, to learn more about why he invests early on in startups, his cryptocurrency philosophy, and how his upbringing helped shape his investment ideology. Sand Hill Road is hosted by Scott McGrew and produced and edited by Andrew Mendez. Sara Bueno manages NBC Bay Area's digital platforms. Stephanie Adrouny is the station's news director. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at sandhillroad@nbcuni.com or on any social media platform at @nbcbayarea.

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital: My Favorite Books, Tools, Habits and More | 20 Minute Playbook

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2023 26:20


In Episode #123, we deconstruct Steve Vassallo's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Steve is General Partner at Foundation Capital. We cover translating non-human languages, enlightened procrastination, and his insatiable curiosity. “Go deep, go early, go big.” – Steve Vassallo EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/steve-vassallo-playbook/  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/steve-vassallo-playbook-transcript/  CHAPTERS In this episode, we deconstruct Steve Vassallo's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:03:52 – Translating non-human languages 00:06:35– Having insatiable curiosity and a deep love of building hard things 00:08:27 – Investment philosophy can be distilled down to conviction 00:10:21 – You can always find a way to build something you've already sold, but you can't always sell something you've already built 00:12:08 – Enlightened procrastination 00:14:44 – Thinking, Fast and Slow 00:17:10 – Invest in people you want to work with 00:21:01 – Take stock of what you're granting your attention to ABOUT STEVE VASSALLO Steve Vassallo has been a general partner at Foundation Capital for the last 15 years. At Foundation, he's led the firm's investments in Stripe, Cerebra, Sunrun, Loft Orbital, Solana, and many other incredible firms. Steve is also the author of The Way to Design, which is a guide to how companies of all sizes should approach design. The book is a compendium of interviews with more than 50 designers, design scholars and tech founders who have gotten design right from day one. Steve began his career at IDEO where he worked closely with IDEO's founder, David Kelly, to research design and deliver innovative products and services across industries. Because of Steve's early experiences at IDEO he's drawn to product-centric founders and has a wonderful knack for bringing design and engineering together to create incredible products. In this episode, we cover why Steve has been fascinated with the wicked problems that exist in Crypto and why he thinks we're still in the earliest innings there. He talks about his work with the earth species project, whose goal is to decode non-human language in mammals of all sizes from whales to monkeys. Talks about how he combines insatiable curiosity and a deep love of building hard things in his investing work. He shares his advice for founders and investors, and he shares his favorite books, including why he loves Thinking Fast and Slow and Poor Charlie's Almanack.

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Trailer – Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital: My Favorite Books, Tools, Habits and More | 20 Minute Playbook

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2023 3:24


Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow's 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital. In it, Steve Vassallo shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Foundation Capital: Reinventing a 27 Year Old Venture Capital Firm | Steve Vassallo, General Partner

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2023 68:24


In Episode #120, we explore reinventing a well-established venture capital firm. We're joined by Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital. We cover Minimum Awesome Product, the prepared mind vs. open mind, and learnings from tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm. “The best product matters, but it is not what defines a generationally important company.” – Steve Vassallo EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/foundation-capital-steve-vassallo  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/foundation-capital-steve-vassallo-transcript  CHAPTERS This episode is our definitive guide to reinventing a venture capital firm. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:39 – From electro mechanical engineering to product design 00:06:22 – Interdisciplinary innovation and missionary misfits 00:10:24 – How investing snuck into Steve's career 00:15:33 – Working at the intersection of building and investing 00:19:24 – A 15-year window into the investment world 00:24:45 – Tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm 00:39:04 – Identifying a firm's turning point 00:41:21 – Going down the rabbit hole of crypto and enticing investors to follow 00:51:35 – The prepared mind vs. open mind 00:54:44 – Building the best product matters, but it doesn't guarantee success 00:57:56 – The Minimum Awesome Product and evolving product-market fit 01:02:07 – Advice for new founders ABOUT FOUNDATION CAPITAL Steve Vassallo is General Partner at Foundation Capital and author of "The Way to Design." In this episode, we explore what it's like to reinvent a venture capital firm. Foundation Capital was founded in 1995, 27 years ago by Bill Elmore, Catherine Gold, and Jim Anderson. One of the foundation's early claims to fame was that it was one of the first investors in Netflix back in the early 2000s.  This episode is our definitive guide to reinventing a venture capital firm. In it, we cover Steve's early years bringing design, product, and engineering together at IDEO, and what that taught him about building successful products and companies, the early warning signs he saw that made it clear Foundation Capital needed to be reinvented, how Foundation rediscovered who they were and who they wanted to be as a team, how they changed the way they operated and made investment decisions to giving partners more latitude to invest in the ideas they thought could be massive companies in the years to come, how they began making crypto investments, which led to massive wins in Solana and Brave by making small bets and winning over LP support as the wins added up.

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Trailer – Foundation Capital: Reinventing a 27 Year Old Venture Capital Firm | Steve Vassallo, General Partner

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2023 4:10


Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow's Spotlight episode featuring Foundation Capital with Steve Vassallo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
#123 Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital: My Favorite Books, Tools, Habits and More | 20 Minute Playbook

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2022 25:20


In Episode #123, we deconstruct Steve Vassallo's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Steve is General Partner at Foundation Capital. We cover translating non-human languages, enlightened procrastination, and his insatiable curiosity. “Go deep, go early, go big.” – Steve Vassallo EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/steve-vassallo-playbook/  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/steve-vassallo-playbook-transcript/  CHAPTERS In this episode, we deconstruct Steve Vassallo's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:03:52 – Translating non-human languages 00:06:35– Having insatiable curiosity and a deep love of building hard things 00:08:27 – Investment philosophy can be distilled down to conviction 00:10:21 – You can always find a way to build something you've already sold, but you can't always sell something you've already built 00:12:08 – Enlightened procrastination 00:14:44 – Thinking, Fast and Slow 00:17:10 – Invest in people you want to work with 00:21:01 – Take stock of what you're granting your attention to ABOUT STEVE VASSALLO Steve Vassallo has been a general partner at Foundation Capital for the last 15 years. At Foundation, he's led the firm's investments in Stripe, Cerebra, Sunrun, Loft Orbital, Solana, and many other incredible firms. Steve is also the author of The Way to Design, which is a guide to how companies of all sizes should approach design. The book is a compendium of interviews with more than 50 designers, design scholars and tech founders who have gotten design right from day one. Steve began his career at IDEO where he worked closely with IDEO's founder, David Kelly, to research design and deliver innovative products and services across industries. Because of Steve's early experiences at IDEO he's drawn to product-centric founders and has a wonderful knack for bringing design and engineering together to create incredible products. In this episode, we cover why Steve has been fascinated with the wicked problems that exist in Crypto and why he thinks we're still in the earliest innings there. He talks about his work with the earth species project, whose goal is to decode non-human language in mammals of all sizes from whales to monkeys. Talks about how he combines insatiable curiosity and a deep love of building hard things in his investing work. He shares his advice for founders and investors, and he shares his favorite books, including why he loves Thinking Fast and Slow and Poor Charlie's Almanack.

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Trailer – #123 Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital | 20 Minute Playbook

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2022 3:24


Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow's 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Steve Vassallo of Foundation Capital. In it, Steve Vassallo shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
#120 Foundation Capital: Reinventing a 27 Year Old Venture Capital Firm | Steve Vassallo, General Partner

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2022 66:54


In Episode #120, we explore reinventing a well-established venture capital firm. We're joined by Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital. We cover Minimum Awesome Product, the prepared mind vs. open mind, and learnings from tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm. “The best product matters, but it is not what defines a generationally important company.” – Steve Vassallo EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/foundation-capital-steve-vassallo  FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/foundation-capital-steve-vassallo-transcript  CHAPTERS This episode is our definitive guide to reinventing a venture capital firm. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:39 – From electro mechanical engineering to product design 00:06:22 – Interdisciplinary innovation and missionary misfits 00:10:24 – How investing snuck into Steve's career 00:15:33 – Working at the intersection of building and investing 00:19:24 – A 15-year window into the investment world 00:24:45 – Tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm 00:39:04 – Identifying a firm's turning point 00:41:21 – Going down the rabbit hole of crypto and enticing investors to follow 00:51:35 – The prepared mind vs. open mind 00:54:44 – Building the best product matters, but it doesn't guarantee success 00:57:56 – The Minimum Awesome Product and evolving product-market fit 01:02:07 – Advice for new founders ABOUT FOUNDATION CAPITAL Steve Vassallo is General Partner at Foundation Capital and author of "The Way to Design." In this episode, we explore what it's like to reinvent a venture capital firm. Foundation Capital was founded in 1995, 27 years ago by Bill Elmore, Catherine Gold, and Jim Anderson. One of the foundation's early claims to fame was that it was one of the first investors in Netflix back in the early 2000s.  This episode is our definitive guide to reinventing a venture capital firm. In it, we cover Steve's early years bringing design, product, and engineering together at IDEO, and what that taught him about building successful products and companies, the early warning signs he saw that made it clear Foundation Capital needed to be reinvented, how Foundation rediscovered who they were and who they wanted to be as a team, how they changed the way they operated and made investment decisions to giving partners more latitude to invest in the ideas they thought could be massive companies in the years to come, how they began making crypto investments, which led to massive wins in Solana and Brave by making small bets and winning over LP support as the wins added up.

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Trailer – #120 Foundation Capital: Reinventing a 27 Year Old Venture Capital Firm | Steve Vassallo, General Partner

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2022 4:10


Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow's Spotlight episode featuring Foundation Capital with Steve Vassallo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listening Post
How to Grow as a CEO (Tien Tzuo and Edith Harbaugh)

Listening Post

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2021 37:26


Podcast: B2BaCEO (with Ashu Garg) (LS 45 · TOP 1% what is this?)Episode: How to Grow as a CEO (Tien Tzuo and Edith Harbaugh)Pub date: 2021-04-21In this installment of our FC BUILD series, my partner Steve Vassallo talks with Edith Harbaugh, co-founder and CEO of LaunchDarkly, and Tien Tzuo, co-founder and CEO of Zuora. Both former engineers, Edith and Tien offer advice for building a startup, discuss scaling in the time of virtual work, and dissect the art of managing others and themselves.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Foundation Capital, Ashu Garg, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

How to B2B a CEO (with Ashu Garg)
How to Grow as a CEO (Tien Tzuo and Edith Harbaugh)

How to B2B a CEO (with Ashu Garg)

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 21, 2021 37:26


In this installment of our FC BUILD series, my partner Steve Vassallo talks with Edith Harbaugh, co-founder and CEO of LaunchDarkly, and Tien Tzuo, co-founder and CEO of Zuora. Both former engineers, Edith and Tien offer advice for building a startup, discuss scaling in the time of virtual work, and dissect the art of managing others and themselves.

How to B2B a CEO (with Ashu Garg)
How to Manage on the Edge of Chaos (Reed Hastings, CEO & Co-Founder of Netflix)

How to B2B a CEO (with Ashu Garg)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2021 33:13


This is a special episode of B2B a CEO. Last month, Foundation Capital held a special event for all of our CEOs. We hosted a conversation with Foundation’s most illustrious CEO, Reed Hastings, the CEO and cofounder of Netflix. General Partner Steve Vassallo and General Partner Emeritus Mike Schuh interviewed Reed about his new book, No Rules Rules. Reed discusses the evolution of Netflix, and what he’s learned over the decades about how to build a high-performance culture. He also shares a few stories from back in the day. https://foundationcapital.com/how-to-manage-on-the-edge-of-chaos/

Anchor Stories
Steve Vassallo: Behind the Scenes of Song Writing

Anchor Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2019


“My inspiration came from meditating on Romans—particularly justification and sanctification—which naturally overflowed into praise and it became a prayer for the city.” Steve Vassallo (Burwood Gospel Community) Listen above to Steve’s heart behind ‘Worthy of My All’, the song he wrote for our Romans sermon series, The Anatomy of Grace. WORTHY OF MY ALL LYRICS...MORE >

Equity
Scooters go mad, Opendoor wants to buy your house, and Meituan’s IPO

Equity

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2018 28:09


Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was something of a first for the crew, twice. First, we had two guests on the show, and, also, we only made it through two and a half topics. The former is good, the latter is, well, we’ll see. So, this week Matthew Lynley and I were joined by David Chao, co-founder and general partner at DCM, and Steve Vassallo, a general partner at Foundation Capital. Points to both for being guinea pigs. Heading into our first topic I’m sorry to inform you that, at least in terms of Equity, scooters are the new Uber. So, we wound up talking about both this week. We started with the fact that Bird is raising new capital at an even more staggering valuation than before ($2 billion!), and that Lime is working to raise a truckload of capital itself. (Reports vary, but it’s probably a $250 million equity round at around a $750 million valuation. There may also be some debt in the mix for Lime. More when we lock that down.) And, as Chao’s firm is an investor in the space, we had even more to chew on. Next up we dug into the massive new Opendoor round. The firm’s new $325 million puts it into a solid position to help people sell their houses. Which markets are the best fit was something for us to unspool, along with public market comps, such as they are. But most critical, at least in my view, was the idea of risk. On that point Vassallo made a reasonable argument regarding stress testing. We’ll see. And finally, we touched on Meituan’s impending IPO, and how it came to be. Thanks for sticking with Equity after all this time. We’ll be back next week with another round of chatter about the latest, greatest, and dumbest that tech has to offer.

Equity
Scooters go mad, Opendoor wants to buy your house, and Meituan’s IPO

Equity

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2018 28:09


Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was something of a first for the crew, twice. First, we had two guests on the show, and, also, we only made it through two and a half topics. The former is good, the latter is, well, we’ll see. So, this week Matthew Lynley and I were joined by David Chao, co-founder and general partner at DCM, and Steve Vassallo, a general partner at Foundation Capital. Points to both for being guinea pigs. Heading into our first topic I’m sorry to inform you that, at least in terms of Equity, scooters are the new Uber. So, we wound up talking about both this week. We started with the fact that Bird is raising new capital at an even more staggering valuation than before ($2 billion!), and that Lime is working to raise a truckload of capital itself. (Reports vary, but it’s probably a $250 million equity round at around a $750 million valuation. There may also be some debt in the mix for Lime. More when we lock that down.) And, as Chao’s firm is an investor in the space, we had even more to chew on. Next up we dug into the massive new Opendoor round. The firm’s new $325 million puts it into a solid position to help people sell their houses. Which markets are the best fit was something for us to unspool, along with public market comps, such as they are. But most critical, at least in my view, was the idea of risk. On that point Vassallo made a reasonable argument regarding stress testing. We’ll see. And finally, we touched on Meituan’s impending IPO, and how it came to be. Thanks for sticking with Equity after all this time. We’ll be back next week with another round of chatter about the latest, greatest, and dumbest that tech has to offer.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
Steve Vassallo (Foundation Capital) - Focus on Users to Solve Problems

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2018 54:57


Throughout life, Steve Vassallo has advanced his career through design thinking, from the slick flyer he created on his parents' computer to get him more work as a boy, to his five years at IDEO, and now as a startup investor at Foundation Capital. Vassallo explains how strategies like user observation and asking the right questions will get you to the heart of any problem that needs solving.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series
Steve Vassallo (Foundation Capital) - Focus on Users to Solve Problems

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2018 53:55


Throughout life, Steve Vassallo has advanced his career through design thinking, from the slick flyer he created on his parents' computer to get him more work as a boy, to his five years at IDEO, and now as a startup investor at Foundation Capital. Vassallo explains how strategies like user observation and asking the right questions will get you to the heart of any problem that needs solving.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series
Steve Vassallo (Foundation Capital) - Focus on Users to Solve Problems

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2018 53:54


Throughout life, Steve Vassallo has advanced his career through design thinking, from the slick flyer he created on his parents' computer to get him more work as a boy, to his five years at IDEO, and now as a startup investor at Foundation Capital. Vassallo explains how strategies like user observation and asking the right questions will get you to the heart of any problem that needs solving.

Making Ways
One Year of Making Ways: 50 Creators, Artists, and Entrepreneurs on Navigating Your Creative Career Path

Making Ways

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2018 42:11


It’s time to celebrate one year of Making Ways podcast! 50 creative minds, 50 career journeys, 50 compelling conversations…50 episodes. Over the past year, host, marketer, and illustrator Rob Goodman has sat down with creatives of all stripes to discuss the winding journeys to their most fulfilling careers. Our guests have navigated unexpected paths and come out on the other side to share pitfalls, lessons learned, and amazing advice. These learnings can help any creative-minded professional pursue a career that will bring them joy—and have an oversized impact on their communities too. In today’s episode, we look back at some of the interviews that listeners have loved. Hear insightful stories from artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs like Kelly Inouye, Alexandra Kenin, Windy Chien, Paul Madonna, Susa Cortez, George McCalman, Steve Vassallo, and Kimberly Bryant. Thanks for an amazing first year of Making Ways. Cheers to more stories and inspiration ahead to help you chart a creative path all your own.

Beyond Users
7- Steve Vassallo @Foundation Capital: Empathy is killing your product

Beyond Users

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2018 48:44


Steve Vassallo is a general partner at Foundation Capital (VC firm that invested in Pocket, Netflix, Uber etc.). Prior to that, he worked as a lead designer at IDEO where he worked on a famous Cisco's 7900 series VoIP phone. He recently published a book "The Way to Design", which helps designers become entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs adopt best design practices. You can read the book for free online. In the episode we talked about: why will the 21st century be the decade of design, why empathy has become a buzzword and what empathy really is, common struggles of designers who want to become entrepreneurs.

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why The Current Crop Of VC Does Not Understand Design, Why Product Market Fit Is A Liquid Not A Solid & How Graduates Can Optimise Their Career for Personal Development with Steve Vassallo, General Partner @ Foundation Capital

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2018 29:42


Steve Vassallo is a General Partner @ Foundation Capital where he sits or has sat on the boards of Pocket (acquired by Mozilla), PrivateCore (acquired by Facebook), Sunrun [RUN], Sentient Energy and many more. Prior to Foundation, Steve was Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering @ Ning, the social platform he helped launch in 2004. Before that, Steve was a project leader at IDEO, where he developed more than a dozen successful products for companies including Cisco, Nike, BMW and McDonalds. In addition, this year, Steve published The Way to Design, a guidebook for becoming a designer founder and building a design-centric company. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Steve made his way into the world of VC with Foundation from the land of product management? 2.) Why does Steve believe we have seen design move from a styling exercise to the main stage and a foundation of product? How does Steve feel the current crop of VC's analyse and appreciate design? What are they getting wrong? What can be done to engender a new sense of appreciation for good design? 3.) What advice would Steve give to a young person entering the workforce considering founding a startup, joining one or joining an incumbent? Where do they make their biggest mistakes? What is the optimal choice for learning and personal growth? 4.) Why does Steve have a problem with the term "product-market fit"? Where do people misunderstand about PMF? What is one looking to achieve with product market fit? How does Joe Gebbia @ Airbnb best present this idea? 5.)Steve has worked with dozens of 1st time founders over the last decade, what are the commonalities in the mistakes they make? What advice does Steve hear most commonly given that he disagrees with? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Steve’s Fave Book: Poor Charlie's Almanack Steve’s Most Recent Investment: forusall As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Steve on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Cooley are the global law firm built around startups and venture capital.  Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with 50+ years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues that arise through a fund’s lifetime. So to learn more about the #1 most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public. Head over to cooley.com and also at cooleygo.com. Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don’t take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.    

Making Ways
Steve Vassallo, Designer, Entrepreneur, and Investor

Making Ways

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2017 34:16


Steve Vassallo is a lifelong builder, maker, and designer. These days he’s helping startups design a better future as a general partner at venture capital firm Foundation Capital. From his early days playing with Legos to his time engineering products for Cisco, Nike, and BMW at renowned agency IDEO and his startup success with Immersion and Ning, Steve has always been mercilessly focused on the user––designing products, businesses, and investments around what will best impact our world. Steve is the author of the recently released The Way to Design, a thought-provoking guidebook for design-oriented entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to bake design thinking into the foundation of their organization. Listen in to this week’s episode of Making Ways to hear about Steve’s decision to attend Stanford business school, lessons he’s learned along his journey, and great advice on the value of risk-taking and experimenting for emerging startups.

IDEO Futures
Episode 49: Steve Vassallo + The Way to Design

IDEO Futures

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2017 45:32


Steve Vassallo is a General Partner at Foundation Capital and works at the intersection of business, technology, and design—all things close to our hearts. Steve joins Diego on episode 49 to talk about his new book, The Way to Design. The book is available to download for free at www.thewaytodesign.com and will be available in print this fall on Amazon. Find Steve on the Twitter: www.twitter.com/vassallo And as always, we love hearing from you: www.twitter.com/ideofutures or futures@ideo.com

Getting2Alpha
Steve Vassallo on the next chapter of design thinking

Getting2Alpha

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2017 32:43


Steve Vassallo trained as a mechanical engineer, studied design thinking at Stanford, and worked at IDEO as a award-winning product designer. Now he’s an early-stage investor at Foundation Capital, where he helps founders bring world-changing ideas to life. If you’re into great design, you’ll love Steve’s new book, The Way to Design - where he shares his passion for the intersection of user experience and systems thinking. Listen in and learn how Steve’s design sensibilities inform his investing choices and inspire his knowledge-sharing.