Matt Abrams from Seven Peaks Ventures: Strengths in Action #02
Welcome to the second episode of the Strengths in Action podcast.
In this episode, I chat to Matt Abrams, Investment Partner at Seven Peaks Ventures and learn:
- When to move on from a role
- The power of aligning your work with what you are most talented to do
- Prioritizing yourself, your family, friends and your work and the challenges that go along with that
If you find typos in the transcript, please let me know in the comments 🙂
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Nils Vinje:
Welcome to the show. This is Nils Vinje, your host, and I’m joined to day by the one and only Matt Abrams, partner at Seven Peaks Ventures. We are fortunate enough to be broadcasting here from the wonderful city of Bend, Oregon, where Matt and I are fortunate enough to call home. Matt, welcome.
Matt :
Thank you much, Nils. It’s great to be here, and yes, we are very fortunate to be here.
Nils Vinje:
Absolutely. One of the greatest places in the world, as far as we’re concerned, right? Matt, you’re partner at Seven Peaks Ventures. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what Seven Peaks is and the type of work that you do?
Matt :
Yeah. Seven Peaks Ventures is an early-stage venture firm. We invest in companies, startup tech companies that is, across the west, predominantly in regions outside the Bay Area. We’re focused in really three main areas. We’re looking at enterprise analytics companies, machine learning, so and so forth. Digital health and what we call disruptive marketplace platforms.
Nils Vinje:
What’s that?
Matt :
Disruptive marketplace platforms, we actually keep it pretty broad. Everything from crowdfunding to real estate, to disruptive platforms in high school education coding, if you will, to, as we go forward, in AR, VR, watching BitCoin IOT, so and so forth. Things that you can’t put into this very specific bucket at this point.
Nils Vinje:
That’s fascinating stuff. What is your role as a partner in this VC firm?
Matt :
I wear my enterprise hat. I’m the enterprise, the analytics side person, that’s my specialty and focus. I come from that space for the last twenty years. Also, of course, while we’re here, the customer success portion as well. I’m the resident tech geek as well. I’m the geek of the firm, how’s that?
Nils Vinje:
Perfect, that’s perfect. A lot of people that get into venture funding come from lots of different diverse backgrounds. Can you share a little bit abut how your path and how did you end up as a partner in a venture firm?
Matt :
I would say a lot of luck, a lot of doors that opened because of luck, and I stepped through. I grew up here in Oregon. Small lumber town, swore I’d never come back to the state of Oregon after I got out of high school.
Nils Vinje:
Really?
Matt :
School in Chicago.
Nils Vinje:
University of Chicago?
Matt :
Northwestern.
Nils Vinje:
Northwestern.
Matt :
Go Cats.
Nils Vinje:
Go Cats.
Matt :
That’s right. Then I migrated to DC from there, and that’s where I got my first foray into the analytics world in government agencies.
Nils Vinje:
What’s going on in analytics in government agencies that that’s not …
Matt :
Less than everyone thought was going on.
Nils Vinje:
Tell me more.
Matt :
This was back in the mid, in the second half of the 90s where, I always joke around how “X-Files” was on at that time, and everyone saw black helicopters who were coming around. At that time, analytics was so immature, and there wasn’t this great ability in the systems that were in place for whether a government agency or companies to have great analytical infrastructure systems. Certainly not like anything that we have today, especially on the private side from the Facebooks to Googles. The Amazons of the world, so and so forth. That was my first foray there. I then got recruited to a Silicon Valley firm, Arbor Software, and ended up driving project management at Arbor. Then I chaired one of the industry standards bodies and analytics and BI [inaudible 00:03:46] XML for analysis. With Microsoft and [inaudible 00:03:50] and about thirty leading BI companies at the time. Got acquired by Oracle in ’07, and then ended up leading one of the worldwide customer engineering teams there for all analytics, performance management, hardware, software, cloud on premise.
Where we were responsible there ultimately for making sure that the customers were successful from a development and product engineering perspective. That’s really where spending my days and nights, and weekends, and still living some of the trauma there. It’s something that incredible experience from a small start-up all the way up to the large scale Oracle size in the world. I’m still an advisor fortunately of the Oracle exec team, but winding that down and still wearing the dual hats, but focused on the venture side.
Nils Vinje:
Okay, cool. Now you mentioned that analytics is really a specialty and focus of yours now, and you also said that analytics was the key part of the very first opportunity you had out of school. How did that happen? How did you know, or did you know that analytics was a passion area? Were you curious? What is it about analytics that interests you?
Matt :
It’s a good question. I never … In terms of first getting into it, it wasn’t something that specifically I knew coming out of college, that that is an area I wanted to pursue. It was certainly something that as I spent time in some of the agencies in DC at the time, that was a coordinating focus area. It’s something that you were just starting to see OLAP come on to the scene.
Nils Vinje:
Yes.
Matt :
You were just starting to see these new BI tools, like MicroStrategy at the time, so on so forth. You had the older statistical, a lot more [inaudible 00:05:53], assassins of the world.
Nils Vinje:
Yeah. Right.
Matt :
This was really for me it was … That’s where I got my interest, and I just ran with it from there.
Nils Vinje:
That’s awesome.
Matt :
Yeah.
Nils Vinje:
That’s fascinating. Oftentimes, the path that people go through to get from their first job to what they’re passionate about, then it’s so great that there was great alignment on that, on the first opportunity.
Matt :
It was phenomenal. If you asked me then as to whether or not I would’ve … What my career would’ve looked like, and you [inaudible 00:06:24] venture side … Getting in the venture side was in large respects, again, just luck and an accident. I happened to be gone for a hike outside up in Tumalo Ridge outside Bend that you and I both know. It’s about ten miles west of town the mountains, and I ran into a guy on a mountain bike named Bruce Cleveland. Bruce was one of the original folks at Oracle. He was one of the early guys at Siebel with Tom Siebel, and became Chief Product [inaudible 00:06:54] at Oracle, then chief at investment office InterWest. [inaudible 00:06:58] three quarters of a billion dollar funds. He was looking for a place to live and move to Bend in that respect. He’s the one that ended up introducing me into the venture world and getting me going.
Nils Vinje:
That’s fantastic. Yeah. Awesome. Coming back to the themes in your career, it started analytics heavy, and then you went product management, and then you got into some other [inaudible 00:07:20] executive roles, et cetera. From a theme’s perspective, where did you really excel first?
Matt :
I think that one, I’ve always been early adopter on technology, and I’ve always wanted to be close to products. I would argue that I’ve always been much more of a generalist versus a deep expert in a particular area.
Nils Vinje:
Yeah. Give me an example what a generalist in the context of what your today [crosstalk 00:07:53] the past. What does that mean?
Matt :
When I say generalist, I look at … I would take a product manager. As a product manager, you have to know the product and the product’s face. You have to know the customers, you have to know the markets. You are a overall generalist, and yes you might be more of an expert in that particular product if you will, but you’re a generalist overall. You’re not the individual developer of that product, you’re not the individual QA person. You have a broad scope and a broad perspective in terms of that particular area overall. When I say generalist, that’s what I define there.
Nils Vinje:
okay. That role fits you well? That’s what you like to do?
Matt :
That was one of my … That specific role, product manager, one of my favorite roles throughout my career.
Nils Vinje:
Really?
Matt :
You have to … You’re responsible for everything. It allows you to be very close to the product, yet you’re defining the strategy, the roadmap, the direction. At the same time, you have to be very close to the customers. You’re not directly managing respective teams. You’re not a manager of the dev team. You’re not a manager of the QA team. You’re not a manager support. You’re a leader across all of them. That to me is great role.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. Places where you excelled were in that role, where you had massive responsibility, but had the closeness of customers, product, people, the whole thing came together and it was your responsibility.
Matt :
That’s right.
Nils Vinje:
Okay.
Matt :
I think that that … I transitioned from there into the customer success, customer engineering role within Oracle in that respect, where you need to combine all those skill sets together, and where certainly I had the flexibility and the opportunity to be a leader in the engineering organization to drive a change. To have an impact. To outline “Here is what the customers are facing the problems, here’s what we need to be doing.” To really move the needle and move the ball forward.
Nils Vinje:
Driving change and having an impact are things that are near and dear to your heart.
Matt :
Hugely.
Nils Vinje:
They sound … Continuous themes, if I look way back at that DC job with the government in the beginning, I imagine it was probably pretty tough to get a handle on that. Is that correct?
Matt :
I’m a junior grunt, that’s all, right? That was your … You’re thrown in the pool and you’re just learning. You’re drinking from the firehose. I think if I look back on my career, at every stage, it has been … I’ve moved on when I haven’t felt that I can really impact change or make a difference anymore. That is something that … Life is about a constant learning progression, and if you’re not learning, if you’re not pushing yourself and bettering yourself, as far as I’m concerned, you might as well grab a shovel and just throw yourself in a hole, and we’re done. It’s how do we constantly be making improvements, making ourselves better, making the people that are around us better, and vice versa? Can you have an impact? I think that the other piece, especially when it comes to this role and customer successes, that is a role where you can have an impact on it every single day.
Nils Vinje:
A hundred percent.
Matt :
Yeah. You have to look at it through that lens as to how do you constantly be bettering your customer experiences, your organizations, the products, the company, and if you can no longer have an impact, because of political reasons or whatever may be, then that’s when you look at it through the lens of “What’s my next step? What’s my next career move?”
Nils Vinje:
That’s really interesting. The key pivot points for you in moving throughout these different organizations was really about your ability to drive change and have an impact.
Matt :
Ultimately yes.
Nils Vinje:
As soon as that stopped.
Matt :
As soon as that stopped, for me, you become disenfranchised and you become a non-effective resource [crosstalk 00:12:09].
Nils Vinje:
You’re just going through the motions or something.
Matt :
You’re going through the motions, you’re not learning, and that’s something where that’s a danger zone for us all.
Nils Vinje:
How do you get to where you can realize that? What I mean is that sometimes when you’re in a role or in an organization, you can’t see the forest for the trees. Right? You’re just stuck and you’re doing your things, and you might think you have an impact, but how did you personally take a step back from those things and re-assess, “Really, am I really making an impact? Am I really driving change?” Was this something you thought about regularly? Did you have a check-in with yourself? How did that come to be that you had realized that “Hey, this is no longer serving my needs of driving change or making an impact”?
Matt :
I think you do have to have those intentional checkpoints with yourself.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. Can you give me an example of how you think about a checkpoint?
Matt :
Sometimes that may be daily. In terms of “I’m frustrated as hell,” right? My blood pressure keeps going up and I have to see my cardiologist X many times. That can’t be right.
Nils Vinje:
There’s good analytics in that.
Matt :
There is. That’s right. That’s a separate story … I always said for myself that I would certainly go through an evaluation period once a year, personally.
Nils Vinje:
Once a year, okay.
Matt :
Sometimes I would do it more often certainly, but it was once a year really taking a hard look and saying, “Where am I at? Am I having an impact? Am I enjoying what I’m doing?” Enjoying doesn’t mean that you’re not frustrated, that it’s hard. Enjoying to me means I’m learning, I’m making a difference.
Nils Vinje:
Got it.
Matt :
It can be the most frustrating, stressful thing that there possibly is, and you’re still having fun. It’s still worthwhile.
Nils Vinje:
It comes back to that learning piece.
Matt :
That’s right.
Nils Vinje:
It’s critical.
Matt :
I think that there are too many people that think just because something is hard that, “Wait, I shouldn’t be doing this.” Guess what? Life is hard. We have it easy.
Nils Vinje:
Right. Okay. With all this talk about areas in your career where you have struggled, that weren’t quite so easy or well aligned with you, what were some of the challenges that you went through?
Matt :
I think that the biggest struggles it’s more of a … I think it’s more personal in nature in this respect. My career, my life, I’ve spent proving to myself trying to prove to someone as to “Hey, I am good at this. I do know this.” I think that is something that each of us have our own struggles personally in that regard, and you get strength from that, and there’s a weakness to it. I get a tremendous amount of strength in my career of never thinking that I was doing as much as I possibly could or was as good as I possibly could be, and always trying to be better. That’s something that I will have with me I think until the day I keel over.
Nils Vinje:
Sure.
Matt :
That’s something I struggle with. I think the other piece is struggling with … Especially when you … I think many folks have a personality and attitude where you care deeply about the responsibility and what your task was doing. Sometimes caring is overrated.
Nils Vinje:
Sometimes caring is overrated.
Matt :
Sometimes giving a shit sucks.
Nils Vinje:
Give me an example, or tell me more about that.
Matt :
I think that … I want to turn this back to the customer success folks here, and that is that you have to remind yourself, what is it that you’re doing? Are you saving lives here? Right? Let’s get it in real.
Nils Vinje:
Put it in perspective.
Matt :
Put it in perspective. It’s important to have that intensity, to have that drive. You have to take care of yourself as well. You have to take care of your health, you have to take care of your team, you have to take care of the individuals, but you have to put things in perspective. That is something that I certainly don’t have a perfect answer to. It’s why I go out and mountain bike and hike. I’d be a much angrier person if I didn’t. That’s turning it off. I still to this day, frankly, the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is I turn over, I read my emails. The last thing I’m doing at night is going through and responding and checking emails. This constant struggle and need for … There’s so much information, and they’re not signals. There’s a lot of noise, but there’s so much information that I feel a need to keep up with, or constantly be “All right, what’s that next thing?”
Nils Vinje:
What’s the next step. Was it the drive then of that first thing checking email in the morning, last thing at night, feeling like you’ve got to keep finding, looking for more signals through the noise? What’s the drive within you?
Matt :
Not wanting to drop the ball and not being unreliable.
Nils Vinje:
Okay.
Matt :
Consistent.
Nils Vinje:
Being consistent.
Matt :
They are plenty of times that I can certainly identify where certainly I dropped the ball, I haven’t been consistent, and failed a bit in my own expectations or others’. Those are aspects for what that drive is and why I do those things, and why I feel like I need to constantly read up on it. I also think it’s I’m highly competitive. I want to be better than the next person. There’s no way that I want someone else and to [inaudible 00:18:25] someone else who’s more of a mental ghost than it is from a reality perspective.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. That’s served you well in the drive and push, and the mental ghost.
Matt :
Hugely.
Nils Vinje:
Someone else is not there.
Matt :
That’s right.
Nils Vinje:
Right?
Matt :
Yeah.
Nils Vinje:
The flip side of that is, how has that not served you well?
Matt :
One, when you spend so much time focusing on the work side things, and especially when you have a family, this is an area that I certainly feel like I can improve upon, and how do I be a better father? How do I be a better husband? How do I have more time and focus there versus on these things that I still incredibly am passionate about on the work side, and where I want to constantly be learning. That’s a reality. I think Sheryl Sandberg has talked about this and others have brought it up in terms of, for instance, women can have it all. I’m paraphrasing, I may not have it correct. My fundamental feeling is that no, you can’t have it all. That you can only … We’re fortunate to have what we do. Let’s continue to be better and try to strive for things, but I certainly feel that there are always places where I can improve or things that I can say, “Man if I had more time here.” I think that’s an important aspect.
Nils Vinje:
What is the driver then when you’re talking about the balance between the drive on the professional side and pushing hard there, and the family side? How do you draw the … Not boundary, but how do you get perspective on what you can have and what you can’t have?
Matt :
This is a rationalization on this respect, so take it as that. I would rather that my kids see that the work ethic and the example that I set in that regard, and that life takes a lot of hard work, and having them understand that. Again, that’s a rationalization perhaps. I shouldn’t say perhaps, but is. That’s the best way I can give an answer to that one.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. Setting the example for your kids of what real work ethic is.
Matt :
That’s right.
Nils Vinje:
What has enabled you to be successful for your life.
Matt :
It has not been because I was the smartest kid in the class. It was not because I was genius level in this. This goes back to folks I always been one on [inaudible 00:21:07] in general as well. I want individuals who they’re the hardest working individuals, the most dedicated, the most ethical, the highest integrity, intense. At the same time, humble individuals that I can get. It’s not the “Wow, here’s someone that has this genius IQ and that is smarter than everyone else.”
Nils Vinje:
Okay. Curious. If you had to say in priority order, give you three things: your family/relationships, yourself, and your work. How do you think about those from prioritization order in just complete honesty?
Matt :
There’s the what I would like to versus what there is.
Nils Vinje:
Let’s talk about the is first, and then the like to. Is first.
Matt :
The is would probably be work, self, and family.
Nils Vinje:
Okay.
Matt :
That’s probably the reality. Ask my wife-
Nils Vinje:
Thank you for being honest.
Matt :
Maybe she might differ on that. The like to would be family, self, and work.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. What’s the gap between those two, the reality of today and the future?
Matt :
I don’t know. It’s an honest answer there. It goes back to what I said before as well in terms of setting an example. Is that the right path? A friend of mine sold one of his last companies, did very well, and he was able to then spend more time with his kids at a pivotal period in their life. We had the discussion as to what would be … He wanted to get back into something, and his kids are seeing him at a certain point where he doesn’t have to work, and we had the discussion as to … He knows if he jumps back into something that he’s going to go full bore. That’s where his time, that’s his personality. We talked quite a bit about as to what’s the example you want your kids see. What’s better? Is it that you’re able to spend all this time with them during this seminal period? Do you want your kids to see that “Wow, dad actually did work his butt off to have the fortunes that we do”? That’s how I tend to frame my perspective on it.
Nils Vinje:
Okay, cool. We talked a little bit about learning before and your drive on learning. How could you sum up your philosophy around personal development as you have defined and demonstrated throughout your career?
Matt :
Personal development, I really put into the … Again, you have to have the initiative of your own. You have to dig down and deep, and figure out on your own aspect as to being able to have your own self-drive. No one’s going to do it for you. You have to get yourself to a confidence level in yourself that you can go and make a difference and have an impact, no matter how big an organization might be. You can go and pick up a phone and call someone no matter what their title is. What their notoriety whatever may be.
Nils Vinje:
Where did that come from within you? That self-drive, that initiative, ability pick up the phone at any point throughout your career?
Matt :
I think certainly early on as a kid, being the youngest of four and having to fight my way through everything, and being very independent. Also, certainly earlier on in my career having opportunities to intersect with “people in high power positions.” At some point, I think it truly was in those early days just realizing that I want to get in here. It doesn’t matter who it is, I’ll talk to this person. I’ll go through this door. A lot of doors are open for individuals. You got to go through. It’s not being afraid of a “no.” Ask. The worst thing that’s going to happen is you’ll get a “no” as an answer.
Nils Vinje:
Which you already know might come.
Matt :
That’s right. Certainly when it comes to working with customers here … Look, you never be shy about picking up that phone and having those conversations and building a relationship. Not the networking, but the relationships with senior individuals. This is true across any size company or organization. I think that there is a poster I had on my wall when I went through college, and that’s one of the original Nike women’s running ads.
Nils Vinje:
What’d it say?
Matt :
It had all these “nos” carved in the wall. All these different shapes and sizes. The poem or words [inaudible 00:26:58] “A thousand times they’ll tell you no. A thousand times they’ll tell you you’re the wrong height, the wrong weight, the wrong size, to be this, to play this, to achieve this. A thousand times they’ll tell you no, until all the nos become meaningless. A thousand times they’ll tell you no, and you quite quickly and quite firmly will them yes.” The same is true with entrepreneurs. One way to look at entrepreneurs today, they’re going to hear from us that we may say no. Doesn’t mean we’re right. They’re going to hear left, right, and center, and I’m sure that wouldn’t … When Elon Musk first went out and said, “I’m going to do rockets,” that people said, “Elon, you don’t know the first fucking thing about rockets. You don’t know the first thing about electric cars.” You’ve got to have that inner self-drive, and if you don’t have it, figure it out. No one’s going to figure that out for you. You can get mentors to help you with it, and to help bring it out of you, but you still have to be the one that says, “I want to act like this. I want to be like this.” You’ve got to then go do it.
Nils Vinje:
What was the first time you remember going through that “no, no, no” to get the eventual “yes”?
Matt :
Growing up as a kid.
Nils Vinje:
What was the most impactful part of that? What was it that was always “no”?
Matt :
The most impactful part, and we’re getting all psych about [inaudible 00:28:27].
Nils Vinje:
I’m just trying to understand the man [inaudible 00:28:30].
Matt :
That’s awesome. Certainly my old man had always said that one of us was going to fail, or we weren’t-
Nils Vinje:
One of you four kids.
Matt :
Yes.
Nils Vinje:
Verbally told you, “One of you four isn’t going to make it.”
Matt :
One of us was going to fail. It was his way of reverse psychology.
Nils Vinje:
How did you interpret that?
Matt :
That was, “I’m going to-”
Nils Vinje:
I’m not going to fail.
Matt :
I’m going to prove him and everyone else wrong. Certainly there were times when my life and I did not. I was lucky enough to squeak through college. That was something … When you ask, “What’s the earliest memory?” That was it. That’s what I remember and has driven a lot of it.
Nils Vinje:
That’s fascinating. You share that kind of advice or comments with your children?
Matt :
Yeah. In terms of …
Nils Vinje:
In terms of “One of you is going to fail,” reverse psychology.
Matt :
God no. No.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. No. It drove you and it served you well.
Matt :
Drove me and served me, and we all do the best we can on the parenting side. I tend to be rather than state in a reverse psychology like that, it’s “Hey, if you want to be able to do this, then guess what? Your natural skills or talent that you might have will only take you so far.” [inaudible 00:29:59] this discussion my wife and I with my oldest the other day, and he’s great and talented in lacrosse.
Nils Vinje:
How old is he?
Matt :
He’s ten. Actually nine. That natural ability only takes him so far. He’s got a lazy streak. He can make a choice. He can see how far he can just count on his natural ability without really trying, or hey, if he really wants to get ahead, if he really is passionate about this, then it’s going to require hard work, and part of that hard work is doing more than what others might do. Now he is on his own. He’s doing sprints, because he wants to be in better condition. [inaudible 00:30:42] pushing him on, it’s just saying, “Look, we [inaudible 00:30:45] had the discussion to say, hey, this will only get you so far. Beyond that, you need to work hard.”
Nils Vinje:
That sounds like it translates a hundred percent to teams and people that you’ve developed and managed. Was that a similar sense of what you brought to those people when you were working with them? The high performers or the maybe could be, but didn’t really apply themselves. What was your philosophy and development side on the management side in the roles that filled?
Matt :
One was that I hope, and you’ll have to talk with my former team members, but I hope I set an example by my actions. Max DePree has a famous quote where he says, “The first responsibility of the leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you, and in between, the leader is a servant [inaudible 00:31:34].” What that translates to for me is we owe our teams everything, but we have to define that reality, we have to set the example. For me, it was I needed to work my ass off and I needed to work harder in most cases than the team, and not ask them to do anything that I wouldn’t do, or had already done. That was something where one, it was by my actions and setting that example of what I was doing and how I was doing it. Two is walking through and discussion. Coaching them on “No, this is what you need to do.”
We had one team member come on board, he was a twenty-something kid, who he had just some raw and natural talents. Good guy. We dropped him into some engineering customer situations and he did not have the discipline as to “Wow, I need to work this hard,” because in the prior roles that he’d had and the prior organizations, it wasn’t as intense. You weren’t in this situation where you’re now the person if it’s reactive, running into the burning building. Things did not go well at first, and I had to have a sit-down with him and just said, “Listen, here’s the deal. This is how I expect you to perform. I’m not asking you to do anything that I don’t do or haven’t already done, or wouldn’t do myself. You have two choices. You either figure out how to do this, which I know you can, or you go elsewhere.”
Nils Vinje:
What’d he do?
Matt :
He figured it out. He’s been a phenomenal performer.
Nils Vinje:
Really?
Matt :
You give people those opportunities. You give them the guard rails and you define that reality for them. You help them through that, to a certain point. If they don’t do it and they can’t help themselves, then it’s very candid, very frank. It’s “No, this isn’t right for you.”
Nils Vinje:
They will thank you for that too.
Matt :
They absolutely will.
Nils Vinje:
It’s setting expectations there about this is exactly what is expected of you.
Matt :
I think you have to. Absolutely.
Nils Vinje:
Have to.
Matt :
It’s setting expectations, it’s setting examples, and it’s empowering them and giving them the opportunity to make the mistakes, or to make it even better. You want them to do it better than you ever did. I do want to throw this as well. I was fortunate that in a good chunk of my career, I was able to not have to commute, meaning not have to get in a car every day. I was working at a home office remotely, [inaudible 00:34:21] remote global team. I had one of my team leaders who made a comment, she said, “How do you get so much done? How are you so productive?” One very basic thing is she was spending, and had to spend, two to three hours a day-
Nils Vinje:
Commuting.
Matt :
Commuting. I didn’t have to. That productivity and efficiency gains just by me being able to do that was tremendous. I think that that’s a real problem we have broader societally in terms of our work forces, and we see this in Silicon Valley, especially now with the commute times and the productivity and efficiency’s lost, let alone the employee wellness. I think it’s a huge problem that we’re going to have to address, hopefully [inaudible 00:35:22] things such as self-driving cars, which make things more efficient. Telecommuting and telepresence more in general. VR will see a lot more coming out of that that makes businesses more efficient.
Nils Vinje:
Now a lot of people are a little skeptical on that side or might take the negative view that people will naturally tend to be lazy if there’s an opportunity, i.e. they’re on their own and not in the office or what not. What is your message to those kind of people who may say, “You know what? No. Everybody on this team has to be here because we all collaborate together and we all … It’s an energy we all feed off.” Especially in start-ups, right? What is your message to them about the benefits and the realizations that you’ve had over time, and what would you tell them?
Matt :
I think it certainly depends upon the stage of your company. Certainly for start-ups that many, absolutely, I firmly believe that you have to be there in person together. You’re building a-
Nils Vinje:
[inaudible 00:36:19].
Matt :
We’re talking early stage, that’s a chief product market fit perhaps. Certainly pre-prod market fit. I’m generalizing. This is not the case across the board, but a perfect scenario is absolutely that you’re able to build that team culture by having folks be in the same place together and work together, and really become a team. At the same time, if you create a culture where that … It doesn’t matter what size company. You’ve got to create a culture where there’s a culture of responsibility and teamwork, no matter where you’re located. That can be done very effectively in small start-ups, as well as large organizations. I think this is more about … Again, I come back to Max DePree’s comments, right? Defining reality, setting those guard rails and those expectations, setting an example, having communication processes so you can have regular check-ins interactions, and you feel that you’re actually working together. I think it’s going to become really much easier even as we go forward with things like AR and VR, but if you have to set the expectation as well, what’s unacceptable. You want to be able to empower those team members and individuals, but you also have to be very clear in terms of this is when you’re going to step in from a leadership perspective if you’re not performing. If you’re not [inaudible 00:37:57]. That needs to be defined upfront, regardless of the size, the structure, or the organization.
Nils Vinje:
Setting expectations clearly first and early on. Them empowering the team to go through the exercises and the work, and make the mistakes. Then supporting and guiding them through those [inaudible 00:38:15].
Matt :
Building that culture.
Nils Vinje:
Got it. Cool. Where do you get the most satisfaction in your work today?
Matt :
I love certainly looking at … As I said earlier, I’ve always been an early adopter. I love looking at new technologies and seeing what’s out there. It’s just a insatiable curiosity that I can’t explain other than I’ve always had this insatiable curiosity as to what’s next. What should be next. I can’t imagine that ever be something that goes away. That is a phenomenally enjoyable thing. The other aspect is really seeing these incredibly talented, smarter than I am, individuals that are solving these amazing problems, and being able to have an impact on helping them. Helping define my small part, part of the future in this respect, and solving real problems. You need some of these founders who such amazing ideas, such amazing talent. Yes, there are assholes, just like there are in every career and every side, so and so forth. In general, these entrepreneurs and founders which are doing amazing things and solving these important problems, that’s a fun thing to do. That’s something that’s very rewarding.
Nils Vinje:
Got it. Okay, that’s where the satisfaction comes from. I’m curious about what are you, Matt, most talented to do?
Matt :
Most talented to do.
Nils Vinje:
Yeah, what were you put on this earth to do?
Matt :
I think that I said here earlier that one of my friends said to me that, “Hey this is Matt. He’s read the internet. He’s [inaudible 00:40:19] next thing.”
Nils Vinje:
I can totally see that too by the way.
Matt :
Yeah. I think that from my point of view, my greatest talents are number one, really being able to look at new technologies and to be able to see things that can and will have an impact. I think as well is just building relationships. Not networking, but this is connecting the right good dots of people together. Folks that can come together and have a greater impact than they can on their own. That is something that trying to bring those respective groups or individuals, I think that’s a key attribute, skill, however you want to define it, that I’ve had. I think the other piece is, and it’s served me well throughout my life and my career, and especially within my role at Oracle, was being very blunt, candid, to the point, no bullshit. Bad news doesn’t get better with age, and because I’m a six-foot five-
Nils Vinje:
You’re a big guy.
Matt :
White male, being able to have a presence, both in person and on the phone at executive levels, where others may not have that same opportunity. Using that to my advantage as to never being shy or afraid. Here’s my perspective, opinion, and this is how we’re going to solve your problems. The customer success piece, I think one of the things that I was just very good at was in reactive situations, or proactive, there’s always a lot of [inaudible 00:42:19] going in, and it was … You want someone there that can bring calm and a plan. You want someone who you look at and say, “We’re going to take this hill and [crosstalk 00:42:34].” They’re going to be, “Great. Fantastic.”
Nils Vinje:
That was you?
Matt :
I was very good at that. I just had more of a skill I built up over the years through a lot of situations.
Nils Vinje:
Probably how you got the nickname The Sherpa too, right?
Matt :
The Sherpa or The Tank.
Nils Vinje:
Follow [crosstalk 00:42:57].
Matt :
There you go.
Nils Vinje:
Awesome. All right. Coming up on the last question here. If you could change something about yourself, what would it be and why?
Matt :
I mentioned this to you earlier. Being a better father and husband. I have the two, and again, every father will probably tell you this, two of the most amazing kids in the world. I have a wife that as others have said, I don’t deserve. She is the smartest, hardest-working, kindest individual who truly gets shit done. I feel, yes, I work hard over here in the work stuff. She works her butt off. She was an aerospace engineer and mathematician, and now she is the operations manager for our family.
Nils Vinje:
Which is a big job. It never ends.
Matt :
It never ends and-
Nils Vinje:
Twenty-four seven.
Matt :
On top of that, now she’s dipped into some of the venture management as well. That’s one of those things of being a better father and husband.
Nils Vinje:
Let me delve on just one piece of that there. What does “better” mean? To pick just one thing maybe.
Matt :
More time.
Nils Vinje:
Okay. How much more?
Matt :
Time is, at the end of the day, it’s not money. Time is our most precious asset. The time and just the presence of being there, whether it’s with our friends, our families, with our companies, and I am guilty of trying to do too many things often. We always tell our [inaudible 00:44:50], “You need to focus, focus, focus.” I believe in myself that I can focus on a lot of things at the same time and do them all well.
Nils Vinje:
You make your [inaudible 00:44:57] as well [crosstalk 00:44:59].
Matt :
That’s right. While I believe genuinely that I can do a lot more things better than most people can, it’s still I don’t give enough time to be able to sit down and spend with the family in that regards. This is where you say, “How much?” I would say it’d be good to do a couple hours more per day than what I do now.
Nils Vinje:
If you were to spend a couple hours more per day with your family, what would be different?
Matt :
They’d probably get sick of me.
Nils Vinje:
Wait, get back to the [crosstalk 00:45:40].
Matt :
That’s right, exactly. I think that I would not be as an effective person in my career and understanding and learning, and being able to do as much as I do there.
Nils Vinje:
You would not be.
Matt :
I would not be.
Nils Vinje:
Okay.
Matt :
Again , this gets back to you can’t have it all. You’ve got to trade off on things. I think that is just the reality in life.
Nils Vinje:
What are you willing to trade there between those … What it is today, what you said would be better.
Matt :
It’s not a question of willing to trade. It’s a question of just having the awareness to try to do things better. Year over year, month over month, day over day. Trying to … This isn’t going from step A to step Z. It’s can I move the needle a little bit, tune the dials? As long as you’re constantly … This is a lifelong process, of constantly tuning those dials to just be better in every aspect.
Nils Vinje:
Always improving, always learning.
Matt :
That’s right. If you’re not, again, that’s where you’re doing something wrong, and that’s where you need to check yourself.
Nils Vinje:
Good. Cool. Matt, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate the honesty and candid responses across the board.
Matt :
Thanks [crosstalk 00:47:06].
Nils Vinje:
Cheers man.
Matt :
Cheers. All right.