Episode 35: Chris Lyons, Managing Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, on launching the firm's Cultural Leadership Fund, harnessing his music business skills in Silicon Valley, and creating a brand in the wine industry.

Boardroom Talks

Boardroom Podcast Network

Business, Entrepreneurship, Sports

4.4 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2021

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a Managing Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's most influential Venture Capital firms, Chris Lyons also runs its Cultural Leadership Fund, the first consisting of 100% African American Limited Partners. To date, CLF has invested in over 65 startups at the intersection of culture and innovation, and across multiple industries including consumer, enterprise, crypto, and fintech. Lyons also created Silicon Valley’s first “influencer network,” establishing numerous strategic partnerships between emerging technology companies and seasoned athletes, entertainers, musicians and corporate executives. In 2019, Lyons was named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People. But Lyons has a very atypical Silicon Valley success story. He started his music business career as a sound engineer for Grammy-winning producer, Jermaine Dupri, and initially went out to Silicon Valley for what he assumed would be a short trip. But in 2013, Lyons landed a position as Chief of Staff to Ben Horowitz, the Andreesen Horowitz co-founder, where his smarts, hustle, and well-developed network accelerated his rise through the ranks. In this episode, Lyons talks to Rich and Gianni about how invaluable his music business background has been to his Silicon Valley success; the seeds of his friendship with Rich and KD; how he ended up founding Italian wine brand, Lyons Wine; and his passion for diversifying the ranks of tech entrepreneurs and VC professionals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's up everybody and welcome to another boardroom out of office podcast number 35 today, number 35 in honor of obviously 35 ventures, man.
0:17.0	And today we got somebody that's been watching 35 ventures grow from probably pretty much the beginning.
0:24.7	And he's somebody that both Gianni and I are friends with, somebody that, man, we have a good laugh every time we hang out.
0:30.8	So I'm expecting nothing different today.
0:33.1	Welcome to the show, entrepreneur venture capitalist in my.
0:37.0	Oh, and so, wait, we'll have to figure out
0:39.2	what I say about your wine. And also the owner of Lyons wine, Mr. Chris Lyons. What's up, brother?
0:46.8	What's up? What's up? How are you guys doing today? Good, man. Thanks for coming on.
0:51.2	No, you already know. This is a long time coming. And I feel like we've had this podcast at least 500 times. It's just never been recorded. So this is awesome. Man, no, that is so true. And you and I have had some deep one-on-ones too, bro. We've had some powerful one-on-ones. The sessions. The sessions are real. The sessions are real.
1:12.4	Sponsored by weed maps.
1:20.8	But yeah, when we got to the bay, Gianni, you know, I've told you this.
1:21.2	KD. And I met Chris as soon as we landed, as soon as KD signed with the words and got there.
1:27.1	And we started
1:27.5	moving around a bit and we become close, close friends. And I know so much about you. So I didn't,
1:34.1	it's funny when I was prepping before and my version of prepping is, gee, and I joke about is like,
1:39.3	man, look at this piece of paper, bro. It's like four-old handwriting. But I flew through this piece of paper.
1:45.9	Like, I know you that well. And I think you and I have gotten close where, you know, we've really
1:51.1	gotten to understand each other's past in business and helped each other and inspired each other.
1:56.5	You grew up in Atlanta, though, right? You grew up in Atlanta, Georgia?
2:00.1	Yeah, right out, right outside about 30 30 minutes right, right outside of Atlanta.
2:02.6	But yeah, that's where I still got the 404 area code.
2:05.6	My conference lines, 404, went to Georgia State.
	...

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