FF 006: Acquired by Amazon, CEO @ Digg, EIR @ a16z and now Founder @ Pro.com with Matt Williams

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The Twenty Minute VC

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4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2015

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt Williams is Founder and CEO of Pro.com. Prior to Pro.com, Matt served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz, following his time at Digg where he led the complete overhaul of Digg which he joined as CEO in 2010 to rebuild the site from the ground up and contributed to its successful acquisition by Betaworks in 2012. Before Digg, Matt spent 12 years at Amazon where he managed Amazon’s Auctions and Marketplace, Community and Cross Merchandising, Tech Alliances, Web Store, and Consumer Payments divisions. Prior to Amazon, Matt founded and was the CEO of Livebid, which was acquired by Amazon in 1999.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Matt made his way into entrepreneurship and then later the VC world?

2.) How did LiveBid come about when Matt was only 23 and how did he build the product and the initial user base?

3.) What was the hardest aspect of the entire LiveBid journey and how did Matt overcome it?

4.) How did Matt's life and work change moving from your own startup to working in a massive organization like amazon? What would Matt advise founders who have sold or are thinking of selling their companies to large corporations?

5.) Following a number of years at Amazon. How did you attempt to turn Digg around as CEO and was their anything you would have done differently?

6.) As EIR at Andreessen Horowitz what was it like, for Matt, working at a16z? Was there anything that surprised Matt about the move to venture?

7.) What would Matt say was the biggest lesson from working at these tech titans was? How has that affected how Matt runs Pro.com today?

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's that time of the week, it's Founders Friday, and today I could not be more delighted than to welcome a true
0:05.7	titan to the tech industry. Having founded LiveBid at 24, he was then acquired by no less than the
0:12.8	great Amazon, where he then spent 12 years managing a multitude of divisions before being appointed
0:18.9	CEO at my very own favourite dig.
0:21.9	He then progressed to being entrepreneur in residence at the VC giant Anderson Horace,
0:27.9	and now he has reverted back to his founder roots.
0:31.6	Since he co-founded pro.com back in 2013, it's A16Z Jeff Bezos backed and it's an incredible interview where we discover the inner workings of the true titans of the tech industry.
0:46.7	Our guest today is of course the legendary Matt Williams.
0:50.7	But before we jump into today's interview, I would love to hear what you think of my new show in collaboration with syndicate room.
0:57.3	It's called Angel Insights and it delves inside the world of Angel investing to discover their tactics, tips, tricks and all the metrics that Angels really look at when they're analysing seed investments.
1:09.3	I would love to hear your thoughts and you can let me know
1:11.8	by emailing harry at the 20 minute VC.com. Likewise, I would love to hear what you think of
1:19.0	Founders Friday. Obviously, it's a new addition to the show and we would love your feedback and any
1:23.5	thoughts you might have on it. But ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's time to welcome the genius that is Matt Williams.
1:31.3	CEO and co-founder at Pro.com.
1:38.9	You have now arrived at your destination.
1:43.3	Matt, thank you so much coming on the 20-minute VC in this special episode of Founders Friday.
1:48.5	Now, can you start us off with a little background on yourself and your entrepreneurial origins and how you really made your journey?
1:57.5	Sure, happy to do so.
1:59.0	Today, I am founder and CEO of Pro.com, a marketplace for connecting up homeowners with pros to get anything done in and around the home.
2:09.3	And we've been out for about a year, out in the kind of public offering in terms of our website and offering.
2:19.5	We've been in business for just about two years.
	...

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