Welcome to Goldman Sachs Exch's Exchanges, great investors. I'm Ken Hirsch, co-chairman of the global

technology, media, and telecom group, and head of venture capital coverage within Goldman Sachs'

global banking and markets business. Today, I'm thrilled to be speaking with Mike Spicer,

managing director of Sutter Hill

Ventures. As one of Silicon Valley's most respected venture capitalists, Mike doesn't just invest

in companies. He often takes a leading role in building them. It's a strategy that's proven

massively successful, producing winners such as Snowflake, among others, in which Mike has served not only

as an early investor, but also as founding CEO. We'll talk today about Mike's career, his approach

to investing in leading Sutter Hill, and this unique moment for Silicon Valley.

Mike, thank you for hosting me here in your offices.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for coming to California to do this.

Goldman Sachs team, and thank you, Ken.

Thanks for the partnership in general and the opportunity.

You joined Sutter Hill Ventures in 2008, a firm with a rich and storied history dating back to the 1960s

as one of the earliest and most influential

Silicon Valley venture firms, producing such winners as Nvidia, pure storage, snowflake, and more

recently, Astera Labs. What drove your decision to become a venture capitalist at that time? And how did

your experiences leading up to that point prepare you for that moment?

You know, I really wanted to build great things my whole life since I was a teenager.

And I'd done startups. I'd worked at large companies. And venture capitalists were the ones

I would always kind of work with to try to figure out how to finance my companies and also learn.

...