Navin Chaddha (Mayfield) - Building a People-First Company
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)
Stanford eCorner
4.5 • 740 Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2019
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Navin Chaddha, managing director at the venture capital firm Mayfield, describes the firm’s core values and examines the drivers behind several of the firm’s most successful investments. Mayfield’s investment strategy, he explains, is to focus on the founder rather than the company. He describes how impactful founders identify their mission early and pivot when necessary, all while maintaining a firmly people-centered mindset.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Who you are defines how you build. |
| 0:05.0 | This is the Entrepreneurial Thought Leader series. |
| 0:09.0 | Brought to you by Stanford E-Corner. |
| 0:13.0 | On this episode, we have Navine Shata, managing director at the Mayfield Fund. |
| 0:19.0 | A former serial entrepreneur, Navine, |
| 0:21.5 | has co-founded three companies, including VX Dream. He's also partnered with over 100 entrepreneurs |
| 0:27.4 | and been involved in the positive financial outcomes of over 30 portfolio companies. Here's |
| 0:32.7 | Navine. I'm here to talk about some rules of the road for building iconic companies. |
| 0:45.3 | As you heard from Tom, Mayfield has been in business for over 50 years, and we have partnered |
| 0:52.3 | with thousands of innovators, many of whom who came from Stanford |
| 0:57.0 | and have gone on to create iconic companies. |
| 1:02.0 | However, if there's one thing I want you to remember from my talk today, it's that company building is a marathon, it's not a sprint. There'll be a lot of ups and downs. |
| 1:13.6 | It won't be easy. |
| 1:15.6 | It requires patience. |
| 1:17.6 | It requires perseverance and grit. |
| 1:20.6 | But believe me, from my own experiences as a serial entrepreneur, |
| 1:24.6 | the journey is well worth it. Let me start with my own journey, which is an example of this belief. |
| 1:33.3 | As probably you can tell from my accent and my looks, many people think I'm not from India, |
| 1:39.3 | but I am from India. |
| 1:41.3 | I went to Indian Institute of Technology, graduated at the top of the class. |
| 1:46.0 | Like many other Indian students, came to Stanford University. |
| 1:50.0 | I was blessed with a fellowship with $500 to pursue my master's in PhD in electrical engineering. |
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