Why "Evergreen Companies" Beat Venture Capital at Its Own Game with Dave Whorton
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People
Guy Kawasaki
4.5 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if the path to building a lasting company isn't about explosive growth and quick exits? Dave Whorton, former venture capitalist, challenges Silicon Valley's "get big fast or die" mentality in this eye-opening conversation. After witnessing the Netscape IPO transform startup culture forever, Dave discovered an alternative approach: evergreen companies built for profitability, purpose, and generational endurance. From his experience at Hewlett Packard to founding the Tugboat Institute, Dave shares why some of today's most successful businesses—from See's Candies to Enterprise Rent-A-Car—chose patience over pressure. His book "Another Way" reveals the seven principles that create companies designed to last decades, not just reach the next funding round.
---
Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.
With his decades of experience in Silicon Valley as a Venture Capitalist and advisor to the top entrepreneurs in the world, Guy’s questions come from a place of curiosity and passion for technology, start-ups, entrepreneurship, and marketing. If you love society and culture, documentaries, and business podcasts, take a second to follow Remarkable People.
Listeners of the Remarkable People podcast will learn from some of the most successful people in the world with practical tips and inspiring stories that will help you be more remarkable.
Episodes of Remarkable People organized by topic: https://bit.ly/rptopology
Listen to Remarkable People here: **https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guy-kawasakis-remarkable-people/id1483081827**
Like this show? Please leave us a review -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!
Thank you for your support; it helps the show!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From October 7th to 9th in San Francisco, the Masters of Scale Summit returns. |
| 0:05.6 | It's where the boldest minds in business, tech, and beyond gather to build the future. |
| 0:11.5 | And we want you to join us. |
| 0:13.7 | Here from the CEO of the New York Times, scientists using cutting-edge technology to find cures, |
| 0:18.9 | the leader of crypto powerhouse coinbase, a retired |
| 0:22.0 | four-star general, and many, many more. They're all on the same stage, and it's not just another |
| 0:28.4 | conference. It is the gathering for remarkable people. Apply to attend at masters ofscale.com |
| 0:35.4 | slash remarkable. That's masters of scale.com slash remarkable. That's masters of scale.com slash remarkable. |
| 0:40.9 | Wisdom is a much more powerful thing towards wealth, but I think sometimes when people find true |
| 0:46.0 | wisdom, they realize they aren't really pursuing wealth. Wisdom makes them realize that wealth |
| 0:51.0 | really wasn't the endgame. The in-game was relationships with your family, |
| 0:56.0 | your friends, with other people you admire. Because when people are on their deathbed, they're not |
| 1:00.9 | reflecting on how much money is in their bank account, outside of enough to be comfortable. |
| 1:04.5 | But they reflect on what was the impact they had with other people, how are people impactful |
| 1:08.5 | to them? What kind of legacy they leave in that dimension? |
| 1:16.6 | Hello everybody. I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is the Remarkable People podcast. |
| 1:21.6 | We go all over the world, finding remarkable people to inform and inspire you. |
| 1:26.6 | And we found the remarkable person in Sun |
| 1:30.4 | Valley Idaho his name is Dave Wharton and he started his career at a great company |
| 1:37.2 | Hewlett Packard I love Hewlett Packard their calculator changed my life after |
| 1:43.0 | Hewlett Packard he became a venture capitalist. |
| 1:45.4 | And if you're going to be a venture capitalist, why not go to work for Kleiner Perkins and John Doer? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Kawasaki, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Kawasaki and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

