Episode 06 - From Maine to MasterCard and Back: Building Legacy Through Innovation with Jen Millard - EIR Live

Episode Transcript
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Jen Millard (00:00):
In hindsight, I realized that I got most of the
jobs that other people had beenfired for, and I just wasn't
afraid. I was like, I don'tknow. I guess I could do that.
Sometimes, I think thoseprograms give fresh eyes to
existing problems that often getoverlooked. Why does a 29 year
old have, the agency to managean $800,000,000 budget?

Ilya Tabakh (00:21):
Welcome to EIR Live, where we dive into the
lives and lessons ofentrepreneurs in residence. I'm
Ilya Tabakh, together with my cohost, Terrance Orr, ready to
bring you closer to theheartbeat of the innovation and
entrepreneurial spirit. Everyepisode, we explore the real
stories behind the ideas,successes, setbacks, and
everything in between. Foreveryone from aspiring EIRs to

(00:42):
seasoned pros, EIR Live is yourgateway to the depth of the
entrepreneurial journey andbringing innovative insights
into the broader world. Checkout the full details in the
episode description.
Subscribe to stay updated, andjoin us as we uncover what it
takes to transform visions intoventures. Welcome aboard. Let's
grow together. Alright. Andwe're back for another amazing

(01:08):
episode.
We've had a a lot of great,guests, to date. But today, we
have, Jen Millard, who I had thepleasure of sitting down with
for coffee in Austin probablytwo and a half or 3 years ago
now. And it was funny becausethat was pretty early in my
kinda journey of reaching outand actually sitting down with,

(01:31):
entrepreneurs and residents andfolks that, you know, have kind
of that background generally.And it was amazing because, Jen
and I sat down, and it was areally dynamic conversation. I
think personality wise, itprobably would have been anyway,
but it was, you know, everyconversation with another EIR
is, like, 10 minutes of therapyand, like, pretty common shared

(01:51):
stories.
And I think it was that and thensome with Jen. And so I'm really
excited that, we're able to haveher, join us on the episode and
ultimately get to dig in intoher kind of amazing and dynamic
background. I'm not gonna kindof editorialize yet, on on your
background, Jen. I I might justask you to, tell us a little bit

(02:12):
about how you got started, andthen ultimately launched into
your career, and then we'll kindof walk through that journey,
and then Terrance and I willdive in with some questions. So
maybe if you can tell us alittle bit, what what launched
Jen's career.

Wow. Well, happy to be here, Ilya and Terrance.
Thanks so much. And, EIR as atopic and as a a passion is
close to my heart. I think it'sprobably one of the best roles a
a founder could ever have theprivilege of having.
Take some time to think of, yournext great idea with the
guardrails placed around yourconcepting by others. But

(02:50):
starting my career, I always sayI I was a first gen college
student. I hitched a ride toColby College with my best
friend who happened to also getinto Colby College, and, people
always always were like, well,did your parents take you to
interview? I'm like, I was apoor student from Maine. I just
had to figure out how to get tocollege.

(03:12):
So I consider Colby to be afoundational part of my,
origination, if you will. And,at Colby, quickly realized that
I was not likely to get a job inMaine after graduating from
Colby. My family werelobstermen, excavators,
construction home builders, and,candidly, the women in the

(03:35):
family didn't work in thosebusinesses because my uncles
claimed there was bad language.Now if they knew I moved to
software with a bunch swearingengineers all day, they'd still
have a problem with that. But,at the time, that was what was
going on.
So I, I left Maine to join SearsRoebuck in their management
training program. I moved toChicago, and, that was the start

(03:58):
of my sort of consumerobsession, I would say. So my
career was, really launched inretail, spent a decade at Sears
back in the day. I'm I'm datingmyself. And if you were good at
your job and goal oriented andaggressive, you could have a new
job every couple years at Sears.
Very much a resume buildingcompany. And I think this is

(04:21):
actually a a big error intoday's world for emerging early
in career young people ascompanies don't have these
programs anymore. So how do weexpect to grow salespeople? So
from, from there, I actuallyleft and took Bed Bath and
Beyond public. That was myfirst, like, IPO swing
experience and then opening 700stores in 2 years and the chaos

(04:46):
that ensues around all that.
And then, my last retail job, Iworked for Saks. And that was
back in the day when Saks haddepartment stores and all kinds
of glorious things, and you'd goshopping for the day. And we had
cruise wear back in the day. Youknow? So we just don't have
those kind of patterns.

(05:06):
And so I shifted my career atthat point to more software
orientation. So I I joined aconsulting practice called
Macmillan Doolittle. Most of myclients were technology clients,
on the West Coast that weretrying to sell to retailers, and
I kind of, moved into more of aconsultatory role for software
companies. And that's reallywhat started the journey,

(05:28):
Elliot.

Before we dive into that, actually, you you speaking
about Sears and sort of thatstructured program, I've
actually worked with a handfulof, you know, kind of older
established traditionalcompanies. And it it's sort of
striking to me the difference onhow they think about talent
development. And since youspent, you know, kind of that
much time Back in

the day. Yeah. If you wanted to be an operator
when I graduated in college in1990, I'll date myself. If you
wanted to be an operator inretail, you went to the Sears
training program, and it wasreally hard to get into. Very,
very cultivated, very curated.
If you wanted to be a buyer, youwent to the Macy's training

(06:07):
program. Very well known, verypopular, very successful. Most
of the, I'd say, best buyersI've ever met in my lifetime
went through the Macy's buyingprogram.

Terrance Orr (06:17):
Mhmm.

Unfortunately, we don't tend to, you know, grow
our own talent these days.Right? We expect talent to
arrive pretrained. I thinkthat's a kind of an egregious
error in a lot of ways,especially around management,
management training, leadershipskills. You can't necessarily
learn those from a classroom orfrom a book.

(06:38):
You actually need to practicethose as operators. And I think
the reason why I've be I've beena great operator throughout my
career is I had to run retailstores when I was 27 years old.
I didn't have a choice. I had tolearn how to figure it out, and
so you couldn't be afraid. Andso if you kind of are fearless
and, like, I can learn anythingand you have the confidence from

(07:02):
experiences that put you inthose positions to earn that
confidence, you can become abetter entrepreneur.

Yeah. And and and what I've seen is sort of the
generation or 2 ago in thesehistoric companies, the the
folks were kind of rotated, andhad kind of more dynamic, you
know, end to end experiences.And in many cases, that you
know? And and there are someprograms still. Like, I was,
Yeah.
A few years ago, I was atHallmark, like, the card folks.

Yeah. I love that company.

And there there's still, like, a lot of kinda work
and thinking about how do youeducate and digitize and sort of
do all these things. And theyalso have, like, an art center
where folks are carving gnomesand doing all kinds of crazy
creative art stuff. But but,yeah, it's just like a different
it's interesting to sort ofthink about.

No. I I'm gonna add on to that because, you
know, I I was fortunate enoughto sort of, like, go through a
program like this at a companycalled EMC, which most people
knew as a sort of global ITinfrastructure sort of company
and and provider, and they had aworld class sort of sales
program for, like, inside sales.And I went through that program,
and I never learned more in myentire life and career than
going through that program. Itwas, like, rigorous. You know, a

(08:13):
lot of exams, a lot of tests,selling.
I mean, it was just a veryinteresting program, but without
that program, I don't know thatI'd be I I would have the
foundation, right, to do thethings that I do today. So
hearing Jin talk about herexperience going through the
management program and how theysort of rotate you through
different departments, you justsort of have to learn. You drink
from the fire hose.

You're just showing up and you're like, okay. I'm
gonna run non selling payrollfor Sears from now on, and, it's
$800,000,000. That's

That's right.

Higher revenue than any of my companies since I
worked in corporate America.

That's right.

So, you know, I you know, you're like, why does a 29
year old have, the agency tomanage an $800,000,000 budget?

Mhmm.

In hindsight, I realized that I got most of the
jobs that other people had beenfired for, and I just wasn't
afraid. I was like, I don'tknow. I guess I could do that. I
could I could do that. It's notselling payroll.
How hard can it be?

That's right.

And I ended up doing amazing things with cost
takeout. You know? Sometimes, Ithink those programs give fresh
eyes to existing problems thatoften get overlooked. So, I
think we're missing a lot ofopportunities with how we bring
young people forward in theworkforce today, and trying
trying to do my part in makingthat better. I give back at

(09:28):
Colby.
I, participate in ourentrepreneurship program. I'm a
trustee at our college. It meansa lot to me to do that, give
back in 1 generation, to behonest, and, I feel like, I owe
my career to the ability tolearn how to learn, which I
learned at Colby College.

That's awesome. And, I mean, I I think in some
ways, taking an entrepreneurfrom the wild and putting them
in residence is also, you know,kind of a different training
program on how to be agile andand running beyond your agency,
maybe in some cases or at thevery age of it at least. And so
that's an interesting I hadn'treally thought about sort of the

(10:08):
the kind of formal and informaltraining pathways, but that's a
kind of an interesting thing tolook into. I mean, I guess in
those roles, though, you youalmost let's let's move into the
kinda consulting software side alittle bit more. You learn how
to sort of get your bearings,you know, and then ultimately
start moving quickly whenyou're, you know, placed into
new roles.

(10:28):
So maybe a little bit of thatwas applicable in into kinda
your second software chapter andkind of the the consulting side.

I think so. I mean, because, you know, the ability
to, synthesize a lot ofinformation quickly to to
generate a point of view,whether it's around a product
position, whether it's around anexecutive organization,
manifesting how you're gonnasolve a problem. I think that
does kind of pull frommultifaceted experience. But I

(11:00):
do think, and what I share witha lot of young entrepreneurs is,
there's always a, you know, I'mgonna fail. I'm going to I'm
going to let an investor down.
I'm going to not succeed in apilot for a client. All those
things are likely true. It's howyou manage your emotions and

(11:21):
yourself to navigate thosethings that are likely to be
true. And if you find them to beenergy generating or energy
draining, If they are energydraining, you are likely not an
entrepreneurial candidate. Ifthey are energy fulfilling, I
can be in a pitch, Ilya, formonths at a time.

(11:42):
If I believe it and I'm in itand I'm in the cycle, you know,
lean in harder. Not all peopleare wired that way. Right?
Sometimes the fear of no net is,is true is a real fear of, you
know, they didn't grow up in afamily. Maybe they had
traditional careers.
Maybe they all, you know, theyhad, sort of normal 9 to 5 jobs.

(12:06):
As a sidebar, my mom has notrecognized what I do since I
worked at Sears because, shecould, like, recognize what
Sears was. But when I started tomove to software that had names
like True Access or made upnames for, like, data
businesses, you know, she keepsasking if I'm you seem to work
so much, honey. Are you sureyou're getting overtime? He

(12:27):
doesn't understand, right, froma sort of a main mode to a
software mode.
So I often have to remind herthat, main is a different world,
to the rest of the world.

And, honestly, two points on that. I I think it's
really important to know, youknow, it's different being a
founder than an early employeeat a start up. And and,
ultimately, kind of the doingand starting a thing versus
joining a thing early are arealso different experiences even
if it's within kind of corporateexperience.

Risk profiles. Right? Different risk profiles
of individuals. Right? Like, youknow, I've I've founded 4
companies.
One not successful, 3 reasonablysuccessful exits, One great
exit, 2 reasonable exits, onenot so good exit. Probably
learned the most at the not sogood exit, because you learn

(13:18):
more from places that arestruggling than places that are
doing well in most cases. And sothe problems, at at the company,
it was a a large digital vendingmachine company that you see in
airports, that say Best Buy orSprinkles. But the
capitalization of that machinebecame the challenge for that
business. And so in, like, 08,09, when it was easy to get

(13:43):
debt, we used to underwrite allthose machines on behalf of our
customers.
When that debt line ran up,where does that liability go on
whose balance sheet? And that'sultimately what challenged the
company. And so the war storythat I I had sort of teed up to
share with you was I had tochoose which vendors would be
paid. We were running out ofmoney. We had rent payments.

(14:07):
We had payroll. And literallysitting down with the controller
of, alright, after we paypayroll, who's getting paid?
Very, you know, dark times, Iwould say. You know, very dark
times. Nobody wants to feel likethey let down their investors,
their employees.
But in the end, it was actuallya business model problem.

(14:28):
Company still challenges withthat same problem today, which
is where does the liability sit?So they never solved the
problem. They're still wrestlingwith the problem, but it's 15
years later.

Well, that's crazy. So so what what's fun there is,
a lot of business model problemsin the so you just said a couple
of things I wanna dig into. 1Yeah. Is sort of in that war
story, you know, it's it's onething to say it was dark times.
It was hard.
It's another thing to, like,zoom back back there and

(15:00):
remember sort of the feelingsand

My heart palpitations already started of
sitting there in my, like,sweatshirt and jeans with our
controller who's, you know, oldenough to be my grandfather at
the time, god love him, and, youknow, having to make, you know,
very difficult decisions, thatwould affect, you know, who
would who who would be paid andand how we would do that and how

(15:23):
we were gonna handle the winddown and how you would lay off
employees with the most gracepossible, and help them
transition to other jobs withgrace. You know? Very, human
lessons, I think, that I'vecarried through that that
experience through all my othercompanies that, you know, we all
we all try to take care ofemployees during great times. We

(15:45):
want people to feel energizedand participatory. People
actually need more supportduring hard times.

Yeah.

Like, you as the founder may be in it, but to
your point, Ilya, the peoplethat join you are less risk
tolerant than you.

That's right.

They join you because they believe in you, and
they believe in the vision ofthe company. So it's important
for founders to remember that ifyou get defeated, everyone
around you will also quickly getdefeated.

So, Jen, from your early time at at Sears and all
the roles that you've done andconsumer leading up to the role
you're talking about now beforewe get to what you did in
financial services, what lessonsdid you learn during that very
dark time where if you can givesomebody advice today, right,
who's potentially going throughthat similar thing, what would
you tell them?

Give themselves great grace. It's going to be
difficult. Every conversation isdifficult. Everyone you're
talking to is a human being.Everyone has feelings and
families and their own concerns,so it's usually around helping
the employees.
What you realize is the financesfor the company are a disaster,
and that's a whole other levelof crazy. But the people that

(16:56):
you can touch every day and canhelp through Right. You know,
this happened over a very rapidperiod, so there was not a lot
of advance notice. And so howyou treat people ultimately in
that experience, I've beenfortunate that, a couple of
those people have come on towork with me multiple times
again, which which I think showswith great grace, you can earn

(17:19):
great trust.

That's right. That's awesome. Yeah. The the
other thing I wanted to diveinto a a little bit is a lot of
folks don't realize the, youknow, sort of learnings of
broken business model or bearingrisk or kind of the financial
mechanisms that sort of eitheraccelerate or, slow down scale,
are actually pretty, applicableacross, you know, multiple

(17:43):
sectors. Like, that whole, wheredo you whose balance sheet do
you place the cash flow on in,like, utility and infrastructure
is probably gonna be the thingthat we're gonna really have to
solve if we're gonna unlockinstitutional capital for the
energy transition.
Right? And and a lot of thestartups are, like, coming in.

(18:03):
Everything's broken. You'redoing everything wrong. Just
like, what do you know aboutfinance?
And, like, you know, I'm like,where are we gonna get a
$100,000,000,000,000? Andthey're like, you know, and so
it's, yeah, it's just reallyinteresting to to think about.

Yeah. It was a critical lesson, I'd say. You
know, it was my first startup.You know, I'd come from,
consulting. I helped him close aa big I'd helped him close
Macy's as a client.
Mhmm. And, he didn't have anyoneto run the project. Right? He's
like, 10, now that we closed it,we don't have anyone to run the
client. Would you would you moveto Bay Area for a couple years?
And it was 08, 09. You know? Itwas not a great time to be a

(18:38):
retail consultant. What wouldyou know, it didn't seem like a
bad idea to move to the Bay Areafor a couple years. My kids were
in, middle school, so if I wasgoing to do it, that was sort of
the window to do it.
And so I was brave. I didn'tknow anyone. I moved as a single
parent with 2 kids to the BayArea, and I started working

(18:58):
with, Gaur Smith, who's CEO ofZoom Systems, who is that
company. And I'm, I I'm humbledby that experience. It was a it
was a hard business, bothlogistically and capital.
It was capital intensive,logistically heavy, working with
airports at night and moving insecurity and retail, and it was

(19:20):
a crazy time to be working inthat arena. And then, with sort
of that debt, issue thatliterally sort of happened
overnight when the debt linesstarted to dry up, There was a a
beautiful business beingincubated at Bessemer, which was
actually called bill shrink atthe time, Terrance and Ilya.

(19:43):
And, a colleague of mine thoughtI should meet the founder of
this business because he thoughtI'd be a great match to the
founder, and I knew a lot ofretailers. And this was a
Fintech founder who was thefounder of Yodlee back in the
day, which was kind of the firsttransaction data software stack
that you could build PFM orpersonal financial management on

(20:06):
top of or bank statements. Itwas a big deal at the time, and
he was incubated in the basementof Bessemer to start what we
then created, which was the cardlinked offer business, which was
the ability to put an offerattached to your credit card
that was specific to you,personalized to you, so that
when you went to Home Depot andyou swipe that card, you would

(20:30):
get a what what we call thecashback or statement credit
back on your, credit cardstatement.
Sort of a a a war story I wouldadd, it was a brilliant space at
the time. It was the it was thestart of machine learning and
pattern recognition. So this isearly days, pattern recognition.
So think about in so the thesisof this business was your past

(20:52):
consumer spend behavior is thebest indicator of your future
spend behavior, and then wewould personalize offers based
on that, you know, whether youwere a promiscuous customer.
Could I encourage you to try allkinds of different different
cuisine, or are you only gonnaeat Indian food every week?
Those are the things we weretrying to do. So I had lunch
with, Schwartz at Tavolo onFriday, and I showed up for work

(21:13):
on Monday at Bessemer, in thebasement of, David Cowan's
office at Bessemer. Anne Shworkand Samir, Qatar, had done this,
initial kind of, POC aboutreducing your bills. You put in

(21:34):
your cell phone bill, your,commodities, your cell, your Wi
Fi, or at the time cable bill,and it would actually do the
math for you to includeswitching costs to enable you to
see which would be the bettercarrier. We have to remember
this was, you know, in 2012.
This is a long time ago. Right?Right.

And

then we took that business and ultimately expanded
it to be a card linked offerbusiness. My largest competitor
in the space gave away theirproduct for free to the largest
bank in the US, and I could nolonger actually charge any fees.
So they burned down the businessmodel in the US by taking
warrants, providing it to thelargest bank for free, and

(22:17):
becoming their sole provider.And so I don't think I'll ever
get this choice again in mycareer, but we had a very hard
decision to make because we wereapproaching a b round. And I was
not gonna be able to sell thisin the US.
I could not compete againstfree. They had already raised
triple digits in 1,000,000100,000,000. So I needed to

(22:38):
either raise money, sell thecompany, or move internationally
where US where internationalconsumers could be driven to US
retailers. Ultimately, we endedup getting a couple purchase
offers and a term sheet, but wechose to sell to Mastercard
because they were a globalfootprint, and I could get to
global banks and drive globalconsumers to US retailers with

(23:01):
the same product. So weultimately had to sell the
company to pivot it, Ilya Mhmm.
To basically go to a GreenfieldInternational fur bank that
would pay me for that to driveconsumer behavior to
international shoppers. It justalso happens to be the most
profitable transaction forMastercard. So finding that

(23:23):
unique opportunity to, like,make it work was, to your point,
a little luck. There'soccasionally a little strike of
luck, but kind of understandingI could continue to beat the
bushes in the US, it was goingto be not productive. So where
do you go?
Where do you go when your markethas been closed by a competitor?

Wow. What what an incredible story, Jen. I I I
have so many levers I wanna pullfrom from from that story. But
for for the sake of, like, usthinking about it and moving
along in the podcast, I mean,Colby College, 1st generation
college student. Right?
2 kids, single, moved fromChicago to the Bay Area and
probably one of the worst timesever. Right? Got acquired by

(24:06):
Mastercard. That's already astory, but let's continue. Let's
continue.

So I stayed at Mastercard for 3 years in one
day. That's, you know, the thefounder's curse sometimes. A
little unusual actually that Iwas not a technical founder. I
was a business cofounder, and Iran the revenue for the company.
But because I had all therelationships with the
merchants, I was actually morevaluable than the code.

(24:33):
So I actually had to go toMastercard as part of the
arrangement, which I would nothave planned for or expected.
And then I, worked in the globalloyalty practice for Mastercard
for 3 years and had, exquisiteexperience of seeing how money
moves around the globe, but wason a plane. Dubai, China, Hong

(24:55):
Kong, it's Mastercard. It's aglobal portfolio. It's a it is a
pace that is not sustainable formost.

That's right.

So after that 3 year period, I was tired,
Terrance.

That's right.

And I needed, I needed a place to rest my brain.
And I had a friend, Ken Hausman,who, is a venture guy in the
valley, who was like, you shouldmeet my friend Mike Spicer at
Sutter Hill, and you should gobe an EIR at Sutter Hill. I'm
really not known what an ER wasat this point. It was it was
foreign to me. I had alwaysworked with venture capitalists.

(25:31):
I had been raising money. I'dnot sort of flipped the script
to be on the other side. I wentand had lunch at, Sutter Hill on
a Friday, and, again, I showedup on Monday, to start by, year
as me I are with Mike Spicer,who I am incredibly grateful to
for to this day, actually.

So this is perfect, Jen, because I was
gonna ask you about this. When Iwalked through your background,
the trend line you just gave us,one, I wanted to know where did
the risk tolerance come from?From someone that comes from
your background that you saidmost people wouldn't wanna jump
and take the leap and do thethings that you've done. 1, I
it's a stack question, soforgive me. Where did the risk
tolerance come from?

(26:11):
And then walk us through yourrole as a EIR at at Sutter Hill
Ventures.

Sure. I think it's difficult to to teach risk
tolerance. You know, I I'vealways tried with my kids to
make them, agile. You know,there's times to to be
conservative around risk.There's times to be aggressive
around risk.
So when I was, arriving at atSutter Hill, I have a curious

(26:38):
mind, Terrance, and I think itcomes from, honestly, a liberal
arts education and a little bitof a hustle. You know, I've had
to create everything for myselfto, including my network, my
career, my so the drive for risktolerance, I think, comes from
my drive to be curious. I'malways the person who has a side

(27:01):
project on their desk. I'musually the person you call if
you need to know someone, if youwant me to connect you with
someone. I all I consider thatsort of community goodwill.
I believe if you help otherpeople get what they want, you
tend to get what you needeventually. And so my,
experience at Sutter, arrivingat Sutter was sort of an

(27:22):
undefined role. Come here, restyour brain, be around smart
people, and we'd like you tothink of your next great idea
here at Sutter Hill. We'll payyou a reasonable nominal salary
for in a place to work, andplease come here every day. And
we'll assign you to a couple ofour Portco companies

just

to kinda mix it up a little bit where you can add
some value. But my real, myreal, job at Sutter Hill
consisted of 2 primary roles. 1,I needed to review all the
inbound pitch decks that weresent to Sutter Hill and curate
them for processing, meaning Irubric them to forward them to
the partners if I felt they wereis this a product? Is this a

(28:04):
feature? Is this a real company?
Is this a team? Right? Is it acompany? I'd probably get a 100
a week, probably 2. Might check3 out of 4 boxes that might
warrant a second pass.
So you got to be really good atscreening deal flow.

That's right. Maybe if

we could pause there if we could pause there
for a second. I think everyfounder at some point needs to
take a beat and spend timelooking at deals. I think that's
actually, like, one of the bigdifferentiators with, sort of
experienced or advanced foundersas opposed to folks just getting
started because I think thatexperience is so that's my
thought. But I'm curious sinceyou actually said

I would agree because I've gotten so much
better. Right? 10000 hours ofanything makes you better.
Right? The tipping point.
Right? Yeah. Which I have therevenge of the tipping point to
read. I haven't gotten thereyet. Yeah.
So I think I I think you'reright, Ilya. It is around that
that matter.

Yeah. It's just like I I I love when a founder
comes in, and they always like,this is the best deal, period.
And you have to sort believethat if you're building the
company. Right? But You

have to believe it. And I and I also encourage early
in career students who believethemselves to have an
entrepreneurial spirit and knowthey're probably gonna get a job
and then become an entrepreneurand get some experience to
actually put them in positionsto see deal flow. Be an adviser
on a company. Offer to redex atthe capital factory or the start

(29:28):
up center or wherever you live.You know?
Show up for the pitch nights atplug and play. Dig into those
communities because the moreexposure you have to deal steel
constructs, how people eventhink about financing, the the
more educated you become.

That's right.

And that enables you to be more educated as you
put your own business together.

And, Jen, as you were looking at deals at at
Sutter Hill, tell us tell tellthe people a little bit around
us. What what were some of thesignals that you were looking
for in in this pitch deck aroundproduct, around team? What what
is Jen looking for in thesedecks that gives her confidence
to forward them on to the to thepartner?

Yeah. So for me, at the time, so we had a ever
present growing kind of securityinfrastructure because they were
working on Lacework at the time.They were also working at
Snowflake at the time, so thatwas being incubated as well.
And, a lot of DevOps, type of,again, early days machine

(30:28):
learning, not quite AI yet, but,you know, sort of workflow of
DevOps kind of work. And if youknow the history of Sutter Hill,
you know, infrastructure heavy,They also, you know, you know,
really love data businessesthat, like Snowflake, right, are
creating new infrastructures forothers.

(30:50):
So, we had a little bend towardsthose types of companies with a
with a nod towards talentbecause I think, Ilya or
Terrance, at the beginning, yousaid somebody called, a
colleague of yours to go getthem to be incubated at a
current company, etcetera. Theyhave an incredible talent
machine. So you're alwayslooking for, perhaps, smart

(31:10):
founders that may not have theappropriate team around them
that should be maybe highlightedto a partner for a different
opportunity, or that this personhas an interesting background,
and I know we have a coupleteams they're looking for this
type of skill set or attitude,candidly. You know, this person
has a lot of energy, and I feelwould be a great match to

(31:33):
another team. So kind of peopleseparated from company a little
bit.
And then, actually, more thesesthan thought out businesses
because Sutter tends to be anincubation house. So if it was a
thesis they for example, genomichealth marketplace, 20 years in
the future. The ability, if youhave diabetes, to go to into a

(31:54):
marketplace and choose a genomicsolution is a is a thesis that
they play long. Right?

That's right.

So, some of those companies were all around
genomics, which I don't reallyhave a background in, Terrance.

That's right.

But if it felt like they had their IP relatively
solidified, their science grantswere in line, their, their team
construction, and really whatthey needed was capital and
expansion into those theses, itwas really those that probably
made it to the partner. It wasless about, is this cash flow by

(32:30):
year 2? Is this, you know, abootstrap entity? They're
looking for big ideas.

That's right.

So it was not don't be limited by the business
thinking, you know, on thosetypes of pitches. It was more
around the thesis.

Okay. No. Thank you for sharing. And you had a
second part to your role thatyou did at Sutter Hill, Ventures
that you're gonna tell us about?

Yeah. The second part was actually the, I would
say, the grind part, whichactually, I would encourage,
EIRs to do this process becauseit was very disciplined. You
know, it's 26 rough weeks a yearevery 2 weeks, so 22 cycles.
Took out Christmas andThanksgiving. I had to pitch a
new company to the partner teamevery 2 weeks.

(33:13):
And so if you force yourself tocreate a company, every 2 weeks
with the thesis, with what youwould need, what you would
build, why it would bedifferentiated. And I kinda
leveled levered off off the,like, design thinking canvas.
I'd have them all over the roomswith constant stickies because
I'd work on a thesis, but buildmaybe 5 boards

That's right.

Of concepts.

Mhmm.

And then I would pick the best board and say,
well, this week, it's gonna bethat board. You know? And,
sometimes, you know, greatfeedback. Keep going. You know?
Have you thought of this? Haveyou thought of that? Or
sometimes, yeah, we don't thinkthere's a there there. Let's
have a good debate about that.Tear that up.
Start again for the next 2weeks. Right? So it first of

(33:59):
all, it makes you sort ofbulletproof on feedback. Like,
you gotta be able to take it toto make it. So you gotta be able
to really dig in critically andaccept critical feedback with
grace, and attention, not bedismissive.
And then take that feedback andput it to work, and then recycle
it. Recycle it, recycle it. Nobad ideas, maybe just bad,

(34:25):
components.

And how do they know when to kill an idea when
they're going through

this process? It's interesting. I I think, I think
at the beginning, it was alittle bit of a hazing event,
Terrance, to be honest, but allwith the all with the best of
intentions. Right? They'retrying to get you to be better
as fast as possible.
Because really what they're theyhope is that you come up with a
a great idea that you could beincubated. Tina Wang, who is an

(34:53):
EIR at the same time, Ilya, I'dencourage you to have her on
your show. She's a a DevOpsphenom, you know, graduated MIT
at 16 and helped Twitter andGoogle and Apple. She's been
around the world and back. She,she actually just, exited that
business that she was incubatingat Sutter while I was there.

(35:16):
So it's been amazing to see youknow, I would also encourage
people, and, Ilya, one of thethings for you would be, why
don't people have more than oneEIR? Because we were better
together. There were 3 of us inthe basement. Right? So we
didn't know each other.
We had no common backgrounds,but, it was epic to have 3 other

(35:37):
people that were doing the samemotions at the same time.

Well and I think just generally, one of the
things that I've noticed in sortof my EIR time generally and
just working with largercompanies is the difference
between kinda focus on peopleand team, in sort of the earlier
venture, kind of early risk.Nobody knows what anything is.
Yeah. You know, kind of the theteam really is a lot of things.

(36:02):
And so that point about, youknow, multiple EIRs pacing each
other, but, ultimately, eventhinking about, you know, who is
the right person, the right teamcomposition to make this thing
go.
And it's it's shocking to mesometimes when folks are like,
well, anybody can run with this.I'm like,

That's right.

Let's talk about that a little bit, because
rarely have I found that that tobe the case.

Look. I think I'm a big believer that a teams can
make c products a products. Cteams cannot make a products. It
just doesn't happen. So I'm verymuch a personal team first
investor.
I build I feel like one of mysuperpowers is to build great
teams. I'm honored that I've hadpeople work for me multiple
times Yep. And salespeople. Thatmeans a lot to me. I think the

(36:52):
culture and how you carry thecompany is equally as important
as the tech because underneaththe people who are writing the
tech are people.
They need to be fed. They havefamilies. They need sleep. They
need all the things that weneed. And sometimes we tend to
think of engineers as asengineers.
They're humans. They have thesame needs as everybody else.

I violently agree with you. But but it but it's
very hard for me to sort ofexplain that to folks that
haven't been there. I haven'tfound an effective way to to to
make that land.

If you've not seen a high functioning team

Yeah.

Compared to and I think it's harder in corporate,
Elliot, because you got matrixand all kinds of crazy, you
know, infrastructure and silos.You know, hopefully, in
startups, you're not startingwith any of that. But, but it's
easily created, and that's whatyou have to worry about, right,
is is that. So for me, startingnew companies, especially

(37:50):
especially that initial thatinitial founding team, they
gotta be able to finish theirstheir each other's sentences.

Mhmm.

You spend more time with them than you do your
spouse the 1st year. So youbetter you better learn to love
them, you know, and, figure outhow to work together quickly.
And if you cannot quickly,everybody should agree that it's
not working. No hard feelings.You know?
Let's actually fix what's notworking, which may be wrong
personality, wrong skill set,wrong time in the business. You

(38:21):
know, may not be anything wrongwith the individual. It just not
be might it might not be theright time in the company for
their superpower.

And, Jen, on this topic of of team, right, I think
all great teams go through thisprocess of of forming, storming,
and norming, if if you will.Right?

Great words.

Yeah. And and in my mind, how do you think about
building great teams? Right?You've built a lot of great
teams. You've been on earlystage teams.
What do you look for? And andwhen you're building a good team
versus, like, you know, you'rejoining a early stage team,
like, what are you looking for?

Trust. My number one my number one, ask is, you
know, so whether I was joining ateam, you know, I joined as a
founder, which is a uniqueposition, 2 technical founders.
I'm the only liberal artsdegree, you know That's right.
Sort of thing that used to makefun of me, you know, sort of
like American studies. What doyou think over there?
You know? But, I learned to lovethem like brothers, and I would

(39:12):
still call them brothers to thisday. You know, my cofounder
from, True Access called me at10 o'clock, 2 weeks ago on a
Friday night. I instantly pickedup because I thought something
was wrong. You know?

That's right.

So Right. Right? So these are people you sort of go
to the trenches with. So for me,I definitely have a bias towards
founders that I or people I haveworked with before. I'm a big
believer in known commodities,so I like people that have
worked with me because they knowhow crazy I am, and they can
work with my crazy.

(39:45):
And they cannot and I also, youknow, believe that you must
enable people to feel free todisagree and have great trust
that you can disagree and stillhave a role at a 4 person
company. Like, all voices arewelcome here.

That's right. And you talked about being sort of
in a pod almost, right, withother EIRs, which I think is a
way better experience than doingit as a lone wolf like how I did
it at SAP versus when I did itin other roles. Right? It was
like, woah. I have 8 other EIRsnow.
I can learn every single day ata rapid rate. You know, if you
could do it over, right, wouldyou change anything about your

(40:27):
EIR experience at Sutter Hill?What would you add or subtract
if if you had to do it over?

I would have been a little more promiscuous on
thesis because I had just comeout of Mastercard. Right? And I
was, you know, I was in thebelly of the beast for 3 years.
You get a little dated. Peopledon't realize, like robotics,
other things had been happeningin the world, and I had my head
down at Mastercard.
So I think, probably being alittle more promiscuous around

(40:54):
thesis and not being afraid ofexploring areas I didn't know,
like robotics, even though Iended up doing a robotics
company, to get roboticsexperience. I did a gaming
company to work with gamingengines. But I think,
recognizing that if you'recoming off of a transaction
where you were required to go inhouse, that coming out to

(41:18):
become, I don't know, a a newanimal again, takes a little bit
of work to catch up to whatyou've left behind. So I'd say
try to keep up. Don't don't getsucked into the don't get sucked
into the beast once you'reacquired, and then I'd also be
more mindful about lookingbeyond my time at Mastercard.
I knew I was not going to stayat Mastercard. It was well

(41:41):
understood that this was a a 3year engagement. I could have
not given Mastercard as much ofmy time. So I went into it like
I had founded my company, andI'd sold my company, and I
wanted my company to be the mostsuccessful inside Mastercard.
But what you realize when youget into a large organization,
Ilya, and I think this was ourfirst conversation, I actually

(42:03):
thought I was doing it wrong atMastercard because innovation in
large organizations is verydifficult.

Yes, sir.

The founder, I felt like I couldn't get any
traction. And then I took ainnovation for large
organizations class at Stanfordand then realized it was not me.
Right. It was not me. It was, infact, the institutional kind of
dystopia around me.
And so, my, my guidance forfounders that are in that

(42:30):
process is don't give away allyour soul in the transaction.
Keep a little of that backbecause you're gonna wanna leave
and come out and do somethingelse. And I was really, burned
out, I would say, at the point Ileft Mastercard. So it's also a
founder lesson of, you know,oxygen mask on first. If you
don't take care of yourself, youcannot be there for others, So

(42:53):
you must put your personalhealth as a priority.

And I think actually just that
intentionality, because I thinkon the flip side, if you know
sort of what you're getting intoI think one of the things that I
missed for a while in a lot ofconversations with EIRs is that
the entrepreneur really has toreskill. Right? If you're gonna
be in a large organization or inanother context, generally, it's
probably not gonna be the thingyou were great at and the thing
you really enjoy before. And sothere's all kinds of

(43:19):
organizational dynamic stuff.But but I think as long as
you're walking into thatintentionally, there's also a
lot of learning and a lot ofexposure to sort of places that
you may not have exposure to.
Right? And so, I I think it'sjust important to be intentional
in that situation, which,

you

know, a lot of folks just don't have that,
insight. So, may maybe that'sthe thing I would add to, your
your kinda comments there.

Yeah. It's a great one.

I think the other thing I wanna dig into a little
bit, when we chatted a coupleyears ago, I kinda asked you
what it was it like being a EIR,you know, at a top VC firm in
the Valley in the mid 20 tens.And you sort of, you know, just
told me a little bit about howthat was a little bit different
than kinda how the term isgetting used today. So I'd love
to have you talk about that fora couple minutes, and then we'll

(44:08):
move on to kind of what took youto Austin.

No. That's true. In those days, it was, I I was
sharing with Terrance before,you joined, Neliya, that, you
know, during that era, there wasa dinner every month that was
hosted by a VC that had an EIR.So, you know, 1 month, it'd be
Sutter, 1 month, it might beBessemer, 1 month, it would it'd
be so they one might might beTrinity. They'd host the dinner

(44:34):
typically at their office, andthere's probably 20 to 30 EIRs
with the ever rotating kind oftable of people.
But, it did it did make thattime at Sutter Hill feel very,
precious when you realize thatall these people are also trying
to just think of incredibleideas with incredible resources,

(44:55):
with incredible backgrounds. Andit was also a great place to
also pick up other cofounders,other people who had ideas. Your
idea might not be the one thatgets picked. That person's
working on something that'sreally interesting, and I think
I could add value there. So itmade it a very agile kind of
group.
I think if you fast forward totoday, there aren't as many EIRs

(45:18):
at venture funds. They tend tobe more, corporate, EIRs in my
experience or strategic kind ofpositioned EIRs. But what you do
tend to have more now areoperating rosters for venture
capitalists. So as the EIRprograms for VCs maybe have been
trimmed off, operating rostersof professionals similar to,

(45:40):
like, how private equity rosterswith executives, you're starting
to see that become prettystandard practice, you know,
around different theses, whetheryou're a Fintech executive,
whether you're a consumerexecutive. And so a lot of those
people that might have been EIRed in the past

That's right.

Are now sort of sitting on a on a bench in some
ways waiting to be called.

That's right.

When an operating company has an issue or a matter
that, you know, they need someexpertise in, I think there's a
lot of anxiety around thatoperator model actually, right
now because there's a lot ofgreat people that sit on rosters
that would like to be working.And so they expected that to be
sort of an on ramp to workingwith great companies, and
oftentimes, it kinda becomes apatience exercise of, you know,

(46:28):
and if you're not top of mind,you know, those types of things.
So, I think I'd like to thinkthat the smarter VCs that are
now or have always focused onincubation, EIR will always
continue to be a thesis becausethey they feel like it's talent
first.

No. That makes sense. And I'm glad that we got
to dive into that a little bitbecause I think, you know, kinda
having that perspective and and,you know, that's sounds like a
little bit more of an organiccommunity building, exercise as
well.

At the time. Yeah. Well, you know, it was 2016, I
think, at the time. Right? So,probably the height of, you
know, that era of the VC swing,to be honest.
Yeah. You know? So that was sortof the pit I'd say the peak of,
money 2020 and all the Fintecheuphoria, during that time.

That's right. So, Jin, you cut your teeth at at at
Shelley Hill Ventures, and thenyou went back to operating
again, doing what you do best.Right? And you became a CRO,
chief revenue officer for thosewho are listening. Yeah.
Tell us about

my traditional role, as a founder. So even at
the company I sold toMastercard, I was the CRO there.
I like being CRO becausemarketing and sales report into
one executive, becomes lesssiloed, and in early days, it's
typically all about your salesexpression regardless. So I like
that, organizational constructand feel like it is the most

(47:51):
productive in early stage. And,this is sort of why, I I think,
my my wisdom word would be toalways be networking.
So I happen to know, the ventureguys at PayPal, Jeremy Jonker
and Jay Gupta, and they wereinvestors in a company called
Dosh, which was very similar tothe company I had sold to

(48:13):
Mastercard, only a direct toconsumer expression instead of a
bank expression. Essentially,long story short, they needed
to, package that company up fora transaction. It was time. And
so, lots of work to be donethere. Balance sheet cleanup,
reorganization, merchantalignment, rev ops, engineering,

(48:38):
a lot of cleanup work to getthat to be a packageable
company.
And, I think we did a fantasticjob, and we sold that in a
private transaction toCardlytics, which is the company
that edged me out originally byselling their giving away their
software for free. I ended upselling that company to, to
Cardlytics, in 20, to sorry,2021 2020, January 2020. Wow.

(49:08):
For a $275,000,000 price. It wasa great exit for all
shareholders.

Mhmm.

It was a wonderful experience. And then I've done,
you know, interim fractional CROroles for, episodically, over
the last few years. That's beenmy primary work with
entrepreneurs is really go tomarket and revenue acceleration.

And that sounds like, you know, we've seen a lot
of the EIRs we've talked to aresort of in their portfolio
phase, if you will. You know,and it sounds like you were kind
of entering that phase, and andsort of delivering a lot of the
the the value and and skillsthat you develop, pretty
intentionally. What's cool withyou is you you've sort of gone

(49:52):
back, and sort of jumped backinto, you know, product, and and
going into Maine. So I'd love totalk a little bit about how does
that take us to to Maine Loveand and ultimately into the
packaged good business.

Full circle moment.

Yeah. Full circle moment. You know, I was, the CEO
of a glass container companycalled Life Factory back in the
15, 60 in that same era. We soldthat to Thermos and, still exist
today, and it was to get plasticout of your family's life. So it
was baby bottles to glass foodstorage to beverage containers,

(50:32):
glass with a silicone wrapper,learned way more about supply
chain sourcing of glass than Iever imagined I would ever need
to be.
But sort of fast forward, I'vebeen blessed with an amazing
career with amazing people and agrazing amazing companies, and I
don't plan on retiring. Youknow? I I you know, both my

(50:52):
children have graduated fromcollege, and I had a callback to
Maine by being asked to serve atColby as a trustee. And, so in 1
generation to send my daughterto Colby and then to be asked to
come back to serve as a trustee,I can't ex I can't express how
wonderful that feels. I I it'sjust an honor.

(51:13):
And so, to make a long storyshort, my cousin bought a
brewery a year ago. And inhelping him to understand, how
to size his facility, I stumbledon a problem that, brewers'
lines of infrastructure sit idleroughly 5 days a week because it
takes 2 days to make beer andthat Maine has the most brewers

(51:37):
per capita. But moreimportantly, Maine has the
second, purest lake in thenation, in Sebago Lake. It is
actually has an EPA waiver, ofall things, for solids. It's so
clean that it is not required tobe filtered like other, you
know, municipal water.
It's a a special class municipalwater. It is considered

(52:01):
infinitely replenishable, andthe common denominator of beer
is water. And the gold standardof water for beer is from Sebago
Lake, Maine, which is where thiswater comes from. So coming back
to Maine with an intention to beimpactful in Maine and to drive
jobs to Maine, I had a braindrain when I had to leave Maine.

(52:24):
It is my intention with greatpassion to come back to Maine
and build a product, thatbrewers can participate in.
So what we're enabling isbrewers to become participants
in the water economy whenthey're not making beer. So they
need to become a GMP or GS 1rated facility because brewers

(52:48):
are not regulated by the FDA, ifeveryone can believe that.
Brewers are regulated byalcohol, tobacco, and firearms,
so none of the floors of brewersare sealed, which is a
fascinating experience.

Yes.

But to get to the, to, manage the, federal
requirements for drinking water,etcetera, we will be upgrading
those facilities. And then Iship them the can. They fill it
with water. I pay them to putwater in the can, and then I do
the retail expression on theother side. So it is intended to

(53:21):
be foundational revenue forbrewers so that they do not have
to lay people off.
And, alcohol consumption is down40% year over year across the
board, and Gen z is not drinkingas much as we did. So they're
more health conscious. And waterincreasingly is, more of a

(53:44):
precious commodity. So there'san argument in Maine that we are
overabundant in water as long asit rains.

Nice. Well and and I I I love, you know, that it it
really Terrance said thatbringing it full circle, but I
think it's, you know, bringingit full tapestry because it that
has sort of the, kinda impactview, the taking advantage of
underutilized infrastructure andsort of understanding the supply
chain view, sort of interestingbusiness

model that you're trying to able to do this
company if I hadn't done all myother companies. And I've walked
32 breweries this summer, havemy own outfit, got my own boots,
like, the whole situation. It'sa sexy outfit, I might add, with
a hat and the whole thing. Butwalking those 32 breweries, I
can say with confidence, everysmall brewer likely in the

(54:33):
United States has capacitybecause they're craftsmen.
They're not really utilizing itas, infrastructure.
So it's, it's been a veryinteresting exploration. I've,
gotten the 3 largest brewers inMaine to, join the band, so to
speak, Because up here in Maine,you have to say what you do, do
what you say. So, I'm proving itout this winter with, actually

(54:59):
produced this water yesterdayat, literally the 13th brewery
in the nation, Gary's 1803.

Mhmm.

Very famous brewer. Still making the same beer in
brick vats, old school withyeast at 60

years old.

So these are craftsmen. Right? Mhmm. So this
gives them a way to run, tocontinue their focus on great
beer, but yield water whenyou're not making beer to pay
off your infrastructure.

Wow. I mean, when I think about leaving a legacy,
right, I talked to Illyen and,you know, some of our guests on
the show about legacy buildingand leaving an impact. They're
gonna to use the analogy ofwater, watching your legacy flow
through through sort of Thankyou. And and I think, you know,
it's a wonderful way to to comeback full circle to the place
that groomed you, and to try toleave a legacy that's not just

(55:50):
some jump, but healthy for forpeople from a sustainable
source, and that you canleverage to build a business
around because you thought youfound a problem.

Well, and Maine has a history, Terrance, of self
regulating natural resources. Wehave lobster co ops. We have
Oster co ops. Essentially, I'mbuilding a water co op. I give
you a vote price to put water ina can if you meet a certain
water standard.

That's right.

It we've done it for generations. It's very
natural for people in Maine todo this. I don't believe I could
do this business in any otherstate because it's taken great
collaboration in the brewingcommunity to come forward with
their chemist to get interestingproblems solved, to get to where
we are, and, I just don't I justdon't experience that

(56:33):
collaboration in other states.So it's it's a joy to be doing
this in Maine, and it is therest of my life's work to be
impactful in Maine.

Absolutely. And and, Jen, I'm gonna ask you a
question. I'm gonna let Ilyatake us home. Okay? Sure.
But but it's gonna be a fun one,and and we we love to ask people
sort of if, you know, what'ssomething that's not on your
resume, not on your LinkedInthat people don't know about
you. Right. That's that's ahobby of yours or something that

(57:03):
you enjoy, doing or helps youpass the time? You know, what
what would you will be willingto share with us in our in our
audience?

I'm a big reader. I still read fiction books. I read
a lot of nonfiction as well, butI I consume an incredible amount
of content, I would say. So,just because you leave college,
don't put down those fictionbooks. Keep reading because it's
a different part of your brainthat needs exercise, and it's a
way to kinda balance off yourbrain.

(57:31):
I also, participate in an oysterfarm that is, off my family's
property. So one of the firstoyster farms that came to Maine
is off my family's riparianrights off of some land we own
in Casco Bay. And so beingadjacent and part of learning
the oyster farm culture that isemerging in the aquaculture

(57:54):
community in Maine has been anincredible, thing to watch and
to, encourage and participate.

Wow. Thank you for sharing.

That that's awesome. And just to double
click on the re the readingthing, it's funny because, you
know, all of a sudden today,we're talking about AI. Where
does it lead? You know? And alot of folks haven't read a lot
of the science fiction that hassort of imagined all the various

Absolutely.

You know, sort of pathways where we go from here,
to dystopian, utopian, andeverything in between. And it's
just it it's amazing kinda howboth that allows you to sort of
tap into other folks' thinkingas well as to have sort of
frameworks and vocabulary and,you know, kinda other things.
So, yeah, love double clickingon that.

And I think in our culture today, Ilya, is, you
know, also read controversialthings.

Yep.

Right? Like, fact check yourself.

Mhmm.

Like, read something controversial because
it might make you uncomfortable.It's okay. Right? You'll you'll
end up being smarter in the end.

Well and and that skill, I think, you know, that's
actually my my best test. Youknow, you mentioned a couple,
properties of an entrepreneurand team that you look for. For
me, it's, you know,coachability. And, also, if you
see that your map and theterrain differ, what do you
follow? You know?
And I think that ultimately is,a good identification that

(59:17):
somebody's gonna follow theterrain. Right? It's sort of
strongly, holding idea you know,kinda having strong statements
but weakly held on on ideas isreally important. So I think
that's actually a really goodplace to to kinda cut us off for
now because I think we've we'vedone a really good pass through
your background, had anopportunity to sort of jump in

(59:40):
and highlight, I think, a couplethings that are really critical,
honestly, to our, audience ofentrepreneurs and residents and
folks that are really thinkingabout it. And, ultimately, I
love the fact that we ended upon, you know, doing the sort of
your life's work for the rest ofyour life in a place where
you're, excited about beingimpactful.
And I think that, in many ways,speaks to kinda who I know you

(01:00:03):
to be, in the in our kind ofshort interaction to date. And
so I think that's a great placeto leave it, and, hopefully,
we'll kind of dig in a littlebit more on LinkedIn Live in the
future.

Jen Millard (01:00:13):
Happy to help, and thanks for having me.

Terrance Orr (01:00:16):
Absolutely. And but but, Ilya, I I I can't let
Jen go without asking her whatthe EIR network can do for her.

Ilya Tabakh (01:00:21):
Oh, absolutely.

And and supporting a main love. So what can the EIR
network do for you?

You know, you can't be an expert at everything.
Right? So, and I'm a littlerusty on my retail distribution,
so I'm actually, looking forsome supply chain, assistance.
Okay. Honestly, more, currentsupply chain.
I'm a little dated. Right? Somore, a little, little supply
chain education never hurts.I've been taking a lot of

(01:00:48):
meetings with a lot of peoplewho know more than I do about
that matter, and, I'd welcomeany EIR in the network. If,
you're interested in water andthe water economy and how you
start a water economy in a statewith a lot of natural resources
and a lot of bureaucracy, I'mhappy to help.

Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing. I just
happen to be a EIR focused onsupply chain at SAP, so I'm glad
you shared.

Might be needing you, Terrance. Yeah.

But I know a lot of other, folks in supply chain.
So I

appreciate it. Appreciate it.

We will find them. Thank you so much, Jen. It's
been an honor and privilege.

Thank you. Oh, honor and privilege for you both
as well, and let me know how Ican help in the future.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

My goodness. I am still, you know, taking notes
from this episode, my friend,because Jen had so many gems to
drop on this episode about earlystage company building and
formation, learning her chops inthe early days at at Sears and
bringing that along with her inher her later roles in Silicon

(01:01:53):
Valley and, you know, taking theleap from different things.
Right? From consumer financialservices to looking at
infrastructure deals inside of,Sutter Hill Ventures. But what I
took away the most was that themuscle that she built around
early stage company formationand assessing deals at Sutter

(01:02:16):
Hill Venture and looking atsignal, right, and doing that
alongside a team of, you know,business athletes is what I'm
gonna call them right now thatare other EIRs who are also
doing company building inparallel and doing the same
thing you're doing and sharingthose learnings, you know,
priceless.
And was there during the earlydays of Snowflake and a bunch of

(01:02:38):
other prominent companies. Theother thing is trust as the
cornerstone for for buildinggreat teams, right, and managing
those teams and retaining thattalent to build everlasting
companies and growing revenue.And and lastly, leaving a
legacy, worth bragging about.And and that legacy is the

(01:02:59):
impact that she's doing now withwith her her next company,
called Main Love. And just somany gems, so much wisdom, in
this episode, and I just reallyenjoyed it.
And you could've talked to Jenfor another 2 hours. But what do
you think, Yo yo?

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I I think, really,
we we just scratched thesurface. I think we started
getting into a little bit of theinside football of, you know,
what do you actually gain whenyou see so many deals and are
working with really top tier,both kind of strategic thinkers
from the investment side as wellas, you know, very high caliber

(01:03:36):
operators, and and sort of whatdoes that actually arm you with,
in order to be able to do thisquickly?
You know, we we kinda touched onhigh performance team, high
level of trust, but, you know,in the conversation, those are
words. I think it's, you know,every founder and every really
innovation professional shouldseek out the opportunity to

(01:03:59):
really spend time in thatenvironment. Because it's, like,
you know, you hear stories of,you know, the Super Bowl teams
and and and the dynasties thatwere built and everybody always
talks about, you know, there wasa culture, there was a winning
culture, there was a, you know,sort of an atmosphere of
excellence and things like that.Right. And and those are really,
you know, I've never played on aSuper Bowl team, but I've

(01:04:20):
definitely participated in somereally high caliber, you know,
fast moving teams before.
And and as I was telling Jen inthe in the show, in the
discussion, right, I agree thatthat's, like, a really, really
critical piece of it, but it'sreally hard to explain to
somebody that, you know, hasn'texperienced that yet. And and I
love really digging into thosekind of things because you start

(01:04:44):
to, you know, really talk aboutthe trade craft, if you will, of
what it means to be, you know,in residence as an entrepreneur
or whatever.

That's right.

And I'm really looking forward to to digging
into and I really do think wejust scratched the surface. But,
like, yes, and, and and, youknow, a 1000 times to where I I
really felt like we were we weretouching on some really
interesting concepts and ideasthat I wish folks that are EIRs
and especially, like, the folksthat they interface with could

(01:05:15):
could sort of beam to that placeand and build some of that
muscle through through contact,which unfortunately is
impossible, but that was thething that was kind of exciting
to me. I think we we touched onthat, and I think also maybe to
kind of double click on onanother thing you said. I think
that that formal trainingprocess and being able to
compare, you know, what skillsand capabilities do you need to

(01:05:39):
be sort of world class and beingable to sort of level set
against that. And her kindahaving a different experience on
that was interesting.
I think it was it was sort of anopportunity to compare and
contrast how are people, youknow, training up and and really
getting prepared for thesethings today versus how, you
know, it's happened, in in inother periods of time. So super

(01:06:03):
exciting. You know, we we'veonly scratched the surface, but,
it was an it was an awesomediscussion because even in that
little bit of a scratch, it was,you know, a bunch of insights.
So so it was great.

100%, man. As we know, entrepreneurship is a team
sport, and it's a contact sport.And, that's how you get the the
battle tested warwolves. And,the people are gonna learn it on
this episode. So please go like,follow, subscribe.
You don't wanna miss thisepisode, and send us
recommendations for for future,people who could take you to be
on the podcast. Thanks forjoining us on EIR Live. We hope

(01:06:38):
today's episode offered youvaluable insights into the
entrepreneurial journey.Remember to subscribe so you
don't miss out on futureepisodes and check out the
description for more details. Doyou have questions or
suggestions?
Please reach out to us. Connectwith us on social media. We
really value your input. Catchus next time for more inspiring
stories and strategies. Keeppushing boundaries and making

(01:07:00):
your mark on the world.
I'm Tiran Soer with my goal isIlya Sabacc, signing off. Let's
keep building.

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Episode 06 - From Maine to MasterCard and Back: Building Legacy Through Innovation with Jen Millard

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 06 - From Maine to MasterCard and Back: Building Legacy Through Innovation with Jen Millard