Vault Episode 9: Pelion Ventures - Blake Modersitzki - Small Lake City

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_05 (02:28):
What is up, everybody, and welcome back to
another episode of the SmallLake City Podcast.
I'm your host, Eric Nielsen, andthis week we have another fall
episode coming back for you.
This one is going back to theconversation with Blake
Motorzitsky.
Now, Blake Motorzitski is themanaging partner for Peleon
Venture Partners.
Now, Peleon is an early stageventure capital firm that's been

(02:51):
investing and growing SiliconSlopes since the mid to late
90s.
Now, Blake's story in it all,he's invested in some of the
most influential companies, notjust in Utah and Salt Lake, but
around the world.
He has a great perspective inwhat has grown the economy down
there to what it is and what thefuture looks like.
Not only that, but we have somefun small lake city moments that

(03:12):
I think you all are going toenjoy.
Also, when we recorded thisepisode, was when he was about
to make a huge donation toPrimary Children's Hospital.
So it's fun to see how thatdonation has now been made and
the impact is being felt in ourcommunity.
But this is going to be one youall are going to enjoy.
Let's jump into it and hear moreabout Blake and his journey at
Peleon.

SPEAKER_06 (03:30):
Well, no, I'm so excited today, Blake.
Um and I actually want to startwith something kind of funny
that you might laugh at.
And it's like a Salt Lake SmallLake City moment in itself.
So I've had this 6 a.m.
alarm clock on my phone for thepast five plus years, and it
says, call with Blake, PeleonVentures.
And I looked it up because Iknew that this in this uh intro

(03:54):
that we had years ago happened,and I tried to look at the exact
date, and it was actually uhNovember 20th, 2018.

SPEAKER_02 (04:01):
Wow.

SPEAKER_06 (04:02):
And so the context of it was I was living in
Seattle at the time, was doinginvestment banking, absolutely
hated my life, wanted to comeback to Salt Lake, wanted to
figure out a way to do it, supernaive in my career and
everything going on.
And I was just kind of likeputting out, I mean messaging
people on LinkedIn, trying tofigure out some connections, and
reached out to a wife of afriend.
I guess she's a friend now, uh,Erica Morgan.

SPEAKER_02 (04:23):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 (04:23):
And she's like, hey, if you're looking for a job, I
know a guy who knows a lot aboutjobs in Salt Lake Valley, Utah
Valley.
I'm like, cool, who is it?
She's like, his name's Blake, heruns this venture capital fund,
and let me reach out to him, seehow it's gonna go.
And sure, I mean, you being thegenerous, always willing to help
someone out, you're like, sure.
The only thing is, the only timeI have is when I'm on this

(04:44):
train, I think it was inSwitzerland at 6:30 in the
morning, your time.
If you can make that work, wecan chat.
And I'm like, aye aye, Captain,let's let's do this, let's make
it happen.
And and it was like when I lookback on it, it's definitely
cringy from my point of view,because it was one of those
like, hey, Blake, like I I wantto move back to Utah, I want a
job.
Like, what do you think?
And I could tell, like, inhindsight, you're probably page
being like, Yeah, you know,there's some good companies,

(05:05):
there's some good things goingon.
Good for you.
Probably a little bit moresearching to be done, but good
luck.
Uh, and I I think the last emailI had was like, Yeah, go look at
Weave, go look at Divi and andhave a good one.
And so it's so funny that almostliterally five years on the dot,
here we are sitting in thePellin offices chatting again.
Very different reasons, but allgood nonetheless.

SPEAKER_00 (05:25):
Wow, that it is certainly a small world because
uh, like as you were tellingthat story, like I remember the
conversation being on the trainin Switzerland.
Like that was the triggeringpoint for me.
So, wow, five years ago.

SPEAKER_06 (05:39):
Five years ago.

SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
That's amazing.
Well, I'm glad it's still onyour phone and we got together.

SPEAKER_06 (05:43):
Oh, it's it's never left.
Like it is my six o'clock alarmclock.
So it probably, I mean, in thesummer when I'm golfing and
getting up earlier, it's threeto four days a week.
I see that now a little bit lesswith the the light, but uh
definitely, definitely glad tobe here, definitely, definitely
excited to talk to you about youtoday.
And and I mean, just to kind ofget things started and kicked
off.
Like I know you're not from Utahoriginally, but from our

(06:04):
neighbors to the north, notCanada, but Idaho.
So I just kind of want to talkthrough, I mean, setting the
stage for you getting here andgetting I mean, Pellion started,
but how was it like growing upin Idaho?
I feel like when I talk toanybody from Idaho, it's either,
oh, I'm from outside of Boise orI grew up on a farm.
And what sounds like you're thelatter of the two.

SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Definitely the latter.
I grew up in southeastern Idaho,little town called Bancroft, um,
very small community.
You know, I joke with my kidsthat I graduated in the top 10
of my class in high school.
Now, my kids will quickly thenpoint out there were only 21
students.
So graduating in the top 10 waspretty easy, but it was in the
top 10.
So I'm going with that.
But yeah, super small town,farming, farming background, the

(06:44):
whole works.

SPEAKER_06 (06:44):
It's okay.
I had a similar moment recentlywith being in like uh I got
third place in a half marathon.
It was the emigration, you go upthe back of emigration and down.
Uh, lo and behold, there's threeentrants for my uh age group.
So I see that metal.
I'm like, you know, third place.
I did it.
Go with it.
Go.
Hey, nobody nobody needs to knowthe details.
Um, but so like farming, I mean,what kind of uh like what were
you farming on the farm?

(07:05):
Was this a long family business?

SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
Was it adventure from your dad?
Yeah, so my my dad's well, mydad became a farmer when I was a
little kid.
He decided that he was he wastired of working at one of the
local uh plants.
It was Monsanto, and uh hebought some land and we just
kind of grew from there.
So by the time I left, we hadseveral thousand acres.
Uh part of it was pastureground, so we raised beef cows,

(07:27):
and then the other part we weraised barley and hay and wheat,
and I moved a lot of sprinklerpipe, picked a lot of rock, and
fixed a lot of fence.
And my dad used to tell me, hey,you know what?
When you grow up, if you go offto college, you don't have to
move pipe or pick rock anymore.
So I went to college.

SPEAKER_06 (07:45):
Eyes on the prize.

SPEAKER_00 (07:47):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 (07:47):
Yeah, I mean, it's so I serve part of my mission in
eastern Washington in a placecalled Ellensburg, where I mean
they one of the largestexporters in the US for, I mean,
hey Alfalfa, the gall goesmainly to Korea and Japan.
But it was a it was a world Ididn't know I was ever gonna
learn so much about.
And I spent a lot of time theremoving sprinklers, picking out

(08:07):
rocks.
I remember writing in for thefirst cut one year.
I was like, well, this is kindof interesting.
You did it three times, and andoh, all right, very new.
I'm from downtown Salt Lake Citywhere I did zero of this.
But I'm sure it was like, Imean, set the stage for a lot of
your, I mean, hard work,dedication.
I mean, there's a schedule thatalways has to be done.
The farm isn't going to farmitself.
So I'm sure that helps set a lotof that stage for you.

SPEAKER_00 (08:27):
Yeah, it really does.
And even what I do today, youknow, uh the the mantra my dad
has was, you know, you neverleave the field until the work's
done.
Well, lo and behold, the work isjust never done.
So you have to kind of figureout, you always have to be on,
you always have to be creative.
And there's a component of itwhere you have to be
entrepreneurial because you justhave to figure stuff out.
You know, no one's gonna show upand move the pipe and water the

(08:50):
grain and all that kind ofstuff, and who's gonna harvest
it?
You gotta just kind of keep keeptrudging forward.
So, as strange as it mightsound, what I learned growing
up, uh I look back now, it wasvery much setting the table, the
bedrock for what I do today as aventure capitalist.
Um, so probably not a lot ofventure capitalist farming tied

(09:13):
together, but I I look back andthink that's that's really kind
of how I started in thisbusiness.

SPEAKER_06 (09:18):
Yeah.
I think you see a lot of trendsin that with, I mean, let's call
it the hardworking ruralupbringing that kind of set that
stage for that.
Because I think, correct me ifI'm wrong, but I think like Todd
Peterson, he's the one thatcomes to mind because I think
he's from Idaho too, came from afarming family, and now, I mean,
everybody in Utah knows theknows Vivent, even though his
their name was taken off to goback to the Delta Center.

SPEAKER_00 (09:37):
Yeah, a little little small connection there.
Yeah, absolutely.
Todd's older sister, uh, they'refrom Idaho Falls.
Todd's older sister, Lynette,and my wife were best friends
growing up.
And so she remembers Todd as ajunior high person and things
like that.
And so it's been fun for for usand for her to to kind of watch
you know what Todd has has donehere locally.

(09:59):
He's he's he's amazing, he'sbeen very generous and has built
a great company.
But yeah, super interestingconnection from southeastern
Idaho.

SPEAKER_06 (10:06):
Interesting.
It's like a small lake city,small Idaho world.
But it's funny how that allcomes together.
And it's so funny too when likeI so I'm like in my early 30s,
and so I'm to the point whereall my friends who went to like
dental school, medical school,law school, MBA, whatever,
they're now doing what theywanted to do.
And but it's funny because somany of these people I've known

(10:27):
since I mean elementary school,middle school, high school, and
I'm like, I can't let go of thisperception I have of you, but
now you're a surgeon andtrusting people with their
lives.
But good to know people canchange and do responsible
things.
Totally.

SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
You know, I when I was in high school, it was
funny.
I I was uh one of the teacherssaid to me, you know, you you
have the most potential, butyou'll do the least with it
because you're kind of a screwoff.
And I look back now, it's likethat was kind of a motivating
factor to kind of figure stuffout.
But yeah, sometimes I wonder,you know, the journey people
take is a pretty wild one.

SPEAKER_06 (11:01):
Oh, and I was it's funny you say that because I was
the same person.
I in in hindsight, I realized Ihad like undiagnosed ADHD.
So I was really just, I mean, Iwas kind of above average in
intelligence, but got boredreally quick and would just act
out, be the class clown.
And the amount of teachers thatwould come to be like, Eric, as
a person, I really like you.
As a student, I can't stand you.

(11:22):
Yep.
Totally.
But lo and behold, like I thinkthe I mean, early education
system compared to what actuallydictates success in doing it,
it's kind of very disparate.
And so I see now I'm like, oh,like a lot of these things that
like quote used to get me introuble are now I mean boons to
help me succeed.
So it's funny how that all kindof comes together and grows from

(11:42):
there.
And cool.
So you grow up in Idaho workingon a farm, your dad says, if you
go to college, you don't have todo this.
So I'm imagine there's thisinstant trigger, like college
sounds like a great experience,even if that's the only thing I
know about it.

SPEAKER_02 (11:55):
Right.

SPEAKER_06 (11:56):
So you go down south to BYU.
Uh-huh.
Correct.
Yep.
I was there a mission in betweenthe farm in Idaho.

SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah.
So I I served a mission for theLDS Church in New York City.
Okay.
And uh that's actually how Iended up in uh down at BYU.
Is one of my really good friendswho was a missionary as well,
asked me, What are you gonna doafter we're this is over with?
I'm like, I don't know.
I'll probably figure it out.
He goes, I'm going to BYU.
You want to go with me and we'llbe roommates?
And that's how I ended up inPrevo.
Kind of wild.

(12:21):
There you go.
Good friend, he's from NorthernCalifornia, actually lives in
New Jersey now, and we ended upin in uh uh down at Prevo, and I
went to school at BYU.

SPEAKER_06 (12:30):
Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (12:31):
What was your experience?
I mean, pretty typicalexperience at BYU.
Did you what did you say?
I think I saw is it was ahistory?
No, I was I was an economicsmajor.

SPEAKER_00 (12:38):
No, it was I it was great.
I loved it, and uh wasn't reallysure what I was gonna do, and I
I liked economics and I ended upgetting a degree in that.

SPEAKER_06 (12:47):
So I mean that's that is the goal, and you did
it.
Yeah, totally.
I remember my mission presidentin like my last interview,
exiting back and what it'scalled.
But he was like, Eric, just youknow, college is a hurdle.
Get over it and move on.
And I didn't really understandit then.
I have like this philosophy ofprofessional development is like
a pendulum swing where you justkind of constantly get narrower

(13:08):
and narrower until you findexactly what's right.
Totally.
And you can't really explorethat most until you get into
like the open ocean of thepost-school world.

SPEAKER_00 (13:17):
You know, it was it was kind of wild.
I I originally was going to goget a finance degree, and I'd
taken all the prerequisites, andthen my dad ended up having open
heart surgery.
And so I thought, well,somebody's got to go home run
the farm.
I have a brother in graduateschool, I have another brother
living in in uh South Africa.
So I was like, okay, I'll gohome.
So I quit school, got engaged,quit school, moved home, ran the

(13:39):
farm until springtime when mydad recovered and got married,
came back, and tried to sign upfor classes in the finance
program at BYU.
And was quickly informed that Ineeded to apply to the finance
program.
That's how naive I was.
I'm like, okay, how do you dothat?
And they're like, Well, it'sgonna have to be next year.
And I'm like, and then I had afriend like, hey, uh, come and

(14:01):
take a couple of econ classeswith me.
Quickly had the professorsinform me that, you know, uh
people who get finance degreesare the those who flunk out of
economics or out of the econprogram at BYU, which is kind of
funny in many many instances.
But I I loved econ and ended upstaying and not going back into
the finance program, which bythe way is a great program at
BYU.

(14:21):
But for me, econ was where itwas.
But it was all because my dadhad open heart surgery.

SPEAKER_06 (14:26):
Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 (14:27):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (14:27):
Funny how that one little thing sent kind of
everything different, but I feellike it's also one of those um
experiences where everyone'salways like, well, if this
didn't happen, I'm so glad itwould be here.
But reality, like most pathswould end up that way anyway.
Totally.
But it's fun that it sent thatcontext because I I mean I'm a
huge fan of economics in likegeneral.
Like didn't I study finance atthe U actually, but I love

(14:47):
reading economics.
I love thinking about economics,it's kind of like a good
framework for my head.
And so I think as I mean, whereyou are now, I feel like it was
part of that good foundation andframework to get to where you
are today, where you can thinkabout all these economic levers
and their impacts on everythingin correlation to I mean, make
decisions in where you'reallocating portfolio.

SPEAKER_00 (15:07):
Very much so.
You know, when when I was livingin New York City, uh interacted
with a lot of people that workedon Wall Street and quickly like
the the global economy and whatthat draw does to the financial
markets are so fascinating forme.
And supply and demand and etcetera, et cetera.
And like I I don't think I fullyunderstood what an econ degree

(15:29):
would do, uh, but watching reallive firsthand how people were
interacting with the globaleconomy working on Wall Street
was a really fascinating thingfor me.

SPEAKER_06 (15:39):
I mean, especially when you go from rural Idaho
farming, then get shipped acrossthe country to New York, which
is, I mean, assume you were inlike Manhattan, like downtown
New York, which is as polaropposite you could experience,
but then also gives you thisexperience of like, oh, like
center of financial markets,capital markets, people doing
this.
What does this mean?
What does capital mean?
And because like that's alwaysone thing I envied of uh so my

(16:01):
mission, I was Spanish speaking,uh-huh, and some of like my
leadership roles were in EnglishWards, but always had English
missionaries around me, and theygot this kind of fun experience
like you did, where it's like,hey, uh members, like, what do
you do for work?
What do you like about this?
And like kind of get this kindof preemptive start to what they
wanted to study, what theywanted to do.
And like one of my companions bythe end of our time together, he
was like, I know I'm gonna be anaccountant, I know exactly what

(16:22):
I want to do.
I'm like, Yeah, good luck.

SPEAKER_00 (16:24):
And in hindsight, also still good luck.
Yeah, no, so I mean, I fell inlove with New York City.
I just thought it wasfascinating.
By the way, I'd never been on acommercial plane until I flew to
New York.
And in my first apartmentbuilding that I lived in, there
were more people in thatapartment building than in my
entire town that I grew up in.

(16:45):
A little perspective for you.
Yeah, and so I I like I was Iwas such a fish out of water,
and so I didn't know what, butthere was just something special
about New York.
And I mean, even today, uh, youknow, my wife, my kids, we all
love to go to New York, and youknow, there's nothing more
special than New York,especially at Christmas time.

SPEAKER_06 (17:02):
Oh, totally.
The energy is completelydifferent.

SPEAKER_00 (17:03):
It's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 (17:05):
Yeah, it's like one of those things.
I was talking to someonerecently, and they're it just
kind of came up randomly like,would you want to live in New
York?
And I thought for a sec, I waslike, at one point in my life,
the answer was yes.
Now it'd be a little much,right?
Uh just because, like, I mean,where I am at quality of life,
the thought of just being like,okay, so subway every day,
everything's gonna take you 30,45 minutes to get to.
I'm like, maybe if I was alittle bit more comfy than it

(17:27):
would be, but to that point, Istill have so many friends that
live there, love visiting them,love that energy.
There's something so specialabout it.
Um, and I mean, I think I goback, I mean, at least
personally once a year,sometimes for work, end up there
for other random odds and ends.

SPEAKER_00 (17:40):
It it's a great city, it's a great city.
Yeah.
So you met your wife at BYU, Iassume.
Yeah, she was she was actuallyworking in Provo.
I was going to school, and myroommate and her roommate were
dating.
Classic.
And that's how we met.
And then, of course, uh, youknow, I I will tell the story
that I, you know, she chased me,but the fact of the matter is I

(18:02):
chased her for a long time, and18 months later we ended up
getting married.
Hey, that's and you know, in inin Utah speak, 18 months is a
long time.

SPEAKER_06 (18:10):
Oh.
Yeah, I was interviewing um hisname, Lauren Warner.
He's the founder of HonestEatery.
And I mean, he had a similarstory.
Went to BIU, met a girl.
Well, actually, no, then he hemet a girl in Guadalajara, and I
assumed, I mean, just assumingLDS standards pretty quick.
He's like, no, we dated longdistance for like five years
while I was doing this like oiland gas consulting.

(18:30):
And I was like, that is like aneternity in LES years, but
totally.
So that's that's awesome.
And I know that so you guys goup to Idaho, your dad has
surgery, take care of that, comeback down, get let down to
finance, start econ, andgraduate from there.
And I mean, where was your headat at this point?
Were you pretty focused on um, Imean, where does VC lie in in

(18:50):
this?
I mean, where was your careeraspirations at this point in
your life?
You know, I had no idea what VCwas.

SPEAKER_00 (18:55):
So, what how how I got into this was uh got
married, I needed a littlepart-time job.
My wife was working for acompany called WordPerfect.
Now, WordPerfect for everybodyout there was they controlled
probably 80, 90% of the wordprocessing market when we lived
in a DOS world.
Yes.
So I just dated myself and I gota little part-time job.
I was a security guard while Iwas going to school for

(19:16):
WordPerfect.
Uh, ended up doing a summerinternship form living in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, in theirsales organization.
Wow.
Amazing.
I mean, I Nova Scotia is anamazing place.
So what a big what a what aterrible place to have an
internship.
I know I get that.
We spent the summer living inHalifax, my wife and I.
We'd only been married about ayear, so it was great.
Came back, finished up school,and WordPerfect offered me a

(19:37):
full-time job to go back to NewYork City.
So I was so fun.
I was it was amazing.
So we went back to New York.
Uh the company was growing sofast that they moved us to
Seattle, which you know, I wassad to leave New York.
Seattle was amazing, but then Ihad another opportunity to to
move back to Utah, and I ran uha piece of the international

(19:59):
business for Word Perfect.
Amazing in journey, had no ideawhat venture capital was still
at this point in time.
Uh ended up uh getting in anddoing some corporate
development, some MA work forthem.
Novell acquires Word Perfect.
So Novell leading networkingsoftware company.
So I'm working in theircorporate development group, and
a guy named Eric Schmidt showsup to be our CEO.

(20:21):
FYI, for you out there, EricSchmidt after Novell went on to
be the CEO of Google.
So yeah, that at the time it wasa little tiny startup company.
But so I got to know Eric.
And Eric uh had started, he oneof his visions was to start a
corporate venture font.
And so I'd gotten to know himthrough that process.
I was given the opportunity torun Novell's corporate venture

(20:43):
fund, still had no idea whatventure capital was.
He's like, yes.
I said, sure.
I like Eric's one of thesmartest guys on the planet.
Of course, you're gonna say yesif that guy asks you to do
something.
And so I get that opportunity.
I I uh actually drive to Barnesand Noble because at the time
Amazon was a bookseller, not aweb hoster.
So I drive to to Barnes andNoble because the internet

(21:06):
didn't exist, and I buy the onlytwo books on venture capital I
can find, and I start to read.
And that's how I got into thebusiness.
And then I ended up runningNovell's corporate venture fund
from 96 to 2002.
It was an amazing run.
Uh Eric goes off to Google to betheir CEO.
Probably should have gone withhim when he left.
Uh, but I think it worked outokay.
Um, and I I actually met uh uhJim Dreyfus, who's the founder

(21:31):
of our firm.
This firm was started in 1986through the founder of Excel
Partners named Jim Schwartz.
And kind of through thatprocess, I ended up leaving and
joining uh what is now Peleontoday in 2002, and it's just
been an amazing ride.
So kind of a kind of a strangeway to get here, but it's it's
like it's an amazingopportunity.

SPEAKER_06 (21:51):
And it's like I always love those processes
where because I have so manyfriends who are so rigid in
their career paths where they'relike, listen, I'm gonna go to
the UN study accounting, I'mgonna get my master's in
accounting, I'm gonna be a CPA,I'm gonna go do audit at a big
four, and then I'm gonna go workat a company, and then I'm gonna
be their controller, hopefullymaybe be the like there's just
such like a process, andaccounting is probably a bad
example because it is soentrenched in that process.

(22:12):
But I think there's also such animportant part of it to be
flexible in everything that'sgoing on around you.
Like, so for example, like myday job is in RevOps.
As you know, RevOps is a prettynew thing.
If I would have graduated fromcollege and say I'm not gonna do
RevOps because it doesn't exist,then I would never have
understood that.
Where now I'm like, like RevOpsdo it, but at the same time,
like maybe something else isgonna come out in three or four

(22:34):
years.
I'm like, hey, that's great too,and have that flexibility, and
but also like understand that alot of the tracks are being laid
in front of you as you go.

SPEAKER_00 (22:41):
Ah, it's so true.
I mean, my first job was as asecurity guard, then I got into
sales, then marketing, thenproduct management, then
corporate development, and thenventure capital.
And like each one of those wereamazing and and part of the
buildup to where, you know, uhas a venture capitalist, like I
look back and I rely on some ofthose skills that I developed in

(23:02):
all of those.
So and like with theflexibility, you know, when I
first when I first got into uhsales, like venture capital was
such a there's cottage industryand then how small that thing
was.
And so yeah, it it I I thinkit's just being nimble and
flexible, and then I like open,and then I also had some amazing

(23:23):
people that took chances on me,like Eric Schmidt and a guy
named Carl Ledbetter and JimSchwartz.
I could go down this laundrylist of people where they took a
chance on me, and you know, thenit's it was it was up to to me
to kind of perform, but youknow, without those chances, uh,
you know, I just super gratefulfor those guys.

SPEAKER_06 (23:41):
Totally.
It sounds like they gave you aspot on stage, it was up to you
to dance, and yeah, I mean itall worked out well.

SPEAKER_03 (23:47):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (23:47):
I mean, in hindsight, from I mean,
obviously you had such a greatexperience of learning alongside
with Eric and everything that Imean he was doing at that point
to get him ready for the CEOrole at Google.
I mean, what lessons did youlearn from him then that still I
mean govern what you do today?

SPEAKER_00 (24:01):
You know, one one of the things that I watched him do
so well was he he could he couldconnect with people.
Like now he was a very brightguy, but he could connect with
people in a way where it wasgenuine.
And you know, he wasn'texpecting anything in return.
He was he was just connectingwith somebody because he was

(24:22):
interested in who they were.
So taking an interest in theother person, like you really
kind of start to start afoundational thing.
That was like one of the greatskills that that or lessons that
I learned from him, because inthis world, you know, we're
constantly having to connectwith entrepreneurs and
co-investors and what what haveyou.
And but you need to figure outhow to do it in a genuine way,

(24:44):
not in a way where you knowyou're sitting across the table
going, okay, well, if I can dothis, then I need this, this,
and this in return.

SPEAKER_06 (24:50):
Yeah, like no sort of tit for tat.

SPEAKER_00 (24:51):
It's all just how can I help?
It's just a genuine thing.
And that that was like kind ofone of the and then the other
thing is like the the risk, youknow, when I was running
Novell's corporate venture fund,Eric used to um call me or his
assistant would call me and say,Hey, Eric needs to talk to you.
And I'd go down, and usuallywhat that meant is he'd met with
an entrepreneur and he sawsomething and he made a

(25:12):
commitment, and then I needed tofigure it out.
Which which some of the timesI'd go, I'd have to go into him
and said, What did you see?
And like he would pull back theonion a little bit and he'd say,
Okay, here's what here's whatyou need to understand about
that entrepreneur.
And and that technology, if itworks, it'll do this.
And I like so there were likesome of those foundational
things where I was like, Allright, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 (25:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (25:34):
And I love how all the experiences you had, like
you're saying, it started off, Imean, except for probably the
security guard, but that'simportant in the story
nonetheless.
It allowed me to do my homeworkwhile I was while I was sitting
at a at a desk.
Exactly.
We all had those jobs duringcollege that we were very
grateful for.
Right.
Mine was at GNC.
There you go.
Um, but it's so funny how youhave, I mean, the sales
experiences, marketingexperiences, product experience,

(25:54):
corp dev experience, which Imean, if you could piece
together a resume for VC, Imean, that's great.

SPEAKER_03 (26:00):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (26:01):
But the only thing I didn't do was write code.
And you know, and I I took someclasses on how to write code,
but uh you don't want me writingcode.
But yeah, it was, it was I itwas super foundational to what I
do.

SPEAKER_06 (26:13):
And especially like thinking about because it sounds
like Eric had, I mean, obviouslya good head on his shoulders,
understood what he was lookingfor, and can kind of identify
these niche things, whether itbe with the product itself, with
the uh entrepreneur themselves,that I mean, I feel like educate
a lot of what you do today.
And when I was listening to yourmost recent podcast you did with
Silicon Slopes, you were talkingabout the Cloudflare business
and like that investment.

(26:34):
And it's so interesting how um,oh my gosh, I can't think of his
the the founder's name, but uhMatthew Prince.
Yes, Matthew Prince.
Yeah, Matthew and Michelle.
Yeah.
And how they're talking aboutthey came in, I think it was
like a board meeting orsomething, but they're like,
where you're like, Oh yeah,cool, you're gonna do this for
the internet.
Like, no, we're gonna power theinternet, we will be the
internet.
Yeah, and so it's fun to havethose moments and see it come to

(26:54):
fruition.
And I mean, obviously, all boatsrise with high tide in your
position, but yeah, I mean looklook, great visionary
entrepreneurs that are gonnachange the world.

SPEAKER_00 (27:03):
I mean, we're sitting in a in actually, we
didn't even invested in inCloudflare, and Matthew's
comment was, I'm gonna power theinternet.
And Michelle Zatlin, who's hisco-founder, kind of looking at
him going, wow, that's prettyamazing.
I mean, the two of them werejust graduating from Harvard.
You know, one other company weinvested into was uh Jerry
Kennell at and Steve McCann at acompany called Riverbed.

(27:24):
And their comment was, we'regonna speed data up faster than
the speed of light.
And like these big audaciousclaims, and you're just like,
wow, all right, if they ifthat's right, you want to be
partners with those people.
And so that that's kind of oneof these big audacious and and
entrepreneurs, they're just suchrock stars.
And uh, you know, that thatthat's the people who are gonna

(27:44):
create these great bigcompanies.

SPEAKER_06 (27:45):
Totally.
And I mean, you see that in theworld today where tech is what
is I mean, driving the world.
I mean, all of our problems areslowly becoming solved by tech
solutions, and it it's sointeresting to see how I guess
taking a step back, humans areone of the only animals that we
can visualize something,conceptualize something, and

(28:06):
then make it a reality.
Yeah.
And there's been few things wehaven't actually done.
I mean, we've done like theinternet, like the thought of
just like data can be stored onlike some uh I mean wafer and
then all of a sudden it can gettransferred over our heads here
is wild.

SPEAKER_03 (28:16):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (28:16):
But we can make these things come to reality and
it's technology, and technologyonly grows, I mean,
exponentially, if not fasterthan that.

SPEAKER_00 (28:23):
Yeah.
Well, you know, I mean, acompany right here in Utah
called Fusion I.O.
And I mean, David Flynn and RickWhite, it was uh it it's it was
a some people would say it's astorage company, but what they
invented like changed the waysolid state storage interacts
with the internet.
It's it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_06 (28:40):
Totally.
Yeah.
And so I love that you had theseexperiences with Eric where he's
like, well, I think you'rethinking about it maybe a little
bit, maybe myopically orwhatever, but here's how I'm
thinking about this and how Isee this going through.
Right.
I mean, if you could go back toyour, I mean, early VC days and
how the way you thought aboutthings or the frameworks you
had, I mean, what would you tellthem then?

SPEAKER_00 (28:58):
Oh, well, first of all, I'd start off by saying,
uh, you know, risk is a goodthing and failure is a good
thing.
I I used to get a lot of anxietyover failure, but in in VC, you
have that you have failure everyday.
And so like I'd go back and say,you know what, you're gonna be
okay.
So failure, and then likecontinue to look for those, you
know, the the the MatthewPrince, the Jerry Canelli, the

(29:21):
David Flynn's, the list goes onof these these great
entrepreneurs that have theseaudacious visions because that's
who are gonna change the world.
They're you know, we can go downthe list of of people here in
Utah that you know could rangefrom uh Blake Murray um at uh at
Divi or Brandon Rodman or um uhRyan Smith or you know Aaron

(29:42):
Sconner, Josh James, the listgoes on of all these guys and
what they've done.
I think so if I'm in theyounger, I'm just like look for
those characteristics becausethere there is a difference.
There definitely is adifference.

SPEAKER_06 (29:54):
And is there any identifiable characteristics
that you look for in people likethat?

SPEAKER_00 (29:59):
You know, the their their vision is so big that um,
you know, I I had somebody callit, you know, they dent the
world.
And you know, when I say dentthe world, they're gonna make a
difference.
And they're gonna make adifference in people's lives, in
the technology, they're gonnaadvance something.
Um and look, they're all uh I'llI'll use the term very uh

(30:24):
they're all a little crazy.
Yes.
And when I say crazy, they haveto be.
When you think about what theybuilt, there's a crazy notion to
them because they're they'repushing all in on one thing,
yeah, and it's that company.
And they're gonna win.
And you just like you love thatsort of thing.
I I remember like conversationswith Blake Murray about Divi.

(30:45):
You know, for those of you outthere, Divi was a an expense
management platform.
That doesn't sound veryexciting, but when you look at
what he built in the fintechspace, you know, and then he
brought amazing people inalongside him, I it was pretty
amazing to go from something sowhat I'll call boring as you
know, uh financial uh expensereporting to building a company

(31:09):
that sold for two and a halfbillion dollars three years
later.

SPEAKER_06 (31:12):
So that doesn't sound very boring to me at the
end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 (31:15):
No, no.
And and by the way, though forthose of you who haven't met
Blake Murray, he's prettyamazing.
You should get to know him.
He's he's a pretty good guy.

SPEAKER_06 (31:22):
Yeah but it's like so funny too because you look at
a lot of the I mean Hallmark,Utah startups that I mean have a
massive exits, the Qualtrics,the Divi, I mean, M, I mean,
just the typical names that youalways hear, MX Divi, I mean,
etc.
At face value, a lot of themseem very boring.
Like your Qualtrics are like,oh, surveys.
Yeah, great.
But obviously, it's a huge,massive business that continues

(31:43):
to grow.
And I mean, so many companiesneed it for a plethora of
reasons.
And so I think it's so fun howwe've had these Utah
entrepreneurs find these niches,relentlessly go after it, chase
after it, and make it a reality.
And it's so fun that we've beenable to do it in our backyard
without having to, I mean, go toSilicon Valley, go to New York,
go to all these different placesand really create this unique

(32:04):
place.
Like I was reading um this bookcalled, oh, I can't remember the
name.
I'll probably edit it in after.
But it's uh this guy who used towork in VC, but then I mean,
essentially just looked at allthis data to find these trends
in um entrepreneurs.
Um he kind of goes through, he'slike, oh yeah, if someone's had
a um business before, even ifit's succeeded or failed, that's
better.
But then they go in, and there'salmost like half a chapter

(32:26):
dedicated on um Salt Lake andLehigh.
In Silicon Slopes, and it kindof talks about Qualtrics where
it's like there's this emergingplace in Salt Lake where I mean
places like Qualtrics and Diviare growing and it's becoming a
bigger and bigger dot on the mapwith I mean venture capital and
just I mean business in general,especially in tech.
And so it's so fun to have.
I'm I mean, I'm curious fromyour perspective, where you are
now, did you ever expect to seethis much growth or see I mean

(32:49):
the valley and especially Lehighbecome what it is?

SPEAKER_00 (32:52):
Well, I I'd love to sit here and say yeah.
I I saw that it was all part ofthe plan.
But but I'll tell you, so thefounder of our firm, Jim
Dreyfus, his vision back in 1986is there's something special
about Utah.
You can build great companieshere.
Now he was probably just 20years too early, but he was
right.
So if you roll forward to today,on one hand it's very
surprising, but on the otherhand, it's not.

(33:14):
And one of the things that Ilike I get this comment from all
of my friends in the VC businesswho say there's something
magical about Utah.
Those entrepreneurs help eachother.
They compete for talent, theycompete for customers, they
compete for you know brandidentity, but at the end of the
day, they help each other.
And I think that's super uniqueto this marketplace.
And I think that's why you'vehad.

(33:36):
I mean, look, I I we mentionedTodd and Ryan and Josh and Aaron
Scott, all those guys.
Like, like I watched those guyshelp each other as they were
building their businesses andthey'd get together, and then
you know, that next generation,you know, Brandon Rodman and
Blake Murray are actuallycousins.
Oh, wow.
You know, Brandon built Weaveand Blake built uh Blake Murray
built Divi.

(33:57):
Those guys are cousins.
So all these guys are helpingeach other, and I think that's
pretty special and is unique toUtah.

SPEAKER_06 (34:04):
Oh, totally.
I mean, that's like almost thedefinition of like Desert
itself.
Totally and this beehive ofwe're all part of this same
economy ecosystem, society,we're all, I mean, synergy,
we're all better together,helping each other, even if at
the end of the day we may or maynot be like semi-competing, even
if it is for resources, right?
That we still have this priorityof working together and I mean

(34:25):
to see what it's grown after allof that is is inspiring in the
least.
Oh, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 (34:29):
Just absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_06 (34:30):
So, I mean, in in your hindsight perspective that
you have, I mean, have you everput thought into what those key
things are that make I mean UtahSalt Lake great to make it the
foundation there was to growtoday?
Or do you feel like it's juststill so much more nuanced and
small than that?

SPEAKER_00 (34:45):
Well, I I think there is a great uh large amount
of nuance to it.
I mean, first of all, you havegreat universities here, and so
there's there's that componentof it.
But I I I think that one is, andit could be just, you know,
people here are willing to takethe kind of risk that they that
they take.
So you so you have a bunch ofpeople that are risk takers, and
then you have people that cheereach other people, each other

(35:06):
on.
And and I think I think youknow, you can line up there's
great companies, there's bigcompanies, there's great
universities, there's greatentrepreneurs, but that, and we
talk about it all the time inturning and and we call it the
magic of Utah, is how theseentrepreneurs care that their
friend, their colleagues, orwhat have you are going to have
success.

(35:27):
And they cheer them on.
Very competitive, no questionabout that.
But they are interested in theirfriends succeeding as well.
And I think that's that'sthrough all of that, the nuanced
component is that.
And and you can't bottle thatup.
It just has to be organic andnatural.
And and then, you know, my myfriends from out of state that
are trying to figure out how toplace bets in here and how to

(35:48):
how to invest, they talk aboutlike they see it firsthand when
they come to town.
And I think I think those of uswho live here, it's a great
reminder because I thinksometimes we'll go, oh, it's
just what the way it is.
But then you have the outsidergo, no, there's something
special about what's going onhere.

SPEAKER_06 (36:04):
Totally.
And like that's one thing Ilearned.
So I moved to Seattle for fouryears after school to go uh work
up there.
And like I'd taken Utah forgranted so much.
Because I mean, most people whoare from Salt Lake or Utah are
like, I want to get out of hereas soon as I graduate, I'm
getting out.
And then sure enough, like yousee this like boomerang come
back, and you're like, Iremember when I was younger, I
was like, What are you doing?
You got out.
Like, why why why did you comeback?

(36:25):
Yeah.
Lo and behold, I was one ofthose people because I mean,
Salt Lake in itself, I mean,even from like uh I mean, going
back to economics, economicperspective is so special.
Yeah.
Because you have, I mean, justto um start with like a
conservative state, liberalcities, which provides us great
checks and balances, um, betterthan a lot of other checks and
balances that we have.
Then we also have uh a youngerpopulation, which I mean trends

(36:47):
everywhere else isn't the same.
We so all of that gumption, thatdrive, you have let's call it
traditional values, whichprovides a ton of why power to
all of these people,entrepreneurs, I mean, down to
the 80s, product support, CSMs,of getting it all done.
And that also provides a greatculture of prioritization.
Like, I mean, when I was inSeattle, you know, work was work

(37:08):
for a lot of people and theydidn't really have a lot of
things out of it.
So they just leaned into it,which is fine.
Like, I'm never gonna tellsomeone don't grind on what you
want to do and prioritize yourtime wherever.
But here it's like, hey, like Ineed to go home to my family.

SPEAKER_03 (37:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (37:18):
I need to go home, I need to, I want to go and
explore the mountains.
I want to get out and be here.
And so I feel like that createsa good uh sense of community
amongst all these people, and itdrives people from, I mean, how
many people have moved here justto work here because of the
growth?

SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
Uh, we we we just funded a company where the
founder, long time SiliconValley, moved here, built is and
wants to build his next companyin Utah because of all the
things you just described.
And like it is fun to watch, andit's fun to have been part of
it.
You know, I've been in theventure industry since '96,
always in Salt Lake.
Now, I spent a lot of time inSilicon Valley just by the

(37:53):
nature of what we do.
But you know, just like each wecall it, you know, we we we
group it into different waves,and we think we're in about wave
five right now of what's goingon here.
And the other thing is is youdon't have to move your company
anymore.
Like when I graduated fromcollege, the I the the direction
was okay, you got to move awayto get a job.

(38:15):
You gotta move away.
And that was kind of the mantra.
Today, that's not the case, andit hasn't been for several
years.
Like you can you can graduateand you can build a a pretty
massive career just staying herelocally, yeah, and you can build
a massive company without havingto move it anymore.
There was a time when 10, 15years ago, you'd have to move to

(38:35):
Silicon Valley.
That's not the case anymore.

SPEAKER_06 (38:37):
Yeah, that experience was so niche to
there, and then now, I mean, youcan have that same experience
here and not have to uprooteverything and still have that
quality of life that we we have.
Right.
And I mean, to pair that with Imean remote work and everything
else, like why not, why not?
Why not?
Because that's right.
Because I was the same way.
I mean, I didn't necessarilywant to leave Utah at the
beginning, but then people werelike, Hey, if you want to create

(38:59):
value here for yourself, youhave to go get experience
somewhere else.
And I think I was one of thoselast kind of people that had
that thought process behind itbecause now I just see people
like, yeah, we might as wellstay here.
There's so much going on.
Why would I go anywhere else?
Totally.
And it's so fun to you becauseuh uh you probably don't know
this, but last year I spent sixmonths traveling in a van around
the country working remote.
And like I always had this likeidea that I would find this

(39:21):
perfect place that I've neverbeen to, and like this is gonna
be my new home.
And there were a couple thatlike tickled my fancy, but at
the end of the day, like didn'twork out for very core reasons.
But at the end of that sixmonths, I was like, oh,
actually, Salt Lake is prettygreat.
Utah is pretty great.
Yeah, and like because you'd goto these places.
I mean, even like upstate NewYork and like Pennsylvania,

(39:41):
where these old factories,economy's not doing well, people
aren't doing too well, or otherplaces where like, oh, this is
really boring, and like not mmany people, not enough exciting
activities like we have here,and like all of a sudden we have
this dot in like almost themiddle of the US that has all of
these great things happening.
And I was like, Yeah, likethat's that's actually where I
want to be.

SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
Yeah, totally.
I mean, and like like what whatClint Betts and those guys have
done with Silicon Slopes tocreate a community, like
everybody just wants to beinvolved.
And it's just you go to eventsand the the energy is just it's
amazing.
Totally absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_06 (40:15):
It's like every time I go to Silicon Slopes, I always
like I always go through thisprocess of like dragging my
feet.
I'm like, do I really want togo?
It's a lot of people.
Am I gonna get something?
But every time I walk out, I'mlike, this is cool.
Like there's something happeninghere, and it's finally to the
point where we recognize it andcan like value it and kind of
out of this, I mean, validationhypothesis phase to be like,

(40:35):
well, actually, like things aregoing well.
Right.
But I want to come back to yourpoint that you had.
So you're you say that we're inthis fifth wave here.
I mean, high level, what arethese first four waves and what
did those look like?
And what does it look like afterthis fifth wave?

SPEAKER_00 (40:47):
Well, look, the first four waves were like kind
of that building phase.
You know, you can go all the wayback to the ARPANET.
University of Utah was thefourth note on the ARPANET,
which was the precursor to theinternet.
So you kind of had that wave.
And then you had like JohnWarnock from Adobe and Ed
Catmill from Pixar, you had allthat technology that actually
came out of the University ofUtah.
Then you had, you know, the theAlan Ash and Bruce Bashion were

(41:09):
perfect, the Drew Major and hisguys, the superset guys that did
Novell.
Then you had Omniture andAltiris and Landesk, and then
you just kind of keep rollingforward, and you can see
gradually those companiescontinue to get bigger.
The number of companies continueto get uh uh larger.
And so, you know, today we havethis well-established um you

(41:33):
know, you can build a great bigcompany, and there's lots of
them here.
We have companies, be itFacebook or Oracle or Symantic
or Adobe.
You can go down the list ofcompanies that have big offices
here.
I mean, Goldman Sachs is mightbe their second largest office
is here in Salt Lake City.
And so I think the next wave isthis, you know, if I can it
feels like that we're we're kindof going from that adolescence

(41:57):
to junior high.
We're kind of, you know,elementary school to junior
high.
There's still so much more todo.
We haven't even broached highschool or college, if I can use
that metaphor.
So I think the next wave is thiscontinuation of building great
big companies.
And then with that, we're as astate, we got to figure out a
lot of other things, you know,the infrastructure, uh, travel,

(42:17):
like like all of those sorts ofthings here locally.
And I think, look, I think thestate government is doing a good
job kind of keeping their eye onthe ball there.
But probably the next phase isgoing to be that, you know,
adolescence, kind of thatgrowing phase is and what
happens to us from aninfrastructure standpoint,
because the companies are hereand they're continuing to be
built.

SPEAKER_06 (42:35):
Totally.
And it's it's always interestingbecause I've thought about this
a lot recently about just callit US history in general.
Like going back to your exampleof New York, like New York
didn't used to be this Mecca offinance.
It used to be this littleisland, I mean, in the early
1900s, late 1800s, but then grewinto this huge primary global
city.
You can say the same thing aboutLA, I mean San Francisco.

(42:55):
So yeah, like there's alwaysthis huge reason that things
grew so much.
And then now things are startingto change, where you're seeing
these tertiary cities becomethese secondary cities,
secondary cities become theseprimary cities, and a lot of it
has to do, I mean, with techgrowth.
And going back to my example oflike liberal cities and
conservative states, where yousee this not just in Salt Lake,
but you see Austin, you seeNashville, you see Charlotte,
you see Charleston, you seeMiami, all of these same sort of

(43:18):
like economic like petri dishes.
Right.
And they're all growing very,very well.
And especially with I mean,Utah's always been very
pro-business.
Uh, I mean, the example I alwayslike to use is even back in the
Disney Channel days when theywanted to film a movie, it was
always here.

SPEAKER_00 (43:33):
Always in Utah.

SPEAKER_06 (43:34):
And it's so fun to see kind of that investment,
that priority, free capital,kind of what it's shaped its way
into and only continues to grow.
And it's almost like the thoughtI was going through my head when
you were talking about um what'skind of shown up here,
especially these biggercompanies that aren't from here
moving here.
It's almost like this um liketractor beam or gravity pull
that we keep becoming likealmost a bigger planet or moon,

(43:55):
and it just sucks everything inand you can't ignore it anymore.
Like, and you think Goldman's agreat example.
These have the small office outon Chepita Way, kind of is like
this hypothesis, and then theyhave one-one one, then they
build 222.
Yeah, and it's like, oh, like,yeah, obviously, someone sees
something there in here.

SPEAKER_00 (44:10):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's so true.
I mean, I I just think it'sgonna continue to just expand
and grow, and and you know, thatthat's gonna come with a lot of
headaches, but man, they'regreat headaches to have because
we can figure them out.

SPEAKER_06 (44:21):
And like it's totally, and it's always gonna
be, I mean, ebbs and flows,peaks and valleys, and yeah, I
mean, especially in tech inUtah, I mean, everywhere right
now, it's it's definitely alittle bit of a valley.
There's a lot of I mean,excitement with I mean, all the
buzz of AI and everything goingon from there, but at the same
time, capital markets areinteresting.
And so I I guess at the currentstate of the economy, I mean,
what's what's your generalphilosophy right now?

(44:43):
Are you I mean, placing bigbets?
Are you kind of biding your timeto see how things go?
What's your what's your thoughtson the current landscape?

SPEAKER_00 (44:49):
You know, we're we're super bullish, and part of
that is driven by patternrecognition.
So, you know, I lived throughthe internet bubble bursting,
and after that happened, greatcompanies got built.
I lived through the financialcrisis meltdown of like 07, 08.
Great companies got built outout of that.
Some of the best vintage yearsfor building companies came on

(45:10):
the heels of that.
You know, the last few yearsit's been, you know, you have a
pandemic, you have raise risinginterest rates, like it's been
chaos from a bull market to abear market.
I'm very bullish that 24, 25 aregoing to be great uh markets.
They're gonna be great times tobuild companies.

(45:32):
I think you also will have um,you know, I I I learned this
from some of the early founders,some of the early guys in VC
from these great firms like aSequoia and Excel, where they
would talk about okay, theTaurus have all have all left.
And I always thought I I neverreally had an appreciation for
what they were saying, butbuilding a company is hard.

(45:54):
Yep.
And so, you know, I I thinkyou're gonna get back to a lot
of maybe some of thefundamentals, you know,
profitability, cash, growth,metrics in the business, all of
those sorts of things matter.
And that's the same thing thathappened in 02, 03, 07, 08.
And I think we're gonna have itagain.
So we're very bullish on what'scoming.

SPEAKER_06 (46:16):
Awesome.
Yeah.
I mean, it never hurts to goback to the the the roots and
the core, looking at LTB to CAC,looking at growth rates, looking
at yeah.
And I I think there's definitelyespecially like the different
podcasts and people that Ifollow in in tech, it's it's
interesting to see how it usedto be this like, oh, they they
got a term shoe.
So we'll we'll take one too, andjust kind of rolling it forward
where everyone's like uh let'sget a data room going.

(46:38):
I need to look at this a littlebit more, which is great.
Like the last thing you want to,I mean, I don't pay willy-nilly
for anything without looking atit first or shopping around.
So totally makes sense.
Yeah.
And I also love kind of comingback to a previous-ish point.
It's it's so fun to see thegrowth in Utah driven by the
growth in Utah.
Because I'm sure when you joinJim Dreyfus and we're getting

(46:58):
this off the ground, there'sprobably a lot of people
curious, a lot of peopledubious.
And but you had this vision ofwhat it was going to become and
invested in itself.
And there's, I mean, a couple ofthose other, I mean, Hallmark
firm like you, and it's so funto see how that's been like the
foundation of here.
It hasn't been like thissequoids or these huge mega
funds coming in and be like, eh,we'll we'll give you some money,
we'll see how it goes.

(47:19):
It's nothing to us, but itreally has been, to your point,
like everybody coming togetherand supporting each other.

SPEAKER_00 (47:23):
It is so true.
You know, when when this firmfirst got started in 1986, there
were firms like Venrock andMorganthaler and NEA and Excel
and all those firms that kind ofcame together and were the
vision behind uh you know thisfirm here.
Yeah, we actually used to becalled Utah Ventures.
So same firm, just differentname.
And and it was it was that thatview that like there's

(47:45):
something, something amazingthat's gonna happen here.
And you know, I remember when Ijoined Jim, I had a number of
people call me on the phone andgo, You've lost your mind.
What are you doing?
And you know, I I remembertalking to a couple, like the
founders of Battery, and Icalled them on the phone and I
was chatting with them and thefounders of Excel, and they just

(48:05):
said, Look, you can buildsomething amazing there.
And by the way, if it doesn'twork, you're young enough, you
can go get another job.
Yeah, and I was like, All right,that kind of makes sense.
But I think you yeah, I I don'tknow rather be and and so I
first the first week I'm um I'mat the firm, it was hard.
And uh I remember calling mywife, you know, whipped out my

(48:27):
flip phone, Motorola, brickphone, and called my wife on the
drive home and said, honey, Ithink I'm gonna have to get my
resume polished up.
And we had a good laugh aboutthat.
But it was yeah, it was like youcould you could build something
pretty amazing here.
And so we just kind of started,you know, and Jim was great.
And uh he's like, Look, how howare we gonna like remake this

(48:48):
firm?
Because we companies constantlyinnovate themselves.
And if you don't, you go out ofbusiness.
Innovate or die.
Yep.
And so Jim was all about, andthat was part of Jim Schwartz's
vision with with you knowgetting Dreyfus to bring me on
board was we got to innovate whowe are.
And so we're constantly as anorganization continuing to

(49:08):
innovate and making sure thatwe're staying current on what's
going on.
I think that's been part of thepart of the the success has been
you got to innovate, as yousaid, innovate or die.

SPEAKER_06 (49:19):
Yeah.
And it's like it's funny becauseyou always hear them like the
tech world, but it's also I meanit's applicable to everything,
right?

SPEAKER_00 (49:25):
Like oh, I absolutely I mean I worked for a
great company called WorkPerfect, and you know, they
controlled the when theoperating system world was DOS,
but they didn't innovate in oraround Windows.
And so when the world moved froma DOS world to a Windows world,
like that was kind of the thethe notion of this, you know,
you gotta constantly beinnovating and constantly paying

(49:46):
attention to the trends that arehappening.

SPEAKER_06 (49:49):
Were there any moments in whether in the
beginning years or the middleyears, whichever one of the part
of the waves we were at thatyou're like, this is like
something is happening, like youfinally were like, oh, this is
it.
Like there is no moreapprehension, there is no
nervousness, like we foundsomething.

SPEAKER_00 (50:04):
Yeah, you know, I I think it had there was not one
single moment.
It was probably a number ofmoments.
It was, you know, we've alreadytalked about these great
entrepreneurs that we'veinvested into.
And you know, and they weresuper impactful for the success.
And look, they made ourinvestors a lot of money.
And so with that, you just kindof success builds on success,
builds on success.

(50:24):
And so I wouldn't say there wasone single event, it was
probably a number of thesethings where uh, you know, and
and we knew we had people in ourcorner cheering us on, and that
that was always helpful.
And then there's this notion ofresponsibility.
I mean, we we manage money forpension funds.
And if you think of who thepensioners are, they're school

(50:46):
teachers and police officers,and so all of a sudden you're
like, oh wait, at the time itwas my kids, today it's my
grandkids.
You know, their school teachersare investors.
You got a real responsibility,you know, you can't lose the
money.
And so, like all of those sortsof things just were additive to
the notion of and and comingback to a farm, we just didn't

(51:08):
have a choice.
Like, if things didn't work outon the farm, there was no safety
net.
You just had to m march forwardand figure it out.
Yep.
And in venture, there's notreally a safety net.
You just got to keep marchingforward and figuring it out.

SPEAKER_06 (51:20):
Yeah, and I mean, especially when so many of these
companies are things that havenever been done before, right?
You're gonna run into thosesituations a lot more than
anything else.
It's not like, I mean, farmingwhere not to downplay farming to
means, because that's in myopinion, one of like the hardest
things anyone can ever do.
But people have done it before.
We've done it for millennia.
And so it's like, oh, well, if Idon't know this, I can go to my
neighbor, he's done thisforever.

(51:40):
But if you're trying to buildand I mean the most innovative,
groundbreaking product, you'regonna run into some headaches
that no one has ever run intobefore, but you still have to
figure them out.

SPEAKER_00 (51:49):
Yeah, you know, uh when I first got into this
business, I'd hear this word,all the companies pivot.
That's a bad idea.
What I will tell you is pivotingis a great idea because if
you're not pivoting, you're notyou're not paying attention to
the trends because building acompany is hard.
And I I have so much respect forthe entrepreneurs that do it,
but I have even more respect forthe entrepreneurs uh wife,

(52:12):
husband, partner, spouse,whatever, because that those
individuals are just as key tothe success because they're
having to, they're like rightthere in the trenches of the
entrepreneurs building thesebusinesses.
Totally.

SPEAKER_06 (52:26):
Yeah.
I mean, they're even if they'refocused on it, they're the ones
taking care of everything in thescenes, they're the one probably
being the coach on the bad dayof their like, listen, yeah,
things are going bad.
I don't know what to do.
Like, no, you're you're gonna beokay.
We'll get through this insteadof like you're right, pull the
plug, we're done.
You know, so true.
And I'm sure your wife was thesame role when you're getting
this all done.
There's days she probablythought you're crazy, but she
was along ride or dive through.

(52:47):
She was.

SPEAKER_00 (52:47):
Yeah, like like I I will have to say, I have an
amazing wife and threeunbelievable daughters that that
went on this ride with methrough this journey.
And I I remember them being mybiggest cheerleaders, and
sometimes I'd go, You realizeit's really hard.
And they knew it was hard, butit's like cheering me on.
So, you know, I that's likethat's key and core to the

(53:10):
success.
And if I look at all of ourgreat all of our companies we've
backed, the the wife, thehusband, the partner, like
whatever, they have been soimportant to the success of
these businesses.
Totally.
Yeah.
And correct me if I'm wrong, butyour daughter works at Peleon
now too, correct?
She does.

(53:31):
So she was she graduated from afinance with a finance degree
from BYU and did a littleinternship internship.

SPEAKER_06 (53:36):
So she got her application in on time.

SPEAKER_00 (53:38):
Got her application in on time.
Yeah, she was she was the smartone.
And uh then we have a two-yearanalyst program, and so she's
one of our two-year analysts,and and it's great.
Like it what was great for me isit was my partner's ideas.
Like, you know, look, she's mydaughter, and so I always want
to be mindful and thoughtfulabout that.
And it was my partner's like,look, she's really good at what

(53:58):
she does, and we'd like to haveher join the firm.
I'm like, that's fantastic.
So that's right.

SPEAKER_06 (54:02):
Yeah, how is it because I have friends that
spend a lot of time working withfam?
Like, one of my friends, I mean,works in real estate with his
dad and grandpa.
One of my friends is a dentistworking with his dad.
And like for me, I'm like,that's a lot of time with
family.
And sometimes family, like, youneed you need some boundaries.
Yeah.
And so, how has thatrelationship changed working
with her?
And how do you make sure thatlike there's let's call it like

(54:23):
a familiar relationship and aprofessional relationship, and
those don't cross for good orbad reasons.

SPEAKER_00 (54:27):
You know, we we we set we set ground rules right at
the very beginning, and I justlook, I'm I when when we're
working, this is my role, thisis your role, and so that that
was helpful.
And then you know, I have greatpeople like you know, Susanna
Duke and Daylor Youngblood.
I have so many great young uhteammates, and that's who she
interacts with a lot.

(54:48):
And then my partners, you know,she interacts with them probably
more than she does me in termsof kind of great mentors and
those things like that.
So uh, you know, it's beengreat, and it hasn't been weird
or awkward or anything anythinglike that, but I think it's
because we we set those groundrules and those boundaries like
from day one.
Good.

SPEAKER_06 (55:08):
Because and and I think as someone who's been kind
of watching from the sidelines,I feel like you've treated uh
Peleon as almost like thisprofessional sports team.
Because I feel like everyonethat you've brought on, I mean,
most recently, correct mefollowing it's not most
recently, but like SterlingSnow, for example.
Like he was someone I wasfollowing, because I mean,
obviously, Exec in RevOps, sosomeone I followed, all of his

(55:29):
team Utah, everything.
And I feel like he's beensomeone who has been good about
creating kind of a communityamongst almost like the Silicon
Slopes community.
So I'm just curious about yourlike philosophy on bringing
people on board, filling thoseseats, needs being filled, or
maybe it's less intentional thanI think.

SPEAKER_00 (55:44):
No, it's very intentional.
If you think about, and I'lljust continue on the sports
analogy, championships are wonby great teams, not by a single
person.
And uh let's just take the NewEngland Patriots.
I don't know.
Tom Brady has what, six, sixSuper Bowls, seven Super Bowls?
I'd have to go back and look.
I'm guessing like Tom is a greatquarterback, but we can go down

(56:06):
the list of his teammates.
Had they not been there, Tomwould be seen as a great
quarterback and probably nothave as many Super Bowls or
maybe no Super Bowls.
So, you know, in our view,championships are won by great
teams, and you need to have uhyou know, I'll I'll I'll I'll
mix metaphors here.
I'll I'll shift away from fromuh from football, but you gotta

(56:28):
have a power forward and a pointguard.
Like I'm guessing the Utah Jazzdid not want Carl Malone playing
point guard.
That makes sense.
But they needed John Stockton,and they didn't want John
Stockton playing power forward,so everybody has to have their
role on these championshipsteams.
I mean, look, maybe MichaelJordan can play whatever he
wants.
He might be the only person onthe planet in the in the history

(56:48):
of the world that could havedone that, but he had great
teammates, he had a he had agreat center, a great running
mate, like John, John Paxton,Steve Kerr, spot up.
Like who would have thought thathow important that role is?
And so when you think about ateam, and that's the way we view
it, so be it Sterling Snow orTyler Hogue or the list goes on,

(57:10):
these guys are great and theybring so much greatness to the
organization because they theyjust bring something that when
you pour it in, it just getsbetter.

SPEAKER_06 (57:19):
And I'm and I'm sure it's nice to be in your
situation of it all where youget to go, I mean, meet with
these investors, go to theseboard meetings and kind of see
these people over a while, belike, Oh, hey, I've been
watching you, Sterling.
Like, yeah, have you everthought about this?
And he's like, Have I?
Yeah, where do I sign?

SPEAKER_00 (57:35):
Well, that like both both Tyler and Sterling, that
was you know, we'd we'd seenthem at Divi.
They'd built a great companyalongside Blake Murray at at
Divi.
And so as we were talking aboutit, and we said, Hey, have you
ever thought about this?
And both of them are like, Yeah,we have actually.
You know, they've been bothgreat angel investors, and you
know, and and and so like all ofthat stuff just is additive to I

(57:58):
don't know what I what I believeis if if you're if you're so
focused on a single person, youknow, then I don't know how like
you'll have probably a great fewgames, but I'm not sure you'll
win a championship.

SPEAKER_06 (58:14):
Totally.

SPEAKER_00 (58:14):
You gotta have all the all the ingredients to win a
championship.

SPEAKER_06 (58:17):
Totally.
No, I like that thatperspective.
If it can't just be one person,like it can't just be you just
dishing out tasks to everybodyand hopefully they do it.
You need to have people thatthink for themselves, have
proven track records, who moveon the fly, adapt, innovate,
totally, and continue to moveforward.
And you have to like even moremeta than that, you have to
innovate on how you innovate.

SPEAKER_00 (58:34):
And a lot of it's getting the right pieces in the
right place because havingpeople you trust is and and we
think about it holistically asan entire organization, meaning,
you know, finding greatcompanies, interacting with
great entrepreneurs, and itdoesn't matter what your role
here is inside of our you youmay be an investor on the
finance team, on the operationsteam, investor relations.

(58:57):
It just doesn't matter.
Everybody has the theresponsibility to find great
companies because you knowsomebody somebody may be, you
know, their their sister-in-lawis building a great company, and
we want to know about that.
And so we turn everybody looseand it it like it really works.

SPEAKER_02 (59:16):
It really works.

SPEAKER_06 (59:17):
Yeah, it's so fun that everyone's on the same page
and continues to move forward.
And I know that um I I love likekind of going back to a previous
thing we talked about, like theauthenticity of things.
And I mean, we talked about itin context of entrepreneurs
because I mean you'll run intothe people who's like, I want to
be an entrepreneur because Iwant to be rich.
Yeah.
And if that's not that usuallydoesn't work well, but if

(59:38):
someone's like, hey, listen, Ifound this problem, I'm very
motivated to solve this problemand I'm determined enough that I
won't stop until it gets done,those are the people that change
the world are most successfulbecause they're motivated by the
change or the vision that theyhave, not necessarily by how
many zeros are currently intheir bank account.

SPEAKER_00 (59:55):
It's so true.
So the the zeros in your bankaccount are a byproduct of doing
something special.
Yes.
Like that will happen, but ifthat's your motivation, it won't
happen.
If your motivation is you'regonna make the world better,
you're gonna change something,like like all the the dent in
the world, like if you're doingthat, this this stuff in your

(01:00:16):
bank account just happensnaturally.
Um, but this is where a lot of alot of great satisfaction
happens over here.
And then when you think aboutyou know, looking at just your
employees and how you're gonnachange their lives.
And part of it is changing theirlife where they're part of
something pretty special, andthen you know, once again, the

(01:00:37):
byproduct, the number zero is intheir bank account, and then
what they do with that from agiving and a helping
perspective, like that's theother thing that I think people
should be always thinking aboutis somebody gave me a chance,
how can I also give back?

SPEAKER_06 (01:00:52):
Totally.
And then and I've always triedto have that as much as I can.
I'm not in like a position likeyou to give back as much.
But if I mean a student from theyear reaches out and says, Hey,
I want to get into this, how doI do it?
Like, let's chat.
Or if some I mean, I I try to doas much as I can, but can't to
the necessarily the same skillscale as you.
And I think to your point, likethat is so much of the
authenticity because if you'redoing it for money, you're not

(01:01:12):
gonna give anything back.
No.
But if you're in it because youwanted to and you're grateful
for everything that's been done,then naturally you're like, hey,
I'm I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:01:20):
I see something that isn't, and I want to like lift
where I stand.
And I think it's a perfect segueinto talking about uh your
recent donation uh to primarychildren's.
I mean, just for context, likethat's a place that is near and
dear to my heart.
So my mom, my mom's apediatrician, my stepdad's a
pediatrician.
Uh, she used to always do uhnewborn ICU rounds there, and I
loved going with her.
So I would overnight we'd bestuck in this little tiny room

(01:01:42):
with like a bed and we'd roll ina cot for me.
But I knew two things wouldalways happen.
One, uh, I got to have access toa TV with cable.
Never had that before, stokedout of my mind.
And number two, I knew we got towake up, go to the cafeteria in
the morning, and get a chocolatechocolate donut and chocolate
milk on the way out.
So me and as an eight-year-oldkid, it's like best day of my
life.
And I'm like, wait, didn't youjust spend the night at a

(01:02:03):
hospital?
I'm like, details don't matter.
I got a donut, okay.
Yeah.
But would love to hear about, Imean, kind of how you got to
this decision and I mean whyprimary children's uh just your
thought process behind it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:13):
Yeah, you know, it I I want to pull on a thread there
for just a second.
You know, it's time, talent, andresources, and really in that
order.
So as you think about giving,you know, there's a there's an
aspect associated with dollars,but time and talents, like I am
a big big Beneficiary of peoplewho gave me time and shared
their talents with me.
So when you think about giving,there's that.

(01:02:35):
You know, the primary children'shospital uh journey for my wife
and I started 30 years ago.
And um uh my night when my wifeand I were dating and we were
first married, she had a niecewho was diagnosed with a brain
with a brain cancer, braintumor, and she was treated at
primary children's hospital.
And so we spent a lot of timethere with her niece, and you
know, she ultimately it spreadto her spine, and she didn't,

(01:02:57):
you know, she passed away.
I think she was diagnosed whenshe was four, and she passed
away when she was seven.
And, you know, my wife and Iwere so young, like we didn't
have two nickels to rubtogether.
And my wife said, made herself acommitment if I'm ever in a
place where I can give more thanyou know, pennies by the inch or

(01:03:17):
what have you, we're gonna dothat to primary children's.
So that's kind of how it startedfor us.
I had a grandmother who at age50 uh went back to become a
nurse because she wanted to giveback.
She wanted to serve people whocouldn't, you know, who were
sick.
Uh, and so all of that startedto come together.
And so when we were in aposition, and now the the the

(01:03:41):
story on how we ended up at theamount was kind of a funny one.

SPEAKER_06 (01:03:44):
I do love this story.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:45):
So I'll I'll share with everybody.
So um uh Gail Miller, who manyof you I'm sure know Gail,
Gail's amazing, and we gotinvited to a luncheon at Gail's
house, and it we knew what itwas about.
She was gonna talk about primarychildren's hospital.
And, you know, look, Gail isjust this icon that when Gail is
doing something, you payattention.
Yes.
And so I was out of town, mywife goes to this uh this

(01:04:07):
luncheon with our middledaughter Allie and comes back,
and she was just so moved.
And this, you know, we talkedabout her niece, we talked about
my grandma, all that kind ofstuff.
And my wife said, I want to dosomething.
So great.
So we started having thisconversation on how much.
What I remember is we agreed ona million dollars.
And that was going to be a bignumber for us.
Totally.

(01:04:27):
Like that would have been ourbiggest donation in our entire
lives, and we're in a placewhere we can do that.
Well, roll forward.
Uh, I'm out of town again.
So you probably have heard this.
Note to self, don't go out oftown so much.
And my wife goes to uh DavidFlood and Rebecca and a few of
these other people, and theythey have them present the
primary children's hospital ideato our other two daughters,

(01:04:50):
Claire and McCall.
Because all of our giving, wewant our kids involved.
Yep.
And I'm at a meeting, my phonekeeps blowing up, and I have a
couple of my uh colleagues whosay to me, Hey, Sandy needs to
get a hold of you.
And I'm like, Oh, well, I'm kindof busy.
And they go, It's an emergency.
Read your text.
So I start looking at my text,and there's like five or six,

(01:05:12):
maybe seven text messages fromher.
And the first three or four arelike pretty mundane, like, hey,
uh, I put them in thecategories, like, we're out of
milk.
Can you pick some up from whenyou on your way home?
Like that kind of stuff.
And I'm thinking to myself,okay, I'm just gonna have to
read these later.
So I type the word okay, likenot even okay, just okay, send
it back to her, put my phonedown, walk away.

(01:05:34):
Well, a couple hours later, I'mreading my text.
The very last text from her ishey, I'm sitting here with David
Flood, we're talking aboutprimary children's.
The girls and I want to donate$10 million.
And yes, the blood did rush outof my body.
I had to go in the bathroom andthrow up.
I'm like, what did we just do?
How can I unwind this thing?

(01:05:56):
And so that's what's goingthrough my head.
I I don't even know how to likecall my wife.
I I'm just like, what justhappened?
Are you sure she didn't mean amillion?
I thought that's what we decidedon.
But then I looked at somethingelse.
So there was a bunch of texts.
So we have a family text thread,and it was my daughter's, my
son-in-law's, and I started toread their conversations.

(01:06:16):
And I started to think about myniece, Kristen.
I thought I started thinkingabout my grandma.
And uh I'm still kind of sick tomy stomach because at that point
I'm thinking to myself, oh mygosh, I got to liquidate a whole
bunch of stuff, taxes, all thiskind of stuff.
My my business partner, ChrisCooper, who was there, who was
with me, he's kind of looked atme and said, You know what,
you're gonna be fine.
One of my other colleagues,Latia, uh, she said, Blake, you

(01:06:40):
got this, you can do this.
So I listened to a voicemailfrom my wife, and the voicemail
is like, hey, I've alreadytalked to our family office
person, this guy named DarrenHenderson from Corient, and
we're fine.
I'm thinking to myself, well,how come is everybody fine and
I'm not?

SPEAKER_04 (01:06:54):
Like, listen, I want to pause here.
Like, I just said the most uhhighly impactful two-word text
of my life.
Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:03):
And so, so anyway, so I I finally kind of like sift
it through, but it was that textconversation why and I didn't I
wasn't participating, but it wasthis conversation with my kids.
I'm like, this is gonna beamazing.
And then I remember my wife andher her niece, Krista, 30 years
ago.
I remember my grandma, and I'mlike, you know what, we're gonna
do this.
That's awesome.
And so I called David Flood onthe phone.

(01:07:25):
I said, All right, uh Ioriginally was gonna call and
try to back this thing up.
We're all in, we're good to go.
And then we kind of just left itat that.
And this has been a while ago.
And then they talked to us aboutyou know, naming something after
us at the hospital, and I wasn'treal sure about like kind of
doing some of this stuffanonymous.
And you know, Gail had given ussome advice.

(01:07:47):
She said, you know, Larry and Iin our early days, we wanted to
be anonymous.
And then somebody said to me, Wedonated because we heard you
guys were gonna donate.
And I said to Gail, the onlyreason we're donating is because
we knew you were donating.
And she said, somebody elsemight donate because they see
your name.
So we're like, that was suchgreat advice from Gail.

(01:08:08):
So we're like, all right, herewe go.
And then uh we kind of wentthrough this whole thing, and
this is like kind of the lastcomponent to the story is so my
family, the Moderzisky family,we come from Poland, and we've
done a bunch of research.
For centuries, we're in we're innorthern Poland on the Baltic
Sea.
For centuries, the Moderziskyfamily had been a prominent
family in this area.

(01:08:30):
The fishing yard, the boatbuilding, streets named after
them.
World War II breaks out, uh theModerziskys become war refugees.
Everything is wiped out.
Like basically the whole what'sleft of the town my grandfather
grew up in is basically aconcentration camp.
And so I roll for it.

(01:08:50):
I was like, okay, so twogenerations later, we went from
a prominent family to warrefugees to fleeing to get out
of of eastern Germany.
Some of them didn't make it.
We don't know what happened topart of the family.
I can restore, so this is notabout the Blake and Sandy
Moderzisky.
This is about the Moderzitskiheritage of my great great great

(01:09:10):
ancestors that lived in thatpart of the world where you know
their name gets to be up on abuilding again the way it was
prior to the war.
So, like, there's so many greatexperiences that have come out
of this thing, and we justcouldn't be happier um to be
involved with primary children.
So that's our why.
You know, we've always wanted tobe, you know, education,

(01:09:32):
healthcare, helping others.
That's kind of our why, and thisfits right in the heart of it.
But yeah, the the journey to getthere was a little rough for not
for my why, for my kids, but forme, it was a little rough.

SPEAKER_06 (01:09:43):
I mean, understandable.
If someone were to say, oh, hey,we agreed on this, and then all
of a sudden, hey, we're justgonna 10x it.
I just need your okay.
And then, oh, there it is.
We're doing and I can totallyunderstand like your mental
battle.
You're like, how am I gonna backout of this?

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:57):
Totally, totally.
But but you know, when you kindof start putting all this stuff
into perspective, what Irealized was my insecurities
around it just didn't matterbecause there's there's such a
greater purpose that's behindwhy we did it that I'm like, you
know what?
We're gonna do this and we'regonna have a fun time doing it,
and we're uh we're gonna followGail Miller's advice, and uh,

(01:10:20):
you know, we're gonna tellpeople why we did it.
And if somebody out there hearsthe story and gets a chuckle out
of it, and by the way, you knowwhat?
Uh$10 is meaningful.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:31):
It's super meaningful.

SPEAKER_06 (01:10:32):
So I also love how so much of that is like the
history of your grandma, thehistory of your niece, um, and
all of this, but then also withtoday, doing this with your
daughters is so impactfulbecause then it sets this
springboard for them and showingthis is how we give back, this
is what it's all about.

(01:10:52):
So they take that with them andcarry it forward as well.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:55):
Yeah.
Like I think we should always bethoughtful about looking
forward.
You know, I I benefit frombenefited from people ahead of
me on the trail.
Now I'm probably part of thatahead of the trail.
So, how can we give that nextgeneration and generations to
come the same sort of I'll calluh you know, mentality or vision

(01:11:17):
or views where somebody's gonnahave to pick up the baton.
Uh, you know, we're picking itup for some people, people are
gonna have to pick it up fromus.

SPEAKER_06 (01:11:25):
Totally.
And I think the Millers are sucha good example of, I mean,
they've led and put so much ofthe foundation of, I mean, the
Salt Lake, Utah economy on itsback.

SPEAKER_04 (01:11:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:11:34):
I mean, and you see about how much it's grown, not
just from like, I mean, Larry H.
Miller dealerships, but I mean,it's it's huge now.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:11:40):
And but they're also the nicest people ever.
So growing up, I so I grew up inthe avenues, and I think it was
one or two years I played littleleague baseball at Lindsay
Gardens, and so Zayn Miller wason my team, and the coaches were
Larry and my dad.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:11:54):
And so lo and behold, I get really close to
Zayn hang out all the time overhis house, yada yada yada.
But he uh I can't remember whathappened.
I think he was homeschooled fora while.
Anyway, yada yada yada, we kindof fell apart as happens in
childhood.
But then one time we kind of gotconnected in high school, and I
think it was before either ushad driver's licenses, and I
think we were actually seeing amovie at Gateway, and he's like,

(01:12:15):
Oh, let me call my uh grandpaand see if he can come get us.
And I'm like, uh, okay, like,sure.
And so, yada yada yada, theycome pick us up, get in the car,
and Larry's like, Eric, how areyou?
Haven't seen you in a while.
And Gail's like, Yeah, I used tocome over all the time and hang
out with Zayn at home.
Like, the fact that you twoalone remember me is one of the
nicest things ever.
And then also, like, I think itwas eight-ish years ago now.
We uh me and some of my friendsfrom college were in a situation

(01:12:38):
where we needed a place to sleepuh 50 people, and one of them is
um Gail's grandson, and he'slike, Can I can we call my
grandma?
And all of a sudden she's like,Yeah, of course.
If you need a place to get, wegot space.
And lo and behold, there's 50 ofus staying in our house, and
she's just beaming from ear toear because she just loves
providing and helping andcarrying on this legacy of the

(01:12:58):
Miller family.
So I'm so glad that it's almostlike this to your point, passing
in the baton.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:02):
It's so true.
Like, if you think about SaltLake, you know, the Millers, the
Eccles, the Huntsmans, theSornsons, there's all these
great families that continue tobe super generous.
You know, Todd Peterson and Iand Alex Dunn, we had this
conversation.
It's like, okay, those are greatfamilies.
How can we be additive to?
You know, are we the next waveof these great families to

(01:13:23):
follow in what, you know, Irattled off those four, but I'm
sure there's a lot more ofthese, you know, amazing people
that that put Salt Lake City ontheir backs.
Yeah.
You know, how many, how manyEccles things do we have going
on?
Or Huntsman and the CancerInstitute, like all those sorts
of things.
And so I you know that was partof as as my wife and I looked at

(01:13:43):
is like we also have aresponsibility um to follow in
such a great legacy of what whatthe what those families have
plowed for what's going on here.

SPEAKER_06 (01:13:52):
Yeah, and I think like the most iconic and um
probably metaphorical things iswhen Ryan Smith took over the
jazz.
Like that, like the jazz itselfis Salt Lake City's baby.
It's the one thing that BYU fansand Utah fans can agree on.
Mormon, ex-Mormon, non-Mormon,they all agree with and rally
around that.
So for Ryan to be like, hey, youknow what, we'll take it, we're
gonna build it.
But then also we're gonna try toget a couple other things in

(01:14:15):
here too to really drive thiscity more than it needs to, or
not more than it needs to, butto towards this next phase that
we're going towards.
And it's so fun just to see itcontinue on this up and up.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:23):
Oh, it's so amazing.
Like, if you think about the wayuh the Miller family set up the
jazz, I mean, they put them intoa trust.
And the fact that Gail did whatshe did and it was Ryan, and and
I'm gonna say, you know, there'sprobably as much, if not more,
influence on Ryan Smith buyingthat team from Ryan's wife,
Ashley.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:44):
She's like quarterback the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:45):
Oh, she's amazing.
And the fact that that you know,the connection between the Smith
family and the Miller family,like, oh, I just think that
that's just amazing.
And it's gonna, it's gonna justkeep building this thing going
on a go-forward basis becauseyou know what Ryan and Ashley
are doing with not only jazz butthe other stuff here, it's just
it's amazing.
And and I think it's just likethat's when I come back to one

(01:15:08):
of my earlier statements, themagic of Utah.
Like the Millers and the Smiths,two different, completely
different generations, and theymade it happen.
Like, that's what's just sospecial about this place.
Totally.

SPEAKER_06 (01:15:21):
And I love even going back to another point of
successful entrepreneurs and thelike their support group, their
wives behind them.
I mean, great example.
Ashley's like, hey, listen, Ikind of this idea for the Jazz,
you're like, well, let's dothis.
And she was so such an importantpart of that.
And I think she doesn't getenough credit for it, but
totally does that.
Yeah.
Um, so I guess outside of, Imean, Salt Lake economy, venture

(01:15:41):
capital, I mean, what what keepsyou here?
I mean, what are some of theactivities that you do in your
free time to that that youconnect you with Utah?

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:49):
Well, you know, Utah has become home for us.
We've we've lived here for 30years, our families have been
raised here.
You know, like all the stuffwe've talked about, but you know
what?
It's it's therapeutic to go intothe mountains.
Um, I love putting on a pair ofshoes and going for a run
outside.
You know, I my my five-year-oldgrandson is a hardcore skier, so
my wife and I are committed tostart skiing again.

(01:16:11):
We skied when we were younger.
We've kind of kind of backed offthat.
So we're we're we're gonna bewe're pushing all in on the on
because I think I can probablyonly ski with him this year, and
then I won't be able to keep up.
So, you know, got to hang outwith the five-year-old grandson.
So all of those things are like,and then I say the last thing is
the people.
Like the people that are herejust I just and it doesn't

(01:16:33):
matter.
Mormon, non-Mormon, uh whatwhatever denomination, whatever
race, color, it just doesn'tmatter.
It's such a special place here,and and that's what keeps us
here.

SPEAKER_06 (01:16:44):
No, it's and I was actually thinking about that
when I was driving home from thegym this morning is because like
there's a lot of people whofeel, I mean, the world's very
negative right now, a lot of badthings going on.
And one thing I've realized, Imean, partially because of the
podcast, but just kind of mynature in general, and it's kind
of against a lot of intuition wewere talking growing up, is go
talk to a stranger.
Yeah, just anybody.
It could be the person next toyou on the train, bus, whatever,

(01:17:05):
movie theater, just talk tothem.
Yeah, like you'll be sosurprised how nice and outgoing
and charismatic and willing tohelp everybody is.
But if you don't talk toanybody, then you'll never
understand it.
Because we do have a lot ofreally great people here,
totally a lot of goodintentions, and yeah, just a
great place to be.
And part of why we think we'restill here, you invested so much
into here.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:25):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:17:25):
And I think it's so fun because like actually, one
question quick.
Have you ever thought aboutquantifying your like economic
impact of Peleon in Utah?
Like by jobs, income, salary,capital?
Like I was thinking about on theway here, and it's it's crazy to
think about how much youprobably created.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:40):
You know, um, I well, we we I would say at a
very high level, we have to wehave to do some reporting.
We we partner with the smallbusiness administration on a few
things, and so we do we doreport some job creation, and
you know, it's 50,000 jobs sortof sort of scenario that that
have been created by and when Isay created, we're a small

(01:18:02):
piece.
It's our it's these companies,right?
These companies that are they'rebuilding great big companies
here, and and then it just itexpands from there, you know.
We were as an early investor inin Divi, you know, Bill.com now
has a big presence here and it'sonly growing.
Yeah, all of those sorts ofthings.
Um so I I don't know if I canactually quantify it.

(01:18:22):
I probably have some theoriesthan some guesses around it.
Um, but what I'd say is it'sprobably less about Pellana,
more about amazing entrepreneursthat have built companies here,
and we just are fortunate enoughto be able to be investors in
them.

SPEAKER_06 (01:18:34):
Yeah, it's so fun to be partnered with them and yeah,
on the rocket ship seeing how itall grows.

SPEAKER_02 (01:18:39):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:18:40):
Cool, Blake.
Well, I want to end with uh twoquestions I always ask people at
the end.
Uh, number one being if youcould have someone on the Small
Lake City podcast and hear theirstory, who would you want to
hear?

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:51):
Wow, that's a great question.
And uh honestly, and maybe we'vetalked about her, I'd love to
have Gail Miller.
I'd love to hear that story.
Like she's I'm sure people knowit, but it's pretty amazing.
And then this other guy namedJim Schwartz, who is the founder
of Excel Partners, like he livesin Park City.
He's been, I think, as muchinstrumental, especially around

(01:19:12):
the Olympics of 2002.
So those are a couple peoplethat I just throw out there.

SPEAKER_06 (01:19:17):
I mean great people with great stories.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 (01:19:19):
And then lastly, if people want more information
about Peleon, about you, uh Imean investment portfolio
investment theories, where's thebest way to find information on
that?

SPEAKER_00 (01:19:28):
Yeah, just Peleonvp.com, hit me up on
LinkedIn, and uh, you know, wetr we try to be as open door as
we can because uh there's athere's so many great people out
there.
It's it's part of this, youknow, meeting new people and and
making new friends.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 (01:19:43):
Well, thanks so much, Blake, for the time.
Uh thanks for having me at theoffice.
Excited for the new officecoming down at Point of the
Mountain and excited for thisnext next wave of of growth
here.

SPEAKER_00 (01:19:53):
Well, thanks for having me.
This has been a lot of fun forme.
Awesome.
Thanks like

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Vault Episode 9: Pelion Ventures - Blake Modersitzki

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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;}Vault Episode 9: Pelion Ventures - Blake Modersitzki