On Starting a Company: 0 to 1
DAN PORTILLO, PARTNER
A connector unblocker; redefining what’s possible for founders; unblocking them by connecting them with the right insights and the right people.
Venture is a highly transactional business and I am anything but that. One of the best compliments I have ever received is that I “play the long game better than anyone.” I cultivate relationships over many years which allows me to help portfolio companies land that key hire, marquee customer or raise capital. Working with early stage startups taught me how to operate, working in venture taught me how to think differently and cultivate a prepared mind. Bringing those two things together is why Sweat Equity Ventures exists and why I love coming to work every day.
I have spent 20+ years working with startups. Either as employee/advisor or as a partner at one of the most tenured venture funds, Greylock Partners. 0 to 1 has always been my favorite place to be. I love the blank canvas and I love working with founders to create. Mozilla was 20 people when I joined them to run recruiting. I went on to scale the company to 300+ and join the executive team running both recruiting and HR. During the genesis of a company you’re able to lay the foundation of what you want it to be in the future. You hire your first engineer, salesperson, recruiter…and each of them leave a lasting impression on the company.
Aside from helping dozens of startups scale during my tenure at Greylock I also helped generate 17 investments. I always aimed to answer the question of how do we invest in a new area with a ‘prepared mind? Holding events in a particular area where we bring together experts has been a really great strategy to educate ourselves on the space. We’ve done that in Robotics and in AI and ended up making investments right out of those events. When there wasn’t that right company to invest in, I worked with the investing team to create companies by bringing founding teams together.
Helping create is not limited to my time in tech. My personal journey of reaching a ‘prepared mind’ has always been around meeting great individuals and getting to know their stories. I view the world as collections of people coming together to work on common goals. My network is often described as extensive but I pride myself on being able to identify the most qualified people and connect them with others at the right time to work on great things. Of course, a memorable moment was when President Obama said, “Dan, we need you. Why won’t you join us?” He was specifically referring to the United States Digital Services organization and working with former White House CTO, Todd Park, to help bring exceptional technology leaders to Washington, DC. The US Digital Services was an amazing group of people working to improve the digital services that millions of Americans rely on. It was an honor to be a part of that and help shape our approach to understanding the type of technical talent that will perform best in the public sector.
There’s thrashing in all organizations at all different stages. So the goal is to put boundaries on thrash. Having great insight in all three tenets of a good business: people, product and go-to-market is what helps companies move through inflection points and build towards a trajectory of scale with a prepared mind. Hence here at Sweat Equity, our work takes on a holistic approach that draws upon the collective experience of our team in all these areas. We always come in with a perspective and a point of view, we also make our biases clear and more importantly share how we think about problems. We feel a deep responsibility to share everything we know including the risks associated with any particular strategy, helping founders make the best decision with all the information they have.