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Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa: Takeaways from Dreamworks; What happened with Quibi? | 20VC #952

Jeffrey Katzenberg is an entertainment industry executive and entrepreneur, who throughout his career has repeatedly reshaped the media landscape. Jeffrey co-founded DreamWorks SKG, serving as CEO of DreamWorks Animation, which he grew into the world’s largest animation studio, known for Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and more. In 2016, DreamWorks Animation was sold to Comcast for $3.8 billion. Before founding DreamWorks, Jeffrey was Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, where he took the studio from last place to first at the box office with hits like Three Men and a Baby, Pretty Woman, Father of the Bride and Sister Act. Most recently, Jeffrey co-founded WndrCo alongside Sujay Jaswa and has led WndrCo’s investments in Airtable, Frame.io, Quibi, Vise, Placer.ai, NexHealth, Deel, and ID.me. Sujay Jaswa is one of Silicon Valley’s leading business innovators. At Dropbox, he created and led the company’s global business and finance organizations. Sujay and his teams raised over $1 billion, launched and scaled Dropbox’s products for businesses, created partnerships responsible for over 100 million users, executed some 20 acquisitions, and scaled the global business team from two to more than 500 employees in seven global offices. During this period, the company significantly scaled overall revenue from $12 million in 2010 to over $500 million run rate, Dropbox for Business revenue from $1 million to over $200mm run rate, and users from 15 million to 300 million. Most recently, Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg co-founded WndrCo and Sujay has led WndrCo’s investments in Figma, 1Password, Databricks, Pango, Pilot, Rally, Zagat / The Infatuation, and other great companies. ---------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Sujay’s Background 1:51 Jeffrey’s Background 3:37 Sujay’s Biggest Takeaway from Scaling Dropbox 4:18 Jeffrey’s Biggest Takeaway from Dreamworks 5:42 How did Quibi impact your risk appetite? 13:31 Advice for Founders during the Economic Downturn 15:16 Why Operating Experience Becomes Irrelevant Fast 18:16 Time Management when Incubating and Investing at the Same Time 20:08 How does Jeffrey manage to have both breadth and depth in his network of relationships? 22:45 Is Silicon Valley dead? 24:57 Recruiting: What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started? 29:08 What do you do when your employees don’t work as hard as you? 31:34 Do you agree that “when there’s doubt, there’s no doubt”? 33:58 Are Gen Z the Most Entitled Employees? 36:15 What do you think is each other’s biggest weakness? 40:20 Jeffrey’s Life Lessons from Fetching Coffee as a PA 40:30 Generative AI: The Future or Hype? 41:09 What worries Jeffrey about the venture landscape today? 41:30 Best Investment Advice Sujay Ever Received 41:55 What Jeffrey wishes he knew when he started WndrCo? 42:23 What does WndrCo look like in ten years? ---------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/jeffrey-katzenberg-and-sujay-jaswa/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Sujay Jaswa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sujayjaswa Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok ---------------------------------------------- #JeffreyKatzenberg #SujayJaswa #HarryStebbings #20VC

Harry StebbingshostSujay JaswaguestJeffrey Katzenbergguest
Nov 26, 202249mWatch on YouTube ↗

Episode Details

EPISODE INFO

Released
November 26, 2022
Duration
49m
Channel
The Twenty Minute VC
Watch on YouTube
▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Jeffrey Katzenberg is an entertainment industry executive and entrepreneur, who throughout his career has repeatedly reshaped the media landscape. Jeffrey co-founded DreamWorks SKG, serving as CEO of DreamWorks Animation, which he grew into the world’s largest animation studio, known for Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and more. In 2016, DreamWorks Animation was sold to Comcast for $3.8 billion. Before founding DreamWorks, Jeffrey was Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, where he took the studio from last place to first at the box office with hits like Three Men and a Baby, Pretty Woman, Father of the Bride and Sister Act. Most recently, Jeffrey co-founded WndrCo alongside Sujay Jaswa and has led WndrCo’s investments in Airtable, Frame.io, Quibi, Vise, Placer.ai, NexHealth, Deel, and ID.me. Sujay Jaswa is one of Silicon Valley’s leading business innovators. At Dropbox, he created and led the company’s global business and finance organizations. Sujay and his teams raised over $1 billion, launched and scaled Dropbox’s products for businesses, created partnerships responsible for over 100 million users, executed some 20 acquisitions, and scaled the global business team from two to more than 500 employees in seven global offices. During this period, the company significantly scaled overall revenue from $12 million in 2010 to over $500 million run rate, Dropbox for Business revenue from $1 million to over $200mm run rate, and users from 15 million to 300 million. Most recently, Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg co-founded WndrCo and Sujay has led WndrCo’s investments in Figma, 1Password, Databricks, Pango, Pilot, Rally, Zagat / The Infatuation, and other great companies. ---------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Sujay’s Background 1:51 Jeffrey’s Background 3:37 Sujay’s Biggest Takeaway from Scaling Dropbox 4:18 Jeffrey’s Biggest Takeaway from Dreamworks 5:42 How did Quibi impact your risk appetite? 13:31 Advice for Founders during the Economic Downturn 15:16 Why Operating Experience Becomes Irrelevant Fast 18:16 Time Management when Incubating and Investing at the Same Time 20:08 How does Jeffrey manage to have both breadth and depth in his network of relationships? 22:45 Is Silicon Valley dead? 24:57 Recruiting: What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started? 29:08 What do you do when your employees don’t work as hard as you? 31:34 Do you agree that “when there’s doubt, there’s no doubt”? 33:58 Are Gen Z the Most Entitled Employees? 36:15 What do you think is each other’s biggest weakness? 40:20 Jeffrey’s Life Lessons from Fetching Coffee as a PA 40:30 Generative AI: The Future or Hype? 41:09 What worries Jeffrey about the venture landscape today? 41:30 Best Investment Advice Sujay Ever Received 41:55 What Jeffrey wishes he knew when he started WndrCo? 42:23 What does WndrCo look like in ten years? ---------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/jeffrey-katzenberg-and-sujay-jaswa/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Sujay Jaswa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sujayjaswa Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok ---------------------------------------------- #JeffreyKatzenberg #SujayJaswa #HarryStebbings #20VC

SPEAKERS

  • Harry Stebbings

    host
  • Sujay Jaswa

    guest
  • Jeffrey Katzenberg

    guest

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Harry Stebbings and Sujay Jaswa, Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa: Takeaways from Dreamworks; What happened with Quibi? | 20VC #952 explores katzenberg and Jaswa on hiring, pivots, Quibi, and culture shifts Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg trace their paths into tech and explain how WndrCo blends company-building with investing to keep their operating instincts current.

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