Exploring the Mind of A Venture Capitalist with Earnest Sweat
This week on the podcast, Matt sits down with venture capitalist Earnest Sweat. The conversation begins with Earnest discussing his journey from traditional investments to alternative investments and how he became interested in venture capital. Earnest then dives into how he became an investor in FreightWaves and Platform Science by going through his process for deciding where to invest. The conversation concludes with Earnest walking through his involvement with his portfolio companies as well as advice for young entrepreneurs.
Transcript
Like, what do you want the first conversation to
Earnest Sweat:be is like an amazing trailer, where you understand the story
Earnest Sweat:and plot point, you understand this huge problem, and you
Earnest Sweat:understand why your hero is selected to then go go after and
Earnest Sweat:solve this problem.
Matt Waller:Excellence, professionalism, innovation and
Matt Waller:collegiality. These are the values the Sam M. Walton College
Matt Waller:of Business explores in education, business and the
Matt Waller:lives of people we meet every day, I'm Matt Waller, Dean of
Matt Waller:the Walton College, and welcome to the Be EPIC Podcast. I have
Matt Waller:with me today, Earnest Sweat, who is a venture capitalist. And
Matt Waller:he grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. He then went to
Matt Waller:Columbia University, for undergraduate, and then he
Matt Waller:received his MBA from Northwestern University. And
Matt Waller:since then, he's been involved in the finance industry,
Matt Waller:especially venture capital for quite a long time. But you you
Matt Waller:started your career more in equity research, is that right?
Earnest Sweat:That's right. Yeah.
Matt Waller:And what made you decide to move over to
Matt Waller:alternative investments from traditional?
Earnest Sweat:Yeah, so for me, well, it makes a lot more sense
Earnest Sweat:now, after now that I'm here and found what I believe is my
Earnest Sweat:calling, being a venture capitalist. But taking a little
Earnest Sweat:bit further back, you know, growing up in Little Rock, I had
Earnest Sweat:two people investors as parents, like, I feel like they would
Earnest Sweat:have been amazing venture capitalists, because they
Earnest Sweat:invested in people. And it wasn't just something they told
Earnest Sweat:me and my sister to do and with volunteering, they actually
Earnest Sweat:their professions were investing in people. So my dad is a CS
Earnest Sweat:grad, ended up working for the Workforce Development Agency in
Earnest Sweat:the State of Arkansas, becoming a Director of IT. And, you know,
Earnest Sweat:if that's not enough, he was also a full time pastor since I
Earnest Sweat:was 10 years old. And then my mother, just retired a couple
Earnest Sweat:years ago, she's a science teacher for Little Rock public
Earnest Sweat:school, in middle school. And so those two lived out kind of one
Earnest Sweat:of our big ethos, or, you know, values, which is equipping
Earnest Sweat:others, yeah, obviously, education was really important.
Earnest Sweat:But making sure that in careers we have, they can be, you know,
Earnest Sweat:give us a good well being, that we're acquiring knowledge that
Earnest Sweat:can help others reach their self actualization. And so fast
Earnest Sweat:forward. Venture capital for me, is living that out. And so, how
Earnest Sweat:I came from equity research on is like, equity research is a
Earnest Sweat:great foundation for me. I remember, at 22, I was deciding
Earnest Sweat:between sales and trading, or investment banking, and I had a
Earnest Sweat:lot of friends that kind of put a, you know, a line in the sand
Earnest Sweat:and what they do. But for me, you know, being the, just like,
Earnest Sweat:fully on Capricorn, and just like, how do I, you know, become
Earnest Sweat:the best person I can, how do I use my skills and improve my
Earnest Sweat:areas of opportunity, like growth, I always was good at
Earnest Sweat:communication, but I wanted to get even better at it,
Earnest Sweat:especially when from a business sense. But I knew I also needed
Earnest Sweat:to have those financial technical skills of being able
Earnest Sweat:to read a P&L, read a balance sheet and interpret how that
Earnest Sweat:business is doing. And so for equity research, it was the
Earnest Sweat:perfect balance. And so that career was a perfect balance of
Earnest Sweat:understanding that every industry has a science, and that
Earnest Sweat:you have to bring together both these the micro of what is
Earnest Sweat:happening with the company with a macro of going on. And so I
Earnest Sweat:covered REITs, starting in 2007. So, yes, that was a crazy time,
Earnest Sweat:but was there from 2007 to 2011. And the reason why, ultimately,
Earnest Sweat:we can talk about this more, but the reason why I made that shift
Earnest Sweat:was I was making recommendations to hedge funds, fund to funds,
Earnest Sweat:all these different portfolio managers, but I wasn't putting
Earnest Sweat:skin in the game. So it's really just kind of like a theoretical
Earnest Sweat:exercise of saying, hey, if I did invest, I would either short
Earnest Sweat:X, hold y, or buy Z. But that's it, you know, you put not your
Earnest Sweat:opinion and set but you're not putting any skin in the game.
Earnest Sweat:And so that's what really kind of energizes me to make this
Earnest Sweat:switch.
Matt Waller:So you're you're into value chain, broadly
Matt Waller:speaking, in more traditional industries, like retail,
Matt Waller:logistics. What made you interested in that particular
Matt Waller:those particular verticals?
Earnest Sweat:Yeah, I think it's the most amazing thing
Earnest Sweat:about venture capital, to me as a profession, is literally no
Earnest Sweat:conversation has to be worthless, you can learn
Earnest Sweat:something from literally any conversation. Because everybody
Earnest Sweat:has a different perspective and expertise. And you never know
Earnest Sweat:you might invest in that area that they're talking about. And
Earnest Sweat:so for me, even how I got into venture capital was how do I
Earnest Sweat:leverage what I've learned in the past and not throw it away?
Earnest Sweat:So many times in our careers, I can speak for myself, I thought,
Earnest Sweat:I gotta create a blueprint. So maybe I need to learn how to,
Earnest Sweat:you know, be an AI expert. And it's like, no, to get into this
Earnest Sweat:industry, I need to know what I'm passionate about, what I
Earnest Sweat:have a background in to create that and build on to the
Earnest Sweat:narrative. And so for me, that was real estate. I cover REITs.
Earnest Sweat:At 22, I was having, you know, being on calls, on quarterly
Earnest Sweat:calls, asking tough questions to Fortune 500 CEOs. And so that
Earnest Sweat:was a basis of like, I know, when a real estate company, and
Earnest Sweat:they get big, what their problems are, and what their
Earnest Sweat:pain points are, now just need to understand technology, and
Earnest Sweat:how what types of technology platforms can solve those
Earnest Sweat:problems. And so that was like the evidence of like me, coming
Earnest Sweat:up with what I call value chain tech. And it's taking the HBS
Earnest Sweat:perspective of value chain is a number of primary and secondary
Earnest Sweat:activities that a company does to increase the end value or
Earnest Sweat:value for the end user. And so I've just only layered that as
Earnest Sweat:like a framework for identifying the most pressing pain points
Earnest Sweat:that all enterprises need help on. And so, for me, the same
Earnest Sweat:problems are happening for supply chain are happening to
Earnest Sweat:retail are happening in manufacturing, essentially
Earnest Sweat:happened to all of GDP. That's not the 19% of high tech. And so
Earnest Sweat:those three issues are quickly one our business systems that we
Earnest Sweat:typically centralized in the 80s, up until 2010s. Those
Earnest Sweat:systems of technology and people aren't equipped to deal with
Earnest Sweat:today's business environment, right? We have both
Earnest Sweat:globalization and deglobalization happening at the
Earnest Sweat:same time. Two, because of those, that complexity of the
Earnest Sweat:business environment, company, business leaders and CEOs are
Earnest Sweat:saying that their stakeholders, most important stakeholders,
Earnest Sweat:their customers, and their employees, are demanding
Earnest Sweat:transparency and speed at an unprecedented pace. And three,
Earnest Sweat:we're in quite possibly the wonkiest labor market of all
Earnest Sweat:time, right? I like to say, from cashier to ML engineer, we don't
Earnest Sweat:have enough people to fill the demand. What that really adds up
Earnest Sweat:to is, whether you're leading the SMB to a Fortune 1 company,
Earnest Sweat:you're expected to do more with less resources over the next 10
Earnest Sweat:years. And so instead of the Silicon Valley, kind of, you
Earnest Sweat:know, ethos of like software is going to eat up the world
Earnest Sweat:actually kind of put it on top of his head software is going to
Earnest Sweat:enhance the world. Because of those three things I mentioned,
Earnest Sweat:there's not going to be the negative connotation of like,
Earnest Sweat:it's going to take away jobs. I said, we don't have enough
Earnest Sweat:people, we need it, so people can be more efficient.
Matt Waller:It's amazing how tight the labor market really
Matt Waller:is, in so many different ways. And, you know, a record number
Matt Waller:of factories being opened right now that are highly automated.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah,
Matt Waller:You know, it's gonna take a few years to bring
Matt Waller:them online. But
Earnest Sweat:Absolutely.
Matt Waller:I've seen some data that is astounding, that the
Matt Waller:number of factories being put in place, you have that on the one
Matt Waller:hand. And then on the other, you know, you've got generative AI
Matt Waller:that is going to solve part of the problem. I, I know, you
Matt Waller:know, I constantly hear about how people are able to get a lot
Matt Waller:more done responding to emails, making posts,
Earnest Sweat:yeah.
Matt Waller:Converting one type of media into another.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah.
Matt Waller:Using generative AI. And not only that, but even
Matt Waller:helping from a planning perspective. And if you think as
Matt Waller:you know, so many of the value chain companies, the companies
Matt Waller:involved in traditional value chains, a lot of times their
Matt Waller:weakness is planning. So I would imagine over the next few years,
Matt Waller:we're going to see a lot of new generative AI applications
Matt Waller:within the value chain space.
Earnest Sweat:I think. Yeah, I would agree. I think it's going
Earnest Sweat:to take special entrepreneurs who identify what those key pain
Earnest Sweat:points are. So pain point one, pain point two, because those
Earnest Sweat:are going to get traction when it comes to sales. Again,
Earnest Sweat:because you can't just when companies like Microsoft and
Earnest Sweat:Uber, who have a pretty big war chest of cash when they're
Earnest Sweat:contemplating, hey, do we need 100 software vendors? And so
Earnest Sweat:it's critical now that you're solving a real pain point that
Earnest Sweat:people need today, or need yesterday to be quite honest.
Earnest Sweat:And so although there's a lot going on in generative AI, we're
Earnest Sweat:going to have to have specific, it's really cool stuff now, and
Earnest Sweat:all those things you mentioned. But how do we really productize
Earnest Sweat:it in a way that it's solving specific industries problems.
Earnest Sweat:And so what I look for is like, these archetypes of
Earnest Sweat:entrepreneurs, when they're looking to enhance or accelerate
Earnest Sweat:a foundational industry. And so it's like, typically two and
Earnest Sweat:possibly a third coming up, one I call the innovative insider.
Earnest Sweat:So that's somebody who's worked in this industry for a long
Earnest Sweat:time, has faced a problem, and sees that technology can really
Earnest Sweat:solve it. And they have the ability to mobilize
Earnest Sweat:technologists and product people around them to go along with the
Earnest Sweat:vision. The second archetype is the humble outsider. So having
Earnest Sweat:somebody who's typically maybe they come from Silicon Valley,
Earnest Sweat:maybe they come from, you know, some some tech background. And
Earnest Sweat:they identify, hey, that's I've done research, that's a problem.
Earnest Sweat:But I'm gonna check with customers. And I'm going to
Earnest Sweat:bring on advisers and employees who understand the nuances of
Earnest Sweat:those industries. So I'm not frightening my customer a lot of
Earnest Sweat:times from this, like long term vision, but I'm able to, you
Earnest Sweat:know, bring them along and grow with it. And so I think that's
Earnest Sweat:the second thing. And then the third is, for lack of a good
Earnest Sweat:name yet, I'll take suggestions. But I think essentially a person
Earnest Sweat:I call like a bridge. This is somebody who is highly
Earnest Sweat:technical, but also has maybe a family background in, in an
Earnest Sweat:industry, maybe their family always had like, let's say, for
Earnest Sweat:a construction tech company. A family has had a construction
Earnest Sweat:company for the last four generations. And then they went
Earnest Sweat:to MIT or Caltech and have just now say, hey, I can bring these
Earnest Sweat:two worlds together. So that's the third archetype, but you're
Earnest Sweat:going to need special entrepreneurs, which I think
Earnest Sweat:despite all the uncertainty that's going on, we're going to
Earnest Sweat:start to see that next wave of awesome entrepreneurs going
Earnest Sweat:after really big problems.
Matt Waller:I noticed, just diving into a little detail. You
Matt Waller:were a Series A investor in FreightWaves.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah.
Matt Waller:And I also am impressed with FreightWaves. I
Matt Waller:met them about the time you were investing in them a few years, a
Matt Waller:couple years ago. But I loved the vision of them becoming the
Matt Waller:Bloomberg of logistics. What a brilliant, it's such an easy
Matt Waller:vision to get. And if you've ever used a Bloomberg terminal
Matt Waller:or read Bloomberg media, you get it. And, you know, they've got
Matt Waller:this tool called sonar, which clearly is analogous to a
Matt Waller:Bloomberg terminal. And then you've got all the news for for
Matt Waller:logistics. How did you, so I'm asking this to kind of try to
Matt Waller:understand how did you learn about them, and how did you
Matt Waller:decide to invest in them?
Earnest Sweat:Yeah. So I learned about them through,
Earnest Sweat:like, my job is so it's funny, because most people when asking
Earnest Sweat:like, what a venture capitalist does, have some friends is like,
Earnest Sweat:that's not real work, just like have coffees and talk to people
Earnest Sweat:hear people's pitches, and talk to LPs and ask for money, right.
Earnest Sweat:But it's a little bit more nuanced than that. And so having
Earnest Sweat:a prepared mind when I joined Prologis, which is the largest
Earnest Sweat:warehouse owner in the world, yeah. And I joined as a founding
Earnest Sweat:team member of their venture group, this first time they ever
Earnest Sweat:had a venture capital group.
Matt Waller:Oh, I didn't know that.
Earnest Sweat:And so yeah, I'd been there for at that point,
Earnest Sweat:probably a year and a half. And so I developed you know, I saw
Earnest Sweat:that we had a thesis around logistics and particularly
Earnest Sweat:seeing that there was so much cost associated with delays due
Earnest Sweat:to not having efficient trucking and not really having data
Earnest Sweat:around it. So we built a thesis around how can we get more data
Earnest Sweat:within trucking which could take out a lot of the delayed costs
Earnest Sweat:that are associated with waiting times. Anytime I was talking to
Earnest Sweat:a seed or pre seed investor who also followed that vertical, the
Earnest Sweat:logistics vertical, I would mention it. And you know
Earnest Sweat:eventually we spoke with Fontinalis, which was an early
Earnest Sweat:investor in them earlier than us. And they mentioned that you
Earnest Sweat:should guys, you guys should meet Craig. And so brought him
Earnest Sweat:in and, you know, loved the team loved, like you mentioned, the
Earnest Sweat:vision was clear. And I would say he was a, if I go back to my
Earnest Sweat:archetypes, he was an innovative insider, you know, comes from a
Earnest Sweat:trucking family, or actually probably even pushing more of
Earnest Sweat:the kind of bridges I mentioned, because having experience, you
Earnest Sweat:know, looking at technology, and then coming from a family that
Earnest Sweat:built one of the biggest trucking companies in the
Earnest Sweat:country. It just merged both worlds. And so given we knew his
Earnest Sweat:expertise, and then another thing we always look for, and I
Earnest Sweat:always look for as an investor is, am I the right investor that
Earnest Sweat:can actually help them get to the next stage, whether that's
Earnest Sweat:sitting on their board, being a board observer, making the right
Earnest Sweat:relationships, and then also looking at the strategic value
Earnest Sweat:that we could possibly add. And so there was just a lot of
Earnest Sweat:synergies between what Prologis, you know, their footprint in the
Earnest Sweat:entire world. And how many trucks go to their, their
Earnest Sweat:warehouses. And what FreightWaves was trying to solve.
Matt Waller:And then you also invested in Platform Science.
Earnest Sweat:Yes.
Matt Waller:Which is another impressive company.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah, the thesis around there was still like, how
Earnest Sweat:do we streamline trucking? And we made a few other investments
Earnest Sweat:as well, like why systems which helps with automating the
Earnest Sweat:routing systems for commercial delivery, as well as trucking
Earnest Sweat:companies. But ultimately, it's like, how do we streamline this
Earnest Sweat:so we can make this more efficient, we're not wasting
Earnest Sweat:gas, obviously, and, or diesel. We're not hurting the
Earnest Sweat:environment, and we're getting the most out of each truckload.
Earnest Sweat:And platform science actually was also a, you know, thesis was
Earnest Sweat:built around the ELD mandate. So we knew there was a point where
Earnest Sweat:all trucks needed to have some type of electronic system to
Earnest Sweat:track how long truckers were on the road where they are all
Earnest Sweat:those things.
Matt Waller:So Earnest, you know, I first started following
Matt Waller:venture venture capital in the mid 90s. And, you know, I've
Matt Waller:seen a lot of ups and downs in the business, there's times when
Matt Waller:it's really hard to raise money for a fund. And there's times
Matt Waller:when it's easier. It's never easy, but it's easier at times.
Matt Waller:I'd love to hear your thoughts about the current state and what
Matt Waller:you see for the next few years.
Earnest Sweat:I understand how things can go. And never to get
Earnest Sweat:too high on the highs. And so, you know, but from our venture
Earnest Sweat:career, pretty much.
Matt Waller:That's true. I mean, you you started at BMO
Matt Waller:Capital Markets, July of 2007, so you have, you've been through
Matt Waller:the tough stuff,
Earnest Sweat:And seeing companies that were around
Earnest Sweat:hundreds of, or 100 years
Earnest Sweat:So that was my entrance into the workforce. I
Matt Waller:disappear.
Matt Waller:was like, oh, it can go like this. And, you know, took that,
Matt Waller:you know, people don't have advice, they usually say, when
Matt Waller:facing tough times, they're like, it builds character. So I
Matt Waller:just kind of embrace that. Okay, this builds character, you have
Matt Waller:to, actually, what I really get it boils down to is you got to
Matt Waller:find value for your customer base, despite what's happening
Matt Waller:in macro. And so I take the same application to now right when
Matt Waller:things were so up and then we realized in 2020, oh, we don't
Matt Waller:have to meet founders, they can be anywhere, we can just give
Matt Waller:term sheets in over Zoom. That took a run up. We also had
Matt Waller:obviously well documented a lot of tourist investors who hadn't
Matt Waller:done much early stage or even growth stage doing more of that.
Matt Waller:And so prices went up and it seemed like a lot of people
Matt Waller:could get money, not to mention, you know, VC firms were raising
Matt Waller:a lot of money as well. But now things have changed as we've
Matt Waller:seen the continued. People like to go to the denominator issue
Matt Waller:for LPS, right like their public stock or their public portfolio
Matt Waller:is so far down that is they're not at the levels that they want
Matt Waller:of, of allocation versus you know, now venture could
Matt Waller:represent when it's only supposed to be 10% of their
Matt Waller:entire endowment now it's 25-30%. And so because of that,
Matt Waller:we've definitely seen a drawback on on valuations or just a stall
Matt Waller:and in, in raising capital, especially towards the end of
Matt Waller:22. And it's still been slow, I would say in Q1. But things are
Matt Waller:getting funded, I think it's a great time to raise or start a
Matt Waller:company and raise at the early stage. So I'm talking about pre
Matt Waller:seed seed, and even seed to A, because you have an
Matt Waller:understanding of what valuations actually are today, where I'm
Matt Waller:seeing a lot of trouble is A to B, especially if you got a
Matt Waller:really high valuation in A in from in 2020, or 2021. And you
Matt Waller:haven't really grown into that valuation. I think you're just
Matt Waller:going to have an influx of more people starting new companies.
Matt Waller:But when it really drills down to now of understanding what
Matt Waller:your narrative is, why are you starting a company? Why are you
Matt Waller:uniquely equipped to solve this problem? Why do you wake up
Matt Waller:every morning wanting to solve this problem? And then finding
Matt Waller:the right investors.
Matt Waller:So would you mind walking me through your due
Matt Waller:diligence process? What, how do you go about?
Earnest Sweat:Typically, a process is first meeting with a
Earnest Sweat:company, that first conversation is critical with me, and the
Earnest Sweat:thing I'm getting at, sometimes I don't even want to go want
Earnest Sweat:them to present the deck. But I just want to understand like who
Earnest Sweat:they are, what drives them? What's the origin story of this
Earnest Sweat:company? So that's the first conversation, then I'll request
Earnest Sweat:some, the data room, so their financials, I love looking at
Earnest Sweat:the financials, what they're thinking, understanding, and
Earnest Sweat:I'll dig into this, why I use my equity research background
Earnest Sweat:digging into their assumptions, what assumptions are they
Earnest Sweat:making, I love to look at their product roadmap and any
Earnest Sweat:technical IP just to understand what is maybe defensible, if
Earnest Sweat:they're leaning really on the kind of technical risk. And then
Earnest Sweat:the other thing is, I like to look at the sales, sales deck,
Earnest Sweat:because how you're positioning yourself to your customer base,
Earnest Sweat:is really where I like to lean in. Obviously, coming from a
Earnest Sweat:pretty technical family, dad, a CS grad, sister is a data
Earnest Sweat:scientist. I've picked up a lot of stuff and have a strong
Earnest Sweat:network and stuff. So I know what to ask and who to introduce
Earnest Sweat:them to to get even more technical diligence. But I think
Earnest Sweat:a lot of the lacking in the industry or areas of opportunity
Earnest Sweat:is like understanding, even at the early stage, what is the
Earnest Sweat:business risk? And so where I like to take that in the next
Earnest Sweat:step of diligence, after you know, asking the questions I've
Earnest Sweat:seen from the data room, I like to point out two to three people
Earnest Sweat:within my own network that can feel that persona. Because
Earnest Sweat:there's one thing to get, you know, do customer references,
Earnest Sweat:once you've gone down a path and looking to do it, you know,
Earnest Sweat:writing up a term sheet. But who of those customers who have
Earnest Sweat:agreed to do that aren't going to say amazing things that they
Earnest Sweat:use in the product? Well, actually, sometimes they don't
Earnest Sweat:say the most amazing thing. That's when, when everybody's
Earnest Sweat:entrepreneurs, if you have somebody on your reference list
Earnest Sweat:as a customer, let they need to say that NPS is like 15 like
Earnest Sweat:that, at a bare minimum. But for me, I like to have a win win win
Earnest Sweat:where I have a trusted executive that I've known for a while they
Earnest Sweat:can be a buyer of this technology. And so they get to
Earnest Sweat:understand what's out there, the founder gets to actually have a
Earnest Sweat:chance to get a sale. Even if I don't sign up to you know,
Earnest Sweat:invest in the company or not, they get a shot on goal. And
Earnest Sweat:then I get unfiltered feedback from that executive. And then
Earnest Sweat:lastly, the entrepreneur gets to see hey, this is what you get
Earnest Sweat:from me, starting day zero. I like to help with leads on
Earnest Sweat:customers, because that actually has impact on revenue. So
Earnest Sweat:that's, that's really
Matt Waller:So that's part of your big value add.
Earnest Sweat:I love doing that. I love like meeting
Earnest Sweat:people. I love understanding what they've dedicated their
Earnest Sweat:lives for. And I like being a bridge. That that's why I left.
Matt Waller:A lot of value.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah.
Matt Waller:What what's your approach to the board
Matt Waller:involvement in governance with your portfolio companies?
Earnest Sweat:You learn something new every day. I'll
Earnest Sweat:say that being open to that. I think a good board is like a
Earnest Sweat:great basketball team. And maybe the better equivalent is like a
Earnest Sweat:great AAU basketball team. Just understanding different boards
Earnest Sweat:will have different constructions and you need to be
Earnest Sweat:able to flex different roles based on who's there. And
Earnest Sweat:ultimately, it should be about serving the company and that
Earnest Sweat:founder and helping him or her make the best decision for the
Earnest Sweat:company and grow.
Matt Waller:How how do you prepare your portfolio companies
Matt Waller:for exits?
Earnest Sweat:I think that's a, I probably don't have a great
Earnest Sweat:answer right now. But I think that's something that a lot of
Earnest Sweat:investors and entrepreneurs should be thinking about. Based
Earnest Sweat:on, you know, if you're at a certain clip or a certain stage,
Earnest Sweat:is there a soft landing, or even a good landing, that doesn't
Earnest Sweat:take you to like where you thought you want it to be? Or
Earnest Sweat:you strive to be? Because I think I tell friends this all
Earnest Sweat:the time. Even the most well informed kind of person follows
Earnest Sweat:technology or, or tech adjacent companies. There's so many
Earnest Sweat:companies that are still private, that you think are
Earnest Sweat:public. Stripe. I forget all the time that Stripe is private. And
Earnest Sweat:so there's just a lot of companies that are kind of
Earnest Sweat:waiting on the sidelines until the public markets get better.
Earnest Sweat:And then they'll finally have those exits. And so it's kind of
Earnest Sweat:a waiting game.
Matt Waller:You've given some really good advice along the
Matt Waller:way, was during this conversation, but any other
Matt Waller:advice you would give for young entrepreneurs?
Earnest Sweat:Yeah, I think, you know, especially in this
Earnest Sweat:environment, it's a safe environment and college where
Earnest Sweat:you can just try out new things while you're in school, I would
Earnest Sweat:say definitely exploring, what are you really passionate about.
Earnest Sweat:And a lot of times, you can learn on someone else, like even
Earnest Sweat:interning at a startup, to see if that's the right environment
Earnest Sweat:that you want to either start your own thing. Or if it's like
Earnest Sweat:a little bit later, where you're at, like a Databricks, or you're
Earnest Sweat:at a a more growth company. That's still, you know, high
Earnest Sweat:growth, and still has those elements of like, there's a lot
Earnest Sweat:to learn. But maybe it's not so chaotic. So just being able to
Earnest Sweat:explore the things. I was always told, I'm not sure it's great
Earnest Sweat:advice or not, but like your 20s are about figuring out what you
Earnest Sweat:don't want to do. And if you think you lucked out and figure
Earnest Sweat:out what you liked doing that's even better. And 30s are what
Earnest Sweat:you figured out what you like to do, and then in 40s and 50s
Matt Waller:I like that. I see that.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah, yeah.
Matt Waller:Well, you know, you you mentioned, like doing an
Matt Waller:internship, because so many times it seems like students
Matt Waller:wind up going just with big companies for their internships.
Matt Waller:But so we created this program called the Venture Intern
Matt Waller:Program, which is specifically to help early stage companies
Matt Waller:find interns. And, and pick interns and, and to provide them
Matt Waller:with a format for providing an internship for a student. And
Matt Waller:then making the students aware of these opportunities. So we've
Matt Waller:been doing this for maybe, I don't know, four or five years,
Matt Waller:I'm not sure the exact time. And sometimes then they stay on
Matt Waller:permanently. They say I really do like this, or they say, no, I
Matt Waller:think I'd rather work for a large company. But in either
Matt Waller:case, they've really learned something about themselves and
Matt Waller:what they like and even if they don't want to work in a early
Matt Waller:stage company, I think that knowledge of what it's like, is
Matt Waller:valuable for the rest of their career.
Earnest Sweat:Yeah.
Matt Waller:Well, Earnest, thank you for taking time to do
Matt Waller:this. And it's been fun talking to you getting to know you. Look
Matt Waller:forward to it.
Earnest Sweat:Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Matt Waller:On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of
Matt Waller:Business, I want to thank everyone for spending time with
Matt Waller:us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe
Matt Waller:by going to your favorite podcast service and searching Be
