Synchrodestiny and Taking Career Chances with Steve Nelson

Matt Waller: 00:00:02

co-founder at Carbon Inc, and co-founder of Re

Matt Waller: 00:00:05

Inc. Steve has tremendous experience as a financier, as a

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entrepreneur and as a leader, and he has lots of board

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experience as well. Thank you so much, Steve, for joining me

Matt Waller: 00:00:19

today. I really appreciate it.

Steve Nelson: 00:00:21

Matt. Delighted to have the conversation. Thanks so

Steve Nelson: 00:00:24

much for including me.

Matt Waller: 00:00:24

You really have a tremendous background in so many

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things. I know when you started your career, you were at IBM and

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you were there for 14 years and left as vice president and

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general manager. Rather than talk about the earlier days in

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your career, I would like to start a little bit sooner. Start

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by talking a little bit about your experience with Wakefield

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Group as managing partner. And Wakefield is a venture capital

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firm for those listening.

Steve Nelson: 00:00:57

Sure, maybe we'll describe a little bit this whole

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notion of Synchro destiny, which you and I have had some fun

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conversations about before. But it was a bit fortunate for me

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that I was with a person that was looking for somebody to kind

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of come in and be the new Research Triangle Park, North

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Carolina General Partner and ultimately to be the managing

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general partner of the firm. And I ended up being in New York

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City offering advice on folks that might be good. And then I

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said, you know, if not for the fact that I love what I'm doing

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in California, we're raising our children. They're only five and

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seven, we have a great place, great lives. If not for that, I

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might be interested. I was surprised to hear myself say it.

Steve Nelson: 00:01:32

Surprised to get the question. I think they were surprised to

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hear me say it. And they asked me to put my thoughts together

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and fly to Charlotte, North Carolina. In this case, from the

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Bay Area. I lived in East Bay and I lived and worked in

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Silicon Valley, I guess for seven years. Before I knew it. I

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was moving to North Carolina and I was basically asked to be the

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managing general partner of Wakefield Group, which is a

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private investment vehicle for an amazing family, the Spangler

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family out of Charlotte. They'd be a first generation success

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story that would have gone long in Charlotte banking. That thing

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is now called Bank of America went long and building products.

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So what long in a bunch of industries almost a Warren

Steve Nelson: 00:02:07

Buffett of the South, just an incredible family. And I got

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asked to be their person, that was an amazing 14-year almost

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15-year run for me ultimately kind of covering private

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investment. Think of it as more venture capital with some growth

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equity investing in and around the southeast with a base and

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Research Triangle Park. I learned enormously from my

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partners, but enormously on the job by doing the job.

Matt Waller: 00:02:30

Still, it was a big change for you in many different

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ways, not only in terms of location, but you had been

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involved in IBM, you've been involved in a software company

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Informix. And you'd been involved in a digital sports

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media company, a tremendous experience. But this seemed to

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be a bit of a change in terms of your path. Is that right? In my

Steve Nelson: 00:02:53

I'd say in a way yes. But the last role that I

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had, I jokingly referred to myself getting bigger and bigger

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jobs and smaller and smaller companies from IBM to Informix

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software to this fun little company called Quokka Sports

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which was a digital sports company that ultimately went

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public. In that role, I kind of learned that company creation

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business, and I was the one that Quokka Sports, I joined that

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thing. We had no money. I'm like thinking back on what was I

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thinking? We had no money. Two lovely young children. I had no

Steve Nelson: 00:03:17

way to pay myself. But somehow I wanted to be that first kind of

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senior executive behind the co founders. And I was raising the

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money. And ultimately, a great group called Accel Partners

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became our lead investor. So I kind of learned the venture

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business by being on the inside of a young company. And I kind

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of saw it from the ground up. So I was on the other side. And I

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often think that the best way to be in a lot of businesses is to

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see it from different perspectives. So the fact that

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I'd been a young company person, but maybe trained in big,

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important companies, too. Before I knew it, I felt like I knew

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the VC business pretty well. So all of a sudden, now I'm the one

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when I joined Wakefield Group to try to assess it from the other

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side and try to help it add value to the companies we decide

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to go back to invest in.

Matt Waller: 00:03:57

Boy, that's so true. And you know, some of the

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extremely successful business people I've interviewed on

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podcasts, I've seen this as a pattern. You know, some people

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want to stay in the same line of business or in the same vertical

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or same function within a company. But sometimes, you

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know, whether you're in a company getting different

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functional experience, or going to other companies and seeing

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things from different perspectives, it really gives

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you an advantage in future years.

Steve Nelson: 00:04:25

I completely agree. I mean, I jokingly think

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of it as kind of forks in the road that you look at every

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two to three years to assess whether you're learning,

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growing, developing and still getting excited every day. And I

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started thinking if it wasn't for the first path, I was at

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IBM, as you said, for almost 15 years, the fact that I was

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willing to join a Silicon Valley based software company, I didn't

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have to do that either. And didn't have to take other

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functions that IBM or other moves at IBM and you think of

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your patchwork body of work is all based on kind of those

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choices. In many ways. I think there's the choices we make that

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are the most important thing. And for me, it's all about

Steve Nelson: 00:04:56

vitality, learning, growing and getting energized and I always

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do that when I'm growing and developing with amazing new

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people where I think I can learn and contribute in some way.

Matt Waller: 00:05:04

I'd like to skip up to Carbon, the fun one. You

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co-founded that in 2013. So you've been engaged there for

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eight years. But would you tell us a little bit about that

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story?

Steve Nelson: 00:05:16

Yeah, it's a a joy that's still being told. And

Steve Nelson: 00:05:18

it's amazing book instead of chapters were the next chapters

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are still to be told as well. But I then ran this Wakefield

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Group venture firm. So I felt like I had been in the company

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creation business, trying to back people that wanted to

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change the world. And I thought in many ways, it was like

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America's great business that I had, that involved investment

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judgment and company building skills. But I noticed that what

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I loved the most about being an investor was helping the

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companies because I felt like I go back to my IBM or Informix or

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Quokka Sports days, I got a real joy out of being on the inside.

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So I was invited by people that I knew, the people that I

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invested in, people that we had actually had an investment in,

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we called liquidity of technologies, taking a company

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public. In fact, I was on the board, I was the lead investor,

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I got drafted from and by the board to actually be the CEO for

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18 months when we were making a leadership transition at the

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time at the company. And one of my friends that I knew well from

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liquidia said, Hey, we got this really cool 3D printing company

Steve Nelson: 00:06:15

idea. Love to run it by you. Love to get your thoughts. Maybe

Steve Nelson: 00:06:19

you want to be an investor, an advisor, launch president,

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somehow get involved. And I'm like, well, this is like really

Steve Nelson: 00:06:25

interesting. Tell me more. At the same time, I also had plenty

Steve Nelson: 00:06:28

on so I wasn't really looking to do new things. And I guess, back

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to my forks in a road, this might have been 2013 or

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something like that. They kind of say overnight on a text

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exchange, what do you think about coming to join us as one

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of the four co-founders, two professors, a theoretical

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physicist from Moscow State and me, and I didn't want to have

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any sense of imperialism. I was going to be the CEO. But I

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called myself in my own mind chief business guy. But these

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were extraordinary people that I knew really well, so I knew who

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I was getting into business with. But I also joined the

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company at the time, we had $9,200 in the bank. We owed

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lawyers $72,000. We had a printer made out of wood, and we

Steve Nelson: 00:07:05

were going to try to change manufacturing worldwide. We

Steve Nelson: 00:07:08

wanted to change the way things were made. And I knew how

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extraordinary my partners were in many ways. I felt honored to

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be their partners. So they built this first 3D printer for 200

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bucks in Dr. Alexander Ermoshkin's home. He's one of my

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co founder partners; he and his son built it. They're amazing

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folks. And if you think of building a 3D printer made out

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of wood, a broken projector off of eBay, a stepper motor from

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Radio Shack, and some materials, I think, from Lowe's and maybe

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Ace Hardware, both plywood and resins or chemical materials,

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and it ended up also they came up with really what they called

Steve Nelson: 00:07:40

a window or a way of actually producing the 3D printed parts.

Steve Nelson: 00:07:43

I call it a magic window they dreamed up and I had some

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probably the best polymer chemist in the world and one of

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the best entrepreneurs in the world. Now Dr. Joe DeSimone is

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one of my partners they came up with I was just the lucky

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beneficiary of a contact lens type of material that was

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transparent to light, permeable to oxygen, and you could 3D

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print in a photo chemical way, not in the electromechanical way

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of the previous 25 years. All of a sudden, we had a 3D printer.

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And I remember the first drawing was of an ice cube, but you

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could 3D print 25 times, maybe even 100 times faster. So it was

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kind of a breakthrough. We put all of our research and studies

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into a research report into a paper. We debuted on the cover

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of Science Magazine, on the floor of a TED talk in

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Vancouver, and I was the one is my cheap business guys. Instead

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of the VC world, so well, I went to Sequoia Capital who are for

Steve Nelson: 00:08:27

Well, your investor group is really impressive Sequoia

Steve Nelson: 00:08:31

sure the best venture capital firm in the world and for sure,

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the best in history and one of my great friends was at the time

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still a young and getting proven person named Jim Goetz who's now

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gone on to become five years in a row, the number one tech

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investor in the world Midas list number one, and we tried to

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raise one to 2 million from Jim and we ended up getting a

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commitment basically for them to lead a round of 11 million the

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same afternoon we started. And it's kind of gone crazy good.

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Four of us started with negative 63,000 bucks in the bank and now

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we got 500 employees Silicon Valley based blue so the blue

Steve Nelson: 00:09:03

chip and enterprise customers you name a prestigious

Steve Nelson: 00:09:06

enterprise customer, we kind of have them. I call it a tiger by

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the tail, for sure. And I went from CEO to becoming chairman.

Steve Nelson: 00:09:12

We then recruited Alan Mulally, who iconically ran Ford, and was

Steve Nelson: 00:09:16

the President/CEO of Boeing Commercial to join our board and

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he's been amazing. And then even Ellen Kullman -- who I think

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Alan helped recruit to the board, but Joe DeSimone's help

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-- is now our CEO and she's the first woman in 212 years to run

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Dupont. It's one of our big chemical suppliers. So it's been

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this handoff of amazing talent to amazing talent. And now I

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just feel like the lucky guy, just active co-founder, but

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we've had a crazy fun run and I think the next chapters are

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still to be told.

Steve Nelson: 00:09:46

Capital, Silverlake, Google Ventures, Piedmont Capital,

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Wakefield Group, GE Ventures, Fidelity, Johnson & Johnson,

Steve Nelson: 00:09:55

BMW, IDs and more.

Steve Nelson: 00:09:57

Yeah, we made $680 million nobody's been coming at us. We

Steve Nelson: 00:10:01

haven't even really tried to raise it. It's phenomenal. So

Steve Nelson: 00:10:03

we're super well capitalized got hundreds of millions of dollars

Steve Nelson: 00:10:06

in the bank. And I guess one of the big recruits that we have

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and I think about it was I met again through Jim Goetz is a bit

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like going to to me, Steven Spielberg that knows who you

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want in your movie if you want to have a blockbuster. Sequoia

Steve Nelson: 00:10:19

introduced me to Craig Carlson. At the time, he was immediately

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former original VP of Engineering at Tesla for Elon

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Musk for the first eight years pre-revenue. And I got to meet

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Craig on bench in his hometown. Fast forward a couple of months

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and Craig Carlson is our chief technology officer. And we

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probably have 35 or 40 Tesla people there. And we've got the

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founding engineering head of Tesla is our head of

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engineering. Greg has been phenomenal. Joe's son, Phil De

Steve Nelson: 00:10:45

Simone has been phenomenal from the beginning is really the

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Chief Business Development product person, he closes all

Steve Nelson: 00:10:50

the big deals, we've got this amazing team, but it's a bit

Steve Nelson: 00:10:53

again, back to my analogy of that Spielberg movie, everybody

Steve Nelson: 00:10:56

watched the movie, everybody wants to invest, everybody wants

Steve Nelson: 00:10:58

to join.

Matt Waller: 00:10:59

you taking something that in my mind still

Matt Waller: 00:11:02

is very new and cutting edge like 3D printing, and

Matt Waller: 00:11:06

reinventing it that's quite remarkable. You had described to

Matt Waller: 00:11:10

me before, when we met how this works, it does seem a little bit

Matt Waller: 00:11:14

like magic.

Steve Nelson: 00:11:15

Yeah, let me maybe describe it a little bit as if

Steve Nelson: 00:11:18

you imagine Terminator 2 liquid metal man growing up out of the

Steve Nelson: 00:11:23

broth out of a puddle, we literally do a CAD drawing of

Steve Nelson: 00:11:26

anything, think of that magic window that's made out of that

Steve Nelson: 00:11:29

contact lens kind of material. And we now have probably not

Steve Nelson: 00:11:32

current, but 40 plus patents, maybe a couple 100 pending, so

Steve Nelson: 00:11:36

it's truly new to the world. You literally do all that play a

Steve Nelson: 00:11:39

movie of the part you want to produce, and it stays liquid at

Steve Nelson: 00:11:44

the puddle on the magic window and you have a UV curable light,

Steve Nelson: 00:11:49

I think it's a wavelength of 365, the same kind of DLP chip

Steve Nelson: 00:11:53

you'd have in a movie theater, and you literally can pull the

Steve Nelson: 00:11:56

product out of the broth or out of the lake. And if you've seen

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again, Liquid Metal Man where they just grew up out of a

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puddle, it's very similar. So as a result, it's a breakthrough 25

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to 100 times faster, much less expensive, higher quality parts,

Steve Nelson: 00:12:08

you can do used parts, instead of it being the parts that you

Steve Nelson: 00:12:11

would use only for prototyping. It really changes supply chain

Steve Nelson: 00:12:15

logistics, why would you make hundreds in advance if you don't

Steve Nelson: 00:12:17

need them? Why don't you do it just in time? Why wouldn't you

Steve Nelson: 00:12:19

bring some of those jobs or that capability back to the US? And

Steve Nelson: 00:12:23

why wouldn't everything be made for you? Why wouldn't there be a

Steve Nelson: 00:12:26

size mat for pretty much everything things in your feet,

Steve Nelson: 00:12:29

maybe things in your ears, maybe medical devices, I mean, kind of

Steve Nelson: 00:12:32

watch this space, because you can actually make everything

Steve Nelson: 00:12:35

different. So it's bespoke. And its won because of its speed

Steve Nelson: 00:12:38

because it's really focused on end-use manufacturing. So it's

Steve Nelson: 00:12:42

it's been a breakthrough and kind of the joy of a lifetime.

Steve Nelson: 00:12:44

And I'm thinking about how in the world that I get involved in

Steve Nelson: 00:12:46

that. I guess the commonalities are amazing people that you

Steve Nelson: 00:12:49

hustle and try to work hard for that invite you in to be a

Steve Nelson: 00:12:52

co-founder. And also when I think back on it, I had to leave

Steve Nelson: 00:12:55

my 15 year venture capital job to join a company that had no

Steve Nelson: 00:12:58

money. Printer made out of wood. But I'd never thought of it that

Steve Nelson: 00:13:01

way. Man. I just thought of it as the opportunity. And then the

Steve Nelson: 00:13:03

whole idea of getting back inside a company just felt like

Steve Nelson: 00:13:06

a joy. And I had enough pattern recognition in a while this is

Steve Nelson: 00:13:08

really different. Almost like we had an amazing screenplay. So I

Steve Nelson: 00:13:11

sole sourced it to Steven Spielberg. In this case, Jim

Steve Nelson: 00:13:14

Goetz who again, I knew how good Jim was. And he said yes in one

Steve Nelson: 00:13:17

afternoon to offer us five times more money than we were seeking.

Steve Nelson: 00:13:20

We're done. And we went stealth for 18 months. And Jim is now

Steve Nelson: 00:13:23

the lead investor, quarterback and calling all the shots. I'm

Steve Nelson: 00:13:25

just a cheerleader, helper, active, you know, with some free

Steve Nelson: 00:13:28

time to do a few other things.

Matt Waller: 00:13:30

What an amazing story. Congratulations.

Steve Nelson: 00:13:34

So watch the space company's going really good. I

Steve Nelson: 00:13:36

think the zero to one part was the invention that Alexander

Steve Nelson: 00:13:39

Ermoshkin and his son came up with with Joe DeSimone's help.

Steve Nelson: 00:13:42

But at some point, scaling these companies is both fun and the

Steve Nelson: 00:13:44

next opportunity. And we've been scaling it beautifully. And this

Steve Nelson: 00:13:47

is a company that's definitely built to last.

Matt Waller: 00:13:49

You are also co-founder of re Inc.

Steve Nelson: 00:13:52

Yeah, there's a fun story there too. I guess

Steve Nelson: 00:13:55

when I think back on themes, again, I'm a less young guy,

Steve Nelson: 00:13:57

much less young guy than you. So I've kind of seen the movie

Steve Nelson: 00:14:00

before and what I ended up gravitating towards the big

Steve Nelson: 00:14:03

theme. So the whole idea of transforming manufacturing,

Steve Nelson: 00:14:05

that's exciting. I'm also a proud dad, two amazing

Steve Nelson: 00:14:08

daughters, wonderful wife of 30 plus years and this whole idea

Steve Nelson: 00:14:12

of equity, equality, fairness, even diversity inclusion for

Steve Nelson: 00:14:16

women just resonated with me. And it turns out having lived in

Steve Nelson: 00:14:20

Chapel Hill, where UNC Chapel Hill is, they have this iconic

Steve Nelson: 00:14:22

women's football team meaning soccer team. And I knew that I

Steve Nelson: 00:14:25

was Mr. Nelson to a bunch of them because I kind of guess

Steve Nelson: 00:14:28

drawn to greatness and that program's iconic in terms of how

Steve Nelson: 00:14:31

good it is going back to the Mia Hamm days and they're the ones

Steve Nelson: 00:14:34

that won the women's World Cup back in 2015. And at the same

Steve Nelson: 00:14:38

time are going to sue their boss over being treated unfairly. You

Steve Nelson: 00:14:42

don't often aren't often best of the world at what you do. So I

Steve Nelson: 00:14:45

was advised you're number one to the US Women's National Team

Steve Nelson: 00:14:48

Players Association. We brought in McKinsey to do a study about

Steve Nelson: 00:14:51

getting them paid fairly etc. I came down to a friendly match in

Steve Nelson: 00:14:55

Brazil. This we were joking about it. I just came from New

Steve Nelson: 00:14:57

York with my re friends, my soccer friends Now iconic

Steve Nelson: 00:15:00

people, they weren't at the time, we said, you know, yes,

Steve Nelson: 00:15:03

you ought to fight for equal pay, you ought to fight for

Steve Nelson: 00:15:06

being fair pay, I think fair is a better word. Maybe you ought

Steve Nelson: 00:15:08

to get paid more, you ought to be treated equally and paid

Steve Nelson: 00:15:10

fairly. But have you thought about starting a new company, we

Steve Nelson: 00:15:13

call it newco -- N.E.W.C.O. --, where there isn't a bunch of

Steve Nelson: 00:15:18

unfairness, older white men that decide how much you're worth?

Steve Nelson: 00:15:22

Let the world decide. So we kind of built this thing launched it

Steve Nelson: 00:15:25

in 2019 at the Women's World Cup, the fundraising there has

Steve Nelson: 00:15:29

been crazy as well literally raised money, I think, well, the

Steve Nelson: 00:15:32

first money was from Kleiner Perkins, which would be a top

Steve Nelson: 00:15:34

two firm in history. We raised that literally at a zoom call,

Steve Nelson: 00:15:38

and the money was in the bank in two days before the woman played

Steve Nelson: 00:15:40

their first match. And it started out in streetwear. And

Steve Nelson: 00:15:43

it's really now morphed in this vertical social network for

Steve Nelson: 00:15:46

change makers, some biking enthusiasts would know the Apple

Steve Nelson: 00:15:49

Strava that kind of tracks everything for the biking

Steve Nelson: 00:15:52

enthusiast. This is more for the people that want to change the

Steve Nelson: 00:15:54

world and be changemakers and it turns out my partners -- Megan

Steve Nelson: 00:15:57

Rapinoe, Kristen Press, Tobin Heath, Meghan Klingenberg --

Steve Nelson: 00:16:00

became synonymous with the cultural movement of fairness,

Steve Nelson: 00:16:04

equity, equality, fairness, and changing the world in a good

Steve Nelson: 00:16:07

way. And even the fight for fair pay. It's been another tiger by

Steve Nelson: 00:16:11

the tail, they invited me in because they knew me as Mr.

Steve Nelson: 00:16:13

Nelson, they now call me Steve as a co founder. And it's 85%

Steve Nelson: 00:16:18

women owned all but probably 90% women run and me, they call me

Steve Nelson: 00:16:23

OG, I thought that meant old guy, which is true. And that was

Steve Nelson: 00:16:26

actually original gangster. I said, Okay, what does that mean?

Steve Nelson: 00:16:28

I said, no, it's actually good. You've been here from the

Steve Nelson: 00:16:30

beginning. So I'm OG to my young friends. I'm twice as old and

Steve Nelson: 00:16:33

we've had a ball. And we've added now to Kleiner Perkins, we

Steve Nelson: 00:16:37

raised money from New Enterprise associates, NEA, who's fantastic

Steve Nelson: 00:16:40

firm from CAA, that probably the most important talent agency in

Steve Nelson: 00:16:44

history out of LA, this university called Stanford that

Steve Nelson: 00:16:46

you probably heard of, and it's kind of gone really good. For

Steve Nelson: 00:16:49

me, it's a joy, I would do anything with these folks, I

Steve Nelson: 00:16:51

would do a not for profit, build a house. Anything. By the way,

Steve Nelson: 00:16:54

Megan Rapinoe is not like one of these iconic people on the

Steve Nelson: 00:16:56

planet. And she's my friend four years ago, almost five years

Steve Nelson: 00:16:59

ago. So it's been a bit of a wild ride. And for me a joy in

Steve Nelson: 00:17:03

the fact that we actually have a company. And by the way back to

Steve Nelson: 00:17:06

the whole notion of Yeah, fight to get paid fairly. But if you

Steve Nelson: 00:17:09

own something, there's this thing called ownership that

Steve Nelson: 00:17:11

nobody decided that the world and how good you're going to be.

Steve Nelson: 00:17:14

And we're off to a really good start. And let's just say their

Steve Nelson: 00:17:17

time and effort has been really well spent with a lot of upside

Steve Nelson: 00:17:20

to research been a joy. Absolutely a joy.

Matt Waller: 00:17:23

Well, that's awesome. You have a lot going

Matt Waller: 00:17:25

on. You're on many boards, we haven't gone through that. But

Matt Waller: 00:17:28

there's one board that I would like to talk a little bit about.

Matt Waller: 00:17:32

You are one of the founding board members of the Whole

Matt Waller: 00:17:35

Health Institute.

Steve Nelson: 00:17:37

Yeah, it's gonna be the Whole Health School of

Steve Nelson: 00:17:39

Medicine and Health Sciences, kind of the new med school, but

Steve Nelson: 00:17:42

also I was kind of a founding advisor before the whole health

Steve Nelson: 00:17:45

institute even started. I had the great joy of meeting Alice.

Steve Nelson: 00:17:48

Alice Walton that is, to me is like an entrepreneur. She's an

Steve Nelson: 00:17:51

innovator, she's an out of the box thinker. A lot of people

Steve Nelson: 00:17:54

would say she's the most like her dad, pretty iconic guy that

Steve Nelson: 00:17:56

started this fortune one company, there in town. Alice

Steve Nelson: 00:17:59

has become a amazing person in my life, amazing friend and

Steve Nelson: 00:18:02

invited me not only was there from the beginning of the Whole

Steve Nelson: 00:18:05

Health Institute, a bit of a founding advisor, even into

Steve Nelson: 00:18:08

leading the search for Tracy Gaudet, who's done a fantastic

Steve Nelson: 00:18:10

job, and the team behind all of that. But now this new med

Steve Nelson: 00:18:13

school and I guess her first are tied for first new board member

Steve Nelson: 00:18:17

of the Whole Health School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Steve Nelson: 00:18:19

But love Alice and what she wants to do to transform

Steve Nelson: 00:18:22

healthcare in America.

Matt Waller: 00:18:23

Clearly, you've been involved in some very

Matt Waller: 00:18:26

transformational businesses. This seems to be remarkably

Matt Waller: 00:18:32

transformational because it could transform healthcare

Matt Waller: 00:18:35

business in the United States.

Steve Nelson: 00:18:37

Yeah, it's, it's got big dreams. I just love

Steve Nelson: 00:18:40

people that are big dreamers, I kind of say it all begins with a

Steve Nelson: 00:18:43

dream. And Alice Walton and her whole initiative at Whole Health

Steve Nelson: 00:18:48

wants to transform healthcare in America, think of it as also

Steve Nelson: 00:18:51

East meets West. So it's not all about fee for service. It's

Steve Nelson: 00:18:54

about keeping people healthy. It's about the move to value

Steve Nelson: 00:18:57

based care, new payment models, new approaches, new

Steve Nelson: 00:19:00

partnerships, you may have seen a big launch of a conversation

Steve Nelson: 00:19:04

and for specialties with the Cleveland Clinic, pretty much

Steve Nelson: 00:19:07

everybody on the planet that's anybody or even best in the

Steve Nelson: 00:19:10

world of what you do wants to partner so it's been a good a

Steve Nelson: 00:19:13

joy that you put some amazing people in the same room. And the

Steve Nelson: 00:19:15

beautiful thing is it's starting in Northwest Arkansas in the

Steve Nelson: 00:19:18

hometown of where this amazing family and you know, my friend

Steve Nelson: 00:19:22

Alice, grew up. So it's a joy for me to try to help any way I

Steve Nelson: 00:19:24

can. And that case, it's completely not for profit. I

Steve Nelson: 00:19:27

don't need or want anything out of it. I just get energy and

Steve Nelson: 00:19:30

vitality. I love hanging around people like Alice in the whole

Steve Nelson: 00:19:33

health crowd. They've been amazing.

Matt Waller: 00:19:34

It is. It's tremendous. What made you decide

Matt Waller: 00:19:37

to move to Northwest Arkansas? Was it that?

Steve Nelson: 00:19:40

yeah, I guess COVID has a way of doing things

Steve Nelson: 00:19:43

for everybody in the world. Right? I mean, we always joke

Steve Nelson: 00:19:45

about that. We were 20 year people in North Carolina. Our

Steve Nelson: 00:19:48

daughters have 20 Somethings that live in LA in Santa Monica,

Steve Nelson: 00:19:52

Brentwood kind of area. And they couldn't really come back and

Steve Nelson: 00:19:55

see us so we couldn't really go see them in that window of time

Steve Nelson: 00:19:59

and my wife beautifully proudly pronounces hey, I want to buy a

Steve Nelson: 00:20:02

sprinter van. When we get a sprinter van and just kind of do

Steve Nelson: 00:20:05

our life from the road a little bit, so which is what we did,

Steve Nelson: 00:20:09

and we're out visiting them. And again, at this point, I'm

Steve Nelson: 00:20:12

hundreds of conversations into life with Alice and the whole

Steve Nelson: 00:20:14

health crowd. And she has a stop through town on our trip,

Steve Nelson: 00:20:18

literally from LA back to North Carolina, because we were still

Steve Nelson: 00:20:21

at the time owning a home and property in North Carolina after

Steve Nelson: 00:20:24

20 years of living there. Big empty nester house, it wasn't

Steve Nelson: 00:20:26

really required. We stopped, stayed at the 21-C, spent a lot

Steve Nelson: 00:20:30

of time with Alice and some of her family members toured the

Steve Nelson: 00:20:34

place. Before you know it, somebody called and said, hey,

Steve Nelson: 00:20:36

there might be a unit available. And we took a look at it on like

Steve Nelson: 00:20:39

10 minutes notice. And at the seven minute mark of being

Steve Nelson: 00:20:42

toured around it, my wife says we'll take it. So that's back to

Steve Nelson: 00:20:45

the was that planned? Was that in a spreadsheet? No, I guess

Steve Nelson: 00:20:49

that's a blank moment of just forks in roads and amazing

Steve Nelson: 00:20:52

people. And I really, I'll add to it. So Alice and the Whole

Steve Nelson: 00:20:55

Health Institute for both my wife and I, my dear wife, Susan,

Steve Nelson: 00:20:58

and I is a huge draw for us. Because we just feel like we

Steve Nelson: 00:21:02

could have been involved from the ground up with something

Steve Nelson: 00:21:04

great. That's really important. Again, if you think of themes,

Steve Nelson: 00:21:07

health and wellness, and healing is really important theme. So is

Steve Nelson: 00:21:11

changing manufacturing. So is equity, equality, fairness for

Steve Nelson: 00:21:13

women. But I also think Bentonville in Northwest

Steve Nelson: 00:21:16

Arkansas could be this next great place to start and grow a

Steve Nelson: 00:21:19

business. There's no way. And the reason any reasons, it can't

Steve Nelson: 00:21:22

be that next great place. It's very much the way I felt about

Steve Nelson: 00:21:25

North Carolina in late 1999, when we moved there when we just

Steve Nelson: 00:21:29

picked up and moved. So it's very similar to pick up and

Steve Nelson: 00:21:31

move. And there's been amazing folks. And I feel like there's

Steve Nelson: 00:21:34

no reason. And by the way that told you, Matt, you're fantastic

Steve Nelson: 00:21:39

at what you do, we wouldn't have to invent somebody as good as

Steve Nelson: 00:21:42

you that wanted to actually be transformative on a local level,

Steve Nelson: 00:21:45

and so many professional ways, and just had joyous times with

Steve Nelson: 00:21:49

you already. So the whole idea of being around people, when you

Steve Nelson: 00:21:52

wake up every day excited about who's there. It's just something

Steve Nelson: 00:21:55

I get excited about. And I love it as a base for next chapters.

Steve Nelson: 00:21:58

So that's the way I guess it came to be. And here we are. And

Steve Nelson: 00:22:01

it's been fantastic.

Matt Waller: 00:22:02

What you say is so true. What makes life joyful is

Matt Waller: 00:22:06

the people you're around. I so much agree with that. And there

Matt Waller: 00:22:11

are so many wonderful people to be around. So we are fortunate.

Matt Waller: 00:22:16

You have been an extremely successful business leader in

Matt Waller: 00:22:21

many, many different dimensions. Really a paragon, I think for

Matt Waller: 00:22:25

young people who want to go into business, what would you

Matt Waller: 00:22:29

recommend to our students, whether they be undergraduates

Matt Waller: 00:22:33

or graduate students?

Steve Nelson: 00:22:35

I really appreciate the question. And of

Steve Nelson: 00:22:38

all the things we've talked about, this is probably my

Steve Nelson: 00:22:39

favorite, I get so much energy out of young, talented people.

Steve Nelson: 00:22:43

At some point, I'm the less young guy no matter what. So the

Steve Nelson: 00:22:45

whole idea of trying to help. And we come across Matt, you and

Steve Nelson: 00:22:48

I as wise, but we just have seen the movie before and lived

Steve Nelson: 00:22:50

longer and have some life learnings to share. There's a

Steve Nelson: 00:22:53

few if you don't mind me mentioning them would be, I'me

Steve Nelson: 00:22:56

really big on exploring your interests to find your passions,

Steve Nelson: 00:23:01

and then open the aperture wide to find out what you love. And

Steve Nelson: 00:23:04

if you could find the people, places, things that or even who

Steve Nelson: 00:23:09

inspire you, give you energy, give you vitality. I think that

Steve Nelson: 00:23:14

brings inspiration into your life. And it helps you or even

Steve Nelson: 00:23:18

create your life calling and I'm really big on what's your life

Steve Nelson: 00:23:21

calling What's your reason for being. And for me, it's those

Steve Nelson: 00:23:25

things that give you the most energy, the most vitality is

Steve Nelson: 00:23:28

usually your passions over time, and you can over time, find a

Steve Nelson: 00:23:31

way to work in those fields. And then find the people around that

Steve Nelson: 00:23:36

that are kind of best at what they do. And prioritize those

Steve Nelson: 00:23:41

folks. You know, first and foremost, I love to go to work

Steve Nelson: 00:23:45

on them, with them, for them. I don't need any gain out of it.

Steve Nelson: 00:23:49

My gain is the energy and vitality I get out of it and the

Steve Nelson: 00:23:52

learnings I get out of it. And as we talked about the joy, and

Steve Nelson: 00:23:57

sometimes I feel like I've I'm honored privileged lucky to even

Steve Nelson: 00:24:00

be alongside them. Like who am I? I'm just this guy that's had

Steve Nelson: 00:24:03

these forks in the road that some of them are worked out

Steve Nelson: 00:24:06

pretty well. So this whole idea of combining what you love to do

Steve Nelson: 00:24:09

what you with what you do for a living. I think it's fantastic

Steve Nelson: 00:24:13

as well, I guess if I was thinking of skills to grow, I

Steve Nelson: 00:24:16

think Systems Thinking is good. That's where innovation and

Steve Nelson: 00:24:19

opportunity think of those key skills, you know, wide and deep

Steve Nelson: 00:24:23

be an expert at something but be broad enough liberal arts, with

Steve Nelson: 00:24:28

the sciences. I think being technology aware, and or savvy.

Steve Nelson: 00:24:32

I think being able to use these tools is really important. I

Steve Nelson: 00:24:35

think being competitive and actually wanting to do well. I

Steve Nelson: 00:24:38

don't mean competing against other people but wanting to do

Steve Nelson: 00:24:40

well. Maybe that's better said as conscientiousness or grit.

Steve Nelson: 00:24:44

And then there's nothing better than being a great communicator,

Steve Nelson: 00:24:47

I think both verbal and written. And I love the idea of being of

Steve Nelson: 00:24:50

service to others. And so the longer you live, the more and

Steve Nelson: 00:24:53

I'm sure you realize that maybe you've realized that your whole

Steve Nelson: 00:24:56

life. I really got it in the last decade or so. This whole

Steve Nelson: 00:24:59

idea of being service to others is where I get my joy. It's not

Steve Nelson: 00:25:03

by doing my thing is is by helping others. So I guess those

Steve Nelson: 00:25:06

are the big things that I would say. But I'd actually add to it,

Steve Nelson: 00:25:10

you know, be a dreamer, you know, I now hang around because

Steve Nelson: 00:25:13

of Sequoia and Alice Walton and my friends at Kleiner, Perkins,

Steve Nelson: 00:25:17

John Doerr, these are dreamers that think anything is possible.

Steve Nelson: 00:25:21

And I guess I've always been the person personally, no matter

Steve Nelson: 00:25:24

what I'm going to give everything my absolute best

Steve Nelson: 00:25:26

effort, they're going to get my best me. If we can control

Steve Nelson: 00:25:29

having a positive attitude and being upbeat about things I

Steve Nelson: 00:25:32

don't know many pessimistic successful folks. I don't hang

Steve Nelson: 00:25:35

around with them anyway. And then being a great team player,

Steve Nelson: 00:25:38

and then it doesn't feel like work if you're working alongside

Steve Nelson: 00:25:43

amazing people. Those are some of the things that I really have

Steve Nelson: 00:25:46

enjoyed, I guess over the last many years is picking projects

Steve Nelson: 00:25:51

that I'm passionate about finding the absolute best people

Steve Nelson: 00:25:55

associated with it. And there's, you know, there's been talk on

Steve Nelson: 00:25:58

the engineering side of things of 10x. Engineers, like some

Steve Nelson: 00:26:02

engineers are 10 times better, doesn't mean they're better

Steve Nelson: 00:26:05

people. And this means just engineers, I just think some

Steve Nelson: 00:26:08

people are just extraordinary at what they do. And if you could

Steve Nelson: 00:26:11

find a way to be a talent scout, and get your way to those

Steve Nelson: 00:26:13

extraordinary people. That's where the magic really happens

Steve Nelson: 00:26:17

is, you know, big dreams, big needs, extraordinary people. And

Steve Nelson: 00:26:21

it doesn't thence feel like work at all, it feels like a joy. And

Steve Nelson: 00:26:25

we've used that word. I think, you know, happiness is fleeting.

Steve Nelson: 00:26:30

Joy is not, I think you get joy from serving and helping others.

Steve Nelson: 00:26:35

And for me, it never fades to try to be of service and helping

Steve Nelson: 00:26:39

other folks. And it never fades to want to be around incredible

Steve Nelson: 00:26:43

people. So I guess those would be some of the life lessons. You

Steve Nelson: 00:26:45

can't always do that job. One. I'm thinking when I was a young

Steve Nelson: 00:26:48

IBM guy that did I know this? No way. But this is like if I was

Steve Nelson: 00:26:51

to get beamed up to another planet and had to offer these

Steve Nelson: 00:26:53

words based on now many decades of being around extraordinary

Steve Nelson: 00:26:58

people and some fun projects. I'd want to share those words,

Matt Waller: 00:27:01

Based on my observation of you, you really

Matt Waller: 00:27:04

live this service to others. I know you're doing it in many

Matt Waller: 00:27:07

ways with the Whole Health Institute. No, but you you're

Matt Waller: 00:27:10

doing it with the university too helping us with the

Matt Waller: 00:27:12

entrepreneurship efforts. And I really appreciate that we're,

Matt Waller: 00:27:16

we're lucky you decided to move here and get engaged.

Steve Nelson: 00:27:20

So I'm the lucky one. And again, lucky to have

Steve Nelson: 00:27:22

met you, man have so enjoyed our conversations, and I hope

Steve Nelson: 00:27:25

there's many, many more opportunity to work side by

Steve Nelson: 00:27:27

side. I'm really proud of what you're doing. And your team is

Steve Nelson: 00:27:30

doing. And there's a big opportunity for somebody to do

Steve Nelson: 00:27:32

something really special somewhere in the nation. And I

Steve Nelson: 00:27:34

don't know why northwest Arkansas, and things emanating

Steve Nelson: 00:27:37

from your leadership and kind of locking arms with some other

Steve Nelson: 00:27:41

incredible people and I'm, I'm bringing my friends through

Steve Nelson: 00:27:44

town. So my you know, dear friend, John Doerr of Kleiner

Steve Nelson: 00:27:47

Perkins is coming to town for the second time. Jim Goetz is

Steve Nelson: 00:27:50

coming to town as you well know, from Sequoia and I don't think

Steve Nelson: 00:27:52

he's spoken publicly in six years. He's coming in April. So

Steve Nelson: 00:27:56

we're getting the best in the world kind of folks that want to

Steve Nelson: 00:27:58

come to town to tell their story to listen, learn and offer

Steve Nelson: 00:28:02

thoughts and these are folks that in theory have already won

Steve Nelson: 00:28:05

at life. But they want to offer gifts to others and they're

Steve Nelson: 00:28:09

picking our town in Northwest Arkansas to have those

Steve Nelson: 00:28:11

conversations.

Matt Waller: 00:28:12

Steve, thank you so much for taking time today to

Matt Waller: 00:28:15

visit with us andit's been a really interesting conversation

Matt Waller: 00:28:19

and really appreciate you. Have a wonderful holiday.

Steve Nelson: 00:28:23

I appreciate that Matt.