Somesh Dash, BS 01 – Can I Borrow A Quarter? — A Conversation About The American Dream, Culture, and Venture Capital

OneHaas

Kicking off Mental Health Awareness Month, today's episode features Somesh Dash. He was recognized as one of the top 100 venture capitalists by The New York Times and CB Insights and by GrowthCap as one of the top 40 under 40 Growth Investors.

With roots in India, Somesh Dash, the Managing Director and General Partner of IVP sits down with Sean Li to have an epic conversation around topics ranging: their shared experience of immigrating to the United States, the importance of mental health in the business space, violence against Asian Americans, the Ronald Reagan era, racism, and cultural awareness.

We gain insight as Somesh walks us through his story of coming up in Silicon Valley. He takes us to the heyday of the dotcom movement and the height of tech IPOs, what he's learned about venture capital, and how lending a quarter to a random stranger over 20 years ago led him to where he is today.

Episode Quotes:

On mental health:

"Coming out of the pandemic, I really think people are going to want to maintain some of the good that came out of this virtualized world, which is being able to slow it down, think a little bit about what's important to them or not, and get the help they need. I think the reality is we're all seeing every day in the news examples of breakdowns in our public health infrastructure that are leading to some of these massive societal issues. A lot of the stuff is related to mass shootings and violence and communities—the root of it is community health and mental health. And unfortunately, the system hasn't modernized in the way that science has or that the private sector has. So, I'm bullish that entrepreneurs and startups and growth companies can make a real difference while doing it in conjunction with local state and federal governments."

On venture capital:

"Part of venture more than ever now is storytelling. It's storytelling to the entrepreneur about who you are as an individual or as a firm and why you could be a great partner to them, especially for competitive rounds. It's telling the story of the company to outside stakeholders, whether it's trying to recruit executives or board members, trying to help with customer acquisition, trying to help with the public markets story. I mean, a lot of what you do is becoming, in a sense, an evangelist for these companies."

On cultural awareness:

"And that always stuck to me, which is, even as a kid growing up here, I grew up seeing a lot of things around—it was more of just ignorance about Indian culture as I'm sure you saw, Sean, with Chinese culture. But once you expose people to it, I mean, who doesn't want to go to like a big Indian wedding?"

"I think the stories that you have, Sean, or I had, are the things that can actually sway public opinion more than just the policy or just the talking heads on cable television. And I wish there was more discourse about that because I think once people realize how much more similar we all are than different, I think the racism we're seeing, the xenophobia, naturally begins to ebb."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• IVP
• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
• The Far Field

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