When I was 17, I knew of four people at Apple Computer: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Al Eisenstat, and Guy Kawasaki. I loved my Apple ][ (not a +, 48k, with an Integer Card, two floppy disks). By this point, I was spending a lot of time on my high school buddy Kent Ellington’s TI PC (pre-release – his dad was the production manager), but my Applie ][, now with a Z-80 card, sat in the corner of our family room and consumed a lot of my time.
Of the four, I’ve met all but Steve Jobs in person. Al Eisenstat was the first, on a trip to Cupertino with my parents, where I was supposed to meet Steve Jobs, but Al greeted me and spent a meaningful 30 minutes with me instead. Woz was next and we ended up investing (via Mobius) in one of Woz’s companies (called … Woz – it was ahead of its time).
I’ve long admired Guy and we have lots of second-degree-of-separation friends. One of them, Buzz Bruggerman, came up to me after a Give First: The Power of Mentorship talk in Seattle this summer and asked if I knew Guy and had ever been on his podcast. I said, “Nope, but I just listened to the one with Ben Gilbert that Guy did.”
In typical Buzz fashion, I had an email connecting me to Guy within a few minutes, and we quickly set up a time to do a podcast. I did it sitting outside at Rancho Valencia on a sunny day, was in a great mood, and at the very end of the podcast grind for the book promotion.
The podcast is now up at Building What Lasts: Brad Feld on Trust, Mentorship, and Long-Term Thinking.
It was special. It starts off fast. We learn about Guy’s early dating history with Al Eistenstat’s daughter. We talk about Heidi Roizen and Atherton. And then Guy is the very first person to make the link between the 18 items in the Techstars Mentor Manifesto, Chai, the important number 18, and entrepreneurial Tzedakah. All within the first ten minutes.
Enjoy!
And Guy – that was a delight.