Inside a Mega VC & University Entrepreneurship with Partner Peter Boyce II Partner at General Catalyst

Listen on
February 11, 2021

Peter Boyce II is a Partner at General Catalyst, one of the preeminent venture capital firms out there. General Catalyst makes early-stage investments while backing exceptional entrepreneurs who are building innovative technology companies and market leading businesses. Investments include the likes of Airbnb, ClassPass, HubSpot, KAYAK, Oscar, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker.

Peter is also a Co-Founder of Rough Draft Ventures, an organization that helps university students in their journey from creating ‘rough drafts’ to startup companies by investing at the earliest stage.

Peter and I discuss the way his firm operates, why it’s important to give companies time to develop, and how universities can better assist their entrepreneurs.

Show Links

Transcript

MPD: Peter, thanks for being on the show.

Peter Boyce II: [00:01:49] Mark. Thanks so much for having me.

MPD: [00:01:51] All right. We have a lot to cover today, but before we get into general catalysts, venture capital and everything else, I want to hear a little bit about your story. Could we start off with where you're from?

Peter Boyce II: [00:02:01] Totally. I grew up in New York in the city.

Yeah. You know, up in Washington Heights. Uh, yeah. You know, it, um, And, uh, you know, I've always been a little bit of like a, kind of a computer geek. So, you know, that's, uh, been, been really nice to kind of carry with me through all these years. So grew up here, you know, I was like the physics, you know, summer camp kid, you know, I went to Stuyvesant high school, um, and you know, I have lots of stories I can tell you about, you know, fixing computers, the public library and all that jazz.

How did you

MPD: [00:02:38] get into computers in the beginning? What was the beginning of your tech

Peter Boyce II: [00:02:42] journey? Yeah, you know, honestly, the first thing I remember is. You know, I was lucky to kind of walk down the street once and I basically found someone, you know, someone had left like, uh, effectively, almost like one of these, like electronic kind of typewriters, you know what I mean?

Like the precursors to proper desktops, that's such a unique story. I mean, honestly, and I took it home and I was kind of like, Oh my Lord, this is like, I don't even know what to do with this, but I like it. You know what I mean? Like I like the digital screen and all that jazz. And then, you know, fast forward a few years later, I just remember getting our first desktop and I just, I remember.

The process of, you know, kind of putting it together and turning it on and using it. I just, it was, it was like, envelop me, you know what I mean? Like the rest is history. Like I was just fascinated with downloading new apps and, you know, all that jazz and it, it, it morphed over time, you know, it's like, it went from, you know, the, you know, Limewire, you know what I mean?

And all that kind of, you know, bit torrent and all that jazz too, then. You know, modding, Xboxes, and then, you know, it kind of all spiraled from there where you power user or coder power user. Thank you for answering that. Yeah. I was power user growing up, ended up studying, you know, computer science, it's dye and a little bit in college.

Um, but I've always just been like, it just fascinated by the, the tool and the utility. Um, you know, of, of, of computers and, and what technology does for us, I would say definitely, uh, definitely a power user. And I also loved the, just like the side project and hobbies. You know what I mean? If technology, like, I like building computers, I liked selling them to other people.

I like setting up people's home networks and all that jazz. My first. You know, I'm not even sure I'd call it a business, but you know, I basically started like a little computer consulting business in high school. I called it computer services and it was literally just like helping people, you know, install new versions of windows.

You know what I mean? And like fixing home network. So

MPD: [00:04:44] think about being a founder. Is it sounds like you had a little bit of the entrepreneurial bone. Is that something you'd ever

Peter Boyce II: [00:04:49] contemplated? You know, it's interesting. I've definitely that, that expression founder definitely came to me later in life.

You know, it's like that wasn't, you know, in high school it was more like, this is, this is my past and this is the way, I mean, yeah. I'm like working at the public lab, working at my school library, you know, I'm having fun with friends, learning a lot, just tinkering. Um, but I think now, you know what I mean, now it definitely feels a little bit more like that.

Like that was the, the spirit, you know what I mean? Just creating things, getting people involved, helping other people. Um, and I spent a lot of my time in college, you know, founding student groups and helping friends found companies. And so, um, you know, but, but again, it was that, that nomenclature really, yeah.

Later on for

MPD: [00:05:33] me now, Peter, I've known you for awhile. Uh, but I've done a little research on you for this conversation to get to know you a little bit better. Um, I think, uh, you're a very driven guy, right? I think that's part a big part of your narrative. Uh, and I know that might be a little embarrassing to have someone tell you, but it's probably true.

There's a, uh, a line that I caught on you, which is. You were taking math and physics at Columbia university while you were still in high school, what motivates you? I mean, that's, that's pretty, even if you're capable of doing it, which is impressive enough, bopping around commuting the effort. What's uh, what, what motivates a guy like you, uh, to do the things that you do?

Peter Boyce II: [00:06:20] Yeah. Geez. It's a, it's a combination of a few things Mark and I I'm, you know, blushing a little bit, you know what I mean? For sure. It's on a blush that much, these days more before we're done, um, you know, motivation for me. I mean, look, part of it is just curiosity and just internal fuel to just discover things and learn more.

Like I've just, that's always been a proclivity of mine and I'm yeah. And I'm, I'm just, I, I follow it. You know what I mean? I don't, I don't reject it. You know what I mean? I don't pretend it's not there. I just follow it, you know? And for some folks that takes them into sports, journalism, you know what I mean?

But for me, it's just reading physics, math, computers, you know what I mean? Like I just, I just followed it. Um, and I think I got comfortable, you know, with basically just pursuing that realizing like that's who I was. I was like always the kid that kind of looked up at the night sky and it was just kind of like.

There's something bigger. There's something really interesting happening here. And you could spend a lot of time, you know, in life trying to discover what those things are and it would take you really interesting places. So I think that's, that's one, you know, that's, that's it, you know, a big piece of it for me.

Um, the second is circumstance, right? Like, you know, for, for better, for worse, I kind of came to the conclusion that education and pursuing educational opportunities to the fullest was how you created opportunities. Optionality. Um, and change your life. And it was under my control, right. I, I, you know, there's some things that we can change.

There's some things we can't change, but I could certainly elect to not watch TV after school and schlep up to Columbia to get beat down. You know what I mean? Taking quantum mechanics with Brian Gray, you know what I mean? Like I can, I could choose to do that. Right. Um, So I think that's the second piece that I've always put a huge premium in priority instead of importance around education.

I'm lucky that, you know, a fair amount of that came from, from my parents and just observing them and observing just, you know, the, the society we're embedded in. So I think that's the second piece. Um, and the third is I find all of this to be really fun. And I know, uh, you know, and it's like in high school, that's called being a Dick or whatever, you know what I mean?

Like, but I just, I find this stuff to be so fun. You know what I mean? Like writing equations for me in high school was like the time of my life. And now, you know what I mean? Like just working with founders and thinking about the future technology, I just, I love this stuff. It's super fun and fulfilling.

So that's the,

MPD: [00:08:54] a lot of people I think in the innovation economy find themselves lucky to actually like their job.

Peter Boyce II: [00:08:59] Oh, it's a blessing.

MPD: [00:09:01] What's the magic at Harvard, right? We've we've had increased credible entrepreneurs come out of there, obviously Zuckerberg and Gates Gates, and many, many others. Is there some secret sauce too?

The programming is done in the community is constructed or is it since it's just one of the best schools out there that really great people go there and really great people do really great things. It's hard. It's Harvard can creating this or are they. Working with people who are predestined.

Peter Boyce II: [00:09:29] Yeah. Such a fascinating question.

I mean, I would start by saying, you know, I'm incredibly grateful for the experience that I had to study and be at Harvard because I don't think you and I would be chit chatting today if it weren't for that opportunity. So

I'm

MPD: [00:09:43] okay. I mean, hell you were at Columbia in high school, you would have been somewhere fun.

Peter Boyce II: [00:09:47] Totally true. I would have tried my best that's for sure. So. But, um, but that gratitude and kind of, you know, recognition is something that I carry with me every day, but here's, here's actually what I would say. I actually think, you know, there are so many, so many campuses that have tremendous entrepreneurial excellence.

Um, and that's one of the things that I spent a lot of my time dedicated to discovering, connecting and being a part of. So. You know, not, I, I'm going to trace back to getting to the core of your question, but I want to start by saying, I mean, some of my most favorite entrepreneurial friends and founder narratives came from campuses, you know, far and wide, you know, beyond the one where I was lucky to study for what it's worth.

I spent my senior year founding rough draft to really connect those dots because I really wanted to kind of create a constellation of entrepreneurs across all these campuses, because. Whether it's Columbia or Pomona or UT Austin, or you mish or MIT, every campus has these pockets of entrepreneurs. And w we just, we either tell their stories or don't, and they happen at different volumes.

So that's what I would say. Right? So, so the Facebook story, as a result of its order of magnitude and how, the ways in which the story has been told, there's a strong association, but. You know, I mean, max Levchin and university of Illinois who talks about that, you know, not, not as much, but it's like, you know, there are so very successful.

So many schools can, you know, engineer these really amazing powerhouses in our industry. So, but all that to say, I think it is a little bit of the, the, this kind of like this, like, um, I almost think of it is the admissions office has this opportunity to kind of create like, It's like doctor Xavier's, you know what I mean?

Like, you know, school for the special, right. And then I think there's, there's a little bit of that, you know, kind of magic that happens behind the scenes, you know? Um, but a lot of it is also just it's serendipity it's luck. Um, and I think increasingly today though, I think one of the things that I find very exciting is universities are spending more time coming up with ways to engineer more entrepreneurship.

And that's something that if we were having this conversation 15 years ago, It'd be dramatically different. Like if you were a founder on a campus you were doing so by your own volition, right? Like now there's classes, there's communities, there's competitions, there's funding. So overall our net kind of, you know, output of founders across universities is rising and it's, and it's, it's not isolated to any one, two or five universities.

So anyway, that's something I could talk all day about giving let's talk

MPD: [00:12:24] about it because that's how I think we actually initially connected. Right. You were doing university entrepreneurship, uh, for those who are listening, who don't know, I started the Columbia venture community for Columbia university and the Duke venture community for Duke university.

And I think you were running, um, some of your entrepreneurial outreach at university levels. And we had connected through that. I think very early on, uh, in your career, I'm a little bit older than you. Um, Unfortunately a lot older than you getting really old. Uh, but no, we, uh, I think we had connected on that.

You have gone far beyond what most people have done, what I have done on the university side. Right? So you did the work at Harvard. I noticed you're also involved with some programs at Northwestern MIT. You've got the rough draft ventures program, which I'd like you to actually give everyone the headline and what that is.

But there's a, there's a bigger story around university entrepreneurship where I think you are. Helping to build a launching pad for people around the country. And I think it's worth hearing and I want to grab some lessons out of it. So first, do you mind giving a little overview on rough draft?

Peter Boyce II: [00:13:30] Yeah, totally.

So this is, you know, I'm in senior year bucket list mode and I'm like, I've got one, one, one last year to make another impact, um, where I can on campus and to the points I was sharing earlier. I was just super excited about this opportunity to find the other pockets of entrepreneurs on other campuses.

And I had known something with them, um, and there are other incredible things, communities that I was a part of that were getting started, like interact and others that we're starting to connect the dots, but it's kind of like, wow, it would be really great. If, you know, number one, we create a community, these founders across all these different universities.

Number two, it would be great if we could provide them their first capital, right. Their first resourcing. Right. Again, back to the humble beginnings piece that we touched on for a little bit. I mean, Mark, I don't know about you. Not everyone has a, you know, uncle that's going to come out of the woodwork and write the 25 K check for them.

No, they don't. Right. Not everyone has that. God bless those that do. That's awesome. But if you have a great idea, huge ambition, you know what I mean? And don't want to, you know, bury your, you know, kind of family and credit card debt and you know, all that jazz, like you should be able to access resources to take a chance and start a business.

And I can go on and on about how and why the risk curve for entrepreneurship, for folks of all different socioeconomic backgrounds needs to change. And the ways that we can influence that. But this is the way that was super apparent to me, the first check. Um, and then the third was w what would happen if you.

Built a set of just mentorship and resources, you know, around this, not as formally structured as a program, like an accelerator where you have a finite period of time and you physically go somewhere, but you know, like just, you know, how do you get access to the playbook for, for company creation? How do you get those lessons, uh, that are, you know, uh, I'm very glad now they're in.

Great proliferation. But like, if you were, you know, when you think about like, you know, Nate from Airbnb, you know, starting his first companies, you know what I mean? When he was on campus, there wasn't, you know, structured mentorship programs and blog posts, you know what I mean? Illuminating the way. So they're still kind of area to contribute there.

So anyway, all that to say that was the, the, the founding thesis for rough draft is, you know, how to deliver on those three things. And so I was very lucky to co-found it with the team at general catalyst, you know, I spent. More of my senior year, I think hanging out in the office and working with the team at GC closely to get this up and off the ground.

And we started in the Boston area. And since then, you know, we've expanded across the country, across schools and, um, how many schools

MPD: [00:16:05] are now in the program. And can you give some bullets on what the program does? Yeah. I mentioned first check, but

Peter Boyce II: [00:16:11] yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I mean, you know, with rough draft, it's, you know, it's funny, I think about not to be morbid, but I think about.

You know what my, you know, tombstone, you know, might read. And honestly, I just, I'm so lucky and I feel so privileged that I think so much of it would read in about just the impact that we've had with rough draft. Just because I think at the end of the day, some of these companies may or may not have existed at all.

Like in this version of the universe that we live in, right. Like folks could have taken the job at Palentier or Facebook and Google, and instead they took a chance. They got together with a friend. So. Anyway all that to say. So the model is we recruit a team of student venture fellows from across the, uh, across our universities where we work.

So this year we're working in a distributed environment. We've had the most veteran fellows we've ever had, you know, we're not meeting up in person. So we now have 50 venture fellows from across the centuries. So, I mean, from Duke to Stanford, I mean, everywhere, it's just, it's incredible. So we're taking advantage and leaning into it.

You know, some of the things that you can do in a distributed environment that we couldn't do before, because before it was nice to get everyone together in a room to chit chat about companies. So, so we have these incredible venture fellows and they are the native connectivity to these entrepreneurs on their campuses.

So the founders that they're, you know, their, their classmates, they're their best friends. They're, they're S you know, fraternity and sorority sisters and brothers. So. Anyway, empowering them to find ways to support the founders in their ecosystem. That's what rough draft is about. So we write initial checks anywhere between 25 K and $250,000, it's going to help get these founding teams into business.

Uh, we connect them with mentors. We connect them with other sources of capital, and we also create this sense of community across the founder. So, so one of the things we find is. You know, when you connect to all these communities together, all these founders together, there's, cross-pollination, there's introductions made.

There's co-founders that are found, you know, we've hosted events where, you know, literally like two folks find each other, build a company I'm just kind of like missing, you know, engineering that, so, so yeah, we've back now, you know, well, over 250 companies, um, and we've been super lucky to see, I mean, I mean, I I've lost track, you know what I mean of how many.

Jobs have been created by our portfolio companies, but I mean, you know, it's, it's been, you know, effectively, you know, billions of dollars, you know what I mean, of enterprise value, hundreds of millions of dollars, you know, raised and, um, and, and the per, so getting started, you know, it's still nascent, so, um,

MPD: [00:18:44] yeah, the venture fellows, do they have the control over the investment decision-making or do they bubble it up to you and the team, uh, to evaluate, how does that work?

Peter Boyce II: [00:18:53] Yeah. You know, this is, this is something that's really important. I think, you know, I anchor a lot of the decisions around my, you know, talk about aging and starting to lose one's memory, but I anchor a lot of our program around, you know, the experience that I and other students had on campus. Right. And so I think a big part of that is feeling empowered and enabled.

Um, and so our venture fellows work, you know, in so many ways to, to lead into the discovery efforts, you know what I mean, to the founders that they're going to work with. Um, and it's really, you know, I play a mentorship role. I advise, I help ask questions, you know what I mean? But the real, the ethos and the spirit and the magic and the energy comes from empowering and enable our venture fellows.

Um, and so that's, that's the model. That's what we do. Um, and one of the other things that I would say. That's powerful. That's emerges these venture fellows, you know, ended up going on to be founders themselves or their partners at venture firms. You know what I mean? Like they just kind of go off and do great things in the community.

Um, and so we stay connected with them that way too.

MPD: [00:20:00] So one of the things, when I hear this model, I'm thinking about this is a great social service, a great way to empower entrepreneurs, a great way to educate the next generation a great way to level the playing field. Does it generate returns when you're investing in by large people who don't have a lot of business experience?

Has it been a profitable venture?

Peter Boyce II: [00:20:21] Yeah, it's funny is where, you know, when folks say, you know, kind of follow your passion, you know, and everything else will, this is w this is one of those, right? So you could have you use that as like a stumbling block to basically prevent a concept from like, like this ever coming to fruition.

Right. And you'd be totally justified in doing that. I mean, we have portfolio companies that are, again, you know, it's, it's, it's billions of dollars of enterprise value that's created. I mean, I think that the thing that I would highlight and underscore here, and this is one of the things that drives me is, um, young people and early career entrepreneurs can do so much by leveraging a few of their key advantages.

Right. So when I think about specialization, Oftentimes you get unbounded imagination. Right? So Patrick and John Collison had unbounded imagination around how to rewrite, you know, the financial infrastructure of the internet. They didn't need to work at visa or Amex or anywhere else to get exposed to that unbounded imagination.

In fact, chances are, you know, had they worked at those places, they would have had bounded imagination. Right. So anything they would have created may have been incremental, right. And that works in certain environments, enterprise software. Great. I worked Oracle for 10 years. This thing needs to exist. I'm going to go.

But sometimes, you know, to have like something that feels like just totally like net new for society, oftentimes just unbounded, imagination, and creativity is what gets it done. And you have as a student, right? You have that. Um, so, and I'm, I'm like obsessed with being around. Like I get chills. When I, I get the sense that someone has that, you know what I mean?

Like that's, that's what kind of keeps me going. So that's one, two is, you know, access to these ridiculously, you know, high quality, high integrity recruiting networks, right? Like, I mean, you can literally, you know, assemble a team of your smartest friends and smartest engineers. You know what I mean? And you can do so in ways that are very fluid today, right?

Like you can discover those folks. And now it's like, With Slack and all these other communities in discord and others. I mean, there's, there's even more connectivity. So I think the barriers to team building, you know what I mean? It's kind of come down and I think there's special advantages to students because they know how to self-organize, they've got mailing lists, they've got all these communities, so that's the second piece.

Um, and then I think the third, you know, for what it's worth is, there's a, uh, how do I put this? Um, A humble and openness to learning. And self-improvement, it's something I look for in every entrepreneur that I have the privilege of working with and something that I try to, uh, embrace and adopt myself.

But when you're constantly learning from your professors from, you know, from founders that you meet on the internet and from, you know, YouTube videos that sponge like, you know, learning machine dynamic is available too. 16 year olds, 20 year olds, 50 year olds, a hundred year olds. So, so it's available to all of us and because it's available to all of us, the folks that choose to take it on and over-index and overinvest in it can go a tremendous way.

And now that there's that much content and learning and best practices and entrepreneurship, I mean, I'm waiting, you know what I mean? For the, the, the billion dollar companies that are going to be created by 16 year olds? It's not, it's not an, if it's a wet. So anyway, All of that to say, billions of dollars of enterprise value created with a rough draft portfolio companies.

And these entrepreneurs that start out as a students are, I mean, they are world-class. I think

MPD: [00:24:02] that the program is magnificent. And even if the answer to my question, I'm going to ask you again, is no, I think it should exist. Oh, let me say that. Let me, let me, let me, let me put, hold your feet to the fire and you put a dollar in a rough draft ventures.

Are you up? Yes.

Peter Boyce II: [00:24:16] Okay, great. You're you're in a good spot.

MPD: [00:24:18] Trust me. Great. I love that because that's what I hope. Right? You want to believe that, right? Cause you want, you want the math to draw more capital to support that program. That program is more than just returns. It's training the future.

Peter Boyce II: [00:24:34] Mark. I think that's right.

And this is like, you know, life gives you, you know, only so many win-win wins. You know what I mean? This is, this is one of them and we're going to see. More universities get involved here. We're going to see more venture funds get involved here. There already is a history of that, right? Like I think why C and pear and other programs have done a great job backing, incredible young people early on.

Um, you know, I think there are going to be, you know, an order of magnitude, more case studies like Patrick and John, you know, and HubSpot and snap and FA we can talk about. You know, how and why there should just be so much more of that. Um, I think it's really, really exciting. It's been a big part of our identity and success in DNA at GC and at other venture firms.

And so, um, and I think you're just going to see more universities, you know, getting involved and encourage and kind of connect the dots on this too. So, um, this is not going away. Entrepreneurship is a lot of universities

MPD: [00:25:35] are trying to figure out how to invigorate. Entrepreneurial communities. I feel like this really started after Oh eight.

Everyone was trying to find a way to weasel their way into wall street, get their students and to get the big paying jobs. Cause it helped all the stats and then wall street collapsed and it's come back. But I think, I think a lot of the universities woke up and realized they needed to diversify while wall street was recovering and I started hearing Oh, nine entrepreneurship was every campuses, new mission.

What tips do you have as a guy who's actually made it work? What tips do you have or people who are running programs at universities, what should they be doing to create the type of right environment to support people, to give people a chance?

Peter Boyce II: [00:26:21] Yeah. You know, it's something I'm, I'm a perpetual student, you know, of, of our industry.

And I learned so much by, you know, seeing what's working, what's not working and trying to experiment. So, you know, any answer. That I would share is the product of, you know, seeing, you know, incredible universities and venture firms do things and paying attention to what seems to be working. What's not, and then running my own set of experiments and trying to contribute to this.

Um, and I'm excited that, you know, in 10 years, my answer is going to be out of date and executed on, which is great. Um, so that'd be great. That's going to be important.

MPD: [00:26:53] That'll be better for the whole country in the whole world. Yeah,

Peter Boyce II: [00:26:56] no, it's. You know, uh, finding ways to enable young people to define the future technology, is it that's, that's, that's our opportunity, you know, and, and it's, it's shown incredible results so far.

So, um, but here's what I would say. I, you know, in terms of kind of, you know, structured and engineered ways to enable, you know, kind of greater kind of entrepreneurship, it leads to, you know, really big ideas and interesting company creation. I think first and foremost is creating classes and curriculum for air cover.

For folks to enable the time and have an environment where they can have that air cover to work on their companies and work on their ideas. This is something, you know, you, I mean, I would love to see a time series of, of, of curricula. You know what I mean of different computer science, uh, and in other programs, I mean, some universities just, you mean 20 years ago there wasn't.

You know, in intro to CS class that had more than 10 people in it. Right. So, so I think that's one. So, and, and that's something that universities have control over like remarkable control over. And of course there's always, you know, complexity or are we gonna, you know, are there going to be finals in this class or not?

But, you know, I would look at symbolic systems at Stanford as just a. Case study for just, you know, Hey, by the way, structure it, this way, the team from Instagram is going to get what they need. You know what I mean, to build, you know, a platform like that.

MPD: [00:28:20] Everyone knows symbolic systems at Stanford. Can you give the one-liner on that

Peter Boyce II: [00:28:24] just as like, um, you know, it's interesting cause you know, I it's been, it's been awesome to see the alumni from some of these programs, but Suboxone systems, is it, is it kind of a course of study at Stanford that takes in lots of elements of computer science, product design?

But also just, it's almost ends up being like a, a method of design thinking, um, that has academic rigor and pillars, but it's wildly applicable to company creation. And so, so I, I like, you know, that that worked because it feels grounded, you know what I mean, in a structured environment, but when you get into kind of application mode, you know what I mean?

In some of the classes where you actually get to translate t