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Hello.

Hello, David is bailing me out because I’ve been doing too many hallway conversations, that are off the record, with people who won’t be dragged on camera, and you are always willing to be dragged on camera.

I enjoy, I enjoy talking with you Sarah, on camera, off camera.

Not at the lobby this year, unfortunately.

Well that’s, I was going to say, that has nothing to do with me. There are two things that interrupt people from coming to the lobby: weddings, babies.

Yeah, that’s about it. So, hopefully I’ll have neither of those next year.

Good. Next year.

So, you know, we ‘ve met at the lobby which is sort of an homage to the fact the you are always in the lobbies of conferences gossiping and rarely in the session.

It’s never gossiping, it’s about industry conversation, doing business.

So, I want to ask you, a little bit, about the step that you’ve seen on stage So far but then also about you know all this super secret conversation you are having. You have been in the sessions anymore?

I have. You I find myself sitting and listening to what’s being said. It’s exciting.

So tell me, what you thought about, I mean I know there was Eric Smith last night, Dick Costello spoke today Jack Dorsey, what were some of the things that jumped out at you about these guys?

I’ll tell you, as an investor, right, you spend all your time meeting with the entrepreneurs and the interesting thing is right, you think that entrepreneurship is about, people who want you to think that the entrepreneurship is about getting rich,.

Oh yeah.

Entrepreneurship if successful then everybody gets rich, and its turn out that is true That’s a beautiful byproduct of entrepreneurship but the people that you wanna work with that’s it is not, they are not motivated, that is not their motivation, right?

Right.

So, if you listen to Jack Dorsey just now or Dick Costello or Reed Hastings all today. Talking about their businesses and how they’re thinking about them. What they’re building whatever. Its about I mean Jack was explicit. It was like, I’m trying to make people’s lives better here. Now Kara Swisher called him on it and said, “Is this a movement or is it business?” But I don’t think that’s a dichotomy, I think that ultimately.

Well and she had to ask him that three of four times and it was clear that the question wasn’t even translating with him I mean. There are certain people who sound phony when they talk about that, and there are certain people who just sound really genuine and I think actually Andrew Mason was the same way.

One thing that jumped out at me about both Andrew Mason and Jack Dorsey is, you know, we are in this point of the cycle in Silicon Valley where it’s so easy to start a company that most people would say there’s a lot of people starting companies who probably shouldn’t be entrepreneurs. And seeing both of them on stage talking about building their business, to me, it is so emblematic of that is that thing you see in an entrepreneur when you know they are the guy who should be starting.

Yeah, I mean, its interesting, we saw this in the late 90′s, when it looked like there is a lot of money at the end of ring. And people, you know, oh I have to got stop doing whatever I am doing. You know even with this business with Peter Teo and trying to convince students to stop going to college.

No, I think it’s insanity.. I think its terrible advice.

You think he is like an awful person for doing it then or some people are.

No, I don’t think he is evil, I just think it’s dumb! Like if I were the mother of one of these students, I’d say, “Real like, really this is it?”

It’s two years.

So fun you know,what, spend, make a hundred thousand dollars, quitting school for two years or I mean, here’s a thing. This is what, but it can this is a bit like we’re like talking about with start ups.

Right.

If you think that going to college is about increasing your earning potential? Then, you know, then fine. Go stop doing it ’cause maybe it’s not increasing your earning potential. But when I talk to my children, I don’t say, “Hey, can’t wait for you to go to college so you can increase your earning potential”.

Right? My oldest son intends to be an art history major . I am fairly certain that no number of years as in our history major will repay his college education self, so that can be it, right? So On the other hand, I would not have them do anything else. Like why would you?

Your children are also not going into half a million dollars personal debt Ok. Maybe. That is the crucial difference.

But to be fair like I’m still paying off law school debt.

Are you?

Yeah I am, maybe I should pay it off.

You’re a venture capitalist.

I should probably pay it off. I should probably pay it off. Yeah every month it subtracts. I look at my bank account statement, it has you know Sallie Mae or whatever.

And how’s that law firm going?

Yeah well yeah, I have been a VC now for eleven years, so. But I am still, you know, I am still an inactive member of the bar, because you just never know. I might need to represent you.

Probably.

So, when that day comes, I will reengage. So, anyway. Okay fine. I think that’s fair, but it’s not about, you know, so what, it’s not about earning potential. It’s about the people that you engage with, and meet, and the conversations you have and the opportunities and all that. So anyway if you look at company building today, I think people should be building companies because they cannot think of anything else they want to do.

like what, you know, that’s when you should start a company.

And I think a lot of people are starting companies because, why wouldn’t they? Because it’s so cheap and easy to get capital. Capitalization is so low. I mean it’s different things driving it than in ’99. You know I am not a big fan of saying, this is just like ’99, because it’s not at all.

Yeah, it’s not, it’s not at all.

But you are seeing this phenomenon, where there is a set of circumstances, where if you’re a kid who has a halfway decent idea and you’re coming out of school, there’s not a downside to starting a company. I mean, I think it’s more that has just been taken away than it is…

Yeah, no, I think it’s right! I mean the reality is that’s also true, if you don’t mind, if you can afford to live, right?

Right.

The thing that I don’t get is this, so like, hurry up you gotta get out because time is of the essence.

Yeah.

Well, look, by the time our kids get old, they’ll be living to a hundred or something. So, if they miss two years, it’s two percent. It’s two percent of their lives! It’s fine.

Well, if you listened to the data that Ron Conway talked about at Disrupt, those are their best two years.

Yeah, come on!

Do you buy that? That to be an entrepreneur…

No?

No, I mean I buy that there areGreat entrepreneurs but what.

You know them by the athlete thing?

Well, they don’t need as much sleep. I feel I need more sleep. Then I used to not sleep at all, now I actually occasionally I have to sleep, so I do, I recognize that, but I don’t know you know, work smart [xx]. The reality is that there have been very interesting important businesses built by very young people.

And they have been very interesting you know its like Henry Betmason is not nineteen. Ab Williams and Jack Dorsey and Mark. They are not nineteen. He is an old man. Like he is the shekel onio of you know. He announced just today on twitter that he is retiring. I find news on twitter. See look at that.

[xx] the real [xx]

But he has a giant superman bed. You can’t really feel that sorry for him.

He has a [xx] [xx] [xx].

Why wouldn’t it be?

Do you want of those?

Yes [xx]. Oh, go.

I think something that’s a dormant account.

In Palorato, Hornica poco is like a deck, the size of the postage stamp. But please, enjoy yourselves.

Once again, you’re a venture capitalist, you shouldn’t be withdrawing. You should be paying off law bills, you should be Look, you know what, I don’t wanna be frivolous.