Meet Anne Dwane — Entrepreneur, Leader and VC
If you’re unfamiliar with our project, Diving Into the Bay Area Work Culture, read our intro here
Meet Anne
Title: Partner, Global Silicon Valley (GSV) Acceleration, LLC
Background:
Before joining GSV Acceleration 8 months ago, Anne was Chief Business Officer at Chegg Inc., CEO of the startup Zinch, a GM at Monster and co-founder at Millitary.com. Anne has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and serves as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence there now.
What advice would you give to Millennials?
You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you ask for. Ask nicely. People don’t realise how much control they have. If a thing is holding you back, ask to have those barriers changed or removed. Sometimes you won’t get exactly what you want, but you definitely won’t get it if you don’t ask. The best way to learn is asking questions, so cultivating the ability to ask good questions overall is helpful.
What advice do you give to teams ?
Surround yourself with the best people you can — people who bring out the best in you. So, no matter the outcome, you’ll be richer in experience, learnings and relationships with people you admire.
“Say what you mean, mean what you say and don’t be mean when you say it”.
Focus on creating value. Be grateful.
Here Are The Highlights From Our Conversation With Anne
Work Culture
When asked Anne about the work culture in the bay area, She said she is optimistic. She thinks the bay area is more inclusive now.
Paula and I met Anne at an Appster event at WeWork, A co-working space in SF, where she said “ if we all think alike, we don’t think very much”. When we brought that up again Anne said “companies don’t have culture, companies are culture”. She was qouting Jon Bischke, who encourages hiring companies to think about “culture add” instead of “culture fit” when hiring new team members.
Anne shared there used to be, and maybe still is, a tendency to hire for a culture fit, which can enable a kind of short-hand in interactions, but it can miss the “magic” of problem-solving with complementary thinkers.
Hiring managers should think objectively about what additions will enable the company to create more value faster, and interview many candidates. Years ago, she said, the “beer-test” was popular in hiring — “would I want to drink a beer with this person?”. This contributed to hiring more similar and like-minded people. Anne told us there is of course some risk involved in hiring people unlike you. She also referred to Ken Coleman, a trailblazer in Silicon Valley, who in comments at GSV’s Pioneer Summit, said that when you hire people unlike you, it’s risker. And teams may need to take more effort to communicate effectively but the diversity can, however, result in more critical and innovative thinking.
Anne also said “It’s not just what you know, it’s how you learn, adapt and collaborate that makes you effective. Humans can be surprisingly good at adapting and switching contexts, and that’s powerful to thriving in the complexity we are working with now and in the future.”
She sees future teams being combinations of humans and technology, where technology is a service to humans, not just a set of tool humans use.
Talking About The Bay Area
Anne shared that she sees the advantage of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area as the thriving ecosystem of founders, entrepreneurial talent, investors, and support services. On top, there is a culture with appetite for risk and a sense that the world isn’t a “sum zero game”. Anne believes that Silicon Valley has a lot of best practices that could benefit entrepreneurs globally, but also thinks Silicon Valley could learn from innovators around the globe. Global Silicon Valley (GSV) aims to facilitate such idea exchange.
Another thing Anne thought was that Silicon Valley should have the best public K-12 schools in the world, with all the resources, talent and knowledge in the area, but unfortunately these schools are often challenged.
Paula and I shared that we have heard very few people talk about the upcoming election and Anne agreed that Silicon Valley isn’t really a political place like Washington, DC. It’s changing, though, because government policies and regulations impact tech, and second because the Bay Area is a place full of passionate people who seek to change things for the better.
Investment
We also talked about Anne’s work as a VC. Global Silicon Valley (GSV) Acceleration, LLC is an early stage VC firm investing venture capital to build human capital. GSV Acceleration backs entrepreneurs leveraging technology to fundamentally improve how we learn and work.
Anne points out that great investors seem to move between pattern recognition and first principles, meaning not reasoning by analogy but thinking from basic, true concepts. Market + Team + Business Model matter. Is the business model viable? Defensible?
Also, Anne believes the founder is critical to early stage businesses. She looks for conviction in founders.
1) Do they have belief in a big idea, combined with the willingness to actively refine it with learnings and the tenacity to make it an inevitability?
2) Do they have conviction so compelling it enables them to inspire potential customers, team members, investors?
Co-written with Paula Vivas-Avila
Thank you Anne for sharing your thoughts and advise with us!
