Meet the Operators: Q&A with Chris Kelly, Head of Kelly Investments (former FB exec)
Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook (2005–09), now Co-Owner of the Sacramento Kings, and Head of Kelly Investments, Chris Kelly has always been at the forefront of his work. Zaw recently had the opportunity to get advice from Chris when it comes to creating and growing a company.
You can Read the entire transcript of the interview here
Listen to the interview on SoundCloud here
3 Fun Facts about Chris Kelly:
Favorite Superhero: Batman because he was a deliverer of justice (inspiration for his passion in public policy)
Who in history would you like to meet? Thomas Jefferson…it would be interesting to talk to him about the evolution of the human species.
Favorite hobby that no one knows about: Chris used to be an avid baseball player. He really loved pitching more than anything else.
Top 5 Questions Meet The Ops Asked Chris…
- How do you think about success and leadership? Listen to Chris’ Response (4:10)
- Is creating a mission statement for a NBA team different than a tech company? Listen to Chris’ Response (5:37)
- Best ways to communicate with invested companies. Listen to Chris’ Response (9:17)
- 12 years ago vs. Today…how has the way a company run changed? Listen to Chris’ Response (16:24)
- On hiring, what do you look for in finding the right people? Listen to Chris’ Response (18:30)
Bonus: As an investor, what would your ideal board meeting look like? Listen to Chris’ Response (23:30)
Chris Kelly’s Advice
- How do you think about success and leadership?
The number one thing is that you start with the problem that you’re solving instead of the idea that you have a hard core business model around … that you … especially in a situation where you’re talking about building a company.
You have to be able to power through all sorts of doubts and questions and everybody telling you it’s ridiculous. Most people in the world are busy telling you that you can’t do something, so you really have to be able to build dedication and culture and a core team around a vision. Without that, things rarely succeed.
2. Is creating a mission statement for a NBA team different than a tech company?
We, particularly from the beginning, Vivek, the main owner and my partner, and the other folks from the technology industry and from other industries, have been very successful in building great businesses. Mark Mastrov building 24 Hour Fitness, Shaquille O’Neal in his various business endeavors since leaving basketball, Paul Jacobs from Qualcomm and his brothers … It’s all about how you set up that understanding of what you’re trying to do. We continue to be a very mission driven enterprise, much like a start up.
3. Best ways to communicate with invested companies.
I’m always keeping a close eye on finances, obviously, cash, and making sure that you make payroll and everybody gets paid is a critical part of a successful business, and that you’re spending your money very wisely.
You always have to spend your money smartly, but it’s the goal that you’re driving toward. If the goal that you’re driving for is something that people are looking for, that’s much more important than how you spend your dollars. You can spend an immense number of dollars on the wrong thing and not have a success, and you can spend very little amount of targeted capital on exactly the right thing and … Capital is usually a multiplier instead of a determinant factor. It multiplies success, it amplifies success, and it amplifies failure.
4. 12 years ago vs. Today…how has the way a company run changed?
If you look at the rise of Slack and a number of other workplace tools where people are operating on mobile, they can get something out and share information much more quickly so that you can.
Openness and transparency actually solves a bunch of problems. You know who are the team players and who aren’t by the way that they act and the way that they do their work, the way that they share information that people need to know.
Let’s just say you have a 100-person organization, you would probably have a good consensus around who the team builders are and who the individual out-for-themselves players are. You match … Most people’s assessments of their peers would match in that organization. When you have these hyper-connected networks where everyone is on the stage all the time, you can figure that out even faster.
5. On hiring, what do you look for in finding the right people?
Comfort with accountability is the critical, critical factor. People have to be willing to see, expect and react well to constructive criticism or questioning.
A lot of it is some of the classic interview questions. What’s your biggest failure? Somebody’s got to be able to give a truly honest answer to that. “My biggest failure is that I work too hard.” Come on. If it’s, “I ended up destroying my marriage because I work too hard,” that’s a different story.
BONUS: What’s your prototypical or best board meeting look like?
Best board meetings [are] where the deck is set up two days in advance and I’ve had time to go through it. Any potential issues are identified ahead of time. The conversations are teed up. I really don’t think a board meeting should be more than two hours.
You can Read the entire transcript of the interview here
And Listen to the entire interview here.
Be sure to follow Chris on Twitter.
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Thanks, as always, to Brian Ko, and Gina Domizio for all their help!
