Bill Gurley: Venture Capitalist and General Partner at Benchmark

The companies within Bill Gurley's investment portfolio have some clear similarities: great user-generated content, a reliance on the network effect and a "power to the people" mentality, meaning they put consumers first. But companies don't succeed solely because of their business model or mission - they also need strong leadership. According to Bill, great leaders tend to be unafraid, innately curious and bold. He looks for these qualities in the founder pitching the investment opportunity because - while the idea is important - it's the person who is going to execute it. In this episode, Bill references his 2012 essay, "The Dangerous Seduction of the Lifetime Value (LTV) Formula." You can read it in its entirety here.