What a night! This year’s Fireside Chat in San Francisco was an evening full of captivating conversation, industry insights, and networking with SV’s finest from veteran serial entrepreneurs to young leaders of the next wave. Considering the caliber of our distinguished guest speaker, George Boutros and moderator, Khaled Nasr, it was no surprise that this was a sold out event with over 50 people in attendance.
George Boutros demonstrated his charismatic leadership and engaged the crowd with his industry expertise. When asked about his secret to success, George stated that, “95% of my job is psychology” and emphasized that “Qatalyst is a very focused investment banking boutique delivering one product, strategic advice, to one industry- technology.”
When we delved deeper into his outlook on startup exits, his perspective was straightforward, “Most exits will be through the M&A route. We have a great public market with strong demand for high quality growth companies. One of the reasons for the relatively small number of IPO’s is that high quality companies can afford to wait longer before going public as they have access to large pools of private capital on attractive terms.” George proceeded to provide valuable insight on Asian buyers and predicted that they will become more active in the consumer Internet space.
With all the current and aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience, we were itching to get George’s insight on what he thinks makes a good entrepreneur and leader. “A good entrepreneur is one who has unwavering conviction, is willing to take calculated risks but is also grounded and realistic about what it takes to succeed. He/she is a good leader who inspires others and is surrounded with a strong team. [A good entrepreneur] is a person who recognizes both their strengths and limitations, gets help when needed, and knows when they are facing fundamental changes in their business and can adapt to change.”
It was delightful to see that George is the first to recognize that great success brings great responsibility. When Khaled asked about his take on the next generation of talent, his take was clear, “Millenials have a mindset of their own. They are more willing to take risks and experiment with a variety of jobs, which can make it challenging to retain them at times. Mentoring is critical. It is incumbent upon each of us to help develop the next generation of leaders. LebNet does this very well.”
All work and no play? Not George. We loved learning that when he is not negotiating multi-billion dollar deals, he is honing his drone photography skills or hitting the beach to surf.
A huge thanks to everyone who came out and made this night a huge success!
