Sunday Conversation #9: Keith Rabois, Khosla Ventures (Round 2)

Welcome to the ninth Sunday Conversation. The response to December’s episode with Keith Rabois was so good, I talked to Rabois about doing a few more in 2014, but touching on more current events in tech. Hence, today’s conversations, and we’ll keep recording them and you should keep sending us topics. The idea to repeat the series started because Keith made a comment in the first conversation about how Instagram could’ve had a chance to beat Facebook. So, we discussed that, and much more. We also had a brief chat about the forthcoming retirement of Derek Jeter, which is sure to please 25% of the crowd and leave the rest fuming 😉 Note that full audio of the conversation is at the bottom, via SoundCloud. ♦

Part I, Unpacking the acquisition strategies of the big tech companies (9:06). Rabois explains how companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple might think about their M&A approaches, touching on Whatsapp, Nest, and what everyone wants Apple to do versus what has actually played out.

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Part II, Could Instagram have beaten Facebook? (6:48).

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Part III, Effects of talent fragmentation in the Valley/SF (5:43).

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Part IV, Keith reluctantly shares details about a new company he’s starting (3:10).

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Part V, Rabois’ view of consumer mobile for 2014 and beyond (2:57).

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Part VI, Thoughts on the end of the Derek Jeter era (5:00).

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A special thanks to the team at Scaffold Labs for sponsoring the Sunday Conversation series on Haywire. Scaffold Labs is a boutique technology advisory firm based in Silicon Valley which designs and builds scientific and predictable talent acquisition programs that helps technology startups hire great people. Scaffold Labs has previously partnered with companies such as Cloudera, Appirio, and Nimble Storage, among others. For more information, please visit www.scaffoldlabs.com