Peter Pham - The Entrepreneurial Journey To Science Inc.
Explicit content warning
04/29/21 • 43 min
We are thrilled to chat with serial entrepreneur Peter Pham, one of L.A.’s most prominent early-stage investors and the co-founder of Science Inc. For those not in the know, Science Inc. is a Santa Monica startup studio and early-stage venture fund that manages over $100 million and recently launched a $310.5 million SPAC (they’re also behind Dollar Shave Club).
“You know what you’re going to get with me, you're going to get a neurotic person who's passionate beyond belief. You want me on your team.”
As an operator, Peter grew Photobucket to become the largest photo sharing site in 2007, exiting to Myspace for $300 million. He repeated that success as a co-founder and CEO of BillShrink, which was acquired by MasterCard. But how did he start out, what shaped him as a kid to become the preeminent VC he is today?
“I think what shaped me in terms of growing up, not having anything and the classic American dream. No one’s gonna give it to me, I’m gonna go earn it, work my ass off. I had three jobs to pay for college, as a waiter.”
He spent 9 years jumping between 13 different enterprise software companies, but his advice for wannabe entrepreneurs today is this: “Go work at a startup, pick it up, try different things and just be the motivated person who's willing to learn and do whatever it takes, and don't get sucked into titles.”
From finding your superpower, to founding Photobucket, BillShrink and Color, to choosing a co-founder, the qualities he looks for when he meets a founder, to the ideal company he’s looking for.
“Across all three categories for us, it's mobile, marketplaces, and consumer brands, those are the types of companies we're looking for.”
If you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t want to miss this. Download and listen now.
On today’s podcast:
His journey to entrepreneur
- Find your superpower
- Founding Science Inc.
- What makes a desirable founder
- Miami vs LA vs Austin vs Bay Area
Links:
We are thrilled to chat with serial entrepreneur Peter Pham, one of L.A.’s most prominent early-stage investors and the co-founder of Science Inc. For those not in the know, Science Inc. is a Santa Monica startup studio and early-stage venture fund that manages over $100 million and recently launched a $310.5 million SPAC (they’re also behind Dollar Shave Club).
“You know what you’re going to get with me, you're going to get a neurotic person who's passionate beyond belief. You want me on your team.”
As an operator, Peter grew Photobucket to become the largest photo sharing site in 2007, exiting to Myspace for $300 million. He repeated that success as a co-founder and CEO of BillShrink, which was acquired by MasterCard. But how did he start out, what shaped him as a kid to become the preeminent VC he is today?
“I think what shaped me in terms of growing up, not having anything and the classic American dream. No one’s gonna give it to me, I’m gonna go earn it, work my ass off. I had three jobs to pay for college, as a waiter.”
He spent 9 years jumping between 13 different enterprise software companies, but his advice for wannabe entrepreneurs today is this: “Go work at a startup, pick it up, try different things and just be the motivated person who's willing to learn and do whatever it takes, and don't get sucked into titles.”
From finding your superpower, to founding Photobucket, BillShrink and Color, to choosing a co-founder, the qualities he looks for when he meets a founder, to the ideal company he’s looking for.
“Across all three categories for us, it's mobile, marketplaces, and consumer brands, those are the types of companies we're looking for.”
If you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t want to miss this. Download and listen now.
On today’s podcast:
His journey to entrepreneur
- Find your superpower
- Founding Science Inc.
- What makes a desirable founder
- Miami vs LA vs Austin vs Bay Area
Links:
Previous Episode
Virtual Events, Clean Cosmetics, Drones & Surveillance
Restrictions are slowly beginning to lift, the vaccine is being rolled out both in the US and across the world, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to go right back to how we were pre-pandemic. Virtual events are likely to be an ongoing feature of life as we know it, for the foreseeable future at least.
“With revenue totaling over $330 million in 2019, Zoom expects a total revenue of over $620 million by the end of fiscal year 2020. With such growth and further uncertainty ahead regarding the pandemic and working from home, there's definitely an opportunity for competitors to enter the market.”
In today’s episode of Halo Drop, we discuss the rise of virtual events, from conferences and trade shows, to virtual workouts and cooking classes, before jumping into clean cosmetics, drone technology and surveillance.
“Drones are a $23 billion industry right now. And it's going to double in the next five years. So 2025, you're looking at a $42 billion industry, which is pretty, pretty amazing.”
Finally, love him or hate, you’ve gotta check out Dave Portnoy’s Barstool Fund (link below). Someone on Twitter challenged him to put his money where his mouth is and help raise funds for struggling restaurants. To date he’s raised over $32m, in under two months, from 200,000 people and supported close to 200 different businesses.
On today’s podcast:
- Virtual events and conferences
- Drone technology and surveillance
- Indian video conferencing companies
- Clean cosmetics
- The Barstool Fund
Links:
- https://www.barstoolsports.com/the-barstool-fund
- New Yorker Suspends Jeffrey Toobin for Masturbating on Zoom Call
- China takes surveillance to new heights with flock of robotic Doves, but do they come in peace?
Hosts Twitter
Vishal - https://twitter.com/vgurbuxani
Krishna - https://twitter.com/ksub15
Sunil - http://twitter.com/vermasun
Show Social
Twitter https://twitter.com/halodropfm
Next Episode
The Rise of Athleisure Wear
Getting back to in-person meetings after a year of working from home means having to find clothes that aren’t athleisure wear and ‘proper shoes’. We’ve become so accustomed to wearing sweats day in and day out, it’s tough setting them aside.
“In India we've seen the rise of athleisure outfits by over 1500% over the last year. And as you guys pointed out, Amazon searches for men's loungewear have increased by over 1100% as well.”
From athleisure brands, to Peloton sleep meditations, to ASMR meditation, to our increasing energy consumption, today’s episode of Halo Drop discusses pertinent topics of interest from the last week.
On today’s podcast:
- The rise of athleisure
- Forge clear ice system
Links:
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/halo-drop-642834/peter-pham-the-entrepreneurial-journey-to-science-inc-85214744"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to peter pham - the entrepreneurial journey to science inc. on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy