Lee Hower of NextView Ventures: From startups to VC and the curveballs along the way

Episode Description: 
In episode 7 of Season 3,  Matt and Rob speak with Lee Hower, co-founder and Partner of NextView Ventures.  Lee has spent his career as an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage software and internet startups.  In this episode, you'll learn more on Lee's early days at PayPal alongside Elon Musk, to co-founding LinkedIn and moving back to the east coast to start his venture career at PJC.  You’ll hear more on his experience starting NextView Ventures, the biggest challenges he has faced with NextView and what has surprised him the most being in venture for over 10 years.  

What is Uncovered: 

• What it was like starting Fund I at NextView
• The parallels of running a startup and raising money as a VC
• What it was like to receive that first LP commitment 
• How Lee's experience in tech has influenced his experience in Venture
• The most surprising thing about starting a venture fund 
• The biggest challenge Lee has faced over the last 10 years at NextView 

Learn more about: 

Lee Hower: 

Lee is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures. He has spent his entire career as an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage software and internet startups.

Lee started his career as an early employee of PayPal in product and business development roles, through the company’s 2002 IPO and sale to eBay. After PayPal, Lee was a co-founder of LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) and served as head of corporate development during the company’s early years.

Lee began his VC career at PJC, a Boston-based early-stage VC firm, where he was a Principal and helped to build the firm’s internet investment practice. At PJC Lee led investments in and served as a board director of Multiply (acq. by Naspers) and FanIQ.

Lee graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Management & Technology program, with a BAS in Systems Engineering and a BS Economics from the Wharton School. He was selected as Wharton’s Commencement Speaker in 2000. He lives with his wife and small daughter and splits his time between Boston and San Francisco.

Connect with Lee on LinkedIn. 

NextView Ventures: 

Seed stage investors who champion founders who want to redesign the Everyday Economy.  NextView keeps their number of deals small and platform offerings expansive so they can help their portfolio with what matters most at the seed-stage. Check out their full pitch deck: https://nextview.vc/approach/

Highlighted Quote rom Lee: 

• “People come up with all kinds of sports analogies as to what early-stage VC and investing is like and the best one that I've said is it's kind of like baseball: a hybrid between the base running coach whose standing at third base and the talent-scout.  The 3rd base coach gives perspective and input to the founders, who are the ones who are actually building and running the companies. Sometimes they listen to our advice, sometimes they don't, but hopefully the third base coach can see the whole field and see what’s happening and offer that perspective to go around third base and head for home or not. The talent scouting part of it is identifying really exceptional people who sometimes have ideas that seem unusual at the very early stage.”