The speeches of the winners were instructive for entrepreneurs who want to leave a mark. This year’s event honored four visionaries: Arthur Patterson, cofounder of Accel Partners; Reid Hoffman, cofounder and executive chairman of LinkedIn; Brent Schlender, former Fortune editor and cofounder of Techonomy; and Chris Shipley, former executive producer of DEMO and CEO of Guidewire Group. (Pictured above: introducers Wendy Lea and Ram Varadarajan; winners Arthur Patterson and Reid Hoffman).
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":194087,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"A"}']Patterson said in his speech that Varadarajan “laid it on thick” in his kind introduction. He was humble and disarming. But Patterson said his success at picking winners came from having “lots of turns at bat.” Among the sweet ones was a company that Tolerant Systems, a hardware company that gobbled up hundreds of millions in funding and had no end in sight. It uses its last $1 million in cash to convert itself into a software company called Veritas, which later merged with Symantec in a $13.5 billion deal. The lesson: the patient backing of good entrepreneurs pays off.
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“I’ve been lucky to seen the growth potential in many outstanding entreprenuers,” Patterson said.
Shipley humbly said that the award should be considered the “Lucky award.” She told how she took over the DEMO conference after she criticized it before DEMO founder Stewart Alsop, who challenged her to do it better. She also joked that she appreciated constructive criticism but would rather avoid it. After investor Roger McNamee told her that DEMO still needed a makeover, Shipley decided to turn it into the industry’s version of a debutante ball. That turned into a successful 13-year run. She is now CEO of the Guidewire Group. (Disclosure: VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall is now executive producer of DEMO).
He said he was honored and humbled to be in Silicon Valley at the center of the fulcrum for changing the world. Intrigued by what more could be done with the Silicon Valley model, Hoffman challenged others to make the world a better place. That’s why he has also helped start nonprofts such as Mozilla and Kiva.
Over a video link, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates introduced former Fortune magazine writer and cofounder of Techonomy Brent
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I’ve embedded the speeches from Shipley, Hoffman, and Schlender below:
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