What happens when a tech mogul encounters the true cost of a meeting with Congress?
Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley’s jaw-dropping tale of bribery involves $60,000 in donations and $5,000 checks from spouses who didn’t even show up.
For the uninitiated, Bill Gurley is the capitalist played by actor Kyle Chandler in the Silicon Valley docudrama “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber”. Chandler was the coach in “Friday Night Lights” and male lead in “Bloodline”.
Gurley is awesome at storytelling. A more famous talk he gave is here: “Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love”.
Thanks to Michael Houck’s Founding Journey newsletter for the tip.
Watch The Bill Gurley Talk (bribery story is first 2 min & 11 secs)
The bribe story is in the first 2 min. & 11 seconds of this talk:
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDB Rating: na
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: na
Release Date: Sep 8, 2023
Bill Gurley’s “Bribe Story” Transcript
This talk was recorded live at the All-In Summit 2023 at Royce Hall on UCLA’s campus in Los Angeles September 8 to 10, 2023.
I usually write a review here but instead I’m just going to include the transcript.
Here’s the first 2 minutes & 11 seconds (it’s just the story of the bribe):
Transcript:
I’m Bill Gurley. I got to Silicon Valley in about 1997 and was fortunate enough to become a venture capitalist in 1998. In the entire first year of my career, I had zero interest in interacting with any form of government.
It didn’t seem necessary for what I was trying to do. I was working with founders in software and technology, and I didn’t see what it would bring me until one day when I ran into an issue—which I’ll tell you about later—that required me to understand what was going on in Washington.
So, I checked in with a few advisors, and they introduced me to this lawyer in DC. It turns out DC lawyers do a lot of things that aren’t lawyering.
He listened to me and said he’d have himself call me back. He calls me back and says, “Bill, I’ve got exactly what you need. I found a congressman on the committee that matters to what you’re talking about, and I can set up a meeting.”
I said, “Great, I’ll fly out.” He said, “No, no, don’t fly out; he’s coming to you because he’s coming to me.”
That sounded pretty nice. He asked if I had a conference room. As a venture capitalist, we have lots of conference rooms. He told me to get some people together, but here’s the catch—they need to bring $5,000 each.
I hung up the phone and started thinking.
Alright, I’ve got six people—we’ve got board members, the CEO—$5,000, $30,000 total. He calls me back the next week and asks how it’s going.
I told him, “Great, I’ve got six people, $5,000 each, ready to go.” He said, “Most of these meetings have 10 to 12 people.”
I ended up inviting people who didn’t even have anything to do with this, just to help out. I was up to $60,000. I hang up, and he calls me back again.
“Bill, how’s it going?” I told him, “I’ve got 12 people; everyone’s got a check; we’re ready to go.” By now, I was losing interest. Then he asks, “Do they have spouses?”
I asked, “What kind of question is this?” He says,
“Do they have spouses? Let’s have their spouses write $5,000 checks each.”
I told him our conference room wasn’t big enough for the spouses. He replied, “They don’t have to come.”
This is a true story, by the way. It would go on to happen two more times in my life, and then I stopped meeting with congressmen.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc