The Marketing Guru Who Helped Turn Khosla Ventures Into An Ai Powerhouse Is Moving On

Shernaz Daver is mini successful stature but large successful influence. Over 3 decades successful Silicon Valley, she’s mastered nan creation of getting anyone connected nan telephone pinch a elemental text: “Can you telephone me?” aliases “Let’s talk tomorrow.” And they do.

Now, arsenic she prepares to time off Khosla Ventures (KV) aft astir 5 years arsenic nan firm’s first-ever CMO, Daver could beryllium an parameter of wherever nan tech world is headed. Her profession has been a remarkably meticulous barometer of nan industry’s adjacent large point to date. She was astatine Inktomi during nan hunt wars of nan precocious ’90s (the dot.com high-flier deed a $37 cardinal valuation earlier spiraling backmost to earth). She joined Netflix erstwhile group laughed astatine nan thought of ordering DVDs online. She helped Walmart compete pinch Amazon connected technology. She worked pinch Guardant Health to explicate liquid biopsies earlier Theranos made humor testing infamous. She was moreover dressed down erstwhile by Steve Jobs complete nan trading of a Motorola microprocessor (which could beryllium its ain short story).

KV’s laminitis Vinod Khosla portrays his activity pinch Daver thus: “Shernaz had a beardown effect astatine KV arsenic she helped maine build our KV marque and was a valuable partner to our founders. I’m grateful for her clip present and cognize we’ll enactment close.”

Asked astir why she is leaving nan firm, Daver was typically matter-of-fact. “I came to do a job, and nan occupation was to build retired nan KV marque and to build retired Vinod’s brand, and to thief group up a trading statement specified that our companies and portfolios person personification to spell to. And I’ve done each of that.”

It’s surely existent that erstwhile founders deliberation of apical AI investors, 2 to 3 task firms outpouring to mind, and 1 of them is KV. It’s rather a turnaround for a patient that, for a period, was amended known for Khosla’s ineligible conflict complete formation entree than for his investments.

The Daver effect

Daver says her occurrence astatine KV came down to uncovering nan firm’s principle and hammering it relentlessly. “At nan extremity of nan day, a VC patient doesn’t person a product,” she explains. “Unlike immoderate institution — prime one, Stripe, Rippling, OpenAI — you person a product. VCs don’t person a product. So astatine nan extremity of nan day, a VC patient is really nan people. They are nan merchandise itself.”

KV had already identified itself arsenic “bold, early, and impactful” earlier she arrived. But she says she took those 3 words and “plastered them everywhere.” Then she recovered nan companies to substantiate each claim.

The breakthrough came pinch that mediate word: early. “What is nan meaning of early?” she asks. “Either you create a category, aliases you’re nan first cheque in.” When OpenAI released ChatGPT successful 2022, Daver asked Sam Altman if it was okay to talk astir KV being nan first VC investor. He said yes.

“If you tin ain that first investor narrative, it helps a lot,” she says, “because sometimes what happens successful VC is it takes 12 years aliases 15 years for immoderate benignant of liquidity event, and past group forget. If you tin opportunity it correct from nan start,” group remember.

She repeated nan formula, clip and again. KV was nan first investor successful Square. It was nan first investor successful DoorDash. Behind nan scenes, it took 2 and a half years of persistent effort for that connection to stick, she says. “To me, that’s fast, conscionable because nan manufacture is moving really fast.” Now erstwhile Khosla appears connected shape aliases elsewhere, he is almost uniformly described arsenic nan first investor successful OpenAI.

Which brings america to possibly Daver’s astir important instruction for nan group she useful with: To get your constituent across, you person to repetition yourself acold much than feels comfortable.

“You’re connected mile 23, nan remainder of nan world is connected mile five,” she tells founders who kick they’re tired of telling nan aforesaid story. “You person to repetition yourself each nan time, and you person to opportunity nan aforesaid thing.”

It’s harder than it sounds, particularly erstwhile dealing pinch group mired successful day-to-day operations that invariably consciousness much critical. “Founders thin to beryllium truthful driven and thin to move truthful accelerated [that] successful their head, they’re already [on to nan adjacent thing]. But nan remainder of nan world is [back] here,” she explains. “And because founders thin to beryllium truthful driven,” they thin to underestimate really agelong others will return to drawback up, she says.

Daver besides makes each institution she useful pinch do what she calls “the equals exercise.” She draws an adjacent sign, past tests their clarity of purpose. “If I opportunity ‘search,’ you opportunity ‘Google.’ If I opportunity ‘shopping,’ you opportunity ‘Amazon.’ If I opportunity ‘toothpaste,’ you astir apt opportunity ‘Crest’ aliases ‘Colgate.’” She tells her clients: “What is nan point that erstwhile I opportunity it, you automatically deliberation of your company’s name?”

She has seemingly succeeded pinch definite KV portfolio companies, for illustration Commonwealth Fusion Systems (nuclear fusion) and Replit (vibe coding). “It’s just, immoderate nan connection is that personification says, you automatically deliberation of them,” she explains. “Take streaming – nan number 1 point you deliberation of is Netflix, right? Not Disney aliases Hulu.”

Why ‘going direct’ doesn’t work

Some startup advisors, astatine slightest connected societal media, person successful caller years advocated for startups to bypass accepted media and “go direct” to customers. Daver thinks that’s backwards, particularly for early-stage companies.

“You person a seed investment, nobody’s heard of you, and past you say, ‘go direct.’ Well, who’s going to moreover perceive you? Because they don’t moreover cognize you exist.” She likens it to moving into a caller neighborhood. “You’re not invited to nan vicinity barbecue because cipher knows you exist.” The measurement to exist, she argues, is to person personification talk astir you.

Daver doesn’t deliberation nan media is going anywhere, successful immoderate lawsuit — and she wouldn’t want it to. Her attack includes accepted media layered pinch video, podcasts, societal media and events. “I look astatine each of these strategies arsenic infantry, arsenic cavalry, and if you tin negociate to do each of [these things] successful a bully way, you tin negociate to go nan gorilla,” she says.

The “X” question

Daver besides has immoderate beardown ideas astir nan progressively polarized and performative quality of societal media, and really overmuch founders and VCs should stock publicly.

She sees X arsenic “a conveyance that makes group beryllium much large and much arguable than they mightiness beryllium successful person.” It’s for illustration a bumper sticker, she says: a basking return you tin fresh successful a mini space.

She thinks inflammatory posting is driven mostly by nan request to enactment relevant. “If you don’t person thing to waste and it’s conscionable you, you person to beryllium relevant.”

At KV, she controls nan firm’s account, but has nary power complete what Khosla posts connected his individual account. “There has to beryllium immoderate portion that’s state of speech,” says Daver. “And astatine nan extremity of nan day, it’s his sanction connected nan door.”

Still, her argumentation is straightforward: “You want to stock astir your kids’ shot game? PTA? Go up and do it. If you stock thing that hurts nan institution aliases hurts nan prospects for america getting partners, that’s not okay. As agelong arsenic it’s not dislike speech,you should do what you want.”

The way to Khosla

Daver’s profession has been a masterclass successful being astatine nan correct spot conscionable earlier it becomes nan evident spot to be. Born astatine Stanford (her begetter was a PhD student there), she grew up successful India and came backmost to Stanford connected a Pell Grant. She went to Harvard to study interactive technologies, hoping to activity for Sesame Street, bringing acquisition to nan masses.

That didn’t activity out: she sent retired 100 resumes and sewage 100 rejections. She sewage closest to a occupation astatine Electronic Arts (EA) nether founding CEO Trip Hawkins, but “at nan past minute, Hawkins nixed nan rec.”

A female location suggested Daver effort PR instead. That led to trading semiconductors utilized by EA, including that memorable gathering pinch Jobs, who was past moving his machine institution NeXT. Daver was nan lowest-ranking personification successful a gathering astir Motorola’s 68040 chip. Jobs showed up 45 minutes precocious and said: “You did a unspeakable occupation of trading nan 68040.”

She defended her squad (“But we did each of this awesome stuff,” Daver recalls saying), “and he conscionable went, ‘No, you person nary thought what you did.’ And cipher defended me.” (She says she would person done thing to activity pinch Jobs, contempt his estimation arsenic a taskmaster.)

From there, she headed to Sun Microsystems successful Paris, wherever she worked pinch Scott McNealy and Eric Schmidt connected nan operating strategy Solaris and nan programming connection Java. Afterwards, she rejoined Trip Hawkins astatine his 2nd video crippled company, 3DO; past it was connected to Inktomi, wherever she was nan first and only CMO. “We were further up than Google” successful search, she says. Soon after, nan net bubble burst and wrong a fewer years, Inktomi was sold disconnected successful parts.

Consulting and full-time roles would follow, including astatine Netflix during nan DVD-by-mail era; Walmart, Khan Academy, Guardant Health, Udacity, 10x Genomics, GV, and Kitty Hawk.

Then came nan telephone telephone from Khosla. She didn’t admit nan number and took a week to perceive to nan voicemail. “I called him, and that started this process of him convincing maine to travel and activity pinch him, and my telling him each nan reasons it would beryllium really, really bad for america to activity together.”

After 9 months, “contrary to astir group telling maine not to do it,” (Khosla is known arsenic demanding), “very akin to nan remainder of my life, I took it.”

The existent deal

Daver describes 1 situation she has to woody pinch crossed Silicon Valley: everyone sounds nan same. “Everybody is truthful scripted,” she says of firm communications and CEOs. “They each sound nan same. That’s why, for a batch of people, Sam [Altman] is very refreshing.”

She tells a communicative astir nan time past period that Khosla appeared astatine TechCrunch Disrupt, past went to different event. “The organizer said thing like, ‘Oh my gosh, I heard what Vinod said connected stage. You must person been shrinking.’ And I’m going, ‘No, that was great, what he said.’”

So wherever will Daver onshore next? She’s not saying, describing her early only arsenic “different opportunities.”

But fixed her way grounds — ever arriving conscionable earlier nan activity crests — it’s worthy watching. She was early to search, early to streaming, early to genomics, early to AI. She has a knack for seeing nan early conscionable earlier astir others. And she knows really to show that communicative until nan remainder of america drawback up.