HOW WE FOUNDED ALBUM VC: How three partners--with different backgrounds--created one of Utah's most successful venture capital companies.

• Author: Mayfield, John
• Position: FOUNDER SERIES

I'VE BEEN AN INVESTOR AT ALBUM VC SINCE WE STARTED IN 2014, and while I think the quality of our investments can go toe-to-toe with the best VC firms anywhere--with early investments in startups like Podium, Divvy, Route, Weave, MX, Filevine, Neighbor, Homie, and others--what I'm most proud of is our partnership, which does not fit the standard VC mold.

Album is different in many ways. Our office space has a uniquely open, welcoming feel, and no one has a private office. When founders meet with us for a pitch meeting--something that usually takes place in an intimidating conference room surrounded by junior staffers--we intentionally put founders at ease so the meeting feels more like catching up with an old friend. Where other VC firms are structured with big teams of support staff, Album is simpler: our entire team is made up of just five people, and everyone pulls their weight and is focused on our founders. Where other VCs are usually dominated by guys from Ivy-league schools, two-thirds of Album's ownership team are proud first or second-generation immigrants and none of us come from wealthy families.

It has been interesting for me to reflect on how three very different peopleborn in Brazil, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City--were able to come together to create one of the first and only majority minority-owned VC firms around. I believe that, ultimately, it's our diversity of backgrounds and experiences--combined with a lot of really hard work and good fortune--that brings us together and helps us succeed. And I believe it's something that only could've happened in Utah.

I WAS ALWAYS INTO VENTURE CAPITAL

My story might sound similar to a lot of people in the Utah tech scene; I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood where people were school teachers, mechanics, real estate agents, electricians, and woodworkers. Words like venture capital, entrepreneurship, and board meetings weren't really in the vocabulary.

While I did have entrepreneurial tendencies even as a child--I sold candy and treats out of the neighborhood playhouse with my friend next door and canvassed the neighborhood with flyers to pick up lawn mowing accounts through middle school and high school--I never really did it for the sake of entrepreneurship. I just knew I needed to hustle to make some cash.

The first time the entrepreneurship lightbulb really went off for me was when I was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My mission president was a very successful Utah entrepreneur, and as I saw the stories he told and witnessed the kind of person he had become through his business success, I learned the impact entrepreneurship could have on the world.

I attended BYU, studied finance, got an MBA, and eventually got a job doing tech M&A work in the Bay Area. This experience gave me invaluable exposure to everything from startups to major corporations, where I worked on acquisitions for Oracle, Yahoo, Amazon, and HP--including the massive Palm acquisition that completely flopped.

Living in Menlo Park was an interesting experience. I met brilliant people who had founded multiple companies and worked for years in startups, only to have nothing financially to show for it. I also met people who were relatively new to the game who happened to find the right opportunity and timing and were now effectively retired in their 30s. It was there that I developed a love, appreciation, and respect for entrepreneurs who have enough conviction to put it all on the line to change the world. That experience has shaped the way I view the importance of entrepreneurs and their special place in the world.

After a few years in Silicon Valley, I joined Cougar Capital--BYUs venture fund-and later another local fund, which gave me my first taste of making investments into tech companies--including Hirevue, Dsco, Nexmo, Goal Zero, Domo, and SmartAsset. While there, I learned of a company out of Provo that was showing a lot of promise: Qualtrics.

I joined at their Series A round, which was an incredible experience because I got to be part of a company scaling from one product to multi-product, expanding the customer base rapidly with Fortune 500 companies, and from a national to a global company. However, if I'm honest, even when I was there I never imagined Qualtrics growing to what they have become today. That was a lesson to me that a simple premise--in this case, a digital survey--can turn into a large company with the right focus, people, and audacity to keep pushing.

Qualtrics had over 500 employees by the time I left--more than quintuple the headcount from when I started. Still, I believe that the greatest days of the company still lie ahead, evidenced not only by the passion with which founder Ryan Smith continues to pursue growth in the state--like recently buying a majority interest in the Utah Jazz--but in the innovation stemming from others like me who built and grew under the Qualtrics banner. Some of our strongest performing portfolio companies are growing with founders and teams who, like me, trace their professional roots to Qualtrics. That's a story that's just beginning, and it's part of the greater legacy that Ryan brings to our state.

Qualtrics taught me valuable lessons about growing a startup and building a winning team. While at Qualtrics, I kept involved with the startup world, still meeting with various entrepreneurs and it was then that I met Sid Krommenhoek, my eventual partner at Album VC...