Recently, NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun received an exclusive interview with the technology podcast "Acquired".

In the interview, Huang Renxun mentioned his feelings about the entrepreneurial process, his favorite cars, and anecdotes about Don Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital.

Acquired "was jointly founded by two investors, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. It is a podcast program that focuses on topics such as mergers, acquisitions, investments, and innovation in the technology industry. It premiered in 2015. Both have worked in Madrona.

Although Madrona is not well-known in China, it was one of Amazon's early and first institutional investors. Madrona's managing partner Tom Albert joined Amazon's board of directors in 1997 and is the longest serving board member in Amazon's history.

"If you lose my money, I'll kill you"

In the interview, Huang Renxun talked about Sequoia Capital and its legendary founder Don Valentine.

The host asked Huang Renxun, 'Where do you like Don Valentine the most?'? Huang Renxun said that Don Valentine's personality is irritable, but endearing.

When he finally decided to invest in NVIDIA, Don once told Huang Renxun, 'If you lose my money, I will kill you.'.

Huang Renxun later added that in the following decades, every time Mercury News praised Nvidia, Don would write "well done" in crayon on the newspaper and send it to me. I really wish I could keep those newspapers.

(Note: Mercury News is an established newspaper based in San Jose that follows Bay Area news.)

Huang Renxun previously worked at LSI Logic, an ASIC (Special Purpose Chip) company that had a significant impact on the entire technology industry. LSI Logic is also Don Valentine's investment masterpiece, and when it went public in 1982, it set a record for the highest financing of a technology company.

The host said, it seems that the CEO of LSI Logic had a good word with Don Valentine when you raised funds. Huang Renxun said that at that time, I had no idea how to write a business plan. But I am fortunate that Wilfred Corrigan is very satisfied with my work at LSI Logic. He called Don Valentine and told him that he wants to invest in this child and he will come to you.

From that moment on, my financing was destined to succeed.

Wilfred Corrigan, the founder of LSI Logic mentioned by Huang Renxun, was once the CEO of Xiantong Semiconductor and, of course, an old colleague of Don Valentine.

The host specifically mentioned "calling Don Valentine to recommend" because the same story happened to Steve Jobs back then.

Atari is the first project invested by Sequoia Capital after its establishment. Its CEO Nolan Bushnell once called his investor Don Valentine and said that there is a child named Steve Jobs who works for me. He is now starting a business and you should meet him.

Later, Don Valentine recalled that when he first met Steve Jobs, he felt like he looked like Ho Chi Minh. At that time, Steve Jobs didn't take a shower and probably dressed very sloppily.

Now taking the Mercedes EQS

The host asked Huang Renxun, what car are you taking now? Still driving Supra?

Huang Renxun said, 'The Supra is one of my favorite cars, full of memories.'. When I got engaged to my wife, we drove the Supra home. Now, due to safety and other reasons, it has been replaced with the Mercedes EQS.

The Supra is a Toyota generation car. I don't know if he was born in Taiwan Province. Like Taiwanese people, Huang Renxun likes Toyota and has a strong Japanese taste and aesthetic for sports cars.

As for the current car, the host also specifically mentioned that the Mercedes EQS uses NVIDIA's computing power.

EQS is an S-class electric version that uses NVIDIA's Xavier chip to provide computing power for its intelligent cockpit, and has L3 level autonomous driving capability. At the EQS press conference, Huang Renxun also personally stood on the platform.

The S-Class, whether gasoline or electric, never focuses on driving performance as its main selling point. I don't know if Huang Renxun really likes it. If it's just to promote his own chip, it's too hard.

Roughly correct, far better than precise errors.

Nvidia made gaming graphics cards in its early years, and for a long time, the market positioned it as a niche hardware company. When asked how to seize opportunities in AI and data centers, Huang Renxun said, 'You can't wait for opportunities to be presented to you and then reach out to reach for them.'. You have to predict, the CEO's job is to look around and predict where opportunities will likely appear.

When an apple falls, make sure you are right around the tree and then make a strong effort to catch it.

You just need to be around the tree, as for the specific location, there is no need to pursue perfection. Even if you don't catch the apple during its fall, just be the first to pick it up from the ground.

As a CEO, most of my job is to put the company in a position where there is an opportunity to seize or pick up Apple, and to make money in the process of reaching this position, ensuring that the company has sufficient cash flow to ultimately reach that position.

Subsequently, the host commented, 'This reminds me of what Buffett and Munger said, roughly correct, far better than precise error.'.

The superpower of entrepreneurs is not knowing how difficult it is

At the end of the interview, the host asked Huang Renxun, 'If you return to your thirties and start a new business, what kind of company will you establish?'? Huang Renxun said, 'Then I won't start a business.'. The process of starting a business is really difficult, millions of times harder than I expected. If I could anticipate the difficulties, awkwardness, and shame in entrepreneurship, no one would start a business, no one with a normal mind would.

But this is also one of the superpowers of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs don't know how difficult it is, they are always too optimistic. Until today, I have been using this little trick to deceive myself. Why is it difficult?