Greg Smithies - Ep 06 of the Curious Cult Show

Greg Smithies is currently a partner at BMW's i Ventures where he invests in Hardware, Software, and Sustainability applied to unsexy industries. Before i Ventures Greg headed Finance and Operations for both The Boring Company and Neuralink simultaneously; headed finance, sales, and business development for Versive; and was an early- and late-stage investor at Battery Ventures, an ~$8 Billion Venture Capital & Private Equity fund.

Greg Smithies and I have a long-standing online friendship. He’s called me out on LinkedIn in when I talk shit. He’s helped me meet investors when trying to raise funding and we’ve had some very interesting debates and conversations over the years.

Greg is a talented venture capitalist, CFO and startup-spotter. He has worked with Elon Musk at The Boring Co and has invested in some of the most innovative businesses in the world.

At present Greg is looking for trillion dollar businesses to invest in. That’s a business with the entire world as an addressable market.

In this episode I talk with Greg about growing up in South Africa and taking his skills to a global market. How one finds a trillion dollar business and how, exactly, he manages to stay in front of his curiosity. SPOLIER: He believes in a bit of balance and prefers founders who can actually live a relatively normal life.