So the Sand Hill Road podcast zipped away this winter, named for the Palo Alto address that’s become synonymous with the Valley’s venture capital scene, with digital producer Sean Myers making sure it sounds anything but DIY.
Sand Hill Road is almost through its first ten-episode “season.” Each week, McGrew sits down for an informal conversation with a prominent investor, such as the so-called “Godfather of Silicon Valley” John Hennessy, now chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet; billionaire Tim Draper, who bets McGrew on the future of bitcoin; or Ann Miura-Ko, who’s been called “the most powerful woman in startups” and is hoping to see her early investment in the ride-sharing company Lyft pay off big-time in an imminent IPO.
It helps that McGrew is a natural — “Scott sounds great, his voice is perfect for it,” says Bueno — with a loose conversational style. News directors always tell young reporters to “be yourself,’ says McGrew, but “maybe you can only be yourself when you’ve got 30 years in the business.”
The podcast format helps too. McGrew says that when people come on TV, there are “a lot of lights and a lot of robotic cameras moving back and forth. You’re thinking about your talking points, where do I look. With no camera, you’re going to be far more relaxed, and the conversation will go places no one expected it to.” As for the host himself, “I”m more loosey-goosey because I’m not on TV either.”
