I had the chance to listen to Mike Smith, Cofounder and General Partner at Footwork, share his experience as an startup operator and new venture capital fund manager. Mike was one of the first five hires at Stitch Fix and helped that company scale to over $2 billion in annual revenue and have a successful IPO in 2017, when he was President and COO. He and his partner also raised a $175 million debut venture capital fund. And he was part of the team that helped build out Walmart.com. Mike has a wealth of experience and, obviously, has been part of some successful outcomes.

Mike shared a ton of great insights. One that he emphasized as important to his success was this: He’ll take less talent and more team. Mike believes that large outcomes are the result of a team effort. He wants to work with people who are good team members and willing to work hard, rather than genius individual contributors who create difficult team environments.

I enjoyed hearing Mike talk about his experiences and share this insight. I can’t wait to see what he builds at Footwork.