Blonk Blog My First Job Interview was with a Billionaire

I was 8 years old in England when I saw a TV clip on the BBC about this place called Silicon Valley. I said to myself one day I'd move out there. I'd like to say I was enthralled with Intel at the age of 8, but it was the sunny, blue Californian skies. I didn't know such good weather existed. That happens to you when you grow up in England. I moved to Silicon Valley in April 2012 knowing that I had a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I had created a product called Playtagit. Unfortunately, by November 2012 it became clear that Playtagit was the wrong thing for me to pursue so I ended it. In January 2013, I was 26 and living by myself for the first time in my life in Sunnyvale, CA in the heart of Silicon Valley. Previously, I played professional poker successfully and have done that since 2004 when I deposited $25 online and was fortunate enough to make $6500 in the first month. I was unsure what my next pursuit was going to be. I knew that I didn't want to play poker forever. The main reason for that is that I see it as being worthless to society. You are not creating any value, and that isn't important to everyone, but it's important to me. My biggest concern though was my hearing and vision. In December, one day I suddenly lost a lot of my hearing in my left ear. Voices were sounding robotic as though Stephen Hawking were talking to me. As for my right ear, I was born deaf in it lol. This was not a fun experience to say the least. The doctors informed me I had a 40-60% chance of it recovering on any level, which was not too comforting. Fortunately, medication helped and it came back, but then a few days later I was flying home to my parents when suddenly I couldn't see properly. Imagine walking around drunk the whole time, but you are not drunk at all. You move your head, but it takes longer for you to see properly. I was told that my vision should improve, but it would take a long time. The silver lining in this was that unfortunately I had previously experienced being very ill and understood the challenges that lay in front of me. In 2010, I was stuck in bed for 7 months with a severe case of the Epstein Barr Virus. I decided that I wanted to enter the Venture Capital industry. I felt that my skills as a poker player would be advantageous in an industry derived around betting on the right people. So I created an email and started emailing all the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. I emailed billionaire [Michael Moritz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moritz) at Sequoia Capital the following message. > "Hi Mr Moritz, > My name is Tom Page, I'm 26, I'm originally from Wolverhampton, England, but I graduated Oberlin College in 2008 with a degree in Economics and Philosophy. > I played online professional poker for 6 years, and was ranked within the top 500 players in the world. > For numerous reasons, I decided I didn't want to play poker professionally forever and entered the world of technology last year. > I founded www.playtagit.com formed a team, made a bunch of mistakes, learned a lot and was moderately successful, but am in the process of selling the software and moving on. > I want to get involved in Venture Capital, and am willing to do whatever it takes you to get started. > When given the opportunity I believe I'll excel for these reasons. > 1. To those that played poker against me, they know that I am able to make good strategic judgments, and that I am reasonably clever, but most importantly I also work very hard. These traits were at the roots of my poker successes. > 2. I'm a genuinely social, outgoing individual which causes me to meet and get to know a lot of people personally, which results in building a very strong rolodex. > 3. I myself, invested in other poker players. I personally found and attracted the best deals that were available by specializing in specific forms of poker. A world that is not far away from operating within Venture Capital. > 4. I brought more to the table in terms of value than other players. That itself, gave me a real life grasp of the formula that one needs to go through in order to be a successful tech VC. > 5. I strived long and hard at learning the craft of poker. I would like to use these skills to try and become a very good venture capitalist. > Would you be willing to meet with me and talk more? > Thanks, > Tom" Within 6 hours, to my surprise he emailed back agreeing to interview me the following Friday. I was avoiding driving as I couldn't see that well, but I couldn't turn this opportunity down. There was also the issue of me never having interviewed for a job before. In preparation, I watched every video on youtube about Sequoia, read every article I could find about them, watched every Mike Moritz interview, and researched all of of the companies he had invested in. Some dear friends tried to talk me out of going stating that I wasn't ready. You'll probably be surprised to read this, but I wasn't nervous. In my mind, I had done everything I could to prepare for the meeting so there was no reason to be nervous. I drove down to Sequoia Capital on Sand Hill Road the following Friday for the first job interview of my life. We shook hands, and then Mike stared straight at me sooooooo I just looked straight back at him. He didn't say anything so I went into a monologue on who I was and what value I could bring Sequoia. I don't think either of us looked away for 25 minutes straight. I had made bets for thousands of dollars bluffing and had opponents stare at me trying to gain information so I was actually relatively comfortable with this. Not being able to see properly either probably helped also lol. Here are some of the questions he asked: "What weaknesses do you have?" "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "What companies do you want to invest in?" He then offered me the opportunity to ask him questions. It was a fierce conversation. I decided to ask him the toughest questions I could. I wanted to see how he would react. I brought up the catastrophes in Webvan and eToys. After an intense thirty minutes he said he'd think about me over the weekend. Monday morning he wrote some kind words as people often do, but explained that Sequoia Capital did not require my services. He sussed out my weaknesses at the time, mainly that I didn't know anything about any specific technology that gave me a huge leg up on everyone else. Since my meeting many people have asked me about Michael Moritz as people often do. I'm not the best person to answer this, but in my opinion he is a ferociously competitive man who has a burning drive to succeed and that those are traits I have only seen in a few individuals. I look back on my interview with several thoughts. A part of me is disappointed at the rejection, but it's a part of life. Another part of me is annoyed at myself for not being good enough so that it would have been a no brainer for Sequoia. Always blame yourself is my motto. As for what I'm doing now in April 2014. First off, I'm healthy. I can see properly, which is wonderful. I went back to the poker tables and was fortunate enough to do well enough that it enabled me to pursue my goal of landing a position in Venture Capital. I wasn't able to land the position I desired and in late 2013 I dreamed up [blonk.co](http://blonk.co) (in short, it's Tinder for jobs). It is a job matching mobile app where employers swipe through applicants' profiles and candidates swipe through job descriptions. When both parties say "Yes," Blonk enables them to start an in-app chat conversation. There are now 50 venture backed startups showing 250 job positions and 1450 candidates using Blonk looking for employment and matches and in person interviews are happening, which is awesome. I was out for dinner with the Blonk team last week and one of my co-founders was asking each of us about their first job interviews, and it brought a smile to all our faces when I told my story of not having a clue and being interviewed by a billionaire. Best wishes to you all and stay pathologically optimistic :) Cheers, Tom