Why is he on our inspiration board?

Bret has had a remarkable career, leading some of the most consequential companies of our time. It'd be fascinating to have him reverse engineer his big breaks in life and the role relationships and relationship building have played.

Where is he from?


He was born in Oakland, California, primarily growing up in the East Bay. He graduated from Acalanes High School. Bret Taylor attended Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in computer science.

Big break in life

After graduating from Stanford, Bret joined Google as an associate product manager where he led the team that created Google Maps. This achievement significantly raised his profile in the tech industry. He later co-founded FriendFeed which was acquired by Facebook in 2009, leading to his role as Facebook's Chief Technology Officer.

In 2012 he started a company called Quip, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2016 for $750 million. He quickly assumed bigger roles at Salesforce, eventually becoming the Co-CEO in 2021.

Bret left Salesforce in January of 2023 to start Sierra, a conversational AI platform. As of November 2024, Sierra has raised $175 million in funding at a valuation of $4.5 billion.

Bret was Chairman of the Board at Twitter when Elon Musk acquired it for $44 billion, and now is Chairman of the OpenAI board.

His network

We don’t presume to have a detailed picture, but when you look the institutions they’ve been a part of, it gives you a window into their network and the types of people he knows.

• Stanford - BS/MS, Computer Science 1998-2003
• Google - Group Product Manager from 2003-2007
• Benchmark - Did an entrepreneur in residence there, and Peter Fenton was the lead investor in Quips Series A
• Facebook - Served as CTO from 2009-2012‍
• Axon - Served on the board from 2014-2019
• Twitter - Served on the board from 2016-2022‍
• Salesforce - Served as President and Co-CEO 2016-2023
• Sierra - Co-Founded Sierra in 2023 backed by Benchmark and Sequoia Capital
• OpenAI - Joined as Chairman of the board in Nov 2023

Quotes we love

There is an inherent optimism that Silicon Valley represents. Innovation is inherently interesting because it is changing the status quo and it’s forcing you to reimagine what the world could be.

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