168: Former CEO of oDesk reveals… The 4 Secrets to Personal Development | Gary Swart of Polaris Partners

168: Former CEO of oDesk reveals… The 4 Secrets to Personal Development | Gary Swart of Polaris Partners

Background on Gary Swart of Upwork.com:

Gary Swart is a partner at Polaris Partners, investing in technology and healthcare companies, out of their San Francisco office. He represents Polaris on the boards of Quantcast, SimplyInsured, FloQast, Falkonry, Faro Health, and Qstream. He also served on the board of CliQr (Cisco).

Previously, Gary was the CEO of oDesk (now UpWork), the world’s largest online workplace with more than three million clients and twelve million freelancers. Gary guided the company to industry leadership and through a merger with Elance, while serving as a leading voice for the future of work and the emerging online work industry.

Gary serves as a thought leader on marketplaces, sales leadership, the future of work, how best to hire and manage teams, and on the rise of the “freelance economy.” He has spoken at the Inc. Leadership Conference, The Economist’s Ideas Economy Panel, SXSW, TechCrunch 50, and at HBS—which teaches a case study on oDesk. His commentary has appeared in a variety of publications including LinkedIn, Forbes, TechCrunch, The Washington Post and The Next Web. And he’s appeared on TV and radio outlets, including CNBC, BBC, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio (NPR), Startups Uncensored, and the Fox Business Network. In addition, Gary is a faculty member at the Alchemist Academy and a StartX Mentor.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[1:22] Gary Swart is currently working for Polaris Partners but he was more popularly known for running Odesk, which is now called Upwork.
[2:24] Gary explains what they do in Polaris Partners and how they find entrepreneurs and interesting companies to invest in.
[3:29] There are a number of criteria as to why Gary likes working in a venture capital firm.
[5:22] From an impact perspective, Odesk and Polaris are seen as both an impactful company. He further compares his job between Odesk and Polaris.
[17:30] Right out of college, Gary went into the manufacturing industry in New Jersey. His wife advised him that they should move to the west coast in San Francisco.
[19:41] After moving to the west coast, Gary worked for a company called Pure Software. This company was started by Reed Hastings, who is also known as the co-founder and CEO of Netflix.
[22:59] Most of his career life can be described as 10-year chunks of working in different industries.
[24:52] Moving from the east coast to the west coast was a difficult process but he considers it a great decision that led to a meaningful career.
[32:56] When Pure Software was acquired and merged with other companies, Gary was always asked to stay and given a better role and compensation.
[35:04] Gary was having a great career that he opted to stay in the company and not join Reed Hastings in his new company called Netflix.
[36:39] That Will Never Work is a book that Gary highly recommends. It’s a book written by his friend Marc Randolph and it is about how Netflix started.
[45:25] Working at IBM, Gary was not happy with his job. He tells the story of how he realized that he needed to quit the job at IBM.
[49:52] During his time in Intellibank, he was offered a job in Odesk as the CEO.
[57:53] Gary talks about the achievements and hurdles during his time in Odesk.
[1:02:49] Maintaining quality was one of the biggest issues Gary faced in Odesk.
[1:05:07] When Elance and Odesk merged to become Upwork, it’s time for Gary to quit the company.

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Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Sea Stories by William McRaven, That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Wireless phone charger for Tesla
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Excel
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Focus on the right metrics. being over-measured and under-prioritized