Dinner with Nvidia CEO

I had a privilege of having a dinner with Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia. I won’t get in to the detail on how I got to meet him because I promised that person I wouldn’t talk about it.

He was a fascinating person to meet. I pitched the idea of my new company to him and seek his thought process on what he thought of it. He was pretty honest about his thoughts, almost to the point of being brunt. I can tell he’s very smart. He was thinking 2-3 steps ahead of most people. He thought our new marketing strategy was good but he felt unsure about the execution.

It’s always interesting to see a CEO of a large company and how he/she thinks. They tend to be able to focus on the main issues and he was no exception. He cut through the clutter to get to the meat of the conversation in a record time. He was also very confident, almost to the point of arrogance. I was pretty sure this was not the same façade he puts on in front of press or large audience. I have seen Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman and John Chambers. They all had a very personable façade in front of a large crowd. Especially John Chambers. He had a certain southern charm to put people at ease. I am sure though in his private life or in front of smaller group they act like regular people.

Anyways, it was a very interesting meeting and a rare opportunity.