Scott Hartley (born July 18, 1983) is a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

ist and an author. He previously worked for

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

technology companies such as

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

as well as Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He was a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

and a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a firm on Sand Hill Road.

Early life and education

Hartley was born in

Richland, Washington Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima River, Yakima and the Columbia River, Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was ...

, but soon moved to

Highlands Ranch, Colorado Highlands Ranch is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The p ...

. His family moved to

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

in 1993, where he attended

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School (commonly referred to locally as "Paly") is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two high schools in the district, the ...

. He was a student of Esther Wojcicki. Hartley already completed his second year at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

(where he was an Eccles Scholar) when he decided to transfer to Stanford University, seeking classmates with a broader Liberal Arts perspective. In 2005, he finished his BA in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

at Stanford and later obtained an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Business School and an MIA in International Economic Policy at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. He is a term member at the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

Career

After finishing his BA at Stanford, Hartley started working for Google. He lectured for

Google.org Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually. The organization is noted for severa ...

and TechnoServe across

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

. He also spent a year in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

setting up the Google India team before moving to Facebook. He left the social media company to become a

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

investor. Hartley has attracted attention for his position that technology is not the only discipline necessary at Silicon Valley. He noted that, although technology is uniform in the technology field, there are many CEOs and startup founders who have backgrounds in humanities, liberal arts, and social sciences. In an interview, he stated that these leaders, based on their performance over time, have the ability to take a step back, ask the right questions, and, empathize with the customer, making them more effective than a leader who merely has technological fluency. In his book, ''The Fuzzy and The Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World,'' Hartley also argued that the business world depends on human touch that soft skills bring despite the increasing role technology plays in running business organizations. His book has been translated into six languages and was listed among top ten business books in Spain, 2021. According to him, technology and the liberals arts cannot be studied in isolation from each other. He spoke about his book at the World Bank annual meeting, USGIF's GEOINT Symposium,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

with

Marissa Mayer Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American business executive and investor who served as President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer of Yahoo! from 2012 to 2017, when it was sold to Verizon. She was a long-tim ...

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

and

Arkansas State University Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the st ...

. The book was also selected as a book of the month by the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

and was a finalist for the FT and McKinsey & Company's Bracken Bower Prize. His book has been mentioned by

Fareed Zakaria Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born January 20, 1964) is an Indian-born American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's '' Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a c ...

during commencement speech at

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

. He maintained that liberal arts degrees are crucial in applying emerging technologies to the creation of breakthrough innovations. Hartley also criticized fellow venture capitalists such as

Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and ...

, who previously declared that the average graduate with a degree in English ends up "working in a shoe store”. He pushed back against Andreesen's position that a liberal arts education limits the dimensionality of one's thinking since it makes students less familiar with mathematical models and statistics. Hartley said that those with backgrounds in these fields "will develop ethics in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, question bias in algorithms and data and will bring contextual understanding to code.” Hartley is also a contributing writer to a number of publications, including the ''

'', ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', ''and'' ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

.'' He is managing partner and cofounder of a venture capital firm, Two Culture Capital.

Personal life

Hartley lives in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

References

External links

scotthartley.com
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Harper Collins - Scott Hartley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartley, Scott 1983 births Living people American venture capitalists Columbia Business School alumni Stanford University alumni People from Richland, Washington School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni Google employees Facebook employees Businesspeople from Palo Alto, California Writers from Palo Alto, California