When Greg Estes retired from Nvidia last year after nearly 16 years to spend more time with his family, stepping away from his job proved more difficult than he expected.
“It’s really hard to walk away from a job like that, accomplishing great things, and just stand still and be unemployed and look at avocados at Safeway,” said Estes, who has worked closely with CEO Jensen Huang as vice president of corporate marketing and developer programs.
He is currently writing the next chapter at EverGreen. EverGreen is a community of former Nvidia employees who advise and invest in AI startups, which officially launched in March.
Mr. Estes previously led Nvidia’s Inception startup program, which provided cloud credits and access to Nvidia technology to more than 40,000 businesses. he said EverGreen has allowed him to stay connected to the startup ecosystem he has cultivated over the years.
The community’s founding partners also include former Nvidia product leaders Devang Sachdev and Vishal Lulla, as well as former general manager Jeff Brown, who left the company years before the AI boom to focus on startup advice and venture investing. EverGreen is comprised of a team of strategic advisors and hundreds of active investors, and the partners are building this team alongside other professional activities, Brown said.
The network is named for the fact that many former employees “stay blue” long after they leave the company, Brown said.
EverGreen offers network to former Nvidia employees
EverGreen is independent from the broader Nvidia alumni community, which has grown to about 30,000 members across LinkedIn groups, email lists and live events, Brown said.
Similar communities have sprung up around other tech giants, including Google’s Xoogler Community and Microsoft Alumni Network.
Within the network, some groups began discussing how their knowledge could be passed on to the next generation of AI founders.
“It’s not only the ability to give back, but also the ability to invest and put your money to work,” Brown said.
EverGreen’s founding partners are Devang Sachdev and Vishal Lulla. evergreen
EverGreen works with Nvidia across areas such as infrastructure, developer tools and robotics, focusing on companies that are not direct competitors.
So far, the company has invested in security startup Protopia AI, co-founded by former NVIDIA researcher Ayman Ebrahimi, and orbital computing company Sophia Space, which gained attention during Huang’s GTC keynote speech in March.
Investment is only part of EverGreen’s pitch.
“Evergreen’s value is the network. It’s not our money,” Estes said.
To this end, the group will host startup showcases and facilitate one-on-one mentoring. Also, unlike traditional venture capital funds, EverGreen does not manage a single pool of capital. Instead, we evaluate startups on a case-by-case basis and invite our members to invest.
Many Nvidia employees choose to stay
Founders don’t have to be Nvidia alumni, but that was an early goal, Estes said.
“There aren’t that many people like that,” he said, adding that NVIDIA employees tend not to retire.
He also pushed back against the idea of Nvidia employees retiring early after making a lot of money. Many people, including billionaires on the CEO’s executive staff, can afford to retire but stay because they enjoy their work.
“Jensen is someone you can learn from, no matter how many years he’s been there,” he said of the CEO.
Although EverGreen is not affiliated with Nvidia, Estes said the two companies have a complementary relationship. Before joining, he said, he met with senior executives at the company and got the green light.
“If you’re on the venture side within Nvidia, we help you with the deal flow,” Estes said of Nvidia’s NVentures investment arm, adding that EverGreen is also responsible for connecting startups with the company.
“If NVIDIA didn’t like who we were, we wouldn’t have a successful model,” he said.
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