In a June 13 interview with Bloomberg, President Obama mentioned his interest in the private sector, saying he probably would have started a business had he not gone into politics.
“The skill set of starting my presidential campaigns — and building the kinds of teams that we did and marketing the ideas — I think would be the same kinds of skills that I would enjoy exercising in the private sector,” he said.
When asked what industries he would consider entering, the president said he was enthusiastic and interested by the work being done in Silicon Valley.
“The conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organization in a way I find really satisfying,” President Obama said, offering precision medicine as an example. “The fact that now you can have your personal genome mapped for a thousand bucks instead of $100,000; and the potential for us to identify what your tendencies are, and to sculpt medicines that are uniquely effective for you. That’s just an example of something I can sit and listen and talk to folks for hours about.”
Would the president make a competent businessman in the venture capital world? Quartz spoke with prominent venture capitalists about the idea, and they all mostly said yes.
“He’s kind of perfect for the job,” Ari Bloom, an investor and CEO of fashion technology firm Avametric, told Quartz. “He’s got experience sitting through presentations that require a translator, he meets with people every day that nobody expects him to remember and he’s kissed a lot of crying babies, so he can definitely work well with founders.”
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