Dave Whorton, CEO of Tugboat Institute®, spent his early career as co-founder of three technology companies and as an investor at one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley—the very firm, in fact, that birthed the get-big-fast approach that now defines Silicon Valley’s playbook.

In 2013, Dave began a learning journey, seeking out iconoclasts who were leading private, Purpose-driven, growing companies built for the long-term—with no plan to sell. The conversations he had over the next year with more than forty of those iconoclasts transformed his thinking and led to the founding of Tugboat Institute to serve these leaders.