Since leaving Google as chairman, Eric Schmidt has wielded a $20 billion fortune to build an ecosystem of influence, overseeing a vast constellation of companies and investments and taking on prestigious advisory roles that have cemented his reputation as Silicon Valley statesman and AI policy whisperer to the Pentagon.
And for the past two years, the 68-year-old has extended that clout — and committed at least $100 million, according to three sources — to a startup accelerator called Steel Perlot, which he leads as executive chairman with CEO Michelle Ritter, a 29-year-old entrepreneur who he has been dating.
Schmidt’s funds were intended to support the accelerator’s business, launching and investing in new ventures under the Steel Perlot umbrella. But just over a year after it launched, the company was asking Schmidt’s family office, Hillspire LLC, to pay its bills.
And for the past two years, the 68-year-old has extended that clout — and committed at least $100 million, according to three sources — to a startup accelerator called Steel Perlot, which he leads as executive chairman with CEO Michelle Ritter, a 29-year-old entrepreneur who he has been dating.
Schmidt’s funds were intended to support the accelerator’s business, launching and investing in new ventures under the Steel Perlot umbrella. But just over a year after it launched, the company was asking Schmidt’s family office, Hillspire LLC, to pay its bills.
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00:00 Since leaving Google as chairman, Eric Schmidt has wielded a $20 billion fortune to build an ecosystem of influence.
00:07 And for the past two years, the 68-year-old committed at least $100 million to a startup accelerator called Steel Perleau,
00:16 which he leads as executive chairman with CEO Michelle Ritter, a 29-year-old entrepreneur who he has been dating.
00:27 Hi, everyone. I'm Rosemary Miller here with David Jeans, a senior writer here at Forbes.
00:32 Thank you so much for joining me today, David.
00:34 Thanks.
00:35 So, David, for starters, who is Eric Schmidt?
00:40 So Eric Schmidt was the longtime CEO of Google, and then he went on to become the chairman before leaving a few years ago.
00:50 In recent years, he's sort of crafted this image of himself as a Silicon Valley statesman and also an influential person in government
01:00 in terms of advising on policy around tech and AI and national security.
01:05 And he's done this by building an immense portfolio of companies and funds and philanthropic ventures that he's backed with his family fortune.
01:18 So especially as the debate around AI has heated up this year, he's become an even more consequential figure.
01:25 And we've seen him do a lot of work to especially build out more of these businesses.
01:33 So, David, what do we know about Steel Perleau? And could you tell me who is Michelle Ritter?
01:38 So Steel Perleau is a company that Eric Schmidt started in 2021 with a woman that he was dating at the time called Michelle Ritter.
01:47 She was an entrepreneur and a graduate of Columbia Law School.
01:52 And together they launched this company with the idea that they could invest in AI companies, build companies and incubate them,
02:03 kind of, you know, sort of like Y Combinator.
02:07 And also they saw it as a way to build a talent network of really smart, intelligent people where they could perhaps, you know, foster innovation and create new ventures,
02:21 whether that be like new philanthropic arms or whether that be creating a virtual reality company or something to address banking issues.
02:30 Like it was supposed to be like an ideas hub where they could do this.
02:33 But the major thing about Steel Perleau was that Eric, as we reported, went to commit at least 100 million dollars to this venture.
02:44 100 million dollars. Well, you also spoke with Michelle Ritter, right?
02:49 Could you tell us a little bit about that conversation you had with her?
02:52 Yes. So the thing that we set out to do with this story was to try and understand what exactly it was that Steel Perleau is and does and what its purpose was.
03:01 And more broadly, how it fit into the ecosystem of Schmidt companies and entities that he oversees.
03:11 And so as part of that, it was important for us to talk to Michelle, you know, in her role as CEO of the company, what the goal of the company was, how it was financed and how they made decisions on investments.
03:24 It was also important for us to understand whether or how, you know, the dynamic around the fact that they were they had been dating was and while also leading a company, you know, with dozens of employees and how that dynamic played out.
03:41 When I spoke to Michelle, you know, it was she shared a lot about sort of what her background, you know, some of the work that she'd done, the ideas that she had.
03:51 She talked about this one venture that she'd come up with called Star X, which was a fan engagement platform that she had been working on since college.
04:02 And, you know, she mentioned to me that that was a program that now is in a beta testing with FIFA.
04:08 She also had mentioned to me that there was a wealth management and asset management platform that she was overseeing at at Steel Pillow and that it was managing about four hundred and fifty million dollars.
04:25 However, we later found out, you know, upon when we wanted to get more details about this asset management platform, Michelle later clarified to us that actually the money that she said she'd been managing, it was only committed via letter of intent, which mean that the money wasn't currently being managed by Steel Pillow.
04:47 So there was some specifics around that that we just had to iron out through the reporting process.
04:52 And that was the result of, you know, having extensive conversations with with her about how she was leading the company.
04:59 What did the employees have to say about the company?
05:03 So we did speak to quite a few employees to try and understand how the company was run and what or if it was successful and what it had set out to do.
05:17 Some of the feedback that we did receive that revolved around the fact that it was often hard to understand what some of the business ventures were and whether they were successful.
05:31 There was quite a high turnover rate and some of the employees said that often the CEO, Michelle, had said that there was influential people like Jeff Bezos or Michael Bloomberg that had been committed or involved in the company.
05:49 And, you know, later when we asked Michelle about that, she said that there was no formal partnerships.
05:55 There was also, you know, yeah, I think that there was one quote that we included in the story and that was that one employee told us that they felt that they had sort of entered Steel Pillow thinking that it was an opportunity to work with Eric Schmidt and, you know, his concept to fund the future.
06:17 But they left with a feeling that, in fact, they'd been working for more or less a vanity project.
06:22 Wow. And does Schmidt typically mix business with pleasure?
06:27 What was significant about this to us was the fact that this was appeared to be the first time that he had launched a major business venture with someone that he was reported to have been dating.
06:40 And how long have they been dating?
06:41 Well, you know, both parties did not comment on the relationship or any personal relationship between them.
06:49 It was reported in 2021 that they had been dating.
06:54 And since then, it was more or less understood that they had somewhat of a relationship.
07:01 And, you know, it's not entirely clear what the current status is or how it applies to the business currently.
07:09 Well, thank you so much for joining me today, David.
07:11 Thank you.
07:12 Thank you.
07:13 [END]